Links 12/22/16

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau:

The CFPB has recently become “one of Washington’s most powerful and pugnacious regulators,” as The New York Times reported last month:

The bureau has overhauled mortgage lending rules, reined in abusive debt collectors, prosecuted hundreds of companies and extracted nearly $12 billion from businesses in the form of canceled debts and consumer refunds. In September, it exposed the extent of Wells Fargo’s creation of two million fraudulent customer accounts, igniting a scandal that provoked widespread outrage and toppled the company’s chief executive.

Minimum Wage:

Childhood Poverty:

Inequality:

The wealthy didn’t always take such a big share of the proverbial “pie.” In the 1970s, a decade generally seen as fairly prosperous, the top 1% of Americans earned just over 10% of all U.S. income (i.e. the “pie”).
Over time, the rich became more lucky — or more greedy. Today the top 1% take home more than 20% of all U.S. income.
As the wealthy earned more, someone else in America had to get less. The bottom 50% went from capturing over 20% of national income for much of the 1970s to earning barely 12% today.
The turning point started around 1980, as seen in the graph below. By the mid-1990s, the fortunes of the top 1% were clearly on the rise and those of the bottom half were declining rapidly.

It’s time for the bottom 50% to take back their fair share.

White Collar Crime:

Trade:

Labor:

Policy:

Healthcare:

Links 12/21/16

Preventing Offshoring:

     Congress requires the federal government to favor American-made products when it buys things. But in recent decades, the U.S. has exempted goods produced in countries with which the U.S. has trade agreements from so-called Buy America provisions. As a result, rather than using its purchasing power to give preferential treatment to goods produced domestically, the federal government treats goods manufactured in countries like Mexico and China the same as if they were American-made products.

       Because those elements of trade agreements are enacted through regulatory waivers, Trump can simply scrap the waivers, according to Lori Wallach, director of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch.

     “Trump, were he so inclined, could guarantee a lot more purchase of U.S. manufactured goods ― steel, glass, but also cars, computers, phone systems et cetera ― by getting rid of that waiver. And Congress does not really have anything to do about it,” Wallach said.

Childcare:

Recovery:

2016 Election:

Poverty:

Healthcare:

Democratic Socialism?:

 

 

 

 

Links 12/20/16

The Rigged System for the 1%:

Infrastructure Jobs:

Trade:

Social Security:

Trump explicitly said that he would not cut Social Security benefits if elected. “I’m not going to cut it, and I’m not going to raise ages, and I’m not going to do all of the things that they want to do. But they want to really cut it, and they want to cut it very substantially, the Republicans, and I’m not going to do that,” he told a Wisconsin radio station during the primary.

Transition:

Overtime Pay:

Deregulation:

Poverty:

Wages:

2016 Election:

Just three counties – Macomb County, MI; York County, PA and Waukesha County, WI – elected Donald Trump. If those three counties had cast zero votes, Trump would have lost all three states and the election. By the same logic, just three counties re-elected President Obama in 2012: Miami-Dade County, FL; Cuyahoga County, OH and Philadelphia, PA.

White Collar Crimes:

Links 12/18/16

White Collar Crime:

Jobs from Unlikely Industries:

  • Marijuana Industry a Homegrown Source of Job Growth Legalize it in every state. It’s significantly less dangerous than alcohol. The alcohol industry contributes billions to the economy, pays billions in wages, and employs millions. Imagine what a marijuana industry could do.

    The potential growth behind marijuana is incredible. Investment firm Cowen & Co. believes that legal marijuana sales could soar from $6 billion today to $50 billion by 2026. That’s a compound annual growth rate of nearly 24 percent over the next decade. But, the most phenomenal growth can be seen in pot industry employment.

    According to CNBC, the marijuana industry currently employs about 150,000 people nationwide. This figure is, by itself, outstanding. Back in 1994, Dale Gieringer, a doctor working with California NORML, extrapolated the job-creating capacity of the weed industry and settled on a figure of 100,000 jobs if the drug were legalized nationally. We’ve only seen recreational pot legalized in a handful of states, and medical cannabis was only legal in half of all U.S. states heading into the November elections, yet we’re already 50 percent above Gieringer’s forecast with full legalization from a little over two decades ago.

Energy:

Labor Violations:

  • Apple Owes $2 Million for Not Giving Meal Breaks I used to work at a company in CT where they would give you a paid half hour “break” during an eight hour shift where you weren’t allowed to eat or leave your desk. When I asked if this was legal since CT requires a 30 minute meal period for any shift over 7 1/2 hours, it turns out it technically was. If an employer provided a paid 30 minute “break,” they didn’t need to provide a meal period. I’m assuming whoever drafted this exception didn’t think you would be forbidden from eating on a “break.” The company was “generous” enough to waive this policy for a diabetic coworker. The rest of us were just required to not eat for eight hours.

Poverty:

Affordable Housing:

Misinformed Citizens:

Inequality:

Quality of Life:

Worker Cooperatives:

Better Manufacturing Jobs in the US:

  • CNN Host’s Attempt to Explain the U.S. Economy Was So Bad that I Started Yelling at the TV Germany would be a great example to look to for manufacturing jobs.

    Ever Hear of Germany?

    Instead of regurgitating meaningless economic platitudes, newscasters and pundits should confront some facts about Germany’s extensive manufacturing sector.

    Fact #1: Germany uses the most advanced technologies in the world.

    Fact #2: Manufacturing workers in Germany earn much more than their U.S. counterparts: 44.7% more in textiles, 44.6% more in chemicals, 34.2% more in machine tools, and 66.9% more in the automobile industry.

    Fact #3: Manufacturing jobs make up 22% of the German workforce and account for 21% of the GDP. U.S. manufacturing jobs make up only 11% of our workforce and only 13% of our GDP.

    Fact #4: The economic gods either speak German or the Germans are doing things differently from their U.S counterparts.

    Rather than divine intervention, German manufacturing depends on producing high-quality products that are so good people the world over are willing to pay a premium for them. The most sought-after, high-end motor vehicles (Mercedes, BMW, Audi) and kitchen appliances (Bosch, Miele) are produced by German companies using highly trained, well-paid workers and the most advanced technologies.

    The German manufacturing juggernaut depends on vast investments in innovation (by their government), in research and development (by their firms), and in worker education and training (by both the government and the firms).

Jobs:

Universal Basic Income:

Helping the Homeless:

Debtors’ Prisons: