Politics
Whatever Happened to the United Farmworkers?
On New Year’s Day, a friend mentioned that Frank Bardacke had published his long-anticipated history of the rise and fall of Cesar Chavez and the United Farmworkers. It was worth the wait, he assured me and “completely stunning. Just get it and read it. You won’t put it down.” He was right. Bardacke, a respected [...]
Will Obama Ask Biden and Clinton to Swap Jobs?
Should the President ask his VP and his Secretary of State to trade jobs? This is one of those too-delicious by half ideas that builds up as beltway buzz and becomes the stuff of gossip columns and talk show chatter. Increasingly however, the idea is not crazy if Obama gets the timing right. It cannot cannot [...]
Promising not to promise….
In yesterday’s New York Times, Warren Buffett argues that super rich folks should pay higher taxes. Had I asserted that the rich should pay more, it would be an entirely unremarkable example of the famous ditty by Senator Russell Long (“Don’t tax me, don’t tax thee, tax that fella behind the tree”). These days, you can [...]
The GOP Raises Interest Rates. China Cheers.
As of tonight, it is not at all clear when the US debt ceiling will get extended or when the entirely artificial crisis caused by Republican House members will be resolved. But one thing is now very clear: the ham-fisted GOP tactics will raise interest costs for every American family and business. It is the [...]
Amazon.com: America’s #1 Tax Evader?
== Update: On September 7, Amazon relented and made a deal to pay sales taxes on shipments to California (no doubt the trenchant analysis that follows persuaded them to do the right thing). For details of the deal see http://goo.gl/kNwjQ. Now every other state in America needs to make a deal with Amazon — even if they [...]
Freedom Comes Out
Gay Freedom does not matter yet to most Americans — but it will, soon enough. Andrew Cuomo’s profile in political courage in mobilizing the New York legislature to allow gay marriage is a civil rights landmark. It is also more evidence that public attitudes have tipped. Twenty years from now, people may wonder what the [...]
Kwik Fixin’ Oakland
I love Oakland. It is immigrant, black, and blue collar. The town has a great history and a solid soul. Ours were among the first neighborhoods in America where all of the whites did not move out when blacks moved in. Of course, along with a heart of oak, the town also has a brain [...]
Public Unions 5: Can Unions Innovate?
This post concludes a five part series on public sector unions. The opening post argued that political attacks on public sector unions are more likely to worsen fiscal or political problems than solve them. The second article asserted that low public sector productivity is primarily a management failure. The third article noted that efforts by unions to [...]
Public Unions 4: Preventing Labor Capture
This is the fourth of a five part series on public sector unions. The opening post argued that political attacks on public sector unions are more likely to worsen fiscal or political problems than solve them. The second article asserted that low levels public sector productivity relative to pay is primarily a management failure. The third article noted [...]
Public Unions 3: The Price of Job Security.
This post is the third of a five part series on public sector unions.The opening post argued that political attacks on public sector unions are more likely to worsen fiscal or political problems than solve them. The second article asserted that low public sector productivity is primarily a management failure. The third article notes that efforts by unions to [...]
Public Unions 2: Management, Productivity, and Pay.
This is the second of a five part series on public sector unions. The opening post argued that political attacks on public sector unions are more likely to worsen fiscal or political problems than solve them. The second article asserts that low public sector productivity is primarily a management failure. The third article notes that efforts by unions [...]
Public Unions 1: Scott Walker’s Gift
This post commences a five part series on public sector unions. It argues that political attacks on public sector unions are more likely to worsen fiscal or political problems than solve them. The second article asserts that low public sector productivity is primarily a management failure. The third article notes that efforts by unions to [...]
Beliefs vs. Preferences vs. Facts.
Most of us spend much too little time separating our beliefs from our preferences from facts about reality. We tend to think that our beliefs are grounded in facts, despite repeated evidence that they rarely are. Beliefs get us into more trouble than preferences, or as pioneering blogger Mark Twain put it “It ain’t what you don’t [...]
Michael Lewis: When Capitalists Try to Destroy Capitalism
If the global financial collapse has a silver lining it’s the Vanity Fair accounts by Michael Lewis of how three different European countries responded to the meltdown. We can only hope that Lewis adds to these reports and turns them into another best-selling book. Lewis (Liar’s Poker, Moneyball, The Blind Side, The Big Short) is [...]
Astral Weeks: Venturing in the Slipstream
Sometimes an artist captures lightning in a bottle. Usually they aren’t sure how it happened and few can repeat the magic regularly. In 1968, Van Morrison recorded Astral Weeks under awful circumstances. Today, it is widely recognized as a transcendant work, truly one of the greatest albums ever recorded. It is an album that has made me [...]
The Federal Budget: Getting What We Asked For.
Budgeting is governing, so the federal budget is rightly the stage for intense political struggle. It also means that a budget is fundamentally as much about setting the stage for a political fight as it is a reflection of priorities. So what does the new stage look like? You can see a more interactive version here. [...]
Obama: Looking for Dumb Federal Programs? Kill 13(c).
Obama this week announced an effort to hunt and destroy stupid federal programs. As he well knows, these programs are easy to find but tough to kill. I learned this when I was put in charge of a really stupid federal program. I got agreement at the highest levels of government to kill it. The [...]
Cory Booker: Tweet Theater or the Politics of Engagement?
In September of 1965, Hurricane Betsy devastated New Orleans. The damage was not as bad as Katrina forty years later, but large bits of Lake Pontchartrain again ended up in the poor and largely black Ninth Ward. Residents fled to the George Washington Elementary School on St. Claude Avenue, which had been hastily converted into a [...]
When will China overtake the US as the world’s largest economy? Place your bets…
The Economist has a useful tool. Plug in the variables and see when the Chinese economy gets larger than ours. (Hint, if you get a date before 2015 or after 2020, you are dreaming…)
On Obama’s Presidential Week
For those keeping score at home, Barack Obama is having the best week of his Presidency. He has or is about to get Congress to: repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, which will go down in history as a civil rights landmark ratify a new START treaty, the first arms control treaty every ratified by a Democratic [...]
