|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
By Wellford Wilms
$25.00
By T Cooper and Adam Mansbach
$11.64
$18
|
|
|
|
renaissancechambara (CC BY 2.0)
|
Journalist Mike Whitney praised the Truthdig editor in chief for being “the only voice on the left” to defend former Reagan budget director David Stockman against an “army of toffeenose pundits” who failed to honor the essential truth of Stockman’s controversial New York Times op-ed.
Posted on Apr 11, 2013
READ MORE 
|
AP/Francisco Seco
|
The Nobel Prize-winning economist and public advocate is at the top of every liberal’s wish list for President Obama’s second-term Cabinet appointments.
Posted on Jan 5, 2013
READ MORE
|
White House/Pete Souza
|
By The Rev. Madison Shockley — My family survived the Great Recession because of the policies of the Obama administration. I suspect we were not alone in benefiting from one or another of the various relief programs.
Posted on Oct 15, 2012
READ MORE 
|
|
By David Sirota — For most of President Obama’s term, Republicans have ignored the millions of jobs the Congressional Budget Office says the 2009 stimulus legislation created and instead argued that the government is incapable of boosting employment. Now the same GOP is barnstorming the country telling us the government can, in fact, create jobs—lots of them.
Posted on Aug 10, 2012
READ MORE
|
Photo by David Spencer (CC-BY-ND)
|
OK, so it’s only 135. Nonetheless it gives us pause when the former labor secretary and economic soothsayer tweets that China’s “bubble will pop.” If that happens, you can stop worrying about Greece and the other comparatively tiny economies of Europe.
Posted on Jul 31, 2012
READ MORE
|
http2007 (CC BY 2.0)
|
Growth for the world’s largest exporter hit its slowest pace in three years as demand for Chinese products waned in the U.S., Europe and elsewhere, prompting the country’s leaders to encourage investment with stimulus measures.
Posted on Jul 13, 2012
READ MORE
|
Medill DC (CC BY 2.0)
|
In spite of May’s weak jobs report, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke still sees no reason for the central bank to expand its efforts to boost the American economy. The Fed is assessing whether the economy would continue to grow fast enough to reduce the unemployment rate without further intervention, he said.
Posted on Jun 7, 2012
READ MORE
|
U.S. Treasury
|
Just as Mitt Romney has locked up the Republican nomination on a boast of fiscal conservatism, President Obama’s Treasury Department has said it expects to turn a tidy $2 billion profit from TARP and other extraordinary measures taken to bail out the financial industry.
|
White House / Pete Souza
|
Whatever President Obama is doing to reinstate closer ties with some high-profile members of his party is working, at least when it comes to congressional Democrats looking to extend their stays on Capitol Hill. So what’s his winning strategy?
|
AP / Manuel Balce Ceneta
|
By Bill Boyarsky — Observing the liberal Democratic critics of President Barack Obama set me wondering whether they ever listen to the Republican candidates. Haven’t they noticed that the Republicans want to dismantle Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and the rest of the economic protections for the poor and the middle class?
|
Chevrolet
|
By Michael Grabell, ProPublica —
Until the economic stimulus package was passed in 2009, the manufacture of electric cars and their batteries in the United States was nearly nonexistent.
|
Flickr / jurvetson (CC-BY)
|
A congressional investigative committee interrogated government officials Wednesday about why they supported giving a $535 million loan package to the recently failed California solar panel manufacturer Solyndra.
|
AP / J. Scott Applewhite
|
Economists across a broad range are frowning on the Federal Reserve’s most recent attempt to spur the economy, saying that the strategy of buying federal debt has helped the stock market but has had little positive effect on the general population.
|
|
By David Sirota — As “Buy China” policies now economically supercharge the world’s most populous nation, the White House and congressional Republicans have opposed many of the very “Buy America” proposals that might help us keep up—and that obstruction has come at a steep price.
|
|
By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — Welcome to the Republicans who take over the House of Representatives this week. Since it is a new year, let us be optimistic about what this development means for our nation.
|
White House / Pete Souza
|
Based on what The New York Times describes as President Obama’s “substantial concessions to Republicans,” Democrats in Congress have reason to fret. Not only did Obama agree to extend the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, but he caved in to Republican demands to neuter the estate tax. ... (more)
|
Flickr / Gisela Giardino (CC-BY-SA)
|
Trying to follow the amount of money the Federal Reserve has pumped into the economy (and the banks) can be truly mind-boggling, and it’s not getting easier. (continued)
|
Flickr / Alan Bruce (CC-BY)
|
Of the 52 million people who received $250 stimulus checks last year, 72,000 were dead. While the loss of much of that $18 million is unfortunate, and we are sure to hear all about it in various campaigns, the waste adds up to a tiny sliver of a fraction of the nearly $800 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
|
|
By Ruth Marcus — Republicans like to denounce President Obama and congressional Democrats for what they describe as “job-killing” policies. But in those red-hot rhetorical terms, congressional Republicans are guilty of mass murder when it comes to job creation.
|
Flickr / Jim Champion (CC-BY-SA)
|
Judging by their television commercials, the Democrats aren’t too thrilled with their legislative accomplishments. A New York Times analysis of ads finds that Republican candidates bring up health care, for instance, more often than the opposition and some Democrats don’t even identify themselves by party.
|
White House / Chuck Kennedy
|
With unemployment still rising and the American infrastructure getting no less crumbly, President Obama is set to announce a six-year plan to build roads and create jobs, starting with a $50 billion investment. That’s assuming Congress gets on board the recovery train.
|
Flickr / edEx
|
In news that reflects the weakening pulse of the economy, the Labor Department reported that initial claims for jobless benefits rose last week to a seasonally adjusted level of half a million, the highest since last November.
|
|
On Thursday, the Senate helped bring financial reform one step closer to reality by approving legislation designed to get at some of the roots, at least, of the economic destruction that Wall Street wrought two years ago.
|
Flickr / twicepix (CC-BY-SA)
|
By Eugene Robinson — Let me put it in terms that Washington understands: The party that begins to treat the unemployment crisis with the hair-on-fire urgency that it deserves is the party that will do well in November.
|
|
By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — Do Democrats honestly think that nickel-and-diming on stimulus now will either have a substantial impact on the long-term deficit or be of greater help to them in this fall’s elections than more robust growth?
|
Wikimedia Commons / Steele for Chairman
|
A president’s employment problem is the opposition’s cannon fodder during election season, and Friday’s bad news on employment is giving the GOP some opportunities to lob a few more hits at the Democrats during the lead-in to this fall’s midterm elections.
|
|
Check out this new “Fault Lines” video in which Avi Lewis examines the lives of Americans who are jobless or underemployed—a number approaching 30 million.
|
White House / Chuck Kennedy
|
Some say it was too modest, others feel it was about $800 billion overboard. In any event, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is a year old, and, according to ProPublica, still has a few hundred billion dollars’ worth of stimulation left in the tank.
|
AP / Eugene Hoshiko
|
By Robert Scheer — The Chinamen did it. In the great American tradition of finding foreign scapegoats for our problems, the hunt is on to somehow hold China responsible for the misery that Wall Street financiers inflicted upon the world.
|
Flickr / jphilipg
|
The White House will now count all jobs funded by stimulus money, not just those that were created or saved. The job market is still hemorrhaging and the administration might be looking to do a little inflation. Or it might honestly be trying to simplify a confusing and highly criticized formula for counting jobs.
|
|
Those entitled Wall Street types at Goldman Sachs are apparently oblivious to the fact that they’re having some PR issues of late—either that, or they don’t really care. Either way, “SNL” stars Amy Poehler and Seth Meyers make them the brunt of their jokes in this clip from last weekend’s show.
|
Flickr / lucianvenutian
|
Don’t be fooled by stimulus critics who cite expenditures such as the “electric fish orchestra” (actually an educational demonstration of a larger project related to robotics and prosthetics) or trips to resorts (to train special-ed teachers). “Waste,” as ProPublica reports, “is in the eye of the beholder.” (continued)
|
haldimandcountyhydro.ca
|
The White House sounded a triumphant note Friday about the success of the economic stimulus in salvaging and creating close to 650,000 jobs in recent months, but some Republicans, along with the AP, are questioning the accuracy of the government’s figures.
|
|
By Ellen Goodman — You can’t go wrong in politics giving money to seniors, but it’s the poor and hungry—often kids—who need $250 checks.
|
Flickr / toddalert
|
For the first time in 34 years, Social Security beneficiaries will not get a benefit boost from a cost-of-living adjustment. Falling energy prices, in particular, should keep seniors flush with their monthly average $1,094 checks. So what if their health care costs have gone up by a third?
|
AP / Lawrence Jackson
|
There is some rumbling among the congressional Republican ranks that Team Obama’s stimulus package has driven the country into ever deeper economic trouble, but one prominent member of said presidential team, economic adviser Lawrence Summers, begs to differ—and he’s written a letter to House GOP honcho John Boehner to tell him why.
|
White House / Pete Souza
|
By Joe Conason — If the president and Congress don’t come to the aid of workers, the political consequences will be severe, and deservedly so.
|
|
By Michael Grabell, Christopher Flavelle and Emily Witt, ProPublica —
Congress created a $5 billion emergency fund for needy families that can be used to immediately create jobs or pay rent for families facing eviction, but many states say they can’t afford to take advantage of the windfall.
|
Flickr / showbizsuperstar
|
In this topsy-turvy world it seems one’s proximity to full-blown communism is directly proportional to one’s success in capitalism. Take Red China’s explosive economic growth, or the unexpected success of semi-socialist Germany and France, which just bid auf Wiedersehen and adieu to the recession.
|
AP / Josh Anderson
|
Faced with one of the highest unemployment rates in the country, Tennessee has taken matters into its own hands. In a work project inspired by the New Deal, the state is using money from the federal stimulus package to create hundreds of jobs ranging from working for the state Transportation Department to baking goodies at the local pie shop.
|
Flickr/richardefreeman
|
General Motors Chief Executive Fritz Henderson tooted his company’s horn plenty when he ushered in a new, post-bankruptcy era for the Detroit automaker—but he couldn’t promise that GM 2.0 would be able to pay back the billions of dollars his company got from taxpayers.
|
Illustration from Flickr / CJ Sorg and South Carolina Governor's Office
|
South Carolina governor and anti-stimulus crusader Mark Sanford has vanished. Sanford gave his staff and security team the slip four days ago and managed to miss Father’s Day without alarming his wife, who also doesn’t know where he is. “He was writing something and wanted some space to get away from the kids,” she explained to AP.
|
AP photo / Charles Dharapak
|
By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — When Charlie Crist, Florida’s popular governor, announced this week that he would run for the U.S. Senate, it was the best news the Republican Party has had in an otherwise unpleasant year.
|
Flickr/Sam Ruaat
|
Although the congressional GOP contingent wanted nothing to do with it, President Barack Obama’s $3.53 trillion budget package made the Senate cut on Thursday evening, passing with a 55-43 vote.
|
hoinews.com
|
When word got out that Sen. Chris Dodd was responsible for loosening the restrictions on executive bonuses while drafting the stimulus bill, his constituents were apparently listening, as the Democrat’s approval rating in his home state of Connecticut has hit an all-time low. Now he could be in danger of losing his Senate seat in 2010.
|
|
Mike Keefe, The Denver Post —
|
|
The clock is ticking for Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to come up with a plan to deal with the banks that actually works. Meanwhile, some of the United States’ current struggles seem beside the point to European countries that already have a strong social safety net. And finally on this week’s list of “Left, Right & Center” hot topics is President Obama and Afghanistan: Is this a disaster waiting to happen?
|
View the most popular tags overall?
|
|
A Cooler Century? Wait And See
Newsletter 
Like Us
Follow Us
Get Our Feed
