Archive for the Economics Category

The Obama White House has create a “Middle Class Task Force” with the expressed goal of raising middle class living standards. Its stated purposes are:

• Expanding education and lifelong training opportunities
• Improving work and family balance
• Restoring labor standards, including workplace safety
• Helping to protect middle-class and working-family incomes
• Protecting retirement security

It’s hard to imagine government doing anything better…

However, what about the two biggest factors that have led to the decline of the middle class: economic globalization, and mass immigration (both legal and illegal)? If they aren’t addressed, it will be like chopping the tops off of weeds rather than digging up the roots. We have our doubts that the administration will touch these topics (they may touch immigration, making it worse). Let’s wait and see…

In a previous post, we questioned whether Obama would really make good on his promise of a middle-class tax cut. After all, during his campaign, Bill Clinton had promised the same thing but quickly reneged once he took office.

A few days ago, Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s first appointee for his new administration, stated that “at this juncture” the new administration planned “on giving 95 percent of working Americans a tax cut.”
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It’s the day after Election Day. Barack Obama is now President-Elect. The Republicans are licking their wounds—and already beginning to think about their comeback.

What will that comeback strategy look like? And will Sarah Palin be an important part of it? Quite possibly. Here’s why
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During the presidential debate last night, the term “entitlement reform” was repeatedly bandied about, but little was said in the way of concrete proposals.

To be sure, something must be done about Social Security and Medicare. Both programs are woefully underfunded in the long run. Either they, or the Federal government, or both, are facing disaster within a few decades if the gap between anticipated revenues and anticipated expenses is allowed to grow.

Both programs are also cornerstones of middle class prosperity. Without Social Security and Medicare, the majority of middle class households will face poverty in their old age. If anyone gets sick, that poverty will quickly turn to utter destitution. These programs must be saved.

The problem is referring to them as “entitlements.” American workers aren’t merely “entitled” to these things, they’ve earned, and paid for them. Check out this editorial about the so-called entitlement spending crisis.

The ongoing financial crisis in the U.S. has occasioned plenty of finger pointing. Some blame reckless mortgage brokers; others greedy financial institutions; and still others lax regulators.

Carl Feuer, a spokesman for UAW Local 2300, sees it slightly differently. According to him, the real cause of the crisis is the falling standard of living of the American worker.

As prices for food, gasoline, and health care rise even as wages stagnate or fall, many households have been unable to make their mortgage payments.
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