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2012: The Year of the Cooperative

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

nationofchange.org - By Jessica Reeder - Feb. 02 (Special Report) - What do coffee growers in Ethiopia, hardware store owners in America, and Basque entrepreneurs have in common? For one thing, many of them belong to cooperatives. By pooling their money and resources, and voting democratically on how those resources will be used, they can compete in business and reinvest the benefits in their communities.

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6 Shocking Ways Capitalism Is Failing Working America

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

AlterNet - By Les Leopold - Feb. 01 (News Analysis) - Capitalism is coming apart at the seams and the middle-class is paying the price.

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The State of Obama’s Facts

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

FactCheck - By Brooks Jackson, D’Angelo Gore, Eugene Kiely, Robert Farley, Ben Finley, Lori Robertson - Jan. 25 (Fact Check) - The president’s State of the Union address got the facts right — mostly. Obama said “the Taliban’s momentum has been broken” in Afghanistan. But targeted assassinations continue, and at least one independent foreign policy expert says the enemy may just be waiting until the U.S. leaves. The president said a get-tough tariff on tire imports from China has saved more than 1,000 U.S. jobs. But tire industry officials say Chinese imports have simply been replaced by imports from other countries. He took credit for putting “more boots on the border than ever before.” That’s true, but the big increase was under George W. Bush. And a decrease in illegal border crossings is due mainly to the lack of jobs in the U.S., experts say. Often the president’s facts and figures were accurate — but not the whole story. It’s true (barely) that Bush issued more new regulations than Obama at the same point in their presidencies — but Obama didn’t mention that his cost more. The president pointed proudly to increased oil drilling, increased U.S. oil production, and declining dependence on imports. But understandably he passed over any mention of chronically high gasoline prices, which hit a record of sorts last year. And he boasted of recent increases in jobs — which still number nearly 1.7 million fewer than when he took office.

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Laid-Off Steelworker: Mitt Romney and Bain Capital Profited by Shutting Down Kansas Steel Plant

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Jan. 10 (News Report) - As Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney comes under fire in New Hampshire for touting his business experience, we look at how his private equity firm, Bain Capital, drove a Kansas City steel plant into bankruptcy, leading to some 750 layoffs and a federal bailout. Bain still walked away with millions of dollars in profits. We speak with Reuters reporter Andy Sullivan, who covered the story, and with Joe Soptic, a steelworker who lost his job at Kansas City's Worldwide Grinding Systems steel mill after 28 years. "The first thing I noticed after the company was bought out ... they became very union non-friendly. They started looking for ways to eliminate jobs," says Soptic. "In my department, they actually offered to buy our jobs out from underneath us. They cut back on safety equipment." Regarding Romney's business acumen, Soptic adds, "If he runs the country the way he ran our business, I would not want him as president." [Rush transcript to come. Check back soon.]

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Suspect Claims from Obama’s ’60 Minutes’ Interview

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

FactCheck - By D'Angelo Gore - Dec. 13 (Fact Check) - President Barack Obama made a couple of questionable claims during a recent interview with Steve Kroft of CBS’ “60 Minutes.” Obama said that “John McCain’s former economist” said that the stimulus “created or saved 3 millions jobs.” Mark Zandi did say that the stimulus created about that many jobs, but … More >>

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Bachmann’s Bad Economics

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

FactCheck - By Eugene Kiely, Dave Bloom - Dec. 07 (Fact Check) - Michele Bachmann wrongly claims there is “not one shred of evidence that lowering the payroll tax rate created jobs.” Actually, the economy has gained more than 1.4 million jobs in the 11 months since the payroll tax holiday began. That’s 84 percent more jobs than were added in the same … More >>

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Flipping Through DNC Playbook on Romney

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

FactCheck - By Eugene Kiely, Lori Robertson, Robert Farley, Brooks Jackson, D’Angelo Gore, Scott Blackburn, Lalita Clozel - Dec. 01 (Fact Check) - The Democratic National Committee casts Mitt Romney as an untrustworthy flip-flopper in a lengthy Web video, but pads a long list of examples with some falsehoods and distortions. It's true that Romney has changed or modified his position on some major issues -- including abortion, a federal assault weapons ban and Reaganomics, as the DNC says. But the video strains the truth ... More >>

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After the Deficit Committee, A New Propaganda Push from the War Profiteers

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Huffington Post - By Robert Greenwald ,Derrick Crowe: - Nov. 29 (News Analysis) - Failure of a special congressional committee to strike a deficit-reduction deal is expected to unleash desperate lobbying by U.S. arms makers to get lawmakers to block $600 billion in automatic cuts. Unfortunately for them, War Costs' new video exposes t

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Romney’s Ad ‘Deceitful & Dishonest’?

Wed, 23 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

FactCheck - By Brooks Jackson - Nov. 23 (Fact Check) - The Obama campaign is in a lather over Mitt Romney’s first TV spot, calling it “a deceitful and dishonest attack” because of an edited quote from 2008. That’s a matter of opinion. We find a far more consequential issue is the ad’s exaggerated claim that the new health care law … More >>

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GOP’s Phantom Job Losses

Tue, 22 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

FactCheck - By Eugene Kiely - Nov. 22 (News) - Ooops! Republicans — eager to show that President Obama’s oil and gas drilling policies “cost jobs” — have been using a number they now admit was more than three times too high. Even after they corrected their error (after we pointed it out), they started using a figure that is … More >>

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Mondragon Corporation

Sun, 23 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Wikipedia - Oct. 23 (Special Report) - The Mondragon Corporation is a corporation and federation of worker cooperatives based in the Basque region of Spain. Founded in the town of Mondragón in 1956, its origin is linked to the activity of a modest technical college and a small workshop producing paraffin heaters. Currently it is the seventh largest Spanish company in terms of asset turnover and the leading business group in the Basque Country. At the end of 2010 it was providing employment for 83,859 people working in 256 companies in four areas of activity: Finance, Industry, Retail and Knowledge. The MONDRAGON Co-operatives operate in accordance with a business model based on People and the Sovereignty of Labour, which has made it possible to develop highly participative companies rooted in solidarity, with a strong social dimension but without neglecting business excellence. The Co-operatives are owned by their worker-members and power is based on the principle of one person, one vote.[1] Great idea but little capital? Consider a worker-owned collective. Biggest industrial group in Spain is worked-owned: http://bit.ly/2idDL8 Ideas for Ireland (ideasforireland) http://twitter.com/ideasforireland/status/28062763091

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What We Can Learn from Germany: How Countries With Publicly Owned Banks Do Better Than America

Wed, 19 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Ellen Brown - Oct. 19 (Special Report) - [T]he demand isn't simply to make a public bank, but is to treat the banks generally as a public utility, just as you treat electric companies as a public utility.... Just as there was pressure for a public option in health care, there should be a public option in banking. There should be a government bank that offers credit card rates without punitive 30% interest rates, without penalties, without raising the rate if you don't pay your electric bill. This is how America got strong in the 19th and early 20th century, by essentially having public infrastructure, just like you'd have roads and bridges.... The idea of public infrastructure was to lower the cost of living and to lower the cost of doing business.

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Occupy Times Square: Occupy Wall Street Protesters Swarm Midtown

Sun, 16 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Whitney Snyder - Oct. 16 (News Report) - Thousands of anti-Wall Street protesters rallied in New York City's Times Square Saturday, buoyed by a global day of demonstrations in support of their monthlong campaign against corporate greed.

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Rachel Maddow Calls Out Republicans For Not Focusing On Job Creation (VIDEO)

Fri, 14 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Rebecca Shapiro - Oct. 14 (News Analysis) - Republicans dither with "other" as America waits for jobs.

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House Approves Controversial Trade Deal

Thu, 13 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - Oct. 13 (News) - Congress voted to approve a free trade agreement with Panama, a country of less than 4 million that still carries economic weight because of the Panama Canal.

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On Perry's Statement: Romneys health care law killed jobs

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

FactCheck - By Lori Robertson - Sep. 28 (News) - The Perry campaign has been pushing a questionable claim that the Massachusetts health care law, signed by then-Gov. Mitt Romney in 2006, “killed 18,000 jobs.” But that number was churned out by an economic model used by a conservative think tank, and it’s unknown whether the figure is accurate.

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Does a secretary pay higher taxes than a millionaire?

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

PolitiFact - By Angie Drobnic Holan - Sep. 21 (Fact Check) - Not all millionaires are equal. There are millionaires who earn their income like most of us -- in salaries. And then there are the millionaires Warren Buffett wrote about in his famous op-ed column for the New York Times asking the federal government to "Stop Coddling the Super-Rich." They earn their living as hedge fund managers or through investments and enjoy a lower tax rate. President Barack Obama blurred the distinction in his recent speech on the economy, calling out things that he said "shouldn't happen." Middle-class families shouldn’t pay higher taxes than millionaires and billionaires. That’s pretty straightforward. It’s ... >>More

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Defense Secretary Panetta Plays on Job Fears But Military Spending Is the Worst at Creating Jobs

Fri, 16 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Robert Greenwald, Derrick Crowe - Sep. 16 (News Analysis) - Panetta and his counterparts in the war industry can play Chicken Little all they want about war budget spending cuts, but they can’t change the simple fact that military spending is terrible at creating jobs, according to a 2009 study by the Political Economy Research Institute

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Rachel Maddow Mocks Sen. Bob Casey's Opposition To Obama Jobs Plan (VIDEO)

Fri, 16 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Rachel Maddow - Sep. 16 (News Analysis) - video

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Fact-check: CNN/Tea Party Debate

Wed, 14 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

FactCheck - By Eugene Kiely, Robert Farley, Lori Robertson, Brooks Jackson, D'Angelo Gore - Sep. 14 (Fact Check) - The GOP presidential candidates debated for the second time in six days -- tossing out a variety of false and misleading claims on everything from Social Security to vaccines for sexually transmitted diseases. ...

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U.S. Census Reports Reveals One in Six Americans Are Poor, One in Five Children Live in Poverty

Wed, 14 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Sep. 14 (News Report) - A new U.S. Census Bureau report reveals the number of people living in poverty last year surged to 46.2 million — 1 in 6 Americans, the highest number since the Bureau began tracking such data more than 50 years ago. According to the report, blacks and Hispanics together accounted for 54 percent of the poor with whites at 9.9 percent and Asians at 12.1 percent. Children under 18 suffered the highest poverty rate. Meanwhile, the number of Americans with employer-provided health insurance has also continued to decline and now hovers just below the 50 million mark, the most in more than two decades. Analysts say the numbers would have been worse if not for government assistance programs, including extended unemployment compensation, stimulus spending, Obama's health reforms, and social security. We speak with Heidi Shierholz, labor economist at the Economic Policy Institute. [Transcript to come. Check back soon.]

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Fact-checking the CNN/Tea Party Express GOP debate

Tue, 13 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

PolitiFact - By Bill Adair - Sep. 13 (Fact Check) - The CNN-Tea Party Express debate in Tampa on Monday night was dominated by talk about Social Security and the need for government to balance its budget. Mitt Romney led the attacks on the Republican frontrunner, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, by saying that Perry didn't support the retirement program. "In writing his book, Gov. Perry pointed out that … by any measure Social Security has been a failure," Romney said. We checked Perry's book and found Romney was right. We rated the claim True.

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Massive Unemployment: Proof That Global Capitalism Doesn't Work

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Steve Fraser, Joshua B. Freeman, - Sep. 12 (News Analysis) - In the coming years, might we see the return of a basic American horror at the phenomenon of joblessness? And might it drive Americans to begin to ask deeper questions about the system that lives and feeds on it? After all, we now exist in an under-developing economy. What new jobs it is creating are poor paying, low skill, and often temporary, nor are there enough of them to significantly reduce the numbers of those out of work. The 99ers are stark evidence that we may be witnessing the birth of a new permanent class of the marginalized.

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Are Jobs on Their Way to Becoming Obsolete? And Is That a Good Thing?

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Sarah Jaffe - Sep. 12 (News Analysis) - Rushkoff argues that we have more than enough to go around: “[W]e are attempting to use the logic of a scarce marketplace to negotiate things that are actually in abundance. What we lack is not employment, but a way of fairly distributing the bounty we have generated through our technologies, and a way of creating meaning in a world that has already produced far too much stuff.”

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Texas-Size Recovery

Wed, 31 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700

FactCheck - By Lori Robertson - Aug. 31 (Fact Check) - Presidential candidate and Texas Gov. Rick Perry has boasted of significant job growth in his state in the past few years. And for good reason: It's true. While Texas clearly hasn't avoided the recession, the state has done well in terms of increasing jobs, when compared with the recovery nationally. Perry's claim that "40 percent … of all the jobs in America were created in Texas" since June 2009 is accurate. But it’s also true that the increase in jobs hasn't kept pace with the rise in the state's population — so the number of jobless Texans also has risen, along with the state’s unemployment rate. And Texas is tied with Mississippi for the highest percentage of hourly workers paid at or below the minimum wage.

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