Uppity Wisconsin
Making Wisconsin Progressive Again
Mercury Marine Workers See Daylight, Wisc Pols Come Through
Wed, 09/02/2009 - 10:51am | mal contends
Updated - "Through the efforts of state and local officials...," reads the (IAM) Local 1947 webpage. That's the lede everyone is looking for.
A radical game changer out of Fond du Lac.
After the city and county of Fond du Lac and Wisconsin put together incentives to keep Mercury Marine jobs in Wisconsin, new word comes that Mercury Marine and the (IAM) Local 1947 [now updated] may strike a deal not only retaining manufacturing jobs but actually moving jobs from Stillwater, Oklahoma, to Fond du Lac.
Details on the negotiations are sketchy but the newly scheduled contract vote on Thursday and Friday may signal some great news coming out of Fondy.
After the city and county of Fond du Lac and Wisconsin put together incentives to keep Mercury Marine jobs in Wisconsin, new word comes that Mercury Marine and the (IAM) Local 1947 [now updated] may strike a deal not only retaining manufacturing jobs but actually moving jobs from Stillwater, Oklahoma, to Fond du Lac.
Details on the negotiations are sketchy but the newly scheduled contract vote on Thursday and Friday may signal some great news coming out of Fondy.
Obama Needs to Nationalize Now
Wed, 02/11/2009 - 7:39am | mal contends
Update II: Krugman - "Nationalization is actually as American as apple pie."
Update: Time Magazine - "According to Reuters, there are over 8,300 FDIC-insured banks in America. Last August, dour economist Nouriel Roubini told Barron's that 1,400 banks in the U.S. would eventually fail."
The Obama administration can pivot fast, but there is no doubt that Wall Street and policymakers (some of whom are being earnest) want more specificity on how Obama will manage the bank bailout plan.
As part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan, Obama needs to move decisively on the bank bailout with lots of a details, clear timeliness and delineated scope in a manner that would make project management professionals proud.
Update: Time Magazine - "According to Reuters, there are over 8,300 FDIC-insured banks in America. Last August, dour economist Nouriel Roubini told Barron's that 1,400 banks in the U.S. would eventually fail."
The Obama administration can pivot fast, but there is no doubt that Wall Street and policymakers (some of whom are being earnest) want more specificity on how Obama will manage the bank bailout plan.
As part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan, Obama needs to move decisively on the bank bailout with lots of a details, clear timeliness and delineated scope in a manner that would make project management professionals proud.
License granted for a total war on recession
Tue, 12/16/2008 - 2:58pm | mal contends
Update: Wall Street Journal: "We are running out of the traditional ammunition that's used in a recession, which is to lower interest rates. They're getting to be about as low as they can go. And although the Fed is still going to have more tools available to it, it is critical that the other branches of government step up."
- Barack Obama in a news conference in which he called for a government spending stimulus program.
The incoming Obama administration has just been granted a political license to pursue virtually anything it wants in fiscal policy in light of the seriousness with which the Fed is addressing the economic situation facing the world.
Reducing its key rate to a historic low, near zero, the Fed said it would use “all available tools” to fight the recession; in other words War against the recession by any means necessary.
----
Reads the Fed's statement:
For immediate release
The Federal Open Market Committee decided today to establish a target range for the federal funds rate of 0 to 1/4 percent.
- Barack Obama in a news conference in which he called for a government spending stimulus program.
The incoming Obama administration has just been granted a political license to pursue virtually anything it wants in fiscal policy in light of the seriousness with which the Fed is addressing the economic situation facing the world.
Reducing its key rate to a historic low, near zero, the Fed said it would use “all available tools” to fight the recession; in other words War against the recession by any means necessary.
----
Reads the Fed's statement:
For immediate release
The Federal Open Market Committee decided today to establish a target range for the federal funds rate of 0 to 1/4 percent.
Union Busting Writ Large
Thu, 11/20/2008 - 8:24am | mal contends
As America enters what is feared to be a long and deep recession, one question is whether we save or let fade our auto industry.
The GOP has long been hostile to the auto industry's unions so any union-busting opportunity not used is a wasted opportunity, in their view: Let 'em crash, millions of jobs lost, so what?
House Republicans sitting in their fantasy world spouting free market bromides are capable of anything.
But does anyone believe that saving the millions of jobs that depend on the domestic auto industry is not in itself sufficient cause to act?
The new Congress and President will act, and Republicans as a Party opposing comprehensive measures will find themselves by the political wayside very quickly.
The economy will be geared toward establishing a middle class and raising families by this new administration.
Health care reform and the whole array of initiatives addressing the concerns of real people will become policy next year, and the Republicans will scream while they lose a generation or two of voters who will see the results.
Autoworkers and All Americans Are Worth Subsidizing
Sun, 10/26/2008 - 3:29pm | mal contends
Excellent piece in the New York Times Sunday on the disaster of General Motors and its workers brings to the fore several questions.
- Should the United States government help American companies like GM by subsidizing the health insurance of employees?
- Should the government reward innovations that benefit the national war effort for the environment and alternative energy?
Sure, we have not yet declared war for a sustainable environment and the development of alternative energy; most of our domestic wars are ostensibly waged against something: Drugs and so forth.
How about a war for the environment and alternative energy? For full employment?
The 2,700-word piece illustrates well the desperation of and passion working people have for: Working.
- Should the United States government help American companies like GM by subsidizing the health insurance of employees?
- Should the government reward innovations that benefit the national war effort for the environment and alternative energy?
Sure, we have not yet declared war for a sustainable environment and the development of alternative energy; most of our domestic wars are ostensibly waged against something: Drugs and so forth.
How about a war for the environment and alternative energy? For full employment?
The 2,700-word piece illustrates well the desperation of and passion working people have for: Working.
Said ... Andy Richardson, who recently took office as the new president of (UAW) Local 95. 'If G.M. wants to build lawn chairs in Janesville, we’ll do it,' he said.
Quote of the Day, the two pillars of Western Democracy
Tue, 10/21/2008 - 1:14pm | warmmidwest
This is pretty stunning to think about in full:
However well-intentioned it was, the catastrophic and unpopular intervention in Iraq has served in some parts of the world to discredit the very idea of western democracy.The recent collapse of the banking system, and the humiliating resort to semi-socialist solutions, has done a great deal to discredit - in some people's eyes - the idea of free-market capitalism.
Democracy and capitalism are the two great pillars of the American idea.
To have rocked one of those pillars may be regarded as a misfortune.
To have damaged the reputation of both, at home and abroad, is a pretty stunning achievement for an American president.
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Tags: Corruption, Afghanistan, democracy, Economic policy, Iraq war, U.S. economy, wall street, war
Warren Buffett Says Confidence is Oxygen
Thu, 10/02/2008 - 10:26am | mal contends
"You want to be greedy when others are fearful. You want to be fearful when others are greedy. It's that simple. ... They're pretty fearful. In fact, in my adult lifetime, I don’t think I’ve ever seen people as fearful economically as they are right now."
- Warren Buffett, October 1, 2008 on the Charlie Rose Show
Why the Charlie Rose show featuring an exclusive conversation with Warren Edward Buffett, regarded as the world's greatest investor and chair of Berkshire Hathaway, is not endlessly broadcast this week is a mystery of the American political culture.
Even as House Republicans scream (at the apparent urging of Newt Gingrich) that the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act 2008 is a slippery slope to socialism, Buffett's reasoned defense of the Bush-Paulson-US Senate-Everyone-except-the-GOP-House Members Act assures that not only may the bailout bill produce a net profit (if conceived of in those terms) for American taxpayers, but the fear and loathing epitomized by the House Republicans (though not singled out by Buffett in the interview) is ludicrously removed from reality.
- Warren Buffett, October 1, 2008 on the Charlie Rose Show
Why the Charlie Rose show featuring an exclusive conversation with Warren Edward Buffett, regarded as the world's greatest investor and chair of Berkshire Hathaway, is not endlessly broadcast this week is a mystery of the American political culture.
Even as House Republicans scream (at the apparent urging of Newt Gingrich) that the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act 2008 is a slippery slope to socialism, Buffett's reasoned defense of the Bush-Paulson-US Senate-Everyone-except-the-GOP-House Members Act assures that not only may the bailout bill produce a net profit (if conceived of in those terms) for American taxpayers, but the fear and loathing epitomized by the House Republicans (though not singled out by Buffett in the interview) is ludicrously removed from reality.