It probably wouldn’t interest anybody outside of a small circle of friends. However. . .
Inequality is currently being rationalized in three stages:
1. Rising inequality? What rise in inequality?
2. OK, inequality has been rising, but it doesn’t matter, because we have lots of social mobility.
3. OK, we don’t have lots of social mobility. But that’s a good thing.
Who in God’s name is Mitt Romney?
Romney is incapable of an arresting turn of phrase, let alone a fresh idea. Running on empty, he resorts to filling out his canned campaign orations with lengthy recitations of the lyrics from patriotic anthems. (“Believe in America” is his campaign slogan.) Take away the bogus boasts about “job creation” at Bain and the disowned Romneycare, and what else is there to Mitt Romney? Mainly, his unspecified service to his church and his perfect marriage. That reduces him to the stature of the Republican presidential candidate he most resembles, Thomas Dewey—in both his smug and wooden campaign style and in the overrating of his prospects by the political culture. Even the famously dismissive description of Dewey popularized by the Washington socialite Alice Roosevelt Longworth—as “the little man on the wedding cake”—seems to fit Mitt.
Jacob Lew, Obama’s new chief of staff, helped destroy the graduate students’ union at NYU.
In 2004, Jacob Lew was the first hire by newly-appointed New York University President John Sexton. Lew served as NYU’s chief operating officer and executive vice president for the following two years, during which NYU withdrew recognition from its graduate student employees union and punished some participants in the ensuing strike. UAW Local 2110 President Maida Rosenstein, whose local includes GSOC, says Lew was “the point person” in “representing management’s position” against the union.
The conservative talking point that what’s holding back hiring is Obama-driven regulatory uncertainty simply isn’t confirmed by the data on layoffs, job losses, and unemployment insurance claims.
Even if the minimum wage in New York is raised by 17 percent, to $8.50 an hour, a family of three would still find itself below the federal poverty line.
The rise of New Brat Pack bloggers, such as Matthew Yglesias, is a problem for two reasons: it’s a labor issue within journalism, and a quality of journalism issue that is crucial to the lives of workers.
At a time when many seasoned reporters are being laid off by publications—like four veteran writers and editors who were laid off in August a few months before Yglesias was hired at Slate—mainstream news publications are turning to wonky bloggers like Ygelsias and fellow Brat Packer Ezra Klein (of The Washington Post) to turn out massive amounts of content and generate traffic. These bloggers can turn out 6-12 posts a day while traditional reporters, who take the time to go out in the field and interview people affected by the subject of their stories, can typically only turn out 3-4 stories a week. The result is that workers’ voices are often excluded in the rush to produce quick blog content.
And, finally, Goldman Sachs, the giant vampire squid, is back.
When Bain Capital sought to raise money in 1989 for a fast-growing office-supply company named Staples, Mitt Romney, Bain’s founder, called upon a trusted business partner: Goldman Sachs, whose bankers led the company’s initial public offering.
When Mr. Romney became governor of Massachusetts, his blind trust gave Goldman much of his wealth to manage, a fortune now estimated to be as much as $250 million.
And as Mr. Romney mounts his second bid for the presidency, Goldman is coming through again: Its employees have contributed at least $367,000 to his campaign, making the firm Mr. Romney’s largest single source of campaign money through the end of September.
Is anybody interested outside of my small circle of friends?
