The American Working Class Has Had Enough!

More than two years after the US financial institutions brought about a meltdown on Wall Street the working class in the United States is mounting its first major attack on the political and economic system that has failed them. Mass protests in Wisconsin, involving hundreds of thousands of workers, students and other supporters is the first salvo fired in what looks to be an open class struggle. The battle is not confined to Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen, and Jordan anymore. Read the rest of this entry »

An Attack on the Poor

 The US taxpayers have spent trillions bailing out Wall Street and the banks and billions more on extending the Bush era tax cuts that apply to the richest 2% of Americans. Now we have been informed that these expenditures have bankrupted the country and someone must pay. Read the rest of this entry »

Public Pensions and Salaries

I am a retired NYS employee.  I have become increasingly dismayed at the tone regarding public employees.  No matter which level, federal, state or local, we are all being regarded as a piggy bank to solve the financial problems of this country.  On top of it the Press and Sun-Bulletin has taken it upon itself to publish ways to find out what each of these employees and/or retirees earn.
Read the rest of this entry »

Wall Street Profits–Way Up

2010 Wall Street profits were at the second highest level in history. This is 8%  below the 2009 level when our financiers profited handsomely from the public bailouts. While the 2010 bonuses were down compared to 2009 it did not mean that Wall Street tycoons made less. What they lost in bonuses was off set by higher base salaries and deferred compensation packages. Before the 2008 economic collapse brought about by the greedy brokers, Wall Street accounted for 20% of State Income. That is now down to 13%. While the fat cats pay less, our Democrat Governor attacks the public workers.

WHAT THE CORPORATE MEDIA WON’T SHOW YOU

“Hands off the public workers or we will do what the youth and people of Egypt did! Come and stay at Wisconsin’s Capitol in the thousands until they listen! We will take up the legacy of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and march, sit-in and link arms with our sisters and brothers until justice is won.”

Industrial Development New York State Style! by Dave Duncan

In January 2010 an announcement was made by the Empire State Development Agency that a new call center in Penn Yan, NY would open and provide jobs for 450 full time workers. On Feb 4, 2011, the call center closed. At the time of the closing there were approximately 145 employees. Penn Yan with a population of 5,200 is in Yates County, 90 miles North West of Binghamton. Read the rest of this entry »

Betrayal Coming? by David Hermanns

Obama has set up the working and middle classes of this country to be betrayed on Social Security.  If (as rumored) he indeed proposes to extend the retirement age or reduce benefits during his State of the Union address, we will know that the betrayal is complete.  Reagan started the betrayal by needlessly increasing social security taxes in the 80’s and using the surplus (supposedly safe in Gov’t Bonds in a “Lock Box”) to fund tax cuts for the rich.  Now that the time is approaching when some of those bonds will have to be redeemed, we are told that that would require a general income tax hike that is unacceptable.  Until now, the system was always self funded and did not contribute one cent to the national deficit or debt.  With his great tax “compromise” bill, Obama has not only needlessly cut the estate tax rate and continued income tax breaks for the rich, he has now truly put Social Security in jeopardy.

If Obama does propose cuts to Social Security, I believe he should immediately announce his intention not to seek reelection (at least not as a Democrat), so that through the primary system we might be able to select a real Democrat to run for President in 2012.

Public Pension Shortfalls Misrepresented in Budget-Crisis Debate

 Washington, D.C.-With many state governments facing budget shortfalls this year along with dwindling federal assistance, some policy-makers have begun to call for drastic reductions of public sector pensions as a way to ease state budget woes. A new report from the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) puts this issue into better perspective, clearing up many common misconceptions about
these funds.

The report, “The Origins and Severity of the Public Pension Crisis,” shows that the main reason public pension shortfalls exist at all is the downturn in the stock market following the housing crash in 2007-2009, not inadequate contributions. The paper demonstrates that if pension funds had just earned returns equal to the interest rate on 30-year Treasury bonds since 2007, their assets would be more than $850 billion greater than they are today.

“Much of the recent discussion of public pensions is misleading,” said Dean Baker, a co-director at CEPR and author of the report. “The shortfalls represent a small percentage of each state’s economy and, barring another sudden reversal of the stock market, are manageable.”

The paper looks at three main issues: the origins of the shortfall; whether public pension funds need to be as risk averse in assessing rates of return as individual investors; and the actual scope and size of the pension shortfalls relative to future state income.

Upon closer inspection of these issues, it is clear that public pension
shortfalls have been misrepresented in public debates and will prove a reliable source of retirement income for future retirees without bankrupting state governments.

February 14, 2011
Contact: Alan Barber (571) 306-2526

Graduate Student Workers at BU Continue to Get the Shaft by Dan Johnson

 For graduate student workers at Binghamton and across the SUNY system, the economic crisis has merely compounded an already bad situation. Teaching and graduate assistants, who are integral to the functioning of the state higher educational system, and who are represented by the Graduate Student Employees’ Union (and part of Local 1104 of the Communication Workers of America), have been without a contract since 2007. They have therefore been working under a 2003-2007 contract for close to four years, despite a tentative agreement reached with the state in 2009 for the years 2007-2009, which the state has repeatedly failed to ratify. Read the rest of this entry »

The Effects of Popular Culture on American Youth

Americans concerned with performance gaps in international student achievement measurements should consider the influence of popular culture on our youth. Read the rest of this entry »