As the unemployment rate remains above 10 percent, we hear a number of prescriptions about what ought to be done. Of course there are those calling for more stimulus spending while others call for greater tax credits to encourage investment. Each of these approaches can be said to fall into the broad category of fiscal [...]

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As the unemployment rate continues to increase with little sign of recovery on the horizon, a question arises as to just how best to meet the needs of workers and those out of work. We have heard that the federal stimulus package will create jobs, or if it doesn’t create them it will at least [...]

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The recent bailout of the financial industry and the debate swirling around the bailout of the auto industry raises a very interesting question about the meaning of risk in a market economy. One of the central tenets of competitive free markets is that investors are entitled to reap the rewards of their investments, and exorbitant [...]

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I have heard it said that with the massive bailout of the financial sector American capitalism will never be the same. But if we are going to redefine capitalism to encompass some form of regulated markets, let’s do it right. The latest call for a bailout of the auto industry presents an opportunity to truly [...]

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It strikes me as supremely ironic that the candidate that once made a big issue out of campaign finance reform failed to see the connection to the Wall Street bailout. If there is a reason for why Congress put together a package that appears to favor Wall Street interests at the expense of Main Street [...]

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A couple of years ago, one of the biggest events in labor history occurred when the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the Teamsters decided it was time to withdraw from the AFL-CIO and form a new council. Others, like the United Food and Commercial Workers, UNITE HERE, United Farm Workers, and the Carpenters only [...]

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A recent New York Times Magazine piece on the advisors to Senator Obama’s campaign notes that the new progressive economists from the Chicago School of economics believe that the nation’s economic problems can be addressed by, among other things, a reversal of Bush’s tax cuts. In the name of achieving greater income equality and fairness, [...]

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Labor market institutions such as unions and the minimum wage do make a difference with regards to overall wage structure and achieving a more equitable distribution. The minimum wage, for instance, is not only about helping the working poor to earn a wage above the poverty line; it is also about shoring up the middle [...]

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The minimum wage as a policy measure has traditionally been viewed through the ethos of neoclassical economics. According to this ethos, the goal of the market place is to achieve efficiency and a wage floor is simply inefficient because it prevents wages from automatically adjusting to a point where demand for labor will be exactly [...]

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