Bipartisan Report Shows U.S. Must Move Aggressively on China’s Illegal Acts
The 2009 report to Congress by the bipartisan U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) is a call to action for the United States to move aggressively against China’s illegal moves in the global economy and to create an industrial strategy to rebuild our manufacturing base, several experts said today.
During a telephone press conference sponsored by the Campaign for America’s Future, Carolyn Bartholomew said China has developed a plan to build national wealth and increase its power and influence in the world and the United States has not.
David vs. Goliath: The Fight Begins for Reform of the Financial Industry
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Most Americans want strong regulation of our nation’s financial markets, according to a poll released today by Americans for Financial Reform (AFR), a coalition of nearly 200 investors and civil rights and community organizations.
The poll, conducted by Lake Research Partners, surveyed 900 likely voters in 77 “Blue Dog” or conservative Democratic districts and those in politically competitive Democratic districts.
More than two-thirds of voters in all the districts support creating the Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA) to “create and enforce a strong set of rules to require fair, affordable, understandable and transparent financial products like bank loans, mortgages and credit cards for families and small businesses.”
When asked if there was too much, too little or just the right amount of regulation of banks, the stock market and credit card companies, voters agreed, by a 23-point margin, there’s too little rather than too much regulation.
The Lesson of Pittsburgh for G-20: Manufacturing Matters
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The revival of Pittsburgh, site of the G-20 summit this week, can provide valuable lessons for the world’s leaders. Among them: Manufacturing matters and poor trade policies hurt everyone.
“Pittsburgh, G-20 and the New Economy: Lessons to Learn, Choices to Make,” a report released today by the Campaign for America’s Future (CAF), makes clear that the renaissance of Pittsburgh after the collapse of the steel industry was cut short because of the lack of a national industrial policy and the nation’s trade policies.
During a telephone news conference, CAF Co-Director Robert Borosage said some manufacturing jobs in Pittsburgh were replaced by high-end jobs in education or medicine.
But many were replaced by jobs in hotels and food services—jobs that never paid as well and proved even more vulnerable in the recent downturn. Some manufacturing jobs were never replaced at all. That helps explain why the city’s population is declining, especially among youth, who seek opportunity elsewhere.
Sweeney Receives Lifetime Leadership Award at America’s Future Now!
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The Campaign for America’s Future awarded AFL-CIO President John Sweeney its Lifetime Leadership Award last night in a gala dinner that capped the first two days of the three-day America’s Future Now! conference in Washington, D.C. In presenting the award, Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin noted how Sweeney’s commitment to working families began when, working as a caddy at a golf course, the teenage Sweeney organized a work-stoppage for a wage increase.
Hosted by Rep. Donna Edwards (Md.) and the Campaign’s Roger Hickey, the tribute also featured a short video with highlights of Sweeney’s life and events from his years as a union leader—from creating the nationwide Justice for Janitors campaign, while president of SEIU, to spearheading the now 2.5-million member AFL-CIO community affiliate Working America.
Sweeney called his 55 years of service to working families an honor and noted that when he steps down as president in September he does not plan to retire but will carry on as a “union warrior at large.”
I have been privileged to…represent the millions and millions of working families who make our country so extraordinary. Serving working people is the biggest honor anyone could have. I have been so fortunate to do this work—and now what a great future we are facing together.
As Durbin stated, the efforts by the AFL-CIO union movement with Sweeney as leader were critical to the election of President Barack Obama and a host of working family lawmakers in the U.S. House and Senate.
Bail Out Average Americans, Not Bankers
Behind all the hype and technical jargon surrounding the nation’s banking and mortgage crises, the bottom line comes down to answering this question: Does the nation want to spend its resources on rich bank stockholders or on roads, bridges, schools and other necessary projects?
Speaking during a workshop at the America’s Future Now conference this morning, several members of a panel on the banking crisis said the financial system is broken and that the Obama administration’s plan to fix it doesn’t address the scope of the problem. The three-day conference is sponsored by the Campaign for America’s Future.
(Click here to read more news and views from the America’s Future Now conference. You also can listen to the conference sessions live on BlogTalk Radio here.)
The administration is holding its breath, hoping big banks will recover the value of some of their assets over time if taxpayers bail them out over the short haul, said Damon Silvers, vice chairman of the Congressional Oversight Panel.
America’s Future Conference: Restore the Middle Class with Employee Free Choice
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The nation’s economy is in a tailspin, and one of the best ways to help turn it around is by passing the Employee Free Choice Act, several speakers said this morning at a national gathering of progressive leaders.
Sponsored by Campaign for America’s Future, the previously titled “Take Back America” annual conference has been renamed “America’s Future Now” to emphasize that this could be the greatest period of progressive reform since the 1960s.
Opening the three-day conference in Washington, D.C., Robert Borosage, co-director of the Campaign for America’s Future, told participants the Employee Free Choice Act is
essential to insuring that the blessings of the next prosperity will be widely shared, that the American middle class will expand, not decline, and that the progressive majority will be consolidated.
Unions Must Seize Opportunity to Reclaim Rightful Role
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The multiple crises of global economic meltdown, climate change and challenges to democracy create an opportunity for the union movement to reclaim its rightful place in society as the voice of those who cannot speak for themselves, says author William Greider.
This is one of those moments when the labor movement needs to take a deep breath and reclaim its role as the voice of free, democratic discussion. It’s time for labor to dream bigger dreams.
Speaking to a crowd of about 200 yesterday evening at the AFL-CIO in Washington, D.C., Greider said our current economic woes are not over and the crisis runs deeper than just the financial meltdown. In his new book, Come Home, America (available from The Union Shop OnlineTM here), Greider describes our nation as “in the midst of a profound and frightening transformation, tantamount to an aging person losing weight and muscle.”
Banks Need Restructuring, Not Bailouts
The Treasury Department’s bank bailout plan is built on the faulty assumption that the financial crisis is the result of a temporary lack of a market for current financial products—and presumes the losses can be made up after confidence in the system is restored. The reality is that the entire financial services industry needs to be restructured and the sooner, the better, two experts said recently.
Writing at the Campaign for America’s Future website, Susan Ozawa points out that during a recent conference, Damon Silvers, vice chairman of the Congressional Oversight Panel (COP), and economist Robert Kuttner said broader and deeper changes need to be made than the Treasury plan envisions. They spoke April 8 at the “Lifting the TARP: Is a Reconstruction Finance Corporation a Better Way to Restore the Banking System?” conference sponsored by Demos in Washington, D.C.
