Jack Norman's Crossroads' column is a well documented repudiation of the Republican assertion that combined reporting is causing Wisconsin to lose jobs.
As Norman points out combined reporting is nothing more than legislation that closed a loophole used by profitable corporations to hid their profits and avoid Wisconsin taxes.
Norman writes that the worst recession since the Great Depression is causing Wisconsin to lose jobs.
One could add to the culprits the lack of an industrial policy, a commitment to "free trade"and China's policy of pegging the value of the renminbi against the value of the United States dollar.
It is worth the read.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Friday, January 29, 2010
Howard Zinn 1922-2010
Howard Zinn, the celebrated author of "A People's History of the United States," made a difference.
As Bob Herbert, who lunched with Zinn, a veteran of the Civil Rights and anti-Vietnam War movements, only a few weeks ago, recounts:
He was an unbelievably decent man who felt obliged to challenge injustice and unfairness wherever he found it. What was so radical about believing that workers should get a fair shake on the job, that corporations have too much power over our lives and much too much influence with the government, that wars are so murderously destructive that alternatives to warfare should be found, that blacks and other racial and ethnic minorities should have the same rights as whites, that the interests of powerful political leaders and corporate elites are not the same as those of ordinary people who are struggling from week to week to make ends meet?
Mr. Zinn would protest peacefully for important issues he believed in — against racial segregation, for example, or against the war in Vietnam — and at times he was beaten and arrested for doing so. He was a man of exceptionally strong character who worked hard as a boy growing up in Brooklyn during the Depression. He was a bomber pilot in World War II, and his experience of the unmitigated horror of warfare served as the foundation for his lifelong quest for peaceful solutions to conflict...
He was a treasure and an inspiration.
He will be missed.
As Bob Herbert, who lunched with Zinn, a veteran of the Civil Rights and anti-Vietnam War movements, only a few weeks ago, recounts:
He was an unbelievably decent man who felt obliged to challenge injustice and unfairness wherever he found it. What was so radical about believing that workers should get a fair shake on the job, that corporations have too much power over our lives and much too much influence with the government, that wars are so murderously destructive that alternatives to warfare should be found, that blacks and other racial and ethnic minorities should have the same rights as whites, that the interests of powerful political leaders and corporate elites are not the same as those of ordinary people who are struggling from week to week to make ends meet?
Mr. Zinn would protest peacefully for important issues he believed in — against racial segregation, for example, or against the war in Vietnam — and at times he was beaten and arrested for doing so. He was a man of exceptionally strong character who worked hard as a boy growing up in Brooklyn during the Depression. He was a bomber pilot in World War II, and his experience of the unmitigated horror of warfare served as the foundation for his lifelong quest for peaceful solutions to conflict...
He was a treasure and an inspiration.
He will be missed.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Great recession worse than any post WWII downturn
Voters' anxiety over the state of the economy continues to rise.This anxiety is warranted. The chart below compares the growth of gross domestic product (GDP) since the beginning of the current recession in 2008 to previous recessions. GDP is the broadest measure of economic performance, tracking the market value of all goods and services produced in the United States.
The most recent recession is notable not just for the severity of economic contraction but also the length of decline. As the figure shows, in the nine previous recessions on record, by seven quarters after the official start of the recession the economy had actually grown by an average of 4% compared to its pre-recession peak.
However, seven quarters after the current recession began, the economy remains 3.2% smaller than its pre-recession peak. This is true even though the third quarter of 2009 saw the first positive growth in GDP in a year. Despite the GDP uptick in the most recent quarter, the current recession remains the worst performer on record this long after a business cycle peak. The economy failed to recover its pre-recession peak after seven quarters only once before, following the 1973 recession.
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Mayoral control in Chicago fails to live up to its hype
The Chicago Tribune reports that mayoral control of Chicago's public schools has failed to improve student achievement:
Six years after Mayor Richard Daley launched a bold initiative to close down and remake failing schools, Renaissance 2010 has done little to improve the educational performance of the city's school system, according to a Tribune analysis of 2009 state test data.
Scores from the elementary schools created under Renaissance 2010 are nearly identical to the city average, and scores at the remade high schools are below the already abysmal city average, the analysis found.
The moribund test scores follow other less than enthusiastic findings about Renaissance 2010 -- that displaced students ended up mostly in other low-performing schools and that mass closings led to youth violence as rival gang members ended up in the same classrooms. Together, they suggest the initiative hasn't lived up to its promise by this, its target year.
The Tribune analysis confirms that mayoral control is not the educational panacea its proponents claim. It will take more to improve academic performance and accountability than a simple change in governance.
Nor has mayoral control in Chicago led to more fiscal accountability.
Tribune's inquiries into the board's spending habits fueled an expensive investigation that reveals Mayor Richard Daley's last two board presidents, Rufus Williams and Michael Scott have used taxpayer credit cards to charge thousands of dollars in meals, travel, gifts and artwork.
Documents obtained by the Tribune listed a $2,500 gift to Mayor Daley's Chicago 2016 Olympic bid committee, despite the mayor's repeated assurances that no public money was going toward financing the bid, and numerous meals at notable Chicago restaurants. Other expenditures included $6,000 in September 2008 with the vendor who supplies food and beverages at Soldier Field; a $650 limousine ride in August 2008; and a $640 tab in January 2009 at Table 52, an acclaimed restaurant on the city's Gold Coast.
These questionable credit card expenditures were in addition to the yearly spending allowance each man received — $19,200 for Williams and $36,000 for Scott in public money. Scott committed suicide while under investigation last year.
The disclosures about the board's spending come at a time when the Chicago district is cutting programs and laying off teachers and staff members. More than a thousand school employees are expected to be out of work by the end of the year, and millions of dollars in programs has been trimmed because of a shortage of money.
The president of the union representing Chicago's teachers, Marilyn Stewart, has also criticized Renaissance 2010:
The experiment of Renaissance 2010 has had more to do with privatization, prime real estate, Olympic dreams and money than it has about really addressing student needs."
In September 2004, the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) published an analysis of Renaissance 2010 outlining the potential impact on CPS students and educators. The union raised concerns about a top-down model with no proven data for success. The report exposed the failure of 10 of 14 charter schools enrolling 87 percent of charter students that failed to make adequate yearly progress as required by No Child Left Behind. Our (CTU) calls for accountability, and those from other concerned citizens, were dismissed in the rush to the largely empty promise of Ren 2010.
Education is hard work. And it is especially challenging in impoverished communities. In Chicago mayoral control has not improved student achievement or improved accountability, the alleged goals of Milwaukee's mayoral takeover proposal.
Education is hard work. And it is especially challenging in impoverished communities with significant numbers of costly special education students. The key to providing a quality education and improving academic achievement lies in empowering teachers and other front-line educators, the trained personnel who work directly with children and their families
Unfortunately, the Journal Sentinel editorial board and some mayoral control advocates have begun scapegoating Milwaukee's teachers, suggesting that the growth in their benefits as a percentage of total compensation illustrates the elected school board's inability to govern. Nothing could be further than the truth. This relatively meaningless statistic is simply a reflection of health care costs rising at three times the rate of inflation, something neither a mayor, the teachers or a school board control.
The elements of a successful urban school strategy are known. They include early childhood education, parental involvement, small class sizes, strong, collaborative school leadership, professional development of faculty and staff, equitable funding (fixing Wisconsin's flawed state funding formula), wrap around supportive services and expanding Science Technology and Math Education (STEM) among other things. It requires providing teachers, parents and students with the resources they need to succeed in stable, well equipped class rooms and labs.
These reforms require mayoral support, but, as Chicago demonstrates, not mayoral control.
Six years after Mayor Richard Daley launched a bold initiative to close down and remake failing schools, Renaissance 2010 has done little to improve the educational performance of the city's school system, according to a Tribune analysis of 2009 state test data.
Scores from the elementary schools created under Renaissance 2010 are nearly identical to the city average, and scores at the remade high schools are below the already abysmal city average, the analysis found.
The moribund test scores follow other less than enthusiastic findings about Renaissance 2010 -- that displaced students ended up mostly in other low-performing schools and that mass closings led to youth violence as rival gang members ended up in the same classrooms. Together, they suggest the initiative hasn't lived up to its promise by this, its target year.
The Tribune analysis confirms that mayoral control is not the educational panacea its proponents claim. It will take more to improve academic performance and accountability than a simple change in governance.
Nor has mayoral control in Chicago led to more fiscal accountability.
Tribune's inquiries into the board's spending habits fueled an expensive investigation that reveals Mayor Richard Daley's last two board presidents, Rufus Williams and Michael Scott have used taxpayer credit cards to charge thousands of dollars in meals, travel, gifts and artwork.
Documents obtained by the Tribune listed a $2,500 gift to Mayor Daley's Chicago 2016 Olympic bid committee, despite the mayor's repeated assurances that no public money was going toward financing the bid, and numerous meals at notable Chicago restaurants. Other expenditures included $6,000 in September 2008 with the vendor who supplies food and beverages at Soldier Field; a $650 limousine ride in August 2008; and a $640 tab in January 2009 at Table 52, an acclaimed restaurant on the city's Gold Coast.
These questionable credit card expenditures were in addition to the yearly spending allowance each man received — $19,200 for Williams and $36,000 for Scott in public money. Scott committed suicide while under investigation last year.
The disclosures about the board's spending come at a time when the Chicago district is cutting programs and laying off teachers and staff members. More than a thousand school employees are expected to be out of work by the end of the year, and millions of dollars in programs has been trimmed because of a shortage of money.
The president of the union representing Chicago's teachers, Marilyn Stewart, has also criticized Renaissance 2010:
The experiment of Renaissance 2010 has had more to do with privatization, prime real estate, Olympic dreams and money than it has about really addressing student needs."
In September 2004, the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) published an analysis of Renaissance 2010 outlining the potential impact on CPS students and educators. The union raised concerns about a top-down model with no proven data for success. The report exposed the failure of 10 of 14 charter schools enrolling 87 percent of charter students that failed to make adequate yearly progress as required by No Child Left Behind. Our (CTU) calls for accountability, and those from other concerned citizens, were dismissed in the rush to the largely empty promise of Ren 2010.
Education is hard work. And it is especially challenging in impoverished communities. In Chicago mayoral control has not improved student achievement or improved accountability, the alleged goals of Milwaukee's mayoral takeover proposal.
Education is hard work. And it is especially challenging in impoverished communities with significant numbers of costly special education students. The key to providing a quality education and improving academic achievement lies in empowering teachers and other front-line educators, the trained personnel who work directly with children and their families
Unfortunately, the Journal Sentinel editorial board and some mayoral control advocates have begun scapegoating Milwaukee's teachers, suggesting that the growth in their benefits as a percentage of total compensation illustrates the elected school board's inability to govern. Nothing could be further than the truth. This relatively meaningless statistic is simply a reflection of health care costs rising at three times the rate of inflation, something neither a mayor, the teachers or a school board control.
The elements of a successful urban school strategy are known. They include early childhood education, parental involvement, small class sizes, strong, collaborative school leadership, professional development of faculty and staff, equitable funding (fixing Wisconsin's flawed state funding formula), wrap around supportive services and expanding Science Technology and Math Education (STEM) among other things. It requires providing teachers, parents and students with the resources they need to succeed in stable, well equipped class rooms and labs.
These reforms require mayoral support, but, as Chicago demonstrates, not mayoral control.
US faces economic emergency
Politicians, economists and pundits blithely agree that the economy is recovering. After all the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) which measures the nation's output is growing and Wall Street's "too big to fail" investment banks are handing out bonuses larger than the lifetime earnings of American workers.
But if the economy is recovering, the American people are not. As the New York Times Bob Herbert writes:
There is an economic emergency in the country with millions upon millions of Americans riddled with fear and anxiety as they struggle with long-term joblessness, home foreclosures, personal bankruptcies and dwindling opportunities for themselves and their children.
The door is being slammed on the American dream and the politicians, including the president and his Democratic allies on Capitol Hill, seem not just helpless to deal with the crisis, but completely out of touch with the hardships that have fallen on so many.
The column is linked.
But if the economy is recovering, the American people are not. As the New York Times Bob Herbert writes:
There is an economic emergency in the country with millions upon millions of Americans riddled with fear and anxiety as they struggle with long-term joblessness, home foreclosures, personal bankruptcies and dwindling opportunities for themselves and their children.
The door is being slammed on the American dream and the politicians, including the president and his Democratic allies on Capitol Hill, seem not just helpless to deal with the crisis, but completely out of touch with the hardships that have fallen on so many.
The column is linked.
John Stewart to Fox: Don't stash your IQ in an offshore account
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Gretchen Carlson Dumbs Down | ||||
| ||||
Friday, January 22, 2010
A return to the robber-baron era
The New York Times calls the Supreme Court's decision a return "to the robber-baron era:"
With a single, disastrous 5-to-4 ruling, the Supreme Court has thrust politics back to the robber-baron era of the 19th century. Disingenuously waving the flag of the First Amendment, the court’s conservative majority has paved the way for corporations to use their vast treasuries to overwhelm elections and intimidate elected officials into doing their bidding.
Congress must act immediately to limit the damage of this radical decision, which strikes at the heart of democracy.
The entire editorial is linked.
With a single, disastrous 5-to-4 ruling, the Supreme Court has thrust politics back to the robber-baron era of the 19th century. Disingenuously waving the flag of the First Amendment, the court’s conservative majority has paved the way for corporations to use their vast treasuries to overwhelm elections and intimidate elected officials into doing their bidding.
Congress must act immediately to limit the damage of this radical decision, which strikes at the heart of democracy.
The entire editorial is linked.
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