FBook recap: "a decade of decline"

Sam Calvin Good Analysis of new census figures: "Our new century has begun, as Harvard economist Lawrence Katz noted
after the new Census figures appeared, with a 'decade of decline.'
And this decade of decline comes after a generation
of income stagnation."

One Decade Down, One Decade Wasted | OurFuture.org

www.ourfuture.org

Home Feature Box: The 21st century has opened with a decade that has seen the vast majority of Americans go backwards economically. Just-released Census stats tell that tale — but not the whole income story. The 21st century has opened

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Sam Calvin

Updated 07.15.10, The Decline: The Geography of a Recession by LaToya Egwuekwe (OFFICIAL)

www.youtube.com

According to the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are nearly 31 million people currently unemployed -- that's including those involuntarily working parttime and those who want a job, but have given up on trying to find one. In the face of the worst economic upheaval since...

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Sam Calvin Fascinating chart- the top bar is the actual wealth distribution by quintile (the wealthiest 20% hold more than 80% of the wealth while the bottom 40% hold nothing), the middle bar is what people estimate the distribution is, and the bottom is what people believe a just society would look like (the wealthiest hold just over 30%). Even those IN THE TOP income groups think society's wealth is far more equally distributed than it actually is, and believe that society should RIGHTLY be even fairer than that!

Estimates of Wealth Distribution Are Widely Wrong | The Big Picture

shar.es

I've been meaning to get to this chart for some time, so I am glad Good reminded me to: The actual United States wealth distribution plotted against the

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Civil Disobedience by the Unemployed

Sam Calvin

99ers demonstrating for jobs and Tier 5 stand tall by sitting down in NYC - Rochester Unemployment |

www.examiner.com

“A job is a right, fight, fight, fight!” was the protest call offered by a group of 20 NY/NJ 99ers who are seeking passage of jobs and Tier 5 unemployment ben...

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George Fox, Sheriann Porrata and Terri Bullard like this.

Sam Calvin via FlashMobs4Jobs: Excellent coverage of Friday's 99er civil disobedience on Spanish language television!

FlashMobs4Jobs: Coverage of Nov 12 (en Español )

flashmobs4jobs.blogspot.com

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• Terry Wold
• Sarah Gonzales
• Sue Oelkers
• Dan Painter
• Vicky Willhelm
• Richard Merritt
• Anita Treakle
• Rhonda Taylor

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Sam Calvin Including 90,000 New York City residents....

200,000 New Yorkers to begin Exhausting Unemployment in 3 weeks; Labor Department push

www.labor.ny.gov

These are the facts: Without federal legislation to extend Unemployment Insurance benefits past November 28, some 200,000 New Yorkers will prematurely exhaust their extended UI benefits by the end of the year.

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FlashMobs4Jobs ‎99er activist talks about doing civil disobedience in New York City! :)

FlashMobs4Jobs: 99er activist talks about getting arrested

flashmobs4jobs.blogspot.com

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You, Rhonda Taylor and Edrie Irvine like this.

• • 

    Sam Calvin Read the full story here: http://www.the405club.com/post/1570450447/i-got-arrested-for-the-cause-and-made-the-news

FlashMobs4Jobs Video taken by flashmobs4jobs activists at the demonstration! THIS IS WHAT DEMOCRACY LOOKS LIKE!!!!

FlashMobs4Jobs: 99ers Arrested in Civil Disobedience

flashmobs4jobs.blogspot.com

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Rachel Bernstein and Edrie Irvine like this.

FlashMobs4Jobs In NYC, 4 protesters volunteered to get arrested to highlight the situation that the 99ers are in. Let's thank these brave and selfless folks!

FlashMobs4Jobs: Press coverage from 11/12 Civil Disobedience

flashmobs4jobs.blogspot.com

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FlashMobs4Jobs Flashmobs action alert! If we want action on unemployment, we need to get out in the streets! Those in the NYC area, please get on over to the rally at the Department of Labor (75 Varick) tomorrow at 12 noon!

99ers and other jobless to rally for unemployment benefit extensions - New York unemployment benefit

www.examiner.com

Unemployed New Yorkers will stage a rally in lower Manhattan on Friday to press Congress to extend Unemployment Insurance for millions of Americans. Sponsore

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Latest on Fed $600 billion "Quantitative Easing"

Sam Calvin Stiglitz on Fed move...

Joseph Stiglitz: Why Easier Money Won't Work - WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

In The Wall Street Journal, Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel laureate in economics, writes that the Federal Reserve's next round of quantitative easing risks fueling a destructive bond market bubble, while any gains from a weaker dollar will come at the expense of those to whom we hope to export.

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Sam Calvin Republicans buying ads to attack the latest Fed moves.

Fresh Attack on Fed Move - WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

The Federal Reserve's latest attempt to boost the U.S. economy is coming under fire from Republican economists and politicians, threatening to yank the central bank deeper into partisan politics.

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Tax System Favors Wealth Over Work

from Trouthout.org:

The major vehicle is George W. Bush’s 15 percent levy on long-term capital gains - the lowest since FDR’s first term - and on corporate dividends. The top 1 percent of US households owns nearly 40 percent of all privately held stock, from which the dividends flow. Similarly, the super-rich get more than half their income from capital gains, as documented by tax expert David Cay Johnston in his book “Perfectly Legal.” In the meantime, for the working middle-class, the tax rate on wages is 25 percent.

...

There are six today, with the top four taxed at 25, 28, 33 and 35 percent - a narrow spread, easily offset by provisions like the capital gains rate. The top rate kicks in at about $400,000 of taxable income, a practice Johnston told Truthout he finds “bizarre.” It’s a long way, he argued in a recent email, from $400,000 to $1 million, $5 million, $100 million and hedge-fund billions: “Why don’t we have higher rates for those incomes?” he asked.
Even the bottom marginal rates help top earners. A millionaire, filing singly, pays the same 10 percent on the first $8,375 of taxable income as the working poor, and so on, up the income scale. As the Center on Budget and
Policy Priorities notes, the real winners from extending Bush’s middle-class tax cuts wouldn’t be middle class: “In fact, a family making more than $1 million will receive more than five times the tax cut benefit, in dollar terms, as a middle-class family making $50,000 to $75,000 … ”
The tax code is also loaded with deductions that effectively rain down dollars on the rich. The code doesn’t overtly discriminate, but it’s hardwired to make every tax break worth more at the top.

...

It’s taken a fortune in lobbying and campaign contributions, but America’s tax system is bearing golden fruit. As even a conservative can see, it’s shifting income to the wealthy.

AFL-CIO President Trumka - 2010 Election Results and Labor

Wednesday Afternoon Orgdown: Nov 3, 2010

It's been a while, I know, I know, but there are still organizations to cover!


Recently learned of this NYC public-union-centered publication.

A sampling of today's headlines:
Say Unions Can Ride Out Assault on Jobs, Benefits
TWU Secretary-Treasurer Ousted Over Improprieties
As Governor Readies 898 Layoffs, Fired DEC Head Raps Plan

Blue Dog Coalition Crushed By GOP Wave Election

Let's paint targets on their backs!



BLUE DOGS WHO STAYED (23)

Jason Altmire (PA)

Joe Baca (CA)

John Barrow (GA)

Dan Boren (OK)

Leonard Boswell (IA)

Dennis Cardoza (CA)

Ben Chandler (KY)

Jim Cooper (TN)

Henry Cuellar (TX)

Joe Donnelly (IN)

Jane Harman (CA)

Tim Holden (PA)

Mike McIntyre (NC)

Jim Matheson (UT)

Mike Michaud (ME)

Collin Peterson (MN)

Mike Ross (AR)

Loretta Sanchez (CA)

Adam Schiff (CA)

Kurt Schrader (OR)

David Scott (GA)

Heath Shuler (NC)

Mike Thompson (CA)
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Unemployment Insurance Gap

One of the difficulties of the present unemployment crisis is that the usual statistical measures do not adequately show all measurements relevant to the present.

In particular, the number of "99ers"- unemployment insurance exhaustees- is not counted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It is, in fact, quite difficult to compute- given that the much of the data resides at the state level.

Here is the most suggestive best dataset I've found so far:

National Unemployment Measures
Seasonally Adjusted
Data from 2007 to 2010

The total and insured rates of unemployment are graphed to illustrate how they track. The two measures correlate well. However, over time, the difference between them, also shown and sometimes referred to as the gap, has risen. This has been of concern as it underscores the problem of fewer of the unemployed collecting UI benefits.