| | | Auto Bailout Chances Dwindle | | nytimes.com — The prospects of a government rescue for the foundering American automakers dwindled as Democratic Congressional leaders conceded that they would face potentially insurmountable Republican opposition during a lame-duck session next week. At the same time, hope among many Democrats on Capitol Hill for an aggressive economic stimulus measure all but evaporated. Democratic leaders have been calling for a package that would include help for the auto companies as well as new spending on public works projects, an extension of jobless benefits, increased food stamps and aid to states for rising Medicaid expenses. But while Democrats said the stimulus measure would wait until President-elect Barack Obama takes office in January, some industry experts fear that one of the Big Three automakers will collapse before then, with potentially devastating consequences. |  | | Consumers Cut Back | | hosted.ap.org — Consumers, taking a beating from the worst financial crisis in seven decades, cut back sharply on their spending in October, pushing retail sales down by a record amount. The Commerce Department reported that retail sales fell by 2.8 percent last month, the biggest drop on record, surpassing the old mark of a 2.65 percent plunge in November 2001 that occurred after the terrorist attacks. The October sales decline was led by a huge fall in auto purchases, but sales of all types of products suffered as consumers, worried about their jobs and the market turbulence, cut back sharply on spending. Retailers are braced for what could be the worst holiday shopping season in decades with economists forecasting a recession that could turn out to be the steepest since the 1981-82 downturn. | | | Freddie Loses $25 Billion, Taps Tax Dollars | | money.cnn.com — Freddie Mac reported a $25 billion quarterly loss that forced the mortgage finance giant to tap $100 billion in bailout money set aside by the government. The loss triggered a $13.8 billion Treasury Department investment in Freddie. The firm is likely to get the money by the end of the month; Treasury will receive preferred shares in return. A Treasury spokeswoman did not have any immediate comment. Treasury and regulator Federal Home Finance Authority announced on Sept. 7 that they had taken control of Freddie and Fannie Mae, the other giant mortgage finance company, when it became clear that mounting losses on bad mortgages would cause them to run out money. | | | Subprime Delinquincies Spike | | reuters.com — Subprime mortgage delinquencies rose to a record level in October as rates reset higher and as unemployment increased, research firm CreditSights said. Similar trends are playing out in credit cards and subprime auto loans, where late payments shot to an 11-year high in September. Residential mortgage-backed securities originated between 2005 and 2007 took the biggest hits, as delinquencies are climbing after a slowdown due to tax rebates. "Unfortunately the benefits from the rebates have proved short-lived and the scale of the recent deterioration is alarming," the report said. "Part of this recent weakness is probably caused by the dramatic rises in unemployment." | | | Budget Deficit Hits Record $237.3 Billion | | hosted.ap.org — The federal government began the new budget year with a record deficit of $237.2 billion, reflecting the billions of dollars the government has started to pay out to rescue the financial system. The Treasury Department said that the deficit for the first month in the new budget year was the highest monthly imbalance on record. It was far bigger than analysts expected, over four times larger than the October 2007 deficit of $56.8 billion, and more than half the total for all of last year. The big surge reflected the government spending $115 billion to buy stock in the nation's largest banks. | | | AIG to Pay Millions To Top Workers | | washingtonpost.com — American International Group plans to pay out $503 million in deferred compensation to some of its top employees, saying it must tap the funds to keep valuable workers from exiting the troubled insurance giant. News of the payments to top AIG talent comes as the federal government has just put more money into saving the company from bankruptcy, beefing up the total public commitment to $152 billion. Meanwhile, members of Congress are questioning the company's expenditures — including lavish business trips to resorts — during a time when taxpayers are on the hook for the bailout. Some compensation experts and AIG stakeholders yesterday said they considered the exodus of $503 million in AIG money dubious at a time when the company is drenched in red ink. | | | Paulson Blasted on Bailout | | online.wsj.com — Lawmakers sharply criticized the Treasury Department for saying in recent weeks it intended to buy distressed assets despite having already decided to move away from the concept. The complaints from Capitol Hill came a day after Treasury announced it was abandoning the plan to buy illiquid assets to unfreeze credit markets. Instead, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said he intends to focus on investing Treasury funds directly into banks and other financial institutions, and on unclogging markets that fund consumer debt. The move renders moot the plan to purchase troubled assets, which was conceived during two weeks of negotiations between Congress and Treasury in September. Treasury initially hoped that lifting bad debt off the books of financial firms would encourage them to start lending again. | | | U.S. Pursues Drilling Off Virginia Coast | | mcclatchydc.com — Months after President George W. Bush and Congress lifted bans on offshore drilling in the Atlantic Ocean, the federal government moved to pursue oil and natural gas exploration off the coast of Virginia. The Interior Department began a public comment period on drafting an environmental-impact statement on offshore drilling. The environmental work is the first step in opening 2.9 million acres of waters to a lease sale scheduled for 2011. The area under consideration is at least 50 miles offshore. The agency's move probably will be followed closely by environmental groups and states in the Southeast, along with business groups that are eager for more energy development. | | | FDA Detains Chinese Imports | | nytimes.com — Candy, snacks, bakery products, pet food and other Chinese products that contain milk will be detained at the border until tests prove that they are not contaminated, the federal government announced. The Food and Drug Administration said it issued the alert because of concern about such products being contaminated with the toxic chemical melamine. It was discovered in infant formula in September and has sickened more than 50,000 infants in China and killed at least four. Since that time, melamine has been found in a wide range of other products, including milk, eggs and fish feed. As a result, companies in the United States have recalled several products generally sold in Asian specialty stores. But to date, the contamination here was not thought to be widespread. | | | |
| | | PAUL KRUGMAN
Depression Era Economics | | nytimes.com — The economic news, in case you haven’t noticed, keeps getting worse. Bad as it is, however, I don't expect another Great Depression. We are already, however, well into the realm of what I call depression economics; state of affairs like that of the 1930s in which the usual tools of economic policy have lost all traction. When depression economics prevails, the usual rules of economic policy no longer apply: virtue becomes vice, caution is risky and prudence is folly. | | DANIEL GROSS
Why Detroit Needs a Bailout | | newsweek.com — Allowing the listing Big Three to keel over would be a triumph of free markets. It would punish failure and invite new managers and investors to enter the field. But the no-bailout folks are being too cavalier about the collateral damage that will occur if the "Big Three" are allowed to collapse. | | NATHAN NEWMAN
Lock In a Progressive Majority: Pass Labor Law Reform | | tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com — If progressives want to lock in and expand the progressive victories we had last Tuesday, everyone should be joining hands to push through labor law reform as the most important priority. In the larger electorate, there is nothing that will expand progressive power more than increasing unionization. | | RANDY KOEHLER
Hope and Vision | | huffingtonpost.com — We know the significance of this election is still to come, right? We know that the forces of business as usual are closing ranks around the rock-star president-elect, and that the young idealist from Illinois we voted for could turn into a purely pragmatic centrist in the Clinton mold, right? The Democrats, after all, have a long history of ignoring their base. Can we prevent this from happening? Yes, we can! | | J. PEDER ZAN
Obama Alone Won't Change Things | | mcclatchydc.com — The American saga tells us that Obama cannot make himself a great president, but we the people can make his presidency great if we allow him to give flight to our better angels. | | ROBERT WEISSMAN
Not Yet at the Promised Land | | huffingtonpost.com — Over the past week, Americans — and people around the world — rightfully celebrated the breakthrough election of an African-American to be President of the United States. But as epochal as is Obama's victory, celebrations of racial progress — especially among Whites — need be tempered by an acknowledgment of other racial realities. The United States has not reached the promised land of racial equality and justice. | | WILLAM P. JONES
Obama's New Deal | | thenation.com — President-elect Obama has an opportunity to further racial and economic justice by fusing the New Deal and civil rights traditions. He expressed that link directly, when he insisted that unless Americans confront racial inequality directly, they will "never be able to come together and solve challenges like healthcare, or education, or the need to find good jobs for every American." | | MARIE COCCO
This Is What He’s Sorry About? | | truthdig.com — It was nothing President George W. Bush did — no decision he made, no policy he pursued, no faith that he placed in ideological dogma on topics that range from regulating industries to acknowledging global climate change to responding to the terrorist threat — that he finds regrettable. Bush told a cable network, "I regret saying some things I shouldn't have said" over the course of eight tumultuous years. And that, my fellow Americans, is that. | | PAUL WALDMAN
Goodbye and Good Riddance | prospect.org — After eight years of President Bush, we almost don't know how to function without him — almost. But before we move on, we should pause to remember just what we're leaving behind.
| JOHN S. IRONS
Investing Our Way To Recovery | Critics say federal spending on infrastructure would happen too slowly to have an impact in an economic downturn. But that wouldn't be true in this crisis. Here's why a properly designed recovery package can have a swift impact on jobs and the economy.
NOTE: The author will be one of the speakers at the Real Investment in America conference in Washington on November 18 sponsored by the Institute for America's Future. The event is free and open to all OurFuture Today readers. | | DIGBY
Stickin' It To The Unions | | There's a lot of discussion about what to do about the auto companies and none of the options are very palatable. In today's New York Times there is an article analyzing the bailout vs bankruptcy talk that's starting to emerge. I don't have an opinion on that except to the extent this is used as an excuse to destroy the unions. And that is certainly the theme that's emerging from the right. | | ISAIAH J. POOLE
Wage Theft Exposed | | Millions of workers are being robbed every payday, and the federal watchdogs that are supposed to be keeping this from happening are snoozing on the job. In this interview, Kim Bobo — the executive director of Interfaith Worker Justice — explains how wage theft happens and what the next administration and Congress has to do to undo the neglect of the Bush administration. | | BILL SCHER
Auto Bailout No Reason To Kneecap Workers | | While many see the automotive industry crisis as an opportunity to help address our clean energy needs, conservatives see an opportunity to make workers earn less. | | | Karl Rove's Bad Advice | | Rove ignores the conservative "secular problem" and counsels his party to pander harder to the Christian conservative base. | | | LATER TODAY: David Sirota will be posting his observations on what President Bush asked President-elect Barack Obama to do for him in their meeting this week, and why Obama should say no. | | | |
| | |  | Restore Workers' Ability to Fight Wage Discrimination
When the Supreme Court in 2007 ruled that an employee only had 180 days to file a wage discrimination complaint against an employer, it ignored the real-world realities of wage discrimination.
The Senate in January 2008 began considering a bill, the Fair Pay Restoration Act, which addresses the 180-day statute of limitations for employees to bring pay discrimination claims against their employers. Sen. Edward Kennedy, D. Mass., said that the legislation "gives workers a realistic opportunity to stop ongoing discrimination, and it holds firms accountable for violating the law." As Ledbetter herself put it when she testified before a Senate committee in January, the Senate should follow the lead of the House in passing the bill so that "so that our civil rights laws can once again offer effective protection against discrimination."
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