American Workers

Civil Rights Coalition Charges That Finalized "No-Match" Rule Will Hurt American Workers and the U.S. Economy
WASHINGTON – The “no-match” rule reissued by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) today will put the livelihoods of authorized workers -- including U.S. citizens -- at risk, have a devastating impact on the already suffering U.S. economy and lead to widespread discrimination in the workforce, according to a coalition of civil rights organizations.

The republished rule, which contains no real changes from the previous one issued, still improperly uses the notoriously flawed Social Security Administration (SSA) database and forces employers to fire workers if their names and Social Security numbers cannot be matched.

A federal court blocked the "no match" rule in October 2007, after the American Civil Liberties Union, the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) and National Immigration Law Center (NILC) filed a lawsuit against DHS. The lawsuit charged that the rule’s enforcement would put workers at risk of losing their jobs because the SSA database is rife with errors and would cause discrimination against workers who look or sound "foreign." The court’s preliminary order blocking the rule continues to apply to the republished rule.

Previously, "no match" letters were never considered reason to believe that an employee did not have permission to work in the U.S. Indeed, the SSA's own inspector general found that more than 70 percent of the discrepancies in the SSA database that could generate a “no match” letter belong to native-born U.S. citizens. Discrepancies between workers' social security numbers and SSA records can result from many innocent factors including clerical errors, name changes due to marriage or divorce, or the common use of multiple surnames.

Studies have found that the proposed "no match" rule would have significant negative economic costs to employers and work-authorized immigrants. A study commissioned by DHS estimates that 3.9 million lawful workers will be the subject of a “no match” letter. An economic analysis commissioned by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and authored by Richard B. Belzer, who holds a Ph.D. in public policy from Harvard University, found that more than 165,000 lawful U.S. workers could lose their jobs because of their inability to resolve discrepancies with the SSA. The cost to employers will be at least $1 billion per year.

The statements below can be attributed to the following participants in the lawsuit:

Lucas Guttentag, Director of the ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project:
“Rather than safeguard jobs in perilous times, the Bush administration has chosen to threaten the livelihoods of millions of American workers by republishing a discredited rule instead of fixing the Social Security database. If the goal is to protect workers, the administration should enforce our overtime, labor and discrimination laws, stop worker exploitation and put teeth into the existing rules against abuse and exploitation. Those are things that would protect all workers and punish businesses that violate the law.”

Marielena Hincapié, Executive Director of NILC:
“The DHS has reissued the same rule with utter disregard for the impact it will have on work-authorized immigrants who will lose their jobs due to the inaccuracies in the SSA database, which still haven’t been fixed. The rule will not have an impact on undocumented immigration, which can only be addressed through meaningful immigration reform. American workers and the U.S. economy are struggling; good employers will lose out at a time when our economy can't sustain further job loss. Any efforts to target bad employers that exploit undocumented workers require strong labor law enforcement, not a flawed rule like the one DHS has reissued.”

John Sweeney, President of the AFL-CIO:
“No matter how many times the administration repackages this rule, relying on the error-filled Social Security database is a recipe for disaster for both American workers and the economy. The current administration has chosen to ignore these realities and forge ahead with a harmful policy, leaving a disastrous parting gift to our new leadership. Rather than punishing and causing discrimination against workers who will be the innocent victims of a fatally deficient database, the administration should abandon this rule unless it can guarantee that no American workers will lose their jobs.”
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Plan to Strengthen the Economy

The Problem

Wages are Stagnant as Prices Rise: While wages remain flat, the costs of basic necessities are increasing. The cost of in-state college tuition has grown 35 percent over the past five years. Health care costs have risen four times faster than wages over the past six years. And the personal savings rate is now the lowest it's been since the Great Depression.

Tax Cuts for Wealthy Instead of Middle Class: The Bush tax cuts give those who earn over $1 million dollars a tax cut nearly 160 times greater than that received by middle-income Americans. At the same time, this administration has refused to tackle health care, education and housing in a manner that benefits the middle class.

Barack Obama and Joe Biden's Plan

Jumpstart the Economy

• Enact a Windfall Profits Tax to Provide a $1,000 Emergency Energy Rebate to American Families:Barack Obama and Joe Biden will enact a windfall profits tax on excessive oil company profits to give American families an immediate $1,000 emergency energy rebate to help families pay rising bills. This relief would be a down payment on the Obama-Biden long-term plan to provide middle-class families with at least $1,000 per year in permanent tax relief.
• Provide $50 billion to Jumpstart the Economy and Prevent 1 Million Americans from Losing Their Jobs: This relief would include a $25 billion State Growth Fund to prevent state and local cuts in health, education, housing, and heating assistance or counterproductive increases in property taxes, tolls or fees. The Obama-Biden relief plan will also include $25 billion in a Jobs and Growth Fund to prevent cutbacks in road and bridge maintenance and fund school re­pair - all to save more than 1 million jobs in danger of being cut.

Provide Middle Class Americans Tax Relief

Obama and Biden will cut income taxes by $1,000 for working families to offset the payroll tax they pay.

• Provide a Tax Cut for Working Families: Obama and Biden will restore fairness to the tax code and provide 150 million workers the tax relief they need. Obama and Biden will create a new "Making Work Pay" tax credit of up to $500 per person, or $1,000 per working family. The "Making Work Pay" tax credit will completely eliminate income taxes for 10 million Americans.
• Eliminate Income Taxes for Seniors Making Less than $50,000: Barack Obama will eliminate all income taxation of seniors making less than $50,000 per year. This proposal will eliminate income taxes for 7 million seniors and provide these seniors with an average savings of $1,400 each year. Under the Obama-Biden plan, 27 million American seniors will also not need to file an income tax return.
• Simplify Tax Filings for Middle Class Americans: Obama and Biden will dramatically simplify tax filings so that millions of Americans will be able to do their taxes in less than five minutes. Obama and Biden will ensure that the IRS uses the information it already gets from banks and employers to give taxpayers the option of pre-filled tax forms to verify, sign and return. Experts estimate that the Obama-Biden proposal will save Americans up to 200 million total hours of work and aggravation and up to $2 billion in tax preparer fees.

Trade

Obama and Biden believe that trade with foreign nations should strengthen the American economy and create more American jobs. He will stand firm against agreements that undermine our economic security.

• Fight for Fair Trade: Obama and Biden will fight for a trade policy that opens up foreign markets to support good American jobs. They will use trade agreements to spread good labor and environmental standards around the world and stand firm against agreements like the Central American Free Trade Agreement that fail to live up to those important benchmarks. Obama and Biden will also pressure the World Trade Organization to enforce trade agreements and stop countries from continuing unfair government subsidies to foreign exporters and nontariff barriers on U.S. exports.
• Amend the North American Free Trade Agreement: Obama and Biden believe that NAFTA and its potential were oversold to the American people. They will work with the leaders of Canada and Mexico to fix NAFTA so that it works for American workers.
• Improve Transition Assistance: To help all workers adapt to a rapidly changing economy, Obama and Biden will update the existing system of Trade Adjustment Assistance by extending it to service industries, creating flexible education accounts to help workers retrain, and providing retraining assistance for workers in sectors of the economy vulnerable to dislocation before they lose their jobs.
• End Tax Breaks for Companies that Send Jobs Overseas: Barack Obama and Joe Biden believe that companies should not get billions of dollars in tax deductions for moving their operations overseas. Obama and Biden will also fight to ensure that public contracts are awarded to companies that are committed to American workers.
• Reward Companies that Support American Workers: Barack Obama introduced the Patriot Employer Act of 2007 with Senators Richard Durbin (D-IL) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) to reward companies that create good jobs with good benefits for American workers. The legislation would provide a tax credit to companies that maintain or increase the number of full-time workers in America relative to those outside the US; maintain their corporate headquarters in America if it has ever been in America; pay decent wages; prepare workers for retirement; provide health insurance; and support employees who serve in the military.

Invest in the Manufacturing Sector and Create 5 Million New Green Jobs

• Invest in our Next Generation Innovators and Job Creators: Obama and Biden will create an Advanced Manufacturing Fund to identify and invest in the most compelling advanced manufacturing strategies. The Fund will have a peer-review selection and award process based on the Michigan 21st Century Jobs Fund, a state-level initiative that has awarded over $125 million to Michigan businesses with the most innovative proposals to create new products and new jobs in the state.
• Double Funding for the Manufacturing Extension Partnership: The Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) works with manufacturers across the country to improve efficiency, implement new technology and strengthen company growth. This highly-successful program has engaged in more than 350,000 projects across the country and in 2006 alone, helped create and protect over 50,000 jobs. But despite this success, funding for MEP has been slashed by the Bush administration. Barack Obama and Joe Biden will double funding for the MEP so its training centers can continue to bolster the competitiveness of U.S. manufacturers.
• Invest In A Clean Energy Economy And Create 5 Million New Green Jobs: Obama and Biden will invest $150 billion over 10 years to advance the next generation of biofuels and fuel infrastructure, accelerate the commercialization of plug-in hybrids, promote development of commercial scale renewable energy, invest in low emissions coal plants, and begin transition to a new digital electricity grid. The plan will also invest in America's highly-skilled manufacturing workforce and manufacturing centers to ensure that American workers have the skills and tools they need to pioneer the first wave of green technologies that will be in high demand throughout the world.
• Create New Job Training Programs for Clean Technologies: The Obama-Biden plan will increase funding for federal workforce training programs and direct these programs to incorporate green technologies training, such as advanced manufacturing and weatherization training, into their efforts to help Americans find and retain stable, high-paying jobs. Obama and Biden will also create an energy-focused youth jobs program to invest in disconnected and disadvantaged youth.
• Boost the Renewable Energy Sector and Create New Jobs: The Obama-Biden plan will create new federal policies, and expand existing ones, that have been proven to create new American jobs. Obama and Biden will create a federal Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) that will require 25 percent of American electricity be derived from renewable sources by 2025, which has the potential to create hundreds of thousands of new jobs on its own. Obama and Biden will also extend the Production Tax Credit, a credit used successfully by American farmers and investors to increase renewable energy production and create new local jobs.

New Jobs Through National Infrastructure Investment

Barack Obama and Joe Biden believe that it is critically important for the United States to rebuild its national transportation infrastructure – its highways, bridges, roads, ports, air, and train systems – to strengthen user safety, bolster our long-term competitiveness and ensure our economy continues to grow.

• Create a National Infrastructure Reinvestment Bank: Barack Obama and Joe Biden will address the infrastructure challenge by creating a National Infrastructure Reinvestment Bank to expand and enhance, not supplant, existing federal transportation investments. This independent entity will be directed to invest in our nation’s most challenging transportation infrastructure needs. The Bank will receive an infusion of federal money, $60 billion over 10 years, to provide financing to transportation infrastructure projects across the nation. These projects will create up to two million new direct and indirect jobs and stimulate approximately $35 billion per year in new economic activity.

Technology, Innovation and Creating Jobs

Barack Obama and Joe Biden will increase federal support for research, technology and innovation for companies and universities so that American families can lead the world in creating new advanced jobs and products.

• Invest in the Sciences: Barack Obama and Joe Biden support doubling federal funding for basic research and changing the posture of our federal government from being one of the most anti-science administrations in American history to one that embraces science and technology. This will foster home-grown innovation, help ensure the competitiveness of US technology-based businesses, and ensure that 21st century jobs can and will grow in America.
• Make the Research and Development Tax Credit Permanent: Barack Obama and Joe Biden want investments in a skilled research and development workforce and technology infrastructure to be supported here in America so that American workers and communities will benefit. Obama and Biden want to make the Research and Development tax credit permanent so that firms can rely on it when making decisions to invest in domestic R&D over multi-year timeframes.
• Deploy Next-Generation Broadband: Barack Obama and Joe Biden believe we can get broadband to every community in America through a combination of reform of the Universal Service Fund, better use of the nation's wireless spectrum, promotion of next-generation facilities, technologies and applications, and new tax and loan incentives.

Support Small Business

• Provide Tax Relief for Small Businesses and Start Up Companies: Barack Obama and Joe Biden will eliminate all capital gains taxes on start-up and small businesses to encourage innovation and job creation. Obama and Biden will also support small business owners by providing a $500 “Making Work Pay” tax credit to almost every worker in America. Self-employed small business owners pay both the employee and the employer side of the payroll tax, and this measure will reduce the burdens of this double taxation.
• Create a National Network of Public-Private Business Incubators: Barack Obama and Joe Biden will support entrepreneurship and spur job growth by creating a national network of public-private business incubators. Business incubators facilitate the critical work of entrepreneurs in creating start-up companies. Obama and Biden will invest $250 million per year to increase the number and size of incubators in disadvantaged communities throughout the country.

Labor

Obama and Biden will strengthen the ability of workers to organize unions. He will fight for passage of the Employee Free Choice Act. Obama and Biden will ensure that his labor appointees support workers' rights and will work to ban the permanent replacement of striking workers. Obama and Biden will also increase the minimum wage and index it to inflation to ensure it rises every year.

• Ensure Freedom to Unionize: Obama and Biden believe that workers should have the freedom to choose whether to join a union without harassment or intimidation from their employers. Obama cosponsored and is strong advocate for the Employee Free Choice Act, a bipartisan effort to assure that workers can exercise their right to organize. He will continue to fight for EFCA's passage and sign it into law.
• Fight Attacks on Workers' Right to Organize: Obama has fought the Bush National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) efforts to strip workers of their right to organize. He is a cosponsor of legislation to overturn the NLRB's "Kentucky River" decisions classifying hundreds of thousands of nurses, construction, and professional workers as "supervisors" who are not protected by federal labor laws.
• Protect Striking Workers: Obama and Biden support the right of workers to bargain collectively and strike if necessary. They will work to ban the permanent replacement of striking workers, so workers can stand up for themselves without worrying about losing their livelihoods.
• Raise the Minimum Wage: Barack Obama and Joe Biden will raise the minimum wage, index it to inflation and increase the Earned Income Tax Credit to make sure that full-time workers earn a living wage that allows them to raise their families and pay for basic needs.

Protect Homeownership and Crack Down on Mortgage Fraud

Obama and Biden will crack down on fraudulent brokers and lenders. They will also make sure homebuyers have honest and complete information about their mortgage options, and they will give a tax credit to all middle-class homeowners.

• Create a Universal Mortgage Credit: Obama and Biden will create a 10 percent universal mortgage credit to provide homeowners who do not itemize tax relief. This credit will provide an average of $500 to 10 million homeowners, the majority of whom earn less than $50,000 per year.
• Ensure More Accountability in the Subprime Mortgage Industry: Obama has been closely monitoring the subprime mortgage situation for years, and introduced comprehensive legislation over a year ago to fight mortgage fraud and protect consumers against abusive lending practices. Obama's STOP FRAUD Act provides the first federal definition of mortgage fraud, increases funding for federal and state law enforcement programs, creates new criminal penalties for mortgage professionals found guilty of fraud, and requires industry insiders to report suspicious activity.
• Mandate Accurate Loan Disclosure: Obama and Biden will create a Homeowner Obligation Made Explicit (HOME) score, which will provide potential borrowers with a simplified, standardized borrower metric (similar to APR) for home mortgages. The HOME score will allow individuals to easily compare various mortgage products and understand the full cost of the loan.
• Close Bankruptcy Loophole for Mortgage Companies: Obama and Biden will work to eliminate the provision that prevents bankruptcy courts from modifying an individual's mortgage payments. They believe that the subprime mortgage industry, which has engaged in dangerous and sometimes unscrupulous business practices, should not be shielded by outdated federal law.

Address Predatory Credit Card Practices

Obama and Biden will establish a five-star rating system so that every consumer knows the risk involved in every credit card. They also will establish a Credit Card Bill of Rights to stop credit card companies from exploiting consumers with unfair practices.

• Create a Credit Card Rating System to Improve Disclosure: Obama and Biden will create a credit card rating system, modeled on five-star systems used for other consumer products, to provide consumers an easily identifiable ranking of credit cards, based on the card's features. Credit card companies will be required to display the rating on all application and contract materials, enabling consumers to quickly understand all of the major provisions of a credit card without having to rely exclusively on fine print in lengthy documents.
• Establish a Credit Card Bill of Rights to Protect Consumers: Obama and Biden will create a Credit Card Bill of Rights to protect consumers. The Obama-Biden plan will:
  • Ban Unilateral Changes
  • Apply Interest Rate Increases Only to Future Debt
  • Prohibit Interest on Fees
  • Prohibit "Universal Defaults"
  • Require Prompt and Fair Crediting of Cardholder Payments

Reform Bankruptcy Laws

Obama and Biden will reform our bankruptcy laws to protect working people, ban executive bonuses for bankrupt companies, and require disclosure of all pension investments.

• Cap Outlandish Interest Rates on Payday Loans and Improve Disclosure: Obama and Biden will extend a 36 percent interest cap to all Americans. They will require lenders to provide clear and simplified information about loan fees, payments and penalties, which is why they'll require lenders to provide this information during the application process.
• Encourage Responsible Lending Institutions to Make Small Consumer Loans: Obama and Biden will encourage banks, credit unions and Community Development Financial Institutions to provide affordable short-term and small-dollar loans and to drive unscrupulous lenders out of business.
• Reform Bankruptcy Laws to Protect Families Facing a Medical Crisis: Obama and Biden will create an exemption in bankruptcy law for individuals who can prove they filed for bankruptcy because of medical expenses. This exemption will create a process that forgives the debt and lets the individuals get back on their feet.

Work/Family Balance

Obama and Biden will double funding for after-school programs, expand the Family Medical Leave Act, provide low-income families with a refundable tax credit to help with their child-care expenses, and encourage flexible work schedules.

• Expand the Family and Medical Leave Act: The FMLA covers only certain employees of employers with 50 or more employees. Obama and Biden will expand it to cover businesses with 25 or more employees. They will expand the FMLA to cover more purposes as well, including allowing workers to take leave for elder care needs; allowing parents up to 24 hours of leave each year to participate in their children's academic activities; and expanding FMLA to cover leave for employees to address domestic violence.
• Encourage States to Adopt Paid Leave: As president, Obama will initiate a strategy to encourage all 50 states to adopt paid-leave systems. Obama and Biden will provide a $1.5 billion fund to assist states with start-up costs and to help states offset the costs for employees and employers.
• Expand High-Quality Afterschool Opportunities: Obama and Biden will double funding for the main federal support for afterschool programs, the 21st Century Learning Centers program, to serve a million more children. Obama and Biden will include measures to maximize performance and effectiveness across grantees nationwide.
• Expand the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit: The Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit provides too little relief to families that struggle to afford child care expenses. Obama and Biden will reform the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit by making it refundable and allowing low-income families to receive up to a 50 percent credit for their child care expenses.
• Protect Against Caregiver Discrimination: Workers with family obligations often are discriminated against in the workplace. Obama and Biden will enforce the recently-enacted Equal Employment Opportunity Commission guidelines on caregiver discrimination.
• Expand Flexible Work Arrangements: Obama and Biden will create a program to inform businesses about the benefits of flexible work schedules; help businesses create flexible work opportunities; and increase federal incentives for telecommuting. Obama and Biden will also make the federal government a model employer in terms of adopting flexible work schedules and permitting employees to request flexible arrangements.

Barack Obama's Record

• Housing: In the U.S. Senate, Obama introduced the STOP FRAUD Act to increase penalties for mortgage fraud and provide more protections for low-income homebuyers, well before the current subprime crisis began.
• Predatory Lending: In the Illinois State Senate, Obama called attention to predatory lending issues. Obama sponsored legislation to combat predatory payday loans, and he also was credited with lobbying the state to more closely regulate some of the most egregious predatory lending practices.
• American Jobs: Barack Obama introduced the Patriot Employer Act of 2007 to provide a tax credit to companies that maintain or increase the number of full-time workers in America relative to those outside the US; maintain their corporate headquarters in America; pay decent wages; prepare workers for retirement; provide health insurance; and support employees who serve in the military.

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Older Workers Who Lose Their Jobs Suffer Mental and Physical Health Problems, Yale Study Shows; Research Points to Hidden Costs in Widespread Layoffs

New Haven, Conn. — Older workers who lose their jobs suffer more health problems than those who remain employed, a Yale study shows.

"Some believe that job loss at older ages may be less devastating because workers are nearing retirement; in contrast, our study suggests that job loss at older ages can have significant, negative health consequences," said Elizabeth Bradley, assistant professor at Yale University's Department of Epidemiology and Publoc healt

The study in the May issue of The Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences is the first to examine the health consequences of job displacement using a nationally representative sample of older workers in the United States.

Previous studies of the health effects associated with unemployment have focused on younger workers and individual plant closings rather than a broad cross-section of older workers.

The Yale study included 209 displaced workers and a comparison group of 2,907 continuously employed workers, aged 51 and older.

Bradley said both increased physical disability and poorer mental health were found among older workers who experience involuntary job loss. The negative health consequences were more pronounced among unmarried workers.

One factor, based on other research, may be that American workers accumulate a significant proportion of the wealth that will finance their retirements in the decade preceding retirement.

"Involuntary job loss in this period may therefore have a particularly devastating impact on economic well-being and consequently on emotional and physical health," the Yale researchers said.

Bradley said, "The study is important because it highlights the broad effects of downsizing, which include not only economic losses but also reductions in the physical and mental health of displaced individuals."

Other investigators on the study were William Gallo, principal investigator, and Michele Siegel, both post doctoral fellows in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, and Professor Stanislav Kasl, also in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health.

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American Workers Lose Their Jobs

by Perry Molens, International Union of Electical Workers

I work at Emerson Electric. Many know about Emerson Electric. They got into a little trouble with the government a few years ago by selling $200 and $300 hammers and switching parts. They were hit with a several million dollar fine. So they changed our name to Esco and said they didn't do it. So basically, we're Esco Electric now. A few years back they moved some of our work to Mexico. Prior to that they were moving a lot of our work to right-to-work states. We were having ongoing battles with them over it. Needless to say, they won.

Then the Mexican syndrome came into effect. Where once there were areas that held several hundred workers, now you can walk on the B and C shifts in the early mornings and late evenings and there's nothing but aisles and aisles of emptiness. Rooms with no people in them. The lights are still on. The fixtures are still there. The work and the people are gone.

When Emerson decided to move the jobs to Mexico, there were certain criteria that had to be met by the people in Mexico. In order to be hired you had to be a female, not over 24 years of age. The prospective employee must not have over two children and those children could not be younger than six years of age. Upon meeting these requirements, her wages would be 60 cents an hour and the benefit package: a free lunch.

The above information was discovered by a custodian whose job it was to shred memos. He brought this memo to my attention. I took it to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and it became public record.

A year and a half ago we had nearly 1400 workers. Today we have less than 400. The people I worked with for several years, have faced grim economic times. Now some of them have no jobs, no phones (which makes it even more difficult to secure a job). Some have moved in with another family. Others have found jobs at five bucks an hour or four bucks an hour. I could not live on four bucks an hour at this point. Many of the people who have ended up earning four bucks an hour are not surviving. They're making it with the help of friends and others. And the places they've gone to, now they're talking of moving to Mexico.

The union, we can help them. These jobs that are being taken to Mexico are going to affect us all in the long run. If things don't change and we don't move to protect our jobs, we will find ourselves the new Mexico. If that's not what we want for our children, then we're heading in the wrong direction. We need to stop it.

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Who to Blame for America's Financial Crisis ?

Fraud and misrepresentation? Criminal conduct? Gonad driven hubris? Mindless greed? Or just outright stupidity?

In theory, this financial mess should never have happened. The Bush Administration should have provided the leadership and management necessary to ensure America's federal agencies were doing their job. And under our “system” of checks and balances, if the cognizant federal agencies continued to screw up, then Congressional oversight should have kicked in to fix any problems.

But the system is broken. Financial ruin is the norm. The stinking sludge runs both wide and deep. Ordinary Americans are being savaged by economic privation.

What We Have Here, Is A Massive Failure Of Federal Governance.

The Bush Administration

At first blush, it would appear the Bush Administration has been in a state of bureaucratic stupor. This situation has been developing for several years. One would think someone on the Federal payroll would notice the smell of rotting value. Now mind you, I'm just an old middle class American, but dare I ask – just what were our Federal agencies supposed to be doing? Well. Here is what they claim ….

The Securities and Exchange Commission

“The mission of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is to protect investors, maintain fair, orderly, and efficient markets, and facilitate capital formation.”

The Federal Reserve

“The mission of the Federal Reserve is to provide the United States with a safe, flexible, and stable monetary and financial system.”

The Department of the Treasury

“Serve the American people and strengthen national security by managing the U.S. Government's finances effectively, promoting economic growth and stability, and ensuring the safety, soundness, and security of the U.S. and international financial systems.”

The Comptroller of the Currency, The Department of the Treasury

The Comptroller of the Currency is responsible for “ensuring a safe and sound national banking system for all Americans.”

Office of Thrift Supervision, The Department of the Treasury

“To supervise savings associations and their holding companies in order to maintain their safety and soundness and compliance with consumer laws, and to encourage a competitive industry that meets America's financial services needs. ….”

“The OTS examines each savings association every 12-to-18 months to assess the institution's safety and soundness, and compliance with consumer protection laws and regulations. In addition, examiners monitor the condition of thrifts through off-site analysis of regularly submitted financial data and regular contact with thrift personnel. OTS examinations and its ongoing supervisory oversight are tailored to the risk profile of each institution.”

The Justice Department

“To enforce the law …… to provide federal leadership in preventing and controlling crime; to seek just punishment for those guilty of unlawful behavior; and to ensure fair and impartial administration of justice for all Americans.”

Have these agencies done their job? Can we trust their judgment?

You decide.

And what about Congress?

Who has ultimate oversight responsibility for America's Federal Agencies? Who holds hearings on agency operations? Who has the responsibility to enact regulatory legislation? Who determines what these agencies are supposed to do and then monitors them to be sure they are meeting their legislative objectives?

Congress. Republicans and Democrats. There are two key committees. Let's look at how they define their responsibility.

House (of Representatives) Financial Services Committee

“The Committee oversees all components of the nation's housing and financial services sectors including banking, insurance, real estate, public and assisted housing, and securities. The Committee continually reviews the laws and programs relating to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Federal Reserve Bank, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and international development and finance agencies such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. The Committee also ensures enforcement of housing and consumer protection laws such as the U.S. Housing Act, the Truth In Lending Act, the Housing and Community Development Act, the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, the Community Reinvestment Act, and financial privacy laws.”

(The Senate) Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs

“(The) Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, ….. (has responsibility for) all proposed legislation, messages, petitions, memorials and other matters relating to ….

· Banks, banking, and financial institutions.

· Control of prices of commodities, rents and services.

· Deposit insurance.

· Economic stabilization and defense production.

· Federal monetary policy, including the Federal Reserve System.

· Financial aid to commerce and industry.

· Issuance and redemption of notes.

· Money and credit, including currency and coinage.

· Public and private housing (including veterans housing).

Such Committee shall also study and review on a comprehensive basis, matters relating to international economic policy as it affects United States monetary affairs, credit, and financial institutions; economic growth, urban affairs, and credit, and report thereon from time to time.”

Now then. Do you believe Congress has done its job? Did these Congressional committees perform their duties in a responsible manner? Do you believe they should have been aware of the financial mess Wall Street was creating?

The Real Story

Blame

The Democrats will obviously attempt to blame the Bush administration for everything that has gone wrong. They will obscure the fact that the Democrats have been in charge of Congress while this mess was collecting in America's financial toilet. The Republicans, bless their hearts, will continue to be totally confused by just about everything. Let's face it. Neither the Democrats nor the Republicans have enough intellectual depth to even know what questions they should be asking. And do you really think anyone in the Washington establishment will take any responsibility for this massive failure of the Federal regulatory system?

Did the Federal bureaucracy fail because it did not have the authority (which infers Congressional legislative failure), or did it refuse to pursue its responsibility (which may infer massive corruption)? Either way, the Federal Government has effectively transformed $$ trillions of dollars of stinking paper into what will become very suspect Treasury bonds. New mortgages purchased by Fannie and Freddie will add to this dog pile of debt. Add it all up. Current debt plus mortgage debt. America's total Federal debt will exceed $12 trillion. That's $39,400 per American. NO – we can not afford it. The only recourse will be a devaluation of the dollar – all accompanied by a sharp increase in inflation, higher unemployment, declining “real” GDP, and the worst personal economic misery our nation has ever seen.

Is it time for real change?

Change

We Americans know the “system” is not working. We know it is incredibly corrupt. Incompetent. And totally dysfunctional. The only question is: how long will this go on before we the people are so fed up our nation explodes with anger?

Obama will talk about change. More political vapor. He will carefully avoid mentioning our Democratic Congress had multiple opportunities to avoid this mess. McCain will talk about change. But his party is littered with the bodies of discredited financial wizards. Didn't they create this mess in the first place? The only breath of fresh air is Sarah Palin. Thus far, she has not sunk into the mindless mire of the Washington establishment.

There is absolutely no excuse for the financial carnage that has occurred. Members of the House Financial Services Committee and Senate Banking Committee either knew, or should have known, that America was headed for financial disaster. But instead, our Federal system has failed the American people. It is unlikely the Washington establishment will fix our financial system because politics and ideology will be more important than decisive action. That can only lead to cumbersome and ill conceived legislation. Another reckless disregard for common sense. Then Congress will cover the feces of failure with a layer of whipped cream.

It's time for a radical change in the way we govern ourselves. If we want effective government, we must establish a better system of management with strong, positive, and constructive leadership.

Ronald R. Cooke
The Cultural Economist
Author: Detensive Nation

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Impact of the global financial and economic crisis on health

Statement by : Dr Margaret Chan

We face a severe financial crisis of unprecedented dimensions in a world that has never before been so closely connected and interdependent. The consequences are global. The situation is volatile. The current financial crisis is rapidly becoming an economic crisis and threatens to become a social crisis in many countries.

The crisis comes at a time when commitment to global health has never been higher. It comes in the midst of the most ambitious drive in history to reduce poverty and distribute the benefits of our modern society, including those related to health, more evenly and fairly in this world - the Millennium Development Goals.

A previous effort to use health as the route to socioeconomic development, launched in 1978, was followed almost immediately by a fuel crisis, soaring oil prices, and the debt crisis of the early 1980s. In the international response to these crises, mistakes were made when budgets were shifted away from investments in the social sectors, most notably health and education. Many countries are still suffering the legacy of these errors.

It is not yet clear what the current financial crisis will mean for low-income and emerging economies, but many predictions are highly pessimistic. In the face of a global recession, fiscal pressures in affluent countries may prompt cuts to official development assistance. Worse still, is the prospect of cuts in social spending - health, education and social protection - that many countries, especially low-income countries, may be forced to undertake. Both of these responses have occurred in the past. And both could be as equally devastating for health, development, security and prosperity as they were in the past.

It is essential therefore to learn from past mistakes and counter this period of economic downturn by increasing investment in health and the social sector. There are several strong reasons supporting this line of action.

First, to protect the poor. Rising food and fuel prices along with employment insecurity are among the factors leading to increasing inequities during an economic downturn. In this context, impoverishing health care expenditures - that in "good" times push more than 100 million persons annually into poverty - are likely to increase dramatically. Inevitably, it is the most vulnerable who suffer the most; the poor, the marginalized, children, women, disabled, the elderly, and those with chronic illness. Stronger social safety nets are urgently needed to protect the most vulnerable in rich and poor countries.

Second, to promote economic recovery. Investment in the social sectors is investment in human capital. Healthy human capital is the foundation of economic productivity and can accelerate recovery towards economic stability.

Third, to promote social stability. Equitable distribution of health care is a critical contributor to social cohesion. Social cohesion is the best protection against social unrest, nationally and internationally. Healthy, productive, and stable populations are always an asset, but most especially in a time of crisis.

Fourth, to generate efficiency. Pre-payment with pooling of resources is the most efficient way of financing health expenditure. Out-of-pocket expenditure at the point of service is the least efficient, and the most impoverishing - already pushing millions below the poverty line each year. A commitment to universal coverage not only protects the poor, it is the most affordable and efficient way of using limited resources.

Fifth, to build security. A world that is greatly out of balance in health is neither stable nor secure. Robust health systems are essential to maintain surveillance and response capacity in the face of pandemic threats. The lack of investment in sub-Saharan African health systems in the 1980s meant they were tragically unprepared for the HIV/AIDS pandemic in the decade that followed.

We must not repeat the mistakes of the past. We cannot afford, in this time of crisis, to squander our investments, to abandon our drive for greater balance in this world, which I firmly believe is a marker of civilized society. I am calling on all governments and political leaders to maintain their efforts to strengthen and improve the performance of their health systems, to protect the health of the people of the world, and in particular of those most fragile, in face of the present financial and economic crisis.

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663,000 Workers had lost their jobs.

Bosses talk recovery

Workers lose jobs

By Fred Goldstein

Published Apr 9, 2009 7:06 PM

While talk about signs of a possible economic recovery drove the stock market up for four weeks in a row, beginning March 10, it is clear that the recovery being talked about was a recovery of the bosses and bankers, not the workers.

Three quarters of a million workers lost their jobs during those four weeks, but the financiers and speculators were driving up the markets based upon reports of increased profitability among the banks and a rise in activity in the bond market.

On April 3, the day the Labor Department announced that 663,000 workers had lost their jobs in the month of March, the Dow Jones Industrial Average of stocks went up 49 points, capping a four-week rise. Then the market started going down again, based on reports of a decline in corporate profitability.

This clearly shows differences in what a recovery means to Wall Street and what it means to workers. Bosses want higher profits to roll in, while workers want their jobs back, their homes back and their futures back. That is why the big business media can talk about signs of recovery while unemployment is growing.

True unemployment is 19.8 percent

In fact, real unemployment is completely underplayed in the big business media in order to hide the extent of the crisis among the workers. According to the headlines, unemployment has risen to an official 8.5 percent. Much less publicity is given to the number 15.6 percent—the other official number—which includes discouraged workers and those forced to work part time although they need a full-time job.

Taking these percentages, the unemployed and underemployed amount to 24 million, not 13.2 million. But even this figure is a gross underestimation of the true unemployment crisis.

A release by Martin Weiss, a financial consultant, reveals that the figures for “discouraged workers” are a complete underestimate. (moneyandmarkets.com, April 6) Weiss quotes a finding by John Williams of ShadowStats.com: “During the Clinton administration, ‘discouraged workers’—those who had given up looking for a job because there were no jobs to be had—were redefined so as to be counted only if they had been ‘discouraged’ for less than a year. This ... defined away the bulk of the discouraged workers.”

In short, a worker who has been discouraged for more than a year disappears from the unemployment statistics altogether. Based on this fact, Williams estimates that actual unemployment is 19.8 percent, or close to 30 million.

The prospect for a capitalist recovery any time soon is highly unlikely, given that manufacturing is plunging downward, not just in the U.S. but worldwide. Even optimistic bourgeois experts expect economic decline and an increase in the number of unemployed by at least half a million a month for the foreseeable future. In fact, there is no economist who can point to a path out of the present crisis.

At best, the hope is that the massive injection of government funds into the banks, plus another stimulus package over and above the $787 billion package already enacted, will be able to slow down the crisis and stabilize the system within the next two years.

But an important point for the working class, the oppressed, and all progressive and revolutionary forces to hold on to is the fact that even a mild, artificially forced capitalist recovery based on government spending would still leave the workers in crisis.

‘Mother of all jobless recoveries’

The working class is trapped in a capitalist system that is in a permanent crisis. For example, a Wall Street Journal article on March 28 talked about tentative signs that the bottom had been reached in the recession. The article discussed various statements by bankers and indicators from government statistics that could mark a turn toward “positive growth”—meaning a capitalist business upturn with rising profits. It went on to say:

“But a turn toward positive growth is not the same as a recovery, particularly with the current 8.1 percent unemployment rate at a quarter-century high and marching higher by the month. Nariman Behravesh, chief economist at HIS Global Insight ... says unemployment could hit 10.5 percent by late next year, even if the economy is growing at a 3 percent rate by that point.

“‘What comes next, I’m afraid, will be the mother of all jobless recoveries,’ said Bernard Baumohl, chief global economist at the Economic Outlook Group in Princeton, N.J. ‘While we may emerge from recession from a statistical standpoint later this year, most Americans will be hard pressed to tell the difference between a recession and recovery the next 12 months.’”

Of course, capitalist experts cannot predict, and have never been able to predict with any degree of certainty, the way their economy will perform over the long run. Marxists, knowing the contradictions of capitalism, knowing that consumption cannot keep up with production for profit under capitalism, understand that overproduction and crisis is inevitable. This is the type of crisis that is ravaging workers all over the world on the largest scale since the Great Depression. So all talk of a recovery is highly premature.

For example, in the U.S. today the crucial automobile industry, which is central to the economy, can sell at a profit only half the number of cars it was built to produce. No sales mean no profits. No profits mean shut down production. That means layoffs, destruction of factories, more poverty, less sales and the crisis deepens.

The same is true of the housing industry. Millions of houses cannot be sold for a profit even as tent cities of the homeless are multiplying around the country. The housing industry, like the auto industry, ripples out into all areas of the economy. The foreclosure crisis, in which millions are losing their homes, means not only a rise in homelessness but a rise in unemployment among all the workers affected by the collapse in housing construction.

Because capitalism has created a widespread, interconnected process of producing everything, a truly global network of production, every layoff in a central industry brings layoffs throughout the global network that those industries depend on. Thus U.S. and world unemployment are both rising. The World Bank estimates that up to 50 million workers could lose their jobs this year.

Workers can only recover by fighting back

None of this is a recipe for capitalist recovery—quite the opposite. The working class cannot wait for the automatic processes of capitalism to revive, save the situation, and wipe out unemployment, poverty and hunger.

Right now workers in Enfield, Britain, and Belfast, Ireland, have occupied Visteon auto parts plants to demand severance pay and other rights. This follows a similar occupation by the Waterford Crystal workers in Ireland, who themselves were following the example of the Republic Windows and Doors workers who seized their plant in Chicago in December.

The self-action of the working class, organizing from below to resist this vast wave of layoffs, shift cuts, shortening of hours, as well as foreclosures and evictions, is the only way forward.

The battle cry of “A Job Is a Right” must be raised everywhere and the bosses must be stopped.

There must be mass mobilization and coordinated struggle by an alliance between the oppressed and impoverished communities and the workers to stop the bosses from shutting down, from picking up and leaving and destroying lives and communities.

Every penny of the trillions of dollars for the banks should be turned over to relieve the economic suffering of the people by creating real government jobs programs with living wages and benefits—not just crumbs handed down after the capitalists divide up the money from the stimulus package among themselves and take their profits.

This is the only way to push the crisis back where it belongs, onto the backs of the rich profiteers and off the backs of the working class and the oppressed.

They created this crisis. They must pay. Bail out the people, not the banks!

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