President Obama has tapped another top corporate figure for a key White House role. On Thursday, Obama said he is naming General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt to head the newly formed President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. The council will replace the former Economic Recovery Advisory Board, which had been chaired by Paul Volcker, the former chair of the Federal Reserve. Volcker will step down when his panel’s mandate expires next month. Immelt’s appointment has drawn scrutiny in part because he opposed Obama’s presidential candidacy. During the 2008 elections, Immelt donated to Hillary Clinton as well as Republicans John McCain, Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney. His appointment follows the recent hiring of former commerce secretary and JPMorgan Chase executive William Daley as White House chief of staff.
Showing posts with label jobs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label jobs. Show all posts
Monday, January 24, 2011
Republicans: listening to the people, cutting spending (except when polls show otherwise)
A prominent Republican congressional group is urging party leaders to impose far greater non-military spending cuts than already proposed. On Thursday, the far-right Republican Study Committee called for an immediate cut of $100 billion from non-military programs. According to theWashington Post, meeting the demand would entail reducing funding for most federal agencies by one-third over the next seven months. The Study Committee also says the government should make even deeper non-military cuts of $2.5 trillion over the next decade. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, that would mean cutting funding for most government agencies by 40 percent. With 165 members, the Study Committee represents over two-thirds of House Republicans.
The House spending cut proposal comes as a new poll shows a large majority of Americans favor cutting the military budget over cutting Medicare or Social Security. The New York Times-CBS News survey also found that nearly two-thirds of Americans would prefer higher payroll taxes instead of reduced benefits in either of the two programs.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Issa to business: Tell me what to fix (the anti-regulation pro-jobs man when jobs is code for profit and regulation is code for environment and justice)
| Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) wants the oil industry, drug manufacturers and other trade groups and companies to tell him which Obama administration regulations to target this year. The incoming chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee - in letters sent to more than 150 trade associations, companies and think tanks last month - requested a list of existing and proposed regulations that would harm job growth. "It was a broad net that we cast," Issa spokesman Kurt Bardella said. Bardella did not have a complete list of groups that received an inquiry from Issa or their responses. But a partial list obtained by POLITICO includes ones sent Dec. 13 to Duke Energy, the Association of American Railroads, FMC Corp., Toyota and Bayer. Others receiving inquiries from Issa over the course of the month included the American Petroleum Institute, National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), the National Petrochemical & Refiners Association (NPRA) and entities representing health care and telecommunication providers. The goal is to investigate the Obama administration's promise through the 2009 economicstimulus bill and other measures to create jobs, which "has gone unfilled, I guess is the nicest way to put it," Bardella said. |
Monday, October 25, 2010
The Arms Sale Economy Ominous Signs of Improvement
The trumpet’s loud clangorExcites us to arms.
John Dryden, "A Song for St. Cecilia’s Day"
It is time for an update on arms sales and the economy and happily, the news in 2010 could not be better. Not about the economy but about arms sales of which the economy is an incidental beneficiary. It has been distressing for observers of such things to see how badly both the economy and arms sales have gone in the last couple of years.
According to a report by the Congressional Research Service, 2009 was not a good year for the United States and other countries that pride themselves on being arms suppliers. Although a decline in arms sales might be considered a harbinger of peace and thus be welcome by the few who count that as a laudable goal, it is in fact nothing more than an indication of a lousy economy since developing nations like buying arms and when they’re not buying, it’s not because they have become pacific but because of the economy.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Blame the Poor, Blame the State or Blame the Economics
Obama Urges Senate GOP to Pass $30 Billion Jobs Bill
In economic news, President Obama urged Senate Republicans Monday to stop blocking a jobs bill that would set up a $30 billion loan fund for small businesses.
President Obama: "The small business owners and the communities that rely on them, they don’t have time for political games. They shouldn’t have to wait any longer. In fact, just this morning, a story showed that small businesses have put hiring and expanding on hold while waiting for the Senate to act on this bill. Simply put, holding this bill hostage is directly detrimental to our economic growth. So I ask Senate Republicans to drop the blockade."
One in Six Americans Now Enrolled in Anti-Poverty Programs
USA Today reports one in six American are now enrolled in government anti-poverty programs due to the housing and job crisis. The number of Americans on Medicaid has reached more than 50 million, a 17 percent increase since December 2007. More than 40 million people receive food stamps—an increase of nearly 50 percent since the start of the economic crisis. And close to ten million receive unemployment insurance, nearly four times the number from 2007.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Just got this from President obama...i think something is missing from the graph. Following this is what i think might be missing...Survey: Quarter of Job Losses Will Be Permanent
Around 8.4 million jobs have been lost since December 2007. According to economists surveyed by the Wall Street Journal, around a quarter of the lost jobs are gone for good. The survey comes as the White House released an economic forecast projecting job growth this year will be too low to significantly address unemployment. The projection says employers will add just 95,000 jobs per month, a number just below what economists say is needed just to keep up with population growth. (dem now.org)
Friday, February 12, 2010
TODAY- Jobloss, Corporations and Farmers
Top Insurers Post Record Profits While Dropping 2.7M Policyholders
A new report says the nation’s five biggest insurance companies set an all-time record for combined profits last year. According to Health Care for America Now, the companies WellPoint, CIGNA, UnitedHealth Group, Aetna Inc. and Humana posted cumulative profits of $12.2 billion. That marks a $4.4 billion, or 56 percent, increase over 2008 and amounts to an average profit margin of 5.2 percent. CIGNA saw the highest profit jump, with an increase of 346 percent. Health Care for America Now says the insurers’ record year was aided by three factors: dropping customers with costly medical needs; diverting spending from medical care to administrative costs and margins; and a higher enrollment in public programs, like Medicare Advantage, that pay insurers higher fees. Overall, the insurance companies dropped 2.7 million customers from their rolls last year. The report’s release comes ahead of a day of nationwide rallies next Wednesday organized by Health Care for America Now.
Improved Corporate Profits Not Leading to Job Growth
New figures show the improving fortune of major corporations isn’t leading to a simultaneous creation of new jobs. Bloomberg News reports a majority of the Standard & Poor 500 have increased revenues to a combined $1.18 trillion—a $518 billion increase over the year before. But capital expenditures, or investments that could have helped create jobs, were down 43 percent.
Survey: Quarter of Job Losses Will Be Permanent
Around 8.4 million jobs have been lost since December 2007. According to economists surveyed by the Wall Street Journal, around a quarter of the lost jobs are gone for good. The survey comes as the White House released an economic forecast projecting job growth this year will be too low to significantly address unemployment. The projection says employers will add just 95,000 jobs per month, a number just below what economists say is needed just to keep up with population growth.
Labor Dept. Reverses Bush-Era Farmworker Regulations
The Labor Department has unveiled new regulations it says will increase wages and labor protections for American and temporary immigrant farm workers. The new rules restore several provisions revoked in the waning days of the Bush administration, including a new method for calculating farm workers’ wages. The Labor Department says the Bush-era rules ended up reducing the wages by an average one dollar an hour for the year they were in effect.
(democracynow.org)
A new report says the nation’s five biggest insurance companies set an all-time record for combined profits last year. According to Health Care for America Now, the companies WellPoint, CIGNA, UnitedHealth Group, Aetna Inc. and Humana posted cumulative profits of $12.2 billion. That marks a $4.4 billion, or 56 percent, increase over 2008 and amounts to an average profit margin of 5.2 percent. CIGNA saw the highest profit jump, with an increase of 346 percent. Health Care for America Now says the insurers’ record year was aided by three factors: dropping customers with costly medical needs; diverting spending from medical care to administrative costs and margins; and a higher enrollment in public programs, like Medicare Advantage, that pay insurers higher fees. Overall, the insurance companies dropped 2.7 million customers from their rolls last year. The report’s release comes ahead of a day of nationwide rallies next Wednesday organized by Health Care for America Now.
Improved Corporate Profits Not Leading to Job Growth
New figures show the improving fortune of major corporations isn’t leading to a simultaneous creation of new jobs. Bloomberg News reports a majority of the Standard & Poor 500 have increased revenues to a combined $1.18 trillion—a $518 billion increase over the year before. But capital expenditures, or investments that could have helped create jobs, were down 43 percent.
Survey: Quarter of Job Losses Will Be Permanent
Around 8.4 million jobs have been lost since December 2007. According to economists surveyed by the Wall Street Journal, around a quarter of the lost jobs are gone for good. The survey comes as the White House released an economic forecast projecting job growth this year will be too low to significantly address unemployment. The projection says employers will add just 95,000 jobs per month, a number just below what economists say is needed just to keep up with population growth.
Labor Dept. Reverses Bush-Era Farmworker Regulations
The Labor Department has unveiled new regulations it says will increase wages and labor protections for American and temporary immigrant farm workers. The new rules restore several provisions revoked in the waning days of the Bush administration, including a new method for calculating farm workers’ wages. The Labor Department says the Bush-era rules ended up reducing the wages by an average one dollar an hour for the year they were in effect.
(democracynow.org)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)