Jobs Not Cuts !

Forget monetary policy. Re-examining the cause of the Great Depression—the revolution in agriculture that threw millions out of work—the author argues that the U.S. is now facing and must manage a similar shift in the “real” economy, from industry to service, or risk a tragic replay of 80 years ago.
(Continued: http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/2012/01/stiglitz-depression-201201)

Hundreds of Californians were at the forefront of a national campaign launched yesterday to challenge the Wall Street profiteering that created the housing and economic crisis. Continued:

http://www.calorganize.org/node/841

The Restore the American Dream for the 99% Act: An analysis of job-creation provisions

By Andrew Fieldhouse and Rebecca Thiess | December 13, 2011: Issue Brief #320

Congressional Progressive Caucus Co-Chairs Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) and Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) have proposed the Restore the American Dream for the 99% Act, a package of near-term job-creation measures and budgetary policy reforms that would meaningfully boost employment and improve the long-term fiscal outlook. This report examines the likely impact of several core elements of the package on job creation. In particular:

Enacting the Emergency Jobs to Restore the American Dream Act sponsored by Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) would boost employment by approximately 1.1 million jobs in each of fiscal years 2012 and 2013.1

Continuing the Emergency Unemployment Compensation program would boost employment by roughly 323,000 jobs in fiscal 2012 and 185,000 jobs in fiscal 2013.

Reinstating the Making Work Pay tax credit for 2012 and 2013 would boost employment by 409,000 in fiscal 2012 and 532,000 jobs in fiscal 2013.

Reinstating the higher Federal Medical Assistance Percentages (FMAP) used to determine federal reimbursement for state Medicaid programs would boost employment by 349,000 jobs in fiscal 2012.2

Increasing federal surface transportation investments by $50 billion in the next decade would increase employment by 47,000 jobs in fiscal 2012 and 112,000 jobs in fiscal 2013. Even greater employment gains would be achieved in later years.

Defusing the automatic spending cuts currently scheduled under the Budget Control Act would boost employment by more than 1.1 million jobs in fiscal 2013.

These major components of the Act for the 99% would increase nonfarm payroll employment by almost 2.3 million jobs in 2012 and almost 3.1 million jobs in 2013. (Continued…)

http://www.epi.org/publication/restore-american-dream-99-act-analysis-job/

The “Jobs Not Cuts” march and rally promises to confront the U.S. economic crisis head-on. The mass action has drawn a growing list of major supporters, including numerous Bay Area labor unions and anti-war, progressive, and community groups in partnership with MoveOn.org and Rebuild the Dream.

Jobs are disappearing, foreclosures are increasing, cities are falling apart, young people have few prospects for a good future. Now Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are on the chopping block, and the so-called “war on terror” continues. The stalled economy and severe budget cuts demand a massive popular movement not seen in this country since the Great Depression.

We will assemble at Laney College in Oakland on Saturday, Oct. 15, at 1:00 pm (Map) and march to Frank Ogawa Plaza for a rally at 3:30. On the way, we will pass the Federal Building, where we will symbolically nail a list of progressive economic demands to government’s door. The list includes Jobs Not Cuts, Work Not War, Clean Energy Not Climate Change, Cut Defense Not Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, Invest in Education and Infrastructure, Restore Fair-Share Tax Rates for the Rich and Giant Corporations, and Medicare-for-All.

March with us on Oct. 15 to send our message to Congress. Austerity will increase poverty and cannot produce prosperity.

You can volunteer here!

Map to Event is here!

The “Take Back the American Dream” conference concluded in Washington today with a rally on Capitol Hill calling for an end to austerity measures and dramatically increased efforts at job creation. Representatives Keith Ellison and Raul Grijalva, co-chairs of the Congressional Progressive caucus, joined Van Jones, union leaders and unemployed Americans at the rally, which attracted about 350 people.

The Nation was there and shot this video:

The conference’s final day began with a speech from Elizabeth Warren, delivered by phone from Massachusetts on the heels of her first Democratic primary debate last night. She told the crowd that “Washington is wired for those who can hire armies of lobbyists and lawyers,” and said, “This is a fight we must fight, and this is a fight we must win.”

Several Hundred protesters from SEIU, ACCE and CNA swell the turnout in support of the Occupy Wall Street protest in NY.

From http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/2011/09/occupy-wall-street-protest-hits-san-franciscos-market-street

Mary Ann and Ranya on Market Street

by Robert Reich

http://robertreich.org/post/10821244811
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2011

By MARTIN CRUTSINGER, Associated Press

Reprinted from Huffington Post http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/28/ben-bernanke-long-term-unemployment_n_986291.html

WASHINGTON – Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Wednesday that long-term unemployment is an American “national crisis” and suggested that Congress should take further action to combat it. He also said lawmakers should provide more help to the battered housing industry.

Bernanke noted that about 45 percent of the unemployed have been out of work for at least six months.

“This is unheard of,” he said in a question-and-answer session after a speech in Cleveland. “This has never happened in the post-war period in the United States. They are losing the skills they had, they are losing their connections, their attachment to the labor force.”

He added: “The unemployment situation we have, the job situation, is really a national crisis.”

Bernanke said the government needs to provide support to help the long-term unemployed retrain for jobs and find work. And he suggested that Congress should take more responsibility.

Responding to a question, Bernanke said long-term unemployment, budgetary discipline and housing policy were the three most important areas where Congress could contribute to an economic recovery.

Re-Printed from Nation Magazine

http://www.thenation.com/article/163549/can-movement-save-american-dream

On October 3 activists from across the country will gather in Washington at the Take Back the American Dream conference, in the belief that only a citizens movement can save an American dream that grows ever more distant. In the face of a failed economy and a corrupted politics, the only hope for renewal is that citizens lead and politicians follow.

The modern American dream was inspired by a growing middle class that was the triumph of democracy after World War II. Its promise was and is opportunity: that hard work can earn a good life—a good job with decent pay and security, a home in a safe neighborhood, affordable healthcare, a secure retirement, a good education for the kids. The promise always exceeded the performance—especially with regard to racial and ethnic minorities, immigrants and women—and America never did as well as Europe in lifting the poor from misery. But a broad middle class and a broadly shared prosperity at least provided the possibility of a way up.

Now that middle class is sinking, imperiled by an economy that does not work for working people. Twenty-five million Americans are in need of full-time work, wages are declining and one in six people lives in poverty, the highest level in fifty years.

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