Josh Bivens at the Economic Policy Institute prefaces the liberal think-tank’s latest report—Adding insult to injury: How bad policy decisions have amplified globalization’s costs for American workers—all 23 pages of which you can read here:
What this report finds: Globalization was always likely going to depress wage growth for the majority of American workers. But policy failures have significantly amplified these damaging effects, turning this from a manageable challenge into a deep economic wound for these workers—and into a political disaster for the country. These policy failures include:
- Failing to secure any reasonable compensation for those on the losing end of globalization
- Failing to address currency misalignments that have led to large trade deficits and hemorrhaging employment in manufacturing
- Passing trade agreements that have consistently aimed to undercut workers’ economic leverage while carving out ample protections for corporate profits
The effects of globalization and our failed policy response to it are not just a problem for white manufacturing workers in the Rust Belt, but in fact affect the majority of workers and likely fall disproportionately on the wages of nonwhite workers.
Why it matters: Intentional policy decisions have amplified the costs of globalization to American workers on its losing end. Globalization has been used as a tool to shift economic leverage and power away from low and middle-wage workers, and this has contributed to the anemic wage growth for this group.
What can be done about it: To remedy the situation, the United States can:
- Use domestic policy to compensate (offset the losses to) negatively affected workers—but the first step is acknowledging the large scale of these losses.
- Stop pursuing new omnibus trade agreements that protect returns to capital while undercutting wages.
- Reorient international policy away from regressive trade agreements and toward measures that will benefit workers in the U.S. and in other countries—addressing currency misalignments; developing international policies to enable countries to tax capital income, including clamping down on abusive tax havens; instituting an international financial transactions tax; and harmonizing national policies aimed at combating global climate change.
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QUOTATION
"Brothers! I have listened to a great many talks from our great father [Andrew Jackson]. But they always begin and ended in this: ‘Get a little further, you are too near me.’ Brothers! Our great father says that ‘where we are now, our white brothers have always claimed the land.’ He speaks with a straight tongue, and cannot lie. But when he first came over the wide waters, while he was yet small, and stood before the great chief at the council on Yamacraw Bluff, he said ‘Give me a little land, which you can spare, and I shall pay you for it.’ Brothers! When our great father made us a talk, on a former occasion, and said, ‘Get a little further, go beyond the Oconee, the Ocmulgee; there is a pleasant country.’ He also said ‘It shall be yours forever.’
"I have listened to his present talk. He says that the land where you now live is not yours. Go beyond the Mississippi; there is game; and you may remain ‘while the grass grows or the water runs.’ Brothers! Will not our great father come there also? He loves his red children. He speaks with a straight tongue, and will not lie. Brothers! Our great father says that our bad men have made his heart bleed, for the murder of one of his white children. Yet where are the red children which he loves, once as numerous as the leaves of the forest? How many have been murdered by his warriors? How many have been crushed beneath his own footsteps? Brothers! Our great father says we must go beyond the Mississippi. We shall be there under his care, and experience his kindness. He is very good! We have felt it all before. Brothers! I have done."
~Speckled Snake, a chief of the Muscogee (aka Creek Indians), 1829
TWEET OF THE DAY
BLAST FROM THE PAST
At Daily Kos on this date in 2007—Have You Signed up for the Iraq Moratorium?
This is an Iraq protest that has something for anyone who opposes this war and occupation. If wearing a ribbon or armband is what you're comfortable doing, do that and you will be seen standing in opposition. Call your representatives in Congress, talk a friend into calling them, attend a vigil, attend a performance of the song "War" or stage one yourself. Do something and know you are doing it as part of a national yet locally-based movement against the war. Maybe for you this will be one small piece of a life filled with anti-war activism - but add that piece to amplify all our voices. Maybe it will be the moment you come out publicly as an anti-war activist - do that with pride.
But if you want to do something to end this war, if you have been wondering why there isn't a more public and organized anti-war movement, this is your chance. Each of us needs to take responsibility for making it a success.
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On today’s Kagro in the Morning show, Greg Dworkin and Joan McCarter agree that in the face of such fast-breaking and insane developments in both the Trump-Russia and health care tax cut stories, there’s only one way to keep up with both: under the catch-all umbrella of Treasoncare!
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