Lynn Williams—president of the United Steelworkers of America from 1983 to 1994—died on May 5 at the age of 89. Lynn was an extraordinary union leader—smart, compassionate, and visionary. His strength and creativity helped protect and expand his union through…
Author Archive for jeff.faux
Thomas Piketty Undermines Hallowed Tenets of Capitalist Catechism
by jeff.faux •
Thomas Piketty just tossed an intellectual hand grenade into the debate over the world’s struggling economy. Before the English translation of the French economist’s new book, Capital in the Twenty-first Century, hit bookstores, it was applauded, attacked and declared a…
America Without Unions
by jeff.faux •
The recent defeat of its effort to unionize workers at Volkwagen’s Chattanooga, Tennessee factory was a crushing blow to the United Auto Workers, and a setback to the embattled U.S. labor movement, which could have used the morale boost of…
Nafta and the Narcos: What You Won’t Hear at Obama’s Meeting in Mexico
by jeff.faux •
When Barack Obama meets his Mexican and Canadian counterparts in Toluca, Mexico on February 19, you can expect to hear all three insist that the now 20-year-old North America Free Trade Agreement has been an economic success. The facts tell…
Class War: The View From the Board Room
by jeff.faux •
The Vice-President for Governmental Affairs has just finished his report to the corporate board of directors. “Thanks, Ted,” says the Chairman. “You and your Washington staff have done a great job. Getting that little amendment inserted in the budget bill…
NAFTA, Twenty Years After: A Disaster
by jeff.faux •
New Year’s Day, 2014, marks the 20th anniversary of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The Agreement created a common market for goods, services and investment capital with Canada and Mexico. And it opened the door through which American…
The Stem, the Flower, and Corporate Greed
by jeff.faux •
In his New York Times column this morning, David Brooks uses a garden metaphor to instruct us on the different functions of the public and private sector. He writes that the government is like the “stem,” providing us with the…
Giving Thanks for Small Things: A Little Light in the Dark Corridors of Power
by jeff.faux •
The deeper you are in the inner sanctums of power, the slower you are to get disturbing news from the rest of the world. So, I suppose it should be no surprise that it has taken so long for a…
American Futures (review of books by Al Gore and David Stockman)
by jeff.faux •
Americans’ perception of the future bounces between two contradictory visions. One is that the country is drifting toward decline. Polls report widespread belief that the younger generation of Americans will be worse off than their parents, that U.S. influence in…
Socialized Medicine; The Horror Movie
by jeff.faux •
The core argument of the hysterical Republican diatribe against Obamacare is that it will push Americans down a slippery slope into the nightmare of, gasp, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE! The phrase regularly trips from the lips of GOP reactionaries. Here’s Texas Senator…