The Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) released its annual report on executive compensation today - "CEO Pay and the Great Recession." "I'm afraid that this year's report will raise just about everybody's blood pressure," lead author Sarah Anderson said. Indeed, the report found that "CEOs of the 50 firms that have laid off the most workers since the onset of the economic crisis took home nearly $12 million on average in 2009." Those CEOs' combined compensation totaled $598 million, while at the same time, their companies eliminated 531,363 jobs despite reporting a 44 percent average profit increase for 2009.
Corporate America has been busy outsourcing jobs, busting unions, shedding benefits and cutting wages. In fact, according to IPS:
American workers, by contrast, are taking home less in real weekly wages than they took home in the 1970s.
The 1970s! Meanwhile...
American CEOs make 263 times the average compensation for American workers, up from the 30 to 1 ratio in the 1970s.
Think about that: For every dollar American workers make, American CEOs take home $263.
Putting Rick Snyder in office will not improve this situation. He's part of the problem, part of Corporate America. Snyder is also a Republican, and when did Republicans ever look out for average citizens? Never.
In trying to paint President Obama and Democrats as the source of all our unemployment woes, Camp released a report that included this statement:
"While Democrats promised their 2009 stimulus would create 3.7 million jobs, the reality is far different...To date, 2.6 million jobs, including 2.5 million private sector jobs, have been lost."
Suddenly, Camp cares about job creation. Where was that concern when he voted no on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act? Where was that concern while millions of jobs were being lost under the Bush administration?
Let's look at that "reality" Camp mentions and compare job losses under Bush and Obama. Economist Rob Shapiro put together data using BLS reports and came up with the following:
From December 2007 to July 2009 - the last year of the Bush second term and the first six months of the Obama presidency, before his policies could affect the economy - private sector employment crashed from 115,574,000 jobs to 107,778,000 jobs. Employment continued to fall, however, for the next six months, reaching a low of 107,107,000 jobs in December of 2009. So, out of 8,467,000 private sector jobs lost in this dismal cycle, 7,796,000 of those jobs or 92 percent were lost on the Republicans' watch or under the sway of their policies. Some 671,000 additional jobs were lost as the stimulus and other moves by the administration kicked in, but 630,000 jobs then came back in the following six months. The tally, to date: Mr. Obama can be held accountable for the net loss of 41,000 jobs (671,000 - 630,000), while the Republicans should be held responsible for the net losses of 7,796,000 jobs.
In a new paper, the economists argue that without the Wall Street bailout, the bank stress tests, the emergency lending and asset purchases by the Federal Reserve, and the Obama administration's fiscal stimulus program, the nation's gross domestic product would be about 6.5 percent lower this year.
In addition, there would be about 8.5 million fewer jobs, on top of the more than 8 million already lost; and the economy would be experiencing deflation, instead of low inflation.
Reality sure does bite. Camp should try sticking to the facts next time he puts out a report.
While the Obama administration, Congressional Dems and Organizing for America are working diligently to spread the good word about the recently-passed health insurance reform law, GOP Congressman Mike Rogers is working very hard to keep fear levels at "11".
Rogers was the headline speaker at Tuesday's Good Morning Livingston program at Cleary University's Johnson Center in Genoa Township.
He told a packed room that the federal government's reach into the health-care and banking industries will prove detrimental to small businesses.
Rogers said the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act - which he voted against - is already hampering business growth because employers are nervous about new costs they may incur through the health-care overhaul.
Hmmmm...why would they be nervous, I wonder? Could it possibly be because guys like Rogers are running around telling people to be scared? Naahhhhh...
I mean: yup.
On one hand you have people like my Congressman, Mark Schauer, reaching out to seniors and business owners, letting them know the positive impacts the new law will have in store for them.
On the other you have Rogers racheting up the Fear-O-Meter based on nothing more than his own hatred of all things Obama/Democrat.
Here's a funny bit:
Rogers, among other fiscal conservatives, continues to question how deficits can be cut when the health-care law involves expenditures.
"I don't know how it works," he said.
Really, Congressman? Is this one of those "Read the damn bill!" moments? Dude, it took me all of about 15 minutes with teh Googles to figure it out. I wrote an extensive blog about HERE, in fact.
So much easier to just SCARE people, though, right?
You ought to be ashamed of yourself, Congressman Rogers. What our country and our state and our seniors and our business owners need most right now is an injection of enthusiasm and optimism. That's the starting point for any economic recovery. Your Fear TourTM is just the opposite of what our leaders in Congress should be doing right now.
I only wish we had a stronger Democrat running against you in November.
This is the first in a two-part series about Nourishing the Planet co-director Danielle Nierenberg's visit with COMACO in Zambia. Cross posted from Worldwatch Institute's Nourishing the Planet.
One of the first things you notice about grocery stores in Zambia is the plethora of processed foods from around the world, from crackers made in Argentina and soy milk from China to popular U.S. breakfast cereals. Complementing these foreign foods, however, are a variety of locally made and processed products, including indigenous varieties of organic rice, all-natural peanut butter, and honey from the It's Wild brand.
It's Wild was started by the Community Markets for Conservation(COMACO), an organization founded over 30 years ago to conserve local wildlife. COMACO helps farmers improve their agricultural practices in ways that can protect the environment-such as through conservation farming-while also creating a reliable market for farm products. It organizes the farmers into producer groups, encouraging them to diversify their skills by raising livestock and bees, growing organic rice, using improved irrigation and fisheries management, and other practices, so that they don't have to resort to poaching elephants or other wildlife.
By targeting hard-to-reach farmers that live near protected areas, "we're trying to turn things around," says Dale Lewis, Executive Director of COMACO. For decades, many farmers in eastern Zambia practiced slash-and-burn agriculture and were involved in widespread elephant poaching. Farmers killed elephants and burned forests not because they were greedy, but because it was their only alternative, Lewis explains. Degraded soils, the lack of effective agricultural inputs, and drought left many farmers in the region desperate, forcing them to turn to poaching and environmentally destructive farming practices.
By training more than 650 "lead" farmers to train other farmers, COMACO hopes to not only protect the environment and local wildlife, but also help farmers increase their incomes by connecting them to the private market.
COMACO supports the creation of regional processing centers and trading depots to make it easier for farmers to process their crops and transport them to market. The group also offers a higher price to farmers who grow rice and other products organically, and for those use the conservation farming techniques they've learned from COMACO trainers and lead farmers. Where farmers "comply with COMACO, they see benefits," Lewis says, including improvements in food security and health.
The resulting products are then sold under the It's Wild brand in major supermarket chains across Zambia, such as ShopRite, Checkers, and Spar. Next year, COMACO plans to export its products to Botswana. The organization is trying to do as much of the product distribution as possible so that the money stays with the farmers and not middlemen.
COMACO has also gotten technical support from multinational food giant General Mills. The company paid for a COMACO food technician to visit its headquarters in early 2009 to learn how different food processing techniques can increase the nutritional and economic value of the foods that the organization is selling.
Lewis hopes that eventually COMACO will be self sufficient-and profitable-without the current heavy dependence on donor funding. But that's not easy for an organization that works with thousands of farmers and has high administrative, transport, and salary costs.
Stay tuned this week for more about Dale Lewis and COMACO's work.
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The highways in southern Africa are filled with trucks carrying food aid across the continent. In the past, much of the maize, rice, soy, and other foods loaded onto these trucks came not from African farmers, but from the United States. And while these shipments provided much needed calories to people in need, they also disrupted national and local markets by lowering prices for locally grown food.
But today, more and more of the crops providing food aid come from African farmers who are selling directly to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) through local procurement policies. In Liberia, Sierra Leone, Zambia, and several other nations in sub-Saharan Africa (as well as in Asia and Latin America), WFP is not only buying locally, but helping small farmers gain the skills necessary to be part of the global market.
The WFP's Progress for Profit (P4P) program, with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, and the Belgian government, is working with the private sector, governments, and NGOs to provide an incentive for farmers to improve their crop management skills and produce high-quality food, create a market for surplus crops from small and low-income farmers, and promote locally processing and packaging of products.
In Zambia, WFP buys food directly from the Zambia Agricultural Commodity Exchange while remaining "invisible," says Felix Edwards of the Zambia P4P Program. This way, WFP Zambia doesn't distort prices and helps create an alternative market for farmers. WFP also works through its partners, including USAID's PROFIT program, to help farmers and farmer associations meet the quality standards required by the Exchange. As a result, they are preparing Zambian farmers to provide high-quality food aid not only to programs and consumers in their own country, but also potentially to growing regional and international markets.
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On February 18, 2010, Organizing for America (OFA), Health Care for American NOW! (HCAN) and no less than THIRTY other organizations sponsored a CALL FOR ACTION rally in Madison Heights in southeastern Michigan calling for Congress to act now on jobs for Michigan. These sponsoring groups represent a broad coalition of interests including health care reform, peace, immigration reform, clean energy and climate change prevention, jobs/labor, and social justice. There were about 350-400 people in attendance. This was just one of many such rallies being held across the country.
As I sit here in frigid Michigan this morning, I'm contemplating the state of our state. And pondering if we are, perhaps, a bellwether for the rest of the country, particularly in terms of Democrats and our political future.
It's a mixed bag in Michigan, to be sure. As I diaried last week, there's been some better news of late. GM has started battery production for its new line of electric and hybrid cars. The Detroit Auto Show is featuring a plethora of new electric vehicles in its "Electric Avenue. This morning we learn that Ford has earned Car of the Year with its Fusion Hybrid (as well as Truck of the Year with the Transit Connect, a 22/25 mpg vehicle). The Obama administration has awarded Michigan vehicle manufactureres $187 million in grants to boost fuel efficiency. Detroit was even named as one of the Top Five Cities to find a "Green" job, being called "the poster child for green jobs".
On the other hand, our economy is in a complete shambles. The Democrats are hosting a certified Clown ShowTM when it comes to the upcoming governor's race of 2010. Even Bart Stupak, author of the Coathanger HCR Amendment, is considering a run for governor. One of the main contenders on from the Valley of the GOPosaurs, Pete Hoekstra, is racing to place his mug in front of any media camera that will have him to talk about how our president is failing Americans with regard to national security.
So what we have is state poised for greatness, thanks in large part to the foreward thinking and planning by our progressive Democratic governor, Jennifer Granholm. But those improvements are going to be largely overshadowed by the poor economy and the perplexing ability of Republicans to frame every single debate and conversation in their own terms, putting Democrats on the defensive. As is happening in our state Congress, they obstruct and fight every progressive attempt to make things better then point their Fingers of BlameTM right back at Democrats who, through their own lame own-foot-shooting seem to be their own worst enemies much of the time. For all her many great efforts, efforts to diversify Michigan's economy and put us in a good position with regard to green energy and a new energy economy, she is term-limited and will likely never get the credit she is due for the great service she has done for our state.
Will Democrats be able to turn the Meme of the Day around in 2010 and fight back effectively to win these battles or will Republicans dominate the message wars and, despite their obstructionist behavior and lack of vision or political leadership, use the poor economy to whip the Dems and gain political advantage?
My take is, if you want to see what will happen on the broad national stage, watch what happens in Michigan. While Sarah Palin likes to cast Alaska as a microcosm of the country as a whole, Michigan is far more representative of the USA. We have rural and urban areas and everything in between. We have a manufacturing base, farming and a strong service sector. We have a racially, economically and politically diverse population. All of these things lead me to believe that how politics play out here in our state in the coming year will very likely be an early warning sign as to how things will go nationally.
A new CBS MoneyWatch article confirms what Muskegon Critic pointed out the other day: Increased productivity does not translate into prosperity for average Americans.
In fact, MoneyWatch warns that a "combination of short-term factors and long-range changes may conspire to squeeze salaries for some time to come," and annual raises "could be in jeopardy."
So how did we get to this point? It turns out real wages have actually been flat for years.
Looking back, it turns out a decade's worth of easy credit and faux real estate wealth obscured the fact that incomes for the majority of workers weren't keeping up. After healthy salary growth of roughly 1.8 percent annually from 1995 to 2000, for example, inflation-adjusted, or real, wages for the median worker remained essentially flat from 2000 until 2007 when the recession started, according to government data (average wages increased roughly 2 percent, but that number is skewed by huge gains at the top). In fact, after the recovery in 2002, notes Shierholz, no real wage growth occurred at all for the median worker - despite an increase in productivity of 11 percent over the seven-year time frame. [emphasis added].
In other words, we've been working our tails off and have little to show for it. So who reaped the productivity gains?
Typically, companies and their shareholders.
And what do experts point to as the reason for our declining prosperity?
Shierholz and other economists attribute the disconnect between wages and output to declining unionization and the need to keep prices low in a competitive global environment.
The "kill the unions" and "outsource everything" crowd accomplished what they set out to do - drive wages down for average Americans. And the scenario for new jobs created doesn't look any rosier.
A 2009 analysis of figures from the U.S. Department of Labor showed that sectors that expanded through this decade have paid an average annual compensation of $55,300, compared with $65,100 for industries that are shrinking. This is partly because many of the newly-created positions are in service industries, which tend to be less organized and have less bargaining power. Think home healthcare and "green" jobs versus auto manufacturing and heavy industry.
There are steps Washington can take to start improving living standards for average Americans, but as long as people keep voting for anti-union, globalization embracing politicians, I don't see things changing.
A new Bloomberg poll shows Americans want the government to do something about the economy.
Americans want their government to create jobs through spending on public works, investments in alternative energy or skills training for the jobless.
They also want the deficit to come down. And most are ready to hand the bill to the wealthy.
A Bloomberg National Poll conducted Dec. 3-7 shows two- thirds of Americans favor taxing the rich to reduce the deficit.
Raising taxes on the rich was popular across party lines too: About half of Republicans back the idea and it is more popular among Democrats and Independents.
Robert Reich has an article on the disconnect between stocks and jobs that asks a great question: How can the stock market hit new highs at the same time unemployment is hitting new highs?
Simple. The market is up because corporate earnings are up. Corporate earnings are up because companies are cutting costs. And the biggest single cost they're cutting is their payrolls. So they let people go and, presto, their balance sheets look better and their stock prices rise.
Reich points to Caterpillar as an example. They earned $404 million in the third quarter, or 64 cents a share, yet analysts had only expected 5 cents. So how did Caterpillar manage to drive their stock up 165 percent since March? They cut 37,000 jobs.
The latest case in point: the just-announced $4.5 billion merger deal that will fold the 99-year-old Black & Decker tool-making powerhouse - the folks who brought us the world's first pistol-grip power drill - into its chief tool-making rival, Connecticut's Stanley Works.
"It's a match made in heaven," Stanley flack Tim Perra told reporters last week.
Heaven for who? Not consumers. The new "Stanley Black & Decker" may soon have enough marketplace dominance, says Morningstar business analyst Anthony Dayrit, "to raise prices" on do-it-yourself gizmos that range from power tools to window locks.
And workers won't find much heaven in the merger either. Black & Decker and Stanley together currently employ a workforce just over 40,000. The merger the two companies announced last week will eventually cost an estimated 10 percent of those workers their jobs, starting with staff at the Black & Decker headquarters just outside Baltimore.
And here's yet another example from economically depressed Las Vegas:
Last February, Las Vegas kingpin Steve Wynn announced an across-the-board wage and hour cutback for all employees at his resort empire. The total savings for Wynn Resorts: between $75 and $100 million. Last week Wynn Resorts announced a special $4-per-share dividend. Total cost of the dividend payout to Wynn Resorts: $492 million. Total dividend check that will go to Steve Wynn: $88.6 million.
The Great Recession has been a boon for corporations and CEO's. As Reich points out, "They're using this sharp downturn to cut payrolls even below where they were when times were good. Outsourcing abroad, setting up shop in China and elsewhere, contracting out, replacing people with software and automated machines - they're doing whatever it takes to get payrolls down so earnings bounce up."
Higher earnings may be good for Wall Street, but not so much for Main Street. More from Reich: "Yes, the economy is growing again, but the surge in productivity is a mirage. Worker output per hour is skyrocketing because companies are generating almost as much output with fewer workers and fewer hours." The bottom line: Higher productivity doesn't put money in the average worker's pocket. Since 1980, productivity has grown 70 percent, but wages only increased 5 percent.
But, but, but... I can hear the Jim Kramer's of the world already. Higher stock prices=higher fund balances for all Americans. That's true. But what good does a 5 or 10 percent increase do me if I'm out of work and have to live off of that money? It buys me short-term security today but leaves me financially insecure when I retire. Instead of worrying about stock market profits, we need policies that put people back to work at decent wages and keeps them working.
This week I've been in Israel, on a trade mission to cultivate water technology economic development in Michigan. As co-chair of the joint Michigan-Israeli working group on water technology, I know there's great opportunity to diversify our economy and create jobs -- while leveraging our most precious natural resource, the Great Lakes.
I want to be clear: I am not proposing to sell Michigan's water. Companies seeking to use our water should locate here in Michigan -- where they can have all the water they need. Instead, through our Green Jobs for Blue Waters initiative, I want to position Michigan as North America's center of excellence for water technology. Right now, water technologies are a $500 billion global market -- but by 2020, that market is expected to grow to nearly $1 trillion. That means great opportunity for Michigan's economy -- and that is why we intend on seizing the opportunity, much as we did to become the Nation's leader in advanced battery technology.
Michigan's unique position in the water technology field proves we are at the forefront of this technology. Michigan's location in the middle of the Great Lakes, which contain about 20 percent of the world's supply of fresh water, has primed the state's successes in agriculture, tourism and the auto industry. We need to continue to protect water resources and use it wisely for economic development purposes that include retention of current businesses and the attraction of new ones.
We were the first state to sign an official agreement with Israel to develop water technologies for export in the United States. Due to its arid location, firms in Israel have a strong need to effectively and efficiently use their scarce water resources. Michigan is poised to help them do just that. With the Green Jobs for Blue Waters initiative, we can provide Israeli companies with the assistance they'll need to be successful in the U.S.. With our water resources and top-notch higher education system, we can provide the perfect environment for water technology research and development. And, with our hard-working advanced manufacturing base, we can improve products and bring them to market faster than ever.
I've had an opportunity to meet with a number of CEOs from water technology firms while in Israel, and spoke at the 5th Annual International Water Technologies & Environmental Control Exhibition in Tel Aviv yesterday. The meetings went well, and I'm excited for the work we will do in months to come to build Michigan's Blue Water Economy.
Together with Israel, I believe we can seize what is undoubtedly a historic moment. We can prove that protecting natural resources, promoting economic growth, and creating jobs of the future all go hand in hand -- and there's no better place to prove it than in Michigan.
If you feel like a hamster on a wheel getting nowhere fast, there's an explanation for it according to this NYT's op-ed columnist.
For average Americans, the last 10 years were a lost decade. At the end of President George W. Bush's eight years in office, American households had less money and less economic security, and fewer of them were covered by health care than 10 years earlier, the Census Bureau reported in its annual survey.
The poverty rate in 2008 rose to 13.2 percent, the highest in 11 years, while median household income fell to $50,303. Ten years earlier, adjusted for inflation, it was $51,295.
In fact, income for the median American household fell for the first time in four decades. The Great Recession gets some of the blame, but the decline started well before the housing and financial sectors collapsed.
Harvard economist Lawrence Katz explains what happened: "We had a plutocratic boom. Then we have egalitarian recessions. Taken together, only the top ends up growing, on average." And the top did very well indeed: "During the same period, the average income of the richest tenth of a percent increased by about $2 million, or about 35%." They can thank President Bush for his $1.3 trillion tax cuts.
How did average Americans fare? People in their prime earning years (age 45 to 54) took "the biggest hit in the last years of the Bush Administration, their median income fell by $5,000. And the region that suffered most - the South."
Income went down for all races, but "Hispanics experienced some of the biggest losses. Income declined 5.6 percent for Hispanic households, 4.4 percent for Asians, 2.8 percent for African American families and 2.6 percent for non-Hispanic whites. Hispanics and Asians also showed the biggest increases in poverty rates."
A Sept. 10 report from the Census Bureau shows that the child poverty rate rose to 19.0% in 2008, from 18% in 2007. That translates to 14.1 million children living in poverty in the richest nation on earth.
In 2008, more than one in three - 35.3% - of all people living in poverty were children. EPI projects that with the continuing deterioration in the labor market, by 2009 a quarter of all children in this country will be living in poverty and by 2010 the child poverty rate will be 26.6%.
This would represent an increase of 10.4 percentage points from 2000 to 2010 - truly a lost decade.
Speaking of the labor market, the Bush administration failed miserably on job creation according to Market Watch:
Earlier today, a number of my Democratic colleagues in the Michigan House and I - along with allies in the business, labor, educational, environmental and religious communities - unveiled a comprehensive plan to create jobs, attract investment, and position Michigan as a global leader in renewable energy production and innovation.
Our plan to ReEnergize Michigan builds on Michigan's historic and natural strengths to take the next steps in putting our state at the cutting edge of the global green economy. Specifically, the ReEnergize Michigan plan will:
* Require that 30 percent of our electricity come from renewable energy sources by 2025;
* Boost our energy efficiency standards by requiring utilities to work with their customers to decrease electricity usage by 2 percent each year;
* Revise Michigan's outdated building codes to increase energy efficiency; and
* Encourage residents and businesses to become renewable energy entrepreneurs by allowing them to sell excess energy they create via renewable sources back to their utility company.
Bobo says wage theft in America is the crime wave no one talks about, and she is right. Billions of dollars' worth of wages are stolen from millions of workers in the United States every year. The scope of these abuses is as staggering as it is wrong - paying workers far less than the legal minimum wage, purposefully misclassifying employees as independent contractors, and illegally denying workers overtime pay. But now people are starting to take notice -- and it is my hope that they do so starting with this very good book.
Chapter 5: Organizing to Stop Wage Theft: Why Unions Matter, starts with a story of 39 year-old Mercedes Herrerra. She came to this country from Mexico, lives in Houston since 1994 and works as a janitor for staffing agencies cleaning buildings and sports facilities. Bobo says she was never paid for overtime!
Her employers would tell her, "There is no overtime. After 40 hours you work for someone else." (This is not legal).
The story continues that after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the worker was hired by a cleaning firm contracted to clean the Reliance Center. She was in charge of keeping the bathrooms clean. Her staffing agency charged her $100 per week for her shoes, gloves, masks, cleaning supplies, and shuttle rides to the Center. She wasn't told when she was hired that such charges would be taken from her paycheck. As a result, her hourly wage fell significantly below minimum wage. (This is not legal).
The lower paid workers in our country are treated like crap. Union activists have been saying this for a long time. Some claim we blow it out of proportion or distort the reality -- for Herrerra, according to Bobo, worse than the wages stolen was her ill treatment. Managers would scream at her and her colleagues. Some would tell workers they were old and worthless.
You can read more here and here. Ted Kennedy has said the book offers "bold, practical, and progressive solutions for how policymakers and advocates can end the growing crisis of wage theft in America."
So, yet another front page story on CNN about how awful Michigan's economy is and how young, educated people are fleeing the area appeared today. It's nothing we Michiganders haven't seen a hundred times before over the years and it usually our teeth on edge.
Usually, but not today. Today, I'm beaming with so much pride that I literally had to stop what I was doing and write this.
Why? Because this particular story did not focus on MBA students at University of Michigan nor Accounting majors at Michigan State. Instead, this story highlighted a bunch of ambitious, young African American men getting high-tech training at Focus HOPE, a non-profit school that trains inner city teens for high paying machinist jobs.
DETROIT (CNNMoney.com) -- Isaiah Brooks expects to graduate soon from Focus: HOPE, a non-profit machinist school in Detroit, where his hopes of getting a job are fading along with the local auto industry.
"You got to go where the money is," he said during a question and answer session with his classmates at Focus: HOPE. "You can't sit around and wait for an opportunity to happen," he noted. The other students in his class nodded in agreement.
Think I'm exaggerating? When was the last time you saw or heard a 19-year-old black male student talk about competitiveness in the job economy and being in a high-demand field?
Ever?
So even though the title of the news stories reflect doom and gloom: Detroit's youth: We'll leave if we have to, I have to commend the CNN reporter for actually -- you know, doing reporting -- to find this story. Not too many elite reporters from New York City would venture far enough into the city to find this school, let alone be professional enough to show these young people as savvy enough to make proactive decisions about their careers.
So I don't know who this Adam Smith is, but kudos to this guy for being a good reporter and refusing to perpetuate the myth that all inner city teenagers are uneducated, hopeless victims destined to live a life of the underclass.
Frederick Dunbar used to make parts for the auto industry. Now, he's learning how to use laser technology to refurbish submarine parts for the Navy. "I'm looking at NASA, the Department of Defense, maybe civil engineering," said Dunbar. "Definitely, I feel more secure pursuing a government job. I'm compelled to go wherever my job takes me."
Also, before I forget, kudos to the dedicated visionaries at Focus HOPE who mentally and physically prepared these young men for the real world. There are too many older, mid-career people who haven't been taught the basic tools of survival that has been instilled in these kids by the ripe old age of 20. It's clear that they are being educated in more than just writing, reading and arithmetic.
Alan Clark just accepted an engineering job in Detroit at the Pepsi Bottling Group. "The same concepts you use to make a car, believe or not, are the same concepts and principles you use to make a bottle of Pepsi."
They're putting more money in their employees paychecks.
Hobby Lobby Stores Inc. announced wage increases effective immediately for all full-time, hourly workers earning up to $13 an hour. For some employees, the pay hike can mean more than a $2 an hour raise.
The company also said it was raising its minimum pay to $10 per hour for full-time, hourly workers, up from whatever the minimum wage is in a state. In Michigan, it is $7.40.
Nationwide, the chain has more than 400 arts and crafts stores, with 15 in Michigan, and the increase will boost the pay of more than 6,900 employees, some by nearly $600 month. In Michigan, 75 percent of their employees are full-timers.
This is a great way to help stimulate the economy and build employee morale at the same time.
It's also nice to hear a CEO say this about his employees:
"Our employees are the backbone of our company, and we believe that giving them the opportunity to share in our success is the right thing to do," David Green, CEO and founder of Hobby Lobby, said in a statement.
"This is part of our continuing efforts to reward our employees for their hard work and integrate them into the growth of our company."
A store spokesperson said they took the action because "they have had a profitable year and want to pass that on to their employees."
Hobby Lobby has a history of caring about their employees. When the the price of gasoline skyrocketed last year, they gave employees a permanent 25 cent per hour raise to help offset cost of living increases.
As a Michigan institution, it seems more than fitting that the Meijer superstore headquarters should be leading the way by powering a portion of their facility courtesy of wind turbine energy. If anything, a move such as this one just goes to show that the rest of the state can make the leap forward and turn our energy sources into natural gold by investing in wind and solar technology to help power our state.
So, this all begs the question: if Meijer can do it, why not corporations like Consumers Energy and Wolverine Power? Why are these energy giants falling back on dirty, outdated coal-burning facilities when the great state of Michigan could be doing so much better? It's been said before, but all good things bear repeating: with clean, alterative energy, Michigan could create as many as 60,000 new, good-paying jobs in the clean energy sector, and power the Great Lakes state forward in terms of new energy and cutting-edge businesses and industries. We can attract 21st century companies to invest in our state, making Michigan a leader in an emerging clean energy economy. And, of course, we can preserve our natural environment, keeping it safe from dangerous carbon dioxide pollution from coal plants, and other toxic pollutants that threaten public health and the world around us.
The suits over at Meijer already have the right idea. The question is, when will the rest of the state start playing catch-up? Sooner, rather than later, is the ultimate hope.
(Bumped in the hopes that our politicians in Lansing will see this. - promoted by djtyg)
My husband and I are small business real estate owners going through forelcosure of 2 rental properties. I implore the Michigan legislature to immediately enact a state version of unfair credit card predatory practices. The Federal law does not ban credit cards from these practices until July-2010. Meanwhile, credit card companies are preying on Michigan residents before the law takes effect. We need to put a moratorium on that in Michigan until the Federal law takes effect - just like the State of New York!
Universal default is a commonly used and relatively unknown practice by credit card companies that increases credit card rates based on a card holder's unrelated financial activity. New York is the first state in the nation to provide such a protection against this unfair and deceptive practice.
The Cox-Secchia Slush Fund Scandal story hits the capitol: State Senator Gretchen Whitmer (D-East Lansing) questions why Michigan's Attorney General Mike Cox directed bank fraud settlement funds in Grand Rapids toward parks, instead of consumers suffering from foreclosures.
My full transcript:
Fact of fiction? First, big mortgage corporation takes advantage of the little guy. Then, big corporation refuses to work with little guy and forecloses. Then, Attorney General [Cox], purportedly on behalf of the little guy, joins a lawsuit against big corporation. Then, the little guy wins, only to have their Attorney General treat a portion of the settlement as his own personal political slush fund. Then, the Attorney General gives half a million dollars for a park not currently being used by the public at the advice of a big GOP player. Unbelievably, this appears to be fact.
Now, don't get me wrong, I love the parks, but I can't help but conclude that at $1,800 per victim that that half million dollars should have helped another 278 consumers, rather than pad the AG's campaign for higher office.
Solution: maybe Attorney General settlements should automatically go to the general fund. If not that, then a grant type process should be implemented to guard against political kickbacks with settlement funds earned on behalf of our consumers. Maybe the Attorney General can send a quarterly accounting of all settlement moneys to the General Government Budget Committees in the House and the Senate. And, if money is distributed to parks, for example, the Attorney General should send a report on the selection process and a protocol used in determining which parks receive that money.
I think the facts I listed at the onset of my statement demonstrate conduct that is unbecoming of an Attorney General, especially on that likes to talk of transparency.
The questions are now:
* Where is Kent County Republicans stand? Where are Senators Bill Hardiman and Mark C. Jansen and Representatives Kevin Green, Dave Hildenbrand, Tom Pearce, and Justin Amash on this issue? Do Kent County Republicans support backroom dealings and Mike Cox's secret slush funds or will the renounce Cox's ill-conceived plan to misallocate funds that were supposed to go to support Kent County families hurt by the foreclosure crisis?
* Will Cox admit his mistake and ask the Kent County Commission to submit another application?
* Will Kent County Commission Chair Roger Morgan support the push to reject this "gift" and support a more prudent, reasoned and non-partisan use of the settlement money so that it actually does "help fight the devastating effects of the home foreclosure crisis"?
Head over to The Oakland Press and give Bruce Fealk a high-five for the excellent lefty blogging he's doing (in enemy territory no less!).
His latest entry is "Bushvilles Springing Up Across the Country."
Want a glimpse of how bad things really are. This story from NBC is really sad, and a direct result of the disastrous economic policies of the past 8 years. If you don't think this economic downturn is a depression, watch this and then tell me that we should ever go back to the "tax-cuts-are-the-answer-to-everything" economic policies of the Republican party.
Foreclosures rose 30% in February, prompting one expert to remark, "At least for the foreseeable future, it's going to continue to be pretty ugly."
Bruce is right, tax cuts aren't the answer to everything. They certainly won't keep people in their homes.
One of the first things you notice about grocery stores in Zambia is the plethora of processed foods from around the world, from crackers made in Argentina and soy milk from China to popular U.S. breakfast cereals. Complementing these foreign foods, however, are a variety of locally made and processed products, including indigenous varieties of organic rice, all-natural peanut butter, and honey from the 
The highways in southern Africa are filled with trucks carrying food aid across the continent. In the past, much of the maize, rice, soy, and other foods loaded onto these trucks came not from African farmers, but from the United States. And while these shipments provided much needed calories to people in need, they also disrupted national and local markets by lowering prices for locally grown food.