Matthew Cunningham-Cook has written for Labor Notes, the Public Employee Press, Al Jazeera America, and the Nation.
Joe Biden is standing with railroad barons to force a deal on workers who are demanding a reasonable amount of paid sick leave. It’s the latest and possibly starkest example of the chasm between his pro-worker rhetoric during his campaign and his presidency.
Many of AARP’s members count on Medicare to survive. Yet the group is boosting Medicare’s privatization — perhaps because it has already raked in nearly a billion dollars from its involvement in that privatization.
Public pensions with investments in private equity face severe losses amid the economic downturn. But with the industry’s shady contracts and anti-transparency laws, fund managers have no obligation to disclose their real performance.
Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of FTX cryptocurrency exchange, rose swiftly as a Democratic mega-donor, rubbing shoulders with elites as he lobbied for crypto-friendly regulation. With FTX collapsing now, it’s clear his politicking demanded scrutiny long ago.
Progressive and leftist voters are always told we’re too extreme. The midterm results should quash that narrative.
The races for Arizona’s energy commission and an anti–dark money ballot initiative will decide whether Arizonans themselves oversee the state’s energy utility or the company can regulate itself according to the dictates of profit-making.
The Federal Reserve has signaled that it will further raise interest rates this month, increasing the chances of a recession that will hurt average people. In response, most of the Democratic Party establishment are twiddling their thumbs.
If Doug Mastriano becomes governor of Pennsylvania, the passage of aggressive right-to-work legislation in the union-friendly state is virtually guaranteed.
The water crisis in Jackson, Mississippi, wasn’t the product of government mismanagement. It was the result of Wall Street jacking up the city’s interest rates, which left residents with decaying infrastructure that couldn’t even deliver clean water.
As a major strike looms, railroad executives have been paid more than $200 million in the last three years — while failing to meet workers’ demands for benefits and time off. They claim their skyrocketing profits do not reflect “any contributions by labor.”
Right-wing pundit Chris Rufo is stoking fears about “critical race theory” and “gender ideology” across America. Who’s paying his bills? Wall Street billionaires, intent on provoking culture war to divert Americans’ attention from grotesque wealth inequality.
As Rhode Island treasurer, Seth Magaziner pumped retirement funds into alternative investments on Wall Street. It didn’t produce much for teacher and firefighter retirees — but it was a huge boon for his congressional campaign.
Past congressional efforts to rein in drug pricing have been undone by Big Pharma’s lobbying of the executive branch. But Democrats seem to have written their recent drug pricing legislation to prevent this possibility.
Democrats pretended they were cracking down on private equity moguls. The truth: Dems were actually protecting them — perhaps because private equity firms are major Democratic donors.
Chuck Schumer and Joe Manchin have reached a deal for an energy, health care, and tax policy bill after Manchin has delayed and watered it down. But the exact details of the bill, as well as its passage, are still far from guaranteed.
Amazon has announced it is acquiring One Medical, a private equity–backed primary care provider that generates most of its revenue from a for-profit Medicare program. It’s a terrifying sign of Amazon’s continued expansion and the privatization of Medicare.
Joe Biden has nominated right-wing think tank fellow Andrew Biggs to the Social Security Advisory Board. Biggs has spent his career advocating privatization and cuts to the program that provides retirement benefits for 66 million Americans.
Federal Reserve chair and former private equity exec Jerome Powell has promised to tackle inflation by lowering workers’ wages. At the same time, he has declined to implement a law to reduce the skyrocketing paychecks of his former colleagues on Wall Street.
Nazi Billionaires: The Dark History of Germany’s Wealthiest Dynasties explores the historical links between the Third Reich and Germany’s current captains of industry. It’s not just ancient history.
New York governor Kathy Hochul has the power to crack down on Amazon and help Amazon Labor Union workers get the contract they deserve in Staten Island. But her ties to the union-busting retail giant might get in the way.