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From a Whorehouse to a White House

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On December 6, 1928, in the town of Cienaga, Colombia, thousands of families gathered in the town square for Sunday Mass. Most of the men in the area had been on strike against the banana plantations for nearly a month. They were demanding written contracts, six-day weeks, and to get paid in cash rather than company script.
The Columbian government responded by sending out the army, which set up machine guns on the roofs and at the corners of the square. After giving a five minute warning, the troops opened fire despite a lack of any provocation from the strikers.


Banana strike leaders

Joe Hill

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"I die like a true blue rebel. Don't waste any time in mourning. Organize."
- Joe Hill's last written words

Every successful popular movement has its legendary, or near legendary, characters. People, or groups, who seemed bigger than life, and in the end must be sacrificed to the cause. The civil rights movement had Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X. The American Revolution had Nathan Hale.

For the labor movement the group that fit that role was the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). While the roll-call of the IWW is filled with legendary characters, far more than can be written in anything less than a book, one character stands out above them all - Joe Hill.

A Deeper Look into Friday's Unemployment Numbers

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The headlines hit the feeds, WOW! May nonfarm payrolls -345,000, while minimizing a 9.4% national unemployment rate.

Others, not really interested in lagging indicators of a possible recession bottom, questioned Huh?

I mean, really, talk about cheerleading!   A reduction in the collosal monthly rate of job losses over the last year or so is interpreted here as a slow-down in the recession?  How so?  A slow-down in job losses, perhaps, and probably a monthly blip, but an improving recession?    How is that connection established?   I'd say there's about as much substance to that statement as Bush's remark that "We don't torture".

In Jobless rate slows, unemployment up and traders are happy:

There are so many people that have run out their unemployment benefits and have either:

  • Just stopped looking and aren't working
  • They had to take part time work

In these economic times of a prolonged recession, oops better get my words in order her, call it an economic down turn.   Did the powers to be ever really say the R word.   Did we hit enough quarters for them?

Econbrowser (one of the best blogs out there for economics!) says it all with a couple of graphs:

Jobless rate slows, unemployment up and traders are happy

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Revelation of Truth

  1. The thought is ridiculed
  2. The thought is resisted
  3. The thought is finally considered self evident

There are so many people that have run out their unemployment benefits and have either:

  • Just stopped looking and aren't working
  • They had to take part time work

In these economic times of a prolonged recession, oops better get my words in order her, call it an economic down turn.  Did the powers to be ever really say the R word.  Did we hit enough quarters for them?  I know for a long while they would take any positive growth, no matter if it was imperceptible, they took it just so they didn't count that quarter as negative.

Henry C. K. Liu of the Asia Times: It's a Global Wage Crisis

H/t to Bigchin who sent me a link to an Asia Times column by Henry C. K. Liu:

"the Fed's new money has not been going to consumers in the form of full employment with rising wages to restore fallen demand, but instead is going only to debt-infested distressed institutions to allow them to deleverage from toxic debt. Thus deflation in the equity market (falling share prices) has been cushioned by newly issued money, while aggregate wage income continues to fall to further reduce aggregate demand.

Knights of Labor

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The reason Labor Day exists is because of a long-defunct labor union known as the Noble and Holy Order of the Knights of Labor. This labor union didn't allow bankers to join. It also excluded doctors, lawyers, gamblers, stockholders, and liquor manufacturers because they were considered "unproductive members of society".
Considering the insane amounts of money that investment bankers get paid to move other people's money around, the Knights of Labor may have had a point.

U.S. export business lost today because of the VAT

Cross posted from TradeReform.org

For those of you who say there is no trade impact resulting from foreign Value Added Taxes, please read this.

I Squared R Element Company is in Akron, New York. It makes industrial heating elements which are used for many processes to make other things, including glass and computer chips. The company was the low bidder on a contract to export to China.

However, the company lost the bid. Why?

I squared R was told it did not include, in its bid, China's 10% customs duty or the 17% value added tax(VAT) that must be paid at the border.

All our goods pay a 17% VAT at the Chinese border. And the uninformed say we are a high cost producer. Chinese exporters also get a 17% VAT rebate, i.e. they get paid to export.

What are potential solutions?

Oil, the Dollar, and Speculation

Here I was, with a nice polite post set to print, when I read the related links to this article at Naked Capitalism. And what do they all say? "Oil is surging because the dollar is tanking."

So excuse me, but I have to toss the politeness out the window and shout, "IT'S NOT THE DOLLAR, STUPID!!!" Here's a graph from Worthwhile Canadian Initiative including a variety of currencies, just against Oil:

OK, smartypants, if it's all about the dollar, then why is the price of Oil surging in EVERY CURRENCY??? And don't give me that "Peak Oil" cr**....

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