Seth Sandronsky comment-46949 2011-03-05T14:27:00Z 2011-03-05T14:27:00Z Social Darwinism lives! Seth Sandronsky 2011-03-05T14:27:00Z Seth Sandronsky comment-45381 2011-02-09T19:58:29Z 2011-02-09T19:58:29Z Date of event? Seth Sandronsky 2011-02-09T19:58:29Z Seth Sandronsky comment-24232 2010-04-03T19:44:09Z 2010-04-03T19:44:09Z What in part accounts for the trend of stagnating wages is employer-friendly labor law. This paved the way for private-sector employers to weaken unions and organizing campaigns. The outcome was predictable. Nonunion workers earn lower pay and fewer benefits than those in unions. Seth Sandronsky 2010-04-03T19:44:09Z Seth Sandronsky comment-24224 2010-04-03T17:36:27Z 2010-04-03T17:36:27Z Stagnant wages for tens of millions of U.S. workers over decades helped to create the home bubble’s growth. Seth Sandronsky 2010-04-03T17:36:27Z Seth Sandronsky comment-23487 2010-03-18T13:49:38Z 2010-03-18T13:49:38Z Rhonda is no more demonizing black males than I am the man in the moon. She is my friend, yes, and also a tireless advocate for those in pain of all backgrounds. Advocacy for them every day is what Rhonda does and who she is. We need more people like her. Seth Sandronsky 2010-03-18T13:49:38Z Seth Sandronsky comment-22244 2010-02-14T20:55:35Z 2010-02-14T20:55:35Z Have you heard of the housing market crash? That brought down the private economy, on its deathbed now. Does cutting government spending help to revive the patient? Seth Sandronsky 2010-02-14T20:55:35Z Seth Sandronsky comment-22101 2010-02-12T19:45:21Z 2010-02-12T19:45:21Z Goldman Sachs was an investment bank. Then the housing bubble burst. As a result of that, Goldman Sachs faced collapse. So the Federal Reserve Bank let Goldman Sachs become a financial holding company to get access to the Fed’s discount window and to Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s insured loans. Seth Sandronsky 2010-02-12T19:45:21Z Seth Sandronsky comment-20772 2010-01-17T19:42:41Z 2010-01-17T19:42:41Z A big question for the current decade concerns jobs. Where will the investment come from for new employment in the capital city of the nation's most populous state, and how does the jobs crisis connect with pro sports? California's jobless rate has doubled since Dec. 2007: http://www.economytrack.org/mainchart_3.php?_tab=unemployment Reducing state and local government spending can only deepen the jobs crisis. This is the current policy choice of our lawmakers. Note I assume that private investment is the key to economic recovery. That private investment is largely absent, and there appears to be little of it ahead. Therefore, I conclude that federal deficit spending to help the states is the key to recovery in the short-term. Oh, and one other minor thing. If our taxpaying dollars can flow to big banks to save them from bankruptcy, the same tax money can bail out the states to save and create jobs. Seth Sandronsky 2010-01-17T19:42:41Z Seth Sandronsky comment-20733 2010-01-16T19:19:57Z 2010-01-16T19:19:57Z Bright students. Concerning number 2, there was an overbuilding of homes. That was a result of the rise in residential real estate prices. Note that the vast bulk of economists, column writers and reporters missed the home price bubble. They chose to be bubble cheerleaders, instead. Seth Sandronsky 2010-01-16T19:19:57Z Seth Sandronsky comment-19727 2009-12-22T14:18:54Z 2009-12-22T14:18:54Z I support human beings, Jim. Is that clear? What causes people to leave home to search for paid work? Could part of the answer be so-called “free-trade” policies such as the NAFTA? Recall that the NAFTA passed, barely, under a Democratic president 15 years ago. The NAFTA increased U.S. agribusiness exports to Mexico. This has destroyed the livelihoods of its peasant farmers. They immigrate north to find paid work, mainly in agriculture and construction. Oh, and the stagnation of U.S. workers’ real wages? This trend precedes the NAFTA by over two decades. What triggered this wage trend? The answer is market competition that creates winners and losers. Corporations in Germany and Japan rose from their deathbeds after WW II. They began to compete with growing success against U.S. corporations for profits and market share. To try and restore profitability, U.S. corporations attacked labor unions and social programs. A leading thinker in this corporate campaign was Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell. He, as a corporate lawyer, wrote a 1971 memo that urged business to ideologically and politically confront the popular movements (Civil Rights and Vietnam War) of the day. Later, Democrats and GOPsters did that via laws to deregulate, deunionize, etc. to satisfy their corporate donors. Jim, you, I and tens of millions of working people in the U.S. live in the present moment of this recent history. I end with a rough draft of a question that leaves behind description for prescription. Who benefits from groups of workers being at odds with each other over buyers for their labor services? Seth Sandronsky 2009-12-22T14:18:54Z Seth Sandronsky comment-19674 2009-12-20T15:33:02Z 2009-12-20T15:33:02Z Real wages (what people can buy) with their pay has been stagnant for more than 30 years. At the same time, people’s productivity (output per-person each labor hour) has boomed. But workers have not reaped the benefits of their productivity gains. Guess who has? Sure, this trend is a bit hard to see. Yet it is the root of the economic crisis now. To sum up, the current recession is the result of inequity between the working majority and a sedentary minority since the early 1970s. Since then, U.S. households have coped with wage stagnation two main ways. One is to work longer hours. The other is to borrow more money. Together, both practices have helped them to maintain their living standards. I end with a brief word on financial bubbles, most recently in housing. This bubble and those before it boost consumer spending absent a rise in real wages. Financial bubbles are the effect, not the cause, of the widening gap between the upper class and everyone else. Seth Sandronsky 2009-12-20T15:33:02Z Seth Sandronsky comment-18942 2009-12-08T18:43:13Z 2009-12-08T18:43:13Z Rhonda Erwin is my friend. In our age of rising home entertainment and personal disappointment, she shows how to learn with and from others in pursuit of equity and justice. If that sounds old school, well, I guess it is. All that is decent and humane in our society is the result of people such as Rhonda working collectively besides like-minded folks. They rarely make it into the history books. No matter. It is people in motion, mass movements, that ended slavery, gave women the vote, smashed legal segregation, won the eight-hour workday, Social Security and Medicare, etc. Wealth and the political power it controls cede nothing without demands from below. When folks educate, organize and mobilize they can move mountains. Rhonda can’t do it alone. Nobody can. It’s time for more “I” people to become “we” people. Seth Sandronsky 2009-12-08T18:43:13Z Seth Sandronsky comment-17260 2009-11-05T00:37:33Z 2009-11-05T00:37:33Z The LA Times reported on this hospital practice in Southern CA three years ago: http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/la-me-dumping16nov16,0,2734413.story Seth Sandronsky 2009-11-05T00:37:33Z Seth Sandronsky comment-16032 2009-10-22T15:19:23Z 2009-10-22T15:19:23Z Did Christopher Columbus and his crew have their citizenship papers in order? Seth Sandronsky 2009-10-22T15:19:23Z Seth Sandronsky comment-15631 2009-10-15T16:23:34Z 2009-10-15T16:23:34Z The governor just vetoed SB 218, a bill introduced by State Senator Leland Yee, D-SF, after questions raised about the business practices of foundations on California State University campuses from Fresno to San Francisco, Sonoma to Sacramento. As Kimberly writes, students are paying more for less education at Sacramento State. For the current budget year, Sac State is sending $5.12 million to University Enterprises, Inc., $4.8 million of which is for its CalSTRS building on Folsom Blvd., in part to plug the gap of lease revenue from nonexistent tenants. CSU Chancellor Charles Reed’s office has added $1.5 million for the UEI building this year. The property, which UEI bought in July 2007 as the home bubble burst, has an annual mortgage payment of $3 million in 2009-10. That rises to $3.86 million per year through 2038-39. SB 218 would have increased the transparency of Sac State’s long-term financial liability to UIE by compelling it and other higher education foundations to conform to the protocol for information requests that state and local agencies must comply with under the California Public Records Act now. Seth Sandronsky 2009-10-15T16:23:34Z Seth Sandronsky comment-14235 2009-09-23T23:22:46Z 2009-09-23T23:22:46Z The deficit as a percent of the economy is the key thing to watch. President Clinton left the White House with the federal budget in surplus. President George W. Bush turned that surplus into a deficit. The spike in the federal deficit over the past year is in the main a result of Main St., taxpayers on the left, center and right, bailing out Wall St. These big firms contribute about equally to Democrats and Republicans. Seth Sandronsky 2009-09-23T23:22:46Z Seth Sandronsky comment-12154 2009-08-15T16:19:22Z 2009-08-15T16:19:22Z Your source(s), Jim? Seth Sandronsky 2009-08-15T16:19:22Z Seth Sandronsky comment-12151 2009-08-15T13:29:48Z 2009-08-15T13:29:48Z What is the source of your fact on homelessness and substance abuse, Jim? Seth Sandronsky 2009-08-15T13:29:48Z Seth Sandronsky comment-11215 2009-07-28T13:04:56Z 2009-07-28T13:04:56Z Long live the grey dog! Seth Sandronsky 2009-07-28T13:04:56Z Seth Sandronsky comment-11076 2009-07-22T13:26:57Z 2009-07-22T13:26:57Z Before buying the daily newspaper chain of Knight Ridder Inc., I presume that the board of the McClatchy Co. employed financial advisors. They probably did not labor for the federal minimum wage, which rises 70 cents to $7.25 per hour on July 24th. These advisors did, however, miss the largest housing bubble in U.S. history. If the advisors on the Knight Ridder acquisition could have been more incompetent, it is a stretch to see how. Has there been any accountability for this failure? If so, what has it been? If there has been none, why not? Good journalists would dig this out. Seth Sandronsky 2009-07-22T13:26:57Z Seth Sandronsky comment-10988 2009-07-20T23:36:00Z 2009-07-20T23:36:00Z The housing bubble hid flat wages, as personal debt rose and savings fell. The housing crash has boosted savings, depressed wages and expanded under- and unemployment. The outcomes are gluts of workers, goods and services. Tax revenues fall in downturns. Government spending can bridge the gap in production and consumption. However, President Obama’s stimulus spending is a fraction of what we need to do that. Seth Sandronsky 2009-07-20T23:36:00Z Seth Sandronsky comment-10690 2009-07-14T14:05:32Z 2009-07-14T14:05:32Z California can rebrand itself as Goldman Sachs to get unlimited taxpayer bailouts. Seth Sandronsky 2009-07-14T14:05:32Z Seth Sandronsky comment-10548 2009-07-11T13:54:33Z 2009-07-11T13:54:33Z The financial experts in Sacramento and across the U.S. missed the multi-trillion dollar housing bubble that crashed. Their so-called expertise led to bankruptcies, job losses and home foreclosures. The same financial experts include the credit rating agencies. They still sell advice on investing to local and state governments. Talk about rewards for failure. Seth Sandronsky 2009-07-11T13:54:33Z Seth Sandronsky comment-10332 2009-07-07T14:50:34Z 2009-07-07T14:50:34Z No, demonize the poor who are politcally powerless. Who benefits? Seth Sandronsky 2009-07-07T14:50:34Z Seth Sandronsky comment-10330 2009-07-07T14:20:15Z 2009-07-07T14:20:15Z Low-wage jobs are a root cause of people's struggle to afford shelter. To be sure, charity has its place, religious and secular. However, the role of public policy is key to bringing rents in line with wages. Shelter, like health care and education, is a human right. Seth Sandronsky 2009-07-07T14:20:15Z Seth Sandronsky comment-10283 2009-07-05T15:38:57Z 2009-07-05T15:38:57Z There was over-investment in U.S. real estate, commercial and residential. In sum, we saw too much production chasing too little consumption. This imbalance is nothing new. Investors have partial information about future demand and supply. The rise and fall of too many U.S. industries is proof of that. Seth Sandronsky 2009-07-05T15:38:57Z Seth Sandronsky comment-10227 2009-07-03T16:43:08Z 2009-07-03T16:43:08Z Have you heard of the housing crash? That is what caused the current recession. Seth Sandronsky 2009-07-03T16:43:08Z Seth Sandronsky comment-10207 2009-07-02T21:13:18Z 2009-07-02T21:13:18Z The recession comes from the private sector. That is where the vast bulk of Americans labor. Cutting government spending will weaken the private sector. Seth Sandronsky 2009-07-02T21:13:18Z Seth Sandronsky comment-10206 2009-07-02T21:00:47Z 2009-07-02T21:00:47Z Oracle, Have you read the recent Sacramento Grand Jury report? Do you know that SEIU is not the only union that represents homecare providers? Do you know that tens of thousands of SEIU homecare workers in CA are sour on the leadership of Andy Stern? Seth Sandronsky 2009-07-02T21:00:47Z Seth Sandronsky comment-10192 2009-07-02T18:34:12Z 2009-07-02T18:34:12Z Disconnects exist between the rank-and-file and the international SEIU under President Andy Stern. Do you want workers to lack the time to protest? Seth Sandronsky 2009-07-02T18:34:12Z Seth Sandronsky comment-10175 2009-07-02T15:52:32Z 2009-07-02T15:52:32Z Are you blaming the SEIU for home care worker fraud? What is your source for the public's opinion of SEIU? Seth Sandronsky 2009-07-02T15:52:32Z Seth Sandronsky comment-10173 2009-07-02T15:36:58Z 2009-07-02T15:36:58Z Ben and Trapper, There is no need for CA to default on its bonds. Instead, the state could raise taxes on upper-income bondholders. I doubt that investors will avoid CA bonds as a result of higher taxes on the well-heeled. In the current crisis of financial fragility, investment safety trumps risk. In terms of federal bankruptcy law, private companies use it to void labor union agreements on pensions and wages. U.S. air carriers have done just that to their union workers. Currently, the governor is using the state budget crisis similarly to cut pay via furlough days for (most of the) state work force. His recent proposal to reduce retirement pensions for new state worker extends this aping of private sector trends. Seth Sandronsky 2009-07-02T15:36:58Z Seth Sandronsky comment-10120 2009-07-01T23:03:34Z 2009-07-01T23:03:34Z Some bondholders of General Motors lost money when it filed for bankruptcy protection and got a taxpayer bailout. Why can’t the state negotiate with its bondholders to bear some pain to help balance the budget? Seth Sandronsky 2009-07-01T23:03:34Z Seth Sandronsky comment-10117 2009-07-01T22:39:25Z 2009-07-01T22:39:25Z When do state bondholders get to bear some pain from budget cuts? Oh, I know. State budget cuts are for low- and middle-income Californians only. They are better able to live with less to balance the state budget. Seth Sandronsky 2009-07-01T22:39:25Z Seth Sandronsky comment-10030 2009-06-30T15:27:40Z 2009-06-30T15:27:40Z The real estate industry is a special interest group. It funds politicians, political campaigns and generates ad revenue for news media. I wonder what real estate agents have to say now about their part in pumping up the housing bubble? Crucially, its crash is driving the deep and deepening slowdown. Seth Sandronsky 2009-06-30T15:27:40Z Seth Sandronsky comment-9702 2009-06-20T18:03:06Z 2009-06-20T18:03:06Z There has been stagnation of growth and profits in the "real" economy of production and consumption, nationally and globally, since the post-WW2 prosperity ended in the early 1970s. Since then, capital seeking return on investment has migrated to financial markets. Seth Sandronsky 2009-06-20T18:03:06Z Seth Sandronsky comment-9699 2009-06-20T15:13:13Z 2009-06-20T15:13:13Z Financial bubbles are emerging as a rule rather than an exception. What explains this trend? Seth Sandronsky 2009-06-20T15:13:13Z Seth Sandronsky comment-9620 2009-06-18T14:24:53Z 2009-06-18T14:24:53Z In business competition, credit rating agencies such as Moody’s helped to inflate the recent housing bubble. The story is straightforward. The bubble grew in part due to Moody's minimizing the risk of subprime mortgage lending. Apparently, the firm’s failure to do its job then qualifies it now to advise Sacramento County on future spending. Has Mr. Wassmer heard of the role Moody’s had in the housing bubble and crash? Seth Sandronsky 2009-06-18T14:24:53Z Seth Sandronsky comment-9550 2009-06-16T23:39:03Z 2009-06-16T23:39:03Z Rashad, does Iran have a multiple-insurer health-care system such as the U.S.'s? Or does Iran have a single-insurer health-care system like the rest of the industrialized world? Seth Sandronsky 2009-06-16T23:39:03Z Seth Sandronsky comment-9524 2009-06-16T15:52:12Z 2009-06-16T15:52:12Z Thanks for your posting, Rashad. Seth Sandronsky 2009-06-16T15:52:12Z Seth Sandronsky comment-9463 2009-06-14T18:03:33Z 2009-06-14T18:03:33Z Where is the SCTA's analysis of the Obama stimulus? Seth Sandronsky 2009-06-14T18:03:33Z Seth Sandronsky comment-9430 2009-06-13T16:44:59Z 2009-06-13T16:44:59Z Is funding from the Obama stimulus package available to offset the SCUSD spending cuts? Seth Sandronsky 2009-06-13T16:44:59Z Seth Sandronsky comment-9387 2009-06-12T16:54:27Z 2009-06-12T16:54:27Z Below is a recent report on parents and teachers resisting education spending cuts in LA: http://www.democracynow.org/2009/6/10/la_schools Seth Sandronsky 2009-06-12T16:54:27Z Seth Sandronsky comment-9347 2009-06-12T00:34:55Z 2009-06-12T00:34:55Z The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation helped to fund the chartering of the once public Sacramento High School in 2003. Seth Sandronsky 2009-06-12T00:34:55Z Seth Sandronsky comment-9228 2009-06-10T16:51:27Z 2009-06-10T16:51:27Z Moody's was one of the credit rating agencies that failed to do its job in the run-up to the recent real estate bubble, according to journalist Robert Weismann. Here is the thing. Moody’s incompetent rating of subprime (risky) mortgages helped to inflate a multi-trillion dollar bubble. Its bursting has in turn led to the fiscal crises of local and state governments here and across the U.S. Therefore, we should question the credibility of Moody’s outlook on Sacramento County or any other public or private entities. For more see: http://www.democracynow.org/2008/1/23/recession Seth Sandronsky 2009-06-10T16:51:27Z Seth Sandronsky comment-9221 2009-06-10T14:06:51Z 2009-06-10T14:06:51Z What are the names of the credit rating agencies involved with the credit ratings of Sacramento County? Seth Sandronsky 2009-06-10T14:06:51Z Seth Sandronsky comment-8705 2009-06-02T18:49:03Z 2009-06-02T18:49:03Z All local and state governments facing a cash vise have to do is restructure as auto companies and banks. Seth Sandronsky 2009-06-02T18:49:03Z Seth Sandronsky comment-8568 2009-05-30T16:59:54Z 2009-05-30T16:59:54Z RT spending cuts are sure to lower local living standards for current riders. Seth Sandronsky 2009-05-30T16:59:54Z Seth Sandronsky comment-8116 2009-05-22T17:34:47Z 2009-05-22T17:34:47Z Jim, share the evidence for your case, you know, something other than an opinion. Seth Sandronsky 2009-05-22T17:34:47Z Seth Sandronsky comment-8010 2009-05-21T18:59:09Z 2009-05-21T18:59:09Z Can you provide one example based on your assumption, Jim? Seth Sandronsky 2009-05-21T18:59:09Z Seth Sandronsky comment-8005 2009-05-21T17:33:39Z 2009-05-21T17:33:39Z According to Jim, too much local and state government spending is what ails us. Once they balance their budgets, the economy will grow, job losses will end and prosperity will return. Seth Sandronsky 2009-05-21T17:33:39Z Seth Sandronsky comment-7967 2009-05-20T20:20:39Z 2009-05-20T20:20:39Z The last I checked, Dems and GOPsters in CA and DC had their hands in the $10 trillion loss from the crashes of the housing and stock markets. Borrowing taxpayer dollars to halt declines in our living standards helps those who are the least to blame for the slowdown. I call that good public policy. Seth Sandronsky 2009-05-20T20:20:39Z Seth Sandronsky comment-7961 2009-05-20T18:57:31Z 2009-05-20T18:57:31Z The federal government is deficit spending for wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, while shoveling below-market loans to the AIGs of the world. These financial firms are too big to fail, according to the appointed and elected officials involved. What about taxpayers in harm's way? Are we the sized right to fail? Now is the time for a federal bailout of local and state governments. Otherwise, the current downturn will be deeper and longer. The triggers for that will be local and state government spending cuts. They will further destabilize the private economy. This is not rocket science. Seth Sandronsky 2009-05-20T18:57:31Z Seth Sandronsky comment-7795 2009-05-18T18:48:50Z 2009-05-18T18:48:50Z Let us be clear about what to call the fencing proposal in MS’s report. The word for taking a public resource and making it private is privatization. It is that simple, folks. Seth Sandronsky 2009-05-18T18:48:50Z