Deficit Fixed. Now Fix The Job Gap, Wage Gap And Trade Gap

Dave Johnson Campaign for America's Future
The "deficit problem" is man-made. The deficit is now down 60 percent as a percent of gross domestic product. It is down more than the deficit hawks Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles asked for. This rapid reduction is seriously hurting the economy and jobs, but demands for cuts continue. It is time for Congress and the President to "pivot" to focusing on our real problems: the jobs gap, the wage gap and the trade gap.

The US Food Aid Industry: Food for Peace or Food for Profit?

Brock Hicks Food First
Food for Peace ends up looking a lot more like Food for Profit. The letter ends with one final truth, declaring that food aid programs are "some of our most effective, lowest-cost national security tools." By handicapping local food markets across the world, food aid keeps poor countries poor and compliant, and provides US-based companies with dependable markets for the dumping of surplus food commodities.

Trans-Atlantic Rifts

By Christoph Pauly and Christoph Schult Der Spiegel
Consumer watchdogs, Internet activists and European farmers are gearing up to fight the planned trade agreement between Europe and the United States. Many in Europe are worried that politicians will make backroom deals at the expense of consumers.

labor

Growth of Income Inequality Blocks Recovery

JACK RAMUS Talking Union, a DSA labor blog
Growing income inequality—approaching now obscene levels—is not simply a ‘moral outrage’. It not only represents a gross violation of historically held American values or reasonable equality for all. It is a condition that has served, and continues to serve, as a major cause of the lack of sustained economic recovery in the US now for five years—as well as a major factor in explaining why the US continues today to drift toward another ‘double dip’ recession.

Fighting Fire with Fire

Ashok Kumar & Chetan Ahimsa Ceasefire Magazine (UK)
Underneath global apparel's glitzy makeup lies an unglamorous underbelly - one of violent working conditions and structural faux pas. Case and point: factory fires. In September 2012, 300 garment workers lost their lives when a factory caught ablaze in Pakistan - two months later, 112 deaths after a similar tragedy in Bangladesh. Add China to the list, and 2012 will go on record as the deadliest year to be a garment worker.
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