One of Facebook’s founders is taking on the Federal Reserve
Dustin Moskovitz and his wife, Cari Tuna, have become billionaires since he started the behemoth social networking site...
Dustin Moskovitz and his wife, Cari Tuna, have become billionaires since he started the behemoth social networking site with his former Harvard University roommate Mark Zuckerberg. (Moskovitz left the company in 2008 to found Asana, which streamlines task management). The couple is bringing Silicon Valley-style analytics to the world of philanthropy through their fund, Good Ventures.
The goal is to find and incubate projects with the potential to create the most change for every dollar of funding. Many of the fund’s initiatives tread traditional charitable ground. Good Ventures has backed research on the connection between crime, cannabis and incarceration and helped stop the spread of drug-resistant malarial parasites in Myanmar.
But the group is also broadening its reach into public policy issues, including macroeconomics. It has granted $850,000 to the Center for Popular Democracy over the past year to fund a campaign urging the Fed not to raise its target interest rate until the economy is much stronger. Good Ventures is the single largest backer of the campaign -- dubbed Fed Up -- whose budget this year is about $1 million.
“The central reason we believe that marginally more dovish Fed policy relative to the current baseline would carry net benefits is that, at roughly their current rates, we see unemployment as more costly in humanitarian terms than inflation,” Good Ventures wrote explaining its decision to fund the project. “Dovish” policy generally supports lower interest rates, while a “hawkish” stance would raise them.
The funding has helped the group expand its presence at an annual symposium of economic elite that kicked off Thursday here in the foothills of the Grand Tetons and sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. The group arrived at the conference last year with a handful of workersholding up signs and wearing green T-shirts.
This year, Fed Up held “teach-ins” in a meeting room at the same hotel as the Fed’s conference and drew prominent economists such as Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz, University of California-Berkeley professor Brad DeLong and Center for Economic and Policy Research Co-Director Dean Baker.
The campaign also flew in dozens of workers to underscore the disparity in the nation’s economic recovery. Wage growth has remained stagnant for years, and unemployment among black and Hispanic workers is significantly higher than that of whites.
“An economy that doesn’t deliver for most of its citizens is a failed economy,” Stiglitz said in a press conference in Jackson Hole.
Monetary policy has not traditionally been subject to populist activism, and Good Ventures acknowledges that the success of the campaign is uncertain at best. Fed Up is also working to increase public input in the selection of regional Fed presidents, an effort that Good Ventures rates as more unequivocably positive and, at the very least, easier to measure.
But, the funders note, if the campaign works -- and if easy money is indeed the way to go -- the payoff could be massive:
Our best guess is that the campaign is unlikely to have an impact on the Fed's monetary policy, but that if it does, the benefits from a tighter labor market would be very large; we think this small chance of a large positive impact is sufficient to justify the grant.
However, this is an unusually complex policy area, and we could be mistaken.
Source: Washington Post
'Freedom city'? Going beyond 'sanctuary,' Austin, Texas, vows to curtail arrests
'Freedom city'? Going beyond 'sanctuary,' Austin, Texas, vows to curtail arrests
While Austin is among the country’s first so-called freedom cities, it’s part of a wider movement around...
While Austin is among the country’s first so-called freedom cities, it’s part of a wider movement around decriminalizing low-level offenses and decreasing arrests. According to Local Progress, a national network of progressive city officials, some council members in El Paso and Dallas are also considering “freedom city” proposals.
Read the full article here.
Part-Time Schedules, Full-Time Headaches
New York Times - July 18, 2014, By Steven Greenhouse - A worker at an apparel store at Woodbury Common, an outlet mall...
New York Times - July 18, 2014, By Steven Greenhouse - A worker at an apparel store at Woodbury Common, an outlet mall north of New York City, said that even though some part-time employees clamored for more hours, the store had hired more part-timers and cut many workers’ hours to 10 a week from 20.
As soon as a nurse in Illinois arrived for her scheduled 3-to-11 p.m. shift one Christmas Day, hospital officials told her to go home because the patient “census” was low. They also ordered her to remain on call for the next four hours — all unpaid.
An employee at a specialty store in California said his 25-hour-a-week job with wildly fluctuating hours wasn’t enough to live on. But when he asked the store to schedule him between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. so he could find a second job, the store cut him to 12 hours a week.
These are among the experiences related by New York Times readers in more than 440 responses to an article published in Wednesday’s paper about a fledgling movement in which some states and cities are seeking to limit the harshest effects of increasingly unpredictable and on-call work schedules. Many readers voiced dismay with the volatility of Americans’ work schedules and the inability of many part-timers to cobble together enough hours to support their families.
In a comment that was the most highly recommended by others — 307 of them — a reader going by “pedigrees” wrote that workers were often reviled for not working hard enough or not being educated enough. “How can they work more jobs or commit to a degree program if they don’t know what their work schedule will be next week, much less next month?” the reader wrote. “It’s long past time for some certainty for workers. They drive the economy.”
Some readers were shocked by the story of Mary Coleman, who, after an hourlong bus commute, arrived for her scheduled shift at a Popeyes in Milwaukee only to be told to go home without clocking in because the store already had enough employees working. She wasn’t paid for the day.
“What happened to Ms. Coleman should be criminal,” wrote “JenD” of New Jersey in the second-most-recommended comment. “These types of stories sound like they were written by Charles Dickens in the mid-19th century.”
A reader from South Dakota, “JDT,” wrote that he was baffled as to why so many employers created turmoil for their workers by assigning them a different schedule every week, making it hard to juggle their jobs with child care or college.
“As a small-business owner for over 30 years, I have always been able to provide my part-time employees with a firm, steady and predictable schedule,” JDT wrote. “My employees are a vital and important asset. I treat them right, and they do their best for me. It’s so easy ... Why can’t big business run by M.B.A.s and highly compensated executives figure that out?”
JDT, whose name is Jim D. Taylor, runs a combined law and real estate firm in Mitchell, S.D. In a follow-up interview, he said: “In a small business, if you’ve scheduled someone to work, there should always be enough to do — you don’t send them home. I don’t know why big business is any different.”
“Why is it so hard to schedule someone for regular shifts?” Mr. Taylor asked.
A reader calling himself “Polish Ladies Cleaning Service” wrote that in the housecleaning business, it was “a particularly devilish problem” to maintain predictable schedules for employees. “If a client cancels and there’s no work, there’s no work,” he wrote. “We try to let everyone know ASAP, of course, but there are times when clients do cancel literally at the very last minute!”
In a follow-up interview, David Chou, the spokesman for Polish Ladies Cleaning Service, a company based in Brooklyn, told of a woman with a $19,000-a-month apartment who failed to confirm a housecleaning appointment scheduled for that day. So the company had to tell the scheduled housekeeper she was not needed that morning.
“We try to reschedule the ladies with other clients if that’s possible, but probably about half the times that’s not possible,” Mr. Chou said.
“Mary,” a reader from Atlanta, said it was understandable why so many employers relied on part-time workers. “We do still have issues with supply and demand that make it difficult for some businesses to hire full time (e.g., retail brick-and-mortar stores struggling with seasonal slowdowns and competition from Internet stores),” she wrote.
“How is it so many, and Obama, believe that workers have the right to tell their employer what hours they will work?” she added. “I’m thinking many here need to go to Europe or some other country. See how that works for you. Our government has no right to dictate, only to protect workers from abuse, and part-time is not abuse.”
One reader, a sales employee at an Apple store, complained in a letter that her work schedule varied every week, although she praised Apple’s medical, dental and vision benefits, even for part-timers. In a follow-up interview she said she was essentially required to be available anytime from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. six days a week — she has designated Wednesday as her day off.
“Having to give them that much availability, it means you’re at their mercy,” she said, noting that her husband works Monday through Friday. “You don’t know until the schedule comes out what your life will look like.”
Courtney Moore, a cashier at a Walmart in Cincinnati, said in an interview that she had been assigned about 40 hours a week until she told store management in June that she would begin taking college classes most mornings and some afternoons. She said she asked her manager to put her on the late shift, but to her dismay, the store reduced her to 15 hours a week.
“They said they need someone they could call whenever they need help — and they said I’m not that person,” Ms. Moore said. She said she would prefer being a dedicated full-time employee at Walmart but had to take a second job at McDonald’s instead.
A middle-aged New Yorker who lost his teaching job of two decades because of a budget squeeze in his school district said he had applied for retail jobs and was shocked by what he found.
“You had to be available every minute of every day, knowing you would be scheduled for no more than 29 hours per week and knowing there would be no normalcy to your schedule,” he wrote. “I told the person I would like to be scheduled for the same days every week so I could try to get another job to try to make ends meet. She immediately said, ‘Well, that will end our conversation right here. You have to be available every day for us.’
“I asked, ‘Even though I’m trying to get another job?’ ‘Yes.’ Then she just stared at me and asked me to leave. What kind of company does this? What kind of company will not even let you get another job?”
Source
Democrats Push for More Diversity in Fed Leadership
Democrats Push for More Diversity in Fed Leadership
The first woman to chair the Federal Reserve is being criticized by Democratic legislators demanding more diversity in...
The first woman to chair the Federal Reserve is being criticized by Democratic legislators demanding more diversity in the central bank’s top policymaking positions
The first woman to chair the Federal Reserve is being criticized by Democratic legislators demanding more diversity in the central bank’s top policymaking positions.
According to report from TheHill.com, Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen received a letter from 116 House Democrats and 11 senators that complained about the surplus of white men in leadership roles. The lawmakers pointed out that the central bank’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) is entirely White and called for an emphasis on ethnicity and economic and professional backgrounds as part of the factors in choosing future executive officers.
“The importance of ensuring that such positions are filled by persons that reflect and represent the interests of our diverse country cannot be overstated,” the letter stated. “When the voices of women, African-Americans, Latinos, Asian Pacific Americans, and representatives of consumers and labor are excluded from key discussions, their interests are too often neglected.”
The letter was coordinated by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-MI). Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, an Independent who is running for the Democratic presidential nomination, was among those signing the letter, while Hillary Clinton chimed in her support after the letter’s contents were made public.
For its part, the Fed insisted that it was committed to diversity in hiring.
"We have focused considerable attention in recent years on recruiting directors with diverse backgrounds and experiences," said a Fed spokesperson. "By law, we consider the interests of agriculture, commerce, industry, services, labor, and consumers. We also are aiming to increase ethnic and gender diversity."
By Phil Hall
Source
Activists went all out to save Obamacare. Now they’re fighting for opioid recovery funds.
Activists went all out to save Obamacare. Now they’re fighting for opioid recovery funds.
It’s Phil Krauss’ first time protesting on Capitol Hill. He’s an advocate who kicked heroin three years ago when he was...
It’s Phil Krauss’ first time protesting on Capitol Hill. He’s an advocate who kicked heroin three years ago when he was 32 years old. He’s new to organizing but he’s surrounded by veterans, many who were just at the Russell Senate Office Building two months ago trying to save the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
Read the full article here.
Activists to Protest at Regional Feds Ahead of Jobs Data
Wall Street Journal - March 3, 2015, by Pedro Nicolaci da Costa - A network of liberal activists is planning a series...
Wall Street Journal - March 3, 2015, by Pedro Nicolaci da Costa - A network of liberal activists is planning a series of small demonstrations outside of several Federal Reserve district banks Thursday, intending to highlight elevated unemployment among minority communities and urging officials not to raise interest rates any time soon.
Fed officials have indicated they plan to lift their benchmark short-term interest rate from near zero, where it has been since late 2008, sometime this year if the economy continues to strengthen as expected.
The activists say the nation’s 5.7% jobless rate understates the underlying weakness of the labor market, pointing to high long-term and black unemployment as symptoms of an economy that is still ailing. The unemployment rate for blacks was 10.3% in January.
“The Federal Reserve has the power–and responsibility–to foster stronger economic conditions that create opportunity for all communities,” the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal Washington think tank backing the demonstrations, said in a statement.
The activists are planning actions outside the regional Fed banks of New York, San Francisco, Kansas City, Philadelphia, Minneapolis, St. Louis, Charlotte, N.C. (home to a branch of the Richmond Fed) and Dallas.
The Labor Department releases its February employment report on Friday.
Becky Moeller, president of the Texas AFL-CIO, said she and other community leaders have been frustrated by what they see as an opaque process for selecting the next Dallas Fed president. The current chief, Richard Fisher, is set to step down March 19.
Ms. Moeller said instead of getting a meeting with members of the Dallas Fed’s board of directors, which is in charge of the search, she and her delegation met with the bank’s general counsel in a session she described as not very helpful.
“This has been a comedy of pass the buck,” she said. “We don’t have a candidate—we’re just trying to talk processes.”
The Dallas Fed said it had recently met with the following groups regarding the search for a new bank president: Texas AFL-CIO, Texas Organizing Project, Jobs With Justice, Fort Worth Building Trades and Ironworkers, Workers Defense Project, Communication Workers of America, Dallas Central Labor Council, Harris County Central Labor Council and American Federation of Teachers.
“We had a productive conversation with representatives from these groups,” said James Hoard, a spokesman for the Dallas Fed. “We were interested in hearing their views on the selection of a new Dallas Fed president, and hope we were able to provide useful information to them, as well.”
The Center for Popular Democracy and the Fed Up Coalition, the umbrella groups coordinating the protests, expressed dismay at the lack of transparency in the selection of Patrick Harker as the new Philadelphia Fed President.
“Despite repeated requests from community, consumer, labor and academic organizations and public officials within the region, the Philadelphia Fed refused to create any mechanisms for engagement with the public,” said Kendra Brooks of Action United in Philadelphia.
“Instead, the process was entirely opaque: nobody outside of the Federal Reserve knew who the candidates were or what the criteria were for selection. This process did a disservice to the Federal Reserve System and the people of the Philadelphia region.”
The Philadelphia Fed said in response: “Several of our staff members did meet with members from Action United to hear their concerns. The Philadelphia Fed also provided them the opportunity to provide names of potential candidates to our executive search firm.”
The same group of activists showed up at the Kansas City Fed’s annual Jackson Hole symposium last summer and held a meeting with Janet Yellen at the Fed in November.
Last week, Ms. Yellen met with a group of conservative activists who argued the Fed’s low-rate policies were hurting rather than boosting employment.
The Great Recession has brought increased political scrutiny on the Fed, with prominent Republican and Democratic politicians calling for various changes in the central bank’s governance.
Source
Why Dianne Feinstein’s shutdown vote helps her re-election
Feinstein’s stand has earned her the approval, if not full-fledged embrace, of activists. “She came right on the Dream...
Feinstein’s stand has earned her the approval, if not full-fledged embrace, of activists.
“She came right on the Dream Act and that’s really important,” said Center for Popular Democracy’s Ady Barkan, who was among the activists leading a Jan. 3 rally at Feinstein’s Los Angeles office to press her on the issue.
Read the full article here.
Hour by Hour: Women in Today’s Workweek
Nationwide, more than 38 million women work in hourly jobs. Most women, and most Americans, are paid by the hour, yet...
Nationwide, more than 38 million women work in hourly jobs. Most women, and most Americans, are paid by the hour, yet today’s workweek is changing—the 40 hour workweek and the 8-hour day are no longer the norm for a significant part of this workforce.
Our nation’s workplace protections are badly out of sync with the needs of today’s working families and we need policies that provide everyone an opportunity to get ahead. Particularly, labor standards have not kept up with rapid changes to the fastest growing industries like retail, healthcare, and food service. Part-time workers in the service sector—overwhelmingly women—have borne the greatest burden of these new just-intime scheduling practices, which have largely gone unregulated. But what begins in these sectors will soon spread, as the distinctions between part-time and full-time work grow increasingly blurred, and more and more Americans experience work hour instability and economic uncertainty.
Women − over a third of whom work part-time in order to juggle economic survival, family responsibilities, and advancing their careers − are at the greatest risk of being further marginalized in the workforce if unsustainable scheduling practices on the part of employers go unchecked. As we seek to create family-sustaining jobs in the burgeoning service sector, we must also consider scheduling practices in low-wage employment. Without an update to labor standards for these workers, more and more workers across the economy will be subject to this type of extreme economic uncertainty. New policies that ensure predictable schedules, give employees a voice in their schedules, ensure quality part-time employment and access to stable, full-time schedules will improve the lives of working people in general and especially benefit working women and mothers.
Download the full report
Tenants March to Stop Giveaways to Wall Street Landlords
“When I moved into our manufactured housing community in North Fort Myers, it was a beautiful, peaceful place,” Mathers...
“When I moved into our manufactured housing community in North Fort Myers, it was a beautiful, peaceful place,” Mathers told the crowd of around 1,000 activists who’d converged on the city for a July 13 Tenant March on Washington.
“Now I have neighbors who are really struggling. They’re taking their medications every other day instead of every day and not eating the food they need to be healthy.”
Read the full article here.
Paid Sick Days Advocates Applaud De Blasio & Mark-Viverito On Expansion Of Earned Sick Time
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: JANUARY 17, 2014 CONTACTS: See below NEW YORK – Today, Mayor Bill de Blasio and newly...
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: JANUARY 17, 2014
CONTACTS: See below
NEW YORK – Today, Mayor Bill de Blasio and newly elevated City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito jointly announced their intention to expand the Earned Sick Time law passed last year with support from the NY Paid Sick Days Coalition.
Specifically, their proposal will close the following loopholes in the Earned Sick Time Act:
Employers with 5-14 workers must now provide paid sick days to their workers. Employers with 15-19 workers must provide paid sick days immediately rather than waiting until 2015. Workers may now use their earned sick time to care for a sibling, grandchild or grandparent. Certain manufacturing employees previously left out will now be covered by the law. City agencies will now be able to proactively enforce the law rather than relying solely on worker complaints.The NY Paid Sick Days coalition includes over ninety organizational members, representing labor unions, public health organizations, educators and children’s advocates, women’s groups, economic justice groups, civil rights leaders, faith leaders, business owners and associations, research organizations, senior advocates, and immigrants’ rights groups.
QUOTES FROM COALITION MEMBERS
Center for Popular Democracy:
The following quote can be attributed to Amy Carroll, deputy director of the Center for Popular Democracy:
“We applaud Mayor de Blasio and Speaker Mark-Viverito for championing and expanding the Earned Sick Time Act. It signals a new day for New York workers and their families that their needs will come first in this administration. We look forward to working with the administration and the council to create policy that will close the income gap and create a more affordable, inclusive city for everyone.” 32BJ SEIU:
The following quote can be attributed to Hector Figueroa, president of 32BJ Service Employees International Union:
“We applaud Mayor de Blasio and Speaker Mark-Viverito for making good on their campaign promises to expand the Paid Sick Act. Although our members can afford to get sick, many of their family members and their neighbors have been forced to choose between their health and their livelihoods. This bill is an important first step in the fight for real income equality in this city and we look forward to working with the administration to make sure this bill and others aimed at improving the quality of life for New York’s working families become law.”
A Better Balance:
The following quote can be attributed to Sherry Leiwant, co-president of A Better Balance:
“A Better Balance is thrilled that the Mayor is expanding the Earned Sick Time Act we helped negotiate last year to provide paid sick days to so many of the workers excluded under that law. Thank you to Mayor de Blasio and Speaker Mark-Viverito for recognizing that New Yorkers should not be forced to choose between their jobs and their own or their family's health."
Community Service Society:
The following quote can be attributed to David R. Jones, president and CEO of the Community Service Society:
"Amending the paid sick leave law to cover more of New York City's smaller businesses is critical because employees of these businesses are the ones who most often now lack access to even one paid sick day. Our latest Unheard Third data shows that the original law effectively leaves out more than a third of the workers now without a single paid sick day -- and just gives them job protection in the form of unpaid leave. CSS applauds the mayor and speaker for their efforts to create a more stable and healthier workforce while ensuring that more low-wage workers receive a basic labor standard that most higher-income earners take for granted."
Make the Road New York:
Leonardo Fernando, member of Make the Road New York, is an immigrant worker originally from Mexico. He works at a car wash in Queens and he said: "I have lived and worked in this country for nine years, and I've never had paid sick days. The business where I work now, Fresh Pond Car Wash, would be covered under this new paid sick days law because it has thirteen employees. We work long shifts, in the heat and the cold, and we use hazardous chemicals. But I never take a day off, even when I'm sick, because I have four children to support and I can't afford to miss a day's pay or risk losing my job. I've gone to work with a fever and with the flu, and I'm so happy that I'll be able to take the day off when I'm too sick to work. I would like to thank Mayor Bill de Blasio and the New York City Council for expanding the paid sick days law and making this one of the new administration's first priorities."
New York City Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO:
The following quote is attributable to Vincent Alvarez, President of the New York City Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO: "A healthy workforce is a more dedicated and focused workforce. I applaud Mayor de Blasio and Speaker Mark-Vivierito for taking this step in the right direction toward expanding the historic Earned Sick Time law that was passed last year, and making it a real priority to improve conditions for hundreds of thousands of our city's workers. The New York City labor movement is committed to continuing to work with the Mayor and the Speaker to ensure that our city's workers are treated with the dignity and respect they deserve. "
New York Paid Leave Coalition:
The following quote can be attributed to Martha Baker, New York Paid Leave Coalition:
“The NYC Paid Sick Days Coalition applauds Mayor de Blasio for proposing amendments to the recently passed Earned Sick Time Act that will provide paid sick days on April 1, 2014 to hundreds of thousands of workers not covered by the original bill. We are delighted that the bill has been expanded and that the Mayor recognizes how important it is that New York City workers have access to paid sick days.”
Restaurant Opportunities Center of New York:
The following quote can be attributed to Daisy Chung, executive director of the Restaurant Opportunities Center of New York:
"We are pleased that Mayor de Blasio and Speaker Mark-Viverito are moving quickly to give more workers the right to paid sick days. With these changes, many restaurant workers who work in the city's smaller restaurants will now have the right to paid sick days. We look forward to working with the Mayor and Speaker to strengthen the Earned Sick Time Act even further so it can be used as a model for the rest of the country."
Working Families Party:
The following quote can be attributed to Dan Cantor, executive director of the Working Families Party:
"This is the first sign of what the new administration could mean for New York. Mayor de Blasio has done what every sensible New Yorker knows he should, and he didn't waste any time. The expansion of paid sick days delivers on a basic tenet of fairness -- that no one should face a choice between their families, their jobs, or their health."
CONTACTS:
Meredith Kolodner, 32BJ SEIU: 917-881-3896
Sherry Leiwant, A Better Balance, 917-535-0075
TJ Helmstetter, Center for Popular Democracy: 973-464-9224
Jeff Maclin, Community Service Society: 212-614-5538
Hilary Klein, Make the Road New York: 347-423-8277
Cara Noel, NY Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO: 212.604.9552
Martha Baker, NY Paid Leave Coalition: 917-992-5300
Rahul Saksena, Restaurant Opportunities Center of New York: 203-561-2959
Khan Shoieb, Working Families Party: 347-596-6389
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