- Court says business can ban class action arbitration by employees—"[A] federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that companies can require employees to sign contracts prohibiting them from taking class action against the company."
- Don't Blame Robots For Declining Wages -- Blame Dissolving Unions
- LePage revisits child-labor laws
- Tax breaks for CEOs pay for million-dollar salaries—"CEOs' salaries are ballooning thanks to tax breaks that turn bonuses into government subsidies for corporate America."
- Bangladesh Garment Factory Ablaze As Worker Anger Boils
- Fast-food workers walk off jobs in '100 city' low-pay protest
- Apparently McDonald's Thinks Its Employees Have Swimming Pools and Nannies
- The Daily Show talks raising the minimum wage and associated fears
- How Raising the Minimum Wage Would Benefit McDonald's and Walmart
- Krugman: Better Pay Now—"Raising the minimum wage would help many Americans, and might actually be politically possible." NYT
- Robinson: Democrats can win on raising minimum wage WaPo
- D.C. Council Unanimously Approves Minimum Wage Increase To $11.50—Another step closer for Washington DC.
- Leggett signs Montgomery County's new minimum wage law—"The bill will raise the county's minimum wage — which is now $7.25 — to $11.50 by 2017, including to $8.40 on Oct. 1, 2014."
- Fleeing to Next Town, Bosses May Find Minimum Wage Is Rising There, Too—"When businesses threatened to move across county lines if the minimum wage was raised, a county councilman was able to get three governments to agree to raise it together." NYT
- Minimum Wage Was Once Enough To Keep a Family of 3 Out of Poverty—Big factor is the devaluation of human labor thanks to globalization.
- Republicans More Likely to Have Constituents Who Use Food Stamps
- Millionaire Congressman votes to cut food stamp aid for poor constituents but uses taxpayer-funded office account to reimburse himself for meals
- Now Is A Horrible Time To Cut Food Stamps, In 1 Depressing Chart
- GOP debunked on food stamps: Everything they say about SNAP is wrong—"Forget the nonsense about them breeding dependency. Food stamps increase self-sufficiency, research shows." Salon
- Why Is a Senate Democrat Agreeing to Another $8 Billion in Food Stamp Cuts?
- Noam Chomsky: America hates its poor—"Linguist and philosopher Noam Chomsky on our country's brutal class war -- and why it's ultimately so one-sided." Salon
- Charity is not a substitute for justice—"Poor Americans need higher salaries, not food drives."
- Boris Johnson fails live 'IQ test'—"In first appearance since controversial speech, London mayor fails to answer two IQ questions and refuses to answer third."
- Obama: 'Dangerous and growing inequality' has jeopardized middle class WaPo
- Krugman: Obama Gets Real—"With a big inequality speech, the president is finally sounding like the progressive many of his supporters thought they were backing in 2008." NYT
- White House says 240,000 jobs lost in 2014 without jobless benefits extension
- Low wages are stalling America's economy
- Flipside: Jobs growth strong, unemployment at five-year low
- Here's why Wall Street has a hard time being ethical—"A new report finds 53% of financial services executives say that adhering to ethical standards inhibits career progression at their firm. A former Wall Street trader describes why."
- The Wall Street Journal's pathetic attack on Elizabeth Warren—"A new Op-Ed from the WSJ tries -- and fails -- to take down the Senate's liberal icon." Salon
- Looking for fraud? Don't look at food stamp recipients, look at Wall Street—"Food stamps keep 47 million people from going hungry, so cuts hurt. Congress should focus on where the real abuse happens."
- Another Batch of Wall Street Villains Freed on Technicality—"Why the GE Capital convictions were quietly overturned, and what it says about justice on Wall Street."
- More Welfare for Wall Street: One in Three Bank Tellers Need Public Assistance
- U.S. House passes bill to exempt private equity funds from rules—"The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill on Wednesday that would largely spare private equity fund advisers from federal regulations enacted after the 2007-2009 financial crisis." Most likely to be vetoed by Obama if it reaches his desk.
- Big Banks Might Charge for Deposits to 'Compensate' for Fed Policies—Big Banks have gotten too big. Look into your local credit unions.
- Bad deals with Wall Street are costing the city as much as $1 billion a year: report
- What the Fluck!—"The point at which journalism fails and modern power begins."
- The Daily Show: Blackstone & Codere—"Samantha Bee investigates the shady, totally legal business dealings of a private equity firm called Blackstone."
- EU fines banks over rate-rigging—"The European Commission has fined eight banks - including RBS - a total of 1.7bn euros (£1.4bn) for forming illegal cartels to rig interest rates."
- U.S. plans new bank fraud cases in early 2014 - attorney general
- LA Sues Wells Fargo, Citigroup Over Foreclosures—"The Los Angeles city attorney sued Wells Fargo and Citigroup on Thursday, alleging the companies engaged in mortgage discrimination that led to a wave of foreclosures in minority communities during the housing crash."
- NY judge: Goldman Sachs silent about rogue trader—"A former Goldman Sachs trader was sentenced on Friday to nine months in prison for wire fraud by a judge who took sharp aim at both Goldman and the government, questioning why it took them so long to bring the misconduct to light."
- U.S. Judge Weighs Penalties After BofA Fraud Verdict
- Remember all those Obamacare horror stories? Not looking so bad now—"Inflammatory personal testimony has been a staple of bad debating since humans first started arguing with each other."
- Republicans Change Obamacare Attacks as Website Functions
- Another Georgia Republican Forgot The Camera Was Rolling, Accidentally Spoke His Mind—"Georgia's Republican insurance commissioner is stepping back from his claim that pre-existing medical conditions are similar to a car crash that is the driver's fault." If an insurance company's profits are primarily based on denying coverage then they shouldn't be in the healthcare business.
- Kentucky Governor To Mitch McConnell: Get Your Facts Straight On Obamacare
- The GOP says Obamacare will cancel 80-100 million insurance plans. Nope. WaPo
- Report: States Opting Out Of Medicaid Expansion Will Lose Billions
- GOP obstruction of Obamacare is closing hospitals
- How to Tell When the N.S.A. Is Lying—"If the N.S.A. says that it is not 'intentionally' doing something, then it is almost certainly taking that very action."
- Revealed: How the Nsa Targets Italy
- Patriot Act author: Obama's intel czar should be prosecuted—"Rep. James Sensenbrenner Jr., the original author of the Patriot Act, says Director of National Intelligence James Clapper should be prosecuted for lying to Congress."
- AT&T Says It Doesn't Have to Disclose NSA Dealings—Via shareholders' vote.
- NSA Wrongly Says Warrantless Mobile-Phone Location Tracking Is Legal
- Nullifiers Have A Plan To Stop The NSA: Turn Off Its Water Supply
- FBI's search for 'Mo,' suspect in bomb threats, highlights use of malware for surveillance WaPo
