Midweek Reading

Bryan Adams apologises after 'bat eating' coronavirus rant

Democrats’ $3 trillion opening bid for the next stimulus package, explained

Rand Paul Tells Dr. Anthony Fauci He Should Have a Little “Humility"
Gov. Tony Evers: GOP Leaders 'Unconcerned' About Patchwork Of COVID-19 Response

Ousted whistleblower warns US facing ‘darkest winter in modern history’

How the Coronavirus is Killing the Middle Class

McConnell admits he was wrong to say Obama administration failed to leave a pandemic playbook

Trump calls coronavirus testing ‘overrated,’ claims U.S. would have ‘very few’ cases if no testing

Oil companies have received $1.9B in tax benefits under coronavirus stimulus

Politicians failed us. So it's up to citizens to protect Wisconsin

The Sears Headquarters Deal Cost Taxpayers $500 Million. 30 Years Later, There’s Little to Show for It.

We could stop the pandemic by July 4 if the government took these steps

WISCONSIN IS NO LONGER AT HOME—AND NO LONGER SAFE

The Great Lakes are higher than they’ve ever been, and we’re not sure what will happen next

We Can Prevent a Great Depression. It’ll Take $10 Trillion.

The 12 deadliest viruses on Earth

Wisconsin's economy is reopening and it's a hot coronavirus mess. Don't do what we did.

See which states still have increasing rates of COVID-19

Weekend Reading

Fed's Evans Questions March Toward Higher Interest Rates
America's Middle Class Is Vanishing. Nearly Half Of Workers Earn Less Than $30,000
A Historian Makes The Case Against Billionaires
Scientists Have Established A Link Between Brain Damage And Religious Fundamentalism
How Past Income Tax Rate Cuts On The Wealthy Affected The Economy
The Economics Of Soaking The Rich
How Marginal Tax Rates Actually Work, Explained With A Cartoon
The "Skills Gap" Was A Lie
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Is Floating A 70 Percent Top Tax Rate - Here's The Research That Backs Her Up

Holiday Reading

The Shrinking Middle Class
Good Dogs
The Rise And Fall Of Scott Walker
The Corruption Of The Republican Party
You're Worth $1 Trillion. Why Do You Need Our $3 Billion?
GE Powered The American Century - Then It Burned Out
How The IRS Was Gutted
Sins Of The Fathers
Progressive Labor Standards
Kimberly-Clark To Receive $28 Million In Taxpayer Funds From Scott Walker
Foxconn & The Village: The $10 Billion Factory Deal That Turned One Small Wisconsin Town Upside Down
New Election Data Highlights The Ongoing Impact Of 2011 GOP Redistricting In Wisconsin

We All Do Better When We All Do Better

Weekend Reading

California Leads U.S. Economy, Away From Trump
Researchers Have Answered A Big Question About The Decline Of The Middle Class
Who's Watching Wall Street? The Feds Turn A Blind Eye To Goldman's Game
Simple Math Is Why Elon Musk's Companies Keep Doing What Others Don't Even Consider Possible
A New Olympics Reality: Fewer Cities Want To Host The Games
See One Of The World's Rarest Cats Captured On Camera
Disturbing Photographs Show Pollution in the Great Lakes Before the Clean Water Act

A Call For Clean Water

Trump Announces Commission To Investigate His Baseless Widespread Voter Fraud Claim

U.S. life expectancy varies by more than 20 years from county to county

America's Middle-Class Meltdown

America’s Middle-class Meltdown: Core shrinks to half of US homes

Union Decline Leads To Wage Decline For All

5 States Where the Middle Class Is Being Destroyed

Wisconsin: -5.7% 

The clear winner (or loser) in the race to the bottom has been Wisconsin, losing 5.7% of its middle class households since 2000. Average median income has dropped by roughly $9,000 annually, and costs of living have gone up as well. There have also been many political battles that have not worked in the middle class’s favor. Governor Scott Walker gutted many of the state’s unions — which has a big effect on the middle class — and all signs seem to indicate that he will aim to implement similar policies. Like Ohio, Wisconsin’s makeup was particularly vulnerable to a recession, and the proof is in the numbers.

Union Membership In Wisconsin Plummets In Wake Of GOP Measures

In 2015, 8.3% of Wisconsin workers, or 223,000 in all, were members of unions. That was down sharply from the 306,000 people, or 11.7% of the state’s workforce, who belonged to unions in 2014.

For Further Reading:

62 Richest People On Earth Hold As Much Wealth As The Poorest 3.5 Billion

Strong Unions, Strong Democracy

The Destruction Of Progressive Wisconsin

CEO Pay, Unionization & The Middle Class
Unions, Public Sector & Wages

More Bad News In The Continuing Sad Saga Of Scott Walker

The Pay-To-Play Allegation Walker's Watchdog Isn't Defending
Secret $1.5 Million Donation Uncovered In Walker Dark-Money Probe
State Of The Union Buster
Walker Ends Freedom Of Contract In Wisconsin
Right-To-Work Laws: Designed To Hurt Unions & Lower Wages
Lawmakers' Priorities For Property Tax Cuts Favor Wealthy
Wisconsin Economy Is Nowhere Near The 'Head Of The Class'
Wisconsin's Middle Class Shrinking Faster Than Any Other State
Wisconsin's Shrinking Middle Class
Walker's Wisconsin Still Lags Nation For Job Growth

Weekend Reading

As Divider-In-Chief, Gov. Scott Walker Is A Roaring Success
Everything You Think You Know About The News Is Probably Wrong

Around the world, people have a pretty good sense of the life expectancy of their country’s inhabitants. 

When it comes to most other social statistics, they have no idea. 

That’s the conclusion to be drawn from a study of public perception in 14 countries by Ipsos MORI, a UK-based market research firm. Ipsos polled over 11,000 residents in total about a range of social factors—from immigration to teen pregnancy to religious demographics. Here is the overall “Index of Ignorance,” from least to most informed: 

1. Italy
2. US
3. South Korea
4. Poland
5. Hungary
6. France
7. Canada
8. Belgium
9. Australia
10. Great Britain
11. Spain
12. Japan
13. Germany
14. Sweden

Southwest Airlines Transforms Air Service In Milwaukee

The Blame The Teachers Game: Has Any One Heard Of The South
Tax Foundation Ranks Wisconsin's Tax Climate 43rd In U.S.

Increase Wisconsin's Minimum Wage
Is The Affordable Care Act Working?
State Moving Forward On Hill Farms Land Sale, Redevelopment
Hill Farms Redevelopment Called Potential 'Backroom Deal'
The 10 Most Expensive State Programs
Car Dealers Are Awful. It's Time To Kill The Dumb Law That Keep Them In Business
7 Mental Biases That Could Impact How You Invest
Are 401(K) Plans Setting Up Millennials For Pain?
Economists Say We Should Tax The Rich At 90 Percent
10 Facts You May Not Know About The Federal Budget

All The Wealth The Middle Class Accumulated After 1940 Is Gone

Exploding Wealth Inequality In United States
Obama Is A Republican

Tax Cuts Have Been Bad For The Middle Class

Weekend Reading

Bernanke Was Clear, Fed's Crystal Ball Is Cloudy
The Strange Life Of John Menard
Citigroup Agrees To Pay $968 To Fannie Mae
EU Suspects 13 Banks Of Collusion In Swaps Trading
Labor's Declining Share Is An International Problem

The IRS Scandal Unwinds
America Doesn't Have The Richest Middle Class...We're 27th

10 Brilliant Pieces Of Bike Infrastructure
Why We Trail America In Jobs Growth

We Need A Stronger Labor Movement

Weekend Reading

City Hall: Where The Jobs Aren't
Five Myths About The Middle Class
Government Cutbacks Separate This Expansion From Others
Half Of Americans Die With Virtually No Assets
How Uncle Sam Helped Mitt Romney Build His Fortune
Monopoly Greed
No One Pays The Estate Tax
3 Reasons Why Hosting The Olympic Is A Loser's Game
Wages Aren't Stagnating, They're Plummeting
Water Is The New Gold, A Big Commodity Bet

American Inequality

CEO Pay, Unionization & The Middle Class

Wisconsin CEO Performance Evaluation

The One Percent Solution

Putting Budgets & Wealth In Context

Wages Becoming Increasingly Polarized

Overcompensating?

The Great Recession & It's Aftermath

Persistant Middle Class Squeeze

CEO Pay Soars While Workers' Stalls

CEOs Make 350 Times More Than Their Workers

America's 10 Highest Earning CEOs

Who Rules America?

Huge Increase In Pay For American CEOs

Cozy Relationships Send CEO Pay Soaring

As Stocks Plunge, CEO Continue To Reap Huge Salaries

CEOs Make 343 Times More Than Typical Worker

The Massive CEO Reward For Tax Dodging

Pay Without Performance

How CEO Pay Took Off While The Middle Class Struggled

International Differences In Executive & Managerial Compensation

U.S Bank CEO Dwarfs Rest Of The World

source

CEO Pay Up 298%

CEO Pay Charts

CEO Pay, Unionization & The Middle Class

Union Membership Since 1983

Union Affiliation, Private Industries & Government

Union Membership Rate By State

Union Membership; Middle Class Share of Income

As union membership declines, so does the middle class.

Further Reading - Unionization:

As Unions Weaken So Does The Middle Class

Union Affiliation By State

The Union Advantage: Facts & Figures

Union Members 2011

Union Members Summary 2011

Union Membership 2011

Union Membership At 70-Year Low

Ratio CEO Compensation To Average Worker

The Top 1 Percent's Share of National Income

Further Reading - CEO Pay:

America's 25 Highest Paid CEOs
CEO Pay
The CEO Pay Slice
CEO Pay Took Off While Middle Class Struggled
CEOs Distance Themselves From Average Worker
Corporate Paywatch
Pay Disparity Ratio
Wall Street Ascendant
Wall Street Class Racket

U.S Median Household Income

Further Reading - Inequality:

Measuring Inequality

Sunday Reading

Bad Year For Wall St. Not Reflected In Chiefs' Pay
Destructive Austerity, USA
Distorting Facts On Keystone XL
Fortune 500 Companies That Lobby & Avoid Taxes
How Conservatives Lie About Government
How The Great Recession & The Slow Recovery Compare Historically
How The U.S. Lost Out On iPhone Work
Milwaukee Gets Arty In The Third Ward
No, Doctors Don't Hate Obamacare
Private Inequity
Reformers Playbook On Failing Schools Fails A Fact Check
The Right To Work Assault On The Middle Class
Top Marginal Tax Rates: 1916-2010
Walker: "We're Heading In The Right Direction."

Free-Falling

David Rohde has an interesting article up over at the Atlantic, Free-Falling In Milwaukee.

Excerpt:

"First, the numbers. From 1970 to 2007, the percentage of families in the Milwaukee metropolitan area that were middle class declined from 37 to 24 percent, according to a new analysis by the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission. During the same period, the proportion of affluent families grew from 22 to 27 percent-while the percentage of poor households swelled from 23 to 31 percent. In short, Milwaukee's middle class families went from a plurality to its smallest minority."

Weekend Reading

Are Wisconsin Public Employees Over-Compensated?
Can The Middle Class Be Saved?
Does 'Right-To-Work' Create Jobs?
Does The Middle Class Have To Take A Hit?
The Myth Of Income Inequality, Courtesy Of AEI
Scarce Job Opening In The U.S.
Skewed Economic Rewards In The U.S.
What Would Keynes Do?

Midweek Reading

As Unions Weaken So Does Middle Class
Blue States To The Rescue. Again.
China Labor Costs Push Jobs Back To U.S.
CEO Pay Soaring
Death Of Forests, Loss Of Key Climate Protector
Did Fannie Cause The Disaster?
Gas Tax Short Of Covering Roads
Misrepresentations, Regulations, Jobs
No Economic Recovery Without Smart Growth
Rewarding CEOs Who Fail
Spend, Spend, Spend
Tax Subsidies For Film Doesn't Pay Off 
5 Facts About The Wealthiest One Percent
To Boost Incomes, Uncle Same Should Lend A Hand
U.S. Manufacturing: The Engine That Could

Middle Class Extermination