Leo Hindery, Jr.

Last September we renewed our earlier pleas to Congress to 'pick' the four low-hanging initiatives that would, if the administration and Congress together would only pick them, quickly create millions of new jobs. They were and remain:

1. Buy-Domestic Procurement Requirements. All infrastructure projects funded and guaranteed by the...

Last summer, I described the then three pending free trade agreements (FTAs) with South Korea, Panama and Colombia as "clunkers" (see here). Each failed to meet the only standard which matters: Is it in the best interests of American workers and the U.S. economy? Regrettably, these three agreements...

Accountability through the "Sustainable Funding Act"

Anyone who thinks we've shut the barn door on misdeeds in the financial, commodities and futures markets just because of the well-intentioned Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (that became law on July 21, 2010) apparently has never heard of the latest...

In a recent article we wrote: "America today is very different from the country that fought the Revolutionary War and framed the Constitution. Then, it was a nation of farmers; today, it's a nation of corporations."

Though we are today a nation of corporations, there is remarkably...

The post-Crash intervention by the Obama administration in mid-2009 in righting the General Motors and Chrysler ships was an extraordinary example of ideal cooperation between industry and government. And anyone who argues against it ignores the realities of the surrounding financial marketplace, which at the time offered absolutely no luxury...

On March 27 in D.C., I will be part of a panel at the Second Annual Conference on the Renaissance of American Manufacturing, along with Leo Gerard (International President of the United Steelworkers) and Mike Mandel (Chief Economic Strategist of the Progressive Policy Institute).

Building off of Mike's ongoing...

In one of the most uninformed -- and counter-productive -- op-eds we've read in the last five years, President Barack Obama's first chairwoman of the Council of Economic Advisors, Christina D. Romer, just spent 1,200 words arguing that we should do nothing about the crisis in American manufacturing....

Two weeks ago, as the New Year loomed and many people were on holiday, the Obama administration -- specifically Secretary of Treasury Tim Geithner -- announced, as quietly as possible, its decision not to label China as a "currency manipulator" even though in its required semi-annual report it stated that...

"America's trade policies often force domestic industries to compete on an unfair playing field with foreign competitors, and it's costing us jobs. To help address this problem, we have introduced H.R. 1749, The Reciprocal Market Access Act."
Congresswoman Louise M. Slaughter (D-NY)
Congressman Walter B. Jones (R-NC)

Right...

I think I've more than shown that I'm willing to criticize certain Members of Congress and members of the administration alike when they miss the mark on fully resuscitating our wheezing economy and bringing fairness -- and full employment -- back to the middle class.

Through one and a...

Campaign finance in this country is in a very bleak place after decades of direct attacks and equally sad unintended consequences. The Supreme Court's 2010 landmark decision in Citizens United v. FEC was the final straw in the corporate hijacking of our political system which began fully thirty years ago....

Rhode Island's General Treasurer Gina Raimondo is easily my nominee for the "Little Engine That Could" award.

Her politically courageous efforts to reform her state's broken and dramatically underfunded $14.8 billion public pension system are a high-stakes, against-the-odds example of lofty political leadership that deserves accolades. And if she...

It's hard to believe that nearly four years into the worst Recession since the Second World War, while mired in a jobless recovery of unprecedented length and magnitude, we continue to hear that manufacturing jobs don't matter.

Take, for example, the recent uninformed (and insensitive) remark of Steven Rattner,...

In America, we believe strongly in investment as the backbone of economic growth and job creation. This is why I've been strenuously arguing, for several years, for a National Infrastructure Bank that would greatly expand investment in our country's infrastructure and help restore our global competitiveness. Similarly, I believe that...

Last Wednesday, millions of American workers (and voters) watched the first major Republican presidential candidate debate at the Reagan Library, and the next day thirty-one million watched President Obama's speech to the nation on jobs.

When it came to resuscitating the economy, the laissez faire Republicans all fell back...

But before we go picking this fruit, let's do some old fashioned, CNN-type "Point-Counterpoint," in order to better appreciate the massive jobs-creation predicament in which the middle class and workers are currently mired and the completely contradictory economic and political environment in which our nation is similarly mired.

POINT...

Can someone -- anyone -- tell me why the Republicans in Congress keep saying 'no new taxes'?

It can't be because they think our economy is improving. It's clear to everybody -- Democrats and Republicans alike -- that our economy is wheezing and mired in a nearly...

With all the sturm und drang in recent weeks over raising the debt ceiling -- and with the mediocre agreement now reached between the administration and Congress which irresponsibly only cuts without responsibly raising any new revenues -- it's more than clear that we've lost sight of the greatest economic...

America is facing a catastrophic jobs crisis. Not since the Great Depression has official unemployment hovered above nine percent -- where it is today -- for more than 20 months. Millions of American have given up looking for a job altogether. Even worse, real unemployment is more than 18%. Yet...

The number of American workers and friends of labor who, for all the right factual reasons, continue to stand against the three pending Free Trade Agreements (or FTAs) with South Korea, Panama and Colombia are legion. Many just aren't as public as the likes of Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH); Tom...