LABOR, ECONOMY & THE CLIMATE - page 3

The National Labor Relations Board must continue pursuing litigation against McDonald’s under an Obama-era standard now that the standard has been restored, Democratic lawmakers said on Tuesday. In January, Trump’s Board had obtained a delay in the lawsuit against the fast food giant after rolling back the 2015 joint-employer rule—a regulation that made corporations responsible for “indirect control” exerted over franchise labor practices. The case used as a vehicle to annul the rule, Hy-Brand, was vacated by the Board last month. T he NLRB Inspector General… Keep Reading

Legislation that would relax major post-financial crisis banking regulations moved one step closer to clearing the Senate and becoming law. The upper chamber voted on Tuesday 67-32 to limit debate on the bill, setting the stage for its final passage later this week. Sixteen Democrats backed the motion to advance the legislation; twelve of them are cosponsors. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) offered no criticism of the bill, in his regular morning remarks on Tuesday, just fifteen minutes before the vote. Every single Republican… Keep Reading

After President Trump’s first tumultuous thirteen months in office, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) looks set to finally have a major confrontation with the White House. Ryan issued a statement on Monday critical of Trump’s decision to propose tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, in objections that yielded public indifference from the President. “No, we’re not backing down,” Trump said, when asked by a reporter to respond to Ryan’s criticism of the plan. Staffers for Ryan had said they “are extremely worried about the consequences… Keep Reading

A federal agency chartered to protect consumers is considering changes that could leave people in the dark about the nation’s most predatory companies. In a notice set to be published in the Federal Register on Tuesday, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is seeking public comment on “potential changes” to its publication of consumer complaint information, including data on the most complained about financial corporations. The CFPB regularly publishes reports about consumer complaints, with granulated detail at the state-level, including complaint trends over time, product reliability,… Keep Reading

In a meeting with US steel producers on Thursday, President Trump said he would implement new tariffs on steel and aluminum imports–causing financial elites to worry about a pending trade war. US markets tumbled following the President’s announcement, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average ending the day off 449 points, nearly 2-percent. Trump told reporters that the tariff proposal is “being written now,” and he’ll sign it next week. The initiative will include a 25-percent tax on steel coming into the country, and 10 percent… Keep Reading

An ethics scandal plaguing the National Labor Relations Labor Board is hanging like a “cloud” over the agency, one of President Trump’s nominees conceded on Thursday. John Ring, a Republican picked to fill an NLRB vacancy, said he wanted to avoid making missteps like those currently hounding William Emanuel, one of Trump’s first picks to serve on the independent agency. “I do not want to be in the position that Member Emanuel finds himself in,” Ring said at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Committee… Keep Reading

The newly-confirmed head of the Federal Reserve said that the central bank is exploring how increasingly popular passive investment vehicles are impacting financial stability. Jerome Powell, appearing before Congress for the first time on Tuesday, said he didn’t believe Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) were responsible for recent stock market volatility, but claimed the Fed is keeping its eyes open. “I don’t think they were particularly at the heart of what went on in those days,” Powell said. “It’s a question we’re looking into,” he added.… Keep Reading

The Trump administration wants to narrow powers created after the 2008 banking meltdown to help the US government respond to widespread financial market failures. The Treasury Department released a report on Wednesday saying it will limit the so-called Orderly Liquidation Authority (OLA) jointly possessed by the agency and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Some Republicans have called for the elimination of OLA, which was created in 2010 by Dodd-Frank financial reform. Last year, the House of Representatives passed legislation that would roll back wide swaths… Keep Reading

Republicans have been trumpeting anecdotes of company bonuses as proof positive that corporate tax cuts are working for all Americans, not just the rich. Government economic data, however, show otherwise at this juncture. The Bureau of Labor Statistics said Wednesday that real average wages were down 0.2 percent on a monthly basis in January. The drop was more pronounced down the line for “production and nonsupervisory employees,” who saw weekly earnings fall by 0.5 percent. For all workers, inflation wiped out nominal wage increases, the… Keep Reading

A Trump administration official currently playing multiple lead roles in the executive branch denied that he stopped the probe of a payday lender, despite dropping litigation against the company. Mick Mulvaney told Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) on Tuesday that “there is an ongoing investigation” into the firm, Golden Valley Lending. Van Hollen had told Mulvaney he wanted to “follow up” with him on the decision to stop the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau lawsuit. The interim agency director replied, claiming that there was still an… Keep Reading

At an annual intelligence hearing on international threats, the head of the US spy community fear mongered about a highly politicized domestic issue: the national debt. Director of National Intelligence Dan Coates told senators on the Intelligence Committee Tuesday that increased annual deficit spending is a “dire threat” to US security. The warning came at the tail end of Coates’ remarks, after he ran the gamut of perceived global dangers from around the world–from transnational crime to North Korea’s nuclear ambitions to Russian influence operations.… Keep Reading