Trade
Here's Why Foreign Investors Are Trying to Buy American Farmland Take Part ...wealthy international investors and corporations are buying up much of America’s usable land at astronomical prices per acre, turning the farmers into their tenants or repurposing the land altogether...
State Battles
After Historic UAW Defeat at Tennessee Volkswagen Plant, Theories Abound In These Times ...interviews with both pro-union and anti-union workers—as well as low-level Volkswagen supervisors, top UAW officials and community activists—point to a confluence of factors, including outside interference by GOP politicians and unsanctioned anti-union activity by low-level supervisors. Some questioned, too, whether missteps by the UAW and concerns about its prior bargaining agreements played a role...
'Joe the Plumber' Wurzelbacher gets union job with Chrysler Group Toledo Blade ...Mr. Wurzelbacher, 40, of Springfield Township, who once was vilified as an "unlicensed plumber," said he was on his fourth day today and taking a smoke break at the time, when he was accosted by a co-worker as a “teabagger,” a derogatory term used for Tea Party members...
The War on Workers
Businesses Going Into “All Surveillance All the Time” Mode in Pursuit of More Productivity Naked Capitalism ...Another pioneering outfit is Sociometric Solutions, which puts sensors in name badges to discover social dynamics at work. The badges monitor how employees move around the workplace, who they talk to and in what tone of voice...
Making Retirements Less Secure (opinion) New York Times ...It is easy to see why companies are switching to lump-sum contributions: It saves them money...
What can unite liberals and tea partyers? The NSA Associated Press ...By exposing the NSA's vast surveillance web, Snowden created a link between tea partyers and liberals รข€” two tribes camped on opposite sides of the nation's political chasm...
Corporate Cronyism: The Secret to Overpaid CEOs truthout ...we have people like Erskine Bowles who had the distinction of sitting on the boards of both Morgan Stanley and General Motors in the years they were bailed out by the government. And we have Martin Feldstein, the country's most prominent conservative economist, who sat on the board of insurance giant AIG when it nearly tanked the world's financial system. Both Bowles and Feldstein were well-compensated for their "work."...
Miscellaneous
Obama to take next step in fuel efficiency for trucks CNN Politics ...Obama will direct the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Transportation Department to propose a new standards for post-2018 model years...
EXCLUSIVE: National clown shortage may be approaching, trade organizations fear New York Daily News ...As the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus returns to Brooklyn Thursday, membership at the country's largest clown organizations has plunged over the past decade amid declining interest, old age and higher standards for the jokesters...
