To little fanfare, the federal minimum wage rose to $7.25 per hour July 24th. It was the third scheduled raise in the minimum wage since 2007. A higher federal minimum wage is the best kind of economic stimulus for working families, say workers’ rights advocates and even some business owners.

Barack Obama's opponents regularly charge him with being a socialist and of favoring socialistic measures. There is little or no discussion of what socialism entails.

"I wasn’t elected as President to restore capitalism in Cuba or to surrender the Revolution. I was elected to defend, maintain and continue perfecting socialism, not to destroy it," affirmed Cuban President Raul Castro on Saturday.

According to Economic Policy Institute economist Josh Bivens, after a contraction of the Gross Domestic Product, the measure of all economic activity, over the past two quarters of an annualized rate of negative six percent, the GDP for this past quarter will come in at about negative 1.5 percent. Without the President's economic recovery act, the number would have been three times higher, he reports.

While most people understand the urgency of climate change, one of the top concerns many working families have with a cap-and-trade system is added costs for energy.

The legacy of the Bush Administration has been a perfect storm of economic devastation – in finance, housing and jobs. The challenge of fixing this economic mess is enormous – and urgent. Creating good jobs that cannot be outsourced is central to the solution.

At eight in the morning on Monday, ten Alameda County Sheriffs arrived in their patrol cars in front of the tan house on the corner of Tenth and Willow in west Oakland, the oldest African American neighborhood in the city, and one of the oldest on the west coast. The renovated home is surrounded by an iron fence, and the sheriffs poured through its open gate and up the stairs.

On this episode, President Obama fires back against Republican obstructionism of health reform. The minimum wage goes up July 24th to $7.25 per hour. And we play excerpts of a recent interview with Dan Kovalik a United Steelworkers union staffer who traveled to Honduras earlier this month to observe pro-democracy protests against the military coup.

A disappointing unemployment report earlier this month that saw the loss of 467,000 jobs in the month of June and a rise in the unemployment rate to 9.5 percent, has caused predictions of a nearing economic turnaround to fall flat in recent months.

The credit system had become vastly over-extended. The ratio of virtual bank money to real money had become unsustainable. Either the state had to resort to the printing press to create more $ and £, or the virtual money had to be canceled. The alternative to quantitative easing, was the Jubilee — the general forgiveness of all debts.

Should the bankers be hanged? Their reckless betting of other people's money turned a cyclical economic crisis into a near meltdown not seen since the Great Depression.

I would categorize the financial sector as unproductive. In one sense this seems pretty obvious since they do not physically produce anything. But, apologists for the banks might say, this Smithian distinction is misleading.

The latest jobless claims offer new hope of "green shoots" emerging after more than 18 months of recession. A disappointing unemployment report earlier this month that saw the loss of 467,000 jobs in the month of June and a rise in the unemployment rate to 9.5 percent, caused predictions of a nearing economic turnaround to fall flat in recent months.

In the Coal-creek river valley in Southern West Virginia actress Daryl Hannah and NASA climatologist James Hansen were arrested protesting continuation of mountain top – "surface" – mining, warning of dire environmental consequences and unfunded costs exceeding the value of coal mined.

Now they are out to nickel and dime us to death. Here in my home town the traffic and parking department has been prevailed upon to “step up” its enforcement activity – and maneuvering to have parking meters work far into the night – in order help cover some of the city’s budget deficit.

After a disappointing unemployment report earlier this month that saw the loss of 467,000 jobs in the month of June and a rise in the unemployment rate to 9.5 percent, predictions of an economic turnaround soon have fallen flat. Despite positive signs in housing and manufacturing activity, poor jobs number remain the "lagging economic indicator."

Charging the US Chamber of Commerce with supporting only the "interests of Fortune 500 companies," small business owners this week sharply criticized the business the group for refusing to endorse the Fairness and Transparency in Contracting Act.

Many observers think that “prosperity is around the corner” and that this recession, like others since World War II, will end as soon as the stock market, as a leading indicator, recovers and people start spending again. This is a myopic view of the current economic big picture.

What is the objective of the economic reforms advocated by the Obama administration? What measure of progress has there been, or can be expected, from the proposed reforms for the security and advancement of working peoples economic interests?

If it’s a U.S. industry that has the potential to be cleaner and greener, chances are the Obama administration has already set aside some stimulus money for it.