Labor Day 2011 finds the US with the lowest portion of the 16-24 year old demographic employed since the government began tracking the youth market in 1948.

Unemployment among that group this summer stood at 18.1 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ annual Labor Day weekend report, down a percentage point from the year before. However, only 59 percent of that age group was participating in the job market, either working or searching for a job.

Overall unemployment stands frozen at 9.1 nationwide. This depressing news isn’t shocking as warnings of the societal dangers are well known and have been sounded for almost three years. In October 2009 Business Week worried about the lost generation unable to enter the workforce and start careers.

Studies suggest that an extended period of youthful joblessness can significantly depress lifetime income as people get stuck in jobs that are beneath their capabilities, or come to be seen by employers as damaged goods.

Maybe somebody should do something about this.

Would that Obama’s long awaited pivot to jobs speech might offer some hope or even change. Since the President has secured Speaker Boehner’s approval for the date and time for the speech there are calls (again, still?) for him to act boldly. Maybe he has something more creative up his sleeve than the cancelation announced Friday of scheduled changes to EPA clean air regulations. The Chamber of Commerce which lobbied hard for this move claims loosening regulations will aid job creation. Naturally it will also save industry expenses.  

It seems dozens of wealthy Wall Streeters that donated to Obama in 2008 are now realigning and donating to Mitt Romney. Many may just be hedging their bets as Obama is still raising plenty from Wall Street. In June he reportedly gathered $2.4 million at one event in a New York restaurant.  

However-

According to a review of fundraising data, 67 people who work in the financial sector and live in the New York City metro area gave to Obama in 2008 and the former Massachusetts governor in 2011.

This select group from Credit Suisse, the Blackstone Group, the Stanwich Group and Goldman Sachs has since donated more than $147,000 to Romney. Supposedly these reversals come as a result of Obama’s “tough” rhetoric while pushing to pass the Dodd-Frank banking laws.  

One aspect of this that is little hard to stomach given the fast pace of recovery on Wall Street compared to main street is the executives expressed feelings of “betrayal” by Obama.

"Everybody I speak to is on the same boat — disappointment," said one Wall Street executive who requested anonymity

They seem more fragile and easily offended than one might expect of hardened business execs.

And there is this heartrending remark

Or is that a tearful threat?

It could be if you take seriously a recent warning from Warren Buffett, one of the World’s richest men

“There’s class warfare, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.”

So enjoy the upcoming Labor Day holiday and please be gentle with the wealthy. After all we have been warned that it isn’t healthy for the rich to feel maligned! Be thoughtful and try to keep in mind the burden it must be for the top 400 wealthiest people in this country to own more than the bottom half combined.  

Well now we know how Entergy will try and spin it . In his rushed pushback against the Vermont Department of Health’s announcement that radioactive tritium leaking from VY has reached the Connecticut River, Entergy Vermont Yankee spokes-flack Larry Smith makes a claim that dips below the level of detectable credibility.

Smith maintains that Entergy’s tests are showing tritium levels below the minimum detectable level. He fails to explain how Entergy labs perform this miraculous feat of science.

But New Orleans-based Entergy Corp. issued a statement, saying its testing of the same July 18 and July 25 samples showed levels of tritium below the minimum detectable amount.

"Results from our laboratory testing of those same samples … show levels that are below that same extreme lower limit," Vermont Yankee spokesman Larry Smith said.

Smith said he could not explain how the company was able to detect tritium at levels below the "minimum detectible." He said Entergy wants an independent third party to analyze both sets of test results to resolve the discrepancy

The bi-partisan Debt Reduction Super Committee is charged with finding at least $1.2 trillion* in budget savings over the next decade and will have power to direct taxing and spending.

Last week Vermont Secretary of State Jim Condos wrote an open letter to US Speaker of the House John Boehner (posted here on GMD) suggesting the need and benefits of transparency for the newly formed  bi-partisan Committee. Other leaders and organizations are calling for special fundraising rules, given that lobbyists and other special interests are already at work on the members of the committee. The Sunlight Foundation has an online petition HERE demanding openness for the powerful gang of 12. Sec of State Condos’ call for transparency features

–open and transparent meetings and records regardless of physical form. It is imperative that this Super Committee work in a way that restores Americans' faith in government.

 

Transparency is a good but the forces pushing and pulling the powerful committee will be massive and some problems are baked in to the process. It is not a good sign for flexibility that all six of the Republican members have signed loyalty oaths to Norquist’s group Americans for Tax Reform and have promised opposition to increasing income tax rates and couple dollar for dollar cuts to elimination of tax cuts. All committee members will be super targets for lobbyists and some of them will have a head start.

Between the 12 lawmakers, there are more than 100 former aides who now lobby for various firms, companies or trade associations, according to data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics. And many of them will tap into their old relationships to try defending their clients from the spray of spending cuts that must be enacted.

Looks like the “Super Committee” is Congress’s worst excesses written “super” large. Either our expectations for a fair and reasonable solution must be cut way back, or the pressure on the committee members – and the president not to sign away safety net programs in any resulting bill – by ordinary, unincorporated citizens must be cranked into overdrive.

*corrected

Mitt Romney blurted out recently that in his opinion, "Corporations are people, my friend." So what are some of these incorporated “people” up to these days?

Two familiar corporate giants, Chiquita and Disney, are hooking up.

Agreement Links Companies with Long History of Quality Products & Services reads the press release headline. Chiquita will bring its “healthy fresh” products to Walt Disney World Resort and Disney Cruise Line and receive brand exclusivity within their respective categories.

Chiquita, which started its long corporate life in Central America as United Fruit (where its involvement in internal politics led to the term banana republic), may still need an image assist.

In 2007 Chiquita pled guilty to violating US law by making illegal payments to the Colombian rebel group FARC and paid a 25-million-dollar penalty. This past May lawsuits against Chiquita involving this case and allegations of rebel killings of Colombian citizens were consolidated and will be heard in a Florida court this year.

But this is Disney World so: as part of their collaboration, Chiquita will serve as the sponsor of both the "Crush 'n' Gusher" at Typhoon Lagoon (themed around a tropical fruit processing center), and the "Living with the Land" attraction, where Chiquita will join forces with Disney to help teach guests about nutrition.  

Amazing it didn’t occur to them that Crush ‘n’ Gusher sounds like a description of United Fruit’s method of repressing peasants, crushing union activity and subverting local governments in their banana-republic glory days. And Chiquita/Disney’s “Living with the Land” attraction more than likely will not highlight the lack of genetic diversity in monoculture and intensive pesticide growing practices that have already made one type of banana plant extinct and placed a second one now under the same threat.

Guess Disney World couldn’t be a better partner for Chiquita Brands to help remake its image to more closely match the fantasy it wants the rest of us to believe.

  Word is everywhere that Brian Dubie may be stirring himself for a second run at governor. The results of a recent Public Policy Polling  poll show our Dubie losing 40-48 percent in a re-match race with Governor Shumlin. However the same poll shows his favorability rating at 48% – very close statistically but still greater than Shumlin’s 45%.  

This despite the notably nasty (for Vermont) 2010 race he ran. Many months later Dubie and his former campaign manager Cory Bliss were forced to issue personal letters of apology to settle a defamation suit. Also his 2010 campaign’s alleged illicit coordination with the Republican Governor’s Association on a campaign commercial is currently under investigation by the Vermont AG, following a complaint filed by the Vermont Democratic Party accusing the Dubie campaign of having directly aided in the production of an advertisement sponsored by the RGA. The filing also charges that former Gov. Jim Douglas "acted as an agent of both the Republican Governors Association and 'Friends of Brian Dubie'.”  

As a result, a group of Dubie’s influential Republican supporters (including Douglas) formed Friends of Brian Dubie Legal Defense Fund to pay Dubie’s legal costs from his last campaign.  

Since Dubie’s hard-edged campaign and subsequent loss, it’s easy to wonder whether he might have governed like Jim Douglas or more like Wisconsin’s right-wing radical Scott Walker. Dubie certainly didn’t hesitate to jettison large chunks of his renowned nice guy image in search of victory. Many of the new crop of Republican governors are following agendas well to the right of the rhetoric used in their campaigns and the overall political attitude of their states.New York Times data analyst Nate Silver pointed out that the pipeline of moderate Republican governors has run dry. Further, Silver says,

unlike the Democrats, there is no correlation between the ideology of the governors and the ideology of the states. Whether you have a Republican governor in a fairly liberal state like Maine, a moderate state like Ohio, or a conservative one like Idaho, that governor’s  agenda is likely to be aligned with the extreme right.

Also highly conservative are Dubie's ‘friends,’ the major funders of the RGA.  

Two major players in the RGA are alleged phone hacker Rupert Murdoch and David Koch, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s ultra-conservative backer. In July 2010 Politico reported

the RGA was the recipient of a whooping $1 million donation from Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. The RGA’s other seven-figure donor was David Koch. News Corp.’s media outlets play politics more openly than most, but the huge contribution to a party committee is a new step toward an open identification between Rupert Murdoch's  media empire and the GOP.  

If failed gubernatorial candidate Brian Dubie decides he needs to take another shot at the state’s top office, can we count on legacy media outlets to keep these less-than-flattering facts in front of the electorate next year?  

  NRC chairman Jaczko had requested that the NRC commissioners fast track the Fukushima task force’s safety recommendation in 90 days. However that isn’t likely as Thursday three of five commissioners announced their votes in favor of going slowly.

It’s official: the chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has been outvoted on his proposal that the panel decide within 90 days on the recommendations it received from its Fukushima task force.

Rep.Ed Markey said the NRC had in essence directed the NRC staff “ to endlessly study the 90-day staff report before the commissioners consider the recommendations”  

And the Nuclear Energy Institute wants to divide and conquer any new regulations  

Marvin Fertel, president and CEO of the Nuclear Energy Institute, told Wall Street analysts at a briefing Tuesday. In other areas, the recommendations of the task force call for "significant changes in the way NRC regulates," he said. Those issues should be considered separately, he said.

.Full steam ahead and No Real Control

NEI does not expect the post-Fukushima recommendations to slow license renewals, power uprates or new plant approvals by NRC, Fertel said. Reactor design approvals, including for Westinghouse's AP1000 – the design being used at the two new US nuclear projects closest to completing NRC license reviews and beginning construction – are continuing to move forward, he said.

UPDATE:Upton and Barton’s BULB Act fails. The vote on the bill was 233-193 with five Democrats voting for the bill and 10 Republicans against it.One Republican voted present.

Conservative groups say they will continue to fight the light bulb law.

http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wi…

Call it the freedom to choose the light bulb you want or even the right to bare bulbs.

This week House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton will introduce legislation watering down a 2007 law aimed at phasing out incandescent light bulbs and establishing efficiency standards for light bulbs. The bill Upton will bring to the floor is built around Texas Oil Rep. Joe Barton’s  cleverly named retrograde effort called Barton’s Better Use of Light Bulbs (BULB) Act.

BULB Act repeals a provision in the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 that requires traditional incandescent light bulbs to be 30 percent more energy efficient beginning in 2012.

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) has a fact sheet (PDF) that shows what the present law if un-modified by the BULB Act would save rate payers in individual states. By their estimate Vermont households annually would save $105.00 in electric costs. These savings collectively, nationwide, would eliminate the need for 30 new power plants.  

First he was for it, now he’s against it. For Congressman Upton this is an ongoing effort to live down the fit of reason he suffered back in 2007 when he actually co-sponsored this law and supported bills aimed at phasing out incandescent light bulbs and establishing efficiency standards. Upton – a 24 year house veteran and wealthy heir to the Whirlpool manufacturing fortune, and once considered a Republican moderate – is rapidly phasing out that personality feature.

“It was never my goal for Washington to decide what type of light bulbs Americans should use," Upton said in a statement to The Hill. " The public response on this issue is a clear signal that markets – not governments – should be driving technological advancements. I will join my colleagues to vote yes on a bill to protect consumer choice and guard against federal overreach.”  

Perhaps Upton is afraid the burned-out incandescent bulb over his head will be replaced by a nice, efficient, lower-heat, more-light, longer-lasting, compact fluorescent. No new ideas.

“Vermont’s challenge is neither unemployment nor overcompensation; it’s under underemployment and under-compensation”

says Bill Schubart  at the close of an opinion piece on VPR Wednesday. However the focus was not specifically on either the under-employed or even the under-compensated, but on departing Fletcher Allen CEO Dr. Estes. Schubart states that her pay package ($826,000 plus a potential performance bonus of $245,000), which he helped negotiate, was “right.”  

No reason to doubt that Fletcher Allen CEO Dr. Estes faced challenges and from reports managed to successfully meet them as she was paid to do. With 6,800 employees Schubart tells us the Medical Center is more complex than some of Vermont’s private businesses where some CEOs earn even more.  

By way of explaining, Schubart notes that private-sector executive compensation in America is an international embarrassment to democratic principles, and he seems aghast at the large and growing wage disparities nationally. He cites a recent Washington Post examination of these horrors.But apparently he feels Vermont is unique and any similar feeling regarding Vermont CEOs in uncalled for.

“Recent news reports indicate that Vermonters, too, feel their business and nonprofit executives are overcompensated. But are they? We all feel more secure singing in a chorus than singing solo, but let’s look at reality.”

 

By one measure executive pay, even in Vermont, is out of proportion to workers earnings: although Vermont’s Merchant Bank CEO Michael Tuttle is at the “modest” end of compensation at $396,069, his compensation is still 11 times the median worker’s pay (do the math: half of Merchants Bank employees earn less than $36,000 a year). In 2010 then-CVPS CEO Bob Young made $1,151,178, and Green Mountain Coffee Roasters head Larry Blanford made $2,406,207.  

After a lifetime in Vermont’s public and private sectors, Schubart confidently says he has

seen nonprofit leadership salaries ranging from $36,000 to $1M a year and have yet to see an overcompensated executive in that sector. Mostly, I have seen the opposite.

Therefore, he feels Vermonters who raised eyebrows at Melinda Estes’ pay package are piling on our homie non-profit CEO.   In some circles $826,000 plus performance benefits may be considered under-compensating, but by the standards of the crowd I run with that’s pretty rich. It is his turf, so Schubart could have a point about the package he helped negotiate being “right.”

However for a large number of Vermonters who have had  little or no increase in their earnings for years – and in the case of Vermont state employees, who’ve seen decreases in pay – it may be hard to spare much sympathy for wealthy Vermonters who apparently aren’t quite rich enough. Maybe it’s high time to start a concerted effort to hike-up wages at the bottom first. We can do that if we make sure the sacrifice is shared by raising tax rates on those well-compensated folks bringing home over $250k a year, as Senator Bernie Sanders has recommended nationally to President Obama.

Then perhaps we could help under-compensated Vermont private sector and non-profit executives catch-up to their national counterparts. Until then, they may do just fine, as Dr. Estes has.  

Well, it’s the Fourth of July and here is a link to a story of a Harvard study which analyzes childhood participation in celebratory patriotic events. It finds a connection to this and future political belief patterns.  

Now I grew up in a small town, in a house on the parade route and watched a parade of parades go by in the course of my childhood but I remain fairly certain I am not Republican.  

The study focuses on the years 1920-2008 and notes: "The political right has been more successful in appropriating American patriotism and its symbols during the 20th century."

…the results indicate that Fourth of July celebrations in the United States shape the nation’s political landscape by forming beliefs and increasing participation, primarily in favor of the Republican Party.  

The pair researched previous studies, finding that July Fourth participation divides along political lines with  a) Republicans viewing the historic anniversary as more important than Democrats do,   and b) Republicans attending July Fourth celebrations more consistently than Democrats do.