Jason Furman, a key economic adviser on Barack's campaign, wrote a paper in 2005 that argued "Wal-Mart's low prices and other policies benefit low-income consumers."
The paper, "Wal-Mart: A Progressive Success Story" [PDF] celebrates the Bentonville behemoth as boldly "blazing paths" and "indisputably [making] a tremendous contribution to productivity."
Nothing about how Wal-Mart destroys local economies, drives down wages, forces American jobs to go to communist China or destroys the environment.
But, Furman did say that he'd like to see Wal-Mart provide universal health care, according to the Weekly Standard.
The Huffington Post reported on Wednesday that Wal-Mart has raised wages. In China. But despite the victory of the Chinese, Wal-Mart's American employees are suffering a decrease in actual income:
In 2004, Wal-Mart reported an average (Wal-Mart refuses to disclose a median wage which would provide a more accurate picture of wages at the company) hourly wage of $9.68. In 2008, the reported wage is $10.86. But in 2004 dollars, the average hourly wage is $9.55, which means workers are worse off today than they were four years ago.
Eduardo Castro-Wright, executive vice president of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., sold 71,450 shares of common stock, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The shares sold for $56 each, putting the transaction value at a little more than $4 million. Castro-Wright sold the shares May 21 and May 22, according to the SEC filing.
Wal-Mart announced six new coffees today, including flavors called "Fair Trade House Blend" and "Rainforest Alliance Breakfast Blend."
Believe it or not, this is not a joke. Sustainable is Good has Wal-Mart execs on record explaining:
"'We recognize our customers' desire to buy products that have a positive environmental and social impact, and we are proud to offer an affordable line of coffee that is sourced and roasted with sustainability in mind,' said De De Priest, senior vice president and general merchandise manager for Wal-Mart."
Wake Up Wal-Mart is reporting that Wal-Mart is lobbying for Congress to pass the (Mark Penn-approved) Colombian Free Trade Deal. According to their blog:
[Wal-Mart gets] to send manufacturing down to Colombia without paying taxes on the goods coming back in to the states, and they don't have to worry about those pesky unions springing up since there is a pretty long history of union organizers dying before they get anything serious going.
I'd also add that Wal-Mart gets 70% of its products from communist China, which is a notorious abuser of human rights.
It's tough to say that anybody "won" in the Debbie Shank case. Her and her family's life will never be the same, and it's questionable as to whether Wal-Mart actually learned anything.
But I think it was a victory in the sense that the grassroots successfully rallied to a righteous cause and picked up enough momentum to prompt a national TV pundit to pressure and ultimately sway Wal-Mart.
I see the course to victory as taking three steps. Correct me if you think I'm wrong.
You may have seen the sad case of Deborah Shank this week. If you haven't, Deborah worked at Wal-Mart and was hit by a semi on the way home from work one day. After her family won a $700,000 settlement with the trucking company and paid $300,000 in legal fees, Wal-Mart proceeded to sue her for $477,000 on a technicality.
Deborah is now severely brain-damaged and needs to her family needs money to pay for her medical care. To make the story worse, her 18 year-old son was killed in Iraq defending this nation.
Sadly, this is just one of many cases in which Wal-Mart is undermining the livelihoods of American workers. Wal-Mart has a negative impact on jobs, wages, health care and communities. Wake Up Wal-Mart is launching its 2008 campaign and is kicking off the effort with a web video. The video is below the jump, and I encourage you to join the fight.
Wal-Mart has a clever new slogan, "Save Money; Live Better." But how exactly is Wal-Mart helping us live better? By purchasing 70% its goods from China? Or drowning out local economies? Or driving down wages?
Wake Up Wal-Mart has a new web video poking fun at Wal-Mart's absurd new slogan. It opens on a quiet suburban house with children sleeping inside. It is 3 AM. A phone rings.
A former Wal-Mart midlevel manager who was fired for blowing the whistle about "poor working conditions in Central American factories" (if you know what I mean), has won a court battle to have his wrongful termination suit heard.
"[Former employee James] Lynn reported violations in three factories, including findings that women were fired for being pregnant and employees were not allowed to leave their work stations or seek medical assistance."
To most Americans, the signs that our economy is taking a dive is stressful and worrisome news. But to Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott, it's time to celebrate! According to the Economist article "Recession is good news for Wal-Mart," the retail behemoth is banking on the theory that consumers will be so down and out that they'll have scavenge Wal-Mart for basic goods.
The Electoral College was invented around the same time that Edison was discovering electricity. The automobile and the telephone were still decades away.
Was anyone just watching CNN's coverage of John McCain's speech? In the background was none other than Joementum, Bush loyalist and failed presidential candidate.
When McCain got to the part in his stump speech about confirming Alito and Roberts, the camera panned to Joe who was clapping wildly.
Well folks, Bush's last state of the union is behind us, and by my count, we have 355 days until a new president is sworn in. Yes, it's going to be 355 longs days, but at least there's light at the end of the tunnel.
Whomever is sworn in next January, I think we all agree that there's a lot of work to be done (call it rebuilding). The to-do list is long, but some issues are more vital than others. So, the UN Foundation has created a great new site called On Day One where citizens can suggest what the next president needs to address on day one in office.
I have a friend working on the campaign who told me about the site, and she says that influential people are reading it.
I think that many of you recognize that Wal-Mart engages in some ugly business practices, from their steamrolling of local economies to their deplorable health care policies. I also think that many of you don't shop at Wal-Mart for the reasons listed above.
But if we want to put Wal-Mart's feet to the fire, it's gonna take more than just us boycotting them. I think we need to speak directly to the regular Wal-Mart shoppers.
So, I'm interested in what you think of this new ad from Wake Up Wal-Mart (I'm doing some work with them this holiday season and figure 'tis the season to fight the good fight).
White House lackey/former Virginia Republican chairman Ed Gillespie once declared that whoever won the "Grand Slam" of VA politics would be the dominant party in commonwealth for a generation. According to Gillespie, the Grand Slam is the 2007 state Senate race, the 2008 U.S. Senate race, the 2008 presidential and 2009 governor. Well, guess what:
You probably know that Wal-Mart has some ugly business practices, but did you know that they get 70% of their products from communist China? This is bad on so many levels -- not only do cheap Chinese products drown out local American economies, but the products are often toxic and made by workers in near slave-labor conditions.
I'm helping Wake Up Wal-Mart this holiday season and they have a new ad detailing the relationship between Wal-Mart and China:
This is a horrible story from the front page of today's Wall Street Journal. A woman who was working at Wal-Mart was hit by a truck and severely brain damaged. Now Wal-Mart has sued her for half a million dollars. Why? Here's the full story:
A collision with a semi-trailer truck seven years ago left 52-year-old Deborah Shank permanently brain-damaged and in a wheelchair. Her husband, Jim, and three sons found a small source of solace: a $700,000 accident settlement from the trucking company involved. After legal fees and other expenses, the remaining $417,000 was put in a special trust. It was to be used for Mrs. Shank's care.
Instead, all of it is now slated to go to Mrs. Shank's former employer, Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
Two years ago, the retail giant's health plan sued the Shanks for the $470,000 it had spent on her medical care. A federal judge ruled last year in Wal-Mart's favor, backed by an appeals-court decision in August. Now, her family has to rely on Medicaid and Mrs. Shank's social-security payments to keep up her round-the-clock care.
Hey all, I'm doing some work with Wakeup Wal-Mart and we have a fun Halloween feature I'd like to tell you all about. We're inviting people to submit their Wal-Mart horror stories to what we're calling "Tales from the Big Box Boneyard." If you're interested, check out the Wakeup Wal-Mart blog.
I imagine there is gonna be some stiff competition for winner: Already, a woman submitted a story about finding a RAT'S HEAD (!) in a bag of green beans that she bought at Wal-Mart ("Ratatouille"???). And someone else has posted the story about chemicals in Wal-Mart flip flops burning through the skin of their feet because they were made in some toxic Chinese factory.
