By Rachel Goldfarb, originally published on Next New Deal
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Take 5: CTU's Fight Against Risky Financial Deals, Ed Policy Under Rauner (Catalyst Chicago)
Roosevelt Institute Fellow Saqib Bhatti criticizes the Chicago Public Schools for diving deeper into overly risky financial deals, which he says were misrepresented by the banks.
In an interview with Catalyst Chicago, Bhatti says that it is clear that the banks misled district officials and that they could join other government agencies who have sued over them. “It is clear that CPS dove in head-first and went deeper than other borrowers,” Bhatti says. “Now that we can see what happened we need to try to get out of these deals.”
... What is really troubling to Bhatti is that CPS hired an outside firm to do an analysis of these deals to justify getting into them, rather than to consider the options for getting out of them.
Follow below the fold for more.
Capitol Workers Ask Obama for Pay 'More Like Costco and Less Like Walmart' (The Guardian)
Workers who serve meals in the Capitol's dining facilities went on strike Wednesday to protest their poverty-level wages, writes Jana Kasperkevic. This is the first strike of federally contracted workers to include Capitol workers.
Postal Workers to Address Service Cuts at National Rallies (AJAM)
Ned Resnikoff reports on the demonstrations planned for Friday by the American Postal Workers Union, which is protesting cuts that would eliminate jobs and lead to slower delivery.
Walmart Workers Stage Sit-In At California Store Ahead Of Black Friday (Buzzfeed)
Yesterday's first-of-it's-kind protest involved about 25 Walmart workers in Southern California, reports Claudia Koemer, who draws parallels to retail strikes of the 1930s.
The Number of Unemployed Exceeds the Number of Available Jobs Across All Sectors (Working Economics)
Elise Gould says that since unemployed workers outnumber job openings across all sectors, the problem in the labor market must be a broad lack of demand, not a skills gap.
Great News: Lots of Americans Just Quit Their Jobs (Vox)
Danielle Kurtzleben says the sharp increase in the quits rate in September is a sign of economic health, since people don't leave jobs without expecting to find another.
Why Women Should Get the Rest of the Year Off (The Nation)
Bryce Covert quips that since women make only 78 percent of what men make, it's time for women to take a vacation – not just from their jobs, but from the second shift at home as well.
New on Next New Deal
The UNC Coup and the Second Limit of Economic Liberalism
Roosevelt Institute Fellow Mike Konczal says the University of North Carolina's financial aid rules demonstrate how current liberal policy pits the middle class against the poor for access to goods and services.