Thursday, June 26, 2008

"... Obama told the Tesco boss: "It is in your interest to ensure the communities where you do business, and the leaders of the workers in the industry, are heard and that their concerns are heard and respected."
Admirable sentiments from the candidate for change. It would be nice if he said something similar to two of America's biggest anti-union corporations, Walmart and Starbucks.
But hold! What did he say about Hillary Clinton's relationship with Walmart? He criticised her for sitting on the Walmart board for six or seven years, and added "I would never shop there". Immediately after this bold stance Obama's wife resigned from the board of Walmart's main supplier.
Once Hillary was out of the way, Barack laid his cards on the table. "Look. I am a pro-growth, free-market guy," said he, "I love the market." To prove his bona fides Barack has appointed Jason Furman as an adviser. Here's Jason on Walmart:

"Studies have reached conflicting conclusions about the impact of Wal-Mart on local labor markets, with some finding that it creates more jobs than it displaces and others finding that it reduces jobs and nominal wages ["depends who's paying for the research, Jason" Jemmy H.]. Personally, I don't put a huge amount of stock in any of these findings because I believe that Ben Bernanke and the Federal Reserve decide the total number of jobs nationwide. If anything, the greater competition and productivity growth associated with the growth of Wal-Mart may have played a role in allowing the Federal Reserve to tolerate the high level of job creation in the 1990s.

"But I understand why progressives are so upset about low wages and inadequate benefits. I am also upset by the rise of inequality and the relatively slow economic progress that the bottom 80 percent of Americans have made over the last several decades. I just think Wal-Mart is the wrong place to put the blame or to expect the solution."

I reckon Senator Obama will be singing the praises of Walmart soon.

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