Top Obama Adviser: Wal-Mart is a "progressive success story"
Hope he isn't the next Larry Summers 
Bloomberg reported late yesterday that President Obama plans to nominate Harvard economist Jason Furman as his next head of his Council of Economic Advisers.
This would be very bad news for progressives because of Furman’s advocacy for right-wing policies. Here’s five reasons why Furman shouldn’t be Obama’s top economic adviser: [...]
He Supports Wal-Mart’s Anti-Worker Practices: Furman wrote an article calling Wal-Mart a “progressive success story,” and praised the “progressive benefits of everyday low prices” — which are subsidized by the low wages of not only its American workforce but Chinese workers in factories earning as little as $120 a month. He said that the”mere fact that more than 1.3 million Americans work at Wal-Mart demonstrates that its compensation is at least as good as the alternatives” — despite the fact data shows that the company’s workers earn “12.4% less than retail workers as a whole and 13% less than large retail workers in general.” He dismissed criticism from progressives, saying, “Some have pointed to Costco (which has higher wages and more generous benefits), arguing that if Wal-Mart were more generous with its employees it would do better at attracting, motivating, and retaining them, increasing its total profits. I have no ability to judge whether or not this is true, although given the choice I would trust Wal-Mart to know more about maximizing profits and shareholder value than its critics.” Recall that it would only cost Wal-Mart $12 per shopper per year to pay all of its employees a living wage.
Read more: http://boldprogressives.org/2013/05/the-top-5-reasons-jason-furman-shouldnt-be-obamas-top-economic-adviser/
= new reply since forum marked as read
I'm completely dumbfounded 
so much for throwing my vote away 
Yuppers, an abundance of cheap, shoddy shit from China more than makes up for living wages, health insurance or the companies that have gone out of business thanks to Wal-Mart's preference for outsourcing and sweated labor.
More about Furman:
*He’s An Advocate Of Job-Killing “Free Trade” Deals
*He Wants To Lower Corporate Taxes
*He Supports The Chained CPI Benefit Cut To Social Security
(...and THIS is the Icing on the 1% Cake)
*He Is An Advocate For A “Jobs Plan” Based On Unpaid Internships
Furman, serving as a White House economist, pushed Obama to adopt a jobs plan that would ask the unemployed to work as unpaid corporate interns.
http://boldprogressives.org/2013/05/the-top-5-reasons-jason-furman-shouldnt-be-obamas-top-economic-adviser/
YEP.
Fit RIGHT in.
Which way to the Mission Accomplished parade?
You will know them by their WORKS,
not by their promises or excuses.
You don't have to look very far to find defenders of the President selecting corporate slimeballs.
They are right here on this thread.
And the verbal gymnastics they employ will make you 
(corporate shills, that is) 
Wolfe is a Marxist. Or sort of a Marxist. It ain't gonna happen. Well, short of a revolution that is.
including POTUS. We are so owned.
mr. potus and his administration has proven to be a HUGE disappointment to me. All that I know now is that the monied rightwing has total control of this country and ALL it's political mechanisms. Our system of government is not for the people or even by the people anymore.
good luck god bless amerikkka americans. I will never vote again.
I guess it would kill the WH to put a liberal in charge of something. Great, just what we needed - another RWing freemarket asshole to fuck up things for the working class. Gee, thanks.
Masterful marketing campaign; a real buzzword bonanza.
This is the best I could find about him. He seems to have served Democratic Presidents and even Wes Clark (some DU'ers will love that).
And, he doesn't need the money. But, what worries me is that he's had such a privileged life if would make sense he wouldn't really know that much about Walmart's policies towards workers. A quote from another article about him said he thought their policy of "low prices" when workers were struggling with low wages was a good idea. That's why he made the comment that "Walmart" is Progressive. He also advocated for Health Insurance for all by allowing more insurance companies to get in the business to provide varied policies for all. So...you can kind of see where he comes from. He's Progressive ...but, in a way the 99% might not be thinking of as Progressive.
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From Bloomberg Business Report:
In Obama’s second term, Furman has played a public role in warning about the impact of the $1.2 trillion in automatic budget gets that began to go into effect March 1.
The cuts “will have macroeconomic consequences, cost hundreds of thousands of jobs across the country and jobs throughout the private sector,” Furman said a White House briefing on Feb. 25.
The job’s salary of $191,300 a year will supplement income Furman receives from the Jason Furman Trust, which has $5 million to $25 million in assets, according to Furman’s 2009 financial disclosure reports. Furman listed another account in the $5 million to $25 million range on his disclosure.
The grandson of Morris Furman, a New York City real-estate developer, Furman went to Dalton, a private high school in New York City, before receiving his B.A. at Harvard in 1992.
In the 2004 presidential campaign he worked for retired General Wesley Clark and then-senator John Kerry, who became the Democratic Party’s nominee to challenge President George W. Bush.
To contact the reporter on this story: Hans Nichols in Washington at hnichols2@bloomberg.net
Seriously, these Ivy League ivory-towers may have the $$$, but their social capital is limited and defective.
IOW, too many of them don't talk to anybody except each other. This phenomenon is also known as "social incest", "circle-jerking" and "mutual masturbation"
One day maybe we really will get a president that cares and will put
people ahead of corporations and greed.
He talks a great game though so lets all rally behind him ....again
