Mixed numbers for unions in 2023

More, and more effective, pro-worker legislation would help.

In 2023, 16.2 million workers were represented by a union—an increase of 191,000. At the same time, the percentage of workers represented by a union decreased from 11.3% to 11.2%, as unionization efforts were unable to keep pace with 2023’s strong job growth.

By sector, private-sector unionization rose to 6.9% in 2023, while public-sector unionization declined to 36.0%...
 
These statistics don’t capture the number of workers who want to join unions. Evidence suggests that in 2023, more than 60 million workers wanted to join a union but couldn’t do so. - EPI

Options for regulating AI

I remain an AI skeptic. When has anything from Big Tech ever ultimately come anywhere near living up to the hype? But it is time to put strict regulation on AI. This article discusses some aspects.

Concern about generative artificial intelligence technologies seems to be growing almost as fast as the spread of the technologies themselves. These worries are driven by unease about the possible spread of disinformation at a scale never seen before, and fears of loss of employment, loss of control over creative works and, more futuristically, AI becoming so powerful that it causes extinction of the human species...

In light of the drive to regulate AI, it is important to consider which approaches to regulation are feasible. There are two aspects to this question: what is technologically feasible today and what is economically feasible. It’s also important to look at both the training data that goes into an AI model and the model’s output. - The Conversation

Private equity is going after life insurance

I am so sick of seeing shit like this about private equity. But it is the inescapable present reality.

Private equity firms continue to stalk insurance company takeovers and critics say the potential for a financial disaster grows along with that trend.

Americans for Financial Reform, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit group that advocates for stronger regulation of Wall Street firms, is the latest group to raise alarm bells on what it deems to be risky private equity investment of policyholder funds.

AFR's new study grew out of its analysis of the relationship between private equity and public pension funds, said Andrew Park, senior policy analyst for the group. The PE impact on pensions is now understood, he explained.

"What has been less understood is how much of this new capital that private equity is getting is coming from the acquisition of insurance companies, and then in turn, insurance companies buying up a lot of the assets that private equity tends to originate," he added. "It's almost like you have this circular financing scheme that has been created now with private equity and insurance."

By the second half of 2023, private equity firms owned $774 billion in life insurance assets, or 9% percent of the life insurance industry, according to the AM Best insurance analyst. Likewise, PE firms are estimated to manage $5.7 trillion in global assets, giving these firms ample ability to buy up even more insurance companies, AFR noted.

The AFR report, Risky Business: Private Equity’s Life Insurance Gambit, comes amid growing pressure on private equity firms to submit to stronger oversight. Over the past month, the Financial Stability Oversight Council and the International Monetary Fund both released their own reports questioning private-equity control of insurers. - Insurance News Net

COP28 sucked when it came to food systems

And, many would argue, everything else. I'm highlighting this:

Despite the spotlight on food systems at COP28, the final decisions said little about the urgent need for transformative shifts toward agroecology to address the climate crisis.

The Global Stocktake decision, designed to inform governments as they ramp up their national-level climate plans, failed to strengthen climate finance commitments. The final report contains only high-level principles about food systems without concrete guidance on reducing or preventing food system emissions or strengthening their adaptive capacity. Left without strong guidance, countries now must ambitiously push beyond the COP28 stocktake recommendations to reform climate policies and transition food systems to avoid the loss and damage from a worsening climate. Countries in the Global North, home to the highest-emitting agriculture systems and with access to the most resources, must spearhead climate action independent of the UNFCCC. - IATP

The SEC may save crypto

Which they absolutely should not do.

The Securities and Exchange Commission, which has done a decent job of protecting the public from cryptocurrency scams, is on the verge of making a disastrous decision to allow financial companies to offer the equivalent of exchange-traded funds comprised of Bitcoins.

The sponsors include BlackRock, Fidelity, and 11 other firms.

In anticipation of a favorable SEC ruling, the price of Bitcoin, which had languished around $25,000 as recently as last September, has been bid up to over $45,000. The financial press has reported that BlackRock alone has at least $2 billion lined up for this play and that the first-quarter trading volume could be $40 billion. With crypto mercifully dying of its own weight, the SEC could throw it a lifeline.

SEC Chair Gary Gensler, who once taught a course on crypto at MIT, has long warned that creations like Bitcoin, backed by nothing other than speculative expectations of investors, are dubious investments lacking the safeguards that the securities laws impose on stocks and bonds. Exchange-traded funds made up of Bitcoins operate at one further remove from scrutiny. The main beneficiaries are the financial companies that propose to offer them. - The American Prospect

Child labor to the rescue!

Plenty of people apparently do want a return to the time and place of, say, Charles Dickens. Do they ever listen to themselves at all?

One would never have thought that a “Year in Review” — almost a quarter of the way through the 21st century — would be discussing the growing scourge of child labor. The 19th century, maybe. But 2023? Really?

Yes, really.

Not only that, but some of the discussion around child labor is not focused on how to eliminate it, but how to increase it.

Yes, really...

The combination of a tight labor market, an abundant supply of kids — especially immigrant kids — needing jobs, low penalties and lack of enforcement resources are fueling the rise of child labor. - DC Report

Clean energy money goes to greenwash CAFOs

This is just one example of the sort of thing that's happening too often in too many ways. Corn-based ethanol fuel is the biggest example, overall.

Now, a controversial energy source claims a larger share of these federal dollars in Wisconsin than systems like solar and wind. Biogas, a fuel created from livestock waste, has become increasingly popular on farms nationwide in the past two decades, and in Wisconsin, biogas projects are receiving a growing portion of REAP funding.

Analysis of the national program funding for rural clean energy in Wisconsin since 2012 found biogas digester projects have received more money in the past two years than every solar project combined since 2012. Wisconsin biogas projects funded by REAP receive $1.3 million on average, roughly 18 times the average amount REAP gave to upgrade outdated machinery and energy-hogging equipment on farms and rural businesses. Wisconsin biogas projects funded by REAP receive 50 times the average funding compared to their solar counterparts...

Critics of biogas say the technology only exists because of the massive amount of waste created on farms with thousands of heads of livestock. These Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, or CAFOs, have been linked to various cancers and public health risks caused by waste runoff. Some research suggests that the climate benefits of digesters aren’t as great as the industry claims. - Barn Raiser