The phrase “trickle-down” economics has always been ripe for derision. Not only because it doesn’t work—the idea that if we ply the rich with more money from taxpayers’ pockets some eventually will “trickle down” in the form of jobs and prosperity is a myth. But also because, let’s face it, “trickle down” conjures up a variety of images we won’t mention here.

Now, cartoonist Mark Fiore has created an animated video, “Once Upon a Trickle Down,” that puts the entire corporate/Republican-backed theory and its effects into an easy-to-understand children’s rhyme. Here’s a taste:

The AFL-CIO recently joined with other investors to ask corporations to nominate more women as directors. The AFL-CIO’s Secretary-Treasurer Elizabeth Shuler co-signed a letter with state officials from California, New York, Washington, Massachusetts and other states, as well as executives from the nation’s largest state pension funds, mutual fund companies, and women’s organizations.

Investors sent the letter to the nominating committees of S&P 500 companies that do not have any women on their boards.

Economist Simon Johnson, co-founder of the popular blog, The Baseline Scenario, joined us here today at the AFL-CIO for a discussion of his new book, White House Burning: The Founding Fathers, Our National Debt and Why It Matters to You. Co-authored with law professor James Kwak, White House Burning shows why the debasement of our political system in the 1980s and 1990s has produced a dysfunctional Congress that perpetuates our debt-based economy.

Johnson, a professor of entrepreneurship at the MIT Sloan School of Management, joined us in a Q&A on his findings and analysis of where we go from here.

Some good news on the job front: 163,000 jobs were created in July, although the unemployment rate ticked up from 8.2 percent in June to 8.3 percent last month. So far this year, employment growth has averaged 151,000 per month, roughly the same as in 2011, according to Department of Labor data released this morning (click on chart to expand).

The big rise in jobs—many analysts expected 100,000 jobs or fewer would be created in July—is a good step toward economic recovery. But the July data also include several indicators showing difficulties in recovering gains lost since the recession. For instance, long-term jobless workers—those without work for 27 weeks or more—continue to see little change, with 5.2 million remaining unemployed. They account for 40.7 percent of jobless workers.

At the AFL-CIO this Friday, Aug. 3, at 12 p.m., economist Simon Johnson, co-founder of the popular blog, The Baseline Scenario, will show why the debasement of our political system in the 1980s and 1990s has produced a dysfunctional Congress that perpetuates our debt-based economy. (Be sure to RSVP for the event here.)

The business model on which Mitt Romney built his private-equity, outsourcing career and fortune at  Bain Capital “has made our economy weaker and our society more unequal; it has hollowed out our tax base, and it has wreaked havoc on our communities,” said the AFL-CIO Executive Council in a statement from its August meeting this week in Washington, D.C.

Many U.S. workers don’t have jobs—nearly 13 million. Less known, however, is that many more don’t have good jobs—fewer than one-quarter of America’s workforce, according to a new report from the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR). The center defines a good job as one that pays at least $18.50 an hour, or $37,000 per year, equal to the inflation-adjusted earnings of the typical male worker in 1979.  A good job also includes employer-provided health insurance and a retirement plan (click on chart at left to expand).

The lack of available good jobs is not new. As CEPR finds, compared with 1979, the U.S. economy has lost about one-third (28 percent to 38 percent) of its capacity to generate good jobs.

But why?

The Federal Reserve recently adopted a two percent inflation target, reports Thomas Palley, AFL-CIO senior economic policy advisor. The Fed should be looking at policies that improve wages, not ones that will undercut the possibility of future wage increases and make it more difficult to achieve full employment, Palley writes In an Op-Ed published in the Economists' Forum blog titled, "The Fed's 2% Inflation Target Trap." 

The AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trust (HIT) will provide $90 million towards rehabilitating and preserving affordability at two 30-year-old the Boston apartment complexes that serve primarily people with disabilities, low-income and senior residents. The project is part of HIT’s National Construction Jobs Initiative and the AFL-CIO’s Green Jobs Initiative. The project is expected to create about 150 union construction jobs for local workers.

We can strengthen the U.S. economy and invest in our nation's infrastructure and workers. A long-term plan for growth is needed, and it certainly doesn't involve austerity. 

Yale University Professor Jacob Hacker and Roosevelt Institute Founder Nathaniel Loewentheil today released their new paper, Prosperity Economics: Building an Economy for All, at the Economic Policy Institute. This bold paper provides a comprehensive plan to grow our nation’s economy in a way that works for everyone.