A Retrospective and Plans for the Future
A 2022 Year in Review & Plans for 2023
Happy New Year’s Eve! I hope you all are doing well and staying safe.
Despite the many intersecting tragedies unfolding across the world throughout 2022, there were also many instances of people persisting and even progressing towards a brighter tomorrow. Many economic indicators pointed in different directions this year—some positive, others concerning—yet I remain cautiously optimistic about 2023.
My final article of this year won’t be as thorough as my 2021 In Review article, but before I discontinue my monthly series of brief articles—and instead pivot towards less frequent, but more detailed, articles for the foreseeable future—I wanted to provide updates for certain topics we discussed throughout the past couple of years.
Unionization and the NLRB
Workers continue to seek safer, more equitable workplaces, and are increasingly seeking unionization as a way to achieve this. The U.S. National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) reported in October that:
In Fiscal Year 2022 (October 1, 2021-September 30, 2022), 2,510 union representation petitions were filed with NLRB’s 48 Field Offices—a 53% increase from the 1,638 petitions [filed] in FY2021. This is the highest number of union representation petitions filed since FY2016.
Unfair labor practice (ULP) charges filed with NLRB Field Offices also increased 19%, from 15,082 charges in FY2021 to 17,988 charges in FY2022.
Accounting for both ULP and representation petitions, total case intake at the Field Offices increased 23%—from 16,720 cases in FY2021 to 20,498 cases in FY2022. This increase of 3,778 cases is the largest single-year increase since FY1976 and the largest percentage increase since FY1959.
The NLRB is also expecting a long-overdue $25 million budget increase after having been forced to spend nearly a decade with the same nominal budget. Without this budget increase, a recent letter from the NLRB stated that they would “likely be forced to pursue furloughs”, so this is certainly welcome news.
My hope is that workers continue to pursue unionizing and that the NLRB continues to help protect workers from unfair labor practices throughout 2023.
Inflation is Showing Signs of Slowing
The most recent reports on fluctuations in the Consumer Price Index and Personal Consumption Expenditures suggest that inflation is slowing down. Prices of certain goods and services are still increasing, but not at the same rates they were earlier this year.
We still have a ways to go before inflation is back below the 2% target, as you can see in the graph below, but seeing CPI and PCE data moving in the same direction is also welcome news.
Consistent, albeit gradually decelerating, job growth has kept the economy strong despite headwinds from inflation and other economic disruptions. My hope is that these promising trends persist throughout the new year. But before I wrap this article up, I want to provide updates on various legislative topics we’ve been following.
Although I won’t be able to prepare as thorough a list as I did during last year’s retrospective article, I wanted to note a few important pieces of legislation that passed during 2022.
Notable Legislation that Passed
While I would have preferred to see the Build Back Better Act pass in its entirety, we did get some compromises on certain key provisions. The following is from my August edition of this newsletter:
The Inflation Reduction Act
While this version of the bill is called the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, many likely disinflationary provisions which were being negotiated last year, such as the housing supply investments, did not make the final cut. Many positive inclusions did make it, though, and some of these do have the potential to bring down costs for millions of Americans.
Making clean energy technology more affordable via tax credits and allowing Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices will likely make a dent in many budgets. Still, I lament the loss of certain provisions like the Civilian Climate Corps, which the original Build Back Better Act would have delivered.
I also worry about concessions made to Senators like Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, but as long as the Supreme Court decision equating money to free speech and allowing unlimited corporate campaign contributions remains intact, this is unfortunately going to remain the price of accomplishing virtually anything in Congress.
For these and other reasons, I still believe that we need to pass the For the People Act or, at the very least, certain key provisions within the Act, or future legislation will be similarly compromised by wealthy interests getting priority over the will of the people.
But I am still optimistic about the future. If we can turn this situation into a turnabout for the Biden administration, where we begin ramping up political momentum for meaningful progress—despite largely losing that momentum last year—this could be a pivotal moment in U.S. politics.
The CHIPS and Science Act
Other reasons to be hopeful that political momentum may once again be building involve other bills which President Biden recently signed into law. Before passing the Inflation Reduction Act, Congress also passed a bill which aims to invest in U.S. manufacturing and supply chain dependability.
The Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors for America or “CHIPS” and Science Act could help bring back some manufacturing jobs and address supply chain vulnerabilities which have been exacerbated in recent years.
I still would have preferred to see more stipulations and requirements placed on corporations which receive public funds, especially since we’ve been burned so many times in the past. We could have, for instance, required that these companies create good union manufacturing jobs, pay their workers prevailing wages, or placed any number of requirements that might prevent these corporations from simply pocketing the money.
For instance, Senator Bernie Sanders proposed these requirements:
I’m opposed to this legislation in any form until these conditions are met:
companies must agree to issue warrants or equity stakes to the federal government;
they must commit to not buying back their own stock, outsourcing American jobs overseas or repealing existing collective bargaining agreements;
and they must remain neutral in any union organizing efforts.
The demands I’m making are not radical. They are the same conditions that were included in the CARES Act, which passed the Senate 96-0.
Bernie was, unfortunately, unable to gain enough support from his Senate colleagues to pass these sensible requirements. However, if this legislation ultimately helps get some of these critical jobs back on this hemisphere, and prevents them from being shipped overseas in the future, then I will consider it a net positive. Increasing the availability of computer chips should also eventually bring down the prices of everything from cars to appliances in this increasingly digital age.
The Honoring our PACT Act
One other piece of notable piece of legislation involved a struggle we’ve seen all too frequently, but Congress finally did the right thing. As you might’ve seen in the news, the former host of The Daily Show, Jon Stewart, once again fought to ensure health care for those who put themselves at risk on behalf of the United States.
You might also remember when he advocated for 9/11 first responders to get health care, but far too many members of Congress will refuse to do the right thing unless someone brings their degeneracy to light, so Stewart had to once again fight alongside our veterans just to get affordable health care. Because he and other brave individuals stood together, the Honoring our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act—or the Honoring our PACT Act of 2022—is now law.
For all their bluster about patriotically supporting the troops, only Republican Senators voted against the PACT Act, but it stilled passed overwhelmingly by a vote of 84-14. According to the VA website, the passage of the PACT Act will bring about the following changes:
Expands and extends eligibility for VA health care for Veterans with toxic exposures and Veterans of the Vietnam, Gulf War, and post-9/11 eras
Adds more than 20 new presumptive conditions for burn pits and other toxic exposures
Adds more presumptive-exposure locations for Agent Orange and radiation
Requires VA to provide a toxic exposure screening to every Veteran enrolled in VA health care
Helps us improve research, staff education, and treatment related to toxic exposures
It’s amazing what we can pass when individuals can come together, expose indefensible positions that members of Congress will take if they think they won’t face scrutiny, and demand progress.
I wish that Congress had also prioritized the For the People Act, some version of the Ban Conflicted Trading Act, and the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act before losing control of the House, but the progress above is important nonetheless.
We also finally have access to Trump’s tax returns thanks to the House Ways and Means Committee, but presidential candidates publicly releasing their tax returns would have been a requirement—not a mere suggestion—had the For the People Act passed.
As we look forward to a new year and future elections, we must not lose sight of the fundamental flaws by which our systems allow for conflicts of interest and outright legalized bribery, lest progress will be continually undermined by those who seek to profit from obstruction.
Before I wrap up this year’s final article, I’d like to remind readers about my plans for next year.
Plans for 2023
For anyone who missed my previous article discussing plans for next year, here it is again:
Because I have had to focus on other projects lately, and will have to continue doing so for the foreseeable future, I am going to discontinue posting monthly articles and will only post sporadically once I have a detailed article to share with readers. Since I no longer plan to post regularly, I plan to discontinue paid subscriptions throughout 2023. If I am once again able to resume posting regularly, I may once again offer paid subscriptions, but most of my content will remain free to read as always.
Thank you to everyone who has supported this newsletter with a paid subscription, and to everyone who has listened to my thoughts.
Thank you as always for reading, and I hope you all have a Happy New Year!
Thank you for reading my newsletter and taking the effort to learn about making the world a better place. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on how we can make progress towards a more just economy.
-JJ