The passing scene: Links & comments 11/22/14

Whatever Happened to Overtime Pay? by Nick Hanauer for Politico.

Nick Hanauer, the wealthy entrepreneur who wrote “The Pitchforks Are Coming … for Us Plutocrats,” wrote a new article about how the erosion of overtime pay is a reason so many middle-class people are poorer than their parents.

In 1975, the Department of Labor’s definition of eligibility for overtime pay—time-and-a-half for overtime— applied to 65 percent of the American work force.  Now it only covers 11 percent.

President Obama could fix it with a stroke of the pen, Hanauer wrote.  Either millions of workers would get more pay raise through overtime.  Or millions of jobs would be created as employers sought to avoid paying overtime.  But Hanauer said his inside information is that this isn’t going to happen.

Bank of North Dakota Outperforms Wall Street by Ellen Brown for Counterpunch.

The Bank of North Dakota, which is the only U.S. bank owned by a state government, outperforms the big Wall Street banks while promoting the state’s economic development and financing public works.  Ellen Brown said the reason for the bank’s success is that it doesn’t gamble with speculative investments and it plows its profits bank into the state rather than into big bonuses and executive salaries.

How the Government Steals from Citizens by A. Barton Hinckle for Reason magazine.

D.C. police plan for future seizures years in advance in city budget documents by Robert O’Harrow Jr. and Steven Rich for the Washington Post.

 A reminder: The Fifth Amendment to the Constitution states that “no person … shall be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law, nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation.”  This is a principle of justice.  It should not be regarded as an obstacle to get around.