financial reform


Isaiah J. Poole's picture

Labor Exec Shows How To Demolish Banking Industry Facade

Wall Street Reform Matters

Hear AFL-CIO policy director Damon Silvers explain why financial reform is important and his assessment of his debate with American Bankers Association president Edward Yingling.

The banking lobby, as corporate lobbies are wont to do, can build a wonderful Potemkin village of consumer delights, where a defanged government beholden to business interests smiles as unfettered CEOs and marketers rack up their profits and where only the buyer need beware.

This particular village, however, is as flimsy as it is fake, as Damon Silvers, the policy director at the AFL-CIO, demonstrated in a face-off with the banking industry's chief lobbyist, American Bankers Association president Edward Yingling sponsored by the Aspen Institute.

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Isaiah J. Poole's picture

Ungodly: Bonuses At Goldman Sachs, Bankruptcies On Main Street

Hundreds of taxpayers converged in front of the Washington headquarters of Goldman Sachs with a basic demand for its CEO: Before you issue multibillion-dollar bonuses to your executives, help clean up the mess you and other Wall Street titans made on Main Street. more »


Mike Elk's picture

Protestors to Goldman Sachs: "You Are Not God" - Bernanke Explains Why

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The Money Man's Best Friend

thenation.com — The Obama administration promised to reform the financial system and make it safe for the rest of us, but recent Congressional action is more likely to reset the fuse for another explosive calamity. Washington insiders may not be shocked to learn that private-interest groups provided the draft bill. But the legislation was delivered to the House Financial Services Committee by Blue Dog Democrats, not lobbyists.

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Isaiah J. Poole's picture

Make Them Afraid Of Wall Street's Money

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Isaiah J. Poole's picture

Progressive Breakfast: The Net Domestic Product

The daily Progressive Breakfast serves up what progressive movement members need to know to start their day. Bill Scher is traveling; he will return Monday.

Thursday's news that the nation's gross domestic product grew at an annual rate of 3.5 percent in the third quarter comes with a lot of asterisks. A few of them:

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Isaiah J. Poole's picture

Beyond Chicago: The Showdown Shifts To D.C.

Now that thousands of demonstrators confronted bankers at the "showdown in Chicago" during the American Bankers Association convention there this week, activist energy is now urgently shifting to Washington and to communities across the country.

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Isaiah J. Poole's picture

Beyond Chicago: The Showdown Shifts To D.C.

Now that thousands of demonstrators confronted bankers at the "showdown in Chicago" during the American Bankers Association convention there this week, activist energy is now urgently shifting to Washington and to communities across the country. more »


Richard Trumka's picture

Showdown in Chicago

I'm going to Chicago next week for the American Bankers Association meeting. Oddly, I haven't been invited to the Roaring '20's dance party I hear they're having.

Why wouldn't they celebrate the era of wild money and hot times (which slid into the Great Depression)? After all, the bankers are doing well these days. more »

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Jeff Madrick's picture

The Case For Big Government

America had been living a free-market myth for a generation until the credit crisis of 2008 and 2009 descended on the nation—and the world. One expression of that myth, found frequently on the editorial pages of the popular media, was that government does not grow economies, business does. In other words, government, don't meddle where you're not needed. more »

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