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No Accountability in NY or DC: $15 Billion for Jobs, $20 Billion for Bonuses - and Dodd Still Wants to Compromise by Richard (RJ) Eskow, OurFuture.org | March 1, 2010
When I worked in the Financial District back in the nineties, the big-shot investment types loved to talk about accountability. Almost all male, they loved macho posturing. They got big money because they took big risks, they'd say. They were the Danger Boys. They had to lay it all on the line every day. read more »No Accountability in NY or DC: $15 Billion for Jobs, $20 Billion for Bonuses - and Dodd Still Wants to Compromise by Richard (RJ) Eskow, OurFuture.org | March 1, 2010
When I worked in the Financial District back in the nineties, the big-shot investment types loved to talk about accountability. Almost all male, they loved macho posturing. They got big money because they took big risks, they'd say. They were the Danger Boys. They had to lay it all on the line every day. read more »No Accountability in NY or DC: $15 Billion for Jobs, $20 Billion for Bonuses - and Dodd Still Wants to Compromise by Richard (RJ) Eskow, OurFuture.org | March 1, 2010
When I worked in the Financial District back in the nineties, the big-shot investment types loved to talk about accountability. Almost all male, they loved macho posturing. They got big money because they took big risks, they'd say. They were the Danger Boys. They had to lay it all on the line every day. read more »Dodd Guts Consumer Protection by Andy Kroll, Mother Jones | March 1, 2010
Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., has dealt the death blow to consumer protection. The chairman of the Senate banking committee plans to announce this week the creation of a Bureau of Financial Protection inside the Treasury, instead of an independent, standalone Consumer Financial Protection Agency. That U-turn from his previous support for the agency is a capitulation to Republican and Wall Street opposition. read more »Financial Reform: Reconciliation or Ritual? by Richard (RJ) Eskow, OurFuture.org | February 25, 2010
The pheremonic scent of compromise is inducing euphoria in the nation's capitol once again. Not that there's anything wrong with compromise, if it results in policies that work. But we've just pulled ourselves back from the brink of financial meltdown, and tens of millions of households are experiencing their own economic catastrophes. This is no time to value process over outcome. read more »Financial Reform: Reconciliation or Ritual? by Richard (RJ) Eskow, OurFuture.org | February 25, 2010
The pheremonic scent of compromise is inducing euphoria in the nation's capitol once again. Not that there's anything wrong with compromise, if it results in policies that work. But we've just pulled ourselves back from the brink of financial meltdown, and tens of millions of households are experiencing their own economic catastrophes. This is no time to value process over outcome. read more »Should We Fear China? by Simon Johnson, Huffington Post | February 25, 2010
China is the largest holder of official foreign currency reserves in the world, currently estimated to be worth around $2.4 trillion -- an increase of nearly $500 billion in the course of 2009 (on the back of a current account surplus of just under $300 billion, i.e., 5.8 percent of China's GDP, and a capital account surplus of around $100 billion). These reserves are accumulated through arguably the largest ever sustained intervention in a foreign exchange market -- i.e., through The People's Bank of China buying dollars and selling renminbi, and thus keeping the renminbi-dollar exchange rate more depreciated than it would be otherwise. China is also currently the second largest holder of US Treasury Securities -- at the end of December 2009, it held $755.4 billion -- just behind Japan (which had $768.8 billion). The US Treasury data almost certainly understate Chinese holdings of our government debt because they do not reveal the ultimate country of ownership when instruments are held through an intermediary in another jurisdiction. read more »Bankers Made Reckless Bets, Knowing Taxpayers Would Pick up the Tab by Joseph Stiglitz, alternet.org | February 25, 2010
The bottom line is that the banks acted recklessly in their lending, in their gambling, in their management of risk. They made bad judgments about credit worthiness. In a sense, they failed their core societal function of allocating capital and managing risk. They misallocated capital and they mismanaged the risk. On the other side, though, they were allowed to get away with it. read more »How Big Banks' Interest-Rate Schemes Bankrupt States by Mike Elk, OurFuture.org | February 25, 2010
Just when you thought Wall Street couldn’t get any more clever in their attempts at predatory lending, they have. Big Banks have created an exotic financial instrument that is the equivalent of a payday loan for cash-strapped state and local governments. innocently labeled an "interest rate swap." read more »Dodd & Corker's Financial Deal: "Bipartisan"? Sure. "Creative"? Maybe. Effective? No. by Richard (RJ) Eskow, OurFuture.org | February 25, 2010
Steven Pearlstein of the Washington Post waxed lyrical today about the compromise deal on financial regulations proposed Sens. Dodd and Corker, calling it a "creative bipartisan proposal." It's certainly "bipartisan," and it may even be "creative." What it isn't is effective. read more »
The Latest
A culture of bullying and greed: Wanted - interns for Goldman Sachs... , independent.co.uk | October 17, 2012
WikiLeaks Is Down After Denial of Service Attacks, mashable.com | August 9, 2012
After five days of denial of service attacks, the WikiLeaks website has been knocked out. more »The Spreading Scourge of Corporate Corruption, The New York Times | July 11, 2012
Perhaps the most surprising aspect of the Libor scandal is how familiar it seems. Sure, for some of the world’s leading banks to try to manipulate one of the most important interest rates in contemporary finance is clearly egregious. more »Needy States Use Housing Aid Cash to Plug Budgets, The New York Times | May 16, 2012
Vermont Legislature Passes Resolution Challenging Citizens United, commondreams.org | April 21, 2012
Goldman Sachs: Lloyd Blankfein 'disappointed' by claims of 'toxic' greed, telegraph.co.uk | March 14, 2012
Legal Fees Mount at Fannie and Freddie, The New York Times | February 22, 2012
Taxpayers have advanced almost $50 million in legal payments to defend former executives of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the three years since the government rescued the giant mortgage companies, a regulatory analysis has found.
Memo
To: DOJ Funky fascist America Dept
Subject: Accountability more »Apple investigates 'sweat shop' factories following suicide threat, telegraph.co.uk | February 13, 2012
The technology giant, which has faced criticism over working conditions at some of its suppliers’ plants in China, said today that it had asked the Fair Labor Association (FLA) to conduct “special voluntary audits” of several facilities, including factories owned b more »On the Trail of Mortgage Fraud, The New York Times | January 17, 2012
When is a crime not a crime?
When criminality subverts the system, challenges the system, becomes the system. From the Kleptocrats' point of view it is the systematic breakdown of each and every law which gets in their way; preventing the ascent to power of their enhanced moral values.
The Kleptocrats are really America's third political party.
Help Stop SOPA/PIPA Breaking The Internet, wordpress.org | January 14, 2012
You are an agent of change. Has anyone ever told you that? Well, I just did, and I meant it.
