News & Comment
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Congress' Choice: Real Derivatives Reform Or Another Wall Street Earthquake by Robert Johnson, OurFuture.org | November 18, 2009
This post is an excerpt of testimony presented to the Senate Agriculture Committee on November 18, 2009 in a hearing on legislation reforming regulation of financial markets. The testimony was presented on behalf of Americans for Financial Reform. read more »$140 Billion for Bonuses, Zero for America’s Future by Dave Johnson, OurFuture.org | November 11, 2009
Here is another story about Wall Street’s war on the real economy. US Steel was planning to invest $1 billion in building an environmentally-friendly new “coke battery” plant in Clairton, PA. The new battery would dramatically reduce the emissions used in the process, and use the gases to produce electricity. According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, read more »The Angelides Commission: Tell America What Happened by Robert Borosage , OurFuture.org | September 17, 2009
Today the new Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, modeled after the New Deal-era Pecora Commission, begins its investigation into possible misconduct by the financial sector causing last year's market meltdown. read more »Pecora II Meets, Grassroots Mobilizes by Isaiah J. Poole, OurFuture.org | September 17, 2009
In their first meeting Wednesday, members of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission—often characterized as the second coming of the Pecora Commission that investigated the causes of the Great Depression—clarified how they see their mission and what we can expect. read more »Wall Street Rules: The Bernanke Reappointment by Robert Borosage , OurFuture.org | August 27, 2009
The reappointment of Ben Bernanke as Chairman of the Federal Reserve -- cleverly timed to defuse the news of burgeoning federal deficits -- was preordained. The "markets" demanded it, and as James Carville noted, when the markets speak, presidents listen. read more »Let The Financial Inquest Begin by Isaiah J. Poole, OurFuture.org | July 15, 2009
Now that congressional leaders have named the members of the Financial Services Inquiry Commission—what is often referred to as the "Pecora Commission"—we are going to see once again who is prepared to lay the groundwork for real financial reform and who is going to stand in the way. read more »Financial Reform: Up To Us To Change The Game by Isaiah J. Poole, OurFuture.org | June 17, 2009
There's a reason why lawbreakers don't get to negotiate the terms of their punishment or their parole. There is no bartering to be done between the protectors of law and order and the violators of law and order. There are only two basic questions for the person who dared to stand outside the law: What is required of you to atone and what must be done to prevent that lawbreaking from recurring. read more »A New Player in the Banking Reform Fight: Citizens by Mike Elk, OurFuture.org | June 11, 2009
The fact that regular citizens have been largely excluded from the debate over financial regulation on Capitol Hill was underscored most vividly when Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill, said last month that "frankly the banks own the place." read more »The U.S. Chamber of Commerce: Threat To Capitalism by Eric Lotke, OurFuture.org | June 11, 2009
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce announced yesterday that it would “develop a sweeping national advocacy campaign … to defend and advance America’s free enterprise values in the face of rapid government growth and attacks by anti-business activists.” The Chamber doesn’t get it. They aren’t defending capitalism and free enterprise. They are all but destroying it. read more »Wall Street Journal Throws Citi Under The Bus by Robert Borosage , OurFuture.org | June 10, 2009
I stopped reading The Wall Street Journal editorial page when it soared off into wingnuttery, writing tomes on the imaginary conspiracy to off Vince Foster and other fantasies. The news pages remain useful; the editorial page hasn't improved much. read more »
The Latest
How 12 Multinational Corporations Avoid Paying Taxes, alternet.org | April 20, 2011
By Julianne Escobedo Shepherd, Alternet
Over the past month, General Electric has been held up as the pinnacle of corporate vampirism –– the world’s largest corporation in the world’s lowest tax bracke more »
Buying Government: Congressional Mergers and Acquisitions, Huffington Post | April 17, 2011
WSJ: Banks Hit for Credit Union Ills , The Wall Street Journal | March 23, 2011
In one of the broadest accusations that Wall Street helped cripple financial institutions during the crisis, the National Credit Union Administration, or NCUA, has threatened to sue several investment banks unless they refund over $50 billion of mortgage-backed securities sold to the five institutions, called wholesale credit unions.
Not Paying Tax: How Corporations Have Mastered the Art, alternet.org | February 23, 2011
Those official and theoretical tax obligations have been used to support conservatives' claims that corporations pay half or more of their profits to federal, state and local levels of government combined. However, because of loopholes, the truth is very different. more »
Barclays: £11.6bn profit, 1% tax, The Guardian | February 19, 2011
Learning To Walk: Fear, Shame And Your Underwater Mortgage, Huffington Post | February 4, 2011
Crisis Panel: Wall Street Appears To Have Violated Federal Securities Law, Huffington Post | January 28, 2011
JP Morgan Boss - Dimon - remarked recently at Davos it was time to "stop denigrating banks".
I disagree.
Were he illegally thrown out of his home by a ruthless immoral bank and communicating this wisdom while living under a plastic sheet in America's growing third world style shanty towns he and people like him might have a shred of credibility. more »
Rudolf Elmer to hand over rich and famous offshore banking secrets, The Guardian | January 16, 2011
Rudolf Elms wants to educate us with the help of Wikileaks.
Now assuming he makes it to the Frontline Club in London with the damning CDs in his sweaty palms we are going to have a ring side seat at some serious scrutiny of the mega-rich. Corruption, tax evasion, general gratuitous abuse of civilised business norms. Who knows what the coming weeks will bring.
Will he make it?
Robert Borosage is quoted in The Washington Post on Wall Street's Influence in the White House, The Washington Post | January 6, 2011
Wall Street ties complicate the politically touchy search for economic adviser
By Peter Wallsten and Perry Bacon Jr.
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, January 2, 2011; 7:32 PMPresident Obama is expected to name a new chief economic adviser as early as this week, but the months-long search process has proven difficult and politically touchy...... more »
Roger Hickey quoted in USA Today, USA Today | January 6, 2011
