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Cause For Hope: Robin Hood Tax Advances in Europe by Katrina vanden Heuvel, The Nation | October 16, 2012
Here’s a piece of unadulterated good news: At a meeting of European Union finance ministers last week, eleven European Countries agreed to support a financial transaction tax. It’s the latest step in the truly heartening rise of a much-needed common sense reform. It’s high time that U.S. progressives take heed, and draw inspiration. I’ve argued before that a financial transaction tax is a win-win: raising revenue to avert austerity, while discouraging speculation to avert the next Wall Street-induced disaster. On this issue, fortunately, the momentum is all on the good guys’ side. Last month, Congressman Keith Ellison introduced a great FTT bill for America. The news from Europe should strengthen its momentum, for reasons abstract and concrete. read more »It's Time to Debate Bain Capitalism by John Nichols, The Nation | October 16, 2012
Illinois Senator Dick Durbin was not planning to be at Obama’s side for today’s final round of debate preparation. Rather, Durban was headed back home to Illinois for a meeting with workers at the Sensata Technologies plant in Freeport, where 170 employees are slated to lose their jobs to outsourcing before the end of the year. Sensata is precisely the sort of high-tech operation that a country looking to compete in the global economy of the 21st century would want to maintain as a domestic manufacturer. So why are the jobs moving to China? Because Bain Capital owns the company, and Bain is committed to the industrial development of Chinese provinces – not to states like Illinois. That’s not what most Americans would identify as a smart choice for the nation’s future – let alone “economic patriotism.” But that is how Bain, which got its operating ethos from former CEO Mitt Romney, operates. read more »The National Debt and Our Children: How Dumb Does Washington Think We Are? by Dean Baker, Huffington Post | October 16, 2012
While much of the country is focused on the presidential race, the Wall Street gang is waging a different battle; they are preparing an assault on Social Security and Medicare. This attack is not exactly secret, but the drive is nonetheless taking place behind closed doors. The corporate honchos are not expecting to convince the public that we should support cuts to Social Security and Medicare. They know this is a hopeless task. Huge majorities of people across the political spectrum strongly support these programs. Instead they hope that they can use their power of persuasion, coupled with the power of campaign contributions and the power of high-paying jobs for defeated members of Congress, to get Congress to approve large cuts in Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and other key programs. This is the plan for a grand bargain that the corporate chieftains hope can be struck in the lame duck Congress. read more »Morgan Stanley: Please Allow Me to Introduce Myself ... by Richard (RJ) Eskow, OurFuture.org | October 15, 2012
"Please allow me to introduce myself, I'm a man of wealth and taste ..." read more »Morgan Stanley: Please Allow Me to Introduce Myself ... by Richard (RJ) Eskow, OurFuture.org | October 15, 2012
"Please allow me to introduce myself, I'm a man of wealth and taste ..." read more »Education Profiteering: Wall Street's Next Big Thing? by Jeff Faux, alternet.org | October 15, 2012
The end of the Chicago teachers' strike was but a temporary regional truce in the civil war that plagues the nation's public schools. There is no end in sight, in part because -- as often happens in wartime -- the conflict is increasingly being driven by profiteers. The familiar media narrative tells us that this is a fight over how to improve our schools. On the one side are the self-styled reformers, who argue that the central problem with American K-12 education is low-quality teachers protected by their unions. On the other side are teachers and their unions who are cast as villains. The conventional plot line is that they resist change, blame poverty for their schools' failings and protect their jobs and turf. It is well known, although rarely acknowledged in the press, that the reform movement has been financed and led by the corporate class. read more »"Town Hall" Debate: Will Voters Ask the Medicare and Social Security Questions Reporters Haven't? by Richard (RJ) Eskow, OurFuture.org | October 14, 2012
If you support strong and effective government, then the unfamiliar glow you felt after last Thursday's debate was the satisfaction of seeing your opinions forcefully defended by a national candidate. There hasn't been much of that going on lately. But a deceptive question was asked in the Vice Presidential debate, while other important ones still haven't been asked of any national candidate. read more »Diamond Jamie: Latest News On the JPMorgan Chase Crime Watch by Richard (RJ) Eskow, OurFuture.org | October 13, 2012
History will judge us, at least in part, by our willingness to defend our moral principles against the corrupting influence of the Wall Street capos. So far their campaign cash and lucrative revolving-door jobs have kept them above the law, while their PR firms and personal salesmanship have exempted them from moral judgement in the inner corridors of wealth and power. Al Capone's Chicago had nothing on today's Washington DC. read more »Diamond Jamie: Latest News On the JPMorgan Chase Crime Watch by Richard (RJ) Eskow, OurFuture.org | October 13, 2012
History will judge us, at least in part, by our willingness to defend our moral principles against the corrupting influence of the Wall Street capos. So far their campaign cash and lucrative revolving-door jobs have kept them above the law, while their PR firms and personal salesmanship have exempted them from moral judgement in the inner corridors of wealth and power. Al Capone's Chicago had nothing on today's Washington DC. read more »Fast-Forward to 2013 by Marilyn Katz, inthesetimes.com | October 12, 2012
I'll give it to Mitt Romney. During the debate he looked and sounded pretty “presidential”: good haircut, power tie, in command (total control, really) of the debate. Romney’s performance had the intended effect. Virtually every poll across the nation had his numbers soaring in the past week. Many show him leading Obama both in the popular vote and in critical swing states. Presumably, that means many American are now ”looking at Romney in a new light.” While his running mate Paul Ryan didn't do as well, for those who were swayed by Romney's performance, it might be prudent to think past his style or what positions he chose to take that night. Based on Romney’s record—as well as the agendas of his party, his running mate and the Super PACs to which he would owe his victory—let’s take a moment to envision what life would be like under a Romney presidency. read more »
The Latest
Occupy Protest: Vacant Homes Take Over To Protect Dispossessed Americans, alternet.org | December 8, 2011
In a supposedly capitalist society with the notion of efficient distribution of goods and services through hard work and free market forces there is something exquisitely poetic in wasted US human capital occupying wasted US material capital to achieve those more »
Massive Fraud: Watchdog critical of SEC hedge fund probe, Marketwatch | December 1, 2011
OK America, your legal system has been trashed. Your constitution has been trashed. Whats next?
"WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — The Securities and Exchange Commission’s watchdog released a report Wednesday examining an anonymous tip explaining that agency staffers discovered a “massive fraud” by a hedge fund manager and never pursued it. "
Occupy Wall Street: you can't evict an idea whose time has come, The Guardian | November 15, 2011
Now is the time.... Right Now....
At 2.43am, the New York Observer reported that photographers with credentials were barred from Liberty Square. Seconds later the director of editorial operations at Gawker reported that a CBS news chopper were ordered out of the sky by the NYPD. New York Times journalist Jarid Malsin went to jail in zipties.
Occupy Oakland throng closes down port, sfgate.com | November 3, 2011
Thousands of people jammed into downtown Oakland on Wednesday for a general strike called by Occupy Oakland to protest economic inequity and corporate greed - then marched en masse to the Port of Oakland and shut it down. more »
Church Of England Opens Doors and Dialogue With Occupy Protestors , The Guardian | November 1, 2011
The Church Of England is an institution with global reach and it has concluded that far from closing its doors and evicting London's occupy protestors it should open its doors and listen to them. more »Regulators Investigating MF Global for Missing Money, dealbook.nytimes.com | November 1, 2011
By BEN PROTESS, MICHAEL J. DE LA MERCED and SUSANNE CRAIG more »
1% Get The Dream 99% Get The Nightmare, Huffington Post | November 1, 2011
Torture: Private Prosecution against George W. Bush On Canadian Arrival, globalresearch.ca | October 25, 2011
Should crimes committed in the Bush II era in our name be quietly forgotten?No, and here is why: more »
Occupy Wall Street protesters march against police brutality, The Guardian | October 1, 2011
Watching someone get pepper sprayed for lawfully expressing their opinion brings the nature of the beast into full view. I hope the victim's eyes recovered OK, paradoxically the sheer arrogant brutality was the eye opener. more »
'Occupy Wall Street' Fighting Bankster Greed and the Surveillance State, alternet.org | September 29, 2011
The crackdown on the Wall Street protesters this weekend seems to have backfired. The campsite-cum-experiment in radical democracy is still there, holding general assemblies just shouting distance from Goldman Sachs and the Wall Street bull. more »
