News & Comment
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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
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
