Curbing Wall Street

Silence is Golden: What Democrats Aren't Saying in Charlotte

Richard Eskow — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 13:12:58 -0400

Here's a new Zen riddle: What is the sound of money not talking?

Sure, it talks sometimes. We heard it loud and clear at the Republican Convention. But sometimes the sound of money in politics is the sound of silence. It's the sound of crooked bankers being let off the hook, of economies left at risk, of Social Security and Medicare being weakened, of growing inequity being ignored. Wall Street is spending record amounts on this year's election, and sometimes the best response is silence.

They're certainly talking about the economy at the Democratic Convention in Charlotte, which calls itself "the Wall Street of the South." But as of this writing (mid-day on Wednesday), nobody's talked about stronger oversight of Wall Street and other corporations,and nobody's promised to defend Social Security and Medicare from benefit cuts. (See UPDATE, below.)

Big-money interests want weak regulations and cuts to Social Security and Medicare. And they're a siren song to both parties - not only for their campaign contributions, but for the lucrative world of para-political employment that awaits ex-pols if they don't step out of line. (Matt Stoller's been exploring that topic - here, and here.)

If you're campaigning as a liberal and don't want to limit your career opportunities, sometimes the best course is silence.

Good Works

Tonight Bill Clinton will rally the crowd for Barack Obama. But he won't criticize the Wall Street interests that financed his political career and made him wealthy once he left office. It was Clinton who rebuked Obama for using anti-hedge fund rhetoric to attack Mitt Romney, saying Romney had "a sterling business career."

"I don't think that we ought to get into the position," said Clinton, "where we say 'This is bad work. This is good work.'"

But Bain-style predation is bad work. And deregulating Wall Street was bad policy. So was the idea of building an economy around financial speculation rather than jobs-based production.

Last night another ex-President who governed as a "centrist," Jimmy Carter, was limited to a short video appearance. Clinton's star turn is based on his popularity, but Carter's selfless and courageous post-Presidential career may also make ambitious politicians and staffers uncomfortable. Instead they can take heart from the post-political path to riches followed by Clinton and many of his senior aides.

It's no coincidence that Bill Clinton is also one of the most outspoken - and most deceptively cynical - sales reps for that elite piece of austerity hucksterism known as the "Simpson Bowles" plan,which would cut Social Security and Medicare benefits while actually lowering tax rates for corporations and the ultra-wealthy (under the pretense of closing unnamed "loopholes" at an unspecified later date).

Entitled

"Simpson Bowles," and the propaganda efforts behind it, are also creatures of big money - especially that of billionaire Pete Peterson, a former member of Richard Nixon's cabinet who has been coopting Democrats into his anti-government, anti-middle class agenda for decades. Peterson's had a long and close relationship with Bill Clinton, who appointed him to an "Entitlement and Tax Reform Commission" in 1994.

Peterson acolytes Alan Simpson (R-Wyoming) and Erskine Bowles (D-Morgan Stanley) were appointed to a "deficit commission" by President Obama. Following that commission's failure, they issued a personal proposal cuts Social Security and Medicare, fulfilling Peterson's long-held dream of eviscerating those programs. President Obama's been trying to cut that deal for years.

This year's Democratic platform equivocates on Social Security and Medicare, promising only to prevent Social Security from being privatized (which isn't on the table right now). "We reject approaches that insist that cutting benefits is the only answer," say the Democrats.

Yet, surprisingly, a couple of weeks ago Joe Biden changed the script by offering a "flat guarantee" that there will be no changes to Social Security in a second Obama Administration. What have we heard about that so far this week?

Silence.

Anybody who was truly concerned about the Federal government's long-term deficits would support this accurate observation in the 2008 Democratic platform: "The real long-run fiscal challenge is rooted in the rising spending on health care ..." But our runaway health care costs are driven by for-profit corporations, whose abuses were only lightly addressed in the health reform bill. This 2008 statement was replaced this year with ... silence.

With Nancy Pelosi's capitulation to the Simpson Bowles austerity plan, Biden and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid are the only two Democratic leaders in Washington who've said unequivocally that its benefits need not and should not be cut. What did we hear about Social Security in Sen. Reid's convention speech this week?

Silence.

Headline: big banks defeated

In his speech to the convention, Sen. Reid said this: "Some said (Obama) couldn't take on the big banks that brought our economy to its knees. But President Obama made the tough and right call so taxpayers will never again be on the hook for Wall Street's risky bets." Reid's rhetoric echoed the party's 2012 platform, which reads "We put in place Wall Street reform with smarter, tougher, commonsense rules that will prevent a crisis like that from ever happening again."

But the Dodd/Frank bill was the product of a "negotiation" charade was acted out between Senator (now lobbyist) Christopher Dodd and his GOP counterparts. Their backroom negotiations produced watered-down reform - and still received no Republican votes. And yet, to hear them tell it, the Democrats took on the big banks and won. A lot of people will be surprised to hear that, especially when they find out that the victory was complete and no further work is needed.

No bankers have been tried for their crimes, despite massive evidence. They're still allowed to buy their freedom - and the right to keep pillaging - with other people's money. There's been nothing to show for the latest "this time we really mean it" round of announcements of a task force to investigate mortgage-related fraud. And, contrary to Sen. Reid's assertion, it's almost certain that there will be another crisis.

The Demorats' repeated use of the past tense - "We put in place ..... made the right call ... never again on the hook ..." - is the most discouraging sign of all. Like their speeches and their platform, it implies that no further reforms are needed. They seem to be telling us they have no intention of fighting for the additional reforms we so urgently need.

I think I liked the silence better.

And now for a word from our sponsor

Today we learned that the party has moved the location of tomorrow night's events, so the President won't be accepting the nomination in Bank of America Stadium as planned. He and his his party won't enter an arena whose entrance is a shrine to one of our largest and most crooked too-big-to-fail banks.

Bank of America: whose bankers committed massive forgery and other crimes to foreclose on American families. Whose CEO was its top lawyer when it committed widespread fraud that led to billion-dollar fines and settlements. Which would have gone bankrupt if not for the taxpayer, and yet has paid out huge bonuses (despite the Democrats' 2008 pledge to "ban executive bonuses for bankrupt companies) -

- and where, despite the fraud and criminality, not a single banker has been indicted.

Enter through those doors? Politically, at least, it wasn't worth the price of admission. It wouldn't have been wise to have the President and his party coming together under the words "Bank of America," even if those words were looking down on the politicians and their party the way that Bank of America and its kind have always done:

In silence.

(UPDATE: It's always a thrill to see the political master at his best. But, as predicted, President Clinton promoted Simpson Bowles and never suggested we might need more Wall Street regulation. Several pundits predicted that he would do a mea culpa on repealing Glass-Steagall; we didn't expect that. Elizabeth Warren's speech was terrific, too, but she was in no position to call for additional Wall Street regulation and did not do so.)

If Bankers Took Steroids or Made Knockoff Handbags, They'd Clean Up Wall Street Tomorrow

Richard Eskow — Thu, 12 Jul 2012 13:00:49 -0400

If only. If only Brian Moynihan designed fashionable shoes, Jamie Dimon pitched a mean slider, and Lloyd Blankfein had written the song "Boyfriend" for Justin Bieber. Then they'd prosecute bank fraud.

The Justice Department used as many people to investigate one baseball player as it's doing to pursuing Wall Street housing fraud. It has coordinated fifteen Federal agencies to seize counterfeit goods worth $178 million, yet all but ignored a bankers' crime wave which cost the global economy trillions.

Our largest (and, lest we forget, taxpayer-rescued) banks have already paid tens of billions of dollars to settle civil and criminal charges - and now there's LIBOR. Yet there have been no arrests for a well-documented litany of charges which includes bribery, perjury, forgery, investor fraud, consumer fraud, and money-laundering for Mexican drug cartels.

Let's do the numbers. Number of seizures to recover counterfeit goods worth $178 million: 24,792. Number of arrests for crimes worth tens of billions in settlements and trillions in losses: Zero.

Low and Inside

Earlier today I took part in a press call with the Campaign for a Fair Settlement in which its Campaign Director, Brian Kettenring, noted that the Department of Justice assigned 93 agents to investigate ballplayer Roger Clemens and "about 100 to investigate misconduct responsible for millions of underwater homeowners and $800 bllion in underwater equity."

They weren't investigating Clemens for his pitching technique (although I think there's more to be learned about his split-finger fastball), but for something even less consequential: his alleged steroid use. Kettenring's right to contrast the government's Clemens probe with its response to the well-documented Wall Street crimes which triggered a worldwide financial crisis.

Roughly 1,000 investigators were assigned to the much smaller Savings and Loan scandal, and 100 to the Enron case alone. Now we're told that 100 people have been assigned to a Task Force which must investigate every major bank in the country.

My participation in today's call was prompted by some reporting I did recently, where confidential sources close to the RMBS investigation told me it could deliver concrete results, and soon,with as little as twenty or thirty more people. But that the Justice Department won't provide them.

Let's do a little compare and contrast.

In Surprise Upset, Footwear Falls Behind

The DOJ isn't saying much about the RBMS Task Force, but it has expended considerable time and money into building - and publicizing - its National Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Coordination Center.

According to an IPR Center report, there were 24,792 seizures of counterfeit products in Fiscal Year 2011, netting items worth $178.9 million in total. Specifically, 7,392 seizures intercepted "Wearing Apparel," 2,978 netted "Handbags/Wallets/Backpacks," and 1,772 snagged "Footwear."

In dollar value, the largest category of intercepted goods was "consumer electronics." And, in a surprise upset, the report informs us that "For the first time since FY 200 footwear was not the top commodity."

Want to know more? "Seizures of counterfeit perfume/cologne increased in value by 471% to $9.4 million in FY 2011." And, "FY 2011 is the first year that the category of handbags/wallets/backpacks did not make the 'Top Commodities Seized' list."

All in all, a satisfying report - especially if your name is Fendi or Prada.

Lawyers, Guns, and Money

The IPR Center apparently isn't hurting for resources. Its annual report states that "(Homeland Security) opened 1,212 intellectual property investigations and had 574 arrests, 355 indictments and 291 convictions," while "the FBI initiated 235 investigations and made 93 arrests, secured 79 indictments, and obtained 79 convictions."

Within the Justice Department itself, "assistant US Attorneys received 387 intellectual property referrals and ... charged 168 cases with 215 defendants."

And when it comes to your Justice Department and intellectual property, it's not just about handbags anymore. The DOJ also moved against illegal file sharing this year, charging seven individuals and two corporations with the alleged theft of $175 million in intellectual property in the Megaupload case.

But there were no indictments in the "Megabankfraud" case.

This Year's Model

The IPR Center shows what can be accomplished when an Administration devotes many agencies toward a common goal. It's a glimpse of what a real effort to fight bank fraud might look like. The Center has a "Field Support Unit," a "Programs Unit," an "Outreach and Training Unit," and a "Policy Section." It produces educational materials and holds training sessions for law enforcement personnel, policy makers, and ordinary citizens alike. Twenty six Homeland Security offices house dedicated teams who have been trained in intellectual property issues.

Metrics matter, too. "You can't manage what you can't measure," as they say. The IPR Center produces government-wide metrics on actions as well as results - inputs and outputs - tracking items such as cases referred, arrests, convictions, and the dollar impact of their efforts.

In a dream world - and yes, I know it is a dream world - the DOJ's anti-financial fraud effort would be designed, funded, and staffed on the IPR Center model. In many ways it's a model government effort.

Seal of Approval

We're not mocking the goal. Counterfeiting leads to the loss of badly-needed jobs here the United States (although, sadly, too many of them have already been lost to outsourcing.) And on a personal level, I have a vested interest in protecting revenue streams for both written and musical material.

The problem isn't intellectual property protection (although it's my personal opinion that the Justice Department sometimes goes about it in counterproductive, Draconian and extrajudicial ways - but that's another topic.)

The problem isn't counterfeiting. It's priorities.

Economically, bank fraud is many orders of magnitude more important than copyright infringement. Imagine if it were treated as seriously and addressed with as much dedication and imagination.

Not that the DOJ's just looking out for corporations. It recently announced that private citizens who hold copyrights will be allowed to use the FBI Anti-Piracy Warning Seal (APW Seal) on copyrighted works "including, but not limited to films, audio recordings, electronic media, software, books, photographs, etc." -provided that "the APW Seal and authorized warning language shall be enclosed by a plain box border at all times ..."

But as of this writing, consumers are unable to place a protective seal on their money.

Postscript: Burnin'

The three people we mentioned in our first sentence - Moynihan, Dimon, and Blankfein - don't design shoes or write songs, of course. They're the CEOs of Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, and Goldman Sachs. Those three banks alone have paid billions to settle criminal and civil charges.

In what an otherwise very good overview of today's call, Alison Frankel of Thomson Reuters says I'm being"inflammatory" for suggesting that the Justice Department "has a long-standing pattern of inactivity, obfuscation, and obstruction" on bank fraud.

But Ms. Frankel's also smart and honest enough to have written that she's "disgusted at the greed that fueled the securitization of insufficiently underwritten mortgages." And her prediction for the RMBS Task Force, like that many other astute observers, has so far proven much more more accurate than mine. She looked at the Administration's track record and said "I'm not not holding my breath."

"Mr. Inflammatory," on the other hand, was willing to give the Administration the benefit of the doubt on this one. Until now that's been one of my worst calls in a long time.

And as for tone, a personal note: Some of us have written about the financial industry for years - its dishonest underwriting, its often-falsified risk management practices, and its ongoing patterns of criminal behavior. We've used both personal experience and the mounds of data pointing to massive bank fraud in order to lift our soft voices in protest. Some of us are well-known, respected, even Nobel Prize winners. Others, like yours truly ... not so much.

But each of us has tried to find our niche in this little ecosystem of economic resistance so we can speak out as best we can. Years have passed. In the meantime bank executives, and too often our leaders, have continued to behave in breathtakingly cynical ways.

Trust me: I'd rather be still be using the analytical, dispassionate tone of a corporate consultant or State Department team member. But the times don't call for that anymore. Harsh truths sometimes call for harsh language. Some people enjoy doing it; I don't. But only the Justice Department can disprove the charge of "inactivity, obfuscation, and obstruction" - and it can only do it with action.

I hope they do. According to polls, it would do a lot for the President and his party. Much more importantly, justice will remain unserved - and our economy will remain endangered - until they do.

It would also help change the tone if the Administration did more, and spoke more, about the damage bank fraud has inflicted on millions of innocent people. The best way it can do that is by fighting for jobs and defending our social safety net.

The economic and political landscape we see today is the one some of us predicted - and feared - in 2009. We dutifully issued our warnings: Democrats would lose Congress unless they tackled Wall Street. More bank crimes were coming. Austerity rhetoric and deficit compromises would lead to economic disaster.

The response? We were sneered at as "purists" or dismissed as "naive." Well, here's another prediction: There's more trouble comin'. "Sometimes it's no fun to be right," writes Ms. Frankel.

Tell me about it.

Help Stop SOPA/PIPA Breaking The Internet

Philip Palij — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 05:52:23 -0500

You are an agent of change. Has anyone ever told you that? Well, I just did, and I meant it.

Normally we stay away from from politics here at the official WordPress project — having users from all over the globe that span the political spectrum is evidence that we are doing our job and democratizing publishing, and we don’t want to alienate any of our users no matter how much some of us may disagree with some of them personally. Today, I’m breaking our no-politics rule, because there’s something going on in U.S. politics right now that we need to make sure you know about and understand, because it affects us all.

Mr. President, Stop Protecting Bankers From These State Law Enforcement Officials

Richard Eskow — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 13:19:17 -0500

Lately we've been hearing some strong words from President Obama about Wall Street crime. But when the cameras and lights aren't around, his administration's been working feverishly to protect bankers from state law enforcement officials.

There are conscientious state attorneys general who believe the law applies to everyone. While they're working to bring justice to Wall Street, White House officials are obstructing them by pushing a sweetheart deal with the banks that would end their investigations and prevent them from prosecuting crooked bankers.

If more people knew what was happening, the White House would be flooded with calls and emails demanding that it stop protecting Wall Street.

It's still not too late for that.

The Evidence

The evidence for Wall Street's criminality is overwhelming. The big banks have already signed consent decrees and other documents in response to well-documented charges of perjury and filing of false documents; illegal foreclosures; criminal solicitation through the repeated use of law firms and foreclosure servicers known to have violated the law; investor fraud; and other major crimes.

Wall Street's lawbreaking crashed the economy, left millions of people jobless, and cost the world's economy trillions of dollars in lost wealth. People have been illegally evicted, and millions were deceived into borrowing money for real estate whose value had been artificially inflated through illegal means, and who now owe that money to the same bankers who committed the crimes.

But none of the criminals have gone to jail—and they're still collecting on those loans.

The Resistance

The responsibility for prosecuting crooked bankers belongs to both the Justice Department and the attorneys general who serve as their states' chief law enforcement officers. AGs for all 50 states were brought together to negotiate with the banks over Wall Street mortgage fraud, and quickly came under intense pressure from the administration and corporate interests. Under the leadership of self-serving Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, the group began to discuss a White House-backed deal that would protect criminal bankers from prosecution and let the banks settle for pennies on the dollar.

The first AG to reject the deal was New York's Eric Schneiderman, whose jurisdiction includes Wall Street. Schneiderman had been pursuing criminal investigations and asked the group not to accept any agreement that would shut them down before all the evidence was in. He immediately came in for some heavy arm-twisting from Obama officials like HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan and top people at the Justice Department—the same Justice Department that has refused to prosecute a single banker for criminal fraud, and can only offer weak and implausible excuses for its failure to do so.

Ohio's Miller immediately removed Schneiderman from the committee leading negotiations for the 50-member AG group, despite his state's key role in prosecuting bank fraud. That move was either designed to remove Schneiderman from the room while negotiating with (and for) the banks, or it was Miller's petty way of saying "you can't sit with us in the school cafeteria anymore." Maybe it was both.

Schneiderman nevertheless soldiered on, apparently undeterred by either the administration's arm-twisting or Miller's "you are so not hanging with us, dude" tactics.

Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway soon stepped up and backed Schneiderman, saying "There should be absolutely no criminal or civil immunity given to banks for activity that has not yet been investigated." Delaware's Beau Biden also joined with Schneiderman, and that's important. Many New York-based companies, including my ex-employer AIG, are legally incorporated in Delaware to take advantage of that state's favorable corporate tax policies. (Biden's also resisting the administration that his dad serves as vice president, which must make for interesting dinner table conversations at holiday time.)

Massachusetts AG Martha Coakley has sued five banks for allegedly seizing private property illegally. And the AGs of California and Nevada, Kamala Harris and Catherine Cortez Masto, have announced a joint investigation of the massive bank mortgage activity in their states.

These AGs are fighting corporate influence in order to uphold the law. They're on the right side of this fight. Look who's not.

The Deal

For reasons known only to themselves, officials in the Obama administration have spent more than a year trying to undercut these AGs. They're pushing a deal that would end their investigations before they're even completed and would immunize bankers from criminal prosecution.

Like the Security and Exchange Commission's notorious sweetheart deals, this Obama-backed settlement would let banks buy their way out of prosecution with a slap-on-the-wrist settlement of $20 billion-$25 billion. It would also create a phony refinancing program to make it look as if banks are doing something about the tragedies they've created by promising to refinance "as many as" 300,000 underwater mortgages (meaning the real number could be much smaller than that).

It's one more get-out-of-jail-free card for criminals on Wall Street.

The Damage

The social damage from this deal would be enormous. Consider:

It reinforces criminal behavior: Once again crooked bankers would go unpunished. That would guarantee they'll commit these kinds of crimes again and again, knowing they'll never pay for it with their time or their money. Thanks to other soft deals like this one, big bank executives have already promised to stop their crimes (while "neither admitting nor denying wrongdoing") -- and then repeated them again and again, 51 times!
The victims will pay for the crimes: Bankers defrauded their own investors by concealing their own true financial picture. The money paid in this settlement deal will be paid, not by the lawbreaking bankers who got rich off their own crimes, but by the very same shareholders they defrauded.
It places the perps in charge of their own restitution: The refinancing program (for "as many as" 300,000 homeowners) will be run by the banks themselves. The last administration program designed to 'help' homeowners became a tool for banks to rip them off even more. Mortgage servicers misstated their figures in that program as much as 80 percent of the time. Bankers used it to extract more money from homeowners, then foreclosed on them anyway (often with false documents or inaccurate figures) while the Administration looked the other way.
The settlement amount is a tiny fraction of the harm caused: There are 11.1 million underwater mortgages. Homeowners still owe the banks $750 billion for housing value that has evaporated. The banks artificially pumped out real estate values, these homeowners borrowed against the inflated prices, the housing market crashed—and they're left holding the bag while bankers are holding their bonuses. And they still owe the banks all that money.
It undermines the fabric of social trust: This deal reinforces the message that there's one code of justice for the rich and powerful and another for everyone else. And that government works for the rich and powerful, while the rest of us are on our own.

The Letter

We should be grateful for the courage and determination of these AGs. They need and deserve the public's recognition and support. Voters need to tell the president that it's wrong and unacceptable to push for a bank-friendly deal and undermine these public servants.

What's your note to the White House going to say? Mine will go something like this:

Dear Mr. President:

That was one terrific speech you gave in Kansas the other day. It was great when you promised to make sure that "penalties count" for bankers. And you were absolutely right when you said that "Wall Street firms (keep) violating major anti-fraud laws because the penalties are too weak and there's no price for being a repeat offender."

If you believe that, why is your administration working so hard to protect bankers from state law? I admire Eric Schneiderman, Beau Biden, Jack Conway, Martha Coakley, Kamala Harris, and Catherine Cortez Masto. Why is your staff pressuring them to stop investigating these crimes and let bankers off the hook?

If you meant what you said, Mr. President, please tell your staff to back off and let these good people do the jobs they were elected to do.

Mr. President, you said in Kansas that "a strong middle class can only exist in an economy where everyone plays by the same rules, from Wall Street to Main Street." So why is your administration trying to stop the states from enforcing those rules?

You were right when you said that "there is a deficit of trust between Main Street and Wall Street." Please restore and protect the trust between those streets - and with Pennsylvania Avenue - by directing your administration to stop pushing this corrupt deal and support attorneys general Schneiderman, Biden, Conway, Coakley, Harris, and Masto.

Respectfully yours,

A Voter

Occupy Oakland throng closes down port

Philip Palij — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 04:56:10 -0400

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.

"I think it is important to show them what's happening right now," he said. "It's part of our civic duty to support freedom of speech ... to stand up for the 99 percent of us." - Demonstrator taking kids on protest

Torture: Private Prosecution against George W. Bush On Canadian Arrival

Philip Palij — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 05:21:40 -0400

Should crimes committed in the Bush II era in our name be quietly forgotten?

No, and here is why:

Guilt is not shed by the arrival of a new President. The morality allowing Wall st fraudsters to pay millions of dollars in fines without admitting wrongdoing in the present day is inextricably linked to the morality of a President who admits authorising torture and does not think he is wrongdoing.

President Obama tried to make the case that while the banks and finance houses actions in the financial crisis to date were immoral they were not illegal. He is wrong and Bush II is wrong and they both should be held to account.

Financial Polarization and Corruption: Obama’s Politics of Deception

Philip Palij — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 04:38:57 -0400

Don’t Let Him Get Away With It...

by Prof. Michael Hudson

Almost as soon as Obama was elected he and his administration ditched campaign promises promising change.

Who is Obama? Is the White House just Goldman Sachs and Wall Street's front office protection against the people?

Organizing to Fight the Plutocracy

Philip Palij — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 03:28:55 -0400

When democracy gets bought out by the wealthy, what can you do?

As individuals very little but as organised groups who support democracy and the rule of law things can and will get better. Re- discovering the common bonds which gather us all together against exploitation and electing people who think the same way.

Mr Acheson has a plan.

A Class Based Assault Requires A Class Action

Philip Palij — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 04:22:19 -0400

Taking Activism To a New Effective Level

The letter below from Corporate Accountablility International describes a victory against a global mega-corporation, Nestlé. Thanks to the generosity of their supporters they were able to fund a campaign which persuaded Nestlé to desist.

There are very important techniques here which go beyond any single campaign. It is important we learn them.

The ACLU uses the same principle to maintain and advance civil liberties, it gathers funds to pursue cases which it believes are in the (class of) public interest. The outcome theoretically can be applied to us all.

In the last few lines of the letter is a call to its supporters to build a fund to fight corporate abuse in the future , it is a general fund against one or many unspecified corporations. It is a simple effective class response to a Corporation which would otherwise overwhelm individuals and indeed town councils.

One of the key reasons for the advance and hegemony of Corporations over the interests of ordinary people are their deep pockets and control of Congress and the executive.

Laws do exist to protect people but they are not exercised because individuals generally don't have the money to match effectively disenfranchising them from the democratic system and disengaging them from the legal system.

Establishing a class action fund to be used against against overwhelming corporate lobbying, media control and intimidating lawyer based correspondence would allow the invocation of law to protect individuals through a class action.

Thats why I reproduce this letter here, there is a lot in it, even the possibility of prosecuting the banks and government for negligence.

CREDO Mobile donate to progressive causes, ACLU are fighting for civil rights, Corporate Accountability are getting after the corporations. In the absence of justice due to poverty a class action fund against unspecified corporate abuse in the future is a good solution.

Subject: Victory: Nestlé Drops Bottling Plans in FL!
From: "Kristin Urquiza, Corporate Accountability International"
Date: Thu, 28 Jul 2011 16:24:38 -0400 (EDT)

Protect more communities from Nestlé's water grab!

Dear Philip,

Breaking news: Last night, Nestlé Waters announced that it is abandoning plans to pump the Wacissa River to manufacture bottled water.

Over the last 15 years, Nestlé’s water grab in rural America has been ugly. Nestlé has made backroom deals with public officials against widespread public objection and even tried to bankrupt community groups with lengthy legal battles. The community of Wacissa was no exception to Nestlé’s bullying.

But your actions made a difference. In April, over 1,400 people contacted Nestlé Water's CEO Kim Jeffery calling on the corporation to stop undermining local control of water and pull out of Wacissa.

Then dozens of people across the country chipped in to run a full-page ad in the local paper exposing the corporation’s long history of undermining community water rights. On the ground organizing by the Friends of the Wacissa, backed by the ad and national media exposure, led to a groundbreaking resolution being passed in Jefferson County. The resolution called on the water management board to deny permits like Nestlé’s to pump and sell water from the headwaters of the Wacissa.

Let's create a Wacissa Victory Fund to support other communities working to protect their springs from Nestlé's water grab. Your donation will fund local and national media work, online ads and trainings for activists to bring Nestlé's backroom deals to the light of day.

If just 110 of us donate a small amount, we can seize this moment to build a rapid response fund to support communities challenging Nestlé. Click here to chip in.

Across the U.S., Nestlé is trying to control water resources to profit at the expense of the environment. Nestlé's strategy is to lock in support from local public officials and seal the deal before the community has a chance to have a voice.

The Wacissa Victory Fund will give us the ability to respond when it matters most – before the drilling starts – and partner with local activists to wage and win campaigns that combine on the ground organizing with media exposure and online organizing that gets results.

Let’s protect more communities from Nestlé's water grab. Click here to donate.

As the people of Wacissa celebrate today, we know that there is more work ahead. Our movement is showing that the people can take on Nestlé and win – let’s build the movement.

Onward,

Kristin Urquiza
Think Outside the Bottle Campaign Director

You can read about the campaign against bottled water here

Citizens Uniting v. Citizens United‏

Philip Palij — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 16:08:58 -0400

I have to admit I like corporate accountability International, they get off their collective bums and get stuck in. Please spare a moment to read this appeal from your peers coming in to the Campaign for America's Future on a parallel flight path. :-)

Good luck with this Kelly

Dear Reader,

What a spring! With your help, we’ve focused every ounce of energy on the issues that best protect human rights and the environment from corporate abuse.

Your gift means we can take these programs to the next level this summer.

Citizens United v. FEC – We helped mobilize tens of thousands of people to challenge the Supreme Court’s decision to let unlimited corporate money flow into elections.

This summer we’ll ramp up the pressure by exposing Koch Industries’ dirty ties to Justices Thomas and Scalia, while demanding a Department of Justice investigation.

Protect the Human Right to Water – Nearly 1 billion people globally lack access to safe drinking water. Yet water privateers like Nestlé and Suez push to make water a high-priced commodity to be sold to the highest bidder, while corporations like Dow pollute and contaminate public water sources, leaving them toxic and un-drinkable.

This summer activists are challenging government officials to ensure that water is protected as a human right and that people, not corporations, are guaranteed our most essential resource.

Think Outside the Bottle – This spring, Vermont joined four other states in bucking state spending on bottled water to stand up for strong public water systems and the human right to water.

This summer activists are building bottled water free zones in state capitals to move more governors across the country to challenge corporate control of water.

Protect Children’s Health – We’ve led the way, by compelling Big Tobacco to stop marketing to kids worldwide and are now succeeding in moving the fast food industry to follow suit.

This summer we’re supporting the work of 170 countries that have already taken an official stand against Big Tobacco’s kid-focused marketing, in addition to mobilizing thousands of health professionals across the country to call for an end to the predatory marketing of junk food to kids.

Your gift will provide the resources and strength necessary to challenge the world’s most powerful corporate goliaths. Can you make a gift today?

Thank you for your partnership.

Onward,

Kelle Louaillier

Executive Director