Sunday, November 28, 2010
Economic Interests & Political Influence:
Frank Rich: Still the Best Congress Money Can Buy
"...As John Cassidy underscored in a definitive article titled 'Who Needs Wall Street?' in The New Yorker last week, the financial sector has paid little for bringing the world to near-collapse or for receiving the taxpayers’ bailout that was denied to most small-enough-to-fail Americans. The sector still rakes in more than a fourth of American business profits, up from a seventh 25 years ago. And what is its contribution to America in exchange for this quarter-century of ever-more over-the-top rewards? 'During a period in which American companies have created iPhones, Home Depot and Lipitor,' Cassidy writes, the industry reaping the highest profits and compensation is one that 'doesn’t design, build or sell a tangible thing.'
It’s an industry that can buy politicians as easily as it does dwarfs, which is why government has tilted the playing field ever more in its direction for three decades. Now corporations of all kinds can buy more of Washington than before, thanks to the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision and to the rise of outside 'nonprofit groups' that can legally front for those who prefer to donate anonymously. The money laundering at the base of Tom DeLay’s conviction by a Texas jury last week — his circumventing of the state’s post-Gilded Age law forbidding corporate campaign contributions directly to candidates — is now easily and legally doable at the national level..."
Frank Rich: Still the Best Congress Money Can Buy
"...As John Cassidy underscored in a definitive article titled 'Who Needs Wall Street?' in The New Yorker last week, the financial sector has paid little for bringing the world to near-collapse or for receiving the taxpayers’ bailout that was denied to most small-enough-to-fail Americans. The sector still rakes in more than a fourth of American business profits, up from a seventh 25 years ago. And what is its contribution to America in exchange for this quarter-century of ever-more over-the-top rewards? 'During a period in which American companies have created iPhones, Home Depot and Lipitor,' Cassidy writes, the industry reaping the highest profits and compensation is one that 'doesn’t design, build or sell a tangible thing.'
It’s an industry that can buy politicians as easily as it does dwarfs, which is why government has tilted the playing field ever more in its direction for three decades. Now corporations of all kinds can buy more of Washington than before, thanks to the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision and to the rise of outside 'nonprofit groups' that can legally front for those who prefer to donate anonymously. The money laundering at the base of Tom DeLay’s conviction by a Texas jury last week — his circumventing of the state’s post-Gilded Age law forbidding corporate campaign contributions directly to candidates — is now easily and legally doable at the national level..."
Friday, November 19, 2010
Mortgage Fraud:
My favorite is the 'Black Hole.' No opportunity for fraud exists anywhere in this web of transactions? Every transaction means some bank or broker made money, or fulfilled a need to get the paper off their books.
Huffington Post: Man Makes Ridiculously Complicated Chart To Find Out Who Owns His Mortgage
"We all know the mortgage securitization process is complicated.
But just how complicated? The chart below from Zero Hedge shows the convoluted journey a mortgage takes as it morphs into a security.
Dan Edstrom, of DTC Systems, who performs securitization audits, and who is giving a seminar in California next month, spent a year putting together a diagram that traces the path of his own house's mortgage. 'Just When You Thought You Knew Something About Mortgage Securitizations,' says Zero Hedge, you are presented with this almost hilariously complicated chart...."
Washington Post: Don't underestimate foreclosure crisis, watchdog warns
"A congressional oversight panel warned on Tuesday that a widespread problem of flawed and fraudulent foreclosure paperwork could upend the housing market and undermine the nation's financial stability. The report comes just as the issue is drawing greater scrutiny this week in Washington.
The report, issued by the Congressional Oversight Panel, which monitors the government's bailout program, marks the first time a federal watchdog has weighed in on the nationwide foreclosure mess.
The panel echoed concerns raised by consumer advocates and financial analysts who have said that although the consequences of the foreclosure debacle remain unclear, the problems could throw into doubt the ownership not only of foreclosed properties but also the millions of ordinary mortgages that were pooled and traded by investors around the world..."
Energy - Environment
Interesting what comes out of a Republican's mouth, now that he's leaving Congress...
Huffington Post: GOP Rep. Bob Inglis Slams His Party On Climate Change
"Rep. Bob Inglis (R-S.C.), an outgoing lawmaker with nothing left to lose after having his fate sealed through a primary challenge from the right earlier this year, expressed his frustrations with the GOP's trajectory toward climate change denial Wednesday in a harsh rebuke that blasted his party's hard-headed refusal to listen to scientific experts...
...'I would also suggest to my Free Enterprise colleagues -- especially conservatives here -- whether you think it's all a bunch of hooey, what we've talked about in this committee, the Chinese don't. And they plan on eating our lunch in this next century. They plan on innovating around these problems, and selling to us, and the rest of the world, the technology that'll lead the 21st century,' Inglis told his colleagues..."
TSA Security Theater For Private Profit:
Choose your poison: radiation or invasive groping. Just don't think the images will be treated confidentially.
Gizmodo: TSA Full-Body Scanners: Protecting Passengers or Padding Pockets?
"Pilots hate them. Passengers who avoid them get a groping. They're the TSA full body scanners presently deployed at airports near you. Their effectiveness is unclear. What is clear is that lobbying for them makes you a ton of money...
...there are basically three big players when it comes to the full body scanners you will see in a U.S. airport: l-3 Communications, Rapiscan and the American Science and Engineering company. All three have made hundreds of millons of dollars since terror-related events like 9/11 and the 'Christmas Bomber' Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's failed attempt to blow up a passenger plane in 2009 (an attack, if you'll remember, that the Government Accountability office said would probably have not been prevented by full body scanners).
All three firms have cozy ties to sitting U.S. Representatives and lobbyists, from both sides of the aisle..."
We Have Money For War, For Sure
...for everything else, our government is not sure.
Tom Engelhardt: Our Imperial Stimulus Package: War to the Horizon
"You must have had a moment when you thought to yourself: It really isn't going to end, is it? Not ever. Rationally, you know perfectly well that whatever your 'it' might be will indeed end, because everything does, but your gut tells you something different..."
...we might learn something by asking why our fellow citizens (read: humans) think, or fail to think or challenge what they hear their leaders and pundits say...
Chris Hedges: The Origin of America’s Intellectual Vacuum
My favorite is the 'Black Hole.' No opportunity for fraud exists anywhere in this web of transactions? Every transaction means some bank or broker made money, or fulfilled a need to get the paper off their books.
Huffington Post: Man Makes Ridiculously Complicated Chart To Find Out Who Owns His Mortgage
"We all know the mortgage securitization process is complicated.
But just how complicated? The chart below from Zero Hedge shows the convoluted journey a mortgage takes as it morphs into a security.
Dan Edstrom, of DTC Systems, who performs securitization audits, and who is giving a seminar in California next month, spent a year putting together a diagram that traces the path of his own house's mortgage. 'Just When You Thought You Knew Something About Mortgage Securitizations,' says Zero Hedge, you are presented with this almost hilariously complicated chart...."
Washington Post: Don't underestimate foreclosure crisis, watchdog warns
"A congressional oversight panel warned on Tuesday that a widespread problem of flawed and fraudulent foreclosure paperwork could upend the housing market and undermine the nation's financial stability. The report comes just as the issue is drawing greater scrutiny this week in Washington.
The report, issued by the Congressional Oversight Panel, which monitors the government's bailout program, marks the first time a federal watchdog has weighed in on the nationwide foreclosure mess.
The panel echoed concerns raised by consumer advocates and financial analysts who have said that although the consequences of the foreclosure debacle remain unclear, the problems could throw into doubt the ownership not only of foreclosed properties but also the millions of ordinary mortgages that were pooled and traded by investors around the world..."
Energy - Environment
Interesting what comes out of a Republican's mouth, now that he's leaving Congress...
Huffington Post: GOP Rep. Bob Inglis Slams His Party On Climate Change
"Rep. Bob Inglis (R-S.C.), an outgoing lawmaker with nothing left to lose after having his fate sealed through a primary challenge from the right earlier this year, expressed his frustrations with the GOP's trajectory toward climate change denial Wednesday in a harsh rebuke that blasted his party's hard-headed refusal to listen to scientific experts...
...'I would also suggest to my Free Enterprise colleagues -- especially conservatives here -- whether you think it's all a bunch of hooey, what we've talked about in this committee, the Chinese don't. And they plan on eating our lunch in this next century. They plan on innovating around these problems, and selling to us, and the rest of the world, the technology that'll lead the 21st century,' Inglis told his colleagues..."
TSA Security Theater For Private Profit:
Choose your poison: radiation or invasive groping. Just don't think the images will be treated confidentially.
Gizmodo: TSA Full-Body Scanners: Protecting Passengers or Padding Pockets?
"Pilots hate them. Passengers who avoid them get a groping. They're the TSA full body scanners presently deployed at airports near you. Their effectiveness is unclear. What is clear is that lobbying for them makes you a ton of money...
...there are basically three big players when it comes to the full body scanners you will see in a U.S. airport: l-3 Communications, Rapiscan and the American Science and Engineering company. All three have made hundreds of millons of dollars since terror-related events like 9/11 and the 'Christmas Bomber' Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's failed attempt to blow up a passenger plane in 2009 (an attack, if you'll remember, that the Government Accountability office said would probably have not been prevented by full body scanners).
All three firms have cozy ties to sitting U.S. Representatives and lobbyists, from both sides of the aisle..."
We Have Money For War, For Sure
...for everything else, our government is not sure.
Tom Engelhardt: Our Imperial Stimulus Package: War to the Horizon
"You must have had a moment when you thought to yourself: It really isn't going to end, is it? Not ever. Rationally, you know perfectly well that whatever your 'it' might be will indeed end, because everything does, but your gut tells you something different..."
...we might learn something by asking why our fellow citizens (read: humans) think, or fail to think or challenge what they hear their leaders and pundits say...
Chris Hedges: The Origin of America’s Intellectual Vacuum
Thursday, November 11, 2010
The Rule of Law?
Matt Taibbi: Courts Helping Banks Screw Over Homeowners
"Retired judges are rushing through complex cases to speed foreclosures in Florida..."
Social Security:
Do people really have such short memories? 1983, the last time there was an actual crisis facing Social Security, is not that long ago...
Kevin Drum: Social Security crisis? Not if wealthy pay their way
"...this was the implicit bargain in the reforms recommended by Greenspan and signed into law by Reagan: From 1983 to 2018, low- and middle-income earners would pay excess payroll taxes. This allowed income taxes to be kept low, and primarily benefited high earners.
Then, beginning in 2018, instead of raising payroll taxes to pay for baby-boomer retirement benefits, Social Security would begin selling its bonds back to the government.
To pay for those bonds, income taxes would be raised - high earners would begin paying higher income taxes.
In other words, the fact that income taxes will eventually need to be increased in order to cover Social Security benefits was part of the Greenspan/Reagan plan from the start.
That's the real meaning of the trust fund: It's an implicit promise that high earners will keep their part of the bargain and begin paying their share of Social Security's costs when the baby boomers retire..."
Dean Baker: The Wall Street TARP Gang Wants to Take Away Your Social Security
"...The thing about Wall Streeters is that no matter how much money you give them, they always want more. Now they are using their political power and control over the media to attack Social Security.
This effort is being led by billionaire investment banker Peter Peterson. Mr. Peterson has personally profited to the tune of tens of millions of dollars from the 'fund managers' tax subsidy,' an obscure provision of the tax code that allows billionaires to pay a lower tax rate than schoolteachers and firefighters. However, Peterson believes in giving back. He has committed $1 billion to an effort that is intended to take away the Social Security benefits that people have worked and paid for.
As part of this effort, Peterson set up a whole new foundation, the Peter G. Peterson Foundation. He and/or his foundation created a 'news service,' the Fiscal Times, which is intended to promote the view that we have no choice but to cut Social Security. The Fiscal Times has entered into agreements with the Washington Post and other credible newspapers to provide material...
...If Congress and the media worked for the public, we would be debating Wall Street speculation taxes right now. Insofar as we need to do something about the deficit in the longer term, taxing Wall Street speculation is a far more economic desirable route than taking away the Social Security benefits that ordinary workers have already paid for. We could easily raise more than $1.5 trillion over the next decade with a broadly based speculation tax than would have almost no impact on anyone except the Wall Street crew.
Even the IMF is now pushing higher taxes on the Wall Street types, recognizing the enormous waste and rents in the financial sector. But the media and Congress do not respond to economic reality, they respond to money. And Peter Peterson and the Wall Street crew are not paying for an honest discussion of the country's fiscal and economic problems. They are financing a rigged debate that is intended to result to even more money flowing to Wall Street and less to those who work for a living."
The Gulf Oil Disaster:
The Raw Story: Multiple independent lab tests confirm oil in Gulf shrimp
"The federal government is going out of its way to assure the public that seafood pulled from recently reopened Gulf of Mexico waters is safe to consume, in spite of the largest accidental release of crude oil in America's history.
However, testing methodologies used by the government to deem areas of water safe for commercial fishing are woefully inadequate and permit high levels of toxic compounds to slip into the human food chain, according to a series of scientific and medical professionals interviewed by Raw Story.
In two separate cases, a toxicologist and a chemist independently confirmed their seafood samples contained unusually high volumes of crude oil and harmful hydrocarbons -- and some of this food was allegedly being sent to market.
One test, conducted by a chemist from Mobile, Alabama, employed a rudimentary chemical analysis of shrimp pulled from waters near Louisiana and found 'oil and grease' in their digestive tracts.
The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) tests, which are approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), have focused on the animal's flesh, with samples shelled and cleaned before undergoing examination.
Unfortunately, many Gulf coast residents prepare shrimp whole, tossing the creatures into boiling water shells and all..."
...more on food safety:
Food Democracy Now: FDA coverup on GMO Salmon
"Officials at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) were recently caught red-handed intentionally hiding a damning report from the public that provided conclusive evidence that genetically modified (GMO) salmon pose a serious threat to endangered Atlantic salmon if accidentally released into the wild.
These FDA officials knowingly withheld a vital 2003 report from two federal agencies that made it 'illegal in the U.S.' to grow GMO salmon in 'open-water net pens', according to a press release from the Center for Food Safety.
This revelation is a bombshell. What's even worse is that -- as you're reading this -- a company called AquaBounty is fighting for FDA approval of the first transgenic food animal right now. Yet the U.S. government is hiding the facts from us..."
The Middle & Far East:
Noam Chomsky: The betrayal of Gaza
"The US is vocal about its commitment to peace in Israel and the Palestinian territories — but its actions suggest otherwise..."
Amy Goodman: Obama in the Company of Killers
"If a volcano kills civilians in Indonesia, it’s news. When the government does the killing, sadly, it’s just business as usual, especially if an American president tacitly endorses the killing, as President Barack Obama just did with his visit to Indonesia.
As the people around Mount Merapi dig out of the ash following a series of eruptions that have left more than 150 dead, a darker cloud now hangs over Indonesia in the form of renewed U.S. support for the country’s notorious Kopassus, the military’s special forces commando group. Journalist Allan Nairn released several secret Kopassus documents as the Obamas landed in Jakarta, showing the level of violent political repression administered by the Kopassus—now, for the first time in more than a decade, with United States support...
...I spoke with Suciwati Munir, the widow of the renowned Indonesian human-rights activist Munir Said Thalib, at the Bonn, Germany, reunion of Right Livelihood Award laureates. Her husband, an unflinching critic of the Indonesian military, received the award shortly before his death. In 2004, as he traveled to the Netherlands for a law fellowship, on board the Indonesian national airline Garuda, he was given an upgrade to business class. There, he was served tea laced with arsenic. He was dead before the plane landed. Suciwati has a message for Obama:
'If Obama has a commitment to human rights in the world ... he has to pay attention to the human-rights situation in Indonesia. And the first thing that he should ask to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is to resolve the Munir case.' I asked her if she wanted to meet President Obama when he came to Indonesia. She replied: 'Maybe yes, because I want to remind him about the human-rights situation in Indonesia. Maybe not, because of his wrong decision, he has perpetuated the impunity in Indonesia,'..."
Matt Taibbi: Courts Helping Banks Screw Over Homeowners
"Retired judges are rushing through complex cases to speed foreclosures in Florida..."
Social Security:
Do people really have such short memories? 1983, the last time there was an actual crisis facing Social Security, is not that long ago...
Kevin Drum: Social Security crisis? Not if wealthy pay their way
"...this was the implicit bargain in the reforms recommended by Greenspan and signed into law by Reagan: From 1983 to 2018, low- and middle-income earners would pay excess payroll taxes. This allowed income taxes to be kept low, and primarily benefited high earners.
Then, beginning in 2018, instead of raising payroll taxes to pay for baby-boomer retirement benefits, Social Security would begin selling its bonds back to the government.
To pay for those bonds, income taxes would be raised - high earners would begin paying higher income taxes.
In other words, the fact that income taxes will eventually need to be increased in order to cover Social Security benefits was part of the Greenspan/Reagan plan from the start.
That's the real meaning of the trust fund: It's an implicit promise that high earners will keep their part of the bargain and begin paying their share of Social Security's costs when the baby boomers retire..."
Dean Baker: The Wall Street TARP Gang Wants to Take Away Your Social Security
"...The thing about Wall Streeters is that no matter how much money you give them, they always want more. Now they are using their political power and control over the media to attack Social Security.
This effort is being led by billionaire investment banker Peter Peterson. Mr. Peterson has personally profited to the tune of tens of millions of dollars from the 'fund managers' tax subsidy,' an obscure provision of the tax code that allows billionaires to pay a lower tax rate than schoolteachers and firefighters. However, Peterson believes in giving back. He has committed $1 billion to an effort that is intended to take away the Social Security benefits that people have worked and paid for.
As part of this effort, Peterson set up a whole new foundation, the Peter G. Peterson Foundation. He and/or his foundation created a 'news service,' the Fiscal Times, which is intended to promote the view that we have no choice but to cut Social Security. The Fiscal Times has entered into agreements with the Washington Post and other credible newspapers to provide material...
...If Congress and the media worked for the public, we would be debating Wall Street speculation taxes right now. Insofar as we need to do something about the deficit in the longer term, taxing Wall Street speculation is a far more economic desirable route than taking away the Social Security benefits that ordinary workers have already paid for. We could easily raise more than $1.5 trillion over the next decade with a broadly based speculation tax than would have almost no impact on anyone except the Wall Street crew.
Even the IMF is now pushing higher taxes on the Wall Street types, recognizing the enormous waste and rents in the financial sector. But the media and Congress do not respond to economic reality, they respond to money. And Peter Peterson and the Wall Street crew are not paying for an honest discussion of the country's fiscal and economic problems. They are financing a rigged debate that is intended to result to even more money flowing to Wall Street and less to those who work for a living."
The Gulf Oil Disaster:
The Raw Story: Multiple independent lab tests confirm oil in Gulf shrimp
"The federal government is going out of its way to assure the public that seafood pulled from recently reopened Gulf of Mexico waters is safe to consume, in spite of the largest accidental release of crude oil in America's history.
However, testing methodologies used by the government to deem areas of water safe for commercial fishing are woefully inadequate and permit high levels of toxic compounds to slip into the human food chain, according to a series of scientific and medical professionals interviewed by Raw Story.
In two separate cases, a toxicologist and a chemist independently confirmed their seafood samples contained unusually high volumes of crude oil and harmful hydrocarbons -- and some of this food was allegedly being sent to market.
One test, conducted by a chemist from Mobile, Alabama, employed a rudimentary chemical analysis of shrimp pulled from waters near Louisiana and found 'oil and grease' in their digestive tracts.
The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) tests, which are approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), have focused on the animal's flesh, with samples shelled and cleaned before undergoing examination.
Unfortunately, many Gulf coast residents prepare shrimp whole, tossing the creatures into boiling water shells and all..."
...more on food safety:
Food Democracy Now: FDA coverup on GMO Salmon
"Officials at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) were recently caught red-handed intentionally hiding a damning report from the public that provided conclusive evidence that genetically modified (GMO) salmon pose a serious threat to endangered Atlantic salmon if accidentally released into the wild.
These FDA officials knowingly withheld a vital 2003 report from two federal agencies that made it 'illegal in the U.S.' to grow GMO salmon in 'open-water net pens', according to a press release from the Center for Food Safety.
This revelation is a bombshell. What's even worse is that -- as you're reading this -- a company called AquaBounty is fighting for FDA approval of the first transgenic food animal right now. Yet the U.S. government is hiding the facts from us..."
The Middle & Far East:
Noam Chomsky: The betrayal of Gaza
"The US is vocal about its commitment to peace in Israel and the Palestinian territories — but its actions suggest otherwise..."
Amy Goodman: Obama in the Company of Killers
"If a volcano kills civilians in Indonesia, it’s news. When the government does the killing, sadly, it’s just business as usual, especially if an American president tacitly endorses the killing, as President Barack Obama just did with his visit to Indonesia.
As the people around Mount Merapi dig out of the ash following a series of eruptions that have left more than 150 dead, a darker cloud now hangs over Indonesia in the form of renewed U.S. support for the country’s notorious Kopassus, the military’s special forces commando group. Journalist Allan Nairn released several secret Kopassus documents as the Obamas landed in Jakarta, showing the level of violent political repression administered by the Kopassus—now, for the first time in more than a decade, with United States support...
...I spoke with Suciwati Munir, the widow of the renowned Indonesian human-rights activist Munir Said Thalib, at the Bonn, Germany, reunion of Right Livelihood Award laureates. Her husband, an unflinching critic of the Indonesian military, received the award shortly before his death. In 2004, as he traveled to the Netherlands for a law fellowship, on board the Indonesian national airline Garuda, he was given an upgrade to business class. There, he was served tea laced with arsenic. He was dead before the plane landed. Suciwati has a message for Obama:
'If Obama has a commitment to human rights in the world ... he has to pay attention to the human-rights situation in Indonesia. And the first thing that he should ask to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is to resolve the Munir case.' I asked her if she wanted to meet President Obama when he came to Indonesia. She replied: 'Maybe yes, because I want to remind him about the human-rights situation in Indonesia. Maybe not, because of his wrong decision, he has perpetuated the impunity in Indonesia,'..."
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Arizona's SB 1070:
Or, the American Legislative Exchange Council's (ALEC) very questionable end-run around lobbying rules at the behest of the private prison industry.
The other guest on the program below is Beau Hodai, who wrote 'The Rainmakers - Banking on private prisons in the fleecing of small-town America'
NPR: How Corporate Interests Got SB 1070 Passed
"...This past April, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer set off a national controversy when she signed Senate Bill 1070 into law. That's the measure that requires state law enforcement officers to ask suspects they believe may be here illegally about their immigration status...
...But no matter whether you support the law or not, you probably don't know how it came to be written, unless you heard a two-part [part 1, part 2] series reported by NPR's Laura Sullivan.
She learned that SB 1070 was drafted and passed with the help of powerful corporate interests: the private prison industry...
SULLIVAN: What happens at ALEC is completely private. [SIC] there is no public oversight. The public is not invited. The media's not allowed. What's happening in these taskforce meetings is completely secret to the rest of the world. And these corporations have the undivided ear of these state legislators, who have been, by all accounts, wined and dined at these conferences by these very corporations. In fact, these corporations, for the most part, paid for them to come to the conference...
...This is all completely legal. What this is, though, it seems to raise questions about whether or not this an end-run around lobbying rules.
When you when a corporation wants a piece of legislation passed - and many of them are very active about this..."
Or, the American Legislative Exchange Council's (ALEC) very questionable end-run around lobbying rules at the behest of the private prison industry.
The other guest on the program below is Beau Hodai, who wrote 'The Rainmakers - Banking on private prisons in the fleecing of small-town America'
NPR: How Corporate Interests Got SB 1070 Passed
"...This past April, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer set off a national controversy when she signed Senate Bill 1070 into law. That's the measure that requires state law enforcement officers to ask suspects they believe may be here illegally about their immigration status...
...But no matter whether you support the law or not, you probably don't know how it came to be written, unless you heard a two-part [part 1, part 2] series reported by NPR's Laura Sullivan.
She learned that SB 1070 was drafted and passed with the help of powerful corporate interests: the private prison industry...
SULLIVAN: What happens at ALEC is completely private. [SIC] there is no public oversight. The public is not invited. The media's not allowed. What's happening in these taskforce meetings is completely secret to the rest of the world. And these corporations have the undivided ear of these state legislators, who have been, by all accounts, wined and dined at these conferences by these very corporations. In fact, these corporations, for the most part, paid for them to come to the conference...
...This is all completely legal. What this is, though, it seems to raise questions about whether or not this an end-run around lobbying rules.
When you when a corporation wants a piece of legislation passed - and many of them are very active about this..."
Monday, November 08, 2010
Where Economics and the Rule of Law Should Have Met:
Galbraith spells it out as clearly as anyone to-date. Obama's failure to prosecute the fraud of the banks was a massive missed opportunity to gain the trust of the average citizen. Massive campaign contributions from the financial sector, Goldman Sachs in particular do matter, it seems.
James K. Galbraith: Obama's Problem Simply Defined: It Was the Banks:
"...Up to a point, one can defend the decisions taken in September-October 2008 under the stress of a rapidly collapsing financial system. The Bush administration was, by that time, nearly defunct. Panic was in the air, as was political blackmail -- with the threat that the October through January months might be irreparably brutal. Stopgaps were needed, they were concocted, and they held the line.
But one cannot defend the actions of Team Obama on taking office. Law, policy and politics all pointed in one direction: turn the systemically dangerous banks over to Sheila Bair and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Insure the depositors, replace the management, fire the lobbyists, audit the books, prosecute the frauds, and restructure and downsize the institutions. The financial system would have been cleaned up. And the big bankers would have been beaten as a political force.
Team Obama did none of these things. Instead they announced 'stress tests,' plainly designed so as to obscure the banks' true condition. They pressured the Federal Accounting Standards Board to permit the banks to ignore the market value of their toxic assets. Management stayed in place. They prosecuted no one. The Fed cut the cost of funds to zero. The President justified all this by repeating, many times, that the goal of policy was 'to get credit flowing again.'
The banks threw a party. Reported profits soared, as did bonuses. With free funds, the banks could make money with no risk, by lending back to the Treasury. They could boom the stock market. They could make a mint on proprietary trading. Their losses on mortgages were concealed -- until the fact came out that they'd so neglected basic mortgage paperwork, as to be unable to foreclose in many cases, without the help of forged documents and perjured affidavits..."
Galbraith spells it out as clearly as anyone to-date. Obama's failure to prosecute the fraud of the banks was a massive missed opportunity to gain the trust of the average citizen. Massive campaign contributions from the financial sector, Goldman Sachs in particular do matter, it seems.
James K. Galbraith: Obama's Problem Simply Defined: It Was the Banks:
"...Up to a point, one can defend the decisions taken in September-October 2008 under the stress of a rapidly collapsing financial system. The Bush administration was, by that time, nearly defunct. Panic was in the air, as was political blackmail -- with the threat that the October through January months might be irreparably brutal. Stopgaps were needed, they were concocted, and they held the line.
But one cannot defend the actions of Team Obama on taking office. Law, policy and politics all pointed in one direction: turn the systemically dangerous banks over to Sheila Bair and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Insure the depositors, replace the management, fire the lobbyists, audit the books, prosecute the frauds, and restructure and downsize the institutions. The financial system would have been cleaned up. And the big bankers would have been beaten as a political force.
Team Obama did none of these things. Instead they announced 'stress tests,' plainly designed so as to obscure the banks' true condition. They pressured the Federal Accounting Standards Board to permit the banks to ignore the market value of their toxic assets. Management stayed in place. They prosecuted no one. The Fed cut the cost of funds to zero. The President justified all this by repeating, many times, that the goal of policy was 'to get credit flowing again.'
The banks threw a party. Reported profits soared, as did bonuses. With free funds, the banks could make money with no risk, by lending back to the Treasury. They could boom the stock market. They could make a mint on proprietary trading. Their losses on mortgages were concealed -- until the fact came out that they'd so neglected basic mortgage paperwork, as to be unable to foreclose in many cases, without the help of forged documents and perjured affidavits..."
Monday, November 01, 2010
2010 Vote:
Perhaps the most hypocritical aspect of the GOP's trumpeting the national debt as Obama's making is that Bush 43's administration increased it 89% from 5.6 to 10.6 trillion. According to the GOP, digging out an economic train-wreck is supposed to be possible *without* increasing debt and disproportionately de-funding the way society helps the poor, the old, and the infirm?
Ronald Reagan taught Karl Rove that deficits don't matter, unless there's a Democrat in the White House. I've suspected that Grover Norquist-types were encouraging Rove to use war as way to drastically increase up the size the budgetary beast. Force the issue by refusing to pay for the war on-budget, even though the intent to keep it going was beyond doubt. We've already heard Rep. Boehner telling us that we only have money for war, the GOP-economic strategy.
Witness this piece from Democracy Now! the other morning. Former Argentine President Kirchner passed away the other day. Bush 43 told him war was his way of growing the economy. Interestingly this is the same thing LBJ was up to in Vietnam - his southern defense contractor cronies were making so much money, and they wouldn't *let* him end it. This is the amoral way of war criminals.
John Nichols: The Tea Party Constitution Versus the Thomas Jefferson Constitution
"The default position for Tea Party candidates such as Christine O'Donnell in Delaware, Joe Miller in Alaska, Sharon Angle in Nevada, Ken Buck in Colorado and Ron Johnson in Wisconsin is to declare that—if elected—they will follow the dictates of the Constitution.
But that is a campaign slogan, not a serious commitment.
If O'Donnell, Johnson and their Tea'd-Off compatriots were even minimally serious about adhering to the founding document, they would all be thoughtful critics of the undeclared wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, ardent foes of the Patriot Act and steady opponents of free trade deals that remove the authority of Congress to represent and serve the interests of American workers, farmers and communities. But then they would be Russ Feingold, and it goes against the Tea Party narrative—at least as it has been framed by the movement's corporate paymasters and messaging consultants—to regard a progressive Democrat as the most ardent defender of the American experiment.
So it should be understood that O'Donnell, Miller, Angle, Buck, Johnson and the rest of the Tea Partisans who might be senators are not talking about the Constitution as it was written or as the founders intended it. Rather, they are talking about the Constitution as they would like to see it rewritten and reinterpreted—with the help of the most activist Supreme Court in American history. While their intents are radical, their prospects must be seen in light of the fact that Chief Justice John Roberts and his conservative majority have already reinterpreted the First Amendment's free speech protection in a manner that extends the natural rights that the founders reserved for human beings to multinational corporations..."
Reuters: With GOP-Controlled Congress, Roubini Predicts US 'Fiscal Train Wreck'
"The U.S. economy is a 'fiscal train wreck' waiting to happen that risks ushering in a period of stagnation featuring by minimal growth, high unemployment and deflationary pressure, U.S. economist Nouriel Roubini wrote on Friday.
In a commentary for the Financial Times, Roubini -- one of the first economists to predict the housing crash in the United States and known as 'Dr Doom' for his pessimistic forecasts -- said fiscal and monetary stimulus had prevented another depression.
But he said that further quantitative easing likely to be announced by the Federal Reserve next Wednesday will have little effect on U.S. growth in 2011, 'so fiscal policy should be doing some of the lifting to prevent a double dip recession,' he said.
He said the U.S. remains on an 'unsustainable fiscal course' and the likely make-up of Congress after elections next Tuesday, in which the Republicans look set for strong gains, virtually takes fiscal reform off the agenda.
'The risk ... is that something on the fiscal side will snap ... The trigger could be a debt rollover crisis in a major U.S. state government,' he wrote..."
Economics:
NY Times: Treasury Hid A.I.G. Loss, Report Says
"The United States Treasury concealed $40 billion in likely taxpayer losses on the bailout of the American International Group earlier this month, when it abandoned its usual method for valuing investments, according to a report by the special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program.
'In our view, this is a significant failure in their transparency,' said Neil M. Barofsky, the inspector general, in an interview on Monday.
In early October, the Treasury issued a report predicting that the taxpayers would ultimately lose just $5 billion on their investment in A.I.G., a remarkable outcome, since the insurance company was extended $182 billion in taxpayer money in the early months of its rescue. The prediction of a modest loss, widely reported as A.I.G., the Federal Reserve and the Treasury rushed to complete an exit plan, contrasted with an earlier prediction by the Treasury that the taxpayers would lose $45 billion.
'The American people have a right for full and complete disclosure about their investment in A.I.G.,' Mr. Barofsky said, 'and the U.S. government has an obligation, when they’re describing potential losses, to give complete information,'..."
Ryan Chittum: Reports a Bank of America Threat to Fannie
"Which corporate-welfare recipient will end up holding the bag on toxic mortgages?..."
Joshua Clover: Busted: Stories of the Financial Crisis
Book review:
'I.O.U.; Why Everyone Owes Everyone and No One Can Pay'
By John Lanchester.
'13 Bankers: The Wall Street Takeover and the Next Financial Meltdown'
By Simon Johnson and James Kwak.
'A Companion to Marx's 'Capital''
By David Harvey.
Dean Baker: Why Growth Still Feels Like Recession - Think the US economy's 2% growth is a good news story? Think again: it has to be 2.5% just to stop joblessness rising
"...It may not be immediately obvious quite how weakly the economy is growing. First, we need a reference point. When an economy gets out of a step recession, it should be soaring, not just scraping into positive territory. In the first four quarters following the end of the 1974-75 recession, growth averaged 6.1%. In the four quarters following the end of the 1981-92 recession, growth averaged 7.8%. The growth rate averaged just 3.0% in the four quarters following the end of this recession.
But the actual picture is even worse. Most of this growth was driven by the inventory cycle as firms went from running down their inventories to rebuilding them. If inventory fluctuations are pulled out, growth in demand averaged just 1.1% over the four quarters following the end of the recession. Final demand growth was down to just 0.6% in the most recent quarter.
This is cause for serious concern. Inventories grew at the second fastest rate ever in the last quarter. Growth is certain to slow in future quarters, meaning that inventories will be a drag on an already slowing economy. Instead of accelerating, we are likely to see growth just scraping along near zero..."
The Gulf Oil Disaster:
CNN: Letter: BP, Halliburton knew of flaws in cement in Gulf oil spill well
"Oil giant BP and contractor Halliburton knew of potential flaws in the cement slurry used to reinforce the oil well below the Deepwater Horizon rig before it exploded in April, according to a letter Thursday from the lead investigator for a federal probe of the Gulf oil disaster.
The letter from Fred Bartlit Jr. to the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling said that tests in February on a cement slurry similar to what was used on the Macondo well showed instability -- and that both companies had the data.
According to Bartlit's letter, the cement was poured to stabilize the well on April 19 and 20. The 20th was the day of the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig above the well that killed 11 workers and caused the worst oil spill in U.S. history.
'Halliburton and BP both had results in March showing that a very similar foam slurry design to the one actually pumped at the Macondo well would be unstable, but neither acted upon that data,' the letter said.
'Halliburton (and perhaps BP) should have considered redesigning the foam slurry before pumping it at the Macondo well,' the letter continued..."
Water:
gizmag: MIT develops solar-powered, portable desalination system
"Researchers from MIT's Field and Space Robotics Laboratory (FSRL) have designed a portable, solar-powered desalination system that is cost-effective and easy to assemble to bring drinkable water in disaster zones and remote regions around the globe..."
Afghanistan:
Democracy Now! - Killing Reconciliation: Military Raids, Backing of Corrupt Government Undermining Stated US Goals in Afghanistan
"JEREMY SCAHILL: And the story, Juan, basically is that last March this guy, who was a Taliban imam, Mullah Sahib Jan, entered the process of reconciliation with the Karzai government, brought in fifty Taliban fighters. They brought in a string of weapons that they handed over to the government. And then this mullah, this former Taliban imam, took a position with the local reconciliation council in Logar province. And according to the officials there that Rick and I interviewed, they would send him out into hardcore Taliban areas to try to preach to the Taliban that there were benefits to joining the government. They were offering them housing, jobs and economic support in return for handing in their weapons. Well, ten months later, Mullah Sahib Jan’s bullet-riddled body was found about 500 yards from his house by his sons, who were escorted there by US Special Operations Forces who had raided their home and gunned down Mullah Sahib Jan in the middle of the night. They tied up his sons. They put the women into one room. They kept his sons blindfolded and handcuffed for about six hours, and then a translator came to them and showed them a picture, and they said, 'This is the man that we killed.' And it was their father.
And when we talked to NATO, we talked to the US military, they said they had no record of any operation of that sort. You know, anybody who knows anything about what’s happening right now in Afghanistan knows that these night raids and these targeted killings go down all the time. And pretty much the only time that NATO puts out a release on it is if they’re forced to do it by journalists proving that something took place or if they think it benefits their psychological operations war. So, the point of the story of Mullah Sahib Jan—and this is the takeaway that Rick and I had from this—was that if the United States is killing the very people who are doing what they say they should do, which is to reconcile, then the message that they’re sending to people throughout Afghanistan is, 'None of you are safe; even if you leave the Taliban, you could be killed also in a targeted night raid,'..."
Perhaps the most hypocritical aspect of the GOP's trumpeting the national debt as Obama's making is that Bush 43's administration increased it 89% from 5.6 to 10.6 trillion. According to the GOP, digging out an economic train-wreck is supposed to be possible *without* increasing debt and disproportionately de-funding the way society helps the poor, the old, and the infirm?
Ronald Reagan taught Karl Rove that deficits don't matter, unless there's a Democrat in the White House. I've suspected that Grover Norquist-types were encouraging Rove to use war as way to drastically increase up the size the budgetary beast. Force the issue by refusing to pay for the war on-budget, even though the intent to keep it going was beyond doubt. We've already heard Rep. Boehner telling us that we only have money for war, the GOP-economic strategy.
Witness this piece from Democracy Now! the other morning. Former Argentine President Kirchner passed away the other day. Bush 43 told him war was his way of growing the economy. Interestingly this is the same thing LBJ was up to in Vietnam - his southern defense contractor cronies were making so much money, and they wouldn't *let* him end it. This is the amoral way of war criminals.
In an interview with the filmmaker Oliver Stone last year, Kirchner recounted a conversation he had with then-President George W. Bush on war and the economy.
Oliver Stone: 'Were there any eye-to-eye moments with President Bush that day, that night?'
Nestor Kirchner: 'I say it’s not necessary to kneel before power. Nor do you need to be rude to say the things you have to say to those who oppose our actions. We had a discussion in Monterey. I said that a solution to the problems right now, I told Bush, is a Marshall Plan. And he got angry. He said the Marshall Plan is a crazy idea of the Democrats. He said the best way to revitalize the economy is war and that the United States has grown stronger with war.'
Oliver Stone: 'War. He said that?'
Nestor Kirchner: 'He said that. Those were his exact words.'
Oliver Stone: 'Was he suggesting that South America go to war?'
Nestor Kirchner: 'Well, he was talking about the United States. The Democrats had been wrong. All of the economic growth of the United States has been encouraged by the various wars. He said it very clearly. President Bush is—well, he’s only got six days left, right?'
Oliver Stone: 'Yes.'
Nestor Kirchner: 'Thank God.'
John Nichols: The Tea Party Constitution Versus the Thomas Jefferson Constitution
"The default position for Tea Party candidates such as Christine O'Donnell in Delaware, Joe Miller in Alaska, Sharon Angle in Nevada, Ken Buck in Colorado and Ron Johnson in Wisconsin is to declare that—if elected—they will follow the dictates of the Constitution.
But that is a campaign slogan, not a serious commitment.
If O'Donnell, Johnson and their Tea'd-Off compatriots were even minimally serious about adhering to the founding document, they would all be thoughtful critics of the undeclared wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, ardent foes of the Patriot Act and steady opponents of free trade deals that remove the authority of Congress to represent and serve the interests of American workers, farmers and communities. But then they would be Russ Feingold, and it goes against the Tea Party narrative—at least as it has been framed by the movement's corporate paymasters and messaging consultants—to regard a progressive Democrat as the most ardent defender of the American experiment.
So it should be understood that O'Donnell, Miller, Angle, Buck, Johnson and the rest of the Tea Partisans who might be senators are not talking about the Constitution as it was written or as the founders intended it. Rather, they are talking about the Constitution as they would like to see it rewritten and reinterpreted—with the help of the most activist Supreme Court in American history. While their intents are radical, their prospects must be seen in light of the fact that Chief Justice John Roberts and his conservative majority have already reinterpreted the First Amendment's free speech protection in a manner that extends the natural rights that the founders reserved for human beings to multinational corporations..."
Reuters: With GOP-Controlled Congress, Roubini Predicts US 'Fiscal Train Wreck'
"The U.S. economy is a 'fiscal train wreck' waiting to happen that risks ushering in a period of stagnation featuring by minimal growth, high unemployment and deflationary pressure, U.S. economist Nouriel Roubini wrote on Friday.
In a commentary for the Financial Times, Roubini -- one of the first economists to predict the housing crash in the United States and known as 'Dr Doom' for his pessimistic forecasts -- said fiscal and monetary stimulus had prevented another depression.
But he said that further quantitative easing likely to be announced by the Federal Reserve next Wednesday will have little effect on U.S. growth in 2011, 'so fiscal policy should be doing some of the lifting to prevent a double dip recession,' he said.
He said the U.S. remains on an 'unsustainable fiscal course' and the likely make-up of Congress after elections next Tuesday, in which the Republicans look set for strong gains, virtually takes fiscal reform off the agenda.
'The risk ... is that something on the fiscal side will snap ... The trigger could be a debt rollover crisis in a major U.S. state government,' he wrote..."
Economics:
NY Times: Treasury Hid A.I.G. Loss, Report Says
"The United States Treasury concealed $40 billion in likely taxpayer losses on the bailout of the American International Group earlier this month, when it abandoned its usual method for valuing investments, according to a report by the special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program.
'In our view, this is a significant failure in their transparency,' said Neil M. Barofsky, the inspector general, in an interview on Monday.
In early October, the Treasury issued a report predicting that the taxpayers would ultimately lose just $5 billion on their investment in A.I.G., a remarkable outcome, since the insurance company was extended $182 billion in taxpayer money in the early months of its rescue. The prediction of a modest loss, widely reported as A.I.G., the Federal Reserve and the Treasury rushed to complete an exit plan, contrasted with an earlier prediction by the Treasury that the taxpayers would lose $45 billion.
'The American people have a right for full and complete disclosure about their investment in A.I.G.,' Mr. Barofsky said, 'and the U.S. government has an obligation, when they’re describing potential losses, to give complete information,'..."
Ryan Chittum: Reports a Bank of America Threat to Fannie
"Which corporate-welfare recipient will end up holding the bag on toxic mortgages?..."
Joshua Clover: Busted: Stories of the Financial Crisis
Book review:
'I.O.U.; Why Everyone Owes Everyone and No One Can Pay'
By John Lanchester.
'13 Bankers: The Wall Street Takeover and the Next Financial Meltdown'
By Simon Johnson and James Kwak.
'A Companion to Marx's 'Capital''
By David Harvey.
Dean Baker: Why Growth Still Feels Like Recession - Think the US economy's 2% growth is a good news story? Think again: it has to be 2.5% just to stop joblessness rising
"...It may not be immediately obvious quite how weakly the economy is growing. First, we need a reference point. When an economy gets out of a step recession, it should be soaring, not just scraping into positive territory. In the first four quarters following the end of the 1974-75 recession, growth averaged 6.1%. In the four quarters following the end of the 1981-92 recession, growth averaged 7.8%. The growth rate averaged just 3.0% in the four quarters following the end of this recession.
But the actual picture is even worse. Most of this growth was driven by the inventory cycle as firms went from running down their inventories to rebuilding them. If inventory fluctuations are pulled out, growth in demand averaged just 1.1% over the four quarters following the end of the recession. Final demand growth was down to just 0.6% in the most recent quarter.
This is cause for serious concern. Inventories grew at the second fastest rate ever in the last quarter. Growth is certain to slow in future quarters, meaning that inventories will be a drag on an already slowing economy. Instead of accelerating, we are likely to see growth just scraping along near zero..."
The Gulf Oil Disaster:
CNN: Letter: BP, Halliburton knew of flaws in cement in Gulf oil spill well
"Oil giant BP and contractor Halliburton knew of potential flaws in the cement slurry used to reinforce the oil well below the Deepwater Horizon rig before it exploded in April, according to a letter Thursday from the lead investigator for a federal probe of the Gulf oil disaster.
The letter from Fred Bartlit Jr. to the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling said that tests in February on a cement slurry similar to what was used on the Macondo well showed instability -- and that both companies had the data.
According to Bartlit's letter, the cement was poured to stabilize the well on April 19 and 20. The 20th was the day of the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig above the well that killed 11 workers and caused the worst oil spill in U.S. history.
'Halliburton and BP both had results in March showing that a very similar foam slurry design to the one actually pumped at the Macondo well would be unstable, but neither acted upon that data,' the letter said.
'Halliburton (and perhaps BP) should have considered redesigning the foam slurry before pumping it at the Macondo well,' the letter continued..."
Water:
gizmag: MIT develops solar-powered, portable desalination system
"Researchers from MIT's Field and Space Robotics Laboratory (FSRL) have designed a portable, solar-powered desalination system that is cost-effective and easy to assemble to bring drinkable water in disaster zones and remote regions around the globe..."
Afghanistan:
Democracy Now! - Killing Reconciliation: Military Raids, Backing of Corrupt Government Undermining Stated US Goals in Afghanistan
"JEREMY SCAHILL: And the story, Juan, basically is that last March this guy, who was a Taliban imam, Mullah Sahib Jan, entered the process of reconciliation with the Karzai government, brought in fifty Taliban fighters. They brought in a string of weapons that they handed over to the government. And then this mullah, this former Taliban imam, took a position with the local reconciliation council in Logar province. And according to the officials there that Rick and I interviewed, they would send him out into hardcore Taliban areas to try to preach to the Taliban that there were benefits to joining the government. They were offering them housing, jobs and economic support in return for handing in their weapons. Well, ten months later, Mullah Sahib Jan’s bullet-riddled body was found about 500 yards from his house by his sons, who were escorted there by US Special Operations Forces who had raided their home and gunned down Mullah Sahib Jan in the middle of the night. They tied up his sons. They put the women into one room. They kept his sons blindfolded and handcuffed for about six hours, and then a translator came to them and showed them a picture, and they said, 'This is the man that we killed.' And it was their father.
And when we talked to NATO, we talked to the US military, they said they had no record of any operation of that sort. You know, anybody who knows anything about what’s happening right now in Afghanistan knows that these night raids and these targeted killings go down all the time. And pretty much the only time that NATO puts out a release on it is if they’re forced to do it by journalists proving that something took place or if they think it benefits their psychological operations war. So, the point of the story of Mullah Sahib Jan—and this is the takeaway that Rick and I had from this—was that if the United States is killing the very people who are doing what they say they should do, which is to reconcile, then the message that they’re sending to people throughout Afghanistan is, 'None of you are safe; even if you leave the Taliban, you could be killed also in a targeted night raid,'..."
