Monday, July 30, 2012
Energy & The Environment:
Raw Story: Koch-funded climate scientist: I was wrong, humans are to blame
"The founder and director of a climate change study project funded heavily by the Koch brothers, who last year reversed course and said he believed global warming was real, has gone one step further, writing in a weekend op-ed in the New York Times that he is now convinced the phenomenon is caused by humans. In a piece titled, 'The Conversion of a Climate-Change Skeptic,' Richard A. Muller, a University of California, Berkley physicist who founded the Berkley Earth Surface Temperature study (BEST) wrote that his, 'total turnaround, in such a short time,' was driven by a new report from the group that concluded for the first time that global warming is a man-made problem. That revelation brings Muller essentially full circle from his stance a few years ago, when he criticized other global warming studies as flawed and questioned whether the Earth was even warming abnormally, dangerously fast at all. 'Science is that narrow realm of knowledge that, in principle, is universally accepted,' Muller wrote. 'I embarked on this analysis to answer questions that, to my mind, had not been answered. I hope that the Berkeley Earth analysis will help settle the scientific debate regarding global warming and its human causes.' The BEST study, he wrote, found that the Earth had warmed by about two and a half degrees over the past 250 years, with the bulk of that spike occurring in the past 50 years. Moreover, he found that, 'essentially all of this increase' was likely due to greenhouse gas emissions, a point climate change believers have accepted as fact for years. To arrive at that conclusion, the group mapped the past two and a half centuries of global temperatures against various events, like solar flares and volcanic eruptions, and found that the temperature swings most closely corresponded to levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide whose historical levels could be measured in arctic ice. Further, they also examined possible methodological problems skeptics cite about past studies, such as questions about the scope and selectivity of data, ultimately determining that those questions did not impact their finding..."
Raw Story: Koch-funded climate scientist: I was wrong, humans are to blame
"The founder and director of a climate change study project funded heavily by the Koch brothers, who last year reversed course and said he believed global warming was real, has gone one step further, writing in a weekend op-ed in the New York Times that he is now convinced the phenomenon is caused by humans. In a piece titled, 'The Conversion of a Climate-Change Skeptic,' Richard A. Muller, a University of California, Berkley physicist who founded the Berkley Earth Surface Temperature study (BEST) wrote that his, 'total turnaround, in such a short time,' was driven by a new report from the group that concluded for the first time that global warming is a man-made problem. That revelation brings Muller essentially full circle from his stance a few years ago, when he criticized other global warming studies as flawed and questioned whether the Earth was even warming abnormally, dangerously fast at all. 'Science is that narrow realm of knowledge that, in principle, is universally accepted,' Muller wrote. 'I embarked on this analysis to answer questions that, to my mind, had not been answered. I hope that the Berkeley Earth analysis will help settle the scientific debate regarding global warming and its human causes.' The BEST study, he wrote, found that the Earth had warmed by about two and a half degrees over the past 250 years, with the bulk of that spike occurring in the past 50 years. Moreover, he found that, 'essentially all of this increase' was likely due to greenhouse gas emissions, a point climate change believers have accepted as fact for years. To arrive at that conclusion, the group mapped the past two and a half centuries of global temperatures against various events, like solar flares and volcanic eruptions, and found that the temperature swings most closely corresponded to levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide whose historical levels could be measured in arctic ice. Further, they also examined possible methodological problems skeptics cite about past studies, such as questions about the scope and selectivity of data, ultimately determining that those questions did not impact their finding..."
Thursday, July 26, 2012
2012 Campaign:
Raw Story: ‘On his own’ Romney ad star took over $1 million in government loans
"The up-by-his-bootstraps businessman who stars in an ad for Republican hopeful Mitt Romney seems to have built his business through government-sponsored loans, putting a dent in the campaign’s attack on President Barack Obama’s saying to business owners, 'you didn’t get there on your own.' 'My father’s hands didn’t build this company? My hands didn’t build this company? My son’s hands aren’t building this company?' New Hampshire businessman Jack Gilchrist, president of Gilchrist Metal, asks in the ad that’s been making waves since last week. Reporting by The New Hampshire Union Leader disputed this claim by looking into Gilchrist’s history, revealing that he took over $1 million in government loans since the 1980s, including $800,000 in tax-exempt bonds issued by the New Hampshire Business Finance Authority to build a new manufacturing plant and buy equipment. Gilchrist also admitted to the paper that he took a U.S. Small Business Administration loan of 'somewhere south of' $500,000 in the 1980s, and said that to this day about 10 percent of his business comes from defense-related projects..."
John McCarter: Thanks, Elizabeth Warren! Capitol One to pay $210 million as result of CFPB action
"The first big enforcement action by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, conceived of and originally led by Elizabeth Warren, is netting $210 million from Capital One Financial Corp. for deceptive marketing of credit card 'add-on' products. The settlement will 'provide between $140 million and $150 million in restitution to 2 million customers.' The remaining $60 million is penalties, $25 million to the CFPB and $35 million and pay an additional $60 million in penalties—$25 million to the CFPB and $35 million to Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the primary regulator of banks. This puts all the credit card companies on notice. Gouging customers with deceptive practices will no longer be tolerated. We've got Elizabeth Warren to thank for that. It was her doggedness that kept the idea of the CFPB alive during heated and difficult Dodd-Frank negotiations. And it was Elizabeth Warren who got the Bureau off the ground while Republicans were obstructing the appointment of a permanent director..."
The Intersection of The Olympics & Business:
The Independent (UK) - London 2012: Coca-Cola, McDonald’s and Cadbury given 'unrivalled platform' to promote unhealthy brands at Olympics
"...The firms are 'obesity-offsetting' – funding sports equipment and exercise schemes - in return for being allowed to promote calorie-dense foods, according to the report, the Obesity Games. According to its authors the Children’s Food Campaign, the junk food companies have been given a global platform by London 2012 despite contributing only around 2 per cent of the International Olympic Association’s income. It added that the policy ill-served taxpayers who are funding the majority of the £1.4bn budget and all the bill for increased costs of obesity on the health service..."
Organized Crine:
The Independent (UK) - Italian government in the dock as landmark Mafia trial begins
"Prosecutors in Palermo have indicted 12 men for alleged Mafia crimes, including the two most feared recent heads of Cosa Nostra and a former Interior Minister, in a case that has once again turned the spotlight on the relationship between Italian politics and organised crime. The 12 indicted this week are arraigned on charges ranging from Mafia association to threats to the body politic. But behind all the accusations lies the same imperative, one which has stained and shamed much of the political history of post-war Italy: a compulsion on the part of political leaders to reach accommodation with organised criminals who over and over again proved themselves too ruthless, determined and united for the state to put them behind bars. The highest-profile name on the charge sheet is Nicola Mancino. Now 81, Mr Mancino, a Christian Democrat who was Interior Minister at the time in question, and went on to become Speaker of the Senate, the second highest position in the state. The charge sheet alleges secret talks between the Italian state and the Mafia in the early 1990s aimed at bringing a campaign of murder and bombing to an end. Mr Mancino is alleged to have withheld evidence revealing the existence of the talks..."
The Environment:
Bloomberg: Frackers Fund University Research That Proves Their Case
"Pennsylvania remains the largest U.S. state without a tax on natural gas production, thanks in part to a study released under the banner of the Pennsylvania State University. The 2009 report predicted drillers would shun Pennsylvania if new taxes were imposed, and lawmakers cited it the following year when they rejected a 5 percent tax proposed by then- Governor Ed Rendell. 'As an advocacy tool, it worked,' Michael Wood, research director with the non-profit Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, said in an interview. 'If people wanted to find a reason to vote against having the industry taxed in that way, that gave them reason to do it.' What the study didn’t do was note that it was sponsored by gas drillers and led by an economist, now at the University of Wyoming, with a history of producing industry-friendly research on economic and energy issues. The researcher, Tim Considine, said his analysis was sound and not biased by industry funding...."
Journalism:
John Nichols: Alexander Cockburn and the Radical Power of the Word
"...His prose, honed during an Anglo-Irish childhood when he learned at the side of the master—his father Claud, the great radical British journalist of mid-century who lent him the title of his column, “Beat the Devil”—never failed. Alex knew how good he was. He knew that he could take readers where other writers could not, to the fields of India where Coca-Cola was stealing water from peasants, to the barricades of neglected labor battles in Austin, Minnesota, and Toledo, Ohio; to “The City” of London where the Libor scandal now unfolds. There were times when the going got rough; Alex's radicalism was genuine, and he could offend not just foes on the right but friends on the left. He parted company with mainstream liberals on issues ranging from gun control to global warming. But no one could skewer the banksters, the robber barons and the crony capitalists of this broken era quite so ably as Alex. His last column for The Nation was a delicious takedown of all the dark players involved in the scheme by the biggest bankers in the world to fix rates. The bankers got their due, of course, but so did the regulators and, of course, the pliant media. 'Now it turns out that the whole thing is a fix—a grimy hand all too visible,' Alex wrote. 'Is is possible to reform the banking system? There are the usual nostrums—tighter regulations, savage penalties for misbehavior, a ban from financial markets for life. But I have to say I’m dubious. I think the system will collapse, but not through our agency,'..."
Raw Story: ‘On his own’ Romney ad star took over $1 million in government loans
"The up-by-his-bootstraps businessman who stars in an ad for Republican hopeful Mitt Romney seems to have built his business through government-sponsored loans, putting a dent in the campaign’s attack on President Barack Obama’s saying to business owners, 'you didn’t get there on your own.' 'My father’s hands didn’t build this company? My hands didn’t build this company? My son’s hands aren’t building this company?' New Hampshire businessman Jack Gilchrist, president of Gilchrist Metal, asks in the ad that’s been making waves since last week. Reporting by The New Hampshire Union Leader disputed this claim by looking into Gilchrist’s history, revealing that he took over $1 million in government loans since the 1980s, including $800,000 in tax-exempt bonds issued by the New Hampshire Business Finance Authority to build a new manufacturing plant and buy equipment. Gilchrist also admitted to the paper that he took a U.S. Small Business Administration loan of 'somewhere south of' $500,000 in the 1980s, and said that to this day about 10 percent of his business comes from defense-related projects..."
John McCarter: Thanks, Elizabeth Warren! Capitol One to pay $210 million as result of CFPB action
"The first big enforcement action by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, conceived of and originally led by Elizabeth Warren, is netting $210 million from Capital One Financial Corp. for deceptive marketing of credit card 'add-on' products. The settlement will 'provide between $140 million and $150 million in restitution to 2 million customers.' The remaining $60 million is penalties, $25 million to the CFPB and $35 million and pay an additional $60 million in penalties—$25 million to the CFPB and $35 million to Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the primary regulator of banks. This puts all the credit card companies on notice. Gouging customers with deceptive practices will no longer be tolerated. We've got Elizabeth Warren to thank for that. It was her doggedness that kept the idea of the CFPB alive during heated and difficult Dodd-Frank negotiations. And it was Elizabeth Warren who got the Bureau off the ground while Republicans were obstructing the appointment of a permanent director..."
The Intersection of The Olympics & Business:
The Independent (UK) - London 2012: Coca-Cola, McDonald’s and Cadbury given 'unrivalled platform' to promote unhealthy brands at Olympics
"...The firms are 'obesity-offsetting' – funding sports equipment and exercise schemes - in return for being allowed to promote calorie-dense foods, according to the report, the Obesity Games. According to its authors the Children’s Food Campaign, the junk food companies have been given a global platform by London 2012 despite contributing only around 2 per cent of the International Olympic Association’s income. It added that the policy ill-served taxpayers who are funding the majority of the £1.4bn budget and all the bill for increased costs of obesity on the health service..."
Organized Crine:
The Independent (UK) - Italian government in the dock as landmark Mafia trial begins
"Prosecutors in Palermo have indicted 12 men for alleged Mafia crimes, including the two most feared recent heads of Cosa Nostra and a former Interior Minister, in a case that has once again turned the spotlight on the relationship between Italian politics and organised crime. The 12 indicted this week are arraigned on charges ranging from Mafia association to threats to the body politic. But behind all the accusations lies the same imperative, one which has stained and shamed much of the political history of post-war Italy: a compulsion on the part of political leaders to reach accommodation with organised criminals who over and over again proved themselves too ruthless, determined and united for the state to put them behind bars. The highest-profile name on the charge sheet is Nicola Mancino. Now 81, Mr Mancino, a Christian Democrat who was Interior Minister at the time in question, and went on to become Speaker of the Senate, the second highest position in the state. The charge sheet alleges secret talks between the Italian state and the Mafia in the early 1990s aimed at bringing a campaign of murder and bombing to an end. Mr Mancino is alleged to have withheld evidence revealing the existence of the talks..."
The Environment:
Bloomberg: Frackers Fund University Research That Proves Their Case
"Pennsylvania remains the largest U.S. state without a tax on natural gas production, thanks in part to a study released under the banner of the Pennsylvania State University. The 2009 report predicted drillers would shun Pennsylvania if new taxes were imposed, and lawmakers cited it the following year when they rejected a 5 percent tax proposed by then- Governor Ed Rendell. 'As an advocacy tool, it worked,' Michael Wood, research director with the non-profit Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, said in an interview. 'If people wanted to find a reason to vote against having the industry taxed in that way, that gave them reason to do it.' What the study didn’t do was note that it was sponsored by gas drillers and led by an economist, now at the University of Wyoming, with a history of producing industry-friendly research on economic and energy issues. The researcher, Tim Considine, said his analysis was sound and not biased by industry funding...."
Journalism:
John Nichols: Alexander Cockburn and the Radical Power of the Word
"...His prose, honed during an Anglo-Irish childhood when he learned at the side of the master—his father Claud, the great radical British journalist of mid-century who lent him the title of his column, “Beat the Devil”—never failed. Alex knew how good he was. He knew that he could take readers where other writers could not, to the fields of India where Coca-Cola was stealing water from peasants, to the barricades of neglected labor battles in Austin, Minnesota, and Toledo, Ohio; to “The City” of London where the Libor scandal now unfolds. There were times when the going got rough; Alex's radicalism was genuine, and he could offend not just foes on the right but friends on the left. He parted company with mainstream liberals on issues ranging from gun control to global warming. But no one could skewer the banksters, the robber barons and the crony capitalists of this broken era quite so ably as Alex. His last column for The Nation was a delicious takedown of all the dark players involved in the scheme by the biggest bankers in the world to fix rates. The bankers got their due, of course, but so did the regulators and, of course, the pliant media. 'Now it turns out that the whole thing is a fix—a grimy hand all too visible,' Alex wrote. 'Is is possible to reform the banking system? There are the usual nostrums—tighter regulations, savage penalties for misbehavior, a ban from financial markets for life. But I have to say I’m dubious. I think the system will collapse, but not through our agency,'..."
Saturday, July 21, 2012
Food Labeling:
Farm Wars Blog: Look Who Supports GMO Labeling
Whom would you trust to be on side of consumers' right to be informed? Pepsico, Coca-Cola, Hormel, Nestle, Kelloggs, or the Grocery Manufacturers Assoc.? "The people of California are fighting to get genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in our food supply labeled. Not surprisingly, the biotech industry is fighting back. The following infographic from Voters Edge shows just how much money is being spent by both sides, for and against GMO labeling in California..."
Farm Wars Blog: Look Who Supports GMO Labeling
Whom would you trust to be on side of consumers' right to be informed? Pepsico, Coca-Cola, Hormel, Nestle, Kelloggs, or the Grocery Manufacturers Assoc.? "The people of California are fighting to get genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in our food supply labeled. Not surprisingly, the biotech industry is fighting back. The following infographic from Voters Edge shows just how much money is being spent by both sides, for and against GMO labeling in California..."
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Domestic Surveillance:
Raw Story: NSA whistleblower: They’re assembling information on every U.S. citizen
"NSA whistleblower William Binney was interviewed by internet journalist Geoff Shively at the HOPE Number 9 hackers conference in New York on Friday. Binney, who resigned from the NSA in 2001 over its domestic surveillance program, had just delivered a keynote speech in which he revealed what Shively called 'evidence which we have not seen until this point.' 'They’re pulling together all the data about virtually every U.S. citizen in the country … and assembling that information,” Binney explained. 'So government is accumulating that kind of information about every individual person and it’s a very dangerous process.' He estimated that something like 1.6 billion logs have been processed since 2001..."
2012 Campaign:
TJ Walker: 35 Questions Mitt Romney Must Answer About Bain Capital Before The Issue Can Go Away
"...Specifically, Romney is going to have to answer the following 35 questions before this issue subsides:
1. Are you contending that an individual can simultaneously be the CEO, president, managing director of a company, and its sole stockholder and somehow be 'disassociated' from the company or accurately classified as someone not having 'any' formal involvement with a company?
2. You have stated that in 'Feb. 1999 I left Bain capital and all management responsibility' and 'I had no ongoing activity or involvement.' It depends on what the definition of 'involvement' is, doesn’t it? Clearly you were involved with Bain to the extent that you owned it. Are you defining 'involvement' in a uniquely specific way that only means 'full-time, active, 60-hours-a-week, hands-on manager?'
3. How exactly are you defining 'involvement?'
4. Surely someone from Bain occasionally called you up and asked your opinion about something work-related from 1999 to 2002. Wouldn’t that qualify as “involvement,” if only on a minor level?
5. You earned at least $100,000 as an executive from Bain in 2001 and 2002, separate from investment earnings according to filings with State of Massachusetts. Can you give an example of anyone else you personally know getting a six figure income, not dividend or investment return, but actual income, from a company they had nothing to do with?
6. What did you do for this $100,000 salary you earned from Bain in both 2000 and 2001?
7. If you did nothing to earn this salary, did the Bain managers violate their fiduciary duty by paying you a salary for no discernible reason?
8. Are there other companies that pay you six figures a year as earned income, not investment income, for which you have no involvement?
9. In 2002, you are listed as one of two managing members of Bain Capital Investors LLC in its annual report. What does this mean?
10. On the very day after you took over the Winter Olympics, the Boston Herald reported that 'Romney said he will stay on as a part-timer with Bain, providing input on investment and key personnel decisions.' Do you now contend this was factually inaccurate?
11. Do you have records of having written to the Boston Herald asking them to make a correction on this story?
12. On July 19, 1999, a news release about the resignation of two Bain Capital managing directors describes you as CEO and 'currently on a part-time leave of absence to head the Salt Lake City Olympic Committee.' Was this wrong?
13. Did you ask for a retraction?
14. Why would Bain say this if you had severed all ties in Feb 1999?
15. Isn’t it possible that if Bain had made an investment during 1999 to 2002 that you felt was truly odious, for example ownership of a legal Nevada brothel, that you could have and would have used your authority to veto such a decision?
16. If, in fact, you did not veto any major investment decision during your 1999 though 2002 ownership, doesn’t that imply your broad consent of management’s decisions?
17. According to the Boston Globe, 'In a November 2000 interview with the Globe, Romney’s wife, Ann, said he had been forced to lessen, but not end entirely, his involvement with Bain Capital.' Did your wife misspeak?
18. Did you correct her?
19. According to the Boston Globe, 'Romney also testified that ‘there were a number of social trips and business trips that brought [him] back to Massachusetts, board meetings’ while he was running the Olympics. He added that he remained on the boards of several companies, including the Lifelike Co., in which Bain Capital held a stake until 2001.' You testified that while running the Olympics you took a number of business trips to Massachusetts for board meetings for companies including Lifelike Co. Bain had a stake in this company until 2001. Are you contending that you could attend board meetings for Lifelike Co. at the same time Bain Capital had a stake in Lifelike Co and at the same time you owned the stock of Bain Capital, but that somehow your attending a board meeting for a company partially owned by Bain had nothing to do with Bain because you were on the board as Mitt Romney the individual, not as the representative of Bain?
20. If yes to the previous question, do you understand that anyone who did not graduate in the top 5% of his class from Harvard Law School, as you did, may have a hard time understanding this?
21. You seem to be suggesting that once you stepped down from full-time, 7-day-a-week, 18-hour-a-day management that you were no longer 'involved.' You claim you had 'no role whatsoever in the management.' Assume for the moment that everyone, even in the Obama campaign concedes that after Feb 1999 you were no longer the 100% full-time, hands-on manager of Bain. Isn’t it fair to suggest that an individual could still have a role in managing a company through the occasional phone call, meeting and email, even if they didn’t involve monumental decisions, such as hiring and firing?
22. When you demanded an apology from the Obama Campaign you seem to suggest that they have stated that you deserve blame for outsourcing done at Bain from 1999 to 2001 because they stated that you were the full-time active manger of Bain during that time. Can you cite a single ad, press release or statement from the Obama Campaign where they specify that you were the full-time manager of Bain from 1999 to 2001?
23. Every time a reporter asks you 'why were you listed by Bain in SEC documents as the CEO in 2000-2002,' you respond that everyone knows you were no longer the active manger after Feb. 1999 and that you owned stock in Bain but did not manage anything. That may well be, but that doesn’t answer the question as to why Bain listed you as CEO, president and managing director. Why won’t you answer a simple question that involves basic facts that are undisputed?
24. Why do SEC documents claim you were Chief Executive Officer, President, and Managing Director of Bain Capital 2000 and 2001 if you were merely the sole owner?
25. Did you sign this SEC document?
26. Is this accurate or not?
27. If you didn’t sign it, is someone guilty of lying to the SEC?
28. True or false, it is a felony to lie on SEC filings?
29. When asked 'Did you attend board meetings for Bain after 1999,' you responded by saying 'I did not manage Bain after 1999,' or that you didn’t attend any meetings involving things like firing people. This seems to suggest the possibility that you did attend Bain meetings in 2000 and 2001 that did not involve hiring or firing people or where you made the final decisions on investments. Is that possible?
30. If not, why not just give a blanket statement that you never attended a single board meeting for Bain after Feb. 1999?
31. If Obama owned slum apartments in Chicago that horribly mistreated poor people and didn’t provide them heat or running water, but Obama hired a real estate management firm to manage the building and collect rent, do you think it would be fair to criticize him for being a hypocritical slum lord who showed no compassion for poor people?
32. You seem to stress the word 'management' a great deal. You had no role in active 'management' of Bain after Feb 1999. You then seem to suggest that the only other role for a person to be involved with a company is as an investor. Isn’t there a third role?
33. Couldn’t you have been an active adviser or consultant, the way many chairmen of the board are?
34. You are obviously bright, hard working and energetic. Isn’t is possible that you put in 60 hours a week on the Olympics but still put in 5 hours a week as an active consultant or adviser by phone, email and the occasional meeting with the full time managers of Bain?
35. In general, don’t full-time hired managers often seek the 'advice' of absentee owners and then do everything they can to implement that 'advice?'..."
Raw Story: NSA whistleblower: They’re assembling information on every U.S. citizen
"NSA whistleblower William Binney was interviewed by internet journalist Geoff Shively at the HOPE Number 9 hackers conference in New York on Friday. Binney, who resigned from the NSA in 2001 over its domestic surveillance program, had just delivered a keynote speech in which he revealed what Shively called 'evidence which we have not seen until this point.' 'They’re pulling together all the data about virtually every U.S. citizen in the country … and assembling that information,” Binney explained. 'So government is accumulating that kind of information about every individual person and it’s a very dangerous process.' He estimated that something like 1.6 billion logs have been processed since 2001..."
2012 Campaign:
TJ Walker: 35 Questions Mitt Romney Must Answer About Bain Capital Before The Issue Can Go Away
"...Specifically, Romney is going to have to answer the following 35 questions before this issue subsides:
1. Are you contending that an individual can simultaneously be the CEO, president, managing director of a company, and its sole stockholder and somehow be 'disassociated' from the company or accurately classified as someone not having 'any' formal involvement with a company?
2. You have stated that in 'Feb. 1999 I left Bain capital and all management responsibility' and 'I had no ongoing activity or involvement.' It depends on what the definition of 'involvement' is, doesn’t it? Clearly you were involved with Bain to the extent that you owned it. Are you defining 'involvement' in a uniquely specific way that only means 'full-time, active, 60-hours-a-week, hands-on manager?'
3. How exactly are you defining 'involvement?'
4. Surely someone from Bain occasionally called you up and asked your opinion about something work-related from 1999 to 2002. Wouldn’t that qualify as “involvement,” if only on a minor level?
5. You earned at least $100,000 as an executive from Bain in 2001 and 2002, separate from investment earnings according to filings with State of Massachusetts. Can you give an example of anyone else you personally know getting a six figure income, not dividend or investment return, but actual income, from a company they had nothing to do with?
6. What did you do for this $100,000 salary you earned from Bain in both 2000 and 2001?
7. If you did nothing to earn this salary, did the Bain managers violate their fiduciary duty by paying you a salary for no discernible reason?
8. Are there other companies that pay you six figures a year as earned income, not investment income, for which you have no involvement?
9. In 2002, you are listed as one of two managing members of Bain Capital Investors LLC in its annual report. What does this mean?
10. On the very day after you took over the Winter Olympics, the Boston Herald reported that 'Romney said he will stay on as a part-timer with Bain, providing input on investment and key personnel decisions.' Do you now contend this was factually inaccurate?
11. Do you have records of having written to the Boston Herald asking them to make a correction on this story?
12. On July 19, 1999, a news release about the resignation of two Bain Capital managing directors describes you as CEO and 'currently on a part-time leave of absence to head the Salt Lake City Olympic Committee.' Was this wrong?
13. Did you ask for a retraction?
14. Why would Bain say this if you had severed all ties in Feb 1999?
15. Isn’t it possible that if Bain had made an investment during 1999 to 2002 that you felt was truly odious, for example ownership of a legal Nevada brothel, that you could have and would have used your authority to veto such a decision?
16. If, in fact, you did not veto any major investment decision during your 1999 though 2002 ownership, doesn’t that imply your broad consent of management’s decisions?
17. According to the Boston Globe, 'In a November 2000 interview with the Globe, Romney’s wife, Ann, said he had been forced to lessen, but not end entirely, his involvement with Bain Capital.' Did your wife misspeak?
18. Did you correct her?
19. According to the Boston Globe, 'Romney also testified that ‘there were a number of social trips and business trips that brought [him] back to Massachusetts, board meetings’ while he was running the Olympics. He added that he remained on the boards of several companies, including the Lifelike Co., in which Bain Capital held a stake until 2001.' You testified that while running the Olympics you took a number of business trips to Massachusetts for board meetings for companies including Lifelike Co. Bain had a stake in this company until 2001. Are you contending that you could attend board meetings for Lifelike Co. at the same time Bain Capital had a stake in Lifelike Co and at the same time you owned the stock of Bain Capital, but that somehow your attending a board meeting for a company partially owned by Bain had nothing to do with Bain because you were on the board as Mitt Romney the individual, not as the representative of Bain?
20. If yes to the previous question, do you understand that anyone who did not graduate in the top 5% of his class from Harvard Law School, as you did, may have a hard time understanding this?
21. You seem to be suggesting that once you stepped down from full-time, 7-day-a-week, 18-hour-a-day management that you were no longer 'involved.' You claim you had 'no role whatsoever in the management.' Assume for the moment that everyone, even in the Obama campaign concedes that after Feb 1999 you were no longer the 100% full-time, hands-on manager of Bain. Isn’t it fair to suggest that an individual could still have a role in managing a company through the occasional phone call, meeting and email, even if they didn’t involve monumental decisions, such as hiring and firing?
22. When you demanded an apology from the Obama Campaign you seem to suggest that they have stated that you deserve blame for outsourcing done at Bain from 1999 to 2001 because they stated that you were the full-time active manger of Bain during that time. Can you cite a single ad, press release or statement from the Obama Campaign where they specify that you were the full-time manager of Bain from 1999 to 2001?
23. Every time a reporter asks you 'why were you listed by Bain in SEC documents as the CEO in 2000-2002,' you respond that everyone knows you were no longer the active manger after Feb. 1999 and that you owned stock in Bain but did not manage anything. That may well be, but that doesn’t answer the question as to why Bain listed you as CEO, president and managing director. Why won’t you answer a simple question that involves basic facts that are undisputed?
24. Why do SEC documents claim you were Chief Executive Officer, President, and Managing Director of Bain Capital 2000 and 2001 if you were merely the sole owner?
25. Did you sign this SEC document?
26. Is this accurate or not?
27. If you didn’t sign it, is someone guilty of lying to the SEC?
28. True or false, it is a felony to lie on SEC filings?
29. When asked 'Did you attend board meetings for Bain after 1999,' you responded by saying 'I did not manage Bain after 1999,' or that you didn’t attend any meetings involving things like firing people. This seems to suggest the possibility that you did attend Bain meetings in 2000 and 2001 that did not involve hiring or firing people or where you made the final decisions on investments. Is that possible?
30. If not, why not just give a blanket statement that you never attended a single board meeting for Bain after Feb. 1999?
31. If Obama owned slum apartments in Chicago that horribly mistreated poor people and didn’t provide them heat or running water, but Obama hired a real estate management firm to manage the building and collect rent, do you think it would be fair to criticize him for being a hypocritical slum lord who showed no compassion for poor people?
32. You seem to stress the word 'management' a great deal. You had no role in active 'management' of Bain after Feb 1999. You then seem to suggest that the only other role for a person to be involved with a company is as an investor. Isn’t there a third role?
33. Couldn’t you have been an active adviser or consultant, the way many chairmen of the board are?
34. You are obviously bright, hard working and energetic. Isn’t is possible that you put in 60 hours a week on the Olympics but still put in 5 hours a week as an active consultant or adviser by phone, email and the occasional meeting with the full time managers of Bain?
35. In general, don’t full-time hired managers often seek the 'advice' of absentee owners and then do everything they can to implement that 'advice?'..."
Saturday, July 14, 2012
Nuclear Safety:
AFP: San Onofre nuclear plant problem worse than thought: report
"US nuclear regulators published an update on California’s troubled San Onofre power plant Thursday, sparking an expert warning that the problem is more serious than first thought. A reactor at the nuclear power plant near San Diego was shut down in January after a radiation leak, although the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) said there was no danger to the public. Investigations found unexpected erosion on tubes that carry radioactive water, and the entire plant was shut down, forcing Californian authorities to fire up alternative power generation facilities. On Thursday, an update on the tube erosion, posted on an obscure part of the NRC’s website, showed the situation had worsened. 'This reveals a far greater problem than has been previously disclosed, and raises serious questions about whether it is safe to restart either unit,' said Daniel Hirsch, a nuclear expert at the University of California, Santa Cruz. The new data shows that more than 3,400 steam generator tubes in the new steam generators at San Onofre have been found to be damaged — about 1,800 in Unit 3 and 1,600 in Unit 2 — he said..."
AFP: San Onofre nuclear plant problem worse than thought: report
"US nuclear regulators published an update on California’s troubled San Onofre power plant Thursday, sparking an expert warning that the problem is more serious than first thought. A reactor at the nuclear power plant near San Diego was shut down in January after a radiation leak, although the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) said there was no danger to the public. Investigations found unexpected erosion on tubes that carry radioactive water, and the entire plant was shut down, forcing Californian authorities to fire up alternative power generation facilities. On Thursday, an update on the tube erosion, posted on an obscure part of the NRC’s website, showed the situation had worsened. 'This reveals a far greater problem than has been previously disclosed, and raises serious questions about whether it is safe to restart either unit,' said Daniel Hirsch, a nuclear expert at the University of California, Santa Cruz. The new data shows that more than 3,400 steam generator tubes in the new steam generators at San Onofre have been found to be damaged — about 1,800 in Unit 3 and 1,600 in Unit 2 — he said..."
Friday, July 13, 2012
The 2012 Race:
Callum Borchers & Christopher Rowland: Romney stayed longer at Bain
"Government documents filed by Mitt Romney and Bain Capital say Romney remained chief executive and chairman of the firm three years beyond the date he said he ceded control, even creating five new investment partnerships during that time. Romney has said he left Bain in 1999 to lead the winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, ending his role in the company. But public Securities and Exchange Commission documents filed later by Bain Capital state he remained the firm’s 'sole stockholder, chairman of the board, chief executive officer, and president.' Also, a Massachusetts financial disclosure form Romney filed in 2003 states that he still owned 100 percent of Bain Capital in 2002. And Romney’s state financial disclosure forms indicate he earned at least $100,000 as a Bain 'executive' in 2001 and 2002, separate from investment earnings. The timing of Romney’s departure from Bain is a key point of contention because he has said his resignation in February 1999 meant he was not responsible for Bain Capital companies that went bankrupt or laid off workers after that date..."
Callum Borchers & Christopher Rowland: Romney stayed longer at Bain
"Government documents filed by Mitt Romney and Bain Capital say Romney remained chief executive and chairman of the firm three years beyond the date he said he ceded control, even creating five new investment partnerships during that time. Romney has said he left Bain in 1999 to lead the winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, ending his role in the company. But public Securities and Exchange Commission documents filed later by Bain Capital state he remained the firm’s 'sole stockholder, chairman of the board, chief executive officer, and president.' Also, a Massachusetts financial disclosure form Romney filed in 2003 states that he still owned 100 percent of Bain Capital in 2002. And Romney’s state financial disclosure forms indicate he earned at least $100,000 as a Bain 'executive' in 2001 and 2002, separate from investment earnings. The timing of Romney’s departure from Bain is a key point of contention because he has said his resignation in February 1999 meant he was not responsible for Bain Capital companies that went bankrupt or laid off workers after that date..."
Thursday, July 12, 2012
The High Cost of Health Care:
Why should insurance pay costs above a market-competitive pharmacy's rates for drugs?
Barry Meier and Katie Thomas: Insurers Pay Big Markups as Doctors Dispense Drugs
"When a pharmacy sells the heartburn drug Zantac, each pill costs about 35 cents. But doctors dispensing it to patients in their offices have charged nearly 10 times that price, or $3.25 a pill. The same goes for a popular muscle relaxant known as Soma, insurers say. From a pharmacy, the per-pill price is 60 cents. Sold by a doctor, it can cost more than five times that, or $3.33. At a time of soaring health care bills, experts say that doctors, middlemen and drug distributors are adding hundreds of millions of dollars annually to the costs borne by taxpayers, insurance companies and employers through the practice of physician dispensing. Most common among physicians who treat injured workers, it is a twist on a typical doctor’s visit. Instead of sending patients to drugstores to get prescriptions filled, doctors dispense the drugs in their offices to patients, with the bills going to insurers. Doctors can make tens of thousands of dollars a year operating their own in-office pharmacies. The practice has become so profitable that private equity firms are buying stakes in the businesses, and political lobbying over the issue is fierce..."
The Banksters Who Wrecked The Economy:
NY Times: Shake-Up at New York Fed Is Said to Cloud View of Risk at JPMorgan
As Sen. Bernie Sanders reminds us: if banks are too big to oversee/regulate/keep honest, they are too big to exist and should be broken up!
"...The staff turnover at the New York Fed happened over several months, and regulators made a concerted effort to retain knowledge of the bank’s activities, according to other people close to the New York Fed who were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter. Even so, the current and former officials said the Fed examiners faced a daunting task, given that the bank has more than $2 trillion in assets. Faced with overseeing large banks like JPMorgan, regulators cannot possibly comb through every loan document or trade. Instead, they rely primarily on a bank’s own analysis of its risk, a broad portrait that can mask problems. 'They aren’t examiners as much as they are overseers, forced to peer over the banks’ shoulders,' Bart Dzivi, who served as special counsel to the Federal Crisis Inquiry Commission, said in reference to the general state of large bank supervision..."
Why should insurance pay costs above a market-competitive pharmacy's rates for drugs?
Barry Meier and Katie Thomas: Insurers Pay Big Markups as Doctors Dispense Drugs
"When a pharmacy sells the heartburn drug Zantac, each pill costs about 35 cents. But doctors dispensing it to patients in their offices have charged nearly 10 times that price, or $3.25 a pill. The same goes for a popular muscle relaxant known as Soma, insurers say. From a pharmacy, the per-pill price is 60 cents. Sold by a doctor, it can cost more than five times that, or $3.33. At a time of soaring health care bills, experts say that doctors, middlemen and drug distributors are adding hundreds of millions of dollars annually to the costs borne by taxpayers, insurance companies and employers through the practice of physician dispensing. Most common among physicians who treat injured workers, it is a twist on a typical doctor’s visit. Instead of sending patients to drugstores to get prescriptions filled, doctors dispense the drugs in their offices to patients, with the bills going to insurers. Doctors can make tens of thousands of dollars a year operating their own in-office pharmacies. The practice has become so profitable that private equity firms are buying stakes in the businesses, and political lobbying over the issue is fierce..."
The Banksters Who Wrecked The Economy:
NY Times: Shake-Up at New York Fed Is Said to Cloud View of Risk at JPMorgan
As Sen. Bernie Sanders reminds us: if banks are too big to oversee/regulate/keep honest, they are too big to exist and should be broken up!
"...The staff turnover at the New York Fed happened over several months, and regulators made a concerted effort to retain knowledge of the bank’s activities, according to other people close to the New York Fed who were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter. Even so, the current and former officials said the Fed examiners faced a daunting task, given that the bank has more than $2 trillion in assets. Faced with overseeing large banks like JPMorgan, regulators cannot possibly comb through every loan document or trade. Instead, they rely primarily on a bank’s own analysis of its risk, a broad portrait that can mask problems. 'They aren’t examiners as much as they are overseers, forced to peer over the banks’ shoulders,' Bart Dzivi, who served as special counsel to the Federal Crisis Inquiry Commission, said in reference to the general state of large bank supervision..."
Monday, July 09, 2012
Nukes:
Juan Gonzales: Fukushima Disaster 'Man-Made' & 'Preventable'
"A Japanese parliamentary inquiry has concluded last year’s nuclear meltdown of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant was 'a profoundly man-made disaster — that could and should have been foreseen and prevented.' We speak to former nuclear industry executive Arnie Gundersen about the report and what it means for U.S. nuclear facilities, in particular the 23 with a similar design to the Fukushima plant. 'There’s actually some curious information on Fukushima Unit 1. That was the first one to fail,' Gundersen says. 'That was built by an American company, General Electric, and an American architect/engineer. So it’s hard for the Japanese to blame themselves, when this was an all-American design. ... I am concerned that the industry, the nuclear industry in the United States, will say it’s a Japanese problem. And it’s not,'..."
Power Generation
Brian Dockstader: The Coal Industry Wants You in the Dark
"If you've watched any cable news show in the last year, chances are you've probably seen one or a thousand ads from the fossil fuel industry attacking regulations and/or trying to paint their products as necessary for prosperity. If nothing else, the sheer volume of primetime advertisements makes one thing strikingly apparent: the fossil fuel industry has a LOT of money. Recently, I saw yet another one of these ads--this one from a coal industry front group called "America's Power"--and another thing struck me: They really think that with enough money, with enough serious looking actors, and enough repetition, they can make Americans believe (or forget) anything. My fear is that they may be right..."
The Banksters Who Wrecked The Economy:
Robert Reich: The Wall Street Scandal of all Scandals:
"Just when you thought Wall Street couldn’t sink any lower – when its myriad abuses of public trust have already spread a miasma of cynicism over the entire economic system, giving birth to Tea Partiers and Occupiers and all manner of conspiracy theories; when its excesses have already wrought havoc with the lives of millions of Americans, causing taxpayers to shell out billions (of which only a portion has been repaid) even as its top executives are back to making more money than ever; when its vast political power (via campaign contributions) has already eviscerated much of the Dodd-Frank law that was supposed to rein it in, including the so-called “Volker” Rule that was sold as a milder version of the old Glass-Steagall Act that used to separate investment from commercial banking – yes, just when you thought the Street had hit bottom, an even deeper level of public-be-damned greed and corruption is revealed. Sit down and hold on to your chair. What’s the most basic service banks provide? Borrow money and lend it out. You put your savings in a bank to hold in trust, and the bank agrees to pay you interest on it. Or you borrow money from the bank and you agree to pay the bank interest. How is this interest rate determined? We trust that the banking system is setting today’s rate based on its best guess about the future worth of the money. And we assume that guess is based, in turn, on the cumulative market predictions of countless lenders and borrowers all over the world about the future supply and demand for the dough. But suppose our assumption is wrong. Suppose the bankers are manipulating the interest rate so they can place bets with the money you lend or repay them – bets that will pay off big for them because they have inside information on what the market is really predicting, which they’re not sharing with you. That would be a mammoth violation of public trust. And it would amount to a rip-off of almost cosmic proportion – trillions of dollars that you and I and other average people would otherwise have received or saved on our lending and borrowing that have been going instead to the bankers. It would make the other abuses of trust we’ve witnessed look like child’s play by comparison..."
Juan Gonzales: Fukushima Disaster 'Man-Made' & 'Preventable'
"A Japanese parliamentary inquiry has concluded last year’s nuclear meltdown of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant was 'a profoundly man-made disaster — that could and should have been foreseen and prevented.' We speak to former nuclear industry executive Arnie Gundersen about the report and what it means for U.S. nuclear facilities, in particular the 23 with a similar design to the Fukushima plant. 'There’s actually some curious information on Fukushima Unit 1. That was the first one to fail,' Gundersen says. 'That was built by an American company, General Electric, and an American architect/engineer. So it’s hard for the Japanese to blame themselves, when this was an all-American design. ... I am concerned that the industry, the nuclear industry in the United States, will say it’s a Japanese problem. And it’s not,'..."
Power Generation
Brian Dockstader: The Coal Industry Wants You in the Dark
"If you've watched any cable news show in the last year, chances are you've probably seen one or a thousand ads from the fossil fuel industry attacking regulations and/or trying to paint their products as necessary for prosperity. If nothing else, the sheer volume of primetime advertisements makes one thing strikingly apparent: the fossil fuel industry has a LOT of money. Recently, I saw yet another one of these ads--this one from a coal industry front group called "America's Power"--and another thing struck me: They really think that with enough money, with enough serious looking actors, and enough repetition, they can make Americans believe (or forget) anything. My fear is that they may be right..."
The Banksters Who Wrecked The Economy:
Robert Reich: The Wall Street Scandal of all Scandals:
"Just when you thought Wall Street couldn’t sink any lower – when its myriad abuses of public trust have already spread a miasma of cynicism over the entire economic system, giving birth to Tea Partiers and Occupiers and all manner of conspiracy theories; when its excesses have already wrought havoc with the lives of millions of Americans, causing taxpayers to shell out billions (of which only a portion has been repaid) even as its top executives are back to making more money than ever; when its vast political power (via campaign contributions) has already eviscerated much of the Dodd-Frank law that was supposed to rein it in, including the so-called “Volker” Rule that was sold as a milder version of the old Glass-Steagall Act that used to separate investment from commercial banking – yes, just when you thought the Street had hit bottom, an even deeper level of public-be-damned greed and corruption is revealed. Sit down and hold on to your chair. What’s the most basic service banks provide? Borrow money and lend it out. You put your savings in a bank to hold in trust, and the bank agrees to pay you interest on it. Or you borrow money from the bank and you agree to pay the bank interest. How is this interest rate determined? We trust that the banking system is setting today’s rate based on its best guess about the future worth of the money. And we assume that guess is based, in turn, on the cumulative market predictions of countless lenders and borrowers all over the world about the future supply and demand for the dough. But suppose our assumption is wrong. Suppose the bankers are manipulating the interest rate so they can place bets with the money you lend or repay them – bets that will pay off big for them because they have inside information on what the market is really predicting, which they’re not sharing with you. That would be a mammoth violation of public trust. And it would amount to a rip-off of almost cosmic proportion – trillions of dollars that you and I and other average people would otherwise have received or saved on our lending and borrowing that have been going instead to the bankers. It would make the other abuses of trust we’ve witnessed look like child’s play by comparison..."
Friday, July 06, 2012
Oil/Gas vs The Public's Right To A Clean Environment:
ThinkProgress - Fracking Industry Used Privileged Access To Lobby Against New York Fracking Regulations
"Documents obtained by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) show that bureaucrats within the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (NY DEC) granted the oil and gas industry premature access to highly controversial draft regulations for shale gas fracking in the state. New York placed a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing for gas in order to evaluate the science on the risks posed to drinking water, air quality and the health of New York’s citizens and the environment. The documents, obtained by EWG through New York’s Freedom of Information Law, show that the fracking industry received an unfair advantage thanks to DEC officials who provided detailed summaries of their proposed rules exclusively to oil and gas industry representatives. This allowed industry a six-week head start to lobby state officials to weaken the proposed standards before the public was granted access to the plan. Of particular concern, a lobbyist for scandal-ridden gas giant Chesapeake Energy used the exclusive access to the draft Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (SGEIS) to attempt to weaken the proposed rules restricting discharges of radioactive wastewater..."
Stephen Lacey: Must Read: Investigation Reveals True Hazards Of Piping Tar Sands Across America
"America has a new word to learn: Dilbit. Dilbit, short for diluted bitumen, is a combination of tar sands crude (bitumen) and dangerous liquid chemicals like benzene (the dilutant) used to thin crude so it can be piped to refineries. And there is a lot of it being piped into America — in some cases through the backyards of communities that don’t even know it’s there. The U.S. imports around half a million barrels of bitumen a day from Canada’s tar sands. According to the Sierra Club, if Keystone XL backers get their way, that number may grow to 1.5 million barrels per day. A must-read investigation released this week by Inside Climate News illustrates why that could be a potential nightmare for communities located near pipeline infrastructure. The story follows the complicated clean-up of a tar sands oil spill that most people haven’t even heard of — a 2010 pipeline rupture in southwestern Michigan that resulted in more than one million gallons of dilbit fouling a local waterway close to the Kalamazoo River. The three-part narrative is detailed and extremely well-researched. It features a blow-by-blow account of how the pipeline ruptured, how officials acted (or, in the case of the pipeline owner, Enbridge, how it failed to act) and why dilbit represents a double threat to the environment and public health. It also shows why having an Environmental Protection Agency is so important when crisis hits..."
The Banksters Who Wrecked The Economy:
Matt Taibbi: Why is Nobody Freaking Out About the LIBOR Banking Scandal?
"The banks gamed LIBOR for two semi-overlapping reasons. As noted here last week, there were instances of Barclays traders badgering the LIBOR submitters to "push down" rates in order to fatten their immediate bottom lines, depending on what they were trading or holding that day. They also apparently rigged LIBOR downward in order to produce a general appearance of better health, essentially tweaking their credit scores a few ticks upward. Most intriguingly, or perhaps disturbingly, there were revelations last week that Bank of England deputy Governor Paul Tucker had a conversation with Diamond at the peak of the crisis in 2008. The conversation reportedly left Diamond, and subsequently his traders, with the impression that the bank had carte blanche to rig LIBOR downward in order to help allay spiraling public fears about the banks’ poor financial health. British officials, and Tucker individually, deny that Tucker gave Diamond permission to rig rates. But a report by British regulators did conclude that the two were talking about Barclays LIBOR submissions on October 29, 2008, and that as a result of that conversation, Diamond came away with a 'misunderstanding,'... ...We know that American officials in 2008-2009 were extremely concerned about the appearance of weakness in the financial markets, so much so that they may have resisted pursuing criminal prosecutions against big banks, and we also know that they spent a lot of time commiserating with Wall Street figures before and during the crisis. If Bob Diamond and Paul Tucker were having these talks about LIBOR, is it fair to wonder what else Hank Paulson and Lloyd Blankfein were talking about in the 24 discussions they had in the six days following the AIG disaster? When Paulson had a secret meeting with the entire board of Goldman Sachs in, of all places, his hotel suite in Moscow, in June of 2008? Or what other material nonpublic information was exchanged when Paulson met with a gang of hedge fund chiefs at the offices of Eton Park management in July 2008, and laid out for them a possible scenario for putting Fannie and Freddie into receivership? Anyway, the LIBOR story is leading the front pages of most of Britain’s dailies, it’s on TV, and it’s producing blistering editorials and howls of outrage amongst politicians and activists. But as compadre Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism put it, where’s the outrage here in America?.."
Matt Taibbi: LIBOR Banking Scandal Deepens; Barclays Releases Damning Email, Implicates British Government "This Libor-manipulation story grows crazier with each passing minute. We have officially disappeared now down the rabbit-hole of the international financial oligarchy. Former Barclays CEO Bob Diamond is testifying before parliament in London today, and that's sure to bring some shocking moments. But there's already been one huge stunner. In advance of that testimony, Barclays released an email from October 29, 2008, written by Diamond to then-Chairman John Varley and COO Jerry del Messier (who also stepped down yesterday). The email from the CEO to the other two senior Barclays execs purports to detail the content of the conversation Diamond had with Bank of England deputy governor Paul Tucker that same day. In the email, Diamond essentially tells the other two execs that he has been given permission by Tucker – encouraged, actually – to rig Libor rates downward. What’s even worse is that Diamond’s email suggests that Tucker was only following orders, i.e. that Tucker had received phone calls from "a number of senior figures within Whitehall" – that is, the British government – expressing concern about Barclays' high Libor rates..."
ThinkProgress - Fracking Industry Used Privileged Access To Lobby Against New York Fracking Regulations
"Documents obtained by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) show that bureaucrats within the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (NY DEC) granted the oil and gas industry premature access to highly controversial draft regulations for shale gas fracking in the state. New York placed a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing for gas in order to evaluate the science on the risks posed to drinking water, air quality and the health of New York’s citizens and the environment. The documents, obtained by EWG through New York’s Freedom of Information Law, show that the fracking industry received an unfair advantage thanks to DEC officials who provided detailed summaries of their proposed rules exclusively to oil and gas industry representatives. This allowed industry a six-week head start to lobby state officials to weaken the proposed standards before the public was granted access to the plan. Of particular concern, a lobbyist for scandal-ridden gas giant Chesapeake Energy used the exclusive access to the draft Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (SGEIS) to attempt to weaken the proposed rules restricting discharges of radioactive wastewater..."
Stephen Lacey: Must Read: Investigation Reveals True Hazards Of Piping Tar Sands Across America
"America has a new word to learn: Dilbit. Dilbit, short for diluted bitumen, is a combination of tar sands crude (bitumen) and dangerous liquid chemicals like benzene (the dilutant) used to thin crude so it can be piped to refineries. And there is a lot of it being piped into America — in some cases through the backyards of communities that don’t even know it’s there. The U.S. imports around half a million barrels of bitumen a day from Canada’s tar sands. According to the Sierra Club, if Keystone XL backers get their way, that number may grow to 1.5 million barrels per day. A must-read investigation released this week by Inside Climate News illustrates why that could be a potential nightmare for communities located near pipeline infrastructure. The story follows the complicated clean-up of a tar sands oil spill that most people haven’t even heard of — a 2010 pipeline rupture in southwestern Michigan that resulted in more than one million gallons of dilbit fouling a local waterway close to the Kalamazoo River. The three-part narrative is detailed and extremely well-researched. It features a blow-by-blow account of how the pipeline ruptured, how officials acted (or, in the case of the pipeline owner, Enbridge, how it failed to act) and why dilbit represents a double threat to the environment and public health. It also shows why having an Environmental Protection Agency is so important when crisis hits..."
The Banksters Who Wrecked The Economy:
Matt Taibbi: Why is Nobody Freaking Out About the LIBOR Banking Scandal?
"The banks gamed LIBOR for two semi-overlapping reasons. As noted here last week, there were instances of Barclays traders badgering the LIBOR submitters to "push down" rates in order to fatten their immediate bottom lines, depending on what they were trading or holding that day. They also apparently rigged LIBOR downward in order to produce a general appearance of better health, essentially tweaking their credit scores a few ticks upward. Most intriguingly, or perhaps disturbingly, there were revelations last week that Bank of England deputy Governor Paul Tucker had a conversation with Diamond at the peak of the crisis in 2008. The conversation reportedly left Diamond, and subsequently his traders, with the impression that the bank had carte blanche to rig LIBOR downward in order to help allay spiraling public fears about the banks’ poor financial health. British officials, and Tucker individually, deny that Tucker gave Diamond permission to rig rates. But a report by British regulators did conclude that the two were talking about Barclays LIBOR submissions on October 29, 2008, and that as a result of that conversation, Diamond came away with a 'misunderstanding,'... ...We know that American officials in 2008-2009 were extremely concerned about the appearance of weakness in the financial markets, so much so that they may have resisted pursuing criminal prosecutions against big banks, and we also know that they spent a lot of time commiserating with Wall Street figures before and during the crisis. If Bob Diamond and Paul Tucker were having these talks about LIBOR, is it fair to wonder what else Hank Paulson and Lloyd Blankfein were talking about in the 24 discussions they had in the six days following the AIG disaster? When Paulson had a secret meeting with the entire board of Goldman Sachs in, of all places, his hotel suite in Moscow, in June of 2008? Or what other material nonpublic information was exchanged when Paulson met with a gang of hedge fund chiefs at the offices of Eton Park management in July 2008, and laid out for them a possible scenario for putting Fannie and Freddie into receivership? Anyway, the LIBOR story is leading the front pages of most of Britain’s dailies, it’s on TV, and it’s producing blistering editorials and howls of outrage amongst politicians and activists. But as compadre Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism put it, where’s the outrage here in America?.."
Matt Taibbi: LIBOR Banking Scandal Deepens; Barclays Releases Damning Email, Implicates British Government "This Libor-manipulation story grows crazier with each passing minute. We have officially disappeared now down the rabbit-hole of the international financial oligarchy. Former Barclays CEO Bob Diamond is testifying before parliament in London today, and that's sure to bring some shocking moments. But there's already been one huge stunner. In advance of that testimony, Barclays released an email from October 29, 2008, written by Diamond to then-Chairman John Varley and COO Jerry del Messier (who also stepped down yesterday). The email from the CEO to the other two senior Barclays execs purports to detail the content of the conversation Diamond had with Bank of England deputy governor Paul Tucker that same day. In the email, Diamond essentially tells the other two execs that he has been given permission by Tucker – encouraged, actually – to rig Libor rates downward. What’s even worse is that Diamond’s email suggests that Tucker was only following orders, i.e. that Tucker had received phone calls from "a number of senior figures within Whitehall" – that is, the British government – expressing concern about Barclays' high Libor rates..."
