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May 25, 2013

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Tag: Bailout


AP/Alexander Zemlianichenko

Why Putin Let Russia’s Richies Take a Bath

The collapse of the Cypriot banking system reveals much about the complex relationship among ordinary Russians, “offshore oligarchs” and a political system that depends on both.

Posted on May 14, 2013 READ MORE



Shutterstock image of bank.

Big Banks Are Victims of Their Own Success

Now that Wall Street has managed to neuter and delay the modest reforms passed by Congress, there is more political momentum to pass stricter financial regulations.

Posted on May 1, 2013 READ MORE



Shutterstock photo of a bill fragment with blood spots.

Wall Street Is Killing Dodd-Frank One Regulation at a Time

The already tepid reforms enacted by Dodd-Frank are falling prey to business leaders, Republican lawmakers and the son of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.

Posted on Apr 30, 2013 READ MORE


Stains on a Legacy

In retrospect, George W. Bush’s legacy doesn’t look as bad as it did when he left office. It looks worse.

Posted on Apr 26, 2013 READ MORE



mahalie (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Winner Takes All: The Super Priority Status of Derivatives

With taxpayer bailouts no longer an option, a major derivatives crisis could transfer money currently held by state and local governments and citizens—secured and unsecured, insured and uninsured—into the hands of derivative claimants.

Posted on Apr 10, 2013 READ MORE



AP

It Wasn’t David Stockman Who Wrecked the Economy

For all of the strident attacks on Stockman’s column, I have yet to read a serious critique of his most brazen claim.

Posted on Apr 2, 2013 READ MORE



Rand Paul (CC-BY-SA)

Good Intentions, Bad Information at CPAC

Libertarians, whom the Republican National Committee has largely shut out, assumed a more energetic role at CPAC this year, using the failed election as evidence that the GOP should return to their philosophy’s ideals.

Posted on Mar 20, 2013 READ MORE



AP/Mark Lennihan

If Corporations Don’t Pay Taxes, Why Should You?

The U.S. government exists primarily to make the world safe for multinational corporations, but those firms feel no obligation to pay for that protection in return.

Posted on Mar 12, 2013 READ MORE


Two 2016 Prospects Spotlight Democrats’ Identity Crisis

Despite its success in recent elections, and despite the image of unity it projects, the Democratic Party is in the throes of an epic identity crisis pitting its corporate money against its stated principles.

Posted on Feb 22, 2013 READ MORE



AP/Charles Dharapak

It’s Good to Be a Goldman

Here’s a get-out-of-jail-free card, and while we’re at it, take this obscenely huge bonus for having wrecked the economy.

Posted on Feb 1, 2013 READ MORE



A Treasury Department Fail, ‘SNL’ Takes on Biden, and More

A look at the day’s political happenings, including a bipartisan agreement reached on immigration reform and Obama and Clinton give a joint interview on “60 Minutes.”

Posted on Jan 28, 2013 READ MORE



White House/Pete Souza

The Inconvenient Truth About Jack Lew

I suppose that he can’t be much worse than Timothy Geithner, but that should be scant cause for cheer over the news that the president has nominated Jack Lew as Treasury secretary.

Posted on Jan 11, 2013 READ MORE



Pastor’s Anti-Gay Remarks Stir Inauguration Controversy, Taibbi Blasts Government Lies, and More

A look at the day’s political happenings, including CNN interrupting Joe Biden’s gun control presentation to report on another school shooting and a heated on-air argument between MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” co-hosts.

Posted on Jan 10, 2013 READ MORE



Obama Picks Next Treasury Secretary, Jon Stewart Weighs In on Guns, and More

A look at the day’s political happenings, including AIG’s decision on whether to join a lawsuit against the government over the financial crisis bailout and the White House’s response to a petition to deport Piers Morgan.

Posted on Jan 9, 2013 READ MORE



Flickr/eflon

AIG’s Big ‘Screw You’ to America

In the ultimate act of corporate greed, the insurance giant—which received a bailout from the government to the tune of $182 billion—is showing what a truly unscrupulous and morally bankrupt organization it is by mulling whether to join a lawsuit against Uncle Sam over unfair bailout terms.

Posted on Jan 8, 2013 READ MORE



AP/Elise Amendola

Cerberus Collected Ex-Government Opportunists

How fitting that Dan Quayle, a bumbling excuse for a vice president of the United States, should end up as a top executive of a $20 billion private equity firm mired in controversy.

Posted on Dec 28, 2012 READ MORE


Coaches Over the Common Good

This is the microcosmic lesson of the University of Colorado’s recent decision to pay a new football coach $2 million a year. The move - and the reaction to it - is a perfect illustration of America’s values, or lack thereof.

Posted on Dec 21, 2012 READ MORE


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Posted on Dec 21, 2012 READ MORE        



Image from "Economix: How and Why Our Economy Works (and Doesn't Work), in Words and Pictures"

Understanding Economics in Plain English

Fedspeak, vague and convoluted answers to economic questions, was popularized by Alan Greenspan, chairman of the Federal Reserve from 1987 to 2006. It allowed him to essentially say “no comment” without admitting that he was avoiding questions.

Posted on Dec 14, 2012 READ MORE



The Growing Global Movement Against Austerity

Amaia Engana didn’t wait to be evicted from her home. On Nov. 9, in the town of Barakaldo, a suburb of Bilbao in Spain’s Basque Country, officials from the local judiciary were on their way to serve her eviction papers. Amaia stood on a chair and threw herself out of her fifth-floor apartment window, dying instantly on impact on the sidewalk below.

Posted on Nov 15, 2012 READ MORE


The Election—In a Word

Mike Allen, for those who don’t know, is Washington’s insiders’ insider.

Posted on Nov 9, 2012 READ MORE



AP/Jack Dempsey

Vote for the B-

I have been a harsh critic of the president, but a vote for Barack Obama in a swing state is a no-brainer.

Posted on Nov 5, 2012 READ MORE



Illustration by Mr. Fish

Why I’m Voting Green

The November election is not a battle between Republicans and Democrats. It is not a battle between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. It is a battle between the corporate state and us.

Posted on Oct 29, 2012 READ MORE


No Denial: ‘Son of Detroit’ Profited From Bailout—and Jobs Shipped to China

The neglect of the Delphi story by mainstream and even progressive outlets such as MSNBC has been remarkable, particularly because neither Romney nor his campaign has denied it.

Posted on Oct 25, 2012 READ MORE


How the Right Wing Lost in 2012

If conservatism were winning, does anyone doubt that Romney would be running as a conservative? Yet unlike Ronald Reagan and Barry Goldwater, Romney is offering an echo, not a choice. His strategy at the end is to try to sneak into the White House on a chorus of me-too’s.

Posted on Oct 25, 2012 READ MORE


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Posted on Oct 23, 2012 READ MORE



AP/J. Scott Applewhite

Meet Romney’s Economic Hit Man

Mark the name of R. Glenn Hubbard, the man who will make your life miserable if Mitt Romney is elected president.

Posted on Oct 18, 2012 READ MORE



Fortune Live Media (CC BY-ND 2.0)

Truthdigger of the Week: Sheila Bair

Few voices in the regulatory community called for the expulsion of derelict executives and the means to force banks to lend bailout money to the public amid the 2008 financial crisis. Former FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair was among them.

Posted on Oct 13, 2012 READ MORE



AP/Charlie Neibergall

Sigh No More: Obama, Romney Leave No Room to Argue

The presidential debate this week was much ado about nothing, and Mitt Romney beat Barack Obama because he was more energetic in distorting the significance of their miniscule differences.

Posted on Oct 5, 2012 READ MORE



Collage of photos by Gage Skidmore(CC-BY-SA)

Which Mitt Will Show Up to Debate?

It promises to be an epic clash: Mitt Romney vs. Mitt Romney. Oh, and President Obama will be there, too.

Posted on Oct 1, 2012 READ MORE



AP/Carolyn Kaster

The Big Idea in This Election

This isn’t just a choice of philosophies, but the long-awaited showdown between post-FDR Democrats and post-Reagan Revolutionaries.

Posted on Sep 11, 2012 READ MORE



AP/Charles Dharapak

The Great Deregulator

Bill Clinton bears as much responsibility as any politician for the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, and the wild applause for his disingenuous speech at the Democratic National Convention last week is a sure sign of the poverty of what passes for progressive politics.

Posted on Sep 10, 2012 READ MORE



AP/Chuck Burton

Want Hope and Change? Build a Real Left

It’s fine to catalog the sins of Obama, but it’s a largely meaningless parlor game unless we offer a coherent vision that outlines a winning strategy.

Posted on Sep 6, 2012 READ MORE



SnowViolent (CC BY 2.0)

Creditors Demand Six-Day Workweek for Greece

A leaked letter from Greece’s lenders—the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund—orders the country to introduce a six-day workweek as part of a package of austerity demands for a second bailout.

Posted on Sep 5, 2012 READ MORE



Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, National Archives and Records Administration

Stockman Redux

As he became president in 1981, Ronald Reagan called in a 34-year-old congressman from Michigan named David Stockman, considered by many to be the most articulate and intellectually imposing Republican of the moment.

Posted on Aug 26, 2012 READ MORE


Who Is Paul Ryan?

Wisconsin congressman Paul Ryan admires Ayn Rand, and if you believe Republican Party mythology, Ryan is a messianic John Galt who will save America from a secret socialist conspiracy.

Posted on Aug 17, 2012 READ MORE



AP/Scott Applewhite

Truthdigger of the Week: Ex-TARP Investigator Neil Barofsky

In late 2008, Neil Barofsky was appointed the Treasury Department’s investigator of the bank bailouts. In the time since, he has suffered dismissal and deprecation from his colleagues and the corporations they’re supposed to regulate.

Posted on Aug 4, 2012 READ MORE



NASA GSFC/Jacques Descloitres and Ana Pinheiro

The Pain in Spain Falls Mainly on the Plain (Folk)

As Spain’s prime minister announced deep austerity cuts Wednesday in order to secure funds from the European Union to bail out Spain’s failing banks, the people of Spain have taken to the streets once again for what they call “Real Democracy Now.”

Posted on Jul 11, 2012 READ MORE


NPR: Crony Capitalism and America’s ‘Berlusconi Spiral’

Is the United States on a course toward crony capitalism? Italian-American economist Luigi Zingales and NPR examine similarities between the politics and economics of Italy under Silvio Berlusconi and of the U.S.

Posted on Jul 11, 2012 READ MORE



Photo by WEF/Remy Steinegger (CC-BY-SA)

Europe Bails Itself Out, for Now

The latest, and 20th, European “summit” meeting, held last week in Brussels, was symbolically a defeat for Germany’s Angela Merkel, who agreed that Europe’s permanent bailout fund could directly recapitalize certain troubled eurozone banks.

Posted on Jul 3, 2012 READ MORE



AP/Charles Dharapak

Health Care: Give the People What They Want

Most Americans want pretty much the same outcome from health care reform, and it’s not what either major-party candidate is offering.

Posted on Jun 20, 2012 READ MORE


We’re Not Greece

If the United States were still governed under the Articles of Confederation, might California be in the position of Greece, Spain or Italy?

Posted on Jun 20, 2012 READ MORE



AP/Barry Thumma

See You at the Club: Fed Fat Cats Dip Into the Till

American families have lost 20 years of growth while at least 18 bankers and tycoons sat on Fed boards that coincidentally bailed out their institutions.

Posted on Jun 14, 2012 READ MORE


Robert Scheer and KPFA’s Philip Maldari: A Spirited Debate

Robert Scheer and KPFA’s Philip Maldari chat about issues including state politics, Rambo Obama’s use of executive power, the facade of the two-party system and the unresolved economic crisis.

Posted on Jun 12, 2012 READ MORE



AP/Mark Lennihan

Obama Can’t Knock the Hustle

How did we end up with such smart scoundrels? Even after it was known that Jamie Dimon’s bank blew more than $2 billion, Barack Obama still had praise for the intellect of his political backer.

Posted on May 17, 2012 READ MORE  |  60 COMMENTS



U.S. Treasury

Treasury Projects a Profit From Bailout

Just as Mitt Romney has locked up the Republican nomination on a boast of fiscal conservatism, President Obama’s Treasury Department has said it expects to turn a tidy $2 billion profit from TARP and other extraordinary measures taken to bail out the financial industry.

Posted on Apr 15, 2012 READ MORE  |  4 COMMENTS


What’s in a Name? George W. Regrets Dubbing Those ‘Bush Tax Cuts’

When George W. Bush made his first public appearance in many months to discuss economic policy in New York on Tuesday, his utterances may have revealed more than he intended.

Posted on Apr 12, 2012 READ MORE  |  6 COMMENTS



AP/J. David Ake

The Real Health Care Debate

There is no substantial difference between Obamacare and Romneycare. There is no substantial difference between Obama and Romney.

Posted on Apr 9, 2012 READ MORE  |  202 COMMENTS


Muppets Demand Justice From Goldman Sachs

The Muppets will not stand for the kind of insult that Goldman Sachs execs, according to famous defector and detractor Greg Smith, heaped on their felty heads by calling clients “Muppets” in a derogatory fashion.

Posted on Mar 27, 2012 READ MORE



AP / Steven Senne

Voters Have Two Candidates, No Choice

With Mitt Romney’s super-PAC limo now on cruise control to victory at the GOP convention, voters are left with only two reasons to vote against Barack Obama.

Posted on Mar 22, 2012 READ MORE  |  133 COMMENTS


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A Progressive Journal of News and Opinion. Editor, Robert Scheer. Publisher, Zuade Kaufman.
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