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May 24, 2013

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Tag: Big Banks

Watch: Sen. Warren Grills Jack Lew on Too Big to Fail Banks

At a Senate Banking Committee hearing Tuesday, the Massachusetts senator got the best of the Treasury secretary as she pressed him on whether the government should cap the size of big banks or break them up.

Posted on May 22, 2013 READ MORE



Kheel Center, Cornell University (CC BY 2.0)

Recurring Nightmares? Wake Up and Take Action

The weekly news is like a recurring bad dream that is becoming an even worse nightmare. While the investor class cheers a rising stock market, the rest of us sink. The headline that jumped out at us this week came from Bloomberg News: “CEO Pay 1,795-to-1 Multiple of Wages Skirts U.S. Law.”

Posted on May 17, 2013 READ MORE



peasap (CC BY 2.0)

More Than $100 Billion in Subsidies for Too Big to Fail Banks

A Bloomberg Markets magazine study estimates that dirt-cheap borrowing programs and other benefits have saved the nation’s six largest banks—JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley—$102 billion since 2009.

Posted on May 10, 2013 READ MORE


Students as Important as Big Banks, Elizabeth Warren Says in Bill Introduction

The senator’s first piece of stand-alone legislation is aimed at giving students who take out federally subsidized loans the same interest rate the big banks get when they borrow from the government. Student loans rates are set to go up to 6.8 percent July 1. Meantime, the big banks responsible for plunging the economy into a recession a few short years ago pay just 0.75 percent

Posted on May 8, 2013 READ MORE



Image via Shutterstock

How the Rich Benefited From the Recovery (While Most of Us Got Nothing)

The richest Americans made trillions during the so-called economic recovery from 2009 to 2011, while most everyone else’s net worth dropped, according to a recent study. “It’s as if the entire economic recovery is going into the pockets of the rich,” Les Leopold writes at AlterNet. “And that’s no accident.”

Posted on May 5, 2013 READ MORE



Warren Rips Bank Regulators, McConnell Secretly Recorded, and More

A look at the day’s political happenings, including why Dick Cheney says the U.S. is in “deep do do” and Bernie Sanders and Grover Norquist spar over President Obama’s awful budget.

Posted on Apr 11, 2013 READ MORE



AP/Rich Pedroncelli

Sanders, Sherman Introduce Legislation to Break Up ‘Too Big to Fail’ Banks

Wall Street sees no need for more regulations of course, but unfortunately for Main Street Americans still reeling from the last financial crisis, President Obama may turn out to be the banking industry’s biggest ally.

Posted on Apr 10, 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



© Ahmed Amir (CC BY 2.0)

Exposed: A Global Offshore Money Matrix of Up to $32 Trillion

A cache of 2.5 million secret files offers the chance to peek behind the curtain of the world’s offshore money market, detailing the involvement of more than 120,000 companies and trusts doing business with politicians, con men and scores of the mega-rich.

Posted on Apr 4, 2013 READ MORE



Campaign rally image via Shutterstock

Why Politicians Listen to Public Opinion on Gay Marriage and Guns but Not the Economy

Recent polls show Americans would rather reduce the deficit by raising taxes than by cutting Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, education and transportation. Yet Congress seems incapable of making that kind of deal. Some 65 percent of Americans want to raise taxes on large corporations, but both parties are heading in precisely the opposite direction.

Posted on Mar 31, 2013 READ MORE


Time to Break Up the Big Banks, Sen. Sanders Says

Expressing concerns that “too big too fail” banks have also become “too big to jail,” Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said Wednesday that he will introduce legislation to break up the nation’s biggest financial institutions.

Posted on Mar 28, 2013 READ MORE



Flickr/Erix!

The Morality Brigade

We’re still legislating and regulating private morality, while ignoring the much larger crisis of public morality in America.

Posted on Mar 25, 2013 READ MORE



AP/Alex Brandon

Fed Chairman Bernanke: ‘I Agree With Elizabeth Warren 100 Percent’ on Big Banks

If Bernanke’s stance is any indication, Sen. Warren, who was just sworn in this January, is already having a positive impact on Washington.

Posted on Mar 21, 2013 READ MORE



Warren Crusades Against Big Banks, NYC Soda Ban Struck Down, and More

A look at the day’s political happenings, including details of a bipartisan agreement on immigration and the reason Donald Trump is willing to help the White House financially.

Posted on Mar 11, 2013 READ MORE



Flickr/MoneyBlogNewz

Disabled Veteran Wrongly Hounded by Wells Fargo Dies in Court

A typo by banking giant Wells Fargo resulted in a more than two-year legal battle that came to a tragic conclusion in December when Larry Delassus’ heart stopped in a Los Angeles area courtroom, a new LA Weekly report reveals.

Posted on Mar 10, 2013 READ MORE


Elizabeth Warren Grills Fed Chairman Over ‘Too Big to Fail’ Banks

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., a two-time Truthdigger of the Week, demonstrated once again why big banks and Wall Street want to keep their distance from her when she took on Ben Bernanke during his semiannual appearance before the Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday.

Posted on Feb 26, 2013 READ MORE



Flickr/Thomas Hawk

Big Banks Have Found Another Way to Rip You Off

Meet the major banks’ newest partner: payday lenders, the owners of those check cashing stores that offer short-term loans with interest rates that sometimes exceed 500 percent.

Posted on Feb 24, 2013 READ MORE



JoshuaDavisPhotography (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Wrongful Foreclosure Settlement Not Enough, New York Times Says

The editors at The New York Times are not impressed with the deal struck between the government and major banks to provide borrowers with $8.5 billion in aid.

Posted on Jan 9, 2013 READ MORE


Foreclosure
Flickr / respres

Feds Replace Flawed Foreclosure Review With Vague Settlement

The Independent Foreclosure Review was supposed to be a full and fair investigation of the big banks’ foreclosure abuses. But Monday morning, the very regulators who launched the program 18 months ago announced that it had all been a massive mistake and shut it down.

Posted on Jan 9, 2013 READ MORE



Flickr / epicharmus

Why Bailouts Will Continue Until the Big Banks Are Broken Up

TARP—the infamous Troubled Assets Relief Program that bailed out Wall Street in 2008—is over. The Treasury Department announced it will be completing the sale of the remaining shares it owns of the banks and of General Motors. But in reality it’s not over.

Posted on Jan 8, 2013 READ MORE


Chris Hedges on the Fiscal Cliff ‘Ruse’

Just because the fiscal cliff may have been averted—at least for now—doesn’t mean all the economic issues and problems facing this country have magically disappeared along with the manufactured crisis.

Posted on Jan 7, 2013 READ MORE



Warren’s Wall Street Fight, Obama’s Thanksgiving ‘Pardon,’ and More

A look at the day’s political happenings, including a Democratic congressman’s resignation and why Joe Scarborough is apologizing to Nate Silver.

Posted on Nov 21, 2012 READ MORE



Institute for Policy Studies

Subsidizing the CEOs

Twenty-six of the nation’s largest corporations paid their CEOs more than they spent on taxes in 2011, according to a report by the Institute for Policy Studies.

Posted on Aug 16, 2012 READ MORE



Flickr / 7bikeframesweldedtogether

The Flawed Credit Card Debt Collection Process

Credit card companies are increasingly turning to the legal system in their rush to collect money that is owed to them. But, there now exists a very big problem in this litigious-happy practice—nearly all these lawsuits may be flawed.

Posted on Aug 13, 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



ell brown (CC BY 2.0)

U.S. Buckles Down on Rate-Fixing Case

The U.S. Justice Department has identified potential crimes committed by several big banks—including Barclays—and their employees amid a global investigation into the Libor scandal, in which financial institutions allegedly rigged interest rates.

Posted on Jul 15, 2012 READ MORE



Todd Ehlers (CC BY-ND 2.0)

Banks Rake In Highest Quarterly Profits Since 2007

The American banking industry enjoyed profits of $35.3 billion in the first quarter of 2012, the industry’s best performance since 2007, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. But it did so largely because banks put aside less money to cover bad loans, while keeping a lid on new lending.

Posted on May 24, 2012 READ MORE



bogieharmond (CC-BY)

Vacant Houses Outnumber Homeless People in U.S.

There are more than five times as many vacant homes in the U.S. as there are homeless people, according to Amnesty International USA. Since 2007, banks have shuttered about 8 million American houses, almost doubling the previous number, while 3.5 million homeless shiver in the cold.

Posted on Dec 31, 2011 READ MORE  |  30 COMMENTS



Flickr / Wonderlane (CC-BY)

Moody’s Downgrades Big Banks

Moody’s downgraded the credit ratings of three major U.S. banks Wednesday, and so far it appears that Bank of America was the hardest hit by the move.

Posted on Sep 21, 2011 READ MORE  |  3 COMMENTS


Author and Academic Comments on Wall Street Protests

Protesters continued to occupy Manhattan’s financial district Monday. “Democracy Now!” has footage of the demonstration and interviews with activists, including a conversation with distinguished anthropologist, author and protest-goer David Graeber. (more)

Posted on Sep 19, 2011 READ MORE  |  1 COMMENT


Anti-Corporate Protesters Demonstrate on Wall Street

Hundreds of people remained gathered in New York’s financial district Sunday as part of the “Occupy Wall Street” demonstration called for by Adbusters, Anonymous and other anti-corporate groups. (more)

Posted on Sep 18, 2011 READ MORE  |  11 COMMENTS



Flickr / respres (CC-BY)

U.S. Agency Set to Sue Big Banks on Mortgage Deals

The Federal Housing Finance Agency is set to file lawsuits against more than a dozen big banks for allegedly misrepresenting the quality of mortgage securities they were assembling and peddling at the height of the housing bubble. (more)

Posted on Sep 2, 2011 READ MORE  |  4 COMMENTS



Flickr / PeterJBellis

An Investment Manager Dishes on the Richest

Rarely do we get to hear criticism of the American oligarchy from within the ranks of its crowning institution: the financial services industry. This anonymous author, who handles investments for the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans, takes us on a brief tour of numbers ... (more)

Posted on Jul 20, 2011 READ MORE  |  8 COMMENTS



Flickr / Protest Photos1

N.Y. Attorney General Wants Answers From Big Banks

Homing in on mortgage-backed securities, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has requested records from Bank of America, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs as part of a broad investigation into the causes of the financial meltdown of 2008. (more)

Posted on May 17, 2011 READ MORE  |  5 COMMENTS



New York Times

The Shadowy Side of Derivatives Trading

Even after the economic crash and subsequent scrutiny of Wall Street, a circle of big banks has managed to maintain a monopoly on derivatives trading and keep a cloak of secrecy over its process.

Posted on Dec 12, 2010 READ MORE  |  12 COMMENTS


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