NewsTrust - Corporate Governance - Most Recent Stories: Opinion

Too Big to Fail - Too Big to Exist -

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

senate.gov - By Senator Bernie Sanders - Nov. 06 (Statement) - Senator Bernie Sanders introduced legislation that would break up financial institutions that are too big to fail. "If an institution is too big to fail, it is too big to exist," Sanders said. "We should break them up so they are no longer in a position to bring down the entire economy. We should end the concentration of ownership that has resulted in just four huge financial institutions holding half the mortgages in America, controlling two-thirds of the credit cards, and amassing 40 percent of all deposits."

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Michael Specter’s new book ‘Denialism’ misses its targets

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Grist - By Tom Philpott - Oct. 31 (Review) - Like the great institutions of European Christianity, modern science has amassed tremendous power—and not always lived up to its founding creeds. Science needs a Gibbon—someone who appreciates its intellectual grandeur and potential, but who also can train a cold eye on the “inevitable mixture of error and corruption” that has accompanied its tenure since the Enlightenment. That Gibbon is not Michael Specter, a New Yorker staff writer and author of the new book Denialism: How Irrational Thinking Hinders Scientific Progress, Harms the Planet, and Threatens Our Lives. His book purports to defend science from its philistine critics—people who, in Specter’s view, reflexively deny the validity of the scientific process. In his intro, Specter sets up the defining focus of the book. He contrasts the “rigorous and open-minded skepticism of science” with “the inflexible certainty of ideological commitment” (i.e., “denialism”). Already, we’re on thin intellectual ice; Specter evidently believes in a pure science, one that exists completely apart from ideology. In Gibbon’s phrasing, he’s defending a science as “she descended from Heaven [read: the Enlightenment], arrayed in her native purity.”

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A Heroine of ’Capitalism’

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Lois Romano - Oct. 07 (Interview) - Elizabeth Warren is far from a household name, but that could change quickly, given her debut on the big screen this week in Michael Moore’s scathing assessment of the government’s handling of the banking crisis.

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The Cost of Corporate Communism

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Dylan Ratigan - Oct. 07 (Opinion) - The spike in unemployment, the destruction of retirement wealth, the collapse in the value of our homes, the worst recession since the Depression have all resulted directly from the abdication of proper government.

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Psycho Corporations Love Our Supreme Court

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

airamerica.com - By Mike Papantonio - Oct. 07 (Opinion) - when the conduct of that “corporate person” is so vile that they make decisions to kill people to increase profit, we hear the argument that it was a “corporate wide decision.” We hear that there was no single person to hold accountable. They tell us that many people were involved in the acts and we can’t throw their corporation in prison. The U.S. Supreme Court is now considering expanding the definition of “person” even farther for America’s corporations. The big winner will be the corporations that are the most corrupt.

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Where is the Defund Blackwater Act?

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The Nation - By Jeremy Scahill - Sep. 25 (Opinion) - Republican Congressional leaders are continuing their witch hunt against ACORN, the grassroots community group dedicated to helping poor and working-class people. Their campaign has gained bipartisan legislative support in the form of the Defund ACORN Act of 2009, which has now passed the House and Senate. Yet the bill was written so broadly that, as Ryan Grim at the Huffington Post has pointed out, it could "plausibly defund the entire military-industrial complex."

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Barack Obama Must See Michael Moore's New Movie

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Arianna Huffington - Sep. 21 (Review) - Michael Moore has always had a remarkable feel for targeting the zeitgeist. He's done it again with his new movie, Capitalism: A Love Story, a withering indictment of the current economic order that brilliantly navigates a cinematic tightrope, alternating between heart-wrenching portraits of the suffering caused by the economic crisis and

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Coming Soon to a Democracy Near You ...

Sat, 05 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

TruthOut - By Michael Winship - Sep. 05 (Opinion) - In the world of money and politics, "Hillary: The Movie" may turn out to be the sleeper hit of the year, a boffo blockbuster. Depending on the outcome of a special Supreme Court hearing on September 9, this little piece of propaganda could unleash a new torrent of cash flooding into campaigns from big business, unions and other special interests. "Hillary: The Movie" may turn out to be "Frankenstein: The Monster."

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The CEO Pay Debate: Why Reform Is Going Nowhere

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

TruthOut - By Chuck Collins, Sam Pizzigati - Sep. 04 (Opinion) - Shareholders have no reason to begrudge executives like these their fortunes. But the rest of us do. To grab those fortunes, after all, executives are making decisions that place our futures at risk. And that reality takes us right to the core of what's wrong with the current executive pay reform debate's single-minded focus on shareholders: Why should we let shareholders be the ultimate arbiters on the size of executive rewards when these rewards can and do create incentives for CEO behaviors that hurt people who aren't shareholders? In effect, all of us have become stakeholders in executive pay decisions - and we need, consequently, a stakeholder, not just a shareholder, approach to reform.

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Give BB&T Liberty, but Not a Bailout

Sun, 02 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Andrew Martin - Aug. 02 (Interview) - If Mr. Allison’s speech sounds vaguely familiar, it’s because it’s based on the philosophy of Ayn Rand, who celebrated the virtues of reason, self-interest and laissez-faire capitalism while maintaining that altruism is a destructive force. In Ms. Rand’s world, nothing is more heroic — and sexy — than a hard-working businessman free to pursue his wealth. And nothing is worse than a pesky bureaucrat trying to restrict business and redistribute wealth. Or, as Mr. Allison explained, “put balls and chains on good people, and bad things happen.”

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The Stumbles That Led to an Ethics Blunder

Sun, 12 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Andrew Alexander - Jul. 12 (Opinion) - The Washington Post's ill-fated plan to sell sponsorships of off-the-record "salons" was an ethical lapse of monumental proportions. Publisher Katharine Weymouth and Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli have now taken full responsibility for what was envisioned as a series of 11 intimate dinners to discuss public policy issues. For a fee of up to $25,000, underwriters were guaranteed a seat at the table with lawmakers, administration officials, think tank experts, business leaders and the heads of associations. Promotional materials said Weymouth, Brauchli and at least one Post reporter would serve as "Hosts and Discussion Leaders" for an evening of spirited but civil dialogue. While Brauchli and Weymouth say they should have realized long ago that the plan was flawed, internal e-mails and interviews show questions about ethics were raised with both of them months ago. They also show that blame runs deeper. Beneath Brauchli and Weymouth, three of the most senior newsroom managers received an e-mail with details of the plan.

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Strange Martial Law via Food Control: HR 2749 « Food Freedom

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

foodfreedom.wordpress.com - By The Writers’ Collective - Jun. 23 (Advocacy) - We wanted good food. We never wanted to trap our farmers into an industrial prison on their own land, afraid moment to moment of not fulfilling some monstrous set of instructions that never end – rules the farmers loathe, rules that have not only nothing to do with real farming but which are antithetical to it. Why have we ended up with HR 2749, an intense corporate nightmare

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Back When Food Was Really Local

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

onthecommons.org - By David Bollier - Jun. 15 (Review) - Americans have gotten so accustomed to getting food from supermarkets, which are supplied by huge corporations with heavily advertised, brand-name foods, that it is sometimes hard to imagine a world of rich, homegrown variety. If you went to Nebraska, you once got Nebraska baked beans. If you went to Georgia, you might get possum and taters. Alabama kitchens would serve up oyster roasts, Rhode Island would serve Jonny Cakes and Montanas considered fried beaver tail a delicacy. One measure of what our nation has lost – in terms of culinary variety and authenticity – can be found in a new book, The Food of a Younger Land (Riverhead Books), edited by Mark Kurlansky. Its subtitle says it all: “A portrait of American food – before the national highway system, before chain restaurants, and before frozen food, when the nation’s food was seasonal, regional and traditional – from the lost WPA files.”

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Regulation and Credit Industry Blackmail

Tue, 19 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

American Prospect - By Tim Fernholz - May. 19 (Opinion) - Get ready. Every time the government threatens to regulate any kind of industry in the financial sector, whether the big banks, mortgage lenders, or, in today's case, credit card companies, you can expect a claim along these lines: The industry says that the proposals will force banks to issue fewer credit cards at greater cost to the current cardholders. You want to regulate us? Well, credit will 'dry up.' The article reports that the credit card industry will be unable to profit from hidden fees and near-usurious interest rates when the government bans them in new regulations currently under debate in the Senate (and other new regulations that will be implemented by the Fed in 2010). Now, this is factually true, but akin to a thief complaining that it's going to be so much harder to make money now that he can't just steal things anymore. White House economic adviser Austan Goolsbee gets how credit card lenders are eliding responsibility of their actions: “The card industry is giving the argument that if you didn’t want to be carjacked, why weren’t you locking your doors or taking a different road?” Mr. Goolsbee said.

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Op-Ed Columnist - In Praise of Dullness

Tue, 19 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By David Brooks - May. 19 (Opinion) - In other words, warm, flexible, team-oriented and empathetic people are less likely to thrive as C.E.O.’s. Organized, dogged, anal-retentive and slightly boring people are more likely to thrive.

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Will Geithner Fire Corporate America?

Sun, 05 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Robert Reich's Blog - By Robert Reich - Apr. 05 (Opinion) - Tim Geithner said on Sunday's Face the Nation that the Treasury might fire the heads of big banks that depend on financing from the federal government, just as it summarily deposed Rick Wagoner, the former CEO of General Motors -- and before Wagoner, the heads of AIG, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac. "Where that requires a change in management and the board, then we will do that," said Geithner.

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Escape from the Zombie Food Court

Fri, 03 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Deer Hunting with Jesus - By Joe Bageant - Apr. 03 (Speech) - We suffer under a mass national hallucination. Americans, regardless of income or social position, now live in a culture entirely perceived inside a self-referential media hologram of a nation and world that does not exist. Our national reality is staged and held together by media, chiefly movie and television images. We live in a "theater state."

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Lessons of the Exxon Valdez

Tue, 24 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700

TruthDig - By Amy Goodman - Mar. 24 (Opinion) - The power of ExxonMobil to battle tens of thousands of citizens has pushed Ott to join a growing number of activists who want to put corporations back in their place by stripping them of their legal status as “persons.” A 19th century U.S. Supreme Court decision gave corporations the same status as people, with access to the protections of the Bill of Rights. Ironically, this comes from the 14th Amendment’s “equal protection clause,” adopted to protect freed slaves from oppressive state laws after the Civil War.

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The Big Takeover

Sun, 22 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Rolling Stone - By Matt Taibbi - Mar. 22 (Opinion) - People are pissed off about this financial crisis, and about this bailout, but they're not pissed off enough. The reality is that the worldwide economic meltdown and the bailout that followed were together a kind of revolution, a coup d'état. They cemented and formalized a political trend that has been snowballing for decades: the gradual takeover of the government by a small class of connected insiders, who used money to control elections, buy influence and systematically weaken financial regulations.

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End Corporate Welfare

Sun, 22 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Weekly Standard - By Matthew Continetti - Mar. 22 (Opinion) - When news broke last week that insurance giant AIG--into which the federal government has poured close to $200 billion since last September--planned to pay out $165 million in bonuses to executives in its financial products group, the backlash was swift. And understandable. These are the blockheads who pioneered the use of credit default swaps that purportedly allowed banks and other investors to hedge against losses in the secondary mortgage market. In so doing, they created new financial instruments and hence a new marketplace that, for a while anyway, flourished wildly. It didn't last. The real estate bubble popped and took the banking sector and AIG down with it. AIG didn't have the money to pay the counterparties to its swaps. The feds stepped in and began pumping cash into the insurer so it could pay its counterparties--the likes of European giants Deutsche Bank and Société Générale and Wall Street's Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch. To do otherwise, sayeth the Treasury, would invite a "systemic collapse" of the swap market, and thereby the destruction of the firms who participated in it. Who knows what sort of financial apocalypse would ensue?

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The Death and Life of Great American Newspapers

Fri, 20 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The Nation - By John Nichols, Robert W. McChesney - Mar. 20 (Opinion) - Communities across America are suffering through a crisis that could leave a dramatically diminished version of democracy in its wake. ... Journalism is collapsing, and with it comes the most serious threat in our lifetimes to self-government and the rule of law as it has been understood here in the United States.

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Off With the Bankers

Fri, 20 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Simon Johnson, James Kwak - Mar. 20 (Opinion) - A.I.G. can hardly claim that its generous bonuses attract the best and the brightest. So instead, it defends the payments by arguing they’re needed to retain employees who are crucial for winding down transactions that are “difficult to understand and manage.” In other words, only the people who stuck the knife into the American International Group can neatly extract it for a decent burial. There is no reason to believe this. Similar arguments made during the 1997 Asian financial crisis, when currencies and stock markets collapsed in much of Southeast Asia, turned out to be a smokescreen to protect the executives who were partly responsible for the mess. Recovery from that crisis required Indonesia, South Korea and Thailand to close or consolidate banks. In all three countries, bankers protested, claiming that their connections with borrowers were critical to recovery.

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The horse-and-buggy set’s lament

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700

wordyard.com - By Scott Rosenberg - Mar. 17 (Opinion) - A panel at the UC Berkeley School of Journalism that I attended yesterday evening was titled “The SF Chronicle in Transition.” “Transition,” here, is plainly a euphemism; the title ought to have been “The Chronicle In Extremis,” and the mood was that of a wake. There is plenty of cause for communal handwringing in the face of the wrenching cutbacks and shutdowns that are plaguing newspapers across the U.S. and that most recently have threatened the survival of our major Bay Area daily, which has reportedly been losing its owner, the Hearst Corporation, $50 million a year, and looks likely to cut its staff by half if owners and unions reach an agreement. If not, Hearst has threatened to shut the paper down, leaving this city without a major daily newspaper. (It’s hard to believe that Hearst would simply write off its huge investments in the Chron, however; the threat sounds more like a negotiating tactic than a serious option.) The panel offered a by now familiar litany, a mixture of wrongheaded cliches with legitimate fears. Heard, for instance, was the old canard that giving up newspapers for the Web means we won’t ever stumble on things we didn’t know we were interested in. (In fact, hugely popular sites like Boing Boing or Kottke.org have professionalized the generation of serendipity, and our Twitter friends feed us as varied a diet of links as we choose to feast on.) Here was the routine complaint about rudeness and “uninformed shouting” in comments forums. (A brief shouting match between one member of the crowd at the Berkeley event and the editor and publisher of the Berkeley Daily Planet — from what I could hear, about whether a writer had been censored — was as rude and off-topic as anything I’ve seen in a newspaper comments section.)

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Memo from the C.E.O.

Sun, 08 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0800

New Yorker - By Patricia Marx - Mar. 08 (Comedy News) - It is with deep regret that we inform you of certain cost-cutting measures that will be taken in the coming days so that we can remain competitive. But first some good news. We are happy to report that Bring Your Child to Work Day has been renamed Bring Your Child to Do Work Day. We hope you will contribute unstintingly to the Gummy Bears Overtime Fund. Now for the harsh realities. We will no longer be serving complimentary cold cuts and soda on Cold Cuts and Soda Day. Stairs will go up, but not down. Please do not use the fire extinguisher unless there is no water in the toilets. Anyone wishing to put out a medium-to-large fire must first fill out form X34J (if in stock). Mr. Johnson and Mr. Green, you will be sharing a desk chair, although you may keep separate desks. With regard to our annual retreat, spouses of non-management employees will be considered luggage. The letters “K,” “Q,” and “Z” are costly and should be used sparingly. Anyone who would like to volunteer for the human weather-stripping experiment, contact Nan Newberg. Also, as of next Wednesday, there will be no Wednesdays.

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END CULTURE OF CORPORATE ENTITLEMENT

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

niagarafallsreporter.com - By Jim Hightower - Feb. 23 (Opinion) - Wall Street conveniently equates compensation with value -- and since CEOs compensate themselves extravagantly, they've come to assume that they are America's most valuable people. Indispensable, even. It is this self-aggrandizing corporate culture that must be changed. Sadly, Geithner, Summers -- and Obama -- have instead advanced that culture by failing to hold some of its worst practitioners accountable for their enormously destructive actions.

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