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Secret Trade Agreements Threaten to Undo Our Last Shreds of Food Safety

Sat, 15 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Katherine Paul, Ronnie Cummins - Jun. 15 (Special Report) - Under two new trade agreements, currently in negotiation, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) could be powerless to shut down imports of unsafe food or food ingredients. And if it tries, multinational corporations will be able to sue the U.S. government for the loss of anticipated future profits. More frightening? Negotiations for both agreements are taking place behind closed doors

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A Botched Attack on IRS Budget

Sat, 15 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0700

FactCheck - By FactCheck.org - Jun. 15 (Fact Check) - An ad calling for the abolishment of the IRS incorrectly claimed that the federal agency’s budget increased by $2 billion. In fact, it’s down by nearly $1 billion during President Barack Obama’s first term. To its credit, though, Americans for Fair Taxation, the group behind the ad, removed the $2 billion reference after we asked about it.

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Senator Warren Presses White House to Release Pacific Trade Text

Fri, 14 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Business Week - By Mark Drajem - Jun. 14 (News) - President Barack Obama’s administration should release documents the U.S. and 10 other Pacific-region nations are using as they negotiate a new trade agreement, Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren said. In a letter to Michael Froman, Obama’s nominee to lead the U.S. Trade Representative’s office, the Massachusetts lawmaker said releasing details of what is being considered by the parties would give citizens a chance to evaluate the deal before negotiations are completed

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Snowden saw what I saw: surveillance criminally subverting the constitution

Wed, 12 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Thomas Drake - Jun. 12 (Comment) - So we refused to be part of the NSA's dark blanket. That is why whistleblowers pay the price for being the backstop of democracy What Edward Snowden has done is an amazingly brave and courageous act of civil disobedience. Like me, he became discomforted by what he was exposed to and what he saw: the industrial-scale systematic surveillance that is scooping up vast amounts of information not only around the world but in the United States, in direct violation of the fourth amendment of the US constitution. The NSA programs that Snowden has revealed are nothing new: they date back to the days and weeks after 9/11. I had direct exposure to similar programs, such as Stellar Wind , in 2001. In the first week of October, I had an extraordinary conversation with NSA's lead attorney. When I pressed hard about the unconstitutionality of Stellar Wind, he said: "The White House has approved the program; it's all legal. NSA is the executive agent." It was made clear to me that the original ...

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You're the Boss Blog: This Week in Small Business: Cronuts!

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By By GENE MARKS - Jun. 10 (Opinion) - You're the Boss Blog: This Week in Small Business: Cronuts!

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America's Worst Charities, a Tampa Bay Times, CIR and CNN Investigation | Tampa Bay Times

Sun, 09 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0700

tampabay.com - By KRIS HUNDLEY, Kendall Taggart - Jun. 09 (Investigative Report) - Across the nation, hundreds of charities take your donations in the name of cancer patients, dying children and homeless veterans. But the real beneficiaries are the charity founders themselves and the for-profit companies they pay to run boiler rooms that dial for dollars.

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You, Too, Can Invest Like Elizabeth Warren!

Thu, 06 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Mother Jones - By Erika Eichelberger - Jun. 06 (Comment) - Along with her reputation as a crusader for the middle class and scourge of bad banks, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) also has a history as a personal finance guru. In 2005, the former Harvard law professor, who is worth between $2.8 and $12 million, co-wrote with her daughter a no-nonsense, no-magic-bullets financial advice book called All Your Worth: The Ultimate Lifetime Money Plan. We've cross-referenced Warren's recently released financial disclosure forms with the book to distill the essence of her financial planning wisdom. Now you, too, can invest like a populist defender of the public interest.

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Student Loan Debt Is a Beast. Here Are Elizabeth Warren's, President Obama's, and the GOP's Plans to Fix It.

Mon, 03 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Mother Jones - By Erika Eichelberger, Maggie Severns, Brett Brownell - Jun. 03 (Special Report) - If you're one of the 37 million Americans with student loan debt, you're in for a real treat come July 1. That's when interest rates on federal student loans are set to rise to 6.8 percent—double the current rate of 3.4 percent. That deadline has lawmakers scrambling for a fix.

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Obama’s Covert Trade Deal

Mon, 03 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Lori Wallach, Ben Beachy - Jun. 03 (Opinion) - THE Obama administration has often stated its commitment to open government. So why is it keeping such tight wraps on the contents of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the most significant international commercial agreement since the creation of the World Trade Organization in 1995?

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The Counter-Reformation in Banking Has Just Begun

Fri, 31 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

ineteconomics.org - By Marshall Auerback - May. 31 (Speech) - The opportunity presented by the financial crisis of 2008 to reform the structures and practices that gave rise to the greatest economic downturn since the Great Depression has basically gone nowhere. In a nutshell, argues Haldane [Executive Director for Financial Stability at the Bank of England], “too big to fail” banks create no desirable advantages. In fact, these banks have become so large that they are impossible to manage, or regulate effectively as we have been “recovering.” They are inefficient as well as dangerous. They are “too big to manage,” and now even “too big to jail,” as no less a figure than U.S. Attorney-General Eric Holder recently conceded to Congress.

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Oval Office is no classroom

Wed, 29 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Ruth Marcus - May. 29 (Opinion) - No doubt: Barack Obama has what it takes to be a terrific law student. It’s less clear those are the ingredients of a successful president. A great law student excels at reading the fact pattern on an exam and spotting the legal issues. The student then analyzes the situation and presents the pros and cons of each side in a dispassionate, balanced way. ...

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How Did Major Hedge Fund Earn 30% Returns for 20 Years Straight? Lots of Cheating

Sat, 25 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Les Leopold - May. 25 (Special Report) - How is it possible to make such profitable investments again and again and again? The U.S. Attorney for Manhattan, Preet Bharara, believes he has the answer: SAC is cheating ... again and again and again. In fact, Bharara suggests that hedge funds that engage in insider trading may be rotten to the core:

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Too-Big-To-Jail Dogs Obama's Justice Department As Government Documents Raise Questions

Thu, 23 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - May. 23 (News) - The U.S. Department of Justice appears to have neither conducted nor received any analyses that would show whether criminal charges against large financial institutions would harm the economy, potentially undermining a key DOJ argument for why the world’

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Meet the Senate's Powerful and Progressive Policy Wonk, Ron Wyden

Tue, 21 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Joe Conason - May. 21 (Special Report) - Oregon Democrat Ron Wyden has established a reputation as one of the Senate's more serious and diligent members. Over the years on Capitol Hill, he has watched the Republican Party veer constantly further rightward, and yet he continues to believe against all evidence that bipartisan legislative cooperation is possible -- even likely.

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The 4 Big Ways That Insatiable Corporate Hunger for Profits Has Devastated American Life -- and the World Along with It

Sun, 19 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Paul Buchheit - May. 19 (Special Report) - In this dream world of global capitalism, young people are going from zero income on the farm to a few dollars a day on a 12-hour factory shift, and as a result, based on the World Bank's poverty threshold of $1.25 per day, they're no longer "in poverty." So the media piles on praise for free markets. The Economist proclaimed that "poverty is declining everywhere." The Washington Post gushed that "a billion people have been lifted from poverty through free-market competition."

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We need to talk about masculinity

Fri, 17 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Laurie Penny - May. 17 (Opinion) - The crisis facing men and boys cannot be solved by reviving the tired stereotypes that oppress and constrain them We need to talk about masculinity. Across a country torn by recession and struggling to adapt to social change, men and boys are feeling lost and powerless, unsure what the future holds and what role they might play in it. Most feel as if they're not allowed to question what it means to be a man today – or discuss what it might mean tomorrow. The Labour MP Diane Abbott, launching a new campaign this week, is not the first person to kick up a fuss about this "crisis of masculinity". In a speech to the thinktank Demos on Thursday she said that millions of young men are in distress, acting out violently or sinking into depression. Unfortunately, the only solution many in the audience could offer is not giving men and boys more power over their own lives, but restoring their traditional power over women, as "breadwinners" and "male providers". Nobody seems to have bothered to ask ...

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On Capitol Hill, Holder to face questions on AP phone records, IRS scandal

Wed, 15 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Sean Sullivan, Rachel Weiner, Juliet Eilperin - May. 15 (News Report) - Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. is set to testify on Capitol Hill on Wednesday afternoon, where he is expected to be grilled by lawmakers about the Justice Department’s decision to secretly obtain journalists’ phone records and peppered with questions about the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of conservative groups for extra ...

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IT security in India under scrutiny after $45m cash machine heists

Wed, 15 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - May. 15 (News Report) - Millions stolen after gang broke into two card-processing firms based in India and raised balances and withdrawal limits A breach of security at two payment card-processing companies in India that led to heists at cash machines around the world has reopened questions on the risks of outsourcing sensitive financial services to the country. Global banks that ship work to be processed in India, either in-house or to large IT services vendors, were already under pressure to step up oversight of back-office functions after a series of scandals last year. Last week, prosecutors in the United States said a global criminal gang stole $45m (£29.5m) from two Middle Eastern banks by breaking into the two card-processing companies based in India and raising balances and withdrawal limits. "India is exposed in two ways: the threat that the same theft could happen in India and the fact that the outsourcing industry will also get affected," said Arpinder Singh, partner and national director for fraud ...

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Op-Ed Columnist: Bernanke, Blower of Bubbles?

Fri, 10 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Paul Krugman - May. 10 (Opinion) - Bubbles can be bad for your financial health — and bad for the health of the economy, too. The dot-com bubble of the late 1990s left behind many vacant buildings and many more failed dreams. When the housing bubble of the next decade burst, the result wa

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Errors Afflict More Checks Issued to Aid Homeowners

Thu, 09 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Ben Protess, Jessica Silver Greenberg - May. 09 (News Report) - DealBook: In Latest Foreclosure Glitch, Some Checks Come Up Short

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Shell presses ahead with world's deepest offshore oil well

Thu, 09 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Simon Goodley - May. 09 (News Report) - Company will drill almost two miles underwater in Gulf of Mexico as part of next generation of deep-water developments Royal Dutch Shell is pressing ahead with the world's deepest offshore oil and gas production facility by drilling almost two miles underwater in the politically sensitive Gulf of Mexico. The move is being viewed in the oil industry as a demonstration of Shell's confidence that its technology can deliver returns on expensive and risky offshore projects, despite a recent downturn in oil prices. It comes a day after ExxonMobil said it would start work on a $4bn (£2.6bn) project to develop the Julia oilfield, also in the North American ocean basin, and weeks after BP delayed development of its biggest Gulf of Mexico project – Mad Dog Phase 2 – citing rising costs. John Hollowell, a Shell executive vice-president, said: "This important investment demonstrates our ongoing commitment to usher in the next generation of deepwater developments, which will deliver more production ...

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Lawmaker wants military to promptly alert Congress about drone strikes

Thu, 09 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Craig Whitlock - May. 09 (News Report) - A leading House Republican said Wednesday that he wants to require the U.S. military to “promptly” inform Congress about every drone strike it conducts outside Afghanistan as well as other military operations to kill or capture suspected terrorists outside declared war zones. ...

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Obama Embraces Plutocrats Again With His Billionaire Commerce Secretary Choice

Tue, 07 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Steven Rosenfeld - May. 07 (News Analysis) - her record as a businesswoman shares similarities with Mitt Romney’s. Her massive wealth is kept in tax-avoiding offshore accounts. Her family’s best-known business, the Hyatt hotel empire, is known for bitter and ongoing disputes with labor unions. Her resume includes running a bank that pioneered high-interest subprime loans and then failed miserably, leaving uninsured depositors with losses averaging $6,000.

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Your Retirement for a Bottle of Champagne: How Wall Street Fraudsters Ripped You Off, Again

Tue, 07 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Lynn Stuart Parramore - May. 07 (Special Report) - LIBOR was, in the opinion of many, the con of the century. But is it a crime without punishment? About a month ago, the Wall Street Journal reported that a federal court judge had let several banks off the hook, dismissing claims that 16 banks targeted by lawsuits had broken federal antitrust laws by rigging LIBOR. As Matt Taibbi explained in his must-read article on the banking scandal, the federal judge bought the banks’ ridiculous blame-the-victim story that if cities and towns and other investors lost money over LIBOR rigging, it was their own fault.

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Mel Watt Enjoys Close Ties to Financial Industries

Sun, 05 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

nationofchange.org - By Alison Fitzgerald - May. 05 (Special Report) - Rep. Mel Watt has plenty of friends in the financial services industry: The North Carolina Democrat whom President Barack Obama has appointed to oversee mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac has received more campaign money from financial interests than any other industry or special interest. Since he entered Congress in 1992, Watt has received $1.33 million in campaign contributions from the finance, real estate and insurance industries, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonprofit research group that tracks money in politics. That’s almost a quarter of the total $5.47 million in total contributions he’s received through his career.

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