Author Archives: Yves Smith
Bill Black: Is it Legal Malpractice to Fail to Get Holder to Promise Not to Torture your Client?
One of the things I never expected to read was a promise by any United States official that a potential defendant in a criminal prosecution by our federal courts “will not be tortured.”
Read more...Yes, Virginia, Rich People Are Not the Same as You and Me. They Cheat More.
When middle class and low income people complain about the lousy ethics among what passes for our ruling classes, they usually shrug it off as jealousy, class warfare, and/or the sensationalism.
Guess what? Conventional wisdom is right.
Read more...Links 7/26/13
A Pox on Optimists!
I’ve had it with optimism.
Read more...Chicago CEO Club, With Rahm and Pritzkers on Board, Pushed for Chicago Bond Downgrade, Whacking Local Investors and Pension-Holders
Even more so than most cities, Chicago has had the best government money can buy. In this case, the money is willing to engage in a scorched-earth policy of crushing local investors and wrecking the city budget to achieve its end of taming unions and making Chicago even easier pickings for looting via infrastructure sales.
Read more...Robert Prasch: The Next Chair of the Federal Reserve Must be a Regulator
If we go by the rumors circulating in the financial press, the Obama Administration is on the verge of selecting a proven failure – Lawrence Summers – to be the next Chair of the Federal Reserve System. We can, and need to, do a lot better than that.
Read more...Memo to Eliot Spitzer: Private Equity Firms are Scamming New York City
Eliot Spitzer, now the top contender to be the next New York City Comptroller, has said he wants to use the office to pursue financial reform. He has a ready, obvious, and comparatively easy target: the private equity industry.
Read more...Links 7/25/13
Lynn Parramore: The Depressing Tale of How Greedy Financial Titans Crushed Innovation and Destroyed Our Economy
Whatever happened to innovation in America?
Read more...Europe Extends and Pretends
As I’ve been covering over the last few months the data coming out of Europe of late has been slowly getting better, and last nights’ PMI continued the trend. But “better” still needs to be put in context.
Read more...Michael Hudson Shreds Obama’s Orwellian Speech on Middle Class Prosperity
Michael Hudson was so incensed by what he called a “Blairesque” speech by Obama on Wednesday that he took it upon himself to comment on its all-too-frequent sleights of hand and outright fabrications
Read more...Close House Vote on Amash Amendment to Curb the NSA a Blow to the Security State
While I am sure readers will be disappointed that this proposal to curb the NSA was defeated (see background here), the margin of victory for the bad guys was so stunningly narrow that it shows how badly support for the NSA has fallen even among its normal allies.
Read more...Links 7/24/13
I’m Three Hops from a Terrorist, and Therefore Probably in the NSA’s Dragnet. And You?
Last month, the Atlantic highlighted the fact that the NSA had ‘fessed up to the fact that its snooping operation was a lot more encompassing than it had previously admitted.
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