Reformers Stymie Obama a Second Time on Wall Street Cronies: Progressive Pick Lisa Fairfax Nominated for SEC
The Wall Street wing of the Democratic party has taken a visible defeat with the nomination of Lisa Fairfax to the SEC.
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Private Equity Firms with Traded Stock Disclose Info that Calls into Question CalSTRS’ Foot Dragging on Disclosure
Public information on Apollo, Blackstone, Carlyle and KKR’s private equity funds shows CalSTRS has no good excuses for defending secrecy on fees and costs.
Read more...5 of the Biggest Acts of Corporate Hypocrisy in America
Socialism for the rich is inherently hypocritical….but which forms of corporate truth-distortion are the most brazen?
Read more...Eric Zuesse: Europe Secretly Starts Imposing TTIP “Trade” Deal Despite the Public’s Overwhelming Opposition
The European Union is already secretly imposing provisions from the secret Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) treaty, even before anyone has signed it, and even before it has been formally approved in any nation.
Read more...Adam Levitin: Fighting for the Middle Class
How the deck is stacked against the middle class, and what it takes to change that.
Read more...NY Times’ Gretchen Morgenson Exposes More Layers of Private Equity Fee Chicanery
Investors in private equity like public pension funds have no idea how much they are paying in costs and fees. That allows for excessive costs and chicanery to continue.
Read more...Jeff Connaughton: On to Iowa and New Hampshire
Former lobbyist, White House and Senate staffer Jeff Connaughton explains how Naked Capitalism had an impact after the crisis and continues to do so today.
Read more...Mark Ames: Why Finance is Too Important to Leave to Larry Summers
Mark Ames explains why the left became stupid about finance and why that was a very costly mistake.
Read more...Michael Hudson: The Paradox of Financialized Industrialization
The great question today is whether post-feudal rentier capitalism will stifle industrial capitalism instead of serving it. The aim of finance is not merely to exploit labor, but to conquer and appropriate industry, real estate and government. The result is a financial oligarchy, neither industrial capitalism nor a tendency to evolve into socialism.
Read more...How Much Money Does the 1% Have Hidden in Tax Havens?
UC Berkeley professor Gabriel Zucman is doing pathbreaking work on tax havens. HIs estimates of how much the rich hide in them are eye-popping.
Read more...Michael Perelman: The Essential Handbook for Engineering an Unequal Society
While the thrust of Perelman’s post is no doubt familiar to readers, take note of how simple and few in number are the essential principles for creating a highly unequal society, and how easy it is to describe them them in antiseptic language.
Read more...Occupy the SEC Condemns Securities Lawyers for Bullying the SEC, Demanding Preferential Treatment for Clients
A video shows how the very premise of the SEC’s role, and that of regulations generally, is under intense assault by the private bar.
Read more...Trading Away Land Rights: TPP, Investment Agreements, and the Governance of Land
The nvestment provisions in the TPP and in most bilateral investment treaties can severely limit a government’s ability to manage its land and other natural resources in the public interest.
Read more...Sanders Debate “Results” as Case Study of the Modern Versailles Hall of Mirrors
Bernie Sanders by all objective measures “won” the first Democratic party debate. Yet pundits almost universally said the reverse. What does that tell us about the state of American politics?
Read more...Former Chief Investment Officer Slams CalPERS, CalSTRS, Other Funds for Doing Nothing When Told Blackstone Was Cheating Them
More on the appalling dereliction of duty of pension fund officials when they failed to act after Blackstone told them it was cheating them.
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