Satyajit Das: The Truth of the Matter
Satyajit Das reviews three books about our current economic and political woes.
Read more...Category Archives: Politics
Will Snowden Revelations About Spying on Foreign Governments Undermine the European and Pacific Trade Talks?
Despite all the consternation in the US about Edward Snowden’s revelations about the extent and intensity of snooping in the United States, it isn’t clear that the surveillance industry is even breaking a sweat. But the government and public uproar in Europe about US snooping on its supposed allies may change that pronto.
Read more...Advocates Oppose Senate Immigration Bill Over Escalation of Border Militarization
This segment focuses on some elements of the Senate bill that appear to be under the radar as far as media coverage is concerned. First is that the bill does not provide a path to citizenship for a significant portion of the current illegal immigrant population (frankly that’s been a feature of past immigrant “reform” bills too; the Hispanic community may have been promised more than it was ever going to have delivered on this front). Second is that is includes a large budget to militarize the border with Mexico.
Read more...Gaius Publius: Obama’s New Climate Plan: Less Coal, More Fracking
There’s speculation on whether we are being prepped for a Yes to Keystone.
Me? I think we’re being set up for a Yes, but I’ve thought that since the subject came up. If the baby keeps grabbing for the candy, you have to conclude s/he wants it. Same with this.
Read more...Misguided Corker-Warner “Kill Fannie and Freddie” Bill Relies on Private Market Sparkle Ponies
Let’s be clear: I’m not a fan of Fannie and Freddie. Subsidizing housing finance is a lousy way to subsidize housing. But the Corker-Warner bill is no solution.
Read more...South Africans Plan to Protest Obama’s Crimes Against Africa During Presidential Visit
An Obama tour of Africa is likely to provide a marker of he is perceived in the rest of the world, although any negative reports are unlikely to get much play in our lapdog media. But since Obama was shunned in the recent G-8 conference, it’s going to be interesting to see how his African hosts muster up the appearance of enthusiasm during his visit.
Read more...Administration, Congress Trying to Give Gensler the Brooksley Born Treatment over Derivatives Reform
It’s actually getting amusing to watch the banking industry try to pull out heavy but rusty artillery and aim at a regulator who looks like he is about to *gasp* make them comply with some rules they were certain they’d be able to evade.
Read more...Regulatory Looting, Promontory-Style: Botched Foreclosure Reviews Alone Generate More than Double Goldman’s Revenues per Employee
t’s really hard to convey a sense of how utterly grotesque the looting that Promontory Financial Group conducted on the misnamed Independent Foreclosure Reviews.
Read more...Corruption, EuroStyle: ECB Chief Draghi Fudged Italy’s Books to Secure Eurozone Entry, Italy Stuck With Derivative Losses
As readers of the financial press may recall, there was a kerfluffle over the fact that Greece had used a currency trades designed by Goldman in 2001 to mask the level of its indebtedness and secure Eurozone entry. A much bigger and more costly shoe of the same type has dropped in Italy and it directly implicates the current ECB chief, Mario Draghi.
Read more...Danny Schechter: Mandela and Snowden – Two Heroes With More In Common Than We Know
Clearly the stories of Nelson Mandela and Edward Snowden are very different, but there are some parallels that almost no one in the media is willing to acknowledge.
Read more...Gensler Staring Down Administration and Banks on Derivatives Reform
Yves here. Readers may recall that Gary Gensler, the head of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, is being pushed out by Obama. His planned replacement is so appallingly lightweight (oh, and formerly in a very junior role at Goldman) as to assure that all she’ll be able to do is take dictation from financial firm lobbyists.
But Gensler may be having a last laugh before he leaves office.
Read more...Quo Vadis, Edward Snowden?
On the one hand, I’ve vastly amused by the consternation of various US spokescritters at the fact that Edward Snowden has slipped out of Hong Kong and is apparently en route to Ecuador. What good is being a superpower if you can’t stomp world-headline-creating embarrassments like a bug?
Read more...Bill Moyers: The United States of ALEC
Big businesses take their fights to the states, where they can get their way with far less fuss and expense than on the national stage.
Read more...“The Political History of American Inequality”
Inquality.org, which is a portal for news and data about income inequality, has published a particularly well-presented paper, The Political History of American Inequality, by Colin Gordon, a professor of history at the University of Iowa who has focused on 20th century American public policy and political economy. I’ve sampled it, and it’s clear and engagingly written and has great interactive chart porn,
Read more...Yanis Varoufakis: The Death of Direct Bank Re-capitalisation: Europe’s (Newest) Day of Shame
The idea was to de-couple the banking from the debt crisis. The reality is that they propose to do nothing of the sort. And deposits are now officially at risk.
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