Why Letting the Koch Brothers Create a “Center for Free Enterprise” at Public University WCU is a Bad Idea
The hidden strings in a Koch Brothers gift to Western Carolina University, and why its faculty is opposed.
Read more...Category Archives: Ridiculously obvious scams
Geithner Ghostwriter Mike Grunwald Tries to Shift Financial Crisis Narrative Away From The Big Short
It’s sad that you have to be something of a detective to decipher what passes for content at most major American news outlets. In the case of Michael Grunwald, however, we have a decent set of indicators about the normally hidden agenda. The Politico writer worked with Tim Geithner on his memoir. In fact, I believe he has said publicly that he didn’t know a lot about finance before meeting Geithner. So when Grunwald decides to leap into anything involving this topic, we can assume the end result is not altogether different than what it would look like if Geithner wrote it with his own byline.
The latest example is a nominal review of The Big Short, which is not really a review. It’s an attempt to steer the narrative of what happened, in the financial crisis and its aftermath, to territory that comforts elites.
Read more...How Corporations and Politicians Lie With Numbers — and How Not to Be Fooled
Some of the most commonly-used “lying with figures” tricks and how to learn to recognize them.
Read more...Wolf Richter: America’s Largest Utility Jacks up Rates the Most Since 2006 Despite Total Collapse of Natural Gas Prices
PG&E, America’s biggest utility, is a case study in the power of monopoly and regulatory capture.
Read more...What Influence Does Wall Street Have Over Candidates Clinton and Sanders?
Clinton plays with figures to understate her degree of Wall Street campaign support, and that ignores past support to the Clinton Foundation.
Read more...How Prefunding Retiree Health Benefits Impacts the Postal Service’s Bottom Line – and How Brookings Got it Wrong
Exposing the serious numerical and conceptual flaws of yet another study that uses the trumped-up claim that the Postal Service is trouble to justify dismembering it.
Read more...Oxford City Football Club and its Onanistic Owner, Thomas Guerriero
Let’s start our latest illustration of how easily a reckless, internationally mobile crook can sidestep national regulators, with a helpful observation by Bess Levin at Dealbreaker in May 2010: Let it be known: if you are not interested in having your supervisor (circle all that apply:) send you videos of himself masturbating, texts about the […]
Read more...Bill Black: A “Jihadist” Against the Banks?
More proof that the Department of Justice is working for Big Finance: it tried to discredit Bill Black’s testimony by calling him a “jihadist”.
Read more...Our Bloomberg Op-Ed on CalPERS’ Plan to Get Rid of Private Equity Risk by Ignoring It
CalPERS’ plan to eliminate the measurement of private equity risk, a seismic change, is a case study in how staff manipulates the board to its own advantage.
Read more...Timothy Geithner Corrupting Youth, Um, Telling His Version of the Crisis
In case living through the crisis and its aftermath wasn’t bad enough, you can hear Timothy Geithner’s version of events…at your expense.
Read more...Bond, Treasury Bond: 007 is Out of Cash, but Your Government Can’t Be
So now even austerity is getting product placement in movies….
Read more...CalPERS Used Sleight of Hand, Accounting Tricks, to Make False “There is No Alternative” Claim for Private Equity
CalPERS staff and outside experts went to considerable lengths distort data and abuse analytical methods to make the case that only private equity could offer the allegedly superior returns needed to meet CalPERS’ targets. The fact that CalPERS did not make an honest case for private equity suggests that no honest case could be made.
Read more...CalPERS’ Scandal-Ridden Fiduciary Counsel Ducks Jacksonville Subpoena; City Files Suit Alleging Illegal Creation of Gold-Plated Pension Fund
The not-so-savory reputation of CalPERS’ fiduciary counsel, Robert Klausner, took another hit as his criminal attorney ducked a Jacksonville subpoena.
Read more...Harvard Professor Josh Lerner Gave Weak and Internally Contradictory Plug for Private Equity at CalPERS Workshop
Harvard’s Professor Josh Lerner gave CalPERS what was presumably a pep talk for investing in private equity that was so contradictory as to amount to a case against it.
Read more...Investors Like CalPERS Rely on ILPA to Advance Their Cause, When It is Owned by Private Equity General Partners
Private equity limited partners are such chumps that they rely on a trade group, ILPA, to lobby for them when it is funded by their opponents.
Read more...