Category Archives: Social values

The Democrats’ Dubious Record on the Supreme Court

One of the rationales generally regarded as a knockout among center-left types in the “who is less terrible, Romney or Obama” debate, is the idea that Presidents nominate Supreme Court justices, and Romney’s picks would be further to the right than Obama’s, particularly as far as their position on social issues like reproductive choice and gay rights are concerned. However, the power to nominate is not the same as the power to appoint. It’s disingenuous for Democratic party operatives and their allies in the punditocracy to act as if the move of the court to the right is solely the doing of evil Republicans.

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Michael M. Thomas: Naked Capitalism – An Insider’s Guide

By Michael M. Thomas, who figured out Wall Street was not all it was cracked up to be before most of you were born

More than any other forum, Naked Capitalism consistently suggests and proposes new ways to bridge what I consider the abyss that will one day sink us all if Koch brothers-style politics and capitalism have their way: the chasm that lies between what we need to know and what we have been (and will be) allowed to know.

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High Crimes, Great Crash Versus Now (Rajat Gupta/Richard Whitney Edition)

It was stunning when the news first broke that Rajat Gupta, former head of McKinsey, and member of blue chip boards, most notably, Goldman Sachs, Proctor & Gamble, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, was charged with insider trading. Why would someone who was already rich, and more important, already had the most important commodities can buy, namely status and access, think he needed more?

Contrast Gupta’s behavior with that of the highest profile conviction after America’s last financial crisis, Richard Whitney.

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Launching the NC 2012 Fundraiser!

Last year, around this time, NC held its first fundraiser. You helped show that Naked Capitalism was a valuable place for honest discourse, a corner of the world where we could peer into the abyss, together. It worked. Your generosity helped us upgrade the site’s infrastructure, bring in a series of guest bloggers, and in a host of ways large and small, aid us in ruthlessly describing the destructive impact of growing power of elite finance in the US and abroad.

As we move toward the elections, I’m going to ask all of you to join me once again.

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Rentier CEOs Advocate Austerity for America

Felix Salmon did an admirable takedown of a “CEOs [sic] Deficit Manifesto” in the Wall Street Journal. It’s yet another entry in the long-running, dishonest campaign funded by billionaire Pete Peterson to pretend that all right thinking people (and of course CEOs believe they have the right to think for everybody else) should be all in favor of trashing the middle class and the economy through misguided deficit cutting.

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Wolf Richter: Competitiveness Cacophony – Attack On France’s Sacred Cow

The French government has been flailing about to counter economic trends that started while Nicolas Sarkozy was still president. And one of the most bandied-about catchwords these days is “competitiveness”—entailing the cherished and untouchable 35-hour workweek, equally untouchable wages, and sky-high employer-paid payroll taxes and social security charges. An explosive mix.

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What Ex-Goldmanite Greg Smith Didn’t Say, and Some Guesses as to Why

Greg Smith’s book on his time at Goldman has generated a hailstorm of criticism, aptly summed up by Jesse:

But the absolute trashing and personal attacks on Greg Smith in the past week that were orchestrated by Goldman and supported, heavily, by the US financial networks got my attention. Generally ad hominem attacks are used by those who consider the facts of the case to be dangerous ground, and wish to do anything that they can to avoid discussing them.

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Why It is Essential That Criminal Bankers are Prosecuted

By Rowan Bosworth-Davies, a former head of investigations at regulator FIMBRA (Financial Intermediaries, Managers and Brokers Regulatory Association) and a former Scotland Yard Fraud Squad detective. Cross posted from Ian Fraser’s blog

“Go where you will, in business parts, or meet who you like of businessmen, it is – and has been for the last three years – the same story and the same lament. Dishonesty, untruth, and what may, in plain English, be termed mercantile swindling within the limits of the law, exists on all sides and on every quarter…”

No, this is not a comment from a contemporary website. It comes from an editorial published in Temple Bar – A London Magazine for Town and Country Readers in 1866. It was written at a time when England was experiencing a plethora of fraudulent offerings in railway shares, but the tenor of its complaint is as relevant today as it was then.

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Bill Moyers: Plutocracy Rising

Bill Moyer’s latest show, with Matt Taibbi and and Chrystia Freeland, focuses on how the super rich have established a yawning chasm between themselves and ordinary Americans, both in financial and physical terms. One major focus is view the rich are where they are by virtue of their talents and efforts, not (say) by regulatory and tax arbitrage, and how they’ve convinced themselves and a large swathe of society of this myth.

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Satyajit Das: Best in Show

By Satyajit Das, a former banker and author of Extreme Money and Traders Guns & Money

Autumn is the time for awards. The EU has received the Nobel Peace Prize! The approximately US$1.2 million should help alleviate the parlous finanial position of the Euro-Zone. But it is also the season for banking awards. Financial magazines and newspapers assign bouquets to the best Finance Ministers, banks and bankers to coincide with the annual World Bank shindig and the approaching year end. Here is an insight into the process.

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John Kenneth Galbraith on the Moral Justifications for Wealth and Inequality

Mark Ames (via Joe Costello) recommended a 1977 documentary series written and hosted by John Kenneth Galbraith. This segment, “The Manners and Morals of High Capitalism,” discusses how the rising bourgeoisie and the new rich justified their lofty status. Kings could rely on God and the Great Chain of Being for their authority, but what about mere capitalists? Galbraith reviews the views of some of the leading defenders of this new order, and shows how their ideas have influenced our views.

Galbraith makes quite a few deadpan observations.

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Spain’s Unfinished Transition from Dictatorship to Democracy

Yves here. I thought this piece might serve to stimulate a broader discussion about institutional structures not just in Spain but advanced economies generally. I’m interested in getting informed reader comments on the author’s reading of the role that the “politicians” play, that they have invaded institutions that were designed to sit largely outside politics.

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Walmart, the Most Powerful Company in the World, Admits that Protests and Strikes Lead to Wage Increases

Matt Stoller is a fellow at the Roosevelt Institute. You can follow him at http://www.twitter.com/matthewstoller

For the first time ever, a strike is taking place in America aimed at the most powerful company in the economy: Walmart.

The possible strike could be very significant, because the target of the strike is the most important driver of the race to the bottom economy

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