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We need to talk about masculinity

Fri, 17 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Laurie Penny - May. 17 (Opinion) - The crisis facing men and boys cannot be solved by reviving the tired stereotypes that oppress and constrain them We need to talk about masculinity. Across a country torn by recession and struggling to adapt to social change, men and boys are feeling lost and powerless, unsure what the future holds and what role they might play in it. Most feel as if they're not allowed to question what it means to be a man today – or discuss what it might mean tomorrow. The Labour MP Diane Abbott, launching a new campaign this week, is not the first person to kick up a fuss about this "crisis of masculinity". In a speech to the thinktank Demos on Thursday she said that millions of young men are in distress, acting out violently or sinking into depression. Unfortunately, the only solution many in the audience could offer is not giving men and boys more power over their own lives, but restoring their traditional power over women, as "breadwinners" and "male providers". Nobody seems to have bothered to ask ...

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On Capitol Hill, Holder to face questions on AP phone records, IRS scandal

Wed, 15 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Sean Sullivan, Rachel Weiner, Juliet Eilperin - May. 15 (News Report) - Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. is set to testify on Capitol Hill on Wednesday afternoon, where he is expected to be grilled by lawmakers about the Justice Department’s decision to secretly obtain journalists’ phone records and peppered with questions about the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of conservative groups for extra ...

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IT security in India under scrutiny after $45m cash machine heists

Wed, 15 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - May. 15 (News Report) - Millions stolen after gang broke into two card-processing firms based in India and raised balances and withdrawal limits A breach of security at two payment card-processing companies in India that led to heists at cash machines around the world has reopened questions on the risks of outsourcing sensitive financial services to the country. Global banks that ship work to be processed in India, either in-house or to large IT services vendors, were already under pressure to step up oversight of back-office functions after a series of scandals last year. Last week, prosecutors in the United States said a global criminal gang stole $45m (£29.5m) from two Middle Eastern banks by breaking into the two card-processing companies based in India and raising balances and withdrawal limits. "India is exposed in two ways: the threat that the same theft could happen in India and the fact that the outsourcing industry will also get affected," said Arpinder Singh, partner and national director for fraud ...

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Op-Ed Columnist: Bernanke, Blower of Bubbles?

Fri, 10 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Paul Krugman - May. 10 (Opinion) - Bubbles can be bad for your financial health — and bad for the health of the economy, too. The dot-com bubble of the late 1990s left behind many vacant buildings and many more failed dreams. When the housing bubble of the next decade burst, the result wa

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Errors Afflict More Checks Issued to Aid Homeowners

Thu, 09 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Ben Protess, Jessica Silver Greenberg - May. 09 (News Report) - DealBook: In Latest Foreclosure Glitch, Some Checks Come Up Short

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Shell presses ahead with world's deepest offshore oil well

Thu, 09 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Simon Goodley - May. 09 (News Report) - Company will drill almost two miles underwater in Gulf of Mexico as part of next generation of deep-water developments Royal Dutch Shell is pressing ahead with the world's deepest offshore oil and gas production facility by drilling almost two miles underwater in the politically sensitive Gulf of Mexico. The move is being viewed in the oil industry as a demonstration of Shell's confidence that its technology can deliver returns on expensive and risky offshore projects, despite a recent downturn in oil prices. It comes a day after ExxonMobil said it would start work on a $4bn (£2.6bn) project to develop the Julia oilfield, also in the North American ocean basin, and weeks after BP delayed development of its biggest Gulf of Mexico project – Mad Dog Phase 2 – citing rising costs. John Hollowell, a Shell executive vice-president, said: "This important investment demonstrates our ongoing commitment to usher in the next generation of deepwater developments, which will deliver more production ...

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Lawmaker wants military to promptly alert Congress about drone strikes

Thu, 09 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Craig Whitlock - May. 09 (News Report) - A leading House Republican said Wednesday that he wants to require the U.S. military to “promptly” inform Congress about every drone strike it conducts outside Afghanistan as well as other military operations to kill or capture suspected terrorists outside declared war zones. ...

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Obama Embraces Plutocrats Again With His Billionaire Commerce Secretary Choice

Tue, 07 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Steven Rosenfeld - May. 07 (News Analysis) - her record as a businesswoman shares similarities with Mitt Romney’s. Her massive wealth is kept in tax-avoiding offshore accounts. Her family’s best-known business, the Hyatt hotel empire, is known for bitter and ongoing disputes with labor unions. Her resume includes running a bank that pioneered high-interest subprime loans and then failed miserably, leaving uninsured depositors with losses averaging $6,000.

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Your Retirement for a Bottle of Champagne: How Wall Street Fraudsters Ripped You Off, Again

Tue, 07 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Lynn Stuart Parramore - May. 07 (Special Report) - LIBOR was, in the opinion of many, the con of the century. But is it a crime without punishment? About a month ago, the Wall Street Journal reported that a federal court judge had let several banks off the hook, dismissing claims that 16 banks targeted by lawsuits had broken federal antitrust laws by rigging LIBOR. As Matt Taibbi explained in his must-read article on the banking scandal, the federal judge bought the banks’ ridiculous blame-the-victim story that if cities and towns and other investors lost money over LIBOR rigging, it was their own fault.

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Mel Watt Enjoys Close Ties to Financial Industries

Sun, 05 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

nationofchange.org - By Alison Fitzgerald - May. 05 (Special Report) - Rep. Mel Watt has plenty of friends in the financial services industry: The North Carolina Democrat whom President Barack Obama has appointed to oversee mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac has received more campaign money from financial interests than any other industry or special interest. Since he entered Congress in 1992, Watt has received $1.33 million in campaign contributions from the finance, real estate and insurance industries, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonprofit research group that tracks money in politics. That’s almost a quarter of the total $5.47 million in total contributions he’s received through his career.

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While Wronged Homeowners Got 300 Apiece in Foreclosure Settlement, Consultants Who Helped Protect Banks Got 2 Billion

Sat, 04 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Rolling Stone - By Matt Taibbi - May. 04 (Investigative Report) - not only were these consultants not so independent, not only did they very likely skew the numbers seriously in favor of the banks, and not only were these few consultants paid over $2 billion (over 20 percent of the entire settlement amount) while the average homeowner only received $300 in the deal – in addition to all of that, it appears that federal regulators will not turn over the evidence of impropriety they discovered during these reviews to homeowners who may want to sue the banks

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Everything Is Rigged: The Biggest Price-Fixing Scandal Ever

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Rolling Stone - By Matt Taibbi - Apr. 25 (Investigative Report) - Conspiracy theorists of the world, believers in the hidden hands of the Rothschilds and the Masons and the Illuminati, we skeptics owe you an apology. You were right. The players may be a little different, but your basic premise is correct: The world is a rigged game.

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Economy avoids triple-dip recession

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

BBC News - Apr. 25 (News) - The UK economy avoids a triple-dip recession after it grew by 0.3% in the first three months of the year.

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GOP Goes Hunting For EPA Emails About Turducken

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Mother Jones - By Tim McDonnell - Apr. 19 (Opinion) - Earlier this month, when a burst pipe spilled thousands of gallons of heavy oil into an Arkansas suburb, the message from the White House went something like: "Everybody chill, the EPA has it under control." But reporters on the scene found the cleanup orchestrated by the same company, ExxonMobil, that allowed the spill, and heard only crickets when they asked the EPA about its involvement. Turns out, on some of the nation's most pressing environmental health issues, the EPA's transparency record isn't exactly crystal-clear. So with a vote on President Obama's new pick to head the EPA, Gina McCarthy, coming up as soon as next week , it perhaps isn't a surprise that Congressional scrutiny of her nomination has centered more on the agency's secret-keeping habits than on its environmental enforcement goals. At a hearing last Thursday before the Senate's Environment and Public Works Committee, McCarthy got grilled on EPA's transparency record by Republican members, led by Louisiana's David Vitter. ...

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Not Every Republican Hates Obama's Progressive Labor Secretary Nominee

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Mother Jones - By Adam Serwer - Apr. 18 (Opinion) - Thomas Perez, the head of the Justice Department's civil rights division and President Barack Obama's nominee to head the Department of Labor, is getting some support from unexpected corners: Republicans, particularly in his home state of Maryland. "I think he's going to be a very fine secretary of labor for us," says Michael Steele, former chair of the Republican National Committee who first met Perez when he was a member of the Montgomery County Council and Steele was Lt. Governor of Maryland. "He's honest, direct, approachable and willing to work hard to get it right." Steele isn't the only Maryland Republican praising Perez. "He's just a trustworthy guy," says John Kane, a former chair of the Maryland GOP. "If I had to put a trust together to manage my affairs after I was gone, Tom would be one of the top three guys I would pick to do that, even though I disagree with him more than half the time." Monday, John R. Dunne, a Republican who was head of the civil rights division during the ...

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Obama’s Numbers (Quarterly Update)

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

FactCheck - By Brooks Jackson - Apr. 17 (Fact Check) - Reviewing some key statistical measures of Barack Obama's presidency so far, we find: The economy has added more jobs since Obama took office than it did in his predecessor's entire eight years in office. Despite the improved economy, the number of people receiving food-stamp assistance has continued to grow, and now more people have been added to the food-stamp rolls ... More >>

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10 Reasons the Background Check Bill Means Victory for the NRA

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Mother Jones - By Gavin Aronsen - Apr. 17 (Opinion) - Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) have been forced this week to consider further retooling their bill for expanded gun background checks, which Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told reporters on Tuesday still lacks the 60 votes it needs to overcome a filibuster. The National Rifle Association and senators opposed to the bill continue to argue that it would unfairly burden lawful gun owners while doing nothing to prevent future tragedies like the one in Newtown. In fact, the bill does an awful lot that should please the pro-gun lobby. Which helps explain why, on Sunday, the gun-rights group Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms endorsed the bill and the "numerous advances for our Constitutional right to keep and bear arms that it contains." (Even the NRA, consulted during the compromise talks, initially called the bill a "positive development," as opposed to the stricter gun-control plan initially proposed by Sen. Chuck Schumer; the NRA later backtracked, ...

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Dan Loeb Simultaneously Solicits, Betrays Pension Funds

Sun, 14 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Rolling Stone - By Matt Taibbi - Apr. 14 (Special Report) - There's confidence. There's chutzpah. And then there's Dan Loeb, hedge fund king extraordinaire and head of Third Point Capital, who's getting set to claim the World Heavyweight Championship of Balls.

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The long, slow death of the UK coal industry

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Mark Seddon - Apr. 11 (News Report) - Earlier this month Maltby colliery in South Yorkshire closed down for good. At the end of a winter that saw 40% of our energy needs met by coal – most of it imported – we witnessed the poignant closing ceremony Nothing better symbolised the passing of a great industry, referred to reverentially as "King Coal", than the lowering of one of the last chunks to have been cut at Maltby colliery next to the grave of the "unknown miner" in the town's cemetery last weekend. His had been the only body to be recovered when a gas explosion ripped through the underground galleries 90 years ago, killing 27 men. Those present wiped away tears, as last rites on an industry that had sustained this community for more than a century were read by the local priest. Wreaths were laid and the colliery brass band played the miners' hymn, Gresford, itself an anthem to another disaster. The short service had been billed as a "thanksgiving and prayer for the future", although the many newly redundant must have wondered ...

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7 Chilling Facts About Retirement in America That Should Make Obama Tremble Before Cutting Social Security and Medicare

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Lynn Stuart Parramore - Apr. 09 (Opinion) - We are headed for a catastrophic retirement train wreck. A Wall Street-driven financial crisis has stripped millions of people of things like jobs, pensions and home equity that were supposed to deliver a dignified retirement after a lifetime of hard work. The crisis has also provided certain interests the opportunity to make false claims about the “unaffordability” of vital social insurance programs like Social Security and Medicare that help the 99% make it. These opportunistic “ Raiders of Your Lost Retirement” do not give a hoot if you starve in your golden years – this is about money to them

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Democrats Are Undermining Wall Street Reform, Too

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Mother Jones - By Erika Eichelberger - Apr. 03 (Opinion) - Many of the laws that Congress passed to rein in big banks in the wake of the 2007 financial meltdown have yet to go into effect, but lawmakers are already working to dismantle them. And it's not a partisan thing either. A group of 21 House lawmakers—including eight Democrats—is pushing seven separate bills that would dramatically scale back financial reform. The proposed laws, which are scheduled to come before the House financial-services committee for consideration in mid-April, come straight on the heels of a major Senate investigation that revealed that JP Morgan Chase had lost $6 billion dollars by cooking its books and defying regulators—who themselves fell asleep on the job. Why the move to gut Wall Street reform so soon? Financial-reform advocates say Democrats might be supporting deregulation because of a well-intentioned misunderstanding of the laws, which lobbyists promise are consumer-friendly. But, reformers add, it could also have something to do with Wall Street ...

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Insider Inquiry at SAC Reaches Into Higher Ranks

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Peter Lattman - Mar. 29 (News) - Federal agents have arrested Michael Steinberg, a senior SAC Capital Advisors portfolio manager, the most senior employee at the giant hedge fund ensnared in the government’s vast insider trading investigation.

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New Sanders Bill Would Break Up Big Banks

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0700

senate.gov - Mar. 29 (Opinion) -

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Cruel and Unusual Punishment: The Shame of Three Strikes Laws

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Rolling Stone - By Matt Taibbi - Mar. 27 (Special Report) - Despite the passage in late 2012 of a new state ballot initiative that prevents California from ever again giving out life sentences to anyone whose "third strike" is not a serious crime, thousands of people – the overwhelming majority of them poor and nonwhite – remain imprisoned for a variety of offenses so absurd that any list of the unluckiest offenders reads like a macabre joke, a surrealistic comedy routine. Have you heard the one about the guy who got life for stealing a slice of pizza? Or the guy who went away forever for lifting a pair of baby shoes? Or the one who got 50 to life for helping himself to five children's videotapes from Kmart?

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Hot Money Blues

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Paul Krugman - Mar. 25 (Opinion) - It will mark the end of an era for Cyprus, which has in effect spent the past decade advertising itself as a place where wealthy individuals who want to avoid taxes and scrutiny can safely park their money, no questions asked. But it may also mark at least the beginning of the end for something much bigger: the era when unrestricted movement of capital was taken as a desirable norm around the world.

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