NewsTrust - Finance - Most Recent Stories: Opinion (Independent)

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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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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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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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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First SOPA, Now Your Privacy: Facebook, Google Flex Lobbying Muscle in Europe

Fri, 01 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0800

Mother Jones - By Dana Liebelson - Mar. 01 (Opinion) - When the US government tried to regulate the Internet in 2011, through the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and a corresponding Senate bill, Silicon Valley tech giants and civil liberties organizations went ballistic. The two groups, often at odds, banded together to fight the controversial bills, which would have given the government enormous power to regulate web content and censor sites that appeared to be violating copyright laws. The protesters organized Internet blackouts , and squashed the measures before you could type, "Free streaming Walking Dead." But now some of the companies that fought SOPA , including Google , Yahoo !, Facebook , Amazon, and eBay , are joining with initial SOPA supporters and the Obama Administration to thwart the European Union's attempt to protect the personal information of European citizens—and American privacy advocates are back to fighting the tech behemoths. In January 2012, the European Union proposed overhauling existing privacy laws in its member ...

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Paul Krugman: Austerity Is Not the Answer

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0800

Mother Jones - By Chris Mooney - Jan. 31 (Opinion) - There are few political commentators who excite such passion (whether admiration or, on the other end, rage) as New York Times columnist Paul Krugman. The reason seems obvious: He writes directly about one of the most central issues in politics—the economy—and does so decisively and definitively. The man is, after all, a Nobel laureate in the field. But unlike so many other scientists and experts, he also happens to have a way with words and little inclination to pull punches. Krugman's latest book, End This Depression Now! , makes a strong case that the current focus on cutting budget deficits is misplaced. An economic crisis like this, with lingering high unemployment, demands a big infusion of government stimulus, argues Krugman. In contrast, cutting spending or imposing austerity only worsens things—just as we've seen of late across Europe. How sure is Krugman about all of this? And how do we know that he's right, and his very, very-sure-of-themselves opponents are ...

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The Urgency of Growth

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0800

The Moderate Voice - By E.J. Dionne, Jr., Washington Post Columnist - Jan. 28 (Opinion) - WASHINGTON — If you care about deficits, you should want our economy to grow faster. If you care about lifting up the poor and reducing unemployment, you should want our economy to grow faster. And if you are a committed capitalist and hope to make more money, you should want our economy to grow faster. [...]

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No on Lew

Fri, 11 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0800

readersupportednews.org - By Bernie Sanders - Jan. 11 (Opinion) - As a supporter of the president, I remain extremely concerned that virtually all of his key economic advisers have come from Wall Street. In my view, we need a treasury secretary who is prepared to stand up to corporate America and their powerful lobbyists and fight for policies that protect the working families in our country. I do not believe Mr. Lew is that person.

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FBI Should Investigate Bankers, Not Protesters

Wed, 02 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0800

readersupportednews.org - By Carl Gibson - Jan. 02 (Opinion) - December 16th of 2012 marked the 239th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party, when activists clad in Native American costumes protested a tax code that benefited a multinational corporation at the cost of taxpayers, and committed one of the biggest acts of property destruction in history by dumping the East India Tea Company's product into the Boston Harbor by the crateful. For nearly fifty years, the act was either shunned or ignored by the populace. But today, those activists' names are among the revered "founding fathers" of our country. Yet, while we celebrate the radical activists behind the Boston Tea Party, today's activists protesting corporate greed and a rigged tax system are labeled "terrorists" by the federal government and investigated as such

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The Ten Most Outrageous Economic Calamities of 2012

Sat, 29 Dec 2012 00:00:00 -0800

AlterNet - By Les Leopold - Dec. 29 (Review) - It was another year of Wall Street treachery. Those who took down our economy still have not been held accountable. Instead, Wall Street successfully lured the political establishment into a phony fiscal cliff/austerity debate

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Bankster Justice Very Much Delayed

Sun, 23 Dec 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Consortium News - By Danny Schechter - Dec. 23 (Opinion) - After years of tip-toeing around the too-big-to-fail banks – despite their key role in devastating the world’s economy – the U.S. government has finally signaled a couple of fraud prosecutions. However, the effort is not only way too late, but way too little

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How to Make Your Gun Shoot Like It's Fully Automatic—in One Easy Step

Fri, 21 Dec 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Mother Jones - By Dana Liebelson - Dec. 21 - In the 1920s and '30s, America faced a wave of violence as gangsters like Al Capone and "Baby Face" Nelson used machine guns to shoot nonstop at cops or rivals. In 1934, the same year Baby Face was killed in a FBI shootout, Congress passed the National Firearms Act , making it illegal for Americans to manufacture fully automatic weapons for personal use. In 1986, it became illegal for civilians to own newly made machine guns. But with just $299 , you can modify your semi-automatic AK-47 and probably fool your neighbors: Slide Fire is a company that sells gun stocks that you can use with an AK-47 or an AR-15. These attachments enable accurate "controlled rapid firing," according to the company's website , meaning "you can shoot one round, 2 rounds…15 rounds or a full magazine," as Jeremiah Cottle, the US Air Force vet who invented the product, told Guns America last year. Gun enthusiasts, who have posted videos on YouTube of the Slide Fire in use, seem to love the product. "It's just ...

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Will Obama Beat Back a "Nuclear" Attack by the Big Banks?

Thu, 06 Dec 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Mother Jones - By Erika Eichelberger - Dec. 06 (Opinion) - Wild bets by tax payer-insured banks helped put the US economy in the toilet four years ago. With financial regulators scrambling post-election to finalize long overdue rules for Wall Street, banks have intensified their war on regulation. In particular, the financial industry is lobbying like mad to add key loopholes to the Volcker rule, a provision of the sweeping 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform act that is supposed to restrict high-risk speculation by commercial banks. During the campaign, Mitt Romney vowed to repeal Dodd-Frank, and regulatory agencies were waiting to finish crafting the details of the Volcker rule. Whether that rule will emerge as Congress intended, or as a watered-down half-measure, is what's at stake in the current battle between reformers and industry. Continue Reading ...

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Tax the Traders! It Would Solve Economic Crisis and Stop Reckless Activity

Tue, 04 Dec 2012 00:00:00 -0800

AlterNet - By Eliot Spitzer: - Dec. 04 (Opinion) - a tax on financial transactions. It will give us gobs of revenue. It will fall on a sector that has generated enormous and unwarranted profits for a very few, who at the same time have benefited from huge bailouts and regulatory help and largely escaped any responsibility for their central role in creating the financial cataclysm that we are still struggling with.

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Senate Delays Vote On Bill That Would Banish Financial Regulation To Cost-Benefit Analysis Hell

Wed, 14 Nov 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Huffington Post - Nov. 14 (Opinion) - Financial reformers have won a small battle in their fight with Wall Street over financial regulation, but they're still at risk of losing the war. It appears that heavy pressure from an unusual coalition of financial regulators and reform advocates has

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Obama's Second Term Is Our Responsibility

Sun, 11 Nov 2012 00:00:00 -0800

readersupportednews.org - By Robert Scheer - Nov. 11 (Opinion) - morning in America already feels too much like a hangover. The house is still a wreck, the family is dysfunctional and there are enormous bills to pay that are not about to go away. All of us suddenly sobered folks, who voted for Barack Obama because the alternative was so horridly wrong, have got to accept the moral implications of that choice. We won but at what cost? Fool me once, shame on Obama, but fool me twice and I’m the one responsible. That goes for his promises to right the economy by leveling the playing field as well as to end what Obama termed in his victory speech “a decade of war.”

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How Fox News Created a New Culture of Idiots

Fri, 02 Nov 2012 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Aaron James - Nov. 02 (Opinion) - hypocrisy is the homage that vice pays to virtue

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“Austerity” is Code For a Banking Takeover

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 00:00:00 -0700

nationofchange.org - By Chris Paulus - Oct. 30 (Opinion) - Let’s examine the conditions of the loans aimed at getting countries (like Greece and Spain) out of debt: they want to raise the retirement age, increase the work day and have people work for lower wages, cut funding to education, maintenance and other important public sector areas, cut Social Security, cut pensions, and even privatize the municipal water and electric systems. But at least the measures are democratic, right? Wrong. These austerity policies have been entered into and implemented despite resounding political opposition.

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Ellsberg Warns of a Romney Victory

Thu, 18 Oct 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Consortium News - By Daniel Ellsberg - Oct. 18 (Opinion) - An activist colleague recently said to me: “I hear you’re supporting Obama.” Daniel Ellsberg, who risked a long imprisonment in the early 1970s when he leaked the Pentagon Papers, the secret history of the Vietnam War. (Photo credit: Jacob Appelbaum. cropped by MachoCarioca) I was startled, and took offense. “Supporting Obama? Me?!” “I lose no opportunity publicly,” I told him angrily, to identify Obama as a tool of Wall Street, a man who’s decriminalized torture and is still complicit in it, a drone assassin, someone who’s launched an unconstitutional war, supports kidnapping and indefinite detention without trial, and has prosecuted more whistleblowers like myself than all previous presidents put together. “Would you call that support?” My friend said, “But on Democracy Now you urged people in swing states to vote for him! How could you say that? I don’t live in a swing state, but I will not and could not vote for Obama under any circumstances.” My answer was: a Romney/Ryan administration would be no better — no different — on any of the serious offenses I just mentioned or anything else, and it would be much worse, even catastrophically worse, on a number of other important issues: attacking Iran, Supreme Court appointments, the economy, women’s reproductive rights, health coverage, safety net, climate change, green energy, the environment.

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Mitt Romney Misleads on Wall Street Reform in Presidential Debate

Sat, 06 Oct 2012 00:00:00 -0700

readersupportednews.org - By Rep. Maxine Waters - Oct. 06 (Opinion) - If Mr. Romney is right that these banks are getting a blank check from America's taxpayers, shouldn't they all be clamoring to be designated a "systemically important financial institution," or a SIFI? Well, as someone with a front seat for this debate here in Congress, I can tell you that isn't happening. Instead, large financial institutions are fighting the SIFI designation with the full force of their lobbying operations, because they know what Governor Romney doesn't: being identified as a SIFI means being subject to regulation above and beyond current requirements, including "living wills" that will help regulators plan how to wind down the firms in an orderly fashion in the event they become insolvent.

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Battleground snapshot: Obama expands lead, Romney craters

Tue, 25 Sep 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Daily Kos - By Rss@Dailykos.Com (Kos) - Sep. 25 (Opinion) - Winning by even more than he was winning before. Those are the TPM polling composites. In every state that has been polled the last three days, Obama is up universally. Every. Single. State. He is over 50 percent at Michigan, Nevada and Wisconsin. Indeed, this is the last time I'm including Michigan in this list. It joins Missouri, New Mexico and Pennsylvania as states off the map. Not that it ever was truly in play, but the data has now caught up to the reality. Look at North Carolina! The president is coming on strong. In fact, Obama now leads in the state in the RCP and Pollster composites. Those polling aggregators roll their older polling off more quickly off their averages, because the latest batch of Carolina polling is all bad news for Team Red. In fact, if you want to smile, check out those recent polls . The last two polls on that list? Conservative outfits. But here's the craziest thing about the last three days worth of numbers: Mitt Romney's percentage went down in ...

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Iceland's On-going Revolution

Fri, 21 Sep 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Daily Kos - Sep. 21 (Opinion) -

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Conversations with Great Minds

Tue, 28 Aug 2012 00:00:00 -0700

thomhartmann.com - By Neil Barofsky, Thom Hartman - Aug. 28 (Interview) - video

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