NewsTrust - Money and Politics - Most Recent Stories: Opinion (Independent)

How Crazy Is Wall Street, New York Times?

Sun, 20 May 2012 00:00:00 -0700

The Daily Beast - By Edward Jay Epstein - May. 20 (Opinion) - The New York Times published an opinion piece on May 12, 2012, concerning the question of whether the rich, from a moral standpoint, are good or bad. The story reported, “A recent study found that 10 percent of people who work on Wall Street are ‘clinical psychopaths’ and that they exhibit an ‘unparalleled capacity for lying, fabrication, and manipulation.’ ” The vivid term “clinical psychopath” brings to mind the berserk buzz-saw-wielding investment banker played by Christian Bale in the film American Psycho. Since some 3.9 million people work in the financial-services industry, a clinically diagnosed horde of lunatics numbering almost 400,000 people would certainly be a matter of public concern, though it might only confirm some journalists’ view of American capitalism.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.9 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

"End This Depression Now"

Thu, 17 May 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Paul Krugman, Amy Goodman - May. 17 (Interview) - Right now, there just is not enough spending, and we need the government, which can do it, to step in and provide the demand we need. ... We’ve had austerity in the face of a recession, in a way that we have never had before since the 1930s. ... And the results are clear: it’s disastrous."

NewsTrust Rating: 4.6 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Structural Unemployment Talk Is Nonsense

Wed, 09 May 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Peter S. Goodman - May. 09 (Editorial) - Remember that unemployment problem we used to have? The one that politicians, pundits and policymakers used to talk about on a regular basis, debating how we might fix it? Well, forget about all that, because the problem is structural, meaning nothing can be done. So sayeth a loud slice of the econo-pundit class.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.7 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Power and Money in America (Noam Chomsky)

Wed, 09 May 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Informed Comment - By Noam Chomsky, posted by Juan - May. 09 (Opinion) - The Occupy movement has been an extremely exciting development. Unprecedented, in fact. There’s never been anything like it that I can think of. If the bonds and associations it has established can be sustained [...]

NewsTrust Rating: 3.9 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Austerity Is So Wrong!

Sun, 06 May 2012 00:00:00 -0700

The Daily Beast - By Paul Krugman - May. 06 (Opinion) - In a new book, End This Depression Now!, Nobel Prize–winning economist Paul Krugman says the current economic problems can be fixed both more easily and more quickly than anyone imagines. But politicians’ desire to slash spending is deeply destructive, and he details why austerity is so appealing even to Very Serious People—and why it’s such a bad idea.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.3 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Who's Buying Your Election? New FCC Ruling Requires Broadcasters to Post Data On Ad Purchases

Fri, 04 May 2012 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - May. 04 (Interview) - We speak with Robert McChesney, co-founder of the national media reform organization Free Press, and Justin Elliott, a reporter at ProPublica working on a project called "Free the Files," that asks people and journalists across the country to visit TV stations, acquire paper data on political ads, and then post the files online at ProPublica.org.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.0 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

PRICELESS: Colbert Rips David Koch to His Face at TIME Magazine Gala

Sat, 28 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Daily Kos - By David Harris Gershon - Apr. 28 (Comedy News) - TIME recently held its gala celebrating the magazine's self-proclaimed 100 most influential people. Among those chosen were David Koch and Steven Colbert, who spoke before the gathered masses. Colbert ripped several of the magazine's selections using his signature (read: brilliant) sharp-tongued irony. However, some of his most pointed comments were reserved for David Koch, who was seated before Colbert as he spoke.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.8 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Take the Money and Run for Office

Sun, 22 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0700

This American Life - By Ira Glass - Apr. 22 (Editorial) - For anyone who has ever heard the term "Washington insider" and felt outside — we are with you. So this week, we go inside the rooms where the deals get made, to the actual moment that the checks change hands — and we ask the people writing and receiving the checks what, exactly, is the money buying?

NewsTrust Rating: 3.9 average - 3 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Cannibalize the Future

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0700

readersupportednews.org - By Paul Krugman - Apr. 13 (Opinion) - '...Chris Christie...talks loudly about acting responsibly but may actually be the least responsible governor the state has ever had.'

NewsTrust Rating: 4.1 average - 4 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Why Do We Pay Energy Giants to Wreck Earth? |

Fri, 06 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Bill McKibben - Apr. 06 (Opinion) - 1. Don’t subsidize those who already have plenty of cash on hand. 2. Don’t subsidize people forever 3. Sometimes you’ll subsidize something for a sensible reason and it won’t work out. 4. Don’t subsidize something you want less of. 5. Don’t give subsidies to people who have given you cash.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.8 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Save Wall Street! Congress Passes JO(BS) Act

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0700

readersupportednews.org - By Jim Hightower - Apr. 05 (Opinion) - Washington has finally heard the people's cries for jobs! In an urgent bipartisan push, Democrats and Republicans have joined hands across the aisle to pass the JOBS Act. In this time of "The Great Hurt" - with widespread unemployment, middle-class incomes tumbling and the price of gasoline skyrocketing - we can all applaud our stalwarts in the capital city for meeting the No. 1 need of America's hard-hit economy: deregulating Wall Street. Huh? I thought this was a jobs bill?

NewsTrust Rating: 4.5 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Social Darwinism or a Decent Society

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0700

readersupportednews.org - By Robert Reich - Apr. 05 (Opinion) - We are likely to hear a lot more about social Darwinism in the months ahead. It was the conservative creed during the late 19th century - legitimizing a politics in which the lackeys of robber barons deposited sacks of money on legislators' desks, and justifying an economy in which sweat shops were common, urban slums festered, and a significant portion of America was impoverished.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.9 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Why We Should Stop Giving Handouts to Oil and Gas Companies

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Mother Jones - By Bill McKibben - Apr. 05 (Opinion) - Along with "fivedollaragallongas," the energy watchword for the next few months is: "subsidies."

NewsTrust Rating: 4.0 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Scalia, Fox's Man in Washington?

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0700

readersupportednews.org - By Matthew DeLuca - Apr. 05 (Opinion) - Is Roger Ailes clerking for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia? One might be forgiven for thinking so following last week’s oral arguments on the health-care law before the nation’s highest court. As has been pointed out elsewhere, some of Scalia’s questions from the bench made use of the tone and even the diction of the attacks on the Affordable Care Act frequently heard on Fox News and conservative talk-radio shows.

NewsTrust Rating: Not rated yet - See Info » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Capitalism's Dirty Secret: Corporations Don't Create Jobs, They Destroy Them

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Lynn Parramore - Apr. 03 (Opinion) - For the last four decades, U.S. corporations have been sinking our economy through the off-shoring of jobs, the squeezing of wages, and a magician’s hat full of bluffs and tricks designed to extort subsidies and sweetheart deals from local and state governments that often result in mass layoffs and empty treasuries.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.2 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Robert Greenwald on the New Film "Koch Brothers Exposed" -- the 1% at Its Very Worst

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - Mar. 29 (Interview) - One of the problems in the progressive movement, all too often -- and, you know, people have talked about this endlessly -- the separate silos, the single-issue folks who are both focused and funded to do a single issue -- but how do you encourage and work so that the issue people come together and see the importance of the fact that the people who are attacking the environment are attacking Social Security, are attacking public education, are attacking and buying politicians, are attacking an African-American community, etc., etc.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.6 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Ousted Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed on the Coup That Ousted Him & His Climate Activism

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Mar. 29 (Interview) - Maldives president Mohamed Nasheed, ousted in a coup several months ago, joins us in studio along with Jon Shenk, director of “The Island President,” a new documentary about Nasheed’s rise to power and his climate activism. The tiny Indian Ocean state of Maldives remains in a state of political turmoil seven weeks after Nasheed, the country’s first democratically elected president was ousted in what he has described as a coup at gunpoint. Nasheed had become an internationally recognized leader on climate issues as he urged the world to do more to save small island states from rising sea waters. He once held a cabinet meeting underwater to highlight the threat of global warming to the Maldives. He also pledged to make the Maldives the first carbon neutral country and installed solar panels on the roof of his presidential residence.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.7 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

The Truth About the U.S. Postal Service

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0700

nationofchange.org - By Jim Hightower - Mar. 28 (Opinion) - The USPS is an unmatched bargain, a civic treasure, a genuine public good that links all people and communities into one nation. So, naturally, it must be destroyed.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.4 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

World Bank Nominee Tied to Monsanto Shareholder Bill Gates, Soros

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0700

nationofchange.org - By Tim McCoy - Mar. 28 (Opinion) - Obama nominated Dartmouth University president Jim Yong Kim, M.D. to head the United Nations World Bank. Most people think that UN agencies benefit poor people, but this is far from the truth.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.6 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Natural Born Drillers

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Economist's View - By Paul Krugman - Mar. 16 (Opinion) - Unlike natural gas, which is expensive to ship across oceans, oil is traded on a world market... Oil prices are up because of rising demand from China and other emerging economies, and more recently because of war scares in the Middle East; these forces easily outweigh any downward pressure on prices from rising U.S. production. And the same thing would happen if Republicans got their way...

NewsTrust Rating: 4.3 average - 3 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Ignorance Is Strength

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Economist's View - By Paul Krugman: - Mar. 09 (Opinion) - One way in which Americans have always been exceptional has been in our support for education. ... But now one of our two major political parties has taken a hard right turn against education, or at least against education that working Americans can afford. ... And this comes at a time when American education is already in deep trouble.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.0 average - 3 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Colbert Demands 'Cut Rich People's Taxes Completely' (VIDEO)

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Huffington Post - By Colbert - Mar. 01 (Comedy News) - On Wednesday night's show, Stephen Colbert made the argument that everyone else is afraid to make: cut rich people's taxes all together. During his popular "The Word" segment, Colbert cited a new poll by "The Hill" which states that 75% of Americans thin

NewsTrust Rating: 4.0 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

6 Pathetic Right-Wing Attempts to Defend the Indefensible Citizens United (Debunked)

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

AlterNet - By Steven Rosenfeld - Feb. 26 (Opinion) - when a few loud perspectives dominate the airways and debate, it eclipses the voices of people of lesser means and discourages their participation and confidence in the process. As such, wealth-driven political speech isn’t free. It’s very expensive. And the costs are not just monetary, but measured in the public’s eroding trust in representative government and the elections.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.8 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Why Is the ACLU Helping the Richest Americans Buy Our Elections?

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

AlterNet - By Steven Rosenfeld - Feb. 21 (Opinion) - The American Civil Liberties Union has earned its reputation as the nation’s foremost legal opponent of government censorship and defender of First Amendment political speech. But increasingly, this national organization with 500,000 members and a $70 million annual budget has another legacy—helping the wealthiest Americans and institutions spend unlimited sums on elections.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.4 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Billionaire Bigot Bankrolling Mitt Romney

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Daily Kos - Feb. 19 (Opinion) - In a column sure to rain lawsuit threats down upon him, Glenn Greenwald exposes many of the scandals surrounding Mitt Romney's national finance co-chair, Idahoan Frank VanderSloot. VanderSloot is a billionaire whose deep pockets have funded no small number of Idaho's political figures. As Greenwald details, his business practices have drawn plenty of unwanted attention, as has his involvement in numerous far-right causes, particularly his anti-gay activism, including running a billboard campaign against Idaho Public Television for running a documentary about teachers talking about lesbian and gay issues in age-appropriate ways. His wife, Belinda, donated $100,000 to California's Prop 8 campaign.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.1 average - 4 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer