Puget Sound Liberals Weekly Newsletter #222
Enhancing Freedom, Opportunity and Cooperation in
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Our Website Our Editor To Unsubscribe Table of
Contents * Featured Articles Opportunities Petitions Communication to Our Members How Do Conservatives Ignore Corporate Abuses?* Commentaries from Our Members Donald Smith: Tax the Wealthy to Pay Their Fair Share* Liberals and Democrats Links to the Beef State and Local Links
to the Beef Larry
Kalb Runs to Replace Representative Rick Larsen EOI Proposes a State
Supplemental SS Benefit Another
Obvious Case of Police Brutality Nation and World Links to the Beef Featured Advocacy Group: Americans for Financial Reform Stock Market Doesn’t Reflect What’s Good for Our
Economy Our Liberal Spirit Some Freedoms and Opportunities Are Temptations To Do Wrong* Our
Political Priorities ·
Fair Clean
Elections and Open Government ·
Fair Taxes and
Competent Spending ·
Investment for
Productivity ·
Quality
Health, Education, Jobs, Income ·
Environmental
Protection and Energy Independence ·
Security and
Equal Rights ·
Justice and
Peace Everywhere ·
International
Cooperation and Leadership Conservatives oppose all of these Let’s
End Our National Nightmare
Let’s
Restore Our American Dream More on Conservative opposition to our
American Dream Washington State’s 5 Major Needs · Federal Funding for Health and Education · Substituting
a Progressive Income Tax · Replacing
Conservative Legislators Quote of the Week Lead me not into
temptation. Matthew 6:13
Calendar of Events
Attend a Coal-Free Town Meeting, sponsored
by the Sierra Club.
Sunday, April 18 at 7 PM
at Olympic View Church of the Brethren (425 NE 95th Street, Seattle)
Monday, April 19 at 7 PM
at Old Redmond Schoolhouse (18800 NE 166th Street, Redmond)
Tuesday, April 20 at 7 PM
at Islandwood (4450 Blakely Avenue NE, Bainbridge Island)
Wednesday, April 21 at 7
PM at The Water Center (4600 SE Columbia Way, Vancouver)
Monday, April
19 at 7 PM at Landes Room in City Hall (600 4th Avenue, Seattle) - SEATTLE SUNNY SIDE UP: GROSS NATIONAL
HAPPINESS FROM BHUTAN TO VICTORIA TO THE EMERALD CITY
What if happiness
were the bottom line for our economy and our policies? What would Seattle look
like then? How would our schools run? What would be workplace policy? How would
the struggle for justice be given a boost? How would businesses be successful? Would
we trust our government more? Be healthier? Take better care of the
environment? On April 19th
we’re launching a campaign to make Seattle a happiness city, with activities
leading up to the Green Festival in June and beyond. Come to the first happiness event and help
shape the new campaign!
Michael Pennock of the Vancouver Island Health Authority, an expert in data research from Victoria BC worked with the tiny Himalayan nation of Bhutan when the Bhutanese decided to make happiness a bottom line. He helped them develop a Happiness Survey they now use to determine policy, including whether to join the WTO (they didn't). Now that survey is being used all over the world.
Gross National
Happiness (GNH) is a framework for decision making that puts people and planet
in the mix with profits. In Brazil it's being applied so far in a university, a
municipality and a corporation.
How could GNH help us here? Learn about the Pennock happiness survey and what happened in Victoria when the city took the survey and created a Happiness Index. You can take the survey yourself there. For a summary of the Victoria results.
Join with other
Seattleites in figuring out how a Gross National Happiness Campaign might work
in our city and what's already underway. Hear some happiness stories,
enjoy some art and music and learn what international research has to say about
what really makes us happy. Become part of the new movement in Seattle
that could help your own GPH... gross (overall) personal happiness. We’ll be forming committees to get a
happiness survey going in Seattle and build future events that will make our
city a leader in this great international effort! John
deGraaf
Saturday, April 24 at 6:30 PM at Jule and Candace Sullivan’ home (1140 Alki Ave. SW,
Apt. 505, Seattle) - InspireSeattle Potluck and Discussion
concerning helping children at risk.
Friday, April 30 - May 2 at Seattle Pacific
University in Seattle - Wellstone Action Campaign Management Fundamentals,
including:
· Activist track: For people interested in citizen lobbying,
issue advocacy, and community organizing, this track provides skills in how to
win on issues.
· Campaign track: This track focuses on how to be an effective staff or
volunteer member of a winning progressive campaign.
· Candidate track: This is for people who have made the decision to run
for office.
Varying cost. To
register.
Opportunities
Commentaries
that have addressed major issues
Obtain
a free ‘Corporations Are Not People’ bumper sticker.
Petitions
Tell
your congress members to pass the Student Non-Discrimination Act to protect
GLBT students.
Tell
your senators to support strong clean energy and climate legislation.
Tell President
Obama to refuse to recognize the legitimacy of Sudan’s elections.
Communication
To Our Members
How Do Conservatives Ignore Corporate Abuses?
I continually experience abuse by large
corporations.
While I greatly benefit from using
Microsoft windows, office, outlook and internet browsing software, Microsoft
uses its monopoly power to charge too much for this software, uses planned
obsolescence to pressure people to purchase updates and creates default and
other features which most users can’t change without paying an expert.
When I tried to upgrade from an ATT dial
up internet connection to an ATT broadband connection, I found it wouldn’t work
with M.S. Outlook and so cancelled it.
ATT nevertheless billed my credit card for it and it took me repeated
attempts before the credit card company took my side on the matter.
Fry’s Electronic lied to me about
whether my laptop could be quickly repaired, about one of their laptops and
about the compatibility of Office 2003 with Windows Vista, with the result that
I wasted $1000 on inferior products that I didn’t need to buy.
After Eagle Hardware, Seafirst Bank and
Fred Meyer were bought out by Lowes, Bank of America and Kroeger, their
inventories and services were reduced to only the most profitable ones.
I have often been promised rebates that
never arrived. Most recently, Lowes
promised a rebate on a portion of the price that I paid for a Washington
machine that didn’t arrive. Those
promising a rebate never indicate what documentation will be needed if the
rebate is applied for, but doesn’t arrive.
And they often indicate that the rebate won’t arrive for a month or
more, so it is difficult to know when to begin a follow-up after they clearly
haven’t sent it, but before their system treats the inquiry as too delayed to
require a response.
Amazon Books promised that if I would
pay them $79, I wouldn’t have to pay shipping and handling charges. I paid the $79, but no reduction in shipping
and handling changes is occurring.
I might also mention the continued abuse
that commercial advertizing imposes.
Much of it is untrue or at least deceptive and involves demeaning
women.
I doubt that these corporate abuses are
targeted at me and perhaps other Liberals.
I assume that Conservatives suffer these same corporate abuses. If they do suffer from these same abuses,
how can they continue to trust corporations and believe that they should not be
regulated to curb these abuses? It seems
strange that ideological commitments can override person experiences, but
obviously they frequently do.
Commentaries
From Our Members
Donald Smith: Tax the Wealthy to Pay Their Fair
Share
Donald
Smith forwarded the following commentary:
Dear
Donald, tax Day is approaching. Last year, the emergent Tea Party dominated the
media conversation about taxes with their "shrink government, cut
taxes" message. Will you help us change the message?
We
should be all angry at the tax system. Here's why: According to our new
IPS report, Shifting
Responsibility, for 50 years Congress has been cutting
taxes for the very wealthy and global corporations. During the same period, the
middle class has consistently paid the same share of their income in taxes. Yep,
you heard us right: Over half a century, Presidents John F. Kennedy, Ronald
Reagan, and George W. Bush talked about "tax reform" and "tax
relief," pushing through massive tax cuts. Yet nothing has changed for the
taxpayer in the middle since 1960.
It's
time for the wealthy and tax dodging corporations to pay their fair share. It's
time to rebalance the tax code.
Take Action. Write a letter to the editor, using our handy letter writing system. The more personalized the better! Click below, enter your zip code, choose a newspaper and either edit our sample letter or insert your own.
·
If
your income is under $250,000,
click here.
·
If your income is
over
$250,000 a year, join the Wealth for the Common Good by signing
our petition to end tax cuts on high-income households and click here
to send a letter to the editor.
Want more TALKING
POINTS? Read our IPS Tax
Day Talking Points and join the public conversation. Call your local talk
show. Debate your neighbor. Write an op-ed. You can also check out our
report, Shifting
Responsibility: How 50 Years of Tax Cuts Benefited the Wealthiest Americans. And
please, join
our partnership at the OTHER
95 PERCENT to educate the public about the tax breaks that the bottom 95%
got last year (that only 12% of the public knows about!).
Recent News
Group Advocates Raising Taxes on Wealthiest
Americans
April 7 - During the past
50 years and specifically the past decade, America's highest earners benefited
most from tax cuts, according to a new study released by Wealth for the Common
Good, an organization of high-net worth individuals and business leaders
calling for tax increases for those with incomes above $250,000.
On The
Money, The Hill
Wealth for the Common Good
April 6 - "What's crystal clear in this well-documented report -- whose
title might have been 'The Real Story Behind Today's Unfair Economy' -- is that
the middle class has largely been shafted by both Republicans and Democrats,
whose campaign coffers are equally greased by wealthy donors."
Editor's
Cut blog, The Nation
Tycoon
Tax Bite Down by Two-Thirds Since 1955
April 7 - "The [Wealth for the Common Good's report] authors assert,
'Our nation has borrowed money to pay for the tax cuts that have gone and
continue to go to America's wealthy, a reality that will have future
generations of mostly middle-income taxpayers footing the bill -- with interest
-- for these tax cuts.'" Forbes
Chuck Collins and the Program on Inequality and Common
Good staff
Liberals
and Democrats
Due
to the stimulus-recovery measure, most tax payers will receive 10% more tax
refund.
Education Department
announces first winners of education reform funds.
Health Care Reform
Health
care reform will cut deficits, but Conservatives and the commercial media deny
this.
Consumers
are struggling to understand how health care reform will affect them. The Obama Administration’s attempts to
explain the effects of health care reform will have a receptive audience.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius
has written a
letter to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC)
requesting their assistance in defining medical
loss ratio (MLR) standards in the new health care law and has issued two
formal requests for public comment on how
best to define the term and implement reform’s rate
review provisions.
Job Creation
To
quickly create Main Street jobs, action is required by our:
·
Federal
government. It should enact
stimulus-recovery measures, including direct hiring of young people as
President Roosevelt did, paying more for health and education so that states
and local governments aren’t pressured to reduce employment in these areas,
investing in badly needed infrastructure maintenance, investing in conservation
and other measures to reduce green house gas emissions, and augmenting incomes
of un employed, under-employed and people employed in low income jobs so that
these people will spend to create demand for jobs. To be fiscally responsible, these stimulus
recovery measures should be paid for by increasing taxes on Wall Street
speculators and other high income people and by reducing subsidies to and
wasteful purchases from military-industrial, agricultural, energy, health care
insurers, pharmaceuticals, and other powerful special interests.
·
State and local
governments should examine and adopt the best practices of those which are
adding jobs. They could thus assist
entrepreneurs to create jobs without adding to our deficits.
·
Individual people
should shift their dealings and assets from Wall Street speculators and others
which threaten jobs to non-abusive companies and smaller local financial
companies which will then loan to qualified entrepreneurs and consumers who
seek to finance personal investments.
Our recovery is
proceeding much more slowly than necessary, because our federal government
isn’t taxing Wall Street and other rich people to pay for stimulus-recovery
measures. Nor is our federal government
eliminating wasteful spending and subsidies for which powerful companies
lobby. Because our state and local
governments are typically taking no responsibility for creating jobs. And because as individuals, we are seduced or
coerced by Wall Street speculators and abuse corporations into dealing with
them instead of shifting to deprive them of resources and provide resources to
non-abusive firms and to local and banks and credit unions that will make loans
to stimulate employment.
Producing local fruits
and vegetables creates more jobs than producing corn and soybeans.
More
jobs isn’t enough. We need more good
paying jobs.
Besides
helping reduce green house emissions, green jobs produce mining and
manufacturing jobs.
House
speaker Nancy Pelosi argues for job stimulus spending.
Regulating Wall Street
IRS
is failing to audit large corporations to ensure they are paying their taxes.
Liberal Democrats
support forcing Republicans to vote for or against strong Wall Street
regulation.
Republicans will
harm themselves if they oppose regulating Wall Street.
Fiscal Responsibility
Hedge
fund managers receive enough income to hire 680,000 teachers who would serve 13
million students. It’s time to tax
the hedge fund managers and use the revenue to hire the teachers.
Higher
taxes for Wall Street and other high income Americans are necessary to reduce
deficits.
Ten
ways to force our wealthy to pay their fair share of taxes.
Reducing Carbon Emissions
Time
to pass a strong climate bill is running out.
People
should be encouraged to cut their home carbon emissions by conserving
electricity.
Here’s the Beef
Ohio’s
senate race may reflect Democratic congressional prospects this fall.
Progressive Democrats of
America promote Pennsylvania Medicare for All health care reform.
Three
reasons why President Obama should nominate a Liberal Supreme Court justice. For more.
Alternet
offers 10 visionary ideas for Liberals.
For
differing reasons, Republicans, Liberal Democrats and Independents oppose
President Obama.
To
Republican dismay, Tea Party Conservatives are angry with Wall Street
speculators.
Republicans
oppose regulating Wall Street speculators, siding with them against Main
Street.
As
Conservative ideology has collapsed, pained Conservatives simply lash out
against Liberals.
Conservatives
stimulate seditious activity.
Newt
Gingrich wants to shut down the government like he tried unsuccessfully to do
in 1994.
Moderate
Republicans who will sometimes vote with Democrats may win senate seats in
November.
Liberals
should be discriminating in which businesses they oppose or support.
State and
Local
Larry Kalb Formally Launches Campaign
to Replace 2nd CD
Representative Rick Larsen
Before an enthusiastic crowd that packed the Blue Horse Gallery Friday
night
Larry Kalb formally announced his intention to take back the Second
Congressional seat from
incumbent Rick Larsen with a strong progressive Democratic agenda which
promotes more local
green jobs, healthcare for all, and an end to U.S. involvement in
overseas wars.
Kalb followed his campaign kickoff event with appearances Saturday at
both the San Juan
and Whatcom County Democratic conventions. Reflecting Kalb's long
involvement in both
progressive causes and the Democratic party, Kalb’s kickoff event was
attended by an
enthusiastic, full-house audience, which included several members of the
Bellingham City
Council, Democratic activists and rank-and-file voters.
In his remarks to the gathering at the Blue Horse and to the
conventions, Kalb said that
while the public is "clamoring for change, Congress is not
delivering.” He outlined a bold
agenda to address the problems the nation is facing, including a
"Green New Deal" that would
simultaneously put Americans back to work and assure a clean energy
future.
"Rick Larsen boasts of his laser focus on jobs, but has done little
to bring jobs to our
District,” Kalb said. “In fact, because of his support for NAFTA and
other trade agreements, he
has lost us jobs. The stimulus package was supposed to produce green
jobs and it did, but many
of them were outsourced to foreign manufacturers. In one giant wind
energy project, 84 percent
of the jobs created were foreign jobs, mostly in China. If the U.S.
Government can't 'Buy
American,’ what hope is there for the American worker? Kalb continued,
“I am running for Congress to help the people put an end to such folly. In
contrast to the incumbent, I will serve you, not the corporations--the public
interest, not special interests.”
There were many other stark differences between what Kalb and Larsen
stressed in their
convention appearances. Kalb called for bringing our troops home quickly
from Iraq and
Afghanistan. "The sooner we bring them home, the more of them we
will bring home," he said.
Kalb also called for an overall reduction of 20 percent in defense
spending. "That money is
needed at home." (See more discussion at the campaign website:
www.kalbforcongress.com)
By contrast Larsen did not mention the wars and has consistently voted
for additional war
funding and wasteful weapons programs.
Larsen devoted much of his time to extolling the recently passed health
insurance reform bill
and the need to defend it from Republican efforts to repeal it. Kalb
emphasized that he will push
for real healthcare reform that will provide equal access to quality
care. "We need Medicare For
All. The majority of Americans want an option to buy in to Medicare, but
Rick Larsen opposes
such an option,” Kalb said. “The best way to defend healthcare reform is
to truly reform it. The
recent legislation is easy to attack because the people know it is a
giant giveaway to insurance
companies -- the largest corporate giveaway in American history."
Kalb further stated, "I strongly favor public financing of
Congressional election campaigns.
This will reduce the corrupting influence of corporations over
legislation. I am hardly unique.
Four out of five Democrats and even 65 percent of all Republicans favor
public campaign
financing. Rick Larsen was a lobbyist before he sought elected office.
Perhaps, that explains why
he opposes public campaign finance."
The primary will be held Tuesday, August 17, 2010. Under current
Washington state
election law the top two vote-getters, regardless of party affiliation,
will appear on the ballot in
the General Election in November.
EOI Proposes a State Supplemental Social Security Benefit
Economic Opportunity Institute comments
that a state supplemental social security program would benefit both current
Social Security beneficiaries and future retirees. All current recipients of
Social Security (more than one million people) would immediately begin
receiving an annual lump sum payment of $250, for an approximate $252 million
outlay per year. New and future retirees, accumulating at approximately 71,000
a year (estimated as 2.5% of the workforce), would receive annual payments
ranging from $350 a year to $1500 a year, with increased payments a function of
how long the worker paid into the SSS/TDI/FLI fund. (This takes into account
expected mortality and growth in the workforce and retiree cohorts.)
Paying into the fund for up to one year would result
in a $350 annual benefit, for between one year and two years a $450 annual
benefit, for between two years and three years a $550 annual benefit, etc. Once
a worker has paid in the fund for twenty-two years or more, upon retirement,
they would receive quarterly payments of $375, for as long as they live. Beneficiaries:
All current retirees receiving Social Security; all other beneficiaries
receiving Social Security; and all future retirees.
Economic Stimulus and Jobs
The proposed revenue structure would accumulate more
than $893 million in surplus in the first year, $1.8 billion in the second
year, $2.7 billion in the third year, and $3.6 billion in the fourth year. The
surplus would peak in year 24 at $14.4 billion, and fall to $1.8 billion in
Year 50. This surplus could:
·
Fund infrastructure
development, school construction, and rapid transit throughout the state of
Washington
·
Fund a state-based
tuition loan program, with interest rates for Washington residents at
below-market rates
·
Expand the Housing Trust
Fund by an order of magnitude, greatly accelerating the development of
affordable housing
Another Obvious Case of Police Brutality
Another obvious case
of police brutality has been photographed and publicly disseminated, this
time in Prince George’s County, Maryland.
One policeman begins beating an innocent bystander and three others join
in, with no policeman interfering to stop the beating or even protesting. The resulting publicity can inflame
resentment that may motivate some to strike back against policemen, regardless
of whether the attacked policemen would have joined in or protested brutality
by their fellow officers. Dave Thomas
Here’s the Beef
Washington
State lawmakers may approve increasing school energy efficiency.
Washington
State lawmakers may refuse to pass needed environmental measures.
Some states are supporting
corporations which write social responsibility into their charters.
Nation
and World
Featured Advocacy Group
---------------------------- Americans for Financial
Reform ------------------------
The fight to win strong and effective financial reform legislation is a
“David vs. Goliath” match that pits Wall Street’s bazillions of
dollars against the public’s deep and growing anger, Heather Booth, executive
director of the coalition Americans for Financial
Reform said today. In a briefing for
bloggers today at the AFL-CIO in Washington, D.C., Booth said. “Since last
year and though this year, [Big Banks] are spending $1.4 million a day in
lobbying and political expenses to fight reform. But the people are not divided
over this. They want the banks to be reined in.”
The U.S. Senate is expected to act in the coming weeks on the financial
reform bill that the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban
Affairs Committee approved last month. AFL-CIO Policy Director Damon
Silvers said the fight is fundamentally about who runs the economy. Is the
financial system the servant or the master of the economy?
Silvers said the Senate bill, like the House bill approved in December, is going in the right direction but
needs to be strengthened. He told the group that while there will be attempts
to both weaken and strengthen the bill; the public is looking for tough new
regulations not mushy compromises. Meaningful financial reform will only be
achieved by putting forth a strong bill and then fighting for it. The public is
demanding accountability.
He said the bill must include a strong, independent Consumer Financial
Protection Agency with authority to protect working families from dangerous
financial products and practices.
It also must set new rules to bring transparency to the “shadow market”
of derivatives, hedge funds and private equity instead of the near rule-free,
Wild West world that led to the meltdown of the housing market and the near
collapse of the economy.
Silvers said the legislation needs to create a new, fully
public systemic risk regulatory body that would set capital
and liquidity requirements that become increasingly strict as
financial institutions get larger and more risky. That would end the “too big
to fail” philosophy that led to the $750 billion Big Bank bailout that put
money in the pockets of people who blew up their own companies.
A Framework for Financial Services
Regulatory Reform
In the face of a full-blown global economic crisis,
bold action is needed now by leaders in Congress, the Administration and the
federal government to repair our nation’s broken financial system, establish
integrity in the financial markets, and facilitate productive economic activity
that benefits all segments of our communities. It is only in doing these things
that we can meaningfully address the public’s shattered confidence in the
fairness of the financial marketplace and establish a healthy, robust and
productive economy.
The good news is that a framework for the needed
financial services regulatory reform already is in front of us: the “Special
Report on Regulatory Reform,” released on January 29, 2009, by the
Congressional Oversight Panel identifies the key principles essential for
meaningful financial reform. Chaired by Professor Elizabeth Warren, the Panel
was established by Congress to monitor the bailout and to help ensure that aid
to the financial sector is accompanied by meaningful market reforms. The
January report concluded that “the present regulatory system has failed to
effectively manage risk, require sufficient transparency and ensure fair
dealings.” It proposes principles calling for reforms to:
·
more closely regulate financial
institutions that pose systemic risk;
·
limit excessive leverage in key
financial institutions;
increase supervision of the shadow financial system;
·
create a new system for federal and
state regulation of mortgages and other consumer credit products;
·
put in place executive pay
structures that discourage excessive risk taking;
·
reform the credit rating system;
·
establish a global financial
regulatory floor; and
·
start planning now for dealing with
the next crisis.
These principles provide an excellent framework for
regulation that will constrain market excess and protect our nation’s economic
health. As consumers, we need financial products that are fair and reliable. We
need to know that financial institutions are in compliance with laws meant to
protect our civil and consumer rights and that an unequal, two-tiered financial
system that puts low- and moderate-income and minority consumers at risk no
longer exists. We need to preserve and modernize laws that serve communities
and their access to credit. We need to be confident that there is proper
oversight of the financial markets. As workers, we need our country’s financial
assets invested prudently.
We need productive economic activity that:
Creates good jobs, supports arrangements for security
in retirement
Provides the goods and services that we need and want
Is sustainable over the long-term.
As investors, we need full and accurate information
that allows us to:
·
Understand risk
·
Make informed decisions
·
Invest our savings prudently.
The era of blind adherence to self-regulated financial
markets and the unquestioning deference to the demands of special interests
must end. That route has been travelled for well over a decade now, and the
results have been nothing short of disastrous. Only when we establish a
rational and well-functioning financial system that works in the interests of
consumers, investors and workers will we have a sound and efficient financial
system and productive economic activity.
It is clear that this is too big a job to be left only
to the “experts” and market players who brought about the current state of
affairs in which we find ourselves. The undersigned organizations – as
representatives of consumers, workers and investors — have come together to
ensure that our evolving financial system serves the interests of all
Americans.
Americans for Financial Reform supports the above-listed
principles for reform. It will work to educate and engage the American public,
elected officials, and others in support of these principles in order to build
the confidence of American consumers, workers and investors and to establish a
vibrant, trustworthy and healthy financial system
More Resources Needed To Fight Financial
Crimes
Americans for Financial Reform, a coalition
of over 200 groups, called upon Congress to support the “Financial Crisis of
2008 Criminal Investigation and Prosecution Act of 2009” authored by
Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (D-OH). The bill is directed at giving the
Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Securities
and Exchange Commission the resources they need to fight financial crime and
bring successful prosecutions. Among other things, the bill authorizes the
Director of the FBI to hire 1,000 more agents and additional forensic experts.
“In
the eighteen months since fraudulent and corrupt business practices, in the
mortgage area and on Wall Street, collapsed the economy – costing taxpayers
millions of jobs and trillions in lost wealth and savings – it is the brashness
of the impropriety and deceit that is so appalling. We must make real systems
changes and hold those accountable who created the problem.” said Heather Booth of
Americans for Financial Reform. AFR has taken
the lead in fighting to strengthen the law in areas including consumer and
investor protections, regulation of the shadow markets and preventing another
financial crisis.
“After
all this time, it is difficult to point to any successful prosecutions of major
players in the financial crisis. Without this type of serious and sustained
effort to book the crooks and hold the big banks accountable, Wall Street will
not learn its lesson and will surely lead us down this path again,” said Mary Bottari, of the Center
for Media and Democracy and BanksterUSA.org. Citizens can send
an email to the FBI on this topic at www.BanksterUSA.org.
“Recent
revelations about Lehman Brothers show that accounting fraud was at the heart
of the Wall Street meltdown with staggering consequences for the global
economy. But where are the indictments? Where is the follow up? The FBI needs
to get cracking,” said Tom Matzzie of Accountable America.
After
the Savings and Loan (S&L) crisis of 20 years ago, no less than 1,072
S&L officials were jailed. Over 500 of these were top officers.
Click here to see the letter AFR sent
Congress supporting Representative Kaptur’s bill.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Stock Market Doesn’t Reflect What’s
Good for American Economy
Stock market averages are up.
But they don’t reflect what’s good for our economy. For example, the Dow Jones Industrial average
includes oil companies that benefit from higher oil prices which harm our
economy. It also includes large financial
companies which are profiting from speculation which harms our economy. Dave Thomas
Here’s the Beef
U.S.
disregards Israel’s violation of nuclear non-proliferation.
Berkeley, California
may divest funds from two companies that provide arms to Israel.
Our
Liberal Spirit
Some Freedoms and Opportunities Are Temptations to Do Wrong
We desire more freedoms and
opportunities. But our freedoms and
Opportunities must be limited by the need to protect freedoms and opportunities
for other. Our freedoms and Opportunities
should be balanced among all of our people.
Wall Street speculation is a
clear example as when Wall Street financial firms speculate especially with
other people’s money and entice others to speculate, bubbles are created which
hurt innocent and naively complicit Main Street people. If indulged in, such freedoms and
opportunities result in reduction of freedoms and opportunities.
We should avoid such
temptations. We should follow the
principle of not viewing freedoms and opportunities that if indulged in will
reduce freedoms and opportunities as not being freedoms and opportunities.
Recommended Books – See our list of books for liberals
Robert Pozen, 2010, Too Big to Save? How to Fix the U.S. Financial System
During the last 18 months, I
have read several dozen books about our housing-credit bubbles and crashes,
which often refer to previous bubbles and crashes. These books take up about 2 feet of shelf
space. In spite of reading them, I still
fail to understand many of the details of the features and activities of Wall
Street speculation. But generally these
books fall into two categories:
1.
Those who regard
speculation as offering virtually no benefits while posing great dangers to our
economy. These commentators generally
want to eliminate speculation and recommend ways to do so. Joe Stiglitz, Robert Kuttner, Paul Volcker,
James Galbraith, Dean Baker, Nomi Prins and I fall in this category.
2.
Those who regard
speculation as offering benefits such that instead of eliminating it, measures
should be adopted to limit the dangers which it occurs. Richard Posner (reviewed three weeks ago),
Robert Pozen and Nicole Gelinas (to be reviewed next week) fall in this
category.
The books written by authors
in the first category are usually easier to read because they make clear
recommendations with few qualifications.
The books written by authors in the second category make much more
complicated recommendations to limit but not necessarily greatly reduce
speculation.
Robert Pozen presents the most detailed recommendations, which due to their technical detail I have found difficult to understand. But it is clear that if you want to only limit speculation, there are a great number of things to be understood and dealt with, including particularly accounting and other measures to force speculators to reveal the extent of their speculation and the dangers which it poses to the speculator, other speculators and non-speculators. I thus found ‘Too Big to Save’ very educational, even though I disagree with many of its qualified recommendations.