The Senate is picking up the health care reform debate where the House left off. Make sure your senators hear from you and not just insurance industry lobbyists.
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Take action right now!Email your senators and ask them to support single-payer, "Medicare-for-All" reform.
Tell 10 friends how to take action, too.
Today, 120 Americans will die because they lack health insurance. That's 45,000 Americans every year. America is a pay or die country. If you can't afford to pay ever-rising insurance premiums, you could die.
It doesn't have to be this way.
But the legislation working its way through Congress will do little to change it. The best-case scenario will leave millions of Americans uninsured, costs will continue to spiral out of control, and insurance corporations will continue to generate obscene profits by denying coverage to the sick and injured.
Single-payer, "Medicare-for-All" reform will break the stranglehold insurance companies have on you and your family. It will cover everyone. Everybody in, nobody out.
We have to act now!
Email your senators and ask them to support single-payer, "Medicare-for-All" reform.
Tell 10 friends how to take action, too.
We just can't wait any longer. The body count is rising.
Together, we can win this fight.
Onward to "Medicare-for-All"!
Angela, Glenn & Rick
Your advocates at Public Citizen
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Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Friday, November 13, 2009
Great Depression History:“The name Richard Norris Williams II might not ring a bell to you,” Jim Nelson wrote
“The name Richard Norris Williams II might not ring a bell to you,” Jim Nelson wrote to his Lifetime Income Report readers yesterday. “But in the 1920s, everyone knew who he was. In 1912, 21-year-old Williams gained fame as a survivor of the sinking of the RMS Titanic. Later that year, he went on to earn his first U.S. mixed tennis championship. Now a member of the International Tennis Hall of Fame, there wasn’t much Williams didn’t win. He was a 1924 Olympic gold medalist, Wimbledon champion and a five-time U.S. tennis champion.
“On top of all his accomplishments, he was also a highly successful investment broker. He became a partner in an investment firm called C. Clothier Jones & Co. in 1929. His business partners in the small $5 million ($61.5 million today) firm were some of the brightest, most successful investors in the world.
“Of course, after the stock market hit the skids in 1929, the company took a hit. But thanks to the rally in first half of 1930, C. Clothier Jones & Co. was in better shape than ever. He was on top of the world in the spring of 1930. But just like the year before, market speculators pushed stocks higher than they were worth. By late summer, the rally turned into another massive sell-off.
“When October came around, Williams and his partners were doing everything they could to stay in business. Their investments turned to dust, and they were so incredibly overleveraged the only course for them was to fudge some numbers and blatantly lie to shareholders. Williams left the country in mid-October to get married in Europe. By the time he returned, he was a wanted man, for market manipulation. Four of his colleagues and large investors in the company had ended their own lives in that single week…
“We’re fortunate to have history lessons when trying to figure out the market. But there are certain aspects of today’s market that just weren’t there in 1930. Some, like emerging economies, give us a serious advantage over our forefathers. Even if the average investor of 1930 were aware of a possible second downturn, his options would be incredibly limited. Only a millionaire in 1930 could invest in other, safer economies.
“Today, it’s as effortless as buying an ADR through your online broker. We’ve ramped up our portfolio to reflect our favorites: Asia, Africa and Latin America.” For these emerging market income opportunities, read Jim’s Lifetime Income Report.
“On top of all his accomplishments, he was also a highly successful investment broker. He became a partner in an investment firm called C. Clothier Jones & Co. in 1929. His business partners in the small $5 million ($61.5 million today) firm were some of the brightest, most successful investors in the world.
“Of course, after the stock market hit the skids in 1929, the company took a hit. But thanks to the rally in first half of 1930, C. Clothier Jones & Co. was in better shape than ever. He was on top of the world in the spring of 1930. But just like the year before, market speculators pushed stocks higher than they were worth. By late summer, the rally turned into another massive sell-off.
“When October came around, Williams and his partners were doing everything they could to stay in business. Their investments turned to dust, and they were so incredibly overleveraged the only course for them was to fudge some numbers and blatantly lie to shareholders. Williams left the country in mid-October to get married in Europe. By the time he returned, he was a wanted man, for market manipulation. Four of his colleagues and large investors in the company had ended their own lives in that single week…
“We’re fortunate to have history lessons when trying to figure out the market. But there are certain aspects of today’s market that just weren’t there in 1930. Some, like emerging economies, give us a serious advantage over our forefathers. Even if the average investor of 1930 were aware of a possible second downturn, his options would be incredibly limited. Only a millionaire in 1930 could invest in other, safer economies.
“Today, it’s as effortless as buying an ADR through your online broker. We’ve ramped up our portfolio to reflect our favorites: Asia, Africa and Latin America.” For these emerging market income opportunities, read Jim’s Lifetime Income Report.
Saturday, November 7, 2009
"Obama pay cuts a good start, but more is needed" says Public Citizen
October 22, 2009 by Robert Weissman
For the first time, the government appears to be set to take some meaningful action against business fat cats who a) run companies that exist only because of billions of dollars of taxpayer supports and b) still see fit to pay themselves obscene salaries.
The New York Times and other outlets report that Obama administration pay czar Kenneth Feinberg will require executives and top employees at the most bailed-out firms to cut back on salary by 50 percent. If these reports are true, Mr. Feinberg and the Obama administration deserve applause – with one big caveat.
Until now, there has been no systemic mechanism of accountability imposed on top-paid executives and employees at the bailed-out firms. They destroyed their own businesses, not to mention the national economy, but felt entitled nonetheless to hyper-compensation. And the government has done little to discipline them. Now, it appears Feinberg is prepared to do that – for a narrow category of bailout recipients.
Notably, Feinberg reportedly will cap salary and bonuses at AIG Financial Products, the division that brought down a giant multinational and led the government to shovel tens of billions of dollars into AIG, at $200,000. This is an extraordinarily high salary for most people in America, but by the standards of Wall Street it is modest to the point of humbling.
Feinberg has authority only to limit pay at seven bailed-out companies. However, Wall Street itself would likely be out of business but for the trillions of dollars of federal supports it has received, including an array of ongoing supports from the Federal Reserve.
Wall Street firms outside of the Feinberg Seven apparently have no compunction about returning to the outrageous pay practices that helped create the financial crisis. Wall Street is on track to pay an obscene $140 billion in bonuses and compensation, according to Wall Street Journal calculations.
Congress and the administration have demanded no reciprocity for saving the financial system from the financiers outside of the Feinberg Seven. Now is the time to start.
Congress should act immediately to impose a windfall bonus and profits tax on Wall Street. Some substantial portion of the funds that Wall Street aims to pocket as bonus payments and profit-taking should be returned to the public treasury.
Hyper-pay for executives and top traders is not just a symbolic issue. Crazy bonuses linked to this year’s performance helped incentivize dangerous, short-term betting – making it rational to bet on the housing bubble to continue to inflate, even in the face of certainty that it would eventually pop with devastating effects for financial firms (not to mention homeowners, communities and the national and global economy). Separate from addressing the scale of bonus compensation, it is imperative that Congress mandate that bonus payments be based on long-term performance over the course of a business cycle – ideally 10 years, but not less than seven.
Robert Weissman is president of Public Citizen.
For the first time, the government appears to be set to take some meaningful action against business fat cats who a) run companies that exist only because of billions of dollars of taxpayer supports and b) still see fit to pay themselves obscene salaries.
The New York Times and other outlets report that Obama administration pay czar Kenneth Feinberg will require executives and top employees at the most bailed-out firms to cut back on salary by 50 percent. If these reports are true, Mr. Feinberg and the Obama administration deserve applause – with one big caveat.
Until now, there has been no systemic mechanism of accountability imposed on top-paid executives and employees at the bailed-out firms. They destroyed their own businesses, not to mention the national economy, but felt entitled nonetheless to hyper-compensation. And the government has done little to discipline them. Now, it appears Feinberg is prepared to do that – for a narrow category of bailout recipients.
Notably, Feinberg reportedly will cap salary and bonuses at AIG Financial Products, the division that brought down a giant multinational and led the government to shovel tens of billions of dollars into AIG, at $200,000. This is an extraordinarily high salary for most people in America, but by the standards of Wall Street it is modest to the point of humbling.
Feinberg has authority only to limit pay at seven bailed-out companies. However, Wall Street itself would likely be out of business but for the trillions of dollars of federal supports it has received, including an array of ongoing supports from the Federal Reserve.
Wall Street firms outside of the Feinberg Seven apparently have no compunction about returning to the outrageous pay practices that helped create the financial crisis. Wall Street is on track to pay an obscene $140 billion in bonuses and compensation, according to Wall Street Journal calculations.
Congress and the administration have demanded no reciprocity for saving the financial system from the financiers outside of the Feinberg Seven. Now is the time to start.
Congress should act immediately to impose a windfall bonus and profits tax on Wall Street. Some substantial portion of the funds that Wall Street aims to pocket as bonus payments and profit-taking should be returned to the public treasury.
Hyper-pay for executives and top traders is not just a symbolic issue. Crazy bonuses linked to this year’s performance helped incentivize dangerous, short-term betting – making it rational to bet on the housing bubble to continue to inflate, even in the face of certainty that it would eventually pop with devastating effects for financial firms (not to mention homeowners, communities and the national and global economy). Separate from addressing the scale of bonus compensation, it is imperative that Congress mandate that bonus payments be based on long-term performance over the course of a business cycle – ideally 10 years, but not less than seven.
Robert Weissman is president of Public Citizen.
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