Wonder why so many people are fed up with bureaucrats in Washington?
Meredith Attwell Baker, a Federal Communications Commission official who just four months ago voted to approve a mega-merger between Comcast and NBC, is resigning from the FCC to become a lobbyist for ... wait for it ... Comcast.
Our friends at the media reform organization Free Press are on the case.
Add your name to Free Press’s petition calling on Congress to immediately launch an investigation of this seemingly stunning conflict of interest.
This is the latest example of the “revolving door” phenomenon, in which public officials go to work for Big Business, exploiting connections and information they gained as public servants to then push the corporate agenda in Congress and the White House.
Baker’s jump to Comcast is particularly egregious. As recently as March, she was giving speeches complaining that the Comcast-NBC deal “took too long.”
Outside of Washington, people of every political persuasion feel frustrated and betrayed by policies and politicians that favor giant corporations over ordinary Americans.
Sadly, the complete capture of government by industry barely raises an eyebrow inside the Beltway anymore. That’s why Congress needs to hear from you.
Stop the revolving door! Demand that Congress investigate Baker’s actions.
If we don't act now, business as usual in Washington will continue to undermine our democracy.
photograph of Glenn Simpson Thank you for taking action!
Glenn Simpson
Public Citizen’s Online Action Team
Friday, May 13, 2011
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Oppose attempts to weaken the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Senate Republicans have given up their fight against consumer advocate Elizabeth Warren.
That's the good news. But the bad news is now they say they’ll oppose any nominee to run the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau unless the agency is watered down first.*
Republicans in the House are fighting the new consumer bureau too, with bills to weaken the agency. It’s time to send a clear message that Americans want to end the financial tricks and traps.
Tell your representative: Oppose attempts to weaken the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Warren recently explained to Jon Stewart on the Daily Show that opponents of Wall Street reform in the House are still attempting to “stick a knife in the ribs” of the new agency.
These enemies of Wall Street reform are working to make the bureau into a weak, ineffective agency without the will or ability to curb the kind of financial abuses that caused the nation’s worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.
Go to: Learn more about the bills attacking the consumer bureau and take action.
Thanks for all you do,
Rick Claypool
Public Citizen’s Online Action Team
action@citizen.org
Donate to Public Citizen to fight anti-Wall Street Reform efforts
* Read more about the politics surrounding the nomination of Elizabeth Warren to run the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and why we think we're in a position to win.
Visit our Financial Reform page to learn more about Public Citizen's work to hold big banks accountable. To get regular e-alerts about opportunities for activism and other ways to help with Public Citizen's work, sign up for the Public Citizen Action Network. If you do not want to receive future emails from Public Citizen, go to http://action.citizen.org
That's the good news. But the bad news is now they say they’ll oppose any nominee to run the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau unless the agency is watered down first.*
Republicans in the House are fighting the new consumer bureau too, with bills to weaken the agency. It’s time to send a clear message that Americans want to end the financial tricks and traps.
Tell your representative: Oppose attempts to weaken the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Warren recently explained to Jon Stewart on the Daily Show that opponents of Wall Street reform in the House are still attempting to “stick a knife in the ribs” of the new agency.
These enemies of Wall Street reform are working to make the bureau into a weak, ineffective agency without the will or ability to curb the kind of financial abuses that caused the nation’s worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.
Go to: Learn more about the bills attacking the consumer bureau and take action.
Thanks for all you do,
Rick Claypool
Public Citizen’s Online Action Team
action@citizen.org
Donate to Public Citizen to fight anti-Wall Street Reform efforts
* Read more about the politics surrounding the nomination of Elizabeth Warren to run the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and why we think we're in a position to win.
Visit our Financial Reform page to learn more about Public Citizen's work to hold big banks accountable. To get regular e-alerts about opportunities for activism and other ways to help with Public Citizen's work, sign up for the Public Citizen Action Network. If you do not want to receive future emails from Public Citizen, go to http://action.citizen.org
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Soaking the Rich And Why They'll Never Pay Anyway
Bill Bonner
Dow down 83 points yesterday. Gold down $25.
We're waiting for a sell-off...either at the end of QE 2...or in anticipation of it. When will it come? We don't know, but it won't keep us waiting forever.
Meanwhile, we are seeing more and more rich-bashing in the press.
Most people hate the rich. And why shouldn't they?
The rich are good at hogging the good things in life. That's why they're rich, after all.
They get the fancy digs. The fancy cars. The fancy girlfriends.
You see them enjoying life in business class seats, while you ache in economy. You see them pulling their Mercedes and Audis into their big garages, while you make do with a humble split-level on the wrong side of time. And their wives always look like they just came out of a beauty spa....
Their stocks are going up...while you can't find a job!
The rich learn how to manipulate the system for their own benefit. That's the way it always works. Money likes power. Power likes money. Usually, they find a way to work together.
The rich howl about how much in taxes they pay. They whine about 'soak the rich' proposals. They kvetch about 'giveaways' to the zombies. But, they are probably more in control than they appear.
Take Mark Zuckerberg for example. Please. Here's a guy who says he would be "cool" if they raised his income taxes. In this refrain, he joins the sanctimonious choir headed by Warren Buffett, Ted Turner, and other do-gooders.
Well, guess what. You know why they don't mind an increase in the income tax rate? It's because
1) they are so rich that the marginal utility of money for them is close to zero. They won't even notice an income tax hike. Money hardly counts when you have as much of it as they have. It is like an extra snowball to an Eskimo. It just doesn't make any difference.
2) They don't pay much in income taxes anyway. They tend to have their wealth in stocks. And they make most of their money from stock market gains, which aren't taxed as regular income; they're taxed as capital gains.
Here's Newsweek with the story:
It's easy for Mark Zuckerberg to say he's 'cool' with raising income-tax rates. Because it won't affect him.
It drives economist Bruce Bartlett crazy every time he hears another bazillionaire announce he's in favor of paying higher taxes. Most recently it was Mark Zuckerberg who got Bartlett's blood boiling when the Facebook founder declared himself "cool" with paying more in federal taxes, joining such tycoons as Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Ted Turner, and even a stray hedge-fund manager or two.
Bartlett, a former member of the Reagan White House, isn't against the wealthy paying higher taxes. He's that rare conservative who thinks higher taxes need to be part of the deficit debate. His beef? It's a hollow gesture to say the federal government should raise the tax rate on the country's top wage earners when the likes of Zuckerberg have most of their wealth tied up in stock. Many of the super-rich see virtually all their income as capital gains, and capital gains are taxed at a much lower rate -- 15 percent -- than ordinary income. When Warren Buffett talks about paying a lower tax rate than his secretary, that's because she sees most of her pay through a paycheck, while the bulk of his compensation comes in the form of capital gains and dividends. In 2006, for instance, Buffett paid 17.7 percent in taxes on the $46 million he booked that year, while his secretary lost 30 percent of her $60,000 salary to the government.
"It's easy to say 'Raise taxes' when you know you're not going to have to pay those taxes," Bartlett says. "What I don't hear is 'Let's raise the capital-gains tax.'
And more thoughts...
We published an item from Vanity Fair a few weeks ago. It explained how the top 1% of US households now earns nearly a quarter of all the income...and controls 40% of the nation's wealth. The richest people have increased their incomes 18% over the past decade. At the middle and lower income levels, on the other hand, earnings have actually gone down. Many of the good jobs have gone overseas...while cost of living continue to rise.
The rich are getting richer than ever. The middle classes are having trouble making ends meet. Think about gasoline at $4 a gallon. To a rich s.o.b. in New York or San Francisco, it hardly matters. But it's a big deal to a truck-driving cracker from Alabama or Georgia.
But, if you're rich, watch out. Because sooner or later the mobs are going to figure out what has happened to them. Then, they're going rise up and go after you. It won't be pretty.
Eventually, people will figure out how it works. They'll see how the 'rich' -- or at least some of them -- colluded with the government to rip off the middle and lower classes. Not exactly intentionally. It involved more stupidity than cunning. But here's what happened.
The feds created the dollar-based monetary system in 1971. Wage gains ended three years later.
The Fed held interest rates artificially low...and undermined the purchasing power of the dollar. It made more sense to spend than to save.
This eroded the benefits of building capital -- either in the form of machinery or worker training. EZ money devalued the hard work, patience, and savings needed to create high value-added industry. Americans became good consumers, not good producers. And since they were not producing high quality products, they couldn't command high salaries. More and more, the labor force moved to low-paying service jobs that required little training and little capital investment...and shopped for cheap goods at discount stores.
Meanwhile capital gains tax rates were lowered, and business profits increased as jobs were outsourced to lower-wage economies.
The middle and lower classes were snagged in debt, particularly through federally subsidized mortgage lending. Then, the feds turned the financial industry into a vast hedge fund.
The genius of the hedge fund is in a trick of mathematics. If I invest your money and take 20% of the gains, it sounds like a decent deal. I only make money if you do. And you get the lion's share. But over time, I will eventually get all your money. Because you will take all the losses while I chip away at the gains, year in and year out.
When the financial industry's credits went bad, the feds stepped in to bail them out. Now, Wall Street is enjoying the "heads I win, tails you lose" life of a hedge fund. The dollar -- along with the yen -- has become the funding currency for speculations all over the world. If the speculations go well, the industry collects huge performance fees. If they go badly, the feds lend the failed speculators more money -- at zero cost.
Of course, here at the Daily Reckoning, we always take the part of the under-dog. Besides, we've been rich and we've been poor. Being rich isn't necessarily any more fun, but at least when you're a rich underdog, you don't have to worry about money.
*** Osama bin Laden....
Most of the world heaved a sigh of relief when the world's most wanted man was gunned down. Apparently unarmed.
But here at the Daily Reckoning, we were neither relieved nor revenged. We were uneasy. It did not particularly concern us that another world improver was dead; what bothered us was that there were so many left alive. Many of them -- terrorists and terrorist-fighters -- may now be throbbing to commit even larger acts of improvement.
*** Our old friend Doug Casey has more thoughts on Osama bin Laden's killing.
"The whole thing stinks, from top to bottom. You'd think that if they knew where he was, they would have gone out of their way to take him alive -- at almost any cost. Think of the information he would have had! But instead they seemed to go out of their way to kill him, which impresses me as incredibly stupid and counterproductive... Unless they don't want him talking.
"After all, Osama said several times that he had nothing to do with the events of 9/11. But Bush used him, and 9/11, as the casus belli for Afghanistan. It would have been interesting to know who Osama thought was actually behind 9/11.
"Then, after killing him, they dump his body in the Arabian Sea, using the excuse that he had to be interred within 24 hours as a Muslim, and it wasn't possible to bury him because they didn't want to create a shrine. As if they go out of their way to bury every Muslim they kill within 24 hours... I suspect that, in fact, they leave most bodies as a treat for the dogs and the crows. We'll now never know whose body that was. Or exactly how he was killed.
"So now, in any event, all the physical evidence has been disposed of. It's unclear to me if they also executed everyone else in the house -- excuse me, "compound," as any house government agents attack automatically becomes a compound -- where they took him. I suspect everyone was executed. Witnesses are never convenient.
"I have a question: Quis custodiet ipsos custodies -- Who watches the watchers? I thought it was ironic that Putin of Russia -- who's undoubtedly put out quite a few orders for hits in his day -- evidenced outrage at the way the U.S. government is trying to kill Gaddafi, now that it seems expedient. I have it here -- Putin said: "Who permitted this, was there any trial? Who took on the right to execute this man, no matter who he is?"
"And he's right. I find it shocking that the U.S. government just takes it upon itself to kill people now, without even a show trial like Saddam got. Of course the government has always had professional killers in its employ -- but it at least had the decency to deny their existence. Now it brags about them, and parades them. It's always had secret prisons too -- but now it's quite overt about Gitmo and renditions and torture.
"Don't get me wrong. I believe Osama is dead -- whenever he died. And I'm glad he's dead. I don't like the things he believed in, especially his especially puritanical version of Islam. But this is not the way these things should be handled. At least not by a supposedly free country."
Regards,
Bill Bonner,
for The Daily Reckoning
Dow down 83 points yesterday. Gold down $25.
We're waiting for a sell-off...either at the end of QE 2...or in anticipation of it. When will it come? We don't know, but it won't keep us waiting forever.
Meanwhile, we are seeing more and more rich-bashing in the press.
Most people hate the rich. And why shouldn't they?
The rich are good at hogging the good things in life. That's why they're rich, after all.
They get the fancy digs. The fancy cars. The fancy girlfriends.
You see them enjoying life in business class seats, while you ache in economy. You see them pulling their Mercedes and Audis into their big garages, while you make do with a humble split-level on the wrong side of time. And their wives always look like they just came out of a beauty spa....
Their stocks are going up...while you can't find a job!
The rich learn how to manipulate the system for their own benefit. That's the way it always works. Money likes power. Power likes money. Usually, they find a way to work together.
The rich howl about how much in taxes they pay. They whine about 'soak the rich' proposals. They kvetch about 'giveaways' to the zombies. But, they are probably more in control than they appear.
Take Mark Zuckerberg for example. Please. Here's a guy who says he would be "cool" if they raised his income taxes. In this refrain, he joins the sanctimonious choir headed by Warren Buffett, Ted Turner, and other do-gooders.
Well, guess what. You know why they don't mind an increase in the income tax rate? It's because
1) they are so rich that the marginal utility of money for them is close to zero. They won't even notice an income tax hike. Money hardly counts when you have as much of it as they have. It is like an extra snowball to an Eskimo. It just doesn't make any difference.
2) They don't pay much in income taxes anyway. They tend to have their wealth in stocks. And they make most of their money from stock market gains, which aren't taxed as regular income; they're taxed as capital gains.
Here's Newsweek with the story:
It's easy for Mark Zuckerberg to say he's 'cool' with raising income-tax rates. Because it won't affect him.
It drives economist Bruce Bartlett crazy every time he hears another bazillionaire announce he's in favor of paying higher taxes. Most recently it was Mark Zuckerberg who got Bartlett's blood boiling when the Facebook founder declared himself "cool" with paying more in federal taxes, joining such tycoons as Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Ted Turner, and even a stray hedge-fund manager or two.
Bartlett, a former member of the Reagan White House, isn't against the wealthy paying higher taxes. He's that rare conservative who thinks higher taxes need to be part of the deficit debate. His beef? It's a hollow gesture to say the federal government should raise the tax rate on the country's top wage earners when the likes of Zuckerberg have most of their wealth tied up in stock. Many of the super-rich see virtually all their income as capital gains, and capital gains are taxed at a much lower rate -- 15 percent -- than ordinary income. When Warren Buffett talks about paying a lower tax rate than his secretary, that's because she sees most of her pay through a paycheck, while the bulk of his compensation comes in the form of capital gains and dividends. In 2006, for instance, Buffett paid 17.7 percent in taxes on the $46 million he booked that year, while his secretary lost 30 percent of her $60,000 salary to the government.
"It's easy to say 'Raise taxes' when you know you're not going to have to pay those taxes," Bartlett says. "What I don't hear is 'Let's raise the capital-gains tax.'
And more thoughts...
We published an item from Vanity Fair a few weeks ago. It explained how the top 1% of US households now earns nearly a quarter of all the income...and controls 40% of the nation's wealth. The richest people have increased their incomes 18% over the past decade. At the middle and lower income levels, on the other hand, earnings have actually gone down. Many of the good jobs have gone overseas...while cost of living continue to rise.
The rich are getting richer than ever. The middle classes are having trouble making ends meet. Think about gasoline at $4 a gallon. To a rich s.o.b. in New York or San Francisco, it hardly matters. But it's a big deal to a truck-driving cracker from Alabama or Georgia.
But, if you're rich, watch out. Because sooner or later the mobs are going to figure out what has happened to them. Then, they're going rise up and go after you. It won't be pretty.
Eventually, people will figure out how it works. They'll see how the 'rich' -- or at least some of them -- colluded with the government to rip off the middle and lower classes. Not exactly intentionally. It involved more stupidity than cunning. But here's what happened.
The feds created the dollar-based monetary system in 1971. Wage gains ended three years later.
The Fed held interest rates artificially low...and undermined the purchasing power of the dollar. It made more sense to spend than to save.
This eroded the benefits of building capital -- either in the form of machinery or worker training. EZ money devalued the hard work, patience, and savings needed to create high value-added industry. Americans became good consumers, not good producers. And since they were not producing high quality products, they couldn't command high salaries. More and more, the labor force moved to low-paying service jobs that required little training and little capital investment...and shopped for cheap goods at discount stores.
Meanwhile capital gains tax rates were lowered, and business profits increased as jobs were outsourced to lower-wage economies.
The middle and lower classes were snagged in debt, particularly through federally subsidized mortgage lending. Then, the feds turned the financial industry into a vast hedge fund.
The genius of the hedge fund is in a trick of mathematics. If I invest your money and take 20% of the gains, it sounds like a decent deal. I only make money if you do. And you get the lion's share. But over time, I will eventually get all your money. Because you will take all the losses while I chip away at the gains, year in and year out.
When the financial industry's credits went bad, the feds stepped in to bail them out. Now, Wall Street is enjoying the "heads I win, tails you lose" life of a hedge fund. The dollar -- along with the yen -- has become the funding currency for speculations all over the world. If the speculations go well, the industry collects huge performance fees. If they go badly, the feds lend the failed speculators more money -- at zero cost.
Of course, here at the Daily Reckoning, we always take the part of the under-dog. Besides, we've been rich and we've been poor. Being rich isn't necessarily any more fun, but at least when you're a rich underdog, you don't have to worry about money.
*** Osama bin Laden....
Most of the world heaved a sigh of relief when the world's most wanted man was gunned down. Apparently unarmed.
But here at the Daily Reckoning, we were neither relieved nor revenged. We were uneasy. It did not particularly concern us that another world improver was dead; what bothered us was that there were so many left alive. Many of them -- terrorists and terrorist-fighters -- may now be throbbing to commit even larger acts of improvement.
*** Our old friend Doug Casey has more thoughts on Osama bin Laden's killing.
"The whole thing stinks, from top to bottom. You'd think that if they knew where he was, they would have gone out of their way to take him alive -- at almost any cost. Think of the information he would have had! But instead they seemed to go out of their way to kill him, which impresses me as incredibly stupid and counterproductive... Unless they don't want him talking.
"After all, Osama said several times that he had nothing to do with the events of 9/11. But Bush used him, and 9/11, as the casus belli for Afghanistan. It would have been interesting to know who Osama thought was actually behind 9/11.
"Then, after killing him, they dump his body in the Arabian Sea, using the excuse that he had to be interred within 24 hours as a Muslim, and it wasn't possible to bury him because they didn't want to create a shrine. As if they go out of their way to bury every Muslim they kill within 24 hours... I suspect that, in fact, they leave most bodies as a treat for the dogs and the crows. We'll now never know whose body that was. Or exactly how he was killed.
"So now, in any event, all the physical evidence has been disposed of. It's unclear to me if they also executed everyone else in the house -- excuse me, "compound," as any house government agents attack automatically becomes a compound -- where they took him. I suspect everyone was executed. Witnesses are never convenient.
"I have a question: Quis custodiet ipsos custodies -- Who watches the watchers? I thought it was ironic that Putin of Russia -- who's undoubtedly put out quite a few orders for hits in his day -- evidenced outrage at the way the U.S. government is trying to kill Gaddafi, now that it seems expedient. I have it here -- Putin said: "Who permitted this, was there any trial? Who took on the right to execute this man, no matter who he is?"
"And he's right. I find it shocking that the U.S. government just takes it upon itself to kill people now, without even a show trial like Saddam got. Of course the government has always had professional killers in its employ -- but it at least had the decency to deny their existence. Now it brags about them, and parades them. It's always had secret prisons too -- but now it's quite overt about Gitmo and renditions and torture.
"Don't get me wrong. I believe Osama is dead -- whenever he died. And I'm glad he's dead. I don't like the things he believed in, especially his especially puritanical version of Islam. But this is not the way these things should be handled. At least not by a supposedly free country."
Regards,
Bill Bonner,
for The Daily Reckoning
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
President Obama, Stand Up to the U.S. Chamber and Fight for Disclosure
Sign the Petition to Support the President’s Executive Order
“We will fight it through all available means […] To quote what they say every day on Libya, all options are on the table.”
That’s what the chief lobbyist for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce told the New York Times after hearing the White House may issue an executive order requiring corporations that do business with the government to disclose their political spending.
The Chamber’s pledge to fight tooth and nail to keep the American people in the dark about conflicts of interest in government is appalling, but not surprising.
If corporations and their executives are spending on politicians in an effort to “win” government contracts, the American people should know.
Urge President Obama to stand up to the U.S. Chamber and fight for disclosure. Sign the petition today!
“We will fight it through all available means […] To quote what they say every day on Libya, all options are on the table.”
That’s what the chief lobbyist for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce told the New York Times after hearing the White House may issue an executive order requiring corporations that do business with the government to disclose their political spending.
The Chamber’s pledge to fight tooth and nail to keep the American people in the dark about conflicts of interest in government is appalling, but not surprising.
If corporations and their executives are spending on politicians in an effort to “win” government contracts, the American people should know.
Urge President Obama to stand up to the U.S. Chamber and fight for disclosure. Sign the petition today!
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Tell the EPA to Stop Air Toxics From Harming Our Communities :Mercury
Mercury pollution is poison and 300,000 babies are born every year at risk.1
It might as well be Russian Roulette: At least 1 in 12 and as many as 1 in 6 American women of childbearing age have enough mercury in their bodies to put a baby at risk. Mercury and other dangerous air pollutants are connected to extreme health problems: brain damage, learning disabilities, birth defects, heart disease, cancer and even premature death.2 And we finally have a chance to end the cycle.
Please send a message to the EPA today to stop air toxics like mercury from harming our communities.
After 20 years of delay, the EPA has finally proposed strong mercury and air toxics standards for power plants.
Our nation's biggest polluters want to block these standards, but if enacted we'll be preventing 17,000 premature deaths and 120,000 cases of childhood asthma symptoms a year.3 The stakes are too high to let dirty polluters ramrod the process.
There has never been a clearer need for massive public involvement. We must lead the charge to make sure the EPA has the support it needs to clean up this dangerous pollution and protect our health. Together, we will send hundreds of thousands of comments and ensure the best possible standards for our health.
Send your message to the EPA today in support of life saving protections that can keep mercury pollution out of our communities.
All 50 states, the District of Columbia, 5 tribes and two U.S. territories have issued fish advisories, many of them due to the risks of mercury poisoning.4
Other air toxics are just as dangerous to our public health. Arsenic, dioxins and acid gases are also spewing from the nation's power plants, putting people at risk across the country. Enough is enough
Whether you live in Denver, Chicago, or Philadelphia or anyway in between -- we are all at risk. And finally after years of delays, court orders, and your support, the EPA is making a strong stand for public health, requiring big polluters to stop spewing mercury, arsenic, acid gases, dioxins and other air toxics from their smokestacks.
Stand with us now and tell the EPA to get the job done!
Thanks for all that you do to protect our health and the environment.
Sarah Hodgdon
Sierra Club Conservation Director
It might as well be Russian Roulette: At least 1 in 12 and as many as 1 in 6 American women of childbearing age have enough mercury in their bodies to put a baby at risk. Mercury and other dangerous air pollutants are connected to extreme health problems: brain damage, learning disabilities, birth defects, heart disease, cancer and even premature death.2 And we finally have a chance to end the cycle.
Please send a message to the EPA today to stop air toxics like mercury from harming our communities.
After 20 years of delay, the EPA has finally proposed strong mercury and air toxics standards for power plants.
Our nation's biggest polluters want to block these standards, but if enacted we'll be preventing 17,000 premature deaths and 120,000 cases of childhood asthma symptoms a year.3 The stakes are too high to let dirty polluters ramrod the process.
There has never been a clearer need for massive public involvement. We must lead the charge to make sure the EPA has the support it needs to clean up this dangerous pollution and protect our health. Together, we will send hundreds of thousands of comments and ensure the best possible standards for our health.
Send your message to the EPA today in support of life saving protections that can keep mercury pollution out of our communities.
All 50 states, the District of Columbia, 5 tribes and two U.S. territories have issued fish advisories, many of them due to the risks of mercury poisoning.4
Other air toxics are just as dangerous to our public health. Arsenic, dioxins and acid gases are also spewing from the nation's power plants, putting people at risk across the country. Enough is enough
Whether you live in Denver, Chicago, or Philadelphia or anyway in between -- we are all at risk. And finally after years of delays, court orders, and your support, the EPA is making a strong stand for public health, requiring big polluters to stop spewing mercury, arsenic, acid gases, dioxins and other air toxics from their smokestacks.
Stand with us now and tell the EPA to get the job done!
Thanks for all that you do to protect our health and the environment.
Sarah Hodgdon
Sierra Club Conservation Director
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Who wants to be a billionaire? Public Citiizen's Proposal to Control Hedge Fund Managers
Hello Concerned Citizens,
The average pay for the top 25 hedge fund managers was $1 billion each in 2009.(1)
So one year after Wall Street crashed the economy and plunged the middle class into its worst crisis since the Great Depression, some of the people who created the crisis became newly made billionaires.
Help us show public support for ending Wall Street’s outrageous pay practices.
Sign the petition: Wall Street must be stopped from rewarding itself for making more trouble.
These 25 hedge fund managers made $25 billion. Now, what else costs $25 billion?
How about NASA? You know, the federal agency that employs thousands and thousands of scientists and engineers? NASA’s budget in 2010 was less than $19 billion.(2)
Guess what else is close? Wisconsin. Gov. Scott Walker’s budget cuts that put corporations before people make that state’s full year budget come to $29.3 billion.(3)
Why, with just a few more cuts, Walker could just sell the whole state to these 25 hedge fund managers. How’s that for “fiscal responsibility” and “free enterprise”?
It’s simply obscene that Wall Street gamblers are raking in such vast sums of wealth. And what is our society getting out of the deal? Increased economic instability and unemployment for 1 out of every 10 American workers.
Sign the petition to end Wall Street’s outrageous pay practices:
Thanks for all you do,
Rick Claypool
Public Citizen’s Online Action Team
action@citizen.org
1. Gilbert, Lisa and Bartlett Naylor. “The Unified Pay Theory,” Huffington Post. March 7, 2011.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lisa-gilbert/the-unified-pay-theory_b_830165.html
2. News Release. “NASA Announces Fiscal Year 2010 Budget,” May 7, 2009
http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2009/may/HQ_09-102_FY2010Budget.html
3. State of Wisconsin – Department of Administration. March 1, 2011
http://www.doa.state.wi.us/debf/execbudget.asp
Visit our Financial Reform page to learn more about Public Citizen's work to hold big banks accountable. To get regular e-alerts about opportunities for activism and other ways to help with Public Citizen's work, sign up for the Public Citizen Action Network. If you do want to receive future emails from Public Citizen, go to http://action.citizen.org/subscribe.jsp.
Contribute | © 2011 Public Citizen | Take Action
The average pay for the top 25 hedge fund managers was $1 billion each in 2009.(1)
So one year after Wall Street crashed the economy and plunged the middle class into its worst crisis since the Great Depression, some of the people who created the crisis became newly made billionaires.
Help us show public support for ending Wall Street’s outrageous pay practices.
Sign the petition: Wall Street must be stopped from rewarding itself for making more trouble.
These 25 hedge fund managers made $25 billion. Now, what else costs $25 billion?
How about NASA? You know, the federal agency that employs thousands and thousands of scientists and engineers? NASA’s budget in 2010 was less than $19 billion.(2)
Guess what else is close? Wisconsin. Gov. Scott Walker’s budget cuts that put corporations before people make that state’s full year budget come to $29.3 billion.(3)
Why, with just a few more cuts, Walker could just sell the whole state to these 25 hedge fund managers. How’s that for “fiscal responsibility” and “free enterprise”?
It’s simply obscene that Wall Street gamblers are raking in such vast sums of wealth. And what is our society getting out of the deal? Increased economic instability and unemployment for 1 out of every 10 American workers.
Sign the petition to end Wall Street’s outrageous pay practices:
Thanks for all you do,
Rick Claypool
Public Citizen’s Online Action Team
action@citizen.org
1. Gilbert, Lisa and Bartlett Naylor. “The Unified Pay Theory,” Huffington Post. March 7, 2011.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lisa-gilbert/the-unified-pay-theory_b_830165.html
2. News Release. “NASA Announces Fiscal Year 2010 Budget,” May 7, 2009
http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2009/may/HQ_09-102_FY2010Budget.html
3. State of Wisconsin – Department of Administration. March 1, 2011
http://www.doa.state.wi.us/debf/execbudget.asp
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Friday, March 11, 2011
Boone Pickens On Oil and Solution to Egypt's Energy & Unemployment Problem
From the Wall St. Cheat Sheet, here are some thoughts from T. Boone Pickens on oil.
On whether Sauda Arabia is capable of producing 10 million barrels a day:
“Well, they’re about nine now and I don’t think it’s easy for them to do. They can’t produce 12. They may get it up to 10. I’m not sure they can hold 10 very long.”
On whether the Environmental Protection Agency and the Obama administration in general is at war with fossil fuels:
“I think probably so. But I can tell you what, you’re going to run the cost of gasoline, diesel, electricity, and power. You’re going to run it through the ceiling and I can tell you that people that cause that to happen, and the consumer that has to experience those increases. That consumer is the same guy that votes. And I can tell you when he figures out who ran all these costs up on him, he’s going to vote against him.”
On what country has the best plan for oil:
“China has got the plan. They’ve loaned money and they’re going to be paid back with oil; probably $50 or $60 a barrel. They have a huge advantage. And they have purchased a lot of oil. The Chinese always have a plan.”
Pickens doesn’t rule out $130 oil and he sees gas at $4 a gallon this summer.
I believe that the spike in gas prices had much more to do with the Great Recession than is generally conceded (post here). If Pickens is anywhere near the mark, we could easily see growth substantially curtailed and another recession is not by any means out of the equation.
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Solar Cell Manufacturing Grant to Evergreen Solar & other US Solar Cell Companies for Egypt and other Middle Eastern countries to Offset Oil Production Decline
“The untold story behind Egypt's revolution is that oil production
in Egypt has drastically declined in the past decade. As of 2010 Egypt began consuming all the oil that it extracts. Egypt no longer exports oil.
So for the past 15 years or so, Egypt's government has been raising less and less income with which to offer food and fuel subsidies to the teeming masses in the country's expansive slums. Today, Egypt is reportedly the world's largest wheat importer. In the past year or so, as net oil exports shifted down to zero,the food-problem became even worse for Egypt. So the Egyptian government has fewer funds from oil with which to pay higher prices for food imports and subsidies.
Their need for energy has grown,so I propose: Gov.Deval Patrick should contact the Energy Dept. and propose to DOE that Evergreen Solar ,Spire Corp. & XSunX be given a grant to manufacture solar panels that can be installed on Cairo rooftops.
Instead of the Defense Dept. giving money to Egypt to buy more tanks and helicopters that might conceivably be used against Israelis, have the US State Dept. contract companies to teach Egyptians how to install these panels to increase employment. A Chinese MIT graduate student has started One Earth Designs; Scot Frank President & CEO that does something similar in China & Mongolia. It could be incorporated into the American Recovery Act legislation :
http://www.oe.energy.gov/american_recovery_reinvestment_act.htm
Solution Provided by International Computers & Technology LLC which has no financial interest in any of the companies mentioned.”
On whether Sauda Arabia is capable of producing 10 million barrels a day:
“Well, they’re about nine now and I don’t think it’s easy for them to do. They can’t produce 12. They may get it up to 10. I’m not sure they can hold 10 very long.”
On whether the Environmental Protection Agency and the Obama administration in general is at war with fossil fuels:
“I think probably so. But I can tell you what, you’re going to run the cost of gasoline, diesel, electricity, and power. You’re going to run it through the ceiling and I can tell you that people that cause that to happen, and the consumer that has to experience those increases. That consumer is the same guy that votes. And I can tell you when he figures out who ran all these costs up on him, he’s going to vote against him.”
On what country has the best plan for oil:
“China has got the plan. They’ve loaned money and they’re going to be paid back with oil; probably $50 or $60 a barrel. They have a huge advantage. And they have purchased a lot of oil. The Chinese always have a plan.”
Pickens doesn’t rule out $130 oil and he sees gas at $4 a gallon this summer.
I believe that the spike in gas prices had much more to do with the Great Recession than is generally conceded (post here). If Pickens is anywhere near the mark, we could easily see growth substantially curtailed and another recession is not by any means out of the equation.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Solar Cell Manufacturing Grant to Evergreen Solar & other US Solar Cell Companies for Egypt and other Middle Eastern countries to Offset Oil Production Decline
“The untold story behind Egypt's revolution is that oil production
in Egypt has drastically declined in the past decade. As of 2010 Egypt began consuming all the oil that it extracts. Egypt no longer exports oil.
So for the past 15 years or so, Egypt's government has been raising less and less income with which to offer food and fuel subsidies to the teeming masses in the country's expansive slums. Today, Egypt is reportedly the world's largest wheat importer. In the past year or so, as net oil exports shifted down to zero,the food-problem became even worse for Egypt. So the Egyptian government has fewer funds from oil with which to pay higher prices for food imports and subsidies.
Their need for energy has grown,so I propose: Gov.Deval Patrick should contact the Energy Dept. and propose to DOE that Evergreen Solar ,Spire Corp. & XSunX be given a grant to manufacture solar panels that can be installed on Cairo rooftops.
Instead of the Defense Dept. giving money to Egypt to buy more tanks and helicopters that might conceivably be used against Israelis, have the US State Dept. contract companies to teach Egyptians how to install these panels to increase employment. A Chinese MIT graduate student has started One Earth Designs; Scot Frank President & CEO that does something similar in China & Mongolia. It could be incorporated into the American Recovery Act legislation :
http://www.oe.energy.gov/american_recovery_reinvestment_act.htm
Solution Provided by International Computers & Technology LLC which has no financial interest in any of the companies mentioned.”
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