Working Life

   Apparently, if you shill for the banks AND violate ethical standards set forth by the institution on whose board you sit, no one really cares. Not the editorial boards of newspapers. Not the transcribers of press releases (formerly known as "journalists"). Not elected officials. And not advocates for the public interest.    Nope. The […]

Read the full story

   I doubt few people think the Federal Reserve is anything but a mouthpiece for the big financial institutions. And most people would be right–after all, the Fed’s Board of Governors and the branches are effectively run by creatures of the banks.     But, the least we can do is make sure that we […]

Read the full story

   This is the world we live in. When a politician, who represents the people, decides to stand up to powerful interests who have robbed the people, his political peers try to foil him. On the other hand, if you kiss the ass of powerful interests, you get campaign contributions. And we wonder why the […]

Read the full story

   When I wrote the "The Audacity of Greed" in 2008, I had a chapter called "Vodka and Penises" which detailed a rather unique birthday party thrown in Sardinia, Italy, in 2000 by Tyko CEO Dennis Kozlowski in honor of his wife–it featured vodka spraying from the penis of a replica of Michelangelo’s David. Kozlowski, […]

Read the full story

   Over the past few months, I’ve written a number of pieces about the ludicrous spectacle of anyone taking Standard and Poor’s and Moody’s seriously anymore. When S&P downgraded the U.S. rating, it underscored how entirely corrupt the system has become.     Joy and celebration: maybe S&P even broke the law.  The investigation is […]

Read the full story

   Yee Haw! Some sense. Those questions reflect a common refrain of businesses, their lobbyists and supporters in Washington, who complain that too much regulation is stifling the economy. In both cases, Mr. Obama responded that farmers might be hearing unfounded rumors. “If you hear something is happening, but it hasn’t happened, don’t always believe […]

Read the full story

   Just a quick addition to my criticism of the Oracle of Omaha’s empty cry for higher taxes. Let’s see, wanna guess how much money Warren Buffett has invested of his multi-billion dollar fortune into pushing a campaign to hike taxes on the wealthy?    Zero.    Zilch.    Nada.    Ok, I guess since […]

Read the full story

   A little insight into the world of Verizon, the company attacking its workers not because it has to from a financial point of view but just because of greed. People need to make some connections. For example: Despite earning over $32.5 billion over the last 3 years, Verizon not only paid nothing in corporate […]

Read the full story

   It is a sign of how truly leaderless we are, from Congress to the White House, that people are slobbering over a billionaire’s declaration that the rich should pay more in taxes. Well, duh.    But, let me be one voice who cautions, at the sight of so many puppies rolling over in joy […]

Read the full story

   In the list of really annoying habits of the bi-partisan obsession with the phony debt and deficit "crisis" is the inability, or the ideological desire to willfully refuse, to do simple math. Because if you did simple math, then, you cannot be FOR cheaper government without being FOR single-payer health care. Put another way, […]

Read the full story