Working Life

There is a deal that prevents the NYC Opera from locking out its workers. Though hard to know right now what the deal is, there is still one mystery I’d still like to learn more details about.

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You can try to call these conditions whatever you want. But, bottom line, this is for slaves.

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I love that quote from Woody Guthrie (H/T to Citizens for Tax Justice for using it). Says it all, from the halls of the Chamber of Commerce to the corporate suites to the Congress. Today’s use of the fountain pen comes courtesy of another corporate scam to avoid taxes.

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Well, it gets a bit repetitive to write about this but it’s that or spacecrafts following comets(come to think of it, the comet stuff is much more fun). But, here we go again: bankers rip us off and all they need to do is sock it to the shareholders and customers and, presto, Eric Holder and his boss go home happy campers. The Treasury might get a little richer but nothing much will have changed.

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One response to this might be “better late than never”. Actually, the spin on this story neglects to actually talk about the role S&P actually played in the financial crisis. But, apparently, the geniuses at S&P have now figured out what any normal person would understand: when a few people get all the marbles, not much is left for the others.

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Corporate tax inversions are getting a lot of ink now (thanks largely to the heavy lifting done by the Levin brothers–Carl in the Senate, Sander in the House, and Citizens for Tax Justice…not, respectfully, by the celebrity of the moment). The president has even spoken out a bit, though we will see whether that’s just mid-term elections political rhetoric. But, a related move is now on the agenda and I love the name: No Federal Contracts for Corporate Deserters Act.

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…Or else maybe Nike’s off-shore shell game has changed. In any case, there’s something fishy in Bermuda.

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One person who is a bit of a hero, I think, in this whole post-financial-crisis-the-bankers-got-away-with-it scam is Jed Rakoff, who sits in the Federal District Court of Manhattan. A few years ago, I wrote that Rakoff understood that the government, our government, and, in particular, the Securities and Exchange Commission, is not serious about holding people accountable for the robbery and greed and incompetence that led to the financial collapse, costing millions of people their jobs and obliterating trillions of dollars in wealth. As Rakoff said, it’s all a show. But, at least, when he can, Rakoff is trying to make it hurt–and, now, to the tune of a $1.9 billion fine against Bank of America.

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Yipee, it’s up, the economy is “rebounding”, smile, celebrate…uh, well, not so fast.

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Under the heading of “this is not surprising”, I’d put this news: bank CEOs are playing a central role in moving companies overseas–or, actually, just reincorporating them to dodge taxes. And all for the usual reason: nice fat bank fees that help underwrite the pay packages of Jamie Dimon and his gang–the same gang that wrecked the economy, but still have their jobs.

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