Working Life

   This caught my eye this morning: Some of the largest shareholders in Goldman Sachs Group Inc. have urged the Wall Street firm to reduce the size of its bonus pool, arguing that it should pass along more of its blockbuster earnings to investors, according to people familiar with the situation. The investors hold tens […]

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    If you are wondering whether the culture of greed on Wall Street–a culture that led to the cratering of the economy just a year ago and the loss of millions of jobs for regular Americans–I present to you news about Goldman Sachs, which will quickly remind us that very little is changing.   Things […]

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   It is a failure of the rule of law and accountability that many of the bankers and financiers still have their jobs and, in fact, are not sitting in jail or defending their behavior in court. But, it is even more revealing when you read the following, via The Financial Times today: Lloyd Blankfein, […]

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   There are two examples today that make it crystal clear how our society is damaged by corporate power. The first comes in the increasingly depressing arena of health care reform: Behind the scenes, however, Mr. Obama and his advisers have been quite active, sometimes negotiating deals with a degree of cold-eyed political realism potentially […]

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   Those poor AIG executives–they must be pissed about getting all the heat from walking away with a paltry $165 million in bonuses while the folks at Merrill Lynch managed to cart away twenty times that amount just as the government was crafting its takeover by Bank of America.    Remember, Merrill had just posted […]

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   Look, I think it’s outrageous that these AIG guys are raking in huge bonuses. But, I thought that a year ago and ten years ago–as I’m sure a lot of you did. So, I’m a bit less impressed by the outrage expressed from the White House all the way down the food chain.    […]

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Jay Gould, the robber baron of the 19th Century, famously said that, "I can hire one half of the working class to kill the other half." As we live through one of the worst economic collapses in a century, Gould’s wish is coming true. And we must stop Gould’s modern-day robber barons from sowing seeds […]

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  When you are a pro at a scam–the definition of "scam" also can be found under the term "insurance industry"–you know how to try to pull a fast one. And AIG is trying to pull one–under covers of the holidays. Check this out.   You may remember that AIG–which is afloat only thanks to […]

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  This is a story that seems all too familiar, but it’s worth repeating each time it happens: trillions of dollars in retirement and savings are gone, millions of jobs will be lost, we’re facing a severe economic crisis that could go on for a number of years, and we could be in for a […]

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   So much to read this morning. But, Goldman Sachs is all over the place so let’s check in on one of our great financial manipulators of recent times. The big news–front page of the Financial Times, big story on the Wall Street Journal’s website and front page of the business section in The NY […]

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