Working Life

   On the face of it, it’s a good thing when the labor movement leverages the trillions of dollars–yes, that’s TRILLIONS–that sit in pension funds. It’s been a topic of debate for a long time. The question is: what do we get? Here is the example, via The Wall Street Journal: New York Gov. Andrew […]

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   Paul Krugman wasn’t actually writing directly to the Catfood Commission II (speaking for myself, I decline to use a superlative being used by many to describe the Congressional fool’s gathering because the superlative implies higher quality). But, his message, looking at the debacle in Europe, is very clear: austerity is a loser.    In […]

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May I introduce to you my hero for the day: Jed S. Rakoff of the Federal District Court in Manhattan. Yesterday, Rakoff said what we all know: the government, our government, is not serious about holding people accountable for the robbery and greed and incompetence that led to the financial collapse, costing millions of people […]

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Gupta. Rajaratnam. Blaring headlines are a potentially dangerous distraction from the truth: the bankers responsible for the economic catastrophe that wiped out millions of jobs and trillions of dollars in wealth are still free and clear, reaping tens of millions of dollars more and laughing all the way to next purchase of a yacht or […]

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   Pardon me while I yawn. The measly fine that Citigroup is paying to settle civil complaints charging that the bank defrauded investors is really something else: it’s a stay-out-of-jail, keep-your-reputation card for Robert Rubin and a lot of other senior Citi officials, past and present. Instead, this deal–as was true with the miniscule fines […]

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    Occupy Wall Street has been a phenomenal awakening–and I have been proud to be a part of the non-sleepover (wimp…) outer ring of regular marchers. Tomorrow, c’mon out for another important phase in holding the economic Thieves Guild accountable–with a tour of the lairs of a few billionaires who hole up in Manhattan and […]

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   I have maintained for a long time that nothing is changing in the financial system–we are being left with the same basic game and the same people who are running the game. And, indeed, led by J.P. Morgan’s Jamie Dimon–who was, for a very long time, a go-to guy on Wall Street for the […]

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I’ve been mystified for a while at the continued willingness to listen to anything that comes out of the mouths of the people at Standard & Poors. The Justice Department is investigating S&P and these fools had a deep role in creating the financial crisis–yet when this discredited group of bozos downgrades the U.S., everyone […]

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   People sometimes repeat certain phrases because they’ve heard them used repeatedly when they actually want to say something else, even if they aren’t conscious. Or, put another way–if you want to know why Democrats lost the special election in New York, I’d argue it has a lot to do with the Obama Administration’s failure […]

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  Every day that passes, I get the sense that the people who run the big banks are even more brazen in their view that we, the people of the country, are just sharecroppers on their financial plantations. We work, we give–and they take and take…and, then, when they are done with us, we get […]

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