Working Life

    I often fear I am going to be injured–a victim of the adult "shaken head" syndrome. It’s the syndrome I think many of us are afflicted with–you wake up every day and read some stupid-ass comment or proposal by political leaders of both parties and…you shake your head. I’m telling you, it’s dangerous.   […]

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   I get ginned up as much as the next person when I read about any government action against the financial institutions that robbed millions of people of their jobs and retirement–and their dignity and respect. But, in some way, this is a game.    Unless the heads of these institutions go to jail, nothing […]

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   Over the last couple of days, I’ve written about the blatant ethical violations of Kathryn S. Wylde, a member of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. One thing struck me in particular about the Fed’s rules for its Class C directors: Class C directors are prohibited from owning bank stocks, for example,…    […]

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   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 […]

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   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 […]

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   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 […]

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   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, […]

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   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 […]

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    The anger against the president that has been rocketing around many circles of liberal/progressive politics is misplaced.     The crisis we face isn’t about what the president is doing, or failing to do.     We are under siege, fighting the greatest class warfare in perhaps 100 years. And we can expect very […]

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    I’ve maintained for a long time that the civil fines levied against Goldman Sachs ($550 million) and J.P. Morgan ($153 million) for their roles in the financial crisis scam amounted to peanuts–costs that will be ultimately passed on to consumers and shareholders. If a financial executive could aid and abet a massive fraud and […]

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