Working Life

    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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   It is always a good thing to start the morning with a strong cup of black coffee (no milk, no sugar, thank you) and a good, loud belly laugh. Absurdity is often the root of a good laugh. Exhibit #1 today: Wall Street is now unhappy with the president and some of those characters […]

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   In a crisis, it’s a tough thing to watch people scramble to survive. And those that already have a lot usually are in the driver’s seat, ready to pit one person against the other. The same is true for states–ever desperate to try to get a few jobs for its citizens (and, need I […]

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   Have you evah wondered whether companies are just plum out of cash? Well, you’d be wrong: The Federal Reserve said in a quarterly snapshot of financial flows Friday that U.S. companies continued to accumulate profits instead of spending them. Holdings of cash and other liquid assets at nonfinancial companies rose to $2.047 trillion in […]

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    I am continuously amazed by the reverence accorded company bosses. Put aside the incompetent ones, who get huge severance packages when they leave, or those who have looted their companies of tens of millions of dollars in pay and benefits, even when the companies lose money or collapse. I’m talking about even the ones […]

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    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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    So, sometimes, you wade into a fight that just isn’t fair. Here is one of those fights on economic policy–one that boils down to a massive scam on the part of Flagless Corporate-Land aimed at ripping off those of us who still pay taxes. And this is a scam that is being aided and […]

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   What has been extraordinary to watch over the past 30-40 years is the way in which, when economic crisis strikes, the political and economic leadership of the country leaps into the breach to lend a hand–not to the regular people who suffered the most but, rather, to the very institutions and economic elites who […]

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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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