Working Life

I wonder what the genius in the White House, who organized the president’s celebration of Wal-Mart this past week, will say now. Or was it the president who thought, “gee, Wal-Mart, now there’s a model to hold up”. Just to aid anyone who had any doubts about the kind of company the Beast of Bentonville really is, Wal-Mart is happy to effectively lie to make sure its executives get their huge bonuses.

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Keep your eye on the ball, which is tough when it come to making sure another chunk of change doesn’t end up in the pockets of the big banks. But, it keeps happening.

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Really, I can’t tell whether people who work at the major banks moonlight as comedy writers for The Daily Show, or they are so immune to public shame or punishment that they just don’t give a damn.

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Yeah, yeah, CEOs, you are all Gods and indispensable to the success of your company. You’ve made that argument year after year, no matter how your companies failed — and the transcribers of press releases (formerly known as “journalists”) and the people you buy to do your bidding (we call them “politicians”) have bought this malarkey for so long that it’s allowed you to rob the treasuries of your companies. Problem is, a lot of the reasons lathered with bullshit about why you get paid obscene amounts of money are just plain false.

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Among the myths promoted by the traditional press–myths that hurt the entire country–is the “independence” of the ratings agencies. And that myth was one of the underpinnings of the financial crisis–the ratings agencies gave positive ratings to the crummy debt securities that were at the heart of what led to millions of people losing their […]

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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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   Many of us have been troubled that bankers and financiers have gotten off and paid no price for the financial crisis that obliterated millions of jobs and trillions of dollars in wealth–and, indeed, the CEOs and Wall Street folks are reaping huge pay packages again. The slaps on the wrist for Goldman Sachs and […]

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    This past week, I made the point that the conviction of Raj Rajaratnam was a tale of a relatively little fish getting nabbed, while the big fish who caused the biggest disaster and heartache for most Americans get away. Or cover-up what they have done. Bank of America, Citigroup, G.M.A.C., JPMorgan Chase and Wells […]

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We are missing part of the anger that I think cuts across the political spectrum–and it goes right to the question: why is Angelo Mozilo not going to jail for a very long time? Because the political system still is not willing to jettison our coddling of the vast array of people who committed deep […]

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   Merit is one of the enduring standards we are all taught from the moment we start school. If you get good grades, you advance. If you perform well, you advance. What, then, are we supposed to think about the young children or college-age students who read about this, courtesy of The Times Gretchen Morgenson […]

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