So a few days ago, President-elect Donald Trump tweets that Carrier is not moving to Mexico and it is keeping jobs here. He pats himself on the back for delivering on a campaign promise. Except now we learn the truth: The Carrier deal, brokered by President-elect Donald Trump, may not have saved as many factory jobs as was presented … Read More
Drug Price Gouging
EpiPens, made by a company called Mylan — are allergy injectors — sold two per pack — that contain epinephrine, a drug used to relax muscles. It can open the airways, and reduce swelling during a severe allergic reaction. Over the years, the price of an EpiPen standard two-pack gradually grew to about $600. The same two-pack cost only about $100 in … Read More
Too Big To Fail Banks Being Pressured
Great news: Federal Reserve officials strongly signaled they will toughen big-bank capital requirements even more than they have since the 2008 crisis, a move that will add to the pressure on the largest U.S. banks to consider shrinking. Fed governors Daniel Tarullo and Jerome Powell, in separate public comments on Thursday, said the Fed would require eight of the largest U.S. … Read More
What’s The Panama Papers All About?
The leak amounts to 2.6 terabytes of information — perhaps the largest whistleblower leak in history. Also, it might topple a country or too. So it might be interesting to learn what the Panama Papers leak is all about. It starts with a company called Mossack Fonesca. That’s a Panamanian law firm that has long been well-known to the global financial … Read More
Thursday Morning Schadenfreude
Awwwwww: Martin Shkreli, a pharmaceutical entrepreneur and former hedge fund manager who has been widely criticized for drug price gouging, was arrested Thursday morning by the federal authorities. The investigation, in which Mr. Shkreli has been charged with securities fraud, is related to his time as a hedge fund manager and running the biopharmaceutical company Retrophin — not the price-gouging … Read More
Tales Of The One Percenters
Honestly. What is it going to take for the people and/or the government to throw these rich bastards in jail? No, not for being rich, but for, you know, breaking laws and regulations that effect the lives of actual people…. when?!? Case Study Number One: Volkswagen chief executive Martin Winterkorn resigned Wednesday as a growing scandal over falsified emissions tests … Read More
Airlines Colluding? I Bet They Are!
Because of bankruptcies and mega-mergers over the past decade, the United States has gone from nine major airlines to four — Delta, Southwest, American and United — and those four fly about 80 percent of all domestic passengers. So 14 years after the 9/11 attacks nearly drowned the airline industry in red ink, the limited competition has helped airlines post some of their biggest … Read More
ExxonMobile Can No Longer Deny It
Yes, human civilization is facing one of the greatest threats it has ever faced and no, we aren’t going to do anything about it. Or so says ExxonMobil in their latest report issued coincidentally on the same day as the latest IPCC report on the dangers of climate change. The report marks a rhetorical turning point of sorts where the fossil fuel industry accepts … Read More
Newsflash: Having A Problem With The 1 Percenters Makes You A Nazi
Venture capitalist Tom Perkins compared liberals' push to reduce inequality in the United States to Nazi Germany's war on Jews. In a letter to the editor published in The Wall Street Journal Perkins, a founding member of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, asks whether a "progressive Kristallnacht" is coming. Perkins's letter is in response to an editorial on speech codes at American … Read More
Four Graphs: What’s Wrong With America Today
Corporate profits and profit margins are at an all-time high. American companies are making more money and more per dollar of sales than they ever have before. Wages as a percent of the economy are at all-time low. Why are corporate profits so high? One reason is that companies are paying employees less than they ever have as a share of GDP. … Read More
Why Is Nobody In Jail?
Read this.
Report: Richest 7% Got Richer During Recovery
WASHINGTON (AP) — A new report says the richest Americans got richer during the first two years of the economic recovery while average net worth declined for the other 93 percent of the nation'shouseholds. The Pew Research Center report says wealth held by the richest 7 percent of households rose 28 percent from 2009 to 2011, while the net worth of the other 93 percent of households dropped … Read More
Not Even Trying
Mike Lux wrote this piece yesterday, telling people about a new report on Wall Street. It's not pretty: There is a new report out this morning once again reminding us of the greatest disappointment progressives have in the Obama administration: the lack of toughness in regards to Wall Street.The report, issued by the Campaign for a Fair Settlement (full disclosure: … Read More