"Words that make actions speak louder."
Are you one of the lucky ones? Have a good job, live in a nice neighborhood, enjoy your cozy home? Think foreclosure only impacts the reckless or the unemployed? Think again. George Mahoney worked and saved and built his cozy, colonial-style home in Lynnfield, Massachusetts, in 1981. There, he and his wife raised three lovely […]
Last week, the Federal Reserve was finally forced by law to release some (not all) of the details of its back-door bailout of the global financial system. The Fed data focuses on the emergency lending programs initiated in 2007/2008, but it also includes data for the Fed’s more recent purchases of mortgage-backed securities (MBS). These […]
Thanks to tremendous public pressure and the recently passed Wall Street reform bill, the U.S. Federal Reserve was forced to reveal the details of its emergency bailout of the financial sector for the first time yesterday. From a quick review of the data now available on the Federal Reserve website, we can see that the […]
While the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform bill did too little to address the problem of “too big to fail” banks, one of the big wins for reformers was the bill’s strong derivatives chapter which drags risky “over the counter” derivatives trades out of the shadows and into the light of day. Reformers won strong provisions […]
Watch out, they’re coming. After an election cycle in which Republicans worked themselves into a lather in an attempt to convince voters that the deficit was the source of all their economic woes, the political elites and their Bankster backers are coming for the middle class. What better time for us to start a new […]
Champions of financial reform who fought hard for a strong Wall Street reform bill this year know they cannot let down their guard. They are tracking and countering the moves of the big banks as they try to weaken the Dodd-Frank law during the implementation phase. They are bracing for a battle with Republicans who […]
American taxpayers bailed out the big banks. Now many of those banks are returning the favor by extending credit to payday lenders who sucker consumers into a spiraling debt trap. That is the claim in a new report published this week by National People’s Action (NPA), the Chicago-based community organization. The report, called Preditors’ Creditors, […]
Sometimes job cuts have a way of sneaking up on you — a few teachers here, a police officer there and another fire department that is not open when you need them. But as every EMT knows, a thousand small cuts can still kill the patient. One group is pushing back against the drip, drip, […]
Some will rob you with a six gun and some with a fountain pen – Woodie Guthrie Like mushrooms popping up in a damp basement, a slew of court settlements have been registered recently involving the big banks and their role in the financial crisis. An informal review of settlements over the last two years […]
You know that Wall Street reform bill pending in the Senate? Some last minute insertions add up to a surprisingly big win for the developing world. Oil Companies Required to Detail the Dough Paid to Foreign Governments First, kudos to Senators Dick Lugar (R-Indiana) and Ben Cardin (D-Maryland) for inserting strong provisions that require extractive […]