Author: Robert Borosage

Remember the old Steve Martin routine on how to make a million dollars and not pay taxes: “First, make a million dollars… Second, don’t pay taxes.” Turns out Martin’s joke is standard operating procedure for corporations in the United States — only, in comparison, Martin was a piker. Today, the General Accountability Office (GAO) released […]

Take gas prices, the most pressing issue on the minds of Americans. Offer a blatant ploy that in fact won’t help — but will profit Big Oil. Pocket over a million in contributions from oil executives and use the money to put up an ad promising to take on Big Oil. Call it the audacity […]

Like Rodney Dangerfield, this Congress doesn’t get much respect. Americans rate it slightly above sludge, but below George Bush, the least admired president in the history of polling. McCain strategists hope to discredit Barack Obama by linking him to Democratic leaders Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid. Progressives shudder as they watch Democrats hand over a […]

Now we’re in the presidential campaign’s silly season. The primaries are over; the conventions yet to come. Americans are tuning out politics and dialing in baseball and the Olympics, vacations and the price of gas. Senator Barack Obama is traveling abroad, demonstrating that he really is a responsible driver. And Senator John McCain seems intent […]

This weekend, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, former head of the Goldman Sachs investment house, provided us with a perfect demonstration of Wall Street socialism. He announced that the Bush administration would seek congressional approval to bail out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government created but privately owned, profit-making housing finance companies that hold or […]

“As through this world I’ve wandered, I’ve seen lots of funny men; Some will rob you with a gun; And some with a fountain pen. Woody Guthrie Look out folks, you’re about to get fleeced.  We’re getting sent the bill for the bankers’ bacchanalia.  They had the party, made off with the dough, and we’re […]

Arizona Sen. John McCain continues his rousing campaign tour of the swing states of NAFTA this week. He will celebrate July 3 in Mexico City after a jaunt through Colombia to pledge support for the pending free trade accord with that center of cocaine trade. He surely will increase his margin over Illinois Sen. Barack […]

One of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s first acts upon taking the gavel was to rule impeachment off the table. She wanted Democrats to focus on challenging the president on the war and on kitchen table concerns — from energy to education to health care. With Democrats now enjoying an increasing margin in generic polls and […]

America’s banker isn’t happy. At the World Trade Organization, China’s representatives call on the U.S. to halt the decline of the dollar that has contributed to the rising price of food and oil (and racked up staggering losses in the value to China’s $1.5 trillion in dollar reserves). China’s leaders blame Washington’s “warped conception” of […]

The appointment of Jason Furman as economic policy director for the Barack Obama presidential campaign has caused a stir. Furman was executive director of the Hamilton Project, a project created by Citibank chair and former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, largely to explore how to sustain support for corporate trade policies. Furman himself is criticized for […]