Economic Glance
So now, in addition to using TARP money to buy jets, throw parties, redecorate offices and bailout the NBA before lending money to struggling small businesses and helping homeowners (the purpose of the TARP funds), it looks like the greedy fathers of the financial industry in America are looking the other way as their wholly-owned subsidiary children continue to rob us blind.
SEC alerted about Stanford in 2003
A whistleblower contacted US regulators more than five years ago with allegations that Sir Allen Stanford’s businesses were involved in an “illegal Ponzi scheme”, the Financial Times has learnt, raising new questions about why authorities waited until last week to shut down the alleged $8bn fraud.
Leyla Basagoitia, a former Stanford employee, raised a series of red flags about the tycoon’s empire in a 2003 employment dispute with her company at a tribunal run by the finance industry’s self-regulatory body. Ms Basagoitia also alerted the US Securities and Exchange Commission at about the same time, her lawyer said, echoing criticisms the agency ignored early warnings about the alleged $50bn Ponzi scheme run by Bernard Madoff.
Farmers Call For NAFTA Reforms
NAFTA has produced winners, mostly multinational corporations and a long list of losers, which includes farmers. The trade agreement has been the source of much discontent and has become an easy target. NAFTA is so badly flawed, but it is only one part of our failed trade and economic strategy. It has hurt many farmers in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Just as there are calls to reform energy, investment, labour and environmental provisions of NAFTA, many are also demanding changes to agricultural clauses found in the agreement.
NAFTA has essentially pitted farmers from all three countries against each other. Some have sought to establish more control over the marketing of farm produce only to be harassed.
An Insider Spills the Beans on Offshore Banking Centers
The oil industry created the practice of countries (SHIPS?) flying "flags of convenience" as a means of avoiding income taxes nearly a century ago. Since the 1960s the U.S. Government itself has encouraged American banks to set up branches in Caribbean hot-money centers and more distant islands as a means of attracting foreign money into the dollar. The initial aim was to help finance the Vietnam War by turning America into a new Switzerland for the world's hot money.
Bailout Bank Blows Millions Partying in L.A.
A bank that received $1.6 billion in bailout money just spent a fortune last week in L.A. hosting a series of lavish parties and concerts with famous singers ... and TMZ cameras caught it all.
Northern Trust, a Chicago-based bank, sponsored the Northern Trust Open at the Riviera Country Club in L.A. We're told Northern Trust paid millions to sponsor the PGA event which ended Sunday, but what happened off the golf course is even more shocking.
Obama HURTS 100 Million to Help 9 Million
Dear President Obama,
HI!, yoo-hoo, over here, we are 100,000,000 men, women and children who rent and we seem to be invisible to you and the media (including NPR, New York Times and the Wall Street Journal) but clearly our numbers make us important. We are wondering why you are helping 9 million people at the expense of me and my 99,999,999 friends, neighbors and fellow countrymen. Not to mention the additional millions of former homeowners who will soon join us because they rationally decided to live within their means and rent.
But how is your plan hurting 100,000,000 renters? It is hurting them in three major ways:
Small Businesses Demand President Obama Keep Campaign Promise
The following is a statement by the American Small Business League:
Since 2003, over a dozen federal investigations have found billions of dollars in government small business contracts have been diverted to many of the largest companies in the United States and Europe. (http://www.asbl.com/documentlibrary.html)
Report 5-15 from the Small Business Administration (SBA) Office of Inspector General stated, "One of the most important challenges facing the Small Business Administration and the entire Federal government today is that large businesses are receiving small business procurement awards and agencies are receiving credit for these awards." (http://www.sba.gov/IG/05-15.pdf)
Read more...
Since 2003, over a dozen federal investigations have found billions of dollars in government small business contracts have been diverted to many of the largest companies in the United States and Europe. (http://www.asbl.com/documentlibrary.html)
Report 5-15 from the Small Business Administration (SBA) Office of Inspector General stated, "One of the most important challenges facing the Small Business Administration and the entire Federal government today is that large businesses are receiving small business procurement awards and agencies are receiving credit for these awards." (http://www.sba.gov/IG/05-15.pdf)
More Articles...
Page 49 of 67
