Almost two years after the Wall Street meltdown collapsed the economy and threw 8 million Americans out of work, the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission gets underway January 19th in Washington, D.C.
Will there be a new Ferdinand Pecora to get to the bottom of things?
Tiffiniy Cheng is guest blogging this week. She is the campaign coordinator for "A New Way Forward" and founder of "Open Congress."
Bailouts and political connections go hand in hand according to a just released academic study. The study, which was conducted by the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan researchers, shows concretely that lobbying, campaign contributions, and the finance/federal government revolving door has helped the most damaging banks despite the dangers they pose to our economy.
Submitted by Mary Bottari on
On Tuesday, the Huffington Post launched a new online campaign asking Americans to “move your money” from “too big to fail” banks to community banks. Taking a leaf from BanksterUSA, HuffPo editor Arianna Huffington embraced Frank Capra’s big bank vs. small bank message from “It’s a Wonderful Life” and cut yet another version of the film.
This Holiday Season, for too many Americans, "It's Not Such a Wonderful Life." Reckless Wall Street gambling collapsed the economy. The big bankers, like Mr. Potter, got theirs – an unbelievable $3 trillion in government help! It worked so well that Wall Street will pay out some $140 billion in bonuses this year.
But what about George Bailey and the rest of us? Where is the help for the 16 million Americans who are now out of work? The millions of unemployed facing foreclosure? The millions more teetering on the brink of personal bankruptcy?
Bank bonuses are due to be announced. Perhaps, in the dead of night on Friday. The Wall Street Journal has already reported that they expect the total to top $140 billion. This is a record high and it was only possible because regulators flooded Wall Street with $3 trillion in cash, loans, guarantees and other forms of taxpayer support.
Today, the Real Economy Project of CMD is introducing a new award we are fondly calling our "Golden Throne Award." The Throne salutes the behind-the-scenes lobbyists and spinmeisters who have managed to maintain the status quo and hold off any meaningful reform of the financial services sector since the collapse of Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lync
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