Auctioning Off a Public Resource — to Everyone’s Detriment “It is unconscionable that candidates for public office have to buy access to the airwaves — which the public itself owns — to talk to the public.” –Newton Minow, “A Glimmer in the Vast Wasteland“; The New York Times (10/3/2012) No, I won’t be endorsing a...Read More
Why People (OK, Me) Don’t Respect Today’s Politicians If you want instant analysis of Paul Ryan’s selection as Mitt Romney’s running mate . . . believe me, you’ve got lots of (other) blogs to turn to. I’ll limit myself to this parting shot: Unless Mitt Romney is elected and subsequently serves two full terms, the...Read More
Opting for Swedish over Japanese Tired of my rants against Wall Street? Consider this “guest” rant instead, which IMHO is pitch-perfect (minus a few #!%#!, perhaps): After 40 years of pain avoidance, can we just rip off the f**kin’ band-aid already? Enough with the asset price protection, it is the root cause of everything bad about...Read More
Local Elections, National Fundraising “All politics is local.” –Tip O’Neill “Most politics is national.” –Fritz Hollings Former South Carolina Senator Fritz Hollings makes a great case for campaign finance reform. In a piece titled, “Money is a Cancer in Politics,” Hollings notes the oceans of money needed to wage competitive campaigns for Congress today —...Read More
“Enjoying Virtually Front-Door Access” Executives and political action committees from Wall Street banks, hedge funds, insurance companies and related financial sectors have showered Congressional candidates with more than $1.7 billion in the last decade, with much of it going to the financial committees that oversee the industry’s operations. In return, the financial sector has enjoyed...Read More
The Supreme Court’s Ruling on “Citizens United” Does anyone — besides the Supreme Court — really believe that the problem with contemporary American politics is that there’s too little corporate money driving the nation’s political agenda? To the point where whole industries — like Wall Street and the financial sector — quite transparently now have...Read More
