Chicago & Privatized Parking In an effort to streamline unethical practices and boost illegal profiteering, Mayor Richard M. Daley announced sweeping new plans Monday to overhaul his city’s “antiquated” system of graft. According to Daley, Chicago’s once-great fraudulent institutions have grown obsolete, and City Hall is no longer bilking taxpayers out of as much money...Read More
“Random Attacks on Enterprise & Capital” You know that Wall Street is feeling at least a little heat right now because the Op-Ed pages and blogs (at least certain ones) are ramping up their attacks on what they take to be misguided “populist fervor.” Typical on this score is David Brooks, The New York Times’...Read More
A Cut for Everyone But the Taxpayer “Bribe” (verb): to induce or influence by or as if by bribery. “Bribe” (noun): money or favor given or promised in order to influence the judgment or conduct of a person in a position of trust. –Webster’s Dictionary Of course, the whole thing is that “no laws were...Read More
Did the Girlfriend Already Get Everything?? A judge says that if Denny Hecker can afford a girlfriend, he must pay his estranged wife a nice amount, too. –“At Issue: 2 Women, Money & Hecker”; Star Tribune (11/26/09) What a perfect metaphor for our financial mess! If you haven’t been following the story, a Hennepin County...Read More
Feeding the Hand That Bites You Some of New York’s biggest companies, including Wall Street giants Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, received doses of swine flu vaccine for at-risk employees, drawing criticism that the hard-to-find vaccine is going first to the privileged. “Wall Street banks have already taken so much from us. They’ve taken trillions of...Read More
Comparing Guns, Credit Derivatives Guns don’t kill people, people kill people. –NRA bumper sticker Credit derivatives don’t blow up financial systems, people do. –Wall Street mantra du jour Despite the incalculable harm wrought by credit derivatives on the U.S. — and global — financial system the past two years, Wall Street is clearly resistant to...Read More
