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Category Archives: Corporate Crime

Hedge funds have a problem

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

According to Andrew Ross Sorkin at the New York Times, hedge funds are sitting on about a trillion dollars in cash that they need to invest: Some private equity firms have put the word out to Wall Street banks that they want to go “elephant hunting” — seeking big deals worth as much as $10 […]

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The plutocrats are flaunting it

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Remember when John Kerry was caricatured as an out of touch elitist when he went windsurfing? And the press ran with it. One must wonder if we will hear more about this, or whether it will sink beneath the waves: Gov. Mitt Romney’s campaign toasted its top donors Wednesday aboard a 150-foot yacht flying the […]

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It’s good to be a bank

Thursday, August 23, 2012

For mysterious reasons, the media insists on spreading the government meme (apparently, since both parties were complicit, neither bothers to dispute it) that the government made money on TARP. Today’s Times for example: Sure, the bank portion of TARP has been profitable so far. The Treasury Department estimates that it will make almost $22 billion […]

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Selling the sizzle

Sunday, August 19, 2012

I’m back, so it's time to commence whining about the people who are destroying our society. Not that I've managed to completely forget them, but it certainly helps to be in comparatively sane Vermont. While in that island of sanity (only one Wal-Mart in the whole state) I began reading Joseph Stiglitz’s The Price of […]

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Annals of Equal Justice

Monday, August 13, 2012

The FCC has fined Google $22.5 million dollars for willfully violating the privacy of millions of people, after it had promised to stop doing almost exactly the same thing in another context: David Vladeck, who leads the agency’s consumer protection bureau, defended the penalty. “$22.5 million may not seem like a lot of money to […]

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One small part of the Romney Plan

Monday, July 23, 2012

They truly have no shame: Over a four years period from 2008 to 2011, Corning Inc. was one of 26 companies that managed to avoid paying any American income taxes, even though it earned nearly $3 billion during that time. In fact, according to Citizens For Tax Justice, the company received a $4 million refund […]

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Mitt’s plans

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

I understand that focus groups have refused to believe that anyone running for president would actually take the positions that Romney has taken. That’s one of the reasons, of course, that Republicans (e.g., Linda McMahon) try so hard not to tell anyone what they will do if elected. Better to spout banal talking points. But […]

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Our psychopathic overlords

Monday, July 16, 2012

Barry Ritholz devotes a long post to proving something we all know intuitively, that many Wall Streeters and politicians, are psychopaths: According to psychologists and sociologists – many on Wall Street and D.C. are not like you and me. They are literally psychopaths. Reuters reported Tuesday: In a survey of 500 senior executives in the […]

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Equal justice under law

Friday, July 13, 2012

  It’s truly amazing what the government can do when it sets its mind to it. The Obama Justice Department has made a name for itself by going after internet “pirates”, read: people who Hollywood believes is costing it money. Richard O’Dwyer, an enterprising 24-year-old college student from northern England, has found himself in the […]

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Just what they had in mind

Monday, July 9, 2012

  Seems Karl Rove has been pretty blatantly coordinating with the Romney campaign, secure in the knowledge that no one will do anything about it. WASHINGTON — Karl Rove was the featured speaker at a previously unreported luncheon held just outside the Mitt Romney campaign’s recent retreat for high-dollar donors, according to three Republican fundraisers […]

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