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Category Archives: Corporate Crime

Apple: rotten to the core?

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

My RSS feeds come in two basic flavors: politics and computers. The computer feeds are heavily concentrated on things Apple. I bought a Mac about seven years ago and have never looked back. Back then, Apple was still a relatively bit player in the computer world, and besides getting better technology and software, you could […]

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America is a great country: Corporate Edition

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

One of Mel Brooks’ characters observed that “It’s good to be the King”. Well, in America, being the land of opportunity, you don’t need to be a king. Being a corporation will do. Besides being entitled to all the perks of personhood, courtesy of the Supreme Court, you get to get to game the system […]

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A tax by any other name

Saturday, January 22, 2011

The New York Times is reporting that a move is afoot among the banks to charge a fee for debit cards. Right now, it appears that U.S. Bank is going to lead the way. Economic dogma would lead one to believe that other banks, in order to compete, would try to take U.S. Bank’s customers […]

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This is not a good idea

Friday, January 21, 2011

One of the signal successes of the Obama administration was student loan reform. The previous system, in which private entities got paid for handing out government guaranteed loans, invited fraud and corruption, both of which accepted the invitation. Other than shunting money that should have gone into student loans to private companies, private involvement added […]

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Socialism rears its ugly head

Friday, September 24, 2010

I sure can understand why that Wall Street fellow felt that Obama and his administration were using him and his ilk as pinatas. Just take a look at this morning’s Times: The initial public stock offering by General Motors will be smaller than previously suggested, and the federal government will most likely sell a relatively […]

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BP offers a deal

Thursday, June 10, 2010

I was just watching Countdown and, in typical breathless Olbermann fashion, they were reporting on a proposed “deal” whereby BP would agree not to pay a dividend if, somehow, the federal government turned down the rhetorical heat. This is apparently BP’s idea, and it is reported that it is unlikely to fly. Apparently the new […]

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Well, aren’t we lucky

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

It is a fairly common dodge for corporate con artists: whatever they are doing to garner huge sums of money is actually in the larger public interest. That’s why, for instance, it’s important that hedge fund managers pay lower tax rates than those of us who get to live with the results of their malfeasance. […]

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Corporations can speak freely, and quash speech too

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

This sort of thing is all too familiar: VoteVets, a progressive organization founded by veterans of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, unveiled a strong television ad last week, connecting a climate bill to the nation’s national security interests. The spot notes that “a clean energy climate plan would cut our dependence on foreign oil […]

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Capuano moves to muzzle the corporations

Saturday, January 30, 2010

An intrepid young reporter at the Boston Globe (who shall go unnamed, but whose last name rhymes, and more, with mine) informs us that US Representative Michael E. Capuano (who in retrospect should have been nominated for the Senate) has come up with a nifty way to all but nullify the recent court ruling handing […]

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The End of What’s Left of Democracy

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Today, the Supreme Court ruled that Congress cannot restrict the amount corporations spend on political advertising. They will still be forbidden to give money to favored candidates, but they will be able to spend as much as they want opposing or supporting candidates of their choice. If you think Democrats live in fear of the […]

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