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LABOR, ECONOMY & THE CLIMATE - page 38

Roberts Court Ready to Deliver Gut-Punch to Labor

Billionaires and corporate interest groups bent the ear of the Supreme Court on Monday in their bid to deprive government employee unions of funding. Early press accounts following oral arguments suggest that justices were sympathetic to plaintiff’s anti-union arguments in Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association.  Politico reported that the court “signaled willingness” to strike down the fees. The Washington Post noted that a majority of justices appeared to agree that it infringed upon Americans’ “First Amendment rights to be forced to pay dues to the state’s teachers union,” while The… Keep Reading

Harry Reid: Scalia Spouting “Racist Ideas from the Bench”

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) on Thursday morning called Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia a peddler of racist ideas. Reid said Scalia’s comments on Wednesday, during oral arguments on an affirmative action case, were “racist in application, if not intent.” “It is deeply disturbing to hear a Supreme Court Justice endorse racist ideas from the bench of the nation’s highest court,” Reid said. The conservative justice had questioned the merits of University of Texas admissions policies designed to give historically-marginalized African-Americans a minimum of… Keep Reading

Privately, Geithner Called Fannie/Freddie Elimination A “Bank-centric Model,” Said it “Benefits Larger Institutions”

Former Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner acknowledged in 2011 that a push to reduce the federal government’s involvement in the mortgage insurance industry is overwhelmingly Wall Street-friendly and potentially harmful to consumers. Geithner then described the call to wind-down Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac using different language the Department eventually employed when assessing the proposal, according to a memo published Monday by The New York Times. “The bank-centric model reduces distortion in the allocation of credit and preference for housing,” he noted. “However, this model benefits… Keep Reading

A Sign of the Times: Yellen Fields Question on Terror-Mass Shooting Economic Effect

Recent high profile terrorist attacks abroad and mass shootings at home haven’t noticeably altered Americans’ normal economic behavior, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said on Thursday. “I would not say that I see a significant effect at this point,” she remarked, when asked by Sen. Dan Coats (R-Ind.) about an economic chilling effect of gruesome massacres. The central bank head added, however, that developments in the world have more boradly informed tentative consumer habits since 2008, “in the aftermath of the financial crisis.” “[W]hile I… Keep Reading

C.F.P.B. Hamstringing, Gas Tax Trickery Mar Congressional Transportation Deal

A bipartisan agreement on a five-year $300 billion transportation funding bill would allow banks to frivolously petition the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for rural status. The chance to be granted the distinction, which triggers exemptions from Dodd-Frank mortgage standards, would mostly serve to permit lobbyists “to coordinate application drives to inundate the agency with paperwork,” The Huffington Post reported Tuesday night. Unlike many federal agencies, the CFPB is funded through the Federal Reserve System, and Congressional Republicans have thus tried to limit its resources by… Keep Reading

“This Shameful Period” – Senate Votes to Help Living Victims of State Eugenics Regimes

The Senate on Monday voted to bolster compensation received by victims of 20th century eugenics programs. The body approved by unanimous consent a bill that would exclude from federal welfare deductions state governments’ payments to those harmed by their erstwhile authoritarian gene pool management regimes. The legislation has not yet been taken up by the House of Representatives. In a statement issued Tuesday praising the vote, Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) noted that Virginia “forcibly sterilize[d] nearly 7,500 Virginians between 1924 and 1979”—an act that the legislator apologized… Keep Reading

A “Successful” U.N. Climate Deal Must Be “Legally Binding,” Obama Says

At the onset of two-weeks of climate negotiations with world leaders, President Obama suggested that he is seeking an agreement to curb global warming that includes enforceable components, raising the stakes of both the diplomatic talks abroad and the ongoing climate change debate stateside. Speaking to reporters in Paris on Tuesday, Obama described what a “successful” deal would look like, saying that it should include “an ambitious target that seeks a low carbon global economy over the course of this century.” “That means that countries have… Keep Reading

Post-2008 Wall Street Leniency Mirrored In For-Profit College Settlement

Three liberal senators this week sharply criticized the Obama administration, saying it slapped on the wrist the Education Management Corporation, (EDMC) a for-profit college firm that had been the subject of a Justice Department whistleblower lawsuit. Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) wrote to Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Education Secretary Arne Duncan, asking they explain the terms of the settlement announced last month. The legislators listed a number of concerns similar to those conveyed by progressives in the aftermath of… Keep Reading

In Final Bailout Rule, Fed Adopts Warren, Vitter Recommendation

The Federal Reserve on Monday finalized a rule aimed at stopping it from choosing which troubled financial firms it rescues in a time of crisis. Fed chair Janet Yellen said the regulations will help prevent the type of massive, individually-assembled central bank bailouts that Dodd-Frank financial reform sought to ban. “Together, these limitations are designed to ensure that emergency credit programs and facilities are established only to fulfill the central bank’s role as lender of last resort to the financial system and not as a… Keep Reading

Rapidly Growing Wall Street Managers to Face Even More Rule Proposals, SEC Chair Says

The head of the Securities and Exchange Commission promised on Wednesday to ratchet up oversight of the asset management firms—a sector of the financial services industry that has become increasingly important since the 2008 worldwide banking collapse and its aftermath. Mary Jo White told lawmakers that the SEC is set to soon propose rules that would limit derivatives trading by financial managers. She also said the commission will imminently suggest one rule seeking to submit asset managers to stress tests, and another that would force them… Keep Reading

Bernie Wallops Administration’s F.D.A. Nominee Over Drug Reimportation Ban, Ties To Pharmaceutical Industry

He may be running to be the next US President on the Democratic Party ticket, but Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Tuesday scolded the incumbent’s handpicked nominee to head the Food and Drug Administration. During a confirmation hearing, the Independent Senator from Vermont stated that he opposed the nomination of Dr. Robert Califf to head the FDA, claiming that the nominee is too cozy with the very same prescription drug companies he’d be entrusted with regulating. “We have been extraordinarily weak in taking on the… Keep Reading

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