LABOR, ECONOMY & THE CLIMATE - page 46

The nation’s top financial consumer watchdog on Wednesday announced its intentions to develop rules that seek to prevent companies from surreptitiously undermining class action lawsuits. Richard Cordray, the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), informed lawmakers of his agency’s plans during an oversight hearing in the Senate Banking Committee. “We have determined at this point, having digested our own study and gotten a great deal of feedback form industry and others on it that we will be moving ahead with rulemaking in this… Keep Reading

Christian fundamentalists are not known to admire Charles Darwin, but Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) sort of channeled the influential 19th century English naturalist when weaving together a bizarre fabricated case against gay marriage. On C-SPAN’s Washington Journal on Wednesday, the far-right representative told a sort of twisted Sunday School version of “On The Origins of Species,” declaring that heterosexuality is “what nature dictates should be marriage.” “If you took four couples, men and women—couple, man and wife–and you put those four couples on an island that… Keep Reading

A House committee hauled Department of Homeland Security officials up to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to lambast them for preparing the nation for the likely impact of climate change. “I am outraged that the Department of Homeland Security continues to make climate change a top priority,” Rep. Scott Perry (R-Penn.) said during a House Homeland Security subcommittee hearing Wednesday titled “Examining DHS’s Misplaced Focus on Climate Change.” Perry, the chairman of the subcommittee, took exception with the department’s strategic guide, known as the Quadrennial Homeland… Keep Reading

The head of non-profit that has sought to limit the influence of money in politics praised a federal judge’s decision on Tuesday to uphold a ban on campaign donations by contractors. Fred Wertheimer, the president of Democracy 21, said that a decision against the ban “could have undermined the constitutional rationale for the ban on corporate contributions to federal candidates.” Democracy 21, alongside other public interest organizations, had filed an amicus backing the Federal Election Commission and the law. In justifying his decision, Chief Judge Merrick… Keep Reading

When asked to respond to the massive crowds that Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is drawing to his campaign events, White House spokesman Josh Earnest called it “a good sign.” The socialist senator surging in the polls attracted about 7,500 people to a stump speech in Portland, Maine on Monday night. More than 10,000 showed up at a similar event for Sanders in Madison, Wis. last week, raising the specter among establishment Democrats that he could seriously challenge Hillary Clinton—the administration’s former Secretary… Keep Reading

The nation is buying goods and services from international markets at a much faster clip than it’s selling its own wares, according to new numbers from the Commerce Department, perpetuating a long-term trend that acts as a headwind to domestic economic growth. The US racked up a $41.9 billion trade deficit in the month of May—an increase of more than $1 billion from the previous month. That bring the total trade deficit for 2015 to $212.8 billion, putting the nation on track to eclipsing 2014’s shortfall… Keep Reading

If Thursday headlines declaring a “record” settlement suggest that the Justice Department has brought the hammer down on BP for the Deepwater Horizon calamity, financial markets suggest otherwise. The oil giant’s stock price climbed to $41.24 per share—growth of about 3.5 percent in one hour, between 8 and 9 in the morning—as news of the deal trickled down to the media. The growth mostly occurred during two seven minute periods at the top of each hour. By noon EST, around the time of publication, BP… Keep Reading

Days away from a referendum that will decide the future of Greece and the Eurozone, a US presidential candidate is throwing his support behind the embattled Greek government, and placing the blame for the ongoing fiscal crisis on international monetary institutions. “If Greece’s economy is going to succeed, these austerity policies must end,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said in an interview with The Huffington Post on Wednesday. The insurgent presidential candidate added that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) “must give the Greek government the flexibility… Keep Reading

Federal Reserve Governor Lael Brainard on Wednesday issued a general call for more research on the impact of the computerization of Wall Street. Speaking at a forum on global finance in Austria, Brainard said the “possible effect of [high-frequency trading] on the resilience of market liquidity is an important topic for future research.” She commented that “markets increasingly dominated by HFTs may be less able to absorb large shocks…when demand for liquidity is significantly above the norm.” Part of the reason for that, Brainard noted,… Keep Reading