Bernie Sanders Just Introduced Legislation to Fund Free Undergrad Ed with Wall Street Transaction Taxes‏ – Deirdre Fulton

A broad coalition of nurses, students, religious and civil rights groups, environmentalists, labor and housing advocates on Tuesday praised Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-Vt.) plan to use a so-called Robin Hood tax on stock transactions to fund tuition at four-year public colleges and universities. Sanders introduced two bills on Tuesday in Washington, D.C.—one to eliminate undergraduate college tuition fees for students attending public colleges and universities …

Wall Street’s Fatal Flaw: Confusing “Disruptors” With “Corruptors” – Pam Martens

In the late 1990s, Salomon Smith Barney’s telecom analyst, Jack Grubman, was viewed by his powerful firm as a “disruptor.” He was throwing out the old rules on how a telecom analyst should interact with a company on which he was delivering research to the public and creating a new, innovative model. Instead of following the old rules and remaining …

Historic Survey of Financial Services Professionals Reveals Widespread Disregard for Ethics, Alarming Use of Secrecy Policies to Silence Employees

Labaton Sucharow LLP, which established the nation’s first practice exclusively dedicated to representing SEC whistleblowers, today announced the results of its collaborative survey with the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business: The Street, The Bull and The Crisis. [LINK]  The survey, the most expansive of its kind, polled more than 1,200 U.S. and U.K.-based financial services professionals to examine …

Does Wall Street Call the Shots at the FBI? – Pam Martens and Russ Martens

It is clear to most Americans that Wall Street’s financing of presidential and congressional campaigns is creating too many pals wearing blindfolds about epic corruption on Wall Street. The President, subject to Senate confirmation, selects the U.S. Treasury Secretary, the Chair of the Federal Reserve, the Chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission – all of whom regulate Wall Street, …

Shelby’s Fed Reform Bill Is Just Moving Deck Chairs on the Titanic – Pam Martens and Russ Martens

Senator Richard Shelby, Chair of the Senate Banking Committee, is set to release details of his proposed financial reform legislation today which Wall Street hopes will have so much smoke and mirrors to appease the liberal and conservative factions on the Committee that no one will notice that it’s another big sellout to Wall Street. The bill will hold out …

Wall Street Vampires – Paul Krugman

Last year the vampires of finance bought themselves a Congress. I know it’s not nice to call them that, but I have my reasons, which I’ll explain in a bit. For now, however, let’s just note that these days Wall Street, which used to split its support between the parties, overwhelmingly favors the G.O.P. And the Republicans who came to power this …

Economic Disinformation Keeps Financial Markets Up – Paul Craig Roberts

Today’s payroll jobs report is more of the same. The Bureau of Labor Statistics claims that 223,000 new jobs were created in April. Let’s accept the claim and see where the jobs are. Specialty trade contractors are credited with 41,000 jobs equally split between residential and nonresidential. I believe these are home and building repairs and remodeling. The rest of …

Trust in mainstream media plummets: Only 2% of young adults trust the media – Daniel Barker

Trust in the mainstream media appears to be taking a nosedive, at least among young people. A recent Harvard Institute of Politics poll that queried more than 3,000 people between the ages of 18 and 29 found that only 2 percent of them believe that the media can be trusted to do the “right thing” on a regular basis. The …

One in Four Local Banks Has Vanished Since 2008. – Stacy Mitchell

This article was produced by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, as part of itsCommunity-Scaled Economy Initiative, which produces research and partners with a range of allies to implement public policies that curb economic consolidation and strengthen locally owned enterprise. Here’s a statistic that ought to alarm anyone interested in rebuilding local economies and redirecting the flow of capital away from …

The Clintons and Their Banker Friends – By Nomi Prins

[This piece has been adapted and updated by Nomi Prins from chapters 18 and 19 of her book All the Presidents’ Bankers: The Hidden Alliances that Drive American Power, just out in paperback (Nation Books).] The past, especially the political past, doesn’t just provide clues to the present. In the realm of the presidency and Wall Street, it provides an ongoing pathway …