CORPORADOS

TOPICS BP disaster Economic news Essays Films Labor news Links Reading       ESSAYS Some ways to occupy our future...and our economy Corporations and us Corporation no person in these 'hoods Derivative America and the Enron generation Evangelical economics False profits Sovreignty movement The most dangerous man on Wall Streeet LINKS BOYCOTTS GREEN BOYCOTT LIST CONSUMER ISSUES THE CONSUMERIST GUIDE TO FIGHTING BACK HOW TO ESCAPE CORPORATE PHONE HELL & SPEAK TO A LIVE PERSON OTHER WAYS TO REACH A LIVE PERSON STILL MORE HUMAN CODES PUBLIC CITIZEN PUBLIC INTEREST RESEARCH GROUP RIP OFF REPORT SPY CHIPS TRANS-ATLANTIC CONSUMER DIALOGUE WHO'S OUTSOURCING IN YOUR STATE CORPORATIONS CORPORATE INFO ENRON KODAK SODEXHO MARRIOTT WAL-MART WAL-MART WATCH GROUPS 180/MOVEMENT FOR DEMOCRACY & EDUCATION BHOPAL BUSINESS ETHICS CONSUMERS FOR COMPUTING CHOICE CORPORATE ACCOUNTABILITY PROJECT CORPORATE DIRT CORPORATE WATCH EXECUTIVE PAY WATCH FTC DO NOT CALL REGISTRY JOINT CENTER FOR POLITICAL & ECONOMIC STUDIES MULTINATIONAL MONITOR ENRON SITE PUBLIC INFORMATION NETWORK PRJCT ON CORPORATIONS, LAW & DEMOCRACY RECLAIM DEMOCRACY STUDENT ALLIANCE TO REFORM CORPORTATONS US PIRG UNITED STUDENTS AGAINST SWEATSHOPS WORLD BANK BOYCOTT FILMS Plunder: The Crime of Our Time: The criminal side of the financial crisis 'Inside Job', out on DVD now and Oscar winner for Best Documentary, about the greedy reckless criminal behavior of financial firms and the deregulation under Reagan, Clinton, & Bush II that caused the 2008 economic meltdown. It's entertaining & easily understandable, and you'll get pissed off, especially at Obama, who hired Wall St. insiders (Geithner, Summers, etc.) who were responsible for the mess. -Scott McLarty READING Get Up, Stand Up - A guide to taking on the corporatocracy. The Corporate Whistleblower's Survival Guide: From Erin Brockovich to Enron, whistleblowers who “challenge abuses of power that betray the public trust” have proven to be a necessity in modern business culture. Recent federal legislation in finance and health reform have cemented legal protections and mechanisms for whistleblowing. This book provides a thorough guide and history to the whistleblower's legal rights. With extensive legal texts, sample letters, resources, and information on upcoming whistleblower reforms. The Monster: How A Gang Of Predatory Lenders And Wall Street Bankers Fleeced America — And Spawned A Global Crisis FROM OUR OVERSTOCKED ARCHIVES PSALM OF THE FAST LANE SAM SMITH, 1986 The Lord is my mentor; I shall want it all. He feedeth me in world-class restaurants and leadeth me beside the sparkling mineral waters. He restoreth my house and bringeth me in the path of good access. Yea, though I jog through the valley of the shadow of high rises I shall fear no viable competition; thy clout and thy bottom line shall comfort me. He shall prepare a game plan against mine enemies, and shall bloweth dry my head and my Volvo shall runneth over to Bloomingdales. Surely perks and power lunches shall follow me all the days of my life and 1 shall dwell in an upscale neighborhood forever and ever. For thine is the power and the glory - But not for long, sucker. I'm right behind you.

30 corporations that paid more for lobbying than they did in taxes "Job creators" need government bribes Seven new hedge funders charged The rise of the corporate psychopath If large corporations were really people we would consider them psychopaths Some ways to occupy our future...and our economy Federal financial fraud prosecutions down by more than a half from a decade ago Koch brothers play dirty ball abroad as well Lawlessness of Koch industries If there's going to be class warfare, here's a map of the battlefronts World's biggest employers: Walmart almosts matches Chinese army Walmart now plans to run small retailers out of business Teamster head calls on corporations to show some patriotism Vulture capitalists Twenty-five of the 100 highest paid U.S. CEOs earned more last year than their companies paid in federal income tax. The Institute for Policy Studies said it also found many of the companies spent more on lobbying than they did on taxes. Bernie Sanders’ list of worst corporate income tax avoiders Hedge funds betting on peak food Corporation no person in these 'hoods The 9/11 story no one in power wants to talk about Rating the rating agencies Dealing psychologically with the corporatocracy Fired Army whistleblower wins big settlement in Haliburton case JP Morgan admits big corporate profits come from screwing workers JP Morgan Chase has black man jailed for five days because it claims its own check is not real Lawyer's letter to JP Morgan Chase AS GOLDMAN SACHS, JP MORGAN SOAR, SO DO FORECLOSURES - 2009 How corporations write our bills Audit of Massachusetts foreclosures finds massive bank fraud How corporations get employees to sign away their rights Income of CEOs of top corporations went up 28% during Great Recession The fight to end corporate personhood Ten corporations pull in 25% of all federal contracts Check out how they misuse this money World's wealthiest people now richer than before the credit crunch Big bankers' pay continues to soar Top corporations sitting on nearly $1 trillion in cash FCC commissioner gets big job with Comcast-NBC whose merger she approved four months ago Three ways to take on corporate personhood Supreme Court increases corporate power again Ten corporations that worked with the Nazis Undocumented immigrants paid more taxes than GE John Paulson earned more in one hour in 2010 than a median US famly could do in 47 years Sell an ounce of cocaine and you go to jail, Wachovia launders $378 billion in drug money and pays fines that are less than interest earned on held money. - Mrkuder CEO pay up 27% in 2010, workers pay up only 2% GE pays no federal taxes, but wants union workers to give up benefits Two thirds of corporations don't pay taxes Ten worst corporate tax evaders In the 1950s the share of U.S. taxes paid by corporations was 30 percent of federal revenue.In 2009 it was 7% Why you don't want to listen to the Chamber of Commerce ATT/TMobile merger is monopoly gone wild Corporados score highest profits in 18 years during deep recession Three ways to take on corporate personhood America's biggest welfare fathers By one measure, for about every $40 in assets, the nation’s five largest investment banks had only $1 in capital to cover losses, meaning that a 3 percent drop in asset values could have wiped out the firm.- NY Times General Motors has joined General Electric as a major foreign corporation, having sold more cars and trucks last year in China than in the U.S. Some of these cars and trucks were made in China. GM also has a factory in India. GE is really a foreign corporation GE seizes control of Internet & White House Corporate non-taxes 87% of congressmembers who urged NBC/Comcast merger got money from Comcast Corporation no person in these 'hoods The corporations that buy our elections hire more people overseas than in U.S. Airlines rake in $2.5 billion in baggage fees Scrooge of the Year: Walmart hiking prices on toys for Christmas How insurance companies are spying on you Why they can find out so much about you U.S. IS LEADING BANANA REPUBLIC AAT CASE BEFORE SUPREME COURT THREATENS CITIZENS’ LEGAL RIGHTS AIRLINES SCORING BIG TIME BY RIPPING OFF THEIR PASSENGERS Question of the day: Punk Patriot: If corporations are people, does that make shareholders slaveowners? Shouldn't that be challanged on the grounds of the 13th amendment? 2010 THE HIDDEN HISTORY OF CORPORATIONS THE MOST DANGEROUS MEMBER OF THE WALL STREET MOB: PETER PETERSON BLOOMBERG'S FOUNDATION TRANSFERRED $300 MILLIION TO OFFSHORE TAX HAVENS GOLDMAN SACHS BOSS VISITED OBAMA WHITE HOUSE FOUR TIMES MASSEY TO MINERS: TAKE TIME OFF FOR FUNERALS, LOSE YOUR JOB REVIEW COMMISSION ATTACKS AIG BAILOUT IF YOU WANT SOME REAL WINGNUTS, TALK TO WALL STREET CEOS TOWN REJECTS CORPORATE PERSONHOOD MAY 2010 BANKS LOBBYING AGAINST RESTRICTIONS ON DERIVATIVES OBAMA'S PALS REVIVE CONSERVATIVE ECONOMIC GROUP GREAT THOUGHTS OF ALAN GREENSPAN: We run the risk, by laying out the pros and cons of a particular argument, of inducing people to join in on the debate, and in this regard it is possible to lose control of a process that only we fully understand. - Alan Greenspan, Federal Reserve System chair at board of governor's meeting, March 16, 2004 APRIL 2010 HOW THE NATION'S BIGGEST BANKS ARE RIPPING OFF AMERICAN CITIES WITH THE SAME PREDATORY DEALS THAT BROUGHT DOWN GREECE WHITE COLLAR CRIMINOLOGIST BLOWS THE WHISTLE ON LEHMAN, THE FEDERAL RESERVE AND 'LIARS LOANS' GOLDMAN SACHS TRADER BARRED OVER SEC CHARGES THE MULTIPLE SCAMS OF GOLDMAN SACHS OTHER MAJOR BANKS DID DEALS SIMILAR TO GOLDMAN’S HOW A HEDGE FUND HELPED BRING DOWN THE ECONOMY WPA: THE STIMULUS PACKAGE THAT WORKED AIRLINE TO CHARGE $45 FOR CARRY-ON BAG THE CORPORATIONS' WAR AGAINST RALPH NADER AIRLINES LOSE 3,000 BAGS AN HOUR WACHOVIA TO PAY $160 MILLION FOR LAUNDERING DRUG MONEY THE DIRTY STORY BEHIND LEHMAN'S COLLAPSE BANKS DEVISE NEW WAYS TO RIP OFF CREDIT CARD USERS ARE THE TELECOMS OUT TO KILL TRADITIONAL LAND LINES? MARCH 2010 CONGRESSIONAL INVESTIGATORS LOOKING AT FORMER HEAD OF NY FED BANK OF AMERICA CEO TRIAL COULD BRING PAULSON AND BERNANKE INTO COURT WHOLE FOODS DISCRIMINATES AGAINST HEAVIER WORKERS LEADING PEOPLE WHO SCREW UP THE WORLD MEET AGAIN IN DAVOS YOUR MONEY IS SAFE WITH BANK OF AMERICA, BUT YOUR HOUSE MIGHT NOT BE FEBRUARY 2010 MORE DIRT REVEALED ON GOLDMAN SACHS' ROLE IN FISCAL COLLAPSE NEW YORK FED WANTED TO CONCEAL AIG SWEETHEART DEAL AS 'NATIONAL SECURITY HOW WALL STREET PLANS TO GET AROUND THE NEW BANKING RULES TRASHING CLOTHES IN A BITTER COLD NEW YORK WINTER GOLDMAN SACHS PLANS TO PAY ONLY ONE PERCENT IN TAXES JANUARY 2010 NEW YORK FED WANTED TO CONCEAL AIG SWEETHEART DEAL AS 'NATIONAL SECURITY HOW WALL STREET PLANS TO GET AROUND THE NEW BANKING RULES NOVEMBER 2009 FOUR CORPORATIONS THAT DUMPED EMPLOYEE PENSION PLANS PAID EXECS $50 MILLION IN RETIREMENT BENEFITS IF YOU'RE NOT DOING AS WELL AS GOLDMAN SACHS IT MAY BE BECAUSE HENRY PAULSON AND ROBERT RUBIN NEVER WORKED FOR YOU AUGUST 2009 WALL STREET JOURNAL FINDS GOLDMAN SACHS GIVING TOP CLIENTS AND TRADERS DIFFERENT ADVICE THAN AVERAGE CUSTOMERS ASCAP WANTS TO BE PAID WHEN YOU PLAY RINGTONES IN PUBLIC JULY 2009 PHONE CORPORADOS DENY FIXING TEXTING CHARGES WALL STREET FINDS NEW WAYS TO RIP OFF CREDIT CARD USERS WALL STREET: FROM TERROR VICTIM TO PERP BANKS HIKING FEES & INTEREST RATES TO BEAT NEW LEGISLATION SEC INVESTIGATOR'S CONCERNS ABOUT MADOFF WERE BRUSHED OFF FORMER TOP AIDES OF TREASURY SECRETARY TO LEAD EFFORT AGAINST "POPULIST OVERREACTION" TO WALL STREET'S MISBEHAVIOR JUNE 2009 HOW GE SQUEEZED INTO THE BANK BAILOUT PARTY THE GOLDMAN SACHS RIP OFF CONT'D CAP & TRADE SETS UP NEW COMMODITIES MARKET AND GOLDMAN SACHS IS ALREADY IN IT BIG TIME HOW LEHMAN BROTHERS COULDN'T ADD RIGHT MAY 2009 GETTING TO KNOW BERNIE MADOFF UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL WITH TIM GEITHNER HOW GOLDMAN SACHS TOOK OVER THE WORLD MARCH 2009 FED BLOCKS NAMES OF BAILOUT WELFARE FATHERS TO AVOID 'STIGMA' FEBRUARY 2009 SUE THE WALL STREET MOB DECEMBER 2008 RUBIN NAMED IN SUIT ALLEGING CITIGROUP PONZI SCHEME FORMER CHAIR OF NASDAQ ARRESTED IN ALLEGED SCAM SEPTEMBER 2008 STORIES THE MEDIA DIDN'T TELL YOU: HANK PAULSON'S BACKGROUND Tom Ely, World Socialist - In 1970, fresh from the Masters program of the Harvard Business School, Paulson entered the Nixon administration, working first as staff assistant to the assistant secretary of defense. In 1972-73, Paulson worked as office assistant to John Erlichman, assistant to the president for domestic affairs. Erlichman was one of the key figures involved in organizing President Richard Nixon's notorious "plumbers" unit that carried out illegal covert operations against the president's political opponents, including espionage, blackmail, and revenge. Ehlichman resigned in 1973, and in 1975 he was convicted of obstruction of justice, perjury, and conspiracy, and was imprisoned for 18 months. Utilizing his connections, Paulson went to work for Goldman Sachs in 1974. In a 2007 feature, the British newspaper the Guardian wrote, "Not only was he well connected enough to get the job [in the Nixon White House], but well connected enough to resign in the thick of the Watergate scandal without ever getting caught up in the fallout. He went straight to Goldman back home in Illinois." Paulson rose through the ranks of Goldman Sachs, becoming a partner in 1982, co-head of investment banking in 1990, chief operating officer in 1994. In 1998 he forced out his co-chairman Jon Corzine "in what amounted to a coup," according to New York Times economics correspondent Floyd Norris, and took over the post of CEO. Goldman Sachs is perhaps the single best-connected Wall Street firm. Its executives routinely go in and out of top government posts. Corzine went on to become US senator from New Jersey and is now the state's governor. Corzine's predecessor, Stephen Friedman, served in the Bush administration as assistant to the president for economic policy and as chairman of the National Economic Council. Friedman's predecessor as Goldman Sachs CEO, Robert Rubin, served as chairman of the NEC and later treasury secretary under Bill Clinton. Agence France Press, in a 2006 article on Paulson's appointment, "Has Goldman Sachs Taken Over the Bush Administration?" noted that, in addition to Paulson, "the president's chief of staff, Josh Bolten, and the chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Jeffery Reuben, are Goldman alumni." "But the flow goes both ways," the article continued, "Goldman recently hired Robert Zoellick, who stepped down as the US deputy secretary of state, and Faryar Shirzad, who worked as one of Bush's national security advisors.". . . Paulson, according to a celebratory 2006 Business Week article entitled "Mr. Risk Goes to Washington," was "one of the key architects of a more daring Wall Street, where securities firms are taking greater and greater chances in their pursuit of profits." Under Paulson's watch, that meant "taking on more debt: $100 billion in long-term debt in 2005, compared with about $20 billion in 1999. It means placing big bets on all sorts of exotic derivatives and other securities." According to the International Herald Tribune, Paulson "was one of the first Wall Street leaders to recognize how drastically investment banks could enhance their profitability by betting with their own capital instead of acting as mere intermediaries." Paulson "stubbornly [asserted] Goldman's right to invest in, advise on and finance deals, regardless of potential conflicts.". . . PAULSON UNDERSTATED THE PROBLEM EVERY STEP OF THE WAY AUGUST 2008 HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL IS FAR WORSE THAN YOU THOUGHT JUNE 2008 CEOs OVERCREDIT THEMSELVES FOR SUCCESSES MORE TOP FIGURES RECEIVED SWEETHEART DEALS FROM COUNTRYWIDE JAILED LOBBYIST HAD 485 CONTACTS WITH BUSH OFFICIALS OVER THREE YEARS MARCH 2008 HOW CORPORATIONS TOOK OVER THE SUPREME COURT JANUARY 2008 MPAA BADLY MISLED CONGRESS OVER COLLEGE PIRATING ARS TECHNICA - After commissioning a 2005 study from LEK Consulting that showed collegiate file-swappers were responsible for 44 percent of movie studio "losses" to piracy, the MPAA then used the report it bought to bludgeon Congress into considering legislation to address this massive problem. Now the MPAA admits that the report's conclusions weren't even close to being right; collegiate piracy accounts for only 15 percent of "losses." Oops. And that's assuming you believe the rest of the data. RIAA: COPY A CD AND YOU MAY BE A CRACKHEAD TERRORIST RECORDING GLUTTONS WANT OVER A $1 MILLION FOR EACH IMPROPERLY DOWNLOADED CD CIRCUIT CITY EXECS GET MILLION BUCK REWARDS FOR DRIVING STOCK PRICE DOWN CARLYLE GROUP WANTS TO TAKE OVER NURSING HOME GIANT AIRLINES: WORSE SERVICE, HUGE PROFITS EVEN CORPORATE BOSSES ADMIT THEY'RE OVERPAID THE INSURANCE COMPANIES THAT STOLE CHRISTMAS U.S. INCOME GAP SETS POSTWAR RECORD MORTGAGE LENDERS PREFER FORECLOSURE TO HELPING HOME BUYERS PAY OFF LOAN INDICATORS: ROBBER BARONS STILL DOING WELL THE REAGAN-BUSH-CLINTON-BUSH YEARS: BRINGING INEQUALITY TO PRE-DEPRESSION LEVELS STUDY: WAL MART REDUCES NATIONAL WAGES $4.5 BILLION A YEAR Retail workers in the U.S. are making $4.5 billion less each year due to Wal-Mart's presence, according to a new study by the University of California's Center for Labor Research and Education. The study focuses on stores that opened between 1992 and 2000 and concludes, "Opening a single Wal-Mart store lowers the average retail wage in the surrounding county between 0.5 and 0.9 percent." Wal-Mart's presence pushes down wages in two ways. "First is the substitution effect: a new Wal-Mart store replaces better paying jobs with lower-paying ones," the authors explain. "A second factor is competition: Wal-Mart pushes down wages in competing businesses." Not only did Wal-Mart lower average wage rates, but "every new Wal-Mart in a county reduced the combined or aggregate earnings of retail workers by around 1.5 percent." Because this number is higher than the reduction in average wages, it indicates that Wal-Mart not only lowered pay rates, but also reduced the total number of retail jobs. That finding is consistent with a major study published earlier this year that found that the opening of a Wal-Mart store causes a net loss of about 150 retail jobs. "At the national level, our study concludes that in 2000, total earnings of retail workers nationwide were reduced by $4.5 billion due to Wal-Mart's presence," they find. Most of these losses were concentrated in metropolitan areas. Although Wal-Mart is often associated with rural areas, three-quarters of the stores it built in the 1990s were in metropolitan counties. Another new study from the UC Center for Labor Research and Education indicates that Wal-Mart could substantially raise its workers' earnings, particularly those living at or near poverty, with little impact on most shoppers. "Living Wage Policies and Wal-Mart" analyzes the effects of instituting a $10 minimum wage at Wal-Mart. More than half of the retailer's employees (56%) currently earn less than $10 an hour. "We find that 46.3 percent of the pay increase would go to workers in families with total incomes below 200 percent of the federal poverty level," the study finds. "These poor and low-income workers could expect to earn an additional $1,020 to $4,640 a year." http://www.newrules.org/retail/news_slug.php?slugid=365 MAY 2007 STUDY: CORPORATIONS SEEK SUCK-UP DIRECTORS, PUNISH THOSE WHO DO THEIR JOB CNN - The most sought-after corporate board members are those who curry favor with fellow directors, not those who are active in standing up for shareholders, a new academic study has concluded. . . The study by business professors James Westphal of the University of Michigan and Ithai Stern of Northwestern University suggests that directors - who are supposed to be watchdogs for shareholders - still are not independent enough. . . "Our findings indicate that directors who engage in monitoring and control behavior are effectively punished in the director labor market," Westphal and Stern wrote. "They are less likely to be selected onto additional boards, and thus they are less likely to become central in the board network" that exists throughout corporate America. earlier stories