Workers and Wage Slaves, The IT Crowd, Corporatocracy; Elizabeth Warren, Wall Street, JPMorgan, Accountability; Obamacare; NSA Spying vs. Journalism, Jeremy Hammond

Workers and Wage Slaves

• The 40-Year Slump—"From 1954 thought 1974, American workers brought home most of the wealth that they produced. Since 1974, they've steadily lost power—and they're getting just a fraction of the wealth they produce today."
• Investment Manager Explains Why 99.5% Of Americans Can Never Win
• Paid Sick Leave is Popular — So Corporate America is Lobbying Against Democracy
• Swiss outrage over executive pay sparks a movement in Europe
• Bangladeshi garment workers win a 77% pay rise

The IT Crowd

• "Because Marissa Said So" — Yahoos Bristle at Mayer's QPR Ranking System and "Silent Layoffs"
• Microsoft axes its controversial employee-ranking system
• Facebook and Microsoft help fund rightwing lobby network, report finds—"State Policy Network rejects climate change, opposes workers' rights – and is backed by some top US tech and telecoms firms."
• Deal Reached in Inquiry Into Visa Fraud at Tech Giant—"Infosys has agreed to pay $34 million to settle claims of 'systemic visa fraud and abuse' involving temporary workers brought to the United States." Paying for cheap foreign labor so as not to pay for Americans' just wages. NYT
• What Contract IT Workers Miss About Being Full-Time

Corporatocracy

• It's business that really rules us now—"Lobbying is the least of it: corporate interests have captured the entire democratic process. No wonder so many have given up on politics."
• Corporate America's new scam: Industry P.R. firm poses as think tank!—"How the media fell hook, line and sinker for the propagandist, respectable-sounding 'Employment Policies Institute.'" Salon
• Corporate Welfare: Boeing Gets Jaw-Dropping $9 Billion to Stay in Washington State
• Michael Sandel: Why we shouldn't trust markets with our civic life
• The Whitewater Scandal and Our Two Americas in the Raw

Elizabeth Warren

• Wall Street's nightmare: President Elizabeth Warren—Also Hilary Clinton's. Politico
• Elizabeth Warren: 'Too Big To Fail' Is Worse Than Before Financial Crisis
• Elizabeth Warren challenges Obama to break up 'too-big-to-fail' Wall St banks—"Amid speculation that she might run against Hillary Clinton in 2016, firebrand senator attacks regulators for multiple failings."
• Elizabeth Warren: quiet revolutionary who could challenge Hillary Clinton in Democrats' 2016 race—"Senator's tough stance against Wall Street is attracting voters on the left who are disenchanted with the party establishment."
• Democrats quietly throwing presidential support behind Elizabeth Warren: report

Wall Street

• Video: The Wall Street Code—"A Goldman Sachs/UBS 'quant' turned whistle blower explains how the market is rigged."
• Fed Official Who Helped Orchestrate QE: 'I'm Sorry, America,' QE Really Was A Huge Wall Street Bailout
• You Know Something's Wrong When Billionaire Fund Managers Are Worrying About Inequality
• A great idea for making Wall Street pay its fair share—"Here's an idea for raising government revenue whose time may have come. Instead of taxing the income of the wealthy, tax investment transactions that don't contribute much, if at all, to economic growth."
• Occupy Wall Street activists buy $15m of Americans' personal debt—"Rolling Jubilee spent $400,000 to purchase debt cheaply from banks before 'abolishing' it, freeing individuals from their bills."

JPMorgan

• JPMorgan's #AskJPM Twitter Hashtag Backfires Against Bank—Being asked the tough questions [Salon].
• JP Morgan agrees $4.5bn mortgage settlement—"US investment bank JP Morgan has agreed to pay $4.5bn (£2.8bn) to investors who lost money on mortgage-related securities during the financial crisis."
• Rogue Spanish trader says no to US extradition—"A former JPMorgan bank trader arrested in Spain refused Friday to be extradited to the United States where he faces criminal charges in the massive 'London Whale' fraud scandal."
• JPMorgan allegedly paid $80,000 a month to Wen Jiabao's daughter
• Korea's Financial Regulator Forewarns Local JP Morgan of Information Disclosure

Accountability

• Judge criticizes lack of prosecution against Wall Street executives for fraud
• Moody’s cuts ratings of three big US banks—"Moody's has cut the credit ratings of big U.S. banks including Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase, after deciding that the federal government is less likely to bail the financial institutions out if they get into future difficulties."
• Ex-Bank Executive May Face Death in Vietnam Fraud Trial

Obamacare

• House Passes GOP 'Fix' For Obamacare Cancellations
• Liberals Should Fight Like Hell for Single Payer Health Care
• Conservatives Confident America Rejecting Obamacare, Ready for Every-Man-for-Himself Care
• Alaska won't expand Medicaid
• They've learned nothing!: Media's Obamacare coverage is humiliating—"Betraying any knowledge of political science, media embarrasses itself with a phony frenzy. Here's how bad it was." Salon

NSA Spying vs. Journalism

• European, US Media Face New Tests With NSA Spying
• NSA files: New York Times defends the Guardian's Snowden leaks
• UK's reputation is damaged by reaction to Edward Snowden, says UN official—"Special rapporteur on freedom of expression says he is alarmed at political response to revelations of mass surveillance."

Jeremy Hammond

• Jailed Anonymous hacker Jeremy Hammond: 'My days of hacking are done'—"Hammond calls his 10-year sentence a 'vengeful, spiteful act' by US authorities eager to put a chill on political hacking." Wikileaks has released the rest of their Stratfor files.
• Jeremy Hammond: FBI directed my attacks on foreign government sites—"Anonymous hacktivist told court FBI informant and fellow hacker Sabu supplied him with list of countries vulnerable to cyber-attack."
• Blast from the Past: The Rise and Fall of Jeremy Hammond: Enemy of the State—"As a devastating series of cyberattacks struck the heart of the national-security establishment, the Feds set out to destroy the legendary hacker and radical anarchist by any means necessary."

Workers and Wage Slaves; Corporatocracy, Banks and Wall Street, Politics and Economy, Class War, GOP; Elections 2013, Vote Machinations; LGBT; Obamacare; Surveillance and Privacy; Carl Sagan Day

Workers and Wage Slaves

• Surviving the post-employment economy—"The author argues that in the new economy, it's people, not skills or majors, that have lost value."
• Labour pains—"All around the world, labour is losing out to capital."
• Buncombe—"When you consider that those U.S. companies that still produce commodities now devote themselves mainly to developing brands and images, you realize that American capitalism conjures value into being chiefly by convincing everyone it's there."
• California Walmart workers call for more hours, better pay—More than 50 arrested.
• Walmart Is Trying to Block Workers' Disability Benefits—"If the Supreme Court rules in the retail giant's favor, it will be easier for companies to deny workers benefits."
• 11 Sneaky Ways Companies Get Rid Of Older Workers
• From White Collars to Pink Slips—"Americans have been told that a college education will help them avoid the fate of workers whose jobs have been shipped overseas. A new report pours water on that idea."

Corporatocracy

• How Big Corporations Are Stealing Your Tax Dollars (and Hurting Themselves) by Underpaying Their Employees
• 10 Corporations Control Nearly Everything You Buy, 6 Media Corporations Control Nearly Everything You Read or Watch
• South Africa Plans To Terminate And Renegotiate Treaties That Include Corporate Sovereignty

Banks and Wall Street

• "We Are Living in the World Occupy Made": New York City Voters Elect Mayor Who Vows to Tax the Rich
• Jim Hightower at the Robin Hood Tax Campaign Action Conference
• Taxpayers close to breaking even on Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac bailout
• McKinsey Says 20% of Biggest Banks May Shrink or Merge
• Bank of America seeks U.S. mortgage bond lawsuits dismissal
• Goldman Sachs Under Investigation in Currency Probe
• UC Davis pepper-spray officer awarded $38,000—He's getting a bigger settlement than the students he pepper-sprayed.

Politics and Economy

• The Legislative Attack on American Wages and Labor Standards, 2011–2012
• The tea party's assault on workers—"It is the tea party's impact at the state level that will probably be with us the longest." Some of them may have been bought off and are playing stupid and others are too stupid to know they've been bamboozled.
• How States Taken Over by the GOP in 2010 Have Been Quietly Screwing Over the American Worker
• N.J. voters approve constitutional amendment raising minimum wage
• Washington city votes to raise minimum wage to $15
• $10 Minimum Wage Proposal Has Growing Support From White House NYT
• Dems To Use Minimum Wage Vote As Weapon Against GOP
• Krugman: The Mutilated Economy—"The long-term costs of short-run failure are piling up and up and up and up." NYT
• Teachers Were Never The Problem—"Poverty still lies at the root of the U.S. 'education crisis.'"
• Calif. Gov. Brown: A Great Power Has To Find Some Unity—Having a Democratic super-majority helps.

Class War

• Everyone In America Is Even More Broke Than You Think
• The grim economics of food stamps—"Trimming benefits for millions of poor Americans is not just callous, it's bad for the recovery."
• US Republicans make the poor pay to balance the budget—"The impetus to cut food stamps is ideological not fiscal, and low-wages mean work provides no guarantee against hunger."
• Reich: Why Washington Is Cutting Safety Nets When Most Americans Are Still in the Great Recession
• Scrooge Republicans prefer Pentagon White Elephants to Food Stamps for Poor Children
• The GOP's Poverty Denialism—"According to many conservatives, the poor have it easy."
• Jobless SpongeBob nets fans on right Politico
• Arizona ban on panhandling found unconstitutional in Flagstaff case

GOP

• Poll Finds Anger At Congress Hasn't Died Away Since Shutdown Ended
• GOP isn't learning from its mistakes
• McConnell Re-election Is Front Line of GOP-Tea Party Civil War
• GOP moderates vow to speak louder Politico
• House Leader Accidentally Admits GOP Has No Interest In Governing—Republican Pete Sessions: "Everything we do in this body should be about messaging to win back the Senate."
• Washington Times ends Sen. Rand Paul column amid plagiarism allegations—His pathetic deflection tactics and "pouty reaction" against 'hacks and haters' failed miserably and now he wants to be left alone.
• Ted Cruz Will Vote Against Tax Haven Reform

Elections 2013

• Branding Bill De Blasio: The Message Machine That Made NYC's Next Mayor
• GOP 2016 Hopefuls Swipe Chris Christie After Blowout Victory
• The Cuccinelli Collapse—"Run against Obamacare—that's the only lesson Republicans will draw from their bitter losses in Virginia."
• Virginia Attorney General: 'Anyone’s race'—Goes to show that every single vote counts. Politio
• A Liberal Sweep of America's Little Votes—"Local elections were taking place all over America on Tuesday night. From anti-coal measures to minimum wage hikes it was a great night for liberals."

Vote Machinations

• Keeping Black Voters in Their Place—"To consolidate power, Alabama Republicans are packing more African-Americans into particular districts." NYT
• Voter Suppression Backfires in North Carolina, Spreads in Texas
• Voter ID law discourages students from voting—"Voter ID laws are a solution in search of a problem that is almost nonexistent. "
• White guy wins after leading voters to believe he's black
• PVP: Show of Hands

LGBT

• Hawaii House lawmakers pass same-sex marriage bill—Ho'omaika'i 'ana Hawai'i!
• Meet the 32 Senate Republicans Who Voted to Continue LGBT Discrimination in the Workplace—"The Employment Non-Discrimination Act passed the Senate on Thursday despite opposition from 32 Republicans."
• GOP using the "phoniest" anti-gay arguments: Tom Harkin unloads to Salon—"A religion that says it's alright to discriminate... I have a real question about the underlying basis of it." Salon
• No more bullying: School crowns same-sex couple homecoming queens
• Hate-crime charges for boy in Oakland bus attack—"Prosecutors filed hate-crime charges against a 16-year-old boy Thursday, saying he set aflame the skirt of a teenage gender-identity activist while the victim was asleep on a bus in Oakland, then admitted to police that he had started the fire because he was 'homophobic.'" His mother is on full denial mode.

Obamacare

• Obama Apologizes For Health Care Problems: 'I Am Sorry'
• With elections looming, Obamacare rattling Democratic nerves
• Denial-of-service tool targeting Healthcare.gov site discovered—"Hacktivist software designed to put a strain on struggling Obamacare website."
• Are Insurers Finding a Way Around Obamacare Preexisting-Conditions Protections?—"HIV advocates worry some insurers are steering patients away from their plans by offering limited treatment options and insufficient information."
• With FSU's help, Atwater goes after reporters' notes on Obamacare insurance report
• The 5 Million People The GOP Cut Out Of Obamacare
• White House pushes Florida, Louisiana on Medicaid—"The Obama administration again called out states that have refused to expand Medicaid on Thursday, calling it a 'reckless' play to undercut Obamacare at the expense of their constituents' health." Politico
• The Obamacare 'scandal' you haven't heard about—"Most of the people who fall into the coverage gap live in the Bible Belt.... The Bible Belt is the most overtly Christian region in the country.... All but two Bible Belt states have refused to accept the Medicaid expansion under Obamacare."
• Dead Man Walking—"A 2009 study revealed a direct correlation between lack of insurance and increased mortality and suggested that nearly 45,000 American adults die each year because they have no medical coverage."
• Rules to Require Equal Coverage for Mental Ills—"The regulations, which the White House sees as part of a push to curb gun violence, will require insurers to cover care for mental health and addiction just like physical illnesses." NYT

Surveillance and Privacy

• How telcos 'collude' with the NSA and GCHQ—"Google and Yahoo were quick to condemn the NSA for spying on their customers, but telecom firms remained conspicuously silent - and for good reason. Privacy International has filed a complaint against them with the OECD."
• The Surveillance State Puts U.S. Elections at Risk of Manipulation—"Imagine what Edward Snowden could have accomplished if he had a different agenda."
• NSA leaks: UK's enemies are 'rubbing their hands with glee', says MI6 chief—"Sir John Sawers makes claim in first ever joint public hearing by heads of UK's three intelligence agencies."
• Data Retention Means You Are On The Record, Like It Or Not
• How the Government Spied on Me—"My complaint to the FBI about a stalker was regarded as an invitation to invade my privacy." WSJ

Carl Sagan Day

• Carl Sagan's 5 Greatest Contributions to Science
• Carl Sagan's "Pale Blue Dot" as you've never experienced it before
• Neil deGrasse Tyson's remake of Carl Sagan's Cosmos

Class War, Accountability, Financial Shenanigans, Out of House and Home; Politics, Vote Machinations, Media, Benghazi; Surveillance and Privacy, Civil Liberties

Class War

• Krugman: A War on the Poor—"What happened to the Republican Party? It's almost as if the party is solely focused on its hostility to the less fortunate." NYT
• Our family will lose $44 in food stamps—"Several families told CNNMoney their food stamps usually don't last a full month. They eat a lot of rice, beans and pasta."
• Oh SNAP, veterans get dissed by the GOP—"Remember how the likes of Ted Cruz and Sarah Palin railed against President Obama for the cuts to veterans' benefits that resulted from the Cruz-caused shutdown?" WaPo
• Sen. Sanders: The right way to make a federal budget
• Congratulations, America! Your deficit fell 37 percent in 2013 WaPo

Accountability

• Time to Jail the Banksters—"Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone Magazine, joins Thom Hartmann. It didn't take Wall Street's allies in the financial media long to start whining about JPMorgan's $13 billion settlement with the federal government. But is that record fine really as bad as the people on CNBC say it is?"
• U.S. senators Menendez, Warren press SEC over political spending—"Our collective job is to urge them. Push them. Harass them until they do the right thing."
• JPMorgan settlement is justice, not a shakedown—Will it stop them from doing more financial manipulations? WaPo
• Barclays suspends currency traders—"UK bank Barclays has suspended six traders as part of a probe into suggestions that currency markets could have been rigged, the BBC has learnt."
• Fannie Mae sues nine banks for rigging Libor

Financial Shenanigans

• House Passes Deregulation Bill Written by Citigroup
• Billionaire Steven Cohen's hedge fund could pay $1B fine in fraud case: sources
• Lloyds head Antonio Horta-Osório to see £2.5m bonus at bailed-out bank

Out of House and Home

• Alan Greenspan owes America an apology—"The former Fed chair is promoting his new book. He should admit his role in the housing crisis, not insult our intelligence."
• Ariz. man arrested for selling someone else's home
• Special Report: U.S. builders hoard mineral rights under new homes

Politics

• Voters' Anger Over Shutdown Is Inspiring Democrats to Run—"Previously reluctant Democrats in places like Arkansas, Florida, Nebraska and New Jersey are suddenly deciding to challenge Republicans for House seats." NYT
• Florida's Former G.O.P. Governor to Run for Job as Democrat—"Charlie Crist has filed paperwork to run for his old job with his new party." Center-right is the new left. NYT
• GOP 'extremist movement' prompts NC candidate to switch to Democrat
• Romney Donors Back Democrat Over Tea Party in Georgia
• Wendy Davis Hits Cruz On Role In Shutdown
• McDaniel Now Says He Only Attended One Neo-Confederate Event
• Ted Cruz's Dad: I'd Like To See Obama Go 'Back To Kenya'—Él es un racista loco.
• Poll: Growing Number of Republicans Dislike GOP WSJ

Vote Machinations

• Opponents Score A Victory Against Arizona Voting Restrictions
• The Right to Vote—"Shelby County v. Holder; which eviscerated the Voting Rights Act, is leading to a new era of voter suppression that parallels the pre-1960s era."
• Everything That's Happened Since Supreme Court Ruled on Voting Rights Act
• George Will: Who Cares About Corruption? Citizens United Is "Excellent"
• The U.S. Needs a Constitutional Right to Vote—At the least, election day should be a federal holiday.

Media

• The Lies That Will Kill America—"The fawning coverage of crony capitalists by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. does America a disservice."
• The Daily Show: Wit Happens—"The media uses Jon's lampooning of the Affordable Care Act as evidence of its impotence."
• Media mayhem divides and misleads us—"CNN, MSNBC, Fox, they're all responsible."

Benghazi

• Star Benghazi "Witness" May Not Have Been an Actual Witness—"For weeks, it seems, Jones tried to profit off his brush with disaster. In a Fox News report on Monday, reporter Adam Housley said his source relationship with Jones ended after he insisted upon receiving money." Foreign Policy
• David Brock Calls On CBS To Retract Faulty Benghazi Story
• First on CNN: US commandos were poised for raid to capture Benghazi suspect

Surveillance and Privacy

• NSA Files: Decoded—"What the revelations mean for you."
• Snowden Asks U.S. to Stop Treating Him Like a Traitor—"In a letter handed to a German politician, the former intelligence contractor says that 'my government continues to treat dissent as defection.'" NYT
• GCHQ and European spy agencies worked together on mass surveillance—"Edward Snowden papers unmask close technical cooperation and loose alliance between British, German, French, Spanish and Swedish spy agencies."
• Senate Intelligence Committee passes NSA bill critics say doesn't go far enough
• EFF: being forced to decrypt your files violates the Fifth

Civil Liberties

• World's anger at Obama policies goes beyond Europe and the NSA
• Japan Likely To Pass New Secrecy Law That Would Put Whistleblowers And Journalists In Jail
• Poland asks European court to hide CIA secret torture prison case from public

Workers, Wage Slaves, Sick Leave, Unemployment; Dirty Money, Bunk of America; That's Rich

Workers

• The Expendables: How the Temps Who Power Corporate Giants Are Getting Crushed—"America is now dotted with “temp towns” – places where it’s difficult to find blue-collar work except through a temp agency and where workers often suffer lost wages, no benefits and high injury rates."
• On-call shifts: The latest corporate shame—"[T]askmasters-in-suits have now redefined the term "hired" to mean that you're tethered to a corporation full-time, but you actually work and get paid for only the few hours a week when the boss calls."
• No, manufacturing jobs won’t revive the economy—"Stop claiming a factory boom will save the country and lift people up. Here's what these jobs really look like." Salon
• The Roberts Court on labor rights: be afraid. Be very afraid.—"[W]hile Justice Roberts and company were busy shredding the Voting Rights Act, they decided to trash the Title VII of the Civil Rights Act while they were at it. Title VII is the provision of the Act that prohibits employment discrimination."
• Greg Kaufmann on the Truth About American Poverty—"People are working and they're not getting paid enough to feed their families, pay their utilities, pay for their housing, pay for the healthcare… if you're not paying people enough to pay for the basics, they’re going to need help getting food."
• More Evidence That US Middle Class is Sliding Toward the Third World
• The 4 A.M. Army—"Every morning, hundreds of thousands of workers show up for jobs that are unseen, uncertain and underpaid—and vital to the U.S. economy."

Wage Slaves

• Employers Still Dodging Minimum Wage Law 75 Years After Its Passage
• Fast-Food Workers Denounce Wage Theft 'Crime Wave' At New York City Hearing
• Paid via Card, Workers Feel Sting of Fees—"For many hourly workers, paper paychecks have been replaced by prepaid cards, which often involve fees that can quickly add up and take a bite out of their pay." NYT

Sick Leave

• Forced to Work Sick? That's Fine With Disney, Red Lobster, and Their Friends at ALEC—"America's one of the only industrialized nations that doesn't mandate paid sick leave. These guys want to keep it that way."
• Florida Gov. Rick Scott Preemptively Blocks Paid Sick Leave—"If a worker or their child is sick, should they really be forced to choose between their health and their paycheck?"
• City Council overrides Mayor Bloomberg's veto of paid-sick leave bill in early morning session

Unemployment

• Krugman: War on the Unemployed NYT
• North Carolina Dropped From Federal Unemployment Program
• Tennessee ends $40 million in child allowances for unemployed

Dirty Money

• World Bank Insider Blows Whistle on Corruption, Federal Reserve
• Inside Anglo: the secret recordings—"Exclusive: Tapes reveal the lies and deception that led to the bank bailout."
• Where Are the Libor Cases Against U.S. Banks?—"It would look awfully strange if the U.S. government wound up targeting only foreign banks as part of its investigation into the manipulation of the London interbank offered rate."
• EU forges bank bailout deal to protect taxpayers—"Negotiations end in agreement on who should bear the brunt of losses caused by banking failure." Unfortunately, it will probably get ignored.

Bunk of America

• It's Official: Bank of America Has the Worst Reputation in the Banking Industry
• New Bank of America whistle-blower emerges: More customer abuse secrets—"Bank of America whistle-blower details latest scheme to abuse homeowners, evade settlement rules and pocket cash." Salon
• He chalks the line: City Attorney prosecutes man for writing anti-bank slogans in water soluble chalk—So much easier to go after the little guy. Update: He was found not guilty.
• Bank of America suit under scrutiny of settlement watchdog

That's Rich

• What's more important: a college degree or being born rich?—In related news, student loan rates double today, making it even harder for debts to be repaid.
• Chilean nanny to sue NY socialite family claiming she was a virtual slave
• Malibu homeowners who hide access to beautiful beaches foiled by $30K Kickstarter campaign

Wall Street, Reckoning, Banks, Libor and Rates, Money

Wall Steet

• The Untouchables—"FRONTLINE investigates why Wall Street's leaders have escaped prosecution for any fraud related to the sale of bad mortgages."
• Who Decided U.S. Megabanks Are Too Big to Jail?
• Bill Moyers and Matt Taibbi: Everyone Pays If the Banksters Don't Go to Jail
• Why Do Banks Get Away With Murder?—"Big banks have copped to heinous crimes that have cost citizens billions of dollars. And it just keeps happening. Daniel Gross on why the madness never ends—and no one goes to jail."
• Obama nominates Mary Jo White as SEC chair—"When lawyers at the Securities and Exchange Commission went after ­JPMorgan Chase for misleading mortgage investors, they came up against a defense team led by the tenacious Mary Jo White."
• Why Republicans' Explanation Of The 2008 Crash Is Dangerously False
• Bailed out TARP execs cashed in with fat paychecks
• JP Morgan CEO condemns 'five years of scapegoating' of banks
• Too Fast To Fail: Is High-Speed Trading the Next Wall Street Disaster?

Reckoning

• Lawmakers seek mortgage settlement documents from regulators
• Wonder Warren—"The senator from Massachusetts is making sure information about foreclosures during the recession gets out to the public."
• 4 Reasons Why the S&P Fraud Lawsuit May Be a Game-Changer

Banks

• Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan profits rise sharply
• The latest foreclosure horror: the zombie title
• Intense criticism over planned Danske Bank fee changes
• So God made a banker
• Report: Your Salary Data May Be For Sale
• Debt collection horror stories—"There are threats to dig up the dead relatives of those who couldn't pay their funeral bills, promises to imprison debtors or take their children into custody -- even warnings that pets will be killed."
• Anonymous posts over 4000 U.S. bank executive credentials—"Anonymous appears to have published login and private information from over 4000 American bank executive credentials its Operation Last Resort, demanding US computer crime law reform."

Libor and Rates

• RBS fined £390m / $612m for rigging Libor interest rate
• Libor Lies Revealed in Rigging of $300 Trillion Benchmark
• Traders laughed as Libor rates rigged
• U.S. targeting more banks in Libor probe
• Bank probes find manipulation in Singapore's offshore FX market - source

Money

• Should We Kill The Dollar Bill?
• No, Switching To Dollar Coins Would Not Save The Government Money
• Don't mess with the penny lobby—"The chorus arguing America should scrap the 1-cent coin has grown. Here's why it might never go away."

Bailout; Banks; Reckoning; Occupy Movement; Eurozone Crisis

Bailout

• Secret and Lies of the Bailout--"The federal rescue of Wall Street didn’t fix the economy – it created a permanent bailout state based on a Ponzi-like confidence scheme. And the worst may be yet to come."
• Rescued by a Bailout, A.I.G. May Sue Its Savior--Facing public backlash, the AIG board declined to join ex-CEO Greenburg's suit. NYT
• How many more bailouts will we allow? Salon

Banks

• Surprise, Surprise: The Banks Win--"For borrowers, a proposed settlement with big banks over foreclosure practices is likely to mean tiny slices of a shrunken pie." NYT
• A case of Wall Street greed gone too far--"By the time the ball dropped in Times Square, regulators had been notified that $65 million in Goldman stock had been granted a month early, helping a cluster of powerful multimillionaire executives trim their tax tab."
• Too Big to Bust?--"It's one thing if a bank is too big to fail... [i]t's another if the bank is too big to be brought to justice...."
• How much is enough to make a banker happy?--"Greg Smith's tale of exile from Wall Street shows that even the rich can feel inadequate compared to the super-rich." Salon
• What Good is Wall Street?--"Much of what investment bankers do is socially worthless."

Reckoning

• Senator pushes to ban bankers from Fed boardrooms--"An outspoken Senate critic of the Federal Reserve said on Wednesday that he would reintroduce legislation to ban bankers from the boardroom of the 12 regional Fed branches, citing potential conflicts of interest."
• US SEC levels first post-crisis charges versus auditors
• Senator Elizabeth Warren gears up

Occupy Movement

• What the FBI's Occupy Docs Do—and Don't—Reveal
• Baker v. Katehi--Pepper-sprayed protestors to be paid $730,000 damages by UC Davis.
• The Team Behind '99% - The Occupy Wall Street Collaborative Film' Peel Back the Curtain on the Movement

Eurozone Crisis

• An amazing mea culpa from the IMF's chief economist on austerity
• Spanish city's locksmiths say they'll no longer assist with evictions
• Confidence in Southern European Banks Rising in Sign of Crisis Hope

(Advanced) Happy Halloween, M-M-M-M-Mask; Debatable, Elections, Vote Machinations, Voter Suppression, Phoney Romney, Republicans, Banking, Inequality

(Advanced) Happy Halloween

• When Harry Met Sally 2
• Charlie Brown: Blockhead's Revenge
• Preparedness 101: Zombie Apocalypse

M-M-M-Mask

• Senior Citizen Mask
• 3DPF: Japanese Company Creates Super-Realistic 3D Face Replicas
• Masks so realistic they're arresting the wrong guy
• MythBusters: Faking Out the Fans
• "Winner" Charlie Sheen Mask
• Dynamic face substitution
• New York Robbers Unmasked by Grateful Note for Their Disguise

Debatable

• GOP blows secrets and risks lives in document dump ahead of debate--"Libyans who have been secretly helping the U.S. have had their identities exposed by documents released Friday by House Oversight Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa, a senior administration official confirmed to NBC News' Andrea Mitchell."
• Democrats vs. Republicans
• Epic Rap Battles Of History Season 2: Barack Obama vs Mitt Romney

Elections

• Soup Kitchen Loses Donors Because Of Paul Ryan – What You Can Do About It
• Ohio Secretary of State Says Restoring Early Voting Is 'Un-American'--Freedom is slavery.
• CEO to employees: "Help yourself" by donating to Romney--"The CEO of a Florida-based software firm has repeatedly solicited his more than 1,300 employees not only to support Mitt Romney, but to donate up to the maximum $2,500 to Romney's presidential campaign, suggesting that their jobs may be at stake if Romney doesn't win, according to emails obtained exclusively by Up w/ Chris Hayes."
• Muscular men have self-interested politics, says study Salon
• xkcd: Electoral Precedent

Vote Machinations

• Virginia Attorney general won't investigate worker arrested for dumping voter registrations--Why is it that Republicans who cry bloody murder over voter fraud are the ones perpetrating it, and then disavowing it when caught?
• GOP Registered Dead Woman to Vote in Florida
• Romney-linked voting machine company to count votes in Ohio

Voter Suppression

• More Hispanic Voters In Arizona Given Wrong Date For Election Day By Maricopa County Officials
• Frightened Republicans Try To Shut Down Election Competitors
• Pennsylvania Newspaper Owned By Top Right-Wing Funder Falsely Claims ID Is Required To Vote

Phoney Romney

• Obama diagnoses GOP nominee with 'Romnesia'
• Finally Liberated From Facts, Mitt Romney the Pure Bull Artist Takes Flight
• RomneyTaxPlan.com--Everything you've needed to know in one easy-to-access resource.

Republicans

• Right-wing lies about Obama are greeted by willing believers
• Blue States are from Scandinavia, Red States are from Guatem ala--Why can't we just get along?
• Drunk woman attempts to avoid arrest by claiming she is a Republican

Banking

• Mitt Romney's Bailout Bonanza
• The Randian and the Bailout--"Bob Benmosche was perfectly happy to while away his retirement on his Croatian vineyard. But the image of AIG employees being beaten up for their bonuses was just too much to bear."
• Citigroup CEO Walks Off With $260 Million After His Bank Loses 88 Percent Of Its Value
• Unsophisticated investors were the 'golden prize' at Goldman, says Greg Smith in memoir
• Why It is Essential That Criminal Bankers are Prosecuted

Inequality

• Ben Stein: "With All Due Respect To Fox," We're Going To Have To Raise Taxes On The Rich
• Billionaires take lead in conservatives' self-pity parade--"Obama could have 'changed the direction of the American economy', just as FDR did during the Great Depression."
• Bill Moyers: The Plutocracy Will Go to Extremes to Keep the 1% in Control --Read an excerpt of his new book.
• Conservative Southern Values Revived: How a Brutal Strain of American Aristocrats Have Come to Rule America
• Monkey gets upset about receiving unequal pay

Bank Heists, Wall Street, Bailouts, International, Debts

Banks Heists

• Dear Bankers: Thanks for Wrecking Our Lives ... NYT
• Money-Laundering Inquiry Is Said to Aim at U.S. Banks--"Federal and state authorities are investigating a handful of major American banks for failing to monitor cash transactions in and out of their branches, a lapse that may have enabled drug dealers and terrorists to launder tainted money, according to officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity." NYT
• Inquiry on Tax Strategy Adds to Scrutiny of Finance Firms--"The New York attorney general is investigating whether some of the nation’s biggest private equity firms have abused a tax strategy in order to slice hundreds of millions of dollars from their tax bills, according to executives with direct knowledge of the inquiry." NYT
• Peregrine Financial Group boss admits $100m fraud
• Barclays bank clerk stole £46,000 and spent it on boob job, liposuction and wild shopping sprees to fulfill her dream of becoming a model

Wall Street

• How Wall Street creates criminals--"When 16% of people working in financial services readily admit they would commit a crime if they could get away with it, alarm bells should be going off at the Securities and Exchange Commission and other financial regulators."
• A Rare Look at Why The Government Won't Fight Wall Street
• Top Bank Lawyer's E-Mails Show Washington's Inside Game
• FDIC's Hoenig Says Banks May Revisit Pre-2008 Risky Behavior
• Four Years Since Lehman Brothers, 'Too Big To Fail' Banks, Now Even Bigger, Fight Reform
• How Citigroup stays fraud-proof Salon
• The Payoff: Why Wall Street Always Wins - An Excerpt

Bailouts

• The Fed's $16 Trillion Bailouts Under-reported
• AIG Stock Sale Repays Bailout as U.S. Government Profits
• Taxpayers still owed more than $200 billion from bailouts

International

• EU Considers Splitting Up Major Banks--"EU Commissioner Michel Barnier has asked experts to examine the possibility of splitting up major European banks to avoid future bailouts at taxpayers' expense. But even less radical intervention in the banking sector could have drastic consequences for the industry, and its powerful lobby is resisting any such change."
• Opinion: Where the Mob Keeps Its Money NYT
• RBS could be fined £300m to settle Libor probe--"Royal Bank of Scotland could be fined up to £300m later this year to settle allegations traders sought to manipulate the libor interest rate, according to reports."
• Barclays makes £500m betting on food crisis--"Outrage as bank revealed to be major speculator while millions face starvation."
• Deutsche Bank turns screw on bonuses
• Iceland Shows Other Europeans How to Survive Bankruptcy--"Small Atlantic nation enjoys growth and employment gains after failing to rescue its banks. Mainland Europe remains stuck with stagnation, decline, and ruinous 'rescue' packages."
• Swiss banks to suffer big withdrawals over tax: UBS--"UBS expects Swiss banks to see European clients withdraw "hundreds of billions of francs" as a result of steps to stop foreigners using secret accounts to evade taxes."

Debts

• A Harvard MBA's radical quest to erase his debt
• The other foreclosure crisis: Losing a home over $400 in back taxes
• In Prosecutors, Debt Collectors Find a Partner--"In exchange for a fee, district attorneys' offices have been allowing debt collectors to use their letterhead when going after people behind on their bills." NYT

Budget and Taxes, Congress, Jobs, Wall Street, Mortgages and Foreclosures

Budget and Taxes

• Jon Stewart to Grover Norquist: Your Pledge Is a Failure
• Boehner Backs Out Of Debt-Limit Deal
• Republican budget proposal to be unveiled--It could "spark threats of a government shutdown just weeks before the November elections."
• The Worst Part of Paul Ryan's Budget--"Even if you like Ryan's Medicare and Medicaid reforms, his budget is essentially a plan to demolish every other government program outside of Social Security and defense."
• Club for Growth rejects Rep. Ryan’s budget

Congress

• Study Shows House Members Profit--"One accusation long directed at Congress is that lawmakers come to this capital city not just to serve the American people but also to enrich themselves and their families." NYT
• Insider Trading Ban for Lawmakers Clears Congress--Now that it's been rendered toothless. NYT
• Ex-Lobbyist Jack Abramoff on Wash DC Corruption

Jobs

• Opinion: Are jobs obsolete?
• Right-to-Work Laws, Explained
• Romney Admits GOP Education Policy is Intended to Kill Unions

Wall Street

• Another Hidden Bailout: Helping Wall Street Collect Your Rent
• We Now Know With Near-Certainty That Wall Street Execs Committed Felonies--"The greatest moral hazard now confronting the nation is what appears to be increasingly brazen criminal activity by financial industry executives. With each decision not to prosecute, Wall Street executives justifiably conclude that they are immune to the rules."
• Former Merrill Worker: Greg Smith Was Right And It's Not Just Goldman
• Paul Ryan wants to repeal rules meant to stop Too Big to Fail
• The Dallas Fed Is Calling For The Immediate Breakup Of Large Banks

Mortgages and Foreclosures

• When Will the Obama Administration Recognize that MERS Destroyed the Chain of Title Making All Foreclosures Suspect?
• Rep. Issa Confronted By Protesters At Foreclosure Hearing, Blames Bank Fraud On Homeowners--"Before the GOP took control of the House in 2011, Issa promised not to investigate the fraudulent acts committed by Wall Street banks, instead vowing to focus his attention on home loans made to poor people."
• Texana Hollis Returns To Detroit Home, Thanks To Mitch Albom

Occupy Protests, Law and Disorder, Bank Heists, Reckoning, Republicans, Whistleblowing, Goldman Sucks

Occupy Protests

• 10 "Occupy" Candidates Running for Congress--"Meet the progressive insurgents who are riding a wave of energy from the Occupy Wall Street movement."
• Al Gore with Sean Parker at SXSW: 'Occupy democracy!'
• Michael Moore: The Purpose of Occupy Wall Street Is to Occupy Wall Street
• Outlawing Occupy: H.R. 347 Makes Free Speech A Felony--Not only covers protests on federal ground but protests near indivudals protected by Secret Service.
• Occupy’s Tentacles: The nomadic political movement returns after a hiatus — and finds a purpose in Virginia women's rights
• Valentine's Day Money Drop--No money, no honey.
• Resistance takes genius

Law and Disorder

• Twitter turns over Occupy user's data to police
• NYPD Treating Protesters Like Muslims
• OPD spies on and beats protesters
• Judge drops charges against 88 Occupy Albany protesters
• Jury Reaches Verdict In First Occupy Protester Case--"A Polk County jury reached a verdict Friday in the first trespassing trial for an Occupy Iowa protester. The jury found Ed Fallon not guilty of trespassing."

Bank Heists

• Bank of America: Too Crooked to Fail--"The bank has defrauded everyone from investors and insurers to homeowners and the unemployed. So why does the government keep bailing it out?"
• Feds promise tough oversight in mortgage deal--"The government released the fine print of its landmark $25 billion mortgage settlement, and promised to closely police the banks' pledges to bring widespread housing relief, even while letting them dodge admission of wrongdoing." Emphasis mine.
• Why the Fed Ignored Warnings and Let Banks Pay Shareholders Billions
• Reckless: The Inside Story of How the Banks Beat Washington (Again)--"Why the Fed caved to the nation's largest financial institutions, and how Wall Street still owns the place."
• Credit-default swaps: How Wall Street is gaming the Greek bailout

Reckoning

• Saving the Street From Itself--"The problem isn’t excessive greed. If you took the greed out of Wall Street all you’d have left is pavement. The problem is endemic abuse of power and trust." NYT
• Fannie and Freddie execs to get pay cut
• Lynn Szymoniak, Foreclosure Victim, Receives $18 Million For Investigating Mortgage Crisis--"Szymoniak, an attorney and renowned expert in foreclosure law, was suspicious of the way foreclosures were being conducted in Florida, so she started looking at documents. Eventually she made headlines when she found that the paperwork in tens of thousands of other foreclosure cases seemed to be fraudulent."
• Errors found in 84% of SF mortgages in foreclosure--Maybe Ms. Szymoniak can help out.
• The Case for Treating Big Finance Like Big Pharma--"A pair of University of Chicago law professors say the federal government needs to regulate new financial products the same way it tests new drugs for safety."

Republicans

• House Republicans Again Vote Against Fully Funding Wall Street Watchdog, Giving The Money To Banks Instead
• Why Are The Republicans Planning To Give Hedge Funds A 20 Percent Tax Break?
• The Real Moral Problem--"If there's a moral issue here, it's the Republicans using misleading rhetoric about the effects of tax cuts on growth, trickle down economics, tax cuts paying for themselves, and so on to obscure what, at its essence, is a large transfer of income to those at the top of the income distribution."

Whistleblowing

• Meet the Whistleblowers Who Warned of the Impending Financial Crash But Were Ignored--"Whistleblowers may often be praised in the abstract, but Americans ignore or even vilify them when they dare to stir up trouble in their own workplaces."
• The whistleblowers Washington ignores--"Reporters of corporate malfeasance aren't imprisoned. Their complaints are just brushed under the rug." Salon
• Whistleblower Claims Bank Of America Intentionally Blocked Homeowners From Getting Federal Mortgage Help
• CitiGroup Whistleblower: 'Brute Force' Used To Hide Bad Loans
• Terminated CBO Whistleblower Shares Her Full Story With Zero Hedge, Exposes Deep Conflicts At "Impartial" Budget Office

Goldman Sucks

• Why I Am Leaving Goldman Sachs--"I truly believe that this decline in the firm’s moral fiber represents the single most serious threat to its long-run survival." NYT
• Goldman Roiled by Op-Ed Loses $2.2B for Shareholders
• Public Rebuke of Culture at Goldman Opens Debate NYT

Foreclosure Settlement, Feckless SEC, Wall Street, Insider Trading, Bank Transfer

Foreclosure Settlement

• Mortgage deal is great — for politicians and banks--It's just a "poke in the eye".
• The foreclosure deal: Every little bit counts--"The banks don't get the punishment they deserve, but the White House finally gets some traction on housing woes." Salon
• The Five Things You Need To Know About Today's Foreclosure Settlement
• Taibbi: Mortgage Fraud Settlement is More Like a Bailout Than Justice
• Is the $25 Billion Foreclosure Settlement a Stealth Bank Bailout?
• "Deadbeat Bailout": Right-Wing Media Attack Struggling Homeowners, Whitewash Alleged Foreclosure Abuse
• Missouri Becomes 2nd State to Divert Foreclosure Funds Away From Homeowners to Balance its Budget

Feckless SEC

• S.E.C. Is Avoiding Tough Sanctions for Large Banks--"Even as the Securities and Exchange Commission has stepped up its investigations of Wall Street in the last decade, the agency has repeatedly allowed the biggest firms to avoid punishments specifically meant to apply to fraud cases." NYT
• Preet Bharara's toothless bite of Wall Street: Time magazine's favorite federal prosecutor chases the bottom feeders and avoids the sharks Salon
• SEC Keeps Giving Wall Street Banks A Break

Wall Street

• Wall Street's Reputation Still Falling--"More than three years after the financial crisis, Wall Street banks are still in the doghouse. In a survey intended to track the reputations of leading companies, only 17 percent of respondents had a positive impression of the financial services industry." NYT
• Volcker Rule Draws Barrage of Lobbying From Banks After Details Released
• Why Wall Street Should Stop Whining
• Wall Street's song of Obama woe: Self-pitying bankers lament a bygone era of fat bonuses and easy money Salon
• Wall Street 'Likely To Set Records' For Political Spending Aimed At Defeating Obama In 2012
• When The Bankers Plotted To Overthrow FDR--"It was a dangerous time in America: The economy was staggering, unemployment was rampant and a banking crisis threatened the entire monetary system..."
• Wall Street's Secret Spy Center, Run for the 1% by NYPD

Insider Trading

• House bans federal lawmakers from insider trading--Will it survive the Senate?
• Rep. Spencer Bachus faces insider-trading investigation
• Eric Cantor's Wall Street Insider Trading Loophole

Bank Transfer

• Earnings Show 'Bank Transfer Day' Results
• 5.6 Million Americans Have Switched Their Banks in the Last 90 Days
• City Of Berkeley Plans To Pull $300M Out Of Wells Fargo

Do-Nothing Congress, Keystone XL, Lobbying, Debt and Taxes, Bailout and Bonuses

Do-Nothing Congress

• House Republicans Fear They Really Are a Do-Nothing Congress
• Obama blames a "deeply ideological" Congress for lack of action--"President Obama says it's not his relationship with Congress that's to blame for the lack of congressional action on his agenda -- but a 'deeply ideological' Congress that 'sees a political advantage in not getting stuff done.'"
• Congress logs most futile legislative year on record
• Polls: Job approval for Congress sinks to new low--How low can they go?
• NBC/WSJ poll: Majority would vote out every member of Congress
• Congress Doesn't Want to Give Up Its Insider Trading Privileges
• Republicans derail US ambassador to El Salvador

Keystone XL

• Obama rejects Keystone pipeline from Canada to Texas
• Demand That John Boehner Be Expelled Or Resign For Keystone XL Scandal--"Boehner's official acts on behalf of Canada's tar sands industry are scandalous because he owns stock in the aforementioned seven companies, and he is using his financial gain as impetus to hold 160 million Americans’ tax cuts hostage in return for immediate approval of the Keystone pipeline."
• Lobbying Disclosures Reveal Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels Used State Dollars To Lobby For Keystone XL Pipeline--And Rep. Waxman wants to 'subpoena the Koch Brothers!'
• Republicans attempt to strip Obama of authority to reject oil pipeline plans.
• GOP tries new strategy to get Canada pipeline--By piggybacking it on a bill.

Lobbying

• Elizabeth Warren: 'Washington Now Works for Those Who Can Hire an Army of Lobbyists'
• Obama Campaign Refunding Money Donated by Federal Lobbyists
• Political Contributions from Financial Sector Increased 700% Since 1990

Debt and Taxes

• What If We Paid Off The Debt? The Secret Government Report
• Higher Taxes Help the Richest, Too NYT
• Billionaire Bill Gates Calls For Increasing Taxes On The Rich: 'That's Just Justice'
• Wealthy Bloomberg Subscribers Call for Higher Taxes
• Norquist: Republicans Will Impeach Obama If He Doesn't Extend Bush Tax Cuts
  
• Obama's and Bush's effects on the deficit in one graph
• Comparing Obama and Reagan’s economic records

Bailout and Bonuses

• Treasury Department approves huge paydays for execs at firms who received TARP bailout money--"Government approved pay packages worth $5M or more for 49 executives."
• Report: Taxpayers still owed $133B from bailout
• Barclays chief: Large bankers' bonuses 'rewards for success'

Occupy Movement, Class War, Corporations, Public-Private Partnerships, Banks and Bailouts, Government

Occupy Movement

• The Occupy Movement Must Also Become a Voters' Rebellion
• Occupy Wall Streeters are right about skewed economic rewards in the United States
• 10 Winning Moments for the 99% in 2011
• Democrats Become Target of Occupy Protests NYT
• Occupy protester 'banned' from flight home for Christmas

Class War

• We Are Not All Created Equal: The truth about the American class system--"Every instinct in the American gut... runs on the idea that anybody can make it; the only limits are your own limits. Which is an amazing idea, a gift to the world — just no longer true."
• How Anger Took Elites by Surprise--"[E]verywhere, the conventional wisdom was turned upside down by people who turned out to be angrier than their elites had suspected...." NYT
• The Big Lie - banker, curator, writer Michael Thomas condenses the rage of democracy overturned by the capitalism of greed
  

Corporations

• Weeding out corporate psychopaths--"Given the state of the global economy, it might not surprise you to learn that psychopaths may be controlling the world. Not violent criminals, but corporate psychopaths who nonetheless have a genetically inherited biochemical condition that prevents them from feeling normal human empathy."
• Beware corporate psychopaths – they are still occupying positions of power
• Living by Default--"We normally say that a company 'went bankrupt,' implying that it had no choice. But when, recently, American Airlines filed for bankruptcy, it did so deliberately. The airline had four billion dollars in the bank and could have kept paying its bills. But it has been losing money for a while, and its board decided that it was foolish to keep throwing good money after bad. Declaring bankruptcy will trim American’s debt load and allow it to break its union contracts, so that it can slim down and cut costs."

Public-Private Partnerships

• A reformed Jack Abramoff? The notorious lobbyist talks about how he justified his own crimes and whether D.C. can be saved from corruption Salon
• Paul Ryan’s Shrewd Budget Payday--"The congressman stands to make money from his stakes in four businesses that lease land to energy companies which would benefit from $45 billion in tax breaks and subsidies in his proposed budget."
• Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) Forces Unemployed Workers Off Unemployment Insurance While Giving Corporations A Tax Cut

Banks and Bailouts

• Obama and Geithner: Government, Enron-Style
• Dylan Ratigan With Author Ron Suskind: "Tim Geithner Ran The White House, Stopped Attorney General Eric Holder From Prosecuting Wall Street"
• How Banks Cheat Taxpayers
• Bank bailouts: Why are we helping banks and demanding austerity for everyone else?
• The Federal Reserve proposes new banking rules--"The Federal Reserve has proposed new rules designed to ensure that US banks can survive future financial crises without taxpayer-funded bailouts."
• The 99% Versus Wall Street: Stephen Lerner on How We Can Mobilize To Be the Greedy 1%'s Worst Nightmare
• 7 of the Nastiest Scams, Rip-Offs and Tricks From Wall Street Crooks

Government

• Members of Congress grew richer as most Americans became poorer
• Wonder why Congress loves the 1%? It's them, too.
• State Lawmakers Pump Up Pensions in ways YOU Can't