Category Archives: Wall Street

January 15, 2013 · 8:56 PM

The Wall Street Journal Doesn’t Think Anyone Makes Under $100k a Year

The Contributor

“While the top 1 percent of taxpayers will bear the biggest burden, many other families, affluent and poor, will pay more as well,” wrote Wall Street Journalreporter Laura Saunders in a story about the effect the “fiscal cliff” agreement would have on taxpayers.

However, a graphic that accompanied the story might help explain the conservative mindset about cutting taxes for the rich. Despite writing about the effect tax inceases will have for the poor, apparently no one in their Wall Street Journal’s world makes under $100,000 a year.

I especially feel bad for the poor, single parent struggling to get by on the measly $260,000 she earns a year. After all, how’s she going to afford paying an extra $280 a month in taxes when she’s only bringing in $21,666 a month?

At least the retired couple that barely squeaks by with $180,000 a year of income in retirement won’t have to pay more taxes (although, wearing a sweater tied around your neck like Carlton Banks is a requirement).

I would remind the editors of the Wall Street Journal that the median income in the United States is right around $50,000 a year, and less than 5 percent of households in the country earn more than $166,000 a year.

Related articles

 

8 Comments

Filed under Taxes, Wall Street

Tagged as , , , , , , , ,

July 12, 2012 · 4:20 PM

Wall Street Executives Believe Employees Need To Engage In Illegal Behavior To Succeed

So it looks like those guys will be doing “business as usual” (circa 2000-2008) with impunity.  Back in 2008 the outgoing Bush administration deemed the several large banks involved in the crash too big to fail.  Yet, the strongest of those banks have gobbled up the weaker banks and now the three or four major banks left are too big to fail on steroids.

It appears these banks can do whatever they want because the same government that they tend to despise will bail them out once again.  I doubt this problem is going to be resolved through the next presidential term, regardless of whose in office.

The following report on a survey conducted by the law firm of Labaton Sucharow reveals a lot about current attitudes of Wall Street Executives regarding illegal behavior and regulations, which they are adamantly against.  After all, how can they continue their illegal activities with so many regulators snooping around on them all the time?

Think Progress

British and U.S. authorities are both now investigating Barclays and other banks for manipulating the London InterBank Offered Rate, an interest rate that is a benchmark for a host of financial products around the world. Regulators charge that the banks rigged the interest rate’s movements in order to profit and to make themselves look healthier during the financial crisis of 2008 than they actually were.

This comes on the heels of JP Morgan losing billions of dollars chasing profits with trades that were meant to reduce risk, and, of course, is just a few years removed from a crisis caused in large part by Wall Street malfeasance. But according to a survey by the whistleblower law firm Labaton Sucharow, Wall Street executives believe this is just part of the financial business. In fact, nearly one quarter of survey respondents said that financial services employees need to be unethical or engage in illegal behavior in order to be successful:

In a survey of 500 senior executives in the United States and the UK, 26 percent of respondents said they had observed or had firsthand knowledge of wrongdoing in the workplace, while 24 percent said they believed financial services professionals may need to engage in unethical or illegal conduct to be successful.

Sixteen percent of respondents said they would commit insider trading if they could get away with it, according to Labaton Sucharow. And 30 percent said their compensation plans created pressure to compromise ethical standards or violate the law.

Big banks, of course, have continued to fight reforms to the financial regulatory framework, even in the wake of the crash of 2008. But if this survey is any indication, Wall Street needs a mentality change, along with stricter supervision.

Related articles

1 Comment

Filed under Wall Street, Wall Street "Banksters"

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

October 28, 2011 · 3:57 AM

Maddow explains how Wall Street firms defrauded investors

When I saw The Rachel Maddow Show last night, I knew I had to post this particular segment.  It’s thorough, easy to comprehend and as usual, Rachel gives an awesome delivery…

The Raw Story

On her show Thursday night, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow explained how dishonesty and fraud in Wall Street tanked the U.S. economy. Internal emails show that Wall Street firms told their investors to purchase stocks in certain companies, but not because those stocks had good potential. The stocks were owned by companies that were paying the firms giving the advice.

Watch video, courtesy of MSNBC, below:

Related articles

Comments Off

Filed under Elliott Spitzer, Wall Street

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

September 22, 2011 · 8:52 AM

New York City Police Use 150-Year-Old Law Against Wearing Masks To Arrest Wall Street Demonstrators

Where are the mainstream media reports on the Wall Street demonstrations?

Think Progress

As ThinkProgress previously reported, hundreds of demonstrators have encamped themselves in the financial district in New York City, hoping to call attention to Wall Street’s misdeeds.

Yesterday, seven protesters were arrested by the New York Police Department, despite being peaceful and not noticeably disrupting the normal activities of the city. The Wall Street Journal notes that the charges being brought against these demonstrators include “loitering and wearing [a] mask.” The Village Voice points out that the anti-mask law being used against demonstrators dates back to 1845, when farmers wore masks to conduct attacks against the police. The law was updated in 1965 to “prevent masked gathering of two or more people,” unless they are throwing masquerade parties:

The anti-mask law goes back to 1845, when tenant farmers used disguises (dressing up like Indians) to attack law enforcement officials, apparently. In 1965 the law was updated to prevent masked gatherings of two or more people, except in the case of masquerade parties. Whew.

Demonstrators took video of the arrests of some of the protesters. One of the protesters is simply wearing a plastic mask on the back of her head:

The occupation and protests on Wall Street are now entering their fifth day. Protesters are requesting on their website that people donate money for food for the demonstrators, and note that more than $9,000 has been donated so far.

The occupation and protests on Wall Street are now entering their fifth day. Protesters are requesting on their website that people donate money for food for the demonstrators, and note that more than $9,000 has been donated so far.

Related articles

Comments Off

Filed under Wall Street, Wall Street Corruption, Wall Street Protests

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

May 23, 2011 · 10:19 AM

George Carlin – “Who Really Controls America?”

H/T: Crooks & Liars

Comments Off

Filed under Koch Brothers, Koch Industries, Wall Street, Wall Street Insider Trading

Tagged as , ,

April 25, 2011 · 8:27 PM

Wall Street Behind High Food-Oil Prices Causing Global Instability

Rachel Maddow and Dylan Rattigan are the ONLY two people on network or cable TV that tells its audience the truth about the current gas and food price hike.  Speculation on Wall Street  is what drives gas and food prices to all time highs.

It’s convenient to blame the President for these hikes but in reality, it’s Wall Street…

Times News Net

AAA exec blames Wall Street speculation for high gas prices

Frustrated at the gasoline pump? Don’t blame the troubles in Libya or supply and demand. AAA East Tennessee says blame Wall Street traders.

Don Lindsey, AAA East Tennessee public affairs specialist, said the speculative nature of stock traders and the price of crude oil exceeding $110 per barrel are the main reasons the nation is flirting with $4 per gallon gas at the pump.   Continue reading…

Watch this Dylan Rattigan video for more…

Related Articles

Comments Off

Filed under Dylan Ratigan Show, Dylan Rattigan, Food Prices, Gasoline Prices, Rachel Maddow, Wall Street, Wall Street Speculation

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

September 2, 2010 · 6:51 AM

CEO Crybabies

A commenter from this Newsweek article says it all:

And thus we are hoodwinked. These obscenely rich individuals can game the system to take more the pie for themselves. How the rich managed to convince the rest of us that we should defer to their interests is beyond me. Looks like America bought that trickle-down BS

Newsweek

Corporate bosses are whining, even though they’re reporting record profits.

It’s hard out there for a CEO. There’s a Democrat in the White House, and Washington is being ruled by a coalition of socialists and anticapitalist thugs. There’s uncertainty about taxes and policy. Business leaders are constantly being vilified for taking home huge paychecks without providing meaningful returns to shareholders, or creating jobs, or boosting wages. The newly passed financial-reform bill requires CEOs of public companies to measure and report the ratio of their pay to that of their workers. Blackstone Group CEO Stephen Schwarzman is complaining that the Obama administration is like Hitler invading Poland.

With government and the media making life so difficult for CEOs, it must be nearly impossible to turn a profit. Right? Um, not really.

The headline number from the quarterly GDP report released by the Commerce Department last Friday was the sorry 1.6 percent growth rate of the economy in the second quarter. But the release also provided detailed data on corporate profits. And while the GDP number was disappointing, the latter was impressive. Corporate profits, which stood at $1.5 trillion in 2007, fell sharply to $1.26 trillion and essentially stagnated in 2009. But since the Obama presidency started, the trajectory in quarterly profits has reversed. Quarterly profits (reported at an annualized rate) rose from $1.18 trillion in the second quarter of 2009 to $1.42 trillion in the fourth quarter of 2009 to $1.64 trillion in the second quarter of 2010. In the second quarter of 2010, corporate profits were up 39.2 percent from the year-before quarter.    

Corporate profits aren’t just rising in absolute terms, they’re rising in relative terms. Corporate profits as a percentage of GDP are back up to nearly record highs. Check out this assemblage of quarterly GDP data for the last several years. If you divide line 17 (corporate profits with inventory and capital-consumption adjustments) into line 1 (overall GDP), you can calculate corporate profits as a percentage of GDP—i.e., the chunk of the economy that corporations are keeping as profits. If companies and business were under assault, you might expect that this proportion would be falling. But as the chart here shows, that’s not what is happening.   Continue reading…

Comments Off

Filed under Wall Street

Tagged as

July 15, 2010 · 5:16 AM

The Food Bubble: How Wall Street Starved Millions and Got Away With It

Crooks & Liars

Thom Hartmann talked to author Frederick Kaufman about his cover story in this month’s edition of Harper’s Magazine The food bubble: How Wall Street starved millions and got away with it.

It’s subscription only but you can read more about Kaufman and his work at his blog AmericanStomach.com.

Thom shared a little of the article during his interview with Kaufman.

Hartmann: “The history of food took an ominous turn in 1991, at a time when no one was paying much attention. That was the year Goldman Sachs decided our daily bread might make an excellent investment.”

And then towards the end of the story, just a couple of sentences here. “Bankers had taken control of the world’s food, money chased money and a billion people went hungry.” Remember the food riots of a couple of years ago around the world?

“The world wide price of food had risen by 80% between 2005 and 2008 and unlike other food catastrophes in the last half century or so, the United States was not insulated from this one.” Could it be because it was our banksters that were doing it?

“As 49 million Americans found themselves unable to put a full meal on the table, one in five kids came to be dependent on food kitchens. In Los Angeles nearly a million people went hungry. In Detroit, armed guards had to watch over grocery stores.” And then the question, “Could this happen again?”

Really great interview. Too bad our “mainstream media” isn’t touching this one. As they noted during the interview, it looks like there’s nothing that these bankers won’t exploit to make a buck. Really disgusting. And all we’ve got going on in the United States is some half-baked sorry excuse for “reform”.

Comments Off

Filed under Financial Regulatory Reform, Wall Street

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

July 14, 2010 · 5:22 AM

Dylan Ratigan Rips GOP Congressman Kevin Brady Over Wall Street Greed

 

Huffington Post

Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas) looked uncomfortable when MSNBC host Dylan Ratigan introduced him Tuesday afternoon to talk about unemployment benefits and Wall Street greed. Brady’s discomfort proved well-founded.

Ratigan tore into the Texas Republican, who voted against the extension of unemployment benefits but for the Wall Street bailout known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program. Brady repeatedly attempted to deflect Ratigan’s harsh line of questioning on the nature of Wall Street by arguing that potential — not actual — tax increases are stifling capital investment and thus job creation, but the MSNBC host didn’t let up.

“I know you have an issue with the government, but I’ve got an issue with a private industry that’s using the government to rape my country of its money, and I’d like to try to put a stop to that,” Ratigan said.

“We are facing higher taxes in energy and income and capital and dividends,” Brady argued, not for the last time. “All those tax proposals are what’s keeping our recovery from gaining steam–”

“That’s a lie. That’s a lie,” Ratigan shot back. “What’s keeping our recovery from gaining steam is the fact that the financial industry is stealing America’s money, depriving this country of any investment whatsoever, and that is the entire basis of our system, and the government has converted it from an investment vehicle into a vehicle for it to steal money for its rich friends.”

The MSNBC host ended the segment on a frustrated note, complaining that Brady simply retreated to his talking points. “I’m done with you,” Ratigan said, after he challenged Brady to answer his questions and his guest resumed talking about possible future taxes.

Comments Off

Filed under Job Market, Uncategorized, Unemployment, Unemployment Benefits, Unemployment Rate, Wall Street

Tagged as , , , , , , , , ,