September, 15 2008, 03:00pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020, (202) 421-6858;
or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167
Wall Street and Politics
JAMES K. GALBRAITH
Galbraith is Lloyd M. Bentsen Jr. chair in government/business
relations at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the
University of Texas at Austin. His latest book is The Predator State: How Conservatives Abandoned the Free Market and Why Liberals Should Too.
WASHINGTON
JAMES K. GALBRAITH
Galbraith is Lloyd M. Bentsen Jr. chair in government/business
relations at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the
University of Texas at Austin. His latest book is The Predator State: How Conservatives Abandoned the Free Market and Why Liberals Should Too.
Galbraith said today: "Revolutions devour their children. Deregulation
has been the public faith of the financial sector since Reagan. Under
Bush II, waves of predatory finance in housing were aggressively
promoted by Alan Greenspan, by McCain's closest economic adviser Phil
Gramm, and by so-called regulators who systematically subverted the
public interest. For a year, the Fed and Treasury have been propping up
the markets in the hope that this system would recover on its own. It
will not, and today's [Lehman] collapse should mark the end of that
mindset."
A recent interview with Galbraith is at The Real News.
MAX FRAAD WOLFF
An economist and writer, Wolff is an instructor at the Graduate Program
in International Affairs at the New School University. He is a frequent
contributor to Huffington Post, Asia Times and The Indypendent.
Wolff says that the decision to not bail out Lehman is a political and
public relations one; he also states that a Federal Reserve rate cut
tomorrow -- widely rumored on Wall Street -- would amount to a massive
subsidy.
A recent interview with Wolff is at Democracy Now.
DOUG HENWOOD
Henwood is author of the book Wall Street and editor of Left Business Observer.
He said today: "The weekend's financial emergency and Wall Street's
Monday morning swoon in reaction to it are further proof that the
housing bust and its fallout just won't go away. Every time it looks
like there's been a resolution -- Bear Stearns, Freddie and Fannie --
there's only more to come. This melodrama has more false endings than a
bad horror movie. The authorities are scrambling for solutions,
improvising as they go along. My guess is that this has more to run,
and the structural problems of the U.S. economy (maldistribution of
income, excessive borrowing, energy profligacy, etc.) are the
underlying causes. Until those are addressed, we're going to face years
of financial problems, economic stagnation, an eroding job market, and
strains on living standards. And it looks like we're exporting these
problems to the rest of the world. But our political system seems
unable to discuss these issues seriously."
SHEILA KRUMHOLZ
MASSIE RITSCH
Krumholz is executive director and Ritsch is communication director of the Center for Responsive Politics, which operates the OpenSecrets.org
web page featuring in-depth information on money in politics. According
to OpenSecrets.org, the top recipients from PACs and individuals
associated with parts of the financial sector for the 2007-2008
election cycle are:
Commercial Banks:
Barack Obama: $1,884,358
John McCain: $1,703,678
Hillary Clinton: $1,572,508
Mitt Romney: $798,401
Rudolph Giuliani: $765,001
Insurance Companies:
John McCain: $1,312,155
Hillary Clinton: $1,262,409
Barack Obama: $1,147,886
Rudolph Giuliani: $887,750
Christopher Dodd: $829,106
A nationwide consortium, the Institute for Public Accuracy (IPA) represents an unprecedented effort to bring other voices to the mass-media table often dominated by a few major think tanks. IPA works to broaden public discourse in mainstream media, while building communication with alternative media outlets and grassroots activists.
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Israeli soldiers have either passively watched or participated in the uprooting of at least seven communities in the West Bank since October of last year, Human Rights Watch said Wednesday in a new report documenting surging settler violence in the occupied Palestinian territory.
The rights group interviewed dozens of eyewitnesses and examined video footage showing harassment and other abuse of Palestinians in the West Bank "by men in Israeli military uniforms carrying M16 assault rifles."
Following the Hamas-led October 7 attack on southern Israel, the Israeli military drafted more than 5,000 settlers into "regional defense" units in the West Bank, Haaretzreported earlier this year. The Israeli newspaper noted that "alongside this large-scale mobilization, the [Israel Defense Forces] has distributed some 7,000 weapons to the battalions as well as to settlers who were not recruited into the army but received them as civilians whom the army considers eligible to carry military arms."
HRW's investigation found that "armed settlers, with the active participation of army units, repeatedly cut off road access and raided Palestinian communities, detained, assaulted, and tortured residents, chased them out of their homes and off their lands at gunpoint or coerced them to leave with death threats, and blocked them from taking their belongings."
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The new report comes days after Israeli settlers—escorted by IDF soldiers—went on their latest destructive and deadly rampage in the West Bank, killing at least two Palestinians, injuring dozens, and setting homes and vehicles ablaze. At least 20 households were displaced after Israeli settlers burned down their homes.
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None of the families forcibly evicted from the five communities examined in the HRW report have been allowed to return home.
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Despite its grave implications for civil liberties, the bill has drawn relatively little vocal opposition in the Senate. A final vote could come as soon as Thursday.
Titled Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act (RISAA), the legislation passed the Republican-controlled House last week after lawmakers voted down an amendment that would have added a search warrant requirement to Section 702.
The authority allows U.S. agencies to spy on non-citizens located outside of the country, but it has been abused extensively by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and National Security Agency to collect the communications of American lawmakers, activists, journalists, and others without a warrant.
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