Government Oversight

Bernanke Must Go

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 16:32:00 -0500

by Senator Bernie Sanders

I will not vote to confirm Ben Bernanke for another term as chairman of the Federal Reserve and have placed a hold on his nomination in the US Senate.

Last year, the American people overwhelmingly voted for a change in our national priorities and for a new direction on the economy.

The ACORN Standard

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 14:02:25 -0400

by Jeremy Scahill

The nonpartisan Project on Government Oversight and Reform recently revealed that the top 100 government contractors made nearly $300 billion from federal contracts in 2007 alone. Since 1995 these same contractors have been involved with 676 cases of "misconduct" and were paid $26 billion in fines to settle cases stemming from fraud, waste or abuse. Fines and other penalties, it seems, are simply the stunningly small price of doing government business.

Do They Take Us for Schmucks?

Sat, 03 Oct 2009 10:58:54 -0400

by Greg Kaufmann

After healthcare--if you can imagine an "after healthcare"--the next Big Fight in Congress will likely be over financial reform, particularly the proposed creation of a Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA). The CFPA would focus solely on protecting consumers' financial interests--a task currently shared (with disastrous results) by several agencies whose primary focus is on monitoring the safety and soundness of financial institutions.

Bailed-Out Banks Lobby Hard to Stave off Limits

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 10:33:19 -0400

by Michael Kranish and Alan Wirzbicki

WASHINGTON - The meeting with Bank of America executives came less than a year after American taxpayers rescued the institution with a $45 billion emergency bailout. The subject was derivatives, the complex securities that helped trigger Wall Street's crisis and drag the country to the edge of an economic abyss.

The guest of honor: Barney Frank.

Banks Fight to Kill Proposed Consumer Protection Agency

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 10:56:11 -0400

by Kevin G. Hall

WASHINGTON — If you doubt that U.S. banks long to return to the days of impotent regulation, you need only look at one of the financial sector's top legislative priorities: killing a proposed new agency that would be dedicated solely to protecting consumers' financial interests.

The Obama administration is asking Congress to create a new Consumer Financial Protection Agency to regulate consumer financial products ranging from credit cards to mortgages, and to simplify disclosure about them all.

Bank of America Mulls Repaying Aid: Report

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 10:11:21 -0400

NEW YORK - Bank of America is seeking to repay some of the billions of dollars in US government aid it has received in a bid to reduce federal involvement in the company, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.

The federal government, meanwhile, is pressing the bank to pay about 500 million dollars to end a tentative pact that would have seen the government share its losses on some Bank of America assets, the Journal said, citing people familiar with the matter.

The Best Interests of the Corporation

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 12:24:47 -0400

by Robert C. Hinkley

Every day legal corporate behavior causes much more damage to the commons than corporate illegal behavior. Electricity generators do not break the law when they emit billions of tons of carbon into the atmosphere every year warming the Earth to dangerous levels. No law is broken when automobile manufacturers put out millions of vehicles that contribute to the same problem. Tobacco companies do not break the law when their products kill nearly 5 million people a year. Consumer goods companies are within the law when they buy from third world suppliers who operate sw

Weight of Government’s Hand on Capitalism’s Scale

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 09:01:42 -0400

by John Buell

To advocate a new, robust stimulus package, as in my last column, invites some predictable comments. Government is inefficient, politically motivated in its choice of winners and losers, and out to pad its own wallets.

The War Being Waged on the TARP Watchdog's Independence

Sun, 26 Jul 2009 11:47:36 -0400

by Glenn Greenwald

Neil Barofsky, the chief watchdog over the $700 billion TARP bank bailout program, is one of those rare creatures in Washington: he takes very seriously his responsibilities of independent oversight and accountability. A career prosecutor, Barofsky is a life-long Democrat who donated money to Obama's presidential campaign.

The Illegal Spying Game, Played Over and Over

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 11:29:27 -0400

by Glenn Greenwald

Ever since The New York Times revealed in December, 2005 that the Bush administration had spent the last four years illegally spying on Americans' communications without warrants, there have been numerous additional revelations of various types of massive illegal government spying. Yesterday's New York Times article by James Risen and Eric Lichtblau -- reporting that "recent intercepts of the private telephone calls and e-mail messages of