10 Corporate Behemoths Stifling Competition and Delivering Awful Service to You. April 24, 2014 | Like this article? Join our email list: Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email. One of the fundamentals of free-market capitalism is that consumers benefit when competition is plentiful. Here are 10 mammoth corporations that detest free-market competition and do everything they can to stamp it out or greatly reduce it. 1. When Comcast acquired Greater Media’s cable TV operations in Philadelphia in 1999 and gained over 250,000 new cable television customers in the East Coast’s second largest city (thus expanding its Mid-Atlantic customer base to more than 2 million at that point), consumer rights advocates feared that the company was growing too large.
Harming net neutrality will only add to the already-unfair advantage that telecom giants like Comcast and Verizon enjoy. 2. Founded in 1901, the Monsanto Corporation has been in business for 113 years. 3. As TPP Opposition Soars, Corporate Media Blackout Deafening. Last week, more than 550 groups, representing tens of millions of individual members, signed a letter to members of Congress urging them to vote against a push by President Obama for 'fast track' authority for the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a so-called "free trade" now under negotation between the U.S. and eleven other Pacific rim nations.
The week before that, another 50 groups launched an energized online campaign called StopFastTrack.com in order to kill the TPP agreement—dubbed "NAFTA on steroids"—that they say "threatens everything you care about: democracy, jobs, the environment, and the Internet. " But if you watch the evening cable or broadcast news shows, you might not know anything about the TPP—not what it is, not why Obama says it would be good for the country, and certainly not why these hundreds of public interest groups, environmentalists, economists, and labor organizations say trade agreements like this are the source of economic and labor woes, not the solution to them.
How to Start A Worker Co-op. In the age of unemployment, downsizing, and outsourcing, where can a poor soul find a job? Well, maybe it’s time we create our own. Self-employment is an option and can seem freeing, but it’s hard to do everything yourself and find time for a non-work life. The worker coop is an alternative to the isolation of self-employment and the exploitation of traditional jobs. Worker coops can be more satisfying than working for the man. Worker-owners aren't forced into a hierarchy, and they have more say over what the business does than traditional employees. You still have to be responsible managing a coop, maybe more so, but your coworker-owners will likely be nicer and more understanding of personal needs and quirks than middle-management at any corporation.
So what is a worker coop? Courtesy of Rainbow Grocery One of the first barriers to starting a worker cooperative is finding others willing to be part of the initiating group. What is your common goal and purpose? Whew! Reading Resources: Marking Up the TPP. (Summary: I’ve uploaded the text of the leaked Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) to the annotation site Rap Genius with my comments and analysis, and I am inviting yours. Have at it.) What’s this about? There has been a lot of noise about the recently leaked text of the IP chapter of the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Secret trade agreements will do that. While some of the anxieties about TPP are appropriate, others may be misplaced.
Some have argued, in 2000-word blogposts, that there’s nothing to see here. Thus, while we are right to ignore Panglossian assertions that the agreement is the best of all possible trade agreements, my opinion is that comparisons to SOPA are misplaced. Instead, what the leaked TPP text on intermediaries actually shows (largely in this sub-chapter of TPP) is that U.S. negotiators are fighting an uphill battle to export the U.S. Section-specific links follow: TPP IP Chapter-Leaked Draft- Section A: General Provisions TPP IP Chapter-Leaked Draft- Section B: Cooperation. House Votes to Protect Citigroup if It Gambles and Loses. One of the nation’s leading banks wants Congress to amend federal law adopted in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis so it and other Wall Street institutions can go back to gambling with risky investments and have taxpayers cover the losses again if they bet wrong.
Under the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010 (pdf), banks can no longer use monies backed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) to invest in high-risk derivatives, such as “swaps.” This prohibition was adopted because derivatives crippled numerous key players on Wall Street five years ago, including Countrywide Mortgages, Bear Stearns, AIG, Lehman Brothers, Washington Mutual, Wachovia and others. One of those “others” was Citigroup, which had to be bailed out by the federal government to the tune of $45 billion. A Citigroup lobbyist, though, was primarily responsible for authoring the Swaps Regulatory Improvement Act, which was approved by the U.S. -Noel Brinkerhoff, Danny Biederman To Learn More: How JP Morgan Bribed the Chinese Prime Minister’s Daughter Using a Fake Name.
This Transatlantic Trade Deal is a Full-Frontal Assault on Democracy. David Cameron with Barack Obama at a state dinner in Cameron's honour in 2012 at the White House. (Photograph: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images)Remember that referendum about whether we should create a single market with the United States? You know, the one that asked whether corporations should have the power to strike down our laws? No, I don't either. Mind you, I spent 10 minutes looking for my watch the other day before I realised I was wearing it. Forgetting about the referendum is another sign of ageing. Because there must have been one, mustn't there? After all that agonising over whether or not we should stay in the European Union, the government wouldn't cede our sovereignty to some shadowy, undemocratic body without consulting us.
The purpose of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership is to remove the regulatory differences between the US and European nations. The mechanism through which this is achieved is known as investor-state dispute settlement. Report: "A Brave New Transatlantic Partnership" What will they be talking about?
Given that tariffs between the U.S. and the EU are already low, TAFTA proponents readily acknowledge that the agreement is not really about trade, but rather the rewriting of regulatory policies so as to remove “non-tariff barriers” –- a corporate code name for environmental, health, and consumer safeguards on which we all depend. What particular safeguards could be dismantled via these corporate-advised "trade" negotiations? The European organization Seattle to Brussels Network has released a worrisome report that outlines some of the public priorities that corporations on both sides of the Atlantic have asked to be placed on the TAFTA chopping block: 1.
Clean air and water: The report notes that industry groups on both sides of the Atlantic have been calling for TAFTA to "harmonize" U.S. and EU environmental rules -- that is, replacing existing domestic environmental protections with ones negotiated to be more convenient to business. 2. 3. 4. 5. Secret Trade Agenda Threatens Shift Toward Sustainable Food System. After being delayed by the U.S. government shutdown, talks for a Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) are quietly gearing up again.
Tariff barriers between the U.S. and EU are already low, so these negotiations are focused squarely on achieving “regulatory coherence.” In other words, industry lobby groups and their political allies on both sides of the Atlantic see the trade deal as an opportunity to get rid of rules and regulations that limit their ability to buy and sell goods and services. The outcome of TTIP has implications for the rest of the world. Leaders from both regions have made clear, the terms of this trade agreement will set the standard for future free trade agreements. Photo via Flickr / alicehenneman / creative commons license TTIP could affect a broad range of issues, from energy to the environment, and intellectual property rights to labor rights.
In both the U.S. and EU, the time to influence the substance of the agreement is before it is completed. 'Winning the Race to the Bottom': Obama Moves to Fast-Track the TPP. (Photo: thinkpanama/cc/flickr)As Obama moves to fast-track the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), critics are blasting the highly-secretive trade deal as "NAFTA on steroids" and a tool for advancing U.S. and corporate power.
"If impoverishing working people around the world is the goal, then the trade policies like this are working quite effectively," Chris Townsend, political director for United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE), told Common Dreams. "This is the grand-daddy of trade deals, a very destructive project, and it is happening completely under the radar. " Meeting with his corporation-heavy Export Council, President Barack Obama declared Thursday he intends to push for renewal of Trade Promotion Authority legislation to allow him to fast-track so-called trade agreements by giving Congress a yes or no vote but taking away powers to amend.
The bulk of information about the TPP negotiations that is available to the public was leaked out. Passage of Trans Pacific Partnership Would Be Win for Corporations, Loss for the 99% In the early years of the United States we had, and enforced, strong trade tariffs, it was necessary to protect farmers and businesses from unfair foreign competition. Now, that we are an Empire, we demand free access to foreign markets for our small businesses and farmers. No, we demand market access for our corporations. Trade agreements are written with the financial interests of corporations in mind.
This is not new, trade policy, when imposed by an Empire, is not for the benefit of the people, but rather the Empire or those who control it. The British Crown instituted the Tea Act of 1773 granting the British East India Company (one of the worlds first multi-national corporations) a monopoly on tea sales to the American colonies, --- a bailout policy to get the East India Company out of debt. Now, our government, which is supposed to represent the people, places the interests of corporations and banks ahead of the interests of the people.
MSF Urges Countries Not to Trade Away Health as Trans-Pacific Trade Pact Negotiations Intensify. Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei Darussalam/New York - August 23 - The far-reaching Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) should be a force for improving health outcomes for the more than half a billion people in twelve countries affected by the pact, but instead negotiators are moving towards finalizing a deal that in fact would restrict access to affordable medicines and constrain governments’ ability to protect the health of their citizens, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said today. Trade representatives from the U.S. and 11 Pacific Rim countries are in Brunei to negotiate the terms of the agreement, including U.S. proposals for intellectual property (IP) standards that are the most aggressive ever seen in a trade agreement with developing countries. For more details on the U.S. demands, read MSF’s Issue Brief: Trading Away Health.
Everyone but China TPP Trade Deal Threatens Sovereignty and Public Ownership. Death by Corporation: America's Corporate Deathstar. (Image: Jared Rodriguez / t r u t h o u t; Adapted: Sparkly Kate, erix!) Instead of protecting US citizens, the Obama administration is enabling the ultimate corporate "Deathstar. " The TransPacific Partnership will allow corporations "virtually unchecked control of our food supply, our land, air, water, wallets and our future. " A few days ago I was contacted by someone in the EPA and told that I had been nominated to be a potential recipient of an award from the White House, a "Champion of Change" on the issue of the public health consequences of global warming. To find out if I had received one of the awards, which sounded like the Heisman Trophy of public health/environmental do-gooderism, I was asked to fly back to Washington - at my own expense, thank you "Sequester" - with other nominees to attend a ceremony/panel discussion on the issue.
This bill is just a warm-up act. Eighty-four percent of the seafood consumed by Americans is imported, mostly from TPP nations. It gets worse. Truthout. California Mayor Attacks ‘Greed’ With Eminent Domain Bid. Gayle McLaughlin marched in Occupy Wall Street protests and rails against “corporate domination.” Now, as mayor of Richmond, California, the largest U.S. city with a Green Party leader, she wants to seize home loans and make lenders take less than they’re owed to help residents.
The refinery town of 106,000, where almost half of mortgages have higher values than the homes they financed, threatens to use eminent domain to force discounted sales of the notes. Investors say that would mean unfair losses, push lenders to withdraw from the market and expose the city to legal risks. “The banks and financial institutions are not helping,” McLaughlin, 61, said by e-mail.
“Their greed caused the problem and they have no solution for cities like Richmond.” Governments have long used eminent domain to take private property for public uses, including highways, and for economic development such as shopping malls, providing compensation to the owner. Close Open Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg. Meet The 31 Corporations and Banks Who Dodged $128 Billion in US Taxes.
By Jason Easley Sen. Bernie Sanders released a report today directly taking on the Business Roundtable, by outing 31 banks and corporations who have dodged $128 billion in taxes. According to the report, the 31 corporations and banks have dodged $128 billion in taxes by setting up offshore tax havens. They have received $6.5 billion in tax refunds, and $2.5 trillion in taxpayer bailout money. While stuffing their pockets with trillions of taxpayer dollars, the Business Roundtable has called for the deficit to be reduced by raising the eligibility age for Medicare and Social Security to 70, cut Social Security and veterans’ benefits, and increase taxes on working families.
The reason why congressional Republicans are adamantly opposed to generating new revenue through closing these loopholes is that doing so would force these tax dodgers to pay their fair share. Here is the list: 1. Number of Offshore Tax Havens in 2010? Amount of federal income taxes paid in 2010? 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Stopping the TPP: A Victory in the Global Revolt Against Corporate Domination.
(Photo: Caelie_Frampton / Flickr) We are in the midst of an epic battle between the people of the world and transnational corporations. Wealthy governments and corporations are merging in a global system in which private corporations have absolute power over your life. This is a battle the people can win and when we do it will show that we can defeat corporate power on issue after issue. The 1999 battle in Seattle to stop the World Trade Organization (WTO) from granting increased power to transnational corporations and the negative consequences of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) created broad public awareness about the ways that ‘free trade’ hurts people and the planet.
As a result, in the past few decades, the WTO has effectively been unable to move forward with its neoliberal economic agenda. And the United States was forced to move to smaller country-by-country trade agreements, many of which were stopped by public pressure. Will this legal right be abused? Not Prepared: 17 Signs That Most Americans Will Be Wiped Out By The Coming Economic Collapse. Global Power Project: Identifying the Institutions of Control. Land Value Taxation - Interview with Swiss Economist Bruno Moser. Divestment Campaigners Look Beyond Fossil Free to Fund Solar Utopias.
One Walmart's Low Wages Could Cost Taxpayers $900,000 Per Year, House Dems Find. These 6 Corporations Control 90% Of The Media In America. Manfred Max-Neef on Democracy Now 2010 - Barefoot Economics. Timothy Geithner Saved Wall Street, Not the Economy. The Market and Mother Nature. Exxon, Chevron Made $71 Billion Profit In 2012 As Consumers Paid Record Gas Prices. SEC’s new Wall Street enabler. Obama Puts Wall Street’s Worst Nightmare In Charge Of SEC. Dear Whole Foods CEO, This Is What a Fascist Looks Like.
Former Icelandic bank executives jailed for fraud - Business. How Wal-Mart Used Payoffs to Get Its Way in Mexico. Wal-Mart Targeted Over Corruption and Labor Practices. Corporate savings: Dead money. How to Rob Africa - People & Power. Twinkie CEO Admits Company Took Employees Pensions and Put It Toward Executive Pay. Over Two-Thirds Of Corporations Pay No Federal Corporate Income Tax. Google parks $10 billion in Bermuda, avoiding $2 billion in taxes.
Corporate Profits Hit Record High While Worker Wages Hit Record Low. Refineries ran while 'offline,' yet gas prices rose, report says | Nation & World. 2nd UPDATE: Lockheed Martin CEO-Elect Resigns After Improper Relationship. Owner of Multi-Million Dollar Company Hands Over Business to Employees. HSBC probing loss of client data in Jersey. Wealthy hiding $21 trillion in tax havens, report says - World. Www.census.gov/newsroom/cspan/inc_pov_hinsur/20120914_iphi_slides_5.pdf. U.S. Multinationals Hiring At Much Faster Rate Overseas: Report. BBC ON THIS DAY | 3 | 1984: Hundreds die in Bhopal chemical accident.
Wealth doesn't trickle down – it just floods offshore, research reveals | Business | The Observer. Corporate Profits Have Grown By 171 Percent Under Obama -- Highest Rate Since 1900. The true history of the Banking Cartels and the Federal reserve. The Untouchables | FRONTLINE. How a big US bank laundered billions from Mexico's murderous drug gangs | World news | The Observer. Trade agreements. Bank of America fined $335m for minority discrimination. Payback! Hundreds of Homeowners Associations Threaten Banks with Foreclosure. The Genesis Of The Gold-Tungsten: The Rest Of The Story.
PRAGMATIC CAPITALISM.