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. 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.
How to Start A Worker Co-op. 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. 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.
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? 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. 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. '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. 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. 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. 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. " 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.
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. 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. 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. (Image: Solar energy via Shutterstock)Fresh from victories in Seattle and San Francisco, grassroots activists advocating city and college divestment from fossil fuel companies are already thinking big about how to reinvest the billions of dollars they want to free up. While very little money has actually been divested to date, the campaign is building connections between climate activists and renewable energy advocates.
One Walmart's Low Wages Could Cost Taxpayers $900,000 Per Year, House Dems Find. Walmart wages are so low that many of its workers rely on food stamps and other government aid programs to fulfill their basic needs, a reality that could cost taxpayers as much as $900,000 at just one Walmart Supercenter in Wisconsin, according to a study released by Congressional Democrats on Thursday.
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.
If your first reaction to this morning’s news about President Obama nominating Mary Jo White to head the Securities and Exchange Commission is positive, that’s understandable. Obama Puts Wall Street’s Worst Nightmare In Charge Of SEC. News around the beltway is all abuzz this morning after the president appointed Mary Jo White as the permanent replacement for Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Dear Whole Foods CEO, This Is What a Fascist Looks Like. January 17, 2013 | 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. 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. 1984: Hundreds die in Bhopal chemical accident.
Wealth doesn't trickle down – it just floods offshore, research reveals. Corporate Profits Have Grown By 171 Percent Under Obama. The true history of the Banking Cartels and the Federal reserve. The Untouchables. How a big US bank laundered billions from Mexico's murderous drug gangs. 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.