Bank Lobbyist on Rep. Maxine Waters as Chair of Financial Services Committee: “Just the name sends shivers up the spine” Matt Stoller is a fellow at the Roosevelt Institute. You can follow him on twitter at Did you know that most international banks would leave America if Congresswoman Maxine Waters became the Chairwoman of the Financial Services Committee in the House of Representatives?
Apparently, that’s what the financial services industry is saying. An expert at Pace University and former McKinsey consultant named John Allen James actually argued this in an article that was breathtaking in its viciousness. There’s a reason for the hyperbole. Last month, Yves highlighted this article, which technically was on the coming fight between senior Democrat Maxine Waters and senior Democrat Carolyn Maloney over the top spot on the Financial Services Committee now that the bank-friendly Barney Frank is retiring.
Still, how would Rep. She also tried to bring the foreclosure fraud to light. Read these quotes from bank lobbyists, and you’ll see what I mean. Let's Listen To Lobbying Reformers Buddy Roemer and, Yes, Jack Abramoff. Buddy Roemer Presidential candidate Buddy Roemer and former lobbyist Jack Abramoff argue that reform of influence-peddling must be radical to save the country. Roemer, for example, refuses to take contributions over $100. GOP leaders used his lack of big-dollar fund-raising as an excuse to keep him out of all 23 Presidential debates. Too often, Roemer and Abramoff are thus ignored or disparaged despite their obvious relevant experience — and their eloquent, entertaining and otherwise effective speaking-style that matches a national mood of “Throw the Rascals Out.”
The specifics of their messages deserve a wide audience, as shown by their compelling arguments during a joint appearance last week in the nation’s capital. “The nation is in trouble,” said Roemer, now a grandfather and successful banker. “I don’t think the answer is the Republican Party,” said the former two-term governor of Louisiana, who became a Republican in 1991 and returned to politics last year after a 16-year absence. A Fistful of Dollars: Lobbying and the Financial Crisis. Investment and lobbying: Money and politics. Which Bank Is the Worst for America? 5 Behemoths That Hold Our Political System Hostage. October 19, 2011 | Like this article?
Join our email list: Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email. The economic crash led to the loss of 9 million jobs and the biggest drop in American home-ownership since the Great Depression. Long-term unemployment, poverty and hunger have increased dramatically. People are angry. The giant mortgage bubble and the irresponsible and corrupt practices that caused the catastrophic economic crash didn't emerge out of thin air.
Many of these checks and balances were implemented during the Great Depression. Big Finance has a long history of working hard to deregulate the American economic system on behalf of global capitalism run amok. The first victory in the quest to overturn this major protection came in 1986. The following year, after 12 unsuccessful attempts, Glass-Steagall, which would have made the crash of 2007-2009 impossible, was finally repealed. The Glass-Steagall act was killed by financial interests seeking to maximize deregulation. Top Recipients of Federal Tax Breaks Donate to State Campaigns. The opinions and views in the report do not necessarily state or reflect those of the Institute's funders. Overview The top five recipients of federal corporate tax breaks—Chevron Corp, Bank of America, ExxonMobil, General Electric, and Boeing—gave $78.7 million to state political campaigns and another $45.3 million to federal campaigns from 1999 through 2010.
Bill De Blasio, of the New York City Public Advocates office, pointed out that these same five corporations benefited from $3.7 billion in corporate tax breaks in 2009, paid $0 in 2009 federal taxes, and in 2010 enjoyed a combined profit of $77.16 billion. The following table details the state and federal campaign giving of the five corporations over the past decade. . * From the table in May 3, 2011, Huffington Post article. . † Includes contributions made by subsidiaries Contributions to State Campaigns, 1999–2010 Strategic Giving at the State Level, 1999–2010 The five companies heavily favored Republicans, incumbents, and winners:
The GOP's Big Investors) Have you heard of William Dore, Foster Friess, Sheldon Adelson, Harold Simmons, Peter Thiel, or Bruce Kovner? If not, let me introduce them to you. They’re running for the Republican nomination for president. I know, I know. You think Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, and Mitt Romney are running. According to January’s Federal Election Commission report, William Dore and Foster Friess supplied more than three-fourths of the $2.1 million raked in by Rick Santorum’s super PAC in January. Sheldon Adelson and his wife Miriam provided $10 million of the $11 million that went into Gingrich’s super PAC in January. Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal, provided $1.7 million of the $2.4 million raised by Ron Paul’s super PAC in January. Mitt Romney’s super PAC raised $6.6 million last month – almost all from just forty donors. Bottom line: Whoever emerges as the GOP standard-bearer will be deeply indebted to a handful of people, each of whom will expect a good return on their investment.
Lee Fang: Howard Dean Advises Corporate Health Care Clients To Fund ‘Both Sides,’ Run Attack Ads. This post is by investigative reporter Lee Fang. Fang knows the ins and outs of DC corruption better than almost anyone else I’ve met. Here he has documented one of the little noticed but important ways that money sluices in and out of our political system, and heavily influences policy. One of the biggest problems with lobbying in Washington D.C. is the extent to which so many influence peddlers work behind closed doors, refusing to disclose their clients or register their work with the ethics office.
Newt Gingrich became the poster boy for this phenomenon with the revelation that he was paid $1.6 million by Freddie Mac’s lobbying office, a fee the former Speaker laughably tried to downplay as part of a contract for “history” lessons. Dean has been lobbying without disclosure for about three years. During the remarks, Dean later commented that he opposed the Citizens United decision because it creates the strong perception of government corruption for the public. Coal Finally Gets a Voice in Congress. The year of Blankenship comes to an end. The ousting of Don Blankenship from his position as CEO of Massey Coal at first glance appears like the toppling of an icon of "old-coal.
" But there may be cooler calculations at play, according to Jeff Goodell, author of the recent profile of Massey in Rolling Stone, Goodell's scathing portrayal of the embattled, highly divisive West Virginia coal executive, The Dark Lord of Coal Country, was published one week prior to his surprise resignation on December 3 after pressure from the company's board of directors. In his article, Goodell, a consulting reporter on the documentary Dirty Business, chronicles the myriad misdeeds committed during Blankenship's nearly two-decade reign as West Virginia's "undisputed king of coal. " Blankenship directed Massey with brutal efficiency, Goodell writes, developing a reputation for crushing rivals, busting unions, and lavish spending to purchase political influence.
Coal mining communities in Appalachia will forgive a lot of things, Goodell notes. After a Strong Counterattack, Big Coal Makes a Comeback by Jeff Goodell. 09 Nov 2010: Opinion by jeff goodell The coal industry — perhaps the least entrepreneurial, most politically-connected business in America — likes to present itself as a hapless collection of hard-working guys just trying to keep the lights on. In the run-up to last week’s election, the industry skillfully played up the idea that it was under siege by out-of-control federal bureaucrats, including a president unsympathetic to the idea that burning more coal is the surest route to a healthy economy. In the weeks before the election, I saw banners in several West Virginia towns that said “Stop the War on Coal” and, my favorite, “Legalize Coal.”
Luke Popovich, a spokesperson for the National Mining Association, went so far as to accuse the Obama administration of carrying out a “regulatory jihad” against coal. Of course, the idea that the Obama administration is on a mission to kill coal would strike many energy and environmental activists as something like the inverse of the truth. IMF: Riskiest Mortgage Lenders Are Big Lobbyists. In its new "A Fistful of Dollars" report, the International Monetary Fund concludes that the riskiest mortgage lenders were also the most active lobbyists in Washington. IMF researchers found that during 2000 to 2007, lenders lobbying more intensively on mortgage-related legislation — such as consumer protection laws and securitization — made more hazardous mortgage loans than those who lobbied less. “These results suggest that lobbying may be linked to lenders expecting special treatments from policymakers, allowing them to engage in riskier lending behavior,” the report notes.
The big lobbyists originated mortgages with higher loan-to-income ratios, securitized a faster growing proportion of their loans, and had faster growing loan portfolios. Not surprisingly, lobbyist lenders’ stock suffered more during the financial crisis and delinquency rates are higher in areas where lobbying lenders’ mortgage lending grew the fastest. © 2014 Newsmax. All rights reserved.
Revolving Door. Deborah Pryce walked through the revolving door five years ago and has been a draw for clients ever since. Just a few weeks ago, the former House Republican from Ohio registered to lobby for the American Unity Fund, a conservative group that supports gay rights and supports the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. Before Pryce entered Congress in 1993, she worked her way through local and state government positions in Ohio -- assistant city manager for Columbus and municipal court judge in Franklin County were some of her earlier jobs.
When she came to Congress, she was elected the Republican freshman-class president. Ten years later, after taking on such notable roles as deputy majority whip, she was elected chair of the House Republican Conference, making her the highest-ranked Republican woman in the history of the House. Since leaving Congress in 2009, Pryce has worked for two law firms. The revolving door. U.S. Private Prison Population Grew 37 Percent Between 2002-2009 As Industry Lobbying Dollars Grew 165 Percent. By Zaid Jilani on September 26, 2011 at 1:40 pm "U.S. Private Prison Population Grew 37 Percent Between 2002-2009 As Industry Lobbying Dollars Grew 165 Percent" Today, the Michigan Messenger reports about how the private prisons behemoth Corrections Corporations of America grew over the last decade, expanding both its prisoner population and its political clout.
The Messenger cites data from the U.S. Department of Justice showing that the private prison population grew from 87,369 to 129,336 from 2000 to 2009: Then, citing figures from the Justice Policy Institute, the Messenger notes that lobbying dollars from the major private prison operators grew from $840,885 to $1,391,056 from 2002 to 2009: This means that as industry lobbying dollars increased 165 percent between 2002 and 2009, the U.S. private prison population grew 37 percent. The Top Five Special Interest Groups Lobbying To Keep Marijuana Illegal. Last year, over 850,000 people in America were arrested for marijuana-related crimes. Despite public opinion, the medical community, and human rights experts all moving in favor of relaxing marijuana prohibition laws, little has changed in terms of policy.
There have been many great books and articles detailing the history of the drug war. Part of America’s fixation with keeping the leafy green plant illegal is rooted in cultural and political clashes from the past. However, we at Republic Report think it’s worth showing that there are entrenched interest groups that are spending large sums of money to keep our broken drug laws on the books: 1.) Police Unions: Police departments across the country have become dependent on federal drug war grants to finance their budget. RELATED: Why Can’t You Smoke Pot? To receive stories and investigations about political corruption, sign up for our daily digest here. Share and Enjoy Filed under: Lobbying. Matt Stoller: Who Wants Keep the War on Drugs Going AND Put You in Debtor’s Prison? Matt Stoller is a current fellow at the Roosevelt Institute.
His Twitter feed is @matthewstoller. More than a third of all states allow debtors “who can’t or won’t pay their debts” to be jailed. In 2010, according to the Wall Street Journal, judges have issued 5,000 such warrants. What is behind the increased pressure to incarcerate people with debts? Is it a desire to force debt payment? Or is it part of a new structure where incarceration is becoming increasingly the default tool to address any and all social problems? Consider a different example that has nothing to do with debts.
Welcome to the for-profit prison industry. Privatized prisons are marketed to international investors as “social infrastructure”, and they are part of a wave of privatization washing over the globe. Here’s the 2010 10k of the Corrections Corporation of America (PDF), the largest operator of private prisons in the country. But there are more risks. The Golden State’s Iron Bars. “To borrow from Martin Luther King Jr.,” the head of the California prison guards union said a few years ago, “today I have a dream. I have a dream that the bricks and mortar that were planned to build new prisons will instead be used to build new schools…that an ounce of prevention will be embraced instead of a pound of cure.”... As Washington Props Up For-Profit Colleges, Students Vote With Their Feet.
For-profit colleges have boomed in the last decade, spurred largely by success in hoovering up public money — for-profit college students now account for a quarter of all Pell Grant disbursements, although they only make 12 percent of all college students. Between grants and loans, federal programs provide some 90 percent of all for-profit revenue. All this would be fine if the for-profits were providing consistently strong education at a reasonable price — but they’re not. Many are no more than diploma mills, preying on uninformed students and providing them with worthless degrees while burdening them with major long-term debt. As a result, nearly half of all student loan defaults come from the for-profit sector. This hurts the students at the for-profits, of course, but it hurts needy students at more reputable institutions too.
There is one silver lining to this story, however. Like this: Like Loading... Bank Fraud Prosecution Continues to Drop under Obama. Lobbying Spending Database Commercial Banks, 2011. Oil drilling: Lots of lobbying, no legislation - Gulf Oil Spill 2010 | Gulf Oil Spill Pictures, Gulf Oil Spill News. Lobbying for Dictators: The Real Reason it's Scandalous - Joshua Foust - International. Follow the ... Money in politics.. National Institute on Money in State Politics.
Worst EU Lobbying Awards.