Investment theory of party competition Overview[edit] However, this is different from a corporatist system, in which elite interests come together and bargain to create policy. In the investment theory, political parties act as the political arms of these business groups and therefore don't typically try to reconcile for policy. Labor-intensive investors[edit] A study by Larry Bartels found a positive correlation between Senate votes and opinions of high income groups similar to the conclusions in the investment theory.[4] Labor-intensive investors made up much of the early political systems in the 18th and 19th centuries. These industries are also heavily against labor unions, since unionization increases the price of their goods. Capital-intensive investors[edit] Due to industrialization and new markets in the 20th century, capital-intensive investors became the new economic order after the realignment of the Great Depression. Comparison to other election theories[edit] See also[edit] References[edit] External links[edit]
An Investment Manager's View on the Top 1% This article was written by an investment manager who works with very wealthy clients. him from decades ago, but in 2011 he e-mailed me with some concerns he had about what was happening with the economy. What he had to say was informative enough that I asked if he might fashion what he had told me into a document for the Who Rules America Web site. He agreed to do so, but only on the condition that the document be anonymous, because he does not want to jeopardize his relationships with his clients or other investment professionals. NOTE: The investment manager has also written an update for 2014. — G. I sit in an interesting chair in the financial services industry. Work by various economists and tax experts make it indisputable that the top 1% controls a widely disproportionate share of the income and wealth in the United States. The Lower Half of the Top 1% Until recently, most studies just broke out the top 1% as a group. The Upper Half of the Top 1% Addendum, January 2012
Gapminder: Unveiling the beauty of statistics for a fact based world view. - Gapminder.org Finance Lobby - Capital City Illustration: Bill MayerTHIS STORY IS NOT ABOUT THE origins of 2008’s financial meltdown. You’ve probably read more than enough of those already. To make a long story short, it was a perfect storm. Reckless lending enabled a historic housing bubble; an overseas savings glut and an unprecedented Fed policy of easy money enabled skyrocketing debt; excessive leverage made the global banking system so fragile that it couldn’t withstand a tremor, let alone the Big One; the financial system squirreled away trainloads of risk via byzantine credit derivatives and other devices; and banks grew so towering and so interconnected that they became too big to be allowed to fail. With all that in place, it took only a small nudge to bring the entire house of cards crashing to the ground. But that’s a story about finance and economics. But it’s also about something even bigger. The Warning At the time it was founded, LTCM was the biggest, most prestigious hedge fund ever created. It’s easy to see why.
New details on Visa's attempt to influence Pelosi - House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi speaks during a "Women's Economic Forum - A Discussion on Jobs" at Metro State College in Denver on Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2011. Kristy Schloss, right, president of Schloss Engineered Equipment, one of the panelist for the event, is pictured at right.(AP Photo/Ed Andrieski) Ed Andrieski Following a report on CBS' "60 Minutes" regarding the way members of Congress profit off of insider information, new details are emerging about the way Visa tried to wield influence over former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. As CBS reported, current insider trading laws do not apply to nonpublic information about current or upcoming congressional activity. As Steve Kroft reported on "60 Minutes," Pelosi is one of many lawmakers whose stock market trades could have been seen as a conflict of interest. In 2007, Visa used an army of lobbyists to try to influence Pelosi, including one of her former advisers, Dean Aguillen, Newsweek reports. Today, however, Sens.
Top All-Time Donors, 1989-2010 This list includes the organizations that have historically qualified as "heavy hitters" — groups that lobby and spend big, with large sums sent to candidates, parties and leadership PACs. Individuals and organizations have been able to make extremely large donations to outside spending groups in the last few years. While contributions to outside groups like super PACs do not factor into an organization's designation as a "heavy hitter" (a listing of about 150 groups), those numbers are included for the roster below. For example, this list does not include casino magnate Sheldon Adelson. He and his wife Miriam donated nearly $93 million in 2012 alone to conservative super PACs — enough to put him at No. 2 on this list. It is also worth noting that certain organizations, such as ActBlue and Club for Growth, are included although they function for the most part as pass-through entities: individual donors give to them with the contributions earmarked for specific candidates. Partisan tilt:
American's Crazed Corn Habit - Justin Rohrlich According to a recent Congressional Budget Office report, the increased use of ethanol is responsible for a rise in food prices of approximately 10 to 15 percent. Why? We're turning corn into fuel — a highly inefficient one, at that — instead of food. The Mackinac Center for Public Policy points out that "mixing food and fuel markets for political reasons has done American consumers no discernable good, while producing measurable harm." However, perhaps summing up the issue most succinctly is Mark J. Perry, professor of economics and finance at the University of Michigan-Flint: But Brazil seems to have made it work. So, what's Brazil doing right? The answer is simple. It seems so obvious. What's stopping us is a decision made 36 years ago by a man named Rusty Butz, before ethanol was even a blip on anyone's radar. In 1973, Earl "Rusty" Butz, President Nixon's USDA chief, did away with the agricultural price supports introduced by the Roosevelt administration. He continues, Nope. And C.
The Defining Issue: Not Government's Size, but Who It's For) The defining political issue of 2012 won’t be the government’s size. It will be who government is for. Americans have never much liked government. After all, the nation was conceived in a revolution against government. But the surge of cynicism now engulfing America isn’t about government’s size. In a recent Pew Foundation poll, 77 percent of respondents said too much power is in the hands of a few rich people and corporations. That’s understandable. Wall Street got bailed out but homeowners caught in the fierce downdraft caused by the Street’s excesses have got almost nothing. Big agribusiness continues to rake in hundreds of billions in price supports and ethanol subsidies. American Airlines uses bankruptcy to ward off debtors and renegotiate labor contracts. If you run a giant bank that defrauds millions of small investors of their life savings, the bank might pay a small fine but you won’t go to prison. Not a day goes by without Republicans decrying the budget deficit. Get it?
Beekeeper Who Leaked EPA Documents: "I Don't Think We Can Survive This Winter" Colorado beekeeper Tom Theobald never expected to become embroiled in a controversy between the EPA and the pesticide industry. But that's exactly what happened when Theobald got hold of an EPA document revealing that the agency is allowing the widespread use of a bee-toxic pesticide, in spite of warnings from EPA scientists. So how did Theobald (pictured above) end up with such a contentious document? Bayer, the corporation behind clothianidin (the pesticide in question), published a life cycle study about it in 2006 at the EPA's request. Fast forward to this year. "They told me that EPA scientists had reviewed the original lifecycle study and determined it wasn't scientifically sound, and I asked if it had been documented, if there was a hard copy," he says, "The [employee] said yes, and I asked if I could get a copy." "Everybody is keyed on the leaked memo, but basically it's a public document," adds Theobald. Now the stakes are higher than ever. Photo Credit: Tom Theobald
Freud puts capitalism on the couch - macrobusiness.com.au | macrobusiness.com.au A fascinating article has been written by Eliot Spitzer for The Slate which details the massive lying that went on during the GFC. It raises an intriguing question. What functions do lying and truthfulness play in financial systems? The assumption commonly made is that lying and deception are “bad” and truth telling is “good”. Spitzer starts his critique by personalising the banks’ deception, a telling way of conveying moral outrage. Imagine you walked into a bank, applied for a personal line of credit, and filled out all the paperwork claiming to have no debts and an income of $200,000 per year. Due to some excellent research by Bloomberg journalists – yes, real journalism remains as achievable as it ever was, the MSM need not be asleep — a pattern of wholesale deception has emerged. The truth is that finance is always based on, if not outright lies, at least various shades of deceptiveness. The neo-liberal view is that free markets are better because they tame our wicked natures.
5-Year-Old Handcuffed, Charged With Battery On Officer STOCKTON, Calif. (KCRA) —Earlier this year, a Stockton student was handcuffed with zip ties on his hands and feet, forced to go to the hospital for a psychiatric evaluation and was charged with battery on a police officer. That student was 5 years old. Michael Davis is diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder or ADHD. His mother says it has led to fights at school. But when the school district said it had a plan to change Michael's behavior, his mother says things went wrong. "Michael is energetic," Thelma Gray said. Gray calls Michael a comedian. "He's very loving," Gray said. Those discipline problems include fights with other students, even throwing a chair. Gray says the school, Rio Calaveras Elementary of Stockton, wanted to change that behavior by having Michael meet with a school police officer. "He could come out and talk to Michael and the kids are normally scared straight," said Gray, describing how she says the school district proposed the meeting.
6 Shocking Revelations About Wall Street's "Secret Government" Photo Credit: john flanigan November 30, 2011 | Like this article? Join our email list: Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email. We now have concrete evidence that Wall Street and Washington are running a secret government far removed from the democratic process. These documents show how top government officials willfully concealed from Congress and the public the true extent of the 2008-'09 bailouts that enriched the few and enhanced the interests of giant Wall Streets firms. The secret Wall Street bailouts totaled $7.77 trillion, 10 times more than the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) passed by Congress in 2008. So what does this all mean? 1. As many of us suspected, all the big banks were on their knees begging for help – secretly – while telling their investors, the public and Congress that all was well. 2. 3.