Big banks complicit with online payday lenders.

Big banks are providing the funds for online payday lenders. This story from the NYT is not the least bit surprising, not that it makes this article any less disturbing.

While the banks, which include giants like JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo, do not make the loans, they are a critical link for the lenders, enabling the lenders to withdraw payments automatically from borrowers’ bank accounts, even in states where the loans are banned entirely. In some cases, the banks allow lenders to tap checking accounts even after the customers have begged them to stop the withdrawals.
The article indicates that without the backing of the big banks, many of these payday lenders would cease to exist.

Continue ReadingBig banks complicit with online payday lenders.

America’s biggest banks survive thanks only to substantial federal welfare

Here's the bottom line, as they say.

So what if we told you that, by our calculations, the largest U.S. banks aren’t really profitable at all? What if the billions of dollars they allegedly earn for their shareholders were almost entirely a gift from U.S. taxpayers?
This should be the started of a reinvigorated national conversation about immediate and dramatic reform of America's biggest banks.

Continue ReadingAmerica’s biggest banks survive thanks only to substantial federal welfare

1956 Republican Platform

Here is the 1956 Republican Platform. How things have changed. Here are some of the provisions from 1956:

Our great President Dwight D. Eisenhower has counseled us further: "In all those things which deal with people, be liberal, be human. In all those things which deal with people's money, or their economy, or their form of government, be conservative." We believe that basic to governmental integrity are unimpeachable ethical standards and irreproachable personal conduct by all people in government. We shall continue our insistence on honesty as an indispensable requirement of public service. We shall continue to root out corruption whenever and wherever it appears. We shall continue vigorously to support the United Nations. Government must have a heart as well as a head. Further reductions in taxes with particular consideration for low and middle income families. The Republican Party has as a primary concern the continued advancement of the well-being of the individual. This can be attained only in an economy that, as today, is sound, free and creative, ever building new wealth and new jobs for all the people. Under the Republican Administration, as our country has prospered, so have its people. This is as it should be, for as President Eisenhower said: "Labor is the United States. The men and women, who with their minds, their hearts and hands, create the wealth that is shared in this country—they are America." The Republican Party believes that the physical, mental, and spiritual well-being of the people is as important as their economic health. It will continue to support this conviction with vigorous action. The Republican Party will renew its efforts to enact a program based on sound principles of need and designed to encourage increased state and local efforts to build more classrooms. The Republican Party is determined to press all such actions that will help insure that every child has the educational opportunity to advance to his own greatest capacity. [More . . . ]

Continue Reading1956 Republican Platform

How to advance your career as a “national security expert.”

Glenn Greenwald reports:

[t]hink tank "scholars" don't get invited to important meetings by "national security professionals" in DC if they point out that the US is committing war crimes and that the US president is a war criminal. They don't get invited to those meetings if they argue that the US should be bound by the same rules and laws it imposes on others when it comes to the use of force. They don't get invited if they ask US political officials to imagine how they would react if some other country were routinely bombing US soil with drones and cruise missiles and assassinating whatever Americans they wanted to in secret and without trial. As the reaction to Cornel West shows, making those arguments triggers nothing but ridicule and exclusion. One gets invited to those meetings only if one blindly affirms the right of the US to do whatever it wants, and then devotes oneself to the pragmatic question of how that unfettered license can best be exploited to promote national interests. The culture of DC think tanks, "international relations" professionals, and foreign policy commenters breeds allegiance to these American prerogatives and US power centers - incentivizes reflexive defenses of US government actions - because, as Gelb says, that is the only way to advance one's careerist goals as a "national security professional". If you see a 20-something aspiring "foreign policy expert" or "international relations professional" in DC, what you'll view, with some rare exceptions, is a mindlessly loyal defender of US force and prerogatives. It's what that culture, by design, breeds and demands.

Continue ReadingHow to advance your career as a “national security expert.”

Impact of Elizabeth Warren

Elizabeth Warren is asking a simple question: When did any of you bank regulators actually try a case against a bank? The implication is that the regulators are giving banks little slaps on the wrist, and Warren's expressed frustration is that the banks are ripping off the public, then invited to settle these egregious cases by merely paying a tiny portion of the ill-gotten goods. This is so refreshing to see a member of Congress demanding straight answers to simple questions in order to expose the all-too-cozy relationships between government agencies and banks.

Continue ReadingImpact of Elizabeth Warren