Corporate corruption killing America
Nolan Chart
by Joel S. Hirschhorn
09/14/09
[T]he health insurance industry and others have successfully corrupted Congress and brainwashed much of the population to fear true reforms. Sure, Congress will pass some legislation that Obama will sign and they all will claim victory. But the nation will not get true reforms and health care spending will continue to rise and bankrupt the nation. And now we also are learning slowly that the financial sector that tanked our economy by pursuing enormously risky but profitable business practices and then was bailed out by the government has not learned any lessons. Banks and all kinds of financial companies are still pursuing risky businesses, still overpaying their top executives and still screwing consumers. Congress is unlikely to pass really tough regulations to put a halt to all the awful practices by financial companies. Why? Because Congress has been corrupted by money from this financial sector. Make no mistake: Corporate corruption is a true bipartisan effort, perhaps the most bipartisan enterprise...
http://www.nolanchart.com/article6877.html
Obama brings Guantanamo to Bagram
Future of Freedom Foundation
by Andy Worthington
09/14/09
Following briefings by Obama administration officials (who declined to be identified), both the New York Times and the Washington Post reported yesterday that the government is planning to introduce a new review system for the 600 or so prisoners held at Bagram airbase in Afghanistan, which will, for the first time, allow them to call witnesses in their defense. On paper, this appears to be an improvement on existing conditions at the prison, but a close inspection of the officials’ statement reveals that the proposed plans actually do very little to tackle the Bush administration’s wayward innovations regarding the detention of prisoners in wartime, and the officials also provided the shocking news that prisoners are currently being rendered to Bagram from other countries...
http://www.fff.org/comment/com0909c.asp
One year after Wall Street meltdown, Obama targets Main Street
Competitive Enterprise Institute
by Christine Hall
09/14/09
One year after the Wall Street meltdown, President Obama is touting new regulations he says are urgent for preventing a crisis like this from ever happening again. He is receiving much coverage today for his speech on Wall Street on the eve of the anniversary of Lehman Brothers’ collapse. But a closer look at new rules Obama is proposing shows that the bulk of them do not go after the Wall Street culprits, but Main Street entrepreneurs that had nothing to do with the crisis...
http://tinyurl.com/peq8a4
Obama then and now: Deficit edition
Deceiver.com
by Brittney Smears
09/14/09
Obama doublespeak continues to abound. This week Congress and the Prez return to Washington to continue ‘addressing’ our nation’s woes. Up next: the deficit. � Obviously President Obama and his team are being vocal about the necessity of this so that the President can keep spending like a maniac. The administration and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner are pushing for the debt ceiling to be increased ASAP. � The Senate had to consider raising the debt ceiling in 2006 and Senator Obama took the opportunity to make a floor speech: ‘Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership.’ He obviously voted against raising the debt level...
http://deceiver.com/2009/09/09/obama-then-and-now-deficit-edition/
Transforming America: The Bush-Obama stimulus programs
Independent Institute
by Randall G. Holcombe
09/10/09
George W. Bush’s and Barack Obama’s ’stimulus’ programs will permanently transform the American economy. The market-based system that has produced unprecedented prosperity relies on profit and loss, which rewards individuals and firms that add value to the economy and penalizes those that detract value. The various stimulus programs undermine that system...
http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=2601
How the Federal Reserve bought the economics profession
AlterNet
by Ryan Grim
09/14/09
The Federal Reserve, through its extensive network of consultants, visiting scholars, alumni and staff economists, so thoroughly dominates the field of economics that real criticism of the central bank has become a career liability for members of the profession, an investigation by the Huffington Post has found. This dominance helps explain how, even after the Fed failed to foresee the greatest economic collapse since the Great Depression, the central bank has largely escaped criticism from academic economists. In the Fed’s thrall, the economists missed it, too...
http://tinyurl.com/knggsg
Informant: Thomas L. Knapp
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Obama
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Geithner
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Bush+legacy
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http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Federal+Reserve
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=economic+collapse
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Great+Depression
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http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=health+insurance
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http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Lehman+Brothers
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Guantanamo
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http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Joel+S.+Hirschhorn
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