The Obscenely Rich Get.... Richer

Earlier, in The Finest Healthcare Rip-Off System in The World, we saw how Health Management Associates' CEO Gary D. Newsome, no doubt with plenty of help from colleagues, "earned" $22,000,000 over 3 years (a mere $20,000 every day...), for organizing a naked conspiracy to rip off the Medicaid system (i.e. the Taxpayers).

Here's the Link.

If you look up this criminal's Profile, you find this:  "The company specializes in taking low-occupancy rural and suburban hospitals and transforming them into profitable, growth engines. In July, 2013, Newsome retired to head up a Mormon mission in South America", saying "My family and my faith have always been the most important parts of my life...."
"The announcement comes as two federal agencies, the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission, are conducting separate investigations into HMA's billing and accounting practices."

..........................................................
I know you're delighted with Gary Newsome's well-earned success, so you'll be even more thrilled to hear that our old baby-faced chum Jamie Dimon has just been awarded a well-deserved (and of course massive) raise.

Senator Elizabeth Warren tells that story:

"JPMorgan Chase recently reached yet another settlement with the U.S. government -- a $13 billion deal with the Department of Justice for peddling deceptive mortgages. 

The banking giant broke the law, recklessly gambled with our economy, and had to pay a record government settlement. Guess what happened next? You guessed right: JPMorgan's CEO Jamie Dimon just got a 74% raise yesterday.

The New York Times speculates that Dimon got the raise because of his "active role" in negotiating government settlements last year. And as Dimon put it himself, it could have been a lot worse if JPMorgan had been forced to go all the way to a trial instead of just settling.

So here's my question: If JPMorgan is so happy with their settlements that they are rewarding their CEO with a big raise, do you really think the federal bank regulators were tough enough?

There are a lot of steps we can take to push the regulators to do their jobs and hold financial institutions fully accountable when they break the law, and I think a good starting place would be by enacting the Truth in Settlements Act.

This is the bill I recently introduced with Senator Coburn that would require accessible, detailed disclosures about settlement agreements so the public can hold regulators accountable -- no more hiding out behind closed doors and keeping the details secret.

Tell yourfriends on Facebook and Twitter about the Truth in SettlementsAct.

When I question federal regulators in Banking Committee hearings, they insist that they don't need to take big banks to trial when they break the law. They stand by their claim that settlement agreements are tough enough.

But if a settlement is so weak that Wall Street is celebrating with pay raises, it's not a good deal for the American people.

This week Jamie Dimon admitted that the big banks don't want to go to trial, so now there's no doubt: If the regulators were willing to go all the way to a trial, even once in a while, they would have a lot more leverage in the settlement negotiations. And maybe they could get better deals on behalf of consumers and taxpayers.

This is simple: Bankers on Wall Street need to be held accountable when they break the law, and regulators in Washington need to be held accountable when they enforce the law.

Tell your friends on Facebook and Twitterabout the Truth in Settlements Act. It's time for real transparencyand accountability.

Thank you for being a part of this,

Elizabeth."

Wall Street Liars in Retreat

The other day I posted "Beating the Wall Street Liars", telling how "Wall Street is trying to marginalize Social Security champions like Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Tom Harkin and Sherrod Brown".

If you signed the Petition, thanks!  If you didn't - you'll have to answer to your grandchildren....

Now, Bold Progressives are reporting:

"You helped attack back against a corporate front group that attacked Elizabeth Warren's economic populism and her progressive ideas on Social Security.

In one day, over 70,000 of us demanded that Third Way disclose its Wall Street donors. Elizabeth Warren joined our pressure campaign, and we generated over 10 major headlines.

Our pressure got Third Way's own co-chair to publicly call their attacks on Warren "outrageous."

And the Wall Street Journal reports, "a spokesman for Third Way...declined to disclose the think tank’s donors." Instead of attacking Warren, they are now playing defense in the media!

We're continuing to shame Third Way with ads, more media outreach, and more grassroots pressure. Can you chip in $3 so we can continue this effective campaign?

Politico summarized yesterday's action-packed events:

It started with an op-ed in Monday’s Wall Street Journal.

Two leaders of the center-left think tank, Third Way, wrote that “economic populism is a dead end for Democrats” [and] liberals like Warren are irresponsible.

A chorus of groups aligned with the liberal wing of the party – from the Progressive Change Campaign Committee to Howard Dean’s Democracy for America and Russ Feingold’s Progressives United – responded by attacking Third Way as a Wall Street-funded front group.

A liberal candidate running in a crowded Democratic primary [for Pennsylvania governor], John Hanger, then joined these groups Wednesday morning in calling on Rep. Allyson Schwartz, the early Democratic frontrunner in the race...to resign as an honorary co-chair of Third Way.

By lunch time, Warren jumped into the fray, [calling out Wall Street's] "financial contributions to think tanks.”

A few hours later, Schwartz condemned the piece for the Journal...“She read the op-ed and thought it was outrageous and strongly disagreed."

Each of the groups involved said this back-and-forth is an opening salvo in a debate among Democrats that will only become louder through 2014 and 2016.

Schwartz’s attempt to distance herself from Third Way emboldened the Progressive Change Campaign Committee to call on the centrist group’s other co-chairs to take public positions.

Chip in $3 so we can keep the pressure on Third Way -- and show the immense popularity of Elizabeth Warren's ideas.

Then, pass this email to others. Thanks for being a bold progressive.

-- Adam Green, PCCC co-founder"

Wall Street and the Shutdown

I'm a little late posting this comment on an Open Thread in the Daily Kos - but it's still funny, and to the point....

“CHEERS to friends in "buy" places. Oh, Wall Street, you're so adorable because you're so predictable. On Day 1 of the government shutdown, stocks soared on the confidence that this is no big deal. But when Day 2 rolled around and rainbows hadn’t yet popped up over the horizon, they were selling off their shit faster than Ron Popeil. Lord only knows how twitchy they'll be today. Meanwhile, big business, realizing they've been sleeping with a lunatic, is running into the arms of the boring but not crazy Democrats.”

It comes from this Link:  http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/10/03/1243944/-Open-thread-for-night-owls-A-few-kind-words-for-Mr-Cheers-Jeers

Time to Stop "Too Big to Jail"

From Action for the Common Good/Campaign for a Fair Settlement:

“Breaking the law is not a trade secret.” – Sen. Elizabeth Warren, April 11, 2013

$300. For having your home taken from you illegally.

Is that your idea of justice? The federal bank regulators think it is. Want to know why? Sorry, they can't tell you - that would mean revealing "trade secrets" of the banks.

It true. This week some 4 million families whose homes were stolen by Wall Street criminals in 2009 and 2010 will be getting a total of $3.6 billion in compensation. Most will receive less than $1000. For losing their homes. That amount was arbitrarily determined by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and when asked why in a Senate hearing yesterday, they said turning over the information would mean turning over confidential “trade secrets”.

To which Sen. Warren responded, “Breaking the law is not a trade secret." [1]

Exactly. That’s why hundreds of homeowners from around the country are going to DC this May to demand an end to Too Big to Jail. You can support their fight by signing on to this call to AG Eric Holder and President Obama to start criminal prosecutions of criminal Wall Street bankers.If our system of justice worked, two things should have happened: (1) those responsible should have been prosecuted for their crimes, and (2) borrowers should have been compensated for these violations. You already know that Attorney General Holder and the Justice Department have given the bankers get out of jail free cards. Now the federal regulators have allowed them to pay pennies on the dollar to people who lost their homes. That's what happens with Too Big to Jail.

In hearings on April 10th, Senator Warren posed the right question: “Have the families been protected, or have the banks been protected?” So far the regulators and Justice Department have thrown down with the banks, not with families. That's what happens with Too Big to Jail.

We’ve made calls, sent petitions, written letters – and we’re still not seeing the change we need. So next month members of the Home Defenders League, supported by the Campaign for a Fair Settlement, are taking things right to the steps of the Justice Department in DC.

Add your voice to those going to DC by signing on to the petition to the Administration here. We can guarantee your signature will be delivered as part of dramatic and bold actions at the very heart of law enforcement in the United States.

Delivering the 333,000 signatures on April 2 was just the beginning. And we've got Too Big to Jail in our sights.

In solidarity,

Brian Kettenring

Executive Director, Action for the Common Good
Campaign Director, Campaign for a Fair Settlement

P.S. If YOU want to join the powerful actions in DC, you can register for more information HERE. Home Defenders League staff will contact you with more details.

[1]  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zD7zM9K0X4c

The Truth about Corporations

Senator Bernie Sanders posted this in Huffington Post:

A Choice For Corporate America: Are You With America Or The Cayman Islands?

By Senator Bernie Sanders
February 9, 2013

When the greed, recklessness, and illegal behavior on Wall Street drove this country into the deepest recession since the 1930s, the largest financial institutions in the United States took every advantage of being American. They just loved their country - and the willingness of the American people to provide them with the largest bailout in world history. In 2008, Congress approved a $700 billion gift to Wall Street. Another $16 trillion in virtually zero interest loans and other financial assistance came from the Federal Reserve. America. What a great country.

But just two years later, as soon as these giant financial institutions started making record-breaking profits again, they suddenly lost their love for their native country. At a time when the nation was suffering from a huge deficit, largely created by the recession that Wall Street caused, the major financial institutions did everything they could to avoid paying American taxes by establishing shell corporations in the Cayman Islands and other tax havens.

In 2010, Bank of America set up more than 200 subsidiaries in the Cayman Islands (which has a corporate tax rate of 0.0 percent) to avoid paying U.S. taxes. It worked. Not only did Bank of America pay nothing in federal income taxes, but it received a rebate from the IRS worth $1.9 billion that year. They are not alone. In 2010, JP Morgan Chase operated 83 subsidiaries incorporated in offshore tax havens to avoid paying some $4.9 billion in U.S. taxes. That same year Goldman Sachs operated 39 subsidiaries in offshore tax havens to avoid an estimated $3.3 billion in U.S. taxes. Citigroup has paid no federal income taxes for the last four years after receiving a total of $2.5 trillion in financial assistance from the Federal Reserve during the financial crisis.

On and on it goes. Wall Street banks and large companies love America when they need corporate welfare. But when it comes to paying American taxes or American wages, they want nothing to do with this country. That has got to change.

Offshore tax abuse is not just limited to Wall Street. Each and every year corporations and the wealthy are avoiding more than $100 billion in U.S. taxes by sheltering their income offshore.

Pharmaceutical companies like Eli Lilly and Pfizer have fought to make it illegal for the American people to buy cheaper prescription drugs from Canada and Europe. But, during tax season, Eli Lilly and Pfizer shift drug patents and profits to the Netherlands and other offshore tax havens to avoid paying U.S. taxes.

Apple wants all of the advantages of being an American company, but it doesn't want to pay American taxes or American wages. It creates the iPad, the iPhone, the iPod, and iTunes in the United States, but manufactures most of its products in China so it doesn't have to pay American wages. Then it shifts most of its profits to Ireland, Luxembourg, the British Virgin Islands and other tax havens to avoid paying U.S. taxes. Without such maneuvers, Apple's federal tax bill in the United States would have been $2.4 billion higher in 2011.