Where is the Money Going?
Contractors on the Rise in Iraq, Afghanistan
Despite the serious problems the U.S. ran into by relying on Blackwater to help provide security in Iraq, the Obama administration has decided to significantly increase the number of private contractors in both wars the U.S. is fighting. According... read more
Navy Awards Half Billion Dollars of Contracts without Competitive Bidding
In a report by the Defense Department’s inspector general issued May 11, an audit of 133 of 1,106 task orders from a prominent Navy program showed that 39 contracts, valued at $469.3 million, were awarded without adequate competition. The program ... read more
GM Bankruptcy and Executive Greed: Les Leopold
What destroyed General Motors goes beyond specific business decisions made by the automakers’ former executives, argues Les Leopold, author of The Looting of America and director of the Labor Institute and the Public Health Institute. Excessive gr... read more
$10 Billion a Year to Keep Government Secrets Secret
Keeping government secrets doesn’t come cheap. According to the latest report from the National Archives and Records Administration’s security office, it cost the U.S. government $9.85 billion in FY 2008 to maintain the volume of classified materi... read more
Special Ops Command Allowed Contractor to Oversee Itself
Military commandoes may be great at taking down terrorists in the dead of night, but they’re not so good when it comes to financial oversight. An investigation by the Defense Department’s inspector general found the U.S. Special Operations Command... read more
Retiring Bank CEOs Rake in Millions
Banks rescued by the highly controversial $700 billion bailout plan continue to find loopholes for their retiring executives, like paying them to not do anything…literally. Associated Banc-Corp’s president and chief operating officer, Lisa Binder,... read more
Huge Leap in Debt Dumped on Taxpayers…Before Obama
For all the talk about increased spending by the Obama administration and its consequences on the national debt, it needs to be pointed out that a hefty chunk of debt got dumped on the country just last year. According to an analysis by USA Today,... read more
Larry Summers Helps Banks Who Help Anti-PayPal Startup
President Barack Obama’s top economic advisor has been accused of taking kickbacks from some of the nation’s biggest banks. Writing on AlterNet, Mark Ames reports that a little-known startup company, Revolution Money, received a $42 million invest... read more
House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Funnels $355 Million to Campaign Contributors
An investigation by the advocacy group Common Cause has determined that members of a key House defense subcommittee in 2008 allocated more than $350 million in military contracts to companies that had contributed handsomely to congressional repres... read more
Misdemeanor Cases Drain Tax Dollars
Americans spends too much time and money prosecuting minor legal infractions, draining the U.S. court system of precious dollars and leaving defendants without adequate legal defense, according to a new study by the National Association of Crimina... read more
Wasting Money on Nuclear Waste
President Obama’s stimulus package includes more than $6 billion in stimulus money to clean up 18 nuclear sites from New York to California. This is double the previous annual funding for the program. However, the contractors who have been critici... read more
Top 10 Road Projects Already Funded by Stimulus Package
Highway-happy California has benefited mightily from the federal stimulus funds dedicated for road and infrastructure projects, according to congressional data that ProPublica sifted through. Five of the top 10 projects in the country that have re... read more
Poorest Americans are the Most Generous
A recent study by the Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed that Americans in the lowest income bracket give the most to charity in proportion to their income, donating about 4.3%, compared to the 2% to 3% of all other income brackets. Several expla... read more
College Degree=No Job
No more pencils, no more books. And no more jobs. May and June are usually months of celebration and enthusiasm for college graduates as they complete their degrees and move into the job world. Only this year employment opportunities are way down ... read more
Small Businesses Win Only 10% of Stimulus Contracts
The U.S. government has committed itself to allocating almost one quarter of all federal contracts to small businesses, but when it comes to stimulus funds, these businesses have received only 10% of monies distributed so far. That has amounted to... read more
Gay Marriage is Good for the Economy: Update
It has been five years since Massachusetts decided to legalize same-sex marriages, and the decision has proven to be a smart one from an economic standpoint, argues The Williams Institute at UCLA. According to two studies produced by the institute... read more