Where is the Money Going?
Trillion Dollar Recovery Plan: Katrina Vanden Heuvel
As Barack Obama contemplates what steps he will take to revive the economy, the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) has just released its own $1 Trillion recovery package. Katrina Vanden Heuvel advocates immediate passage of the plan, writing i... read more
Was the “Credit Crunch” Just a Scam?
The argument in support of Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson’s $700 billion Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP), that qualified borrowers no longer have access to credit, has been discredited by recent reports from the likes of The Federal Reserv... read more
Public Thinks Bailouts Will Change Wall Street, CEOs Say No: Robert Reich
Robert Reich, Bill Clinton’s Secretary of Labor from 1993-1997, argues that Wall Street and Detroit have no intention of fundamentally altering their business strategies because they view the economic crisis as the low point in a cyclical downturn... read more
Bush Saves the Free Market by Becoming a Protectionist: Patrick J. Buchanan
Patrick Buchanan, the political commentator who ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 1992 and 1996, argues about the necessity of a protectionist trade policy in the wake of the financial meltdown. Buchanan defends Bush’s Detroit bail... read more
Regulator Helped IndyMac Bank Cheat
Darrel Dochow, West Region Director of the Office of Thrift Supervision, was removed from his post on December 22 after a review found he had permitted IndyMac Bank to count money it received in May on March’s balance sheet. This allowed IndyMac t... read more
Are Your Finances Failing? Become a Bank
CIT Group, a New York-based lender specializing in making loans and providing insurance to middle market businesses, ran short on cash this year. If that happened to the average America family, they would be in big trouble. But CIT? Not to worry. ... read more
Who’s Getting Trillions in Loans? It’s a Secret
The Federal Reserve has refused a request by Bloomberg News to reveal who has received more than $2 trillion in emergency loans and what the Fed has accepted as collateral. Of the total, $1.23 trillion has been doled out in the last three months. ... read more
“Patriotic” Pro-Troop Group Pocketed the Big Bucks
Allison Barber, the chief of the American Forces Information Service, was in charge of the “America Supports You” program meant to show the public’s support for U.S. troops and their families. Instead, she funneled $8.8 million in contracts to the... read more
Bailing Out the Banks (and Others) Has Cost the Average Family $1,900…So Far
The 5-member Congressional panel tasked with overseeing the $700 billion bailout has issued its first report. The Department of the Treasury has so far doled out $165 billion to 87 banks in exchange for stock and warrants. Treasury also gave AIG $... read more
College: Slipping Away From the Poor and Middle Class
According to a report by the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, in the last 25 years the cost of a college education has gone up at triple the rate of family income. Increasingly, middle-class parents are going into debt to pu... read more
10 Worst Corporations of the Year
Each year for the past 20 years, the Multinational Monitor has chosen the 10 worst corporations of the year. There have been some terrible ones before, but 2008 produced a bumper crop. They are: AIG, Cargill, Chevron, Chinese National Petroleum, C... read more
Unemployment Rate Hits 14-Year High
While media headlines have been dominated by the fall of the stock market and the bailouts of large banks and other financial institutions, another more ominous economic statistic shows that the economic slowdown has hurt a larger group of America... read more
Bailout: Americans Tricked Again
Less than three months before the 2006 elections, Americans learned of the arrests in England of alleged terrorists on the brink of staging a massive attack. It later turned out that there was no imminent attack, but in the meantime, Congress rush... read more
Richest Candidates Won Elections
The 2008 election may lead to historic changes, but in one way, it was as old-fashioned as an election could be. In 93 percent of House of Representatives races and 94 percent of Senate races that had been decided by mid-day Nov. 5, the candidate ... read more
Attorney General Mukasey Charges Personal Travel to Taxpayers
Mukasey has taken personal trips on government jets almost every weekend since he took office less than a year ago at a cost to taxpayers of more than $155,800. In February, Mukasey flew to Orlando, Fla., with his wife and four other relatives. He... read more
$1,082-an-Inch Highway in Idaho
First proposed in 1953, the 2.1 mile Sand Creek Byway in North Idaho will cost $144 million. It is partially funded by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Ground Broken on $144M N. Idaho Byway (by Zach Hagadone, Idaho Business Review) read more