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So far, as a result of the LIBOR scandal -- in which Barclays manipulated the all-important London Inter-bank Offered Rate, which governs hundreds of trillions of dollars of loans, securities and derivatives -- the bank has been fined over $450 million by regulators and its CEO and COO have resigned. A broader investigation is underway. The implications of the episode to the new financial regulatory regime currently being implemented are wide-ranging and only slowly emerging.
Since 2008, working families have done everything they can to get by – changing spending habits, paying down debt, taking on 2nd (or 3rd jobs), digging into savings and retirement funds, and even cutting back on medical care – but they’re still falling behind.
President Obama opened up a fissure within his own party when he called yesterday for repealing the Bush tax cuts for households making over $250,000. Other Democrats, including Nancy Pelosi, have argued for a repeal that would only affect households making over $1 million.
The home mortgage crisis and Great Recession destroyed a generation of economic progress for African-American families. Now, reports the Washington Post, the discriminatory impact of credit scores and reports could cement the disadvantages into place for decades to come.
The latest numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics reveal the last in a three month trend of weak job growth. With only 80,000 jobs added in the month of June, the economy failed to generate enough work to keep up with the population growth of the labor force, much less fuel a recovery for America’s workers. The unemployment rate for all workers held steady at 8.2 percent.
Are big corporations taking over American elections? It depends whether you ask liberals or conservatives, who can’t even agree on the basic facts.
In the liberal universe, big corporations have swallowed politics. Common Cause President Bob Edgar summed up this version of reality at a press conference in March, declaring: “We, the people, will not stand idly by while the country’s major corporations use their massive wealth to buy our democracy.”
Even though it’s only the 9th of July, nearly 3,400 maximum and minimum temperature records have been tied or broken so far this month. Dozens of people have died and the lack of rainfall combined with the extreme heat is threatening the Midwest’s corn crop.
The LIBOR-fixing scandal that has engulfed Barclays and prompted investigation of Citigroup, Royal Bank of Scotland, HSBC, UBS, Lloyds, Deutsche Bank, ICAP (the huge broker for traders) and possibly others has been down-played by some experts and induced outrage from others. More fines like the $453 million extracted from Barclays will undoubtedly be announced. And perhaps more resignations such as those of Barclay’s CEO and COO last week are in the offing. But the financial press is struggling to find the broader implications.
The New York Times Editorial Board has raised another problem with declaring the Medicaid exception unconstitutional: Many people who live below the poverty line are likely to be left without healthcare coverage all together. This is especially true in the seven states that have already committed to rejecting the additional federal funds. But the Times doesn't do a terribly good job of explaining why.