A big reason why financial crimes are so hard to prosecute is that authorities often lack witnesses who can testify in detail about such crimes. That means prosecutors must rely on others forms of evidence -- like documents and emails. But even a pretty damning paper trail just doesn't have the punch of an individual pointing their finger and unloading all the sordid details. Also, without an insider to explain the labryinth of a typical securites fraud, it can be hard for prosecutors to ever even assemble such a trail.
In the wake of the S&P downgrade, the Federal Reserve announced yesterday that it would keep short-term interest rates near zero for two years. This was a departure from the Fed's previous language, which did not offer a specific timeline. These rock-bottom rates can't continue indefinitely, and the Fed has the power to raise them at any time. As well, further downgrades of the U.S. credit rating could work to push interest rates up.
In an op-ed in today's New York Times, Jeffrey Ganns provides the most insightful explanation yet of why S&P downgraded the U.S. credit rating even though there is no evidence that the United States would ever not make good on its debts.
The cascade of budget cuts continues. The National Employment Law Project (NELP) reported last week that several states, including Michigan, South Carolina, and Florida, were cutting unemployment benefits. For over 50 years, there had been a national consensus that state unemployment benefits should last 26 weeks.
Among the many questionable assertions in Drew Westen's Times article yesterday was that Obama's "half-stimulus" was "diluted" with "tax cuts that had already been shown to be inert."
Like many progressives, I have been disappointed by President Obama for not staking out more aggressive negotiating positions and being a more forceful leader overall.
Imagine an America that boldly undertakes a major effort of unprecedented scale. Now imagine that no one knows how much it will cost or when it will end, only that it is imperative to act if we are to live consistent with our nation’s core values of freedom AND unity. Imagine now that this grand and unpredictable endeavor has to be financed with a surge in national debt and that securing such debt will require a new, reliable and substantial source of new revenue.
Dear Attorney General Holder,
We are concerned about the restrictive voter identification legislation pending or already signed into law in a number of states.
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“The middle class is not on the same solid footing that it once was,” said Jennifer Wheary, who cowrote a study on the recession’s impact on middle-class African Americans and Latinos with Brandeis University and the New York think tank Demos.
“If you’re out of work for a long time, you have difficulty paying your bills,” says Amy Traub, coauthor of a June report from the think tank Demos that calls for reform of the credit reporting industry. “If potential employers are looking at credit scores, how on earth are you going to pay your bills then?”
What’s more, the credit bureaus themselves acknowledge there is no proof of a link between a person’s credit report and their suitability as an employee.
"College graduates are less likely to get a job," said Anna Pycior, a spokeswoman for Demos. "If you do manage to get a job, it is getting less and less likely you will be provided with health benefits and you will face the increasingly bleak prospect of a retirement plan.
"All of it while trying to address your $27,000 on average in student debt."
The Devastating Impact Of This Right-Leaning, Ideological Court May Only Get Worse
Last week, an HBO film crew was in my Manhattan neighborhood shooting a movie about legendary record producer Phil Spector, now serving nineteen years to life for the 2003 shooting death of actress Lana Clarkson.
Conservatives are a house divided these days on many issues. But on the core issue likely to determine the 2012 election, the economy, there’s not a millimeter of space between them. Government is the problem and reducing the burdens of taxes and regulation on America’s job creators stands at the top of nearly every Republican presidential candidate’s agenda. That’s the only way to get the economy humming again, fuel new job creation, and bring unemployment down, they contend.
Why is it important for civil rights and good government groups to to be granted status as intervenor defendants in a lawsuit about counting prisoners in redistricting?
Because the legislative commission charged with drawing the lines, LATFOR, hasn't exactly been vigorous in defending itself in a lawsuit filed about the issue, they say.
Political scientists like to argue that politics is about who gets what and that self-interest tends to drive policy preferences. But the real world doesn't always work this way -- certainly not when it comes to government benefits. Some of the same states where residents rely most heavily on public programs routinely elect politicians who are determined to slash these very same programs.
Not a day goes by without a conservative leader or media outlet arguing that the stimulus has been a failure and that uncontrolled government spending is only making the recession worse. Of course, this is nonsense. Worse, it is one of the most damaging lies that conservatives are now telling about the economy.
Everyone in both political parties says they want to bring down unemployment, and that sense of urgency is sure to grow after today's dismal job numbers, which show unemployment creeping up to 9.2 percent.