In the News
Taxpayers Subsidized Wells Fargo Executive Pay Amid Bank’s Fraud
As lawmakers grilled Wells Fargo’s CEO at a Capital Hill hearing, a Washington-based think tank crunched company data. Their findings? If you paid federal taxes, you essentially subsidized the multimillion dollar…
CLASS ACT
Regardless of where we’re at on the wealth spectrum, at some point we’ve all experienced aversion to the circumstances of people from other socioeconomic classes. Whether it’s distaste for someone’s…
Bolivia ended its drug war by kicking out the DEA and legalizing coca
Sitting barefoot on a log, a farmer surveys more than 200 pounds of coca leaves drying out in front of his ramshackle lean-to here in the rainforest of the Chapare…
Racial Wealth Divide Initiative: One Year Later
Racial wealth inequality is growing. We see it in data. We see it on the news. We see it in our communities. Ferguson, Baltimore, Minneapolis, Dallas . . . no…
Tribute to Orlando Letelier
Orlando Letelier was a Chilean patriot. Today many Americans and probably most readers of The Nation have problems with the very notion of patriotism: how can progressives be proud of…
40 Years Ago, This Chilean Exile Warned Us About the Shock Doctrine. Then He Was Assassinated.
On August 1976, The Nation published an essay that rocked the US political establishment, both for what it said and for who was saying it. “The ‘Chicago Boys’ in Chile:…
THE ASSASSINATION OF ORLANDO LETELIER AND THE POLITICS OF SILENCE
FORTY YEARS AGO last night, agents working for the Chilean secret service attached plastic explosives to the bottom of Orlando Letelier’s Chevrolet as it sat in the driveway of his…
‘This was not an accident. This was a bomb.’
On a muggy autumn morning four decades ago, a car exploded in Washington. It had motored along Massachusetts Avenue NW, rounding the bend at Sheridan Circle, when a remote-controlled bomb…
Instead of ISIS, US-Led Bombing Kills Nearly 100 Syrian Soldiers Fighting Them
An emergency U.N. Security Council meeting was called and an already tenuous cease-fire agreement is under further strain after U.S.-led coalition bombers on Saturday killed nearly one hundred Syrian army…
Does John Stumpf Deserve To Keep His Job As Wells Fargo CEO?
When 5,300 bank branch employees open fake deposit accounts for customers in order to hit sales quotas set by upper management, who ultimately is responsible? The employees, for opening accounts…
Cape Ann Forum to host John Feffer
Cape Ann Forum will host a presentation by John Feffer at 7 p.m. Sept. 25 at Gloucester City Hall, 9 Dale Ave. A Washington-based author, novelist, playwright and foreign policy…
Do Black lives matter in America?
Netfa Freeman is a black rights activist based in the US capital. He is a supporter of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, which strives to end “police brutality” against…
The Truth About 9/11 – Fifteen years of war and not a lesson learned?
Flanked by his top military brass, President Barack Obama delivered remarks at the Pentagon marking the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, as the society at large continues to grapple…
Atlanta City Council approves study on raising minimum wage
The Atlanta City Council Wednesday announced it unanimously passed a resolution co-sponsored by Council Members Andre Dickens and Felicia Moore to conduct a study to determine the feasibility of the…
How Trump Can Woo Black Voters
Last week, Donald Trump, running as Savior-in-Chief, tried to appeal to the African-American electorate by attending his first black church, Detroit’s Great Faith Ministries. Though it took him long enough,…
To-do item for Clinton: Limit tax deductions for CEO pay
What can be done to deter pharmaceutical companies from jacking up the prices of critical drugs, prevent Wall Street banks from excessive gambling and nudge CEOs into taking a longer-term…
Greasing The Outstretched Palms Of The Candidates
The recipe could not be simpler. Mix cynicism with greed, quickly stir and voila! American politics and government served up on a platter to the highest bidder. Call it low…
ROBERT REICH: HILLARY CLINTON MUST CURB RUNAWAY CEO PAY
What can be done to deter pharmaceutical companies from jacking up prices of critical drugs? To prevent Wall Street banks from excessive gambling? To nudge CEOs into taking a longer-term…
Wells Fargo fined for opening millions of fake accounts
Wells Fargo (WFC) has long touted its commitment to customers, with CEO John Stumpf noting a few years ago that it wants people to “see us as trusted financial advisers.” But that reputation…
Remembering the Man Who Got Obama to Talk Openly About America’s Most Violent Secret War
When President Obama announced this week in Laos that the United States was giving $90 million to clear away unexploded bombs that U.S. planes dropped on Laos a half century…
City Council to Conduct Feasibility Study on Raising Minimum Wage
The Atlanta City Council unanimously passed a Resolution co-sponsored by Councilmembers Andre Dickens and Felicia Moore to conduct a study to determine the feasibility of the City of Atlanta to increase…
Taxpayers Are On The Hook For Billions In Banker Bonuses
According to a new report, bankers are writing off their massive bonuses, forcing taxpayers to foot the bill for their disgusting largesse. The Ring of Fire’s Farron Cousins discusses this.…
Robert Reich: There’s One Big Unfinished Promise by Bill Clinton That Hillary Should Put to Bed
What can be done to deter pharmaceutical companies from jacking up prices of critical drugs? To prevent Wall Street banks from excessive gambling? To nudge CEOs into taking a longer-term…
Giving local workers a voice
Telling your story to a supportive audience is a way to gain self-respect. Tom Lewandowski believes that. The local labor leader wants to offer that opportunity to people who attend this…
The Philippines’ president has declared a war on drugs, and it’s turned normal people into hired killers
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte swept into office earlier this year with bombastic promises to declare war on the drug dealers and users who he said were blighting his country. And…
Top U.S. Banks Paid $2 Bn in Deductible Bonuses in 4 Years (WFC, AXP)
A study has found that the top 20 banks in the U.S. paid out $2 billion in fully deductible performance bonuses to their top 5 executives between 2012 and 2015.…
This simple cartoon shows how US taxpayers help make rich bankers even richer
This is John Stumpf, CEO of Wells Fargo. From 2012 to 2015, his salary was $2.8 million a year. But Wells Fargo also gave him $155 million in stock options…
New study finds an obscure loophole helping CEOs get rich on taxpayer dollars
A special loophole created under President Bill Clinton incentivizes massive CEO pay at the expense of taxpayers, according to a new study from the Institute for Policy Studies. The study by…
Your Tax Money Is Subsidizing Wall Street Bonuses
Few people have heard of Section 162(m) of the tax code. But if you want to understand the deeply perverse incentives built into the American economy, all you need to…
Groups to Obama: Don’t Cede Climate to TTIP or Fossil Fuel Subsidies
Environmental groups on Thursday sent an open letter to President Barack Obama warning him that the controversial Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) threatens to upend his climate legacy. The letter…
