American Ruling Class

Monsanto: Big Guy on the Block When it Comes to Friends in Washington

"Justice Clarence Thomas was on the bench, hearing the case with the other justices. Thomas worked as a corporate lawyer for Monsanto in the 1970s. Thomas has participated in at least one other case involving the company, Monsanto v. Geertson, which resulted in a favorable decision for Monsanto. Clarence Thomas aside, Monsanto has plenty of other ties to Washington. Eight lawmakers own stock in Monsanto, including Sen. Kay Hagan (D-N.C.) and Reps. Dave Camp (R-Mich.), Joe Kennedy III (D-Mass.), Alan Lowenthal (D-Calif.), Michael McCaul (R-Texas), Jim Renacci (R-Ohio), Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) and Fred Upton (R-Mich.)." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingMonsanto: Big Guy on the Block When it Comes to Friends in Washington

Wall Street hires Washington

"The financial industry has long been a draw for former political operatives seeking a bigger paycheck and New York lifestyle. But with the big banks now under constant assault from reformers, regulators and some members of Congress, the flow of top talent from Washington to Wall Street has become a small flood. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley will soon have top-level executives with the ear of the CEO who once occupied senior jobs in the White House and the U.S. Treasury. Other banks including Citigroup, Credit Suisse and JPMorgan Chase also have staffed up with former political and regulatory officials." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingWall Street hires Washington

Bloomberg News Used Its Private Data to Spy on Geithner and Bernanke

"CNBC has learned from a former Bloomberg employee that he accessed usage information of the company's data terminals of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and former U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner. The information appeared to concern general functions used by the officials and the frequency with which those functions — such as looking at a bond, equity markets or news — were accessed. The source said all Bloomberg journalists who knew of this capability of the terminal would have had access to the usage information of the officials." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBloomberg News Used Its Private Data to Spy on Geithner and Bernanke

The Government’s Us? Not Last Time I Checked

"In a speech last month about proposed gun control legislation, President Obama decried opponents’ attempts to encourage 'suspicion about government.' 'The government’s us,' he responded. 'These officials are elected by you. They are constrained as I am constrained, by a system that our founders put in place.' But if government were 'us,' why would we have ever needed a Bill of Rights or defense attorneys? In order for the government to be 'us,' and for its elected officials to be our 'representatives' in any meaningful sense, a number of prerequisites would have to be met." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThe Government’s Us? Not Last Time I Checked

Glenn Greenwald: U.S. oligarchs focused on military and surveillance state to put down unrest

“You can do one of two things in response to that discontent: You can try to placate it, whether symbolically placate it or substantively placate it so you avoid that kind of extreme income disparity… [and] even things out a just little bit more, however much you need to calm people down; or you consolidate your own power so that even if people become discontent, there’s nothing they can do to you because you’ve created this massive militarized state, this massive surveillance state. Our elite appears to be doing the later, and very little of the former, if any.” Continue reading →

Continue ReadingGlenn Greenwald: U.S. oligarchs focused on military and surveillance state to put down unrest

How Congress Puts Itself Above the Law

"Some apparently have faith in the high moral character of their elected officials and argue that we shouldn't have to enact a constitutional amendment to make sure Congress follows the same laws all Americans do. Yet history shows that is definitely not the case. Over the decades, Congress has passed innumerable statutes that regulate every aspect of life in the American workplace, then quickly exempted themselves. Critics advance the rather sensible and straightforward proposition that U.S. lawmakers should live by the same laws they impose on private employers and state and local elected officials." Continue reading →

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Publishing Atrocity: The 1963 Edition of Human Action

"This is the fiftieth anniversary of one of the most scurrilous incidents in academic publishing. The victim was Ludwig von Mises. The perpetrator was Yale University Press. This travesty was quite self-conscious. The editor knew exactly what he was doing. He was in control. Mises was not. This was how establishment liberalism worked in 1963. Today, ebooks, PDFs, and other technologies have broken the hold of traditional paper-based publishers. You can download the 1949 edition for free. But there was a time when they called the shots. Mises found out just how completely they called the shots at Yale University Press in 1963." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingPublishing Atrocity: The 1963 Edition of Human Action

President Obama Nominates Penny Pritzker for Commerce Secretary

"Pritzker is a Chicago billionaire heiress. Her father co-founded the Hyatt Hotel. She is estimated to be worth at least $1.7 billion. She was instrumental in funding Obama in his senatorial campaign and later his presidential campaigns. Cronyism will go wild with her at Commerce. She didn't spend all that money on Obama for nothing." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingPresident Obama Nominates Penny Pritzker for Commerce Secretary

Uh-oh: AT&T and Comcast are ecstatic about the FCC’s new chairman

"The same President who said 'I am in this race to tell the corporate lobbyists that their days of setting the agenda in Washington are over' when he was running for office has given the FCC's top job to a former lobbyist. Wheeler donated $38,500 to Obama's election efforts and helped raise additional money for Obama by becoming a 'bundler,' arranging for large contributions from other donors after hitting legal limits on personal contributions. Not surprisingly, the cable and telecom companies that Wheeler springs from are ecstatic about the nomination. Wheeler led the NCTA from 1979 to 1984 and the CTIA from 1992 to 2004." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingUh-oh: AT&T and Comcast are ecstatic about the FCC’s new chairman