Hold Fast

Matt Taibbi looks at President Obama’s recent move to trade some requirements for financial disclosure under Sarbanes-Oxley in exchange for business support for his jobs plan. Taibbi: If the financial crisis proved anything, it’s that Wall Street companies in particular have been serial offenders in the area of dishonest accounting and book-cooking. Sarbanes-Oxley is obviously [...]

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Yesterday there was a Washington Post story on how much money Obama and Romney have gotten from Wall Street which directly conflicted with a New York Times article earlier in the week. The Washington Post story reported that Obama has raised more money from Wall Street than all of the GOP candidates combined. The Times, [...]

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There have been new reports of an evolved deal between Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, the Obama Department of Justice, and the nation’s five largest banks regarding the 50 44 state investigations into robosigning and other fraudulent behavior by the banks. New developments include expanding the release beyond robosigning to cover fraudulent mortgage orgination as [...]

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Nana Rolland has a piece in the Wall Street Journal which does a good job of contextualizing the political hopelessness Tibetans inside of Tibet are feeling, as evidenced by the nine self-immolations committed by young Tibetans since this spring. Self-immolations can be seen as the tragic and desperate acts of people who do not know [...]

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Yves Smith, on the failures of banks to do their jobs and their push to get a Get Out Of Jail Free card from the 50 state attorneys general: As a lawyer I know said, if a bank is so bad at doing its job that it can’t foreclose, it deserves to go out of [...]

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Yesterday there were reports that Bank of America Corporation was going to move it’s Merrill Lynch derivatives unit, which is not insured, into Bank of America, which is insured by the FDIC. Early reports suggested that the Federal Reserve supports this move, while the FDIC opposes it. Quoted at The Big Picture, Professor Bill Black [...]

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NY1 has one of the most incredible and inspiring reports on the #OccupyWallStreet movement that I’ve seen. It’s about a large space – a former bank – donated by the United Federation of Teachers – that serves as the movement’s supply store room. It’s stocked with donations of food, medical supplies, clothing, and other essential [...]

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The New York Times has an editorial in praise of Elizabeth Warren and her candidacy for Senate in Massachusetts. Interestingly (though also accurately) they highlight her ability as an effective messenger on the economy and class issues: Democrats should not be cowed by conservative taunts that the speech advocated “collectivism,” and use this argument to [...]

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Yet again, Chris Hedges really gets what’s happening in the world and what #OccupyWallStreet is about.

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Late last night, New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg and Brookfield Properties, the owners of Zuccotti Park, backed down from their attempt to evict #OccupyWallStreet. MoveOn shot a great video of the protesters getting the news and their reaction. #OccupyWallStreet put a statement out following the victory: “We are winning and Wall Street is afraid,” said [...]

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