Thursday, November 20, 2003
The Elite’s Thievery:
I’ve mentioned a bit about my work with Fairness in Taxes for Everyone (FITE), (www.fairnessintaxes.org). We’re looking at the Massachusetts budgetary mess, urging restoration of a fair tax program so as to end this budget “crisis”, a situation created by tax giveaways in years past. We speak to the larger picture, of the ongoing thievery by elements of the very rich and their corporations, the plundering of the country’s public sector and the rewarding of everything “private.” Indeed, the central thread of Bush Administration policies is that all policies seek to transfer wealth to the Administration's wealthy patrons.
So, it’s reassuring when someone speaks to this overarching issue, as Dick Meyer does at cbs.com.
The emerging accounts of thievery in the world of mutual funds confirm, for me at least, something I have suspected since the go-go 1980s -- the existence of an economic predator class.
I believe there is now a professional, well-trained elite, supported by large institutions, that is adept and willing to use corrupt practices to accumulate wealth. Despite assurances from game-theorists and anthropologists that the criminal cadre in the species remains a constant percentage over time, I believe today's mainstream, sanitized, and institutionally sanctioned financial crime rackets are being run by a new breed of crook. There have always been scandals and crooks in the history of American money, but our predator class is a distinct creation of the late 20th century.
I believe there is no way the counter-class made up of regulators, watchdogs and do-gooders and hack columnists can match wits with the predator class. Today's piles of money are so huge, great fortunes can be amassed by swiping the tiniest of slices in the wiliest of ways long before picked pockets are discovered.
I also believe that my darling baby-boom generation and our successors in gens x and y, reared in raised consciousness, righteousness and me-first, are probably to blame.
The docket of this still running corporate crime spree has grown far too long to be dismissed as either a passing fluke, a few bad eggs or as regularly scheduled financial event. It is a more permanent condition of commercial culture. And it is barely scorned.
It is partly, of course, simple Wall Street and boardroom greed, a cousin to the greed and gargantuan rewards in entertainment and sports. It is partly the degradation of professional standards, of the concept of the fiduciary, akin to the same market-driven devolution in divergent fields such as medical care, Hollywood, publishing and, yes, journalism.
My guess is that financial historians will start the clock in this epoch with the big merger scandals of the 1980's -- Ivan Boesky, Michael Milken and scads of lesser cads. Next came the long running, now forgotten, S&L scandals. Then a lull (maybe), punctuated by the pretty picture of the tech boom. That delusional portrait was been redrawn when we learned of the rigged IPO's, insider trading, completely corrupt "analysis" practices at the Wall Street giants and old-fashioned flimflam.
Coveting the vast instant riches of the techno-boomers and baby billionaires was way more than many titans of less glamorous industries could bear and in virtually all companies executive salaries soared beyond all proportions of the post-war era. And in many of those executive suites, greed morphed into felony -- Tyco, Enron, Rite-Aid, Adelphia, Global Crossing, WorldCom, ImClone, Lucent, KMart, MicroStrategy, Qwest Communications. And then scandals at the supposed auditors, like Arthur Andersen, insulted the injury.
As the market turned down, the corporate crime spree didn't wane as some theorists said it should. Hot stocks, IPO's, M&A were no longer where the Willy Suttons with MBAs, Turnbull & Asser shirts and Patek Philipe watches saw the money. They saw it in those huge piles of money accumulated by working people for savings and retirement -- corporate pension funds, public pension funds, 401(k)'s and mutual funds. Who would notice a few mil or bil siphoned off in arcane late-trading deals? They'll never know what hit them.
So, pension funds were raided, an entirely legal scandal. And now we're learning about the mutual fund grifting rampage that may affect Main Street as much as prior fiascos: Putnam, Alger Management, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, Strong Capital Management, PBHG Funds, Bank One Corp., Alliance Capital, Janus Capital Group are some of the implicated names.
So now we'll be told that the market, smarter than any deliberately organized system, will correct this. After all, who would invest in a known corrupt game? No one, so the market will fix it. Plus, the regulators are on the case.
This time, I don't buy it. The predator class will not be exterminated by cease and desist orders, Senate hearings, independent boards of directors and the invisible hand. It's a culture. And essentially, it's our culture. http://64.4.16.250/cgi-bin/linkrd?_lang=EN&lah=5e871a3d04016217bfc96b8df7ccc4b1&lat=1069348275&hm___action=http%3a%2f%2fwww%2ecommondreams%2eorg%2fviews03%2f1119%2d11%2ehtm
Medicare:
So what does one do now, as Congress moves toward passing the AARP-endorsed bill? One course of action is to go the web site below, and take action! There you’ll learn a bit about AARP president Bill Novelli, the “life-long Republican political operative” who “wrote the preface to Newt Gingrich’s book on health care.” http://www.ourfuture.org/issues_and_campaigns/medicare/11_20_03.cfm
Typical Diplomatic Personnel Move
The Administration is changing its ambassador to Saudi Arabia. They’re nominating a Texas oil lobbyist to replace the oil industry lawyer who had been in the position. Charles Schumer, NY's senior senator, attacked the pick of James Oberwetter:
"It sort of says our entire relationship with Saudi Arabia is a three letter word: o-i-l. He has oil lobbying experience he doesn't have diplomatic experience. This should go to a top person in the State Department." http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/news/7303708.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Turkey Bombing Some predicted this, that if we brought a war to Iraq, we would spread the carnage to the environs. It was a good guess that al-Qaida wished to involve Turkey, and the country’s vehemence about aiding us in Iraq was not a good sign.
Anyway, Who did this? The Guardian reports:
The Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades, the group which claimed responsibility for Sunday's synagogue bombing in Turkey, honours a former military commander of al-Qaida. The group's name is taken from a pseudonym of Mohammed Atef, aka Abu Hafs, who became a relative by marriage to Osama bin Laden before his death in a US missile strike almost exactly two years ago.
This is not the first time the name of Abu Hafs has surfaced in recent months. The same group claimed responsibility for the deadly attack on the UN headquarters in Iraq in August.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/turkey/story/0,12700,1087673,00.html
Commentary
Mediachannel.org correspondent in Istanbul Adam McConnel has a potent summary of his thoughts on the bombings:
Why is this happening? There is one and only one reason—Iraq. British Foreign Minister Jack Straw went on TV today and claimed that these attacks were a "continuation" of 11 September. That is a patent falsehood.
These horrible attacks, along with more violence in neighboring countries, are happening because of the disorder in Iraq Regional experts had repeatedly warned that this would be the result of the invasion. With Iraq now drifting into anarchy, it is easier for militants to operate there and carry out attacks in the region.
Thank you, Mr. Straw for being so disingenuous. Now I would like you to look into the faces of the relatives of those who were killed or maimed in Saturday's and today's explosions and explain to them why these types of events were not happening before Iraq was invaded.
One thing that these blasts drive home is that the Saturday attacks were not aimed just at Jews — they were aimed at all of Turkey and the Western community in general. Life goes on as normal in Istanbul and will go on as normal. As I walked to my wife's office to send this email, I saw kids playing football in school yards and people going about their lives. This city has just survived 15 years of undeclared civil war and it will survive this. The blood of those who die in the meantime is, in my opinion, not just on the hands of those who commit such despicable acts, but also on the hands of thosewho made it possible: Bush, Cheney, Blair, Straw, Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld, etc. http://64.224.42.246/weblog/dannylog.cfm
Liberal Radio: Progress reportThe previous company ran into trouble, so a slowed time-line. According to yahoo.com,
...a group headed by a former adviser to the Democratic National Committee has taken over the effort to create a liberal radio network to compete with conservative talk radio.
Mark Walsh, who's also a former America Online executive, said his investors' group bought the proposed network from the venture capitalists who started AnShell Media L.L.C. in February. The purchase price was not announced.
At the time, Sheldon and Anita Drobny said they had lined up $10 million and hoped to be on the air by this fall. But the Drobnys never hired any talent, purchased any stations or signed any distribution contracts. Walsh, who once served as the DNC's chief technology adviser, said Tuesday that he expects to be broadcasting by early next year.
Liberal comedian and author Al Franken said he was encouraged by the sale to Walsh's group and that he was talking with Walsh about developing a show. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20031120/ap_on_re_us/brf_radio_politics_1
So, was the invasion illegal. Yes, says Richard Perle?
Yup. Perle decided the time was ripe for this admission. So, let’s see, we started an illegal war pretending that we were seeking threatening weapons (of “mass destruction”) though the hyped danger had no connection to the terrorist threat. And, 50% still support this Group? From Oliver Burkeman and Julian Borger:
International lawyers and anti-war campaigners reacted with astonishment yesterday after the influential Pentagon hawk Richard Perle conceded that the invasion of Iraq had been illegal.
In a startling break with the official White House and Downing Street lines, Mr Perle told an audience in London: "I think in this case international law stood in the way of doing the right thing."
President George Bush has consistently argued that the war was legal either because of existing UN security council resolutions on Iraq - also the British government's publicly stated view - or as an act of self-defence permitted by international law.
But Mr Perle, a key member of the defence policy board, which advises the US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, said that "international law ... would have required us to leave Saddam Hussein alone", and this would have been morally unacceptable.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,4801223-103550,00.html
Dean’s words on regulation
No revolutionary, candidate Dean seeks “re-regulation” of U.S. businesses- utilities, large media companies, etc. part of a new social contract for the 21st century” to restore public trust in corporations, national leaders and U.S. military might. Dean blamed President Bush for eroding the public’s faith in these institutions…From the Washington Post (Jim VandeHei)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A59183-2003Nov18?language=printer
Business Section talk:
The major periodicals all had notes to this effect, that the dollar’s fall to a record low against the euro was evidence of “sharply weaker capital flows”, which leads to renewed fears that the U.S. deficit will have trouble being funded. As the Financial Times(Jennifer Hughes, Jenny Wiggins) noted
'The September data is the strongest evidence to date that the record US current account deficit has become too large to finance through the net foreign investment into US securities, and is thus contributing to the long-term decline in the US dollar,' said Michael Woolfolk, senior currency strategist at the Bank of New York." Jennifer Hughes in London and Jenny Wiggins in New York http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1069131973719&p=1012571727088
A Poll from Scotland (James Lyons)
The US President was branded a threat to world peace by 60%,
37% said Mr Bush was “stupid”
33% called him “incoherent”.
Only a minority saw positive characteristics in Mr Bush, with just 7% regarding him as a good world leader, 6% as articulate and 10% as intelligent.
A slim majority opposed the visit by 26% to 21%, although half did not care.
53% to 41% support the antiwar demonstrations in Britain
(http://www.news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=2181946)
-R
I’ve mentioned a bit about my work with Fairness in Taxes for Everyone (FITE), (www.fairnessintaxes.org). We’re looking at the Massachusetts budgetary mess, urging restoration of a fair tax program so as to end this budget “crisis”, a situation created by tax giveaways in years past. We speak to the larger picture, of the ongoing thievery by elements of the very rich and their corporations, the plundering of the country’s public sector and the rewarding of everything “private.” Indeed, the central thread of Bush Administration policies is that all policies seek to transfer wealth to the Administration's wealthy patrons.
So, it’s reassuring when someone speaks to this overarching issue, as Dick Meyer does at cbs.com.
The emerging accounts of thievery in the world of mutual funds confirm, for me at least, something I have suspected since the go-go 1980s -- the existence of an economic predator class.
I believe there is now a professional, well-trained elite, supported by large institutions, that is adept and willing to use corrupt practices to accumulate wealth. Despite assurances from game-theorists and anthropologists that the criminal cadre in the species remains a constant percentage over time, I believe today's mainstream, sanitized, and institutionally sanctioned financial crime rackets are being run by a new breed of crook. There have always been scandals and crooks in the history of American money, but our predator class is a distinct creation of the late 20th century.
I believe there is no way the counter-class made up of regulators, watchdogs and do-gooders and hack columnists can match wits with the predator class. Today's piles of money are so huge, great fortunes can be amassed by swiping the tiniest of slices in the wiliest of ways long before picked pockets are discovered.
I also believe that my darling baby-boom generation and our successors in gens x and y, reared in raised consciousness, righteousness and me-first, are probably to blame.
The docket of this still running corporate crime spree has grown far too long to be dismissed as either a passing fluke, a few bad eggs or as regularly scheduled financial event. It is a more permanent condition of commercial culture. And it is barely scorned.
It is partly, of course, simple Wall Street and boardroom greed, a cousin to the greed and gargantuan rewards in entertainment and sports. It is partly the degradation of professional standards, of the concept of the fiduciary, akin to the same market-driven devolution in divergent fields such as medical care, Hollywood, publishing and, yes, journalism.
My guess is that financial historians will start the clock in this epoch with the big merger scandals of the 1980's -- Ivan Boesky, Michael Milken and scads of lesser cads. Next came the long running, now forgotten, S&L scandals. Then a lull (maybe), punctuated by the pretty picture of the tech boom. That delusional portrait was been redrawn when we learned of the rigged IPO's, insider trading, completely corrupt "analysis" practices at the Wall Street giants and old-fashioned flimflam.
Coveting the vast instant riches of the techno-boomers and baby billionaires was way more than many titans of less glamorous industries could bear and in virtually all companies executive salaries soared beyond all proportions of the post-war era. And in many of those executive suites, greed morphed into felony -- Tyco, Enron, Rite-Aid, Adelphia, Global Crossing, WorldCom, ImClone, Lucent, KMart, MicroStrategy, Qwest Communications. And then scandals at the supposed auditors, like Arthur Andersen, insulted the injury.
As the market turned down, the corporate crime spree didn't wane as some theorists said it should. Hot stocks, IPO's, M&A were no longer where the Willy Suttons with MBAs, Turnbull & Asser shirts and Patek Philipe watches saw the money. They saw it in those huge piles of money accumulated by working people for savings and retirement -- corporate pension funds, public pension funds, 401(k)'s and mutual funds. Who would notice a few mil or bil siphoned off in arcane late-trading deals? They'll never know what hit them.
So, pension funds were raided, an entirely legal scandal. And now we're learning about the mutual fund grifting rampage that may affect Main Street as much as prior fiascos: Putnam, Alger Management, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, Strong Capital Management, PBHG Funds, Bank One Corp., Alliance Capital, Janus Capital Group are some of the implicated names.
So now we'll be told that the market, smarter than any deliberately organized system, will correct this. After all, who would invest in a known corrupt game? No one, so the market will fix it. Plus, the regulators are on the case.
This time, I don't buy it. The predator class will not be exterminated by cease and desist orders, Senate hearings, independent boards of directors and the invisible hand. It's a culture. And essentially, it's our culture. http://64.4.16.250/cgi-bin/linkrd?_lang=EN&lah=5e871a3d04016217bfc96b8df7ccc4b1&lat=1069348275&hm___action=http%3a%2f%2fwww%2ecommondreams%2eorg%2fviews03%2f1119%2d11%2ehtm
Medicare:
So what does one do now, as Congress moves toward passing the AARP-endorsed bill? One course of action is to go the web site below, and take action! There you’ll learn a bit about AARP president Bill Novelli, the “life-long Republican political operative” who “wrote the preface to Newt Gingrich’s book on health care.” http://www.ourfuture.org/issues_and_campaigns/medicare/11_20_03.cfm
Typical Diplomatic Personnel Move
The Administration is changing its ambassador to Saudi Arabia. They’re nominating a Texas oil lobbyist to replace the oil industry lawyer who had been in the position. Charles Schumer, NY's senior senator, attacked the pick of James Oberwetter:
"It sort of says our entire relationship with Saudi Arabia is a three letter word: o-i-l. He has oil lobbying experience he doesn't have diplomatic experience. This should go to a top person in the State Department." http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/news/7303708.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Turkey Bombing Some predicted this, that if we brought a war to Iraq, we would spread the carnage to the environs. It was a good guess that al-Qaida wished to involve Turkey, and the country’s vehemence about aiding us in Iraq was not a good sign.
Anyway, Who did this? The Guardian reports:
The Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades, the group which claimed responsibility for Sunday's synagogue bombing in Turkey, honours a former military commander of al-Qaida. The group's name is taken from a pseudonym of Mohammed Atef, aka Abu Hafs, who became a relative by marriage to Osama bin Laden before his death in a US missile strike almost exactly two years ago.
This is not the first time the name of Abu Hafs has surfaced in recent months. The same group claimed responsibility for the deadly attack on the UN headquarters in Iraq in August.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/turkey/story/0,12700,1087673,00.html
Commentary
Mediachannel.org correspondent in Istanbul Adam McConnel has a potent summary of his thoughts on the bombings:
Why is this happening? There is one and only one reason—Iraq. British Foreign Minister Jack Straw went on TV today and claimed that these attacks were a "continuation" of 11 September. That is a patent falsehood.
These horrible attacks, along with more violence in neighboring countries, are happening because of the disorder in Iraq Regional experts had repeatedly warned that this would be the result of the invasion. With Iraq now drifting into anarchy, it is easier for militants to operate there and carry out attacks in the region.
Thank you, Mr. Straw for being so disingenuous. Now I would like you to look into the faces of the relatives of those who were killed or maimed in Saturday's and today's explosions and explain to them why these types of events were not happening before Iraq was invaded.
One thing that these blasts drive home is that the Saturday attacks were not aimed just at Jews — they were aimed at all of Turkey and the Western community in general. Life goes on as normal in Istanbul and will go on as normal. As I walked to my wife's office to send this email, I saw kids playing football in school yards and people going about their lives. This city has just survived 15 years of undeclared civil war and it will survive this. The blood of those who die in the meantime is, in my opinion, not just on the hands of those who commit such despicable acts, but also on the hands of thosewho made it possible: Bush, Cheney, Blair, Straw, Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld, etc. http://64.224.42.246/weblog/dannylog.cfm
Liberal Radio: Progress reportThe previous company ran into trouble, so a slowed time-line. According to yahoo.com,
...a group headed by a former adviser to the Democratic National Committee has taken over the effort to create a liberal radio network to compete with conservative talk radio.
Mark Walsh, who's also a former America Online executive, said his investors' group bought the proposed network from the venture capitalists who started AnShell Media L.L.C. in February. The purchase price was not announced.
At the time, Sheldon and Anita Drobny said they had lined up $10 million and hoped to be on the air by this fall. But the Drobnys never hired any talent, purchased any stations or signed any distribution contracts. Walsh, who once served as the DNC's chief technology adviser, said Tuesday that he expects to be broadcasting by early next year.
Liberal comedian and author Al Franken said he was encouraged by the sale to Walsh's group and that he was talking with Walsh about developing a show. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20031120/ap_on_re_us/brf_radio_politics_1
So, was the invasion illegal. Yes, says Richard Perle?
Yup. Perle decided the time was ripe for this admission. So, let’s see, we started an illegal war pretending that we were seeking threatening weapons (of “mass destruction”) though the hyped danger had no connection to the terrorist threat. And, 50% still support this Group? From Oliver Burkeman and Julian Borger:
International lawyers and anti-war campaigners reacted with astonishment yesterday after the influential Pentagon hawk Richard Perle conceded that the invasion of Iraq had been illegal.
In a startling break with the official White House and Downing Street lines, Mr Perle told an audience in London: "I think in this case international law stood in the way of doing the right thing."
President George Bush has consistently argued that the war was legal either because of existing UN security council resolutions on Iraq - also the British government's publicly stated view - or as an act of self-defence permitted by international law.
But Mr Perle, a key member of the defence policy board, which advises the US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, said that "international law ... would have required us to leave Saddam Hussein alone", and this would have been morally unacceptable.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,4801223-103550,00.html
Dean’s words on regulation
No revolutionary, candidate Dean seeks “re-regulation” of U.S. businesses- utilities, large media companies, etc. part of a new social contract for the 21st century” to restore public trust in corporations, national leaders and U.S. military might. Dean blamed President Bush for eroding the public’s faith in these institutions…From the Washington Post (Jim VandeHei)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A59183-2003Nov18?language=printer
Business Section talk:
The major periodicals all had notes to this effect, that the dollar’s fall to a record low against the euro was evidence of “sharply weaker capital flows”, which leads to renewed fears that the U.S. deficit will have trouble being funded. As the Financial Times(Jennifer Hughes, Jenny Wiggins) noted
'The September data is the strongest evidence to date that the record US current account deficit has become too large to finance through the net foreign investment into US securities, and is thus contributing to the long-term decline in the US dollar,' said Michael Woolfolk, senior currency strategist at the Bank of New York." Jennifer Hughes in London and Jenny Wiggins in New York http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1069131973719&p=1012571727088
A Poll from Scotland (James Lyons)
The US President was branded a threat to world peace by 60%,
37% said Mr Bush was “stupid”
33% called him “incoherent”.
Only a minority saw positive characteristics in Mr Bush, with just 7% regarding him as a good world leader, 6% as articulate and 10% as intelligent.
A slim majority opposed the visit by 26% to 21%, although half did not care.
53% to 41% support the antiwar demonstrations in Britain
(http://www.news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=2181946)
-R
