Big banks need to be shown who's boss

Wall Street's continuing war against workers seems endless. Just when you think it can't get any worse, it does. And even when big players in the financial world get caught for wrongdoing, the penalties never seem to make a difference.

The latest example came last week when the Justice Department announced that five major banks -- Citicorp, JP Morgan Chase, Barclays, The Royal Bank of Scotland and UBS -- were pleading guilty to felony charges and agreeing to pay more than $5 billion to settle charges they had worked together to manipulate international interest and foreign currency exchange rates.

Yet despite the "brazen" activity by the banks, as Attorney General Loretta Lynch put it herself, no one ultimately will spend a day in jail for engaging in these illegal activities. That, said former Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich, is simply outrageous:

America used to have antitrust laws that permanently stopped corporations from monopolizing markets, and often broke up the biggest culprits.

No longer. Now, giant corporations are taking over the economy – and they’re busily weakening antitrust enforcement. 

The result has been higher prices for the many, and higher profits for the few. It’s a hidden upward redistribution from the majority of Americans to corporate executives and wealthy shareholders.

The bad behavior of banks is nothing new for hardworking Americans, who have taken the brunt of the financial world's malfeasance. They've seen Wall Street fritter away their pensions and retirement investments and jeopardize their future. Financial institutions teamed up with big business last December to push through a federal spending bill that attacked workers' pensions and put their retirements at risk.

The same Wall Street banks that rake in hundreds of millions of dollars managing pension funds lobbied to reduce pension benefits for the people whose sweat created those funds. Congress did the bankers' bidding and reduced benefits, but the banks get to keep making millions on the backs of the very pensioners whose benefits were cut. That is unfair, unjust and plain un-American.

It's well past time for the big banks to face the consequences of their actions with punishments that have real teeth. Penalties need to be higher than any bank would pay just as part of the cost of doing business.

It's also time that financial institutions pay their fair share of taxes instead of receiving breaks while workers pick up the tab. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) previously put forward a Wall Street speculation tax proposal that would charge a fee on large financial institutions for the sale of credit default swaps, derivatives, options, future and large amounts of stock. It's an idea with merit.

Banks have continually abused the benefits given to them. It's only fair that people get treated the same as the powerful. That's what's going to get America working again.

Today's Teamster News 10.05.14

Trade
U.S. ‘feckless’ on trade? — Dates set for TPP meeting — Export ban won't stop oil refining, study says  Politico   ...Former U.S. Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman questions whether his old boss, President Barack Obama, has the political drive and interest to win congressional approval of a pair of ambitious trade deals with Asia-Pacific countries and the European Union...
State Battles
Gov. Rick Scott’s complex finances raise new questions about his state disclosure  Miami Herald   ...The governor, for instance, does not disclose the entire value of assets that reside in different trust and partnership accounts and for which he’s listed in federal records as the “beneficial owner,” according to an extensive Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times review of hundreds of federal and state documents filed in Florida, Washington, Connecticut, Texas, Nevada and Illinois...
Study: State taxpayers on the hook for $1 billion in useless highway projects due to faulty data  Wisconsin Gazette   ...The Wisconsin Department of Transportation will waste up to $1 billion on unneeded highway expansions if it continues to rely on inaccurate, outdated highway-use projections, concluded a comprehensive traffic study by a nonpartisan watchdog group...
Democrats question Walker's use of state planes for short trips  Milwaukee Journal Sentinel   ...state planes are being used to carry Gov. Scott Walker on trips around Wisconsin with legs as short as the 30-mile jaunt from Burlington to Milwaukee, according to state records...
War on Workers
Wage Theft Costing Low-Income Workers Billions  NBC News   ...Nearly $1 billion was recovered in 2012 by lawyers or regulatory agencies acting on behalf of workers who were paid below minimum wage, not paid for overtime or other wage and hour violations...
Workers in Part-Time Limbo Point to U.S. Job-Market Slack  Bloomberg   ...Forty-nine percent of people working less than 35 hours a week in 2012 and desiring full-time work were able to find such a position within a year, according to research by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. That’s down from 61 percent in 2006...
A Middle-Class Crunch Obama Didn't Mention  Bloomberg View   ...A new report shows that more and more U.S. workers are getting squeezed in another way: pushed into inadequate retirement plans by the country's largest employers. Worse, their employers acknowledge as much...
States probe JPMorgan Chase as hack seen fueling fraud  Reuters   ... Two U.S. states are investigating the theft of 83 million customer records from JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) in a massive cyber attack uncovered over the summer, and more may soon join, Reuters learned on Friday...
The Walmart Wealth Gap Is Getting Much More Troubling  Huffington Post   ...By at least one estimate, the Walmart family could already buy every single home in Seattle...
Germany just eliminated tuition, while Americans are drowning in $1.2 trillion student loan debt.  Daily Kos   ...Germany has just joined other nations of the Continental European Union to eliminate all university tuition, as a human right...
Worker dies after being struck by truck at St. Louis business  St. Louis Post-Dispatch   ...Police are investigating a fatal accident in which an Antler Trucking Company employee was struck by a box truck on the rear parking lot of the company in the 3000 block of North Broadway this morning...
Miscellaneous  
Sheriff's department issues tickets to prompt train movement  Goshen News   ...Sheriff’s deputies went to the crossing and began issuing tickets to Norfolk Southern for blocking the road in violation of state statue. The officers continued writing tickets for every 10 minutes the crossing was blocked, issuing 18 citations in total...

Today's Teamster News 04.12.14

Teamster News
Teamsters, Greece Central Agree To New Contract  Democrat & Chronicle   ...The union representing Greece Central School District central office, food service, transportation and facility employees has inked a new contract with the district...
Teamsters endorse Pasco contract  Tampa Bay Tribune   ...The Teamsters Local 79 overwhelmingly voted to ratify their first contract with Pasco County. Union members voted 248-63 to endorse the contract, which took 3½ years to negotiate...
North Las Vegas Strikes Deals With 2 Unions  San Francisco Chronicle   ...North Las Vegas officials reached agreements with two of their public employee labor unions on Wednesday after talks involving Gov. Brian Sandoval and Assembly Speaker Marilyn Kirkpatrick, putting the city closer to staving off a potential state takeover...
Trade
Mexico now exports more cars to the U.S. than Japan does  The Raw Story   ...Mexico’s booming auto industry has reached a major milestone, claiming to have overtaken Japan as the second biggest car exporter to the United States in the past three months...
TPP Foreign Policy Arguments Mimic False Claims Made for Past Pacts  Public Citizen   ...foreign policy arguments have consistently proven baseless when used to sell trade deals over the past two decades...
Trans-Pacific Partnership Trade Pact Risks Splitting Asean, Manila Warns  South China Morning Post   ...A US-backed pacific free-trade pact could cause resentment in Southeast Asia, leaving some nations in the region better positioned to access the American market than others, a top Philippean official said...
State Battles
Missouri becomes latest Right to Work battleground  Washington Post   ...The national battle between conservative groups and big labor unions is moving to Missouri as outside groups on both sides gear up for a vote that could come as early as Monday on controversial legislation that would strip unions of the power to compel workers in union shops to join...
Editorial: Dark money vultures pick away at Missouri's legislative carcass  St. Louis Post-Dispatch   ...They direct big donors in the age of dark money. They are nothing but vultures, and they are winning...

War on Workers
Temp Workers Claim Unfair Treatment, File Lawsuits  5 NBC Chicago   ...Thousands of Chicagoans are being treated unfairly by local temporary staffing agencies that require them to work long hours without always getting full pay, according to several class-action lawsuits currently being litigated in U.S. District Court...
Newly started foreclosures head higher in 19 states  MarketWatch   ...While national trends for troubled properties are improving, there are 19 states where newly started foreclosures are heading higher...
Start saving now: Day care costs more than college in 31 states  Washington Post   ...the annual cost of day care for an infant exceeds the average cost of in-state tuition and fees at public colleges in 31 states...
Jamie Dimon got a raise that conveniently looks like a paycut  Salon   ...The bumbling JPMorgan chief is rewarded, a bit sneakily, for his disastrous 2013 performance...
Gentrification’s quiet tragedy: How sweetheart deals are brutalizing the public  The Salon   ...Private companies are tricking public officials into bonanzas that line the companies' pockets -- at a big expense...
Thousands losing tax refunds to parents’ decades-old debts  Washington Post   ...Some taxpayers are finding that because of a debt they never knew about — often due to a decades-old Social Security overpayment — the government has confiscated their refunds...
Miscellaneous
Crude oil is displacing other commodities on trains, critics charge  McClatchy   ...Grain producers, manufacturers and coal shippers told federal regulators Thursday that rail service has deteriorated drastically in the nation’s midsection in recent months, leaving crops in piles on the ground and fuel stocks low at electric power plants as resources go undelivered. Railroad representatives told the federal Surface Transportation Board that a brutal winter, combined with a record grain harvest, was to blame for the delays, but the industry’s critics charge that their shipments are taking a side track to crude oil...
Can You Buy A License to Speed?  Priceonomics   ...With a (license plate) frame announcing that the driver has contributed a substantial amount of money to a fund that benefits highway patrol officers, donors believe that cops won’t give them speeding tickets...
Bus Crash Investigator: Tracker On Fedex Truck Likely Destroyed  NBC News   ...Ten people, five of them teenage students en route to a college recruitment event, died when the truck swerved across the median of Interstate 5 and slammed head-on into the motor coach full of students from the Los Angeles area on Thursday...

Today's Teamster News 01.25.14

Teamsters allow Friday voting on YRC contract offer  Kansas City Star   ...Drivers’ work schedules have prompted the Teamsters union to allow some members to vote Friday on a new contract proposal from YRC Worldwide Inc., a union notice said...
Armed robbery at Fairview Shopping Centre: The Teamsters Union is already on it  Teamsters Canada   ...The Teamsters Union is already working on improving safety for the armoured car industry workers and the general public...
NTSB calls for tougher standards on trains carrying crude oil  NTSB   ...The NTSB issued three recommendations to the Federal Railroad Administration and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, the first would require expanded hazardous materials route planning for railroads to avoid populated and other sensitive areas...
Strong Evidence Emerges on Right to Work's Political Activity  OpenSecrets   ...Newly released emails and audio recordings show top officials from the National Right to Work Committee, a politically active nonprofit that is strongly opposed to labor unions, were extensively involved with a massive off-the-books mass mailing operation for state candidates in 2010. The activities directly contradict statements made to the Internal Revenue Service and may have involved violations of state law.,,
Who Backs the TPP and a ‘NAFTA on Steroids’? ALEC  The Nation   ...The multinational corporations that cover the group’s expenses, and help to define every aspect of its agenda, have long embraced an approach that allows them to move factories and jobs from country-to-country in order to lower wages and avoid labor, environmental and human rights regulations...
Uber rival accuses car service of dirty tactics  CNN Money   ...Gett, which allows users to order cars with a smartphone app, claims that Uber employees in New York ordered and canceled over a hundred of its cars during a span of three days last week...
How NBA Owners Claimed Poverty, Locked Out Players, And Made Off Like Bandits  ThinkProgress   ...New data from Forbes shows that two years after the NBA lockout, the league and its teams are in the best financial health they've ever known...
"If I Didn't Sell Drugs, I'd Be Dead": What It's Like to Lose Unemployment Benefits  Mother Jones   ...1.3 million Americans lost their unemployment benefits last month. Here are stories from five of them...
No progress on UI in Senate  Politico   ...A proposal to extend expired jobless benefits that can garner 60 votes in the Senate continues to elude lawmakers involved in bipartisan negotiatons...
JPMorgan Chase's Jamie Dimon Gets a Raise After Bank Paid $20 Billion in Fines for Breaking Laws AlterNet   ...In 2013, JP Morgan Chase paid billions in fines, but bank's chief is still living large...
BP Still Struggling to Put Gulf Spill Behind It  New York Times   ...Robert W. Dudley, the chief executive, says BP is ready to move on from the disaster, focusing on exploration and deal-making...
Wall Street’s Frightening New Plan To Become America’s Landlord  ThinkProgress   ...Financial companies seem poised to turn the rental housing market into the same sort of high-risk cash mill that created the last financial collapse...
New York City Pantries Ran Out Of Food After Food Stamps Were Cut  ThinkProgress   ...After food stamps were reduced at the beginning of November, New York City food pantries and soup kitchens ran out of food, turned people away, and reduced the meals they handed out after experiencing a surge of demand...
Holder: Feds to set rules for banks and pot money  Politico   ...he Obama administration will soon announce regulations to make it easier for banks to do business with legal marijuana sellers, Attorney General Eric Holder said Thursday...
At ‘NATO 3′ Trial, Undercover Cop Defends Chicago Police Spying on Activist Communities Fire Dog Lake  ...A female undercover police officer, who has been on the stand for multiple days in the trial of the “NATO 3″ in Chicago, was confronted by the first of multiple defense attorneys that contend she was part of an operation to encourage defendants to engage in criminal acts they never had any intent to commit...
Union Growth Should Serve as Signal to Elected Officials (opinion)  teamster.org   ...The union movement is growing. In the last year, thousands of workers took to the streets to protest low pay and their lack of ability to organize...

Today's Teamster News 12.19.13

Teamsters: Protesters Slam UNFI & Whole Foods For Destroying Environment At Taxpayers' & Workers' Expense  teamster.org   ... Dozens of educators, consumers, and labor and environmental activists gathered today to protest the unsustainable practices of organic food distributor United Natural Foods Inc. (UNFI) and retail partner Whole Foods Market (WFM) at UNFI’s annual shareholder meeting...
Teamsters Donating Toys to Hershey Ronald McDonald House  teamster.org   ...Teamsters Local Union 776 in Harrisburg, Pa. will be donating more than $7,500 in toys to the Ronald McDonald House in Hershey...
Union to represent low-wage food workers at two Smithsonian museums  Washington Post   ...After a series of one-day strikes, marches and demonstrations, about 220 food-service workers at two Smithsonian Institution museums will be represented by a union in contract negotiations for the first time, organizers said Monday...
Amazon May Get Its First Labor Union in the U.S.  Bloomberg   ...For the first time, employees in a U.S. Amazon facility have successfully petitioned the National Labor Relations Board to hold union elections...
Temporary Work, Lasting Harm  ProPublica   ...in five states, representing more than a fifth of the U.S. population, temps face a significantly greater risk of getting injured on the job than permanent employees...
Jamie Dimon’s perp walk: Why it could be this year’s Christmas miracle  Salon   ...JPMorgan's CEO just violated a federal statute carrying a prison sentence. But will the punishment fit the crime?...
How America Created a Low-Wage Work Swamp  Salon   ...The U.S. now has the highest proportion of low-wage workers in the developed world...
W.H. to nominate Sen. Max Baucus as next ambassador to China  Politico ...Sen. Max Baucus, the veteran Montana Democrat who has served in the Senate since 1978, is expected to be nominated by the White House to serve as the next U.S. ambassador to China...
Rep. Jack Kingston Proposes That Poor Students Sweep Floors In Exchange For Lunch  Huffington Post   ...Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.) wants kids to learn early in life that there's no such thing as a free lunch. To make sure they absorb that lesson, he's proposing that low-income children do some manual labor in exchange for their subsidized meals...
The Government Is Quietly Giving Way More Housing Aid To Rich People Than Poor People  Business Insider   ...In 2012, the federal government gave out $240 billion in housing aid. Income data is not available for all of it, but of what is available, more than half went to those with incomes greater than $100,000 ($81.6 billion). Only $40 billion went to those with incomes less than $50,000...
Delta Air Lines will not allow cellphone calls on flights  The Guardian   ...Right now, federal rules prohibit voice calls on planes. But the government is indicating that it might loosen those rules. If that happens, it could be up to airlines to set their own policies...
Koch brothers' foundation backed rosy May report on Wisconsin economy  Milwaukee Journal Sentinel   ..."Despite the effort to distance itself, it is quite clear that Koch-controlled funds help directly underwrite ALEC's 'Rich States, Poor States' report with its discredited rankings of state economic policies..."
Walker hopes John Doe investigation will conclude soon  Channel 3000   ...Gov. Scott Walker says he hopes an ongoing secret investigation that reportedly is looking into activities by his campaign and conservative groups ends soon...
Wisconsin National Guard unveils new unmanned aircraft facility  Wisconsin Department of Military Affairs   ...Leaders from the Wisconsin Army National Guard and Wisconsin Air National Guard, along with political representatives and community leaders, were on hand Dec. 6 for the official ribbon-cutting ceremony for a tactical unmanned aerial system (TUAS) facility...
OUTRAGEOUS: Texas Police Can Now Obtain Search Warrants Based On ‘Prediction Of A Future Crime’  Alternet   ...Last week, an appeals court in Texas ruled that police may obtain a search warrant based on the prediction of a future crime, heightening public fears that we may be heading toward a ‘predictive policing’ era in which we see police powers rapidly growing at the cost of our constitutional rights...

Today's Teamster News 09.21.13

Striking railroad Teamsters ordered back to work, no single operators allowed  TeamsterNation   ...An Akron, Ohio, district court judge this afternoon ordered striking locomotive engineers and trainmen at the Wheeling and Lake Erie Railway back to work. He also ordered the railroad to refrain from allowing supervisors or management to operate trains...
Warehouse Workers At IKEA Vote To Join Teamsters  teamster.org   ...Warehouse workers, employed at the IKEA distribution center in Frederickson, Wash., have voted to join Teamsters Local 117. The 64 workers at the facility came together seeking job security, fair and equal treatment, strong representation, and respect...
Hoffa, Brune: Trade Is Good When It's Fair  teamster.org   ...It's been almost 20 years since the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and families and communities are still reeling from its consequences...
Teamsters Picket Rochester Wegmans  teamster.org   ...Wegmans-picketing Teamsters from Local 118 are calling on their employer to protect good jobs in Rochester and stop retaliating against employees for standing up for their rights under Federal law. Today the union will file an unfair labor practice charge against Wegmans due to the company’s actions against employees...
Sullivan settles five-year contract with Teamsters  Mid-Hudson News   …Ratifying a new contract was a tossup among members Teamsters Local 445 who work for Sullivan County in New York. The union narrowly agreed to the new five-year deal by a 152 to 141 vote...
Teamster Women Get Fired Up  teamster.org  ...Teamsters General Secretary-Treasurer Ken Hall addressed the Women’s Conference on Friday, the second day of the annual event, in New Orleans. Get the full coverage of the conference here... |
Rural/Metro Files Two Critical Documents—Plan of Reorganization and Disclosure Statement  teamster.org   ...Rural Metro filed two critical documents outlining how the company plans to emerge from bankruptcy on Sunday, September 15. Those documents are the Plan of Reorganization and Disclosure Statement...
ABF Teamster Wins National Four-Axle Competition Championship  Teamsters Local 492   ...Teamster and Albuquerque ABF Line Driver Ralph Garcia won first place in the four-axle competition at the 2013 National Truck Driving Championships, which was held in Salt Lake City late August...
Labor Leaders React to Hotel Latest  Tristate   ...The Southwestern Indiana Building and Construction Trades Council said Thursday it stands in full support of the proposed downtown hotel. Chuck Whobrey, president of Teamsters Local 215, wasn't at the meeting, but said the hotel is necessary for downtown redevelopment...
Employers cut jobs in 20 US states in August  Associated Press   ...Unemployment rates rose in 18 states, fell in 17 and were unchanged in 15...
Target to Hire 18,000 Fewer Seasonal Workers This Holiday Season; Expect Other Retailers to Do the Same  Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis   ..."Target lowered their expectations for the rest of the year, citing a tougher-than-expected spending environment..."
L.A. homeless hired to buy latest iPhones  USA Today   ...Many driven from Skid Row to Pasadena say they were unpaid and stranded after Apple Store halted scheme...
GOP's misguided attack on food stamps (opinion)  Los Angeles Times   ...Unable to push a $20-billion cut in food stamps through the House in June, Republicans are now seeking to cut $40 billion over 10 years by tightening eligibility and cutting off able-bodied adults who don't find or train for jobs. ...But while it may motivate some idle adults to get to work, it would also punish those who simply can't find jobs at a time when there are three applicants for every opening...
Offshoring Linked to Declining U.S. Labor Share, Likely to Continue  Brookings   ...The decline in the U.S. labor share – now at its lowest level in the post-war period after the Great Recession – has been concentrated in sectors that face increased import competition in the wake of the overall rising role of imports in the U.S. economy, according to a new paper presented today at the Fall 2013 Conference on the Brookings Papers on Economic Activity (BPEA)...
LinkedIn Customers Allege Company Hacked E-Mail Addresses  Bloomberg   ...LinkedIn Corp. (LNKD), owner of the world’s most popular professional-networking website, was sued by customers who claim the company appropriated their identities for marketing purposes by hacking into their external e-mail accounts and downloading contacts’ addresses...
Unions launch offensive against potential government shutdown  Washington Post   ...Federal employee unions, having guided their members through government shutdown threats in 2011 and 2012, are arming for another possible shutdown in 11 days if Congress cannot resolve its partisan fiscal battle...
Contractor that vetted Snowden says it also ran background check for Navy Yard shooter  Washington Post   ...USIS, the Falls Church, VA government contractor that handled the background check for National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden, said Thursday that it also vetted Navy Yard shooter Aaron Alexis for his ­secret-level clearance in 2007...
Arkansas lawmakers back cuts to food stamp program  KATV ABC 7   ...Arkansas' four congressmen have voted to cut nearly $4 billion a year from the food stamp program, a 5 percent reduction to the nation's main feeding program used by more than 1 in 7 Americans...
Ex-Halliburton manager charged in Gulf of Mexico spill probe  Associated Press   ...A former Halliburton manager was charged Thursday with destroying evidence following BP’s 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, a case that coincides with a guilty plea to a related charge by the Houston-based oilfield services company...
Chase Bank, JPMorgan Chase to refund customers $309 million for unfair billing  Sacramento Bee   ...Federal regulators on Thursday ordered Chase Bank and JPMorgan Chase to refund $309 million to more than 2 million customers for illegally billing them for credit-monitoring services they never received...
Federal Reserve Program Is Socialism For The Rich  firedoglake   ...Why is there such a gap between the haves and the have-nots? Probably because the Federal Reserve is pumping up assets for the haves to the tune of $85 billion, a month...
Elites’ strange plot to take over the world  Salon   ...Western elites in America and Western Europe after World War II made a serious effort to get rid of nations altogether, and combine all “freedom-loving peoples” into one giant “Atlantic Union,” a federal state built on top of the NATO military alliance...
Don't take ax to public's right to know (opinion) The Cap Times   ...If Wisconsinites were looking for a measure of how far out of control things have gotten under Gov. Scott Walker’s hyperpartisan approach to governing, they need look no further than an incident involving a key confidante of the governor and a process server seeking to deliver paperwork related to the state’s open records law...

Today's Teamster News 09.19.13

Teamsters Praise SEC For Proposed Rule On Corporate Pay  teamster.org   ...The International Brotherhood of Teamsters today applauded the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announcement of a new proposed rule requiring corporations to disclose the ratio between chief executive and worker pay...
Ballots for Seven UPS Supplements/Riders Mailed September 18  teamster.org   ...Ballots for UPS Teamsters covered under the following supplements and riders were mailed yesterday, September 18...
Cardinal Health’s Political Spending Target of Teamsters’ Shareholder Proposal  Columbia Business First   ...Cardinal Health Inc. is the latest public company fielding a shareholder proposal for more reporting on corporate political contributions in response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision...
Darigold Walks Out of Federal Mediation  teamster.org   ...Darigold walked out of federal mediation late Monday night setting the stage for a potential lockout or strike at the company’s production facilities in Issaquah and Seattle...|
Jack Cooper Set To Buy Allied Holdings  Automotive Logistics   ...North American vehicle hauler Jack Cooper is to acquire the business of bankrupt rival Allied System Holdings following a successful bid confirmed this week...
Jack Cooper Purchase Clears Another Hurdle; Next Step Is Anti-Trust Review  teamster.org  ...On Tuesday, September 17, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher S. Sontchi approved the sale of most of Allied Systems Holdings assets to Jack Cooper Transport...
Marquez union supporters press on despite setbacks  Hanford Sentinel ...Workers will have another shot at supporting the Teamsters in an election on Oct. 4 despite the company’s decision earlier this month to no longer recognize the union...
Government Hands More Than $1 Trillion to Wealthy While Deficit Is $642 Billion  truthout   ...All tax breaks for individuals will exceed $1 trillion this year, with about 17% of the biggest individual tax breaks going to the top 1% of earners...
China's second richest man has tendons in hand severed after labourer begged for job and was turned down  Daily Mail   ...He sought out Mr Zong near his home after seeing him help impoverished migrant workers on a television programme and asked the self-made billionaire for a job...
Women Waiting Tables Provide Most of Female Gains in U.S.  Bloomberg   ...the gains have been largely in lower-paying industries such as waitresses, in-home health care, food preparation and housekeeping. About 60 percent of the increase in employment for women from 2009 to 2012 was in jobs that pay less than $10.10 an hour, compared with 20 percent for men...
Young People's Unhappiness Comes from Our Broken Economic System -- And They Shouldn't Shut Up About It  Alternet   ...realities are quite harsh — making around $25,000 a year while trying to afford rent and food while paying back their more than $20,000 student loans...
Missouri treasurer wants to ban 'pension advances'  St. Louis Post-Dispatch   ...Missouri State Treasurer Clint Zweifel wants the state to ban “pension advance” offers aimed at state retirees. He says they're bad deals...
Expand Medicaid to help senior citizens  St. Louis Post-Dispatch (opinion)   ...In the editorial “Do no harm" (Sept. 3), the editorial board highlights some of the hardships facing Missouri if we don’t pass Medicaid expansion. The editorial does not specifically mention the especially large burdens of our senior citizens...
Commerce secretary touts opportunities in Mexico, Pacific trade pact  Los Angeles Times  ...Recently installed U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker said trade opportunities with Mexico will expand as economic and security conditions improve in America's southern neighbor...
Will the Supreme Court Stop Cops From Reading Your Text Messages?  Mother Jones   ...In many states, police can rifle through your smartphone—even if you've just been arrested for not putting on your seat belt...
Millions Living Above The Poverty Line Also Struggle To Get By  Huffington Post   ...For nearly 30 years, Elena Keating made a career helping low-income Americans find and keep affordable housing. Now, she's the one struggling and one of millions in this country just scraping by after being out of a job for the past nine months...
Unemployment Gap Between Rich And Poor Widens To A 10-Year Extreme  MintPress News   ...Unemployment gaps between the wealthiest and the poorest Americans have reached their highest level since government officials began tracking the statistic a decade ago...
Workers win wage battle against Victoria’s Secret  Finance Post   ...Victoria’s Secret has apparently had several secrets. Low wages and few hours for part-time workers were among them. However, some employees have taken the secrets public and the result was an increase in wages...
JPMorgan Chase Is Said to Admit Fault in Settlement of Trade Loss  New York Times   ...JPMorgan Chase has agreed to pay about $800 million to a host of government agencies in Washington and London — and make a groundbreaking admission of wrongdoing — to settle allegations stemming from a multibillion-dollar trading loss...
Nationwide protests against neonazi murder  Enet English   ...Police fired fired tear gas and deployed water canon at a number of the protests after some protesters set dumpsters on fire and started hurling projectiles at police lines...
In New York, Having a Job, or 2, Doesn’t Mean Having a Home  New York Times   ...With New York City’s homeless population in shelters at a record high of 50,000, a growing number of New Yorkers punch out of work and then sign in to a shelter, city officials and advocates for the homeless say...
Wisconsin: Judge rules state can't enforce parts of Walker law  Milwaukee Journal Sentinel...A Dane County judge ruled Tuesday the state cannot enforce key provisions of a law limiting collective bargaining against local government unions...

Today's Teamster News 03.17.13

Cyprus Savers Get Robbed By Eurozone Bail Out  Economic Populist   ...In the most brazen bail out deal yet, the citizens of Cyprus just had their savings seized to give the money to the banks...
Have You Heard of the TPP Yet? An Important Trade Agreement You Need to Know About  Trade Reform   ...The U.S. government is currently working with 10 other countries to negotiate the biggest trade and investment agreement (also known as a “free trade agreement” or FTA) in history. It is called the TPP, or Trans-Pacific Partnership...
JPMorgan’s Follies, for All to See  New York Times   ...the Senate report clearly indicates that JPMorgan Chase is too big to regulate...
The Progressive Movement is a PR Front for Rich Democrats  Counterpunch   ...The Progressive Movement that exists today is their success story...
Privatizing the feeding of Ohio’s inmates stirs fears  Columbus Dispatch   ...As many as 456 state jobs could be lost if food service is privatized, but the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction said many employees would be offered positions with the private contractor...
Records: Detroit Emergency Manager Had Tax Liens  Associated Press   ...Kevyn Orr, Detroit's new emergency financial manager, had two outstanding liens on his $1 million home in Chevy Chase, Md., for $16,000 in unemployment taxes in 2010 and 2011...
Florida Senate, House pension bills far apart  The News Service of Florida   ...House and Senate committees staked out starkly different positions Thursday on how to overhaul the Florida Retirement System, complicating an already contentious battle over the future of public employees’ pensions...
Anchorage labor battle inches forward as mayor, unions hold firm  Anchorage Daily News   ...If adopted, the plan would limit pay increases, extinguish the right to strike and hand the final decision on stalled labor negotiations to the Assembly rather than a third-party arbitrator...
Scott Walker says he would consider run for president  Washington Post   ...Walker noted that he has set goals for lowering the state’s unemployment rate and that he’s still got a reelection campaign in 2014. He said both of those will come before any conversations about running for president...

Today's Teamster News 03.16.13

JP Morgan accused of hiding losses by Senate report  BBC News   ...The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations found that the bank misled investors and ignored risks...
Yin Wong, Disabled San Francisco Resident, Says She Was Foreclosed On But Never Missed A Payment  Huffington Post   ..."It's a very extreme situation if you're someone who doesn't speak English very well and suddenly, through no fault of your own, someone tells you that you no longer own your home..."
EU summit: Austerity push challenged amid mass protests  BBC News   ...Thousands of protesters rallied outside the summit venue, saying government spending cuts were hitting jobs...
Koch Brothers vs. Rupert Murdoch: The Fight for Tribune Newspapers Is On  Atlantic Wire   ...The Koch brothers are reportedly considering a bid for the Tribune Company newspapers — focusing on the crown jewels of the L.A. Times and Chicago Tribune, or at least what jewels of power are left in the flailing newspaper industry  — but they may face stiff competition in the form of a debt-free, full pocketed media power player named Rupert Murdoch...
House Republicans Unanimously Vote Down Minimum Wage Hike  Talking Points Memo   ...House Republicans unanimously voted down a measure Friday that would have raised the federal minimum wage, from its current $7.25 per hour to $10.10 by 2015. Six Democrats joined 227 Republicans in voting it down; 184 Democrats voted yes...
Missouri Senate passes union paycheck deduction bill  Associated Press   ...The Senate voted 24-10 along party lines Thursday to send the measure to the House. Republicans supported the bill, while Democrats voted against it. The House on Wednesday passed a similar measure that would only require consent to spend dues on political contributions...
Detroit Is 'Olympics Of Restructuring,' New Emergency Manager Says  NPR   ...Kevyn Orr, "a high-powered Washington, D.C., lawyer and University of Michigan graduate who worked on Chrysler's 2009 bankruptcy restructuring," has been given the job of straightening out the city of Detroit's desperate financial mess...
Affidavit: State GOP got rid of redistricting files  Associated Press   ...An affidavit filed in federal court this week said documents were deleted from state redistricting computers last year even after lawmakers' aides were told to preserve all records. The filing raises the possibility that Republican officials or their lawyers could face sanctions from the panel of three federal judges overseeing the case...
Attorney general won't seek Supreme Court review of collective bargaining case ruling  Madison.com   ...Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen will not seek a state Supreme Court review of a decision by the Court of Appeals not to stay a Dane County Circuit Court order declaring part of the collective bargaining law to be unconstitutional...
Kasich’s budget plan lowers aid to public schools, boosts privately run charter schools  Akron Beacon Journal   ...The majority of Ohio and area school districts would get less state funding, while charter schools would get more, in Gov. John Kasich’s proposed changes to the state funding formula, according to an independent analysis by the Legislative Service Commission...
Gov. Dayton Lashes Out At Chamber Of Commerce  CBS Minnesota   ...Gov. Mark Dayton told hundreds of state business leaders on Wednesday he’s not backing down from a plan to raise taxes on high income Minnesotans...The governor unloaded on his Chamber of Commerce hosts and accused the business group of not telling the truth about the state of the state...
Teamsters confront Thorn Creek Basin officials over labor dispute  NWI Times   ...Officials with the Teamsters union local that represents 13 employees of the Thorn Creek Basin Sanitary District will meet Monday with Mayor David Gonzalez, who they perceive as a supporter of their ongoing labor dispute...
LABOR: Teamsters talking contract with ABF  The Press-Enterprise   ...Negotiators for the Teamsters are continuing their contract talks with trucking operator ABF Freight Systems, and these talks are getting close to what now constitutes a deadline...

23 laws broken by JPMorgan Chase, your friendly neighborhood Too Big To Fail bank

Two former executives at The Lying, Scheming Rogue Bank' JPMorgan Chase were on the hot seat before a Senate subcommittee today. They were asked to explain why they hid massive trading losses from regulators. They didn't give good answers.

The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations had issued a scathing report yesterday that blamed the bank for recklessly losing $6.2 billion (part of it federally insured) and regulators for looking the other way.

And just days earlier, Joshua Rosner issued another report on JPMorgan Chase's documented systematic fraud and abuse. Blogger David Dayen writes that it looks more like a rap sheet.  Aptly named 'JPMorgan Chase: Out of Control,' the report lists 23 cases, most of which the bank admitted to through financial settlements. They include,

1. Bank Secrecy Act violations;
2. Money laundering for drug cartels;
3. Violations of sanction orders against Cuba, Iran, Sudan, and former Liberian strongman Charles Taylor;
4. Violations related to the Vatican Bank scandal (get on this, Pope Francis!);
5. Violations of the Commodities Exchange Act;
6. Failure to segregate customer funds (including one CFTC case where the bank failed to segregate $725 million of its own money from a $9.6 billion account) in the US and UK;
7. Knowingly executing fictitious trades where the customer, with full knowledge of the bank, was on both sides of the deal;
8. Various SEC enforcement actions for misrepresentations of CDOs and mortgage-backed securities;
9. The AG settlement on foreclosure fraud;
10. The OCC settlement on foreclosure fraud;
11. Violations of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act;
12. Illegal flood insurance commissions;
13. Fraudulent sale of unregistered securities;
14. Auto-finance ripoffs;
15. Illegal increases of overdraft penalties;
16. Violations of federal ERISA laws as well as those of the state of New York;
17. Municipal bond market manipulations and acts of bid-rigging, including violations of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act;
18. Filing of unverified affidavits for credit card debt collections (“as a result of internal control failures that sound eerily similar to the industry’s mortgage servicing failures and foreclosure abuses”);
19. Energy market manipulation that triggered FERC lawsuits;
20. “Artificial market making” at Japanese affiliates;
21. Shifting trading losses on a currency trade to a customer account;
22. Fraudulent sales of derivatives to the city of Milan, Italy;
23. Obstruction of justice (including refusing the release of documents in the Bernie Madoff case as well as the case of Peregrine Financial).

And that doesn't include the shenanigans that led to the $6.2 billion loss in the so-called "London Whale" trade, which was the subject of today's hearing.

As Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi reported:

The fund used (in part) federally-insured money to create, in essence, a kind of super high-risk hedge fund that gambled on credit derivatives, and ... when it got in trouble, it resorted to fudging its numbers in order to disguise the fact that it was losing money hand over fist. 

Chase for years hid the very existence of this operation from banking regulators and lied about the purpose of the fund (saying it was purely a hedging operation when it stopped being a hedge and instead became a wild directional gamble), and it also changed the way it calculated the fund's value once it started to lose hundreds of millions of dollars. Even worse, the bank's own internal auditors signed off on the phoney-baloney accounting of this Synthetic Credit Portfolio (SCP), at one point allowing it to claim $719 million in losses when the real number was closer to $1.2 billion... 

It's just unbelievable, what this company has gotten away with.

The primary government regulator of the bank is the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Taibbi writes:

The report exposes two huge problems here. One, Chase consistently hid crucial information from the OCC, including the sort of massive increases in risk the OCC was created precisely to monitor. Two, even when the bank didn't hide stuff, the OCC was either too slow or too disinterested to take notice of potential problems.

Let's hope this hearing is not just another congressional puppet show designed to make the public think they're doing something about a serious problem.

Bankster: 'That's why I'm richer than you'

Bailed-out bank CEO Jamie Dimon actually bragged that he's richer than an investor analyst -- to his face.

During an investor conference for JP Morgan Chase earlier this week, Dimon said, "That's why I'm richer than you."

Stay classy, Jamie.

Here's the transcript if you can't watch the video.

Mike Mayo, an analyst at CLSA, asked if JPMorgan Chase wasn’t at a competitive disadvantage compared to banks with more money in reserve. 

Mayo: I think what I hear UBS saying in the presentation is that if I’m an affluent customer I’ll feel a lot better going to UBS if they have 13.5 (percent) capital ratio than another big bank with a 10 percent ratio. Do you agree with that? 

Dimon: You would go to UBS and not JPMorgan? 

Mayo: I didn’t say that. That’s their argument. 

Dimon: That’s why I’m richer than you.

The real reason Jamie Dimon is richer than we are? Because taxpayers bailed him out.  And because we're still bailing him out.

What a swine.

Today's Teamster News 09.21.12

Republican Party ‘Cranks’ Threatening Growth, Swan Says  Bloomberg   ...Australian Treasurer Wayne Swan said “cranks and crazies” in the U.S. Republican Party are threatening economic growth as Congress remains deadlocked on tax increases and spending cuts set to take effect in January...
Fiscal cliff talks heat up  Politico   ...The fiscal cliff is really the only legislative issue that’s even registering a blip on the radar of the government and corporate Washington right now. With an election seven weeks away, serious legislating has completely stopped...
JPMorgan Power-Trading Business Faces Suspension, FERC Says  Bloomberg   ...The agency is investigating JPMorgan’s power trading in California and the Midwest. That investigation came to light when FERC went to court seeking internal e-mails from JPMorgan, saying the bids from the company might have resulted in at least $73 million in improper payments to generators...
Nichols, Teamsters reach tentative pact  Quad Cities Online   ...Teamsters Local 371 and Nichols Aluminum reached a tentative agreement with the aid of a federal mediator Tuesday....
Some American Airlines mechanics shopping for a union  Tulsa World   ...Both AMFA and the Teamsters are holding recruiting/informational events in the next few weeks...
Casting directors, AMPTP ink tentative deal: Three-year pact covers about 500 members in Hollywood, New York  Variety   ...The New York casting directors will meet Thursday to ratify the successor pact, followed by the Hollywood casting directors on Monday, according to Teamsters Local 399 business rep Steve Dayan...

Today's Teamster News 07.14.12

Judge halts 'debtors prison' by Harpersville city court, calls it 'judicially sanctioned extortion'  The Birmingham News   ...A Shelby County judge shut down what he called a "debtors prison" run by Harpersville Municipal Court and a private probation company that he said amounted to a "judicially sanctioned extortion racket," court records show...
JPMorgan refuses to hand over emails in energy manipulation case  Reuters   ...The investigation by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission follows complaints from grid operators that JPMorgan traders may have bid up electricity prices by some $73 million in California and the Midwest...
Unions reach beyond their base for election help  Los Angeles Times   ...Unions intend to make workers’ rights a big issue in November, and are reaching beyond their traditional membership base to rally workers ahead of an election that’s projected to be very close...
Romney's 'Free Stuff' Speech Is a New Low  Rolling Stone   ...The twin appearances revealed the candidate to be not merely unlikable, and not merely a fatuous, unoriginal hack of a politician, but also a genuinely repugnant human being, a grasping corporate hypocrite with so little feel for how to get along with people that he has to dream up elaborate schemes just to try to pander to the mob...
Teamsters Ratify Contract at Sorrento  IBT   ...Teamsters Local 264 and Sorrento reached an agreement that provides for wage increases, maintenance of comprehensive health care coverage and a host of positive non-economic provisions for the 257 maintenance and production workers...
Company, union lawyers clash in court  The Press-Enterprise   ...Attorneys for Anheuser-Busch and an Inland-based Teamsters local presented their arguments on Friday, July 13 on whether a rule that allows striking warehouse workers to block beer delivery trucks and other vehicles will stay in effect...

Today's Teamster News 06.28.12

Single Payer Fight to Intensify in States if Court Strikes Down Health Care Law  firedoglake   ... if the Supreme Court strikes down the Affordable Care Act, is that this will afford an opportunity to return to the public with a full-throated call for “Medicare for All,” a single-payer system that would use taxes to fund health coverage for all of the country’s citizens, as is done throughout the world. This would reduce administrative costs and create added bargaining power to lower costs throughout the system...
JPMorgan Trading Loss May Reach $9 Billion  DealBook   ...the sharply higher loss totals will feed a debate over how strictly large financial institutions should be regulated and whether some of the behemoth banks are capitalizing on their status as too big to fail to make risky trades....
Uninsured and fighting blazes: Welcome to the life of a federal firefighter  Wonkblog   ...many federal firefighters are temporary employees, who only work six months out of the year (although as Lauer describes it, they can often work a full year’s worth of hours with the long shifts). Under federal regulations, temporary employees of the Forest Service do not receive benefits. That means no health care and no retirement pension...
Atwater hopes to reform flawed contracting process by exposing it to sunlight  Miami Herald   ...Florida will spend $47 billion this year hiring outsiders to provide goods and services for the state but hundreds of the contractors will not be required to show they provided services they agreed to and their documentation will be rife with errors...
Stockton, California’s Bankruptcy Makes 'Normal' Cities Nervous  Governing   ...Unlike many high-profile bankruptcies, Stockton’s financial woes are the result of many different factors that are not unusual for many localities....
Bill aims to prevent loss of auto jobs  Detroit News   ...nternational Brotherhood of Teamsters President James Hoffa — on a conference call with Brown and a Ford Motor Co. trade executive — said the administration should be careful about new trade agreements...

JP Morgan: Too big to bail

JP Morgan – the big bank that just lost more than $2 billon on a bad derivatives deal – receives up to $14 billion a year in government subsidies, according to a  new study from the International Monetary Fund. 
.
It was just the other week when predatory vampire capitalist presidential candidate Mitt Romney said that we need to cut back on government spending because, you know, we have too many public workers. Not because too-big-to-fail banks are gambling billions while collecting taxpayer money.

In fact, this is what Mr. 1% said after the JP Morgan loss:

That’s the way…America works. Some people experienced a loss in this case because of a bad decision. By the way, there was someone who made a gain, all right. The $2 billion J.P. Morgan lost someone else gained.

But Romney wasn't concerned that ordinary American taxpayers experienced some of that loss. As Bloomberg News reported:

When JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon testifies in the U.S. House today, he will present himself as a champion of free-market capitalism in opposition to an overweening government. His position would be more convincing if his bank weren’t such a beneficiary of corporate welfare…U.S. taxpayers helped foot the bill for the multibillion-dollar trading loss that is the focus of today’s hearing.

Once again we are reminded that politicians like Romney who represent the interests of Wall Street are not interested in “shared sacrifice.” They insist working Americans need to cut back, but not the super-rich. Banks like JP Morgan should be considered too big for bailouts and subsidies.

Working-class homeowners are the ones who deserve help. People like Deborah Harris – whose home has been taken away from her by JP Morgan. Or the residents of Jefferson County, Ala., who got ripped off by the bank.

Harris confronted Dimon when he appeared before Congress last week. Watch the video here (starts at around 4:00).

And here's the story of how JP Morgan bribed friends of Jefferson County officials so it could arrange the funding for a new sewer system. The funding deal backfired and sewer rates rose fourfold. Of course it's government spending that gets blamed, not JP Morgan's avarice.

Today's Teamster News 06.15.12

Wal-Mart’s PR Firm Sent This Flack to Pose as a Reporter to Spy on a Pro-Labor Group  Gawker   ...Wal-Mart is trying to open a new store in LA's Chinatown area. Local labor groups, among others, are challenging the store's permitting. It's a fight with big stakes for Wal-Mart, as it goes right to the heart of the company's strategy of expanding in large cities. And now, one labor group says that an employee of a PR firm working for Wal-Mart actually posed as a reporter in order to infiltrate one of their meetings...
Layoff threats put Congress on notice  Reuters   ...Lockheed Martin, the world’s largest defense contractor and a bellwether of the industry, already has started preparing for the possibility of staff reductions. The company, which is dependent on government contracts for the bulk of its revenue, recently has seen its stock price slide...
Senators Suck Up to Jamie Dimon, Get Paid for It  The Nation   ...when historians look back upon the current era of unbridled financial sector influence on American government—unless all historians are by then employed at CitiBankofAmericaChaseOne Institutions of Higher Learning™—Wednesday’s hearing of the Senate Banking Committee will be an instructive example of our perverse power structure...
Walker will use his personal name-recognition to promote Wisconsin's economy  WTAQ.com   ...Governor Scott Walker says he’ll use whatever national stature he gained during his recall battle to promote Wisconsin, and reach out to businesses to try-and-attract jobs...
CMD Asks Elections Board to Investigate Tea Party Group Supporting Walker  The Center for Media and Democracy   ...The Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) has filed a complaint requesting that Wisconsin’s elections board investigate a Tea Party-affiliated group from California that spent tens of thousands of dollars on ads supporting Governor Scott Walker in the June 5 recall election, but did not register as a political committee in the state or report its funding and spending, as required by Wisconsin election law...
Contract talks break down between Waste Management, Teamsters  q13fox.com   ...Contract negotiations between Waste Management and the Teamsters union representing about 150 recycle truck drivers broke down Thursday, increasing the possibility of a strike or lockout that could affect pickups starting next week...

Many societies do well for a while until the powerful get out of hand

Simon Johnson warns that it's time to wake up. Giant banks have too much power and endanger our society.

Jamie Dimon is CEO of JPMorgan Chase, a global bank that quickly and inexplicably lost $2 billion last month -- and possibly lots more. Dimon also sits on the board of the New York Federal Reserve, which (theoretically) regulates JPMorgan Chase.

Johnson, a world-renowned economist, says Dimon should quit the New York Fed as one step toward curbing the power of too-big-to-fail banks.

We share here Johnson's argument from The Baseline Scenario:

...when elites are held in check, typically by effective legal mechanisms, everyone else in society does much better and sustained economic growth becomes possible. But powerful people – kings, barons, industrialists, bankers – work long and hard to relax the constraints on their actions. And when they succeed, the effects are not just redistribution toward themselves but also an undermining of economic growth and often a tearing at the fabric of society... 

The historical evidence is overwhelming. Many societies have done well for a while – until powerful people get out of hand. This is an easy pattern to see at a distance and in other cultures. It is typically much harder to recognize when your own society now has an elite less subject to effective constraints and more able to exert power in an abusive fashion. And given the long history of strong institutions in the United States, it appears particularly difficult for some people to acknowledge that we have serious governance issues that need to be addressed.

Here's Johnson's take on what U.S. elites have wrought:

“Persuade the government to let you build a big bank; take a great deal of risk in that bank (particularly by increasing leverage, i.e., debt relative to equity); pay yourself based on the return on equity, unadjusted for risk; get cash payouts while times are good; and when events turn against you, the central bank can bail you out – and keep you in place because you are regarded as indispensable. This is the history of modern America. 

We had strong institutions for a long time in this country – including effective checks on the power of bankers. Many people remember that history and still hold its image in their mind’s eye as they look at modern Wall Street. It’s time to wake up. In recent decades we abandoned the governance mechanisms that previously served us well. Global megabanks have obtained excessive and inappropriate power – the power to take a great deal of risk, with cash for their executives on the upside and huge damage for the rest of us on the downside.

Today's Teamster News 05.22.12

Double trouble at JP Morgan: trader's losses could exceed $7bn  The Independent   ...The crisis at JP Morgan escalated yesterday as it emerged its trading losses in London could rise to as much as $7bn (£4.5bn) and the US bank cancelled a share buyback...
Students march peacefully in holiday protest  Montreal Gazette   ...Good weather drew a big holiday crowd to the nightly protest against student fees and Bill 78...
AMC Acquisition Largest-Ever Chinese Takeover of a U.S. Company  Economy in Crisis   ... China’s Dalian Wanda Group has purchased U.S. movie theater chain AMC Entertainment for $2.6 billion. This is the largest corporate takeover of a U.S. company by a Chinese firm ever, and the third largest investment by a Chinese firm in the United States...
House Democrats calls for Gov. Walker to clarify testimony in light of new video  Raw Story   ...During a congressional testimony last year, Walker had denied that his actions in Wisconsin were used to punish members of the Democratic Party and their donor base, namely unions. But recently released video of the governor appears to contradict his testimony...
Teamsters union aims to organizes Windsor Essex Parkway construction dump truck drivers  Daily Commercial News and Construction Record   ...This follows a brief protest and work stoppage late last month at the location of the initial earth hauling along Matchette Rd. at the extreme west end of the 11-kilometre six-lane expressway, that will link Hwy. 401 to a new Windsor – Detroit bridge...
Teamsters Canada Rail Conference issues 72-hour strike notice to CP  Progressive Railroading   ...The union represents about 4,800 CP workers, including conductors, yardmen, locomotive engineers and rail traffic controllers. The parties have been negotiating since October 2011 to renew labor agreements that expired on Dec. 31, 2011...

Elizabeth Warren: Handcuffs for bankers

We agree.

Warren is running for the U.S. Senate in Massachusetts. Unlike many U.S. Senators, she understands that the big banks are destroying the middle class. She understands what caused the financial crisis of 2008. She also understands that JPMorgan Chase is threatening our economy again with trading losses that could be as high as $5 billion. That's more than the GDP of Lichtenstein.

Problem is, JPMorgan Chase is regulating itself -- even as it's subsidized by the government.

Here's a partial transcipt of Warren's comments to firedoglake News about JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon and the Federal Reserve:

FDL News: You have made another point throughout this past week, one that’s a little under the radar, one about Jamie Dimon serving on the Board of the New York Federal Reserve. This gets back to the importance of the regulators, especially if they’re being advised by the people that they end up having to regulate. Is that the kind of coziness you need to eliminate to get effective oversight of Wall Street? 

Warren: I think that many people just weren’t aware that Jamie Dimon was advising the New York Federal Reserve. So part of this conversation is just having a lot of people say, “What?” More broadly, Jamie Dimon should resign, but it’s also time to look at the structure of the New York Fed. 

FDL News: Of all the regional Fed banks, no? 

Warren: All of them, certainly, but let’s remember. The New York Fed decided to bail out AIG, and they set the terms for that bailout. When I was at the COP, we did a massive investigation to understand the process that the New York Fed went through. How they decided not just to bail out AIG, but to pay the counter-parties 100%. I’m sure you remember my questioning of a certain Secretary of the Treasury on that matter. The point is remembering the origin of that as coming from the New York Fed. The basic decisions and execution were shaped by NYFed. So Jamie Dimon should not sit in a position of responsibility, advising that bank, when there’s so much at stake. 

FDL News: Can all of these issues with regulation and oversight of Wall Street ever be successful without them involving handcuffs in some manner? The efforts to hold the banks and their executives accountable have all resulted in slap-on-the-wrist fines and settlements. We’re four years on from a financial crisis that wrecked the US economy, one rooted in multiple levels of fraud, and no top executive has gone to jail for it. 

Warren: And that is disgraceful. No one has been held accountable. Americans know that all the way down to their gut. The financial crisis has been treated as if it were a tsunami or a snowstorm, or a natural act for which no human being had any direct participation. The people who broke the economy should be held accountable. It’s as simple as that. And that means criminal investigations, civil investigations. Without that, it’s not possible to clean the system and rebuild it.

Today's Teamster News 05.11.12

Trade Gap Widens in March, Slowing Growth  Trade Reform   ...The $620 billion annual deficit is the most significant barrier to economic recovery and creating jobs, and oil and consumer goods from China account for virtually the entire problem. Economists agree the pace of economic recovery has been too slow, because of too little demand for what Americans make...
How Wall Street Killed Financial Reform  Rolling Stone   ...a troop of water-carrying Eric Cantor Republicans are speeding nine separate bills through the House, all designed to roll back the few genuinely toothy portions left in Dodd-Frank...
Thousands of British police join anti-austerity protest  Reuters   ...Thousands of off-duty police officers took to the streets in London on Thursday in a rare display of anger against government austerity, joining a protest by public sector workers including immigration officials, healthcare workers and prison officers...
J.P. Morgan Reveals ‘London Whale’-Size Losses  Wall Street Journal   ...J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., the nation’s largest bank, surprised the market today, saying it has taken large losses stemming from derivatives bets gone wrong in the bank’s Chief Investment Office...
Scott Walker Promised $500K Donor He Would "Divide and Conquer" Unions  The Nation   ... a remarkable videotape of the governor describing just such as a strategy has surfaced. In it, Walker is seen promising a billionaire campaign donor that the attack on collective-bargaining rights for public-sector unions -- which sparked demonstrations and the movement that has forced the recall election -- was only "the first step" in a grand plan...
Teamsters certified to represent Troy police  The Daily Review   ...The Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board has certified the Teamsters to represent Troy Borough police...