Excerpt:
Using 'political intelligence' for personal gain
Members of Congress are privy to nonpublic information, but should they be able to use it in their personal investments? Stock Act seeks to put a halt to the practice.
Thanks to "60 Minutes," the public is aware of an issue that had long gone unnoticed: Members of Congress have been able to make a bundle using nonpublic information to trade in stock. Their jobs make them privy to such information about congressional activities, such as changes to Medicare that would affect certain drugs. And though trading on that information is not necessarily illegal, the practice has come into question.
In March, Reps. Tim Walz, D-Minn., and Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., moved to address it by reintroducing the Stock Act (Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge), which would prohibit members of Congress and its employees as well as those from federal agencies from buying or selling securities using nonpublic information obtained through their jobs. While members of Congress are subject to insider-trading laws, those "laws do not apply to non-public information about current or upcoming congressional activity," according to Slaughter's website.
http://sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Financial_transaction_tax
Excerpt:
The Financial Transaction Tax (FTT), also known as the "Stock Transfer Tax" or "Financial Speculation Tax," is a proposed tax that would impose a small fee on the sale or transfer of stocks, bonds and other financial assets. The tax would raise a large amount of money while discouraging the kind of speculation that helped lead to the economic collapse. The idea originated with economist Nobel Laureate economist James Tobin.
Proposals for an FTT rate are modest -- for instance 0.25 percent on a stock purchase or sale and 0.02 percent on the sale or purchase of a future, option, or credit default swap. These rates are proportional to the actual transaction costs in the industry.
The FTT is sometimes called a "Financial Speculation Tax," as it would have the greatest impact on high-volume, high-speed speculative traders.
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=James_Tobin
Excerpt:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Tobin
Excerpt:
James Tobin (March 5, 1918 – March 11, 2002) was an American economist who, in his lifetime, served on the Council of Economic Advisors and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, and taught at Harvard and Yale Universities. He developed the ideas of Keynesian economics, and advocated government intervention to stabilize output and avoid recessions. His academic work included pioneering contributions to the study of investment, monetary and fiscal policy and financial markets. He also proposed an econometric model for censored endogenous variables, the well known "Tobit model". Tobin received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1981.
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Keynesianism
Excerpt:
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=New_America_Foundation
Excerpt:
The New America Foundation is a Washington D.C.-headquartered think tank which states that it "invests in new thinkers and new ideas to address the next generation of challenges facing the United States ... With an emphasis on big ideas, impartial analysis and pragmatic solutions, New America invests in outstanding individuals whose ability to communicate to wide and influential audiences can change the country's policy discourse in critical areas, bringing promising new ideas and debates to the fore."[1]
The foundation, which was launched in 1999, has as its CEO Steve Coll, a staff writer with The New Yorker magazine while the chairman of the Board of Directors is the Chairman & CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt.[1]
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Laurene_Powell_Jobs
Excerpt:
She is married to Steve Jobs.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/jun/02/steve-jobs-foxconn-china-not-sweatshop
Excerpt:
But a string of deaths at Foxconn's base in southern China, which critics blame on stressful working conditions, threatens to cast a shadow over the device's success.
"It's a difficult situation," Jobs said on stage. "We're trying to understand right now, before we go in and say we know the solution."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Khuzami
Excerpt:
Federal prosecutor
Khuzami was a prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan's Southern District of New York from 1991 to 2002. From 1999 to 2002, he was chief of that office's Securities and Commodities Fraud Task Force,[5] where he prosecuted complex securities and white-collar crime, including insider trading, Ponzi schemes, accounting and financial statement fraud, organized crime infiltration of the securities markets, and IPO and investment adviser fraud.
One of his cases involved Patrick R. Bennett, founder of Bennett Funding Group, who was charged with running a pyramid scheme and cheating 12,000 investors of $600 million.[6] Bennett's first trial, in March 1999, resulted in a hung jury and the judge, Thomas P. Griesa, declared a mistrial. Khuzami announced his intention to continue legal pursuit of Bennett on all counts for which the jury did not reach a decision.[7] A second jury failed to reach a decision on 11 securities and mail fraud charges and a second judge, John S. Martin, Jr., declared a mistrial on the unresolved charges in June 1999.[8] Bennett, who admitted to seven counts of lying to SEC prosecutors but otherwise maintains his innocence,[6] was described by his lawyers as an inept businessman overwhelmed by an expanding company.[8] In a practice then legal, the judge used his discretion to convict Bennett[6] of stock fraud and money laundering. He was not convicted of running a Ponzi scheme, the main charge. Bennett was also ordered to forfeit $109 million,[8] although he filed for bankruptcy in 1996 and was declared indigent and his lawyers were court-appointed. He was sentenced to 22 years, later extended to 30 because his then-wife did not turn over assets to repay investors.[6]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bennett_Funding_Group
Excerpt:
The Bennett Funding Group were the perpetrators of the second largest Ponzi scheme in U.S. history. The leasing & funding company was based in Syracuse, New York. BFG operated under the Bennett Receivables Corporation, Bennett Receivables Corporation II, Bennett Management and Development Corporation, The Processing Center, Inc., Resort Service Company, Inc., American Marine International, Ltd., Aloha Leasing, and Aloha Capital Corporation brands.
From the SEC website:
http://www.tower.com/global-wage-system-study-international-differences-gernot-kohler-hardcover/wapi/101156063
Excerpt:
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2011/12/03/support-rep-mcdermotts-sensible-estate-tax-act/
Excerpt:
In March, Reps. Tim Walz, D-Minn., and Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., moved to address it by reintroducing the Stock Act (Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge), which would prohibit members of Congress and its employees as well as those from federal agencies from buying or selling securities using nonpublic information obtained through their jobs. While members of Congress are subject to insider-trading laws, those "laws do not apply to non-public information about current or upcoming congressional activity," according to Slaughter's website.
http://sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Financial_transaction_tax
Excerpt:
The Financial Transaction Tax (FTT), also known as the "Stock Transfer Tax" or "Financial Speculation Tax," is a proposed tax that would impose a small fee on the sale or transfer of stocks, bonds and other financial assets. The tax would raise a large amount of money while discouraging the kind of speculation that helped lead to the economic collapse. The idea originated with economist Nobel Laureate economist James Tobin.
Proposals for an FTT rate are modest -- for instance 0.25 percent on a stock purchase or sale and 0.02 percent on the sale or purchase of a future, option, or credit default swap. These rates are proportional to the actual transaction costs in the industry.
The FTT is sometimes called a "Financial Speculation Tax," as it would have the greatest impact on high-volume, high-speed speculative traders.
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=James_Tobin
Excerpt:
NB
Not to be confused with the Nobel Prize winning economist, James Tobin, who died in 2002.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Tobin
Excerpt:
James Tobin (March 5, 1918 – March 11, 2002) was an American economist who, in his lifetime, served on the Council of Economic Advisors and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, and taught at Harvard and Yale Universities. He developed the ideas of Keynesian economics, and advocated government intervention to stabilize output and avoid recessions. His academic work included pioneering contributions to the study of investment, monetary and fiscal policy and financial markets. He also proposed an econometric model for censored endogenous variables, the well known "Tobit model". Tobin received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1981.
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Keynesianism
Excerpt:
Keynesianism
From SourceWatch
Some say that the concept of Keynesianism is difficult to define.[1] Gernot Köhler, at the School of Computing and Information Management at Sheridan College in Oakville, Ontario, defined it this way in 1998: Keynesianism is "an approach to economics which emphasizes responsible public management of economic problems in a world-system context. Common themes in global Keynesianism include the importance of public management, democratic politics, the mixed economy, global income distribution, the management of global demand, investment and money, ecological sustainability and the importance of multiple levels of public management -- local, national, regional and global."[2]http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=New_America_Foundation
Excerpt:
The New America Foundation is a Washington D.C.-headquartered think tank which states that it "invests in new thinkers and new ideas to address the next generation of challenges facing the United States ... With an emphasis on big ideas, impartial analysis and pragmatic solutions, New America invests in outstanding individuals whose ability to communicate to wide and influential audiences can change the country's policy discourse in critical areas, bringing promising new ideas and debates to the fore."[1]
The foundation, which was launched in 1999, has as its CEO Steve Coll, a staff writer with The New Yorker magazine while the chairman of the Board of Directors is the Chairman & CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt.[1]
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Laurene_Powell_Jobs
Excerpt:
She is married to Steve Jobs.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/jun/02/steve-jobs-foxconn-china-not-sweatshop
Excerpt:
But a string of deaths at Foxconn's base in southern China, which critics blame on stressful working conditions, threatens to cast a shadow over the device's success.
"It's a difficult situation," Jobs said on stage. "We're trying to understand right now, before we go in and say we know the solution."
The iPad's momentum has helped drive share gains. Apple last week overtook long-time nemesis Microsoft to become the world's largest technology company by market value – an event unthinkable a decade ago – and Apple's shares have spent much of 2010 hitting new highs.
http://www.macstories.net/stories/steve-jobs-email-conversation-about-foxconn-suicides/
Excerpt:
Together with the forwarded email, he wrote:
“Steve
Apple can do better!
Sent from my iPhone”
Steve Jobs replied later, with this message:
“Although every suicide is tragic, Foxconn’s suicide rate is well below the China average. We are all over this.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/10/terry-gou-foxconn-ceo_n_711859.html
Excerpt:
Previous investigations have focused on the workers, but Businessweek has gotten Gou's take on the suicides--and it's blunt. Here's Gou:
There's a joke among executives who work with Foxconn, Businessweek says, that in 20 years everything in the world will be made by Foxconn and sold by Walmart. Author Chang Tien-wen, who wrote a book about Gou, said "Steve Jobs' achievements wouldn't be possible without Terry." His factory in Longhua makes 137,000 iPhones each day, or, to put it in more startling terms, about 90 a minute.
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Foxconn
Excerpt:
Be Aware
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3V9IjZUm1ZE&feature=related
http://www.macstories.net/stories/steve-jobs-email-conversation-about-foxconn-suicides/
Excerpt:
Together with the forwarded email, he wrote:
“Steve
Apple can do better!
Sent from my iPhone”
Steve Jobs replied later, with this message:
“Although every suicide is tragic, Foxconn’s suicide rate is well below the China average. We are all over this.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/10/terry-gou-foxconn-ceo_n_711859.html
Excerpt:
Previous investigations have focused on the workers, but Businessweek has gotten Gou's take on the suicides--and it's blunt. Here's Gou:
"I should be honest with you. The first one, second one, and third one, I did not see this as a serious problem. We had around 800,000 employees, and here [in Longhua, a factory campus] we are about 2.1 square kilometers. At the moment, I'm feeling guilty. But at that moment, I didn't think I should be taking full responsibility."Gou, whom Forbes ranks as Taiwan's richest man with a $5.9 billion net worth, got his start making television knobs with a $7,500 loan from his mother. He claims to be not quite sure how much money he actually has: "I am not interested in knowing how much I have. I don't care. I am working not for money at this moment, I am working for society, I am working for my employees."
There's a joke among executives who work with Foxconn, Businessweek says, that in 20 years everything in the world will be made by Foxconn and sold by Walmart. Author Chang Tien-wen, who wrote a book about Gou, said "Steve Jobs' achievements wouldn't be possible without Terry." His factory in Longhua makes 137,000 iPhones each day, or, to put it in more startling terms, about 90 a minute.
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Foxconn
Excerpt:
Company History
Terry Gou founded Hon Hai Precision Industry Company Ltd. in Taipei in 1974 with start-up capital of $7,500 USD. This company became the center of the Foxconn Technology Group. In 2001, Foxconn was the largest non-government affiliated company in Taiwan.[2] By 2005 the company held over 15,000 patents.Be Aware
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3V9IjZUm1ZE&feature=related
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Khuzami
Excerpt:
Federal prosecutor
Khuzami was a prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan's Southern District of New York from 1991 to 2002. From 1999 to 2002, he was chief of that office's Securities and Commodities Fraud Task Force,[5] where he prosecuted complex securities and white-collar crime, including insider trading, Ponzi schemes, accounting and financial statement fraud, organized crime infiltration of the securities markets, and IPO and investment adviser fraud.
One of his cases involved Patrick R. Bennett, founder of Bennett Funding Group, who was charged with running a pyramid scheme and cheating 12,000 investors of $600 million.[6] Bennett's first trial, in March 1999, resulted in a hung jury and the judge, Thomas P. Griesa, declared a mistrial. Khuzami announced his intention to continue legal pursuit of Bennett on all counts for which the jury did not reach a decision.[7] A second jury failed to reach a decision on 11 securities and mail fraud charges and a second judge, John S. Martin, Jr., declared a mistrial on the unresolved charges in June 1999.[8] Bennett, who admitted to seven counts of lying to SEC prosecutors but otherwise maintains his innocence,[6] was described by his lawyers as an inept businessman overwhelmed by an expanding company.[8] In a practice then legal, the judge used his discretion to convict Bennett[6] of stock fraud and money laundering. He was not convicted of running a Ponzi scheme, the main charge. Bennett was also ordered to forfeit $109 million,[8] although he filed for bankruptcy in 1996 and was declared indigent and his lawyers were court-appointed. He was sentenced to 22 years, later extended to 30 because his then-wife did not turn over assets to repay investors.[6]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bennett_Funding_Group
Excerpt:
The Bennett Funding Group were the perpetrators of the second largest Ponzi scheme in U.S. history. The leasing & funding company was based in Syracuse, New York. BFG operated under the Bennett Receivables Corporation, Bennett Receivables Corporation II, Bennett Management and Development Corporation, The Processing Center, Inc., Resort Service Company, Inc., American Marine International, Ltd., Aloha Leasing, and Aloha Capital Corporation brands.
From the SEC website:
On March 28, 1996, the SEC filed a civil action against The Bennett Funding Group, Inc., its chief financial officer, Patrick R. Bennett, and other companies Bennett controlled, in connection with a massive Ponzi scheme. The SEC alleged that the defendants fraudulently raised more than several hundred million dollars, purportedly to purchase assignments of equipment leases and promissory notes.
On March 29, 1996, the four corporate defendants filed for protection under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code. On April 18, 1996, the Bankruptcy Court of the Northern District of New York appointed Richard C. Breeden as Trustee. The Trustee has distributed approximately $353 million to general unsecured creditors and anticipates making another distribution.
http://www.tower.com/global-wage-system-study-international-differences-gernot-kohler-hardcover/wapi/101156063
Excerpt:
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2011/12/03/support-rep-mcdermotts-sensible-estate-tax-act/
Excerpt:
No comments:
Post a Comment