November 2009

The House health-care bill has tossed a lifeline to union health-care plans, a lifeline that comes fast on the heels of another victory for the unions in health-care reform. Unions have successfully beaten back a Congressional effort to level a 40% excise tax on "Cadillac plans," the insurance plans that cover more medical costs and which are mostly won by unions in exchange for lower ... read more

Last April we broke the news that Bank of America had no legal basis to threaten to the US government that it would walk away from buying Merrill Lynch, a story we followed up on since based on internal bank documents we obtained from BofA. And now Congress plans to grill Bank of America executives over whether BofA wrongfully used that threat to get $20 billion in taxpayer money to buy the ... read more

It used to be that when law enforcement found the bad guys, the bad guys would find the Lord. But now when Wall Streeters find taxpayers' money, they suddenly find God. Goldman Sachs' chief executive Lloyd Blankfein tells the Sunday Times of London that bankers are doing "God's work" and they do have a social purpose, statements that come fast on the heels of Barclays Capital CEO John Varley ... read more

Unemployment hits 10.2%, the highest in more than 26 years. Job losses are now approaching a two-year stretch of back-to-back quarterly losses. So are government officials right to believe that a weak-dollar can stop rising unemployment? This is an issue that is as vital as oxygen to the future of the US economy, to your jobs, and to your money. The debate is picking up speed as the ... read more

Americans now own Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the combined $5.2 trillion, heavily politicized housing finance companies nationalized in the fall of 2008, bringing to taxpayers large sums of subprime, no doc, alt-A loans and securitizations that no one wants, backed by abandoned houses. U.S. taxpayers also own their cousin, the Government National Mortgage Association (Ginnie Mae), the ... read more