Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.

Energy independence and a national fleet of hot air baloons

Via Economist’s View on reducing oil imports and energy independence for the US is reader Min’s proposal, which I have unabashedly stolen: For forty years politicians have been promising energy independence for the US. Forget it. It is not going to happen, at least not any time soon. Our best bet is to cut back […]

Plutocracy Rising

Via reader rjs news and Naked Capitalism comes this excerpt on income inequality and programs to address the issue: Bill Moyers: Plutocracy Rising – via Yves Smith – Bill Moyer’s latest show, with Matt Taibbi and and Chrystia Freeland, focuses on how the super rich have established a yawning chasm between themselves and ordinary Americans, both […]

More corporate First Amendment Rights?

Via Truthout comes this report from PR Watch: In a new lawsuit against the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), big energy extractors are pushing for carte blanche in their interactions with foreign governments, making it harder to track whether their deals are padding the coffers of dictators, warlords, or crony capitalists. The United States Chamber of […]

The dilemma of voting for president

Real News carries The Black Financial and Fraud Report with Bill Black,  reminds us this election has many issues that we need to remind politicians to tackle: And what did the—finally, the numbers that just came in in the New York Times article very recently that showed that—in the first year of recovery from the recession, which was […]

Another Court Strikes Down DOMA

by Linda Beale Another Court Strikes Down DOMA The Second Circuit ruled on Thursday on the estate tax case involving the legality of DOMA–Windsor v. United States (or in the long form–Windsor, executor of the Estate of Spyer, v. United States).  Readers may recall this as a case in which a group of members of […]

Ann Romney’s blind trust had a seeing-eye dog. … Was blind but now can see….

Solamere Capital—named after an exclusive neighborhood in Utah where the family had a vacation home—was incorporated in February of 2008, only weeks after the campaign ended. Its first office address was the Romney campaign headquarters in Boston’s North End. One of its first big commitments was $10 million from Ann Romney’s blind trust… According to […]

Romney’s Accountants Busted in New Tax Justice Network Study

by Kenneth Thomas Romney’s Accountants Busted in New Tax Justice Network Study When Mitt Romney released the second of his tax returns last month, he also gave us a summary of his 1990-2009 taxes prepared by his accounting firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). The whole point of that exercise, aside from trying to distract people from demanding […]