Does anyone actually believe Alberta Premier Jason Kenney’s startling claim that Gerald Butts, then Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s principal secretary, secretly conspired with the White House in 2015 to engineer “a co-ordinated surrender” by Canada on President Barack Obama’s veto of the Keystone XL Pipeline project? Judging from the conversations
Continue readingTag: Elizabeth Warren
Accidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Jeff Spross discusses the effectiveness of a wealth tax both in generating revenue, and in reducing inequality. David Leonhardt notes that a wealth tax will actually boost the economy by putting to use assets which are otherwise idle (if not being used for
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Paul Krugman writes that complaints by the U.S.’ wealthiest few about Elizabeth Warren reflect their insistence that extreme wealth be coupled with absolute and unquestioned power: The point is that many of the superrich aren’t satisfied with living like kings, which they will
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Emily Stewart reports on Elizabeth Warren’s message about the need to end corruption and corporatism in order to make U.S. politics work for people. Martin Wolf writes that a rigged economic system is undermining the prospect of viable democracy. And Andrew MacLeod examines
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Ian Welsh discusses the reality as to how economic decisions are made – and how we’ve allowed corporate control to remain in place even after it’s failed even on its own terms: All systems have to do only one thing: whatever is
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
This and that for your mid-week reading. – Noah Smith writes about the unfairness and inaccuracy in blaming people for finding themselves in poverty. And Sarah Kaine and Emmanuel Josserand call out the business sector’s concerted efforts to normalize and spread systematic wage theft. – Joelle Gergis points out that
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellanous material for your mid-week reading. – David Dayen interviews Elizabeth Warren about the role of government in ensuring that the needs of people take precedence over the power of corporations. And Press Progress duly challenges the claim that corporate directors are overworked in putting in five to seven hours
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Nick Hanauer discusses the futility of “educationism” which treats schools as the only factor in social outcomes without recognizing the importance of inequality and precarity in restricting opportunities for far too many children. And PressProgress points out that Brian Pallister’s Manitoba PCs –
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Eoin Higgins discusses a new report by Elizabeth Warren and Pramila Jayapal on a U.S. political system which is even more corporatist than ever under the Trump administration. – Meanwhile, Sarah Petz reports on Boots Riley’s recent talk in Winnipeg – including
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Shawn Gude comments on the choice Democratic primary voters will have between candidates seeking to regulate the economic system as it stands, and those pushing to fundamentally changing it. Ian Welsh points out the importance of supporting candidates such as Bernie Sanders
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here (via PressReader), on the U.S.’ long-overdue conversation about progressive taxes on extreme incomes and wealth – and the need for Canada to follow suit. For further reading…– Matthew Yglesias has offered useful background on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’ high-end income tax proposal, Elizabeth Warren’s wealth tax proposal, Bernie Sanders’ estate tax
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Doreen Nicoll makes the case to reinstate the basic income plan eliminated by Doug Ford in Ontario. Danielle Kurtz examines a few of the ideas being proposed by U.S. Democrats in the lead up to the 2020 presidential campaign (including their own basic
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Trevor Tombe highlights how equalization actually works – and how the bleatings of Jason Kenney, Scott Moe and other demagogues would serve only to eliminate anything worthy of the name. – Mary O’Hara rightly argues that child poverty in the UK and U.S.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, looking to the work of Elizabeth Warren and the Institute for Public Policy Research for options in making our economy more responsive to the needs of the public. For further reading…– Warren’s Accountable Capitalism Act is here (PDF), and again was discussed by Matthew Yglesias here. – The IPPR’s
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Mike Konczal notes that a single-minded focus on shareholder wealth – exemplified by today’s obsession with stock buybacks – has frozen workers out of any returns from economic development. And Anne Perkins writes about the outrageous gap between the pay of the
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Elizabeth Warren Eviscerates Wells Fargo CEO
The world may need more Canada, but it also needs more Elizabeth Warren. A tireless defender of the unrepresented, i.e., the majority of Americans, the Democratic Senator, as you will see in the following videos, is relentless in her systematic pursuit and evisceration of the self-serving rhetoric of Wells Faro CEO John Stumpf as he avers complete innocence in the scandal that has rocked his institution.
First, some brief background which saw the bank firing some 5300 frontline employees
roughly 1 percent of its workforce — for signing up customers for checking accounts and credit cards without their knowledge. Authorities said about 2 million sham accounts were opened going back to 2011, complete with forged signatures, phony email addresses, and fake PIN numbers — all created by employees who were hounded by supervisors to meet daily account quotas. The bank then charged customers at least $1.5 million in fees for the bogus accounts.
The greater scandal is that Ceo Stumpf knew about this practice going back to at least 2013 and did nothing. Indeed, his performance bonuses only grew, and Carrie Tolstedt, who oversaw the banking division responsible for the fake accounts, just left in July with a $125 million retirement package.
The following videos are brief; the first one shows Senator Warren masterfully outlining the parameters of, as she calls it, “this scam;” the second shows her eviscerating the no-longer-smug CEO.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.- Norman Farrell highlights how following the reversal of the HST transition, B.C. businesses haven’t given up on their goal of making sure that only individuals pay consumption taxes. – Jordan Press and…
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Elizabeth Warren On The Trans Pacific Partnership
Recently, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren, a woman I much admire, released a five-minute video that takes aim at the Trans Pacific Partnership, specifically denouncing the Investor State Dispute Settlement provisions that give corporate entities the righ…
Continue readingCowichan Conversations: Hillary Clinton will return to Ohio on Monday with Elizabeth Warren in tow.
Hillary Clinton will return to Ohio on Monday with Elizabeth Warren in tow. As Democrats sharpen their general election argument against Donald Trump, it will be their first joint appearance on the campaign trail. Read more…
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Some Fascinating Speculation
I readily admit to not following U.S. politics too closely; my emotional resilience has limits. However, given the American media saturation coverage of Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton, it has been hard to ignore the run-up to their respective parties’…
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