OpEdNews – Richard (RJ) Eskow – Simpson-Bowles Austerity Gang : Go Home – 19 May 2013

Simpson and Bowles, those two hired pitchmen for budget-cutting hysteria, are still hawking an economy-killing product called “austerity economics,” a product that’s designed to benefit their wealthy patrons at everybody else’s expense. This philosophy provides some (very thin) intellectual cover for the Republicans’ lunatic bloodbath of spending cuts.

Of course, Simpson and Bowles and austerity’s other sales people aren’t really economic thinkers. They’re paid to pitch a product. They didn’t invent austerity any more than Alex Rodriguez invented Pepsi.

OpEdNews – Richard (RJ) Eskow – Tick-Tick-Tick: Do 60 Minutes And America’s Billionaires Want Us To Beg? – 11 May 2013

If you’re a jobless person looking for food or a wounded vet who needs health care,  60 Minutes  has a solution: Beg a billionaire for it. That was part of the powerful, if covert, message behind last Sunday’s  60 Minutes  broadcast.

The rest of Sunday night’s message, which tracks closely with the right-wing agenda promoted by billionaires like Pete Peterson, goes like this: Keep downsizing government. Keep tolerating and promoting the hijacking of our national wealth by the rich, even as it suffocates the middle class and creates soaring poverty rates. Surrender democratic control over the social safety net to wealthy donors.

OpEdNews – Richard (RJ) Eskow – Diamond Jamie : Latest News On The JP Morgan Chase Crime Watch – 15 October 2012

History will judge our willingness to defend moral principles against the corrupting influence of the Wall Street capos. So far, their campaign cash and lucrative revolving-door jobs have kept them above the law, while their PR firms and personal salesmanship have largely exempted them from moral judgement in the inner corridors of wealth and power.

Richard (RJ) Eskow – Deficit Rorschach Test: The Presidents, The Editors, And The Truth – 11 September 2012

Both political parties have “an aversion to telling the truth,” says The Washington Post. The truth? That newspaper’s editors are part of a small but powerful billionaire-funded circle that seems to believe that any facts that don’t support their distorted and unpopular ideas are deviations from the “truth.”

The Huffington Post – Richard (RJ) Eskow – Happy 151st Birthday, Federal Income Tax! – 6 August 2012

Yesterday I got an email for the President’s birthday inviting me to sign an e-card (and no doubt asking for contributions, too.) The subject line, “Big Birthday,” could have been about another landmark: Today, August 5, the Federal income tax turned 151 years old.

Now that’s a big birthday. Bring out the balloons and party hats.

Richard RJ Eskow – If Bankers Took Steroids Or Made Knockoff Handbags, They’d Clean Up Wall Street Tomorrow – 13 July 2012

If only. If only Brian Moynihan designed fashionable shoes, Jamie Dimon pitched a mean slider, and Lloyd Blankfein had written the song “Boyfriend” for Justin Bieber. Then they’d prosecute bank fraud.

The Justice Department used as many people to investigate one baseball player as it’s doing to pursuing Wall Street housing fraud. It has coordinated fifteen Federal agencies to seize counterfeit goods worth $178 million, yet all but ignored a bankers’ crime wave which cost the global economy trillions.

Richard (RJ) Eskow – It’s Time To Re-Declare Independence – Politically, Economically, And Spiritually – 4 July 2012

This year the message has gone out to the young, the disaffected, and the idealistic: Don’t hope for too much. “Don’t compare us to the Almighty,” says the politician, “compare us to the alternative.” Ironically, this comes from the same people who told us four years ago: Yes, we can. Thanks to the rhetoric of hope, our President and his party saw their most improbable dreams come true.

When do we get our turn?

Richard (RJ) Eskow – 10 Reasons To Be Suspicious About Wall Street’s Facebook Fiasco – 23 May 2012

Three of Wall Street biggest and best-known financial institutions handled the Facebook IPO, so why were people immediately suspicious when the stock soared and then promptly tanked? Easy answer: Because three of Wall Street biggest and best-known financial institutions handled the Facebook IPO.

Each of them – Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and JPMorgan Chase – has a history of exactly the kinds of unethical and/or illegal behavior that might, just might, explain what happened with Facebook.

Read the whole story at : http://www.huffingtonpost.com link to original article

Richard (RJ) Eskow – The Latest SEC/Goldman Sachs Sweetheart Deal Is The Worst One Yet – 12 April 2012

The Huffington Post reports by Richard (RJ) Eskow :

The sweetheart deals just keep coming. Lawbreakers at one bank after another are let off the hook as their shareholders write a check. And then they go out and repeat the illegal behavior they promised not to do in the last settlement.

It shouldn’t be surprising that this keeps happening over at the SEC – especially as long as Robert Khuzami continues to serve as Director of the Commission’s Division of Enforcement.

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com link to original article