Thursday, July 19, 2012

Economic Inequality in the U.S.: A Conflagration of Accumulated Dead Wood

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According to the Congressional Research Service, the share of total net worth held by the less affluent half of American household...

Capital One: Enter Ethicist

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The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced in July 2012 findings that a vender working for Capital One “had pressured and ...
Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Poorest at Risk: U.S. States Cut Lifelines

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“State finances are teetering with $4 trillion in unfunded liabilities to cover pensions and health care for state workers, along with reve...
Monday, July 16, 2012

HSBC: A Bad Corporate Citizen

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In a report issued by the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations in the U.S. Senate on July 16, 2012, HSBC stands accused of help...
Sunday, July 15, 2012

Eminent Domain and Sanctity of Contract: Mortgage-Relief as “Dangerous”

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With about half of the mortgages “under water” (i.e., being more than the houses are worth in terms of market value), government o...
Wednesday, July 11, 2012

American Newscasters Blindly Floundering

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In mid-2012, just 21% of adults in the U.S. told Gallop they had a “great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in TV news. In 1993, ...
Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Maryland and Kansas: Distinct Taxing and Spending Policy Ideologies

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Coming out of the recession that followed the financial crisis of 2008, Maryland “raised income taxes on its top earners . . . to ...
Sunday, July 8, 2012

Libya (and the E.U.): Writing a Constitution

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Should writing a constitution, or “basic law,” be done piecemeal by successive amendments (e.g., the E.U.), or all at once (e.g., ...
Friday, July 6, 2012

Hillary Clinton Bested by a Syrian General

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“I don’t think Russia and China believe they are paying any price at all — nothing at all — for standing up on behalf of the Assad ...
Wednesday, July 4, 2012

SCOTUS: Congress Coercing States to Expand Medicaid

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The aspect of the court’s decision on “Obamacare” that forbids Congress (and the President) from threatening states by withholding...
Tuesday, July 3, 2012

JP Morgan: Conflict of Interest in Mutual Funds

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As JPMorgan Chase was increasingly getting into the managing function of mutual funds, the bank also created and sold its own fund...
Monday, July 2, 2012

Juggling the Court and the Constitution: Chief Justice Roberts

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Charles Krauthammer proffers a pithy summation of the U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice’s majority opinion on Obama’s health-insurance law o...

Barclays: Riddled with Conflicts of Interest

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Lest it be presumed that no harm to society can come from having Wall Street bank CEOs such as Jamie Dimon (of JP Morgan) on the Ne...
Friday, June 29, 2012

Incremental Change in the E.U.: A Banking Regulator

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  The E.U.’s European Council, which represents the union’s state governments, agreed at the end of June in 2012 to make the federal bai...
Thursday, June 28, 2012

SCOTUS Decision on Obama's Healthcare Act: The States v. The Poor

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The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on June 28, 2012 that the mandate in the Affordable Healthcare Act (“Obamacare”) is not constitutional un...