Archive for April, 2009
Chrysler to File for Bankruptcy
The big banks went for the deal, but the hedge funds wouldn’t budge. Now it’s headed for bankruptcy court. From the BBC: US carmaker Chrysler will file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection immediately and has formed an alliance with Fiat, President Obama has said. Chapter 11 protects firms from their creditors, allowing them to rearrange ...Read more.
NAFTA Flu?
From an interview with Robert Wallace, a geographer who has studied avian flu, on Democracy Now!. Hat-tip to LF. The “NAFTA Flu”: Critics Say Swine Flu Has Roots in Forcing Poor Countries to Accept Western Agribusiness So, starting in the 1970s, the livestock revolution was brought to East Asia. You have the CP Group, which ...Read more.
Yes, Things Are Really Bad
Another fabulously depressing economic snapshot from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI): Unusually bad and getting worse by Josh Bivens Today’s report on gross domestic product (GDP) growth in the first quarter of 2009 just confirms the obvious: the United States economy is mired in a particularly steep recession. The chart below shows the decline in ...Read more.
Is Factory Pig Farming To Blame For Swine Flu?
In the face of what may soon become a global pandemic, the pork industry has begun lobbying to have officials stop using the words “Swine Flu” for fear that people will stop eating their product. The industry is probably as concerned about a drop-off in pork sales as it is about a growing concern about ...Read more.
Citibank and Bank of America Fail Stress Tests
Six of the nation’s 19 largest banks have failed the Federal Reserve’s “Stress Tests,” including Citibank and Bank of America, according to Bloomberg. The Fed is pushing the banks to raise capital by converting preferred shares (including those held by the Treasury) into common shares, rather than seeking more federal funds.
American Casino (GritTV)
Interview about a new documentary, on GritTV (also new? I hadn’t heard of it) with Laura Flanders (whom I remember fondly from Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting’s radio program, CounterSpin). Flanders also has an interesting post at the Nation’s website. Hat-tip to LF for both of these items. While directing a documentary film on Wall ...Read more.
Contours of Crisis: Fiction and Reality
We have posted the second article in a series by Shimshon Bichler and Jonathan Nitzan. Here are the first few paragraphs: This is the second in our Contours of Crisis paper series. The first article set the stage for the series. It began by outlining the conventional view that this is a finance-led crisis, that ...Read more.
Workers To Control Chrysler
The Financial Times is reporting that under a restructuring deal for Chrysler, the United Auto Workers (UAW) will own 55% of the auto company’s stock, Italy’s Fiat will get 35%, and the remainder will be divvied up between the company’s secured lenders and the federal government. As part of the deal, the reformulated company will ...Read more.
Corporate America: The Serial Job Killer
Sam Pizzigati writes that the biggest job killers in America are corporate CEOs. Will Obama stand up to them, and for workers? A new crime has burst out onto America’s political blotter. Move over drug pushing and car stealing, meet the new menace. Job killing. But fear not. We now have in Congress a dedicated ...Read more.
Lose Money Get Raise
The New York Times has a nice chart showing how CEOs from public companies are making out like bandits with massive pay raises even while their bottom lines plummet. Some tidbits: ArcherDanielsMidland CEO Patricia A. Woertz saw her compensation jump 397% to $15 million from 2007 to 2008 while profits fell 17%. Data giant EMC’s ...Read more.
