Obama’s Buds Sunstein and Wolf Overboard!
Reading Time: 4 minutes We would be well advised to pay more attention to figures departing the Obama circle—and to figure out why, really, they left.
Obama: “Yes, I’m in a Can”
Reading Time: 4 minutes Let’s look a little further at what ails Obama—and us. It’s about the pretty small part of the One Percent that really calls the shots, and keeps a president from doing what he surely knows he must.
Obama’s Only Friend Left?
Reading Time: 3 minutes Obama’s circle of friends shrinks. But “interesting” banker Robert Wolf remains. 99 percent, meet the One Percent, and their man with the president.
Taking Robert Wolf on Vacation – That Takes Balls!
Reading Time: < 1 minute Robert Wolf and his bank are extreme examples of the gaming of the system at the expense of the rest of us. Despite the bad signals it sends, President Obama has golfed with Wolf on his two previous Martha’s Vineyard vacations. Will he go for three?
Giving Chase: Egypt, OK – But What About America’s Oligarchs?
Reading Time: 3 minutes With all the attention on crowds of ordinary people rising up and asserting themselves against corruption and self-dealing by an oligarchy, we’re missing what the oligarchs are doing right at home. Take, for example, the activities of one of our biggest banks, JPMorgan Chase. Newly released documents show that high officials of the bank knew Read More
UBS or Just Plain BS?
Reading Time: 2 minutes The Obama Justice Department has just floated a trial balloon to see if it can drop a legal effort to force the Swiss Bank UBS to disclose the names of 52,000 rich Americans suspected of using the bank to evade US taxes. Back in February, the Justice Department sued the bank in an effort to Read More
Derivatives and Debauchery
Reading Time: 2 minutes The UK Independent recently published fascinating reminiscences by former UBS trader Philipp Meyer about his debauched life as an investment banker. The grotesque extravagance he describes seems straight out of Petronius’s Satyricon. I put on 45 pounds in my first year at the bank, and, as you might guess, it was not from eating McDonalds. Read More