September 2021 sees a special edition of my link roundup. In July, I read John Perkins' Confessions of an Economic Hit Man.
The book was a little heavy on guilt for my taste, but was otherwise quite compelling. He suggested or cited most of these sources, except the last couple.
Did Lobbying Cause the Financial Crisis? https://business.time.com/2011/05/26/did-lobbying-cause-the-financial-crisis/
Related: A Fistful of Dollars: Lobbying and the Financial Crisis https://www.nber.org/papers/w17076
An infuriating series from ProPublica: The Wall Street Money Machine
I recommend The Rise of Corporate Impunity
https://www.jubileeusa.org/cameroon and https://www.jubileeusa.org/democratic_republic_of_congo - Democratic Republic of the Congo ordered to pay $70 million to two 'vulture funds' (about $50 million in interest), AND Cameroon was being pursued by four different vulture funds
"...the Trans-Pacific Partnership is a corporate rights agreement designed to facilitate the export of US jobs, allow corporations to sue governments for enacting labor and environmental protections, make it illegal for governments to favor local businesses, and advance the colonization of national economies by global corporations and financiers." https://www.yesmagazine.org/economy/2015/04/16/trade-rule-illegal-favor-local-business-tpp-leak-wikileaks
ProPublica - How the Red Cross raised Half a Billion Dollars for Haiti and Built Six Homes https://www.propublica.org/article/how-the-red-cross-raised-half-a-billion-dollars-for-haiti-and-built-6-homes
Wall Street pays banking executives to work in government--ensuring that they will have a strong hand in setting policy: https://newrepublic.com/article/120967/wall-street-pays-bankers-work-government-and-wants-it-secret and https://www.pogo.org/investigation/2013/03/big-businesses-offer-revolving-door-rewards/
Eric Holder returned to a prominent corporate law firm after years of failing to prosecute Wall Street banks for their roles in the 2008 financial crisis: https://www.democracynow.org/2015/7/8/eric_holder_returns_to_wall_street
What are the traits of a good investor? Here's a pretty good summary: https://filledwithmoney.com/good-investor/
For what it's worth, I'd add "curiosity" to the list.
Culture jamming https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_jamming
Corporatocracy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporatocracy
!!!!!! Thanks so much for including me!!
ReplyDeleteI like the WS banks sending executives to work in government article. I think Goldman gave Gary 9 figures of equity compensation. He was supposed to be "impartial" but was he really with all that equity incentive filling the back of his mind? I haven't dug further into it but it's hard to believe.
The more I research on economics, the more outrageous things I find. The halls of power are seeing a lot of abuse of the public trust, and it makes you think that this won't end well.
DeleteAs the French say: plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose...