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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsJim Hightower: Bi-Partisan Jobs Act "It's just another economic scam written by and for Wall Street"
Save Wall Street! Congress Passes JO(BS) Actby Jim Hightower
April 4, 2012
Hallelujah, Washington has finally heard the people's cries for jobs! In an urgent bipartisan push, Democrats and Republicans have joined hands across the aisle to pass the JOBS Act. In this time of "The Great Hurt" with widespread unemployment, middle-class incomes tumbling and the price of gasoline skyrocketing we can all applaud our stalwarts in the capital city for meeting the No. 1 need of America's hard-hit economy: deregulating Wall Street.
Huh? I thought this was a jobs bill?
We'll get to that, but first (as always) Wall Street bankers must be served. Yes, them. The same priests of unmitigated arrogance who caused the disastrous financial crash that continues to rumble across our land. The same Wall Streeters we bailed out with trillions of public dollars. That Wall Street is now sulking and skulking around the U.S. Capitol, insisting that it is an economic victim, held back from its profiteering potential by government regulations to protect the public from finaglers and fraudsters. "Free Wall Street," is their cry!
While the law was rushed to passage without any public hearings in the name of hard-hit American workers and small business, all of the benefits go to corporate and financial hucksters who begged Congress to roll back financial disclosure and anti-fraud rules that were designed to protect investors, consumers and taxpayers. It's just another "tinkle-down" economic scam written by and for Wall Street fraudsters. The law makes it easier for them to raise cash for their new business schemes by deceiving investors about the risk of loses, the true financial condition of the enterprise and the amount of capital being raked off by executives.
Read the full article at:
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/04/04
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How We're Turning America Into a Giant Casino
by Robert Reich
April 3, 2012
And then theres the Jumpstart Our Business Startups or JOBS Act, which President Obama is expected to sign into law Thursday. It allows so-called crowd funding by which people whose net worth is less than $100,000 can gamble away (invest) up to 5 percent of their annual incomes in any get-rich-quick scam (start-up) that any huckster (entrepreneur) may sell them.
Forget the usual investor disclosures or other protections. In the interest of streamlining, Congress has streamlined the way to fraud. Although start-ups will have to market themselves through third-party portals approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission, this is like limiting Bernie Madoff to making pitches over the radio. The SEC can barely keep track of Wall Street let alone thousands of Internet portals. Small wonder SEC Chair Mary Schapiro has been one of most outspoken critics of bill.
The bill was sold to Congress as a way to promote jobs (note the acronym) on the supposition that small start-ups create huge numbers of them. Wrong. That assumption comes from research by the Kauffman Foundation, which counted as a start-up job every laid-off worker who morphed into an independent contractor.
Read the full article at:
http://www.alternet.org/economy/154837/how_we%27re_turning_america_into_a_giant_casino/
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Jim Hightower: Bi-Partisan Jobs Act "It's just another economic scam written by and for Wall Street" (Original Post)
Better Believe It
Apr 2012
OP
xchrom
(108,903 posts)1. Du rec. Nt
Initech
(100,063 posts)2. They get billions - we get to fight for being the cashier at the 99 cent store. The system works.
Until we overturn Citizens United and get big money completely out of politics - you really expect anything different?
theaocp
(4,236 posts)3. wolf-pac.com
We've been trying oh, so hard to get back to slavery since it was eliminated. They all work for who pays them and we can't compete.
Recursion
(56,582 posts)4. OK, Reich is being an idiot here. Crowd funding is awesome (nt)
KG
(28,751 posts)5. Obama gave a great speech the other day.
shawn703
(2,702 posts)6. Three dimensional chess?
When people use that analogy to describe what Obama does, is he supposed to be the player or the pawn?
Chess is a game where the Pawns are sacrificed to protect the Royalty.
It only sucks if you are a Working Class Pawn.
You will know them by their WORKS,
not by their excuses.
[font size=5 color=green]Solidarity99![/font][font size=2 color=green]
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raouldukelives
(5,178 posts)7. The golden bull is never full. nt