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The widening circle applauding megamillionaire Larry Summers –of Harvard University, Washington, D.C. and Wall Street – agrees on one word to describe the colossal failure – Brilliant! That circle includes Barack Obama, who appointed Summers in 2009 to be his chief economic advisor, Bill Clinton, who made him Secretary of the Treasury, and the Harvard…
One would have thought that exposing high level criminal and other abusive behavior by government would have been received with reforms and compensation for victims. Instead, the exposed perpetrators managed the torturing and prosecution of a civil disobeying patriot as a traitor. It is time to recall the words of Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and…
When towering Paul Volcker speaks, people tend to listen. Formerly the no-nonsense chairman of the Federal Reserve, he proposed measures after the Wall Street crash of 2008 to deal with the “too big to fail” intimidations of the giant banks. With fewer gigantic banks after the Crash, Congress and Obama listened, in some measure, to…
Dear Richard, Notwithstanding the efforts of non-profit groups, including ours, reporters in the mainstream press have indicated they do not think this is a serious beat without you, Obama, Pelosi and Reid exerting serious efforts. Such is their top down mentality – instead of reporting and giving voice to the 30 million workers in the…
Senator Rand Paul is widening the difference between his father, the long-time former Congressman from Texas whose “no” votes on principle, whether you agree or not, have shaped his place in history. See his lengthy farewell address upon retiring from the House of Representatives. Ron Paul has just established the non-profit Ron Paul Institute for…
The great reporter Edward R. Murrow titled his 1960 CBS documentary Harvest of Shame on the merciless exploitation of the migrant farmworkers by the large growers and their local government allies. Over fifty years later, it is still the harvest of shame for nearly two million migrant farmworkers who follow the seasons and the crops…
In contrast to years of serious underinvestment in America’s public drinking water works that has invited takeover drives by large corporations hustling city governments, George S. Hawkins, general manager of the District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority, or DC Water for short, is leading a comeback in the nation’s Capital. A career environmentalist, Mr.…
Dear friend, Thirty million Americans are making less today, adjusted for inflation, than they did 45 years ago in 1968! If the 1968 minimum wage grew with inflation, it would be $10.67 today. Unfortunately the federal minimum wage is a miserly $7.25. According to the Economic Policy Institute, U.S. CEOs of major companies earned 18.3…
Remarks by Ralph Nader on the Passing of Helen Thomas July 20, 2013 There will never be another Helen Thomas. She shattered forever one anti-woman journalistic barrier after another in the Washington press corps and rose to the top of her profession’s organizations. Helen Thomas asked the toughest questions of Presidents and White House press…
July 17, 2013 Mayor Vincent Gray 1350 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Suite 316 Washington, D.C. 20004 Dear Mayor Gray: As you gather the relevant information for your decision on the Large Retailer Accountability Act (passed by the D.C. Council which would require big box stores pay a $12.50 (minus benefits) minimum wage) please consider one reply…