Crooked Capital Markets and the “Shareholder Value Myth”

Your browser does not support the audio tag. Try updating your browser or downloading Google Chrome or Firefox. Read the transcript: Today, you’re going to hear my interview with Lynn Stout. Now, Lynn Stout is a rock star, and I’m not saying that…you know, everybody calls people rock stars…she…

The Case Against Rahm

I wish I could be with Rahm and feel Chicago is in the hands of a tough, capable leader. But I’ve come to understand that our great city is about to re-elect a guy just as bad or worse than Rod Blagojevich. I wish I were exaggerating. If this…

What You’ve Heard About Net Neutrality is Wrong

Forget everything you’ve heard about Net Neutrality. Net Neutrality is not about content, it’s about poles. Your city is so dotted with utility poles you probably even don’t notice them. Those poles are the real reason why the FCC needed to change the rules around the Internet. To understand…

Yet Another Victory for the 1%

For 10 years, New Jersey has fought – and won – a lawsuit against Exxon Mobil for dumping refinery garbage into New Jersey’s land and water. New Jersey’s environmental protection agency said it would take $2.6 billion just to clean up the sludge and muck and that it had…

Making Money from Mass Incarceration

Please understand this: there is a whole business model where people denounce taxes and government, and then simultaneously make millions on government contracts. So, the question is never how much government should spend, because government will always spend a lot. The question is, who gets to participate in opportunities…

I’ve Read the Government’s Arguments to Screw Amazon Workers and I’m Furious

There’s a monumental case at the Supreme Court that has got me obsessed, bewitched, enraged and mildly despondent. Technically, it’s called Integrity Staffing v. Busk. It actually is Amazon v. Amazon’s warehouse workers. (Integrity Staffing is the subcontractor stooge hired by Amazon to employ its warehouse workers). After Amazon…

The SIXTH Dirtiest Job I’ve Ever Had

I have nothing to say of any merit today. I’m cranky. I’m frustrated. I’m walking up a downward moving escalator. I’m an entrepreneur. I know other entrepreneurs have days like this, because they tell me so, sometimes as their friend, sometimes as their lawyer. So, as a bit of…

Help Wanted. I’m looking for a new assistant in Chicago

I’m hiring an assistant. Profit and Laws has gotten to the point when it’s time to start hiring full time staff – no more part time contractors. I need someone to do all the stuff that eats away at my time – posting content, sending my replies, organizing seminars, formatting…

7 Years Ago, I Quit Smoking

7 years ago this week, I quit smoking. That I quit means I can do anything. I was no social smoker. I plotted every second of my life around when I got to smoke again. It was deeply embedded in my habits and instincts. I grew up in a household…

Invictus – a stirring mantra

Out of the night that covers me, Black as the pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be For my unconquerable soul. In the fell clutch of circumstance I have not winced nor cried aloud. Under the bludgeonings of chance My head is bloody, but unbowed….