Profits Not People

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…

Let me get this straight. Five giant banks set up a secret chat room where they fraudulently changed the EURO-Dollar exchange rate to profit on currency trades. And the only punishment is paying $5.7 billion of shareholder money? Prison. Send the men who did this and the officers who should…

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…

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…

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…

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…

Another opportunity for craven profiteers: drug testing. Another state made its hungry pass a drug test before it let them eat (because, apparently, people on drugs don’t deserve food). Turns out, 16,000 people peed in a cup and … 37 of them had drugs in their system. Now, many…

Getting ripped off by your manager is a fundamental and shameful part of Rock ‘n’ Roll history for many musicians. Add Sly Stone to the list. Beginning in 1976, he started signing his rights away to people he trusted. A jury has just decided that several of those trusted…

For every dollar we cut out of the IRS budget, we lose $6 in collected taxes. Since 2011, when the Republicans took over the House, 12,000 IRS jobs have been cut and another 4,000 job cuts are coming. Now, the IRS budget is at the same level it was…

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…