“An examination of Sterling Construction Company, the only publicly-traded company to receive a contract to build a border wall prototype, reveals that Trump-connected Wall Street investors from across the political spectrum stand to benefit financially from the wall.2 Investors in Sterling include far-right funder Robert Mercer and his firm Renaissance Technologies, as well as BlackRock and JP Morgan Chase, led by Democratic donors Larry Fink and Jamie Dimon, respectively. Sterling’s prototype contract appears to already be benefiting its shareholders by helping to drive up its share price to the highest levels in years.” More …
Month: November 2017
GOP Tax Bill Could Trigger a $25 Billion Cut to Medicare
“Republicans are trying to pass a $1.5 trillion tax cut — which the Congressional Budget Office said Tuesday could trigger a sequestration across some major mandatory spending programs, like Medicare, federal student loans, and agriculture subsidies, and even some funding for customs and border patrol.” More …
Wells Fargo Overcharged Clients on Foreign Exchange Rates: Report
“Scandal strikes Wells Fargo yet again. The bank overcharged their corporate clients on foreign exchanges and levied hefty transactions fees through ingrained practices that rewarded employees for raking in the cash, according to a Wall Street Journal report.” More …
GOP Tax Plan Rattles Higher Education
“Congressional Republicans’ plans to slap unprecedented new taxes on higher education have left college leaders shocked and scrambling — the latest salvo in what some observers say is a growing culture war on a higher education system seen as elitist and out of touch.” More …
Trump’s Tax Promises Undercut by CEO Plans to Help Investors
“Major companies including Cisco Systems, Inc., Pfizer, Inc. and Coco Cola Co., say they’ll turn over most gains from proposed corporate tax cuts to their shareholders, undercutting President Donald Trump’s promise that his plan will create jobs and boost wages for the middle class.” More …
Ex-Con Coal Baron Don Blankenship Is Running for U.S. Senate
“Blankenship’s candidacy is big news in West Virginia, where he is a well-known and deeply polarizing figure who spent decades as a ruthless advocate for the coal industry. If people in the rest of the country know Blankenship, it’s likely because of his 2015 conviction for conspiring to break mine-safety laws, leading to the 2010 disaster at the Upper Big Branch Mine. Twenty-nine men died in an explosion there, but Blankenship refused to shoulder any of the blame. While in prison, he wrote a 67-page booklet in which he claimed to be an “American political prisoner” and arguing that the deadliest mine disaster in four decades was caused by natural factors.” More …
Moody’s Warns Cities to Address Climate Risks or Face Downgrades
“Coastal communities from Maine to California have been put on notice from one of the top credit rating agencies: Start preparing for climate change or risk losing access to cheap credit.” More …
State Department Scraps Sanctions Office
“The Trump administration was three weeks late on a Russia sanctions deadline. But it’s killed the office that coordinates them.” More …
The Republican Plan Is the Opposite of Tax Reform
“A well-designed tax reform would take multiple times as long to write as the Republicans are allotting themselves. The Tax Reform Act of 1986 began two years earlier. The Republicans are rushing their plan through Congress in weeks, in part to avoid the potential loss of a Senate vote in Alabama, and in part because they understand that extended public debate and scrutiny of their already-unpopular plan would only subject them to more public backlash.” More …
“It’s a Ponzi Scheme”: Wall Street Fears Trump’s Deranged Tax Plan Could Kick Off Economic Euthanasia
Wall Street vets say an attack on blue states could start a chain reaction in the housing market. “Will this be the first tax cut in American history that actually results in a recession?” More …