Submitted by Mary Bottari on August 25, 2010 - 10:29am.
Some will rob you with a six gun and some with a fountain pen – Woodie Guthrie
Like mushrooms popping up in a damp basement, a slew of court settlements have been registered recently involving the big banks and their role in the financial crisis. An informal review of settlements over the last two years reveals about 16 multi-million dollar payouts from the big banks amounting to some $1.6 billion in fines and restitution and $13 billion in buybacks of auction-rate securities that were represented to be as safe as cash.
Sounds impressive, doesn’t it? But when fines are stacked up against an elite white-collar crime spree worth trillions, it is a little less impressive.
Broad Array of Crimes Revealed
A review of the settlements shows an array of fraudulent and illegal actions.
* Predatory, deceptive and abusive lending related to mortgages
* Securities fraud, including creating investment vehicles designed to fail
* Accounting fraud
* Brokerage fraud
* Bribery of government officials
* Undisclosed conflict of interest in financial analysis and advice
* Lying to shareholders and investors
* Robbing consumers with abusive overdraft fees
* Robbing homeowners by overcharging them by hundreds or thousands of dollars, when they were already in bankruptcy and foreclosure
A review of cases reveals a pattern: no admission of wrongdoing, earnest promises to do a better job and a fine representing a fraction of the infraction. Because the fine is paid by shareholders, no one is held accountable and the whole incident is swept under the rug. to read much more: http://www.prwatch.org/node/9388
Thursday 26 August 2010
Link to Center for Media and Democracy - Will Perpetrators of Financial Crimes Ever Face Justice?
Monday 23 August 2010
Blog link - OJB - Mapping global events in a local way: BBC Dimensions
This is one of the best BBC projects I’ve seen in a while: Dimensions maps key events, places and things such as the Pakistan floods, the Gulf oil spill and the Afghanistan-Pakistan border – over your postcode.It’s a simple idea, but hugely effective.The prototype comes not from the corporation’s News arm – it was commissioned by History. Commissioning Executive for the Multi-Platform Team Max Gadney writes:
“Our challenge was to make it relevant to audiences.“This is a common desire. Commissioning editors often want stuff ‘made relevant’ – TV producers might translate this as putting a celebrity in it – one we can relate to (Who Do You Think You Are does this very well). How does digital media make something relevant?”Currently this is a prototype, so feedback is welcomed. I hope that News will be rubbing their hands at the potential applications and making their own suggestions for improvements on those lines.For once we may be able to stop comparing things to the size of Wales. Unless, of course, you have a Welsh postcode.to read more: [link]
Saturday 21 August 2010
Blog Link - Greenslade - Fox News (and The Times) silent on News Corp's $1m Republican party donation
Roy Greenslade blog - News Corporation's $1m donation to the Republican Party has, unsurprisingly, attracted a lot of media comment in the States.
But, as several journalists have pointed out, the news appears to have slipped under the Fox News radar. The conservative News Corp TV outlet hardly touched on the story, let alone had one of its right-wing pundits comment on the fact.
Would the Fox boys have been so silent, asks Eric Boehlert rhetorically, if the New York Times had given $1m to the Democratic Party? (Incidentally, I couldn't find any mention of the donation in The Times - of London - in print or online).
to read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/greenslade/2010/aug/20/news-corporation-fox-news
But, as several journalists have pointed out, the news appears to have slipped under the Fox News radar. The conservative News Corp TV outlet hardly touched on the story, let alone had one of its right-wing pundits comment on the fact.
Would the Fox boys have been so silent, asks Eric Boehlert rhetorically, if the New York Times had given $1m to the Democratic Party? (Incidentally, I couldn't find any mention of the donation in The Times - of London - in print or online).
to read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/greenslade/2010/aug/20/news-corporation-fox-news
Tuesday 17 August 2010
News - Privacy law to stop rise in gagging orders by judges
Britain could get its first ever privacy law to stop judges creating one by stealth through the courts, a justice minister said.
By Christopher Hope, Whitehall Editor
17 Aug 2010
In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Lord McNally suggested that the right to privacy could be enshrined in law after a number of celebrities were awarded so-called “super-injunctions” to gag the press.
But campaigners for freedom of speech will fear that any new privacy law could frustrate investigations by journalists that are clearly in the public interest, such as The Daily Telegraph’s inquiry last year into MPs’ expenses.
Lord McNally, a Liberal Democrat minister in the Ministry of Justice, was speaking after a spate of gagging orders on the press — which have been criticised in some cases for protecting the wealthy — were ordered by the courts.
Injunctions and super-injunctions — so called because even their existence cannot be reported — have been used by sportsmen such as golfers Colin Montgomerie and Tiger Woods, and John Terry, the former England football captain, to protect their privacy.
Last Friday, a leading Premier League footballer won a High Court injunction to prevent the publication of claims about his private life.
Lord McNally said: “There has been a general consensus that a new piece of legislation that clarifies, consolidates and removes some of the more dangerous aspects of the way case law has grown up is something that is desirable.”
to read more:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/7949432/Privacy-law-to-stop-rise-in-gagging-orders-by-judges.html
By Christopher Hope, Whitehall Editor
17 Aug 2010
In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Lord McNally suggested that the right to privacy could be enshrined in law after a number of celebrities were awarded so-called “super-injunctions” to gag the press.
But campaigners for freedom of speech will fear that any new privacy law could frustrate investigations by journalists that are clearly in the public interest, such as The Daily Telegraph’s inquiry last year into MPs’ expenses.
Lord McNally, a Liberal Democrat minister in the Ministry of Justice, was speaking after a spate of gagging orders on the press — which have been criticised in some cases for protecting the wealthy — were ordered by the courts.
Injunctions and super-injunctions — so called because even their existence cannot be reported — have been used by sportsmen such as golfers Colin Montgomerie and Tiger Woods, and John Terry, the former England football captain, to protect their privacy.
Last Friday, a leading Premier League footballer won a High Court injunction to prevent the publication of claims about his private life.
Lord McNally said: “There has been a general consensus that a new piece of legislation that clarifies, consolidates and removes some of the more dangerous aspects of the way case law has grown up is something that is desirable.”
to read more:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/7949432/Privacy-law-to-stop-rise-in-gagging-orders-by-judges.html
Thursday 12 August 2010
News - Top current affairs titles all put on sales
12 August 2010
All of the top three biggest-selling news and current affairs magazines in the UK grew their sales in the first half of this year.
Fortnightly satire title Private Eye remained top, growing 0.5 per cent year on year to an average circulation of 207,680.
Weekly current affairs giant The Economist grew 4.2 per cent to 195,244 in the UK and The Week continued its blockbuster run of ABC increases rising 6.7 per cent to 176,680.
The January to June ABC audit period includes the May UK general election which is likely to have helped increase sales in the current affairs sector.
Barclay brothers-owned right of centre weekly, The Spectator, lost sales year on year for a third successive period. It has now dropped from an all-time peak of 77,146 in the first half of 2008 to the current total of 70,366.High brow current affairs monthly Prospect was the fastest growing current affairs title in the first half of this year, up 10.3 per cent to 30,480.http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=45845&c=1
All of the top three biggest-selling news and current affairs magazines in the UK grew their sales in the first half of this year.
Fortnightly satire title Private Eye remained top, growing 0.5 per cent year on year to an average circulation of 207,680.
Weekly current affairs giant The Economist grew 4.2 per cent to 195,244 in the UK and The Week continued its blockbuster run of ABC increases rising 6.7 per cent to 176,680.
The January to June ABC audit period includes the May UK general election which is likely to have helped increase sales in the current affairs sector.
Barclay brothers-owned right of centre weekly, The Spectator, lost sales year on year for a third successive period. It has now dropped from an all-time peak of 77,146 in the first half of 2008 to the current total of 70,366.High brow current affairs monthly Prospect was the fastest growing current affairs title in the first half of this year, up 10.3 per cent to 30,480.http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=45845&c=1
