Mary Bottari's News Articles

Deceptive Big Bank Ads Will be Key to Election 2010

by Mary Bottari — February 22, 2010 - 8:15am
  • Topics: Left Wing, Corporate Campaigns, Right Wing, Banking, BanksterUSA, Politics, Propaganda, Public Relations, Real Economy Project

    • Even before a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision blew the lid off corporate campaign spending, it was clear that the big banks would be key players in the 2010 election cycle.

    Unemployment will remain high, and so will resentment against the banks -- a volatile combination that will encourage savvy members of Congress to continue to fight for meaningful reform of the financial sector.

    Congress Needs to Clip Goldman's Wings

    by Mary Bottari — February 17, 2010 - 1:21pm
  • Topics: Banking, BanksterUSA, Economy, Real Economy Project, U.S. Government

    • The New York Times' front page exposé on the role that Goldman Sachs has played in the Greek tragedy unfolding in Europe right now raises a huge number of concerns both for the U.S. economy and the financial reform measures now in Congress.

    To recap, Greece and a number of other European Union (EU) countries are dangerously in debt. EU rules say member countries cannot have budget deficits that exceed three percent of GDP. Greece's debt is closer to 12 percent. Other countries including Spain, Ireland, Italy and Portugal are also in trouble. These countries are "too big to fail." A default by any one of them would rock the global markets, putting an end to the hopeful signs of an EU recovery and potentially leading to a "double dip" recession here in the United States.

    Greece and perhaps the other EU nations have been hiding the extent of the debt for years. This week, it was revealed that they have been able to do this with the aid of major U.S. players like Goldman Sachs. The German magazine Der Spiegel broke the story that Greece did a billion-dollar currency swap with Goldman Sachs in 2002 that did not show up on the nation's books as debt.

    Goldman Accused of Rigging "Robin Hood Tax" Vote

    by Mary Bottari — February 12, 2010 - 10:32am
  • Topics: Banking, BanksterUSA, Economy, Real Economy Project

    • It's really unbelievable. The way that Goldman Sachs keeps sticking its foot in it is simply unbelievable. Let's not review their gross profits and bonuses, or their many failed public relations schemes to gloss over unseemly profits, a practice we have dubbed "greedwashing". Let's simply recap this week's news.

    On Sunday, the New York Times detailed in a front-page expose' how Goldman may have hastened the demise of AIG, and perhaps the global economy, by betting that the housing market would collapse and jacking up its insurance for mortgage securities with AIG to extract more and more money from the firm as the housing market went south.

    My Big Fat Greek Bailout

    by Mary Bottari — February 9, 2010 - 8:36am

    While Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was on the talk shows reassuring America that the economy is healing, developments in Europe threatened to cut the legs out from under a U.S. recovery.

    The short story is that Greece and a number of other European Union (EU) countries are in debt, deep in debt. EU rules say member countries cannot have budget deficits that exceed three percent of GDP. Greece’s debt is closer to 12 percent.

    Groundhogs Day on Wall Street

    by Mary Bottari — February 5, 2010 - 6:43am
  • Topics: Banking, BanksterUSA, Corporations, Economy, Real Economy Project

    • On the day that Punxsutawney Phil emerged to predict a long hard winter, Americans picked up the newspaper to read that AIG, the bankrupt insurance giant, was going to pay out $100 million in bonuses to its failed financial products division. Kenneth Feinberg, President Obama’s pay czar, announced that these were “grandfathered” retention payments and that the unit had taken a $20 million dollar reduction in bonuses.

    Like Bill Murray in the classic film Groundhog Day, we are being forced to live this day over again.

    Golden Throne Award Goes to Tim Ryan, Spinmeister for U.S. Securities Industry

    by Mary Bottari — February 3, 2010 - 3:02pm
  • Topics: Banking, BanksterUSA, Corporations, Lobbying, Real Economy Project

    • The Center for Media and Democracy and BanksterUSA are pleased to present our Golden Throne Award to T. Timothy Ryan Jr., President and Chief Executive Officer of the Securities Industries and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA). SIFMA is the leading behind-the-scenes lobby group representing big banks and investment firms, as well as broker-dealers and other peddlers of financial instruments, which Warren Buffett labeled "weapons of mass destruction." SIFMA lobbies Congress and financial regulators, and handles securities-related press for some of the biggest players in the financial crisis--Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, AIG, Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, and Fidelity Investments.

    The Yes Men Punk Davos Man

    by Mary Bottari — February 1, 2010 - 4:33pm
  • Topics: BanksterUSA, Corporations, Democracy, Economy, Real Economy Project

    • Davos is a small resort town in Switzerland best known for hosting the World Economic Forum (WEF), an annual meeting of global political and business elites. Every year the biggest boosters of the "neoliberal" economic policy agenda of deregulation, unfettered global trade and strict International Monetary Fund (IMF) rules for poor countries, convene at Davos to pat each other on the back.

    Now that these policies have almost brought the world to ruin, one would expect these global titans to be self-reflective and perhaps even apologetic. Mostly they were absent.

    This Week in Banking: Root Canals, Rhetoric or Real Reform?

    by Mary Bottari — January 29, 2010 - 9:25am
  • Topics: Banking, BanksterUSA, Democracy, Economy, Lobbying, Public Relations, Real Economy Project

    • The debate over banks and banking came front and center this week. In his toughest language yet, President Barack Obama vowed to veto financial reform legislation that is not tough enough on Wall Street. "The lobbyists are already trying to kill it," Obama told Congress in his State of the Union address. "Well, we cannot let them win this fight.

    Take Action! Millions to Lose Unemployment Insurance

    by Mary Bottari — January 26, 2010 - 2:05pm
  • Topics: Banking, BanksterUSA, Economy, Labor, Real Economy Project, U.S. Government

    • While President Obama is in Washington talking about putting a freeze on government spending, soon millions of American families will be out in the cold. In one month, one million Americans are slated to lose their unemployment insurance. Millions more will follow.

    Time is Running Out for Big Ben

    by Mary Bottari — January 26, 2010 - 8:34am
  • Topics: Banking, BanksterUSA, Corporations, Economy, Real Economy Project

    • Opposition has been mounting to the reconfirmation of Ben Bernanke as Federal Reserve Chairman. In recent days, Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Russ Feingold (D-WI) and John McCain (R-AZ) announced that they would vote no. Today, Senator Tom Harkin told the DesMoines Register he would be a no vote. If Bernanke does not get a vote this week, before the formal end of his first term, it would send shock waves through Wall Street.

    Although he was named Time magazine's "Man of the Year" due to his handling of the financial crisis, Boxer and Feingold reprise a bit of forgotten history. “Dr. Bernanke played a lead role in crafting the Bush administration’s economic policies, which led to the current economic crisis. Our next Federal Reserve chairman must represent a clean break from the failed policies of the past,” said Boxer.

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