The American Monetary Institute has undertaken to study the structural problems with the US economy, and to offer solutions. Take a look at their proposal. The US Treasury would issue the currency, instead of borrowing it from the Federal Reserve. Our economy would no longer be based entirely on debt.
Dennis Kucinich is going [...]Sarbanes-Oxley is the most important federal business regulation law to pass during the Bush administration. Earlier this year, I reported on a case that proves this law is both necessary and effective. An insurance company, AIG, had to take a writedown of almost five billion dollars as a result of auditing and reporting mandated by [...]
The Government Accountability Office just published a study that compares corporate taxes of US and foreign cororations. It finds that 28% of big US corporations don’t pay income taxes.
Raising corporate taxes might not raise government revenue. Check out this paper. It includes IRS data that shows how much corporate tax revenue declined as [...]Auction Rate Bonds have been marketed by Wall Street as a safe and liquid alternative to cash. They were not. Last February these auctions started to fail. Investors couldn’t get their money when they needed it. In the last few days, UBS Citigroup and Merrill Lynch agreed to buy back about thirty seven billion dollars. [...]
Glass-Steagall is a banking law that was passed as part of the New Deal 75 years ago. This law required banks to choose between being commercial or investment banks. It was repealed in 1999 at the end of the Clinton era. Why should we think about old banking regulations? Because the financial system is in [...]
Personally, I agree that the American economy is in big trouble. I agree that the government ought to take drastic steps to avert a washout. There are a number of aspects of "The Foreclosure Prevention Act" that I approve of. On the whole, however, it seems to me that this legislation is likely to do [...]
Sarbanes-Oxley is the most invasive business regulation of the new century. It is enormously complicated. It was designed to prevent many of the abuses of the Enron era, particularly those related to accounting and the ethical duties of corporate boards of directors. Sarbanes-Oxley is based on public disclosure of company information. Sarbanes-Oxley appears to be [...]
The Stoneridge decision is a huge win for investment banks, accountants and vendors. It’s a big loss for those who lose money on stocks issued by companies that commit fraud. The facts in the case were not in dispute. A cable TV company persuaded Scientific-Atlanta and Motorola, two commercial sellers of cable-TV boxes, to jack [...]
