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  • Current Event
    7 years ago
    by drunkenninja
    +22 +1

    Ed Miliband says Panama Papers show ‘wealth does not trickle down’

    Ed Miliband has said the revelations in the leaked Panama Papers provide evidence that wealth does not trickle down in society – rather, it gets “stashed”. Speaking two weeks after the huge cache of documents were revealed, detailing the tax affairs of thousands of wealthy individuals worldwide, the former Labour leader said the leak proved the common assumption about capitalism to be false. 

  • Current Event
    7 years ago
    by Pfennig88
    +29 +1

    Congress May Finally Outlaw “Gag Clauses” That Block Customers From Writing Negative Reviews

    Last December, it looked like federal lawmakers were getting serious about so-called “non-disparagement” or “gag” clauses in consumer contracts that forbid customers from saying anything negative about a purchase or transaction. The U.S. Senate quickly passed a bipartisan bill that would outlaw the practice, but the legislation has idled in the House since. However, a new, virtually identical bill may finally be evidence of movement on this issue.

  • Current Event
    7 years ago
    by doodlegirl
    +24 +1

    Cable company overcharges might be even worse than you realized

    Charter and its new subsidiary Time Warner Cable (TWC) have been overcharging customers at least $7.2 million per year for equipment and service, a US Senate investigation has found. Time Warner Cable over-billed customers nationwide an estimated $639,948 between January and April of this year, which projects to a yearly total of $1,919,844. Charter, meanwhile, "informed the [Senate's investigative] Subcommittee that it over-billed customers by at least $442,691 per month," the report said.

  • Current Event
    7 years ago
    by geoleo
    +32 +1

    HSBC avoided US money laundering charges because of 'market risk' fears

    US officials refused to prosecute HSBC for money laundering in 2012 because of concerns within the Department of Justice that it would cause a "global financial disaster", a report says. A US Congressional report revealed UK officials, including Chancellor George Osborne, added to pressure by warning the US it could lead to market turmoil. The report alleges the UK "hampered" the probe and "influenced" the outcome. HSBC was accused of letting drug cartels use US banks to launder funds. The bank, which has its headquarters in London, paid...

  • Current Event
    7 years ago
    by TNY
    +7 +1

    States win the right to limit municipal broadband, beating FCC in court

    The Federal Communications Commission has lost in an attempt to preempt state laws that restrict the growth of municipal broadband networks. The FCC in February 2015 voted to block laws in North Carolina and Tennessee that prevent municipal broadband providers from expanding outside their territories. The FCC, led by Chairman Tom Wheeler, claimed it could preempt the laws because Congress authorizes the commission to promote telecom competition by removing barriers to investment.

  • Current Event
    7 years ago
    by weekendhobo
    +9 +1

    Industry insiders estimate EpiPen costs no more than $30

    Mylan says middlemen and suppliers have forced them to jack-up the prices on EpiPens by hundreds of dollars, but two industry insiders say the company pays no more than $30 per device. Meanwhile, some patients are forced to pay a little over $600 out of pocket for a two-pack of the lifesaving medication. Mylan sparked outrage last month when it was revealed the company had hiked up costs for the drug by over 400 percent since it acquired the brand. At the same time, CEO Heather Bresch's salary soared over 600 percent to nearly $19 million in 2015.

  • Current Event
    7 years ago
    by lostwonder
    +8 +1

    Brazil Congress expels ex-speaker Eduardo Cunha

    Eduardo Cunha faces possible arrest after losing his congressional immunity for lying about secret Swiss bank accounts.

  • Current Event
    7 years ago
    by Vandertoolen
    +27 +1

    Essential fish stocks in Africa raided to make farm feed for the West

    Vital fish stocks destined for human mouths in West Africa are being pillaged by foreign meat companies to feed pig, chicken and salmon farms on the other side of the world, an investigation for The Independent has found. Soaring global demand for meat is forcing producers to scour new frontiers in the search to produce animal feed ingredients for their factory farms, with omega 3-rich fish, such as sardines from Senegalese waters, increasingly on their target list.

  • Current Event
    7 years ago
    by drunkenninja
    +18 +1

    US companies are 'hoarding' a record $2.5 trillion in cash overseas

    The amount of overseas cash is the highest in history, and it is unlikely to come back.

  • Analysis
    7 years ago
    by rexall
    +4 +1

    America's Monopoly Problem

    Botanists define a rheophyte as an aquatic plant that thrives in swift-moving water. Coming from the Greek word rhéos, meaning a flow or stream, the term describes plants with wide roots and flexible stalks, well adapted to strong currents rather than a pond’s or pasture’s stillness. For most of the 20th century, U.S. lawmakers worked to maintain just these sorts of conditions for the U.S. economy—a dynamic system, briskly flowing, that forced firms to adapt to the unpredictable currents of the free market or be washed away.

  • Expression
    7 years ago
    by bradd
    +37 +1

    Corporations running the world used to be science fiction – Now it's a reality

    Imagine a world in which all of the main functions of society are run for-profit by private companies. Schools are run by multinationals. Private security firms have replaced police forces. And most big infrastructure lies in the hands of a tiny plutocratic elite. Justice, such as it is, is meted out by shady corporate tribunals only accessible to the rich, who can easily escape the reach of limited national judicial systems. The poor, on the other hand, have almost no recourse against the mighty will of the remote corporate elite as they are chased off their land and forced into further penury.

  • Current Event
    7 years ago
    by TNY
    +25 +1

    PepsiCo misleads buyers of Naked juice: lawsuit

    PepsiCo Inc has been accused in a lawsuit of misleading shoppers into believing its Naked juices and smoothies primarily contain "high-value" ingredients such as kale, when the main ingredient is often cheaper, less nutritious apple juice. According to a complaint filed on Tuesday in the Brooklyn, New York federal court, PepsiCo emblazons healthy fruits and vegetables on Naked labels, and touts how the drinks have "no sugar added," when they actually contain roughly as much sugar as a can of Pepsi.

  • Analysis
    7 years ago
    by AdelleChattre
    +37 +1

    EFF: The Battle Against TPP Isn’t Over, But It Has Shifted

    With President-elect Trump’s victory last night, the last hopes of the Obama administration passing the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) during the lame duck session of Congress have evaporated.... We’re calling it: today is the day the TPP died. Nevertheless, the battle against the deal is not over...

  • Current Event
    7 years ago
    by hedman
    +27 +1

    Billions in damage, but no charges: How U.S. banks pay for protection

    The list is long and shameful. The Wachovia Bank helped launder hundreds of millions for Mexican drug cartels. Wells Fargo illegally created nearly two million fake accounts and then charged customers service fees for them. Barclay’s Bank executives manipulated and fixed international interest rates for its own profits. The U.S. operations of Deutsche Bank created over one billion dollars in fake mortgages.

  • Expression
    7 years ago
    by jcscher
    +13 +1

    Trump Advisors Aim to Privatize Oil-Rich Indian Reservations

    Native American reservations cover just 2 percent of the United States, but they may contain about a fifth of the nation’s oil and gas, along with vast coal reserves.

  • Current Event
    7 years ago
    by darvinhg
    +31 +1

    FCC lets “billion-dollar” ISPs hide fees and data caps, Democrat says

    ISPs with 250,000 or fewer subscribers won't have to follow rules that require greater disclosures about fees and data caps after a vote today by the Federal Communications Commission. The FCC's Republican majority approved the change to help small providers avoid "onerous reporting obligations" included in the 2015 net neutrality order, they said. But by setting the threshold at 250,000 subscribers and exempting small ISPs owned by larger companies, the FCC is effectively "exempt[ing] billion-dollar public companies" from rules that can be complied with in mere hours each year, said Mignon Clyburn, the FCC's only Democrat.

  • Analysis
    7 years ago
    by lostwonder
    +24 +1

    Congress May Undo Rule That Pushes Firms To Keep Good Safety Records

    Labor statistics specialists under George W. Bush and Barack Obama warn that if the safety regulation is repealed, record keeping on worker injuries will become less accurate and less reliable.

  • Current Event
    7 years ago
    by geoleo
    +30 +1

    Five Creepy Things Your ISP Could Do if Congress Repeals the FCC’s Privacy Protections

    Why are we so worried about Congress repealing the FCC’s privacy rules for ISPs? Because we’ve seen ISPs do some disturbing things in the past to invade their users’ privacy. Here are five examples of creepy practices that could make a resurgence if we don’t stop Congress now. Call Congress and help keep creepy ISP practices a thing of the past! 5. Selling your data to marketers Which ISPs did it before? We don’t know—but they’re doing it as you read this! It’s no secret that many ISPs think they’re sitting on a gold mine of user data that they want to sell to marketers.

  • Current Event
    6 years ago
    by Nelson
    +15 +1

    No, wealth isn’t created at the top. It is merely devoured there

    This piece is about one of the biggest taboos of our times. About a truth that is seldom acknowledged, and yet – on reflection – cannot be denied. The truth that we are living in an inverse welfare state. These days, politicians from the left to the right assume that most wealth is created at the top. By the visionaries, by the job creators, and by the people who have “made it”. By the go-getters oozing talent and entrepreneurialism that are helping to advance the whole world.

  • Current Event
    6 years ago
    by cone
    +25 +1

    Pharmaceutical giant 'plotted to destroy cancer drugs to drive prices up 4000 per cent'

    Leaked internal emails appear to show employees at one of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies calling for “celebration” over price hikes of cancer drugs, an investigation has revealed. Staff at Aspen Pharmacare reportedly plotted to destroy stocks of life-saving medicines during a price dispute with the Spanish health service in 2014. After purchasing five different cancer drugs from British firm GlaxoSmithKline (GSK)...