Matt Taibbi: Why Isn’t Wall Street in Jail?

Matt Taibbi has made Rolling Stone relevant again and a must read publication.

From Alternet: http://www.alternet.org/economy/150056/matt_taibbi%3A_why_isn%27t_wall_street_in_jail/

Rolling Stone’s Taibbi explains how the American people have been defrauded by Wall St. investors and how the financial crisis is tied to Wisconsin.

February 25, 2011

Nobody goes to jail,” “writes Matt Taibbi in his the new issue of Rolling Stone magazine. “This is the mantra of the financial-crisis era, one that saw virtually every major bank and financial company on Wall Street embroiled in obscene criminal scandals that impoverished millions andcollectively destroyed hundreds of billions, in fact, trillions of dollars of the world’s wealth.” Here is the complete interview from which we played an excerpt on our Feb. 22 show. Taibbi explains how the American people have been defrauded by Wall Street investors and how the financial crisis is connected to the situations in states such as Wisconsin and Ohio.

AMY GOODMAN: We turn now to Matt Taibbi. But before I do, let me read a sentence from a recent paper by Dean Baker, who concludes, “Most of the pension shortfall using the current methodology is attributable to the plunge in the stock market in the years 2007-2009. If pension funds had earned returns just equal to the interest rate on 30-year Treasury bonds in the three years since 2007, their assets would be more than $850 billion greater than they are today.”

And this—he quotes David Cay Johnston of tax.com: “The average Wisconsin pension is $24,500 a year, which is hardly lavish. But what is stunning is that 15% of the money contributed to the fund each year is going to Wall Street in fees,” which is why we now ask the question, “Why isn’t Wall Street in jail?”

Actually, that’s the title of reporter Matt Taibbi’s new article for Rolling Stone magazine. In the piece, Matt writes, quote, “Nobody goes to jail. This is the mantra of the financial-crisis era, one that saw virtually every major bank and financial company on Wall Street embroiled in obscene criminal scandals that impoverished millions and collectively destroyed hundreds of billions, in fact, trillions of dollars of the world’s wealth.”

Continue reading at: http://www.alternet.org/economy/150056/matt_taibbi%3A_why_isn%27t_wall_street_in_jail/

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Exclusive: Non-partisan ‘US Uncut’ group demands corporations pay taxes

From Raw Story: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/02/25/us-uncut-non-partisan-group-demands-corporations-pay-their-taxes/

By Sahil Kapur
Friday, February 25th, 2011

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WASHINGTON – Corporate tax evasion has evolved into a virtual art form. Two-thirds of US corporations didn’t pay so much as a dime in taxes between 1998 and 2005, exploiting a multitude of loopholes, according to a Congressional report.

Targeting corporations who evade taxes turned out to be quite the anti-austerity rallying cry in England, where a new prime minister is pushing painful cuts for working people.

Now, that same rallying cry is going out across the United States, where the anti-spending tea party movement has in recent years overshadowed the voices of those who want government to be more active on behalf of the middle class.

A new non-partisan group called US Uncut — named after UK Uncut — aims in part to challenge the tea party’s push for lower corporate taxes. They instead want Congress stop letting wealthy corporations dodge their taxes.

“This is an issue that has been ignored for way too long,” Carl Gibson, a US Uncut spokesman, told Raw Story. “Congress has been chipping away and chipping away at corporate responsibility to pay taxes.”

“And now it’s gotten to the point where the middle class is being sacrificed on the altar of deficit reduction, while big corporations are getting away with not paying any taxes at all.”

Continue reading at:  http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/02/25/us-uncut-non-partisan-group-demands-corporations-pay-their-taxes/