IRS Makes Americans International Pariahs
As the Internal Revenue Service continues its hunt for tax dodgers, Swiss banks are refusing to open accounts for Americans and closing the ones that already exist. The tax collectors aim...
Sectors
Wal-Mart Backs Employer Insurance Mandate
Wal-Mart on June 30 sent a letter to President Barack Obama stating its support for the federal government forcing all employers to provide insurance for their employees. ...
Panel Rules Against Chinese Tire Imports
On June 18, the U.S. International Trade Commission ruled 4-2 that China was flooding the U.S. market with low-cost tires. The United Steelworkers Union filed the complaint, saying 5,100 U.S. workers...
Proposed Financial & Insurance Regulations
On June 17, President Barack Obama proposed sweeping changes to federal regulation of financial markets. Bloomberg.com called it “the biggest overhaul of market rules in more than seven decades.” ...
Chrysler-Fiat Bailout Cost: $870,000 Per Job Saved
Last week’s Chrysler-Fiat alliance cements a total federal commitment of $33.48 billion in federal loans and aid to the Chrysler Corporation, its suppliers, and Chrysler Financial. The billions were committed through...
Chrysler Bankruptcy & Political “Fiat”
All you need to know about the dynamics behind the Chrysler-Fiat “Alliance” being pushed by the White House — and temporarily stayed by the U.S. Supreme Court on June 8 —...
Chrysler-Fiat Deal: U.S. Government as “God”
The June 6 Wall Street Journal has reported that the U.S. federal government pressured Chrysler into a post-bankruptcy deal with Italian carmaker Fiat, a pressure that had at least one Chrysler...
Good and Bad News on May Unemployment
The oft-repeated line that “I have good news, and I have bad news” applies to the U.S. Labor Department’s latest figures on unemployment and job losses, though the first part should...
Details of GM Bankruptcy Emerge
More information about GM’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy is beginning to emerge. The Kansas City Star reported on June 2 that this is “the biggest such filing by an industrial manufacturer and...
GM Files Chapter 11 Bankruptcy
After years of suspense, the bankruptcy that surprises nobody is finally official. One of America’s largest and proudest corporations, GM, has filed for Chapter 11 protection in what is being billed...
UAW, Feds Gain Control of Chrysler
In order to meet government out-of-court restructuring demands and to be eligible for more government financing, Chrysler agreed last week to a deal that gave the United Auto Workers union 55...
Chrysler Bankruptcy Another Taxpayer Bailout
The handwriting has been on the wall for Chrysler for many, many years, but it appears that the storied 84-year-old automotive corporation, almost three decades after its last government bailout under...
Specter of Bank Nationalization Looms
The Obama administration is still thinking bank nationalization. In the latest twist to the saga of troubled American megabanks, the New York Times reported on April 19 that administration officials are...
The Treasury Department’s Titanic Takeover
It's official: the Obama administration intends to nationalize the entire financial sector. If there were any lingering doubts as to the intentions of President Barack Obama and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner,...
The New GM: Government Made
There's something fundamentally wrong with the world when a country known for being the very embodiment of Old World socialism — Sweden — serves up an object lesson in capitalism to...