A New York Times article headline flashes Contesting Jobless Claims Becomes a Boom Industry. Yup, that's right, corporations fire people and then hire attorneys, who are assuredly expensive, just to deny you your merger unemployment check.
With a client list that reads like a roster of Fortune 500 firms, a little-known company with an odd name, the Talx Corporation, has come to dominate a thriving industry: helping employers process — and fight — unemployment claims.
Talx, which emerged from obscurity over the last eight years, says it handles more than 30 percent of the nation’s requests for jobless benefits. Pledging to save employers money in part by contesting claims, Talx helps them decide which applications to resist and how to mount effective appeals.
The critics of Health Care Reform have a point - its expensive. At least $940 Billion worth of expensive over a 10 year period, maybe more. Sure, almost all of it is off-set by taxes and fees.
But what if I was to tell you that I knew of a way to pay for it, and more, without raising taxes or making any cuts at all?
What a surprise. CBS News is reporting there will be no criminal charges against AIG.
CBS NEWS has learned that former AIG executive Joseph Cassano - the prime focus of the investigation into its collapse - will meet with Department of Justice attorneys next week in what will likely be an end to the two year criminal investigation into the company.
On The Economic Populist you might have noticed the middle column. We try to list other sites and blogs who have exceptional insight and writing on what is happening in the U.S. economy.
Sometimes though, one cannot say it better but miss those who did.
The second type of banker is much more dangerous. This person understands how to control risk within a massive organization, manage political relationships across the political spectrum, and generate the right kind of public relations. When all is said and done, this banker runs a big bank and – here’s the danger – makes it even bigger.
Jamie Dimon is by far the most dangerous American banker of this or any other recent generation.
In an letter to the Washington Post, SEC Chair Mary Schapiro calls for the need to regulate swaps, some of which you may have heard before as credit default swaps, or CDS. Boiling down what her criticisms of the financial reform legislation, her recommendations come down to:
All securities-based swaps should be regulated as securities; all commodity-based swaps should be subject to commodities laws.
Apply TRACE, a public disclosure & tracking system for debt securities, to swaps.
Use clearinghouses and exchanges in transactions for swaps.
It's Friday Night! Party Time! Time to relax, put your feet up on the couch, lay back, and watch some detailed videos on economic policy!
Bill Black, an outspoken critic of the financial sector and lack of regulation, tells it like it is. Kansas City Federal Reserve President Thomas Hoenig also is telling it like it is on Financial Reform as well as the need to restructure the U.S. economy. First, below is an interview with Bill Black. Next is a FOX (yes I know) interview with Thomas Hoenig. If you can't stomach FOX, there is an print and audio interview on the Huffington Post, or listen (last media item in this post) to the raw audio interview.
Bottom line, these two men are speaking out and speaking out loudly with some plain truth and good old fashioned common sense. Bravo!
For now, the United States is setting aside the most potentially divisive issue, deferring a decision on whether to accuse China of manipulating its currency, the renminbi, until well after Mr. Hu’s visit, according to a senior administration official. That decision, the official said, reflects a judgment that threatening China is not the best way to persuade it to allow the renminbi to appreciate against the dollar.
Many economists expect China to act on its own to loosen the tight link between the renminbi and the dollar — a policy that keeps the currency’s value depressed and makes Chinese exports more competitive in global markets.
It's Friday Night! Party Time! Time to relax, put your feet up on the couch, lay back, and watch some detailed videos on economic policy!
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