A Saving Grace

In a day and age where most politicians are known for being untrustworthy, greedy, power-hungry people, there is a beautiful beam of light shining out across the sky. Harvard Law Professor and Special Advisor for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Elizabeth Warren is almost too good to be true. She is an incredibly experienced and highly intelligent woman who is fighting for middle class America. And she’s passionate about it because she believes in doing what is right. Warren’s focus is on regulating the big financial institutions by bringing back the effective, necessary laws that ensure safer, more manageable lending for average American families. This includes everyday things like mortgages, credit cards, and car loans. These were highly regulated for many years until the big institutions realized they could trick people with fine print, and profit from it!! So now, the big CEOs on Wall Street are screwing the American people, the exact same people that saved their butts not long ago with bail-outs. Their thinking is so crooked that they can’t stop stealing money from honest Americans - hiking up interest rates and adding fine-print to everything. So many times, the consumer has no idea what they are getting themselves in to. Warren says this just isn’t fair, “Nobody can tell the price of a credit card... What [the CFPB] really wants to do is make prices clear, risks clear, and get rid of the fine print.” Common sense, right? Well, naturally, those CEOs are mad! They have been lining up, with bankers, politicians and many Republicans, to attack Warren in hopes of stopping her. These businesses have been making tens of billions of dollars by preying on customers and now she is saying enough is enough. Warren is a threat to them, but don’t think she is intimidated, “[I am] playing a lot of defense to keep the [CFPB] strong and alive… [I am] always ready.”

Elizabeth Warren’s current work is really extraordinary. She is standing up to the “big boys” and working to save our nation. I, for one, am thankful!

Commentary on a Colluege's Work

Mr. Richard,
I completely agree with your comments on the secrecy of the government. They are always hiding something. Always trying to pull a fast one on the American public. And we never seem to get quite angry enough to ever make them stop. I actually don’t think that will ever happen.
Every election there are big, bright promises that we always seem to fall for. It’s nothing new - lower taxes, improving the education system, Social Security reform, and/ or getting us out of the economic slump. And America is so happy that this saving-grace has come along, only to find out it was all a bunch of bull! Then, shortly thereafter we end up passively accepting their explanation of, “What I meant by that was...” .
I was also happy to see that you pointed out that the government is so easy to blame. The big, bad government can be at fault for practically anything. It makes it incredibly easy for Americans to “give up”. There are numerous groups that are trying to make a change every day yet most people don’t even care. They will complain about the crappy government as they sit on their couch and watch American Idol.
Like I said, I don’t know if this will ever truly change and I must admit that the whole topic hurts my head, but I appreciated reading your take on the issue. In my mind, if every American just put the slightest bit of effort, even 5 or 10 percent, into learning/ keeping up with news and politics, then the world would be a better place. But I guess that just as unrealistic as all those empty promises!!

"Everything That's Wrong with Corporate Power Today"

The fact that President Obama is still standing behind Jeffery Immelt, Chairman of the Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, after this month’s developments is devastating. Immelt is General Electric’s CEO and, in the past few years, he has successfully cut jobs in America while outsourcing many others overseas. In this time he has also doubled his own salary and is imminently expected to ask 15,000 GE employees to accept massive pay cuts.
In 2010 GE made $14 billion in profits ($5 billion in the US alone) yet paid ZERO DOLLARS in federal taxes. Yes, zero dollars and zero cents. And this was after a $3.2 billion bail-out was issued to the company. It’s hard to understand how taxpayers helped out GE when they were in major trouble, and now GE has worked hard to find loopholes to screw us in return. One of Immelt’s many justifications for this atrocity is that GE has paid over $14 billion in taxes over the past five years... Oh, that’s right, I’ve paid my taxes for the past fives years too so I deserve one year off as well. I don’t think so. That’s not how this works!! Under Immelt, GE spends hundreds of millions of dollars hiring lawyers to evade taxes, and I guess it has paid off. Article after article, I am still amazed every time I read these facts.
And let’s not forget that Obama has just recently named Mr. Immelt Chairman of the CJC. The Council on Jobs and Competitiveness was created to strengthen the Nation’s economy and find new ways of creating jobs - not really something I can see Immelt being successful at considering his performance history. Somehow the President still believes he should support Immelt even though he seems to be the very thing Mr. Obama says he is against. Obama even continues to say that GE is a “model” company.
Jeffrey Immelt is a disgrace, and President Obama needs to wake up and let him go!