BP Getting Off the Hook Two Years After Oil Spill

Two years after BP was responsible for the Gulf Oil Spill which killed 11 people and left potentially irreversible damage to marine life, it is lobbying against Congress taking action to rstrict offshore oil drilling.  With the help of mostly Republicans in Congress, oil companies lobbied in 2010 against provisions to lift the liability for oil spills from $75 million to $10 billion after the Gulf disaster.  President Obama wanted unlimited liability for companies involved in oil spills, but the Senate filibustered the raising of the liability cap.  Last year, BP made $8.43 million in lobbying expenditures aimed at protecting its tax breaks on its $26 billion in profits.  Even in a highly partisan environment, one thing that the vast majority if Americans agree on is that no company that destroys the environment should be allowed to make huge profits, pay their executives lavishly, and lobby Congress to stop legislation designed to hold companies like BP accountable for disasters like the Gulf Oil Spill.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/12/bp-oil-spill-gulf-of-mexico-oil-lobbyists_n_1335556.html

Laid-off Older Workers Have Bleak Outlook

People who are 55 years or older and are unemployed spend an average of 54.1 weeks in unemployment.  One of these workers, Tom Magnone of Liberty Township, Ohio said he has filed applications for 920 different jobs.  Sometimes workers have to rely on temporary work when possible to make ends meet.  Compared to younger workers, older ones more often spent half of a year in unemployment even before the economic downturn.  Therefore, age discrimination has been a problem.  This helps widen income inequality as jobless older workers cannot make ends meet and younger workers often get paid less than older employed workers.  Meanwhile, CEOs and the upper tenth of the Top 1% continue to take home record paychecks.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/09/jobs-report-unemployment-older-workers_n_1333699.html

Romney Supporter: Billionaires Have Too Little Political Influence

Ken Griffin, a Chicago-based billionaire hedge fund manager, is a Mitt Romney supporter who thinks the super-rich have an "insufficient influence" over American politics, even though he thinks politicians should pay so much attention to CEOs.  He also believes the Obama Administration is at fault for the social unrest over income inequality and that China is pulling people out of poverty by embracing policies favoring the private sector.  He also believes that there is nothing wrong with billionaires, hedge fund managers, and other super-wealthy individuals spending unlimited amounts of money to influence elections.  It took a fraction of this campaign spending to get policies that benefit only the upper part of the top 1% and these lack of spending limits are designed to keep the system from changing.  Although he thinks companies should not directly harm others, he does not want government picking which businesses succeed and which ones fail.  But, he is out of touch by applying this way of thinking to this recent Chicago coal plant closings.  In response to the overwhelming neighborhood and community pressure to shut them down, he does not believe that "the company that injures people to be shut down and for the government to start a competing enterprise."  Which must means that he want business and government to work together, even if it means screwing over other people's health.

http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2012/03/10/442067/billionaire-romney-backer-ultrawealthy-have-an-insufficient-influence-over-politics/; http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-0311-confidential-griffin-web-version-20120311,0,2604121,full.column

Journalists Overpaid, Says Jamie Dimon

JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon recently said journalists make too much money, based on the amount of revenue newspapers generate and media companies' lack of profitability.  The Bureau of Labor Stastistics says journalists make $43,780 annually.  In addition to his $23 million salary last year, Dimon also justified JP Morgan Chase's average wage rates of over $340,000 per year on the basis that it, as a Wall Street Bank, has to hire the best employees.  Attitudes like this from Wall Street CEOs and others in the Top 1% explain why those in the bottom 99% distrust Wall Street Bankers.  Media companies should not be allowed to go bankrupt, but their purpose is to truthfully disseminate the news.  With the amount of money both Dimon and his bank makes, he can hire public relations specialists to help dress up the facts to present to overworked journalists and make the bank look better than it really is.  The consolidation of media companies occurred because of pressure from the banks to be profitable, leading them to pursue the most sensationalizing stories as opposed to the news stories that people need to hear.  As a result, most people do not trust network news and Jon Stewart, even as a comedian, has taken the role of America's most-trusted news broadcaster.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/28/jamie-dimon-newspaper-reporter-pay_n_1307989.html; http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2012/02/28/jamie-dimon-want-to-make-sure-everyone-hears-him/?mod=wsj_share_twitter

Bankrupt MF Global Could Give Execs Huge Bonuses

MF Global went into bankruptcy last October, but bonuses could go out to 23 employees for cooperating  with authorities in the bankruptcy proceedings.  Just as AIG Executives collected hundreds of millions of dollars in bonuses after the 2008 bailout, this is similar, though much smaller in size.  MF Global had about $1.6 billion of money that belonged to its customers that went missing.  Some of it has been recovered, but it may not ever be a total recovery.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/09/mf-global-bonuses_n_1334735.html

Sears Closes Stores as Its Chairman Purchases Mansion

In the final three months of 2011, Sears lost $2.4 billion and announced in December that it would eliminate 100-120 stores.  That will surely bring layoffs of thousands of people.  Its chairman, Edward Lampert is about to purchase a $40-million home in Indian Creek Island, north of Miami.  Meanwhile, Florida is taking the biggest hit of Sears' layoffs.   Lampert also runs ESL Investments, a hedge fund.  Most informed and educated Americans are outraged at this sight of hedge fund managers and billionaires who layoff workers and then use their many millions to splurge on themselves.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/06/eddie-lampert-home_n_1324122.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/23/sears-earnings-4q-2011_n_1296451.html

Walmart Suppliers Cheat Warehouse Workers Out of Pay

Warehouse workers are suing three companies in Los Angeles for class-action damages.   These companies are Walmart suppliers that are accused of cheating these workers out of pay by reporting fewer hours than they actually worked.  Big-box retailers like Walmart have kept their pay low by outsourcing the jobs of these workers to staffing firms. Even under honest pay practices, temporary warehouse workers have a wage rate of $3 per hour lower than permanent ones.  Companies in California have threatened these workers with layoffs after speaking out against dishonest pay practices.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/05/warehouse-workers-walmart_n_1321518.html