Thursday, May 07, 2015

america: not only malfunction and malinvestment - but outright criminal malfeasance...,


charleshughsmith |  Despite the PR about how corporate profits benefit widows and orphans, this vast wealth is concentrated in the top 1% and the top 5%.

I am honored to share a remarkable data base of Corporate Fines and Settlements from the early 1990s to the present compiled by Jon Morse. Here is Jon's description of his project to assemble a comprehensive list of all corporate fines and settlements that can be verified by media reports:

"This spreadsheet is all the corporate fines/settlements I’ve been able to find sourced articles about, mostly in the period from the 1990’s up to today (with a few 80’s and 70’s). This is by far the most comprehensive list of such things online. At least that I could find, because the lack of any decent list is what made me start compiling this list in the first place."What struck me was the sheer number of corporate violations of laws and regulations--thousands upon thousands, the vast majority of which occurred since corporate profits began their incredible ascent in the early 2000s--and the list of those paying hundreds of millions of dollars in fines and settlements, which reads like a who's who of Corporate America and Top 100 Global Corporations.
 
I encourage you to open one of the three alphabetical tabs at the bottom of the spreadsheet on Google Docs and scroll down to find your favorite super-profitable corporation. 

Many have a long list of fines and settlements, and many of the fines are in excess of $100 million. Many are for blatant cartel price-fixing, not disclosing the dangers of the company's heavily promoted medications, destroying documents to thwart an investigation of wrong-doing, etc.

In other words, these were not wrist-slaps for minor oversights of complex regulations-- these are blatant violations of core laws of the land.

11 comments:

BigDonOne said...

"...solution... is to confiscate the [wealth] from its rightful owners and give it to the people who need it..."
You mean like EBeeeTeee cards...??!

CNu said...

Much more concerned about Social Security and Medicare..., most of the old raisins paid in for 4 years worth of drawdowns, thereafter, their wrinkled up and unproductive lives devoid of value are being subsidized by me, my wife and my children. Totally unacceptable.

BigDonOne said...

Difference is SS and M'Care goes to folks who actually worked at productive jobs, not useless parasites who wil burn and loot over any flimsy excuse, and coordinate it all on their free undeserved O-Bah-Muh-Fones.....

CNu said...

SS and M'Care goes to folks who actually worked at productive jobs

Highly debatable, but let's stick with the facts. You drew down what you paid into the system many years ago. Since then, you've been an unfunded liability with no prospect whatsoever of further "productive" output.. Why in the world shouldn't I find the thought of my tax dollars paying for your diet sodas as offensive as I find the annual payments to subsidize the continued operation of the useless and traitorous garrison state in the middle east?

One year of EBT for a family of four is a pittance compared with what you Hoover up in the course of just one year. As far as the emergency phones go, like E-Rate for schools, those are funded by a tax levied exclusively against Level 3 carriers (I realize you don't know what that means, thank gawd for the googol). The bulk of the food stamp program largesse goes to the stores and food producers who don't provide any discounts, so it's a direct injection into the larger economy.

No telling where your SS dollars go. Hell, the CCC, Amren, Pamela Gellar, two-inch punisher PRR?!?!

CNu said...

made America a great place to live and *work*

I can only imagine a freshly minted engineer of color paying his dues and having to go to work at the behest of somebody with your ideological views. If I had ever suffered such a misfortune, it would not have ended well. "supervisory engineer expired of mysterious cardiac arrhythmia....," and the best pathologist wouldn't have been able to pin down the cause.

BigDonOne said...

Actually, blacks working for any government contractor (e.g., defense & space) had it knocked. The Feds monitored closely to confirm that there was no discriminatory treatment, glass ceilings, etc. So HR leaned the other way to be safe. This compliance was written into contracts.....

Vic78 said...

It should tell us something when people in her field laugh at her. I'm suspicious of anyone out of high school that follows her. We were so hard in undergrad the Rand followers kept their ideas to themselves.

CNu said...

With what is now known about the foibles of so-called "reason" http://subrealism.blogspot.com/search?q=thinking+fast+and+slow - both the epistemological and ontological foundations of objectivism have been annihilated. (Arnach was tryna get BD to expand his library three years ago - too)

As far as the Mises jabberwocky goes, well, http://subrealism.blogspot.com/search?q=economics

CNu said...

Which Feds were these BD? The EEOC? GTFOH..., you didn't work with two black folks your entire career and you don't have any black friends now. Knowing a few asians in the pacific northwest, and a bunch of asians from STL and here in KC who socialize with and act like black folks, ain't none of them got the time of day for you either. Do you have any idea at all, just how badly your model minority talks about you, your kith, and kin?

It's fascinating how you spend so much time here erroneously castigating people with whom you have such limited personal experience - while simultaneously fanboying for people with whom you have such limited personal experience - and both of those tribes busy kicking it with one another and talking about you like a yard dog. Jes sayyin....,

BigDonOne said...

WRT your link, there were some hard/fast rules that would get you canned no matter who you were: security violations, theft of company property, disrespecting superiors, fighting on company property, lying on your employment application, etc. Under-represented minorities disproportionately got nailed on these weaknesses and, of course, as always, filed suit......

CNu said...

Yeah, yeah, yeah..., only problem with your just so story is that my best friend and homeboy was a supervisor at Boeing military which was overwhelmingly melanin-deficient and where all the carousing and antics you describe above - were the exclusive provenance of your kith and kin. I'll stand by my assertion about how few underrepresented minorities you encountered during your tenure and how few you know today.

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