Democracy Alert

July 19, 2015 by Ted Leave a Comment

Latest Democracy News

Despite taboos, political consultants in Nigeria advance democracy | TheHill
Advising foreign campaigns is common and lucrative practice for American political consultants. AKPD and Potomac Square have both played prominent roles in UK elections. However, it is considered taboo in countries where democracy is underdeveloped, ...
Read more on The Hill (blog)

Democracy is not simply a yes-or-no vote, in Hong Kong or elsewhere | South ...
Ever since Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras prematurely declared his government's bailout referendum a "victory of democracy", I have been struck by how far politicians are willing to mangle the idea of democracy. The demos were, in fact, being ...
Read more on South China Morning Post (subscription)

The Tories, trade unions and British democracy under threat | Letters ...
The Tories, trade unions and British democracy under threat. Asian Power List. Business secretary Sajid Javid. 'The often deployed statistic on Tory plans to discipline the unions is that they only have the backing of 24% of the electorate themselves ...
Read more on The Guardian

July 19, 2015 by Ted Leave a Comment

Capitalism for cronies or public good?

Capitalism for cronies or public good?
Now, crony capitalism is a bad thing, and I've railed against it in the context of Japan. When well-connected companies are able to use the government as a tool to protect themselves from competition, it's good for those companies but bad for the ...
Read more on The Korea Herald

Crony Capitalism And The Growth Of Federal Regulation
In it, OMB pegs the cumulative costs of 116 selected major regulations during the decade at between $ 68.5 billion and $ 101.8 billion. This annual roundup is one product of the executive branch regulatory review process, by which our federal regulators ...
Read more on Forbes

Garrett: Crony Capitalism is Alive and Well at FHFA
“On the same day that the Ex-Im Bank expires, the crony capitalist empire strikes back at the FHFA. Fannie and Freddie have been bailed out by American taxpayers to the tune of $ 188 billion, yet Director Watt is handsomely rewarding the executives of ...
Read more on RealEstateRama (press release)

Melcher: The Export-Import Bank: It's not just for big corporations - Richmond.com
And David Zuckerman, vice president of ServerLIFT Corp. observed in the Phoenix Business Journal, “Ex-Im is not 'crony capitalism.' We did not curry favor with the administration to get our account with Ex-Im; we simply applied. We did so in order to ...
Read more on Richmond Times-Dispatch

July 19, 2015 by Ted Leave a Comment

Barclays sued by California utility over alleged electric market manipulation

Barclays sued by California utility over alleged electric market manipulation
A California water utility filed a class action lawsuit on Tuesday to recoup losses in the electric market that it blames on Barclays Bank Plc [BARCR.UL], which the U.S. government fined $ 453 million in 2013 for manipulating electricity prices. The ...
Read more on Reuters

Zen and the art of cracking down on financial market manipulation
Since joining the regulator, he has made big changes to the market monitoring team, filling the 70-strong group he oversees with former spies and PhD-armed quantitative analysts (or “quants”). The work of this idiosyncratic team revolves around Zen, ...
Read more on Financial Times

Banks face new legal action over forex manipulation
After fines totalling many billions of pounds from UK and US regulators, a new threat is about to hit the major banks found guilty of manipulating the foreign exchange market. US lawyers are preparing multi-million-pound legal action - to be lodged in ...
Read more on BBC News

July 18, 2015 by Ted Leave a Comment

My failed attempt to destroy Jeremy Corbyn, Labour and British democracy …

My failed attempt to destroy Jeremy Corbyn, Labour and British democracy ...
OK, it's a fair cop, guv. You got me. I'll come quietly, no need for the cuffs. I am a totalitarian, intent on ending democratic politics as we know and turning Britain into a one-party state where neither opposition nor dissent is tolerated. And all ...
Read more on Telegraph.co.uk

Bring Back Our Democracy
Studies by have found that nonviolent movements like this one provide the best antidote to authoritarianism and democratic backsliding. Yet outside actors often have a tough time figuring out how to help them. The U.S. Government and its democratic ...
Read more on Foreign Policy (blog)

Democracy.io Makes It Easier To Email Your Representatives
In 2015, emailing your U.S. representative and senators is still far harder than it should be. The appropriately titled Democracy.io was designed to solve this problem. (In the technology world, I/O refers to input/output, which aptly describes ...
Read more on Huffington Post