Economic Glance
As the government's authority in the banking industry continues to grow, the hottest debate is over how banks are spending federal funds.
But even more fundamental is the issue of which banks will receive Uncle Sam's money.
Interactive map: Where are the bailout's billions?
UBS admits helping tax evaders
"UBS admitted to conspiring to defraud the United States by impeding the IRS," the Justice Department announced late Wednesday.
The statement says that UBS, "in an unprecedented move" based on an order by Swiss authorities, has agreed "to immediately provide the U.S. government with the identities of, and account information for, certain U.S. customers of UBS's cross-border business."
TVNL Comment: This story broke in June of 2008, when a 'disgruntled employee' blew the whistle on UBS. At that time Sen. Leahy 'demanded' that the bank be closed down until the 'cleaned up their act.' Yeah, right.
Does the United States make anything anymore?
It may seem like the country that used to make everything is on the brink of making nothing.
In January, 207,000 U.S. manufacturing jobs vanished in the largest one-month drop since October 1982. Factory activity is hovering at a 28-year low. Even before the recession, plants were hemorrhaging work to foreign competitors with cheap labor. And some companies were moving production overseas.
Fed indictments tell how H-1B visas were used to undercut wages
Federal agents on Thursday said they arrested 11 people in six states in a crackdown on H-1B visa fraud and unsealed documents that detail how the visa process was used to undercut the salaries of U.S. workers.
Federal authorities allege that in some cases, H-1B workers were paid the prevailing wages of low-cost regions and not necessarily the higher salaries paid in the locations where they worked. By doing this, the companies were "displacing qualified American workers and violating prevailing wage laws," said federal authorities in a statement announcing the indictments.
Vince Cable: 'Bring back the guillotine...for bankers'
The crass behaviour of Britain’s financial aristocracy rivals the last of the Bourbons. Marie Antoinette famously patronised the Parisian mob with her ‘let them eat cake’, while dining in luxury in the Tuileries.
The City bankers who ruined their banks but have been kept in employment by the taxpayer now demand we pay them their bonuses to maintain the aristocratic lifestyle to which they have become accustomed. They know no shame and take no blame. They are lucky the British have no guillotines in stock.
N.Y.C. so costly you need to earn six figures to make middle class
A new report shows just how ugly — and expensive — New York City can be, especially for the middle class, squeezed by skyrocketing living costs and stagnant wages.
Among the findings:
CEOs, Bankers Used Corporate Credit Cards for Sex, Says New York Madam
Wall street lawyers, investment bankers, CEOs and media executives often used corporate credit cards to pay for $2,000 an hour prostitutes, according to the madam who ran one of New York's biggest and most expensive escort services until it was busted last year.
"Some of these guys, I was invoicing on corporate credit cards," she said. "I was writing up monthly bills for computer consulting, construction expenses, all of these things, I was invoicing them monthly so they could get it by their accountants," Davis said.
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