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Use the Toolbox for a variety of unique resources for organizers.
For a deeper understanding of the Supreme Court's recent decision in Citizens United v. FEC, read The People's Business. The People's Business explains how corporations achieved their current privileged position (including how they came to be treated as persons with constitutional rights!) and offers a comprehensive approach for controlling them and restoring democracy.
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On Wednesday June 17, 2009 the President announced a “sweeping overhaul” of financial rules ostensibly to combat regulatory failures. These include a proposal for a Consumer Financial Protection Agency. But by Sunday, June 21, columnist Frank Rich wrote in the New York Times “last week’s big rollout of [President Obama’s] financial reform package was a big punt, an accommodation given to the status quo.”
Citizen Works has added two new initiatives to its Campaign for Corporate Reform!
The world is currently experiencing the worst financial crisis in a generation, if not since the Great Depression. As the crisis unfolds, it becomes clear that excessive greed and the irresponsibility of some players in the financial sector, and their enablers in law and government, have played a large role. Reckless profit-seeking by Wall Street, coupled with lax governmental regulatory oversight, has forced destructive consequences on the rest of the country.
Citizens have been exploited and consumers have again fallen prey to corporate excess. In the wake of the recent mega-bailouts, citizens are right to demand effective consumer protection to prevent flagrant recurrences and to recoup corporate welfare bailouts. Congress and the President must create new financial regulatory controls to help prevent future disasters and protect taxpayers.
Citizen Works has recently launched two initiatives aimed at protecting consumers from abuse by the financial sector. Now, more than ever, the need for regulations and safeguards meant to protect taxpayers and shareholders is apparent, and Citizen Works is working to achieve both.
Check out our newest initiatives:
We are pressing Congress to reintroduce and pass the Consumer and Shareholder Protection Act, a bill introduced by former Senator Paul Wellstone (D-MN), and intended to establish a nonprofit, democratically-controlled, nationwide membership association that would serve and represent the public interest on consumer issues, specifically those relating to the financial sector.
We are working towards the implementation of a Securities-Speculation Tax, a small tax on all financial transactions that would restrain financial gambling and redirect investment towards productive enterprise.
Citizen Works has built a team of law students and lawyer volunteers around the country currently looking at the fine print and harmful consumer provisions in contracts across several industries. Stay tuned for results. We will be building a new website to share this information in 2010.
Keith Olbermann on the Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United, January 21, 2010, watch.
Forced Arbitration: Unfair and Everywhere, Public Citizen, September 14, 2009 www.citizen.org, co-authored and researched by Citizen Works Contract Reform Team Member Zachary Gima.
Sold Out: How Washington and Wall Street Betrayed America, Essential Information, Consumer Education Foundation, www.wallstreetwatch.org, March 2009
GAO report on Tax Liabilities of U.S. and Foreign Controlled Corporations
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