Connecting Human Rights, Politics and Capital

An innovative idea is taking root in many European cities. An alternative currency called NU allows citizens to use a card in connection with energy-efficient upgrades. Once someone gets rolling with it, they accumulate more and more credit that can be used to buy further green goods. It is a sort of reward system that is a true benefit to those who take advantage of it. And this, in turn, benefits the environment.

The NU system represents synergy between government, the private sector and individuals. It is an experiment that shows a great deal of promise, thanks to the dedication of many Europeans. Now, don’t many Europeans already dry their clothes outside, drive efficient cars if they drive at all…and haven’t they been taking cloth bags to go shopping forever? Yep!

We need some NU right here in The United States of Over-Consumption.

Popularity: 93% [?]

Bachmann is giving Ann Coulter a run for her money. B for bizarre. B for bending the truth. B for…bingo! Of course Obama is responsible for the Swine Flu outbreak. Thank you Congresswoman Bachmann for pointing that out, or at least insinuating it, you dominatrix of insinuation!

And now, in the words of HuffPost reporter Arthur Delaney, you are insinuating that Obama has had “premature fiscal ejaculation.” At a recent rally she said, “During the last 100 days we have seen an orgy. It would make any local smorgasbord embarrassed.” She then told the crowd that April 26 was National Debt Day, which conservatives commemorate as the moment government spending outpaces revenue. As Bachmann explains, “The government spent its wad by April 26. Every dime government spends after April 26 throughout the rest of this fiscal year is borrowed money.”

This is getting kinky. Now what nice Christian fundamentalist lady politician speaks of orgies and wads? Heavens, children across the land are going to be experimenting with orgies and wads. 

Thanks for the entertainment MB!

“God calls us to fall on our faces and our knees and cry out to Him and confess our sins.”
- Michele Marie Bachmann

Popularity: 99% [?]

Yesterday Société Générale chairman Daniel Bouton said he will resign from the French banking behemoth, saying repeated attacks on him were a threat to the bank’s health. Bouton stated “Like any manager, I have certainly made mistakes, but the strategy adopted by Société Générale has made it one of the finest banks in the euro zone. The repeated attacks against me personally in France for the past fifteen months affect me, but most of all, they risk harming the bank and its 163,000 employees,” Bouton added, saying it was “better for me to withdraw, proud of having led a wonderful company.”

Bouton was Société Générale’s chief executive in January 2008 when the bank announced one of the world’s largest trading scandals masterminded by trader Jerome Kerviel, which caused a massive loss. He stepped down as CEO last May but had remained as chairman. President Nicolas Sarkozy for top executives to face the “consequences” of the huge losses.

Kerviel maintains that his superiors were aware of his risky transactions but looked the other way while he was earning big money for the bank, intervening only when he started to lose. The bank, however, insists that it was not aware of Kerviel’s activities.

Bouton was the subject of public outrage more recently, when the bank disclosed that he will benefit from a pension of euro730,000 (US$965,000) per year when he retires. The issue of executive compensation has become a big issue in France after a series of revelations that managers at loss-making firms were pocketing bonuses.

Popularity: 78% [?]

U.S. unemployment rates are closing in on 10%. U.S. banks have received billions in bailout funds. Jobs at these banks are still being sent overseas…huh? Is it just me, or does it seem like keeping jobs in the U.S. should be a requirement for getting bailed out? The following piece by John Aidan Byrne appeared in yesterday’s New York Post.

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US banks that have taken billions of dollars in taxpayer bailouts are still shipping thousands of jobs overseas.

Earlier this month, Bank of New York Mellon, which received $3 billion in TARP funds, opened its third call center in Pune, India, where it now employs 1,300 people.

Doug Brown, who wrote “The Black Book of Outsourcing,” said Bank of America, with $52.5 billion of TARP funds in the kitty, has expanded its India-based payroll to 5 percent of its 301,000 employees in 2009, about 15,000 people.

The moves, which have outraged unions, are 100 percent legal. Congress didn’t put into the TARP law any restrictions on shipping jobs overseas.

Citigroup, which got $50 billion in TARP funds plus $300 billion in government guarantees, plowed ahead with a program last fall to add as many as 1,000 call-center employees in the Philippines — weeks after it got its first round of taxpayer relief.

Representatives for Citigroup and Bank of New York Mellon declined to comment on their outsourcing arrangements. A Bank of America spokesman said the firm has not announced any facility openings outside the US since last year.

Popularity: 78% [?]

Yes it is. It has been for a long time. We have a chance to grab on and stem some of the loss, but you better believe that Big Oil is going to do everything possible to undermine our efforts. In two weeks, there’s a vote on President Obama’s plan for a new energy economy. But, according to moveon.org, key Democrats are wavering in the face of a flurry of Big Oil ads claiming America can’t afford clean energy.

From a recent letter from the MoveOn team: “If we don’t pass this bill, we’ll lose our chance to create millions of good, green jobs for laid-off workers. We’ll lose our chance to give our kids a vibrant economy. And we’ll lose our chance to pay down our national debt. U.S. investment in wind power lags far behind, but when it comes to solar power, the story is even more infuriating: In the 1990s, the U.S. actually led the world in solar cell manufacturing. But in the Bush-Cheney years, China, Japan, and Europe all zoomed ahead of us in solar production. We can catch up, but only if we start quickly. Obama’s plan would aggressively scale up American wind and solar production-creating millions of new jobs and tackling climate change in one fell swoop.”

MoveOn cites a new report by Ben Furnas of the Center for American Progress. Please read the full report here and consider helping MoveOn counter the dirty-energy companies!

Popularity: 77% [?]

In the United States we are seeing people purchase guns and ammo at an alarming rate. Looking beyond the immediate unfounded concern certain people have about the Obama administration stripping the right to bear arms, there is the fact that many loath the thought of being pulled towards anything resembling socialism. In this environment the “each man for himself” reaction threatens to undermine a much needed and long overdue sense of global community and global commitment. Let’s hope that corporations choose to give more during these tough times as opposed to holing up and hoarding the goods.

The website www.publicservice.co.uk, which touts itself as The Information Portal for the Public Sector, recently posted a piece called “A recession of rights.” Author Hannah Grene, Researcher with the International Human Rights Network, explores how worsening economies erode basic rights. Please read.

Popularity: 77% [?]

ColorOfChange.org is an internet-based movement that exists to strengthen Black America’s political voice. Following the natural and man-made disaster that was Hurricane Katrina, James Rucker and Van Jones organized to use the power of the Internet to help make change for Black Americans. The following letter from the ColorOfChange.org team highlights the deeply entrenched rascism of drug sentencing laws. This is a brutal system that has been screaming for change for far too long.

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The so-called “war on drugs” has created a national disaster: 1 in 15 Black adults in America are behind bars. It’s not because we commit more crime but largely because of unfair sentencing rules that treat 5 grams of crack cocaine–the kind found in poor Black communities–the same as 500 grams of powder cocaine, which is the kind found in White and wealthier communities. These sentencing laws are destroying communities across the country and have done almost nothing to reduce the level of drug use and crime.

We now have an opportunity to end this disaster once and for all. A bill is moving through Congress right now that would end the sentencing disparity. It’s critical that members of Congress see support from everyday folks.  Join us in asking our representatives in the House and Senate to push for its passage, and please ask your friends and family to do the same. It only takes a moment:

http://colorofchange.org/crack/?id=2206-426821

At every step in the criminal justice system, Black people are at a disadvantage — we are more likely to be arrested, charged, and convicted, but less likely to have access to good legal representation, and get out of prison on parole. While there’s no denying that the presence of crack has a hugely negative impact in Black communities across the country, it’s clear that the overly harsh crack sentencing laws have done more to feed the broken system than improve our communities.

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Popularity: 85% [?]

This Tuesday, shareholders and the general public will get a chance to see whether anybody at Citigroup will be held accountable for the catastrophic failure of company management to oversee the colossal risks and the ensuing disaster that has impacted the global economy. That day, at the Hilton New York in midtown Manhattan, the company will hold its annual shareholders meeting. For the price of a Citigroup share of stock (trading Friday at around $3.65 a share), New Yorkers can enjoy (perhaps that isn’t the right word but whatever) theatrics surpassing anything in the neighboring theater district a few short blocks away.

The meeting agenda is chocked full of company and shareholder sponsored resolutions – thirteen in all. All of the proxy advisory services – RiskMetrics, Glass-Lewis, Proxy Governance, et al. – have weighed in with a variety of recommendations on the various proposals, which company executives have opposed.

Perhaps the most important proposals on the day’s agenda are management sponsored: reelection of the company’s board of directors and ratification of the company’s executive compensation plans.

Herein lies the toothless cats in waiting. But Wall Streets vermin have nothing to fear.

What I mean is this: Under our current system set out in the federal securities laws and regulations, shareholders are entitled to vote on an array of issues – executive compensation, directors, corporate governance issues of all shapes and sizes – but company executives are largely free to accept or ignore the outcomes of the election.

If this system were allowed in the presidential election process, George Bush could stay on for four more years if he so choose.

What the . . .

Unless you have been hibernating in a cave in northern Greenland for the last couple of years, you probably already know the facts surrounding the company but let’s recap the highlights of its stunning performance of late.

As was noted by proxy advisor, Proxy Governance, “Citigroup, along with many of its peers, have suffered from over-exposure to an array of complex and risky securities now dubbed toxic-assets. As with most systemic breakdowns, many things went wrong that led to these problems. Central to these problems were excessive risk taking by individuals, poor risk management practices and oversight, and overly aggressive strategies to grow profits – core areas of board responsibility. Such collective failure is notable not only for its price tag but for the fact that it comes despite growing adherence to so-called corporate governance “best practices” and check-the-box processes – it is tragically clear that many boards continue to fail in anticipating and addressing emerging challenges and in aligning the company’s risk taking and risk management activities with its strategic plan.”

These Guys Couldn’t be Elected Dog Catcher, But . . .

Shareholders, led by AFSCME, Change to Win and a number of other union affiliated pension funds have called for a vote against the re-election of the long-term members of the Audit & Risk Management Committee, including former Chair C. Michael Armstrong, former committee member Alain Belda, current Chair John Deutch and members Andrew Liveris, Anne Mulcahy and Judith Rodin. This is a modest request considering the massive ineptitude of these overseers.

During these Committee members’ tenures, the Audit & Risk Management Committee failed to protect shareholders from excessive exposure to credit, market, liquidity and operational risk. According to CEO Vikram Pandit, “Citi’s resources were allocated to activities that did not create enough value for our clients and did not earn adequate risk-adjusted returns for shareholders.”

I think that these shareholders have made a reasonable argument for voting these directors out of their positions and perhaps to a different universe.

So How are Taxpayer Dollars Being Spent at Citi?

Remember earlier this year when Vikram Pandit, Citi’c CEO, sat before a Congressional committee and pledged that he would take only $1 in salary until Citi returned to profitability?  I remember it clearly. Unfortunately, Mr. Pandit has the ability to, ah, shall we say evade the truth when testifying before Congress. While he noted that he would not take a salary until things straightened out at the company, he failed to mention that he would still receive more than $51 million on deferred compensation, stock options and a variety of other non-salary forms of compensation for 2008.

Ooopsie!

Anyway, as required of all TARP participants, there is an advisory vote on the company’s executive compensation program presented for shareholder approval. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 added provisions to the Treasury Department’s Troubled Asset Relief Program’s (TARP) Capital Purchase Program – a $700 billion emergency initiative approved by Congress to infuse capital into the banking sector – requiring that, among other things, participants submit an advisory vote on executive compensation to shareholders.

This proposal is advisory in nature. Regardless of the vote outcome, the company’s board is under no obligation to reconsider its compensation awards to its executives.

As is obvious to most investors, the company has performed abysmally this last year. By all measures, it has substantially trailed its peers and the S&P 500 by every measure. At the same time, the company’s CEO and other top executives have been paid handsomely, significantly higher than the median compensation paid to other executives at peer companies. While the top executives at Citi graciously gave up their salaries, their total compensation packages remained remarkably high with the CEO, Vice Chairman and Co-Head of Global Markets receiving $51M, $13M and $20M respectively.

So who are the toothless tigers? Shareholders of course. This is not to blame them as I am certain that, if given half a chance using real tools for corporate change, they would rip these executives  from limb to limb. That said, it will be fascinating to see how the meeting plays out if only to see how the play ends.

Popularity: 13% [?]

London’s Daily Mail reported that the epidemic of piracy afflicting the Gulf of Aden is beginning to trigger a wave of insurance claims on the London insurance market. Insurer Amlin is facing a claim after Somali pirates hijacked a tanker loaded with biodiesel. The ship, Bunga Melati Dua, was on its way from Malaysia to Rotterdam when it was attacked by pirates last summer while traveling through the Gulf of Aden.

One of the crew members was killed during the attack, and the remaining crew were taken, with the vessel, into Somali waters. The news comes just days after Somali pirates seized US cargo ship the Maersk Alabama. The American crew fought off the attack but the ship’s captain is still being held hostage in a lifeboat launched by the pirates to aid their escape. The Bunga Melati Dua was the fourth vessel to be hijacked within weeks last summer in the notoriously dangerous waterway.

Six weeks later, Malaysian shipping line MISC Berhad paid a ransom to the pirates for the return of the ship, and her sister tanker Bunga Melati Lima, hijacked ten days later. The crew of 29 Malaysians and ten Filipinos had been held with the 32,000 ton ship during its captivity. The pirates released the vessel after owners paid a ransom and she arrived in Rotterdam on October 26, where her cargo was placed in storage.

Now, Swiss commodities trading company Masefield AG is suing Lloyds underwriters Amlin Corporate Member over her cargo. Masefield says as soon as the pirates seized the ship the two parcels of palm oil became a total loss, and that it served a ‘notice of abandonment’ on September 18, seeking paymentof its value from insurers-But according to a High Court writ, Amlin has breached its insurance deal by refusing to meet Masefield’s claim.

In its writ, Masefield says that when the cargo was discharged at Rotterdam, it could not be sold immediately: with the approach of winter, the amount of palm oil that can be blended with other oils to make biodiesel falls and its price drops dramatically. The cargo is currently being stored until it can be sold on behalf of insurers for a reasonable price, the writ claims.

Popularity: 4% [?]