Congress

Today, we focus events in Colombia. As we note in the first update, the U.S. State Department has noted some improvement in human rights in that Latin American country. However, as the following articles note, things are a long way from normal for many of its citizens.

U.S. State Department praises ‘improvement’ human rights in Colombia

A report by the U.S. State Department that was sent to Congress Wednesday praised the improvement of human rights in Colombia, but expresses concern about new paramilitary violence.  Colombia Reports

Investigators find mass graves with possibly 1,150 corpses

Investigators of Colombia’s Prosecutor General’s Office found a number of mass graves in the central Meta department where, according to some locals, 1,150 corpses are buried.  Colombia Reports

Rebels Kill Awá Indians as Army Informants

A local group of Colombia’s FARC guerrillas acknowledged that it had killed eight members of the Awá indigenous group, who it accused of being army informants.  IPS

Another Illegal Wire Tapping Scandal

Last weekend, Semana news magazine revealed that some agents at the Administrative Security Department (DAS for its Spanish initials), Colombia’s “secret police,” had been illegally wire tapping politicians, journalists, magistrates, intellectuals, and -this time- even government officials close to President Álvaro Uribe, including his private and legal secretaries, and an official from his personal security staff. Even worse, according to the magazine, some of these agents allegedly had been “selling to the highest bidder,” namely guerrillas, paramilitaries or drug traffickers, the information obtained with the illegal phone bugging. Most of the recordings, the magazine says, were destroyed [es] between January 19-21. The story was echoed [es] early Saturday by other media as the magazine was hitting the stores.  Global Voices

Popularity: 4% [?]

Today’s update of human rights events around the world.

UN: Strengthen Action to End Use of Child Soldiers

Former child soldiers and other youth representing a grassroots campaign from around the world will present thousands of symbolic “red hands” to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today to demand stronger action by international leaders to end the use of child soldiers.  Human Rights Watch

GAZA: Death’s Laboratory

Erik Fosse, a Norwegian cardiologist, worked in Gaza hospitals during the recent war.”It was as if they had stepped on a mine,” he says of certain Palestinian patients he treated. “But there was no shrapnel in the wound. Some had lost their legs. It looked as though they had been sliced off. I have been to war zones for 30 years, but I have never seen such injuries before.”  Foreign Policy in Focus

U.S.: Americans to Rally TODAY Outside AIPAC Headquarters

Several organizations will rally TODAY outside the offices of the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) to call for the United States to resist the Israeli lobbying group and reject its destructive aims on Gaza, and decry its enormous influence on Congress which prevented Congress from condemning the recent Israeli assault on the territory.  Common Dreams

ZIMBABWE: Mukoko, Chiramba and Mudzingwa sent back to jail against medical advice

Three of the most seriously ill political detainees were finally given proper unrestricted access to medical doctors on Thursday, but were forced back to prison. Civic leader Jestina Mukoko, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s former aide Ghandi Mudzingwa, and 72-year old MDC activist Fidelis Chiramba were taken to the Avenues Clinic, where they were seen by two doctors – from the state, and the private sector.  This Is Zimbabwe

FIJI: South Pacific’s Burma?

There are concerns that the behaviour of Fiji’s interim government indicates the possibility of a Burma-style dictatorship emerging in the Pacific nation.  IPS

SRI LANKA: Tamil Tigers ’shoot’ at civilians

Separatist Tamil fighters have shot at injured civilians fleeing fighting in Sri Lanka’s northern war zone, witnesses who have escaped the island say.  Al Jazeera

Popularity: 3% [?]

Wall Street’s Investments on Capitol Hill

It’s Wednesday. Time for a pop quiz.

I know, most of you are already whining like school children but trust me, when you read these few questions, your should be forthcoming.

Let’s get started. Shall we?

1. Can Congressional representatives properly oversee the bailout of the financial sector when they get hundreds of thousands of dollars from the banks receiving hundreds of billions in public support?
2. Is it a potential conflict of interest for members of Congress to own stock in the companies that they are overseeing?
3. Is disclosure of political contributions by bank to Congressmen and Senators sufficient when hundreds of billions of taxpayer money are involved?

Okay, time is up. Put down your pencils.

If you think this is an academic exercise, you are wrong. These are questions that every American should consider since these are real problems in Congress today.

Yesterday, the Center for Responsive Politics posted an interesting story on their Open Eye blog about the contributions received by member of Congress from the banking industry. Their findings were shocking. Here is an excerpt from the story:

The eight CEOs testifying Wednesday before the House Financial Services Committee about how their companies are using billions of dollars in bailout funds may find that the hot seat is merely lukewarm. Nearly every member of the committee received contributions associated with these financial institutions during the 2008 election cycle, for a total of $1.8 million. And 18 of the lawmakers have their own personal funds invested in the companies.

All of the companies represented at the hearing have received millions, even billions, from the government’s Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP), including Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of New York Mellon, Bank of America, State Street Corporation, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup and Wells Fargo. These companies’ PACs and employees gave $10.6 million to all members of the 111th Congress in the 2008 election cycle, with 61 percent of that going to Democrats.

It was noted in the piece that68 Congressional representatives sitting on the finance committee overseeing the TARP program received approximately $1,848,803 in contributions from the financial services industry.

As we have noted in previous posts at Global Investment Watch, political contributions by financial service companies and corporations as a whole are not a new phenomena. As companies and regulators develop better risk models for doing business, we must reconsider the political risks associated with their business activities. As the core of this political risk assessment is how Congress receives money from the very businesses they oversee. It’s not just about disclosure and transparency. Being honest about the disclosures is only the first step.

At the end of the day, preventing this sort of sanctioned corruption must be stopped. What do you think?

[poll id="9"] [poll id="10"] [poll id="11"]

Popularity: 9% [?]

As members of Congress and the Obama Administration hammer out the details of the economic stimulus package, a debate has erupted about  “Buy American” provisions in the legislation.  Whatever the outcome, the concept, “Buy American” is a muddled anachronism in today’s world. The very term does injustice to ensuring that working Americans get a fair share of the economic pie in the coming years.

Back in the Old Days

The notion of “Buy American” dates back many years to an era when American cars were made in America, the U.S. steel industry was robust and consumers could buy clothing, televisions and household goods without giving a second thought about where the products were made. China was kept in the dining room, Japanese made products were the laughing stock of consumers and most Americans couldn’t find many Southeast Asian countries on a map.  But the very definition of the term was and remains a moving target. The world as we knew it then has disappeared, replaced with one where most consumer products are made in those very places we laughed about or vaguely knew existed.

When Good Is Bad and All is Unclear

What does “Buy American” mean exactly? Consider the following possible definitions:

• Buy American branded products (Ford cars, General Electric light bulbs, Levis jeans).
• Buy from or do business with American companies (Bank of America, Stop-And-Shop, Verizon).
• Buy goods made by American workers.

How we choose to define “Buy American” gives us very different answers with each definition posing a separate set of problems.

Backers of the Buy American provision in the current Congressional legislation make a simple argument. “If we’re going to try to create American jobs, we need to direct stimulus money to American firms,” says Scott Paul, executive director of the Alliance for American Manufacturing.

Unfortunately, Mr. Paul mixes his terms a bit and herein lies the problem. It’s worth noting that the House version of the bill would require that:

None of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available . . . may be used for a project for the construction, alteration, maintenance, or repair of a public building or public work unless all of the iron and steel used in the project is produced in the United States.

The provision could be waived if . . .  it would be inconsistent with the public interest; [or] iron and steel are not produced in the United States in sufficient and reasonably available quantities and of a satisfactory quality; or inclusion of iron and steel produced in the United States will increase the cost of the overall project by more than 25 percent.

The provision would apply to airports, bridges, canals, dams, dikes, pipelines, railroads, multiline mass transit systems, roads, tunnels, harbors, and piers.

The Senate bill would go further, extending the domestic content requirement to all manufactured goods used in infrastructure projects.  Neither bill makes any mention of using products from American companies. However, this is the way many observers tend to define the term.

Let’s take a moment and look at automobiles. Today, we can hardly argue that American automobiles manufactured by Ford, GM and Chrysler are made 100% in America. “In model year 2006, vehicles built by foreign-owned car makers at assembly plants located in the U.S. and Canada for sale in the U.S. had 66.2% domestic content. This level is only slightly below the 79.4% recorded by the Detroit Three. Furthermore, the gap in the level of domestic content between foreign-owned carmakers and the Detroit Three has narrowed substantially since 1997, when foreign-owned car makers had only 52.5% domestic content compared with 85.7% for the Detroit Three.”

However, even the proponents of “Buy American” make the mistake of using the “Buy a Chevy” argument in supporting their position.

So here is my question: Does the notion of “Buy American” make any sense in the 21st century global economy?

Buy American: An 8 Track Tape in an iPod World

The first question in my mind is to understand what “Buy American” language really means. As it applies to the purchasing of iron and steel, the legislative definition noted above is adequate. However, it becomes muddled when applied to other manufactured goods.

The argument that we should support American companies with this legislation fails. By and large, the companies we speak of here are publicly traded global businesses. They gave up on the American worker for the most part decades ago. Listening to their trade association flaks on this issue, “Buy American” is ridiculous. Outside of steel, most U.S. manufacturers would be sidelined if a full-blown domestic content provision were to be enacted.

Moreover, U.S. companies are no longer U.S. owned in the strictest sense. A quick look at the institutional ownership in most public companies reveals a mishmash of foreign and domestic shareholders.

Create Jobs Not Rhetoric

This then takes us to the real question, which is whether or not a provision of the economic stimulus legislation should be included that protects American steelworkers. The banking industry has certainly received protection from Congress. There is a certain measure of fairness in supporting the domestic content provision.

Protecting American steelworkers to the degree that Congress has protected American executives is the right thing to do. However, framing the debate in this antiquated patriotic rhetoric is counterproductive.  The time has come for those who support the notion that American workers deserve something other than the shaft that they have received for the last 25 years to come up with a better way to bring some balance to our economic system. This will require more than a policy slogan susceptable to an intellectual attack. Retooling our thinking about the importance of all Americans, not just those with the means to wield power in Washington, is the key.

Popularity: 13% [?]

The Man on the Street

Sam, “The Man on the Street” shares his views on the current debate about executive pay for financial institutions receiving Federal bailout money.

Popularity: 11% [?]

Today’s update of human rights events around the world.

US: Advocacy Groups Fear New Wave of Homeless

Homeless advocates in the United States say if the new Congress and the Barack Obama administration do nothing, many more low-income people already teetering on the brink could end up living on the streets over the next two years.  IPS

UZBEKISTAN: Abducted Refugee on Trial

An Uzbek refugee who was abducted last year in Kyrgyzstan is now believed to be on trial in Uzbekistan, Human Rights Watch said today. Haiatjon Juraboev is among more than a dozen refugees forcibly returned to Uzbekistan from Kyrgyzstan since 2005.  Human Rights Watch

GAZA: Israel Defends Gazan Deaths

The Israeli military has defended the actions of its troops in an incident last month that resulted in the deaths of three daughters of a Palestinian doctor in Gaza.  Common Dreams

WEST AFRICA: Female Genital Mutilation Knows No Borders

Laws against female genital mutilation are driving the practice underground and across borders, says UNIFEM. A study released in 2008 looked at the flow of girls traveling to be excised between Burkina Faso and its neighbours Mali, Niger, Ghana and Cote d’ Ivoire. Except Mali, all four countries in the study have laws against female genital mutilation (FGM), although enforcement varies widely.  IPS

MALAYSIA: Custodial Death Revives Calls For Police Reforms

The death of a youth in police custody and the torture of another in a police lockup, in recent weeks, have shocked Malaysians and revived calls for an oversight body – proposed in 2006 by a royal commission but unimplemented because of opposition from senior officers in the command.  IPS

Popularity: 4% [?]

He didn’t pour sugar into a bulldozer’s gas tank. He didn’t spike a tree or set a billboard on fire. But wielding only a bidder’s paddle, a University of Utah student just as surely monkey-wrenched a federal oil- and gas-lease sale Friday, ensuring that thousands of acres near two southern Utah national parks won’t be opened to drilling anytime soon.

Tim DeChristopher, 27, faces possible federal charges after winning bids totaling about $1.8 million on more than 10 lease parcels that he admits he has neither the intention nor the money to buy — and he’s not sorry.

The Salt Lake Tribune reports that an environmental activist wrecked a bit of havoc on the environment in the offices of the Bureau of Land Management by bidding up oil leases in environmentally sensitive area in the state of Utah. Since the Election Day announcement of the lease sale, preservationists, conservationists, archaeologists, business owners, river runners, anglers and hunters have registered objections to the BLM’s plans to allow drilling in some of Utah’s most scenic redrock desert.

“They challenged proposed leases near Arches National Park, the White River, the greater Desolation Canyon region, Labyrinth Canyon, the benches east of Canyonlands National Park, Nine Mile Canyon, the Book Cliffs and the Deep Creek Mountains.

Objections also have come from the National Park Service, members of Congress and John Podesta, the head of President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team, who said the lease sale should be halted or altered to accommodate environmental concerns.”

Popularity: 3% [?]

During the past week, the media has railed about the performance by the CEOs from Chrysler, General Motors and Ford.  Like beggars in mink coats, Mssrs. Wagoner, Nardelli and Mulally marched to Washington DC last week to plead for $25 billion in financial aid from the government to an incredulous audience.  Ill prepared for the onslaught by Congressional inquisitors, the Big Three CEOs looked like angry zebras ready to face down a brood of lions. What was obvious to everybody but the “zebras” was the fact that that the even angrier public and Congress have lost patience for these business leaders who expect financial aid, no questions asked. Lions 1, Zebras 0. [click to continue...]

Popularity: 5% [?]

Progressives all over the country are waking up from the nightmare of the Bush presidency and are asking themselves, “What did I eat before I went to bed eight years ago?” In point of fact, we have suffered from collective indigestion going back more than 30 years. [click to continue...]

Popularity: 3% [?]