Business
In the financial reform bill that isn’t, Senate Republicans threatened to block the legislation unless the proposed tax on big banks and hedge funds was removed. Democrats spinelessly obliged. The compromise? Taking about US$11 billion from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) to pay for it. So, instead of the banks paying the cost of re-regulation, the US taxpayers will be footing the bill.
As if you had any doubt, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has published a report by Kathy Ruffing and James R. Horney that clearly shows that George W. Bush’s policies are entirely responsible for the deficits the American citizenry will face over the next decade. “Nevertheless, the fact remains: Together with the economic downturn, the Bush tax cuts and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq explain virtually the entire deficit over the next ten years,” write Ruffing and Horney. Included is a neat takedown of the Heritage Foundation’s most recent propaganda. Highly recommended.
Censorship
Instead of complying with Chinese censorship, last March Google began redirecting searches originating in China to servers in Hong Kong. The Chinese have responded by ordering Google to stop the redirection or lose its ability to conduct business in the country. Google blinked and has stopped redirecting its Chinese search traffic. Dan Gillmor, writing for Salon, reports that Google’s Chinese users can “still get the mostly uncensored Hong Kong results, but now they have to do so via hyperlinks rather than automatically.” Sooner or later Google will have to decide to either cease operations in China or continue to make concessions. “Will its fiduciary duty to shareholders outweigh moral concerns,” Gillmor writes. “Right, silly question.” Silly because American law dictates that the sole responsibility of a corporation is to return profit to its shareholders.
