Our hats are off to the few airlines doing the right thing and passing savings along to consumers: Spirit Airlines, Alaska Airlines, and Hawaiian Airlines (yes, that’s all of them). But shame on all the other airlines; at a minimum they should throw us some peanuts.
Monthly Archives: July 2011
The Show Must Go On with Cordray as Head of Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
Posted in Consumer ProtectionIs this former 5-time “Jeopardy!” champion ready to follow rock star Elizabeth Warren as the first director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau? Consumers can only wait and hope for the best.
When it Comes to Influencing the World’s Financial Markets, Geithner, Bernanke, Warren, Lagarde and Blankfein Take a Backseat to McDaniel and Sharma
Posted in Banks and Financial ServicesHow can we trust their insistence on downgrading debt when just a couple of years ago they would have presumably graded a fistful of discarded “Powerball” tickets AAA. I’m not being paranoid, am I?
CEOs of U.S. Companies are Fat, Happy and Overpaid — and it’s Only Getting Worse
Posted in Banks and Financial ServicesMy criticism of executive compensation is not the amount CEO’s make (one, ten, one hundred million, it’s all good). It is that those amounts do not appear to be linked to performance. And things seem to be getting worse.
Paying for Dropped Calls Every Month: Thank the Supreme Court and its 2010 Term
Posted in Consumer ProtectionThese guys took any meaningful right you have to file a lawsuit against your cell phone provider away. It is gone. Poof. April 27, 2011 was the last day. It’s now open season, “Pillage me, oh Goddess of Verizon.” Make me Sprint through a trail of hot coals and burning embers. You’re AT&T out of luck.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn and the Presumption of Innocence, Part II (The Rise of the Monday Morning Quarterbacks)
Posted in In the CourtsIn a democracy though, there is a ”presumption of innocence”. It stands at the core of our criminal justice system. Mr. Cyrus Vance (the younger) should never had denied liberty to anyone, anyone, without knowing to a near certainty that a crime had been committed and the victim was telling the truth. His failure to do so in this case will send shock waves around the world. And for years to come the American judicial system will be nursing a big fat black eye.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn and the Premiere of “Law and Order International”
Posted in In the CourtsWho knows what tomorrow’s news will hold, but some imprimatur of the “presumption of innocence” must be maintained in every case, no matter the alleged facts, no matter the celebrity status of the accused, no matter the smarmy reputation of the accused.