Clinton Foundation releases donor list;
...and, thanks to my Sunlight colleague Larry Makinson and DabbleDB.com, we've got it available in a database format. The source material is here, but I couldn't get into the first page (glad that Larry could).
It would be interesting to see what issues the donors are interested in, where they come from, what their own economic interests are, and whether these could potentially create conflicts of interest for Sen. Hillary Clinton, our next Secretary of State.
Contributors to the foundation include governments of Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Norway, Jamaica, Oman and Brunei have contributed, as have government ...
Continue readingMadoff’s firm lobbied for earmarks
Yesterday I was talking to some folks about whether, given the trillions potentially committed to bailouts, there's any sense in continuing to probe earmarks. I say of course there is.
Our friends at the Center for Responsive Politics put together a handy guide to the political influence wielded by Bernard L. Madoff, who was arrested and charged with running a hedge fund that allegedly operated as a giant ponzi scheme. Among the information CRP flagged was a lobbying disclosure from 2005 from the firm of Lent, Scrivner & Roth, LLC, which shows, on page three, that Bernard L. Madoff Investment ...
Continue readingAnother day, another Rangel revelation
...this time from The Hill about the funding of Caribbean junkets that potentially run afoul of House ethics rules. It's not like Rangel hasn't had this problem before...
Continue readingUnraveling Rangel
It's been interesting to watch the stories that have described multiple ethics problems for Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee and someone identified by The Hill as the top fundraiser for House Democrats. The Washington Post seems to have kicked things off with a story on July 14 saying that Rangel used official House stationary to solicit big donations for his Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service at the City College of New York. There followed a series of revelations that he wasn't properly declaring income on a vacation property ...
Continue readingFinancial crises: How we got here
A couple of interesting stories on the financial crises. The Washington Post's Jill Drew writes a solid piece explaining how players in the financial system spread the risk from subprime mortgages through the economy. A bit light on the role played by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (which get attention only in the accompanying interactive graphic). The article itself is probably a bit long to read online, but worth the effort.
And via Glenn Reynolds, an interesting history lesson from Michael Barone on unions, Taylorism, and the Wagner Act. The comments are worth reading too, with some coming from ...
Continue readingNotes and Methodology on the Tariff Suspensions
A few words on the tariff suspensions database...
The primary sources of data come from the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Trade (there's an Excel spread sheet available for download here and the U.S. International Trade Commission (their analyses of miscellaneous tariff bills from the last decade are online here).
The Ways and Means spreadsheet listed the bill number and name, its sponsor, a link to the bill text in Thomas, and a link to a file containing any comments the committee received about the bill (there are details on the commenting process here). USITC analyses of ...
Continue readingNew database brings transparency to tariff bills
Though they likely won't become law in 2008, more than 800 bills that were introduced by 116 members of the House, that would cut taxes on imports by an estimated $1.1 billion, and that were specifically requested by 120 companies and organizations that would benefit from them, are still pending in the 110th Congress. The bills reduce or eliminate tariffs on everything from unicycles to storage batteries for hybrid cars, from hair fibers of the rare vicua to chemicals for making rodent poison. Of the named beneficiaries, 65 hired in-house or outside lobbyists that listed specific bills or ...
Continue readingBlagojevich indictment visualized
I found it at the Chicago Tribune. Here's the text of it in Many Eyes, as a word tree. Interesting words to search in addition to Intercepted: Senate seat, Tribune Editorial Board, Campaign and Rezko.
Continue reading
Financial Bailout: Do Interests of Automakers and Members Diverge?
Reading the restructuring plan that General Motors put together makes me wonder whether, in a broad sense, there isn't an insuperable conflict of interest between members of Congress and the automakers. Consider just one aspect of the plan:
...the number of GM retailers is expected to decline to 4,700 by 2012. This will occur primarily in metropolitan and suburban areas where GM has too many dealers to serve the market. In the Plan, it is projected these dealers will be reduced by 35%, increasing annual throughput for the remaining outlets to a more competitive level with other high-volume ...Continue reading
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