Monthly Archives: January 2017

By William K. Black
January 27, 2017     Bloomington, MN

I have just listened to Lawrence O’Donnell’s program on Friday, January 27, 2017.  It was a strong program, but I offer these friendly amendments on his discussion of the Washington Post story titled “Behind closed doors, Republican lawmakers fret about how to repeal Obamacare.”  O’Donnell and his guests spoke exclusively of how difficult it was for the Republicans to come up with a plan to replace Obamacare and making the point that the leaked transcript of the closed Republican meeting proved that the Republicans had no plan.  The thrust of the comments was that the explanation for the difficulty was the technical complexity of the issues and differences of policy views among congressional Republicans.  Neither explanation is accurate.  The problem is much more basic, and explains why Republicans did not use their exceptional leverage to amend the draft Affordable Care Act that would have improved it, why they have not come up with a replacement plan in seven years,  and why they will not be able to come up with a replacement plan in the future.

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By William K. Black
January 30, 2017     Bloomington, MN

Maybe it is because I am part Irish, or because I am flying to Dublin this week to present at the Trinity Economic Forum, but Kellyanne Conway’s claim that though she does not “resemble” any “terrorist,” she has to go through security checks at airports, stunned me.  Given her name and looks, that struck me as a bizarre statement.  Surely, she must “resemble” some of the IRA terrorists.  It took me four minutes of research to find an Irish terrorist that she resembles.

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NEP’s Bill Black says Linda McMahon’s career involved exploiting workers as independent contractors and sabotaging small businesses as he appears on The Real News Network below. You can view with transcript here.

By William K. Black
January 24, 2017     Bloomington, MN

Overview

This article explains three critical reasons why the Democratic Party’s leaders are far more insane than all but a few Democrats understand.  It focuses on the leaders of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and the New Democrats.  The DNC leadership is composed of New Democrats.  Debbie Wasserman Schultz had to resign in disgrace when the leaks proved that she was putting the DNC’s thumbs on the scale to favor Hillary Clinton (a New Democrat) in the presidential nomination contest against Bernie Sanders.  Wasserman Schultz also took large contributions from big finance and, until she faced the prospect of a serious primary challenger, she supported efforts by predatory lenders to use Congress to bar the regulators from stopping their abuses.

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NEP’s Bill Black and Norman Soloman join TRNN’s live inauguration coverage to discuss the criminogenic environment that will thrive under the Trump administration as well as its unprecedented conflicts of interest.

You can watch here with transcript.

By William K. Black
January 17, 2017     Bloomington, MN

The Wall Street Journal recently published a summary of a study of “desired director traits.”

A survey of 369 supervisory directors from 12 countries by search and advisory firm Russell Reynolds Associates asked which behaviors they thought are most important to creating a board culture that drives effectiveness and company performance.

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