During the worldwide financial crisis, Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, who also carries the title of co-prince of Andorra, placed himself at the helm of an international crusade to clamp down on tax evasion. Mr. Sarkozy told Andorra to fall in line if it did not want to be ostracized, even threatening in early 2009 to drop his princely title. Spain, desperate to plug its ballooning budget deficit, also became more determined to recoup money hidden in offshore accounts.

Andorra complied, signing agreements with its two neighbors as well as with several other countries to collaborate on cross-border fraud investigations. As a result, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development removed Andorra last year from its list of “uncooperative tax havens.”

via Andorra, a Tiny Tax Haven, Tries Openness – NYTimes.com.

I was one of the most thrilled when the IRS went after UBS for its list of names of Americans with tax heavens. In the end governments need the tax revenue from not only the commoners buf from the elite as well.

All three tycoons are the latest incarnation of what the historian Kim Phillips-Fein labeled “Invisible Hands” in her prescient 2009 book of that title: those corporate players who have financed the far right ever since the du Pont brothers spawned the American Liberty League in 1934 to bring down F.D.R. You can draw a straight line from the Liberty League’s crusade against the New Deal “socialism” of Social Security, the Securities and Exchange Commission and child labor laws to the John Birch Society-Barry Goldwater assault on J.F.K. and Medicare to the Koch-Murdoch-backed juggernaut against our “socialist” president.

via Op-Ed Columnist – The Billionaires Bankrolling the Tea Party – NYTimes.com.

As they say follow the money. It’s amazing how tied they are to the John Birch Society.

“Anybody that builds a building in New York City changes its skyline – we dont have to run around to every other owner and apologize,” he said. “One guy owns a building, hed like to have it be the only tall building – Im sorry, thats not the real world.”

via NYC allows new neighbor for Empire State Building.

Real estate developers and owners often get to walk all over municipal governments. They dictate almost everything and usually NYC and the Bloomberg administration is beholden to those developers and &c. This time however it seems one owner will not get his way.

The latest action — the third recall announcement in two weeks for eggs — is bound to shake the confidence of consumers rattled by a succession of food safety scares in recent years, most prominently for foods like beef and lettuce.

The idea that half a billion suspect eggs have been circulating in the food supply comes as an embarrassment for the egg industry and federal regulators. New egg safety rules went into effect in July that the Food and Drug Administration had said would prevent tens of thousands of salmonella illnesses a year.

via Second Iowa Producer Recalls 170 Million Eggs – NYTimes.com.

First watch Food Inc if you have not already.

Now I’ve never been one to curse but I am starting to see the tactical purpose of well placed F words when referrng to corporate America. With that said what is wrong with your food industry? Eggs with salmonella, beeef and lettuce with E. coli? I mean what the hell man?!

Do the American people even care about what is going into their bodies anymore? Granted, we can’t control everything but this is blatant. The hatred in this country by the poweful towards government regulation is klling people. For years we have had a feckless Food and Drug Administration we could have tea parties about this for years!

Despite promises to reduce toxic chemicals in toys, new testing shows that Toys “R” Us continues to sell products made out of polyvinyl chloride or PVC, the poison plastic, without adequate cautionary labeling for parents. Chemicals released during PVC’s lifecycle are linked to chronic diseases on the rise in children including asthma, learning disabilities, obesity and cancer.

Now Wall Street bankers are set to profit from the sale of this toxic asset! KKR, the private equity firm that owns Toys “R” Us, is planning to sell $800 million worth of Toys “R” Us stock. But offloading Toys “R” Us without putting an end to toxic toys will further entrench irresponsible business practices at Toys “R” Us that put children’s health at risk.

via Stop Profiting From Toxic Toys:.

I have to say it is kind of cool to see the Teamsters partnering with the Center for Health Environment and Justice on this e-Action they set up.

Only a week after Glaxo SmithKline (GSK) agreed to pay $460 million to settle over 10,000 personal injury lawsuits related to Avandia,  it was reported that GSK has agreed to pay $1 billion dollars to settle  800 cases related to birth defects caused by  the GSK anti-depressant Paxil, taken by pregnant women. Both of these settlements are part of the $2.4 billion GSK has set aside to resolve pending litigation, according to corporate filings last week.

via Prescription Access Litigation (PAL) Project » Blog Archive » GSK troubles continue with Paxil settlement, questions on Avandia panel.

This is what happens when there is lax regulation.

In the last few months, at least 155 people in several states have become ill from a pair of rare strains of salmonella. And according to authorities, the source of the salmonella is food served at Taco Bell.

via Outbreak Of Rare Salmonella Strains Linked To Taco Bell – The Consumerist.

The lack of regulation over the past decade has made these sorts of things even worse.

Then there’s the beef industry.

Alright, you know the drill: go to your freezer and look for meat products labeled “EST. 8268,” which is now code for everybody’s favorite stomach bug: E. coli. The Valley Meat Company of California announced this week that they plan to recall nearly one million pounds of ground beef contaminated with the icky stomach bug.

Oprah was right to take the beef industry on in the past. Upton Sinclair’s jungle still grows. It’s more than just beef and it is putting people in danger. Down with factory-farms and huge monolithic agri-businesses who shun regulation!

The AFL-CIO and AFSCME  are asking Dell Inc. shareholders to withhold their votes from Michael Dell, the company’s chairman and CEO, at the annual shareholder meeting Aug. 12. The AFL-CIO and AFSCME, which both own Dell shares, say the company would be better served by removing Michael Dell as chairman.

Last month, Dell postponed its annual meeting to give shareholders time to consider a proposed settlement of a complaint filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission SEC. The SEC complaint alleged that payments from microprocessor manufacturer Intel were improperly disclosed to shareholders and that “cookie jar” reserve accounts had been manipulated. Under the proposed settlement, Dell Inc. agreed to pay a $100 million penalty and Michael Dell agreed to pay a $4 million penalty.

via AFL-CIO NOW BLOG | AFL-CIO, AFSCME Call for Removal of Dell Chairman.

Dude, you are so not getting a Dell.

Investigators visited the 87-year-old at her Paris home to ask about Swiss bank accounts and a Seychelles island allegedly used as a tax haven.Both issues were mentioned in secret recordings made by a former butler.

via BBC News – French police question LOreal heiress over scandal.

I’d love to see the Walton family or the Hilton’s get the same treatment actually.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration OSHA says that workers who blow the whistle on safety violations and other unlawful practices “play an important role in assuring compliance with federal laws.”But, say workplace safety advocates, too many times workers don’t speak up about safety and health problems on the job because they fear retaliation from their employers, even though it’s illegal.

via AFL-CIO NOW BLOG | OSHA Launches New Whistleblower Protection Site.

If you see something say something! This kind of abuse by employers is more common than you think.