Uber Drivers Ruled Employees In California

[From article]
The June 3 ruling, which applies only in California, came to light on Tuesday after Uber appealed it in a filing in state court in San Francisco, where both the company and the driver in the case are based.
Classifying Uber drivers as employees could mean considerably higher costs for the company, including Social Security, workers’ compensation and unemployment insurance.
That in turn could affect its valuation, currently above $40 billion, and the valuation of other companies that rely on large networks of individuals to provide rides, clean houses and other services.

http://news.yahoo.com/uber-drivers-employees-not-contractors-california-labor-commission-144227418--sector.html

California pokes big hole in Uber's business model
By Sarah McBride and Dan Levine
June 17, 2015

Not A Conspiracy Theory, NYSE Is Rigged

[From article]
When I started making that claim years ago — and provided solid evidence — people scoffed. Some called it a conspiracy theory, tinfoil hats and that sort of stuff. Most people just ignored me.
But that’s not happening anymore. The dirty secret is out.
With stock prices rushing far ahead of economic reality over the last six or so years, more experts in the financial markets are coming to the same conclusion — even if they don’t fully understand how it’s being rigged or the consequences.
Ed Yardeni, a longtime Wall Street guru who isn’t one of the clowns of the bunch, said flat out last week that the market was being propped up. “These markets are all rigged, and I don’t say that critically. I just say that factually,” he asserted on CNBC.

http://nypost.com/2015/03/25/us-stock-market-is-just-way-too-riggin-easy/

Stock market rigging is no longer a ‘conspiracy theory’
By John Crudele
New York Post
March 25, 2015 | 9:53pm

Cambridge Resident Knows the Future

[An edited version of this letter was published online at the Cambridge Chronicle April 9, 2013

http://www.wickedlocal.com/cambridge/news/x1148860548/LETTER-Cambridge-letter-writer-provides-no-evidence#axzz2PuOEx6sR


James Recht, MD, Harvard Medical School

Cambridge letter writer supports the City Council effort for the City pension fund to get "rid of stocks, bonds or investment funds that are unethical or that pose a threat to the health of ones community." He adds, "Fossil fuel investments are both." (James Recht, Letter, "Cambridge should end its fossil fuel investments, " Cambridge Chronicle, Apr 04, 2013) He provides no evidence of his claims beyond one article in Nature Magazine regarding global warming. The letter exhibits certainty of a zealot, not saying that the writer is one. The notion of ethics can be argued with less certainty against divestment. Most remarkable is his claim about the future worth of stocks and bonds of energy companies, citing one article. How does he know this? I thought only psychiatrists could predict the future.This citizen lacks understanding of how the City government works. The only power the City Council has is to hire and to fire the City Manager. Everything else is his only to decide allegedly based on law and the Constitution. With seven councilors supporting the City Manager at present it is unlikely that the Manager will do more than pretend to listen to the Council each week for their weekly TV performances.  

http://www.wickedlocal.com/cambridge/news/x1433807290/LETTER-Cambridge-should-end-its-fossil-fuel-investments?zc_p=0#axzz2Paa3PSHZ

LETTER: Cambridge should end its fossil fuel investments
Cambridge Chronicle
Posted Apr 04, 2013 @ 03:02 PM
James Recht, Walden Street

Get Ready For The Bust

[From article]
President Obama won re-election, so Bernanke will stay on to do more
damage to middle-class and poor families with his zero interest-rate
policy, while enriching those better off who play the stock market.
And that’s just the way it is gonna be.
[. . .]
Companies have been keeping profits healthy — at least, until the last
quarter — by firing workers and making other spending cuts. But
profits in the most recent quarter fell for the first time compared
with a year ago, the first time this has happened since early 2009,
according to Thomson Reuters.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/traders_limber_up_for_their_race_ALiKcXCkrRkcqFvXsmJGbP

Traders limber up for their race to the exits
By JOHN CRUDELE
New York Post
Last Updated: 11:32 PM, November 12, 2012
Posted: 11:32 PM, November 12, 2012

Lack of Knowledge Game

John Crudele says, "The markets are about people getting rich off some other person’s lack of knowledge." Elections are about people getting elected off of other persons' lack of knowledge; and lawyers get rich off other persons' lack of knowledge too. Is that why networks broadcast propaganda instead of factual information? As a professional courtesy? 

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/street_is_playing_confidence_game_AK6gmFTHGlDcyXNRA2dTbN

Street is playing a confidence game
John Crudele
New York Post
Last Updated: 2:09 AM, June 24, 2012 Posted: 11:01 PM, June 23, 2012

Dramatic Stock Market Recovery

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/ponder_this_who_rescued_the_market_6eBP8nn3pCQbkFOsFPOQEI

Ponder this: Who rescued the market last week?
John Crudele
New York Post
Last Updated: 4:32 AM, May 13, 2010

Posted: 12:43 AM, May 13, 2010

Stock Trader Thefts

[From article]

"The baubles were seized as part of the investigations against two stock traders busted in separate multimillion-dollar investment scams[. . .]

Former equity-trading big David Holzer is serving 5 to 15 years for stealing $16 million from friends[. . .]

Former Morgan Stanley securities honcho Richard Garaventa is serving a 2 to 6 years for stealing some $2.5 million from his bosses."

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/da_bling_auction_offers_real_steal_I9nnXEe0qtMZZFTjKkZQCO

DA's bling auction offers a real steal

By LAURA ITALIANO

New York Post

Last Updated: 5:54 AM, March 6, 2010

Posted: 3:32 AM, March 6, 2010

FOIA Stalled for Plunge Protection Team

"But why should the PWG be allowed to operate unchecked inside our government? Why should this clandestine organization have so much potential control over the nation's financial markets and Americans' wealth?

The Plunge Protection Team either made "decisions" or contributed to decisions being made by others that it doesn't want us to know about."

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/plot_thickens_in_the_battle_of_the_NJsYOG7KNjWijrev9x2u2M

Plot thickens in the battle of 'The Plunge'

New York Post

Last Updated: 6:48 AM, February 11, 2010

Posted: 1:28 AM, February 11, 2010

The Treasury Department has records of the secret meetings that its President's Working Group on Financial Markets held to discuss the troubled financial markets, after all.<p> </p><br> That doesn't mean Washington wants us to know what was discussed, or whether Wall Street executives were in the meetings.<p> </p><br> The working group was founded by President Reagan back in 1989, after the stock market nearly sustained its second big crash in two years.<p> </p><br> Placed under the Treasury's jurisdiction, it lay dormant for years. It has been nicknamed The Plunge Protection Team because many people -- including me -- believe that in recent years it has been used to stabilize markets.<p> </p><br> If so, the PWG could have encouraged the misconception that the stock market was a lot less risky than it really was. In that sense, the PWG would have been instrumental in inflating the stock bubble that burst in 2008, costing a lot of Americans their savings.<p> </p><br> The PWG operates in total secrecy. Members include the heads of the Treasury, the Federal Reserve and financial exchanges, but there is no record of who else participates.<p> </p><br> It's been suspected that under<p> </p><br>Hank Paulson, the former chairman of Goldman Sachs who left the Treasury secretary post last year, Wall Street kingpins were brought into the circle.<p> </p><br> The reasoning: "market participants," as Paulson liked to call them, could best help fix problems. At the same time, they would be free to use these invaluable connections with the PWG for their benefit, as well.<p> </p><br> I first requested information on the PWG back in 2006. That request fell "through the cracks," according to an internal Treasury memo. A year and a half later, after an e-mail discussion among Treasury officials, I learned that minutes and notes of the PWG's meetings didn't exist.<p> </p><br> In November 2007 the Treasury changed its tune and responded to my Freedom of Information Act request with 177 pages, which I described in a column as "crap."<p> </p><br> "Included in the 177 pages that the Treasury said responded to our request on the actions of the PWG," I wrote, "were 53 pages on which something was redacted -- blacked out so that the discussion was unreadable."<p> </p><br> Soon afterwards, The Post and I filed an appeal, saying we wanted internal documents, especially of a meeting held on Aug. 17, 2007. That was the day the Fed began a series of rate cuts, much to the delight of The Street.<p> </p><br> Granted, I was fishing. But why should the PWG be allowed to operate unchecked inside our government? Why should this clandestine organization have so much potential control over the nation's financial markets and Americans' wealth?<p> </p><br> Well, I got a response to our appeal -- more than two years after it was filed.<p> </p><br> It turns out there are an additional 739 pages of PWG documents that the Treasury "withheld . . . in full."<p> </p><br> The latest Treasury letter, signed by Deputy Assistant Secretary<p> </p><br>Matthew Rutherford, said: "After carefully considering your appeal, I am affirming the actions on record referred to in your appeal."<p> </p><br> Rutherford said the 739 new pages "concerns certain inter-and-intra agency communications protected by the deliberative process privilege."<p> </p><br> Huh?<p> </p><br> It continued: "The material redacted pursuant to the deliberative process component subsection (b) (5) was determined to be both predecisional and deliberative." It was deliberative "in that it contains personal opinions, analyses, advice, thought processes, strategies and recommendations, reflecting the 'give and take' of the department's consultative."<p> </p><br> Huh? huh?<p> </p><br> I misplaced my mumbo-jumbo-to-English dictionary, but I'll do my best to interpret.<p> </p><br> The Plunge Protection Team either made "decisions" or contributed to decisions being made by others that it doesn't want us to know about. And this was in 2007 -- well before the so-called financial meltdown that gave Paulson and his crew a free hand.<p> </p><br> What was the PWG consulting with Treasury and the Fed on? Rate cuts? Market-rigging operations? The décor of then-Treasury Secretary Paulson's office?<p> </p><br> Since we already know about Paulson's exces sively close relationship with Goldman Sachs, shouldn't the Treasury at very least let the public know what sort of chatter was in those 739 pages?<p> </p><br> I'll pay for the copying costs.<p> </p><br>john.crudele@nypost.com <p> </p><br>

John Crudele

Deceptive Man of The Year


"Mr. Bernanke, is someone rigging the stock market?"
[. . .]
"There were simply too many days when exuberant buying in the opening minutes of trading in New York would reverse a down market that was being inherited from earlier trading in Asia or Europe.

Add to that the President's Working Group on Financial Markets, lovingly known around Wall Street as the "Plunge Protection Team," and the fact that Paulson regularly referred to meetings that the group had, though the Treasury would never -- or could never -- produce the minutes of those meetings."

Goldman factor haunts Bernanke's testimony
John Crudele
New York Post
Last Updated: 2:59 AM, December 22, 2009
Posted: 1:41 AM, December 22, 2009

Secret Relationship Between Wall Street and Washington


http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/the_secret_to_goldman_sachs_good_WBlKYEyLfH7GP4zT0vNrEP

The secret to Goldman Sachs' good fortune
John Crudele
New York Post
Last Updated: 2:04 AM, September 29, 2009
Posted: 2:04 AM, September 29, 2009