Throw Them All Out (24 page)

20 Robert Yoon, "Goldman Sachs Was Top Obama Donor,"
CNN.com
, April 20, 2010.

21
http://wallstcheatsheet.com/trading/first-solar-shares-lead-todays-gains.html
.

22 "Recovery Act Funds Support Geothermal Project Loan Guaranteed," Environmental News Service, February 28, 2011.

23
http://www.recovery.gov/Transparency/RecipientReportedData/pages/RecipientProjectSummary508.aspx?AwardIdSur=80623&AwardType=Grants
.

24 Anne C. Mulkern, "Stimulus Cash Flowed to Completed, Under-Way Renewable Energy Projects,"
New York Times,
October 19, 2010.

25 Mulkern, "Stimulus Cash Flowed to Completed, Under-Way Renewable Energy Projects."

26 Kristen Lombardi and John Solomon, "Billions in Stimulus Money Given to Polluters,"
Washington Post,
November 29, 2010.

27 Julie Rose, "Duke Energy Gives Democratic Convention Backing," NPR.org, April 15, 2011.

28 Erika Lovely, "Obama Biggest Recipient of BP Cash,"
Politico,
May 5, 2010.

29 Mulkern, "Stimulus Cash Flowed to Completed, Under-Way Renewable Energy Projects."

30 David Callahan,
Fortunes of Change: The Rise of the Liberal Rich and the Remaking of America
(New York: John Wiley and Sons, 2010),
p. 36.

31 Laura Litvan, "Emanuel Consults Buyout-Firm Allies in Debate Over Tax Increase,"
Bloomberg.com
, July 26, 2007.

32
http://www.xconomy.com/seattle/2008/11/06/arch-co-founder-bob-nelsens-historic-close-up-with-president-elect-obama-and-the-tears-of-jesse-jackson
.

33
http://www.businessinsider.com/meet-the-man-who-bought-jamie-dimons-house-michael-polsky-2010-9
.

34 Greene and Mosk, "Green Bundler with the Golden Touch."

35 Greene and Mosk, "Green Bundler with the Golden Touch."

36 Michael Scherer, "How Fundraising Helped Shape Obama's Green Agenda,"
Time,
March 15, 2010.

37 Dan Primack, "Amyris IPO: Which VC Backers Are (and Aren't) in the Black,"
CNNMoney.com
, September 29, 2010.

38
http://english.unica.com.br/clipping/show.asp?cppCode=2757BCFA-ED51-44C5-8F0F-7C9C2E687D23
.

39
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/energy/6491195/Al-Gore-could-become-worlds-first-carbon-billionaire.html
.

40 Jonathan Alter,
The Promise: President Obama, Year One
(New York: Simon and Schuster, 2010),
p. 89.

41 Alter,
The Promise,
p. 60.

42
http://www.energy.gov/recovery/documents/RecoveryActCrop ped_24-34.pdf
.

43 Paul Davidson, "Smart-Grid Standards an Issue in Economic Stimulus Bill,"
USA Today,
February 4, 2009, and Alex Yu Zheng, "Stimulus Package Will Create Winners in Smart Grid Standards,"
SmartGridNews.com
, February 17, 2009.

44 Matthew Wald, "U.S. Backs Project to Produce Fuel from Corn Waste,"
New York Times,
July 6, 2011.

45
http://www.cmo.com/leadership/conversation-cmo-year-finalist-wesley-bolsen-coskata-inc
.

46 Steve Coll, "Crony Capitalism,"
The New Yorker,
July 2, 2009.

 

6. WARREN BUFFETT: BAPTIST AND BOOTLEGGER

1 Andrew Clark, "Banking Crisis: Warren Buffett Sees US Bailout as a Golden Opportunity,"
Guardian,
September 24, 2008.

2
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-09/berkshire-will-record-1-25-billion-gain-on-goldman-redemption.html
.

3 John McCormick, "Buffett Is Obama Meal Ticket,"
Chicago Tribune,
August 16, 2007.

4 Ben Nelson, Financial Disclosure, 2008.

5 Jeff Zeleny, "Obama Sells Bailout Plan to Skeptics,"
New York Times,
October 1, 2008.

6 "Buffett Calls Bailout Bill 'the Right Thing,'"
New York Times,
September 24, 2008.

7 Daniel Dombey et al., "U.S. Bill to Contain Payback Provision,"
Financial Times,
September 29, 2008.

8
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26976416/ns/business-us_business/t/warren-buffett-invests-billion-ge/#.TjhN1M033V0
.

9 Charles Piller, "Bailout Helps Buffett Plenty,"
Houston Chronicle,
April 4, 2009.

10 Daron Acemoglu et al., "The Value of Political Connections in the United States," Social Science Research Network, December 2010.

11 Ran Duchin and Denis Sosyura, "The Politics of Government Investment," Ross School of Business Working Paper No. 1127, University of Michigan, April 2011.

12 Robert Lenzner, "Calling Out Politically Connected Banks,"
Forbes.com
, April 25, 2009.

13 Piller, "Bailout Helps Buffett Plenty."

14 Rolfe Winkler, "Buffett's Betrayal,"
blogs.reuters.com
, August 4, 2009.

15 Piller, "Bailout Helps Buffett Plenty."

16
http://seekingalpha.com/article/100720-here-i-go-criticizing-warren-buffett
.

17 Henry M. Paulson, Jr.,
On the Brink: Inside the Race to Stop the Collapse of the Global Financial System
(New York: Business Plus, 2010).

18
http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2011/04/21/warren-buffetts-profit-on-ge-investment-1-2-billion
.

19
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/17/opinion/17buffett.html
.

20
http://www.futureofcapitalism.com/2010/11/buffett-thanks-uncle-sam
.

21 Andrew Frye, "Sokol Violated Berkshire Insider-Trading Rules, Audit Finds,"
Bloomberg.com
, April 27, 2011.

22 Josh Mitchell, "Rail Deal Is Bet on Obama's Infrastructure, Climate Policies,"
Wall Street Journal,
November 3, 2009.

23 Mitchell, "Rail Deal Is Bet on Obama's Infrastructure, Climate Policies."

24 See, for example,
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011 /02/08/vice-president-biden-announces-six-year-plan-build-national-high-speed-r
.

25 Matthew Lewis, "Buffett's New Company Sure Knows How to Lobby," Center for Public Integrity, November 6, 2009, and
http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientsum.php?id=D000021757&year=2009
.

26 "Buffett's Obama Pigout,"
New York Times,
August 25, 2011.

27 Steven Rattner,
Overhaul: An Insider's Account of the Obama Administration's Emergency Rescue of the Auto Industry
(Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010), p. 102.

 

7. CRONIES ON PARADE: HEDGE FUNDS, DEFENSE CONTRACTORS, COLLEGES, BIG OIL ... AND GEORGE SOROS

1 "Former US Secretary of State Offers New Hedge Fund Option,"
http://www.atrader.com
.

2 Meng Gao and Jiekun Huang, "Capitalizing on Capitol Hill: Informed Trading by Hedge Fund Managers," Social Science Research Network, April 18, 2011.

3 Gao and Huang, "Capitalizing on Capitol Hill."

4 "Washington Whispers to Wall Street,"
Businessweek.com
, December 26, 2005.

5 Brody Mullins, "Hedge Funds Use Lobbyists for Tips in Washington," Associated Press, December 8, 2006.

6 Mullins, "Hedge Funds Use Lobbyists for Tips in Washington."

7 Jessica Holzer, "Wall Street Goes Bargain Hunting in the Farm Bill,"
The Hill,
April 23, 2008.

8 Joe Nocera, "From Pentagon, a Buy Rating on Contractors,"
New York Times,
February 11, 2011.

9 "Did Steve Eisman Unduly Influence the Education Dept.?"
CNNmoney.com
, November 2, 2010, and Jim Angle, "Education Department Rules on For-Profit Schools Created with Investor's Help,"
Foxnews.com
, May 31, 2011, and Andy Kroll, "Steve Eisman's Next Big Short: For-Profit Colleges,"
Motherjones.com
, May 27, 2010. E-mails concerning Eisman's meetings with Department of Education officials are available from
CREW:
http://crew.3cdn.net/37fff23ac9f0c849a8_vbsm6hbc5.pdf
.

10 "Did Markets Know Obama Was Going to Tap Oil Reserve?"
CNBC.com
, July 6, 2011.

11
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/08/30/100830fa_fact_mayer
.

12
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/29/opinion/29rich.html
.

13 Richard Rahn, "You Lose, Soros Wins,"
Washington Times,
October 24, 2008.

14 "Axis of Soros,"
Wall Street Journal,
May 9, 2009.

15 Robert Kuttner,
A Presidency in Peril
(White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green, 2010), p. 14.

16 Eamon Javers, "Soros, Gore among W.H. Visitors,"
Politico,
October 31, 2009.

17 Louis Uchitelle, "Volcker Pushes for Reform, Regretting Past Silence,"
New York Times,
July 11, 2010.

18
http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/0,1518,592268,00.html
.

19 George Soros, "The Game Changer,"
Financial Times,
January 28, 2009.

20
http://www.emc.com/leadership/tech-view/stimulating-ah-ha-phenomenon.htm
.

21
http://www.teradata.com/t/industry-expertise/government
.

22
http://4g-wirelessevolution.tmcnet.com/broadband-stimulus/topics/broadband-stimulus/articles/63191-extreme-networks-pushes-broadband-networks-into-rural-america.htm
.

23
http://www.radware.com/Solutions/Enterprise/Industries/Government_US.aspx
.

24 "Emerging Trends in Education Publishing," Cognizant.

25
http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2009/06/12/12greenwire-doe-revives-futuregen-reversing-bush-era-decis-47303.html
.

26
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/energy/6911328.html
.

27
http://pseg.com/info/media/thought_leader/carbon_strategy.jsp
.

28 General Electric Annual Report, 2008.

 

8. SOME ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS

1 Quoted in Edward Roeder, "Slippery Slopes: How Politicians Can Draw the 'Get Out of Jail Free' Card in the Game of Politics,"
Campaigns and Elections,
August 2006.

2 Tony Mauro, "Recusal Report,"
Legal Times,
October 10, 2008.

3 Kathleen Clark, "Regulating the Conflict of Interest of Government Officials," in Michael Davis and Andrew Stark, eds.,
Conflict of Interest in the Professions
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2001), p. 53.

4
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/16/business/16insider.html
.

5 See, for example,
http://www.azauditor.gov/Reports/Counties/Yuma/SIU/SIU03-1.pdf
.

6 Leonard J. Brooks, "Conflict of Interest in the Accounting Profession," in Davis and Stark, eds.,
Conflict of Interest in the Professions,
p. 93.

7
http://www.nytco.com/press/ethics.html#B3
.

8 Eleanor Randolph, "Guards of Press Troubled by SEC Suit,"
Washington Post,
May 21, 1984.

9 U.S. Senator Ron Wyden,
http://wyden.senate.gov/newsroom/press/release
, July 15, 2010.

10 John Dorschner, "Senator Tells University of Miami He's Troubled over Hiring,"
Miami Herald,
June 10, 2010.

11 U.S. Constitution, article 1, section 5.

12 Jacob R. Straus, "House Committee on Ethics: A Brief History of Its Evolution and Jurisdiction," Congressional Research Service Publication 7-5700,
http://www.crs.gov
.

13 Catharine Richert, "Public Citizen Gets It Right about Insider Trading Rules," Politifact,
St. Petersburg Times,
August 6, 2009.

14 Senate Ethics Manual, 2003, pp. 160–75.

15 Jeffrey Birnbaum, "Ethics Panel Finds Conflict with Senator's Job as Physician,"
Washington Post,
April 6, 2005.

16 Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, 110th Congress, 2nd Session, House Ethics Manual, 2008 ed., pp. 234–37.

17 Andrew George, "Public (Self)-Service: Illegal Trading on Confidential Congressional Information,"
Harvard Law and Policy Review,
vol. 2, 2008, p. 162.

18 Stephen M. Bainbridge, "Insider Trading Inside the Beltway," UCLA School of Law, Law-Econ Research Paper No. 10-08, June 30, 2010,
http://ssrn.com/abstract=1633123
.

19 Daylian M. Cain, George Loewenstein, and Don A. Moore, "Coming Clean but Playing Dirtier: The Shortcomings of Disclosure as a Solution to Conflicts of Interest," in Don A. Moore et al., eds.,
Conflicts of Interest: Challenges and Solutions in Business, Law, Medicine, and Public Policy
(New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005), and Daylian M. Cain, George Loewenstein, and Don Moore, "The Dirt on Coming Clean: Perverse Effects of Disclosing Conflicts of Interest,"
Journal of Legal Studies,
January 2005.

20 Clark, "Regulating the Conflict of Interest of Government Officials."

21 Beth Burger, "Businessman Dennis Kim Charged with Extortion,"
Bradenton.com
, February 13, 2009.

22 Fred McChesney,
Money for Nothing: Politicians, Rent Extraction, and Political Extortion
(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1997).

23 R. Beck, C. Hoskins, and J. M. Connolly, "Rent Extraction Through Political Extortion: An Empirical Examination,"
Journal of Legal Studies,
January 1992.

 

9. WHY THIS MATTERS

1 George Washington Plunkitt,
Plunkitt of Tammany Hall
(Boston: Bedford Books, 1993), p. 34.

2
http://money.cnn.com/2003/03/20/pf/saving/war_military_pay/table.html
.

3 Scott Higham, Kimberly Kindy, and Dan Keating, "Senate Panel Ban Seen as Double Standard,"
Washington Post,
December 19, 2010.

4 Plunkitt,
Plunkitt of Tammany Hall,
p. 42.

5
http://www.rollcall.com/issues/56_119/financial-disclosure- congress-205462-1.html
.

6 National Conference of State Legislatures, "To Vote or Not to Vote: State Provisions on Conflicts of Interest and Voting," November 2009.

7
http://fppc.ca.gov/index.php?id=37
.

8
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/22/AR2006052201080.html
.

9 "Judge Rules FBI Raid on Rep. Jefferson's Office Was Legal," Associated Press,
Foxnews.com
, July 10, 2006.