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	Workers Laid Off, Execs Paid Off by Amy Goodman Democracy Now USA   Dec 2008   The global financial crisis deepens, with more than 10 million in the U.S. out of work, according to the Department of Labor.   Unemployment hit 6.7 percent in November. Add the 7.3 million "involuntary part-time workers," who want to work full time but can"t find a position. Jobless claims have reached a 26-year high, while 30 states reportedly face potential shortfalls in their unemployment insurance pools.   The stunning failure of regulators like the Securities and Exchange Commission was again highlighted, as former NASDAQ head Bernard Madoff (you got it, pronounced "made off") was arrested for allegedly running the world"s largest criminal pyramid scheme, with losses expected at $50 billion, dwarfing those from the Enron scandal. The picture is grim.   The $700 billion financial bailout package, TARP (Troubled Assets Relief Program), was supposed to mandate the elimination of exorbitant executive compensation and "golden parachutes." As U.S. taxpayers pony up their hard-earned dollars, highflying executives and corporate boards are now considering whether to give themselves multimillion-dollar bonuses.   According to The Washington Post, the specific language in the TARP law that forbade such payouts was changed at the last minute, with a small but significant one-sentence edit made by the Bush administration. The Post reported, "The change stipulated that the penalty would apply only to firms that received bailout funds by selling troubled assets to the government in an auction."   Read the fine print. Of the TARP bailout funds to be disbursed, only those that were technically spent "in an auction" would have limits imposed on executive pay. But Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and his former Goldman Sachs colleague Neel Kashkari (yes, pronounced "cash carry"), who is running the program, aren"t inclined to spend the funds in auctions. They prefer their Capital Purchase Program, handing over cash directly.   The Government Accountability Office issued a report on TARP Dec. 10, expressing concerns about the lack of oversight of the companies receiving bailout funds. The report states that "without a strong oversight and monitoring function, Treasury"s ability to ensure an appropriate level of accountability and transparency will be limited." The nonprofit news organization ProPublica has been tracking the bailout program, reporting details that remain shrouded by the Treasury. As of Tuesday, 202 institutions had obtained bailout funds totaling close to $250 billion.   House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said recently, "The Treasury Department"s implementation of the TARP is insufficiently transparent and is not accountable to American taxpayers." Barney Frank, D-Mass., chair of the House Financial Services Committee, said earlier, "Use of these funds ... for bonuses, for severance pay, for dividends, for acquisitions of other institutions, etc. - is a violation of the terms of the act."   Republican Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa said of the loophole, "The flimsy executive compensation restrictions in the original bill are now all but gone."   The sums these titans of Wall Street are walking away with are staggering. In their annual "Executive Excess" report, the groups United for a Fair Economy and the Institute for Policy Studies reported 2007 compensation for Lloyd Blankfein, CEO of Goldman Sachs (Paulson"s replacement), of $54 million, and that of John Thain, CEO of Merrill Lynch, a whopping $83 million. Merrill has since been sold to Bank of America, after losing more than $11 billion this year - yet Thain still wants a $10 million bonus.   The U.S. populace, its representatives in Congress and the new Obama administration need to follow the money, close the executive pay loophole and demand accountability from the banks that the public has bailed out.   * Amy Goodman is the host of "Democracy Now!," a daily international TV/radio news hour airing on 500 stations in North America. Visit the related web page
	Corruption impedes development and human rights by UN News   9 December 2008   Corruption is partly to blame for the current global financial crisis and is also an obstacle to the achievement of development and human rights goals, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today, calling for stepped up efforts to wipe out the scourge.   Greed and corruption have to some degree propelled the economic turmoil, leading to a plummeting of confidence in the financial system and the loss of life savings of many people around the world, Mr. Ban said in a message marking International Anti-Corruption Day.   “This is bad enough, yet another silent financial crisis afflicting the world’s poorest people attracts far less attention,” he said.   Throughout the developing world, billions of dollars urgently needed for health care, education, clean water and infrastructure are drained through bribes and other offenses.   “This makes it harder to provide basic services and achieve the Millennium Development Goals [MDGs],” the Secretary-General noted, referring to the eight anti-poverty targets with a 2015 deadline. “It denies people their fundamental human rights.”   The UN is taking action against the scourge, he said, through the UN Convention against Corruption, which contains strong measures to boost integrity that are applicable to both the public and private sectors. Nearly 130 nations are Parties to the pact, which entered into force in December 2005.   Mr. Ban said today that the global financial crisis underscores the necessity for stepped up regulation, and under the UN Convention, bank secrecy is no longer an obstacle to recovering stolen assets.   “It is not only governments and financial institutions that need to do more to prevent corruption and strengthen integrity,” he said. “Corruption affects us all.”   The head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) today called for greater adherence to the Convention.“The world’s anti-corruption treaty should be the basis for strengthening integrity and oversight and curbing economic crime,” said Antonio Maria Costa, UNODC Executive Director. “If more governments and businesses implemented the Convention, we wouldn’t be in such a mess,” he added.   For her part, the UN Independent Expert on the question of human rights and poverty today underscored how corruption threatens efforts to eliminate poverty. “The very funds being allocated to poverty reduction programmes are too often diverted into the hands of corrupt elites,” said Magdalena Sepúlveda.   She also stressed that the scourge disproportionately affects women because they are “over-represented in the poorest social segments of society and under-represented in decision-making bodies,” calling for gender discrimination to be taken into account when formulating anti-corruption initiatives.
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