How The Federal Reserve Is Making The Rich Richer – And Not So Much Everybody Else

By Allan Sloan and Cezary Podkul/ProPublica

Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic struck, the Federal Reserve has gotten plenty of kudos for moves that have helped stabilize the economy, kept house prices from tanking and supported the stock market. But those successes have obscured another effect: the inadvertent impact the Fed’s ultra-low interest rates and bond-buying sprees are having on economic inequality.
Longstanding inequality in the U.S. has been exacerbated by the Fed’s role in touching off a multitrillion-dollar boom in stock markets – and stock ownership is heavily skewed toward the wealthiest Americans.
In contrast, soaring stock prices don’t help people like Wina Tan. Tan, 59, is one of the millions of Americans nearing retirement age whose greatest source of wealth isn’t stocks or equity in a home. Rather, it’s the Social Security checks she expects to start getting once she retires.

Posted on April 27, 2021

Another Win For Big Soda

By Samantha Young/Kaiser Health News

A rogue industry. A gun to our head. Extortion.
That’s how infuriated lawmakers described soft drink companies – and what they pulled off in 2018 when they scored a legislative deal that bars California’s cities and counties from imposing taxes on sugary drinks.
Yet, despite its tarnished reputation, the deep-pocketed industry continues to exert its political influence in the nation’s most populous state, spending millions of dollars on politically connected lobbyists and doling out campaign contributions to nearly every state lawmaker.
The result? Bills long opposed by Coca-Cola Co., PepsiCo and other beverage companies continue to flounder. Just two weeks ago, a measure that would have undone the 2018 deal that lawmakers so vehemently protested was shelved without a hearing.
“Big Soda is a very powerful lobby,” said Eric Batch, vice president of advocacy at the American Heart Association, which has petitioned lawmakers nationwide to crack down on sugar-laden drinks that health advocates say contribute to diabetes, obesity and other costly medical conditions.
“They’ve spent a lot of money in California to stop groups like ours from passing good policy,” Batch added. “And they’ve been doing it for a long time.”

Posted on April 21, 2021

They Do Run Run

By David Rutter

Lar Daly, meet Jim Oberweis.
Jim Oberweis, meet Lar Daly.
Totally preposterous meets vainglorious nincompoop. The identities virtually are interchangeable. As TV prosecutor Hamilton Burger used to tell Perry Mason: “Incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial.”

Posted on April 20, 2021