Thursday, August 23, 2012
Wall Street Tightens Grip on Public Water as Local Residents Suffer
LP: Originally they went after education now they're caring up to take public water to turn it into a profit source.
Investment bankers and other major financial players are increasingly swooping in on public water utilities and other municipal services in cash strapped towns to the detriment of local residents, according to a new report released today by advocacy group Food & Water Watch. Vulture capitalists are increasingly facilitating the privatization of public infrastructure, taking control of public utilities while skimping on services and causing steep price hikes -- all the while making massive profits. Photo: Tany Puntti/Flickr/Creative Commons License
According to the report, private equity firms show up to hurting municipalities as hired financial advisers and subsequently push through privatization deals. Massive profits are made in the process, as such advisers stand to make great financial gains through these deals. Following privatization, local residents are continually denied sufficient services and face steep consumer price hikes in the under-regulated process.
“Like Wall Street’s manipulation of the housing market in the previous decade, private equity firms and investment bankers are increasingly looking to cash in on one of our most essential resources—water,” said Food & Water Watch Executive Director Wenonah Hauter. “These deals are ultimately a bum deal for consumers, who will end up paying the price through increased water bills and degraded service.”
The report titled, Private Equity, Public Inequity: The Public Cost of Private Equity Takeovers of U.S. Water Infrastructure reveals that as of January 2012, private equity players had raised $186 billion through 276 infrastructure funds. And private equity firms are armed with more than $100 billion for infrastructure worldwide.
Key findings also include:
•Major financial firms are promoting large, complex and risky privatization deals, which essentially act as high-interest credit cards to finance budget shortfalls and infrastructure projects. Cash-strapped governments lack the bargaining power and know-how to properly negotiate these deals.
•Private equity takeovers tend to be highly leveraged and risky.
•Private equity players are notorious tax avoiders and evaders. In the last five years, for example, the Carlyle Group made more than $4 billion in profit but paid an effective income tax rate of only 2 percent.
•Private equity takeovers restrict transparency and accountability.
"When municipalities privatize their drinking and wastewater systems to fill budget shortfalls, private equity firms have greater bargaining power to negotiate more lucrative deals. Many local governments, especially cash-strapped ones, are ill-equipped to evaluate proposals from multinational finance firms or to negotiate a fair contract, making them vulnerable to expensive, unnecessary deals," Food and Water Watch writes today.
“Private equity players aren’t investing in water out of a sense of civic responsibility. Their first and foremost motivation is profits, which has already proven incompatible with delivering an essential resource to consumers,” added Hauter.
Oringally Posted: https://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/08/22-5
Investment bankers and other major financial players are increasingly swooping in on public water utilities and other municipal services in cash strapped towns to the detriment of local residents, according to a new report released today by advocacy group Food & Water Watch. Vulture capitalists are increasingly facilitating the privatization of public infrastructure, taking control of public utilities while skimping on services and causing steep price hikes -- all the while making massive profits. Photo: Tany Puntti/Flickr/Creative Commons License
According to the report, private equity firms show up to hurting municipalities as hired financial advisers and subsequently push through privatization deals. Massive profits are made in the process, as such advisers stand to make great financial gains through these deals. Following privatization, local residents are continually denied sufficient services and face steep consumer price hikes in the under-regulated process.
“Like Wall Street’s manipulation of the housing market in the previous decade, private equity firms and investment bankers are increasingly looking to cash in on one of our most essential resources—water,” said Food & Water Watch Executive Director Wenonah Hauter. “These deals are ultimately a bum deal for consumers, who will end up paying the price through increased water bills and degraded service.”
The report titled, Private Equity, Public Inequity: The Public Cost of Private Equity Takeovers of U.S. Water Infrastructure reveals that as of January 2012, private equity players had raised $186 billion through 276 infrastructure funds. And private equity firms are armed with more than $100 billion for infrastructure worldwide.
Key findings also include:
•Major financial firms are promoting large, complex and risky privatization deals, which essentially act as high-interest credit cards to finance budget shortfalls and infrastructure projects. Cash-strapped governments lack the bargaining power and know-how to properly negotiate these deals.
•Private equity takeovers tend to be highly leveraged and risky.
•Private equity players are notorious tax avoiders and evaders. In the last five years, for example, the Carlyle Group made more than $4 billion in profit but paid an effective income tax rate of only 2 percent.
•Private equity takeovers restrict transparency and accountability.
"When municipalities privatize their drinking and wastewater systems to fill budget shortfalls, private equity firms have greater bargaining power to negotiate more lucrative deals. Many local governments, especially cash-strapped ones, are ill-equipped to evaluate proposals from multinational finance firms or to negotiate a fair contract, making them vulnerable to expensive, unnecessary deals," Food and Water Watch writes today.
“Private equity players aren’t investing in water out of a sense of civic responsibility. Their first and foremost motivation is profits, which has already proven incompatible with delivering an essential resource to consumers,” added Hauter.
Oringally Posted: https://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/08/22-5
Republicans to Declare 'We Built This!' in Stadium Built With Government Funds | Video Cafe
Republicans to Declare 'We Built This!' in Stadium Built With Government Funds | Video Cafe
LP: Fact smacks. According to Crooks and Liars why let facts get in way of a good story.
The RNC is now taking those attacks to the next level by making "We Built This!" the central theme of their convention at the Tampa Bay Times Forum arena, according to Fox News.
Originally called The Ice Palace, the arena was built in 1996 at a cost of $139 million, 62 percent of which was publicly financed.
"Kind of kills that idea that it doesn't take a village, right?" The Atlantic's Alexander Abad-Santos observed.
Original Post: http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/david/republicans-declare-we-built-stadium-built-g
LP: Fact smacks. According to Crooks and Liars why let facts get in way of a good story.
The RNC is now taking those attacks to the next level by making "We Built This!" the central theme of their convention at the Tampa Bay Times Forum arena, according to Fox News.
Originally called The Ice Palace, the arena was built in 1996 at a cost of $139 million, 62 percent of which was publicly financed.
"Kind of kills that idea that it doesn't take a village, right?" The Atlantic's Alexander Abad-Santos observed.
Original Post: http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/david/republicans-declare-we-built-stadium-built-g
Dee Snider To Paul Ryan: Stop Playing 'We're Not Gonna Take It'
Dee Snider To Paul Ryan: Stop Playing 'We're Not Gonna Take It'
LP - Like Tom Morello before him. Paul Ryan he's just not into you.
Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider has asked Republican vice presidential running mate Paul Ryan's camp not to play his hit song, "We're Not Gonna Take It."
Ryan spokesman Brandon Buck wrote a pithy email in response: "We're Not Gonna Play It anymore."
Snider says in a statement that he does not support Ryan and denounced use of the song, an anthemic 1984 hit for the glam metal band.
It joins a long list of songs that musicians have asked politicians to stop using. Most recently, the rock band Silversun Pickups asked likely Republican nominee Mitt Romney to stop using the song "Panic Switch" last week. The campaign said the song's use was inadvertent.
orginal story: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/22/dee-snider-paul-ryan-were-not-gonna-take-it_n_1823275.html
LP - Like Tom Morello before him. Paul Ryan he's just not into you.
Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider has asked Republican vice presidential running mate Paul Ryan's camp not to play his hit song, "We're Not Gonna Take It."
Ryan spokesman Brandon Buck wrote a pithy email in response: "We're Not Gonna Play It anymore."
Snider says in a statement that he does not support Ryan and denounced use of the song, an anthemic 1984 hit for the glam metal band.
It joins a long list of songs that musicians have asked politicians to stop using. Most recently, the rock band Silversun Pickups asked likely Republican nominee Mitt Romney to stop using the song "Panic Switch" last week. The campaign said the song's use was inadvertent.
orginal story: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/22/dee-snider-paul-ryan-were-not-gonna-take-it_n_1823275.html
Tropical Storm Isaac Threatens Republican National Convention
Tropical Storm Isaac Threatens Republican National Convention
LP: That would be a real loss. Maybe on the third day they could go on an anti-government rant about the government not handing out free money to the people of Tampa.
MIAMI -- Forecasters say Tropical Storm Isaac is moving westward across the Atlantic on a track that could possibly take it toward Florida, where the Republican National Convention will be held next week.
The National Hurricane Center said Isaac had top sustained winds near 40 mph (64 kph) at 8 p.m. EDT Tuesday night and was expected to strengthen. It was 435 miles (700 kilometers) east of Guadeloupe and heading west near 17 mph (28 kph).
Storm warnings were issued Tuesday across several islands in the Caribbean including Martinique, Guadeloupe and St. Martin.
It's too soon to gauge the storm's exact path. Some computer models forecast Isaac to head toward Cuba and then Florida, while others suggest a sharp northern turn in coming days near Puerto Rico before entering the open Atlantic.
"Monday are Tuesday are definitely in jeopardy," said meterologist Bill Karins on MSNBC Thursday. "I don't see any way possible that Tampa's going to be completely missed at this point."
Originally published: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/23/isaac-republican-convention_n_1824673.html
LP: That would be a real loss. Maybe on the third day they could go on an anti-government rant about the government not handing out free money to the people of Tampa.
MIAMI -- Forecasters say Tropical Storm Isaac is moving westward across the Atlantic on a track that could possibly take it toward Florida, where the Republican National Convention will be held next week.
The National Hurricane Center said Isaac had top sustained winds near 40 mph (64 kph) at 8 p.m. EDT Tuesday night and was expected to strengthen. It was 435 miles (700 kilometers) east of Guadeloupe and heading west near 17 mph (28 kph).
Storm warnings were issued Tuesday across several islands in the Caribbean including Martinique, Guadeloupe and St. Martin.
It's too soon to gauge the storm's exact path. Some computer models forecast Isaac to head toward Cuba and then Florida, while others suggest a sharp northern turn in coming days near Puerto Rico before entering the open Atlantic.
"Monday are Tuesday are definitely in jeopardy," said meterologist Bill Karins on MSNBC Thursday. "I don't see any way possible that Tampa's going to be completely missed at this point."
Originally published: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/23/isaac-republican-convention_n_1824673.html
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)