The Latest from the Prospect
 â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â
Â
View this email in your browser
<[link removed]>
**MARCH 29, 2023**
Kuttner on TAP
****
****
****
****
****
****
****
**** The Double Standard for Keeping Capital and
Labor Honest
There is far more corporate crime than crimes by unions. But corrupt
labor officials are prosecuted and jailed, while executive thugs walk.
The Wall Street scandal on top of the scandal is this: Not only do
massive frauds by financial executives fleece consumers-and in the
case of the 2008 collapse, crash the economy; the top executives who
design and carry out the frauds are almost never prosecuted as
individuals
<[link removed]>. The
corporation typically is made to pay a fine, as if the frauds were
mysteriously created by an entity rather than by people, in a kind of
immaculate misconception.
On the labor front, meanwhile, this week brings news that a reform slate
narrowly won election to lead the UAW, ousting an incumbent regime that
had been beset by weak leadership and corruption at the expense of the
rank and file. Reformer Shawn Fain becomes union president, with a
majority on the union executive board. This follows similar reform
successes at the Teamsters and other unions, leading to a more effective
labor movement overall.
In the run-up to this victory for reformers, dozens of corrupt UAW
leaders were investigated and convicted for siphoning union funds. Two
former UAW presidents, Gary Jones and Dennis Williams, were sentenced to
prison.
The overwhelming majority of union leaders are honest and democratically
accountable to the membership. But when corruption sets in, the
government doesn't mess around. According to Labor Department records
<[link removed]>, in the past
decade there were 2,505 criminal investigations of union officials and
821 convictions. Hundreds did prison time, mostly for embezzlement of
union funds.
During the same period, not a single top Wall Street executive went to
jail
<[link removed]>,
despite the fact that Wall Street frauds cost the economy trillions
while the typical union misappropriation was in the thousands or low
millions.
Union leaders are held accountable both by courageous rank-and-file
organizing, and by law enforcement. Under the 1959 bipartisan
Landrum-Griffin Act, passed in the wake of several union corruption
scandals, Congress created an elaborate jurisprudence to keep incumbents
from rigging elections and to prevent corrupt officials from looting
union funds. The act, whose formal name is the Labor-Management
Reporting and Disclosure Act, creates a bill of rights for rank-and-file
workers, and civil and criminal penalties for violators.
By comparison, the system for keeping top corporate officials
accountable is weak, riddled with loopholes, and poorly enforced. The
occasional tough cop, like SEC chairman Gary Gensler, is the exception
rather than the rule.
This country needs a Landrum-Griffin Act for corporations, that protects
rights of other stakeholders and the general public, and that sends
corrupt executives to prison. What passes for insurgents challenging
corporate boards are so-called "activist shareholders" who typically
press management for even more manipulation of share prices.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren has pointed the way, with her proposed Accountable
Capitalism Act
<[link removed]>,
We also need tougher criminal enforcement. There is plenty of authority
under existing law to prosecute corrupt executives. The Justice
Department just doesn't use it.
Kind of makes you wonder who is running the country, and in whose
interest-the vast majority that is labor, or the small elite minority
that is capital.
~ ROBERT KUTTNER
To receive this newsletter directly in your inbox, click here to
subscribe. <[link removed]>
Follow Robert Kuttner on Twitter <[link removed]>
[link removed]
Lawsuit: Defense Contractor Fired Whistleblower for Reporting Accounting
Irregularities
<[link removed]>
The allegations against spare-parts conglomerate TransDigm mirror
previous claims against the 'Martin Shkreli of defense contracting.'
BY DAVID DAYEN
The Problem Lender of Second-to-Last Resort
<[link removed]>
The Federal Home Loan Bank system has moved beyond its original intent
and mostly allows distressed banks to delay a reckoning. It could use
reform. BY KATHRYN JUDGE
Stopping Bank Runs and Protecting the Economy
<[link removed]>
The key is higher equity requirements so banks remain solvent. BY MARC
JARSULIC
Â
[link removed]
Click to Share this Newsletter
[link removed]
Â
[link removed]
Â
[link removed]
Â
[link removed]
Â
[link removed]
YOUR TAX DEDUCTIBLE DONATION SUPPORTS INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM
<[link removed]>
The American Prospect, Inc., 1225 I Street NW, Suite 600, Washington, DC xxxxxx, United States
Copyright (c) 2023 The American Prospect. All rights reserved.
To opt out of American Prospect membership messaging, click here
<[link removed]>.
To manage your newsletter preferences, click here
<[link removed]>.
To unsubscribe from all American Prospect emails, including newsletters,
click here
<[link removed]>.
