national-people

Gordon Whitman: Day of Reckoning Coming Soon on Foreclosure Scandal

by on May 12, 2011

Huffington Post…

This is going to come as a big shock: Wall Street banks are manipulating the media in their campaign to avoid responsibility for throwing millions of people out of their homes and sending our economy into a tailspin. For months, the attorneys general from all 50 states have been investigating the big banks for fraudulent, criminal, and generally unconscionable behavior in their handling of mortgages and foreclosures across the country. On May 11, the American Banker which serves as a mouthpiece for Wall Street, reported incorrectly that the Attorneys General investigating dropped principal reduction from the terms of an emerging settlement. Principal reduction means adjusting mortgages to reflect homes’ current values — values reflecting the crash caused by the banks. Principal reduction would help reset the housing market and get our economy back on track, and it represents an essential component of a fair settlement. Fortunately, the story being peddled by the American Banker is inaccurate. Reports in the Wall Street Journal and the Huffington Post , suggest that the attorneys general haven’t given up on this key opportunity to hold big banks accountable and provide justice for millions of homeowners. But this effort to spread misinformation about principal reduction being off the table is part of a coordinated effort by Wall Street banks to confuse the public and push off the day of reckoning on their fraudulent foreclosures practices. This week, Zillow issued a report showing that housing values fell in the first quarter of 2011 in the biggest drop since 2008. A full 28 percent of mortgage holders in the U.S. — more than one quarter — now owe more on their mortgage than their home is worth. The primary cause for the continued slide in housing values? It’s the glut of foreclosed homes now flooding the market, thanks to the big banks’ foreclosure frenzy. The good news is that while Wall Street banks have been putting a full court press on the attorneys general to water down an eventual settlement, there’s been a coordinated national campaign to shine a light on the negotiations and make sure that homeowners and communities are protected. Groups like PICO, Alliance for a Just Society and National People’s Action have come together to fight against the big banks and for American families. To ramp up our campaign, we have formed The New Bottom Line — a coalition of community organizations, congregations, labor unions, and individuals working together to build a movement that puts the needs struggling and middle-class families and communities ahead the interests of Wall Street. In San Francisco on May 3, homeowners, clergy, and community leaders converged on the Wells Fargo shareholder meeting , demanding a new bottom line – one that puts homeowners and communities ahead of bank profiteering. They directly challenged Wells CEO John Stumpf to drop his opposition to loan modifications. This week in North Carolina, homeowners, clergy, community leaders and others descended on the Bank of America shareholder meeting to protest the big bank’s fraudulent handling of mortgages. In New York City, people are taking back Wall Street in a weeklong series of events targeting bank practices that driven cities and states into fiscal crisis. In coming days, community and faith leaders will be taking the same message and passion to the J.P. Morgan Chase shareholder meeting . Until banks are held accountable, these actions will continue. As of May 11, 2011, it’s been 864 days since the big banks caused our financial system to implode, and despite causing massive hardship for American families, these mega financial institutions have never wanted to be held accountable for anything. Fixing the mess they created in the housing market is no exception. We need our attorneys general to stand with homeowners, community leaders, clergy, and small businesses to hold banks accountable – not to the banks’ profit but to our new bottom line that puts people first. For more information and to join The New Bottom Line campaign, go to www.newbottomline.com .

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Gordon Whitman: Day of Reckoning Coming Soon on Foreclosure Scandal

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Bailed-Out Banks Finance ‘Legalized Loan Shark’ Payday Lenders, Says New Report

by on September 14, 2010

Big banks that received TARP bailout money are funding payday lenders — companies Senator Dick Durbin (D – Ill.) termed ” bottom feeders ” — and which charge high interest rates and fees for short-term loans, according to a report released Tuesday. The banks, which include Wells Fargo, Bank of America and JP Morgan, currently provide roughly $1.5 billion in credit lines to publicly-held payday loan companies and between $2.5 to $3 billion to the larger payday loan industry, says the report, which was issued jointly by community group network National People’s Action and non-partisan watchdog Public Accountability Initiative. The payday lenders, including Advance America, Cash America and ACE Cash Express, which allow customers to borrow against future paychecks, and which, according to the report, charge an average interest rate of 455 percent on top of fees of $15-18 per $100 loaned, often depend on the big banks’ financing for their business. “The very same banks that helped tank the economy and then needed hundreds of billions of dollars in taxpayer-funded bailouts are now aiding the bottom-feeders of the financial industry, as they seek–the payday lenders–to strip even more wealth away from everyday Americans,” NPA executive director George Goehl, who also called payday lending “legalized loan sharking,” said in a telephone press conference. “If Al Capone was alive today you might even get a better loan from him.” (Goehl is also a HuffPost blogger) The report, called “The Predators’ Creditors,” which features a picture of three sharks on the cover, says that some banks abstain from business with payday lenders because of what Advance America itself calls “reputational risks.” The report also notes, though, that some of these payday lenders have ties to Wall Street. For example, the board of Advance America includes former executives from Bank of America, Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse. PAI co-director Kevin Connor, who co-authored the report, said in the press conference that big banks are attracted to the payday loan industry because “Americans were losing their jobs and homes in record numbers but they still had their family treasure to borrow against” Connor also noted that the big banks themselves pay close to zero interest when they borrow from the Fed, a stark contrast to the high interest rates paid by consumers. NPA and PAI are calling for an end to these credit lines from banks. Goehl said a protest campaign will launch today in Ohio and continue in Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Illinois through next week, culminating in a meeting of the organizers in Chicago. “This report is really the beginning, not the end,” he said.

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Bailed-Out Banks Finance ‘Legalized Loan Shark’ Payday Lenders, Says New Report

George Goehl: This is What Democracy Looks Like

May 17, 2010

Today, thousands of everyday people came to Washington DC for a Shutdown of K Street . The message was simple: Reclaim our democracy and hold Wall Street accountable. Photo courtesy of National People’s Action. Click here for more photos. Retirees and students, family farmers and health care workers, teachers and clergy came together to literally shut down the intersection of 14th and K Street. The action was part of a series of events designed to draw a direct connection between Wall Street and other unaccountable corporations, their K Street lobbyists and the Members of Congress who do their bidding. Big banks and their lobbyists have hijacked our democracy. Despite foreclosing on millions of families, sending our economy to the brink of collapse and needing a $700 billion taxpayer bailout, big banks are now spending $1.4 million dollars a day to defeat reform. A new report by Campaign for America’s Future and the Public Accountability Initiative shows that both parties are equally hooked on big bank money. But it’s not just the banks – one of the great challenges facing the American people is unregulated and unaccountable corporations that drive wages down and health insurance costs up, strip wealth from communities, and destroy our environment. Whether it’s big banks driving the economy to the brink and then lobbying to prevent reform, or big oil pushing for less oversight and then destroying our environment, Americans are on the losing end of a system where big money rules our politics. As a country we have to decide if we are going to continue to allow the big corporations, whether it be big banks or big oil, control our legislative process. Or are we going to reclaim our democracy and advance an agenda that finally puts people first. What is clear from today’s Showdown on K Street is that more and more Americans are ready to join the fight to reclaim our democracy. Democracy only lives up to its promise when it is in the hands of the people. Right now it’s in the hands of corporations and their lobbyists. But if today was any indication, the American people are ready to take it back.

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Bank Of America Protest: Dozens Storm Bank Branch In DC

May 17, 2010

Dozens of noisy purple-shirted SEIU protesters stormed a Bank of America branch near the U.S. Capitol on Monday, forcing the bank to close down as confused customers looked on and tellers retreated to an interior room. Other groups from SEIU and National People’s Action were set to stage protests at BofA’s and JPMorgan Chase’s lobby shops downtown as part of a daylong anti-K Street extravaganza. A security guard told HuffPost the branch would be closed only temporarily. From there, the group blocked an intersection in D.C.’s tiny Chinatown, then stopped by a Citibank branch. “Corporate greed has got to go!” At 11:00 a.m., hundreds of protesters from SEIU and National People’s Action merged at the offices of Democratic superlobbyist Tony Podesta, who boasts Bank of America among his massive client list. “We’re fired up to take down Wall Street,” they chanted. The group is now headed to K Street. This story will be updated

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Help Report The March on Wall Street

April 27, 2010

National People’s Action, the organizers of Showdown in Chicago, last summer’s impressive bank-busting protests , are planning a 10,000 person march on Wall Street, and it’s taking place this Thursday, April 29th. In order to make sure that their voices are heard, we want you to be in the crowd taking photos and video, jotting observations, and using Twitter to give HuffPost readers the on-the-ground coverage of this surely-huge display of American’s attempts to hold the banks accountable. Here are the many ways you can participate: 1) Pictures and Video : Take your camera and capture the best images from the gathering. Protest signs and banners make for good photographs, as do families and establishing shots of the entire crowd. We also encourage our journalists to video the protest! Interview protestors, film speeches. Try and edit the content to less than five minutes in length. You can upload your videos directly to HuffPost’s YouTube channel below. 2) Tweet the Facts : It’s impossible to give an exhaustive report in 140 characters, but Twitter’s short form is great for quickly getting across real-time facts and observations. Using your cell phone or mobile device, you can “tweet” the approximate attendance or a choice quote. IMPORTANT: We’ll only see your tweets if you include #huffpost in ALL of your messages. (Sign up for an account with Twitter here.) 3) Pen and Pad Reporting : Each protest presents a unique story. We definitely want to know the basics: how many people were in attendance? Where there any prominent speakers, and what did they say? Which slogans did the crowds chant, and what did they paint on their signs? We’re also interested in understanding what kind of people showed up and why — so feel free to ask them if you feel comfortable doing so. We are asking for dispatches to be no more than 500 words. Email your report to submissions@huffingtonpost.com by noon on April 30th. (Check out our reporting standards for further guidance.)

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China Will Seek to Limit Inflation Rate to 5%, Morgan Stanley’s Roach Says

March 11, 2010

By Bob Willis and Thomas Keene March 11 (Bloomberg) — China won’t allow its inflation rate to exceed 5 percent, said Stephen Roach, chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia Ltd., after a report today showed the country’s consumer prices rose at the fastest pace in 16 months. “They certainly don’t want inflation to go anything in excess of, I’d say, 4.5 to 5 percent, they will lean against that, they will lean against property bubbles,” Roach said today in a Bloomberg Radio interview. “They are very focused on economic and financial stability.” It’s hard to get a “clean read” on market-based inflation in China, he said, because most utility prices are regulated. “They are now moving back up to a positive inflation rate, in a 3 to 4 percent zone, after going through deflation in the crisis,” Roach said. Consumer prices rose 2.7 percent in February from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said today in Beijing. The increase was more than the 2.5 rate forecast by economists and adds to the case for the government to pare back stimulus measures after production jumped 20.7 percent in the first two months of 2010, the most in more than five years. Roach said he didn’t expect any “dramatic” policy announcements in coming weeks. In the period between Premier Wen Jiabao’s annual speech to the National People’s Congress this month and the launch of the 12th Five-Year Plan early next year, China is likely to focus on “traditional, counter-cyclical stabilization policies,” he said. Such policies would probably focus on bank reserve requirements, “maybe a small currency adjustment” ahead of the U.S. Treasury’s biannual foreign-exchange report next month, and “possibly an interest rate hike or two.” Excessive Lending Another element of China’s policies would be the ongoing “clamp-down on excessive lending” for property speculation, he said. China’s 12th Five-Year Plan, which is being drafted in government agencies and ministries, is likely to be a “watershed event,” said Roach. “It’s going to shift the model to more of a pro- consumption model” from communist China’s dependence on exports and investment, he said. “The export and investment dynamic has pretty much outlived its useful purpose, especially in this post-crisis period where consumers in the West are going to be struggling for a number of years.” Roach also said the International Monetary Fund, rather than the European Union, is best placed to enforce the economic adjustments that Greece must take to overcome its budget crisis. “Long-term financing for Greece needs to come from within, and the IMF is the best institution to force that type of adjustment,” he said. “It sends a horrible signal to the rest of Europe, that they condone bad behavior,” should the European Union lead a rescue for Greece. To contact the reporter on this story: Robert Willis in Washington at bwillis@bloomberg.net

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China Plans to Sell $29 Billion of Yuan Debt This Year as Part of Stimulus

March 4, 2010

By Bloomberg News March 5 (Bloomberg) — China will sell 200 billion yuan ($29 billion) of bonds for a second year to help local governments fund infrastructure projects, Premier Wen Jiabao told today’s annual meeting of the National People’s Congress . The finance ministry, which will organize the debt auctions, plans to offer three- and five-year securities and channel funds between bondholders and the local authorities issuing the notes, according to a person familiar with the proposal who asked not to be identified. The central government’s role in local debt sales has reduced the cost of building roads and railways as part of a two-year $586 billion spending package that drove expansion of 8.7 percent in the world’s fastest-growing economy last year. Policy makers are seeking to maintain financing for such projects, while curbing record new bank lending that has increased the risk of property and stock-market bubbles. “This alternative source of funding is healthy – Beijing may have realized the risk that local governments borrowed too much from banks last year,” said Mark Williams , an economist at Capital Economics in London who worked at the U.K. Treasury as an adviser on China from 2005 to 2007, in a telephone interview. A spokesman for China’s Consulate General office in New York said he wasn’t aware of the government’s plans. ‘Sensible’ Three-year bonds sold last year on behalf of local governments, 30 provinces and five municipalities, yielded between 1.6 percent and 2.36 percent when they were auctioned, compared with the one-year lending rate in China of 5.31 percent. The sales are part of the government’s economic stimulus plan, announced in November 2008. “It sounds like a perfectly sensible thing to do,” Charles Dumas , research director at Lombard Street Research Ltd. in London, said it an interview. “It undoes some of the monetary consequences of this huge spending surge by taking it out of the money supply. But of course it doesn’t in any way hold back the overheating of the total economy.” China sold 1.42 trillion yuan of treasury debt last year to partly finance a record-high fiscal deficit in addition to the 200 billion yuan in securities it sold for provincial authorities. China’s deficit in 2010 will be similar to last year, when it was less than 3 percent of gross domestic product, Jia Kang , the head of the Finance Ministry’s research institute, said as law makers gathered in the capital this week. Unbalanced Growth The NPC convenes every March, with almost 3,000 lawmakers from China’s 32 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities congregating at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Wen has on at least two occasions said China’s growth was unsustainable and unbalanced; in a Dec. 27 interview with the official Xinhua News Agency and at the 2007 National People’s Congress. China’s law prohibits local governments from incurring debt directly. Even so, the government plans a crackdown on investment companies set up by local governments to circumvent those regulations, the 21st Century Business Herald reported this week. Borrowing by local-government entities, not counted in official estimates of China’s debt ratios, may push up the country’s borrowing to 96 percent of GDP , Professor Victor Shih , a political economist at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, said on March 1. His forecast compares with an International Monetary Fund estimate for China of 22 percent this year, which excludes local-government liabilities. The central bank has also ordered banks to set aside more funds as reserves and to rein in lending . In 2009, new loans rose to a record 9.59 trillion yuan. — Belinda Cao , Michael Forsythe , Kevin Hamlin , Zijing Wu and Michael Patterson . Editors: Sandy Hendry , Laura Zelenko . To contact the reporter on this story: Belinda Cao in Beijing at lcao4@bloomberg.net

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China’s Wen Blocked by Politics in Search for Fixes to `Unstable’ Economy

March 4, 2010

By Bloomberg News March 4 (Bloomberg) — Premier Wen Jiabao calls China’s economic growth path “unbalanced, uncoordinated, and unsustainable.” This week’s annual parliament session may prove he is unable to change its course. Wen, 67, will give what amounts to China’s State of the Union speech tomorrow to the National People’s Congress in Beijing. His audience will include people who, according to analysts, disagree with some possible measures to fix the imbalance: provincial and municipal officials and such company heads as Hangzhou Wahaha Group Co. Chairman Zong Qinghou . Adding to the inertia is the fact that Wen, President Hu Jintao and other leaders are nearing the end of their tenures, said Jim McGregor , a senior counselor in Beijing at APCO Worldwide. APCO is a public-affairs group advising clients including China Cosco Holdings Co. , Asia’s biggest shipping company. “China’s in severe election mode,” McGregor said in a Bloomberg Television interview. “They have 2 1/2 years left in their term.” There is “a lot of jockeying for position.” Wen says China’s growth model — emphasizing investment, manufacturing and exports over consumption — is creating economic distortions. He told an online audience on Feb. 27 that 2010 would be “the most complicated year for the country’s economy” as the government sought to control property prices and inflation stoked by $1.4 trillion in new lending last year. Wen has on at least two occasions said China’s growth was unsustainable and unbalanced; in a Dec. 27 interview with the official Xinhua News Agency and at the 2007 National People’s Congress. ‘Debt-Fueled Bubble’ Wen’s view is shared by Kenneth Rogoff , a professor at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Rogoff said on Feb. 23 that a collapse of China’s “debt-fueled bubble” could send growth to as low as 2 percent from last year’s 8.7 percent. China is forecast by the International Monetary Fund to surpass Japan in 2010 as the world’s second-largest economy and will expand 9.5 percent this year, according to the median estimate of 39 economists. That compares with a 3 percent forecast for U.S. growth. “Things need to change now,” said Wang Tao , a Beijing-based economist for UBS AG, in an interview. “Later the costs will become higher and higher.” Property Tax One remedy is an overhaul of the tax system , Wang and other economists say, to create a dependable stream of revenue for China’s local governments. A property tax and a sales tax could wean them from dependence on land sales and production taxes. Land sales helped fuel real-estate speculation and taxes on industrial production stoked overcapacity in steel and cement as local governments built factories regardless of whether they generated a profit. Those measures aren’t on this year’s Congress agenda “because there are so many people against it,” Wang said. While a property tax isn’t likely to be implemented this year, a timetable may be set, Hong Kong-based CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets said in a Feb. 22 research note. Many government officials oppose the tax, fearing it will reduce the value of their own real-estate holdings, said Arthur Kroeber , managing director of Beijing-based Dragonomics, an economics-research firm whose clients include hedge funds and Fortune 500 companies. ‘Not Suitable’ “A property tax is not suitable,” said Zong, of Hangzhou-based Wahaha, in an interview. He is a delegate to the Congress. “There is no need for it. It will just make houses less affordable.” Wen is likely instead to announce measures, some of them favored by Zong, to help ease income disparities. They may include increasing the minimum wage and spending more on housing for poor people, CLSA said. Such moves help promote consumption and ease economic distortion, but they are insufficient, Wang said. Boosting consumer spending through actions such as an expansion of rural rebates for appliances will be a boon for Beijing-based computer maker Lenovo Group Ltd. and Hong Kong-based television maker Skyworth Digital Holdings Ltd. , CLSA said. Property developers including Liao Xiaoqi , a former vice minister of commerce and the chairman of Beijing-based China World Trade Center Co. , are due to attend the annual meeting as members of China’s political-advisory body. Leaders of state-owned companies that bought real estate with some of last year’s record $1.4 trillion in new loans are also among the delegates. State-Owned Companies State-owned companies have become an increasingly powerful political force in China, helped by government policies favorable to the large-scale construction projects and manufacturing that they dominate. State-run companies had sales of 22.5 trillion yuan ($3.3 trillion) and profit of 1.3 trillion yuan last year, according to the Ministry of Finance. “They have become very very powerful, very cash rich, and very resistant to various kinds of reform,” Kroeber said. The result may be that Wen and Hu, 67, won’t be able to muster the political support needed to overhaul the tax system and close down needless factories, Wang and Kroeber say. Wen and Hu’s 10-year tenures begin to wind down starting in late 2012, when they step down from their Communist Party posts. Both are due to retire from their government positions in March 2013. “The closer that we get to the leadership transition, the more incentive the top leaders have just to kick all the tough structural problems down the road and let the next guys handle it,” Kroeber said. — Michael Forsythe . With assistance from Stephen Engle and John Liu in Beijing. Editors: Anne Swardson , Ken Fireman To contact Bloomberg News staff on this story: Michael Forsythe in Beijing at +8610-6649-7580 or mforsythe@bloomberg.net

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China Statement’s Missing Words May Signal Shift in Stimulus Policy Stance

January 21, 2010

By Bloomberg News Jan. 22 (Bloomberg) — Seven missing words in a statement issued yesterday by China’s statistics bureau fueled speculation that the government will officially change its fiscal and monetary policy stance. The agency’s fourth-quarter economic growth announcement omitted a reference to maintaining a “moderately loose monetary policy” and a “proactive fiscal policy” in its outlook section. While Ma Jiantang , who heads the bureau, later cited the “moderately loose” pledge in a question-and-answer session with journalists, the written statement mirrored the same omission by Premier Wen Jiabao in a Jan. 19 report. “China is clearly moving to adjust both its policy stance and the language used to describe that stance,” said Glenn Maguire , chief Asia-Pacific economist at Societe Generale SA in Hong Kong. “The rhetoric of the new policy mantra is unlikely to be finalized before the National People’s Congress” meets in March, he said. Accelerating economic growth and rising property and consumer prices mean China may be approaching a formal end to the policies adopted in November 2008 to counter the global financial crisis. Gross domestic product rose 10.7 percent in the fourth quarter from a year earlier, the government reported yesterday, the fastest pace since 2007. Contradictions between the statistics bureau’s statement and Ma’s remarks may reflect that China’s policy won’t be formally changed until March, said Lu Ting , a Hong Kong-based economist with Bank of America-Merrill Lynch. Wen’s draft work report is scheduled to be accepted at the NPC meeting that month. March Shift “To be politically correct, all senior officials should until then say ‘we will stick to the current policy,’” Lu said. “Then from March we will have something new.” The language, equivalent to 16 Chinese characters, was left out of Wen’s draft report to the State Council this week. In yesterday’s written statement , Ma only referred to monetary and fiscal stances when summarizing 2009 economic work, while in the previous quarterly release, the phrasing was used in the context of the policy outlook for “the following period.” The economy’s expansion has now accelerated for three straight quarters, driven by the unprecedented 4 trillion yuan ($586 billion) stimulus package, subsidies for consumer purchases and a monetary stance that allowed a record 9.59 trillion yuan of new loans. China’s benchmark one-year interest rate will rise by 1.08 percentage point this year from 5.31 percent now, and the first move may come as early as this quarter, said Brian Jackson , a Hong Kong-based strategist at Royal Bank of Canada. “At the moment, I would say policy is aggressively loose,” said Jackson. “Tightening a little bit would still leave it moderately loose.” — Kevin Hamlin , Li Yanping . Editors: Lily Nonomiya , Chris Anstey To contact the Bloomberg News staff on this story: Kevin Hamlin in Beijing on khamlin@bloomberg.net

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"Showdown In Chicago": Thousands Of Protesters Gather, Jesse Jackson, Labor Leaders Speak (VIDEO)

October 27, 2009

Thousands of people gathered in Chicago today in front of the American Bankers Association annual convention to protest what they consider to be the group’s resistance to financial reform. On the final day of a three-day protest directed at the banking industry’s top trade group, civil rights leader Jesse Jackson addressed a crowd of what is reported to be more 5,000 people, along with did AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka, SEIU President Andy Stern and Secretary-Treasurer Anna Burger. WATCH a video excerpt of of Stern’s speech: Called the “Showdown In Chicago,” the rally was led by National People’s Action, the Service Employees International Union and the AFL-CIO — and featured numerous other organizations — the protests focused on bank reform and the need to rein in the financial sector. According to a release from the SEIU, a year after the financial crisis, the banking industry still has not been properly regulated. From its release: “After taking $17.8 trillion in taxpayer bailouts and backstops, the ABA and the six largest banks have spent more than $35 million fighting Congressional action on financial reform. Meanwhile, ordinary Americans continue to face rising foreclosures, record unemployment, skyrocketing bank and credit card fees, and vanishing pensions and 401(k)s.” Yesterday, protesters marched to the Chicago offices of Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs. They attempted to deliver a letter to Goldman Sachs officers demanding that that the bank donate some of its projected $23 billion bonus pool to help foreclosure victims. (Check out photos and video here.) In a statement to the Chicago Tribune , ABA executive vice president of membership Bob Schmermund defended his organization which, as The Huffington Post pointed out yesterday , has rallied hard against bank regulation for years. Here is Schmermund’s statement to the Tribune : “These are very tough times. A lot of people lost their jobs, and they are very frustrated and they’re very angry, What the protesters may not realize is who’s attending this meeting. This room is literally filled from stem to stern with traditional bankers whose life’s work is dedicated to serving the needs of their communities.” Check out the Huffington Post’s coverage of yesterday’s events here . Progress Illinois has links to a Flickr stream of shots from the protests. Check back here for more photos and videos from the scene of the rally. Get HuffPost Business On Facebook and Twitter !

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ABA Protests: National Bankers Convention Draws Protesters From Across The Country

October 25, 2009

The American Bankers Association’s annual convention in Chicago has become the scene for a series of major protests, which are set to continue through Tuesday. Dubbed ” the Showdown in Chicago. ” (Check back here frequently for updates on the protests.) Groups like the National People’s Action, the Service Employees International Union, Americans For Financial Reform and the AFL-CIO are expected to turn out with thousands of protesters. Sen. Richard Durbin (D – Illinois) is scheduled to address the protesters Sunday evening. Conference speakers include Newt Gingrich, conservative columnist George Will and FDIC chairman Sheila Bair. (For more information on the protests, read Huffington Post blogs by economist Dean Baker , the AFL-CIO’s Rich Trumka and the SEIU’s Anna Burger .) The ABA’s convention is already underway, and some early images of the protests are trickling in. From the SEIU’s blog , here’s an early report from the scene: “The Wall Street bankers are in Chicago this weekend for the American Bankers Association conference – and they’ve decided to do one good deed for the people of Chicago while they’re here. They are helping to renovate a house that had been foreclosed… by them. It’s a nice gesture on the bankers’ part, but a completely empty one. In the time it took them to help fix up that one house, banks were kicking 1,440 families out of homes across the country; that’s one foreclosed home every 7.5 seconds.” Also, from the SEIU’s blog, here’s a picture of a banner that greeted conference attendees during their riverboat cruise through Chicago earlier today: Got any tips, images or direct reports from the scene of the protests? Help us tell the story of the ABA protests by uploading your images and by telling us what’s happening at the scene. Participate below! Get HuffPost Business On Facebook and Twitter !

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China Passes Law Curbing Power of Local Officials to Deploy Armed Police

August 27, 2009

By Bloomberg News Aug. 28 (Bloomberg) — Chinese lawmakers curbed the power of local officials to call out the country’s more than 600,000- strong People’s Armed Police to quell disturbances. The new law governing the deployment of the force, passed yesterday in Beijing by the National People’s Congress, comes as the number of protests and riots by farmers, workers and ethnic minorities is on the rise. Police should refuse orders that they consider unlawful, the law states. The government in China has made maintaining social stability a key policy aim at the same time as cracking down on the corruption and abuse of power that is a cause of much of the unrest. Local officials under orders from Beijing to maintain the peace are likely to put pressure on the police to act, said Murray Scot Tanner , a China analyst at CNA , an Alexandria, Virginia-based research group. “This clause represents a striking critique of some officials’ misuse of security forces,” said Tanner. “But these local leaders remain powerful. It may prove difficult for Armed Police commanders and higher level officials to stick to their guns and resist this kind of pressure.” The new law also states that only officials above the county level can request the armed police. The police force, used to quell riots last year in Tibet and last month in the western region of Xinjiang, is to “participate in the handling of riots, chaos, serious violent crimes and terrorist attacks,” according to the text of the legislation given to journalists in Beijing yesterday. Mass Incidents Wang Erping , a scholar at the Chinese Academy of Sciences who studies unrest, said the number of so-called mass incidents rose to about 90,000 last year from more than 80,000 in 2007. Last month steel workers in northeastern China’s Jilin Province murdered an executive, causing authorities to put off a buyout of their mill. On Aug. 8, villagers in Hunan province rioted after they learned their children had been exposed to excessive levels of lead, the Associated Press reported. The legislation also bans the force from detaining or searching people illegally and forbids police officers from leaking state secrets. China’s national legislature also passed a resolution that codifies the country’s policy on combating climate change. The text urges rich countries to help developing countries such as China by transferring technology and providing financial support to help counter global warming. The resolution blames developed countries for the emissions which led to climate change. “Since the Industrial Revolution, the activities of mankind, particularly the economic activities of developed countries during their industrialization, is the main cause of climate change,” the resolution read. To contact the reporter on this story: Michael Forsythe in Beijing at mforsythe@bloomberg.net .

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