There is a theory in corporate America that CEOs must be paid top dollar for their skills in order to keep them from constantly shopping their skills to the highest bidder. But a new study by Craig K. Ferrere and Charles M. Elson, director of the John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the …

A recent blog post by Mike Sinn for Think by Numbers questions if the government spends more on social welfare or corporate welfare. The GOP has attempted to turn the political discussion surrounding the upcoming election into a debate about President Obama and social welfare, while progressives have done the same with Mitt Romney and …

After years of heavy flirting, a date at the conservative Heritage Foundation may be the place where the GOP and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) finally announce they are going steady. The Republican Study Committee, a caucus of 160 conservative lawmakers in the House of Representatives, is looking to engage in an official…

Dean Baker, writing about the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) for The Guardian, suggests that the deal revolves around anything but free trade. He paints beltway insiders with a brush of humorous reality: “Free trade” is a sacred mantra in Washington. If anything is labeled as being “free trade”, then everyone in the…

The unpopularity of laws crafted by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) has brought the total number of companies abandoning the hyper-corporate lobby to 38. General Electric, Western Union, Sprint Nextel, the maker of Norton anti-virus Symantec, Entergy, and Reckitt Benckiser Group (maker of a wide range of products from…

In recent years, the labor community has rightfully hammered corporate executives for their rising compensation and tax dodging while employees are asked to make larger and larger concessions (see Caterpillar, Verizon, Boeing, etc.). Now, the Economic Policy Institute has issued a new report showing the effect executive tax deductions have had on…

Since its public ousting in the wake of the Trayvon Martin scandal, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) has seen 32 corporations, four non-profits and 56 lawmakers disassociate from their anti-environment, anti-union, and anti-democracy agenda. Last week, 13 Texas lawmakers (10 Republican and 3 Democrat) dropped out of ALEC as well:…

According to a lawsuit filed in Palm Beach County, Wells Fargo allegedly fired an employee to avoid paying medical costs for his daughter, a cancer patient. Three days prior to an important surgery, the company terminated Yovany Gonzalez, a securities broker, after questioning his wife about the cost of their daughter Macenzie’s medical…

Mitt Romney’s offshore bank accounts, tax havens and other assorted money games are playing a major role in the opinion-building phase of this year’s Presidential campaign. On cue, a new report from Tax Justice USA shows that the amount of wealth being held in such accounts has skyrocketed, creating an economic black hole. The report …

A recent survey from the National Association for Business Economics (NABE) revealed that only 23 percent of US companies are planning to hire new employees in the next six months. This information is contributing to fears of a “lights out” moment for the US economy, according to the poll: NABE’s prior survey, conducted in late …

The discussion about dark money in politics and the need for campaign finance reform often focuses on Super PACs and the Citizens United vs. FEC decision. But as the New York Times notes, much more dark money is getting to politicians via Section 501(c)(4) tax exempt “social welfare” groups which do not have to disclose …

A group of progressive ministers from Ohio along with prominent tax attorney Marcus Owens have sent a formal complaint about the tax exempt status of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) claiming that their activities do not align with this tax status. ALEC claims to be bipartisan and educational in nature but with a board …