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Posts Tagged ‘Politics’

Corporations Win Big After Supreme Court Ruling on Campaign Spending

WASHINGTON — Overruling two important precedents about the First Amendment rights of corporations, a bitterly divided Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that the government may not ban political spending by corporations in candidate elections.

The 5-to-4 decision was a vindication, the majority said, of the First Amendment’s most basic free speech principle — that the government has no business regulating political speech. The dissenters said that allowing corporate money to flood the political marketplace would corrupt democracy.

The ruling represented a sharp doctrinal shift, and it will have major political and practical consequences. Specialists in campaign finance law said they expected the decision to reshape the way elections were conducted. Though the decision does not directly address them, its logic also applies to the labor unions that are often at political odds with big business.

President Obama called it “a major victory for big oil, Wall Street banks, health insurance companies and the other powerful interests that marshal their power every day in Washington to drown out the voices of everyday Americans.”

Crude Awakening

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Most of us can’t stockpile barrels of crude oil in the backyard, nor would we want to. Yet with oil prices soaring, many investors are eager to fill their portfolios with this precious fuel.

Accordingly, a specialized group of exchange-traded funds taps into oil rallies. But investors should be aware that while these funds have been posting solid gains, they are complex, risky instruments which don’t fully capture oil-price moves.

At best, these oil-linked ETFs, which trade on an exchange like stocks, are an indirect pipeline to oil. That’s because unlike some gold and precious metals funds, oil ETFs don’t hold the physical commodity. Instead, they trade oil futures contracts, and that can impact investment returns in ways unsophisticated buyers never expected.

“There is no way to directly invest in oil,” said Bradley Kay, an ETF analyst at Morningstar. “Indirect investments such as oil company stocks, futures, and oil ETFs tend to have a lot of complicated moving parts.”

Barack Obama For President

The United States is battered and drifting after eight years of President Bush’s failed leadership. He is saddling his successor with two wars, a scarred global image and a government systematically stripped of its ability to protect and help its citizens — whether they are fleeing a hurricane’s floodwaters, searching for affordable health care or struggling to hold on to their homes, jobs, savings and pensions in the midst of a financial crisis that was foretold and preventable.

As tough as the times are, the selection of a new president is easy. After nearly two years of a grueling and ugly campaign, Senator Barack Obama of Illinois has proved that he is the right choice to be the 44th president of the United States.

The Economy

The American financial system is the victim of decades of Republican deregulatory and anti-tax policies. Those ideas have been proved wrong at an unfathomable price, but Mr. McCain — a self-proclaimed “foot soldier in the Reagan revolution” — is still a believer.

Mr. Obama sees that far-reaching reforms will be needed to protect Americans and American business.

Mr. McCain talks about reform a lot, but his vision is pinched. His answer to any economic question is to eliminate pork-barrel spending — about $18 billion in a $3 trillion budget — cut taxes and wait for unfettered markets to solve the problem.

Mr. Obama is clear that the nation’s tax structure must be changed to make it fairer. That means the well-off Americans who have benefited disproportionately from Mr. Bush’s tax cuts will have to pay some more. Working Americans, who have seen their standard of living fall and their children’s options narrow, will benefit. Mr. Obama wants to raise the minimum wage and tie it to inflation, restore a climate in which workers are able to organize unions if they wish and expand educational opportunities.

Gasoline Prices Continue Fall

NEW YORK, Aug. 10 (UPI) — Retail gasoline prices have fallen for the 24th straight day, a AAA survey of gas station sales showed.The national average price for a gallon of regular gas are down more than 7 percent from the record high of $4.114 on July 16, CNNMoney.com reported Sunday.

Even with gas prices falling, Friday’s national average price is more than $1 higher than it was a year ago.

In Alaska, the state with the highest prices, drivers pay an average of $4.63 a gallon, the AAA study found. Oklahoma and Missouri have the lowest gas prices, at $3.58 a gallon.

Diesel, meanwhile, is up nearly 55 percent from last year’s levels. The national average price for diesel fuel fell Sunday to $4.557 a gallon.

The AAA study is based on data from credit card swipes at 85,000 U.S. fuel stations.