Who Stole the American Dream? Hedrick Smith's Healing Mission

Hedrick Smith is on a mission to: Reclaim the American Dream. The Pulitzer Prize-winning former New York Times reporter, and multiple Emmy award-winning producer and correspondent for PBS and FRONTLINE is on a mission to expose: "Who Stole the American Dream" (his must-read book), and how we became a divided America that left the Middle Class behind with an educational and action-based initiative: "Reclaim the American Dream" at this website: reclaimtheamericandream.org/.

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Bloomberg Investigation Uncovers Koch Industries Sales to Iran

Bloomberg Markets has written a bombshell expose of Koch Industries that is bound to resound through the Brothers' vast conglomerate as much for the platform -- a normally staid financial publication -- as for the information contained therein.

A Bloomberg Markets investigation has found that Koch Industries -- in addition to being involved in improper payments to win business in Africa, India and the Middle East -- has sold millions of dollars of petrochemical equipment to Iran, a country the U.S. identifies as a sponsor of global terrorism.

In their piece, "Koch Brothers Flout Law Getting Richer With Secret Iran Sales," Bloomberg Markets details how the Koch Brothers hired and then fired their ethics officer charged with uncovering fraud after she'd uncovered more than fraud.

Internal company records show that Koch Industries used its foreign subsidiary to sidestep a U.S. trade ban barring American companies from selling materials to Iran. Koch-Glitsch offices in Germany and Italy continued selling to Iran until as recently as 2007, the records show.

Certain sales to Iran are against the law unless one finds a way around them. In Koch's own internal investigation, according to the Bloomberg Markets report, they identified the actions of their subsidiary as: '"Those activities constitute violations of criminal law,” Koch Industries wrote in a Dec. 8, 2008, letter giving details of its findings. The letter was made public in a civil court ruling in France in September 2010; the document has never before been reported by the media.'

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Poor No More! Or That 'Hard-Working Middle Class'

by Sherman Yellen

Protest in Wisconsin, 2011

When have you last heard the term "hard-working poor" coming from any politician? Probably not in the past decade. Nobody is a member of the working poor anymore. Everyone is a member of the over-worked, over-taxed, hard-working middle class. That includes those making $25,000 a year as a Wal-Mart store manager, to those making $450,000 as a hedge fund clipper, to those making $12,000 dollars as a part time hospital cleaning woman. Continued...

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