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Articles by Luisa Galvao
World Bank and IMF
by Luisa Abbott Galvao, international policy campaigner The U.S. government has spent more than $44 billion on fossil fuel projects overseas over the last decade. From fracking projects in Argentina to liquified natural gas development in Mozambique, this finance has not only resulted in pollution and environmental degradation, but displacement, violent conflict and human rights abuses.
Has the Business Roundtable Really Seen the Light?
It is amazing how much attention is being paid to the Statement on the Purpose of a Corporation just issued by 181 chief executives of large corporations under the auspices of the Business Roundtable. We are supposed to think it is a major breakthrough that big business is claiming to do more than maximize returns for shareholders.
Breaking Up Big Banks has Gone from Expert Musing to Something Americans Generally Support
Most Americans favor progressive economic reform and have a hearty appetite for breaking up the big banks. A new Democracy Fund Voter Study Group survey asked participants if they would support six different economic policies. When asked if they supported “breaking up big banks,” 50% of respondents said they were in favor of it, while 35% neither supported nor opposed it. Only 14% of respondents were definitively against it.
Fund Head Start, Not Internment Camps
I came to this country from Mexico as a small child because my mother was escaping poverty and wanted to give my sisters and me a better life. She worked hard to make sure we had food on our table and a roof over our heads, often doing two and three jobs at a time. Because of poverty and systemic racism, undocumented families like mine must work multiple jobs and get paid under the table, and that often comes with mistreatment and discrimination on the job.
We asked our email list: How would YOU fix the tax code? Here's what they said.
In December 2017, the GOP/Trump tax bill passed, codifying a $2 trillion giveaway to Wall Street, big corporations, and wealthy individuals. The tax code, which was already working great for Wall Street and the super rich, was rigged by Trump and the GOP to funnel even more wealth upwards, while paving the way to cuts in critical public services like Medicare and Social Security. This past April, we filed our tax returns for the first time under the new tax regime.
Stock Buybacks aren’t Boring Finance Jargon…They’re Deadly. It’s Time to End Them.
The practice of corporate stock buybacks doesn’t just drive inequality — it drains resources for investment in workers, research and development, and the long-term growth of companies. The impact of executives and investors hoarding wealth for themselves is not just widespread inequality — it can also be deadly.
Doctors Strike in Zimbabwe as Government Imposes Austerity to Attract More Chinese Investment
Ncube, just like most African policymakers who have gone the austerity route, believes that this will attract foreign investment, particularly from China, which is now considered a savior of Africa. This, he hopes, will help alleviate the financial crisis and open the market for international trade relations that will bring a much-needed foreign currency injection to boost failing local industries.
AMLO Goes Full Throttle Against Neoliberalism - But What About NAFTA?
I had the great fortune to attend the inauguration of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (or AMLO, as he is known) as the 58th Mexican president on December 1. The atmosphere at the Legislative Palace was electric with the knowledge that Mexico would be beginning its “Fourth Transformation” — following its 1810 independence, the 1855 reformation, and the 1910 revolution — with the first left-wing president in its history. It was AMLO’s third attempt at the office.
Billionaires Made More Money in 2017 Than Any Other Year in History
During a year in which so much of the world faced deep poverty, the corrosive effects of austerity, and extreme weather caused by the worsening human-caused climate crisis — from devastating hurricanes to deadly wildfires and floods — one class of individuals raked in more money in 2017 than any other year in recorded history: the world’s billionaires.
Inequality: A Feature and Driver of Bolsonaro’s Rise in Brazil
In less than a week, Brazil will vote to elect its next president in what’s widely considered the most consequential election in Brazil’s history. On one side is Fernando Haddad — a soft-spoken academic, former Minister of Education for the Workers Party (PT), and recent mayor of São Paulo most remembered for painting bike lanes across Brazil’s economic capital. Haddad faces Jair Bolsonaro — a former military man and long-time member of Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies representing Rio de Janeiro.
Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro Is the Fascist Face of Neoliberalism
In less than a week, Brazil will vote to elect its next president in what’s widely considered the most consequential election in Brazil’s history. On one side is Fernando Haddad — a soft-spoken academic, former Minister of Education for the Workers Party (PT), and recent mayor of São Paulo most remembered for painting bike lanes across Brazil’s economic capital. Haddad faces Jair Bolsonaro — a former military man and long-time member of Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies representing Rio de Janeiro.
Inequality: A Feature and Driver of Bolsonaro's Rise in Brazil
In less than a week, Brazil will vote to elect its next president in what’s widely considered the most consequential election in Brazil’s history. On one side is Fernando Haddad — a soft-spoken academic, former Minister of Education for the Workers Party (PT), and recent mayor of São Paulo most remembered for painting bike lanes across Brazil’s economic capital. Haddad faces Jair Bolsonaro — a former military man and long-time member of Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies representing Rio de Janeiro.
The IMF Attempts a Final Cut in Argentina
In light of these tremendous unrecovered losses during the dictatorship it’s easy to understand popular resistance to further cuts. And social movements in Argentina still hold a degree of veto power over unpopular policies that is unique in the Americas. Since the restoration of democracy in 1983, every non-Peronist president has been removed from office without completing their term due to popular unrest.
157 of World's 200 Richest Entities Are Corporations, Not Governments
As corporations in the United States and around the world continue to reap record profits thanks to enormous tax cuts, widespread tax avoidance schemes, and business-friendly trade and investment policies, an analysis by Global Justice Now (GJN) published Wednesday found that the world’s most profitable companies are raking in revenue “far in excess of most governments,” giving them unprecendented power to influence policy in their favor and skirt accountability.
Building on the April Tax Marches
As the deadline to mail checks to the IRS approached, organizers in New York were still protesting, and this time not only about President Donald Trump’s tax returns. Activists with the grassroots organization New York Communities for Change and other progressive groups held a rally on April 18 in front of Goldman Sachs’s headquarters in New York City to confront the world’s most powerful bank for dodging taxes and taking resources away from working people.
Fighting for an Alternative to Big Banks
Activists are demanding accessible, affordable financial services through the postal system as part of a broader agenda to rein in Wall Street. We’ve heard a lot about Wall Street reform in this presidential primary season. Most of the attention has been on the need to break up the “too big to fail” banks, curbing short-term speculation, and reining in executive bonuses. But we also need to create a financial system that serves the everyday need for accessible, affordable financial services.
Blocking Wall Street’s Revolving Door
At a surreal meeting in Bermuda, the AFL-CIO convinced 40 percent of Lazard shareholders to support a ban on golden parachutes for bank executives who go to work for financial regulators. Lazard’s annual meeting took place at the Elbow Beach Hotel in Bermuda. The Wall Street investment bank Lazard held its annual shareholder meeting April 19 at Bermuda’s luxurious Elbow Beach Hotel. Bermuda is known for its beautiful sandy beaches and, less flatteringly, as an offshore tax haven.
Challenging a Wall Street Giant on Pay
A prominent shareholder activist is fed up with money manager BlackRock over the firm’s practice of rubberstamping obscenely large executive compensation packages at thousands of U.S. corporations. Investor and philanthropist Stephen Silberstein has set up a CEO pay showdown at the May 25 BlackRock annual meeting in New York City.
Closing in on EU Financial Tax Victory
The international campaign for taxes on financial speculation is on the brink of a major European milestone that could further boost momentum in the United States. David Hillman has played wide-ranging roles in the international campaign for financial transaction taxes, including as a banker in this London Stock Exchange stunt. When I was cutting my teeth in campaigning as part of the movement to end Apartheid in South Africa in the 1980s, we were told repeatedly it could never happen.
Wall Street as Matter of Life and Death
For New York City AIDS activist Bobby Tolbert, drug profiteering and tax dodging by financial elites violate basic American values. New York City-based activist Bobby Tolbert is drawing on his own experience as an HIV-positive and formerly homeless man to educate his peers and build a movement for better health care policies.
Can We Forgo Wells Fargo?
When disgraced Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf was forced to resign a few weeks ago, it was a victory for economic justice. But this move, however dramatic, does not go far enough to fix the problems with Wells Fargo and Wall Street. A diverse array of progressive organizations are joining forces to not only end Wells Fargo’s predatory practices, but also increase the pressure for broad Wall Street reform that puts people and communities first.
Australian CEOs Admit They Won't Spend Tax Cuts on Jobs and Wages
One of the chief arguments that the government makes for a lower corporate tax rate is that it would spur job creation. As a Labor Party member of the Australian Parliament and a former research economist, I was curious to test the claim that companies which pay less tax create more jobs.
Wall Street Made Bank on Trump in 2017
It’s been a very good year for Wall Street. The S&P 500 reached record highs week after week, and analysts are upgrading U.S. profit estimates at a brisk pace. The finance industry spent nearly twice the amount of any other industry on campaign contributions in the 2017-2018 electoral cycle so far, and their investment in Trump and the GOP is clearly paying off. The Wall Street wins since Trump took office are almost too numerous to count, but we’ve cataloged them in our new report.
Wall Street Made Bank on Trump in 2017
It’s been a very good year for Wall Street. The S&P 500 reached record highs week after week, and analysts are upgrading U.S. profit estimates at a brisk pace. The finance industry spent nearly twice the amount of any other industry on campaign contributions in the 2017-2018 electoral cycle so far, and their investment in Trump and the GOP is clearly paying off. The Wall Street wins since Trump took office are almost too numerous to count, but we’ve cataloged them in our new report.
Building on the Tax Marches
As the deadline to mail checks to the IRS approached, organizers in New York were still protesting, and this time not only about President Donald Trump's tax returns. Activists with the grassroots organization New York Communities for Change and other progressive groups held a rally on April 18 in front of Goldman Sachs's headquarters in New York City to confront the world's most powerful bank for dodging taxes and taking resources away from working people.
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