MORNING MESSAGE
Wells Fargo Had a Bad Day. That’s a Start.
People
who came looking for drama in Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf’s Senate testimony on
Tuesday did not come away disappointed ... Stumpf squirmed, shifted and shuffled
under the relentless questioning of Sen. Elizabeth Warren ... In a Marie
Antoinette moment, Stumpf insisted that the employees who were fired had
“good-paying jobs.” The employees’ pay fell in the $30,000-$60,000 range; that
is, from well below to just above median household income. Stumpf made $19.3
million last year.
Warren v. Wells Fargo
Sen.
Warren grills Wells Fargo CEO. USA Today: “The Massachusetts senator has
built a reputation for being tough on shady Wall Street dealings and the
executives she believes are responsible. But she took it to the next level with
Stumpf.”
“The
Obama Administration Must Prosecute Wells Fargo,” argues TNR’s David Dayen:
“…Stumpf revealed enough information, combined with what was already known in
public records and filings, to make a powerful case for securities fraud.
Specifically, that he touted fraudulent sales figures to investors as evidence
of the bank’s growth, boosting the stock price and personally benefiting by $200
million. Worst of all, Stumpf used low-paid workers as the raw materials for
this scheme, and as the scapegoats when it unraveled.”
PROTESTS IN CHARLOTTE OVER MAN KILLED BY POLICE
Disabled
African-American killed by police in Charlotte. NBC: “Hundreds of protesters
demonstrated in Charlotte, N.C., overnight after police confirmed they had shot
and killed a man while they were seeking a different person … protesters
gathered in response to unconfirmed social media posts alleging that police had
killed an unarmed and disabled black man … Police said in a statement that
officers searching for a suspect with an outstanding warrant about 4 p.m. ET
when they saw a man exit his vehicle ‘armed with a firearm.’ …”
BUDGET DEAL ADVANCES
Budget
deal clear procedural vote but details still TBD. Politico: “The Senate
voted 89-7 on Tuesday evening to move forward on a bill that eventually will be
used to fund the government through Dec. 9 … Yet enough Republicans supported
McConnell on the matter because there are still several opportunities to block
the bill later if senators believe they are getting a raw deal in the end
…Campaign finance, trucking safety and the Internet domain system are among the
grab bag of issues keeping the Senate from a final deal … But the biggest
hurdle, Zika, has been resolved without including any language that would block
Planned Parenthood’s partner clinic in Puerto Rico…”
Rep.
Jim Clyburn’s poverty plan could pass. The Hill:“Leading Republicans have in
the past supported Clyburn’s targeted spending approach, which would funnel more
federal dollars to the most poverty-stricken parts of the country. Now those
same GOP leaders — who had adopted Clyburn’s formula to govern more than a dozen
federal programs earlier in the year — are vowing to fight for those same
provisions as part of the budget debate Congress is poised to have in
December.”
CAN ISDS BE FIXED?
Roosevelt
Institute’s Todd Tucker proposes ISDS fix in Politico oped: “TPP didn’t
create the [investor state dispute settlement] system, and rejecting it won’t
end it … such a fix would require just a few sentences of legislation to rein in
the worst abuses of the system while upholding investor rights … this would give
third parties a new right to petition U.S. courts to vacate arbitration awards
that affect broader social interests.”
NYT
suggests poll numbers favor TPP, though not in Rust Belt: “National polls
continue to show that Americans either narrowly favor international trade
generally, and the so-called T.P.P. specifically, or are split. Younger voters
are especially favorable. But Republicans are not, reflecting the influence of
the anti-trade nominee Donald J. Trump on his traditionally pro-trade party. And
certainly trade remains more unpopular in battleground states like Ohio, where
it is blamed for years of manufacturing job losses.”
SEC INVESTIGATING EXXON
“SEC
Probes Exxon Over Accounting for Climate Change” reports WSJ: “The U.S.
Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating how Exxon Mobil Corp. values
its assets in a world of increasing climate-change regulations, a probe that
could have far-reaching consequences for the oil and gas industry … In 2014,
Exxon determined that none of its assets were at risk of being rendered less
valuable by impacts from the global response to climate change.”
Progressive
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