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UMASS-Dartmouth chapter "struts" at recycled fashions runway show
By Ed Mierzwinski - 11/9/2009 As part of its campaign for an expanded returnable beverage container deposit law (bottle bill) and to promote recycling generally, the MASSPIRG Student Chapter at UMASS-Dartmouth held a fashion show where the student models wore all-recycled fashions. Here is the Herald-News story "Students strut ‘trashy’ fashions at show." It links to a youtube video of the "trashion" show.
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Leading economist backs CFPA
By Ed Mierzwinski - 11/9/2009 Economist Mark Zandi of Moody's, author of the book  Financial Shock, has an op-ed column in Sunday's Philadelphia Inquirer calling for enactment of the Consumer Financial protection Agency. In the column, An FDA for Financial Products, he says: "Not all the blame falls on regulators for the bad loans and resulting financial mess, but a good portion does, because our alphabet soup of boards and agencies failed to stop the egregious lending that inflated the housing bubble." You can download the first chapter of Financial Shock here.
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More on Congress weakening Enron reforms
By Ed Mierzwinski - 11/7/2009 Today's New York Times editorial warns "Investors Beware." Why? Powerful special interests continue to demand weakening amendments to proposed financial reform legislation. This week's biggest hit was the House Financial Service Committee vote that -- if sustained -- would permanently exempt all publicly traded companies with market values under $75 million from full accountability to investors. Fraud and malfeasance do not simply occur at bigger companies. There is no rational reason to exempt smaller firms from transparency and audit requirements that have been shown in numerous studies to be a modest burden and a massive benefit.  As a statement from the PIRG-backed Americans for Financial Reform and Consumers Federation of America said:   "the opponents just keep coming with their demands for a small-company exemption. As a result of these attacks, companies with under $75 million in market capitalization have still not implemented the audit requirement more than seven years after the [Sarbanes-Oxley post-Enron] law took effect.  Thanks to the Adler/Garrett  amendment, they never will." Adler and Garrett are, respectively, Democratic and Republican representatives from New Jersey. The House FSC will continue work on its package of reforms Tuesday, and a House floor vote on the full package, including the Consumer Financial Protection Agency bill (that needs protection from further debilitating amendments) and a derivatives reform bill (that needs a lot of improvement) is expected in early December. Have members of the Financial Services Committee forgotten that just one year ago in September -- following a decade of deregulation, dangerous practices and lax oversight -- that the entire U.S. financial system collapsed and took down the world economy with it? Why are they still cutting deals? And why is the White House helping?
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PIRG supports health care on House floor today
By Ed Mierzwinski - 11/7/2009 From our action alert: The House health reform bill, the Affordable Health Care for America Act of 2009 (H.R. 3962) is scheduled for a vote this Saturday! And industry lobbyists are swarming Capitol Hill trying to find enough votes to defeat the bill. Don’t let powerful interests in Washington stop this historic effort to deliver quality, affordable health care. Call your Representative NOW and tell them to vote for H.R 3962!
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House passes chemical security bill-- safer chemicals, less terrorist risk
By Ed Mierzwinski - 11/6/2009 Link to full release: EXCERPT FOLLOWS: U.S. House Passes PIRG-Backed Chemical Security Legislation-- Safer chemicals measure will protect communities and reduce risk of terrorist attack--
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Ed Mierzwinski
U.S. PIRG Consumer Program Director
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