By
David Corn
In
2012, Mitt Romney's career as a businessman who earned many millions of dollars
became a net loss, as political foes slammed him for running Bain Capital, a
private equity firm that invested in US companies that downsized and shifted jobs
overseas and that obtained financial stakes in foreign companies that depended on US outsourcing
for profits. At the same time, Romney, who refused to do a full release of his
tax returns, was hit with questions (he didn't answer) about mysterious personal investments in offshore
accounts. Should he mount a third presidential effort, as he has told GOP
funders he is considering, all of these issues are likely to return. But there's
another matter that will be added to the pile of financial controversies for
Romney to face: Solamere Capital, the $700 million private equity firm cofounded
by his son Taggart that Romney has helped run since March 2013. Who has Romney
been investing with, and what has he been investing in? These are questions that
Romney 2016 will confront and that, no doubt, the firm will not want to answer.
[READ MORE]
By
Erika Eichelberger
Ever
since Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) helped get the Consumer Financial
Protection Bureau off the ground in 2010, Republicans have been trying to shut
it down. GOPers drafted legislation to weaken the fledgling agency, which
was designed to prevent mortgage lenders, credit card companies, and other
financial institutions from screwing average Americans. The measure died.
Republicans turned to the courts to gut the bureau. That
effort failed. Now that Republicans control both houses of Congress, they have
another weapon at their disposal: new subpoena powers they can deploy to blitz
the CFPB with document requests. [READ MORE]
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READ
- Mickey Mouse Exposed to Measles, Thanks to the Anti-Vaxxers
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- Watch Tina Fey and Amy Poehler's Opening Monologue at the Golden Globes
THIS
WEEK'S NEWS ROUNDUP
David
Corn and the Mother Jones DC bureau responded this week to multiple
likely presidential runs—both Jeb Bush and Mitt Romney. Though Romney repeatedly said he wouldn't make a third run for
the job since he last lost, he's conceded that it's possible—even likely.
Many
questions still remain concering last week's Paris
massacres, though it's clear that religious tensions dominated in France long
before then. A German anti-Islam, anti-immigration group responded to the
massacre with an "I told you so," and drew tens of thousands of people to its
weekly Monday protest—fueling the fire for extremists who recruit
disenfranchised youths. The Muslim hero who saved lives at the kosher market
held up by one of the Paris attackers will now get French citizenship.
And
the group behind America's biggest anti-abortion march is now at war with birth control, which apparently
it thinks is a form of abortion. Happy Friday. [READ MORE]
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