Who's Afraid of Macquerie Bank? The story of a millionaire factory

Ben, thanks for sharing this.  Originally published July 2007, by Gideon Haigh, in The Monthly

The 2007 annual report of Macquarie Bank runs to 120 compendious pages, its uncompromising inkiness broken only by a few small photos, pie charts and graphs. The text is unsigned, and there is not a single image of anyone at the bank, even its managing director, Allan Moss. Curious: Macquarie Bank used to be known for attractive, even imaginative annual reports. There was one that had peepholes in the pages; another had arty metaphorical images that paralleled aspects of investment banking with other occupations. But Australia's most admired corporation does nothing without a reason. It's almost as though the more successful it becomes, the more it aspires to impersonal, monolithic status.

Then there's that name. Apple Computer recently relaunched itself as Apple, explaining that it had left behind old-fangled ‘computers'. The ‘bank' in Macquarie Bank seems almost as archaic. In the financial world, the organisation is neither fish nor fowl, exhibiting characteristics of investment bank, asset manager, buy-out house, private-equity arranger and hedge fund. Perhaps that is why the custom has become simply to enumerate the assets under its control - a cliché beloved of the news media that nonetheless conveys something about Macquarie's diversity and geographic spread. Airports, antennae, casinos, car parks, turnpikes, tunnels: whether in Canada, Korea, Britain, Belgium, Singapore, Spain, Taiwan or Tanzania, all come alike to Macquarie's sophisticated metrics and financial heft.

You are most likely to find Macquarie under your wheels. It has made its name as a long-term holder of big infrastructure assets, and its chief fame is in toll roads. Interests in a host of them - from the Chicago Skyway to Britain's M6 Tollway; from Highway 407 in southern Ontario to the Indiana Toll Road, the so-called Main Street of the Midwest - repose in the Macquarie Infrastructure Group, the oldest and biggest of the bank's 31 specialist infrastructure funds. But Macquarie is no captive of its past. Of its 10,000 staff, 500 are peripatetic dealmakers in worldwide pursuit of the next asset, the next target, the next income stream.

Warning: Natural Gas Drilling near Montesano

The following appeared in Mason County Daily News, forwarded to us today:


Drilling for natural gas begins next month near Montesano. The State Department of Natural Resources approved an exploratory well venture for Comet Ridge Resources of Denver. The well is going to be a conventional vertical hole drilled into marine sediments and sandstone. The “fracking Technique”, where water is pumped in to force the natural gas out, will not be used. Drilling will continue for about a year. If they find enough natural gas to make it financially viable, the company will need to get additional permits from the state before production could begin. 

Threat from coal industry

This message contains some helpful references.  See the four state teleconference call from last week, which details concerns from railroad regulators & transportation experts; those who identify serious issues with exporting grains on time, etc.  It's posted under the Coal Trains tab.  Please follow up with each Representative who supported HR 4402 to make sure they know we hold them accountable and will do all we can to see they are not re-elected.

The surge of coal trains coming from Montana and Wyoming to Washington State ports, carrying some 150 million tons of coal a year, will create horrific local and global effects. This pillaging of the public commons for the short term profit of multinational mining corporations is not going to be stopped without an enormous fight. This dirty coal is destined for China and will come back to us as acid rain and climate chaos. Please pass the word that we need immediate action against becoming a neo-colonial extraction economy. Big Coal is trying to sell us out with a "thousands of jobs" enticement. We'll be left with black lung, a poisoned environment and the costs of mitigation and cleanup.

Also, Comet Ridge Resources, a Colorado company, will drill the first exploratory well in Montesano, Grays Harbor County this month, as a first step for possible fracking in our state's beautiful area of forested lakes.

Related news: Without much fanfare, the U.S. House passed HR 4402 to ease environmental rules and limit lawsuits on mining in the west. They also passed HR 4402, refusing to require royalty payments of hard rock minerals extracted from public land.  

I urge you to alert your friends and to rally quickly. The links below are FYI. Please call Governor Christine Gregoire at (360) 902-4111 and urge her to ensure that Washington says NO to coal export and YES to a clean energy future.

Power Past Coal

http://crosscut.com/2012/07/12/coal-ports/109550/coal-ports-trains-seattle-edmonds-bellingham/

Trains : Coal Train Facts

Coal-Free Washington:

Millennium Bulk Logistics Longview Terminal - SourceWatch

http://climatesolutions.org/nw-states/washington/no-coal/cherry-point

Coal trains through Washington: few benefits, much to fear | Opinion | The Seattle Times

http://www.sierraclub.org/coal/or/images/PRBcoalpit.JPG

Impact of state budget cuts on Local Economy, Health

Rep. Sam Hunt (LD 22) describes the impact of the budget cuts on employees in Thurston County. This clearly connects the impact of the State budget on local spending, which means $92.7 million per year less money for our local economy.

A COUPLE OF QUICK FACTS

The state budget has shrunk from $32.6 billion in 2007-09 to $32.2 billion in 2009-11, and the 2007-09 figure includes nearly a billion in federal stimulus funds. In that time state population has grown from 6.45 million to 6.8 million--that's the equivalent of adding another Clark County (Vancouver).

$184 MILLION STATE EMPLOYEE AND K-12 CUTS IN TAKE HOME PAY IN 2011-13

There are 23,835 state employees and 5,400 K-12 employees in Thurston County. Being the seat of government, we obviously have lots of state employees. With the 3% salary cut, increased health insurance costs, and increased retirement deductions, the average state employee will take home $3,690 less in each year of the new biennium. K-12 employees will see an average 3% decrease in their salaries. That is a loss of $92.7 million per year to local families and the local economy.

And it does not include the millions that will not be paid to retirees in Public Employees Retirement Plan 1 (PERS 1) and Teachers Retirement Plan 1 (TRS 1) because of the elimination--not just the suspension--elimination of future cost of living increases for these retirees. This was a request of Governor Gregoire that Rep. Reykdal, Senator Fraser, and I could not support.

I did get the Legislature to approve my amendment to raise the minimum monthly payment from $1,100 to $1,500 to provide some assistance to those who have been retired the longest.

America the Beautiful: A Fire Sale for Foreign Corporations

A group photo of leaders from the member countries of the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement (TPP). (Photo: Gobierno de Chile)

This may be one of the most important stories ever ignored by the so-called "lame stream, liberal" media. It's unlikely you're losing sleep over US trade negotiations, but the unfolding business agreement among the US and eight Pacific nations -the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) - should cause every US citizen, from the Sierra Club to the Tea Party to get their pitch forks and torches out of the closet and prepare to "storm the Bastille."

 
The TPP negotiations have been going on for two years under extreme secrecy, no information has been made available to either the press or Congress about the US position. But on June 12, a document was leaked to the watchdog group, Public Citizen, revealing the current US position and the reason for the secrecy. The contents are surreal, shocking and prima facia evidence for how corporations have become the master puppeteers of our government.

The leaked document reveals that the trade agreement would give unprecedented political authority and legal protection to foreign corporations. Specifically, TPP would (1) severely limit regulation of foreign corporations operating within US boundaries, giving them greater rights than domestic firms; (2) extend incentives for US firms to move investments and jobs to lower-wage countries; and (3) establish an alternative legal system that gives foreign corporations and investors new rights to circumvent US courts and laws, allowing them to sue the US government before foreign tribunals and demand compensation for lost revenue due to US laws they claim undermine their TPP privileges or their investment "expectations."

Despite the North American Free Trade Agreement's (NAFTA) failures, corporations are arm-twisting the federal government to pursue trade agreements as inevitable and necessary for economic progress. But 26 of the 28 chapters of this agreement have nothing to do with trade. TPP was drafted with the oversight of 600 representatives of multinational corporations, who essentially gave themselves whatever they wanted; the environment, public health, worker safety, further domestic job losses be damned.

Residents of the West should be particularly alarmed. TPP would allow the plunder of our natural resources by foreign corporations allowed to bypass US law. Disputes over Western land contracts for mining and timber, for example, would be settled by international tribunals. Even if you are oblivious to environmental concerns, you should be outraged at the total circumvention of national sovereignty. Foreign investors could bypass our legal framework, take any dispute to an international tribunal and pursue compensation for being denied access to our resources at fire-sale prices - with much of the West on fire as we speak.

It gets worse. Those tribunals would be staffed by private-sector lawyers that rotate between acting as "judges" and as advocates for the corporations suing the governments. American taxpayers could be forced to pay those corporations virtually unlimited compensation for trying to protect our air, land and water from much looser standards than current US law allows.

This agreement could directly affect efforts in my home state of Utah to hold the international mining giant, Rio Tinto, accountable to the Clean Air Act. A consortium of public health and environmental groups including WildEarth Guardians, Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment, Utah Moms for Clean Air and the Sierra Club have filed suit against Rio Tinto for mining more - and polluting more - than the amount allowed by the Environmental Protection Agency via provisions in the Clean Air Act. This agreement would allow disputes about their pollution to be settled by foreign "judges" who don't live in Utah, aren't personally affected by the outcome, aren't even US citizens and could be attorneys for mining companies. Talk about putting the fox in charge of the chickens.

Supreme Court Refuses to Reconsider Citizens United

Mike Sacks, for the Huffington Post

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday struck down Montana's century-old limits on corporate political spending, putting an end to the state's resistance to Citizens United and effectively expanding that controversial ruling to the state and local elections.

Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, decided in January 2010, struck down federal limits on campaign spending by corporations and unions as violations of the First Amendment. Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing on behalf of Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, reached the bold conclusion that "independent expenditures, including those made by corporations, do not give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption," and therefore "[n]o sufficient governmental interest justifies limits on the political speech of nonprofit or for-profit corporations."

In December 2011, the Montana Supreme Court disagreed. It found that the state's Gilded Age history of business-driven corruption was sufficient to justify the state's Corrupt Practices Act. Passed by voter referendum in 1912, the law decrees that a "corporation may not make ... an expenditure in connection with a candidate or a political party that supports or opposes a candidate or a political party."

By summarily reversing the case, American Tradition Partnership v. Bullock, the justices refused to reconcile their sweeping statement of free speech principles in Citizens United with the real-world facts -- from Montana's history to today's super PACs -- put forward by Montana and its supporters to demonstrate that independent expenditures do, indeed, corrupt or create the appearance of corruption. Instead, the 5-4 majority, in an unsigned opinion, wrote that "[t]here can be no serious doubt" that Citizens United applies to Montana's law.

"Montana's arguments in support of the judgment below either were already rejected in Citizens United, or fail to meaningfully distinguish that case," the majority wrote.

Justice Stephen Breyer, joined by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, wrote to dissent from the summary reversal. "Montana's experience, like considerable experience elsewhere since the Court's decision in Citizens United, casts grave doubt on the Court's supposition that independent expenditures do not corrupt or appear to do so," Breyer wrote. "Were the matter up to me, I would vote to grant the petition for certiorari in order to reconsider Citizens United or, at least, its application in this case."

Monsanto May Lose Billions in Brazil over "Monsanto Taxes"

Dr. Mercola
Organic Consumers Association/News Report
Published: Sunday 8 July 2012

Brazil, the second-largest producer of genetically modified (GM) crops (after the U.S.), is the latest country to take a stand against biotech giant Monsanto, which could end up handing over at least $2 billion as a result.

A war has been waging against Monsanto in Brazil for nearly a decade, virtually ever since the country legalized farming of GM crops in 2005.

Since then, Monsanto has been charging Brazilian farmers double – once for their seeds, and again when they sell their crops.

Farmers Have Had Enough With Monsanto’s Royalty Taxes and Penalties
In case you’re wondering how Monsanto has risen to the ranks of a superpower, a major reason is their patent on GM seeds, like the GM soya seeds in Brazil, which account for nearly 85 percent of the country’s total soybean crop. Each GM seed is patented and sold under exclusive rights.

Therefore, farmers must purchase the GM seeds every year, because saving seeds (which has long been the traditional way) is considered to be patent infringement. Anyone who does save GM seeds must pay a license fee to actually re-sow them.

But that’s not all.

In Brazil, Monsanto has charged farmers a 2 percent royalty fee on all of their Roundup Ready sales since 2005! And, they test all of the soy seeds marketed as “non-GM” to be sure they don’t contain any Monsanto seeds. If they are found to contain the patented seeds, the farmer is penalized close to 3 percent of his sales!

Assembly Joint Bill No. 22 (California's Resolution)

Introduced  by  Assembly Member Wieckowski, Allen(Coauthor(s): Assembly Member Alejo, Ammiano, Atkins, Beall, Blumenfield, Buchanan, Dickinson, Hayashi, Hill, Roger Hernández, Huffman,Mendoza, Williams)(Coauthor(s): Senator DeSaulnier, Hancock, Leno, Lieu)

January 05, 2012

---

Relative to campaign finance reform.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

AJR 22, as amended, Wieckowski. Campaign finance reform.

This measure would memorialize the Legislature’s disagreement with the decision of the United States Supreme Court in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, and would call upon the United States Congress to propose and send to the states for ratification a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission and to restore constitutional rights and fair elections to the people.
DIGEST KEYFiscal Committee: no
BILL TEXT

WHEREAS, The protections afforded by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution to the people of our nation are fundamental to our democracy; and

WHEREAS, The First Amendment to the United States Constitution was designed to protect the free speech rights of people, not corporations; and

WHEREAS, Corporations are not people but, instead, are entities created by the laws of states and nations; and

Declarations of Independence and Interdependence

By Lansing Scott • on July 4, 2012 12:55 am  Eat the State!

Corporations were originally created to enable various types of large-scale, collective economic activity beyond the capability of individual initiatives. Corporations were created as tools to serve human ends. But over centuries, the scale, power, and reach of these entities has grown to such a degree that they have become the masters, and we, the servants. Through constant consolidation, concentration, and centralization, corporate entities have achieved colossal proportions beyond the control of ordinary humans. Our tools now make the rules and use us.When in the course of human events certain social constructs outgrow their original purposes, and instead serve to undermine the public good in myriad ways, it becomes necessary for natural people to reclaim their power usurped by such constructs.

These corporate colossi have become vehicles to enrich a small minority and enable this minority to rule over the majority. Corporations—via lobbyists, campaign donations, and other channels—are reshaping our society and our nation’s laws in their own interests. Especially after the Supreme Court’s “Citizens United” decision, ours is becoming a government “of the corporations, by the corporations, and for the corporations.”

The time has come for We the People to withdraw our support and consent from corporate rule in every way possible and redirect our resources toward strengthening local, human-scale, community-based institutions. Let’s declare our independence from big corporations and reaffirm our interdependence with our own communities and the natural systems upon which all life depends. There are many ways to do this, both individually and collectively.

Mayor's Conference Resolution and CP

ESTABLISH AS A POSITION OF THE UNITED STATES CONFERENCE OF MAYORS THAT CORPORATIONS SHOULD NOT RECEIVE THE SAME LEGAL RIGHTS AS NATURAL PERSONS DO, THAT MONEY IS NOT SPEECH AND THAT INDEPENDENT EXPENDITURES SHOULD BE REGULATED

WHEREAS, the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights are intended to protect the rights of individual human beings also known as “natural persons”; and

WHEREAS, corporations can and do make important contributions to our society, but the United States Conference of Mayors does not consider them natural persons; and

WHEREAS, the right to free speech is a fundamental freedom and unalienable right and free and fair elections are essential to democracy and effective self-governance; and

WHEREAS, United States Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black in a 1938 opinion stated, "I do not believe the word 'person' in the Fourteenth Amendment includes corporations"; and

WHEREAS, the United States Supreme Court held in Buckley v. Valeo (1976) that the appearance of corruption justified limits on contribution to candidates, but rejected other fundamental interests that the United States Conference of Mayors finds compelling such as creating a level playing field and ensuring that all citizens, regardless of wealth, have an opportunity to have their political views heard; and

WHEREAS, the United States Supreme Court in Buckley overturned limits on independent expenditures because it found that the corruption or perception of corruption rationale was only applicable to direct contributions to candidates; and,

WHEREAS, United States Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens observed in Nixon v. Shrink Missouri Government PAC (2000) that “money is property, it is not speech,”; and

WHEREAS, the United States Supreme Court recognized in Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce (1990) the threat to a republican form of government posed by “the corrosive and distorting effects of immense aggregations of wealth that are accumulated with the help of the corporate form and that have little or no correlation to the public’s support for the corporations political ideas” and upheld limits on independent expenditures by corporations; and

WHEREAS, the United States Supreme Court in Citizens United v. The Federal Election Commission (2010) reversed the decision in Austin, allowing unlimited corporate spending to influence elections, candidate selection, policy decisions and sway votes; and

WHEREAS, prior to Citizens United decision unlimited independent campaign expenditures could be made by individuals and associations, though such committees operated under federal contribution limits; and,

WHEREAS, given that the Citizens United decision “rejected the argument that political speech of corporations or other associations should be treated differently” because the First Amendment “generally prohibits the suppression of political speech based on the speaker’s identity,” there is a need to broaden the corruption rationale for campaign finance reform to facilitate regulation of independent expenditures regardless of the source of the money for this spending, for or against a candidate; and

WHEREAS, a February 2010 Washington Post-ABC News poll found that 80 percent of Americans oppose the U.S. Supreme Court Citizens Unitedruling; and,

WHEREAS, the opinion of the four dissenting justices in Citizens United noted that corporations have special advantages not enjoyed by natural persons, such as limited liability, perpetual life, and favorable treatment of the accumulation and distribution of assets; and

WHEREAS, corporations are legally required to put profits for shareholders ahead of concerns for the greatest good of society while individual shareholders as natural persons balance their narrow self-interest and broader public interest when making political decisions; and

WHEREAS, addressing both the Citizens United decision, and corporate personhood is necessary; and

WHEREAS, the City Councils of Missoula, Montana; Boulder, Colorado; and Madison, Wisconsin have referred the issue of corporate personhood to their communities for advisory vote.

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that it is the position of the United States Conference of Mayors that corporations should not receive the same legal rights as individual human beings (also known as “natural persons”) do; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the United States Conference of Mayors also determines that the most urgent action needed is to reverse the impacts of United States Supreme Court Citizens United (2010) decision and the door it opens for unlimited independent campaign expenditures by corporations that contributes to the undermining impacts that “corporate personhood” has on free and fair elections and effective self-governance; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the United States Conference of Mayors calls on other communities and jurisdictions and organizations like National League of Cities to join with us in this action by passing similar Resolutions.

RESOLUTION ADOPTED JUNE 2012

Coal train Derailed in Pasco

Folks, this issue is so serious, and I just heard that the Bellingham City Council (read lawyers) are trying to block the good work citizens have been doing to fight the Cherry Point coal trains.

PASCO, Wash. (AP) — A coal train that derailed and spilled 31 cars of the black dusty fuel caused little more than a big mess and a day's delay in rail traffic in the Eastern Washington town of Mesa, but opponents of increased coal shipments through the Northwest say it's an example of a serious risk.

No one was injured and no buildings were damaged Monday evening when the train derailed, said Franklin County sheriff's Lt. Ronelle Nelson.

About 50 workers using heavy equipment worked through the night to clear the Burlington Northern Santa Fe main line track, said spokesman Gus Melonas.

They were able to put one car back on the track, but 30 were too badly damaged. They were pushed aside and will have to be cut up and removed in a salvage operation expected to take about three weeks, Melonas said.

About 30 trains a day roll through the area, about 20 miles north of the Tri-Cities. About four a day are coal trains, the state has said. The route also is used by the Portland-Chicago Amtrak.

Move to Amend Oly Celebration--Join Us!

You’re Invited!

To Celebrate Move to Amend

 Work toward City of Olympia 

Adoption of a Resolution

Toward Abolishing Corporate Personhood

AND Overturning Citizens United

Wednesday, July 11^th at the Farmer’s Market

Stage Area

6:30 – 8 pm

RSVP to mollygibbs3@gmail.com

REFRESHMENTS, MUSIC

Brief presentations from many people involved over many years 

 celebrating each other’s work!

www.MovetoAmendOlympia.org

  

  

Learn and Act RE: TPP

Yes, the TPP is a bad as Public Citizen Citizen Trade Watch campaign says -
this can't be stressed enough. It also includes more countries than NAFTA
and CAFTA. Additionally, whereas in 1992 corporations as persons got
rights under the 5th Amendment that regulatory laws are "takings," in the
TPP investor rights are extended further than in NAFTA or CAFTA at the same
time, of course, including the "takings" provision that allows
multinational corporations to lodge an investor rights claim against a
nation state for a local, state or national law that in their view is a
"takings." Interestingly, the Australian government has said that they
will not sign a trade agreement, and that includes the TPP, that includes
such a comprehensive "takings" or investor rights section.

And it is 600 corporate lobbyists and the United States Trade
Representatives office that in secret that are negotiating the TPP no
members of civil society.

My understanding is that Obama will not try to pass this before the
election, though he could try to push in through on Fast Track and say it
is going to create jobs; but, then, the unions don't want this and he needs
the unions for the election. We'll have to see.

Hope this helps, Nancy Price, member MTA National Leadership Team