Portside

Billionaire fund managers and their firms must pay for the damage they’ve caused. Toys “R” Us workers need immediate severance pay—if Bain and KKR were to forgo their predatory profits, each worker would receive about $15,000 in severance, a pittance for what in many cases is a lifetime of diligent

The tax legislation passed last year gives the financial industry plenty of reasons to celebrate.

Over the course of their research, they conducted more than 100 interviews with tenants who are essentially renting from Wall Street firms. The report tells the stories of absurd rent increases, dangerous failures in property management, and high eviction rates. And, as the authors note, lower income families and people of color are disproportionately affected by these practices.

Written one week before the current Wall Street tumble, economist Nomi Prins writes: Watch out. Even in the seemingly best of times, neglecting Wall Street is a dangerous idea. With a rag-tag Trumpian crew of ex-bankers and Goldman Sachs alumni as the only watchdogs in town, it’s time to focus, because one thing is clear: Donald Trump’s economic team is in the process of making the financial system combustible again.

By seizing control of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and placing an ideological extremist in charge, US President Donald Trump has brought to the fore the deepest flaws in his administration’s founding myth. The gutting that now awaits the agency will visibly harm many of the ordinary people Trump promised to defend.

Last week, Americans woke up to news of yet another mass breach of their personal data. The consumer credit reporting agency Equifax revealed that as many as 143 million Americans’ Social Security numbers, dates of birth, names and addresses may have been stolen from its files — just the kind of information that allows for identity theft and other cybercrimes.