Stories by Les Leopold

Les Leopold is the executive director of the Labor Institute in New York, and author of How to Make a Million Dollars an Hour: Why Hedge Funds Get Away with Siphoning Off America's Wealth (J. Wiley and Sons, 2013).

Free College on Wall Street's Tab? 5 Reasons the Finance Sector Should Pay for Full Tuition at Public Universities

Posted on: May 17, 2011, Source: AlterNet

We are the richest country in the world, and we have the means to create employment for the 20 million who are without work.

7 Ways Hedge Funds Lie, Cheat and Steal

Posted on: May 11, 2011, Source: AlterNet

The billionaire head of the Galleon hedge fund was found guilty of 14 counts of securities fraud and conspiracy, but he's not just an isolated "bad apple."

How Wall Street and the Toxic Philosophy of Ayn Rand Are Destroying Our Retirements

Posted on: May 3, 2011, Source: AlterNet

Washington is talking about balancing the budget on the backs of the elderly, but the economic security they enjoyed at one time is already imperiled.

How Wall Street Thieves, Led by Goldman Sachs, Took Down the Global Economy -- Their Outsized Influence Must be Stopped

Posted on: Apr 25, 2011, Source: AlterNet

If we don't bust up Big Finance, there soon will be another financial crisis that will destroy what's left of our middle-class way of life.

Big Finance Is a Monster That's Consuming Our Economic Security

Posted on: Apr 15, 2011, Source: AlterNet

It’s high time that the $2.2 trillion sloshing around in hedge funds supported real job creation and debt repayment instead of enriching a handful of billionaires.

Hedge Fund Gamblers Earn the Same In One Hour As a Middle-Class Household Makes In Over 47 Years

Posted on: Apr 11, 2011, Source: AlterNet

How do they make so much money? Where does it come from? How can hedge fund firms with fewer than 100 employees make as much profit as firms with thousands of employees?

Why Is Obama's Treasury Dept. Perversely Siding With Big Banks Against Elizabeth Warren and the State AGs?

Posted on: Mar 31, 2011, Source: AlterNet

Warren and the AGs are demanding that the banks pay for the damage they have done AND create jobs. How refreshing!

How to Take on Wall Street and Win

Posted on: Mar 30, 2011, Source: AlterNet

It's up to us to embarrass lawmakers into making financial elites pay their fair share.

The Real Story of Our Economy: Why Our Standard of Living Has Stalled Out

Posted on: Mar 23, 2011, Source: AlterNet

For more than a quarter century after WWII the fruits of America's productivity were shared with average working people, year in and year out. Not anymore.

Why the Government's Unemployment Rate is Dangerously Deceptive -- And the Dark Reality it Hides

Posted on: Mar 9, 2011, Source: AlterNet

The latest jobs report indicates that the unemployment and job creation rates are better than a year ago, but there are problems with the numbers.

Why Do People Who Work in Finance Earn So Much More Than the Rest of Us?

Posted on: Jan 21, 2011, Source: AlterNet

Most Americans rightly sense that our middle-class dominated economy has devolved into a system of financial socialism by and for elites.

Wall St's 10 Biggest Lies of 2010

Posted on: Dec 29, 2010, Source: AlterNet

What a great year for Wall Street: profits up, bonuses up and, best of all, criticism down. Somehow Wall Street has much of America believing its lies and rationalizations.

How to Earn $900,000 an Hour While Unemployment Soars

Posted on: Oct 15, 2010, Source: AlterNet

The top 10 hedge fund honchos each averaged $1.87 billion in 2009 -- wouldn't you like to know their secrets? Here are a few.

Poverty Is Through the Roof, and Billionaires Are Getting Pissy About Not Enough Profits

Posted on: Sep 16, 2010, Source: AlterNet

Instead of showing their outrage about the spread of poverty in the richest nation on Earth, the super-rich want us to pity them?

Let’s Hold Benedict Arnold Billionaire Warren Buffett Accountable

Posted on: May 9, 2010, Source: AlterNet

Buffett has taken to arguing that his own questionable derivatives should be shielded from government regulators.

"Hey Dad, Why Does This Country Protect Billionaires, and Not Teachers?"

Posted on: May 4, 2010, Source: AlterNet

Something is really screwed up when we award billions to Wall Street elites for doing things we don’t comprehend, even as we lay off teachers by the thousands.

The Preposterous Reality: 25 Hedge Fund Managers Are Worth 680,000 Teachers (Who Teach 13 Million Students)

Posted on: Apr 9, 2010, Source: AlterNet

"It’s going to take a lot of political will — over a long period of time — to reorder our most basic economic values."

Why Are We Afraid to Tax the Super-Rich?

Posted on: Mar 12, 2010, Source: AlterNet

We are told that we’re already living well beyond our means we’ve got to cut back on government programs at all levels. Meanwhile, the super-rich are still having a ball.

Glenn Beck, Radical Hit Man for the Tea Partiers, Is Breeding Potential Violence

Posted on: Feb 28, 2010, Source: AlterNet

I wish this were just a bad joke, but Beck isn't messing around -- he's painting bull's-eyes on the backs of progressives.

Watch out Tea Party, Progressive Anger Is Alive and Kicking

Posted on: Jan 29, 2010, Source: AlterNet

There's rising populist anger against the bailed-out billionaires -- they're only going to get more angry as the same folks who crashed the system are now making record bonuses.

Conservative Senate Win Is Another Victory for the Billionaire Bailout Society, and a Failure for Progressives

Posted on: Jan 20, 2010, Source: AlterNet

You can blame Obama for the Senate loss in Mass, but much of the failure also rests with the progressive community.

GeithnerGate: Obama's Treasury Sec. Should Get the Boot and Let's Take Our Money Back Too

Posted on: Jan 12, 2010, Source: AlterNet

By all means, let's fire Geithner -- and let's also target Wall Street as a whole. Also: MSNBC Host Dylan Ratigan's case against Geithner.

Are Progressives Depressed or Too Privileged to Produce Social Change? Or Are We Just Failing to Organize Effectively?

Posted on: Jan 6, 2010, Source: AlterNet

Real change seems almost impossible. What are we doing wrong?

Bruce Levine Says Americans Are Broken: Is He Right?

Posted on: Dec 28, 2009, Source: AlterNet

The disillusioned masses don't just need more morale, as Levine claims. We also need more truth and more intelligence.

How About Some of that Painful Welfare Reform for Wall Street?

Posted on: Oct 22, 2009, Source: AlterNet

We force very low income single moms to jump through hoops to get their welfare checks, but we let Wall Street's welfare kings walk all over us.

What Recession? As the Economy Crashed Around Them, 400 Richest Americans Lined Their Pockets with $30 Billion

Posted on: Oct 1, 2009, Source: AlterNet

Their combined wealth is more than enough to insure the uninsured for the next twenty years or more.

Why Do We Idolize Wall Street Hustlers but Hold People Who Actually Make Things in Contempt?

Posted on: Sep 30, 2009, Source: Huffington Post

The manufacturing sector accounts for fewer and fewer jobs each year, so why should we give a damn about it?

Serious About Green Jobs? It's Time to Throw 'Free Trade' out the Window

Posted on: Jul 20, 2009, Source: AlterNet

If we want a greener world and green jobs for our citizens, we have to ditch the 'free-trade' ideal -- markets on their own won't do it.

5 Progressive Bright Spots in a Bleak Economic Landscape

Posted on: Jun 24, 2009, Source: AlterNet

This disaster has a few bright spots that we should build upon.

The Ideology of Unfettered Capitalism Is Crumbling -- It's a Huge Opportunity for Alternative Economics

Posted on: Jun 15, 2009, Source: AlterNet

Unfettered globalization, and trickle down economics are dead. This is the best teaching moment in 65 years.

The Looting of America: How Wall Street Fleeced Millions from Wisconsin Schools

Posted on: Jun 2, 2009, Source: Chelsea Green Publishing

Wall Street investment houses went after the $100 billion saved in school-district trust funds like Whitefish Bay's, and made a killing.

Wall St. and the Media Are Trying to Make Us Forget Who Started the Financial Crash

Posted on: May 19, 2009, Source: AlterNet

We're at the moment Wall Street has been waiting for: The time where we begin to forget who brought the economy down.

The Man Who Hated Work and Loved Labor

Posted on: Apr 8, 2008, Source: AlterNet

Long after the Democratic Party abandoned labor interests, Tony Mazzocchi continued to fight for the working class.

Recent Explosion Reveals Fatal Double Standard for Workers

Posted on: Feb 20, 2008, Source: Chelsea Green Publishing

As the recent explosion in the sugar factory shows, in industrial facilities, the drive for profits undermines safety.

Globalization Is Fueling Global Warming

Posted on: Dec 28, 2007, Source: AlterNet

Unfettered global trade will make efforts to reverse global warming and deliver safe products to our country all the more difficult.

Search form