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POGO’s experts push policymakers to enact commonsense reforms that tackle waste, corruption, and abuse of power; hold those who’ve violated the public trust accountable; protect our constitutional rights; and make the government work for all people.
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Analysis
Another Conflicted Nominee Takes Office
The Treasury Department just announced that George W. Madison has been confirmed as the Department's new General Counsel. But as POGO guest blogger Michael Collins wrote back in June, Madison's recent employment at a firm that's participating in a key bailout program—along wit...
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Analysis
Oversight Panel Asks All the Right Questions about Auto Industry Bailout
A new report released yesterday by the Congressional Oversight Panel projects that taxpayers will lose billions of dollars on the government’s auto industry bailout programs.
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Analysis
Big Penalties for Big Pharma: Just Another Cost of Doing Business
Last week, the Department of Justice announced that pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. and its subsidiary, Pharmacia & Upjohn Company Inc., agreed to pay $2.3 billion to resolve claims of illegally promoting and/or misbranding certain pharmaceutical products. It is the large...
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Analysis
Big Penalties for Big Pharma: Just Another Cost of Doing Business
Last week, the Department of Justice announced that pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. and its subsidiary, Pharmacia & Upjohn Company Inc., agreed to pay $2.3 billion to resolve claims of illegally promoting and/or misbranding certain pharmaceutical products. It is the large...
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Analysis
Treasury Stands Down from Attempt to Challenge SIGTARP’s Authority
The Wall Street Journal reported this morning that the Treasury Department has withdrawn its request to have the Justice Department clarify the relationship between Treasury and the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP).
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Analysis
Time for Bernanke to Deliver on Transparency Promises
The news came in Monday that President Obama has appointed Ben Bernanke to another four-year term as Chairman of the Federal Reserve, putting an end to months of speculation that he might appoint a Democrat to the position.
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Analysis
How to Undermine Military Reform
Despite much glib talk about sweeping reforms of our defenses coming out of the Pentagon and being legislated by Congress, just a slight scratch of the surface reveals business as usual very much alive and well. It is important to reveal beneath the pretense of military reform...
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Analysis
Federal Contractors Beware
The lack of effective government oversight over the years has been a boon to contractors and corporations, and a bane to taxpayers. Waste, fraud, and abuse in the War on Terror, Hurricane Katrina recovery, and the Wall Street meltdown have finally become so burdensome that the...
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Analysis
New Hampshire Gets It Right on Stimulus Website
State governments are not required by the federal government to post information regarding American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Recovery Act) spending on their own procurement websites. A POGO review of the procurement websites from all 50 states (plus DC) found that one st...
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Analysis
Bailout Watchdog Issues Recommendations for Limiting Outside Influence Over TARP Decisions
The Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP) has just come out with a new audit with recommendations for limiting outside influence over the TARP decision-making process.
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Analysis
PIMCO Puts On Another Hat
Reuters reported yesterday that the New York Fed has hired PIMCO as a collateral monitor for the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF).
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Analysis
The Porkers Fight Back
Congressional "porkers" are still loading up the Department of Defense (DOD) authorization and appropriations bills with ad-ons and earmarks in both the House and Senate, explains Straus Military Reform Project Director Winslow Wheeler in a Podcast interview with Mil...