Global Economy

For more than a quarter century, IPS has been a leader in strengthening citizen responses to the global economy through research, writing, film, education, and coalition building. The project has produced dozens of books, articles, films, and educational materials.

Executive Excess 2012: The CEO Hands in Uncle Sam's Pocket

Cover: The CEO Hands in Uncle Sam's Pocket

Nationwide, budget cuts have axed 627,000 public service jobs just since June 2009. Schools, health clinics, fire stations, parks, and recreation facilities—virtually no public service has gone unsqueezed. Tax dollars haven’t seemed this scarce in generations.

Yet tens of billions of these scarce tax dollars are getting diverted. These tax dollars are flowing from average Americans who depend on public services to the kingpins of America’s private sector. They’re subsidizing, directly and indirectly, the mega-million paychecks that go to the top executives at our nation’s biggest banks and corporations.

Read the report and take action.

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Recent Work

Open Letter
Letter From Financial Industry Professionals in Support of Financial Transaction Taxes
June 21, 2012 - As individuals with first-hand knowledge and significant experience in the financial industry, we urge you to introduce small financial transaction taxes (FTTs). By Sarah Anderson, published in The Nation

Op-Ed
Mining Gold, Undermining Democracy
June 11, 2012 - Neither foreign investors nor unelected tribunals deserve the power to trump democratically elected leaders. By Robin Broad and John Cavanagh, published in YubaNet and Common Dreams

Policy Report
Mexico's Track Record: A Cautionary Tale for the G-20
June 8, 2012 - As Mexico becomes the G-20 chair for 2012, its embrace of a neoliberal agenda of deregulation and privatization show a poor track record on all the group's goals. By Manuel Perez-Rocha

Blog
Mining Firm Doubles Up On Law Firms in Quest for Pot of Gold
June 7, 2012 - When suing the government of El Salvador, one legal powerhouse just isn't enough. With a major pot of gold at stake, Pacific Rim doubles up its legal attack. By Sarah Anderson

Commentary
IPS Director Speaks Out at Pacific Rim's Vancouver HQ
June 3, 2012 - With about 200 activists from several countries, John Cavanagh denounced the firm for suing the government of El Salvador in retaliation for the denial of a mining permit. By Sarah Anderson

Media Advisory
World Bank Tribunal Ruling in El Salvador Mining Case Undermines Democracy
June 2, 2012 - IPS Director John Cavanagh will participate in a protest outside the Vancouver headquarters of Pacific Rim today.

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Buy This Book
- Published January 28, 2009
- ISBN 978-0-7391-3167-1
Mandate for Change: Policies and Leadership for 2009 and Beyond
By Chester Hartman

Three decades ago, conservative ideologues at The Heritage Foundation produced a primer on the Reagan Revolution entitled Mandate for Leadership, which offered an overarching philosophy against the role of government and in favor of markets.

Today, IPS has taken on the same task for the Obama administration. Mandate for Change is aimed at strengthening the new administration at a time when the need for progressive policies — and appointing progressive people to lead such efforts—is most urgent.
Buy This Book
- Published September 16, 2008
- ISBN 978-1-59451-523-1
Development Redefined: How the Market Met its Match
By Robin Broad and John Cavanagh

Rejecting the “flat worldism” of the globalists as well as the peaks and valleys of trade and aid policies over the years, Robin Broad and John Cavanagh guide us through the raging debate over the best route to development for the poorer nations of Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

This book takes readers on a journey through the rise and fall of the one-size-fits-all model of development that richer nations began imposing on poorer ones three decades ago. That model — called the “Washington Consensus” by its backers and “neoliberalism” or “market fundamentalism” by its critics — placed enormous power in markets to solve the problems of the poor.

The authors have stood at the epicenter of these debates from their perches in the United Nations, the U.S. government, academia, and civil society. They guide us back in time to understand why the Washington Consensus dominated for so long, and how it devastated workers, the environment, and the poor. At the same time, they chart the rise of an “alter-globalization” movement of those adversely affected by market fundamentalism. Today, this movement is putting alternatives into action across the globe, and what constitutes development is being redefined.
Buy This Book
- Published April 1, 2005
- ISBN 978-1-56584-956-3
Field Guide to the Global Economy (Second Edition)
By Sarah Anderson, John Cavanagh, Thea Lee

This fully updated and expanded second edition of The Field Guide to the Global Economy presents the latest facts to help make sense of the rapidly changing international economy. Illustrated throughout with charts, graphs, and cartoons, the book documents new trends, including the foreign “outsourcing” of U.S. service jobs, as well as the increasing influence of mega-firms like Wal-Mart and labor union–free China on workers around the globe.

Published in conjunction with the Institute for Policy Studies, an independent research institute based in Washington, D.C., this accessible guide explains how global institutions such as the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, World Trade Organization, and North American Free Trade Agreement affect communities, workers, the poor, and the environment. The book dispels the widely disseminated propaganda about current globalization policies and provides an update on the burgeoning movement that is challenging them, from Bolivian water warriors to U.S. student anti-sweatshop activists.

November 28, 2012

The Washington Post features report “A Pension Deficit Disorder: The Massive CEO Retirement Funds and Underfunded Worker Pensions at Firms Pushing Social Security Cuts”
Visit the publisher's website • See the report
"Liberal and conservative groups alike are circulating reports that allege that the chief executives who comprise Fix the Debt run companies that have been promoting a “rash of corporate tax breaks” in the name of pro-growth tax reform. Beyond that, the group’s CEO members have been criticized by the left-leaning Institute for Policy Studies for seeking cuts in Social Security and Medicare for elderly Americans 'while sitting on an average of $9 million each in retirement funds.'"
November 28, 2012

CNN features report “The CEO Campaign to ‘Fix’ the Debt: A Trojan Horse for Massive Corporate Tax Breaks”
Visit the publisher's website • See the report
"The Institute for Policy Studies, a longtime critic of CEO pay and economic inequality, has since put out two publications impugning the motives of those on the council.

'These CEOs paint a stark picture of hypocrisy,' said Scott Klinger, a co-author of one of the reports said in a statement. 'They're simply taking advantage of the so-called 'fiscal cliff' to push the same old agenda of more corporate tax breaks while shifting costs onto the poor and elderly.'"
November 28, 2012

CNN Money features report “A Pension Deficit Disorder: The Massive CEO Retirement Funds and Underfunded Worker Pensions at Firms Pushing Social Security Cuts”
Visit the publisher's website • See the report
But the most high-profile part of the campaign -- and the one that has been sharply criticized by the left -- is its CEO fiscal leadership council, which includes some of the biggest names in corporate America.

. . . The Institute for Policy Studies, a longtime critic of CEO pay and economic inequality, has since put out two publications impugning the motives of those on the council.

"These CEOs paint a stark picture of hypocrisy," said Scott Klinger, a co-author of one of the reports said in a statement. "They're simply taking advantage of the so-called 'fiscal cliff' to push the same old agenda of more corporate tax breaks while shifting costs onto the poor and elderly."
November 27, 2012

Think Progress features report “A Pension Deficit Disorder: The Massive CEO Retirement Funds and Underfunded Worker Pensions at Firms Pushing Social Security Cuts”
Visit the publisher's website • See the report
"These CEOs have little cause for concern if government retirement assistance is cut, as they have millions of dollars squirreled away in their personal retirement accounts."
November 27, 2012

The Huffington Post features report “The CEO Campaign to ‘Fix’ the Debt: A Trojan Horse for Massive Corporate Tax Breaks”
Visit the publisher's website • See the report
As negotiations to avert the so-called fiscal cliff intensify, corporate lobbying groups are pushing key tax perks that benefit the wealthy. A coalition of financial institutions, fossil fuel companies, telecommunications firms and even the cigarette company Altria are teaming up to block a tax increase on dividends -- a policy that overwhelmingly aids the rich.

The corporate coalition, known as The Alliance for Savings and Investment, is composed exclusively of corporations and lobbying groups.

The Alliance for Savings and Investment, which declined to comment for this article, is just one of several corporate lobbying groups that are pushing to include tax perks for the wealthy and large corporations in any deal to avert the fiscal cliff. The Campaign to Fix the Debt has organized dozens of corporate CEOs to advocate for $134 billion in tax breaks for Fortune 500 companies as part of any deal to avert the fiscal cliff, according to an analysis by the Institute for Policy Studies, a liberal think tank.
November 27, 2012

Mother Jones features report “A Pension Deficit Disorder: The Massive CEO Retirement Funds and Underfunded Worker Pensions at Firms Pushing Social Security Cuts”
Visit the publisher's website • See the report
November 27, 2012

The (San Francisco) Beyond Chron features report “A Pension Deficit Disorder: The Massive CEO Retirement Funds and Underfunded Worker Pensions at Firms Pushing Social Security Cuts”
Visit the publisher's website • See the report
A new Institute for Policy Studies report released on November 27 examines CEOs of public companies who have endorsed the “Fix the Debt” campaign. It finds that these CEOs, while calling for ordinary Americans to take cuts in Social Security and Medicare, are sitting on an average of $9 million each in retirement funds. Most are also running large deficits in their own employees’ pension funds.

“These CEOs paint a stark picture of hypocrisy,” said Scott Klinger, a report co-author. “They are feathering their own retirement nests while trying to deny ordinary Americans — including their own employees — their hard-earned nest eggs. They’re simply taking advantage of the so-called ‘fiscal cliff’ to push the same old agenda of more corporate tax breaks while shifting costs onto the poor and elderly.”
November 26, 2012

Fortune features report “A Pension Deficit Disorder: The Massive CEO Retirement Funds and Underfunded Worker Pensions at Firms Pushing Social Security Cuts”
Visit the publisher's website • See the report
What should boards pay CEOs for anyway? A new study raises questions about the structure and size of CEO pay that deserve answers -- and fast.

An analysis from the Institute for Policy Studies' (IPS) released earlier this month shows that CEOs will reap huge personal moolah if a fiscal cliff campaign some of them are undertaking is successful. According to the report, the Fix the Debt campaign "has raised $60 million and recruited more than 80 CEOs."

. . . Certainly, putting people to work just because is not on many company agendas. The IPS study states that the "63 public companies in the Fix the Debt campaign" currently have more than "$480 billion in cash on their balance sheets, enough to pay living wage salaries for 10 million workers."
November 26, 2012

Fortune features report “The CEO Campaign to ‘Fix’ the Debt: A Trojan Horse for Massive Corporate Tax Breaks”
Visit the publisher's website • See the report
"An analysis from the Institute for Policy Studies' (IPS) released earlier this month shows that CEOs will reap huge personal moolah if a fiscal cliff campaign some of them are undertaking is successful. According to the report, the Fix the Debt campaign 'has raised $60 million and recruited more than 80 CEOs.'"
November 26, 2012

Bernie Sanders Senate Page features report “The CEO Campaign to ‘Fix’ the Debt: A Trojan Horse for Massive Corporate Tax Breaks”
Visit the publisher's website • See the report
[Reprint from Huffington Post]

The corporate CEOs who have made a high-profile foray into deficit negotiations have themselves been substantially responsible for the size of the deficit they now want closed.

. . . As part of their push, they are advocating a "territorial tax system" that would exempt their companies' foreign profits from taxation, netting them about $134 billion in tax savings, according to a new report from the Institute for Policy Studies titled "The CEO Campaign to ‘Fix’ the Debt: A Trojan Horse for Massive Corporate Tax Breaks" -- money that could help pay off the federal budget deficit.

Yet the CEOs are not offering to forgo federal money or pay a higher tax rate, on their personal income or corporate profits. Instead, council recommendations include cutting "entitlement" programs, as well as what they call "low-priority spending."

Many of the companies recommending austerity would be out of business without the heavy federal support they get, including Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase, which both received billions in direct bailout cash, plus billions more indirectly through AIG and other companies taxpayers rescued.

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IPS'er Kevin Shih takes to the street to advocate for a financial speculation tax. In many countries around the world, there is growing momentum behind proposals to place a very small tax on transactions of stock, currency, derivatives, and other financial assets. Such financial speculation taxes are one of the few available options that could generate the enormous financial resources required to pay for the continuing costs of the global financial and economic crisis, including reducing the high rate of job loss, and to achieve key development, health, education and climate change objectives in developing countries. Even at very low rates, such taxes could also discourage the type of short-term financial speculation that has little social value but poses high risks to the economy.

Learn More:

Blog
Conservative Candidate Supports Wall Street Speculation Tax
April 5, 2012 - The right-wing in France seeks popular support by getting behind a transactions tax on securities trades. By Sarah Anderson

Magazine Article
Nurses Fight for a Dose of Tax Justice
February 23, 2012 - Before there was Occupy, thousands of nurses were already taking on Wall Street to demand a financial transaction tax. By Sarah Anderson

Interview
[VIDEO] Why a Financial Transaction Tax?
January 11, 2012 - A 0.25% tax on financial transactions could raise $150 billion a year in the United States alone. By Sarah Anderson

Commentary
VIDEO: Why a Financial Transaction Tax?
December 4, 2011 - In an interview on The Real News, Sarah Anderson discusses how a tax on financial transactions could raise $150 billion a year in the US alone. By Sarah Anderson.

Commentary
Europe Taking Lead on Speculations Tax
June 30, 2011 - Out of the ashes of the 2008 financial crisis, an idea that progressives have been kicking around for decades – a financial transactions tax (FTT) – took on new life. By Sarah Anderson.

Blog
U.S. Nurses Bring Global Call to Tax Speculators to Wall Street
June 22, 2011 · National Nurses United stands with activists across the globe to bring attention to the need for a financial speculation tax. By Sarah Anderson and Marlee Blasenheim.

Magazine Article
Cut Wall Street Down to Size With a Financial Speculation Tax
June 9, 2011 · A financial speculation tax might not have stopped those greed-crazed fools, but at least Uncle Sam would've taken in about $1.1 billion on the deals. By Sarah Anderson, originally published in The Nation.

Blog
Nurses Join Call to "Tax Wall Street"
June 7, 2011 - A swarm of around a thousand nurses in scarlet scrubs descended on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in downtown Washington to call for a new economic agenda.By Sarah Anderson.

Talking Points
Seven Innovative Mechanisms of Development Finance
April 18, 2011 - As governments look for new options for public revenue stream, this table by IPS Global Economy project director Sarah Anderson shows which options can be considered, their potential revenue, and their administrative and political feasibility.By Sarah Anderson.

Talking Points
Financial Transaction Taxes and the Global South
April 8, 2011 - This downloadable pdf fact sheet answers frequently asked questions about the implications for the developing world of taxing financial speculation. By Sarah Anderson.

Blog
Europe Takes the Lead in Drive to Tax Speculators
March 10, 2011 - There are still places in the world where folks from across the political spectrum can have a rational discussion about fair taxation. By Sarah Anderson.

Article / Declaration
U.S. Groups Join Global Call to Tax Speculators
February 16, 2011 - Over 30 national organizations signed a letter urging President Obama to take action at home and abroad to stop rampant financial speculation.

Article / Op-Ed
Taxing Financial Speculation, Raising Funds for Critical Needs
February 14, 2011 - Levying a tiny tax on financial transactions could help build a healthier and more stable future. By Paul R. Epstein and Janet Redman, published in The Huffington Post.

Report / Report
Taxing the Wall Street Casino
June 17, 2010 - In the United States and many countries around the world, there is growing momentum behind proposals to place a very small tax on trades of stock, currency, derivatives, and other financial assets. By Sarah Anderson, Chuck Collins, Scott Klinger, Janet Redman, Kevin Shih.

Media / Quote
The Growing Push to Impose a Transaction Tax - NYTimes.com
Jun 17, 2010 - The Institute for Policy Studies, a left-leaning think tank, issued a report on Thursday promoting the benefits of such a tax.

Video / Interview
May 17, 2010 - IPS video on global day of action on financial speculation taxes:

Petition
Wealth for the Common Good petition for a financial speculation tax

Article / Column
Fighting Finance from Below
November 22, 2010 - Since the crash of 2008, writes guest columnist Sarah Anderson, global justice activists have begun to make progress in reining in the excesses of the financial industry. By Sarah Anderson

Article / Commentary
Unpopular Sarkozy Gets it Right on Financial Transactions Taxes in the G-20
November 4, 2010 - The French President is standing tough in his push to increase taxes on the financial sector. By Sarah Anderson

Article / Declaration
G-20: Take Action on Financial Transaction Taxes
October 27, 2010 - International civil society organizations urge G-20 leaders to make progress on taxing financial speculation at summit in Seoul. By Sarah Anderson, et al

Article / Op-Ed
It's Time We Taxed Financial Gambling
June 21, 2010 - A tiny tax would make purely speculative investment less profitable and encourage long-term, patient investment. By Sarah Anderson

Article / Op-Ed
Proving That Tea Partiers' Anti-Tax Extremism Isn't Even Loved by All Conservatives
June 18, 2010 - Taxing speculation could take us a long way toward reining in Wall Street. By Sarah Anderson

Article / Media Advisory
Taxing the Wall Street Casino
June 17, 2010 - Report looks at how speculation taxes might have changed the outcome of recent global financial fiascos By Sarah Anderson

Blog / Blog
Tax Wall Street to Pay for Jobs
June 17, 2010 - The Senate should be looking for ways to jumpstart the economy -- but not at the expense of those who suffered the most from the crisis. By Sarah Anderson and Kevin Shih

Article / Commentary
Reining in Wall Street: Round 1
May 27, 2010 - A May 17 rally in Washington, DC brought more than a thousand people into the streets, calling for a "financial speculation tax" as part of a broader financial reform agenda. By Sarah Anderson

Blog / Blog
Global Activists Coordinate Actions to Tax Speculators
May 20, 2010 - From Australia to Canada, activists are taking to the streets in cities around the world this week to hold the financial sector accountable for the costs of the global crisis. By Sarah Anderson

Article / Commentary
The Unfinished Business of Financial Reform
May 6, 2010 - Lawmakers will need to consider financial speculation taxes in the next round of the fight to rein in Wall Street. By Sarah Anderson

Global Economy

Executive Excess 2012: The CEO Hands in Uncle Sam's Pocket

Recent Work

The Washington Post features report “A Pension Deficit Disorder: The Massive CEO Retirement Funds and Underfunded Worker Pensions at Firms Pushing Social Security Cuts”

CNN features report “The CEO Campaign to ‘Fix’ the Debt: A Trojan Horse for Massive Corporate Tax Breaks”

CNN Money features report “A Pension Deficit Disorder: The Massive CEO Retirement Funds and Underfunded Worker Pensions at Firms Pushing Social Security Cuts”

Think Progress features report “A Pension Deficit Disorder: The Massive CEO Retirement Funds and Underfunded Worker Pensions at Firms Pushing Social Security Cuts”

The Huffington Post features report “The CEO Campaign to ‘Fix’ the Debt: A Trojan Horse for Massive Corporate Tax Breaks”

Mother Jones features report “A Pension Deficit Disorder: The Massive CEO Retirement Funds and Underfunded Worker Pensions at Firms Pushing Social Security Cuts”

The (San Francisco) Beyond Chron features report “A Pension Deficit Disorder: The Massive CEO Retirement Funds and Underfunded Worker Pensions at Firms Pushing Social Security Cuts”

Fortune features report “A Pension Deficit Disorder: The Massive CEO Retirement Funds and Underfunded Worker Pensions at Firms Pushing Social Security Cuts”

Fortune features report “The CEO Campaign to ‘Fix’ the Debt: A Trojan Horse for Massive Corporate Tax Breaks”

Bernie Sanders Senate Page features report “The CEO Campaign to ‘Fix’ the Debt: A Trojan Horse for Massive Corporate Tax Breaks”

Project Staff

Associate Fellows

Executive Excess 2011: The Massive CEO Rewards for Tax Dodging

Trade Agreements and Financial Crisis