Tag: Walker Bragman

A Potential COVID Game-Changer

Mary Pat Campbell

Link:https://www.dailyposter.com/a-potential-covid-game-changer/

Excerpt:

Progressive lawmakers are calling on President Joe Biden to take advantage of the fact that the U.S. Army’s new pan-coronavirus vaccine recipe is not restricted by intellectual property restrictions and share the information with the world.

According to the Army, early research shows that the Spike Ferritin Nanoparticle (SpFn) vaccine, developed by scientists at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, can “provide broad protection” against COVID-19 and future variants. The SpFn vaccine must still undergo Phase 2 and 3 of human trials, but if it proves successful, distributing the new vaccine around the globe could be a game-changer in the fight against the COVID pandemic.

Author(s): WALKER BRAGMAN, ANDREW PEREZ

Publication Date: 1 Feb 2022

Publication Site: Daily Poster

The End of Joe Biden’s Student Debt Prison May Be in Sight

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://jacobinmag.com/2021/04/biden-student-debt-loan-forgiveness-bankruptcy

Excerpt:

Bankruptcy courts have not been friendly to student borrowers. That’s at least partly attributable to Biden. In 2005, “the senator from MBNA,” so named for his close relationship with the credit card company that was also his largest donor, was one of eighteen Senate Democrats who backed a successful Republican-led bankruptcy reform bill that stripped private student loans of bankruptcy protection amid an explosion of private loan debt.

“He is a zealous advocate on behalf of one of his biggest contributors — the financial services industry,” Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) said of Biden at the time.

For his part, Biden argued the law was necessary to prevent abuse of the system by borrowers who could afford to repay some of their debt. He and other supporters of the bankruptcy bill claimed the legislation would enable private lenders to lower costs for people seeking credit. But both arguments were ultimately proven wrong — abuse was minimal, and interest rates in general did not go down. Instead, the law resulted in a system that leaves borrowers with few options for relief.

Author(s): Walker Bragman

Publication Date: 8 April 2021

Publication Site: Jacobin Magazine

Restoring Financial Regulators’ Right to Fight Climate Change

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://earther.gizmodo.com/restoring-financial-regulators-right-to-fight-climate-c-1846476253

Excerpt:

Already, over the past few weeks, Biden’s Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that it will update its guidelines on how climate risks should be disclosed to investors, and launched a task force to focus on climate-related compliance and misconduct. The SEC has also refused to help ExxonMobil block a shareholder vote on a climate-change resolution. (Although the commission did just let the company reject a shareholder proposal to force the operation to disclose what it plans to do with its untapped fossil fuel assets.)

This week, the Securities and Exchange Commission sided with ExxonMobil in rejecting a shareholder proposal to require the company to report how it plans to deal with “stranded assets” — untapped fossil fuels that the company is counting as assets but may never be drilled, meaning they will turn into liabilities.

Author(s): Dharna Noor, Walker Bragman

Publication Date: 15 March 2021

Publication Site: Gizmodo