Bloomberg reporters accused of spying on Goldman Sachs traders | The Raw Story

Financial services news group restricts access to client information from terminals after complaint from Goldman

Financial services news group Bloomberg was facing questions on Friday about how reporters used information about clients gleaned from its widely-used terminals.

The New York Post reported that journalists at Bloomberg had been caught using the financial news service’s $20,000-a-year terminals to “spy” on Goldman Sachs bankers.

Bloomberg said it had blocked journalists’ access to client data within 24 hours of receiving a complaint from Goldman.

The concerns raised by Goldman could be a major headache for Bloomberg, which makes most of its money from renting the terminals to traders. IT NOW faces complaints from other Wall Street banks that believe they too were spied upon by reporters in a breach of confidentiality.

The Post said that a Bloomberg reporter asked a Goldman executive if a partner was still with the firm, saying that he had not logged into his terminal for some time.

Sources at JP Morgan told the Guardian they believe the news organisation may have used information they believed was confidential while pursuing stories about Bruno Iksil, the London trader blamed for massive losses at the bank last year.

More than 300,000 of the world’s most influential people in finance including top bankers, treasury officials and hedge fund managers have access to a Bloomberg terminal. Almost all users are identified by name and their terminals are often highly tailored to give them access to the financial information they need. Access to the types of information those users are looking up would give a reporter invaluable insight.

“Limited customer relationship d

Bloomberg reporters accused of spying on Goldman Sachs traders | The Raw Story

Thanks to many loopholes in our tax code–the carried interest loophole being the most important–the richest people in American are likely paying a lower tax rate than you are. From Businessweek:

For the 400 U.S. taxpayers with the highest adjusted gross income, the effective federal income tax rate—what they actually pay—fell from almost 30 percent in 1995 to just under 17 percent in 2007, according to the IRS. And for the approximately 1.4 million people who make up the top 1 percent of taxpayers, the effective federal income tax rate dropped from 29 percent to 23 percent in 2008. It may seem too fantastic to be true, but the top 400 end up paying a lower rate than the next 1,399,600 or so.
That’s not just good luck. It’s often the result of hard work, as suggested by some of the strategies in the following pages. Much of the top 400′s income is from dividends and capital gains, generated by everything from appreciated real estate—yes, there is some left—to stocks and the sale of family businesses. As Warren Buffett likes to point out, since most of his income is from dividends, his tax rate is less than that of the people who clean his office.

Tax Day Reminder: Richest Americans Probably Pay at a Lower Rate than You Do

Koch Brothers' Conservative Propaganda Machine - Front Groups

With the Koch brothers money and Ruppert Murdoch's propaganda machine ( fox news and the religious right ) liberals and the constitution don't stand a chance.
Get ready for a theocratic USA.

The Real Tea Party Knows Nothing