Trump’s Vaccine Chief Has Vast Ties to Drug Industry, Posing Possible Conflicts - The New York Times
▻https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/20/health/coronavirus-vaccine-czar.html
Moncef Slaoui, a former pharmaceutical executive, is now overseeing the U.S. initiative to develop #coronavirus treatments and vaccines. His financial interests and corporate roles have come under scrutiny.
#conflit_d’intérêt #vaccins #vaccin #vaccination #pharma #porte_tournante
Joint Chiefs Chair Retires, Immediately Becomes Paid #F-35 Cheerleader | The American Conservative
▻https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/joint-chiefs-chair-retires-immediately-becomes-paid-f-35-ch
Dunford defended the troubled plane and was rewarded with a #Lockheed position within months of leaving the Pentagon.
Les décennies se suivent et se ressemblent,
Former top U.S. general Dunford joining Lockheed Martin’s board | Article [AMP] | Reuters
▻https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-lockheed-dunford-idUSKBN1ZN2L8
The Revolving Door Between Government and Cable News – Reason.com
▻https://reason.com/2019/08/26/the-revolving-door-between-government-and-cable-news
The flow of faces and names between government and “news” media has turned what was supposed to be a watchdog over the destructive power of the state into little more than a forum for political marketing and an extended battleground for factional fighting.
[...]
Their big disagreement is over who should be in charge, not what they should be in charge of.
#MSM #porte_tournante #pseudo_journalisme #pseudo_cinquième_pouvoir #pseudo_démocratie
The Revolving Door Indicator: Estimating the distortionary power of the revolving door
▻https://www.u4.no/publications/the-revolving-door-indicator-estimating-the-distortionary-power-of-the-revolving-
#E.P.A. Plans to Get Thousands of #Pollution Deaths Off the Books by Changing Its Math - The New York Times
▻https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/20/climate/epa-air-pollution-deaths.html
The Obama administration had sought to reduce planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Power Plan by pushing utilities to switch away from coal and instead use natural gas or renewable energy to generate electricity. The Obama plan would also have what is known as a co-benefit: levels of fine particulate matter would fall.
The Trump administration has moved to repeal the Obama-era plan and replace it with the Affordable Clean Energy rule, which would slightly improve the efficiency of coal plants. It would also allow older coal plants to remain in operation longer and result in an increase of particulate matter.
#microparticules #santé_publique #intérêts_privés #états-unis #porte_tournante #
Nikki Haley joins Boeing board | TheHill
▻https://thehill.com/policy/transportation/aviation/441705-nikki-haley-joins-boeing-board
#porte_tournante #guerres ’#élite’ #collusion #intérêts_privés
#Boeing names ex-US envoy Nikki Haley to board of directors
▻https://thedefensepost.com/2019/02/26/boeing-names-nikki-haley-board
Boeing on Tuesday, February 26 named Nikki Haley, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, to its board of directors.
Haley, who left the United Nations post and President Donald Trump’s administration at the end of 2018, previously served as governor of South Carolina, a southern state where Boeing has a significant manufacturing campus.
She praised Boeing as “a cutting edge industry leader” that “also understands the importance of teamwork and building community through its network of suppliers in all 50 states and around the world,” according to a statement released by the company.
Quand même #the_economist le dit,
Regulators across the West are in need of a shake-up - The regulators
▻https://www.economist.com/special-report/2018/11/15/regulators-across-the-west-are-in-need-of-a-shake-up
In America things have slipped so badly that a material conflict of interest is not considered a disqualifying condition, or even a relevant consideration, for someone to pronounce on antitrust policy and be taken seriously.
#conflit_d'intérêt #porte_tournante #concentration #états-unis #occident #démocraties “#élites” #corruption
« Jamais auparavant un groupe de personnes aussi réduit n’était devenu aussi riche en infligeant autant de dégâts »
▻https://fr.express.live/2018/11/19/jamais-auparavant-un-groupe-de-personnes-aussi-reduit-netait-devenu-aus
Le magazine énumère une série d’exemples qui pour nous convaincre que le #capitalisme est devenu un modèle oligopolistique. Un terme compliqué qui signifie que certains produits et/ou services ne sont proposés que par quelques grands fournisseurs :
Depuis 1997, la concentration du marché a augmenté pour atteindre les deux tiers dans l’industrie américaine.
Un dixième de l’économie est caractérisé par des secteurs dans lesquels quatre entreprises occupent plus des deux tiers du marché.
Dans une économie en bonne santé, la concurrence réduit les bénéfices, mais le cash-flow libre (bénéfice net après déduction des coûts et des investissements) des entreprises est aujourd’hui supérieur de 76 % à la moyenne des 50 dernières années.
En Europe, la même tendance est observée, bien que de manière moins extrême. La part de marché des quatre plus grandes entreprises de chaque secteur a augmenté de 3 % depuis 2000.
Aux États-Unis et en Europe, il est de plus en plus difficile de détrôner le leader du marché. Cela est particulièrement vrai dans les secteurs où il n’ya pratiquement pas de concurrence (songez à Facebook et Google). Le magazine estime à 660 milliards de dollars le montant mondial des « profits anormaux », dont les deux tiers sont réalisés aux États-Unis, et un tiers dans des entreprises de technologie.
La privatisation de postes clefs de la République
▻https://www.mediapart.fr/journal/france/231117/la-privatisation-de-postes-clefs-de-la-republique
L’accession d’Éric Lombard à la tête de la Caisse des dépôts, après celle de #François_Villeroy_de_Galhau à la Banque de #France ou de Catherine Guillouard à la #RATP, en dit long sur l’évolution de la haute fonction publique. Désormais, il faut avoir fait carrière dans la finance pour décrocher les postes prestigieux dans les sommets de l’État. L’oligarchie du privé prend la place de la noblesse d’État.
#Economie #Banque_de_France #Caisse_des_dépôts_et_consignations #Eric_Lombard
A rajouter à la compilation d’articles sur les #Conflit_d'Intérêt #collusion #connivence #corruption et #pantouflage :
►https://seenthis.net/messages/599891
Et dans cette grande mutation, on a donc assisté à un phénomène nouveau : après les pantouflages (les départs du public vers le privé), une nouvelle mode, très récente, est survenue, celle des rétro-pantouflages (des passages ou des retours du privé vers le public).
[...] Le code pénal encadre les pantouflages, en interdisant qu’un haut fonctionnaire ayant usé de l’autorité publique sur une entreprise privée soit embauché par elle sous trois ans. Certes, la loi a été, ces dernières années, très malmenée. Depuis que François Pérol, ancien secrétaire général adjoint de l’Élysée sous Nicolas Sarkozy, a été acquitté par la cour d’appel de Paris malgré son passage à la présidence de BPCE, on ne voit pas bien quel haut fonctionnaire pourrait se faire condamner pour prise illégale d’intérêt. Et dans cette affaire, emblématique entre toutes, qui a ébranlé la commission de déontologie de la fonction publique, c’est tout le code éthique de cette même fonction publique qui a volé en éclats. Mais au moins la loi existe, même si c’est de manière largement virtuelle.
Mais la loi n’encadre en aucune façon les rétro-pantouflages, et les problèmes d’éventuels conflits d’intérêts qu’ils peuvent soulever. Il y a de ce point de vue un vide juridique – comblé, mais seulement en partie, depuis que la Haute autorité pour la transparence de la vie publie a vu le jour dans le prolongement du scandale Cahuzac ; un vide pour le moins préoccupant puisque les rétro-pantouflages sont de plus en plus fréquents.
Pour la petite histoire, c’est d’ailleurs la raison pour laquelle l’annonce du nom d’Éric Lombard pour le poste de la Caisse a tellement tardé. C’est que, lorsque Emmanuel Macron a envisagé cette solution, un problème potentiel de conflit d’intérêts a été découvert. L’actuel président de la commission de surveillance de la Caisse des dépôts, le député (LREM) Gilles Legendre, a en effet confirmé dans un communiqué qu’il avait été le conseil en communication de Generali France pendant dix ans, entre mai 2007 et juin 2017, société dont Éric Lombard a été le directeur général puis président-directeur général d’octobre 2013 à mai 2017. Alors, Gilles Legendre peut-il présider une commission chargée de « surveiller » la CDC et son directeur général, alors qu’il a été dans le passé rémunéré par ce dernier ? On conviendra que la question pose problème.
alors #pantouflage, #rétro-pantouflage et dix de der...
Conflicts of Interest for Patient-Advocacy Organizations
▻http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMsr1610625
#Conflits_d'intérêts préoccupants chez la très grande majorité des groupes de défense des patients
▻http://www.psychomedia.qc.ca/sante/2017-03-02/groupes-de-defense-des-patients-conflits-d-interets
Plus de 80 % des groupes de défense des patients acceptent des financements des compagnies pharmaceutiques et des fabricants de dispositifs médicaux, selon une étude publiée dans le New England Journal of Medicine, relayée par le New York Times.
Pour certains groupes, les dons de l’industrie représentent plus de la moitié de leurs revenus annuels. Dans près de 40 % des cas, des représentants de l’industrie siègent au conseil d’administration.
#José_Manuel_Barroso cède à son tour aux sirènes de #Goldman_Sachs
▻https://www.mediapart.fr/journal/international/080716/jose-manuel-barroso-cede-son-tour-aux-sirenes-de-goldman-sachs
Le géant de la finance de Wall Street a annoncé vendredi qu’il embauchait José Manuel Barroso. Moins de deux ans après son départ de Bruxelles, l’ancien président de la commission va conseiller la banque sur l’après-Brexit. Un signal ravageur pour la crédibilité de l’UE.
#International #Brexit #CEO #Commission_européenne #Conflit_d'intérêts #europe #Jean-Claude_Juncker #Martin_Pigeon #Sven_Giegold
Un de plus, après #Mario_Draghi , #Mario_Monti , #Lucas_Papadémos ... et qui encore ?
Goldman Sachs, le trait d’union entre Mario Draghi, Mario Monti et Lucas Papadémos
Marc Roche, Le Monde, le 14 novembre 2011
►http://www.lemonde.fr/europe/article/2011/11/14/goldman-sachs-le-trait-d-union-entre-mario-draghi-mario-monti-et-lucas-papad
Il cède que dalle : il reçoit son paiement !
Je suppose que le duo Valls-Hollande, va avoir une très belle récompense !
Chez moi, on dit #corruption
Désolée : un gars passe des réglementations favorables au banques et une banque le salarie ensuite : de l’argent contre un service. L’avantage par rapport à la valoche, c’est qu’ils font ça tranquillement, à la vue de tous.
Les carrières des dirigeants syndicalistes félons, qui ont signé des accords contre les intérêts des salariés sont aussi éloquentes. Des places bien rémunérées (et pas trop fatigantes) chez les gars que leurs décisions ont délibérément favorisé… C’est assez limpide, non ?
Comme tu le signales toi-même : le gars qui brade un bien public en tant que fonctionnaire qui part ensuite émarger chez le type qui a été si délibérément favorisé… Je ne vois pas quel autre mot employer. Un avantage qui trahit la mission et la fonction et qui se traduit ensuite par une bonne petite rente de la part de l’avantagé !
Y a vraiment qu’un mot pour ça.
C’est le fait qu’il n’y a même plus besoin de passer les petites valoches sous la table qui interdit d’appeler les choses par leur nom ?
A mettre en perspective aussi avec :
Pourquoi la fermeté de Bruxelles contre l’Espagne et le Portugal est une erreur majeure
►https://seenthis.net/messages/507524
en se rappelant que Barroso est aussi ancien premier ministre portugais...
À quoi sert la conception institutionnelle de la corruption ?
▻http://www.erudit.org/revue/ateliers/2014/v9/n1/1024297ar.html
C’est la deuxième option qui est au coeur du projet de Lessig, pour lequel la conception institutionnelle doit nous permettre de prendre au sérieux l’émergence de modes de fonctionnements institutionnels « tout à fait légaux mais profondément corrompus » (Lessig, 2013b). Une institution peut être corrompue même si chacun de ses agents suit les règles prescrites par celle-ci. En fait, une institution est parfois corrompue précisément parce que les acteurs qui s’y rattachent suivent les règles et normes qu’elle prescrit.
Portant, pour José Manuel Barroso, ce n’est que la continuation logique de sa carrière professionnelle.
Secretive Alphabet division aims to fix public transit in US by shifting control to #Google | Technology | The Guardian
▻https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jun/27/google-flow-sidewalk-labs-columbus-ohio-parking-transit
Sidewalk Labs, a secretive subsidiary of Alphabet, wants to radically overhaul public parking and transportation in American cities, emails and documents obtained by the Guardian reveal.
Its high-tech services, which it calls “new superpowers to extend access and mobility”, could make it easier to drive and park in cities and create hybrid public/private transit options that rely heavily on ride-share services such as Uber. But they might also gut traditional bus services and require cities to invest heavily in Google’s own technologies, experts fear.
Qui Google a-t-il recruté dans l’administration française ?
▻http://www.numerama.com/politique/174844-qui-google-a-t-il-recrute-dans-ladministration-francaise.html
Depuis dix ans, Google a recruté 65 anciens fonctionnaires au sein de l’Union européenne, principalement pour s’occuper de lobbying. Qui sont les Français ? L’organisation américaine Campaign for Accountability a publié les résultats européens de son projet Google Transparency Project, qui vise à faire la lumière sur les liens que Google noue avec le pouvoir étatique, au point de faire des hauts fonctionnaires un vivier pour ses recrues de lobbying. La pratique est habituelle pour les grandes (...)
#Google and European governments have visited each other EIGHTY times in past decade | Daily Mail Online
▻http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3626126/The-revolving-door-Google-European-governments-spun-EIGHTY-times-past-d
At least 80 people are thought to have transferred in one direction or another between Google and European Union governments in the past decade.
Joanna Shields, a former Google managing director, was made a baroness and minister by David Cameron, while the Prime Minister also appointed Eric Schmidt, Google’s executive chairman, to his business advisory council.
Google has been at the centre of controversy over corporate tax arrangements while the European Commission has accused of abusing a dominant position in the market.
Via @dukdukgo sur twitter
#irresponsables #OGM #Etats-Unis #corruption #porte_tournante
A Physician Substantially Tied to the Pharmaceutical Industry Nominated to Run the #FDA
▻http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2015/09/a-physician-substantially-tied-to-the-pharmaceutical-industry-nomin
Les #MSM ne le signalent que pour mieux s’adonner au #damage_control.
#porte_tournante #conflit_d'intérêt #corruption_légale #pharma #santé
Study Warns of Diet #Supplement Dangers Kept Quiet by F.D.A. - NYTimes.com
▻http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/07/study-warns-of-diet-supplement-dangers-kept-quiet-by-f-d-a/?ref=health&_r=1
...public health experts contend that the F.D.A.’s reluctance to act in this case is symptomatic of a broader problem. The agency is not effectively policing the $33 billion-a-year supplements industry in part because top agency regulators themselves come from the industry and have conflicts of interest, they say. In recent years, two of the agency’s top officials overseeing supplements — including one currently on the job — were former leaders of the largest supplement industry trade and #lobbying group.
#conflit_d’intérêt #porte_tournante #FDA #pharma #désespérant #santé #BMPEA #Etats-Unis
’Revolving Door’ Between Fed and Banks Spins Faster
▻http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-01-30/fed-s-revolving-door-spins-faster-as-banks-boost-hiring
#porte_tournante #Etats-Unis #démocratie #corruption_légale #banksters
Blazing the terrorism trail: The US war industry | Middle East Eye
▻http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/blazing-terrorism-trail-us-war-industry-1853964350
The military industrial complex and the homeland security-industrial complex has created a revolving door of opportunity for government bureaucrats, military personnel, and elected officials. A recent study by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and the Brave New Foundation found that “70 percent of recently retired three and four star generals left the Pentagon for employment by major defence contractors.”
Today, it’s nearly impossible to tell where government ends and corporations begin. Politicians are paid by military and security corporations to sell new wars as new products. “These contractors are hired to help Washington determine the scale and scope of the terrorist threat; they make no money if they determine that the threat is overblown or, God forbid, if the war on terror ever comes to an end,” writes Risen. “Opportunities that would disappear if America was suddenly at peace. To most of America, war has become not only tolerable, but profitable, so there is no longer any great incentive to end it.”
Lobbyists, Bearing Gifts, Pursue Attorneys General - NYTimes.com
▻http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/29/us/lobbyists-bearing-gifts-pursue-attorneys-general.html
Attorneys general are now the object of aggressive pursuit by lobbyists and lawyers who use campaign contributions, personal appeals at lavish corporate-sponsored conferences and other means to push them to drop investigations, change policies, negotiate favorable settlements or pressure federal regulators, an investigation by The New York Times has found.
A robust industry of lobbyists and lawyers has blossomed as attorneys general have joined to conduct multistate investigations and pushed into areas as diverse as securities fraud and Internet crimes.
But unlike the #lobbying rules covering other elected officials, there are few revolving-door restrictions or disclosure requirements governing state attorneys general, who serve as “the people’s lawyers” by protecting consumers and individual citizens.
A result is that the routine lobbying and deal-making occur largely out of view. But the extent of the cause and effect is laid bare in The Times’s review of more than 6,000 emails obtained through open records laws in more than two dozen states, interviews with dozens of participants in cases and attendance at several conferences where corporate representatives had easy access to attorneys general.
(...)
It is a self-perpetuating network that includes a group of former attorneys general called SAGE, or the Society of Attorneys General Emeritus, most of whom are now on retainer to corporate clients.
#porte_tournante #corruption #justice #leadership #Etats-Unis
Are human rights activists today’s #warmongers ? - Opinion - The Boston Globe
By Stephen Kinzer | MAY 25, 2014
▻http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2014/05/24/are-human-rights-activists-today-warmongers/gef04rpPxgEdCEdx4DQ87J/story.html
ALMOST EVERYONE likes the idea of human rights. The phrase itself is freighted with goodness. Supporting human rights is like supporting world peace.
The modern human rights movement began as a band of outsiders, fighting governments on behalf of the faceless and voiceless. President Jimmy Carter brought it into the American foreign policy establishment by naming an outspoken assistant secretary of state for human rights. This meant that concern for the poor, the brutalized, and the imprisoned would be heard in the highest councils of government.
Now, several decades after the human rights movement traded its outsider status for influence in Washington, it is clear that this has produced negative as well as positive results. The movement has become a global behemoth. Sometimes it functions as a handmaiden to the power it was once dedicated to combating.
The most appalling result of this process in the United States is that some human rights activists now regularly call for using force to resolve the world’s problems. At one time, “human rights” implied opposition to war. Now some of the most outspoken warmongers in Washington are self-proclaimed human rights advocates.
(...)
This is a radical development in the history of the human rights movement. Once it was generals, defense contractors, and chest-thumping politicians who saw war as the best solution to global problems. Now human rights activists play that role. Some seem to have given up on diplomacy and statecraft. Instead they promote the steady militarization of American foreign policy.
These trigger-happy human rights activists rotate in and out of government jobs. This month more than 100 scholars, activists, and Nobel Peace Prize winners protested against this revolving door in an open letter to #Human_Rights_Watch, which, thanks to an astonishing $100 million gift from the financier George Soros, has become king of the human rights hill.
Their letter says that, although Human Rights Watch claims to defend and protect human rights, its ties to the American military and security establishments “call into question its independence.” It names prominent Human Rights Watch figures who have served in the State Department and #CIA; condemns the group for supporting “the illegal practice of kidnapping and transferring terrorism suspects around the planet”; and asserts that it produces biased reports exaggerating human rights abuses in countries the United States dislikes, like #Venezuela, while being gentler to American allies like #Honduras.
“#HRW ’s close relationships with the US government suffuse such instances with the appearance of a conflict of interest,” the letter says.
(...)
The world needs fearless truth-tellers. Some human rights advocates are. Others have succumbed to the temptations of power. Their movement is in danger of losing its way.
#droits_humains #va-t-en_guerre #porte_tournante #pouvoir #caution_morale
Human Rights Watch’s Revolving Door | Jacobin
▻https://www.jacobinmag.com/2014/06/human-rights-watchs-revolving-door
Let’s pretend that we want to start an organization to defend the rights of people across the globe that has no affiliation to any government or corporate interest. Which of the following characters should we therefore exclude from intimate roles in our organization’s operation? (You may choose more than one answer.)
1. An individual who presided over a NATO bombing, including various civilian targets.
2. An individual who was formerly a special assistant to President Bill Clinton, a speechwriter for Secretaries of State Warren Christopher and Madeleine Albright and a member of the State Department’s policy planning staff who in 2009 declared that, under “limited circumstances, there is a legitimate place” for the illegal CIA rendition program that has seen an untold number of innocent people kidnapped and tortured.
3. A former US Ambassador to Colombia, who later lobbied on behalf of Newmont Mining and J.P. Morgan — two US firms whose track records of environmental destruction would suggest that human wellbeing falls below elite profit on their list of priorities.
4. A former CIA analyst.
If you answered “all of the above,” you’re one step ahead of Human Rights Watch, which has played institutional host not only to persons matching descriptions A–D but to many others with similar backgrounds.
#Javier_Solana, for example, was NATO secretary general during the 1999 assault on Yugoslavia, an event HRW itself described as entailing “violations of international humanitarian law.” Solana is now on the group’s Board of Directors.
The revolving door between #Google and the Department of Defense
▻http://pando.com/2014/04/23/the-revolving-door-between-google-and-the-department-of-defense
Many of Google Federal’s top managers come from the biggest and baddest military and intel outfits: US Army, Air Force Intelligence, Central Intelligence Agency, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, Director of National Intelligence, USAID, SAIC, Lockheed… the list keeps going on and on.
Take Michele R. Weslander Quaid, Google’s Chief Technology Officer of Public Sector and “Innovation Evangelist.”
Chances are you’ve never heard of her. Neither had I. But Weslander Quaid took the top spot in Entrepreneur Magazine’s list of the seven most powerful women to watch in 2014.
The reason?
She helped bring the Google mindset to federal intelligence agencies.
(...)
The Washington Post recently exposed Google’s increasing role in DC’s influence-peddling machine — from partnering with Koch thinktanks to beefing up its rightwing lobby power.
▻https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/how-google-is-transforming-power-and-politicsgoogle-once-disdainful-of-lobbying-now-a-master-of-washington-influence/2014/04/12/51648b92-b4d3-11e3-8cb6-284052554d74_story.html
Staffing Google’s public-sector division with connected intel and military insiders is just another component of the this larger effort to grab the levers of power. How else can you expect Google to stave off anti-trust investigations and avoid paying for its massive privacy violations — all while expanding its business into the bottomless pit of federal government contracting?
Je découvre à cette occasion que Pando a son propre tag #silicon_army, eux ils disent #surveillance_valley…
▻https://pando.com/tag/surveillance-valley
… et ce sera même le titre d’un bouquin d’un de leurs journalistes, kickstarté, à paraître :
▻http://surveillancevalley.net
Here’s why Obama trade negotiators push the interests of Hollywood and drug companies
▻http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2013/11/26/heres-why-obama-trade-negotiators-push-the-interests-of-hollywood-an
Two major factors contribute to the USTR’s strong pro-rightsholder slant. An obvious one is the revolving door between USTR and private industry. Since the turn of the century, at least a dozen USTR officials have taken jobs with pharmaceutical companies, filmmakers, record labels, and technology companies that favor stronger patent and copyright protection.
A more subtle factor is the structure and culture of USTR itself. In its role as a promoter of global trade, USTR has always worked closely with U.S. exporters. That exporter-focused culture isn’t a problem when USTR is merely seeking to remove barriers to selling U.S. goods overseas, but it becomes problematic on issues like copyright and patent law where exporters’ interests may run directly counter to those of American consumers.
USTR’s enthusiasm for stronger copyright and patent protections could become a liability for the Obama administration’s broader trade agenda. Last year, grassroots copyright activists blocked the ratification of one trade agreement by the European Union over its copyright provisions. There’s a risk that a similar fate could befall the TPP.