Finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of 20 countries are gathering for meetings in Britain. HA-JOON CHANG In the U.S. until Sunday, Chang will then be in the UK where he is Cambridge University economics professor. He is author of Bad Samaritans — The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of…

The cartoonist Tom Toles makes the point that a main difference between Bernard Madoff and other Wall Street “charlatans” is that he’s admitting guilt. CHUCK COLLINS Collins, senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies, is co-author of “Paying For a Strong Economy: Seven New Revenue Sources That Can Revitalize America and Reduce Financial Speculation.”…

Amb. Chas Freeman, who Tuesday said that he no longer accepts an offer to chair the National Intelligence Council, has released a statement reading in part: “The tactics of the Israel Lobby plumb the depths of dishonor and indecency and include character assassination, selective misquotation, the willful distortion of the record, the fabrication of falsehoods,…

RUSSELL MOKHIBER America’s Health Insurance Plans, the main Washington lobbying group for the health insurance corporations, is holding its annual meeting Wednesday at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in downtown Washington. Editor of Corporate Crime Reporter, Mokhiber organized a protest Wednesday outside the meeting. He recently wrote the piece “March 11: Burn Your Health Insurance Bill Day”…

RICHARD WOLFF Professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Wolff is featured in a new film produced by the Media Education Foundation, “Capitalism Hits the Fan.” He said today: “We need to see this crisis historically to get a sense of how serious this is. In every decade from 1820 to 1970,…

AP reports: “Senate Democrats on Wednesday suggested Republicans should join their call for a nonpartisan ‘truth commission’ to probe whether the Bush administration abused its power, or face partisan congressional investigations.” ROBERTO RODRIGUEZ Rodriguez just wrote the piece “A Call for Truth, Reconciliation and Justice Post-Bush.” The author of several books and a research associate…

ROBERT WEISSMAN HARVEY ROSENFIELD Weissman, director of Essential Information, is lead author of a 231-page report, “Sold Out: How Wall Street and Washington Betrayed America,” released today. He said today: “The financial sector invested more than $5 billion in political influence-purchasing in Washington over the past decade, with as many as 3,000 lobbyists winning deregulation…

RUSSELL MOKHIBER Editor of Corporate Crime Reporter, Mokhiber just wrote the piece “Obama to Single Payer Advocates: Drop Dead,” which states: “President Obama’s White House made crystal clear this week: a Canadian-style, Medicare-for-all, single payer health insurance system is off the table. Obama doesn’t even want to discuss it. “Take the case of Congressman John…

GAR ALPEROVITZ Available for a limited number of interviews, Alperovitz is co-author of the new book Unjust Desserts: How the Rich Are Taking Our Common Inheritance and Why We Should Take It Back. He said today: “The Obama effort is positive, but it needs to be put in larger perspective to understand its limitations: The…

ELLEN SHAFFER Shaffer is co-director of the Center for Policy Analysis, focusing on health policy. She said today: “Obama said his plan will be only a ‘downpayment on what we must have: quality affordable health care for every American.’ He stuck with the program for cost control he campaigned on: large investments in preventive care…