I sincerely hope that all those who do the real work at Walmart and do their very best with their hourly check enjoy a day of peace and joy with their families. For the people who control Walmart, I hope you got lots of high-sulfur coal in your stocking. Jeff Hess: Have Coffee Will Write.

Remember last week when we mentioned how the two senators from Arkansas were leaning against supporting EFCA? Well one of them has even gone further to do what her masters pay for: In midst of recession, Sens. Kyl and Lincoln think ‘the most pressing issue’ is ‘America’s wealthiest families.’ Sens. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) and Blanche [...]

Well we all know about the Walton family dynasty. The one devoted to extracting the maximum it can from its retail empire and using very little of it for charity. What the Waltons do give is either for egotistical projects like a pet museum or for politically motivated astro-turf groups like the one that supports [...]

For quite awhile now I’ve been saying that the Walton family’s aim is to boost their income at the expense of everyone else: workers, suppliers, local governments, and, yes, even customers. So, while everyone else is feeling the pinch they give themselves another of their annual raises. Wal-Mart raises annual dividend 15% Walmart said Thursday [...]

…spaces four, five and six are taken up with the Wal-Mart dynasty who together control more than 39% of the grocery chain, which owns Asda in the UK. Jim Walton, the son of the supermarket giant’s pioneer Sam Walton, comes in fourth at $23.4bn; his elder brother and the company’s chairman, Robson Walton is in [...]

There is a movement in the US to allow shareholders to vote on pay packages for top executives. Not directly, mind you, but as an advisory vote to the board of directors. Several European countries have a system like this, and claim it keeps CEO salaries in check. First one has to get the firm [...]

David Sirota summarizes the story on DailyKos: Last week, U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) grilled White House budget director nominee Jim Nussle at Nussle’s Senate confirmation hearing. … Now, just today, the Associated Press reports that Sanders is using his filibuster power to block Nussle’s nomination, putting his entire confirmation in jeopardy. … he supports [...]

The historically-minded among you might consider reading this really interesting (but long) article from the New York Times and then asking yourself, what’s the rationale for those people who just inherit their money keeping so much of it?

From the blog Findlay on Governance Does Wal-Mart really have a board? … With four insiders (an unusually high number among major publicly traded companies, to say the least) and directors having met formally on only 4 occasions in 2006 (another 3 meetings were phoned in), Wal-Mart’s board appears to be little more than a [...]

There are a variety of discussions about the top 2/10% of the population on the blogs today. They are inspired by this piece in Rolling Stone (via alternet): Maybe We Deserve to Be Ripped Off By Bush’s Billionaires Naturally the Walton’s figure promiently in any such discussions as can be seen in this article as [...]

The USA is a wonderful place. You can start with nothing and become a billionaire. All you need to do is work hard and show some personal responsibility. Forbes has listed this years 400 richest people. Numbers one and two are Bill Gates and Warren Buffet. Both guys started from the ground up. Number 3 [...]

The New York Times has what looks like (it’s hard to tell on the computer) yet another front-pager on Wal-Mart. It’s about the Walton Family Foundation spreading its largesse to institutions whose members write lovesongs to Wal-Mart. Here’s an example: The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, for example, has received more than $100,000 [...]