A Veteran Journalist & A Consumer Advocate Ask: Where's Our Money? WheresOurMoney.org Promises to Find Out

Wall Street Soars While Main Street's Broke

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 20 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- One year after the collapse of the financial system, most Americans are struggling to stay afloat while Wall Street and the Money Industry are luxuriating in a taxpayer-financed "recovery." The same insiders who caused the crisis - or looked the other way - are telling us everything is going to get better. For government officials and Wall Street, the millions out of work or in foreclosure are just "a lagging indicator."

Two administrations have committed trillions of taxpayer dollars to save the banks, credit card companies, and hedge funds, not to mention their richly paid executives, but where did all the money go? Little has trickled down to consumers or small businesses. Did the public get any kind of "quid pro quo" for rescuing the financial sector? What about the "reforms" Americans were promised - to prevent another collapse and rebuild an economy based on productivity, not gambling?

A veteran journalist and a long-time consumer advocate are joining together to ask the questions no one else is asking - and to get the answers. "WheresOurMoney.Org" is produced by a veteran journalist, Martin Berg, and a long-time consumer advocate, Harvey Rosenfield.

Here's some of what you'll find on WheresOurMoney.org right now:

-- No one seems to know, and the government refuses to say, how much the bailout will cost or where the money went. Could we have had a different kind of bailout, one that put homeowners and consumers first? http://www.wheresourmoney.org/archive/?m=200910 -- Why this year's credit card "reform" doesn't really protect consumers against the industry's worst abuses. http://www.wheresourmoney.org/archive/?p=97 -- On the same day, the President talked tough about Wall Street and a rude rapper. But he was rougher on the rapper than he was on the bankers. http://www.wheresourmoney.org/archive/?p=89 -- "Make me do it?" What we can learn from the real story behind FDR's meeting with legendary civil rights leader A. Philip Randolph. http://www.wheresourmoney.org/archive/?p=66 -- Imagine that you could decide how much taxes you should pay. That's how bankers determine how much they are paid. America can no longer afford the kind of prosperity the Money Industry is peddling. http://www.wheresourmoney.org/archive/?p=82

-- The SEC is supposed to be getting tough on Wall Street excesses. But in the agency's deal with Bank of America, a federal judge questions whether regulators got the message from the financial meltdown. http://www.wheresourmoney.org/archive/?p=8

At "Where's Our Money?" you'll find sharp analyses and commentary that cut across partisan lines, as well as original reporting, ideas and inspiration for action.

"Where's Our Money?" poses the tough questions that the politicians and regulators and too much of the business press should have been asking but have avoided.

At "WheresOurMoney.org," the guiding principle is that America's economy is too important to be left to the financiers, politicians and regulators. Democracy doesn't end at the ballot box; it has to operate inside the institutions that affect our family, community and country. We need to arm ourselves with knowledge: about how our financial system really works and how the levers of power operate, to inform our actions as we retake control of the decisions that shape our lives.

WHO'S BEHIND WHERE'S OUR MONEY?

Martin Berg - The editor of "Where's Our Money" is a veteran journalist, most recently columnist and editor for the Daily Journal in California, the largest newspaper for lawyers and judges in the country.

Harvey Rosenfield - The Consumer Education Foundation's executive director has been fighting to protect consumers and taxpayers against rip-offs and abuse for thirty years. He's the author of Proposition 103, the landmark insurance reform initiative, which has saved Californians more than $63 billion in insurance premiums.

Consumer Education Foundation "Where's Our Money?" is a project of the CEF, a non-partisan, California-based non-profit that supports policy research, public education and advocacy.

For more information on "Where's Our Money," email Martin Berg at m.berg [at] wheresourmoney.org or Harvey Rosenfield at h.rosenfield [at] wheresourmoney.org.

SOURCE Consumer Education Foundation