How did Wall Street get away with crashing the U.S. economy?  Its inner circle spoke a “language” only one percent of the public could understand. Now, a new booklet explains its jargon to the rest of the country.

“Economics for the 99%” serves as an economic translation dictionary, clarifying Wall Street’s “bankspeak,” explaining the  role of the Federal Reserve, as well as the so-called austerity war. 

Massachusetts Voters Beware. Millionaire candidate Sen. Scott Brown portrays himself as an “average guy in a pickup” when in reality he’s a big backer of Wall Street, not Main Street.

“Scott Brown: Wall Street’s Favorite Senator,” a new website launched by the Massachusetts AFL-CIO, highlights Brown’s two-year anti-worker voting record in the Senate.

A group of 50 financial professionals—investors, traders, academics and banking executives—urged G-20 and European leaders to back small financial transaction taxes (FTTs) on financial industry speculation.    

In a letter to world leaders, the group notes that FTTs “have a proven track record” and would help rebalance financial markets away from “a short-term trading mentality that has contributed to instability in our financial markets.” It also says FTTs have the potential to raise significant revenue.

Check it out: ABC News has a nice take on our just-released data on CEO pay.

Click here to take a look at the slide show of CEO images and their pay--an America's Most Wanted lineup from Wall Street to Silicon Valley.

Moments ago, we launched the 2012 AFL-CIO Executive PayWatch site—now called CEO Pay and the 99%—which includes the most comprehensive data accessible on 2011 executive pay. All of the data available is searchable by industry, by state and by the top 100 highest-paid CEOs.

Ignoring warnings from current and former financial market regulators, law professors, institutional investors and consumer advocates, the Senate today passed (73-26) the cynically named JOBS Act and, says AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, “We are disappointed and angry.”

On the very day that Goldman Sachs executive Greg Smith announced his resignation in revulsion over how the firm is callously “ripping their clients off," Phil Angelides, chair of the nation’s Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, expressed his continuing disgust with how Wall Street has become “a casino floor as big as New York, New York,” after wiping away $9 trillion of household wealth “like a day trade gone bad.”

Speaking at a Responsible Investment Forum of investors, pension fund managers and union and community leaders, convened in Los Angeles by Heartland Capital Strategies, Angelides assailed the financial system centered on Wall Street for “becoming a conduit for speculation rather than productive investment.”

This is a cross-post from the Metropolitan Washington (D.C.) Central Labor Council Council.

Holiday carolers serenaded Verizon board member Rodney Slater yesterday with new words to an old favorite:

Wall Street and Big Banks around the world are fighting efforts to impose a Robin Hood tax on their financial speculations. CEOs are portraying the tax—which would be around 0.5 percent on financial transactions—as if they would be robbed blind.

When Big Banks nickel and dime you with fees on just about everything from checking accounts to ATMs to debit cards, they turn those nickels and dimes into billions of profits.