Wealth-Inequality

PPP launches $800B COVID relief with minimal oversight; $200B+ fraud estimates

| Importance: 10/10

The Paycheck Protection Program launched with $800 billion in forgivable loans to support small businesses during COVID-19, but rushed implementation with minimal verification created “the biggest fraud in a generation.” SBA Inspector General estimates $200+ billion in fraudulent loans - …

Small Business Administration Treasury Department Congress fraud corruption systematic-corruption regulatory-failure wealth-inequality
Read more →

Operation Varsity Blues indicts 50 in largest college admissions fraud scheme

| Importance: 9/10

Federal prosecutors unveiled Operation Varsity Blues, the largest college admissions fraud case ever prosecuted, charging 50 people including wealthy parents and university coaches. Mastermind Rick Singer ran a $25 million bribery scheme (2011-2018) through his firm The Key, facilitating fraudulent …

Rick Singer Lori Loughlin Felicity Huffman U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling FBI fraud corruption education institutional-capture wealth-inequality
Read more →

Yeltsin Resigns, Oligarchs Elevate Putin to President: KGB Officer Chosen to Protect 'The Family' Transforms Russia into Kleptocracy

| Importance: 10/10

Boris Yeltsin resigned as President of Russia on December 31, 1999, elevating Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to Acting President six months before scheduled elections. The succession had been carefully engineered by Yeltsin’s oligarchic allies, known as ’the family,’ who began …

Boris Yeltsin Vladimir Putin Boris Berezovsky Vladimir Gusinsky Mikhail Khodorkovsky +2 more russia putin yeltsin oligarchs kleptocracy +5 more
Read more →

GI Bill Passed with Discriminatory State Implementation Enabling Racial Wealth Gap

| Importance: 9/10

President Roosevelt signs the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act (GI Bill) on June 22, 1944, creating transformative benefits for veterans including education, housing, and unemployment assistance. However, Southern Democrats, led by Mississippi Representative John Rankin, ensure the bill’s …

Franklin D. Roosevelt Congress John Rankin Veterans Administration American Legion racial-discrimination wealth-inequality housing-policy education-policy federalism-exploitation
Read more →