Bill Moyers Journal

[jackace]

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/10242008/watch.html

Link has a video and transcript on the page. There was more than this on the 1 hour show. This was just the opening. He then interviewed economist, James K. Galbraith about some very big changes he feels we need to make to our entire system.

Some quotes I liked:

Paulson accumulated $700 million. And now he says he's afraid that if he clamps down too harshly on compensation for his old friends, they might not be enthusiastic about participating in his plan to save our economy.


REPRESENTATIVE PETER DEFAZIO: The golden parachutes, yeah, they were exchanged for camouflaged parachutes. The execs on Wall Street are still going to get millions. Look at the loopholes there.


The cost of all these bailouts to the taxpayer is more than two and half times what we forked over twenty years ago to pay for the Savings & Loan crisis - a whopping $8,750 per household. So while you may have seen your retirement savings or college tuition account destroyed or have been on of the 800,000 who have lost their jobs so far this year, the masters of the universe are doing just fine, thank you. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is looking out for them.


the 30-nation Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development - or OECD - is out this week with a new report on global gaps between rich and poor. Guess which great industrial nation had the fourth highest inequality in incomes - behind Mexico, Turkey and Portugal? Right. Us


"Rich households in America have been leaving both middle and poorer income groups behind. This has happened in many countries but nowhere has this trend been so stark as in the United States."

 

[Butterbean]

Originally posted by: jackace

"Rich households in America have been leaving both middle and poorer income groups behind. This has happened in many countries but nowhere has this trend been so stark as in the United States."

Ya think? Maybe in part because the US has more rich people than other places. Its pretty hard to have a gap in Cuba. Heck 30-40 % of people dont even pay income tax and obesity is all around (especially in minorities) and kids in welfare familes have cell phones. People with bad credit got to buy houses. In a way Obama's trickle up poverty would be good reminder of what suffering really is. Noble poor hardly exist anymore. Bars in my town are full the day the checks come out and the 300 lb welfare cows are crowding lines in Dunkin Donuts.

 

[jackace]

Originally posted by: Butterbean

Originally posted by: jackace

"Rich households in America have been leaving both middle and poorer income groups behind. This has happened in many countries but nowhere has this trend been so stark as in the United States."

Ya think? Maybe in part because the US has more rich people than other places. Its pretty hard to have a gap in Cuba. Heck 30-40 % of people dont even pay income tax and obesity is all around (especially in minorities) and kids in welfare familes have cell phones. People with bad credit got to buy houses. In a way Obama's trickle up poverty would be good reminder of what suffering really is. Noble poor hardly exist anymore. Bars in my town are full the day the checks come out and the 300 lb welfare cows are crowding lines in Dunkin Donuts.

The study this quote comes from is not counting poor nations only the top 30 industrialized countries in the world.

I agree with you there is a problem in our country, but what is causing the problem? and what is the solution? Anyone can point out the problems, finding the cause and solutions is the hard part.

 

[MovingTarget]

I haven't listened to this week's show, but I do have it queued up on podcast. I'm not surprised that clamping down too hard on CEOs might come down hard on the economy because of their own greed. Those in power tend to stay in power as they have other means of preserving their status that the rest of us do not.

 

[jackace]

Originally posted by: MovingTarget
I haven't listened to this week's show, but I do have it queued up on podcast. I'm not surprised that clamping down too hard on CEOs might come down hard on the economy because of their own greed. Those in power tend to stay in power as they have other means of preserving their status that the rest of us do not.

I agree with you, but in this case these people were the ones who were right in the middle of causing all these problems, and now they get to continue to taking home HUGE bonuses.

 

[sportage]

Well again. on larry king Mike Moore said its like the republicans are taking all the silver as they exit the Whitehouse. Not only are they being kicked out, they are looting everything on the way out.

 

[chess9]

The bailout:

1. Bush flipped the FEAR card, and the Dems bought it again, just like they bought the Iraq War Resolution FEAR card. What a bunch of fools!

2. Paulson is part of the problem and should be NO PART of the solution.

3. We had no business bailing out the banks when that money, per Stieglitz, should have been spent on infrastructure, which would have given the economy a different sort of stimulus but would have given us VALUE for our money.

4. The administrative costs of this bailout, as we are starting to see, will eat up 30-50% of the money. This isn't even a well-run CHARITY!

5. Meanwhile Republicans are calling Obama and the Dems SOCIALISTS while they are the ones who robbed this country while they also voted (in large numbers) for the bailout.

Galbraith and Moore have it right, except the lack of TESTICLES by the DEMS is downright scary. The party is full of limousine liberals who don't really have a clue how the rest of the world lives, or, if they do they don't give a damn. Nader is closer to a rational candidate for my tastes....

I am very fed up with this country's pussification and rolling over for the right wing. Stand up to those bastards, and do it TODAY. Oh, and on November 4.

-Robert