Still time to fix the problems on Wall Street?

[andysayshi]

If you didn't catch The Daily Show the other day, Jon Stewart interviewed Elizabeth Warren, chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel created to investigate the U.S. banking bailout.

The Daily Show - Elizabeth Warren

I've never heard the history of the financial meltdown explained so coherently or simply - it's fantastic. And unlike actual "journalists", Jon Stewart actually asks intelligent questions of her.

The crux is that it's not too late to demand change. Regulation and oversight is still being rewritten, and there is still time for Americans to demand real change.

I urge you to watch this clip, and to write, email and phone your representatives. For the good of the US and the entire world, we need change.

 

[opinterph]

PBS Frontline aired a program almost a year ago that captures the sequence of events as the 2008 US financial crisis unfolded. Not as succinct as the explanation offered by Elizabeth Warren, but much more informative, IMO.

Watch the Full Program Online: Inside the Meltdown

 

[Kulindahr]

I'm blanking at the moment -- what was the old banking law that got undone, that really ought to be reinstated?

 

[NickCole]

I'm blanking at the moment -- what was the old banking law that got undone, that really ought to be reinstated?

Glass Steagall Act.

 

[NickCole]

Elizabeth Warren is terrific and although her explanation is simplistic it's accurate, and she's far and away the best thing in the Obama administration. However. She works for Obama and if you don't keep that in mind then you'll still have question marks over your head when you try to figure out why the change she talks about hasn't happened in the past year and won't happen in the next three years.

"This really is the moment, the chips are all on the table here; we're going to write what the American economy looks like for fifty years going forward."

She speaks the truth. Believe it.

Then she says, of Congress writing good legislation that'll determine the American economy for the next fifty years:

"The President says I'll sign it if you get out some change."

And here's where that old Obama deceitfulness comes in.

Sure he SAYS that, but behind closed doors it's not just lobbyists and Congressmen and CEOs and Wall Street. It's All The President's Men.

What she never says, and this is pivotal, is that Obama's guys are Bernanke and Geither and Summers who lobby hard on behalf of the CEOs and Wall Street's interests. They're not on our side, as Elizabeth Warren is, they're on the other side she describes.

Obama SAYS he wants Congress to write good regulatory legislation and he'll sign it, which makes him look like the Good Guy as always, but he appoints the Bernankes and Geithners and Summers to make sure that doesn't happen.

 

[iman]

Fascinating interview with Henry Paulson on Charie Rose this week - it's probably still playing on Bloomberg or PBS.

http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/10842

 

[Kulindahr]

What she never says, and this is pivotal, is that Obama's guys are Bernanke and Geither and Summers who lobby hard on behalf of the CEOs and Wall Street's interests. They're not on our side, as Elizabeth Warren is, they're on the other side she describes.

Obama SAYS he wants Congress to write good regulatory legislation and he'll sign it, which makes him look like the Good Guy as always, but he appoints the Bernankes and Geithners and Summers to make sure that doesn't happen.

I was thinking that most of the way through -- and that every Congresscritter has a bank lobbyist on his shoulder, whispering, "Remember, Caesar, thou needest campaign funds."

 

[maxpowr9]

Especially after the Supreme Court's Decision on campaign financing, all hope in financial regulation is lost.

 

[Kulindahr]

Especially after the Supreme Court's Decision on campaign financing, all hope in financial regulation is lost.

Write to your congresscritters. Tell them we need a constitutional amendment defining "person" in political matters as a living, breathing citizen, and barring all non-persons from participation in any form.