aig
GRITtv: Financial Reform: Throwing Junk in the Attic
Nomi Prins, former Wall Street trader and author of "It Takes a Pillage," says that the current financial reform legislation is like throwing your extra junk in the attic and pretending that your house is clean. She says that it allows banks to keep all sorts of securities off their balance sheets--that it does nothing to prevent, in short, the kind of shady dealings that helped land us in this financial mess to begin with. Together with Roosevelt Institute Fellow and blogger Mike Konczal, Nomi joins Laura in studio to discuss the financial reform legislation, its chances of passage, and what it would do--and wouldn't.
Email this pageGRITtv: July 1 2010
"Republicans are playing the strongest obstructionist role we have ever seen," Senator Bernie Sanders notes. Sanders and his Senate colleagues have been trying to pass a financial reform bill that now hangs in doubt, with some Republicans changing their minds and with the death of Robert Byrd this week. As for immigration reform, or energy legislation? Don't bet on it, with the "Party of No" filibustering nearly every piece of legislation that comes their way.Senator Sanders joins us via Skype from Washington to talk about the ongoing struggle to get even weak bills passed. The stimulus and health care reform were small steps forward, he points out, but at least they were steps in the right direction. Nomi Prins, former Wall Street trader and author of It Takes a Pillage, says that the current financial reform legislation is like throwing your extra junk in the attic and pretending that your house is clean. She says that it allows banks to keep all sorts of securities off their balance sheets--that it does nothing to prevent, in short, the kind of shady dealings that helped land us in this financial mess to begin with.Together with Roosevelt Institute Fellow and blogger Mike Konczal, Nomi joins Laura in studio to discuss the financial reform legislation, its chances of passage, and what it would do--and wouldn't. Finally, Hanna Rosin wrote about "The End of Men" at the Atlantic. But Daisy Hernandez at ColorLines pointed out that gains for some privileged women doesn't mean equality is around the corner. Laura has some thoughts about the "he-cession" and race.
GRITtv: Lisa Graves: Put Corporations in Their Place
In the recent Citizens United case, the Supreme Court struck down critically important laws regulating corporate influence on elections and public policy. We oppose this radical decision by these five unelected men to rewrite the First Amendment and give corporations the inalienable free speech rights of human beings. Huge corporations like Goldman Sachs and AIG will be able to use their enormous wealth to run campaigns against any person who might oppose their agenda. The corruption of lawmaking we've already seen by the big insurance companies, the big banks, and the big oil companies show that this decision will make things worse in our democracy. It's wrong to give corporations the same rights as people. A corporation isn't really a person. We cannot sit on the sidelines and let this decision ruin our democracy. The Constitution is our national charter and belongs to us. Given the gridlock in Washington, I don't think any good legislation fixing this can pass the Senate. The only way to restore the primacy of the people is to amend the Constitution. We should protect the sacred rights of human beings to freedom of speech. We need to make clear that money isn't the same as speech, in order to ensure fair elections. And, we have to put corporations back in their place. It?s hard work but we've got to start somewhere. -- Lisa Graves is the publisher of SourceWatch.org, which writes the history of the people, companies and front groups trying to shape public policy.
GRITtv: Feb. 9, 2010
The blame has been flying -- it's Obama's fault, Rahm Emanuel's, Harry Reid's -- but what if the problem simply is the Senate? We ask the New Yorker's Hendrik Hertzberg, Lawrence Lessig and Nancy Scola of the Personal Democracy Forum. Lisa Graves is the publisher of SourceWatch.org, which writes the history of the people, companies and front groups trying to shape public policy. She weighs in on the recent Citizens United decision. Joe Sacco discusses his work and why he chooses the medium he does to tell these riveting stories. We talk a lot about the future of news and newspapers around here, but what about the paper that the news is printed on? A video from Inform Inc, directed by Virginia Ramsey, Brian Ohl, and Eleanor Saunders, looks at paper, recycling, and its impact on the environment. And another from our friends at Street Films looks at the changes to Times Square. Finally, Laura points out the need for public, non-ad-supported media.
GRITtv: Risk Analysts Risk Little Themselves
Mortgage rating agencies Moody's, Standard & Poor's and Fitch were responsible for rating nearly all the investments that went bad, causing last year's financial collapse. Securities from AIG and Lehman Brothers were rated double and triple A -- the highest ratings possible -- right before the bottom fell out. Though the Bush administration and many other insiders claimed that no one could've seen the collapse coming, construction workers, whose own pension funds were invested in these companies, knew that there was a housing bubble and feared for their own retirement money. This video from the Huffington Post Investigative Fund takes a look at the rating agencies and their future.
GRITtv: Nov. 17, 2009
Economist Dean Baker and the Nation's John Nichols talk about ways to create good, meaningful, well-paid jobs and rethink the way Americans look at work. The New Yorker's Hendrik Hertzberg's new book collects his essays on the Obama generation. Though hopeful, Hertzberg offers criticisms of the way the health care reform fight and others have been conducted. Chase Whiteside and Erick Stoll of New Left Media bring Part One of their inside look at the No On One campaign in Maine, where voters overturned a decision by the state legislature to legalize gay marriage. financial rating agencies and their future.
