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GRITtv: The F Word: Credit Where Due, Geithner
We talked about the economy today, and whether Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner deserves more credit. What he should be getting credit for, it seems to me, is that Lehman Brothers report -- well, not the report, but the cover-up.
To give you the thumbnail sketch, a court-appointed bank examiner spent a year researching the fall of Lehman -- the trigger for the bailout crisis. As it turns out, surprise surprise, the accounting at Lehman was, to put it mildly, shifty... and our guests aren't the only ones asking what did Geithner know and when did he know it?
Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism is noting, "The NY Fed, and thus Timothy Geithner, were at a minimum massively derelict..."
Mike Whitney over at CounterPunch is faking disbelief: "Is there really any doubt that Tim Geithner at the New York Fed, or Bernanke knew that Lehman was trading its junk assets to finance its on-going operations?"
If Geithner and Bernanke didn't know what was going on at Lehman, that's bad. If they knew, that's worse. One way, you've got to wonder why they're still in work. The alternative is that it was all part of some bigger, nastier scam, which transferred huge amounts of wealth from taxpayers back to the very banks that created the crisis.
They shouldn't just be out of work, quite possibly, Geithner or Bernanke (or both) should be in the clink. We learned long ago that this President can cut bait when he thinks it's called for. Candidate, then president Obama has broken with his preacher, his green jobs guru, his social secretary. The last, Desiree Rogers, apparently got the boot for letting gatecrashers into last fall's first State Dinner.
If she can get the boot for letting strangers into a feast, surely Bernanke and Geithner should get at least that for covering up for the banks who ate up our whole economy? Or does Obama only get tough with homies?
The F Word is a regular commentary by Laura Flanders, the host of GRITtv which broadcasts weekdays on satellite TV (Dish Network Ch. 9415 Free Speech TV) on cable, and online at GRITtv.org and TheNation.com. Follow GRITtv or GRITlaura on Twitter.com.
Email this pageGRITtv: Mar. 15 2010
Welcome to GRITtv's new format! We're coming to you from our new studio in SoHo, shooting higher resolution video. We'll be bringing you 30 minutes of content 5 days a week from now on, featuring more of our friends from around the country, more field reporting, and some other new surprises as well. Hope you enjoy! Max Blumenthal, author of Republican Gomorrah, joins Laura in studio to talk about recent news. A spate of profiles of Timothy Geithner hit the news recently, from Vogue to the Atlantic and several places in between. We ask a couple of experts what's really going on with the economy--and if Geithner deserves any of that praise. Robert Johnson is the director of economic policy at the Roosevelt Institute and the former chief economist for the Senate Banking Committee. Les Leopold is the author of The Looting of America. They both have some words for the Democrats on what happens if don't wise up. Nahr al-Bared ("Cold River") refugee camp in Lebanon is home to 20,000 displaced Palestinians, struggling to rebuild their home after its destruction in 2007. The camp has been around for some 60 years, and in this excerpt from "Checkpoints and More" by A Films, residents of the camp tell their stories. Finally, Laura reminds us that while some profiles of Geithner may be cheering the former New York Fed chair, he's also implicated in the collapse of Lehman Brothers.
GRITtv: Dean Baker: 180 Degrees The Wrong Way
Dean Baker has some words for Democrats and Republicans alike who want to focus on "fiscal responsibility" while millions of Americans still struggle for jobs: they're heading "180 degrees the wrong way." Baker is co-director of the Center for Economic And Policy Research, blogger at Beat the Press and author of a new book, False Profits: Recovering from the Bubble Economy.
GRITtv: February 22, 2010
Seth Wessler joins us, along with Irasema Garza, president of Legal Momentum, Wanda Fossett with Community Voices Heard, and Carmen Cordero, welfare rights activist with the Hartford-based group Vecinos Unidos. They discuss food stamps, poverty, and why this might be the best opportunity we have to rebuild the social safety net. Dean Baker of the Center for Economic And Policy Research, Beat the Press, and author of a new book, False Profits: Recovering from the Bubble Economy, has some words for Democrats and Republicans alike who want to focus on "fiscal responsibility" while millions of Americans still struggle for jobs: they're heading "180 degrees the wrong way." From our friends at Tactical Technology Collective, this second video in the series shows how ordinary citizens from around the world used basic video technology to record events and corrupt actions and effect change. Imran Malik has just returned from a trip to Haiti providing medical aid--he went to medical school in Pakistan and got his first experience with emergency relief during the earthquake there in 2005. He also plays drums in Pakistani-American punk band The Kominas, who were featured in Taqwacore, a documentary on Muslim punk bands. He joins Laura in studio to talk about punk rock, Haiti, Muslim identity, and the problems with the U.S. health care system.
GRITtv: The F Word: Do We Really Want to Stimulate This Economy?
"What's good for the goose is good for the gander." That's been the general operating principle of our government for the past few decades when it comes to the economy: help those at the top and the rest will follow. As statistics from the Social Security Administration revealed again recently it's flat out wrong. The F Word is a regular commentary by Laura Flanders, the host of GRITtv.
GRITtv: How's Your Stimulus?
How's your stimulus? The Obama administration has been getting a lot of flack lately for a so-called jobless recovery. Only about 10 percent of the stimulus money has actually been distributed and some are getting impatient. But those who are keeping an eye on the stimulus money at the state level say that it?s having a real impact and that there's more to come. Damon Hewitt, Assistant Council NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, Chris Keeley Associate Director of Common Cause, NY, David Dix, National Green Director League of Young Voters, and Juhu Thukral, Director of Law and Advocacy at the Opportunity Agenda on how the stimulus money?s being spent.
GRITtv: Daily Newsmaker: Damon Hewitt & Chris Keeley: How's Your Stimulus?
Damon Hewitt and Chris Keeley discuss the simulus plan's pros and cons.
GRITtv: Fed Under Fire
It's huge, it controls much that affects our everyday lives, from our jobs to our mortgage, and it's near invisible. The Federal Reserve, that semi-private institution that moves so much money in near invisibility. Well, as the Obama administration talks about assigning more power to the Fed, a growing movement in congress is calling for something that has never happened before: an audit.
