regulation
GRITtv: Leo Gerard: Time to Rethink Nuclear Power
"Quite frankly, with what's happening in Japan, I think not only us, but a lot of other people are going to have to review our sense of comfort about that," says Leo Gerard, President of the United Steelworkers union. Gerard himself was once a union representative at a facility that mined and refined uranium, and he represents many workers in such dangerous conditions across the country today. The USW has long been part of the Blue-Green Alliance, creating a labor-environmentalist coalition, but stopped short of calling for an end to nuclear power--but will that change after Japan? Leo joins Laura via Skype to discuss the crisis in Japan, the situation of the workers there, and why this crisis is linked to workers' protests around the US.
Email this pageGRITtv: Mike Papantonio: (Not) Learning from Japan's Nuclear Crisis
"Even knowing what's happening in Japan, we have Republicans saying we have to cut regulatory spending on places like nuclear energy," says Mike Papantonio, who notes the similarities between the refusal to learn from BP and the refusal to learn, now, from a deepening disaster in Japan. From the shift of the risk of dangerous fuels onto the taxpayers to the glib "every energy type has its dangers" dismissals, Mike breaks down the problems with the ways we talk about disasters, energy policy, and why we don't seem to want to invest in clean, safe fuels like solar and wind.
GRITtv: Richard Trumka: Challenging Business to Care About Jobs
"Corporate America hasn't been thinking about this country for a number of years," says Richard Trumka, President of the AFL-CIO. And one might argue that politicians have been thinking too much about corporate America and not enough about working America. Unemployment is still too high, and new conservative governors are taking advantage of the recession to bust public unions. But Trumka and the AFL-CIO are fighting back, and that's even led to some strange partnerships--a statement recently, co-authored with U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue. Trumka joins us from D.C. via Skype to tell us what he and Donohue agree on--and what they don't.
GRITtv: The F Word: No Solutions at State of the Union
Obama will deliver his take on the State of the Union tonight and while Congress has bickered about bipartisan seating, it doesn't matter where anyone sits because the profiteers who define what’s possible in our politics have already barred any serious solution to what ails us. Distributed by Tubemogul.
GRITtv: The F Word: Deregulation Dance with Wall Street
With a new Republican Congress falling all over itself to hand corporations whatever they want, it was only a matter of time before some politician turned up in the pages of the Wall Street Journal, breathlessly describing the “dazzling” and “path-breaking” nature of the free market, and vowing to get rid of regulations that have placed “unreasonable” burdens on businesses. We just didn't think it would be Barack Obama. Distributed by Tubemogul.
GRITtv: The F Word: DeBush, Debar and Debunk
There may be little that President Obama can do down at the Gulf Coast to help with the plugging and cleanup of the oil still spreading. But there's plenty that he could do in Washington, and whether he does it or not will determine the future. GRITtv with Laura Flanders brings participatory democracy onto your computer screen and into your living room, bridging the gap between audience and advocates.
GRITtv: The F Word: Success on Net Neutrality
Public pressure works, GRITtv guests love to say. Now we have a new example. In an update on our last show, FCC chair Julius Genachowski says he's now going to go ahead and regulate broadband under the same decades-old rules designed for phone networks. This decision, as our guests Tim Karr and Amalia Deloney explained this week, will reiterate the FCC's jurisdiction and their right to enforce Net Neutrality. The move will likely anger the telecoms. More importantly, it shows the value of organized pressure on government agencies. Groups like Free Press and the Center for Media Justice rallied their contacts and made call after call to the FCC. In a way, the success is an example of just why Net Neutrality matters. Score another for a free and open Internet. The rapid-response organizing done online by Free Press and others was integral to this campaign. And it worked. The new regulations are not done and dusted as they say, but so far so good. More info - guess where - online. 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. Support us by signing up for our podcast, and follow GRITtv or GRITlaura on Twitter.com. Distributed by Tubemogul.
GRITtv: Economic Recovery For All or a Few?
"America is coming back stronger, better, and faster than nearly anyone expected—and faster than most of its international rivals," says Daniel Gross in Newsweek recently, declaring that all the doom and gloom about the economy was just exaggeration. But is that really the case? Or is the economy still failing far too many people?
GRITtv: The F Word: Is the SEC Up to the Job?
One of the best kept secrets in Washington is the working of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Does it get the job done? Not even close. Typically, Wall Street is awash in insider trading, accounting games, and let's not forget campaign contributions -- and SEC lawyers are outgunned and outmaneuvered. All this was known before the Bernard Madoff scandal put the SEC to shame and dozens of kiss-and-tell best sellers were published by ex-financiers who, having stashed away enough for themselves and their dynasty of future children, came forward with sordid tales of pocket stuffing. The agency may have been weak thorughout the Bush years, but it's not just the way, it's the will. Back in '93, in Clintontimes, Mary Schapiro told an audience in Switzerland that "a more flexible regulatory paradigm" would benefit the financial world. And she wasn't alone: over at the White House, chief economist Bob Rubin was saying the same. Rubin, who cashed out of Goldman Sachs with hundreds of millions of dollars, and his lieutenant, Larry Summers, who made millions at a hedge fund, went on to run the Treasury Department. There, this dynamic duo unleashed the forces not of regulation -- but its reverse -- laying the foundation for the awful mess we are familiar with -- speculation upon speculation and leverage upon leverage -- producing profits galore but few jobs. Even the best intentioned SEC, under the the reformed and revitalized Mary Schapiro, can put but a dent in a system so skewed. The case against Goldman's juicy, but juicier to investors are the bank's first quarter returns -- which are up. It'll take more than Ms. Schapiro's lawsuit to topple the applecart of massive accumulation for some and next to nothing for the rest of us. 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. Distributed by Tubemogul.
GRITtv: The F Word: Peace Without Victory For Working Class
Armistice Day reminds us that when wars end, the winners and losers are supposed to make peace. But this week also marked the ten-year anniversary of a different kind of war -- a war on Americans' assets and the poor. Ten years later, while the winners and losers are obvious, there's no armistice in sight. On November 12, 1999, after decades of banking deregulation, congress repealed the 1933 Glass-Steagall Act, which up until that point had kept Main Street banks and commercial financial speculation apart. Glass-Steagall's repeal unleashed a wave of derivative marketing that rewarded shameless loan sharks for selling the most vulnerable Americans into a bubble of debt. The bubble having burst, now the stock market is up. Companies are reporting strong earnings and Wall Street's clearly at peace. But this week's news also brought US double-digit unemployment and regardless of those good earnings, the layoffs just don't stop; Sprint says it's cutting another 2,500 jobs; Pfizer, 2,000 jobs; even supposedly new and growing parts of the economy aren't growing -- software developer Adobe's cutting 6 percent of its workforce, game-maker Electronic Arts is cutting 1,500 jobs. And that's just this week. Winners and losers? You betcha.
