tarp
Democracy Now!: Fri., Jan. 27, 2012
New York Daily News columnist and Democracy Now! co-host Juan Gonzalez reports the Treasury Department has approved payouts exceeding $5 million for 49 executives at firms that most benefited from the Wall Street bailout. The executives’ pay came despite the $500,000 salary cap established under the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). Representatives from the New York City Muslim community, together with local ethnic and interfaith groups, gathered at City Hall Thursday calling for the resignation of New York City Police Department Commissioner Raymond Kelly and police spokesperson Paul Browne after it was revealed an anti-Muslim film, "The Third Jihad," was screened to nearly 1,500 officers during training. We speak with Arab-American activist Linda Sarsour, who was honored last month at the White House as a "Champion of Change." Democracy Now!, a daily independent newshour
Email this pageGRITtv: Naomi Klein: Building a Real Left
"We have to build that independent left. It has to be so strong and so radical and so militant and so powerful that it becomes irresistible." Who better to say such a thing than Naomi Klein, Nation columnist, author of The Shock Doctrine and No Logo, and longtime rabblerouser? Naomi makes a special visit to the GRITtv studio to talk about the recent G20 meetings in her hometown of Toronto, about Obama's recent return to a kind of populism, the looming midterm elections in the U.S., her reporting on the BP disaster in the Gulf, and what we can do to channel the growing rage in this country and in the world into a true progressive movement.
GRITtv: William K. Black: Elizabeth Warren & Consumers
Former regulator, Savings & Loan investigator, and current braintruster at the Roosevelt Institute William K. Black says that if Elizabeth Warren isn't appointed to head the consumer protection agency passed as part of the financial reform bill, it will be a clear sign that the agency isn't going to protect consumers at all. While Warren has done the research in the field for 20 years, he notes, other candidates preferred by Treasury Secretary Geithner have fallen more into the Rubin/Summers camp of deregulators. Black joins us via Skype from Kansas City, where he's professor of Economics and Law at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, to break down the problems with the financial reform bill and make the case for Warren as the only way for real consumer protection.
GRITtv: The F Word: In Defense of Root Canals
A few words in defense of root canals. In his State of the Union, President Obama scored some laughs early on with his comment that the bank bailout was "about as popular as a root canal. If there's one thing that has unified Democrats and Republicans, and everybody in between, it's that we all hated the bank bailout," Mr. Obama said. "I hated it. I hated it. You hated it." It was a clever quip in a long long speech, a bonding moment that broke the ice for a president trying to appear more populist. But personally, I would have hated the bailout less if it had had actually done the work of a root canal. I know -- painful, lengthy, expensive, root canals cause -- and come in for -- a lot of grief. Just say the words and people flinch. But let me offer a few words in defense of root canal. At least a root canal gets to the root of the problem. What do dental surgeons do? They dig deep, eliminate infection, clear the sick places out, and protect the decontaminated tooth from future infection. The bailout was hated and certainly painful -- but dig deep, eliminate infection, decontaminate and protect? That's an almost flawless list of all the things the bank bailout failed to do. Perhaps because, from everything we've learned since, the surgeons in the bailout were themselves infected. That's quite enough from me on root canals, but there's just one more prick: after surgery comes the agony of paying for it. Having bailed out the banks, the bill for the TARP's now being passed on to consumers through a domestic public spending freeze (read, fewer public services, higher household bills). As dentists like to say, "This is going to hurt." From what I can see, the bailout's going to keep on hurting, while doing nothing about the infection. 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.
GRITtv: Structural Solutions for Jobs Crisis
President Obama spoke today about the need for more government action to spur job creation, saying that small businesses and green jobs were the way forward for the nation. He proposed shifting funds from the TARP program to job creation programs and offered tax cuts and incentives. But as Maya Wiley of the Center for Social Inclusion, Tim Casey of Legal Momentum, Heather Boushey of the Center for American Progress and Max Fraad Wolff of The New School for Social Research explain, the problems with unemployment and underemployment in this country aren't just results of this current recession, and they will not be fixed simply by returning to where we were.
GRITtv: F Word: GOP Nuts Throw ACORN From a Glass House
The House this month passed by a wide margin a provision that would bar ACORN from receiving any federal funding. Every House Republican voted 'aye' as well as 172 Democrats. Soon the Senate will consider its own complete ban measure. Let's hope they enjoy their gloat and then get right back to business. The legislation they passed in all their rush, you see, is written so broadly that it just comes in very handy. Rep. Alan Grayson (D of Florida) has already asked the Project on Government Oversight (POGO) to find out which other contractors might be caught in the ACORN net. Abuse of federal funds -- Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman are top of the list, with 20 fraud cases between them. This could all get very interesting very fast. Lou Dobbs, Glenn Beck. Who's going to be first with the outrage?
GRITtv: The F Word: Treasury's Private Ocean
How many times have I said, "It's hard not to feel bilked?" Just a few months ago, the Treasury Department stress tested the banks. The result was a call for massive new capital infusion -- for them, from us. Even then, academic studies were clear that the very same banks were making more than a buck. TARP recipients JP Morgan and Wells Fargo cut dividends to investors only once, and, well we all know what was happening at Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley -- they were actually on track -- boy, were they on track -- to super-profits. $3.44 billion in the second quarter for Goldman. Hank Paulson, a former Goldman CEO, who once owned $700 million worth of STOCK told us last fall that if we gave to the banks, they'd give back to us --in jobs, and loans, and new businesses on Main Street. So the public paid out. And we waited, and waited, while unemployment rose and wages sank. Come summer, bankrupt states across the country were shutting summer schools and parks. And still the public waited and wondered. What happened to those hundreds of billions we gave to the banks?
