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GRITtv: The F Word: US Lack of Investment Destabilizing World
Here in the US all we seem to hear about is deficits and debt. Yet even the countries that hold a lot of our debt are concerned for our lack of investment at home. China's pension fund head recently said that the U.S. government needs to reduce not just its fiscal deficit, but its trade gap, in order to maintain the dollar's stability. US average levels need to be closer to those of developing nations and emerging markets, the manager of China's Sovereign Wealth fund advised. Distributed by Tubemogul.
Email this pageGRITtv: Chrystia Freeland: Tracking The New Super-Elite
A multibillion-dollar bailout and Wall Street's swift, subsequent reinstatement of gargantuan bonuses have inspired a narrative of parasitic bankers and other elites rigging the game for their own benefit. And this, in turn, has led to wider - and not unreasonable - fears that we are living in not merely a plutonomy, but a plutocracy, in which the rich display outsize political influence, narrowly self-interested motives, and a casual indifference to anyone outside their own rarefied economic bubble. So wrote Chrystia Freeland in a cover story in the new issue of The Atlantic. She joins us in the studio to discuss her piece, the new elite, and a few insights into the mindset of the ultra-ultra-rich.
GRITtv: The F Word: Fighting Class War Fighting Bob Style
Obama spoke to a labor crowd in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on Monday calling for new energy investment and new infrastructure. The word most people want to hear from him, of course, is jobs. Where are they going to be and when are they coming back? Wisconsin's a place where that discussion's getting very twisted. Once a solid progressive state, home of “Fighting Bob” La Follette, now it's “purple”-- and solid progressive Senators like Russ Feingold, the sole Senate vote against the PATRIOT Act, are feeling the lash this election cycle because of misplaced anger from the Tea Partiers and Republicans decrying “big government” while enjoying cash from big business.
GRITtv: The F Word: What a Spare $1 Million Can Buy
BP's Tony Hayward has been yanked off spokesman duty after having the poor judgment to go yachting while the Gulf drowns in his company's oil. But according to the annual World Wealth Report, Hayward's not the only one yachting while the world burns. It's not just Brits, either. Sales of luxury boats were up 30% in the U.S. in the first quarter of the year. The ultra-rich, it seems, are getting their lives back. Lucky them. 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 Secret Global Empire(s): Russ Baker & John Perkins
U.S. history has seen many presidents elected on a wave of progressive promises, only to see them compromise again and again once in office, caving to the very interests, military and corporate, that they railed against so effectively. Barack Obama is only the latest to get elected on a promise to end a war and take care of working people, only to preside over an administration stacked with Wall Street types and wind up continuing a war he wanted to wind down. John Perkins is the author of "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man." Russ Baker wrote "Family of Secrets: The Bush Dynasty, the Powerful Forces That Put It in the White House, and What Their Influence Means for America." They argue the only weapon we have is public opinion and public pressure -- and we need to bring it to bear not just on the government, but on the corporations.
