An excellent show about how reform of Wall Street and legislation to regulate the financial services industry is very much in doubt as Wall Street banks are lobbying to keep regulations - to protect bankers from themselves - from being put into place.
THis is another issue that will require pressure from the people to see that the sensible laws are put in place to keep Wall Street from becoming a Wild West show with Financial gambling going on with securitized mortgages and anything else the Wall Street idiots can think of. What's next Credit Default Swaps on securitized LIfe insurance policies?
This is one very informative report. AGAIN, thanks to the one true reporter in MSM, Bill Moyers. What would we do without you, Mr. Moyers? Watch the show, print out the transcript, tell your friends to watch it. Then email Obama and tell him he needs to make sure that real regulatory reform happens. There is a lot of money going not only to GOP lobbyists in Congress but also to Democrats (if there is one thing that makes me angrier than GOP Lobbyists in the garb of legislators it's DEMOCRATS ACTING LIKE REPUBLICANS!!!).
I'm sure Obama means well, but he has placed too much trust in some people who seem too susceptible to the Wall Street mantra that Wall Street runs the economy, and that it's best to let Wall Street tell the government how Wall Street should be regulated or NOT regulated. Wall Street FACILITATES the running of the economy but it's the companies and people who produce economic value who
are the economy. Having efficient financial services is a must. But gambling with rediculous levels of leverage and gambling on derivatives the bankers don't even understand has nothing to do with commercial banking. That's speculation and belongs in the Brokerage business. If these guys want to be speculators they should go across the street to the Brokerage houses.
Watch the show here:
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/10092009/profile.html BILL MOYERS: Let me show you an excerpt from the speech President Obama made on Wall Street last month, September. Here is the challenge he laid down to the bankers.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: We will not go back to the days of reckless behavior and unchecked excess at the heart of this crisis, where too many were motivated only by the appetite for quick kills and bloated bonuses. Those on Wall Street cannot resume taking risks without regard for consequences, and expect that next time, American taxpayers will be there to break their fall.
BILL MOYERS: A reality check. Not one CEO of a Wall Street bank was there to hear the President. Now what do you make of that?
SIMON JOHNSON: Arrogance. Because they have no fear for the government anymore. They have no respect for the President, which I find absolutely extraordinary and shocking. All right? And I think they have no not an ounce of gratitude to the American people, who saved them, their jobs, and the way they run the world.