This American Life: the financial Crisis:

Hey. This week's "This American Life", covers the financial crisis.


38 minutes into the show, they discuss the lack of regulation, and how it seems
that it never was done.

The CULPRIT is FORMER senator Phil Gramm. Now a financial industry consultant.

He slipped a paragraph into an appropriations bill which TOTALLY deregulated
all credit markets, and SPECIFICALLY FORBID EVERY state from regulating them too!

He now works for the financial industry.
minute 41 of the program discusses regulating the Credit Default Swap market.

This was UNDONE in 1998, congress was asked to regulate this market, but Senator Gramm slipped this provision into a bill IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT!!!
in the year 2000.

NOTE the SAME Phil Gramm that USED to be an presidential advisor to JOHN MCCain
before he said, "there's no financial crisis, and we're a nation of Whiners."



Minute 52: the Stock injection Plan:

Instead of this PAULSON plan, the fed would just buy shares in the banks...

The STOCK INJECTION plan was INCLUDED in the House and SENATE bill..

(halujah...) THIS is an OPTION...


the stock injection plan would essentially buy shares in a bank, and be able to do with the company just what they did with AIG.

(throw out the bums, give them cash, and you own the company!)

cheers...
Highly recommende
Here's a link audio should be up on monday 10/6 http://podcast.thisamericanlife.org/podcast/365.mp3
right click, to save on your desktop, and simply listen to it.


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OK, you wanted a Political discussion: Here goes.

The background I believe that:
* We're HEADING into a DEPRESSION.
* It's going to be as BAD as the last one.
* The current failures only bring us 25% into the problem!!
* According to Robert Reich (former Sec'y of Labor under Clinton): The only number that he EVER saw, defining the
depression was that the unemployment rate hovered around 25%.
* We need a new deal.
* After 58 years of NO Health Care Reform (since 1950!) it will FINALLY be coming soon...
* We've managed to WASTE a FULL generation (from Zero to thirty) with decaying social, educational, and interpersonal skills.
* Our nation is no longer DOING (producing) anything.
SO, from these few premises, I have extrapolated a great deal of items to FIX our society...

But....
We need to make sure that a number of issues are resolved ALL at once.
If we don't do them ALL at once, its like juggling three RUNNING chain saws, but dropping one!

Here's what I came up with:

We need to do the FOLLOWING to FIX our Society:
* Create A Living Wage
* Create a National Single payer Healthcare
* Create a National 3-4 year draft (or alternate service)
* Create a Federally paid Day Care starting at six months
* Implement Tax Reform on the ULTRA Rich
* Lobbying (Political Reform)
* Education
* Infrastructure (road /bridge/Systems repairs)
* Lack of Training/futures
* Truth and Reconcilliation Commission
* A new "Manhattan" project, focusing on Energy INDEPENDENCE

See my other blog: http://sos-newdeal.blogspot.com for more details.