Robert Reich discusses Obama's economic plans

[Wetzelbill]

Run time: 06:15 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Yqfl2Kqzew   Posted on YouTube: September 20, 2008 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: September 21, 2008 By DU Member: Wetzelbill Views on DU: 1157

 

[barbtries]

1. that was great

i hope a lot of people are at least coming to see the disaster that's been bush over the past week.

[ooglymoogly]

2. Sanity thy name is Democrat. nt

[Skink]

3. meanwhile tropical storm Bernake-Paulson reforms.

[MindMatter]

4. Excellent framing of "bottom up" versus "trickle down"

I hope that Obama & Biden adopt this terminology. It is simple to communicate, and it is also right on.

It is easy to get lost in all the arcane jargon like derivatives and collateralised debt obligations. But fundamentally this problem is not caused by these details. It is caused by the three things Reich mentioned:

- a lack of disclosure about the various financial instruments and transactions
- allowing investment banks to play roulette with outrageously soft capital requirements
- regulating conflicts of interest

And on that 3rd point, it is not just about individual conflicts of interest. The AIG fiasco shows that there are CORPORATE conflicts of interests when on company can be a bank, and insurance company, and an investment house. We need to put those firewalls back into place -- these firewalls that Bush, Graham, and McCain tore down, leading to this problem. For two reasons:

a) because there are real conflicts of interest when you mix those businesses, and even more importantly
b) Nobody is well served (except for the execs that siphon off hundreds of millions of dollars) by creating these gigantic enterprises that become "too big to fail"

If AIG wants to be an insurance company, fine. But don't let them also be a brokerage company and a bank too.

[HopeHoops]

5. Trickle-down works great - we all got pissed on!

[Liberalynn]

6. Always have had a tremendous amount of respect

for Reich. I am glad he's on our side. I just hope more people will start listening to him.

[Wetzelbill]

7. I have really gotten to like him

He's a helluva guy, his own man and he's a knowledgable, excellent representative of the Democratic party.