This is a new Tuesday evening event, replacing the former Rolling Lounge. I'll still host the occasional RL when something transportation-y seems appropriate, but it seems that Reality Bites way more often!
So, traveling down this highway of life in the ole US of A, let's gather some reality around us to fend off the wingnuts, whackos, and others with their fingers in their ears singing "la la la la la la..."
Reality isn't always the most fun or even the most popular, and in politics, it is certainly not always easy to discern. Still, like a good swift kick in the pants, reality has a habit of trumping the alternative so it's a good idea to keep an eye out for it.
As is our norm around these parts, there are 2 rules:
Reality, not conspiracy theories, reign - make a claim, expect to back it up with something other than "some say..." or "I read it somewhere..."
(some interesting thoughts on the economy, Part I... - promoted by poligirl)
Dean Baker writes on TPMcafe.com http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsme... that the basic element in this crisis is "trust". These guys knew that this was a bubble. They knew that what they were doing was a huge Ponzi scheme. Alan Greenspan was being knighted by the Queen of England back when the non fundamentalist economists like Dean Baker were warning of the coming debacle. So now mistake after mistake later, none of these people in charge or the ones making millions off this meltdown should be listened to, let alone given money to spread around.
Unless the conditions are written in stone, for example specific rules that limit executive compensation using the same type of language that CEOs use when they sign contracts with their companies, there is no reason for the public to believe that they will get a fair deal in this bailout. The public should also demand that some genuine outsiders, representatives of labor, consumer groups and other non-Wall Street segments of society, have a direct oversight role in this deal.
Instead of seeing Obama surrounded by bankers like ex Fed chairman Paul Volker and ex Goldman Sachs now Citigroup former Secretary of the Treasury Robert Rubin last Friday, I wish Barack Obama had been huddled with Leo Gerard of the Steelworkers, James Hoffa of the teamsters, Naomi Klein author of "The Shock Doctrine, Naomi Wolfe, "The End of America" , Nomi Prins, "Other People's Money" and Glenn Greenwald of Salon.com.
