John Stossel - Big Lies about American Business

[ClarkWise]

8:28 Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is in the audience?

[Spjungen]

They're giving the current situatioin way too much credit in this video. We don't even live in a capitalist society; it's CORPORATISM. There's a HUUGE difference.

Capitalism is still serviving and doing well though despite the criminal elements. Starbucks, apple, all the companies that actually had to earn their money and not get corporate welfare are doing just fine.

[LoneRiderz]

It may work in Canada and Singapore (my country) but that doesn't mean it'd work everywhere else. There should not be a one size fits all when it comes to economic and government policies. There are too many variables that affects the outcome. In Singapore we had cheap and good medical services (yes it is possible) but that ended when our country aped the US system. Make small changes and then work from the results. Keep what works and work on those policies that don't.

[kmelfina]

alright this is a good item by John Stossel. So the only money siphoned from the middle class to the rich = government intervention not those "Greedy rich corporations"?

I keep hearing about the whole "Tax cuts for the rich = middle class paying for it" or something like that...

[ElJefer]

The best way to rebut someone who calls a corporation greedy and immoral is "then why do people keep buying their products?"

[jrwel14]

Reagan increased governemnt in many areas.

[zbyszanna]

@jrwel14 Yes, but he increased it much much less than it would be increased if Carter was the president. So in comparison to earlier presidents he was for a smaller government and in comparison to them, he achieved success!

[jrwel14]

And, the gap between the middle class and the rich is getting greater. He needs a day job.

[zbyszanna]

@jrwel14 It doesn't matter if the gap is getting greater as long as the poorer are less poor. It is better for you if you earn 1000$ and Bill Gates earns 1,000,000$ than if you earch 800$ and Bill Gates earns 800,000$.

[jrwel14]

That guy know nothing about business. Many make money by cheating people. Having costs that goes above and beyond. Banks. There is a leisure class. The average person works for money. The rich make money work for them. 

[zbyszanna]

@jrwel14 No, the average person does not work for money, they work for the goods and services they can obtain in exchange for the money. Being successful in business is not evil. Business men create jobs, without them you would be still living in the forest. Corporationism and government regulations which give them unfair advantage (and the FED which is ruining your middle class) is the real problem, not the businessmen themselves.

[zbyszanna]

@zbyszanna Businessmen are the people, who made it possible for you to afford a tv set or a refrigerator. If you compare your life to the life of people 100 years ago, you will see the great difference. There are many problems with contemporary American economy, mainly lack of free market (e.g. FED and government regulations). Just aquiring wealth and getting richer is not one of these problems.

[jrwel14]

Most people wanted the public option

[zbyszanna]

@jrwel14 Then let them have it, but also let the rest opt out of it. Would it suite you?

[jrwel14]

@zbyszanna Let who have it? the rich keeping all their money while the middle class pays the taxes? As Leona Helmsley said,"Taxes are for the lil people."

[zbyszanna]

@jrwel14 Let those who opt for public option have public option and for the rest let them opt out. Every tax is evil, but there are greater and lesser evils. Income tax is one of more evil ones. This is why people like Stossel want to remove this tax all along. For rich and for poor.

[jrwel14]

@zbyszanna Stossel is a joke! Even Lincoln had a federal income tax to help pay for the civil war!

[rossgarner58]

how does wall st work then you two. what service did they supply. you two are a coupl

lying scumbags

[gutzs]

@rossgarner58 I grow extremely weary of people who can't distinguish the difference between a good honest business (which is most of them) and the very few corrupt lobbyist corps like jp morgan, etc.

[mcguff353]

@rossgarner58 

[zbyszanna]

@rossgarner58 Destructive power of wallstreet is just a derivative of government regulations and abandoning the real money (gold for example). If you take any of the problems created by the Wallstreet and analyze its cause, you will see they are always anchored in a special privilege given this or that company, or a law which mandated someone to do something against their common sense (like mandating to giving loans to people who could not afford them).

[zbyszanna]

@zbyszanna And I don't say that people at Wallstreet are saint or innocent. I just say that even if you eliminate it there will still be an incentive (and possibility) to act as any "evil businessman" you can point out. In order to fix the problem you have to first learn its cause. And the cause is lack of free market (including fiat money).

[rmcdaniel423]

I've never been hired by a poor person.

[JoKo203]

Watch Ron Paul's response to Michael Moore's Capitalism: A Love Story on Larry King Live. It's fine to have grievances about the Corporatist system that we have, but you can't blame it on Capitalism. It's as Ron Paul says, he has the same problems with the system that Michael Moore has he just happens to understand it better. I'm not happy that the government gave trillion something dollar bailouts to Wall Street at the expense of Main Street either.

[NativeNewMexican]

This was the worst, most undermining interview I could have imagined. The truths that Medved seeks to provide are horribly supported by the interview, in fact they are easily countered by anyone with a mind. Good god, there are _far_ more effective ways of communicating these things.

I used respect Medved; this pathetic ineptitude given a softball platform was beyond redemption. How _DARE_ you put yourself on the pedestal and fail this bad. The truth has never been this poorly represented.

[newguy33X]

I wish the U.S. still had private firefighting companies, so that when they arrived at houses they're first concerned with seeing a plaque from the right insurance company and/or a cash payment, and then with arguing and fighing with the other companies that arrive on the scene, then with looting, then with putting out the fire.

[fzqlcs]

@newguy33X stupid comment. How would you attract customers to such a sorry-ass company? Only private companies that satisfy customer demands succeed. You have to be government to get away with lousy service because then you can use the law to eliminate any competition.

[newguy33X]

@fzqlcs Just delving into history. It took a large, government-led effort to get New York's streets cleaned up too...manure from horses, everyone's household garbage. You want your private firefighting company brawling with another company over who'll put out your fire on litter and manure-filled streets? Afterwards, a flim-flam medical show man can sell you some non-regulated pills for your ills. People take health/safety things that the government does for granted.

[fzqlcs]

@newguy33X Thank goodness for private industry and the automobile. That's what finally got all the horse manure out of the streets. As for health, you forget about the millions of people who died because the FDA delayed approval of a medicine (like beta-blockers) that could have saved them. see John Stossel - FDA. On balance, regulation does more harm than good, but it takes a subtle and sophisticated understanding to appreciate that.

[newguy33X]

@fzqlcs There can be mass production or proliferation of something with or without capitalist interests. People invent, think, etc. with and without dollar signs in their eyes. Almost any way the system gets set up, people can learn how to jump through hoops and do what they need to, and some powerful people will find the loopholes and be crooked. It almost seems random who gets credit and ridiculous wealth from a good idea or invention and who doesn't. Stossel seems biased.

[newguy33X]

@fzqlcs A German invented the automobile. Shouldn't he and his decendants have been given HUGE royalties? A million people owe their lives to Norman Borlaug, but he's not nearly a billionaire. There's only incentive to own things, things that need to be purchased over and over. Develop treatments, not cures, or even pseudo-treatments and use the correct legal language so you don't get sued. Pure capitalism would leave us with a few people basically as Gods, and not much else.

[newguy33X]

@newguy33X *Correction: A BILLION people owe their lives to Borlaug. A better capitalist way of doing what he did would be to make a small change, patent it and force it down farmers throats, lobby hard for it, and have people needing to come back to you over and over again with increasing amounts of money. He did none of that, and he did more for humanity than basically anyone. He was only there at the last step, but still...

[newguy33X]

@fzqlcs Oh, correction on yours...widespread efforts got the filth out of the streets. There was lots of human garbage and even human waste in the streets for a time too. If it's a big company or a government, either way... I don't see a huge difference. People can vote with their ballots and/or their dollars. The U.S. is a mix, and maybe it's good that neither side gets beyond the scope of the other. Some socialist countries are amazing for the average citizen.

[newguy33X]

@fzqlcs Or an updated version: They'd have rfid chips in the houses so firefighting companies would know to put out fires at houses which had (or were close to ones which had) the right company's chip. They wouldn't fight with other companies if the area had paid for police services in the specifice area, they might if there were no police services and they couldn't get arrested for fighting.

[s0beit]

I don't really like his arguments, especially at the end. It's true, poor people are better off than before, but, this bubble wasn't caused by business. It's saddening he didn't mention that.

[pchawk1]

one word, Chase - is a bank that nobody likes and is the biggest in the world.

[stealthgerm]

go to dmv early in morn .much much less stressfull

[adulby]

"you can only make profit in this country by giving people a product or service that they want" - there in lies the simplest and most everlasting benefit of a free country. You can call it capitalism, enterprise, extended order, but at the end of the day thats what you get in a FREE country. People serving the interests of others for there own. Both win, both profit, both live in benefit from one another. I would not have it any other way.

[Spjungen]

@adulby Precisely. It's when the government works with big banks and corporations to allow easy credit and get rich quick schemes wherein people essentially get rich by doing nothing at all but riding the gravy train, that you have a problem.

[sleedolfine15]

@nfwvideo1 Probably not,well...I don't know. On the one hand children,like the insane fall into a protected catagory,but on the other hand in general I believe that the world runs more smoothly without the State getting in the way. But, in any event,my point is that child labor disappears--law or not,where families in a society are properous enought to not need to put their children to work in order to survive. Capitalism is the only economic system which produces that degree of wealth.

[RichBunk]

@manoman0 Yeah I hate Michael Moore, he a cry baby bitch, someone needs to take away his man card he has sprouted a vagina.

[TheDestroyerCrom]

@MMZen: you seem to be against the free market and libertarian ideas, but it's strange that everything you said supports it.

[MMZen]

.....by people begging for the right to go back to child labor and working 18 hour days to make the boss be able to afford another BMW payment while calling it "freedom"

[davidjbeals]

@MMZen You HAVE to be some 22 year old, idiot college student that has taken two or three courses in either sociology or psychology and uses only rhetoric and "witty" comments to get your point across. Shut the f!$@ up and finish your weak thesis on the "plight" of the working class. Oh yeah, by the way, it's spelled 'naïveté' not 'naivety' moron.

[sleedolfine15]

@MMZen The reason why we don't work 18 hours a day is because capitalism produces more with fewer hours. Child labor predates capitalism and continues in parts of the world cursed by poverty. In any society so poor that families can't feed themselves,the whole family--including the kids,will work. No law on earth can stop it. Child labor has disappeared because the great wealth produced by capitalism has allowed the family to feed everyone on the adult earnings alone.

[MMZen]

massive government intervention helped to create mega companies like McDonald Douglas who helped to successfully devalue labor, the rich watch their own salaries sky rocket with corporate wellfare and hand outs, they want socialism for themselves and capitalism for everyone else while throwing more and more "undesirables" into jail because they don't contribute to helping make the masters more money, and things have been so skewed to the right that anyone who complains is screamed down.....

[MMZen]

You are a brainwashed moron if you think anything really happens in "the free market" big business does everything it can to put a stranglehold on the free market, you talk about the naivety of liberals yet don't see the naivety that when you have enough money and influence you can pretty much mold society to your own whims...you should listen to Noam Chomsky someone who has actual brain cells instead of idiots like stossell

[xtremejohnny69]

@MMZen You're right, government intervention in the markets did cause monopolies and economic hard times. That's not free market capitalism though. In free market capitalism, there is no government involvement whether it's against or benefiting the company. I'm not really sure what you're trying to get across, first you talk about Noam Chomsky, then you talk about crony capitalism, then you talk about corporate control of society.

[RichBunk]

@xtremejohnny69 Actually the government can regulate things, it's over regulation that kills opportunities. Socialism is for fags.

[xtremejohnny69]

@RichBunk I could see some safety and health regulations, but for the most part when the public finds out about safety and health issues they can use the power of boycott.

[Ravengaurd6]

@MMZen But Big businesses only have control as long they intermingle with Government powers. Goverment is the one with a monopoly on printing currency and military force.Government is the origin of social engineering. as long as the Gov't mixes with the market the market will mix with the government.

Our focus is on individual liberty. that cannot exist in the light of overwhelming force

free markets are the strait between scylla and charybdis. Goverment left and corporatism right. flux needed

[Elestareus]

Does anybody remember Monarchies? They were not very fair. If you said the king is a dick, you get thrown in jail and worst get hanged.

[YoungIvyScholar]

<3333333

[MMZen]

these slick talking conservative scum fuckers are so good at tickling ears....lets look at the status of the working class just 80 years ago....children working 16 hour days....for next to nothing....if these libertarian assholes had their way and the minimum wage was done away we'd go back to exactly the kinds of conditions we had at the start of the industrial revolution...the entire idea behind the assembly line was to break down the skill of labor into brainless parts to take away the

[daPlumber702]

@MMZen so then you were a 16 year old child 80 years ago? great typing skills for your age.

the idea that 16 year olds worked for 16 hours a day for next to nothing is close to true, but taken far from in context, and thrown into an argument where it is irrelevant.

kids worked it's true, did they work 16 hours? Sometimes, and a lot of them would consider themselves lucky for the money earned. (this is coming from my grandfather who was 16 about 83 years ago.) they weren't forced tbc

[daPlumber702]

@MMZen to work those hours, they did so because they could, and it led them to be strong, productive pieces of our society... we certainly didn't end up to bad off after their hard work. we are many times richer as a nation and a world now BECAUSE of it.

what those liberal (fuck you for stealing a damn good word and twisting it into a communist pisstake) jackasses don't get is that telling someone (rich or poor) what to do with THEIR FUCKING OWN MONEY is wrong. That is the end of the convo.

[missles518]

@MMZen WHAT THE F@#$ ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT? Did you not hear a single word Michael Tried to explain?

Teach a man to fish and he'll eat for life. Give a man a fish and he'll for a day.

Would you rather give money to the poor from your own pocket, or tell someone else to give money to the poor. What did the poor do to earn that money? Why are they poor? Didn't they go to school and learn to work?

What the F@#$? What the F- - -, Dude?

[MMZen]

the right wing talks about the "myth" of the finite pie idea of creating wealth but what they fail to talk about is the fact that the vast majority of the pie that is created is created only for the ultra rich and there is a huge condensation of almost all the worlds GNP is in the hands of less than %1 of the population...also if you look at real wages vs real productivity the actually productivity of workers keeps increasing while real world wages adjusted for inflation stagnate

[daPlumber702]

@MMZen

The "right wing" talks about it quite a bit. why do you think it happens? Do you really think that it's because the government doesn't intervene enough?

I couldn't possibly think of a reason why wages would be stagnate when the government is doing so much to FORCE businesses to GIVE UP THEIR MONEY left and right. doesn't make any sense at all.

[Ragnarokgn]

If you want to look at individual people we can, but you started this conversation with an averaged quantity called "real income". To steal your words:

That's like saying if there was only one person in the US who got a pay raise, then somehow the standard of living increased for everyone. We both know that some people within an economy will get real wage increases and some will not. That does not invalidate "real income" as a stat.

[AndroidPolitician]

@Ragnarokgn

It's still based on total personal income, which includes things like rent, compensation, assets etc. It's not just what people get payed, which is what invalidates personal income.

At any rate, everyone gets payed through a wage and that wage has not surpassed 1974.

[Ragnarokgn]

@AndroidPolitician While correct that real wages peaked in 1974 it is also irrelevant.

If a law was passed that stated everyone must be paid cash only. Then the 29.8% of compensation that is now benefits would become wage and real wages would easily exceed 1974. Would you then state that everyone is 30% better off? Of course not because those people would have to go out and buy insurance of various kinds. They would be in the exact same position as today.

IE Standard of living has increased.

[AndroidPolitician]

@Ragnarokgn

That would actually be true if benefits affected 100% of the working population. If what you said happened given the current circumstances, then yeah, buying insurance kills the point of having wages increase.

At least we can agree that personal income is a useless statistic, normal or per capita.

[Ragnarokgn]

@AndroidPolitician I do not see your point. The composition of a person's compensation is of course variant, but it detracts naught from the fact that to the employer it is still money and to the employee it is still compensation. From the very beginning we have been speaking of averages like "real wage".

Are you actually arguing that because one person gets paid more than another we should invalidate that person's wage in said average? Because that is your argument against compensation.

[AndroidPolitician]

@Ragnarokgn

No I'm not, I'm saying that if a significant portion of the labor force doesn't get something period, then it's not worth measuring it for everyone.

It's like if economists factored slaves into the workforce from the 1700s in order to find the wages, income etc. there's no point since they don't get payed.

Obviously some people get payed higher wages then others but if 50% weren't payed a wage at all, then I wouldn't be using wages.

[Ragnarokgn]

@AndroidPolitician Ignoring modern slaves 100% of the workforce gets compensation for their labor. Not everyone gets paid in the same manner though, some don't even make a wage(example: stock options).

How else do you think the standard of living has been increasing? Certainly not from falling real wages, but from rising real compensation. It is irrelevant how people are paid as long as they want that payment. Actually, this trend is mostly due to tax law as compensation is taxed differently.

[AndroidPolitician]

@Ragnarokgn

I'm sure there aren't people that are payed 100% of their earnings in stock options or other non-wage ways (or if they are then their very rare).

The point is, yes everyone gets compensation in the form of a wage, not in other ways such as healthcare. That's why we limit it to wage, everything else is terribly skewed and we're looking for the same standard for everyone.

Wages don't necessarily indicate standard of living, they indicate people's freedom to affect things. (CONT.)

[AndroidPolitician]

@Ragnarokgn

Standard of living is done through things like the HDI and poverty and unemployment rates, what I'm interested in is positive freedom or the ability for someone to affect change etc.

Although unemployment/poverty were lower during the kensyian golden years anyway.

[Ragnarokgn]

What you call "terrible logic" is the definition of an average. You have yet to describe why compensation is less accurate than wage, whilst I have shown the opposite.

Regardless, to the employer it matters not if he pays his employee $80 in wages and $20 in health care, but the typical statist politician can sell the package as he made the evil employer "give" his employees healthcare.

This "problem" of stagnant real wages began in Washington.

[AndroidPolitician]

@Ragnarokgn

I just did, the "average" is only the average of half of all workers. That's like saying if there was only one person in the US who got healthcare benefits, and his benefits increased, then somehow the standard of living increased for everyone. It doesn't look at the bigger picture.

Whereas not everyone gets compensation, everyone gets wage (cont.)

[Ragnarokgn]

What is even more telling than what I just wrote. In real dollars the amount of disposable income has been increasing. If people were worse off at making ends meet(ie they were being paid less in real terms) then this number would be decreasing and not increasing.

Progressive talking points are fun because they are so easy to demolish.

[AndroidPolitician]

@Ragnarokgn

lol right so if only lets say 50% of Americans get healthcare benefits and for those 50% benefits increased that's supposed to show payment increased for Americans as a whole? That's terrible logic.

Or we could look at what everyone makes (real wages) and judge from that.

[Ragnarokgn]

@AndroidPolitician I forgot to hit the reply button my original message is below. Additionally, how can you explain the increase in disposable income? Is this another example of the "truth" being victimized by averages?

[AndroidPolitician]

@Ragnarokgn

Ahaha "real disposable income" is just real national income per capita. That's about the worst statistic there is.

If national income and population increase (which in the US they have been forever) than holy shit so does disposable income.

It's literally about as useful as saying we're better off because GDP increased.

[Ragnarokgn]

@AndroidPolitician Continued:

I am sorry that I was a little vague. I was referring to real Personal Disposable Income, which is calculated from a person's real income after taxation(not GDP). Regardless, it is actually a poor stat for what I was trying to describe. What i really wanted was Real Discretionary Income, which is the amount of income after taxes and "basics". It is more accurate as long as the methodology for "basics" is defined.

[AndroidPolitician]

"There is no leizure class today, people that run corporations work incredibly hard"

Yeah the CEO who goes off on vacations in his yacht sure works as hard as a Janitor who works overtime just to stay afloat.

[AndroidPolitician]

It IS a zero-sum game. People's real wages have decreased since 1974, around the same time regulations were cut to zero and the rich have had an explosion of wealth.

Wealth wasn't created and didn't "trickle down" on the poor, it was redistributed to the rich.

[Ragnarokgn]

@AndroidPolitician If economics was a zero sum game, then the average standard of living would still be caveman level. Additionally, all wage levels have increased significantly since 1974. What you are probably being misinformed with is household income, but household size is not the same as it was in 1974.(even then it has increased quite a bit)

[AndroidPolitician]

@Ragnarokgn

Real wages have stayed below 1974, I'm not talking about Households.

Money being generated isn't itself a zero sum game it's whose getting it is. Yes people get more money all the time but most people have had about the same since 74.

[Ragnarokgn]

@AndroidPolitician Non-farm Real compensation, the amount a person is paid in wages and benefits has increased from 70.722 in 1974 to 104.031 in 2010(on a 100 normalized 2005 scale). It is inherently intellectually dishonest to focus only on wages(those have increased too, just less).

source: US Department of Labor: Bureau of Labor Statistics

[AndroidPolitician]

@Ragnarokgn

Using Real compensation is incredibly dishonest because a lot of of the people don't get it.

Compensation is essentially just healthcare, and since 45 million people and the people working in small businesses don't get it, well hey suddenly it's a good statistic.

Real wages don't have that problem though, everyone working gets paid a wage.

[Ragnarokgn]

@AndroidPolitician Compensation is infinitely more honest than wage. Your assertion that they employee does not get it, and hence is invalid cannot be supported. Desperately try, I beg you to do the real research into the department of labor.

In fact you are claiming this:

If a law(and it is usually a law or a tax change) causes me as an employer to buy health insurance for $20. The previous year I paid $100 in wages, but this year I pay $81, then the employee LOST $19.

Seriously?

[AndroidPolitician]

Making money may be a "golden rule" but it also leads to companies putting lead in children's toys because it's expensive to keep toys safe, or dumping toxic waste in rivers to cut costs

or yeah, the obvious one,

HMOs that deny people healthcare because they make a profit on healthy people and loose money with sick people.

[AndroidPolitician]

Medicare sure is worse then companies that deny people healthcare....

You know, those 45,000 people that die each year because they don't have health insurance?

Yeah name a single person, one person, that's died because they were denied healthcare in a single-payer country. 

[fzqlcs]

@AndroidPolitician You are a fucking idiot! 45,000 DIE each year because of no insurance? That is nuts. Tell us all where you found that little factoid! Not having insurance does not mean you do not get health care, much less that you die, you chowder-head. Thanks for providing a good example of the pea brain mentality that elected Obama. The public schools system, YIKES!

[AndroidPolitician]

@fzqlcs

Yes it is nuts that 45,000 people literally die because of it.

That "factoid" came from a study out of Harvard, you know Harvard?

moourl(dot)com/hvaha

My challenge still stands, name one person who died because they were rationed by a single-payer system.

[visionfirst1970]

nothing is real anymore,, its all a con, a pyramid, Medved is a fraud in bed with the fraudsters

[rupertmja1]

You can't compare Dow between now and 30 years ago. It's all current-relative.

[pf37rss]

Why is there a shovel next to John Stossel?

[Linguiphile]

Did you hear that you half-witted Leftists? The rich get that way by providing jobs, services and products to others. Their rising tide lifts all boats. Big-government socialists try to make everyone equal (everyone except of course the bureaucrats and Jacobins who run the government) by sinking all the boats to the bottom.

[dove997]

is it me or they look at each other just like they had sex before show... and thiese eyes... thiese free my sons :P eyes :D

[bigbrothersucksarse]

Two porn stars.

[PETERFISC]

I watched the whole thing like it was a mustache contest. Stossel wins.

[gfreakj]

@PETERFISC LOL.

[theanduo]

customers, shareholders, and employees, when one of these is treated better are some treated less equitable ? For instance a credit card company charging someone 30% for outstanding debt. Seems like for this example treating shareholders is more important

[ch1kusoo]

@theanduo the reason credit card companies do this because they discourage you from borrowing from them. It doesn't do them any good if the cost of borrowing is high, people will go elsewhere.

[totustuus11]

Who would trust any message that came out of California, anyway????

[Pfsif]

These guys need to go to Haiti or Mexico where capitalism rules supreme.

[mercury82]

@Pfsif Actually, government corruption rules supreme in Mexico.  Nice try though.

[ricadrew]

Moore is living the American capitalist dream by attempting to destroy it. The irony is amazing!

[nakor667]

Free choices should always be encouraged

[btmcguir25]

anyone know of a good place to buy silver??... preferably safe and fairly easy to withdraw cash

[TheProgressistViewer]

Michael Moore is a nightmare...

[taubstumm]

"Wall Street" was right tho. The stockmarket is a zero sum game.

[TheNewRight]

What makes capitalism "moral" (not amoral) is that it involves free association minus force. As Julian Simon noted, it makes mankind the worlds greatest resource. And capitalism makes the use of 'force' immoral, unless it is to protect against the initiation of physical force & fraud..thus minds of men are free. Moore uses his free mind to make a case against it, funny.

[picaroon02]

That's true. The same people on the Senate Finance Committee who wanted companies to create and bundle CDOs are now going after Goldman Sachs for creating and bundling CDOs.

It just so happened that they'd notice default rating increasing and were smart enough to hedge and short CDOs. Mark my words, unless they're truly criminal working both sides...nothing will come of this.

So why don't we both sit back and let the hearings take place and the wrong party buys lunch. Is that fair?

[bajoverga]

two powerful stashes in one room!!!

[EGarrett01]

Excellent. Just excellent. As a moderate, I hope the conservatives who see this take note. THIS is the way you challenge Obama and his ideas. Not by ridiculous tea parties or name-calling or racial slurs or whatever other crap that just makes you look foolish. Challenge his policies, show us, CLEARLY and maturely, why they don't work, and offer us a better way.

[WelfareRobot]

@EGarrett01, go back to your Dem party. You don't tell us how to act, especially in regards to the non-"race" issue you and your type try to insinuate. The Tea Parties are the only hope for this country. The Dems and Repubs have both sold out the American people.

[EGarrett01]

@WelfareRobot

When did I say I was a Dem? They have just as many dumb ideas the Republicans do.

[MigDanskeren]

Good discussion. Though I wished he had also mentioned that the bubble was caused by the Fed, not capitalism.

[ProudConservative2]

Always loved both Medved and Stossel... this is simple and right on the money! (pardon the pun).

[whoo689]

I really wish Stossel could've invited someone much more of an authority on economics to talk about business in this clip. I mean, Medved's just another regular right-wing pundit, really. Sure, he is right about business in this clip, but I'd rather someone like Sowell or Friedman were on to talk about it.

And for the record, Moore is such a blowhard. "No moral core"?? Lol! How the hell do you think you got so fat and rich, Michael? CAPITALISM! You charge high speaking fees, right?

[whoo689]

@whoo689 I find it hilarious how folks like Michael Moore bitch about how "evil" capitalism is while ignoring just how much it's contributed to their standard of living here in the West. Even someone in a very poor state where capitalism "doesn't seem to be working", or so the people think, have more of a case against it than Moore does having made his entire LIVING as a big liberal speaker and moviemaker b/c of capitalism.

[whoo689]

@whoo689 Moore's movie should be renamed something like Corporatism: A Love Story. And besides, even if this was a "failure" of capitalism, the financial crisis represents the EXCESSES of the system, not what happens regularly. This kind of thing is very rare. For an asshole like Moore to go around pretending like THAT is what capitalism is all about is just pure fraud.

[whoo689]

@whoo689 If people knew just how ridiculous and full of lies Moore's movies were, I'm sure they'd be demanding their $8 back from the theater. Even Roger and Me, which looks "truthful" to some, wasn't quite so. For instance, it turns out that Moore actually got to sit down and talk to Roger Moore, former head of GM, long before the film was even released. He even had a magazine interview with the guy. I've heard he actually did TWO interviews with him or something similar.

[qtronman]

I hate much of the left, but I've worked in large businesses and the people at the top are of mixed moral character.

[Marech1984]

Which number of Newseek has got that title in the first page?

[woodsofodin]

This looks like a great book. Thanks for posting this. :)

[Sean0301]

I liked how he quickly got away fromt he bailout. This is because that was the result of GREED by banks and Wall street. There wouldnt have been a correction that collapsed the economy if hadn's been artificially inflated for years.

[Sean0301]

If companies dont exploit then why do they go overseas to save on labor? They sell out their own country. This guy lives in a fairtale land where Benie Madoff and Goldman Sachs didnt ever exist. As far as theri being no leisure class, what about Madoff, Hilton, and numerous others.

[bodybuilder444444]

Fuck michael moore. He just wants us to all be his slaves, so we can serve his fat ass cookie and pizza!

[manoman0]

michael moore...shut up you fucking commie and money grabber

[Elasaltaculos]

@manoman0 Michael Moore is a capitalist, though.... He gives idiots what they want to hear, and makes much money in the process.

[manoman0]

@Elasaltaculos - right on point. in his environment it's just like killing a cash cow calling oneself a capitalist. Jesus once made a good point: "Judge by what they do, not by how they talk". Quite accurate, may I not have quote Mr. Jesus literally though..

[yammyspeed13]

@manoman0 Commie or  money grabber, what's the difference?

[MigDanskeren]

@manoman0

He himself earned millions from capitalism but now he want a system that will not allow others to do the same. What a hypocrite.

[nasaguy]

@manoman0 - I don't care for Michael Moore, but to call him a "money grabber", as though it were an insult, is to miss the point of this video: that making money is GOOD!

[manoman0]

@nasaguy - lol. absolutely right. I didn't mean it an insult saying "money grabber". But to pretend not wanting to make money (look at him) but doing so is what I so much detest. That's what I call "money grabbers": doing so but pretending otherwise. To get in line with you, I say "making money is GOOD". Period.

[TheProgressistViewer]

@nasaguy Yes, but Moore does it by arguing against making money.

[missles518]

@manoman0 Michael Moore is either Selfish or Thinks that people are mainly Selfish. I agree 110% WITH YOU ON MICHAEL MOORE

[return135]

he is right about most of the things except for stating "there are no obscene profits". The state cartelizes so many industries and this artificially inflates their profits.

[Elasaltaculos]

@return135 another good observation.

[Elasaltaculos]

I agree with almost everything. But I disagree with the "Capitalism came roaring back" in the United States, that is like saying that Bush was right when he "abandoned Capitalism in order to rescue it". Prospering because of government favor is not Capitalism.

Also, having a higher DJIA index doesn't mean much when it is measured in dollars, or any easily inflatable fiat currency for that matter.

[usgop]

Everybody continues to report that this country is going down but it IS NOT.

[TheLegalImmigrant05]

Nice. And very needed.

[joshpnw]

This just makes to g-damn too much sense for the average liberal.

Obama and the current democrat leadership in DC are exactly what Michael is talking about.... but their followers will continue with their proverbial hands on their ears... 'we need to spread the wealth.'

[swenner64]

Liberals condemn Corruption in Business but then defend it in Government.

[tabber87]

@swenner64 They defend it even in business by insisting on bailing out failing and mismanaged corporations...

Why does Fox feel the need to have a live audience for all their shows? It's extremely annoying.

[StrafingMoose]

@swenner64

In fact, there's little to no corruption in business. Since corruption at its core definition means one working against the interests of those who hired him, there are alot of incentives to find and defeat corruption in business, wherehas it just happens all the time in government.

[swenner64]

@StrafingMoose Corrupt corporations go out of business unless corrupt government bails them out.

[worldofdraculas]

@StrafingMoose The worst kind of legal corruption in "Big Business" is when they lobby the government to keep out competitors or get tax exemptions. If the government didn't take the power to make so many laws about every aspect of business, what could business lobby for anymore?

[StrafingMoose]

@worldofdraculas

I agree that mercantilism is no good to regular folks like us, but the case you describe is not corruption on the business side. Lobbyists are doing exactly what the company wants. It's the government officials that are corrupted by accepting handouts and work against the interests of the people who "hired" them.

BTW, lobbyists usually go for more taxes, knowing full well some of their key competitors can't pay them.

[CountArtha]

Michael Medved is one of those people who looks totally different from what his voice makes you think of.