James K. Galbraith Talks to TYT About the Bailouts

[MEpianist]

Jamie, run for PRESIDENT!

[theH0UNDSofD00M]

Who needs to know about economics to understand that there's nothing free about the market.

Too Big To Fail / Too Small To Matter

Wont be long now...

[readthepaper]

The best thing the silly fascist can come up with is FM radio and the false claim that high tariffs are why Japan has a successful auto industry. What a joke. No wonder our country is filled with morons.

[tesla921]

It's nice to read the comments of someone who actually understands economics. Most of the responders on youtube are state indoctrinated ignoramuses fully in line with the socialist doctrine taught in the public schools and in the" institutions of higher learning".

[readthepaper]

Yeah it really is sad. Look at the discussion, it's like trying to explain nuclear physics to a mentally challenged 5 year old. How can any of us have a serious debate/discussion when people don't even understand how the price system works? Sometimes I wonder why I bother.

[tesla921]

At least you can take consolation in knowing you are on the side of what is right.

I just refer the socialists and facists (both are wrong when discussing economics or freedom) to LRC or STR and let it go at that. The intellectually curious will check it out. ...Most won't.

[theH0UNDSofD00M]

When you finish to tap your mate on the back maybe you would like to enlighten us about all the oh so wise comments you two seem to share.

[readthepaper]

By the way, to those of you complaining about CDS, you should realize that when they came about in 1997 through JP Morgan because of the stupid capital requirements that came about after the S&L disaster in the 1980s. The CDS were a means to have these risky assets without having them "on their balance sheet". You can't centrally plan an economy, why can't people understand that?

[seanotube85]

The economy is just a reason/excuse for us not to care about each other.

[juliact]

Galbraith is spot on.  Of course Obama doesn't want to piss off the big boys of Wall St etc. It's politics. The only way forward is for the PEOPLE to make it plain to their politicians that they need to be scared of the PEOPLE and not Wall St!!!

[schmokay]

FYI that betting analogy is known as a zero-sum game, because in the end the winners and losers cancel each other out. There are risk anaylis model that show how someone can bet on both sides and minimize the exposure to risk with a band.

[pretorious700]

Yes, they are called hedge funds.

[schmokay]

Ultimatlely, CDSs can be phased out. They are termed, like termed life insurance. The terms are usually 90 or 120 days, sometimes 240 days. After the term of the cotract has expired you have to re-up. Under the conditions the insurance broker probably wont renew, if there is any real risk they will charge out the ass in premiums. Basically the clock ran out on the bet. That is the advantage of propping up institutions like CitiGroup and GM. However, both of the firms have fundamental issues.

[schmokay]

First of all as with casinos you don't actually bet against the house. You place a bet on say the Patriots and really you are betting against someone who bet against them. If more people bet against them than for the odds go up against and you end up with 2-1 or 3-1. The house pockets a small fee for brokering the transaction in this model AIG is the house. If the house folded it would have lead to a world of confusion, "systemic risk."

[johnrussellCD5]

TOO BIG To Fail IS TOO BIG TO EXIST! That Is part of what Federal Anti-Trust Laws Are for... According to Geitner/Obama et al Too Big To Fail Just means Too Big is OK ... As Long as we throw in some new regulations everything will be just fine not taking into account what might happen if their new regulations were circumvented... and the next AIG FAILED? Geithner is wed to Wall Street as is Obama and that fundamentally IS the problem! J R

[schmokay]

There was a regulatory gap that allowed AIG to become a "market maker" for CDSs. That gap can, will and should be closed. But AIG regular insurace division is stable. I beleive their should be a clearing house system for securities. I think there should be licensed securities certifation authorities that hold a significant reserve for any security. I think the accreditation of these authorities should be international. Any investment bank, hedge fund, etc.. can issue securities is a system risk.

[johnrussellCD5]

There was NO regulation of the market for CDS. Reg insurance was not the problem but for AIG a HUGE proportion of its business was these CDS's which were little more than gambling debts based on for example whether JPMorgan would go OOB! Hedge Funds operate largely in the dark as well. Stated problem AIG had 79 million insurance policies globally. Systemic RISK! AIG has since acted as a passthrough for Bailout $'s to UBS and other foreign banks. Taxpayers saving the gamblers US+FOREIGN!

[johnrussellCD5]

TOTAL $ globally in Credit Default Swaps estimates range from 64 to 450 TRILLION $'s! Read Michael Hudson and Nouriel Roubini! This was a SCAM of gargantuan proportion and literally no one responsible heading up these firms are being held accountable. Rob a gas station and you're going to jail!

Rob the economy from an executive suite and you go home in your limo and keep liv'n LARGE! Fundamentally need to eliminate TOO BIG to Fails from our economy (ANTI-TRUST) + NEW GLASS STEAGAL Act!

[readthepaper]

You've never studied anti-trust law, because if you did you would understand that it is only used by corporations to screw over their competitors, as has been demonstrated time and time again throughout history.  there is nothing wrong with monopoly; there is something wrong with state-enforced monopoly where it exists only because its is artificially propped up, not because it is efficient.

[readthepaper]

Glass-Steagall and the Banking Act were both jokes as well that accomplished nothing. Glass-Steagall was again implemented as a means to screw over competition because it was pushed for by Kuhn, Loeb and Rockefeller to screw over J.P. Morgan because they were taking away their commercial banks demand deposits. Read something before you make these idiotic socialist claims.

[honestlycorrect]

*

Shocking at minute 15:30

*

[seattlevkk]

The biggest donors to Obama's campaign were the banks and wall street firms. He feels indebted to them and doesn't want to wipe them out.

[bleunt]

I'm growing tired of the economy. I guess because I don't notice the down turn. -_-

[honestlycorrect]

WHAT MAKES SENSE?!!!!

The fact that Geithner is willing to pay the full contracted value for toxic assets is as outrageous as willing to accept excessive bonus compensations for the executives who created such assets.

Temporary nationalization and bank restructurations seems a more sensible solution now.

[jpbroadwater]

whatever obama is he's certainly no where near as retarded as bush was. and what's the alternative? mccain and palin? don't make me laugh man

[readthepaper]

What's the difference between Obama and Bush? It's like dumb and dumber. One just decided to blow more money than the other one, one stutters without a teleprompter and one stutters regardless - that's about it.

[jpbroadwater]

you're conveniently ignoring the fact that obama is only having to blow money at the moment because of bush's ignorant choices

[readthepaper]

Bush was an idiot, but that doesn't justify Obama making all the same mistakes as him times ten. Transferring money from productive people to unproductive people makes absolutely no sense; especially when the money is all borrowed and eventually will have to be printed. Why should the government have to decree what has to be used as money? It is only through such a decree that people would accept worthless paper. I wouldn't expect a socialist to understand that.

[jpbroadwater]

i understand your point - so you'd go back to a barter system or the gold standard then? and how would that work in practice?

[readthepaper]

I can't say what would be used as money, I would let the market decide because it is perfectly capable of doing so. The market would most likely use gold and/or silver as it had done for thousands of years before the government lucked out and people were dumb enough to accept worthless paper. The government hates commodity money because it imposes discipline.

[KezRox]

You ought to google up Gold Standard and look over the criticisms of it on the Wikipedia entry. There's simply not enough of it to go around.

[readthepaper]

Why does the money supply have to be elastic? Of course there is enough gold to go around, prices would simply adjust downward. There's no way the U.S. could ever have gold at $42/oz. again because of all the worthless paper they've printed, but it could absolutely be adjusted. Metals such as silver/copper could also be used for smaller transactions. I don't advocate a "gold standard"; I advocate a free market in money which would most likely use gold/silver.

[readthepaper]

To claim that there isn't enough gold to go around shows an utter lack of understanding with regards to how the price system works, and how given any supply of money, whatever that money may be, will always in the long run be adjusted to.

[thetimman00]

This business about maybe the current administration just isn't quite getting it yet, but we know the previous administration didn't get it, is really a bunch of bunk. Both administrations are and were getting it, and neither is or was working for we the people. Ther is an underlying agenda. Find out what that agenda is and we can be free again, like our founding fathers intended.

[carthfhuil]

Did you notice that Cenk was suffering some real cognitive dissonance on this one? I know Obama is good and wise and loves us....but, he's also supporting a policy that seems to be screwing us royally.... I think the Obama people will come around to see how out of touch he is (or venal -- it's hard to know).

[jpbroadwater]

I thought you were making a general point about government's role in economies though, in which case I'd say they should lay down a strong legal and regulatory framework so that companies don't have the freedom to run totally wild and ruin other people's lives

[tesla921]

It's amazing how wrong these so called economists are. The only economists who are always proven right are the Austrians. Why listen to the wrong morons over and over.

[carthfhuil]

Yeah, Galbraith is a Keynesian and a socialist (do I repeat myself?), but let's take allies where we can get them. On the criminal nature of the bailouts, Galbraith is spot on. Plus, he's credible with the Obama nuts -- even Cenk was starting to sound like a capitalist here!

[tesla921]

I get you're point. I'm still not sure I want to dance with the devil. ...even for a little while. These people think the free market is extreme.

[carthfhuil]

Ha!

[KezRox]

Thanks for that. Austria has a generous Social Welfare/Public Health system. :]

[readthepaper]

Yeah, business week is the authority on comparing health care costs. Even the funded with stolen money WHO admits that the U.S. has the lowest per capita cost. Economic calculation can only occur when bids are placed between producers and consumers, it is impossible to set prices prior to this bidding. The U.S. is a massive welfare state, so I'm not sure what you're trying to contrast it with exactly. The FCC is one of the most useless federal agencies in existence.

[KezRox]

The US is the only country with out a fully developed Universal Healthcare and/or Single Payer System, that's why the comparison. The reason why you can go to Goodwill and buy a receiver for $10 and have free music, news, spots, weather & talk is due to the FCC having shepherded the industry. Example: when FM came out, the FCC required all autos have FM. When FM Stereo came out, same thing. You can't depend on consumers to be informed enough to decide, when the rich own most of the advertising.

[readthepaper]

The problem with people like you, fascists, is that you have never really come to terms with accepting the axioms of economics. Everybody with half a brain knows that price controls don't work and that they always result in shortages, and even you have declined to say how any other result is possible. When you become economically literate, instead of spewing some nonsense from business week, and you learn what a price system is, let me know.

[KezRox]

The economy is not a person with a brain that reasons on it's own. That whole notion of an "invisible hand" is all mumbo-jumbo. Again I cite the following: the FCC bringing FM Stereo to the marketplace, the fact that alternative fuels/hybrid cars were stifled by the big oil industry (until China, 2 wars & 2 hurricanes sent gas prices over the top) and Japan's triumph in the auto industry by protectionism as a matter of historical record. You can argue theory all you want. This is about history.

[KezRox]

One other thing I should point out, you missed the fact that as I stated, subsidization by the government is also included in some degree by nations who use private healthcare- this helps to offset the push of inflation. Also, the differing entities -unions, employers & the government- can easily agree on the outcome by the Polder model, used in Belgium & the Netherlands.

[readthepaper]

Yeah the government has made a lot of great things like the postal service, amtrak, fannie mae, freddie mac, etc. What a bunch of success stories. It's funny how the two biggest failures in the U.S. economy, banking and housing, have the most government involvement. If you want to talk about history, the depression of 1920 saw a 24% decline in GNP and unemployment increase nearly 2.5x; far greater than 1929. The government did nothing and it was over in a bit more than a year.

[KezRox]

Amtrak would have faired better without Reagan's cutbacks. Ask Greenspan about how allowing investment banks to self regulate was a disaster. Sen Gramm & repeal of Glass-Steagall is largely to blame for the housing crisis. If their was REGULATION of the housing industry, predatory lending wouldn't have happened. Conversely, the internet was built by RAND and ARPANET, hardly the private sector. Same with the Interstate highway system.

[readthepaper]

In the 1930s the government did everything possible to use its fascist policies to "fix the depression" and made it last seventeen years contrasted with the 18 month debacle of 1920-1921. We had the greatest growth in the world, during the industrial revolution, with no central bank, no income tax, and no safety net. How's that for history? You believe in the economic doctrine of an idiot who thought natural disasters and building pyramids was good for the economy; give me a break.

[KezRox]

Obviously not everything the public sector does turns to shit, & not everything the private sector does is gold. Cutting taxes does no good w/o reciprocal budget cuts and tariffs probably shouldn't be used during a crisis. However, Japan had success in the auto industry through help from an activist government. Medical research as well as the aforementioned Interstate Highway system, the Internet, and the Broadcast industry are also examples of stuff that was helped by public assistance.

[KezRox]

Check around for the news that just came out today that China, the nation that has the most butt-kicking economy in the world right now, has instituted plan to reform it's healthcare system. The reasons given for the decline? Turning over health care to the private sector in 1992!

[carthfhuil]

At about 11:25, Cenk sounds like a friggin' financial genius -- he just laid out an orderly bankruptcy proceeding. Which is what we need! Please, Obama supporters, work with everyone else and make congress do the right thing and put these zombie combanies out of their misery. Then we can get clawback out of Goldman Sachs and the other counterparties. Awesome interview. Warms my heart.

[readthepaper]

Is this socialist related to that socialist John Kenneth Galbraith? You can tell right off the bat this guy is a clown, working for an institute named after the war mongering statist LBJ with "government-private" (fascist) cooperation. The government has no business in the economy, anybody who understands basic economics and who has read a history book can tell you that. Where do they find these morons?

[jpbroadwater]

Well, I understand basic economics, having a couple of degrees in the subject :) And I can tell you that the government definately DOES have a business in the economy. Tard.

[carthfhuil]

Well, yeah, it can oversee an orderly bankruptcy of these broken companies. What we're doing now is just propping them up, keeping their debts alive and choking the productive capacities of the larger economy.

[jpbroadwater]

on the issue of whether banks should be allowed to go bankrupt, you need to weigh the need for there to be market disincentives for failure against the need to avoid ordinary people having their entire lives wiped out because of someone else's mistakes.

[readthepaper]

People take risks with investments. The problem is that the government has created the problems in banking with the Federal Reserve and FDIC. Nobody cares where they put their money because they think the government is going to bail out every institution - it's a joke. Fractional-reserve banking has also merged demand deposits and time deposits which has only furthered risk and contributed to the business cycle. Also, what can the government do more efficiencly than the market?

[rborchers7]

I don't think the problem is with the Fed or the FDIC or any other regulatory agency. I believe the problem is with the lack of regulatory laws to empower those agencies. That Gramm piece of legislation in 1999 really set this ball rolling.

[rborchers7]

oops... 2000.

[readthepaper]

So 78,000+ pages of economic regulations enforced by over 100 federal agencies and departments isn't enough for you? You honestly believe a guarantee of all deposits and a socialist banking system doesn't make people less concerned about where there money is going? What set the ball rolling was in 1913 with the Fed's creation, then 1934 with the abandonment of a gold standard, then really in 1971 with the end of the gold-exchange standard (Bretton Woods).

[readthepaper]

Don't worry though the circus in Washington will make it all go away, because centrally planned economies like the Soviet Union have always proved to be a great success. You have to be utterly delusional to believe that a lack of regulation is the cause of economic depression.

[rborchers7]

Obviously trying to have a civilized conversation with you is out of the question, and no, I don't think the 78,000+ pages of economic regulation is enough, obviously. It was the repeal of those regulations set after the great depression that allowed the loop hole for these CDOs and CDSs and mangled webs to form.

[jpbroadwater]

correct

[jpbroadwater]

question is whether it's a risky investment to deposit your savings into a bank which you have every right to assume is properly regulated and protected

no-one's bailing out every institution, at least here in the UK, just the banking system

[readthepaper]

Properly regulated means government allowing demand deposits to be in fractional-reserves (fraud)? Or the government suppressing interest rates far below the natural rate? Or allowing banks to get money back no matter how poorly its been invested? The problem is you think the government can properly regulate, and will deposit money in any bank no matter what its credentials - my point proven.

[jpbroadwater]

not at all, "properly regulated" in my view means regulated in a way other than the way it has been regulated up to now

anyway you're just coming across as someone who isn't in the same boat as those who've lost everything and can afford the luxury of speaking theoretically

[KezRox]

JK Galbraith was not a socialist and neither is his son. Look up the definitions of things before you go shooting off your mouth. You use the term to mean regulation of a free market economy. The free market still exists in Keynesian economics, it's just halter broken. In socialism, the State owns EVERYTHING, not just regulates parts of it.

[readthepaper]

Oh I'm sorry, he was a fascist then if you want me to be politically correct about it. I think the State stealing half of everything people make is socialism, or under your definition, at the half way point. Keynesianism is not a free market, it defies all economic law because it is based on the fallacy that the market is not capable of making adjustments on its own. Keynes thought that bureaucrats had a magic wand; history has shown what a joke he was time and time again.

[KezRox]

Oh surrree the market is so perfect! That's why Japan got on top of the auto industry through imposing tarrifs on exports? That's why Buisness Week rated the US last in Health Care out of 7 nations surveyed? That's why almost every indsurtialized nation in the world -Israel, The Netherlands, Brazil, Denmark, etc. etc. have some combination of public health, public insurance, and price controls for health care?

But keep telling yourself that if it makes you feel better.

[readthepaper]

Japan did something magical; it made cars that people actually want to buy. Another magical thing they did was not paying useless unionized workers $70/hour. To claim that an industry having high tariffs makes it successful, especially when so many of their cars are sold overseas and not in Japan, is completely unfounded. It's not even a correlation, let alone causation. The U.S. is still lowest per capita cost of health care, along with having the most advanced equipment.

[KezRox]

Japan passed a law that said if you want to sell a car in Japan, you make it in Japan, then began imposing tariffs on car imports into Japan- should have said imports instead of exports, my bad. That's HOW they got on top of the industry- +innovation as you mentioned. Do some research. If innovation were all we needed to bring about change in people's buying habits, we would have had alternative fuels by now. I haven't even touched on how FCC regs was best for the radio broadcast industry.

[readthepaper]

You can be protectionist all you want but in the end it makes people pay higher prices when it is not necessary. Hence even if protectionism was the reason for a good car industry in Japan, which it is clearly not as most are sold outside the country especially here in the U.S., you cannot get around the fact that that money could have been used more productively elsewhere.

[KezRox]

For the 3rd time now, do some Googling. It's not rocket science: make a good car others will buy, and charge those same "others" to sell cars to you. Cha-ching. Look for the .pdf file "Japanese Auto Transplants and the US Automobile Industry by Candace Howes. I quote: "The countries which follow the most open trade policies do not seem to perform better in terms of economic growth compared with countries that follow more mercantilist strategies." That's how Japan did it. That's history.

[readthepaper]

Also keep in mind that health care costs in our country only went up after the government intervened heavily in the health care sector with Medicare/Medicaid. Price controls don't work; it's like holding down the mercury in a thermometer to get rid of a fever. How do price controls not result in a shortage? How does economic calculation occur in socialism? You need an operation you go to Brazil and have fun (and wait a year); I'd rather get one here.

[KezRox]

Google up "Best Counties For Health Care Business Week" if you doubt my word. They mention the Netherlands and I can verify that from regular contact I keep with someone over there. People aren't left with the inability to to pay when something's needed. Public health care/insurance, subsidization, price controls are how they do it. And fyi- people aren't necessarily made lazy by it, either! + Japan, Israel, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, New Zealand- have @least some public methods of care.

[honestlycorrect]

WHAT MAKES SENSE?!!!!

The fact that Geithner is willing to pay the full contracted value for toxic assets is as outrageous as willing to accept excessive bonus compensations for the executives who created such assets.

Temporary nationalization and bank restructurations seems a more sensible solution now.

[jaroncreed]

why does Galbraith start talking at such a low tone at around 14:15. He's almost whispering. What's he scared of ? Who's he hiding from?

[jesusninjapants]

money is fiat and is supposed to represent goods and services; Credit Default Swaps represent neither.

[underweightHater]

great interview!

[jesusninjapants]

great interview, really brings up some great points and discussions

[Scorceror]

News Flash: Obama doesnt give a shit about you!

[ARom101]

What's your point? You think Bush cared about him?

[Scorceror]

Bush and Obama are the same.

[ARom101]

... keep telling yourself that if it makes you happier ...

[jpbroadwater]

This doesn't even deserve a response :)

[cyrussukhia]

I love the irony of that statement

[jpbroadwater]

there's no irony there, we effectively abandoned it for good reasons, so I was asking what would be new a second time around

[cyrussukhia]

So what do we do?

[Tintube123]

Watch "The Obama Deception" on ChangedaChannel (Youtube).

This is an AGENDA that is going on. So many things are going against the basics.

Basics like: you don't bail out banks, you don't borrow money to get out of debt. You can't raise trillion-dollar deficits and then say "I will cut them in half". You don't borrow when you have no new industry (like technology in the late 1990's) to bail the USA out.

Who were Obama's biggest contributors to his campaign?

WALL STREET.

Gr8 interview Cenk

[ARom101]

No.

If you don't bail out banks your life savings are wiped out genius.

What else do you do with Trillion dollar deficits?

Clown.

[Tintube123]

Mr Kool-Aid drinker, ARom101

What do you have the FDIC for?

The banks have been SHEARING the population for YEARS.

How did the Depression of 1929 start? By banks like JP Morgan taking the piss.

Stop listening to the politicians, Fox News and any of the other bollocks they put out in the USA.

The banks have been doing derivative trading and they are the ones who should go down.

If anyone realised they were putting their money in a casino they wouldn't do it.

[ARom101]

What are you talking about? I'm Canadian...

As for derivative trading, you prove my point, Obama and more regulation is necessary because letting them fail is not an option.

You're not as smart as you think you are, as a matter of fact, you seem delusional and foolish.

[Stiagra]

they should let them fail because we can then separate bad businesses from good businesses. This debt is going to be historic in magnitude. We should abolish the fed as well.

[carthfhuil]

Damn straight! Keep spreading the word about how bankruptcy works and what it does to debt. Harass the hell out of your congressman because chances are he just doesn't understand any of this. I know mine doesn't.

[orishas2000]

"(like technology in the late 1990's) to bail the USA out."

Look up recent developments in cold fusion.

[Mickey1Art]

Cenk you should get the msnbc spot with this interview alone. Great work. Now full press on the gambling angle with CDOs. Once that idea gets on cable hide the pitchforks. You need to debate Colbert on this issue. Roll Cenk Roll

[Melpheos1er]

Lol, at first i though it was John Kenneth Galbraith but on 2ns though hmmmm wait isn't he dead for 3-4 years ?

[hypnofan35]

Maybe if there is any justice in the greater living and physical universe, the people who took the money will be unable in the next lifetime. It is not so much the nature of money, but the relationship people have with status and greed. Maybe it's a weakness. If it is a weakness that can be associated with a culture. Maybe they are the "modern nazis". There is an apparent path to power through money and the collusion of cultural preference. i hope this does not cause another "holocause".

[rickelmonoggin]

JK Galbraith is pretty famous. Getting him on is quite a coup, well done Turks!

[SeaTownGunner]

yeah they had Krugman a while ago too

[readthepaper]

They had Krugman on, too? What did they do put every moron's name in a hat and start picking them randomly. Anybody that follows the doctrine of a guy (Keynes) who said building pyramids, hurricanes, and earthquakes were good for economic growth doesn't deserve to be listened to.

[jpbroadwater]

You wouldn't think that a Friedmanite like Bush believed in the same thing either, would you? And yet disaster relief is the biggest growth industry at the moment. The tsunami, Katrina, etc, are classic examples.

[readthepaper]

Well first of all Friedman was not for free markets because he believed in central banking and legal tender. Compared to Keynesians the monetarists are more for freedom but overall they're really not. Second of all, if you are trying to insinuate Bush was a free market person I guess you were asleep since 2001. Just because natural disaster relief companies may make money doesn't mean that hurricanes and earthquakes are a good thing. The broken window fallacy is exactly that, a fallacy.

[jpbroadwater]

wow i'm talking to a whackjob who doesn't believe in legal tender. enough said

[avitiltal]

Prof. Galbreith, where have you been all my life?

Cenk, thank you SO MUCH for talking with him and asking him JUST THE RIGHT QUESTIONS.

We need to hear more clear sound voices like his and more right to the point questions that build up to each other like Cenk's.

This was EXCELLENT!

[pongman]

Thanks for this interview. I sent it to Cong. Wexler.

[morgantsangari]

The seven seconds following 15:57 are rough.

[UGOTDAJACK]

Elite Jews secretly control America and Obama is just another one of their puppets.

[GrownupPhan]

The Cartman analysis.

[Joxman2k]

@UGOTDAJACK

Wow! You're right! Lets kill the Jews!

You Fucking Nazi!... Your philosophy lost.

Don't use the tinfoil that they sell in supermarkets for your hat. it's not effective against the new Jew technology.

:P

[MrDarkbloom]

So what if Jews control the America. Who gives a shit which ethnicity or race pulls the strings? The job we have to do, as the masses, is try to hold them (whoever it is) accountable for their actions.

[xdir]

What if those pulling the strings do so for the benefit of Israel over the US?

They push for greater aid to Israel yet never asked for more effort to help the victims of Katrina.

They help Israel receive advance US military equipment that Israel shares with China. They assist Israeli spies convicted of spying on America.

If any other group placed their loyalty to a foreign state first they could not hold office or gain access to sensitive information.

[UGOTDAJACK]

You can't hold people accountable for their actions if you don't know who they are. It's just like this idiot on here attacking me for speaking the truth. This idiot calls me a Nazi but little does he know that there were thousands of jews who were Nazi's. The fucking pope is a Nazi. Before the war broke out many americans respected Nazi's and agreed with alot of their ideologies. After the war many Nazi's were brought into America via the U.S government under operation paper clip. Fuck Joxman

[jstutz2003]

There were also a lot of pro-communist Americans before they realized that it was a bad idea. The KKK was much larger before people realized it was a bad idea. But there are always a few people that don't get the message and continue with their ignorant ways.

If you are going to speak the "truth" you might want to have some proof of that "truth"

[hamza1947]

very true.....

[theSpaceAmoeba]

Excellent interview. Asked all the questions I wanted to ask. Thanks!

[437thx1138]

Great in depth interview. Who else spend this much time with good questions and a non-slanted guest. Good job.

[Bobbiethejean]

What's the "but," Cenk? There is no but. Obama simply betrayed us. At least that's how I feel. I hope he changes my mind but I'm not holding my breath.

[jfcrow1]

Obama is being Brainwashed by his Wall Street Economic Team. He should Talk to PETER SCHIFF!!!!!!

[tico8007]

Banks aren't in trouble, they have millions of tax payers to bail them out, it does not matter the party in charge of the white house and congress, the politicians will always put them ahead of people

[milkgodnl]

For all you Teens out there who have recently been enthralled by Ayn Rand .. Alan Greespan was a early follower of Rand .. and this is what we got .. a financial meltdown.

[UnhealthySalad]

ad hominem

[HammandClov]

Well, I'm not a teen, but Ayn Rand sucks. I've read War and Peace, and other long ass books but Ayn Rand's books are SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO boring. I usually have patience but that book is a bible or something.

[klard]

milkgodnl: I was surprised my daughter had Ayn Rand assigned in a high school class, Interest in this is apparently being sponsored by the educational hierarchy.

[deuxhardboiledeggs]

right, and don't forget Ayn Rand's delusional vision of the ideal individual were all "captains of industry". What an absolute joke of a human being she was.

[milkgodnl]

Banks are not much different from a business .. one in Chapter 11. The feds come in and they appoint a new slate of directors and management .. banks should be no different. The FDIC will make the savers whole.

[raughn3]

this needs to be our treasury of secretary!

[goldgrif]

actaully he needs to be OUT of govt, not because he cant do it, but because he is beetter asa watch dog, he needs to b the person to assist IN choosing the next in the treasure secretery

[burntonion05]

6th

[777CARL777]

Is there a prize for being first, because otherwise........:)

[worldsavy]

i don't really enjoy these guests : /

[SleepySkeptic]

Title/

[JamesIsFTW]

First

[husooo92]

first ;)

[Zero4Mars]

Great, now watch the fucking video.

[husooo92]

lol shutup asshole it was a coincidence.

[seamoremonster]

@Zero4Mars...excellent!