Another Must-Hear Terry Gross Interview with Seymour Hersh
Listen to Interview with Frank Partnoy
Frank Partnoy, author of "Fiasco", explains how derivatives and the weakening of regulations helped to create the current economic mess. Of particular note is the role of Phil and Wendy Gramm, in this regard. Partnoy is a former derivatives seller who left the business years ago and now directs the securities law division at the University of San Diego.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102325715
Yes, Virginia. DI did get a makeover!
After 2 years, a makeover of DI was justifiable. The idea to make the front and second pages into one was something that was on the drawing board for quite some time.
The idea to change out the picture of the statue was a more recent one. Also changed is the name of the blog/bulletin board, going from Community to Noteworthy.
The DI forum is still part of the site and you're encouraged, if you're a member in "good standing" ;-), to share your thoughts and ideas on the site. Thanks. :-)
Jon Stewart Goes All 'Mike Wallace' on Jim Cramer....And Then Some!
In case you missed it. This is the second of 3 parts. BTW, the language is unedited.
Review: The Wrecking Crew: How Conservatives Rule
Warning. This book will make you sick. Really sick, but having said that it is also a book that you must read or hear for yourself.
The Wrecking Crew: How Conservatives Rule is the latest from What's The Matter With Kansas' author Thomas Frank.
In Wrecking Crew, Frank exposes the hideous underbelly of the radical brand of the-ends-justifies-insanity mentality that has taken over most of the GOP as personified by one of the books central characters, Jack Abramoff. As one of the "Reagan Youth" in the 1980s, Abramoff began perfecting his craft for guile, deception and self-deception in which the goal is to make money, seize power and destroy your enemy, which is just about anyone who disagrees with you.
Also quoted throughout the book is Grover Norquist whose thoughts on bipartisanship, which he equates with "date rape" and destroying government (reduce it to the point that you can "drown it in a bath tub") are quite well-known.
What Frank makes perfectly clear is that privitization, outsourcing, consulting, the reduction of pay for people who might even consider a job in government and the accumulation of massive debt is a part of the "winger" (short for rightwinger) objective to throw sand into the gears of government and bring it to a grinding halt. What's more is that the goal and idiology of these "wingers" has not only seeped into the Republican mainstream, but into the media and a considerable portion of the Democratic Party.
Written well before the full scope the current financial mess became evident, Frank foresees in Wrecking Crew the disasterous failure of winger America's laissez faire "hands off big business" obsession and the fulcrum of the current global economic meltdown. Despite all this and the results of the 2008 election, wingerism is still alive and well and living in Washington D.C..
