Many, many thanks to the Canadian reader who sent me a link to last night's Bill Moyers broadcast, which featured an interview with William Black, the former senior government regulator who sorted out the savings & loan scandal back in the day. They talked about the current economic disaster. This was an extremely sobering 20 minutes, this interview. Excerpt:
Moyers: How is this happening? Why is it happening?Black: Until you get the facts, it's harder to blow all this up. And of course the entire strategy is to keep people from getting the facts.
Moyers: What facts?
Black: The facts about how bad the conditions of the banks is. So as long as I keep the old CEO who caused the problems, is he going to go vigorously around finding the problems, finding the frauds, taking away people's bonuses?
Moyers: To hear you say this is unusual, because you supported Barack Obama during the campaign. You're seeming disillusioned now.
Black: Certainly in the financial sphere, I am. First, the policies are substantively bad. Second, I think they completely lack integrity. Third, I think they violate the rule of law. This is being done, just like Sec. Paulson did it, in violation of the law.
Black goes on to say how can we justify not having a first-rate, nonpartisan investigation finding out why this happened and how it can be prevented. Why aren't we having that? Because, he says, the government literally doesn't want to know, or rather, doesn't want the public to know. Black alleged that the government is lying about the bank losses to maintain artificial public confidence. Moyers pinned him down on this point, asking if he really did believe that the Obama administration is intentionally deceiving the public.
Black: "Absolutely. Because they are scared to death of a collapse. ... I think they are sincerely just panicked: 'We cannot let big banks fail.'"
And if they keep lying about it? Black says banks will stay enormously weak, and the government will continue "obscene giveaways of taxpayer money."
He said the collusion between the financial sector and Washington -- Republicans and Democrats -- is keeping the public from finding out the true scope and nature of the problem. He said that people in political power are deliberately keeping the people who caused this mess in power to avoid the public knowing how bad this is. He said that during the Reagan administration, that was their priority as well, during the S&L situation.
Black said this is also a moral crisis. He said this entire disaster has been caused by "the most elite institutions in America engaging in or facilitating fraud."
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It seems that Black is 100% correct. This is yet another example of why our government needs to follow the constitution.
I watched the devestating interview by Moyers of William Black - and it is the first time I heard the
word cover up used with such confidence. It is an alarming interview and I believe every word. Why does Professor Black believe that Obama made the choice of individuals to head his economic team -knowing their
backgrounds which he must.
thankyou
barbara gordon
9Yqtff
an alarming interview with Prof. black -
The cover up is frightening
Why does Black think Obama chose members of the his
economic team knowing their deregulatory background which led to this crisis
What was the one condition that was BOTH NECESSARY AND SUFFICIENT to have precipitated this crisis? Low interest rates. Alan Greenspan and his fellow counterfeiters created this bubble by keeping rates too low for too long. You can blame deregulation or greed (pffft) all you want. Greed (a nebulous, subjective word usually used to described the other guy's attitude) is always present but risk, in its various forms, naturally keeps it in check or at least punishes those who cannot manage their appetites. When the Fed dropped rates they made the upside of speculative investment too tempting and saving too futile for markets to do otherwise.
Artificially low interest rates. Necessary and sufficient.
Thanks for linking to this, Rod. Very impressive interview, and I think William Black has it right.
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