scar the phone five thirteen welcome to this program
former governor former attorney general of the art state it's better dipping
sauce redundant
my pleasure great to be chatting with you
well
tonight uh... president obama is going to basically take a eight-second bite
aghast at the the stimulus apple and we've we've seen some reports that uh...
he's going offer at least eighty top-line
uh... package of three hundred billion dollars and
you know over the past couple were
week see you've been uh... writing it's late magazine uh... slate
online magazine
uh... couple
uh... uh...
is for the president to go for it in in one of them
uh... is that he should really
focus on helping the american pie homeowner and correct and by doing so
require banks i think he basically propose a uh... a printable cram down
uh...
using that that leverage we have the banks
seems to me that almost from the beginning of his administration there
has been a
i don't want to get
did go too far here but pathological i hesitate in situ take on the banks
uh... and you're not going to park today there has been
perhaps you know chemicals which one of the most
fundamental questions you that's being asked and has been asked of the west war
years we're going so goes back before
president obama was in office to the end of the bush administration but from the
moment uh... the economic cataclysm began to iraq
the question is did who's going to pay
for all the access to leverage in the system
and the editor of the date has been given over and over again has been
taxpayers in the middle class have been paying and the banks
have not been paying
you you can give maybe debate both sides of the issue
obviously uh... that worked a lot of talk for you but to me at my fuel has
been
the banks you put in an awful lot more
we've used tax dollars to bail them out give them the bonuses again
permit them to revert to normal
cleaning up their balance sheets
we have left homeowners with this enormous exposure
and we've left
economy in a state of distress
many of these were sitting back at the beginning if all you deal with his the
banks of balance sheets
you're not deal one
with the disease your only deal with the symptom
and the banks created this mess in my view
they condemned contribute
to the solution a solution really has got to be in the housing sector
reforming a lot of these mortgages
and you're right you'll bomb administration he's not going to
anything
the cakes any real bite out of what the banks have got to do you want to come to
this i mean
you know from the very beginning of his administration he surrounded himself
with uh... ruba nights i guess uh... it's fair to say
and he continues i mean
is there anybody left in the administration i mean it was a
uh... diner i think it's been reported when it came time for the stimulus he
said you know too much stimulus is like sugar for the economy it's a it's a
sugar high it's not healthy
and and tonight a president obama is reported to offer this three hundred
billion dollar package
half of which is gonna come from uh...
uh... a payroll tax uh... moratorium riches a fairly ineffective uh...
formalizing more efficient eat more the same and never quite understood metaphor
bent over to do one old bottles rolled wanted to borrow a phone number one of
the other
the heat on ordering more became
and it hasn't worked as well as we might of walkable from one of those who
believed that the stimulus
didn't work over-all bit right fingerboard they would have been worse
had we not done it now that's not
a terribly you know that's not exactly but should you want go major political
rally what if you could have been worse if we hadn't done it doesn't win
elections
is economically the case i don't think that
extending the payroll tax on board is going to be enough
that's why i do think you've got to do something big in fundamental in the
housing market
and
hi i have heard at least in the sort of
they needed a creeping up the white house back part of what they're talking
about
and uh... you are exactly right but he's been surrounded by
uh... people you know container now bill bill and i i don't speak ill of demi
individuals and further good decent people i know compactor inappropriate
deal with a movie or search
you disagree with them and and i think him
uh... he had been reported at night
believe it to be the case that
he didn't want to restructure the banking system it'll he thought this was
just kind of one of those things that happens we know there's nothing
structurally wrong
i believe there you
it wasn't continues to be a structural structural problem
we have accelerated
uh... growth in constant ratio back in power and not decelerating that
and we have not we are not
still move in capital to those sectors where we need that we're still not deal
with the
excess leveraging that in the housing market methods to press on how to market
them
his contributed to such a
uh... uh... downward pressure on so much of our economy one of many causes but at
the big board
it seems to me that not only has there been a of reluctance uh... to there are
anything but maybe that's even to to uh...
stopped but the word uh...
to restructure the banks but there also seems to be a fundamental
all determination to stop any accountability i mean uh...
there was a story uh... yesterday uh... i think is it and uh... or eyesight
yesterday was an american banker that uh... there's clear indication
that uh... banks have been involved
of the in uh... from
aud insofar as they they you were
around getting kickbacks from mortgage insurance that they are encouraging
more mortgage insurance unnecessary that uh... that hide delivered a huge uh...
glossy bound book to uh... the d_l_j_ two years ago and they have done nothing
on this investigation
uh... we see below
the ministration
reportedly a couple weeks ago ah... pressuring uh... eric schneider men
uh... new york attorney general
uh... to uh... to sign onto a basically immunity for the banks in terms of
securitization approved in your sense of uh... of of what's going on
well uh... disappointed in the justice department's efforts in this domain is
obviously understatement i i don't want to
yes but weaving conspiracy theories and say they're in the tank in the same at
all though would be a hit moments republican tempting for affirmative
anything like that
e but at a minimum i'm just
enormously disappointed that there has not been insufficient credibility and as
you point accountability that you put up
saying to those who do want to push forward with meaningful investigations
erickson item in particular
that he shouldn't do so i'd think is
fundamentally wrong and i think eric is doing what is correct in saying listen
the thanks one
to uh... to to get uh... sort of broad waivers uh... i'll pay some money but
they won't broad waivers
for their wrongdoing in the entirety of of this mess at least whips know what
happened
and investigate before we grab them that waiver
and uh... once again the white house is saying no just let 'em uh... paper money
and
give a blank check
if the wrong way to proceed and it speaks to the american public
uh... about the system that hasn't changed and uh... if we were hoping for
transformational politics
it doesn't speak to that
and i i i said when the first capitalism appointed
the first cabinet look very much like to continue what you can believe in rather
than change a complete
right and do you know that i don't think it's i mean at the very least is you
know uh... putting aside is the the notion of conspiracy theories
at the very least there is a there seems to be
a fundamental lee
a fundamental favoring
uh... of you know we have uh... catherine wild uh... coming out uh...
though who is uh... none member of the uh... federal reserve in new york sits
on the board of the repair of the reserve in new york who's saying that
uh... main street is wall street
uh... or rather the wall street is main street coming them
uh... you know ki putting aside the notion of why the department of justice
is not going after these multiple fronts of investigations
uh... and putting aside the fact that the administration through rush on
donovan and i heard
is also pressuring eric schneider min uh... you know you could argue that the
department of justice has some independence i don't think heidi has
that level of independence uh... from an administration political back at the
world for a moment to know why i don't have been very pleasant nice person to
get along with a great but
i think as you point out this confusion or the ability to
to say you wall street main street of this
he is sort of the alice in wonderland world we've been living in
and anything hope she speaks for the new york city partnership inure to the
partnership doesn't make any
bones about the fact that it isn't really a voice for
investment banks in the major financial institutions in the city that's fine
but that is in no mood
by no stretch of the imagination
can you confuse about as being obeyed street voice
and uh... i think when you look at the job numbers when you look at it and what
has been going on
across our economy realized that what has been tried
the pet hoping yours but this administration terms of resuscitating
uh... the our financial system
has not
has not worked for them
vast majority of the economy and uh... and i know you just have a limited time
here but let me ask you this because
in this context i mean it is it dirty their the ministration is making so many
moves and i understand on a political level but from very early on ah... even
may
around the time to be an idea rations there were talking about uh... notion of
a grand bargain where uh... essentially
uh... money would be taken out of the retirees intentions and uh... tube
basically ah... payoff uh... tax cuts that went to the wealthy under the bush
administration uh... present bomb as yet to fulfill that uh... promise of
of allowing this tax rates go back up to to climb levels
and talking to more and more
um... unit these are two
mainstream commentators who were talking about uh... that we have essentially
slipped into up little chrissy
are our our government has been captured in many respects by a big bidyut by
by big money about it will look family disagree with those which is on the
world that we haven't spoken to what we've rushed into a couple of breaks
repairs
simply has not
did
any creative new thinking when it comes to many of the macroeconomic issues
there
and uh... that i think it's been a real
part of the problem
um... that there'd be uh...
failure at the level of purple-top listen in and uh... you know a that we
can conspiracy theory i think it's just been it's been a unity of world view
that emanated from lot investment bankers wobble borders
surrounding them a lot of the
sort of policy wonks who washington who confused the well-being of finance with
the well-being of our economy
and that this may or may not be out of the level of doesn't matter
but i think it is a confusion that explains a lot of the policies of that
that we have continued to pursue an oddly
but the dissident voices
yoga pulp walker
not there's a guy who
he's been at the epicenter of powers of free thinker in his uh... with his
bowman
a particle cyclically
six seven and uh... wealth of experience he said wait a minute guys
dodds frank industry below caroll
it was just a perpetuation of the status quo n there's a reason
that those capital flows were working so well
and we need more votes like a and angie i mean right now i agree with you i
don't think it's a conspiracy and i don't even know if it's necessarily
confusion except for some extremely
e wealthy actors acting in their best interest with disregard for
or the implications of
and repeated reality that decision making as what more and more into it
and i think that is why when you look at look taken geiger
president of the new york that at the very moment the system was created that
led to the excess concentration the excess liver to the failure of the fed
to do anything meaningful even though
it was clear to many people there were
storm clouds and uh... hurricanes are on the horizon can embrace to built it
adopted it continued was chosen to be head of the new york said by a committee
that had hank greenberg in john whitehead from any idea called
non-american
interpreter attributing motive
this is the world that so many people came from the date the insularity of the
world
wedded to an inability to consider in obispo crew been out there who's been
screaming from the so i'm saying this is important killed liquid operation
there are a lot of really
smart academics
now forget that
yall not not to rabble rousing who are out there just prone bombs may be
intellectual bombs and that the v_
these are serious people you have nobel laureates who've been saying
the economics of what you guys are doing is
simply wrong
they have it wasn't
and from political standpoint how do we break the cycle i mean we we seem
more and more
uh... essentially the the impact of this money uh... changing our political
system influencing our political system and and hear from uh...
progressive united uh... decision
uh... excuse me um... the
visited mood the citizens united decision
uh... down and how do we with break this cycle from political standpoint
posted o guy thinkin bowie many of us felt we had broken through we had
transformational president who would speak from a different vantage point
hadn't quite worked out is planned
uh... so now what is the question i'm beginning to think we need to do is ron
slate of candidates
who are going to be
smart come upon the idea back ideology ideological rigidity jump about smart
economics that that will begin to rebuild what we needed
and uh... you know that those who read my column still not doctrinaire that
said
we gotta control apartment this isn't some hennessy conservative thing because
simple symbol replica kinabalu underway to do with it are smart progressive
so let's do that
um... change the tax code way purse martin progressive to to induce
investment and generate the equity that that you and i believe the new york
writers
booker aftershock and uh... sort condensation of it
you'd be your times uh... we can review uh... last sunday
uh... which showed you graphic with the data
the bat karte intrusions of wealth and income are staggering
we need to run candidates for congress for the senate first camp counselor
we're going to
uh... to be both of those values and uh... the whole are smart and hard-nosed
maybe when i come down to
and i've got some issues with uh... with your entitlement uh... suggest i do
think that that's true
no i don't know that i was gonna i'd definitely has some issues with that
whatever the raising their uh... the uh... so security and their medicare
eligibility ages that the medicare one eighty in particular is welcome to put
up a coat security act i think that we can adequately prepared to several
conversations with which has an impact over twenty thirty years went on the
right little here we go give you one that i think we'd agreed upon
which is
the the the
incompetently social security eligible for taxation
should rise above this hundred except made hundreds
where cap right now to goal op higher
maybe stop at one oh six prevented but if you're over a million
it's i don't think you're going to go to a lot of giveaways work answering
charred attic somewhere around eight percentage points less than we normally
do in terms of income because of the disparity was what happened to that
transformational president
i mean that you know that's really the question that has been bothering me for
a and i think many uh... on the last
is that what happened to that transformational present how did a guy
who
was so quick to to jump
uh... the establishment as it were in terms of in running into this race
so quickly embraced the establishment
once it became and uh... and bath bat
that i don't know it and i think they're worth we're gonna have to wait fifteen
twenty years too
sort of may be repeated memoirs made made maybe
get inside accounts from people maybe understand him better as a person who
knows me now that you're speculating about that is is terribly
help for the at this point we need to talk to do
alright i certainly don't have any we've had to shut on it i got his wish
at the very get-go there'd been a different universe of advisors are
little wish that uh...
you know this recruitment order robert right should uh... had uh... been in the
inner
circle there
pushing a different set of policies i think we'd be in a very complex right
now
well i hope to speak to you uh... before that fifteen or twenty eight years guys
i certainly hope supple okay well thank you so much a list that are appreciated
in time
it was rejected his