Eliot Spitzer: Clean Up The Banks

TODAY IS THURSDAY, JUNE 20, 2013

July 23, 2012 at 10:00 AM

Eliot Spitzer: Clean Up The Banks

With Wade Goodwyn in for Tom Ashbrook.

We talk with former New York governor, attorney general, and Wall Street prosecutor, Eliot Spitzer, about how to clean up banking.

n this Tuesday, Jan. 18, 2011, photo, a Morgan Stanley billboard is displayed in Times Square, New York. Morgan Stanley said Thursday, July 19, 2012, its revenue fell sharply in the second quarter, dragged down by weak results from its investment banking unit. Its net income missed Wall Street expectations, and its stock dropped sharply. (AP)

Remember when banks were full of stuffed shirts whose main interest was whether you had enough collateral to get a loan? Neither do I. After sending the planet into a worldwide recession four years ago, now another round of banking scandal. This time involving money laundering, Mexican drug cartels, Al Qaida funders and international interest rate manipulations. And sadly that’s not a complete list. Will anyone get arrested this time?

This hour, On Point: Former New York Governor and Attorney General Elliot Spitzer.

-Wade Goodwyn

Guests

Eliot Spitzer, host of Viewpoint with Eliot Spitzer. He was governor of New York State from 2007 until 2008.

From The Reading List

Slate “The week’s carnage on the Wall Street fraud front: LIBOR investigations ensnare almost all the major banks—estimates of damages of more than $20 billion are front page news. JPMorgan Chase now says its London derivatives trades cost nearly $6 billion in losses, and were a major failing in oversight and management. HSBC admits major failures permitting large-scale money laundering. Wells Fargo admits it discriminated in issuance of mortgages, charging minorities more than it should have. And this is just one week.”

Rolling Stone “The confrontation between the two of them on air is epic. In it, Bartiromo blasts Spitzer for going after Greenberg and accuses him of only targeting Greenberg for personal reasons. Spitzer counters by asking her if she’s read a judge’s opinion ruling that Greenberg had participated in a conspiracy to defraud. “Have you read this opinion?” he asks.”

Wm. James from Missouri

Mr. Ashbrook,

Would your guest please explain to Alice and your listeners the actual mechanism by which various rates are set and determined. Also, where in this modern world of big business and big money are prices (and things) not rigged in some way ?
Are not international currency rates rigged ?Are not gasoline prices rigged ? Is not the very act of creating a clandestine private bank, known as the U. S. Federal Reserve, that does not answer to the American electorate, an act of rigging the system ? Can you name 5 companies in the Standard and Poor 500 that are paying extraordinary cash dividend payouts to shareholders due to record profits ? Isn’t the lack of such payouts prima fascia evidence that there is implicit rigging of returns to shareholders ? When a CEO is given FREE stock options in a company that he is PAID good money to run, isn’t this a form of rigging the system ( I think it is akin to blackmail and racketeering and a method to dilute shareholder power and wealth , but that just my opinion. ) ? When companies constantly talk down defined pension benefit plans to instead sell workers on restrictive 401 plans, and then take U.S. workers retirement money and shuffle it around the world in sophisticated schemes that do or will eliminate those same workers jobs, a form of rigging the system ? Isn’t it a form of rigging the system against the American taxpayer and Americas national security when, we defend foreign oil interest with our aircraft carriers and the blood of our young people, instead of spending those trillions of dollars on American energy independence ? Isn’t a form of rigging the system, when I see U.S. troops (on the television ) walking in fields of poppy used to grow heroin to be sold to U.S. citizens a form of rigging the system ( I am sad to say that, not once did I see or soldiers burning those crops in Afghanistan and arresting those farmers and very aware government officials for drug smuggling and crimes against humanity. ) ?

I hope your guest will tell Alice that the rabbit hole is deeper than she could possibly imagine.
- Steve
  
  The Queen, the Duchess, the Mock Turtle, perhaps the Mad Hatter…so many places to go for solutions.
  
  I caught the Rabbit by his arse as he was headed into a brothel in DC…pulled to hard in yanking him up an discovered it was me.
- at
  
  Well put.
  
  As for the poppy fields: It was the drug lords who ran the taliban out of the country, with American CIA and military spec ops. and air support. Just in time for the planting season, which is something that Spitzer himself pointed out in other interviews. Under the taliban there was basically no poppy production in Afghanistan, or crime.
  - Xtreme Irene
    
    So when George Bush said that when I light up a dubbie I was supporting terrorists, is basically the opposite of the real situation. When you shoot heroin into your arm you are supporting anti-terrorist drug lords. This is getting confusing.
  - John in Amherst
    
    No crime, unless you consider violently subjugating women to be criminal, or stoning adulterers, or amputating the limbs of petty thieves, or executing infidels for proselytizing another religion, or issuing fatwas on the basis of free speech, etc, etc.
    This starts ranging afield a bit, but…
    The CIA has a history of considering our own drug addicts as expendable, or perhaps acceptable collateral damage in prosecuting foreign policy. In various “affairs” – Iran-Contra, Viet Nam, the war against the “Shining Path” and other Latin American leftists, and now Afghanistan – The CIA (and, presumably, the top US gov’t officials) has shown a willingness to look the other way on drug trafficking, so long as it serves a “greater purpose” in the geopolitical long game.�
    Should we be shocked that our elected officials have similar feelings about the general public suffering through various Banking and Wall Street scandals so long as it serves their “long game” – stuffing their coffers for re-election politicking?
Yar

Memorable quote from Guys and Dolls
“One of these days in your travels, a guy is going to show you a brand-new deck of cards on which the seal is not yet broken. Then this guy is going to offer to bet you that he can make the jack of spades jump out of this brand-new deck of cards and squirt cider in your ear. But, son, do not accept this bet, because as sure as you stand there, you’re going to wind up with an ear full of cider. ”

The game is rigged and we are its marks, the entire financial industry is a tax on the flow of our money.
Even when the banks pay fines for their wrong doing, those fines are paid by us, for they are paid by increasing fees on banking services. �
Banks went fee crazy after the savings and loan debacle.�
Fees and inflation paid the S&L losses of the 80′s but at a high cost to our overall GDP. We rewarded bad behavior, causing unproductive growth in the financial sector. Growth that is distorted by increasing debt, and hidden with inflation.

Once we fully understand that the financial sector doesn’t create wealth, it only taxes flow, we will pass regulation that limits the financial sector to 10 percent of GDP. We should put a actual tax on trades to stop the financial sector from creating artificial flow of our money so they can extract fees and commissions as well as stop them from gambling.�
We must first understand that money is “trading work over time.” When banks take our work and make excessive profits at our expense, we come up short. This is why I believe we are headed toward revolution. We have hidden the fact that the money is not there, the banks, nor the stock market has one tenth in real value of what baby boomers saved for their retirements.
My understanding of banking comes by applying the laws of thermodynamics from physics to money. There is a difference in heat and work. Our economy creates way too much heat and not enough work.
- Steve
  
  The questions that concern me:
       -what type of revolution?
       -what type of outcome?
       -how do honorable men/women proceed in the interim
        and after. How do we care for eachother?
  Prophets are not ususally received with honor in their own country.
  - Tina
    
    Try to make sure to hear Chris Hedges interviewed on Bill Moyers this week! He addresses these questions. He has several books out that also address your concerns. The interview with Hedges is brilliant, as was this one today with Spitzer, in my opinion.
    - Steve
      
      Thank you
      - Tina
        
        You’re welcome
- Steve
  
  “All right. We’ll lay it on the line. From now on we’ll deal the open hand.”
- Bubba
  
  Wade and Guest;
  Can someone explain to me why ” we the people” pay (taxes) for a Government; if they are not “acting” in OUR best interest. What has happened to this idea of “accountablitity”?
  
  Thanks; as always great discussion.
  - Tina
    
    Very smart, self-interested people and groups have confused us about the nature of a Democracy. It is not inherently the same as a Capitalist Economy. Capitalism can have as many detrimental factors as Communism does. Socialism tries to avoid the extremes. A Social Democracy — an even finer parsing of the differences between the extremes — as seen in the Scandinavian countries, can have a dynamic economy which, nevertheless, keeps the primacy of the citizens superior to the primacy of profit. Our Democracy has been squished by the Capitalist Oligarchs who keep talking about our Economy and our Democracy — yet the values of a Democracy are not necessarily congruent with the values of Capitalism!
    - Tina
      
      I’d like the correct myself: I should have said: “keeps the primacy of the citizens superior to the primacy of greed”, and where poverty is seen as a national problem that is systemically avoided.”
Steve

“Is it wrong to gamble, or only to lose?”
ilovedogs792

Merely “fining” a bank does nothing to compensate its victims, does not prevent future wrongdoing, and the fines end up being paid by customers in the form of higher fees. If the fine is high enough it can suppress stock valuation which may only hurt innocent stockholders.

CRIMINAL AND CIVIL SUITS need to be brought against INDIVIDUALS.
- http://twitter.com/Interloping101 Interloper
  
  And how will that address the sociopathy inherent in the current American corporate model? I understand and empathize with the “String Em’ Up!” urges, unfortunately Band-Aids don’t mend broken bones. And just as unfortunate, throwing piles of money into the fire doesn’t extinguish it.
  - TFRX
    
    We don’t have to address the sociopathy. Just find it and punish it, like a referee flagging repeated holding by a lineman in a football game. When fines are so meaningless as to be a cost of doing business, like the parking ticket budget for delivery trucks in Manhattan, it’s out of kilter.
    
    I don’t need the corporate model to be some pie-in-the-sky co-op (but having a gov’t being able to revoke charters would be nice). I merely recognize that many capitalists out there are ruining the name. Wall Street, in particular, has bought into the idea that “if you ain’t cheatin, you ain’t tryin”.
    
    And we’ll need a better press corpse(no sic) which understands the meaning of the word “punitive”. (Of course, I’m not holding my breath. I just threw that in there because with me, it’s always about the mediascape.)
    
    Right now it’s like a Super Bowl with no officials: Would you watch it on TV? (Maybe.) Would you pay to see it in person (Umm…) Would you wager money on the outcome (Not in a million years.)
    - TFRX
      
      “We don’t have to address the sociopathy”
      
      Me copyedit bad today. I mean that the government (SEC, whomever) isn’t in the business of curing whatever makes people do this on Wall Street (that’s for the perps’ therapists to worry about), but sufficient punishment would send the message. And if that sounds like a warden in control of a prison, or an official at a sporitng event, so be it.
      
      As case study, or the base of some histories and biographies, up there with the Vanderbilts, Morgans, and Ivan Kreugers, let ‘er rip.
      - Tina
        
        Everyone! Try to listen to the interview that Bill Moyers does on his new PBS show with Chris Hedges. Hedges is as clear as Eliot Spitzer and he DOES go into the “sociopathy” of it all — brilliantly! This interview today, plus the one with Hedges and then add the Frontline show that was mentioned (Money, ____, Wall Street — I think that’s the title): those three reports, along with just about everything else that Bill Moyers has done lately, are so completely instructive! On Point has shed a lot of light, too, I just can’t remember all the guests names. We ARE getting the information! I just HOPE that President Obama is getting the information and can see past Geitner’s influence, and then acts in opposition to Geitner’s POVs! He needs to represent the People, not find a Best Friend!
      - at
        
        Inside Job is still the best over view of the whole stinking mess IMHO.
      - http://twitter.com/Interloping101 Interloper
        
        I was just thinking: Well look what happened to Iceland.
    - http://twitter.com/Interloping101 Interloper
      
      I’m with ya, that’s why I said I empathized with ilovedogs792′s sentiments. I still think that will merely slow the bleeding as opposed to closing the wound though. The first thing (in my opinion) that needs to happen is that Corporate Person hood needs to go the way of the Dinosaur. All of the Rights, None of the Responsibility has never and will never work to everyone’s benefit.
      - TFRX
        
        Yep. Corporate personhood? Sure, “When Texas executes one.”
        
        (It’s the bumper sticker that goes with everything, isn’t it?)
  - ilovedogs792
    
    I don’t think I disagree with you.
    
    I am an attorney who represented various regulatory banking agencies in civil suits against individuals and companies involved in the S&L crisis in the ’80s. We recovered a lot of taxpayer $$$ as well as showing the S&Ls that the agencies had some “teeth”. It was good!
    
    The sociopathy needs to be addressed through campaign finance reform and ultimately better laws and regulations… I think.
Michael from Putney

Hey Wade,

Welcome to OnPoint — you have lost of huge fans up here! We love ya.
- http://twitter.com/Interloping101 Interloper
  
  I’m just grateful it’s not Jacki Lyden in for Tom Ashbrook.
  - Tina
    
    I did hear an interview where, sadly, I’d agree with you, but, for the most part, I’d personally say that Jacki has often been a brilliant interviewer. Can you imagine being any of these journalists who have to be able to cover the wide range of topics and personalities we are wonderfully exposed to on NPR??!!!
    - http://twitter.com/Interloping101 Interloper
      
      I can imagine it and would welcome the opportunity to do just that if it ever became a possibility. I deeply admire and respect the majority of NPR’s journalists and all of their efforts.
      
      I’m afraid we’re just going to have to agree to disagree about Jacki Lyden. I can’t expand any more on my dislike for her without my commentary taking a downright nasty turn. I’ve been on the receiving end of all of the unwarranted censorship I can stand as of late and I’m trying desperately to keep my head above water.
Emjones

First a comment: THANK YOU for not having another show on the Colorado killings. Cheeeez…….

Two: Regarding Banks….JAIL
- http://twitter.com/Interloping101 Interloper
  
  “THANK YOU for not having another show on the Colorado killings”
  
  This reply is off topic but since you brought up the ridiculous amount (and quality) of coverage thus far:
  
  I just heard the best discussions regarding the recent atrocity in Colorado that I could have ever possibly hoped for. The guest, Edward Smith, just became one of my heroes. This is what we need, this is what we deserve, and it definitely warrants our undivided attention. Please, anyone who reads this comment, listen to the show once the audio becomes available. Link provided below, thanks to all for your consideration.
  
  http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=157239762
http://www.facebook.com/people/Christopher-Peck/1698651022 Christopher Peck

Eliot Mess
thisaintbritannica

Can Mr. Spitzer recommend a single organization or some other group where people can go to unify and take up (non-violent) arms against the bankers?

I think people are sick enough at this point of the corruption and cronyism, that we’re ready to jail a whole lot of theiving bankers.

But we need to do it as a united public. We could never do it as a loose affilliation of dispirate disaffected groups.
joseph makela

I want to hear “you are arrested”, not “I told you so…”
http://www.facebook.com/kyle.rose Kyle Rose

“Remember me? I had sex with $5000/night whores paid for by people wanting access to the NY state political machine, whose motives you’ll never discover!”

My radio is staying off this hour. Please crawl into a hole and disappear, Spitzer. The next time I hear from you, I want it to be at your arraignment.
- ghm52
  
  Grow up. Personal mistakes do not negate brains.
Marblehead sceptic

My goodness – former governor Spitzer, now rehabilitated by NPR? Has he learned any lessons about his behavior? Does he still defend his ordering the NY State Police to spy on the State Senate majority leader – a member of the opposition? Amazing how Democrats escape the ongoing scrutiny that dog Republicans for decades.
- ghm52
  
  and Your goodness is SO apparent…Spitzer is brilliant and we need more like him.
- John in Amherst
  
  Spitzer did not escape scrutiny, and resigned in disgrace. Too bad many of the GOP seem to lack Spitzer’s brilliance and tenacity in the pursuit of Banking and Wall Street criminals, or his sense of personal shame when his personal failings came to light.
- nj_v2
  
  He paid his debt for his indiscretion. Since you have nothing to say about the substance of his stance on the issues, you choose to resort to cheap, partisan sniping.
ghm52

Love your show Governor Spitzer…and, as a New Yorker and US citizen, I think your “Sheriff of Wall Street” role was so spot on and, obviously, the raiders of the US Treasury could not allow you to go on.

I cannot understand why the American people continue to sit on the sidelines and watch themselves get screwed! Thank goodness for the 99%/Occupy movement.

Aside from money, how does Jane Q. Public get the attention of our elected people? Do emails and letters and calls work? Do we have to camp out at the Capitol and stop the everyday “work” of these people?
jim

Mr Spitzer,
I wish you did not make a personal mistake, ‘cos if you did not.. you would bring many white collar criminals to prison. of course, you would continuously make more enemies not only in NY but also in washington.

The crooks are rampant in DC and NYC. I wish voters can overlook your personal stupidity than to let these criminals go. I find that you are one of the few people with the balls of steel to stand up against these criminals, which includes Mitt Romney and his tax evasion.

Please consider running for higher office again.
joseph makela

time to liquidate all our “bank” holdings, no?
Kevin

The market will self-regulate, if the government stops subsidizing bad decisions, and allows the market to deliver the slap of bankruptcy. Without Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac buying mortgages that never should have been made, those banks that made them would have failed. Without the hand of government, there would have not been a subprime market, and the problem never would have ballooned to these dimensions. Are bankers good? Not the right question. Some are some are not. With a true free market, those who make bad decisions fail, and are not bailed out.
- lodger
  
  Did the market self-regulate before the great depression, in the absence of government regulation?
  
  The problem is that when bankers ‘who make bad decisions fail’ they drag down others: retirees, savings account holders, mortgage holders, etc.
- John in Amherst
  
  “The Marketplace” is like some false god on a pedestal… Without the deregulation that began in Regan’s term, and which the GOP has adopted as a mantra to cure all ills, these multiple crisis probably would not have happened. A functional marketplace (in terms of market forces weeding out the bad actors & products) assumes that people who purchase the products can make timely decisions based on a complete understanding of the facts & products of the market. The vast majority of consumers – even well-educated ones – do not understand the financial industry,
  and the PhD’s in math and physics who used to go into research and now
  peel off for a much more lucrative careers as analysts on “The Street” make sure it
  stays that way.
- nj_v2
  
  Complete and utter nonsense. There is no such thing as a “free” market. Any economic system is a human construct, with rules, regulations, institutions, etc. set up, organized, and tweaked (and gamed!) by humans.
  
  The system and rules are either conceived, employed, and enforced to be fair, even handed, and equitable, or the system gets co-opted and subverted by the most powerful economic interests that stand to gain from gaming the system.
  
  Not a damn thing about it “free.”
Gerald Fnord

Ignoring Mr Spitzer’s own failings for the moment:

There are two elements that were in play in the excesses that should have brought their perpetrators low: the understandable and real sympathy for Wall Street people who were murdered in September of 2001 became sympathy with their firms, and the successful political ‘hit’ on Mr Spitzer emboldened them further—nothing like running the Sheriff out of town to make the black-hats feel like they’re in charge.

(A “political ‘hit’”? Yes; consider how many high-ranking men could have been caught so, had the light but been turned their way…this is no excuse for Mr Spitzer, who had not even tried to legalise prostitution, which might have made me feel more kindly toward him—but again, his assumption that he had a right to do as he did seems nearly universal among powerful men, so who gets caught, who pays, and how much become a matter of the power relations between powerful men…I’m looking at _you_, Mr Vitter.)
- John in Amherst
  
  I think you are confusing someone thinking they have a right to do something with someone who thinks they can get away with something they know is wrong.
  I don’t know of a statistical analysis of how many politicians get caught in sex scandals (relative to non-political males), but it seems lust has the ability to corrupt even otherwise brilliant minds. Sexual peccadillos aside, Spitzer had a clear understanding of a complex filed, and an unmatched zeal in pursuing justice there in. His weakness was a tremendous loss for us all.
  In conclusion, I suggest reading John 8:3-9, from which: “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone”.
  - at
    
    GM paid bimbos to follow Nader around for years to try to compromise him with sex and what not. Didn’t work on him, and ended up costing GM some chump change. And for what? So they didn’t have to put seat beats in cars?
    - John in Amherst
      
      Ah! A shout-out to Diogenes! We found one. (at least when it comes to bimbo seduction)
AD

Regarding Mr. Spitzer’s comment on the kinder, gentler SEC – please note the SEC’s announcement late on the Fri afternoon before the 7/4 weekend (so no one would notice) that no charges would be filed against Dick Fuld at Lehman bros.
Capt88bfd

Please ask Spitzer if he spoke out against Senator Schumer’s and Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s study called “Sustaining NY’s and the US’ Global Financial Leadership Services” which was released in January, 2007 just as the financial crisis was beginning. Every leading politician and business leader in NY spoke out in favor of the study even though it endorsed the business practices that caused the problem and it favored the lighter regulation that the financial institutions operated under in London, England. The study was dead wrong about many of its conclusions but our leaders would like to pretend that this study never was published or endorsed by them
Guest

On Irony
odchere

Those responsible for protecting the excesses of the Financial Industry went after Elliot Spitzer when he came too close to prosecuting them. They set him up for a straight male classic fall, similar to Bill Clinton, etc.
Kittymomma

Is a reinstatement of Glass-Steagal possible?
- Mike Card
  
  Not with McCornpone’s ability to filibuster it in the Senate.
Gerald Fnord

How closely do the wrong things the banks and other financial giants did resemble the very things for which they’re otherwise lauded?
When crime is very much like things we like, it becomes harder to detect and to prevent—consider how the trade in illegal drugs so resembles all the ways we _encourage_ people to buy stuff in order to feel better, and encourage others to make a profit helping them do so.
JMc

Can Mr. Spitzer to discuss the practice of the DOJ and SEC not prosecuting criminal charges in exchange for a heavy fine. Money is as plentiful to large corporations as sand to a beach. Monetary fines do not work.
- http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1408098372 Mari McAvenia
  
  Public shaming does not work, either. These individuals appear to lack moral compasses. Putting millions of people out of housing & work is a serious crime. Jail time is the only reasonable punishment for criminals of this sort.
  - Jmc
    
    Might as well, criminal prosecution is the only tool left in the bag that we have not used.
    - http://twitter.com/Interloping101 Interloper
      
      So long as we’re unwilling to enact fundamental systemic reform you’re right.
      - Jmc
        
        Yes, one solution may be to have policy written by lawmakers instead of lobbyist. Campaign reform would also need to be a part of the solution.
    - Tina
      
      Besides getting back Glass-Steagall.
Sequoia M.

Someone mentioned “Thrive.” I won’t link to the site but I want to mention that the Thrive people are absolute bat-stuff crazy, heavily influenced by David Icke (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_icke#Reptoid_hypothesis ) of “the gov’t is run by shapeshifting reptilian aliens” fame, have a lot of faith in mythical perpetual motion (“free energy”) machines, racist, and generally off their rockers. I’m sorry to say that the fact that this guy mentioned Thrive made it impossible for me to take anything he said seriously.
- at
  
  The people at Thrive are just guessing, about things. Not one of them even realizes the true origins of their fascination with the torus as an energetic pattern. They are just playing with fantasies about secret knowledge and enlightenment, they actually know nothing, but that does not mean that their is nothing to be known about the root causes of this fascination. And I am not referring to psychological quirks or compulsions. I could tell you why they have this fascination but you wouldn’t believe me.
Cliff_sobkowicz

How do RBC TD and other Canadian banks compare
Bubba

Wade;
There really is a thing called “JUSTICE”. The NCAA has served it on Penn State. Halo gone, statue gone and finally penalties are being served. HOPE indeed !!
- Tina
  
  But the poor kids who played hard to win for their school and who had NOTHING TO DO WITH WHAT SANDUSKY OR PATERNO DID will see their efforts diminished with this “verdict”. I think the verdict, IF I understand it correctly, was not fine-tuned enough. It catches too many people — most specifically, innocent players — in its net, sadly.
  - http://twitter.com/Interloping101 Interloper
    
    My thoughts exactly. Place Sandusky in jail for the rest of his life, or better yet do the right thing and save us all a lot of money. Do a clean sweep of all administration and try again. It’s always the innocent (though I’m not sure any of us truly are with the exception of children) or those who didn’t participate in impropriety that ultimately foot the bill.
SteveV

The banks own the Congress, who write the regulations, so nothing will change until we face something like 1929 when the American public feels the consequences of this. Until then nothing will change……….nothing.
- http://twitter.com/Interloping101 Interloper
  
  We’ve been tipping on facing “something like 1929″ for the past four years. I continue to be amazed that We (The People) haven’t done something about it yet. I don’t think it will take much more to get the ball rolling though.
GMG

Question: I thought the justice department was supposed to operate free from political interference. If this is true, would Mr. Spitzer have any insight as to how exactly this decision was made, and what ethical or legal issues it raises? Thank you.
http://twitter.com/Interloping101 Interloper

Attack Mr. Spitzer all you like haters, he’s talking common sense. Spitzer/Black (Elliot Spitzer / William Black) is a ticket I would fully support come 2016.
John in Amherst

We jail perps convicted of petty thefts or carrying baggies of weed. And the guys who crashed the financial system and continue to garner multi-million dollar bonuses and attend $50,000 dollar a plate dinners for candidates. THIS is the American justice system??
- Steve
  
  Yes, this is the American justice system.
  
  What is my role in it and what am I going to do about it?
  - John in Amherst
    
    How about reviving Occupy Wall Street? And why haven’t the those on the moralistic right gotten incensed?
    What about demanding electoral reform? As long as the SCOTUS view that corporations are people and money is the equivalent to free speech, the clamoring for financial reform and justice by the 99% will go unheeded because they are but murmurs compared to the deluge of “free speech” from financial heavy hitters.
    - Steve
      
      In my view OWS may be a good start.
      
      I heard of banking reform from those on the far right long before the 2008 financial crisis – and they frighten me.
      
      Chickens are rarely capable of regulating foxes, partlicularly when they occupy the hen house.
      
      I also believe that those that blindly participate in a system, as long as it is going well but then decry the same system when the tables turn -are at best naive.
      - http://twitter.com/Interloping101 Interloper
        
        and at worst hypocritical. Nice comment, the foxes occupying the hen house is dead on the money.
Bubba

Wade and Mr. Spitzer;
Plain and simple; Mr. Spitzer was “set-up because he was getting “too close”. Let him without sin throw the first stone. Why let a “good” baby be allowed to go down with the bath-water. I’d vote for Mr. Spitzer AGAIN.
Dirk Fontenot

Is there a bank that I can even remotely trust? I have Chase now and I want to leave them (despite their amenities) for someone who’s more thorough/transparent/etc. I know that’s a pipe dream, but any recommendations for a “clean” bank? God bless Eliot Spitzer; finally, someone’s ringing the bell.
- http://twitter.com/Interloping101 Interloper
  
  A Federal Credit Union would likely better conform to your desires.
- Keith McCombs
  
  How about a small neighbor hood bank, one where the headquarters is nearby and you can talk with the biggest fish in the small pond.
Tina

What a brilliant show: all the issues were discussed SO CLEARLY!! Thank you! We MUST claim our right to campaign finance reform to help ourselves — the people — be truly represented when various industries, and/or capitalism itself, try to take over our democracy!!

That was a brilliant set of discussions! Excellent questions from the callers, too!
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001436729213 Wes Nickerson

Break up the Big Bad Banks! Hold the criminal bankers accountable! End evictions! End unemployment! End poverty! Create a sustainable economy that works for everyone! Vote Green Party!

http://www.gp.org
MadMarkTheCodeWarrior

Who’s big brother now?

Wall Street owns our politicians: they didn’t care about Dodd-Frank which became Dud Frankly as they knew it would because their proxies wrote toothless rules for their corporate masters.

These bankers and investment houses and rating agencies have harmed tens of millions of Americans: making many people homeless and robbed them to boot, and not one has been indicted!!!

So before you vote, look at who has done what on the rules finance reform committee responsible for reining these guys in. Then look at who is calling for less regulation and less taxes on these guys! They screwed America’s future and screwed us for their personal political gain. They are as criminally negligent as their masters.

These guys basically have hired the Republican party and enough Democrats to ensure that they will get the rules, regulations and tax breaks that they want, to the detriment of the public’s well being. The millionaires and billionaires are not feeling pain like the lower classes. As our wages have stagnated and shrunk, their earnings have soared while their contributions to supporting our United States (Police, Fire, Defense, Infrastruction, Education…) have fallen. Do you see a trend here?
frederico

I would like Spitzer to be returned to his role as Attorney General asap
gilscottehron

Spitzer said Gary Gensler the incompetent at the CFTC should be head of the SEC? What the what?

Gensler has done nothing to regulate any of the mess and in fact he authored much of the Commodity modernization act of 2000 which deregulated all of the swaps and derivatives that have been at the roof of every financial fraud from Enron on.

Gensler is the poster boy for all that is wrong with our current regulatory environment pay to pay regulators.

Perhaps Spitzer was speaking tongue in cheek. MF Global and PFGB were allowed to happen under Gensler and infact Gensler helped Corzine and JPM steal segregated accounts from clients. Together they have laid the foundation for a legal frame work to continue to steal and set precedent for the way to take a company into bankruptcy that is legal to steal client segregated accounts they have even employed Louis Freeh as a pseudo FBI hack to ensure that clients are screwed and in a subservient position to the failures of Jamie Dimon to provide prudent credits and to bolster his naked short positions in the commodities markets through destroying clearing houses that dealt in those markets. it is morally reprehensible behavior.

Barney Frank has been undermining his own regulation as he signs on to laws that allow banks to write derivative contracts with no capital requirements.
- Tina
  
  I am SO disheartened reading your post! You seem to really know what you are talking about, in ways that are many layers deeper than my understanding of this landscape! Before I read your post, I thought Eliot Spitzer was our True Champion: now, taking your post very seriously, I’m forced to feel abandoned yet again, as a regular American citizen! Thank you for posting this, very much, even tho it erodes some of my very own posts on this site today!
  
  Can you name the prosecutor or attorney general who you think really IS a safe bet for the American people? Thanks!
at

I can’t wait to hear this show.
Here is a link to a great new interview of Chris Hedges by Bill Moyer.

http://billmoyers.com/video/page/4/

Most of the posters here are much more optimistic about the possibility of altering things through the system than I. But the system they are attempting to use was constructed and altered and gamed and is now owned by the very people that are the problem. The game is rigged folks, more than you can imagine.
If the truth were known about how crooked the whole thing is there would be blood in the streets because of the outrage — actually one of the biggest problems is that this is not true — there will be no blood in the streets — how much more proof do people need?

Unfortunately I must agree with old George Carlin on this, and I truly wish it weren’t the case, but outside of a general bloody uprising in which the police and guard have to slaughter thousands of their relatives and sons and daughters before the rank and file among them realize they are being used by evil, nothing is going to change, but for the worse.

These people will give back nothing of what they have stole, not a cent, and they are going to increase the intensity of their heinous activity not stop it. There is nothing that they consider real or substantial that is opposing them. Remember they fancy themselves predators and you their natural herds of sheep. And so far they have been correct about our sheepish nature.
- Steve
  
  I hope you are incorrect but I too do not belive the system is self-correcting.
  
  The best I can come up with is opting out as much as possible and then taking care off as many others as possible.
  
  Do you foresee solutions other than violent revolt?
  - at
    
    I really hate to sound so pessimistic, believe me, but the energy and motivation of the people who are the problem is continual and relentless. While the little attention that the public seems to be able to rouse for this subject is spotty, unfocused, continually diverted by red herrings, and contaminated with disinformation from the likes of Fox and Limbaugh. Basically the entirety of the corporate media with the exception of Comedy Central’s two fake news shows are studies in disinformation. It is like going to a theater in which the characters on stage are actually the people who they are playing, but the entire building and audience and neighborhood is noting but smoke and mirrors.
    That is to say, they embed an occasional fact in a distorted self-serving paradigm that is devised with all the arts of subconscious manipulation that Madison Ave is so adept at.
    �
    This in itself reminds me of the cabaret scene in pre-nazi Germany, where the only public outlet for any protest or truth was cabaret and farce.
    We also have a situation here in the US were the people most likely to take vigorous action are right wing militia types, who are organized militarily to a degree most urbane Americans would find frightening. If you ever saw bus after bus of paramilitary fools in southern GA doing live fire practice, you would be too.
    
    I have some hope that the occupy movement will congeal around someone with vision and intelligence, but who had more intelligence and vision and INTEGRITY than Ralph Nader? And it went nowhere in American politics. Maybe he was just a decade too early.
    
    Americans are content with watching sports and distraction while being robbed blind, what is there that anyone can do?
    - TrentonHyatt
      
      No my friend, Nader was not a decade too early, he was right on time, Johnny on the spot. If he would have been elected instead of Bush, none of this would have happened, no wars, no economic collapse, because they were the two main issues that he would have dealt with to prevent just such things from happening, just like he saved all those lives with getting seat belts installed in your car, despite the opposition from the auto industry.
http://profile.yahoo.com/MKYVSA5DN6XM57MZV52JCM6B54 Alsand Pine

i agree with most of what is said but am amused that Mr. Spitzer consistently insists that the Fed is a regulatory public or quasi-public entity. this is just not true. the Fed is a private entity and is not a regulatory entity. the problem we have is that we are trying to make them one. they are what they are. we treat them as something they are not. the Fed is acting as it is and the reason many of us are against the Fed is that they have caused more damage due to the unethical behavior of the law makers in our nation. when people say the government is bought and paid for… this is one manifestation we talk about.
- at
  
  I believe it is considered quasi-public because they submit 3 or 5 (I forget which) names to the president to choose the chairman from.
Hennorama

These bank scandals and crimes are a direct result of the enormous influence of money in politics. Money buys access and access results in influence, tipping the scales in favor of the donors. It’s human nature.

This influence results in the slavish worship of “the market” as unerring and self-correcting. This is nonsense when there is the huge heavy thumb of money on the scale, always favoring those who give to the politicians.

Until we get the huge money donors out of politics, there will never be a level playing field, and there will be an endless cycle of crime and scandal.
BryanInMarylandandVermont

Here is the letter I wrote to my Congressional delegation. I am not terribly hopeful, but as Spitzer said, we can’t just go up to our cabins and avoid the fight.

Dear Representative Van Hollen,I was listening to the Tom Ashbrook On Point radio interview with Elliott Spitzer this morning. It reminded me of how disappointed I feel in the lack of punishment of Wall Street for the 2008 debacle, and given the LIBOR scandal, the HSBC scandal, and others, it was pointed out to me how much something still needs to be done to improve accountability in the banking and finance sectors. Dodd-Frank is too weak. Glaass-Stegall needs to come back. Financial malfeasance needs to be punished with JAIL TIME! Please do something to protect our economy from stupid, greedy behavior on Wall Street.Best,Bryan Ellisonhttp://onpoint.wbur.org/2012/07/23/eliot-spitzer
TheDailyBuzzherd

Hold the Ace

Do it like this: When Obama wins in November, dismiss Summers and Geitner.

Then, place the banks under receivership. Inform the bank boards their service is invaluable and necessary during the transition period. They will continue to guide the process until stability sets in.

Then … slam that Ace on the table: INDICT THEM ALL. Replace them with new blood under new charters that make the banks more accountable to their shareholders. While that’s going on, replace the Fed Board with no one directly connected to these banks.

Yeah … right.
- Mike Card
  
  I thought Summers had been run out of town to ruin something else, but I agree 100% about Geithner. His attempt to cheat on his federal income taxes should have been the alarm bell. He’s been in Wall St.’s pocket since prior to day 1 and should be cut loose; let him go back to NY and start collecting his zillions, now that he has served the bankers so ably. Then arrest his sorry ass and put him on trial for malfeasance.
- Steve
  
  I had a long discussion with Obama campaigners from IL who blanketed WI during the recent recall elections.
  
  Asked then for indictment of Geitner/Summers Goldman
  - jefe68
    
    Larry Summers wanted to break the Wall Street firms and banks up. He also wanted to prosecute and come down heavy on them. He lost that battle to Geithner.
    - Steve
      
      I have heard this but since the players for several administrations (from Clinton I believe) were all given birth by Rubin and/or GS I am skeptical.
Ken

Charles Ferguson’s documentary “Inside Job” exposed some of Wall Street’s responsiblity in creating part of the global financial crisis. http://www.sonyclassics.com/insidejob/ A thorough and substantive analysis is required of the tranches of credit derivitives that failed. I would suggest that they failed because the loans were garbage the minute ink hit paper.

In three zip codes in Columbus, Ohio, a researcher has found over 225 Million in loans that appear to have been fraud circa 2000-2010. I would further suggest that Main Street lenders originated thousands and thousands of garbage mortgages that were subsequently sold and resold on Wall Street.

With profound outrage, we should be taking a very hard look at all levels of banking, from Main Street to Wall Street.
Buce_n_Gar

This is the best On Point I’ve heard. Wade Goodwyn did a great job in this interview, and I hope to hear him more in the future.

Tom’s typical “always the devil’s advocate” line of questioning seems lazy in comparison. I’d prefer more informed and deductive questioning, and not simply, “But the other side says the opposite, what about that?”

Tom also frequently interrupts his guests just to throw another phone voice into the chaotic discussions without allowing his guests to make coherent arguments.
- Liproco
  
  Indeed! Tom is not the right man for this job.
Steve Parshall

How long has this coziness between the banks and their regulators existed? It seems to me this sort of closeness couldn’t have happened overnight.
jefe68

It’s really simple, prosecute all the bad actors.
Hit them where it hurts, freeze personal assets like they do to drug dealers. Serious jail time is also needed.�
I agree with Mr. Spitzer, LIBOR is a huge conspiracy and I would love to see some handcuffs on some of these wankers, oh I mean bankers.
- http://twitter.com/Interloping101 Interloper
  
  I’m with ya jefe68 but as I said earlier Band-Aids don’t mend broken bones. Lock em’ all up, sure. How much is that tab going to wind up costing the general public? Freeze the assets sure, provided of course you can locate and seize all of them.
  
  And the bottom line: Let’s say optimistically that we correctly identify, successfully prosecute, and incarcerate the majority of those involved. What do you think will happen next? The system we’ve allowed ourselves to become contributors to will still exist. The next batch of the “best and brightest” higher education has to offer that are waiting in the wings will simply take up the Crusade and lead even more Lemmings off the cliff. As long as the incentives remain the song will stay the same
  - jefe68
    
    I’m not sure if you are familiar with the The Pecora Investigation and hearings. Bankers who did bad things went to jail and out of it came the Glass Steagall act. What I’m advocating for goes beyond any kind of Band-Aid solution. There are plenty of assets right here in the US that will be easy to seize. Property is one place that could be taken and held by the Federal Marshals for instance. This is done to people who have been charged with drug related crimes at the federal level.
    
    It is about will, and you are right as long as the bankers and wall street have their hold of our government officials nothing is going to happen.
    
    We need a Ferdinand Pecora who I think came up with the term banksters.
r_ey

elliot spitzer, yes. sheila bair also has some very direct answers for cleaning up wall street and the banks. let’s hear from her, too.
- Zigzag1
  
  And, lest we forget, Brooksley Born.
  - Persiga_int
    
    And Bill Still, have you seen his stuff?
nj_v2

I’ve been a fan of Mr. Goodwyn’s reporting for some time. Nice to hear him in another context. Gets my vote for the best of the “stand-in” hosts!
Hjaguon

YES we NEED to regulate the REGULATORS, like Mr. Spitzer said, i dont want nice regulators…
Mkatzenelson

Mr Spitzer, can you convince there is any hope at all?

Is there any precedent in history where a society has come to such a state of corruption and inequality and returned?
- http://twitter.com/Interloping101 Interloper
  
  I’m afraid that’s an answer you’re not going to want to hear. Keep hope alive though, it’s one of the few things we have left.
Bruce

please ask Governor Spitzer why no one has looked into replacing Mark to Market accounting? This daily pricing mechanism allows traders to create profits and losses by artificial pricing mechanisms.

Bruce Schreiber
http://twitter.com/jeffarooni Jeffrey

Too big to fail? No one and nothing is too big to fail. Not even you Spitzer (remember?).
Lauriebarkhorn

Eliot Spitzer has no standing to discuss the ethics of others.
- http://twitter.com/Interloping101 Interloper
  
  But you do, right?
  
  I really wish Discuss would give that version that included the Dislike feature another go. As someone earlier today said “Let he (or she) who is without sin cast the first stone”.
  
  Judgmental much?
  - guest
    
    Let me remind you that the man had to give up public office due to a sex scandal. Am I JUDGEMENTAL? Absolutely. A man is demanding more reform and prosecution and he broke the law himself.
    - http://twitter.com/Interloping101 Interloper
      
      I would tell you to get bent but you obviously already are. And to think, we almost made it an entire day without a vindictive, spiteful little troll running around the board. Thanks for ruining the mood genius.
    - Carlo Iccobazzi
      
      I betcha you think burning the flag should be a crime. I can smell the stupid of people who hold the value of a symbol to be more significant than what it represents a mile away. Before you tell me that the law is not a symbol, think twice, because in the way you are using the word, it is.
- Zigzag1
  
  Mr. Spitzer’s crime was a “victimless” crime, after all. The same cannot be said of the egregious, venal and truly criminal behavior of these bankers. Their cupidity affects every single one of us. Spitzer was a bulldog in prosecuting – very smartly – criminal acts on Wall Street and remains one of the smartest, ablest persons on this subject. I think, Lauriebarkhorn, your insistence on marital fidelity and condemnation of Spitzer because of his hiring of a prostitute is ludicrous.
http://twitter.com/Interloping101 Interloper

And now the Mary K discussion has outpaced one of the better shows at On Point in recent history. Time to call it a night.

It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood…
Stella

One of the best discussions I’ve heard on the financial crisis. Like Tom, Wade Goodwin is supremely well-informed, a gracious host and good listener, Eliot Spitzer was superb, and
the caller’s questions and comments were on target. Great radio.
Ken

Count me as one who will write my representatives and insist they do something about the banksters and the crony capitalism that runs this country.
- Emitr
  
  I usually get a lecture back from my senators and representatives about how they know better. They swallowed Federalist #10 a little too hard, methinks.
- Persiga_int
  
  Banisters… I like that
  - Persiga_int
    
    Oh auto-correct… Banksters!
    - Carlo Iccobazzi
      
      The correct term is Bankstas.
john

As A bank employee of a regional meduim size bank, I am disapointed that the discussion has not pointed out that most of the problems discussed were caused by large banks (too big to fail) and that there are banks whose management team has ethical standards. Our bank is such a bank. Please don’t demonize all banks and bankers in your discussions. Additionally, publically traded banks (and companies for that matter) are pressured by the wall street raters to perform in the manner they dictate and in an effort to do so more risks are taken to “keep the stock value up’. Are we rating the value of a bank by the wrong metrics?
- http://twitter.com/Interloping101 Interloper
  
  Cry me a river. Oh, poor, poor, mistreated bankers. Poor Bankers who are forced by Wall Street to engage in risky and inappropriate behavior. Poor bankers whose creative number wrangling results in people losing their homes and their life savings due to the uncontrollable gambling addiction of others.
  
  Nobody said all banks and bankers were evil. If, however, your bank engages in any financial activity beyond simple loans, guess what? Maybe your bank avoids the creative activity applied by the Big Boys and if so I applaud you. If you’re publicly traded though, you are a contributor and participant in the recent atrocities whether you like it or not. Don’t take my word for it, do some further reading on the LIBOR rate scandal and all that it implies.
  
  This is the wrong place and the wrong topic to come looking for a sympathetic ear for willing participants.
- Zigzag1
  
  I think banks can be essential to our economy – but it’s been many years since they actually invested in our economy. They will not loan money anymore – even the small, community banks. They are as responsible as the too-big banks for the sputtering economy.
CM

Eliot Spitzer should be Secretary of Treasury or Justice or President of the U.S. He knows what is wrong w the banking system and knows how to fix it. He’s not afraid to confront the forces of evil in our society. He’s not a wimp like others. We need him in a leadership position fighting for the general welfare of our citizenry. I trust his leadership.

I think the bankers figured out how to throw him out of office and sideline him because they knew the damage he could do to their criminal enterprises.

I wish Gov. Spitzer would figure out how to get IN the arena and back to fighting for the people. Millions of people would follow you Gov. Spitzer. Come back.
- Emitr
  
  Spitzer sidelined himself. Ethical responsibility goes both ways. There ought to be plenty of competent people who can put the white collar crooks in jail. It’s a canard to blame Spitzer’s criminality on the banks, even if bankers are themselves criminal.
http://www.facebook.com/susan.thomas30 Susan Thomas

Outstanding program. Spitzer was brilliant when he explained banking and regulatory failures. I wish he had not engaged in the conduct that now keeps him from the arena, but I am glad he shares his commentaries.
PI

Am I the only one who remembers that Spitzer resigned in disgrace due to a sex scandel? This guy is lecturing others on moral issues and he broke the law himself. You couldn’t find a more reputable guest for this show than this guy? CM…President of the United States? REALLY?
- Rmeh2o2002
  
  that’s like saying Bush was not a religious person because he was a Republican; or that Cheney hated his lesbian daughter because he was a Republican; or Clinton did not have good policies because he was a lecherous adulterer; the two issues are mutually exclusive my friend.
  - harverd phd
    
    No…to borrow your example, Clinton like Spitzer showed poor judgement and hubris…neither deserves our praise.
- JGC
  
  Why do powerful people take stupid chances like this? A mystery.
  
  That said, Spitzer is not lecturing on moral issues so much as legal and criminal ones. He clearly has owned up to his disgraceful past conduct, removing himself from elected and public office, and at the moment is expressing himself as a private citizen, just like most us people and corporations.
  
  In contrast to the Honorable Senator David Vitter. (Brrr, just the mention of his name and his hypocrisy gives me that shivery, vitterish feeling…)
Fredlinskip

The Republican concept of “supply-side economics” has reached it’s fruition. And they continue to promote the same policies that got us here.
For thirty+ years Americans have repeated the mantra “let the wealthy become more so and we will all be happy”.
Anyone who dared speak up against the concept of “trickle up” or believed in promoting the expansion of middle class were shouted down ond deemed “socialist”.
George Orwell couldn’t have been more correct.
Our constitution will, instead of “We the People”, will soon read “We the Megacorp” and no one will have noticed the difference.

Our economy is now a perfect world for the top few percenters.
Trickle up worked to perfection in the housing crisis- Those with the least, ended up indebted to those who already had it all- many losing much of the few assets they had and often their jobs.

58% of Americans never read a book after high school. Most Americans views are now influenced by talk show hosts and sound bites.
Is it any wonder our democracy is currently run by the highest bidder?

IM(humble)O
- harverd phd
  
  Exactly…proving once again how miserably our failed public education systems have betrayed us.
- Michaellong100
  
  I think this argument is ridiculous. I’m not for or against supply side economics but this is a simple crime problem. I don’t remember any economic system that promoted fraud, graft, theft, kickbacks and usury. This has nothing to do with an economic system but overtly criminal behavior being presented as entrepreneurial business. It angers me when I hear this capitalist-socialist argument because it divides the country. I’ve talked to tea party protesters and occupy Wall Street protesters and neither of them wants to live in a system where financial criminal behavior is tolerated. This socialist-capitalist argument is used by the banks to build conservative support for criminal behavior. Your doing the job of J.P. Morgan’s public relations department. If they can’t present themselves as brave capitalists fighting socialism then they will get no support. This is simple theft and graft. When the country recognizes the true size of this crime then Jamie Dimon and Loyd Blankfein will be hanging in the street.
  - Fredlinskip
    
    Don’t quite follow you that my comment somehow “(does) the job of J.P. Morgan…” ??
    
    What’s ridiculous is that any policy that somehow might benefit majority of Americans is now demonized as “socialist”. This is the “double-think” that you might find in an Orwell book- yet it’s what we hear every day from well-funded “think-tanks”. He who controls”the message” today ultimately control what majority of Americans believe- facts be damned.
    
    As far as the crimes of Dimon and Blankfein, it’s more likely they’ll be dining o
    such is modern day justice.
    - Fredlinskip
      
      supposed to have read:
      “it’s more likely they’ll be dining on their private islands then “hanging in the street”- such is modern day justice.
Philip Loomis

Very impressed with Wade Goodwyn’s work. A real pro. A real asset to your show.
Mardihow

Eliot Spitzer was a terrific guest…please have him on again. So important for his voice to be heard. Glad he’s out there fighting .
Muggsy34

Can you tell me what the bumper music was from this segment?

Thanks!!
- Shoogy Bee
  
  I’d like to know as well! Any clues?
Ruben Garcia

Dear Tom, can you consider a different host than Wade Goodwin, I note from is line of questioning that he is not as engaged or lacks a level of curiousity that I am used to with your program. I love your hosting and I very much enjoyed Mr. Spitzer’s accompaniment in todays show. Thank you again for all that you do, I really do appreciate you and your program.
http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/J7LU3TFXLHTP5IYTPTG62VUZRY Ann

While orthodox finance is in a mess, Islamic finance is growing strong. Maybe a little financial sharia law would help everybody?

http://www.theglobalmail.org/feature/jesus-saves-moses-lends-muhammad-invests/297/
Dan Cooper

Eliot Spitzer belongs with Colin Powell and Jimmy Carter in the ‘it’s over, you failed’ drawer. Go away please and stop attempting to repair your legacy. Not every bell can be unrung and you are who you proved to be. Don’t worry, President Obama may well be joining you in November and then you’ll be in very good company.
- Carlo Iccobazzi
  
  �
  Little minds talk about people.
  Great mind talk about ideas.
  What’s in your Skull?
http://freeourfreemarkets.org Steve Banicki

“The central problem, then as now, was that very large corporations could easily undermine regulatory and antitrust strategies. The Nobel laureate George J. Stigler demonstrated how regulation was commonly “designed and operated primarily for” the benefit of the industries involved. And numerous conservatives, including Simons, concluded that large corporate players could thwart antitrust “break-them-up” efforts — a view Friedman came to share.
Simons did not shrink from the obvious conclusion: “Every industry should be either effectively competitive or socialized.” If other remedies were unworkable, “The state should face the necessity of actually taking over, owning, and managing directly” all “industries in which it is impossible to maintain effectively competitive conditions.”” Wall Street is Too Big to Regulate, GAR ALPEROVITZ, New York Times, July 22, 2012
Capitalism is broken, needs fixing or must be further regulated to protect the market from oligopolies. This is related to inequality of income. If we desire to fix inequality, we must fix capitalism.The United States was founded on the principle that everyone is born with the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Early on our forefathers decided the best economic model to reach these pursuits was capitalism. Free markets was chosen to best attain the nations economic objectives. Capitalism is here to serve society. Society is not here to serve capitalism
Egoodfood

Great guest, great interviewer.
http://buysteroidsuk.co/ Buy Steroids

get rid of the bonuse sthe banks pay staff and they would make far less risky decidions.

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