Unemployment Planet Special.
705P Eastern Time: George Melloan, Wall Street Journal, author, "The Great Money Binge: Why Washington Must Be Stopped," re the government interference int he market place during the Great Depression 1933 and today, re why the government becomes the problem. It Really Is All Alan Greenspan's Fault - Susan Lee, Forbes With Simon Constable, Dow Jones.
720P: Thaddeus McCotter, 11th Michigan (R), re the bailout and Detroit one week after the POTUS fired the CEO of GM, re the UAW in negotiation with the car czar Steven Rattner, re the unemployment in Michigan and the threat of worse. With Simon Constable, Dow Jones.
735P: Professional Roundtable with Mona Charen, NRO, Jodi Schneider, Congressional Quarterly, Diana West, DianaWest.net, re POTUS goes to the G20 and NATO, re the unemployment number back home, re the European response to POTUS. Obama Says G-20 Summit Is 'Turning Point' for Economy - Bloomberg
805P: James Keller, RealClearMarkets.com, re the mystery of the Lehmen liquidation and the AIG bailout in September 2008, re Goldman Sachs and the marketplace, re the unanswered questions about who influenced the decision to bailout AIG and return counterparty money? What Did Geithner Know,When Did Paulson Know It? - James Keller, RCM. With Simon Constable, Dow Jones.
820P: Christopher Farley, Wall Street Journal, re the [financial collapse hits Hollywood salaries, re 1933 Hollywood vs 2009 Hollywood, re 1933 was all box office, while 2009 is all DVD and ITunes and side deals. Hollywood
Squeezes Stars' Pay in Slump With Simon Constable, Dow Jones.
835P: Financial Roundtable: Francesco Guerrera, FT.com, John Tamny, RealClearMarkets.com, Jim McTague, Barron's, With Simon Constable, Dow Jones, re the PPIP Geithner plan and the schemes of the big banks to buy each pther's toxic eastes and offload the risk to the Fed.
905P: Aaron Klein, WND.com, re the assassination of a 13 year-old Jew on the West Bank by Al Aqsa terrorists, re the Israeli media response, re the new Netanyahu government and the Tehran regime, and the Damascus regime.
920P: Gideon Rachman, Financial Times, re the G20 meeting and its results and disappoints, re Europe mistreats POTUS, re the Gordon Brown government post G20, re the ECB cuts rates slightly. Also, the fashion face-off, round one, Carla vs Michelle.
935P: Mahmood Mamdani, author, "Saviors and Survivors: Darfur, Politics, and the War on Terror," re "...From the author of the highly praised Good Muslim, Bad Muslim, here is the first analysis of the crisis in Darfur that considers the events of the last few years within the broad context of the history of Sudan, as well as examines the efficacy of the world's response to the crisis. Illuminating the deeply rooted causes of the current conflict, Mahmood Mamdani explains how it began as a civil war (1987-89) triggered by a severe drought, its effects shaped by the way British colonial officials had tribalized Darfur, dividing its population between "native" and "settler" tribes, thereby creating homelands for the former at the expense of the latter; how the war was reignited in the 1990s when the government tried to address this problem, unsuccessfully, by creating homelands for dispossessed tribes; how the involvement of opposition parties gave rise in 2003 to two rebel movements, leading to a brutal insurgency and a horrific counterinsurgency but not genocide, as the West has declared. Mamdani explains, too, how the Cold War exacerbated the forty-year civil war in Chad, powerfully impacting upon neighboring Darfur. ___________________________
KFI-AM 640
705P Pacific Time: John Cochrane, University of Chicago, re The Question Before the House: Are We All Keynesians Now? Re the Great Depression 1933 and the crisis of 2009. With Simon Constable Dow Jones. Is The Government Underreporting Job Losses? - Zero Hedge
720P: David Henderson, Hoover, re "Don't Blame Greenspan," It's
become conventional wisdom that Alan Greenspan's Federal Reserve was
responsible for the housing crisis. Virtually every commentator who blames Mr.
Greenspan points to the low interest rates during his last few years at the
Fed. With Simon Constable Dow Jones. It Really Is All Alan Greenspan's Fault - Susan Lee, Forbes
735P: Profession Roundtable Paul Vallely, StandupAmerica.com, Larry Johnson, No Quarter, Bill Roggio, Long War Journal, re POTUS Goes to Europe, re POTUS at NATO, re the AFPAK border region and the obama plan, re General Petraeus testimony to
750P: Continued re the Afghanistan war and the Taliban, re the Pakistan regime and the Taliban.
805P: Professional Roundtable Craig Unger, Vanity Fair, Gordon Chang, Forbes.com, Melik Kaylan, Forbes.com, re the North Korea missile, re the POTUS in EUrope, re POTUS in Turkey, re POTUS with King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.
835P: Rick Doble and Tom Philbin, authors, "Cheaper: Insider Tips for Saving on Everything," re pay less for appliances, autos, banking, clothing, electronics, food, furniture, hotels, insurance, re with unemployment soaring, with the housing prices plunging, a beginner's guide to the guerilla consumer.
850P: Bob Zimmerman, re Discovery returns safely, re the non-cooperation at ISS, re a new name surfaces for NASA chief, re the discovery of an exoplanet at 130 light-years that may have water vapor in its atmosphere.
905P: Evalyn Gates, author, "Einstein's Telescope," also University of Chicago, re recent discoveries that support the accelerating universe model, re 1A supernovae and dark energy, re the state of cosmology frontier.
935P: Beryl Satter, author, "FAMILY PROPERTIES Race, Real Estate, and the Exploitation of Black Urban America" Re: "...The story related in "Family Properties" begins when her father starts to understand how the real-estate racket in Chicago and other cities worked. Neighborhoods that contained more than a few black residents were redlined -- that is, the Federal Housing Administration refused to insure mortgage loans there. So even white residents who wanted to sell to blacks were discouraged by the government. In this climate so-called contract sellers preyed on black home buyers, offering them overpriced houses that could be had with very little money down. These sellers would then, if the buyer missed a single payment, take the house away and quickly resell it..."
955P: Exeunt: Lou Ann Hammond, re Detroit one week after the government takeover, re scrappage.
__________________
Barack Obama, the World's Greatest Orator (™all news organisations), didn't exactly cover himself in glory when the BBC's political editor Nick Robinson asked him a question about who was to blame for the financial crisis. Normally word perfect, Obama ummed, ahed and waffled for the best part of two and a half minutes. Here, John Crace decodes what he was really thinking ...
Nick Robinson: "A question for you both, if I may. The prime minister has repeatedly blamed the United States of America for causing this crisis. France and Germany both blame Britain and America for causing this crisis. Who is right? And isn't the debate about that at the heart of the debate about what to do now?" Brown immediately swivels to leave Obama in pole position. There is a four-second delay before Obama starts speaking [THANKS FOR NOTHING, GORDY BABY. REMIND ME TO HANG YOU OUT TO DRY ONE DAY.]
Barack Obama: "I, I, would say that, er ... pause [I HAVEN'T A CLUE] ... if you look at ... pause [WHO IS THIS NICK ROBINSON JERK?] ... the, the sources of this crisis ... pause [JUST KEEP GOING, BUDDY] ... the United States certainly has some accounting to do with respect to . . . pause [I'M IN WAY TOO DEEP HERE] ... a regulatory system that was inadequate to the massive changes that have taken place in the global financial system ... pause, close eyes [THIS IS GOING TO GO DOWN LIKE A CROCK OF SHIT BACK HOME. HELP]. I think what is also true is that ...pause [I WANT NICK ROBINSON TO DISAPPEAR] ... here in Great Britain ... pause [SHIT, GORDY'S THE HOST, DON'T LAND HIM IN IT] ... here in continental Europe ... pause [DAMN IT, BLAME EVERYONE.] ... around the world. We were seeing the same mismatch between the regulatory regimes that were in place and er ...pause [I'VE LOST MY TRAIN OF THOUGHT AGAIN] ... the highly integrated, er, global capital markets that have emerged ... pause [I'M REALLY WINGING IT NOW]. So at this point, I'm less interested in ... pause[YOU] ... identifying blame than fixing the problem. I think we've taken some very aggressive steps in the United States to do so, not just responding to the immediate crisis, ensuring banks are adequately capitalised, er, dealing with the enormous, er ... pause [WHY DIDN'T I QUIT WHILE I WAS AHEAD?] ... drop-off in demand and contraction that has taken place. More importantly, for the long term, making sure that we've got a set of, er, er, regulations that are up to the task, er, and that includes, er, a number that will be discussed at this summit. I think there's a lot of convergence between all the parties involved about the need, for example, to focus not on the legal form that a particular financial product takes or the institution it emerges from, but rather what's the risk involved, what's the function of this product and how do we regulate that adequately, much more effective coordination, er, between countries so we can, er, anticipate the risks that are involved there. Dealing with the, er, problem of derivatives markets, making sure we have set up systems, er, that can reduce some of the risks there. So, I actually think ... pause[FANTASTIC. I'VE LOST EVERYONE, INCLUDING MYSELF] ... there's enormous consensus that has emerged in terms of what we need to do now and, er ... pause [I'M OUTTA HERE. TIME FOR THE USUAL CLOSING BOLLOCKS] ... I'm a great believer in looking forwards than looking backwards.
