Radio Show Today; On Obama. Bain and Booker, Morgan and the Fed, Iran’s Nuke Talks
May 25th, 2012 - by: Danny
News Dissector Radio Today at 1 PM on PRN.fm: Guests and Subjects: News Anchor Dan Rather, Focus on Bildeberg meeting this weekend in Virginia; Coca-Cola Workers Charge Discrimination Is A Collapse Coming? •Wall Street Journal: Global Economic Slowdown Is Here •New York Times: XI’AN, China — A nationwide real estate downturn, stalling exports and declining consumer confidence have produced what a Chinese cabinet adviser, quoted on the official government Web site on Thursday, characterized as a “sharp slowdown in the economy.” …China’s unexpected economic difficulties are starting to unnerve investors in world markets, especially commodity markets, as China is the world’s largest consumer of most raw materials and the second-largest consumer of oil. A deepening slowdown would ripple across the world economy. •BBC: EU wants Greece to stay in eurozone, says Van Rompuy HP, Watch: Tony Soprano Explains Bain Capital Obama Vs Corey Booker: Who Is Right? Frank Rich, New York Mag via RSN, On Obama, Bain and Romney As everyone now knows, Newark Mayor Cory Booker broke rank on Meet the Press last Sunday, saying that the Obama campaign’s attacks on Romney’s Bain record were a “nauseating” distraction from the real issues. (Booker did not specify what those “real issues” were.) Why’d he do that?
I hope no one is nauseated if I suggest that this was idle self-promotion on Booker’s part. His message was: I am the reasonable, above-the-fray, bipartisan statesman who will deign to serve as the adult in the room while the two presidential campaigns throw dirt at each other like kids in a sandbox. Booker is a smart and capable leader but I fear he may have spent too many mornings drinking the “Why can’t we just all get along?” Kool-Aid (or should I say Starbucks?) at Morning Joe. To my ear, this seemed more about his own narcissism than about Obama, Romney, or the country. It was equally embarrassing, if not exactly nauseating, to watch him back down on his Twitter feed and in a YouTube video that left you wondering if he had the courage of any of his convictions or was ready for prime time on the national stage. Obama quickly rebuffed Booker, saying that the Bain attacks were very much what the campaign was about. Is he going to keep hammering on this until election day?
I was heartened that Obama didn’t run away from his point, which is not to attack business in general or the private equity business in particular, but to go after Romney’s own record — the main record Romney is running on, which is his career at Bain. Romney has steadily misrepresented that history in his effort to position himself as a Mr. Fix-it for the economy and a brilliant exemplar of job creation in the private sector. Job creation was not Romney’s mission at Bain, as Obama has pointed out. And as if to inadvertently prove Obama’s point, the Romney campaign has from the start given wildly varying and highly suspicious figures of how many jobs he “created” at Bain — it’s been as high as 100,000 and as low as unspecified “thousands.” (Romney’s record as governor of Massachusetts, which ranked 47th in the country in job creation on his watch, was arguably even worse.) So why shouldn’t Obama go after Romney’s loosey-goosey specifics? •NY Observer: Mark Zuckerberg’s $100 Million Newark Gift May Be Used To Get Rid Of Underperforming Teachers Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg gave a $100 million grant to the public school system in 2010. Now, according to CBS News, officials are considering using some of that cash on buyouts to get rid of poorly performing teachers. •Fluent: ‘Romney campaign begins quiet push for African American voters’ •Release: Frank and Levin Call on Administration
to Clarify Position on Capital Controls
WASHINGTON — Congressman Barney Frank, Ranking Member of the House Committee on Financial Services, and Congressman Sander Levin, Ranking Member of the House Committee on Ways and Means, today released a letter to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, expressing concern over future U.S. free trade agreements if the very important subject of capital controls is not addressed. Levin and Frank are leaders in the U.S. House on trade and international economic issues. In their letter to the Administration, Frank and Levin ask Secretary Geithner to affirm that specific provisions in U.S. trade and investment treaties would allow governments to use controls to protect and strengthen the stability of their financial systems, or if that is not the case, to work to change… Frank and Levin have long been concerned that the language in U.S. trade and investment treaties was too restrictive and did not leave adequate flexibility for governments to use controls to stem the massive flows of speculative capital that can exacerbate economic crises, especially in developing economies. In response, the Administration has claimed that its interpretation of the language in U.S. trade treaties already allows partner governments the flexibility they need to use controls to deal with rapid flows of money. •Simon Johnson, BaselineScenario.com: Jamie Dimon And The Legitimacy Of The Federal Reserve System There are two diametrically opposed views of how the largest financial companies in our economy operate. On the one hand, there are those like Charles Ferguson, director of the Academy Award-winning documentary “Inside Job” and author of the new book, “Predator Nation.” Mr. Ferguson takes the view that greed and immorality now prevail to an excessive degree at the heart of Wall Street. Academics and other experts have become corrupted, the responsible regulators have been intellectually captured, and law enforcement officials refuse to act – despite the accumulation of evidence before their eyes. The second view is that the people in charge of large banks and bank holding companies have done nothing wrong. To see this view in action, look no further than this week’s debate about whether Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, should resign from the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The New York Fed oversees his organization, including assessing whether it is taking dangerous risks, so there are reasonable questions about whether this creates a potential conflict of interest. A balanced account of this debate appeared in American Banker, which kindly agreed to bring the entire article out from behind its paywall. The strongest statement from the pro-Dimon corner comes from Ernest Patrikis, a partner with White & Case L.L.P. and former general counsel of the New York Federal Reserve: “I don’t see Jamie Dimon’s conflict of interest. What’s the conflict? He’s expected to represent the banks’ view, the lenders’ view.” •eWallStreeter.com: Mark Cuban Sounds Off 1. Say goodbye to the individual investor on Wall Street. Whatever positive impression they had of the IPO market and the stock market in general was just torched to the ground. When everyone you know associated with the stock market is telling you and the media is confirming that this could be a huge IPO that will make money for those lucky enough to get shares and the opposite happens, goodnight. All confidence in the stock is destroyed. Put your money in the bank or if you want to gamble, at least slot machines in Vegas pay out 98pct. 2. The Valuation Bubble in Silicon Valley is bursting – but not for the reasons you think. Historically IPOs function as a means of getting stock to outsiders. People who were not sold/assigned/granted shares could only buy shares once they reached the public markets. The new secondary markets in private shares changed that. They allowed outsiders to purchase shares in a market with very little liquidity. The demand for shares outstripped the supply and you know what happens when demand outstrips supply ? The price goes up. So shares of FB on secondary market went up and up and up. (Just as LinkedIn had done before them, but it greater volumes) When it was time to go public the IPO had to be priced higher than the prevailing share price on the secondary market. To make matters worse, those folks who bought shares in the secondary private market, driving up the share price now had the shares they wanted to buy , so they were no longer going to be the buyers the IPO counted on to eat up shares in the open market. Can you imagine how pissed you would be if you bought a boatload of Facebook thinking you got in at a better than IPO price only to watch the price on the open market post IPO drop below the price you paid in the private market ? Ouch. International PRI: *Middle class played big role in Egypt’s revolution, but not entirely satisfied with result Press TV: Muslim Brotherhood Says Its Ahead In Egypt Elections •Fluent: ‘Brotherhood claims lead in Egypt’s presidential election’ •Press TV: Israel Tries To Hush Flotilla Victims On Iran Talks Fluent: ‘Iran talks end; parties to meet again’ •CS Monitor: Iran nuclear talks Day 1: Russian calls Congress an obstacle to a deal •Press TV: Iran’s View Detroit is Shrinking LBN: Detroit, whose 139 square miles contain 60 percent fewer residents than in 1950, will try to nudge them into a smaller living space by eliminating almost half its streetlights. Africa News TIME TO RECALL THE LAND GRABBERS An extract from ‘The Great Food Robbery’: Right Livelihood Award 2011 People who just want to grow food and make a living from the land are THE GREAT FOOD ROBBERY TARGETS AFRICA Interview with Devlin Kuyek by Molly Kane ‘Who gets to eat and who doesn’t is decided in a few rooms by boards Drone News Mission accomplished! Iraq acquiring drones from US to guard oil installations •Iraq is acquiring unmanned surveillance drones from the United States as part of efforts to boost bilateral relations and also to beef up security of its oil installations and energy fuel exports amid growing tensions in the region. The US drones will help to protect the southern oilfield around Basra, which have become vulnerable after the withdrawal of the last American troops, U.S. and Iraqi officials said on Monday. “Iraq’s navy has purchased U.S. drones to protect the country’s oil platforms in the south, from where most of Iraq’s oil is shipped,” said an official from the Office of Security Cooperation in Iraq, reported Reuters. •Alarm Over Arming of Domestic Drones With the use of domestic drones increasing, concern has not just come up over privacy issues, but also over the potential use of lethal force by the unmanned aircraft. The Federal Aviation Administration has allowed several police departments to use drones across the U.S. They are controlled from a remote location and use infrared sensors and high-resolution cameras. Chief Deputy Randy McDaniel of the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office in Texas told The Daily that his department is considering using rubber bullets and tear gas on its drone. The use of potential force from drones has raised the ire of the American Civil Liberties Union. •Mashable: The FBI’s New Unit Can Spy on Skype and Wireless Communications Media •LA Times: Documents provide new insight into Kathryn Bigelow’s Bin Laden movie •Fluent:‘New Orleans Times-Picayune to limit printing to three days per week’ *EJC: Press freedom watchdogs demand release of Palestinian broadcaster Press freedom watchdogs have called on the Israeli military to release the director of a Palestinian TV station who was detained last Thursday 17 May. Israeli soldiers arrested Baha Khairi Moussa, who runs the Palestine Prisoner Channel, a satellite broadcaster based in the West Bank. They also confiscated the station’s equipment. But the reason for his arrest remains a mystery, as do his whereabouts. •EJC: Al Jazeera wants to build a sports broadcasting empire Al Jazeera, best known for its Middle Eastern news coverage, aims to become a global powerhouse in sports broadcasting over the next five years, its director said. The Qatar-based broadcaster will launch its new sports channel dubbed ’beIN Sport’ in France next week and plans for two more channels in the United States in August. It is also currently weighing whether to bid for the UK rights to the English Premier League, said Nasser al-Khelaifi, director of Al Jazeera Sports, in an interview. •Atlantic: Executives Sleeping With Their Phones Loans •WATCH: Next Media Animation on The Issue •Fluent ‘Senate fails to agree on bill to stop student loan rates from doubling’ •Fluent: Man Pays Off $114K Student Loan Debt in Cash’ Occupy •Fluent: ‘Lawsuit Decries Raid on Occupy ‘People’s Library’ •Fox:Bill O’Reilly Reveals At Last Who Is Behind Occupy Movement Ponder the Meaning of Memorial Day.
by Hunter Walker 05/24 1:36pm
“Inside Job” was gripping and emotional; “Predator Nation” contains many more specific details and evidence, as this excerpt dealing with academics (one Republican and one Democrat) makes clear.
As it is, 40 percent of the 88,000 streetlights are broken and the city, whose finances are to be overseen by an appointed board, cant afford to fix them. Mayor Dave Bings plan would create an authority to borrow $160 million to upgrade and reduce the number of streetlights to 46,000. Maintenance would be contracted out, saving the city $10 million a year.
GRAIN’s acceptance speech, 5 December 2011
being expelled, criminalised, and sometimes killed, to make way for
land grabbers. It is nothing less than an assault on peasants.
Devlin Kuyek
of directors composed mainly of rich men. A handful of people in
Northern countries deciding whether Africa is going to eat or not is
insane.’
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- About Danny Schechter
Danny Schechter is an Emmy award winning journalist, television producer and independent filmmaker who also writes, blogs and speaks about media issues.
His latest film is PLUNDER The Crime Of Our Time.
Mr. Schechter is NOT the Godfather of Soul.
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