Cause of the economic collapse: Bank fraud versus bank incompetence?

In this 2009 interview with Bill Moyers, William Black, a former bank examiner and now a professor at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, discusses the cause of economic collapse. Some have suggested that the banks were merely incompetent. Black argues that many players in the financial industry purposely engaged in a Ponzi scheme that was so big as to make Bernie Madoff look like a "piker." He argues that the banks and the loan raters purposely refused to engage in responsible lending practices. Government officials (under the Clinton administration) destroyed Glass-Steagall. Congress intentionally circumvented the warnings of regulator Brooksely Born in deciding the make CDS derivatives legal. Congress refused to fund adequate staff staffing of law enforcement so as to prosecute ongoing bank fraud beginning in 2001. Under this set of doomed-to-fail policies, a single financial enterprise, IndyMac made more bad loans than were made during the entire Savings and Loan Crisis. The game now is to maintain a coverup--Black points fingers at Timothy Geithner and others.

Bill Moyers Journal: William K. Black from BillMoyers.com on Vimeo.

Bill Moyers conducted this interview on his PBS show. He is now active as a journalist at his own website.

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Why Americans are at war in the Middle East

Glenn Greenwald keeps unveiling stunning information about U.S. foreign policy. The following video by General Wesley Clark is jaw dropping, especially in light of the events that have unfolded since the conversations he reveals. The bottom line is that a pro-war U.S. foreign policy is repeatedly enacted without any national debate. The U.S. considers the Middle East to be U.S. property. How else can you explain that we are operating armed drones in six Muslim countries, and that politicians are actively discussing the "need" to invade Iran?

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What the candidates aren’t discussing

In the video you'll find at this link, Dylan Ratigan, author of a new book called Greedy Bastards, laments that with very few exceptions, the candidates are not discussing the fact that current American banking, trade and tax policy all prevent investments into this country into education and infrastructure. No matter what issue is important to you, the system is set up to prevent you for participating in U.S. policy unless you are pouring large amounts of money into the system to feed the dependency of politicians. According to Ratigan, we should consider that money as preventing good things from happening at a time when we are desperate for good things to happen. In this same article, Ratigan spells out the specific effects of big money awash in American politics: 1) The Candidate With More Money Wins. 2) Congress's Main Job Is to Raise Money, Not Govern 3) 48 Percent Say Most Members of Congress Are Corrupt 4) Voters Think That Cash is King 5) No Trust in Elected Officials 6) Outsider Movements Are Quickly Coopted 7) Faith in All Institutions Collapsing 8 ) People don't like horse race coverage. Meanwhile, distrust in media reaches all-time high. (Coincidence?) 9) Cash Determines Voting 10) The Middle Class Is Collapsing

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Who will address critically important election issues?

Glenn Greenwald points out that no viable candidate is addressing critically important issues:

The chances that any of these issues will be debated in an Obama/Romney presidential contest are exactly zero. On all of these issues — Endless War, empire, steadfast devotion to the Israeli government, due-process-free assassinations, multiple-nation drone assaults, escalating confrontation with Iran, the secretive, unchecked Surveillance and National Security States, the sadistic and racist Drug War, the full-scale capture of the political process by bankers and oligarchs — Romney is fully supportive of President Obama’s actions (except to the extent he argues they don’t go far enough: and those critiques will almost certainly be modulated once the primary is over, resulting in ever greater convergence between the two).
Greenwald points out that voting for Barack Obama (or Mitt Romney) regarding any of these issues would not be voting for change:
How can you pretend to vehemently oppose the slaughter of foreign civilians, the deprivation of due process, a posture of Endless War, radical secrecy, etc., when the President behind whom you’re faithfully marching is an aggressive advocate and implementer of those very policies?
In a previous column, Greenwald discussed many of Barack Obama's "grave moral and political failings" in these areas. He quotes Matt Taibbi on the expected lack of choice in the upcoming election:
There are obvious, even significant differences between Obama and someone like Mitt Romney, particularly on social issues, but no matter how Obama markets himself this time around, a choice between these two will not in any way represent a choice between “change” and the status quo. This is a choice between two different versions of the status quo, and everyone knows it.
Nonetheless--and this is the point of Greenwald's recent article, progressives who dare to publicly recognize that Ron Paul (despite his many major faults, from a progressive viewpoint) will be excoriated by fellow progressives and accused of being Ron Paul supporters.

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