Roosevelt Conference Sets the House on Fire
Wednesday, 03/3/2010 - 4:36 pm by Lynn Parramore | 7 Comments
It was like the League of Justice gathered on the stage today at New York’s Time Warner Center.
Nobel laureate Joe Stiglitz, Chief Economist for the Roosevelt Institute, urged us not to give up the fight to fix our broken financial system. Rob Johnson, Director of the Institute’s Project on Global Finance, charged a do-nothing Administration with endangering our future as The Animals’ “We Gotta Get Out of This Place” played in the background. TARP overseer Elizabeth Warren denounced credit card companies for preying on the little guy and plunging hard-working families into debt.
They were from academia. And from the private sector. They were lawyers, judges, former regulators — and even billionaires, like the famed financier George Soros. They were people like financial analyst Josh Rosner, one of the first to call the subprime mortgage crisis — and who now says that the securitization market is stalling our economy like a broken car transmission. And Simon Johnson, who warned of a financial ‘Doom Cycle’ that will spiral out of control if we don’t wake up very soon. And Roosevelt fellow Mike Konczal, who forcefully showed how investment banks’ risky business puts the entire economy in jeaopardy.
Over and over, the participants warned that the banks — bigger and more dangerous than ever — are calling the shots. They have not been reigned in. And they are fighting with everything they’ve got to do things their way. “We’ve gone from ‘we the people‘ to ‘I the banks‘”, said Lynn Turner, former Chief Accountant of the SEC.
Rob Johnson made it clear: current proposals floating through Congress don’t cut it. “We are at a fork in the road,” he said, warning that we are inevitably headed for another, worse financial crisis if we don’t take serious steps to address the critical faults in the system.
Seeing such eminent figures gathered together on stage — one after the other pointing out how 18 months after the worst crisis since the Great Depression we are more vulnerable than ever – it would be IMPOSSIBLE to dismiss what they say.
They have given the public, and the Obama Administration, a comprehensive plan to fix what’s broken. No one can ever say “We didn’t know.” Read a full report of their recommendations here.
The question: Obama, are you listening?
**We apologize for the audio difficulties for those who tried to watch the live stream this morning. Fortunately, Bloomberg taped the event and we will have highlights up on New Deal 2.0 very soon.
That really is like the Justice League. But I worry that Lex Luthor is in the white house…
Posted by James Call | March 3rd, 2010 at 8:59 pm
The Times, London were kind enough to publish my comment on the same subject earlier today and I repeat it here for your readers:
All anyone need do is insist that all financial transactions must be to the rules of a true free market.
1. A free market is any place where anything may be legitimately bought or sold.
2. No one who is a legitimate producer of product or service for sale, nor, anyone who is a legitimate user of the product or service, downstream of the sale; can be prevented from buying or selling goods or services.
3. All sales and purchases must be to the highest bid at the moment of sale.
4. Ownership must immediately pass to the purchaser.
5. No seller can be permitted to influence any transaction beyond the sale.
6. You cannot deal against the market outside of the market.
7. It is the duty of everyone associated with the creation of free markets to see that there are as many as possible legitimate independent producers of all goods and services provided to society.
8. Any restriction upon the number of legitimate independent producers of goods and services acts against the interests of a free society.
For a true free market to operate the legitimate seller of the goods must not:
• At the same time control the legitimate purchaser and thus be able to exert undue influence upon that purchase; the price paid at the auction.
• Retain ownership of that which was sold.
• Be able to in any other way influence the progress of the competitive process downstream of the original purchase.
The free marketplace must be a true marketplace, where the original producer sells to the final user. Rules 5 and 6 must be firmly applied.
Competition, real, legitimate competition, not artificial speculation, not being able to change the deal against the interests of legitimate competition must be seen as being the fundamental foundation stone; the principle purpose of a free society. For that to occur you have to have as many as possible legitimately competing in that market; any market, all markets; including all financial markets. (Chapter 5, The Road Ahead from a Grass Roots Perspective).
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/banking_and_finance/article7048662.ece
Posted by Chris Coles | March 4th, 2010 at 4:54 am
Most unfortunately, the Bloomberg video doesn’t seem to be running the video… Is it possible that there is an incorrect link? Or that somehow the video isn’t linking into the online video player…?
Perhaps someone on your end could check it out?
I’d love to watch some of the presentations, but the link from the front page of the LMBM.org website only serves up what’s basically a 3 second video feed.
And the vimeo link at http://www.vimeo.com/9894582
isn’t giving me a feed. (Not on Safari, and not on Firefox, but I’m quite sure this is not a Mac problem; there’s some issue with the video either not loading correctly, and it appears to be a problem on the server that the video should be feeding **from**.)
Surely there’s a podcast or a decent feed of this event somewhere…?
I’m unable to locate a reliable link.
Will check back later in hopes of a response or recommendation. Thx in advance.
Posted by readerOfTeaLeaves | March 4th, 2010 at 12:39 pm
Well, this file works well, although the audio is blurry.
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/5157344
Hope someone can put this onto podcasts and sharpen up the audio.
Posted by readerOfTeaLeaves | March 4th, 2010 at 12:43 pm
Hi all - we have had a heck of a time with the video, and are working on getting something up that’s better than what you’ve had to deal with. Many, many apologies. We’ll have something up shortly. Lynn Parramore (Editor, New Deal 2.0)
Posted by FERI | March 4th, 2010 at 1:05 pm
Still waiting–eagerly.
Posted by JuliaInIA | March 5th, 2010 at 6:29 pm
Thanks again for the persistence on your end. The Vimeo clips work very well.
Posted by readerOfTeaLeaves | March 9th, 2010 at 2:48 pm