Will Black on the Journal

Last night Bill Moyers had Will Black on the Journal.

Black is professor of Economics and Law at the University of Missoury, Kansas City, and author of The Best Way to Rob a Bank Is to Own One: How Corporate Executives and Politicians Looted the S&L Industry. He is an expert on banking fraud, having being the director of litigation of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, deputy director of the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation (FSLIC), senior vice president and general counsel of the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco, and senior deputy chief counsel, Office of Thrift Supervision. He was deputy director of the National Commission on Financial Institution Reform, Recovery and Enforcement.

In the wake of the recent SEC decision to file charges against Goldman Sachs for fraud in structuring and marketing of CDO (collateralized debt obligations) tied to subprime mortgages, Black was the right man for Moyers to invite to the Journal to explain to Americans (at least those who care) what happened, how it happened, and how it could have been prevented. Watch the video here.

While talking about the Supreme Court's recent Citizens United decision, Black offered this suggestion:

[I]f corporations are going to be just like people, let me tell you my criminologist hat. Then let's use the three strike laws against them. Three strike laws, you go to prison for life, if you have three felonies. How many of these major corporations would still be allowed to exist, if we were to use the three strike laws, given what they've been convicted of in the past?

And in most states, they remove your civil rights when you're convicted of a felony. Well, let's take away their right to make political contributions that they're found guilty of a violation.

Simple, imaginative, effective. Pure genius.

The fact that Black is not working for the Obama Administration, and that Tim Geithner and Larry Summers are, says a lot about the President's real priorities when it comes to taking on powerful interests and white collar crime.

Olson, Boies on Bill Moyers Journal

In 2000 (and the at the beginning of 2001) I had no love for Ted Olson, for his role in shutting down the recount that could have spared us 8 years of agony under the Bush quasi-dictatorship. (Actually the role Olson played was not as decisive as that of the 5 Supreme Court idiots that gave us the worst presidency in recent American history, and that includes the Reagan presidency.)

Anyway, last night's appearance by Ted Olson on the Bill Moyers Journal partly redeems him from the disgrace he so instrumentally contributed in unleashing upon the country ten years ago.

With David Boies, his opponent in Bush v. Gore, Olson made cogent, logical, unassailable arguments in favor of gay marriage. Those who still hold on to their illogical, slippery-slope-based arguments against allowing same-sex couple to marry, AFTER watching the conversation Olson and Boies had with Bill Moyers, are either irrational or dishonest (or both).

No rational human being can continue to defend this hateful form of discrimination using arguments that have been debunked and shown devoid of any basis over and over again, like those that Olson and Boies have countered in their impassioned and rational defense of the right of same-sex couple to marry in Perry v. Schwarzenegger.

Denying same-sex couples "the right to be as miserable as everybody else" (as comedian Bill Maher would put it) is as despicable as denying people of different race or ethnicity the right to marry, which always comes down to trying to shove one' sense of religion-driven moral delusion down society's throat.

You can watch the whole discussion here.

Must See TV

All three segments in tonight's episode of the Bill Moyers Journal are well worth watching.

Monica Youn and Zephyr Teachout, on the influence of corporate money on politics after the Supreme Court's ruling in Citezens United..
Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO on jobs, the relationship between labor and the White House, and the future role of unions.
Finally, a tribute to Howard Zinn, historian, activist and national treasure who passed earlier this week.

Bill Moyers Editorial on Health Care Reform

Oh dear, oh dear: another bullseye by Bill Moyers. Wherein mighty Moyers reveals the revolving door through which insurance interestes come and go to influence the position of Max Baucus's Senate Finance Committee on health care reform and why reform will serve not your interest, but the insurance industry's.

And as Moyers says in his closing sentence, after you watch his editorial, "don't just get mad: get busy."

Oh, and by the way, Moyers's interview with Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) and former IMF chief economist Simon Johnson, about the financial crisis and missed opportunities, is a "must view", too.