Left, Right and Center on KCRW.com

KCRWs Left Right & Center 12/19/08

nobody@vox.com(Left, Right and Center) — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 14:06:36 -0800

A wish for the world this holiday season. Peace to all and may our future be hopeful.

Auto Bailout; Madoff; Senator Caroline? More Obama-noms

Merry Christmas to all and Happy Chanukah, Kwanzaa and Chinese New Year. (Did I leave anything out?) President Bush decided to rescue the auto industry to the tune of $17.4 billion in loans. Bob says he punted the tough calls to Obama; Tony says what else could he do? Madoff made off with billions, and Bob agrees with Paul Krugman who said that these financial titans destroyed, not built, wealth. Tony defends capitalists against these charges. Will Caroline Kennedy be the next senator from NY? Should she be? What's this political aristocracy thing about? Matt thinks it's demoralizing. Tony says NY loves celebrity senators. Even if they're not qualified. Obama-noms are discussed. And by the way: have you heard there's a chance the White House bowling alley may be retooled as a basketball court??????

Sorry Arianna couldn't be here this week but we certainly want to hear from YOU!

MENTIONED ON TODAY'S SHOW
MATT'S BLOG!
mattmilleronline.com

New York Times Op-Ed Columnist
The Madoff Economy
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: December 19, 2008

The revelation that Bernard Madoff — brilliant investor (or so almost everyone thought), philanthropist, pillar of the community — was a phony has shocked the world, and understandably so. The scale of his alleged $50 billion Ponzi scheme is hard to comprehend.The scale of his alleged $50 billion Ponzi scheme is hard to comprehend.

Yet surely I’m not the only person to ask the obvious question: How different, really, is Mr. Madoff’s tale from the story of the investment industry as a whole?

Charles Krauthammer's syndicated column
http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/printDS/272324

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KCRWs Left Right & Center 12/12/08 Show

nobody@vox.com(Left, Right and Center) — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 13:02:30 -0800

GOP to Detroit-NO! Oy Blagojevich! Obama Nominees

The Senate GOP rejection of the House/Admin deal is top of the news. All believe that W’s “kick the can down the road” policy -- taking the a portion of the banks’ TARP and applying it to the auto bailout -- is inevitable, but Arianna marvels at the double standard that allow the banks to get free money while Detroit and its workers could hang themselves with the attached strings. Illinois governor Blagojevich: what more need we say? Bob takes the opportunity to condemn the media for hoisting this story above the other important news, like Afghanistan and the report condemning Bush admin for use of torture. Arianna says the whole thing’s more fascinating psychologically than politically citing Julius Caesar (the fault is not in our stars but in ourselves), while Tony says Rahm Emanuel and other Obama transition team members seem act as if they have something to worry about. He reminded us that Nixon didn’t know about Watergate but got in trouble when he tried to cover it up. And in the energy arena, is Dr. Steven Chu, noted and respected physicist and Obama’s nominee, a mad scientist? We know he wants to make gas prohibitively expensive—but electricity, too? Is he nuts? Or right? Listen in and weigh in -- or put up a post before the show begins!

MATT MENTIONED THIS COLUMN in the show:

Blagojevich's Behavior Is Common

Douglas E. Schoen, 12.10.08, 04:00 PM EST

Trading favors is de rigueur in politics.

"...But while what Blagojevich did is undeniably beyond the pale, it is frankly much more common in the political world than anyone has been willing to acknowledge." (read the rest at the link above)

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Blogger Michael

nobody@vox.com(Left, Right and Center) — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 12:45:01 -0700

This week's hot topic hoedown included Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac foreclosure crisis; Iran and Israel and whether the former might bomb the latter, and how the latter will deal (this vis a vis the Iranian-doctored nuclear test photo; and Israel's policies moving forward...

Robert Scheer was a firestorm of activity, even more rapid-fire than usual.

On Fannie/Freddie:

"Deregulation didn't work." and

"It seems to me that the door is open to a depraved socialism because of the [FM/FM] bail-out."

and the kicker, speaking of the recent Barack Obama issue: "We're going to need a faith-based alternative for bankers."

On Iran and Israel:

"If Israel attacks Iran, it's a recipe for disaster. [Ultimately] it's all in the area of bluster- it's the mouse that roared."

And Bob hypothesized that there will be a "grand negotiation in the works for the next 6 months or so."

"What did Bush mean when he said, 'Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran?'" (to the tune of the Beach Boys' Barbara Ann of course)

And, as to Israel's proliferation of missiles, he asked: Why would we give Israel a blank check?

And then we got Bob's skewering of former Senator Phil Gramm:

Speaking of the sketchy road banks took: "Phil Gramm led the whole battle. [He left the hill] and became the chair of UBS- the big bank. Calling us a 'nation of whiners'- foreclosures is not whining!" and: "The housing crunch is taking away people's savings- their net worth - they're going into debt...deeply."

and still more:

"The airlines wanted regulation for energy. It was deregulated by the Republicans. Phil Gramm's wife Wendy was on the board of Enron [etc.]...

UBS gobbled up Paine Webber, and Gramm became bank chairman [blogger note: technically 'vice chairman']. He became a lobbyist. This was a leading Republican figure!

The Democrats should wrap [this] around their neck!!"

Take that!!!

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LRC was recorded today before news of Tim Russert's death

nobody@vox.com(Left, Right and Center) — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 13:05:24 -0700

June 13, 2008
All of us at Left, Right and Center extend our hearfelt sympathies to the family of Tim Russert. News of his death reached us more than an hour after we recorded our program.

June 13, 2008
Quotable quotes:

Amity Shlaes says economics often lays the path for politics.
Bob Scheer says Hummers didn't drive us to high oil prices.
Arianna Huffington says McCain sounds like Bob Dole -- it's the 80s all over again.
Matt Miller wonders aloud whether the media is destroying democracy.

Congrats to Arianna: Huffington Post has again been named a big Webby Award winner -- 2008 awards go to her for best political blog and favorite People's Voice blog in the political category.

Amity Shlaes is our guest conservative again while Tony is in China (he's back next week). Bob Scheer opens the conversation about the Supreme Court decision in favor of Guantanamo detainees saying that 6 years without any idea of why you've been arrested and without access to a lawyer is much too long, and points out the irony that in defending our freedom, we've undermined the whole notion of freedom thanks to the Bush anti-terrorism policies.

Amity says the decision isn't about right or wrong, but a procedural matter. She says the issue of suspending habeas corpus goes back to Lincoln and even to the founding fathers.

Matt Miller wonders if this puts the Supreme Court at the heart of the election campaign -- Arianna Huffington says, you betcha, it points out the dramatic differences between McCain and Obama -- McCain says he'd reverse Roe v. Wade.

Conversation moves to a discussion of high gas prices and substantive conversation about Social Security, which Obama raised in a speech today, on his economic tour of America.

Bob reminds us that Wolfowitz said Iraqi oil would pay for the war and give us more oil (not like Vietnam, where their chief export was shrimp). But we're actually paying double now, for war debt and higher gas prices

Amity and Matt come down on the same side saying market forces need to drive change; and Amity talks about scholar Pigou and his Pigovian theory that change only happens when things become too expensive.

Then they dissect Obama's proposal to raise taxable income levels for Social Security to $250,000. Amity and Matt demonstrate how this raises the effective tax rate on the self-employed to more than 50%, making taxes higher than Europe.

Then there's some chat about the media, about Hillary and sexism, racism, about Jim Johnson and what his choice by Obama as a VP Vetter says about Obama...then you can enjoy the rants!

Have fun listening.

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