….they are ideologically aligned with the industry. They want to believe that the free market system can and should work in this country, like it does in other industries. So they don’t understand from an insider’s perspective like I have, what that actually means, and the consequences of that to Americans. ~ Wendell Potter, former Insurance PR Exec.
For the first time in our history, ideology and theology hold a monopoly of power in Washington. ~ Bill Moyers
Great ideology creates great times. ~ Kim Jong Il
Now that we are set up lets check in with noted financial author Michael Lewis and a recent talk he gave with Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter:
Recently Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter and V.F. contributing editor Michael Lewis sat together onstage in front of an intimate crowd at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City and discussed Lewis’s new book, The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine, which tackles the question of what caused the U.S. economy to tank.
You will probably get sucked into Lewis’s hour-long talk, just as the House Republican book group became engrossed in a lecture Lewis gave about the financial collapse. “I was supposed to be there for an hour,” says Lewis in the clip above, referring to his visit with the Hill staffers. “I was there for almost three. And nobody left. And their questions were increasingly: ‘Oh my God, Goldman Sachs did what? A.I.G. did what?’ They didn’t understand it … The minute they started to understand, they were outraged. And I think the more things are explained, the more outraged people will get.”
Weren’t they supposed to know? The commenters on the related Huff Po post seem to think most pols of both parties are dumber than posts. Based on recent events in the US Senate I am not certain I could dispute that assertion
Lewis is on a book tour in support of his latest work The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine, which is excerpted by Vanity Fair here.
now I understand what you tried to say to me
how you suffered for your sanity
how you tried to set them free.
They would not listen
they did not know how
perhaps they’ll listen now.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dipFMJckZOM]
sop