Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Finance Bill: a few good measures but mostly show (2 videos 9:03m & 7:10m)

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Finance Bill: a few good measures but mostly show (2 videos 9:03m & 7:10m)

from The Real News Network. Transcripts of interviews are also included.

This appears to be an excellent and concise assessment of the financial reform bill that is working its way through the US Congress that has been much ballyhooed in mainstream media.

Part II is here.

And what is our massive reform in response to what the FBI warned was an epidemic of fraud, warned in 2004? Essentially nothing to deal with any of the underlying causes, nothing to deal with the fraud, nothing to deal with the executive compensation, next to nothing to do with the professional compensation, nothing to do with the accounting abuses, no effective steps against the systemically dangerous institutions or the financial derivatives.