Friday News Roundup - Hour 1
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2011-08-26/friday-news-roundup-hour-1
The U. S. east coast was shaken by a rare earthquake and now braces for a battering by Hurricane Irene. The storm has disrupted the dedication of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial in Washington, D. C. The Congressional Budget Office predicted high unemployment will continue until 2014. Bank of America announced it will receive a five billion dollar infusion from Warren Buffett. Apple faces a future without co-founder and longtime C. E. O. Steve Jobs. And Texas Governor Rick Perry took a commanding lead in the race for the G. O. P. presidential nomination. A panel of journalists joins Diane for analysis of the week's top national news stories.
Guests
Reid Wilson
editor-in-chief of National Journal Hotline.
Karen Tumulty
national political reporter, The Washington Post.
Ron Elving
Washington editor for NPR.
Friday News Roundup Video
Diane and the panelists discuss some of the revelations in former Vice President Dick Cheney's memoir, including Cheney's deep disagreements with then-Secretary of State Colin Powell and other high-ranking administration officials:
Comments
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ecgberht wrote:
kitty wrote:
"It has very much affected his governing ... Please, end of discussion."
I'm sure you would like to end the discussion when you haven't provided instance one. If this has "very much affected his governing" you shouldn't have a bit of trouble showing us a half dozen examples.
What you are practicing is essentially, "hit and run". You hurl a charge and then say "research it". Here, you need to back it up.
Now, to be fair, Perry has encouraged people to pray for the unity and healing of the nation. We sure wouldn't want that, would we?!
Well - for starters, since you seem incapable or unwilling (more like) to find it yourself : http://www.npr.org/2011/08/24/139781021/the-evangelicals-engaged-in-spir...
Make sure you listen, and it will be clear this philosophy is what guides him.
Diane, I'm a big fan of your show and during my friday afternoon 10K run I usually listen to your show via podcast. During the recent weeks I have noticed that the shows get posted on Itunes much later than before. It' s a pity because it loses a bit of the freshness of the show if it gets posted later. Any way to put it back on earlier? A Diane Rehm fan in Bogota, Colombia.
The podcast has a broken link.
"accountant wrote:
Monte-
you miss the point that Obama and for the most part McCain supporters do not believe in divine intervention but place their faith in human beings doing their best in the face of adversity"
accountant:
Yea right, and now our adversity has gotten bigger.
Meangreen
"kathleen wrote:
Cheney and the war team should be on trial for war crimes, why are we allowing this man to walk free? Instead of holding him and the war team accountable the way the Egyptian people are holding Mubarak accountable for his crimes?
The other day I was out at the Dayton Ohio VA with my WWII father. Lots of Iraqi Vets out there without legs and arms. If the American people or the international community are not going to put these war criminals on trial at the very least Cheney Bush, Wolfowitz, "mushroom cloud" Rice, Douglas Feith etc should be waiting on these Vets every second for the rest of the warmongers lives. Or how about changing bed pans for the injured at the Walter Reed hospital.
Mubarak on trial, Gaddafi on the run....Cheney, Bush, Rice writing books, living the high life. Feith and William Luti heading Rick Perry's foreign policy team. This is what US war criminals do. Get away with murder of thousands"
Kathleen:
In stead of looking down on Cheney, Bush,etc who probably saved millions of lives in Iraq due to Hussain why don't you see the comparisons of your WW II dad saving millions of Europeans from their death due to Hitler and the Nazis.
"cscharles wrote:
Sitting in US Banks? Not true... They only have US Names but are owned by out of country investors.
Zero Corporate rate? Now that sounds like the Bush "Trickle Down" economics where we rely upon Big business to be a benevolent employer and take care of their employees..... Yes I'm sure that will work or will the CEO's and upper management double their salaries and lay off more or move into less expensive labor pools.
If employees can get a portion of the company they work for in lieu of the company paying a corporate tax then perhaps all could win. Give Corporations a break if they match or double match an employees stock share in the company. An incentive to work hard and to hire hard workers. Profit share with employees; not foriegn investors"
Charles:
I did not think banks like BOA, Citicorp, Chase,etc were foreign owned. I owned shares in BOA and there was no majority ownership by foreigners.
I work for a Fortune 100 company non-financial and I buy shares in it tax free in my 401k. I am satiisfied.
If the CEO makes the company profitable. let them make their big salaries, they earned it.
Meangreen
kitty wrote:
"Well - for starters, since you seem incapable or unwilling (more like) to find it yourself"
Find what? You referenced a link that talks about New Apostolic Reformation and the rallys at which Perry appeared. So what. After I counted up all the instances in there where his beliefs influenced policies he implemented, I had exactly ... (drum roll please) ... zero.
My challenge to you still stands. You say, "it has very much affected his governing". You have shown NO EVIDENCE for that at all. Show us the policies he's implemented in TX driven by NAR. So far, you've shown us exactly ... (drum roll please) ... zero. I'll keep checking back.
I must say, the callers are the best part of this show; they’re the only ones who seem to be asking the hard questions and weeding through all the political obfuscation, such as “consumer confidence” and Obama’s low polling. I would add to one caller’s observation that people just don’t have the money to spend, by saying that most are also keenly aware that the jig is up. We have a failed financial system in dire need of structural change, and yet it’s back to business-as-usual, with Wall Street going gangbusters and expectations of re-inflating the housing bubble with government help. As to Obama’s polling numbers, will someone please do a study showing WHY he is losing popularity? Just because his poll numbers are low doesn’t mean people are more likely to vote for Rick Perry. How much dissatisfaction is coming from the left, I wonder? Does “the left” favor Obama’s push for the pending free trade deals, his caving in on the public option, any continuation of a TARP spending solution, another round of QE? Do they enjoy Obama’s constant pandering to right-wing extremism in the name of “compromise”? Perhaps this is why he’s losing popularity; perhaps “the center” in this country is much further to the left than our media is prepared to admit, even further than the people themselves are willing to admit. Our definitions for right vs. left have changed over the years, but most people, regardless of how they rank themselves, know they’re being screwed by Wall Street, and therein lies the reason for the slump in consumer confidence---people just not stupid enough, you see.
Some have been arguing for Fed action with another round of QE. Some want to see interest rates rise. Both have good arguments as to why, but the point is missed: There is no way to navigate through this mess with monetary policy tools that have gone far beyond the Fed’s original mandate. Commercial banking has to be separate from investment banking, and stay there; “too big to fail” has to end. This is a gobal financial system. Farting around with interest rates in a three to four percent range isn’t going to put people back to work, encourage them to spend, save, or rationalize a $600 trillion global derivatives market. That’s the iceberg that is still on the horizon, which reduces either/or, Obama/Perry discussions to nonsense. It isn’t enough to say that government spending (classical Keynesian policy in a recession) is the only alternative; it’s where that money is going (productive economy or crony capitalist coffers?), and will it curb the excesses that still exist in the financial industries? The horse is out of the barn when it comes to regulation; we may need to do what Canada did twenty-five years ago, and what Iceland did more recently: start nationalizing monopoly industries, and start writing down bank debt, otherwise known as toxic assets.
gloper wrote:
". It isn’t enough to say that government spending (classical Keynesian policy in a recession) is the only alternative; it’s where that money is going (productive economy or crony capitalist coffers?)"
An engaging post, gloper, but this one statement tells me that you miss the point. It is too simple to say that Keynesian policy does not work. It is important to understand WHY it does not work. The government can create some jobs. No doubt about it. In fact, the FG could END UNEMPLOYMENT TODAY. But those jobs last only as long as there is tax money to write the paychecks. Let's start with a few basic numbers. In July the bureau of labor statistics reports between 12 and 13M adults unemployed in the U.S. (For these purposes, we won't count teens). The proposed budget for 2012 is about 3.5T. Estimated receipts about 2.5T. That makes for about a 1T budget deficit on top of the 14T we already owe (and that counts only current debt, not projected debt because of our entitlement programs). Coincidentally, the US GDP is about 14.5T. Now, let's say we end unemployment today by having the government employ every one of those unemployed people at 40K per year. That would add approximately .5T to the budget and the debt. We can't do that, of course, because of the downgrade. The alternative is, we raise federal taxes overall, by about 20% to pay for it and crush the economy. And that's just one year. This is completely, I mean COMPLETELY unsustainable. Now, note the difference between federal spending and GDP. Even with the inflated 2012 budget. the budget of the FG represents about 25% of GDP. (This is why, economists agree that a spending rate of 25% of GDP is simply too high).
Part deux:
But that's not what I want you to notice. What I want you to ask yourself is, Where does the other 75% of GDP come from? It comes from PRIVATE BUSINESS - the real engine of growth in this country. Government must act to promote growth in the private sector. The best way to do that is to slash corporate tax rates and free corporations and small businesses to grow and therefore hire. In short ... and this is the takeaway ... solving the unemployment problem through the FG, with government writing the pay checks is very hard, very complicated, and fiscally, very dangerous. Solving the unemployment problem through private business where BUSINESSES write the paychecks is much easier, actually very simple, and fiscally very safe and sensible, but it FORCES liberal progressives to give up their stranglehold on American business.
Unfortunately, Mr. Obama does not get these simple truths - or, considering this last point, maybe he does. There's a reason that Europe's social democracies are crumbling and it's because of their top-down, Keynesian economies, with top heavy central governments.
ecgberht :
Kudos in the way you wrote the above two posts stating the dangers in having the Federal Government completely hire the unemployed in relations to the deficit and explaining it in an easy to understand way.
Meangreen
As voters and Americans we have a duty to inform ourselves about the difference between Perry's rhetoric and the realities in Texas
check out my Rick Perry and Reality blog at http://perrables.blogspot.com
Jean Cummings is an excellent correspondent and analyst. However, she has a bad habit of not addressing the questions listeners pose when you direct them to her. Latest case in point was today when the caller asked about Gov Perry staying home to address the drought problem that his state is having. Instead she spoke about his job creation record and other things unrelated to the drought and what Perry was doing about it. Please ask her to answer the questions - in this case she could have discussed his group prayer for rain and whether he was doing anything else.