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C-Span's Book TV produced a 3-hour call-in show with Kevin Phillips on 12/7.
Transcript fragment from 41 minutes into the show:
Transcript fragment from 41 minutes into the show:
Caller from Vancouver, Washington: [I feel the same] fear and anxiety as the caller from [Magnolia,] Texas, because I feel like I don’t have a country anymore. These Wall Street gangsters have a pretty nice little racket set up. They turn up the speed on the squirrel cage so that all poor and working class Americans inevitably have to neglect their civic life and not pay attention to politics and economics so much. That clears the way for what you’ve established on page 57 of Bad Money. Basically what we have is a modus operandi of the Wall Street ruling class and a complete continuity with the new administration. Hank Paulson . . . when he was head of Goldman Sachs, actually lobbied to increase the capital-to-leverage ratio so that they could leverage themselves 40:1. And this new Secretary of the Treasury, Tim Geithner, was an understudy of Robert Rubin, who helped develop the CDO and structured finance. And it just goes on and on with Larry Summers and so forth. Also Geithner was involved with the Mexican peso rescue which you document so well in Bad Money. I was wondering if you could comment on that a little.
Host: Here is page 57 of Bad Money: “Figure 2.7, U.S. Financial Mercantilism: Bailouts, Debt, and the Socialization of Credit Risk, 1982-2007.”
Kevin Phillips: Well I’d like to comment on it in ways that wouldn’t get past the censor.
Host (assuringly): We’re cable.
Kevin Phillips: No you’re not, not for this purpose. I mean, you have problems too. Let me put it this way. I don’t know what actually anybody can do here, because we just had the election that is going to determine things for four years. Now I voted for Obama. I half-believe him. I don’t totally believe him, because I went to Harvard Law School. What you learn at Harvard Law School is that you say anything you want but you work for the money. . . . So I’m really concerned that this was a shot where we really needed to have something happen. I don’t write Obama off yet, but the continuity of all this, between taking people from the Clinton administration, when in their last 3 or four years they were into just about as much overdrive on this garbage as the Bush people. Bob Rubin was there and his cast of characters; now we have Paulson and Bernanke. I wish I had some prescription. I don’t have any prescription. I thought we were in enormous danger back in 2004, re-electing “the nitwit”. But he was opposed by Kerry. I voted for Kerry, but I had to think about George W. the whole time, because if I had been just voting for Kerry I would have turned and walked out of the booth. We’ve had three elections: 2000, that was a horrible choice; 2004, I made [the most of a choice] that wasn’t good; 2008, I had some hope (I don’t have as much hope now). If this one doesn’t work out, I really think the election coming up in 2012, there may be one out of ten chances, whereas this time we had three out of ten chances and maybe in 2004 we had five out of ten chances. So if you want reassurances, turn to the networks and they have some airhead on . . . telling you reassuring nonsense that’s certified by the power structure of both parties.
Host: Here is page 57 of Bad Money: “Figure 2.7, U.S. Financial Mercantilism: Bailouts, Debt, and the Socialization of Credit Risk, 1982-2007.”
Kevin Phillips: Well I’d like to comment on it in ways that wouldn’t get past the censor.
Host (assuringly): We’re cable.
Kevin Phillips: No you’re not, not for this purpose. I mean, you have problems too. Let me put it this way. I don’t know what actually anybody can do here, because we just had the election that is going to determine things for four years. Now I voted for Obama. I half-believe him. I don’t totally believe him, because I went to Harvard Law School. What you learn at Harvard Law School is that you say anything you want but you work for the money. . . . So I’m really concerned that this was a shot where we really needed to have something happen. I don’t write Obama off yet, but the continuity of all this, between taking people from the Clinton administration, when in their last 3 or four years they were into just about as much overdrive on this garbage as the Bush people. Bob Rubin was there and his cast of characters; now we have Paulson and Bernanke. I wish I had some prescription. I don’t have any prescription. I thought we were in enormous danger back in 2004, re-electing “the nitwit”. But he was opposed by Kerry. I voted for Kerry, but I had to think about George W. the whole time, because if I had been just voting for Kerry I would have turned and walked out of the booth. We’ve had three elections: 2000, that was a horrible choice; 2004, I made [the most of a choice] that wasn’t good; 2008, I had some hope (I don’t have as much hope now). If this one doesn’t work out, I really think the election coming up in 2012, there may be one out of ten chances, whereas this time we had three out of ten chances and maybe in 2004 we had five out of ten chances. So if you want reassurances, turn to the networks and they have some airhead on . . . telling you reassuring nonsense that’s certified by the power structure of both parties.