1929

Are the market dynamics that are at work in the US today, the same dynamics that were at work in 1929?  Bill Moyers invites Robert Kuttner and Former SEC chairman William Donaldson to discuss our “sound economic” fundamentals.  They discuss the lack of regulation of Hedge funds and the sub-prime mortgage disaster.

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Portions of the Transcript:

ROBERT KUTTNER: I am chilled, as I’m sure you are Mr. Chairman, every time I hear a public official or Wall Street eminence utter the reassuring words “the economic fundamentals are sound.” Those same words were used by President Hoover and the Captains of Finance in the cold winter of 1929. They didn’t restore confidence. The fact is the economic fundamentals are sound if you look at the real economy. It is the financial economy that is dangerously unsound.

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WILLIAM DONALDSON: No, I don’t think so. I mean– I think that the– not to get into a political diatribe here. But I think the sharing of the benefits of a society are increasingly disproportionate. You talked about people being upset and feeling–. That’s because, you know, they read every day about the fantastic profits being made by hedge fund managers and so forth. And yet they’re out there, two-family, two– Mom and Dad both working. They say there’s no inflation, but they’re paying more for gasoline and paying more for the everyday necessities of life, and so forth. So in effect, the great middle class in this country has not– it’s tough. They have not really shared in what’s going on now.  (more…)