Cherchez la Verite: Paul Jay: "President Obama delivered his State of the Union speech Tuesday night in Washington. And, of course, if you watched American news media, all the discussion was about the bargain with the Republicans. Would he have the grand bargain? Well, some people have suggested what's being talked about is a grand betrayal." In this video, economist Bill Black states that it's betrayal, but more than this, Black says that cutting the safety net would prolong and deepen the present recession, whereas what is needed to recover is more public sector investment, including the social net (which actually increases employment), and definitely not privatization of present public sector functions such as Medicare and Medicaid, which would cost more while making the poor even poorer and sicker.

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Paul Jay: "President Obama delivered his State of the Union speech Tuesday night in Washington. And, of course, if you watched American news media, all the discussion was about the bargain with the Republicans. Would he have the grand bargain? Well, some people have suggested what's being talked about is a grand betrayal." In this video, economist Bill Black states that it's betrayal, but more than this, Black says that cutting the safety net would prolong and deepen the present recession, whereas what is needed to recover is more public sector investment, including the social net (which actually increases employment), and definitely not privatization of present public sector functions such as Medicare and Medicaid, which would cost more while making the poor even poorer and sicker.

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February 13, 2013

SOTU: Obama Opens Door to Grand Betrayal

Bill Black: President Obama offered up "reform" of medicare and social security, that is cuts at a time of deep recession

Bio

William K. Black, author of THE BEST WAY TO ROB A BANK IS TO OWN ONE, teaches economics and law at the University of Missouri Kansas City (UMKC). He was the Executive Director of the Institute for Fraud Prevention from 2005-2007. He has taught previously at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin and at Santa Clara University, where he was also the distinguished scholar in residence for insurance law and a visiting scholar at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics. Black was litigation director of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, deputy director of the FSLIC, SVP and general counsel of the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco, and senior deputy chief counsel, Office of Thrift Supervision. He was deputy director of the National Commission on Financial Institution Reform, Recovery and Enforcement. Black developed the concept of "control fraud" frauds in which the CEO or head of state uses the entity as a "weapon." Control frauds cause greater financial losses than all other forms of property crime combined. He recently helped the World Bank develop anti-corruption initiatives and served as an expert for OFHEO in its enforcement action against Fannie Mae's former senior management.