Bill Moyer's journal last night, video is available.

[AlCzervik]

really worth watching. It's all about the financial mess.

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/09192008/watch.html

[bbgrunt]

1. k and r. that was a good show....but Moyers is always outstanding!

[AlCzervik]

2. it was, all the segments were informative and scary as hell to be honest.

[Blue_In_AK]

3. That was so damn depressing.

I was glad I watched, but it sure didn't improve my mood any.

[AlCzervik]

5. i just ordered Phillip's new book, i am a big fan of his writing. I also ordered

"The wrecking crew" a few nights ago as well.

Just when i swore i was done with non-fiction they keep pulling me back in!

[davidwparker]

4. kick for later

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. Thanks, for whatever reason my local station does not carry it any more

[Greyhound]

7. Watch the next show, the interview with Kevin Phillips, if you want a sense of what

is still coming up for us. Just like DU, now that the dose of Soma has been taken, nobody wants to talk about what is happening.

[AlCzervik]

8. i think all the segments are available. Phillip's was scary but true.

[Blue_In_AK]

10. Phillips was the one who freaked me out the most.

I worry for my kids and grandchildren.

[AlCzervik]

11. one of the lines from one of them and i forget who that just really sent my anger

up to 11 was "The American people are the ones who have to absorb the loss, the ones that made the money have run away". It's not like i didn't know that but it just hit me really hard and enraged me, it's so FUCKING unfair!!!!!

[grannie4peace]

9. that was really helpful :):):)

[KoKo]

12. Kick and Rec...

[AlCzervik]

13. kicking, i'm to the movies, i need a break from politics for a few hours.

[Dover]

14. UGH....It's gonna be a looooooong two decades or so.

BILL MOYERS: What do you think when you hear John McCain and Secretary Paulson say that the fundamentals, however, are solid?

KEVIN PHILLIPS: Well, John McCain once said he didn't know anything about economics. And half the time what he says, you know, proves that on a day-by-day basis. I don't think we have a sound economy at all. Not remotely at this point. I mean, there are, like, ten yardsticks I could use. Paulson is your typical Treasury Secretary guy that has to deal with it. And everybody knows he has to exaggerate. He has to say all the Hoover type stuff about how strong the economy is and the recession's going to be over in three months and that sort of stuff. I don't really credit these people very much. But, frankly, I don't credit the Democrats either.

BILL MOYERS: No, I was going to say Obama's trademark rhetoric of inspiration seems to desert him when he talks about economic affairs.

KEVIN PHILLIPS: He doesn't seem to have anything very specific to say. That's part of the problem. A second problem is, for me at least, you know, just as I can't believe that John McCain ever wanted to get his economic advice from Phil Gramm. I mean, Phil Gramm, a former Texas Senator, appalling. He and his wife were known as Mr. and Mrs. Enron because they were so flagrant, that's McCain.

But then you've got Obama with Bob Rubin and he doesn't have any problem with the hedge fund types. I mean, one of the Chicago people was a major financer of his. He gets a guy to pick his vice-president. Turns out to be somebody who was part of the Fannie and Freddie mess.

So I don't exactly see Obama as this fellow riding in on a horse who represents all kinds of reformism. It's an important thing probably to have to change from the Republicans but I don't see that he is free of the ties to finance and Democratic Party financial types.

BILL MOYERS: I've known you a long time. Are you reaching the point where you're leaving yourself and us despairing?

KEVIN PHILLIPS: Well, I'm not despairing because one of the things, as you know, when you get to be more or less our age, you've got grandchildren you can feel young with. But I'm sick of Washington. It really deserves the fact that 81 percent or 85 percent of the people think we're on the wrong track. I mean, we are on the wrong track. I wish I could say that there's a blueprint that would get us back on the right track. But my sense of histories previous goes to the one or two percent leading world economic power is you don't get back on the right track.

BILL MOYERS: So what happens?

KEVIN PHILLIPS: You go through a painful adjustment process. The British were absolutely top dog in the world in 1914. Two world wars and 35 years later, they were having, after World War II, they were having food rationing, the pound sterling crashed, dukes were giving guided tours of their castles because they couldn't afford to maintain them otherwise. Doesn't take long. And I'm afraid the United States is coming right into that period which marks a couple of decades coming up that are going to be very difficult for America.

BILL MOYERS: You wrote in that AMERICAN PROSPECT piece that some people, particularly in the reform community and among progressives, see this as a great opportunity for returning to the New Deal regulatory period instigated by Franklin Roosevelt in the pits of the Depression. You don't think that's happening.

KEVIN PHILLIPS: Well, I mean, there's several difficulties here. First of all, at this point, what you've got are the Democrats are the party right at this point that's getting most of the financial money. When Franklin D. Roosevelt won in 1932, we know he wasn't getting most of the financial money.

The second thing is I don't think we're more than partway through. The Democrats think it's going to be another 1933, they get in there, they can do all the New Deal stuff. My feeling is that they're coming in halfway and they're going to have to make hard decisions that are going to eat the Democratic coalition like a bologna sandwich. They're going to start civil wars-