Stephen's got two guests tonight. First up is author/ filmmaker Eugene Jarecki, whose most recent project is this:
It's a collaborative effort (the other players being Arianna Huffington, Rob Johnson, Nick Penniman, and Alexis McGill -- y'know those late-night doped-up caffeine-and-adrenaline-fueled college dorm 'fix the world!' brainstorming sessions? Sounds like this started at a dinner party kind of like that) that's been getting some press. Here's from Arianna's Huffington Post introduction of moveYourMoney.info:
The big banks on Wall Street, propped up by taxpayer money and government guarantees, have had a record year, making record profits while returning to the highly leveraged activities that brought our economy to the brink of disaster. In a slap in the face to taxpayers, they have also cut back on the money they are lending, even though the need to get credit flowing again was one of the main points used in selling the public the bank bailout. But since April, JP Morgan/Chase, Citibank, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo -- all of which took billions in taxpayer money -- have cut lending to businesses by $100 billion.
Meanwhile, America's Main Street community banks -- the vast majority of which avoided the banquet of greed and corruption that created the toxic economic swamp we are still fighting to get ourselves out of -- are struggling. Many of them have closed down (or been taken over by the FDIC) over the last 12 months. The government policy of protecting the Too Big and Politically Connected to Fail is badly hurting the small banks, which are having a much harder time competing in the financial marketplace. As a result, a system which was already dangerously concentrated at the top has only become more so....
The idea is simple: If enough people who have money in one of the Big Six banks (the four we mentioned earlier, plus Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley) move it into smaller, more local, more traditional community banks, then collectively we, the people, will have taken a big step toward re-rigging the financial system so it becomes again the productive, stable engine for growth it's meant to be. It's neither Left nor Right -- it's populism at its best. Consider it a withdrawal tax on the big banks for the negative service they provide by consistently ignoring the public interest. It's time for Americans to move their money out of these reckless behemoths...
And then we've got recently-anointed Voice of CBS Morgan Freeman, apparently talking about Invictus. Here's from RottenTomatoes:
Synopsis: The film tells the inspiring true story of how Nelson Mandela joined forces with the captain of South Africa’s rugby team, Francois Pienaar, to help unite their country. Newly elected President... The film tells the inspiring true story of how Nelson Mandela joined forces with the captain of South Africa’s rugby team, Francois Pienaar, to help unite their country. Newly elected President Mandela knows his nation remains racially and economically divided in the wake of apartheid. Believing he can bring his people together through the universal language of sport, Mandela rallies South Africa’s underdog rugby team as they make an unlikely run to the 1995 World Cup Championship match.
Consensus: Delivered with typically stately precision from director Clint Eastwood, Invictus may not be rousing enough for some viewers, but Matt Damon and Morgan Freeman inhabit their real-life characters with admirable conviction.
RT also has links to (and snippets from) 167 reviews, which give it a 'Certified Fresh' rating of 76%. That's way too many for me to go through (and make deadline), but maybe it'll be a project to eat up time while Yoo is on mute. The only other stuff that GoogleNews found for me is awards talk, somewhat unsavory gossip, and stuff about the poem that gave the movie its title. My favorite so far is 'Invictus': worst famous poem ever? |