Good evening from the Nation's Capital. I'll be your humble guest host as TiaRachel goes out and has a life or something.
Tonight, we have a couple of authors pushing their books. Jon has Linda Polman, author of The Crisis Caravan: What's Wrong with Humanitarian Aid? Stephen has Steve Rattner, author of Overhaul: An Insider's Account of the Obama Administration's Emergency Rescue of the Auto Industry.
Linda Polman is an Amsterdam based journalist who has covered war zones for 15 years.
From the synopsis by Amazon:
A vast industry has grown up around humanitarian aid: a cavalcade of organizations—some 37,000—compete for a share of the $160 billion annual prize, with "fact-inflation" sometimes ramping up disaster coverage to draw in more funds. Insurgents and warring governments, meanwhile, have made aid a permanent feature of military strategy: refugee camps serve as base camps for genocidaires, and aid supplies are diverted to feed the troops. Even as humanitarian groups continue to assert the holy principle of impartiality, they have increasingly become participants in aid's abuses.
And from Penguin UK Books:
Linda Polman's gripping narrative introduces us to the key players in this twisted game, to the aid-workers and the warlords themselves. Among many others, there is the Bible-bashing one-man NGO who rescued two Sierra Leonean girls from life in an amputee camp - only to change his mind and try to send them back again;
For a counterpoint/CYA perspective, here is a link to a paper from Overseas Development Institute arguing that the situation is not that bad and the blame lies with donor nations and the United Nations.
Just. Wow.
I encourage anyone actually reading at this point to consider a donation to Shelter Box, which is a project of Rotary International, and to support Kossacks in their ongoing efforts to help with recovery efforts in Haiti, Pakistan and other countries rebuilding from natural disasters.
Stephen has royalty this evening. Former Car Czar Steven Rattner, wrote a book about his role in the automobile industry bailout. Now if you are a screwball Tea Partier, you are already pulling our your Constitution and frantically searching for the bit about Congress not giving out titles of nobility. (Hint: Article I, Section 9, last paragraph, genius.) Never mind that the media crowns any special adviser with the old Russian nobility title and has been doing so since at least the days of that screaming liberal Ronald Reagan.
Anyway, back in reality land, Rattner started out as a journalist for the New York Times before getting into the finance industry. According to several stories I came across like this one from Time, Rattner:
had never focused on the auto industry before. So yes, he was an odd choice to be a special adviser to the Treasury Department on its dealings with Detroit car manufacturers.
~snip
But now, the private equity firm Rattner co-founded is the focus of pay-to-play accusations made by the New York State Attorney General and Securities and Exchange Commission. While Rattner has not been charged with anything, he was an executive at the firm during the time the alleged misdeeds took place and reportedly may have met with those accused of criminal activity.
Woops.
New York Magazine had an even more indepth look at Rattner. Gawker is a lot more direct in its story Steven Rattner Is Basically an Asshole.
This could be awkward.
Anyway, the Amazon link is here, but the USA Today review is probably more useful.
He (Rattner) says he hoped the tale would show how bold moves taken by the Obama administration saved the auto industry overall from an imminent collapse. But instead, he says, people are focusing on juicy quotes, such as when White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel dismissed concerns of the United Auto Workers union, a staunch administration ally, with a colorful "f ——— the UAW."
And the bottom line is that the bailout cost taxpayers $81.8 billion to keep the U.S. automobile industry in business.
