Charlie Rose

patientman  02/27/2013 03:10 PM Report

A perception of wage cutting and austerity to promote future prosperity, when every such policy in the past has led only to further falls in living standards. For this reason, the scientific method, the inductive method, remains as in Galileo's a subversive force. -Eric Lerner 1990

Mr. Rattner has a problem when he states, "...lack of resources." He lacks vision in a time when it is most needed.

AntonGrambihler  02/27/2013 03:33 AM Report

If I pay in $210.00/month into Medicaid/Medicare for 40 years (ages 25-65) that amounts to $100800.00. Now if the FED was working for the people instead of the Financial Institutions and Stock Brokers, we would be earning 3.5% interest on this money. This would provide $220,019.90 when we reach 65 and would continue to earn income for many more years even as part of it is being used for health care.

SharkswithfrikingLazers  02/27/2013 03:31 AM Report

Steve was close, "The couple will have paid $122,000 in Medicare taxes but will receive $387,000 in benefits — more than three times what they paid in."

Poltifact does a nice job explaining what Steve touched upon:

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2013/feb/01/medicare-and-social-security-what-you-pai d-what-yo/

SharkswithfrikingLazers  02/27/2013 03:04 AM Report

'I wish the President had done more the golf; he is very analytical.'

Pish-posh Steve.

Why not just build a miniature golf course on the White House grounds and have all the families play golf--father, mother, kids.

Boehner can smoke and drink and Obama can enjoy being a father to his girls.

Do the haters play miniature golf Steve?

SharkswithfrikingLazers  02/27/2013 02:58 AM Report

AIG--hold your nose Steve?

AIG's bailout eventually totaled $182.3 billion. The bailout was fully paid off last year.

You must mean the new stinky-stink:

A federal judge has put American International Group Inc's (AIG.N) dispute with a financial crisis-era bailout vehicle on hold while another court addresses the insurer's separate $10 billion lawsuit against Bank of America Corp (BAC.N) over defective mortgages.

Yes, now they sue but first have to wait for another lawsuit.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/26/us-aig-newyorkfed-bankofamerica-maidenla-idUSBRE91P14820130 226

The lawyers will get their money like the tobacco industry.

SharkswithfrikingLazers  02/27/2013 02:36 AM Report

Heroes Steve?

Did you watch "Inside Job"?

Apparently not.

SharkswithfrikingLazers  02/27/2013 02:33 AM Report

Yes Steve, the middle class was HIT HARD!

Look what Pew says:

The Lost Decade of the Middle Class--Fewer, Poorer, Gloomier

http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2012/08/22/the-lost-decade-of-the-middle-class/

(Check out the chart on median net worth.)

Max83  02/27/2013 02:33 AM Report

I heard radio show host Sam Seder say a very appropriate thing about these Fix the Debt guys. He said, I paraphrase: ''These guys are neither part of the Republican Party or the Democratic Party, they are members of the Money Party.''

So true I refer to these types of the human species as the ''Money Monsters''.

''How Debt Obsessionists Tip Toe Around Austerity''

Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mk2nSRq5Ri0

'' Published on Feb 25, 2013

After Sam Seder's debate with The Can Kicks Back co-founder Nick Trioano, the Majority Report crew discusses what just took place and how those who are obsessed with debt reduction try and tip toe around austerity...''

Max83  02/27/2013 02:11 AM Report

I have seen this too much. Billionaires crashing the economy on purpose, so they can buy up real and valuable assets for pennies on the dollar and then when the economy picks up again they rent you back your house or sell it to you for double what they paid for it, while employing you for have the wages you got before their manufactured recession even though productivity in their factories has increased.

These guys are mentally ill and a threat to society.

''Billionaires for Austerity: With Cuts Looming, Wall Street Roots of "Fix the Debt" Campaign Exposed''

Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNPAOfwKV8o

'' Published on Feb 26, 2013

http://www.democracynow.org - With $85 billion across-the-board spending cuts, known as "the sequestration," set to take effect this Friday, a new investigation reveals how billionaire investors, such as Peter Peterson, have helped reshaped the national debate on the economy, the debt and social spending. Between 2007 and 2011, Peterson personally contributed nearly $500 million to his Peter G. Peterson Foundation to push Congress to cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid — while providing tax breaks for corporations and the wealthy. Peterson's main platform has been the Campaign to Fix the Debt. While the campaign is portrayed as a citizen-led effort, critics say the campaign is a front for business groups. The campaign has direct ties to GE, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley, and Goldman Sachs. Peterson is the former chair and CEO of Lehman Brothers and co-founder of the private equity firm, the Blackstone Group. For more, we speak to John Nichols of The Nation and Lisa Graves of the Center for Media and Democracy.''

richard-lipscombe  02/26/2013 05:34 PM Report

Good interview. Well done Charlie and Steve.

It strikes me that this whole fiscal crisis is much a do about nothing. America is being distracted by this 'state of fear' being pumped up by both sides of politics. It seems to me that most people in America still have more than enough and are doing well. The economy is on a rebound and it will come back strong soon.

In addition, those who can't provide for themselves are being provided for 'adequately' by government.

Steve Rattner is probably right. This time in American history is a difficult one because of the issues surrounding the distribution of resources. He is a

Democrat and so he sees a need to increase the share of contribution being made by wealthy Americans to government revenues. Surely everyone see that the divide between rich and not rich in America is huge. There is a gaping gap and the fact that there is not more resentment by those who have less against those who have more is a credit to the American spirit of winner takes all. Rattner also knows that an aging society brings its own problems on health care spending. So it is easy to see why the President and Rattner advocate what they do right now.

Meanwhile, the Republicans see a completely different problem through the same lens. They see the problem as a distribution issue too. But they focus on this issue as one characterised by the redistribution of resources, via government, from future generations to this one. They see the debt as a key factor because it will crowd out future prosperity for the next generation who will be saddled with a huge debt with crippling interest payments once the interest rates return to 3-5%. Republicans want to slow the rate of increase in the debt and to find ways to dismantle the borrowing binge that began with President George W Bush. Bush started this nonsense and Obama has merely continued the rush to unsustainable borrowings.

The real problem I saw in America on my trip a couple of weeks ago was not all this. This is what Michael Crichton, bless his soul, may have called a 'State of Fear'. As Micheal would tell us this will likely peak soon and then the caravan will move onto something else - if another Democrat is elected to the White House it could be Climate Change again. But this is all a side-show to the real problems facing America and her people.

To my mind the real problem is the culture of America today. It is a culture of poverty. It is a culture born of too many kids being sent out as adults without the education or life skills needed to make a decent living in a global digital economy.

To me "its the culture stupid!"

Cheers, Richard.

Max83  02/26/2013 03:45 PM Report

Thank you Mr. Rose for asking the tough questions about Wall Street at the end of the interview. We need more of that.

Mr. Rattner you should watch the Charlie Rose Show from February 13 2013 with Steven Brill.

America's problem is not Social Welfare, but Corporate Welfare.

Mr. Brill suggests to lower the Medicare age, because Medicare is the only cost effective way to administer health care at the moment available in America : http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/12792

Check out Thom Hartmann's website for more understanding: www.nobillionaires.com

and

watch ''Lord Robert Skidelsky on A Keynesian Response to the Crisis''

Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8R1lEVY5T_c

'' Published on Sep 6, 2012

About the Speech:

In his presentation to the IIEA Lord Skidelsky drew on his extensive knowledge of and output on Keynes, including his three-volume biography of John Maynard Keynes, which is widely considered the definitive work on Keynes, and his 2009 book 'Keynes: The Return of the Master', to provide an argument for a Keynesian response to the current economic crisis.

About the Speaker:

Lord Robert Skidelsky is a leading public intellectual in Britain. He is an economic historian, Emeritus Professor at the University of Warwick, a syndicated columnist and a cross-bench member of the House of Lords. He has written widely and earlier this year he published 'How Much is Enough?: Money and the Good Life' with Edward Skidelsky.''

Ellen_Dibble  02/26/2013 01:31 PM Report

My what muckrakers we are. Kudos! But Rattner has been saying the same thing on a few networks besides this show. Apparently to him it is worth the extra publicity to point out that entitlements have to be part of the equation. Yesterday my newsfeed brought me charts, probably from David Cay Johnston, that the trajectory for Medicare is changing the projected national debt downward, and I don't think the new incentives have really kicked in yet. Something about people being healthier and less GDP needing to go for health. Possibly the same will go for Social Security; people will not only live longer but work longer, costing the government less. So, we can run out the clock. The end of this football game is in view. The next congressional election may bring us a much more reasonable legislature to actually legislate these matters. Kick that can down the road!

Anyway, I think the stock market reflects profit taking driven in part by algorithms, so fluctuations like yesterday's don't reflect the attitude of those with their Two Trillion of sidelined money -- somewhere I read that sum -- bouncing around in day trading. If that money can be mobilized, it's far more than a mere $85 billion. So. What certainty are those Two Trillion Dollars waiting for? Probably some resolution between the IAEA, Russia, Syria, and of course Iran. If I were choosing between making a profit on universal flu vaccines versus cyber-war technology, I'd be waiting for signals from the State Department, not John Boehner.

SharkswithfrikingLazers  02/26/2013 12:24 PM Report

Charlie, let us help you with full disclosure:

Rattner Family Foundation supports you.

He paid $10 million to settle civil charges that he engaged in a kickback scheme involving New York state’s pension fund, ending a scathingly personal and public feud between Mr. Rattner and Andrew M. Cuomo. Mr. Rattner will pay restitution to the state pension fund and will be barred from appearing in any capacity before a public pension fund within the state for five years. He did not admit any wrongdoing.

ALSO The Quadrangle Group, the private equity firm formerly headed by Mr. Rattner, also struck a deal with both Mr. Cuomo and the S.E.C., paying $12 million to end its role in the case.

(Well at least there was some punishment, huh?)

SharkswithfrikingLazers  02/26/2013 12:20 PM Report

By the end of 2014, the sequestration would cost roughly 700,000 jobs (including reductions in armed forces), pushing the civilian unemployment rate up ¼ percentage point, to 7.4%. The higher unemployment would linger for several years.

http://macroadvisers.blogspot.com/2013/02/mas-alternative-scenario-march-1_19.html

(Paul Krugman mentions this in his column.)

REMant  02/26/2013 12:16 PM Report

Mr Rattner, it is reported, is now managing His Honor The Charlie Rose Show sponsor's money, despite continuing criticism of his role in the demise of his former firm, and raising his public persona through appearances in the media.

If the president spent half as much time working on the problem instead of using it to flog his opposition, no doubt we'd be better off. These stand-ups flanked by policepersons, and reports of shutdown imminent medical breakthroughs are nauseous. I suppose its thought "progressive." But $85 billion is only something like 2% of the Federal budget.

Wall St, remarkably, is more upset by the possibility of lack of fiscal responsibility in Italy and Japan, than about the need for such restraint here. But I think we've had quite enough of the MIT banking contingent's "insurance function," both here and abroad.

And Rattner is talking the same inflationary language Wall St likes no matter what he thinks about the efficacy of govt spending. Of course, you can be more efficient if you have the capital, but like many poor folks who can't afford to drive to the supermarket, you have to save up for the car. It's no use telling us the money should come from the wealthy, since that money is already invested, so it will either come from something else or be printed, meaning it will come from all of us in the form of diminished purchasing power. These ppl retain the juvenile notion that there's a free lunch, or they simply can't plan. And there's no middle ground here, much as some might like it. We used to picture what "the developed world" is now going through as disgraceful. But no longer. This is the issue more than the distribution of scarce resources.

The Fed, of course, has had a great deal to do with "recovery" (I would say development of a new bubble) in the housing market, even if the govt, itself did not.