GDay World 381 – Why We Hate Banks (part one)
Posted on 12. Jun, 2009 by Cameron Reilly in Bad Company, banksters, Podcast
UPDATE: The original audio for this show had a problem (overlapping tracks) so I’ve re-uploaded it here.
We hate banks. (see my recent poll) It’s true. You know it. I know it. The only people who don’t seem to know it are the banks themselves. Although, I suspect they DO know it – they just don’t care. They’ve had an effective oligopoly for so long they think they can just say and do whatever they want and we’ll just sit here and take it.
Well I’m not taking it anymore. I’m going to do a series of shows exploring why we hate banks so much and what the alternatives are. We have a voice. Let’s use it to change things.
Today on the show I interview three people – Jen Storey from Online Banking Review, Mike Jarocki from Credit Card Finder, and Owen Davies, Group Manager, Corporate Affairs, Bendigo Bank, the bank that Aussies seem to actually like a bit.
Show sponsor:
William K Black on The Financial Crisis Cover-Up
Posted on 06. Apr, 2009 by Cameron Reilly in Bad Company, banksters, capitalism
Bill Moyers sits down with William K. Black, the former senior regulator who cracked down on banks during the savings and loan crisis of the 1980s. Black offers his analysis of what went wrong and his critique of the bailout.
I love the term they are using for bankers who deliberately defraud society – “banksters”. Black says the entire financial system is one big ponzi scheme, making Bernie Madoff looking like an amateur and fall guy for the larger crime which involved the entire financial system and governments who allowed them to go unregulated.
Ron Paul, Amy Goodman and Big Tobacco
Posted on 11. Sep, 2008 by Cameron in Bad Company, US politics
Just a few things that have caught my attention this morning:
1. Ron Paul refuses to endorse McCain and instead tells his supporters to vote for a third-party candidate. I love this quote from him:
“It might diminish my credibility,” said Paul (when asked to endorse McCain). “I don’t like the idea of getting 2 or 3 million people angry at me.”
You have to watch the video and read the story. It’s horrifying.
3. British American Tobacco targets kids with their advertising.
BAT claim they don’t want children to smoke, but then get “caught in Malawi, Mauritius and Nigeria using marketing tactics that are well-known to appeal to youth: advertising and selling single cigarettes, and sponsoring non-age-restricted, product-branded musical entertainment.”
I’ve got a bunch of great interviews in the can ready to release to you, including a chat with the music critic who introduced Kurt Cobain to Courtney Love and a representative from the Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights who told me American should nuke Iran. Apparently they don’t have any rights. And tonight I’m interviewing Robert M Price, a theologian and biblical scholar who agrees with me that Jesus probably didn’t exist. So stay tuned!
Exxon says one thing, does the opposite
Posted on 05. Jun, 2008 by Cameron in Bad Company
From the “Just-Cuz-We-Say-We’re-Going-To-Do-Something-Doesn’t-Mean-We-Will” department:
The Center for Science in the Public Interest points out that ExxonMobil has just announced “for the second consecutive year” that it is cutting funding to groups which promote skepticism about global warming. The groups that are supposedly being cut off include the Capital Research Center, Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow, Frontiers of Freedom Institute, the George C. Marshall Institute, and the Institute for Energy Research. However, CSPI points out, “Each group continued to receive Exxon funding in 2007 after the company’s first announcement that it would discontinue the payments. Exxon did not immediately return calls seeking comment on how serious it was in following through on its plans.”
(Source: Integrity in Science Watch, June 2, 2008 via PRWatch.org)
It’s easy to companies to make a big splash, put out some advertising, put out a press release, but how often do they actually follow through? And who holds them responsible when they don’t? Perhaps we need more people like Stephen Mayne, who buy shares in these companies, and then rock up to their Annual General Meeting with a video camera to ask the hard questions.