Gramm-Leach-Bliley Turns 10

Happy birthday Gramm-Leach-Bliley!  You're 10 years old today!  And now, a celebration the way only MSNBC's Dylan Ratigan can throw it, with poignant commentary.

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The premise is this: back in the day, the Glass-Steagall act prevented banks from doing risky things with people's money by establishing a barrier between investment banks, "main st" or personal banks, and insurance companies.  Any money that you put into one of those institutions could not be gambled in other money markets so consumers could be sure that there money was safe.

This was so from 1933 to 1999.  It was a measure passed after the crash of the Great Depression caused by banks speculating with consumer money in investment markets.

Sounds pretty air-tight right?  This measure would keep people from dabbling in fragile derivative markets using people's pensions or mortgages, which meant that people could not lose their home because a bank's investment accounts tanked.

So what happened?  On Nov. 2nd, 1999 Congress passed Gramm-Leach-Bliley.  An act that undid that regulatory protection remove the barrier that prevented banks from participating in all three markets at the same time.  This gave banks, especially those with more capital in their vaults like Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, the opportunity to make boatloads of money by speculating with people's money and pensions!

Now how did this come to pass?  How did Congress let such an egregious measure pass the gavel and out into the financial world?  Because lobbyists from Citigroup (yes, the one's that owe us hundreds of billions of dollars in bailout money) coerced congress into passing this deregulatory measure.  The deal was made in the backrooms of the White House and Congress and now, we're paying for it.

So grab a hat everybody!  Let's celebrate the only way we can!  By wading through job applications into a crippled job market where credit is harder to come by than ever before.

Deregulation and "too big to fail" got you down?  Feel free to leave comments at the front desk.

Well if I Can't Trust Fox Who Can I Trust?

Let's face it, if we're completely honest with ourselves, it's ridiculous to consider Fox News, CNN, or even MSNBC as credible news sources since each have sponsorship details that require embellishing some facts if not with lies then with sensationalist rhetoric to attract viewers.

So with this in mind, who can you trust?  Cable news networks dominate the airwaves and trying to find non-biased news sources yields results that are both slim and esoteric.  Let's face it, MoveOn.org ain't exactly filled with open-minded individuals...

Through my experience, however, I feel that I've found a handful of resources for finding the (mostly) unvarnished truth behind what goes on in our world today.

NPR: Radio and Podcasts

Ask anyone who's been looking for a reliable and unbiased news source for a while and they'll inevitably recommend National Public Radio to you.  Their ability to report the facts without embellishment is as impressive as it is rare in a world dominated by blatantly biased journalism.

The first place to start would be the NPR website which I've posted in the Links section on the homepage.  From there you can find the same daily stories that you get from other news outlets but without all the fluff.

The next place to go would be NPR's podcasts.  Just search NPR in the iTunes library and you'll find a bevy of shows on both general news and more specific topics.  One of my personal favorites is "It's all Politics" which features a poignant appraisal of the supposedly earth-shattering gubernatorial elections that took place recently.

Finally, if you have an iPhone, NPR makes it very easy for you with their app.  Download it from the App Store and say hello to integrated radio stations, up to the minute updates on daily news, and audio from the stories as they are reported on the radio.

Mediamatters.org: Fact Checkers and Heartbreakers

Remember when John Kerry saved several of his military colleagues from certain death and was awarded the purple heart for his courage?  Neither does anyone else because in today's politics, "Swiftboating" or lying/distorting the facts frequently enough that the distortion becomes truth has replaced real debate in our political discourse.  That's where MediaMatters comes in: they are a staff of qualified and often award winning journalists who analyze the news and point out distortions and falsifications.

Many of my favorite items have come from this site because let's face it, when you're sitting in front of the TV watching CNN, you want to accept everything they say as truth.  Lately, however, the introduction of right-wing (or left-wing for that matter) political analysts billed as unbiased experts has so far distorted honest journalism that we need an entity like MediaMatters to keep things straight.

You: The Final Word

At the end of the day, here's the bottom line: you are the one accepting what's given to you on news networks and so it's up to you to examine what you're hearing to find out if there's any truth in it.

The process is simple: if the anchor makes a comment about a bill or an event, look for editorial comments.  Often times it's subtle: using words such as "deadly" or "decisive", over-the-top adjectives that overemphasize the importance of an event or, in some cases, underemphasize it.  Sometimes its even bigger: Fox News recently displayed doctored video footage of a Republican Tea Party to exaggerate its turnout.  Look at news with an incredulous eye and I think you'll be surprised at what you find.

No human being is capable of viewing something without their perspective coming in to play, but journalists should be able to report facts without fiction.  Have you seen poor journalistic practices lately?  Feel free to leave comments at the front desk.