There must be something in the water in Kansas City.
I long ago learned that if I wanted an intelligent take on any major issue in the sports world, my first stop was Jason Whitlock, the Kansas City Star sports columnist who writes with more grace and integrity than almost anyone else in that genre.
When it comes to television and thoughtful insight into the TV trade, one of the most reliable sources is Aaron Barnhart, author of the Kansas City based blog “TV Barn”.
And for the truth about the economy, there are few with more credibility and courage than William K. Black, professor of Law and Economics at the KC campus of the University of Missouri and America’s senior bank regulator during the Savings and Loan scandals of the 1980’s.
Black literally wrote the book on financial fraud. It’s called “The Best Way To Rob A Bank Is To Own One”. And he is now utterly convinced that many of America’s most esteemed and important financial players need to go right to jail for what they’ve done to the world economy. He also believes they are getting away with their crimes with the help of politicians from all parts of the political spectrum.
Last week, he sat down with PBS’s Bill Moyers for 29 of the most shocking minutes I’ve ever seen on television. It’s impossible to come away from the interview without the grim realization that what’s now bad is going to get impossibly worse and that those who profess to have our best interests at heart have a completely different agenda.
No matter what end of the political bench you call home, this is chilling stuff that will give a whole new meaning to who you consider “us” or “them”. And Black’s message is all the darker because he fits nobody’s tidy definition of a wing-nut and unlike the so-called financial journalists of the Main Stream Media, he knows of what he speaks and isn’t afraid to name names or call out somebody you thought was perfectly respectable for what they really are.
This video needs to be seen by and shared with everyone you know. If it resonates with you the way it did with me, please pass it on to every journalist, union member, recently unemployed friend and politician that you know. Pass it on to those who are afraid of losing their pensions and homes, or who have already lost their investment nest eggs.
These are far from issues “too complicated” for the average person to understand or that can be dismissed as “unforeseen” cases of individual greed and corruption. As Black makes clear in the opening moments, “Bernie Madoff was a piker. He doesn’t even get into the front ranks of the Ponzi schemes”.
As Black also makes indelibly obvious, all this talk of bailouts, belt-tightening and credit crunches is just so much BS to keep us distracted from what’s really going on. Keep those torches, pitchforks and tumbrels handy. We might need them after all.
Does anybody remember a little riff that went something like, “No Taxation Without Representation”? If there’s another American Revolution, I’ve got a feeling it might get its start in Kansas City. And given the quality of some of the people who seem to live there, that might be a good thing for all of us.
