Michael Moore: More regulation, less greed

Filmmaker Michael Moore appeared on Countdown with Keith Olbermann last night, with guest host Lawrence O'Donnell filling in, and discussed the impact of 2008's economic and financial collapse on middle and working-class Americans, as well as private health insurance companies and their nefarious practices. Moore also called out President Obama for still playing too nice with Wall Street crooks, such as Goldman Sachs who not only donated cash to Obama's campaign, but also former Goldman Sachs employees who are now serving in the Obama Administration. O'Donnell and Moore also compared President Obama's approach to Wall Street to President Roosevelt, who was much stronger who not only fought for the little man, but who also said that he welcomed bankers and Wall Street's "hatred". Transparent derivatives were also discussed, as even making derivatives and derivative trading transparent is not the answer to assuring that future crashes won't occur. The Democratic Party's current proposed financial regulation legislation is not banning risky and extremely complicated derivative trading or credit default swaps, nor is it calling for breaking up the so-called "too big to fail" banks. Prior to the deregulation of Wall Street, banks and the financial market in the 1980s under President Reagan (then further deregulation under Clinton and Bush), America saw the largest expansion of its economy following the Great Depression and President Roosevelt's regulation of the 1930s.

The 2008 meltdown could have been prevented, however in 1998 Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, and Larry Summers conspired to prevent adequate regulation of Wall Street, banks, and the derivative market, or the credit default swap market. Brooksley Born, the head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, warned of the coming disaster and advocated for regulation, but Greenspan, Rubin and Summers fought back hard.