New Way Forward initiative--looks like these folks are worth supporting

[eridani]

http://www.alternet.org/workplace/135390/fast-rising_protest_group_challenges_the_outrageous_power_of_the_bankers/?page=entire


WireTap: Let's start with the basics. Why did you and your partners decide to launch a New Way Forward initiative?

Tiffiniy Cheng: The bailouts were just on everybody's minds and on my own. Watching all of the bailouts go to the banks and bankers has been so frustrating, because they are a part of the reason why this system has been broken. Once I saw Simon Johnson on Bill Moyers Journal and heard a clear strategy that had the public interest in mind, we wanted to do something. It seemed that Obama and Congress didn't have enough political independence from the financial industry to actually push forward policies that were in the public interest. It seemed to us that there is a sound policy we can all rally around that had our interest in mind.

Is your agenda mostly informed by Simon Johnson?

Yes, a lot of our thinking comes from what Simon Johnson, but also what James Kwak, George Akerlof, and Robert Shiller have written about. I think Paul Krugman is also pretty influential. And we started working on this campaign when both Bernanke and Roubini came out and said that we might need to take a different course. That nationalization would probably be a good thing in their view. We are drawing ideas from expert opinion for sure. We are looking at all of the people who are talking about a way we can get out of this economic crisis in a way that will allow us to build a healthier economy, and a healthier free market where the bottom is allowed to prosper. We are looking at any economist or any leader in Congress who is talking about the policies that will affect the working class people as well.

What is your agenda?

First, nationalize the banks. That means temporary FDIC intervention. FDIC can help to clear the balance sheets of any bank that is failing and has needed the bail out money.

To clarify, right now, it's still the bank board members and the CEOs who are deciding how the money is going to be spent, right?

They are not only deciding, the current plan allows them to privatize the cost of the bail out, and socialize the cost. We are saying the government should be getting something back.

To clarify, another way to describe this is if the banks fail, taxpayers pay for it. If the banks succeed, they take the profits, correct?

Exactly. We are giving them the money with no strings attached.

[midnight]

1. This bail out was done for the benefit of the banks at the cost

of the tax payers. NO non banking citizen would of ever received such a deal. That is why this bail out is corrupt as and wrong as the business scheme that put them and us in this mess. The bail out is the second wave of their scheme. This bail out does need to have a provision where the tax payer is re-payed and that the system is leveled/nationalized. Wages of these people need to be brought in line with the working people of this country. Why should a banker make millions more than a nurse, or a teacher? Don't even tell me supply and demand. There is a demand for teachers and nurses.