Tuesday, December 07, 2010 Radio Show
H1: Such Things Tragedies Are Made of
Prager H1: A teenage boy does something very stupid in Israel and 42 people die. Countless lives are impacted… Dennis talks to John Eastman, founding Director of the Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence, about the latest legal developments of California’s constitutional amendment to define marriage as one man and one woman, Prop 8.
Tuesday, December 07, 2010 Radio Show
H2: The Inquisition
Prager H2: The President and the Republicans reached a deal on taxes. The Left is furious… 19 countries are boycotting the Nobel Peace Prize Award. The recipient is a Chinese dissident… The music industry has covered itself in shame once again. This year’s Grammy nominees for Record of the Year are typical.
Dennis talks to Alex Pollock, scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and a director of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. His new book is Boom and Bust: Financial Cycles and Human Prosperity.
Tuesday, December 07, 2010 Radio Show
H3: Ultimate Issues Hour: The Founders and Deism
Prager H3: Were the Founders of the United States of America deists who didn’t believe in the Judeo-Christian ethical monotheistic view of God? Were they really atheists?Dennis: We forced banks to give loans to people who shouldn’t have gotten them.
Alex: The role of the government was critical, through pushing high-risk loans through the banking system and through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, pushing high risk, low-quality credit, inflating the bubble and making the ultimate collapse worse.
Dennis: Government intervention can make it worse because it does not allow the economy to work things out.
Alex says the TARP legislation passed under President Bush was a good idea.
Dennis: “Watching your industry [banking] has not elicited respect from me.”
Alex: Banking is inherent risky and you are going to have these crises from time to time.
Paul Volker says: “Every ten years we have the greatest crisis in 50 years.”
Dennis: “I remember all those loans to South American countries that were not paid back. I’m convinced the primary reason those loans were made was ego. You get feted in capitals around South America. Ego is a powerful thing.”
Alex: International lending collapsed in the 1980s. Until 1982, it was greatly praised by economists and politicians.
Dennis: “The reason bankers do this is that they know if things go bad, they’ll be bailed out. It’s the opposite of free enterprise.”
Alex: “The individual bankers don’t get bailed out. They get humiliated or fired. Bank boards are equally punished. You get congressional hearings to punish them. There is someone protected — the creditors of the banks.”
Pollock says the new tax deal is a good result of the election.
