Thomas Ferguson is a political scientist and author who studies and writes on politics and economics, often within an historical perspective. He is a Political Science professor at the University of Massachusetts Boston, a contributing editor of The Nation, and is also the author of several books, the most recent of which is Golden Rule: The Investment Theory of Party Competition and the Logic of Money-Driven Political System.

Today, in the fourth of a series of interviews with Real News CEO Paul Jay, Ferguson calls the Obama/Geithner/Summers plan a "recipe for disaster".


Real News - April 4, 2009
Obama should save the banks, not the bankers Pt.4
Tom Ferguson: Obama's plan is a "recipe for disaster, if the US reflates, the rest of the world doesn't"

(Full transcript below)

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A black hole gravitationally sucks in everything that comes near it, and nothing can return from the other side of the event horizon once sucked in.

Banks lending money is one of the major, if not THE major way they produce revenue and profit. In any business, when sales are down you do everything you can do to increase sales revenue - or you go bust - UNLESS you can produce revenue another way.

Yet the real message coming through is that the banks BANKERS seem to have decided that they do not want to increase revenue in any other way than simply taking it from taxpayers instead of lending to generate revenue.

This leads me to suspect that they have no intention of returning to providing the "product" they have always provided to generate revenue, but instead have decided to simply and openly steal it, and that the current economic crisis is not something the government is trying to correct but is instead actively a partner in intentionally manufacturing.

With government help. With Geithner's help. With the presidents help.

We have a big problem. The problem is not the economic crisis.

What is "government"?

"Very simply, it is an agency of coercion. Of course, there are other agencies of coercion -- such as the Mafia. So to be more precise, government is the agency of coercion that has flags in front of its offices."
--Harry Browne

Thomas Ferguson is an American political scientist and author who studies and writes on politics and economics, often within an historical perspective. He is a political science professor at the University of Massachusetts Boston. He obtained his Ph.D. from Princeton University. He is also a contributing editor for The Nation.

Today Ferguson talks with Real News CEO Paul Jay about the banking crisis and the black hole at the center of the crisis, the Obama administrations response so far to it, and about something he thinks really needs to be done that is not being done.

Real News - March 25, 2009 - 12 minutes 25 seconds
Obama should save the banks, not the bankers
Tom Ferguson: Stimulus package is dangerously small; plan for toxic assets shovels money to bankers