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Democracy Now!: Sen. Bernie Sanders, Robert Scheer and Dean Baker on the Proposed $700 Billion Bailout of Wall Street, (9/22/08) by Juan Gonzalez & Amy Goodman
A perspective generally absent from corporate coverage is seen in progressive economist Baker's response to an Amy Goodman request for assessment of Sunday talkshows that gave a "clear sense that if this [planned financial bailout] is not accomplished in the next few days... it's like before the invasion of Iraq. We can be hit by a weapon of mass destruction, is basically the idea. And this is about not saving Wall Street, but saving the American people." Baker responds:
They're trying to scare Congress to death, because it's not as though we have to do it today or tomorrow.... We could probably wait two weeks. But the point is, it could be punitive, it should be punitive.... If UBS [bank] wants to come here and sell 90 percent of their company to us to sell their junk, fine, and their CEOs are going to get a 90 or 95 percent pay cut, fine.... We should structure it in a way that keeps the system operating and is punitive, so that UBS is not happy to have to come here.... We have time, and we can impose the conditions that ensure that the people who got us here get punished.
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