SAG AFTRA Drama; State Democratic Convention; Overhauling Financial Regulation of Banks
SAG AFTRA Drama
The two unions that represent actors, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artist and the Screen Actors Guild, have long sniped at each other. Still, the two managed to maintain a partnership and negotiated contracts together. No more. The real-life drama that split the two unions appears to involve soap operas, with SAG accused of trying to woo soap actors over from AFTRA (which normally represents television broadcast actors). Pundits say the break-up will hurt actors in upcoming contract negotiations with CBS, Fox and other producers, since the performers are coming in with a divided front. Larry talks to the Hollywood Reporter's Leslie Simmons about the split.
State Democratic Convention
Larry gets a wrap-up of the state democratic convention this past weekend from KPCC Special Correspondent, Kitty Felde, and Bob Mulholland, campaign advisor to the California Democratic Party.
Overhauling Financial Regulation of Banks
The sub-prime mess hit people struggling to buy their own homes. But it also slammed the high-stakes world of Wall Street investment banking. Large investment intuitions were selling mortgage-backed securities with the assumption that real-estate values only go up. When they didn't, and when a sufficient number of bad loans defaulted, investment banks lost billions--resulting in the federal rescue of Bear Sterns. Had it not been for the rescue, other banks might have collapsed as well. And that still could happen as the fallout continues. Why were banks trading and selling securities based on such faulty assumptions? And what should the government do, if anything, to keep it from happening again? Larry discusses the problem with Lakshman Achuthan of the Economic Cycle Research Institute, Jason Furman, director of Brookings Institute's Hamilton Project, and Marek Fuchs, columnist with "The Street dot com".