Definitely Not from the Monkey Planet

I thought I'd toss out a brief compliment to NPR News regarding their willingness to turn to Simon Johnson regarding financial policy under the Obama administration. Johnson, a former chief economist at the IMF is pretty bold about critiquing the way that the banking giants have been supersized by the Bush-Obama bailout program (his appearance on Bill Moyers Journal is worth the watch).

He was on ATC on October 9th - how often do you get to hear someone say this regarding the financial system that operates in the US:

"It's a very sophisticated sort of oligarchy that we've created..."

NPR again turned to him this week on ATC (October 28th) to weigh in on whether the mega-banks should be broken up. Again, refreshing comments such as,

"And the view that our banks are only good and forces for all kinds of progressive change is, I have to say, a little New York-biased. Most of the people in the rest of the world don't see it that way, and with good reason."

I just hope NPR doesn't Kevin Phillips him. You remember him don't you? He used to be a moderate Republican regular on NPR until he got too honest for them - pointing out the obvious sad truths of our dying republic (e.g. the Bushogarchy, the plutocracy we live in, American theocracy and Bad Money). The fate of Johnson on NPR will be interesting to watch.