Between The Lines - Richard Eskow: What Delayed Obama's Move to Prosecute Big Banks and Wall Street Financial Institutions? (Week Ending Feb. 17, 2012)

Award-winning Investigative Journalist Robert Parry (1949-2018)

Award-winning investigative journalist and founder/editor of ConsortiumNews.com, Robert Parry has passed away. His ground-breaking work uncovering Reagan-era dirty wars in Central America and many other illegal and immoral policies conducted by successive administrations and U.S. intelligence agencies, stands as an inspiration to all in journalists working in the public interest.

Robert had been a regular guest on our Between The Lines and Counterpoint radio shows -- and many other progressive outlets across the U.S. over four decades.

His penetrating analysis of U.S. foreign policy and international conflicts will be sorely missed, and not easily replaced. His son Nat Parry writes a tribute to his father: Robert Parry’s Legacy and the Future of Consortiumnews.

Thank you for donating

If you've made a donation and wish to receive thank you gifts for your donation, be sure to send us your mailing address via our Contact form.

See our thank you gifts for your donation.

The Resistance Starts Now!

Between The Lines' coverage and resource compilation of the Resistance Movement

"The man who predicted Trump presidential win now says Trump impeachment could happen," AM Joy with Joy Reid, MSNBC, Jan. 21, 2018
"Sketchy Kazakh money finds its way into Trump dealings," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Red flags seen in many Trump real estate deals," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Secret Money: How Trump Made Millions Selling Condos To Unknown Buyers," BuzzFeed, Jan. 12, 2018
"The Scandals of Donald Trump: Presidential Edition," The Atlantic, May 15, 2017
"Here's what we know so far about Team Trump's ties to Russian interests," Washington Post's ongoing compilation
"What Comey Was Investigating, Explained," The Moscow Project, Center for American Progress

"Donald Trump's Financial Ties to Russian Oligarchs and Mobsters Detailed In Explosive New Documentary from the Netherlands," Dutch TV documentary, Alternet.org, May 12, 2017
Ongoing compilation of Trump's creeping authoritarianism," MotherJones.com
Full resource list ...

SPECIAL REPORT: "The Resistance - Women's March 2018 - Hartford, Connecticut" Jan. 20, 2018

Selected speeches from the Women's March in Hartford, Connecticut 2018, recorded and produced by Scott Harris

SPECIAL REPORT: "No Fracking Waste in CT!" Jan. 14, 2018

Jen Siskind Jennifer Siskind, local coordinator for Food and Water Watch, describes the campaign to stop fracking waste in Connecticut, which so far has led to fracking waste bans in 34 towns around the state. Interviewed by Richard Hill on Mic Check, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT

SPECIAL REPORT: "Resistance Round Table: The Unraveling Continues..." Jan. 13, 2018

Lindsay Kanaly The panel discusses Trump's long history of racism and the Republican voter suppression juggernaut confronting Democrats leading up to the 2018 elections. Special guest: Lindsay Kanaly, a lead organizer of the Women's Marches planned for Jan. 20, 2018. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill on Resistance Roundtable, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT.

SPECIAL REPORT: "Capitalism to the ash heap?" Richard Wolff, Jan. 2, 2018

Richard Wolff, Economics professor Richard Wolff declares U.S. capitalism to be beyond repair and suggests the need for a radical alternative. Interviewed by Richard Hill

SPECIAL REPORT: Maryn McKenna, author of "Big Chicken", Dec. 7, 2017

Maryn McKenna, investigative journalist and author of Big Chicken, talks about the widespread use and dangers of antibiotics in commercial poultry, beef and fruit production. Interview by Bill Duesing, Richard Hill and Guy Beardsly on WPKN's Organic Farm Stand.

SPECIAL REPORT: Nina Turner's address, Working Families Party Awards Banquet, Dec. 14, 2017

Nina Turner, president of Our Revolution, talks about the fight ahead for progressives as she receives the Working Families Organization Award for Exceptional Leadership Towards Advancing Progress. The event was held in Meriden, CT. Produced by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Dec. 12, 2017

Working Families Party of CT talks strategy and issues for 2018.
Lindsay Farrell, executive director of the Working Families Party of Connecticut, discusses the state's electoral landscape and lays out the issues and strategies that could lead to progressive victories in 2018. Interviewed by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Dec. 9, 2017

Disturbing developments in the Trump/Republican Agenda
Focus on the tax bill, destruction of our public lands, North Korea and Trump's private CIA. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill. Special guest: Jo Macallero of Rise and Resist.

SPECIAL REPORT: On Tyranny - one year later, Nov. 28, 2017

Professor Timothy Snyder, author of the highly acclaimed resistance manual On Tyranny, discusses his book and offers a fresh assessment of the state of our beleaguered republic. Timothy Snyder, history professor at Yale, is introduced by Stanley Heller, administrator of Promoting Enduring Peace, a Connecticut-based organization that sponsored this event at the United Church Parish House in New Haven on Nov. 28. A brief interview with Snyder conducted by WPKN radio producer, Richard Hill, follows his talk.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Nov. 12, 2017

Lynne Ide, director of program and policy with the Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut, talks about the current state of health care coverage in Connecticut. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Nov. 11, 2017

Focus on the Republican tax plan, the just-released autopsy on the Democratic Party, and Internet censorship by Google, Facebook and Youtube. Including an interview with Hilary Grant, a lead organizer with Action Together Connecticut, who discusses the local results of the recent election, with hosts Richard Hill, Scott Harris and Ruth Baumgartner WPKN producers

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Two leaders from Redneck Revolt, an anti-racist, anti-capitalist movement, talk about their work organizing with white working class people in Suffolk County, New York. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Bruce Gagnon, coordinator for the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, describes the extent of -- and motives underlying -- the vast US network of military bases around the globe. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resisting U.S. JeJu Island military base in South Korea, Oct. 24, 2017

Joyakol, South Korean peace activist and singer, discusses the crisis on the Korean peninsula and focuses on the resistance to the U.S. huge military base being constructed on Jeju Island. The event was sponsored by the Greater New Haven Peace Council and this audio was recorded by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.
Joyakol discusses Americans' biggest misconceptions about the conflict between North and South Korea and the U.S., Interview by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.

SPECIAL REPORT: John Allen, Out in New Haven

John Allen, founding director of the New Haven Pride Center, Connecticut, talks about his new LGBTQ television show, Out in New Haven, which presents a range of political and cultural issues to the community. Interviewed by Richard Hill on WPKN's Rainy Day Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2018.

2017 Gandhi Peace Awards

Promoting Enduring Peace presented its Gandhi Peace Award jointly to renowned consumer advocate Ralph Nader and BDS founder Omar Barghouti on April 23, 2017.

Subscribe to our Weekly Summary & receive our FREE Resist Trump window cling

(Car window cling)

Email us with your mailing address at contact@btlonline.org to receive our "Resist Trump/Resist Hate" car window cling!

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE...

who helped make our 25th anniversary with Jeremy Scahill a success!

For those who missed the event, or were there and really wanted to fully absorb its import, here it is in video

Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 1 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.

Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 2 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.

Between The Lines on Stitcher

Between The Lines Presentation at the Left Forum 2016

"How Do We Build A Mass Movement to Reverse Runaway Inequality?" with Les Leopold, author of "Runaway Inequality: An Activist's Guide to Economic Justice,"May 22, 2016, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, The City University of New York, 860 11th Ave. (Between 58th and 59th), New York City. Between The Lines' Scott Harris and Richard Hill moderated this workshop. Listen to the audio/slideshows and more from this workshop.

Listen to audio of the plenary sessions from the weekend.

JEREMY SCAHILL: Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker "Dirty Wars"

Listen to the full interview (30:33) with Jeremy Scahill, an award-winning investigative journalist with the Nation Magazine, correspondent for Democracy Now! and author of the bestselling book, "Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army," about America's outsourcing of its military. In an exclusive interview with Counterpoint's Scott Harris on Sept. 16, 2013, Scahill talks about his latest book, "Dirty Wars, The World is a Battlefield," also made into a documentary film under the same title, and was nominated Dec. 5, 2013 for an Academy Award in the Best Documentary Feature category.

Listen to Scott Harris Live on WPKN Radio

Between The Lines' Executive Producer Scott Harris hosts a live, weekly talk show, Counterpoint, from which some of Between The Lines' interviews are excerpted. Listen every Monday evening from 8 to 10 p.m. EDT at www.WPKN.org (Follows the 5-7 minute White Rose Calendar.)

Counterpoint in its entirety is archived after midnight ET Monday nights, and is available for at least a year following broadcast in WPKN Radio's Archives.

You can also listen to full unedited interview segments from Counterpoint, which are generally available some time the day following broadcast.

Subscribe to Counterpoint bulletins via our subscriptions page.

BTL Blog

[an error occurred while processing this directive]

Special Programming

[an error occurred while processing this directive]

Progressive Resources

A compilation of activist and news sites with a progressive point of view

Share this content:

|

Subscribe to BTL

Podcasts: direct or via iTunes

Subscribe to Program Summaries, Interview Transcripts or Counterpoint via email or RSS feed

If you have other questions regarding subscriptions, feeds or podcasts/mp3s go to our Audio Help page.

Between The Lines Blog

Stay connected to BTL

Learn how to support our efforts!

Tweets by @BTLRadioNews

After Years of Inaction, Obama Moves to Investigate Wall Street Role in Economic Collapse

RealAudio MP3

Posted Feb. 8, 2012

Interview with Richard Eskow, senior fellow at the group Campaign for America’s Future, conducted by Scott Harris

The film, "Inside Job," which investigated the causes of the U.S. and global economic meltdown. won the Academy Award for best documentary film in 2011. Upon accepting his Oscar at the awards ceremony, the film's director, Charles Ferguson, decried the fact that three years after the financial crisis caused by financial fraud, not a single financial executive had gone to jail. Nearly a year later, and five months after the birth of the Occupy Wall Street movement, President Barack Obama announced in his January State of the Union address that he was appointing New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman as one of five co-chairs of a new Justice Department task force to investigate mortgage fraud by big banks and financial institutions that played a central role in the economic collapse.

Earlier, Schneiderman had resisted signing onto a proposed 50-state deal promoted by the Obama administration that would have brokered a commitment from the nation’s five largest banks to pay $25 billion in relief to present and former homeowners for mortgage robo-signing abuses, in exchange for immunity from all prosecution for the bank’s illegal conduct that contributed to the economic failure in 2008. Schneiderman’s resistance to the Obama offer of immunity deal could in the end result in a settlement mandating more accountability from big banks.

Independently of other states, Schneiderman launched lawsuits on Feb. 3 against Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo for their deceptive and fraudulent use of a shell company, the Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, or MERS, used to register mortgage loan ownership. Between The Lines’ Scott Harris spoke with Richard Eskow, a senior fellow with the Campaign for America’s Future, who discusses the nation’s shifting political climate that has caused the Obama administration to take a tougher stand in holding Wall Street accountable for mortgage fraud that led to the nation’s economic collapse.

RICHARD ESKOW: Look, we have a situation where the president was elected at a historic moment with a historic mandate to force real change on Wall Street and to hold criminals accountable, to track them down and hold them accountable. He didn't do that. That's a historic disappointment. I feel that's a terrible thing that he acted the way he did for whatever reason. And the Justice Department's record of non-prosecution of bankers, even in cases where the evidence seemed overwhelming is extraordinarily disappointing and even shameful.

But I think a couple of things happened to change the dynamic. One was Occupy Wall Street. The energy that got Barack Obama elected in 2008 was first of all, totally dissipated away from him as we saw in the 2010 election. Young people voted in lower numbers in 2010 than they did in 2006, before most of them had heard of Barack Obama. So, that energy went away from him, and a lot of it was galvanized by Occupy Wall Street, either directly or by the emotions and feelings that Occupy generated and the change in the debate to economic fairness.

So, the president recognizes that. And, I think he and his advisers realize that they can't pretend – he stopped saying what I think is one of the worst things, least credible things he's ever said. He had this standard line, speech line, "Main Street and Wall Street rise and fall together." That's just flatly not true, number one. So he realizes he has to do something. And he realizes now the level of public outrage that bank crimes have not been prosecuted.

So now, in the meantime, the statute of limitations may have run out on some crimes and so, but until a couple of weeks ago, he had been pushing yet another cushy deal with the banks – because we've had a lot during his administration as well as the Bush administration – where they could write a small check, relatively speaking, to get away from big crimes. Now, he realizes because Eric Schneiderman in New York, where a lot of the big banks are headquartered and Kamala D. Harris in California wouldn't sign onto the deal, he realized had to deal with them. He realized he was dealing with a different national mood. A lot of activist groups trying to keep the pressure on.

So, I think now he's trying to weave his way through placating the banks on the one hand – because he does get elected in a system where corporate money drives elections. So I think he's dealing with that on the one side and on the other, public outrage, and I think it's the job of the public to keep the pressure on the president and other politicians to make sure justice is served.

You know, while there's the lawsuit from the state of New York, we also need to know the criminal investigations will be made, and the individual bankers who committed crimes will be prosecuted. More than 1,000 big bankers went to jail after the savings and loan scandal, which was a tiny fraction of the scope of what went on in this decade.

BETWEEN THE LINES: Richard, what do you think of Eric Schneiderman as co-chair here? He has certainly fought for preventing the banks from getting a free pass in the mortgage fraud investigations that were ongoing of the many states' attorney generals. Do you think him being one of several co-chairs of this new unit at the Justice Department will make a difference in holding accountable the big banks?

RICHARD ESKOW: I think he's done a great job up to now, and he's been a hero. And I think he's a co-chair with several other people whose records have been terrible. So, with the enforcement officer at the FCC that keeps letting the banks off, with the guy at the Justice Department who's sleeping on the job and who went on 60 Minutes and said, "What they did was wrong, but not illegal," which is demonstrably untrue; there's no reason right now not to think Schneiderman, who just the other day initiated that lawsuit – is not fighting on the side of the angels. So that's what I'm going to assume unless I hear otherwise.

BETWEEN THE LINES: Big banks and Wall Street firms have so much money and so much power and influence in Washington and state capitals that a lot of people are cynical that we can really change the structure here. There's the view of many that we have a permanent secret government that pulls all the strings and the parties are really just so much superficial fluff, that the real power behind the White House and Congress are these huge banks and financial institutions. How do you think we can overcome that?

RICHARD ESKOW: One way to diminish the banks' power is by making it clear to at least one party that they can't have it both ways. Another way is to push for a constitutional amendment or some other way to get money out of politics, because right now we have a system of corporate politics, plain and simple.

You know, don't despair. I mean, I think the cynicism is the most destructive thing we can do. If we're convinced that the banks have already won, then we won't fight. The public has a lot more power than it realizes. But, you know, I think the idea is we've got to be prepared to do what it takes to fight this banking and corporate government system and be really strong: "I'm nonviolent; but strong about it," saying, "If we have to take it to the streets, we'll go into the streets." Because otherwise, they do win.

For more information about Campaign for America's Future, visit OurFuture.org.