Frontline's The Warning: The Story of the Financial Meltdown

Update Oct. 23: Watch the full video here

Brooksley Born warned of how toxic assets on the banks' books would affect American finances. But no one listened. She also battled Alan Greenspan, appointed by Ronald Reagan. Reagan was a fan of Ayn Rand's politics. Reagan famously said government was the problem and let Wall Street regulate itself. Bill Clinton followed on.
This Frontline looks like a must-see. It starts Oct. 20:

Here's a clip:

Meet Obama Policy Director Karen Kornbluh

CNN: "Karen is a big ideas person, but more than that, she's able to bring a lot of really smart people together and convince them to leave their egos at the door," remarked The Washington Note blogger Steve Clemons. "She was a key reason why Obama's message resonated."

Kornbluh, 45, was the chief architect of the 2008 Democratic platform and the former deputy chief of staff to Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin during the Clinton administration.

She has written extensively about women and families. Her most famous essays "The Mommy Tax," "The Joy of Flex" and "Families Valued" contend that modern American families are overworked, underpaid and deserve more respect from the federal government.

She has been quoted by many high-profile politicians, from Sen. Joseph Lieberman to former Sen. John Edwards.
....
CNN: You've been an influential behind-the-scenes player in D.C. for years. What drove you to get into public life?

Kornbluh: I was born in New York, and I went to public schools there. Our mother worked, and I was one of the very few kids that I knew who had a working mother. I resented it at the time, but in retrospect, I recognize the pressure she was under.

One of the things that drives me is thinking about families that are just trying to do the right thing and how we can make their lives easier. My father used to work in local politics, and I'd go to a lot of meetings with him. I just caught the bug.

CNN: How did you first meet Barack Obama and become his policy director in his Senate office?

Kornbluh: I met him through mutual friends -- people I knew in Washington knew him from law school. I was struck by so much with him -- first his intelligence -- but he also had an understanding of what was really happening with families. I left [that initial meeting] thinking, "This is a guy who is going to shake things up in Washington." He had an ability to focus on people's real lives and not just thinking in terms of what Washington thinks.

I remember when people were trying to talk to him about international trade policy in a very abstract way, and he kept bringing it back to jobs. He was so focused on, "OK, but how are we going to create good jobs in this country?"

CNN: Can you give me some insight into how he makes decisions. I've read that you and another adviser would arrange casual conversation groups -- economic experts, communications specialists -- and just have dinner while Obama sat back and listened.

Kornbluh: In his first year in the Senate, I did bring in experts to engage with him on issues he cared about. People would leave the meetings, saying, "You know we used to have dinners like this; we used to have meetings like this in Washington, where we would really exchange views, but we don't get to do it [anymore]."

Obama's Press Conference Nov. 7 Video

The press conference followed a private meeting of Obama's Transition Economic Advisory Board, a group of 17 leaders on economic issues that includes former U.S. Treasury Secretaries Robert E. Rubin and Lawrence E. Summers, Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Warren Buffett.

Q&A portion

CNN's coverage of the event.

Politico. 

NYT

Prepared remarks

Q&A Portion
With that, let me open it up for some questions. And I'm going to start right here with you, Nedra.

Q Thanks, Mr. President-elect. I wonder what you think any president can accomplish during their first hundred days in office to turn the economy around. How far can you go? And what will be your priorities on day one?

PRESIDENT-ELECT OBAMA: Well, I think that a new president can do an enormous amount to restore confidence, to move an agenda forward that speaks to the needs of the economy and the needs of middle-class families all across the country. I've outlined during the course of the campaign some critical issues that I intend to work on.

We have a current financial crisis that is spilling out into the rest of the economy. And we have taken some action so far. More action is undoubtedly going to be needed. My transition team is going to be monitoring very closely what happens over the course of the next several months.

The one thing I can say with certainty is that we are going to need to see a stimulus package passed either before or after inauguration. We are going to have to focus on jobs, because the hemorrhaging of jobs has an impact obviously on consumer confidence and the ability of people to -- to buy goods and services and can have enormous spill-over effects.

And I think it's going to be very important for us to provide the kinds of assistance, to state and local governments, to make sure that they don't compound some of the problems that are already out there, by having to initiate major layoffs or initiate tax increases.

So there are some things that we know we're going to have to do. But I'm confident that a new president can have an enormous impact. That's why I ran for president.

All right.

Lee.

Q Sir, there's been some suggestion from House Democrats that the stimulus package may be in trouble, that it's going to be a hard time getting it out of a lame-duck session.

Are you still confident that you would be able to get something done before you actually take office?

PRESIDENT-ELECT OBAMA: I want to see a stimulus package sooner rather than later. If it does not get done in the lame-duck session, it will be the first thing I get done as president of the United States.

Jake.

Q Senator, for the first time since the Iranian Revolution, a president of Iran sent a congratulations note to a new U.S. president.

I'm wondering, first of all, if you responded to President Ahmadinejad's note of congratulations. And second of all and more importantly, how soon do you plan on sending low-level envoys to countries such as Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba, to see if a presidential-level talk would be productive?

PRESIDENT-ELECT OBAMA: I am aware that the letter was sent. Let me state -- repeat what I stated during the course of the campaign.

Iran's development of a nuclear weapon, I believe, is unacceptable. And we have to mount a international effort to prevent that from happening. Iran's support of terrorist organizations, I think, is something that has to cease.

I will be reviewing the letter from President Ahmadinejad. And we will respond appropriately. It's only been three days since the election. Obviously how we approach and deal with a country like Iran is not something that we should, you know, simply do in a kneejerk fashion.

I think we've got to think it through. But I have to reiterate once again that we only have one president at a time. And I want to be very careful that we are sending the right signals, to the world as a whole, that I am not the president and I won't be until January 20th.

Let's see.

Chip.

Q Picking up what you were just talking about, your meeting with President Bush on Monday, when he is still the decider obviously, stating the obvious, when you disagree with decisions he makes, will you defer? Will you challenge? Will you confront? And if it becomes confrontational, could that rattle the markets even more?

PRESIDENT-ELECT OBAMA: Well, President Bush graciously invited Michelle and I to meet with him and First Lady Laura Bush. We are gratified by the invitation.

I'm sure that in addition to taking a tour of the White House, there is going to be a substantive conversation between myself and the president.

I'm not going to anticipate problems. I'm going to go in there with a spirit of bipartisanship and a sense that both the president and various leaders of Congress all recognize the severity of the situation right now and want to get stuff done. And you know, undoubtedly there may end up being differences between not just members of different parties, but between people within the same party.

The -- the critical point and the -- I think the critical tone that has to be struck by all of us involved right now is the American people need help. This economy is in bad shape, and we have just completed one of the longest election cycles in recorded history. Now is a good time for us to set politics aside for a while and think practically about what will actually work to move the economy forward. And it's in that spirit that I'll have the conversation with the president.

Time gives Obama good marks.
Except for this:

Politico: President-elect Barack Obama telephoned Nancy Reagan shortly after his debut news conference on Friday to apologize for what he called a “careless and off handed remark” he made about her during his appearance in Chicago.

President-elect Obama Transition Team Spokesperson Stephanie Cutter said: “President-elect Barack Obama called Nancy Reagan today to apologize for the careless and off handed remark he made during today’s press conference. The President-elect expressed his admiration and affection for Mrs. Reagan that so many Americans share and they had a warm conversation.”

Obama had been asked whether he has “spoken to any living ex-presidents” as part of getting ready for the job.

His reply: “In terms of speaking to former presidents, I've spoken to all of them that are living. Obviously, President Clinton — I didn't want to get into a Nancy Reagan thing about, you know, doing any seances.”

Nancy Reagan consulted an astrologist, not a medium. Funny.

Obama's Economic Meeting July 28 Video

Before the meeting, Obama said the sour economy didn't happen by chance, rather it's the direct result of an irresponsible Wall Street (or as Bush would say, a drunk Wall Street) and Washington.
Here is some of what they discussed.

Here are the participants:
The economic leaders who met with Senator Obama today included:


· Jared Bernstein (Senior Economist, Economic Policy Institute)

· Bill Bradley (Former Senator, D-N.J., U.S. Senate 1979-1997)

· Warren Buffet (Chairman and CEO, Berkshire Hathaway) - joined the meeting by phone

· Anna Burger (Chair, Change to Win; International Secretary-Treasurer, Service Employees International Union)

· Jon Corzine (Governor, State of New Jersey)

· William Daley (Chairman of the Midwest, JP Morgan Chase; Former Secretary, U.S. Dept of Commerce, 1997-2000)

· James Dimon (Chairman and CEO, JPMorgan Chase)

· William Donaldson (27th Chairman of the SEC 2003-2005)

· Indra Nooyi (Chairman and CEO, PepsiCo Inc.)

· Paul O'Neill (Special Advisor, Blackstone Group, Former Secretary, U.S. Dept of Treasury, 2001-2002; Former CEO, Alcoa)

· Federico Peña (Managing Director, Vestar Capital Partners; Former Secretary, U.S. Dept. of Energy, 1997-1998; Former Secretary, U.S. Dept. of Transportation, 1993-1997; Former Mayor, City of Denver 1983-1991)

· Penny Pritzker (CEO, Classic Residence by Hyatt)

· Robert Reich (University of California, Berkeley; Former Secretary, U.S. Dept of Labor, 1993-1997)

· Robert Rubin (Chairman and Director of the Executive Committee, Citigroup; Former Secretary, U.S. Dept of Treasury, 1995-1999)

· Eric Schmidt (Chairman and CEO, Google)

· William Spriggs (Professor and Chair of the Department of Economics, Howard University)

· Lawrence Summers (Harvard University; Managing Director, D.E. Shaw; Former Secretary, U.S. Dept of Treasury, 1999-2001)

· John Sweeney (President, AFL-CIO)

· Laura Tyson (Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley; Former Chairman, National Economic Council, 1995-1996; Former Chairman, President's Council of Economic Advisors, 1993-1995)

· Paul Volcker (Former Chairman, U.S. Federal Reserve 1979-1987)

The McCain camp's Carly Fiorina dismissed this meeting as a cheap photo op.

Obama To Talk Economy with Warren Buffet

Fresh off his overseas trip, Obama is meeting with a bunch of economy brains tomorrow to fine tune his economic strategy. Good luck McCain. 

Warren Buffett, by the way, favors Obama's tax policy. Buffett says rich people don't need to get more breaks on their taxes:

Bloomberg: Democrat Barack Obama said he is convening a meeting on the economy tomorrow that will include former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker and billionaire investor Warren Buffett as he pivots to the U.S. economy after a nine-day trip abroad.

``I expect some further fine-tuning of short-term policies based on what's happened over the last several months,'' Obama said in an interview last night aboard his presidential campaign plane returning to Chicago from London.

The meeting in Washington will also include former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine, former Labor Secretary Robert Reich and Anna Burger, secretary- treasurer of the Service Employees International Union, said David Axelrod, Obama's chief strategist.

Rubin advised New York Senator Hillary Clinton during her primary campaign against Obama. Buffett, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., plans to phone in to the meeting, Axelrod said.

Obama also said that he wants the convention to be more inclusive. The Obama camp may give tickets to people who sign up a certain number of voters:

He said he's focusing on making the convention ``more open and inclusive,'' and that he's been thinking ``thematically'' about his acceptance speech at Invesco Field on Aug. 28.

Obama said he has been ``spending a lot of time figuring out how can we refresh the format so it's not only an interesting TV show but also it builds on grassroots organization.''