Moore has a definite point of view and usually makes some points that catch my attention. I'll pull two quotes from this interview.
First, Moore suggests things in the US started getting difficult "around the time of Ronald Reagan." Here's one piece of supporting evidence. A 2005 UCLA study titled "Income and Wealth Concentration in Switzerland over the 20th Century" includes this figure illustrating that around the time of Ronald Reagan the share of income of the top 0.1% income earners in the US more than tripled. The very rich suddenly got very richer:
Talk about nervous. Assistant Treasury Secretary Phillip Swagel seems to have been the only guy in town the other day after the latest bad employment report came out. So he had to give the press conference. Watch the video associated with the Washington Post column by Dana Milbank. Couldn't have been more nervous if he was 16 at his first job interview.
A Washington Post article today anticipates Bush will call for a balanced budget by 2012 in his upcoming State of the Union address. Many are called but few are balanced.
A sidebar shows a figure from the OMB indicating the current deficit is not so large by historical standards, only -1.8% of the gross domestic product. The WWII (with a peak of -30%!) and the Reagan years were much worse.
Note: Doctor Peter Agre won the 2003 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, and offered to trade it (his Nobel Prize Medal) for two weeks hosting the Colbert Report. Agre is also a member of Scientists and Engineers for America, an activist organization concerned with the role of science in government decision-making.
The NY Times ran an article the other day on the home value bubble, the gist being that home prices really are way up: Is it a bubble, or has something fundamental changed? Could be both. Housing has for years been less expensive in the US compared to Europe or Japan. Maybe globalization is leveling that out a bit. OTOH, Chinese investments in the US have kept the money supply here in fairly good shape.
$206 Million dollars found stashed in a home in Mexico City (right). Here is the 
Is it a bubble, or has something fundamental changed? Could be both. Housing has for years been less expensive in the US compared to Europe or Japan. Maybe globalization is leveling that out a bit. OTOH, Chinese investments in the US have kept the money supply here in fairly good shape.
