Critically acclaimed investigative journalist and CNBC TV personality, Charles Gasparino, joins Dennis McCuistion for an intense discussion and look at the last 30 years that led to today’s financial meltdown.

Charles Gasparino talks about Wall Street’s “love affair” with risk. From the 1980’s and the advent of mortgage-backed securities, to the packaging of mortgages to bonds, to the selling of those to Wall Street.  He speaks on the bond market situation in 1986 and Alan Greenspan, the former Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank, who in 1987 lowered interest rates and  bailed out Wall Street.

Charles Gasparino explains the trail of culpability, including the Government’s encouragement of home ownership which prompted mortgage brokers to give loans to people who did not have the means to pay back the money loaned and the underwriters who invested in risky debt.  He states the outcome was an abdication of collective responsibilities on the part of government, homeowners and financial institutions and for Wall Street – greed and risk taking.

Overall, Charles Gasparino says it was about avarice, arrogance, stupidity and greed… and the “selling off of the American Dream.”

Niki Nicastro McCuistion
Executive Producer/ Producer

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1812 – 01.24.10

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Dr. Ron Anderson, President/CEO of Parkland Hospital System in Dallas, and Dr. John Goodman, President/CEO of the National Center for Policy Analysis, recently debated the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Dr. Anderson opened his comments by mentioning the McCuistion Program, on which he and John Goodman have taken have expressed very divergent views on  health care.  According to Dr. Anderson, “we need a safety net institution; the market doesn’t always work. We need a bias toward value not volume and to be  involved in shifting the paradigm toward preventive care.”

Dr. Goodman comments on how surprisingly they agreed more than disagreed on many issues: “I had a lively discussion about how health reform will affect the nation’s health care system. Ron is a nationally known advocate of national health insurance. I am at the other end of the spectrum. This may have been the first formal debate over the bill since its passage. What was remarkable was not how much we disagreed, but how much we agreed. In particular, we both think:

Emergency room traffic will increase rather than decrease. Access to care for seniors and the disabled will be so impaired that they are at risk of becoming like Medicaid enrollees -forced to seek care at community health centers and safety-net hospitals. And extraordinary discretionary power is being given to one federal agency to make decisions that will affect everyone.”

You can also view the entire discussion by going here.

Join us this Sunday, August 8th at 12 noon on KERA, Channel 13 for McCuistion TV’s episode, Charles Gasparino’s The Sellout: 30 Years That Led Up to the Financial Crisis.

Joining host Dennis McCuistion is Charles Gasparino. Gasparino is a critically acclaimed investigative journalist, CNBC TV personality and author of The Sellout: 30 Years That Led Up to the Financial Crisis.

Gasparino goes back to 1980 and how Wall Street’s “love affair” with risk precipitated the financial meltdown of today. He talks about the advent of mortgage-backed securities, the packaging of mortgages to bonds and the selling of those to Wall Street. Gasparino comments on the bond market situation in 1986 and how Alan Greenspan, the former Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank, lowered interest rates in 1987 and bailed out Wall Street. And, the situation goes on, he claims, with no end in sight.

Stay tuned for a riveting and disturbing story that will be continued next week…

All McCuistion TV episodes can be found in the program directory, where you can both watch the videos and interact with the McCuistion team and other viewers. You can also follow McCuistion TV on Twitter.

BP gears up for two-phase effort to plug Gulf oil well

One of two efforts to seal the ruptured BP oil well in the Gulf once and for all could begin as early as Monday night, officials said.

The “static kill” involves pouring mud and cement into the well from above — a process that had been delayed while debris from a tropical storm was cleared out.

“I do have a lot of confidence we’ll be successful,” Doug Suttles, the oil giant’s chief operating officer, said Sunday.

China’s Geely Completes Volvo Buy

BEIJING/HONG KONG (Reuters) – China’s Geely on Monday completed its purchase of Ford Motor Co’s Volvo unit, marking China’s biggest acquisition of a foreign car maker and reflecting the nation’s rapid rise in the auto world.

Zhejiang Geely, parent of Hong Kong-listed Geely Automobile <0175.HK> said on Monday it paid $1.3 billion in cash and issued a $200 million loan note to Ford. That represents $300 million less than the earlier headline of $1.8 billion, but Ford said it would get a further “true-up” payment later in the year.

With the deal now done, the real challenge for Geely will lie ahead as it aims to restore Volvo to long-term profits. Volvo Cars posted revenue of $12.4 billion in 2009 by selling 334,000 cars, but it recorded a pretax loss of $653 million.

Obamacare Only Looks Worse Upon Further Review: Kevin Hassett

One of the more illuminating remarks during the health-care debate in Congress came when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told an audience that Democrats would “pass the bill so you can find out what’s in it, away from the fog of controversy.”

That remark captured the truth that, while many Americans have a vague sense that something bad is happening to their health care, few if any understand exactly what the law does.

To fill this vacuum, Representative Kevin Brady of Texas, the top House Republican on the Joint Economic Committee, asked his staff to prepare a study of the law, including a flow chart that illustrates how the major provisions will work.

Health Care Bill Gets Plug from Andy Griffith

Here are two indisputable facts: on July 30, 1965, the Andy Griffith Show was one of the most popular television shows being broadcast at the time. And, on that same date President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Social Security Act of 1965, which introduced the nation to a new program called Medicare. The first two social security card recipients were Harry and Bess Truman.

So, it seems fitting that Andy Griffith, now most certainly the age of many Medicare recipients, is a spokesperson for Medicare’s $700,000 ad campaign, preceding the open enrollment period by several months.