Ralph Nader: Spank the Banks + Reimagining Universities

Image by Mike Licht via Flickr

Dandelion Salad
March 26, 2023

with Ralph Nader

Ralph Nader Radio Hour on Mar 25, 2023

Ralph welcomes economist, attorney, and investigative journalist, James Henry for his expert take on what is going on in the banking system and what we can do to keep it from blowing up. And Professor and former Nader’s Raider, Alison Dundes Renteln, takes on the commercialization of our universities in her book The Ethical University: Transforming Higher Education.

James Henry is a leading economist, attorney, consultant, and investigative journalist, who has written and spoken widely on the problems of tax justice and development finance. He is a lecturer and Global Justice Fellow at Yale University.

“The first thing we learn from the history of banking crises in the United States is that banks are really the Achilles heel of capitalism. This keeps happening. And we got used to a period when banking crises— we thought— had been taken care of, that we could just assume that someone in the Fed, or in the US Treasury, or regulators at the global level would understand all this stuff and they would reform the system.” — James Henry

Alison Dundes Renteln is a Professor of Political Science and Anthropology at the University of Southern California where she teaches Law and Public Policy with an emphasis on international law and human rights. She is co-editor, with Wanda Teays, of The Ethical University: Transforming Higher Education.

“We really should be thinking about how to make universities a place for learning, and the production of knowledge, and making the world a better place. And the book is really an attempt to argue for reimagining universities so we return to the mission of universities, which is not to promote future corporate leaders… but to produce people who will contribute in many different ways in society.” — Alison Dundes Renteln

“It’s really quite remarkable that in an institution that’s supposed to be devoted to democratic deliberation, intellectual life, justice, opportunity broadly defined, that the decisions are made by the administrators and the board of trustees— largely in secret.” — Ralph Nader

Ralph Nader Radio Hour on Substack

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From the archives:

Michael Hudson and Dennis Kucinich: The Anatomy of Bank Failures, the Financialized Economy and Collapse

Reckless Capitalist Banks Rescued by Government Socialism – Again! by Ralph Nader

Society’s Collapse Has Already Begun, by Rainer Shea

Michael Hudson: Why 3 US Banks Collapsed in 1 Week + Why the Banking System is Breaking Up + The Mechanics of a Bond Market and its Impact on the Banking Crisis

Central Banks Are A Symptom, Capitalism Is The Cause, by Pete Dolack

Students, Campuses and Dominant Corporate Power, by Ralph Nader

Teach Youngsters About Corporatism’s Harms, by Ralph Nader