Standards

Sam Seder with Harold Myerson, on how the South's rules govern the economy.

Myerson sees recent economic history repeating that of slavery, with "high value work" done elsewhere and America's South as a pool of low-end labor. In relative terms, Chinese labor costs are now actually higher than those in the U.S., where wages continue falling as international corporations locate to southern states. The South's historically anti-union climate combines with such current practices as using temporary workers to depress wages and avoid paying benefits.

"The South remains hard-wired for a low-wage economy," says Myerson, in its ethos of racism and all profit going to one class. And it is Southern labor standards that are winning, as GOP control in northern states replicates southern labor laws and vote suppression.

Then there's the show segment starting after 28:00...

Sam sets the background: the legality of investment advisors having no duty to protect their clients' interest, and a current Senate Committee hearing on proposed reform. Then the hearing clip, in which Elizabeth Warren calmly and expertly demonstrates how a slimy corporate exec can legally bilk teachers and firefighters of their pensions. She accomplishes this by asking some simple questions he won't answer—

Mr. Scheider, I just want to understand your company's advice in these cases. Do you believe that people like these firefighters from Florida who are near retirement and have secure pensions with guaranteed monthly payments should move their money into riskier assets with no guarantees, just before they retire?

More from Susie Madrak—

He never directly answered her very direct question, even though she asked a version of it three times. The closest he came was to argue "each situation is very different," and that his firm offers its risky investment opportunities to people who could benefit from it, like retirees on the brink of death.

"I"m sorry, are you suggesting that these 238 people were weeks away from dying, and that's why they all got this advice?" Warren asked, referring to the number of people Primerica was forced to settle with to the tune of $15.4 million in 2014.

Video of the complete Q and (non-)A here.

The Majority Report clip is followed by extended riffs from host and producers, all getting into character as slimy corporate President ("not the CEO").