This Week with Christiane Amanpour - September 25, 2011

Guests:
David Plouffe - Presidential Advisor
Austan Goolsbee - Fmr Obama Economic Advisor
Mohamed E-Erian - CEO Pimco
Chrystia Freeland
George Will
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Amanpour: wow look at the newly combative Obama!

Plouffe: We need action Christiane! Now!

Amanpour: Harry Reid says there’s jam on the floor

Plouffe: But Boehner said Obama was jello

Amanpour: incredibly some Democrats don’t
like parts Obama’s jobs plan

Plouffe: it’s got tax cuts, new schools, fast trains and
fun for the whole family

Amanpour: John McCain’s economic advisor says
it’s only a band-aid

Plouffe: Well when you’re bleeding you use a
damn band-aid!

Amanpour: that’s technically true

Plouffe: it’s called the American Jobs Act -
who doesn’t like American jobs?

Amanpour: Bill Clinton and other rich people said
we shouldn’t raise taxes on the rich

Plouffe: it’s a question of fairness Christiane

Amanpour: I suppose

Plouffe: we’re cutting taxes for everyone but the rich
who take advantage of these ridiculous loopholes

Amanpour: is it time to panic?

Plouffe: No - that was a year ago

Amanpour: thanks for coming

[ break ]

Amanpour: Oh noes the Dow is down!!!

Audience: aayyyiiiieee

Amanpour: George you are an expert on
international economics

Will: Imagine if things were really bad - that’s what
we face in my imagination

Amanpour: wow

Will: the next recession is the fault of lazy
unionized Greeks

Goolsbee: Europe sucks - USA! USA!

El-Erian: the world finally staged an intervention
with Europe - it was on Bravo and very moving

Freeland: this is like 2008 - everyone knows an
economic collapse is coming but no one is doing at anything about it

Amanpour: what is going to happen in Europe
in two words?

Freeland: massive shrinkage

El-Erian: we need a Sputnik moment!

Will: let Greece fail!

Amanpour: but George that’s terrible

Will: the fucking Italians are going to bring
us all down - screw ‘em all

Freeland: you’re an idiot

Goolsbee: Europe’s banks have no assets -
only worthless mortgages and stolen Holocaust art

Amanpour: is the political system completely broken?

El-Erian: we are all in the back seat of a car driven
by politicians bickering on their iPhones instead
of watching the road

Amanpour: what if the Chinese stop not buying our stuff

Freeland: the Chinese are freaked out by Tea Party

Amanpour: I know the feeling

Will: it takes real courage to admit that trying to
unify Europe was a bad idea - look at how successful
Europe was from 1914 - 1945

Goolsbee: The European Union has become a
Monty Python skit

Europe: We're an anarcho-syndicalist commune
but we take it in turns to act as a sort of executive
officer for the week but all the decision of that
officer have to be ratified at a special biweekly meeting

Amanpour: okay okay

El-Erian: we should fix housing, credit and growth

Amanpour: brilliant

Freeland: Businesses are rich but they won’t spend their money

Will: Barack Obama is persecuting Boeing

Amanpour: no one expects the Obama Inquisition!

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Sultan of Oman Pays for Hiker's Release

Diplomatic sources told NPR that Oman's sultan, Qaboos bin Said, paid $500,000 each to free Bauer and Fattal – the same amount paid to liberate Shourd. Oman also provided a private plane to transport the two men to its capital city of Muscat much like it did with Shourd.

The State Department had no immediate comment on Oman's involvement in Wednesday's releases. But when Shourd was freed, department spokesman P.J. Crowley praised Muscat as "a key interlocutor" that helped "work this case with the Iranian government."

House Rejects Disaster Bill With Spending Cuts

Sept. 21 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. House rejected a bill that includes $3.65 billion in aid to victims of Hurricane Irene and other natural disasters, a setback for Republican leaders controlling the chamber.

Some Republican lawmakers objected to the measure’s overall cost and House Democrats opposed a spending cut in it, leading to the bill’s defeat. The vote against the bill was 230-195. The dispute raises the specter of a government shutdown because the disaster assistance is attached to a measure needed to fund the government until Nov. 18. The current fiscal year ends Sept. 30, and Congress is in recess next week.

Give a Kidney, Lose a Job

(AP) - A Philadelphia woman says she lost her job after taking off time to donate a kidney to her son.

Claudia Rendon tells WTXF-TV she lost her job last week at an aircraft repair training company after taking time off to donate the kidney to her son, Alex.

The company tells WTXF it was within its rights to dismiss Rendon.

Absolute Last Thing To Do

Sept. 13 (Bloomberg) - European banks may resort to more jobs cuts or zero bonuses as they struggle to maintain fixed compensation levels amid deteriorating financial markets.

The companies are facing shrinking revenue and higher costs after raising base salaries of investment bankers by as much as 100 percent. That decision, which followed regulations to curb bonuses in the wake of the credit crisis, is irreversible even if conditions worsen, lawyers and consultants said, leaving banks with fewer options in their bid to improve margins.

"The absolute last thing banks will want to do is cut current salaries unless they have an explicit contractual right to do so," said Jason Butwick, a London employment attorney at law firm Dechert LLP. "The legal, reputational, commercial and logistical risks of going down that route are huge."