everybody on the sehman was nex the firing line, and people were talking all through that summer. we reported, dylan, on some of those conversations. i remember. people were talking to dick fuld about possible deals to sell the bank, but he was not willing to give up control, and i would contrast that with a person who is rarely seen as a hero of the crisis, john thain. he then right after lehman was failing he did a deal. gave up power to preserve. he gave up power and merrill, sure, no longer independent, but merrill wasn t destroyed the way lehman was. the captain refused to take his hands off the stick? a huge failure of leadership. three years later, you know, they are kind of beyond the point where they are angry. i don t think anybody is angry anymore. it s a little late for that, but, you know, here s the thing though. it was a bull market, okay, and and in bull markets organizations do stupid things, and the people at top of organizations do stupid things. if dic
directly into a meeting with israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu just a few blocks from here in midtown. the president plans to hold a similar meeting with palestinian president abbas in about two hours. right now abbas still plans on filing his request for statehood to the floor of the u.n. this friday. we re in the middle of a scramble right now, as you are witnessing it, diplomatically to try to avert that. however, the u.s. knows abbas cannot walk back his pledge. he is facing tremendous pressure, politically back home. so the u.s. is left to try to slow walk this process in hopes that they can spark a direction negotiation between abbas and netanyahu. we start with nbc s mike viqueira at the white house. what, if anything, did the president accomplish with any constituency today? reporter: well, apparently he may have borne fruit on the international stage. there is an indication, dylan, they may be able to delay this, and it may spark another face-to-face sittin
witnessing it, diplomatically to try to avert that. however, the u.s. knows abbas cannot walk back his pledge. he is facing tremendous pressure, politically back home. so the u.s. is left to try to slow walk this process in hopes that they can spark a direction negotiation between abbas and netanyahu. we start with nbc s mike viqueira at the white house. what, if anything, did the president accomplish with any constituency today? reporter: well, apparently he may have borne fruit on the international stage. there is an indication, dylan, they may be able to delay this, and it may spark another face-to-face sitting down across the table between the palestinian authority and benjamin netanyahu s israeli government. you know, it was a year ago in this same venue, dylan, where president obama expressed hope this a peace agreement could be reached this year, 2011, that there could be the outlines of a palestinian state. he wanted the two parties to sit together. remember, he had
coming up next, booktv presents after words, an hourlong program where we invite guest hosts to interview authors. this week wall street veteran william cohan s latest, money and power, the follow up to his best-selling book house of cards is an inside story of the rise and continued strength of investment bank goldman sachs. mr. cohan had access to several current and former high-level goldman employees including ceo lloyd blankfein, and he shares his discoveries with chief economics correspondent for the washington times, patrice hill. host: mr. cohan, thank you for coming for this interview. guest: thank you for having me. host: and this is a man who works and lives in new york, works on wall street and is very steeped in the world of wall street, knows what he s talking about. he s written a book money and power: how goldman sachs came to rule the world. extremely well written and readable. extremely well researched with more than 100 interviews with the
i wrote in the mail but he did not get back to me. i have read the book that you wrote about plutocracy but i read it as the grand reputation very historic day referenced of ideology and some people s ability to live or die on the ability to tax. . . that it is able to legitimately tax, and that people are willing to pay taxes in order to support public services. and so i think one of the unfortunate thing elements that was thrown into our ideological mix, you know, as a result of reaganism was this view that, you know, in some quarters that, basically, all taxation in illegitimate or, you know, that you can never under any circumstances raise taxes and so forth. because i don t think you re ever going to have a serious country if that s your starting assumption. so, um, so i am not yes, you re right, i am not a libertarian. [laughter] and i will talk to you, but it s just i ve been busy. so [laughter] you described tribal society as a precursor to the state. what d