May 20 - A "Cabal" of 5 Big Banks "Fixed" the Markets; Bin Laden's Interest in Conspiracy Theories; Nebraska Votes to Repeal the State's Death Penalty

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the $5.8 billion in fines that five big banks, Barclays, Citigroup, JP Morgan, UBS and the Royal Bank of Scotland have agreed to pay for market manipulation following guilty pleas. Dennis Kelleher, the President and Chief Executive Officer for Better Markets Inc., a Wall Street watchdog group that has been referred to as “a persistent thorn in the side of Wall Street”, joins us to discuss how the big banks formed what they called “The Cartel” in order to set the $5 trillion currency market to their benefit with “the fix” that determines the daily price of trades and the values of large institutional holdings.

Part 2

Then, with the release of a cache of documents captured in the SEAL’s raid that killed Bin Laden, we examine the list of English-language books that were on the late Al Qaeda leader’s bookshelf. Arthur Goldwag, the author of “Isms and Ologies, Cults, Conspiracies and Secret Societies” joins us to discuss Bin Laden’s apparent interest in conspiracy theories that not only relate to 9/11, but also include the “Illuminati” and the “Committee of 300”.

Part 3

Then finally, with Wednesday’s vote of 32 to 15, Nebraska lawmakers overcame an expected veto from the governor by a sufficient margin to abolish the state’s death penalty. We speak with the person who led the fight in Nebraska to repeal the death penalty, Stacy Anderson, the Executive Director of Nebraskans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. She joins us to discuss what set her on her four-year journey to change the minds of her fellow conservative citizens in a very conservative state.