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Watch This Week’s Show: How big banks are rewriting the rules of our economy

Web Extra: Byron Dorgan’s prophetic words, then and now

Quiz: Test your knowledge of Wall Street’s financial jargon.

(check local listings).

Big banks are rewriting the rules of our economy to the exclusive benefit of their own bottom line. But how did our political and financial class shift the benefits of the economy to the very top, while saddling us with greater debt and tearing new holes in the safety net?

This weekend on Moyers & Company, Bill Moyers talks with former Citigroup Chairman John Reed and former Senator Byron Dorgan to explore a momentous instance: how the mid-90’s merger of Citicorp and Travelers Group — and a friendly Presidential pen — brought down the Glass-Steagall Act, a crucial firewall between banks and investment firms which had protected consumers from financial calamity since the aftermath of the Great Depression.

Now, John Reed regrets his role in the affair, and says lifting the Glass-Steagall protections was a mistake. Given the 2008 meltdown, he’s surprised Wall Street still has so much power over Washington lawmakers.

How Wall Street and Washington got together and stacked the deck against the rest of us.MORE 

The revolving door between government service and big money hurls politics and high finance together so completely it’s impossible to tell one from the other.

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