MIDDAY WITH DAN RODRICKS

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Wednesday, November 19
Noon-1:00 EST

"Just as Congress is taking up a controversial $25 billion Detroit Three auto bailout," says the Saginaw (Mich.) News, "we learn that Chrysler is paying about 50 of its executives some $30 million in retention bonuses. . . . In fact, six Chrysler officers are getting retention pay well into seven figures. The most -- $1.89 million -- is going to [the] executive vice president of manufacturing. The least is about $200,000." This kind of practice -- and the executive compensation and bad decision-making in companies that have imploded during the latest financial mess -- mark one of the worst economic eras in American history. Alan Greenspan once believed that banks, operating in their own self-interest, would do what was necessary to protect their shareholders and institutions. He called that "a flaw in the model ... that defines how the world works." Today on Midday, a talk with Paul Leiman, left, attorney and professor of business ethics at Johns Hopkins, on corporate ethics and regulation after the big meltdown of 2008. Leiman litigated white-collar banking enforcement matters, including the Charles Keating-Lincoln Savings case, for more than fifteen years for the U.S. government. As a Senior Attorney at the U.S. Treasury Department and the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, Mr. Leiman handled high-profile cases for the Special Trial and Enforcement Divisions in both federal and administrative venues. Previously, he had served as both a trial lawyer and administrative counsel at the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Should be a good discussion. Please join us.

1:00-2:00 pm EST: TV critic David Zurawik

A study out of the University of Maryland has Sun TV critic David Zurawik riled up. The study says that unhappy people watch a lot of television -- that the happiest Americans spend less time looking at the flickering screen and more time reading books or chatting with friends (or reading the daily newspaper and listening to public radio!) And the Z, who writes about television for our newspaper and web site, has steam coming out of his ears. (See Z on TV) Not that we needed much to set the Big Z off, but we're going to discuss the study on the radio show today after the NPR news at 1 pm, and we might even get the UM professor behind the study on the line with us. Tune in. This ought to be good.