In the United Kingdom, university students have protested unprecedented tuition hikes by physically attacking corporations that don't pay taxes. In France, teenagers have marched to protest their nation's raising the retirement age, indicating they realize how current actions will affect them in future decades. Here in the United States, 2,000 protestors can hand-deliver a notice to the Koch Brothers' Washington, D.C., headquarters, only to be ignored by the press, while a handful of brain-dead Tea Partiers can show up in front of Congress, gleefully shouting, “Shut it down!” and get national news coverage. Charles Ferguson took home the Oscar for his documentary Inside Job, which unraveled the origins of the global financial meltdown. Unfortunately, golden statuettes do not translate into criminal indictments, and as it stands, four Wall Street banks control half the assets of our nation's banking system. Bank of America paid no taxes last year; Wachovia (now Wells Fargo) has laundered billions in Mexican drug cartel cash. Join Chrystia Freeland, former U.S. managing editor of the Financial Times (and recently appointed editor of Thompson Reuters Digital), and Felix Salmon, award-winning Reuters blogger and contributor to NPR's Marketplace, as they explain how “too big to fail” banks are driving a stake through the heart of all but America's wealthiest citizens, all the while contributing to a New Global Elite abroad.

Tue., April 26, 7 p.m., 2011

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