Imus and Bob Kerrey Talk Books and Crooks

Former U.S. Senator Bob Kerrey doesn’t understand derivatives, and he doesn’t care about them, even though they almost single-handedly brought down this country’s financial markets.

Having recently read Michael Lewis’s book The Big Short, Kerrey learned he was not alone in his confusion. “The bad news is, a lot of these CEOs didn’t even understand it,” he told Imus (who, for the record, doesn’t really get it either). 

Imus recommended his guest, now the President at the New School, read Vicky Ward’s book The Devil’s Casino, about the downfall of Lehman Brothers, because it features backstabbing, drugs, and lots of other “icky stuff.”

“That’s the stuff I like!” Kerrey chirped.

Since this interview was quickly turning into literacy hour, Imus strongly advised Kerrey read the forthcoming book from Hampton Sides, called Hellhound on His Trail, about the search for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassin, James Earl Ray.

“It’s so good that I’m thinking Ray’s going to get away,” said Imus, whose recent fixation on Hellhound is not unlike what happened years back with Sam Tanahaus’s biography on Whittaker Chambers. “I got so obsessed with that whole thing that Charles had to threaten my life.”

Back in the present, President Obama will give a speech about Wall Street today in New York, but Kerrey doesn’t expect the President will say anything new.

“He’s going to say he supports markets, they need to be regulated more, and they need a very specific bill,” he said, and cautioned Obama against inadvertently making things worse by caving to public opinion. “Anytime you’ve got a situation where a mob is chasing politicians, you’ve got to be aware that maybe the mob is wrong.”

The push to reform comes in the wake of the SEC charging Goldman Sachs with deliberately gauging its clients by selling bad securities given them by a hedge fund that betted against the investments. Part of Goldman’s defense in recent days has been to claim they were under no legal obligation to be honest with customers.

“You’re saying it wasn’t against the law—but what’s your standard?” Kerrey wondered. “If lying isn’t against the law, it’s okay?”

Imus is convinced Kerrey should be doing something better with his time than working at the New School, and maybe he’s right. Luckily, Kerrey will depart that post later this year, but was mum on his next move. Given his experiences in Vietnam, there’s little he’s afraid of, including the idea of holding a trial for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in Manhattan, which would force Imus and Charles to hide under the bed.

Then again, not everyone can so valiantly do what the I-Man has done. “I would be terrified to play the bugle in the Marine Corps!” said Kerrey, unnecessarily sucking up.

-Julie Kanfer