William Greider has covered politics from the nation's capital for The Washington Post and for Rolling Stone Magazine for 30 years. He has also worked as a correspondent for PBS' Frontline.  He currently writes for The Nation, the oldest political journal in the country. Mr. Greider's most recent book, Come Home America, examines the implications of the country's predicament. In this segment, he talks about the Democrats role in deregulating the financial markets and their current dilemma between representing their Wall Street funders and their working class constituency. Is the Democratic party at the crossroads? Is Mr. Greider correct that the Democratic Party faces "a moment of reckoning"? Can it reconcile its working class roots with its ties to the nation's economic elite? Are these forces not contradictory and might not they tear the party apart or lead it to irrelevancy? Can the Democrats represent the interests of the working class or are they just paying lip service to New Deal ideology as they buy time to save the system that works for Wall Street but not Main Street? Can both interests be served?

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Thousands of angry citizens have joined noisy weekly protests against the government's handling of the economy, clattering pots and kitchen utensils in what some commentators called the "Saucepan Revolution."

A cacerolazo in Reykjavik? Not surprising given the depths to which Iceland has been plunged. Iceland has been mired in crisis since late September, when the country's three largest banks collapsed under the weight of debts (more on 'securitization' below the fold) amassed during years of rapid expansion. The value of the country's krona currency has plummeted over 30%, hitting many Icelanders who took out special loans denoted in foreign currencies for new homes and cars during the boom years. In addition, Iceland must repay billions of dollars to Dutch and British citizens who held accounts with subsidiaries of collapsed Icelandic banks. Prime Minister Geir Haarde's government attempted to combat the crisis by nationalizing the banks and negotiating about $10 billion in bailout loans from the International Monetary Fund and from a number of countries, including other Nordics, Russia and the United Kingdom. Still, economists expect the Icelandic economy to contract 9.6%. Life for an Icelander may yet again be just "salted fish". The above clip is from the second day of the biggest protests against the government in Iceland since 1949 when people protested against Iceland joining NATO.

A cacerolazo (cacerola is Spanish for pot) is a form of popular street protest and demonstrations in Latin America which consists in a group of people creating noise by banging pots, pans and other utensils in order to call attention to political and social grievances. Cacerolazos date back to Salvador Allende's Chile when housewives took the streets of Santiago and other major Chilean cities to protest stagflation and severe shortages in 1970-1973. The empty pots weren't good for anything else. The practice remains fairly common in Latin America and has spread elsewhere. Cacerolazos erupted last Spring when Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner attempted to raise export tariffs on a variety of agricultural commodities setting off six months worth of political and social unrest in the South American country. Now cacerolazos have come to Reykjavik.

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