Mondays, May 3 & 17 at 8:15pm

Tickets: $20 / $15 Scholars & Wise People

Our Interview With Reno

1. Your show is called "Money Talks" - What is money saying these days?

"I wanna meet some new people!"

2. What do you look for in your finance professional guests to interview?

Its been difficult, originally I'd hoped to find people with at least 5 years away from prison. Kidding.  Unfortunately, not enough finance dudes go to prison.  And the people who I have interviewed are the honest ones.  I'm probably more criminal than any of the folks who have worked with me.  They wouldn't even think of talking to me if they were the jerks.

3.  Do you think any of your guests feel as if they (or their companies) contributed in any way to the current recession?

Some of them do, I think. Again, they wouldn't be talking to me if they were 100% happy with the way business transpires in the banking world. That's the biggest hump: the whole 'too big to fail' concept really isn't about this or that bank, it's about the whole system.  And without global cooperation, this thing is beyond any successful control.

4. What is the biggest misconception people have about money?

It may not be conscious, but I think people think people with money deserve it.  And they don't.

5. What mystifies you most about Wall Street?

TRADING! It's like the Vietnam War only if you survive, you're rich.

And it's such a mysterious world, most people I've interviewed only really know their own niche.

6. What would you ask or say to Goldman Sachs CEO, Lloyd Blankfein?

(On the occasion, Q4-08 & Q1-09 and Goldman was pretty much the only company to post a gain, coupled with a reference to Blankfein's "banks...do God's work." statement to The Times of London) Ok, Pastor Blankfein, do you really think it's "god's work" to have been selling worthless bonds to your customers out the front door and simultaneously shorting (betting they will lose value, thereby assuring the bonds will not recover value) them out the back?

7. Where is the safest place for people to keep their money?

Make more, use less, save in FDIC insured banks, and MOST IMPORTANT: share.  Get more communal, there's too much iteration in the First World.  Privacy in personal realm equals privatization in econo-world.*

8. Will Obama pull us out this?

It's us that have to pull ourselves out of this.  Rally alongside BO, like we've never done with any president before. I published a little rant in Huff Po about this exact issue, "To The Disappointeds."

9. Who are some of your money experts you'll be interviewing?

I'll tell ya later.

10. Got any good stock tips?

If you need that money in the next 40 years, don't buy stocks.