December 10 - The Right to Work for Less Money: Succession in Venezuela; Europe Gets a Nobel Prize (not for economics)

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Part 1	We begin with the president’s speech today in Michigan where the Republican governor is about to sign a bill to make Michigan the 24^th right to work state, prompting the president to remark that the bill amounts to “the right to work for less”. Zack Pohl, the Executive Director of Progress Michigan joins us to discuss how and why the Republicans are making gains in a state that voted overwhelmingly Democrat in the last election.
Part 2	Then we examine the latest indication that Venezuela’s president Hugo Chavez is gravely ill, forcing him to name his foreign minister as a successor. Javier Corralles, a professor of political science at Amherst College joins us. He is the author of “Dragon in the Tropics: Hugo Chavez and the Political Economy of Revolution in Venezuela.” We discuss Venezuela’s foreign policy that is unpopular at home for its support of Qaddafi, Ahmadinejad and the Assad regime in Syria.
Part 3	Then finally we examine the award of the Nobel Peace prize to the European Union and speak with Steven Hill the author of “Europe’s Promise: Why the European Way is the Best Hope for an Insecure World”. We discuss how in spite of a faltering economy, most Europeans enjoy a higher standard of living and quality of life than their American counterparts whose very limited social safety net is likely to be cut soon in the name of reducing the deficit to avoid the “fiscal cliff”.