Full Program

Part 1

We begin with an economic analysis of the winner and loser of the World Cup from Robert Kuttner, the co-founder and co-editor of The American Prospect where he has an article that is also at The Huffington Post “The World Financial Cup” which argues Germany represents everything that is wrong with the world financial system while Argentina, the Greece of South America, is the epic case of countries whose economies are screwed by policies championed by Germany and the United States.

Part 2

Then we look into the $7 billion mortgage settlement with Citigroup that ends a Justice Department investigation into Citigroup’s packaging and selling of mortgage securities that Citigroup sold in the run-up to the 2008 financial crisis. Jennifer Taub, a professor at the Vermont Law School and author of the new book “Other People’s Houses: How Decades of Bailouts, Captive Regulators, and Toxic Bankers Made Home Mortgages a Thrilling Business”, joins us to discuss the Citigroup settlement and the division amongst critics of Wall Street in Congress over Senator Elizabeth Warren’s negotiations on mortgage reform that would revive the controversial Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae model of private profit at public expense which progressives argue should be scrapped altogether or made fully public.

Part 3

Then finally we examine the latest embarrassments with the most expensive weapons system in history, a gold-plated turkey that will cost the taxpayer more that it would to rescue every American who lost their home in the 2008 crash or provide every homeless person in America with a $600,000 home. Pierre Sprey, a veteran hi-tech defense weapons and system designer who was the primary designer of the F-16 fighter and A-10 ground attack jet, joins us to discuss the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter that has been grounded again and is a no-show at marketing events abroad because the engine on the overweight and underpowered aircraft catches fire, a problem for an aircraft made of flammable composite material.

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the growing spy scandal which is irritating U.S./German relations, prompting the Germans to kick out the CIA’s top spy in Germany in response to a refusal by Washington to cooperate with German inquiries into U.S. intelligence activities. Andrei Markovits, a professor of Comparative Politics and German Studies at the University of Michigan, who studies German politics, anti-Americanism, social democracy, social movements and the European Left and the European Right, joins us to discuss why the Germans are so riled up over the CIA recruiting two of their spies and how the scandal is impacting dealings with Russia and Ukraine where the two allies already do not see eye to eye.

Part 2

Then we go to El Salvador and speak with Elizabeth Kennedy, an activist scholar who works as a Fulbright Fellow with returned child and youth migrants from the United States in El Salvador where she currently assists Salvadorans fleeing from gang violence. We discuss El Salvador’s gang problem which has its roots in Southern California where the two main gangs MS-13 and Barrio 18 were formed, and refute the myths that coyotes and imaginary billboards are encouraging the children of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador to migrate to the U.S.

Part 3

Then finally we speak with Tom Wong, a Professor of Political Science at the University of California, San Diego who is the creator of the 2013 Center for Investigative Reporting Blog on how members of Congress view immigration reform. He joins us to discuss political grandstanding in the face of a humanitarian crisis and his article at the Center for American Progress, “Statistical Analysis Shows that Violence, Not Deferred Action, Is Behind the Surge of Unaccompanied Children Crossing the Border”.