Full Program

Part 1

We begin with an analysis of how the reckless and suicidal brinkmanship in Washington looks to a group of the world’s leading economists meeting in the nation’s capitol. Economist Stephany Griffith Jones, who is currently the Financial Markets Program Director at the Initiative for Policy Dialogue at Columbia University joins us to offer her perspective on government by extortion and the new head of the Fed Janet Yellen.

Part 2

Then we speak with another female economist about the new Chairwoman of the Federal Reserve Janet Yellin, the first woman to hold what is considered the second most powerful position in the world. Pavlina Tcherneva, a professor of economics at Bard College who served as the associate director for economic analysis at the Center for Full Employment and Price Stability joins us to discuss the good news at the Fed and the continuing bad news from the capitol where the Republicans are offering a truce until November 22 before they resume their threat to default.

Part 3

Then finally we speak with Pulitzer-Prize-winning reporter and columnist for the LA Times Michael Hiltzik about the letter from the billionaire Koch brothers to U.S. Senators where they distanced themselves from the current activities of the Tea Party, apparently alarmed at the prospect of the grave damage the actions of the Congressional caucus they have supported could do to the economy and to their 70 billion dollar fortune. We examine the role of money behind the shutdown and whether money from the business community might now flow to moderate Republicans instead of Tea Party extremists. 

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with arguments before the Supreme Court in McCutcheon versus the FEC that could strike down any remaining limits on spending on candidates and parties. Senator Bernie Sanders, who was in the Supreme Court and later spoke on the steps afterwards, joins us to discuss whether the Court will further empower a few billionaires like those behind the Tea Party shutdown, who are radically altering the American political landscape, moving the country further and further to the right.

Part 2

Then we speak with Princeton historian Sean Wilentz who has an article in Monday’s New York Times ”Obama and the Debt” which points out that the 14^th Amendment was intended to prevent precisely the abuses that the current House Republicans blithely condone. We discuss how the Republican Party made paying our debts part of their 1868 platform declaring that “national honor requires the payment of the public indebtedness in the utmost good faith to all creditors at home and abroad”, pronouncing any repudiation of the debt “a national crime”.

Part 3

Then finally we examine the role of the U.S. Catholic bishops in encouraging the Republican House to take the current hostage-taking course while at the same time expressing their concern for the record rates of one in five children in poverty as well as the 49 million Americans who are food insecure. Adele Stan, who specializes in covering the intersection of religion and politics as RH Reality Check’s Senior Washington Correspondent, joins us to discuss her latest article “At Any Cost: How Catholic Bishops Pushed for a Shutdown – and Even a Default – Over Birth Control”.