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August 11 - German Banks Exposed; Obama Economic Advisor on Election Chances; Riots Coming to America?
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We begin by discussing the continued uncertainty about financial stability in the Eurozone, and the European Central Bank’s ability to weather the accumulating debt burden of Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Spain and Italy. William K. Black, the former litigation director of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, who investigated the Savings and Loan disaster of the 1980’s, joins us to assess the exposure of German banks and how much they are hiding bad loans.
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We talk with Jared Bernstein, who up until recently, was Vice President Biden’s Chief Economist and Economic Advisor and a member of President Obama’s economic team. We discuss how much the recent austerity measures resulting from the debt-ceiling deal will hurt the economy and adversely effect President Obama’s reelection chances. |
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Then we look into the possibility of growing economic distress in the United States sparking riots similar to the recent outbreak of arson and looting in the U.K. Darnell Hunt, professor of Sociology at UCLA and author of Black Los Angeles; American Dreams and Racial Realities joins us to gauge the level of despair amongst America’s youth facing dwindling job opportunities and whether that might lead to violence in the future. |
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August 9 - "London's Burning"; Unspoken Support for the Syrian Regime; Firing up Liberals and Mitt Romney in New Hampshire
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First, we go to London to find out whether the four days of riots and looting are about class warfare, criminal opportunism or both. Caroline Frost, who is an editor with the Huffington Post UK and previously was a producer with BBC News, joins us for an update on the riots that appear to have moved from London to the north today, although her neighborhood in Ealing was looted last night. |
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Then, we look into the sacking of Syria’s Minister of Defense and the lecture given to the Assad dictatorship by Turkey’s Foreign Minister to see whether there are cracks in this increasingly isolated regime. James Gelvin, professor of History at UCLA, joins us to discuss the mounting death toll of unarmed Syria citizens trying to free themselves from their murderous government. |
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Then, finally we speak with John Judis, who is a senior editor with The New Republic and has been covering Mitt Romney in New Hampshire. We talk about the leading Republican contender for president and John Judis’ latest essay in the New Republic, Liberals’ Strange Retreat on Government Spending. |
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Aug 8 - European Markets Tremble; Economic Literacy in the US; The Politics of Crisis Capitalism
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With today’s stock market drop of 630 points we first look at the European markets that tumbled earlier. Daniela Schwartzer, the head of the European Union Integration Research Division of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs joins us. She assesses the success of the European Central Bank’s intervention and points out the growing north/south divide in the Eurozone. |
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Then we look into the state of economic literacy in the United States following the debt-ceiling debacle and the S&P debt-rating agency’s repudiation of the deal that has set off financial tremors around the globe. Research scholar at the Levy Economics Institute, Pavlina Tcherneva joins us to see if any lessons were learned from a brazen act of stupidity that has the nation’s self-inflicted financial wound getting worse as those responsible blame everyone but themselves. |
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Then finally we talk with Scott Klinger the Policy Director of Wealth for the Common Good who worked as a security analyst and portfolio manager. He was on the program back in April when he co-authored “Unnecessary Austerity, Unnecessary Shutdown”, a report that presciently warned the debt crisis being hatched in Congress would lead to unnecessary austerity and cause a double dip recession. |
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August 7 - A Black Monday Tsunami?; Israelis Protest Living Costs; Rick Perry for a Prayerful President; Third Political Party - The Internet Candidate
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As European Central Bank and the G7 Finance Ministers hold emergency meetings, we begin with the possibility of a Black Monday, a financial tsunami cascading across overseas stock exchanges, a global crash which the ministers are attempting to prevent, before it reaches our shores. Economist Dean Baker joins us to explain who the Standard & Poors rating agency are, why they downgraded the U.S.’s credit rating, and how they have the power to do so and rattle world markets. |
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We go to Israel where massive demonstrations are shaking the Netanyahu government in what some are describing as Israel’s Arab Spring. Gideon Levy, who writes for the Israeli newspaper Haaritz, joins us to assess how this youthful rebellion, which started as a tent city, has grown into a national protest movement. |
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Then Dallas Morning News Senior Political Reporter Wayne Slater joins us. He covered Saturday’s political/religious revival meeting in Houston organized by Governor Rick Perry and a group of pastors, many from the New Apostolic Movement. We look into this new movement on the religious right as well as the growing possibility that Rick Perry will throw his ten gallon hat in the Republican presidential ring. |
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Then finally we examine American’s Elect, a new Internet-powered Third Party that is silently sweeping the country and is poised to be on all 50 ballots in next year’s election. Third Party veteran organizer Kevin Zeese, who was Ralph Nader’s spokesperson for his 2004 presidential run, joins us to talk about the well-financed Americans Elect that will conduct virtual primaries in mid-2012 to elect a Third Party presidential candidate via the Internet. |
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August 4 - Tremors on Wall Street; Congress's Acceleration of the Economic Disaster; Are we Headed for Another Great Depression?
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We begin with tremors on Wall Street upon the stock market dropping 500 points. We talk with former Wall Street banker William Cohan, who covers Wall Street for Fortune, Vanity Fair and the New York Times. He recently wrote the book Money and Power; How Goldman Sachs Came to Rule the World. |
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Then, economist Randall Wray joins us for a macro-economic analysis of adverse economic trends at home and abroad amid dire predictions of a double-dip recession in the U.S. and defaults in Europe. We will try to connect the dots to see if we are indeed at a Smoot-Hawley moment where the Congress, instead of reversing economic decline, has accelerated it. |
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Finally, historian Robert McElvaine, author of The Great Depression: America 1929-1941, joins us to explore further analogies between what happened to prolong the Great Depression and actions just taken on Capitol Hill that most analysts say will deepen and drag out the recession.
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