May 12 – Is Paul Ryan Trying to “Help Shape” Trump’s Policies?; Trying to Make Sense of the Impeachment of Brazil’s President; The Economic Repercussions of a So-Called Brexit

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the meetings today on Capitol Hill between Donald Trump and Republican leaders including Speaker Paul Ryan and speak with a long-time senior congressional staffer Mike Lofgren, the author of “The Party is Over: How Republicans Went Crazy, Democrats Became Useless, and the Middle Class Got Shafted”. We discuss the possibility that as former speaker John Boehner suggested, Mr. Ryan was looking to “help shape” Trump’s policies and examine the extent to which the struggle between Trump and the Republican establishment is not about unity but is more about Trump being brought into line to abandon his populist promises to raise taxes on the rich and preserve Social Security. We look into whether Trump could be handled to follow the game plan of hyping the deficit as a distraction to justify the sacrifices working and middle class Americans are expected to make while the GOP cuts taxes on the top 1%.

Part 2

Then, now that the President of Brazil is facing impeachment, we will try to get some clarity of what is behind this political upheaval in a country that in three months from now will be hosting the Olympic Games. Alexander Main, the Senior Associate for International Policy at the Center for Economic and Policy Research joins us to discuss the extraordinary turn of events that have replaced an elected president half way through her term on specious grounds involving vague charges with a much more unpopular replacement from another party who is mired in legal troubles and corruption charges.

Part 3

Then finally we go to Italy to speak with the economist Randall Wray, professor of Economics at Bard College and a Senior Scholar at the Levy Economics Institute about the economic repercussions of a so-called Brexit if the U.K. were to leave the E.U. following the June 23^rdreferendum. We look into whether the E.U. could unravel and how a Brexit could affect the American economy and the upcoming elections. We also discuss his latest book “Why Minsky Matters: An Introduction to a Maverick Economist”.