Category: Briefings

How the Lowering of Interest Rates by the Fed Will Impact the Economy and the Election

We begin with the Fed lowering interest rates today by a half of a percentage point and examine the likely impact it will have on the economy and the election given that inflation, which is a campaign issue, appears to be largely tamed. Joining us is Robert Hockett, who has first-hand experience working at the International Monetary Fund and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and continues to consult for a number of US federal, state and local legislators and regulators. He drafted Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s “Green New Deal” resolution for the House of Representatives and officially advises her on economic policy and is the Edward Cornell Professor of Law and a Professor of Public Policy at Cornell University. His recent books are Money from Nothing Or, Why We Should Stop Worrying About Debt and Learn to Love the Federal Reserve, Financing the Green New Deal: A Plan of Action and Renewal, and his latest, Spread the Fed: Distributed Central Banking for Productive Monetary Policy.

Does Netanyahu Have an “October Surprise” in Store for the Harris/Walz Campaign?

Then, following Israel’s attack on Hezbollah’s leadership with exploding pagers, we assess whether Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu, who clearly wants Trump elected and is undermining Biden and Harris at every turn, has an “October surprise” in store for the Harris/Walz ticket by starting a war in Lebanon that will expand to Iran and draw the US into another war in the Middle East. Joining us is Robert Baer, one of the most accomplished agents in CIA history, and a winner of the Career Intelligence Medal. He is the author of four New York Times bestsellers, including Sleeping With the Devil: How Washington Sold Our Soul For Saudi Crude and is considered one of the world’s foremost authorities on the Middle East and is an intelligence and national security affairs analyst for CNN. His latest book is The Fourth Man: The Hunt for a KGB Spy at the Top of the CIA and the Rise of Putin’s Russia.

Are We at the Beginning Stage of Another War in the Middle East That the US Will be Dragged Into?

Then finally we investigate further the possibility of an “October surprise” by Netanyahu aimed at helping elect Trump which is at its beginning stage with another humiliation of Hezbollah and Iran meant to provoke a retaliation that will invite a possible invasion and war against Lebanon. Joining us is Juan Cole, a professor of Modern Middle Eastern and South Asian History at the University of Michigan. He is the author of the blog Informed Comment at JuanCole.com and the author of The Ayatollahs and Democracy in Iraq, Engaging the Muslim World, and most recently, Muhammad: Prophet of Peace Amid the Clash of Empires. We discuss his article at TomDispatch, “The Sphinx and the Sultan: How Biden’s Bear Hug of Netanyahu Caused Washington’s Near East Policy to Crash and Burn.”