Background Briefing: February 9, 2022
Strategies to Prevent a War in Ukraine and Soft Power Alternatives to Reach the Russian People
We begin with a discussion on possible strategies to prevent a war in Ukraine while building constructive relations with Russia into the future and speak with David Kramer, who serves as Managing Director for Global Policy at the George W. Bush Institute. Previously he worked in Washington, DC for 24 years, including as Senior Director for Human Rights and Democracy with The McCain Institute for International Leadership; President of Freedom House; and Senior Transatlantic Fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States. He served eight years in the U.S. Department of State during the George W. Bush administration, including as Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor; Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs where he was responsible for Russia, Ukraine, Moldova and Belarus affairs; a Staff Member in the Secretary’s Office of Policy Planning; and Senior Advisor to the Undersecretary for Global Affairs. The author of Back to Containment: Dealing with Putin’s Regime, he is a co-author of a strategy paper at The Atlantic Council, “Global Strategy 2022: Thwarting Kremlin aggression today for constructive relations tomorrow.“
Good News From Congress That Will Save the U.S. Postal Service
Then we look into some good news with the House passage of a bill that will relieve an enormous financial burden on the Post Office which will enable the USPS to function properly and speak with Christopher Shaw, an author, historian, and policy analyst who is the author of Preserving the People’s Post Office, Money, Power, and the People: The American Struggle to Make Banking Democratic and, most recently, First Class: The U.S. Postal Service, Democracy, and the Corporate Threat. He joins us to discuss moves to get rid of the Trump-appointed Postmaster General and reverse his $11.3 billion order of 165,000 gasoline powered delivery trucks that get 8.2 miles per gallon at a time Amazon is ordering 100,000 electric vehicles.
The Economy is Good, Actually, But the Fed Might Reverse Gains For Working Americans
Then finally we examine some more good news which unfortunately for President Biden is not getting through to the American public and that is how good the economy actually is and how an expected raising of interest rates by the Fed will reverse the gains that working and middle class Americans are enjoying. Joining us is Zachary Carter, a Writer in Residence with the Omidyar Network’s Reimagining Capitalism initiative who spent 10 years as a senior reporter at HuffPost where he covered economic policy and American politics. The author of The Price of Peace: Money, Democracy, and the Life of John Maynard Keynes, we discuss his article at The Atlantic “The Economy is Good, Actually.“