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10 Episodes 2019 - 2020
Episode 1
Sun, Dec 29, 2019
Front Running looks at the 'billionaire tax' proposed by the likes of Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. What is driving the demand for this tax? Why are billionaires suddenly so hated? Where do billionaires even come from? Is there such a thing as 'odious wealth?'Front Running and guests, Dr Michael Hudson and Professor Steve Keen, look at the massive rise in wealth inequality and the central bank money printing that has contributed to it. They trace the rise of finance capitalism at the expense of the industrial capitalism which made America great for decades after WWII. Can taxes ever make America great again? Or is something more profound required to restore the wealth creation machine that powered the largest middle class in history?
Episode 2
Sun, Jan 5, 2020
Front Running looks at the 'Sputnik moment' for the US as China overtakes it in high-tech achievements. Donald Trump won 2016 on the promise to 'Make America Great Again', but has imposing new trade conditions on China worked? Are any candidates proposing an industrial policy that can trump Trump's policy? How was it that China was able to overtake America in the first place? Max and Stacy are joined by guests Dan Collins, a businessman who lived and worked in China for 20 years, and Marshall Auerback, a market analyst and a researcher at the Levy Institute. They trace the history of the policy first set in motion by the Clinton administration in 2000 when Congress was urged to accept China into the WTO. Trump's current trade representative, Robert Lighthizer, was almost the lone voice at the time arguing that allowing China into the WTO would destroy US manufacturing. He was right, everyone else was wrong. How can the US be extracted from its own disastrous mistakes? Is it possible to catch up to China's high-tech advantage? Dan Collins notes that there has been a manufacturing boom over the past two decades, only it's been happening in China, not America. Marshall Auerback believes it is possible to remedy that. Tune in to learn how.
Episode 3
Sun, Jan 12, 2020
Front Running looks at the jobs program called the Green New Deal, most associated at the moment with Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez but which has been formulated for quite some years with the ambition to provide an FDR-like jobs program to put Americans to work rebuilding its infrastructure for a post-carbon world. Two guests join Front Running to discuss the Green New Deal; James (Jim) Howard Kunstler, author of "The Geography of Nowhere" and "The Long Emergency," and Randy Voller, former mayor of Pittsboro, North Carolina, as well as the former chair of the Democratic Party of North Carolina. Together they look at the ability of the Green New Deal to be a jobs program of the magnitude that could restore US infrastructure and manufacturing capacity. Kunstler believes that it is a 'when-you-wish-upon-a-star' program filled with 'wishful thinking' because we can't keep our fantasy land of suburbia, Walt Disney World, and the US military afloat on alternative energy as these all need an underlying platform built on oil, gas, and coal. Voller has more hope that the Green New Deal can succeed and programs can be implemented locally and immediately for genuine benefit.
Episode 4
Sun, Jan 19, 2020
Front Running looks at the signature policy from presidential candidate Andrew Yang. If Wall Street is getting richer thanks to the trillions of dollars the Fed has deployed to bailout the financial system, why shouldn't the ordinary citizen also get some of this 'free money?' Yang is proposing a $1000 per month no questions asked 'freedom dividend' for all US citizens. Is this a solution to the problems of globalization? Max and Stacy are joined by guests, Sinclair Skinner, an entrepreneur with a background in engineering, Marshall Auerback, a market analyst and a researcher at the Levy Institute, and Josh Crumb, a businessman and former Wall Street banker. They discuss the issue of justice, and how voters feel they have been ripped off by the current political and economic setup, where only some are too big to fail. They also debate whether or not automation or trade deals are the route source of the declining incomes of the working class. Is a universal basic income the right answer? Would Bernie Sanders' idea for a 'jobs guarantee' work better? And what about the ideas from the right rather than the left? F.A. Hayek, the Austrian-British economist, had originally proposed a sort of universal basic income (UBI) policy decades ago, when he suggested that a minimum floor would create a fairer market for jobs, as it would put the employee on a more level playing field with employer. Tune in to learn more about the possibilities and perils of UBI.
Episode 5
Sun, Jan 26, 2020
Front Running looks at the promises of draining the swamp that Trump had made and failed to implement. Lobbyists continue to write legislation and get whatever it is they want often over the will of the people. Max and Stacy are joined by guests, Tyson Slocum, head of Public Citizen's Energy Program and Ellen Brown, a public banking activist. They discuss the various swamp draining ideas which have been proposed from some of the candidates for president. Andrew Yang, for example, proposes 'Democracy Dollars' - a policy in which every voter would receive the same amount of cash to be used only to support their favored political candidates. If this does, indeed, give the citizen eight times more economic power than corporations and their lobbyists, will this help? Tyson believes that corporations would just up their expenditure on buying political loyalty. Elizabeth Warren proposes a lobbyist tax on 'bads' above a certain threshold which would, thus, not harm public interest lobbying groups like Public Citizen, but dissuade corporations from outspending activists by so much. Could this combine with Bernie Sanders' idea of banning for life any member of Congress from lobbying in the future to finally put an end to corporate influence over our politics? Tune in to learn more about the race to drain the swamp.
Episode 6
Sun, Feb 2, 2020
Front Running looks at the promises of draining the swamp that President Trump made and failed to implement. Lobbyists continue to write legislation and get whatever it is they want, often over the will of the people. Max and Stacy's guests are Josh Crumb, a former banker turned entrepreneur, and Marshall Auerback, a market analyst and Levy Institute researcher. They discuss one of Elizabeth Warren's signature issues, the busting up of some of the social media and data monopolies like Facebook. They review the data, such as the decline in company formation and productivity, which suggests that monopoly and oligopoly are indeed harming the overall economy. Whether or not we need a trust-buster like Teddy Roosevelt, however, is another matter when the fact is there are perhaps deeper underlying issues in a world of negative interest rates. Time is a fundamental scarcity in economics, but negative interest rates remove the risk of time scarcity for the very select few who are able to access credit from the central banks on those terms, thus giving them the freedom to leverage their market power and outcompete any company that has to borrow at real rates. As big companies get to use cheap credit to expand, they are also consolidating this knowledge base into private companies fueled with monopoly credit, which is very dangerous. Tune in to hear what Front Running has to say about breaking up these powerful entities and rescuing the economy.
Episode 7
Sun, Feb 9, 2020
Episode 8
Sun, Feb 16, 2020
Front Running takes a look at the policies for Wall Street reform causing bankers to publicly denounce some of the Democratic candidates. Bankers are warning socialism and ruin will follow any reform, but voters want some justice for the system they believe has delivered record levels of inequality. Max and Stacy are joined by guests Dr. Michael Hudson, a former balance of payments economist at Chase Manhattan Bank and author of "Super Imperialism," and Randy Voller, the former mayor of Pittsboro, North Carolina and the former head of the Democratic Party of North Carolina. Barack Obama had been voted into office in 2008 on the hope of change on Wall Street where bankers had just taken the world economy to the brink of disaster. Young voters and Occupy Wall Street activists wanted bankers punished for the widespread fraud that was evident to almost all in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. Instead Obama, once in office, vowed to 'look forward, not back' and his attorney general, Eric Holder, implemented the 'Holder Doctrine' whereby banking crime was not prosecuted for fear of collateral damage to the economy. Still yearning for economic and financial justice, however, Democratic voters are demanding action is taken by the next Democratic administration, and some of the candidates are promising it. Front Running guests review the plans and policies being presented, from a financial transaction tax to the restoration of Glass-Steagall, and ask whether the system is beyond repair at this point. Tune in to hear what Front Running has to say about ending Wall Street fraud and the bank bailouts which inevitably follow.
Episode 9
Sun, Feb 23, 2020
Front Running looks at the 'ban fracking' proposals for the US energy policy coming from some of the Democratic candidates. Max and Stacy are joined by guests Dan Collins, a former auto executive in China, and Tyson Slocum, head of the energy program for Public Citizen. As the US becomes a major oil and gas producer thanks to the fracking policies pushed by former Democratic President Barack Obama, some candidates are now suggesting they would ban the oil and natural gas production method, which is wildly unpopular with most progressive voters. Is this even a remote possibility when billions of dollars are being spent on LNG terminals along the Gulf Coast? Also, does natural gas provide a 'bridge fuel' to a more sustainable energy future? And, if electric vehicles and smart grids are the future of energy provision, then will lithium become the new oil in terms of geopolitical unrest and conflict? With his background in automobile manufacturing, Dan Collins believes that the cost of mobility will collapse due to electric cars and autonomous vehicles. This could set in motion a huge boom in productivity and economic growth. So, how to unleash innovation in renewable energy, transport, and electrification? Tune in to hear what Front Running has to say about our electric future.
Episode 10
Sun, Mar 1, 2020