Patt Morrison Tues, 3/10

PATT MORRISON SCHEDULE

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

1-3 p.m.

 

1:00 – 1:40

OPEN

 

 

 

1:40 – 2:00

California High Speed Rail Moves Forward with Help from Feds

Last November, Proposition 1A passed, paving the way for the state to issue $10 billion worth of bonds to create a European/Japanese-style high speed rail system for California. Okay. What now? Some good news for its supporters: passage of the bill put California on the top of the list to receive monies from the Federal stimulus package, which contains $8 billion for high speed rail projects. Bad news: residents of Palo Alto are fuming about plans to widen an existing commuter rail corridor to accommodate the bullet trains. Still, detailed planning continues and trains could start zooming at 220 mph up the Central Valley as early as 2015.

 

Guests:

Fiona Ma, Assemblywoman for district 12, San Francisco, also convener of the High Speed Rail Caucus

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[NPR NEWS]

 

2:00 – 2:30

The Latest American Export:  Recession

All of the benefits of globalization quickly become detriments when one country in the global domino chain suffers an economic slowdown, and those effects are even more dramatic when that one country is the biggest economy in the world.  Thus it’s not surprising that the American recession is quickly spreading around the world, led by the failures of multinational banks heavily invested in the U.S. market.  However the sheer numbers of financial loss are staggering: one estimate says that global financial assets lost an equivalent to one year of world gross domestic product in 2008; the World Bank says the global economy shrank for the first time since World War II.  If our recession matters to the world, does the world’s recession matter to the U.S.?

 

Guests:

TBD

 

 

 

2:30 – 3:00

The Open Road: The Global Journey of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama

The Dalai Lama claims to be just a simple Buddhist monk, but author Pico Iyer's new book, The Open Road, highlights a more multifaceted, global icon, who evokes both admiration and skepticism. Today marks the 50^th anniversary of his exile from Tibet and discussions about who will succeed the 74-year-old monk grow more urgent. Iyer joins us to discuss the complex religious figure and the controversy that surrounds him. 

 

Guests:

Pico Iyer, author of The Open Road

Call him @