Patt Morrison for Tuesday, July 6, 2010

PATT MORRISON SCHEDULE

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

1-3 p.m.

 

CALL-IN @ 866-893-5722, 866-893-KPCC; OR JOIN THE CONVERSATION ONLINE ON THE PATT MORRISON BLOG AT KPCC-DOT-ORG

 

 

1:06 – 1:19

OPEN

 

 

1:21 – 1:39

AIG and Goldman Sachs take the hot seat

Derivatives, derivatives, derivatives: that was the hot topic at the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission last week. The bipartisan group tasked with figuring out how our economy melted down called on executives from AIG, Goldman Sachs, scholars, and regulators to help explain what the heck a derivative is and why they played a role in the collapse of our economy.  If you have ever wondered what the notional value of over-the-counter derivatives were in 2008, the answer is $684 trillion. That’s trillion with a “t”.  According to the chairman of the commission, that’s ten times the GDP of all nations.  Patt examines all this risky business. 

 

Guest:

Phil Angelides, chairman, Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission

HE CALLS US

 

 

1:41 – 1:58:30

The troubled environmental agenda of Barack Obama

Among the long list of promises and potential that Barack Obama carried with him into the White House, one of the greatest expectations of his supporters was that he would bring a radically different environmental agenda than his predecessor George W. Bush.  Two years on and President Obama’s supporters have several reasons to be disappointed.  While the continuous gushing of oil into the Gulf of Mexico is the most visual reminder of failed environmental regulation and oversight, the President’s inability to pass a comprehensive carbon emissions control bill in Congress is probably the biggest let down.  The President’s chief environmental adviser is here to talk about the Administration’s bolstering of national parks, and how they plan to eventually fulfill the promise of being true environmentalists.

 

Guest:

Nancy Sutley, chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality & principal environmental policy adviser to President Obama

SHE CALLS US:

 

Carl Pope, Executive Director, Sierra Club

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2:06 – 2:30

The new Fremont High

Last December, South L.A.’s Fremont High School became the first school ever in the Los Angeles Unified School District to undergo a controversial process known as “restructuring” or “reconstitution,” an aggressive plan under the No Child Left Behind Act that allows districts to reconstitute a chronically underperforming school, dismiss all teachers and rehire no more than 50% percent of its faculty before reopening.  The method closely mirrors programs that Secretary of Education Arne Duncan implemented with varied success in Chicago’s public school district.  While not technically “fired,” teachers were outraged and felt they had no input in the decision—about 60% of Fremont’s teachers reapplied for their jobs by the March deadline.  They were frustrated by an administration that they claimed continued to fail them, while that administration said they were fed up with a school culture grown complacent with underachievement.  If restructuring is successful at Fremont, it will have ramifications for schools nation-wide.  Today, the school reopens with its re-hired and newly hired staff.  Patt continues her series looking at the restructuring of Fremont High.

 

Guests:

George McKenna III, Superintendent for Local District 7, which includes John C. Fremont High

CALL HIM:

 

OTHER GUESTS TBD

 

 

2:30 – 2:39

OPEN

 

 

2:41 – 2:58:30

Niall Ferguson “High Financier: the lives and times of Siegmund Warburg”

It might be a little controversial to say that Britain should have never joined WWI, even if it meant Germany would have won.  But then again, most of what the famed economic historian Niall Ferguson says is pretty controversial.  Ferguson is the leading academic on counterfactual history, a new type of history that asks “what if,” and he tackles the many outcomes if a different course was taken in history.  His numerous books, including “The Pity of War,” “The Ascent of Money” and “The Cash Nexus,” all revolve around the historical influence of money.  But his new book “High Financier: the lives and times of Siegmund Warburg” looks into the life behind a man who changed the course of the economy and banking. 

 

Guest:

Niall Ferguson, Laurence A. Tisch professor of history at Harvard University and William Ziegler professor of business administration at Harvard Business School; his new book is “High Financier: the lives and times of Siegmund Warburg”

CALL HIM @

 

 

Jonathan Serviss

Producer, Patt Morrison Program

Southern California Public Radio

NPR Affiliate for Los Angeles

89.3 KPCC-FM | 89.1 KUOR-FM | 90.3 KPCV-FM

626.583.5171, office

415.497.2131, mobile

jserviss@kpcc.org / jserviss@scpr.org

www.scpr.org