Patt Morrison for Friday, October 7, 2010

PATT MORRISON SCHEDULE

Friday, October 8, 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

 

DAVID LAZARUS FILL IN FOR PATT

 

1:06 – 1:19

OPEN

 

 

1:21 – 1:39

Reading the job number tea leaves: low interest rates, easy corporate loans and sluggish economy create perfect storm

Today’s jobs numbers paint a largely expected but nonetheless perplexing picture: U.S. companies have more money in their pockets than they’ve had in a while but they're not using it to make more jobs.  Instead, large corporations like Microsoft are borrowing vast sums of money, for next to nothing, stockpiling the cash until the economy improves and using it to buy up their own stock.  Buying their own stock off the market makes a corporation’s number of shares appear more scarce, which drives up the price, which looks good to investors.  And with interest rates so low, it's relatively cheap to do this.  Meanwhile, banks are denying loans to the average household and small business.  All this leaves the American economy at the precipice of a chicken-and-egg situation: will corporations begin spending and building factories and hiring in an effort to perk up the economy, or will the economy perk up so corporations can start doing those things?  The latter is unlikely, so what can be done to light a fire under these corporations? 

 

Guests:

TBA, consultant with Birinyi Associates (beer-IN-ee), a money management and research firm that tracks the psychology and history of the market through the actions of corporate investors

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BACK-UP is:

• They look largely at macro money flows, or what has traditionally been called “ticker tape analysis”

 

 

 

1:41 – 1:58:30

Down and out in the ‘burbs: Poverty study shows the social safety net is full of holes

The Great Recession has been an equal opportunity leveler, reeking havoc on American’s up and down the socio-economic ladder. More than 5 million people joined the ranks of the poor since 2000 and two thirds of those people live in the suburbs.  For the first time many people previously unfamiliar with the impacts of poverty have found themselves in need of assistance.  The impact of that need on local social service providers, generally few and far between in the suburbs, has been tremendous.  Struggling with layoffs and dwindling resources, many service providers simply cannot provide the assistance people in their communities badly need.   What’s the impact here in Los Angeles and across the nation, Patt finds out.

 

Guests:

Elizabeth Kneebone is a Senior Research Associate at the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program whose work focuses on urban and suburban poverty, metropolitan demographics, and tax policies for low-income workers and communities.

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Ken Sawa is the CEO and Executive Vice-President of Catholic Charities San Bernardino/Riverside. 

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• He is a professional social worker and has been employed by Catholic Charities serving low income families for 18 years.  Catholic Charities recently celebrated its 30th anniversary and is one of the largest providers of social services in the Inland Counties of Southern California.

 

 

2:06 – 2:30

OPEN

 

 

2:30 – 2:58:30

Don’t Vote: It Just Encourages the Bastards - P.J. O’Rourke on politics and politicians

“We should remind ourselves of the purpose of voting, says P.J. O’Rourke in his new book. “We don’t vote to elect great persons to office. They’re not that great. We vote to throw the bastards out.”  With mid-term elections just around the corner, he takes a long hard look at politics and politicians, and he’s pretty disgusted with it all… read this: “You can remove morality from politics like you can remove the head from a chicken, and they’ll both keep going – politics much longer than the chicken.”  Need we say more?

 

Guests:

P.J. O’Rourke, one of America’s leading political satirists. Formerly the editor of the National Lampoon, he has written for such publications as Car and Driver, American Spectator, Playboy, Esquire, Vanity Fair, House and Garden, The New Republic,  Smart, Harper's, and Rolling Stone. His latest book is Don’t Vote: It Just Encourages the Bastards.

IN STUDIO

 

 

 

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