December 1 - Trump in Indiana: A Stunt or Delivering on a Promise?; What's Behind the Rise in the Price of Oil?; A Report on Castro's Funeral From Havana, Cuba

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the victory tour Donald Trump is taking across the Midwest and examine the deal that was made by Governor Pence of Indiana with United Technologies’ subsidiary Carrier to keep about 800 jobs in Indiana in exchange for state subsidies while still shipping over 1,000 jobs to Mexico as planned. Kevin Baker, an author and journalist who is currently a contributing editor at Harper’s magazine and the author of “America the Ingenious”, joins us to discuss whether Trump’s appearance today at the Carrier plant in Indianapolis is him making good on his promise or a stunt and a terrible precedent of runaway corporate welfare as Bernie Sanders is charging that will incentivize big corporations to threaten to take jobs overseas in order to receive blackmail payments from governments to stay in America.   

Part 2

Then we get an analysis of how Wall Street speculation continues to be the main factor behind the rise and fall of oil prices which have just gone up by 15% following an agreement among OPEC members to cut production which involved behind-the-scenes diplomacy by Russia’s President Putin who managed to get the antagonists Saudi Arabia and Iran to agree to the deal. One of the most quoted analysts on energy issues, Fadel Gheit, Managing Director and Senior Energy Strategist for Oil and Gas Research with Oppenheimer and Company, joins us to discuss the apparent capitulation by the Saudis who flooded the oil market to kill off the shale oil boom only to see the “frackers” thrive and their own budget deficits climb.

Part 3

Then finally we go to Havana, Cuba to speak with Antonio Gonzales, president of the largest and oldest non-partisan Latino voter participation organization in the U.S., the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project. We discuss the funeral procession underway in Cuba where the streets across the island nation are lined with mourners as the ashes of Fidel Castro make their way to a final resting place. We will look into who is among the world leaders gathered to pay respects and what changes might be ahead in Cuba as a new regime in the U.S. appears poised to go back to the past.