January 6 - North Korea Boasts It Tested an H-Bomb; Bernie Sanders' Prescription to Reform Wall Street; California's Massive Methane Leak

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the announcement by the North Korean regime that they have tested a hydrogen bomb calling it a “spectacular success”. Sung Yoon Lee, a Professor of International Affairs at the Fletcher School at Tufts University joins us to discuss the likely repercussions in the neighborhood following the U.N. Security Council’s condemnation of the test after a meeting of China, Japan, Britain, France and other powers where further sanctions against the Kim Jong -un regime were discussed. We also look into the possibility that a fission trigger for an H-bomb was tested in spite of widespread skepticism including an initial response from the White House disputing North Korea’s claim.

Part 2

Then we get an assessment of Tuesday’s fiery speech by Bernie Sanders on the need to reform Wall Street. Wallace Turbeville, who was an investment banker at Goldman Sachs for 12 years and is now a Senior Fellow at Demos, joins us to discuss Sanders’ call to break up the big banks and reinstate the Glass-Steagal financial laws that separated commercial and investment banking which Senator Elizabeth Warren is championing with a bill Sanders co-sponsored. We contrast Senator Sanders’ prescription for reforming Wall Street compared to his rival in the Democratic presidential primary, Hillary Clinton’s plan to address the risks posed by shadow banking.

Part 3

Then finally, with California’s governor declaring a state of emergency in an outer suburb of Los Angeles where a gas leak has driven thousands of residents from their homes, we will speak with Timothy O’Conner the Director for California Oil and Gas at The Environmental Defense Fund. He joins us to discuss today’s action taken on the 79^th day of a massive methane leakage that every day spews one of the worst global warming gases into the atmosphere in an amount equivalent to driving 4.5 million cars a day.