February 16 - U.S. Stocks Rally While Europe Teeters; The .0000063% With Their SuperPACs Buy Our Elections; The U.N. General Assembly Vote Against Syria

Full Program

Part 1

With U.S. markets up today, we take a contrary look into the standoff between Greece and Germany over the Greek debt crisis and how a likely default will effect the big European banks and a European economy already in recession as a result of austerity measures. William K. Black, the former Litigation Director of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board and author of “The Best Way to Rob a Bank is to Own One” joins us to analyze the on-going inability of the Europeans to deal with the Euro crisis.

Part 2

Then, if you thought the 99% - 1% divide was bad enough, how about the 99.0000037% versus the .0000063%.  Joining us is Ari Berman, a contributing writer to The Nation and author of an article at Tom Dispatch and the Huffington Post “The .0000063% Election: How the Politics of the Super Rich Became American Politics”. We discuss how the super rich have taken over our politics in this election via the Super-PACs that now dominate campaigns.

Part 3

Then finally we look into the overwhelming vote today in the U.N. General Assembly condemning the Syrian regime. James Gelvin, a specialist on Syria at UCLA joins us to assess whether the Assad family regime, with the help of Russia, China, North Korea, Iran, Cuba and Venezuela, can kill enough Syrians to hold onto power, or whether the growing opposition inside the country will be able to fight back and turn the tables.