January 20 - Plunging Oil Prices and Panic on Wall Street; The Reappearance of Sarah Palin on the Political Stage; Obama Visits the Detroit Auto Show

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the panic on Wall Street as the Dow plunges across the board while U.S. crude oil prices sank 6.6% due to the supply glut on global markets. One of the most quoted analysts on energy issues, Fadel Gheit, joins us. He is the Managing Director of Oil and Gas Research with Oppenheimer and Company and we will discuss the Saudi strategy of flooding the market to drive down the price of oil in order to undercut the shale oil boom in the U.S. and elsewhere and make it uneconomical to frack. While this strategy does not appear to be working, we examine the impact of lower oil prices on Russia and Venezuela and assess how much lower they can go now that Iran is beginning to sell its oil following the recent lifting of sanctions.

Part 2

Then we speak with Adele Stan, a Washington-based journalist who specializes in covering the intersection of religion and politics and is currently a weekly columnist for The American Prospect. We discuss the boost to Donald Trump’s efforts to court the religious right in Iowa at Ted Cruz’s expense with the re-appearance of Sarah Palin on the political stage alongside her fellow reality TV star. Having endorsed Trump yesterday, she praised him today before the rapturous Christian students at Oral Roberts University who applauded wildly when the former Republican Vice-Presidential nominee praised Donald Trump as a Commander-in-Chief who will “kick ISIS’s ass”.

Part 3

Then finally, with President Obama visiting the Detroit Auto Show today along with addressing the toxic water crisis in nearby Flint, Michigan and Detroit’s crumbling underfunded public schools, we will speak with the Automotive Columnist for the Wall Street Journal, Dan Neil. He joins us to discuss the future of electric and hybrid cars that the president touted today by checking out Chrysler’s new hybrid Pacifica minivan as well as the all-electric affordable 2017 Chevy Bolt that has a 200 mile range.