July 22 - Will Larry Summers be the Next Chairman of the Fed? The Former Commander of Abu Ghraib on the Massive Prison Break; A Wry Look at the Royal Birth

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Part 1

We begin with the possibility that President Obama might nominate Larry Summers to succeed Ben Bernanke as Chairman of the Federal Reserve. William Greider, the national affairs correspondent for The Nation and author of “Secrets of the Temple: How the Federal Reserve Runs the Country” joins us to discuss what is an alarming prospect for many progressives who see Larry Summers, the architect of the repeal of the Glass/Steagall Act, as a champion of Wall Street and a menace to Main Street. william greider

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Part 2

Then we speak with the former commander of the infamous Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, Brigadier-General Janis Karpinski, about the brazen jailbreak in which 500 prisoners, including senior Al Qaeda leaders, escaped from the notorious prison during a special communal Ramadan feast under a hail of mortar fire and car bomb explosions. We will discuss how little progress has been made in Iraq since it was “liberated” by George W. Bush, as the sectarian divide becomes more intense under Al Maliki’s Shia-led government who are filling the jails with Sunni prisoners.

janis karpinski

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Part 3

Then finally, we go to England to celebrate the royal birth of an 8 pound six ounce boy, with Francis Wheen, the deputy editor of the satirical magazine Private Eye. We discuss the royal baby fever that has gripped both the U.K. and the United States, where the press is brimming with breathless sycophantic gushing at the arrival of the third in line to the British throne, in spite of the fact that the United States of America was foundered and forged by a revolution against that same throne and royal family.

francis wheen