October 29 - The Fed Ends the $4.5 Trillion Quantitative Easing Program; Congressional Hawks Preparing to Sabotage Obama's Iran Deal; Demonstrations in Hungary Against an Internet Tax

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the Federal Reserve’s announcement that it is ending its $4.5 trillion quantitative easing program started six years ago to help Wall Street recover from the 2008 economic crisis it caused by buying bonds. Robert Johnson, the Executive Director of the Institute for New Economic Thinking, who was formerly the chief economist at both the U.S. Senate Banking Committee and the Budget Committee, joins us to assess how the global markets will react and in particular the record-high U.S. stock market, which has been the beneficiary of investors looking for higher returns because of record-low interest rates.

Part 2

Then we look into the impending sabotage by hawks in Congress, whose ranks will be swelled by the expected Republican takeover of the senate, of the P5+1 agreement President Obama is likely sign with Iran in late November. Dr. Trita Parsi, the co-founder and the president of the National Iranian American Council joins us to discuss his article at Reuters “How Congressional Hawks Plan to Kill Obama’s Iran Deal” and examine the window of opportunity that congressional hawks, who appear to be in coordination with Israel’s Prime Minister, have to kill the Iran deal before it bears fruit and shows how much it is working because of pent-up demand inside Iran for normal relations and the eagerness to do business with the U.S. once sanctions are lifted.

Part 3

Then finally we speak with Kim Lane Scheppele, an expert on Hungary who is a Professor of Sociology and International Affairs in the Woodrow Wilson School and Director of the Program in Law and Public Affairs at Princeton University. We discuss huge demonstrations in Hungary against the increasingly authoritarian right wing government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban whose government wants to introduce an Internet tax and levy a fee on each gigabyte of internet data transferred. This has prompted thousands across the political spectrum, to take to the streets and hurl old computer parts at the headquarters of the ruling Fidesz party.