Day: November 10, 2021

Background Briefing: November 10, 2021

 

Exaggerated Fears of Inflation and Keeping Powell at the Fed

We begin with the spike in inflation of 6.2% over the past 12 months, the fastest rise since 1990, which will likely be seized upon by Republicans who have already coined the term “Bidenflatation”. Joining us is Katheryn Russ, a Professor of Economics at the University of California, Davis who worked for the Obama Administration’s Council of Economic Advisers as Senior Economist for International Trade and Finance. She has been a visiting scholar at the central banks of Germany, Portugal and France, and the Federal Reserve Banks of St. Louis and San Francisco and we discuss the exaggerated alarm at inflation from stimulus programs which will end up reducing inflation and a call by economist Joseph Stiglitz for Fed Chairman Powell to be replaced which Katheryn considers misguided and mistaken.

 

COP26 Draft Agreement Seen as Too Little Too Late

Then with the draft agreement emerging from the COP 26 talks in Glasgow that climate activists are dismissing as “a polite request”, we speak with Michael Gerrard, a Professor of Professional Practice at Columbia Law School where he teaches courses on environmental law, climate change law, and energy regulation, and is director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law. He has written or edited thirteen books, including Global Climate Change and U.S. Law, the leading work in its field, and the 12-volume Environmental Law Practice Guide, and his latest book is Legal Pathways to Deep Decarbonization in the United States. He joins us to discuss the draft agreement which is too little too late and what can be done to meet the challenge when the world governments are falling short.

 

Prosecutors Seek Murder Charges in the Fentanyl Epidemic Killing Teenagers

The finally, with prosecutors around the country now seeking murder charges for fentanyl deaths, targeting dealers selling fentanyl-laced counterfeit pills on SnapChat, TikTok and Instagram to teenagers who are dying in droves, we speak with Sam Quinones, a journalist, author and storyteller. His books include Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic and his latest book just out, The Least of Us: True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth and we discuss this deadly new epidemic of synthetic drugs at a time when drug traffickers act like corporations and corporations like traffickers.