Lesson From the Roman Republic of Emperor Augustus As Trump, With the Help of a Gutless Senate, Turns Our Republic Into a Tyranny
We begin with the uncanny parallels between the rise and fall of the Roman republic which lasted for 500 years and the American republic which has lasted for 250 years. We discuss how the American republic is now undergoing a tawdry transformation into a gilded monarchy celebrating Emperor Trump in the same way the Roman Emperor Augustus, with the help of gutless senators, turned a republic into a tyranny. Joining us is Michelle Berenfeld, the John A. McCarthy Professor of Classics at Pitzer College, one of the Claremont Colleges. An archaeologist and fellow of the American Academy in Rome, she has done research in Turkey, Jordan, Egypt, Greece, and Italy. She is the author of the new book, just out, Lessons from a Lost Republic: What Ancient Rome Can Teach Us About This American Moment which warns us of what happens when a Senate cedes its power to a dictator and now in this American moment, we have the richest and most influential men in the land willing to let our republic fall.
Our $40.05 Trillion Debt With the CBO Projecting it Will Climb to $64 Trillion by 2036
Then, with the Treasury announcing on August 18 that the nation’s debt has reached $40.05 trillion, with the CBO projecting it will climb to $64 trillion by 2036, we speak with Dean Baker, senior economist and co-founder of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a progressive economic think-tank based in Washington DC. He is the author of Rigged: How Globalization and the Rules of the Modern Economy Were Structured to Make the Rich Richer, and writes the popular economics blog, “Beat the Press” where his latest articles we discuss are “Trump’s War Sends Interest Rates Soaring” and “$40 Trillion Debt, Oh My!”