An economic indicator that has a perfect record of predicting a recession is blinking red. The spread between the 2-year and 10-year U.S. government bond yield today turned negative for the first time since 2007. This has occurred before every recession in the last 50 years. Meanwhile, US mortgage debt hit an all-time high, eclipsing the record set in 2008.
Police arrested five anti-government protesters after clashes at Hong Kong’s international airport yesterday in which officers used batons and pepper spray and demonstrators beat two men from mainland China. Several dozen protesters remain inside the airport, and airport officials say they’ve received an injunction limiting the permitted demonstration areas. Jude Woodward, who is the author of the book “The US vs China: Asia's new Cold War?,” joins the show.
Marty Gottesfeld is an imprisoned whistleblower who has been placed incommunicado in a restrictive Communications Management Unit at the US penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana. Why? Because he spoke to the media. But before his odyssey began in Terre Haute he was in the same prison, the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan, that Jeffrey Epstein was. Brian and John speak with Dana Gottesfeld, the wife of Marty Gottesfeld, who was Jeffrey Epstein’s cellmate.
Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders took a swipe at the Washington Post on Monday when he said that the paper does not support him because he has criticized its owner, billionaire Jeff Bezos, and the Amazon corporation that he is CEO of. Sanders has criticized Bezos in the past for his treatment of Amazon workers and Amazon for not paying taxes. But the Post’s executive editor is calling Sanders’ complaints a “conspiracy theory.” Ted Rall, an award winning journalist and editorial cartoonist whose work is at www.rall.com, joins the show.
Thousands of students and teachers participated in protests across Brazil yesterday to protest a decision by far-right President Jair Bolsonaro to cut $87 million from school budgets from the kindergarten level to universities. The money would have gone to pay for textbooks and supplies. Bolsonaro this spring cut education budgets by 30 percent and ended all scholarships at the masters and doctoral degree levels. Sputnik news analyst Walter Smolarek joins Brian and John.
Wednesday’s weekly series, In the News, is where the hosts look at the most important ongoing developments of the week and put them into perspective, including the economy and a possible recession, the fight between Bernie Sanders and the Washington Post, and protests in Hong Kong. Sputnik news analysts Nicole Roussell and Walter Smolarek join the show.
Wednesday’s regular segment, Beyond Nuclear, is about nuclear issues, including weapons, energy, waste, and the future of nuclear technology in the United States. Kevin Kamps, the Radioactive Waste Watchdog at the organization Beyond Nuclear, and Sputnik news analyst and producer Nicole Roussell, join the show.
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