Voting on health care without... voting? Do trade schools leave students with an unmanageable debt load? Then, negotiating the bounds of the U.S.-Israeli alliance. Later, Scott Patterson on the math whiz kids that nearly brought Wall Street down.
Are Democrats using tricks to pass health reform?
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi may bypass a direct roll-call vote on the Senate version of the health bill. Using what's known as a "self-executing rule" or "deem and pass," House members would vote on fixes to the Senate bill, and if passed, it would approve the Senate bill in the process. Republicans charge that the Democrats are using parliamentary tricks to pass health legislation. Both sides have used the tactic before, though not for anything as big as a health care overhaul. Are Democrats forcing the legislation through Congress?
Guests:
Mark Barabak, political correspondent, LA Times
Ron Elving, Senior Washington Editor for NPR
Sister Simone Campbell, Executive Director of “Network,” a national Catholic Social Justice Lobby which supports the health care bill
Trade school debts
Trade schools are thriving as people worried about jobs prospects flock to tech, culinary and other vocational schools. But do the schools deliver on promises of well-paid jobs? Some say they leave many students loaded with debt and qualified only for low-wage positions. Federal loans and grants are the primary source of revenue for trade schools. The US Department of Education is considering new restrictions on loans for trade schools.
Guests:
Harris Miller, President & CEO of the Career College Association, which represents 1,400 post-secondary, professional and career education schools
Betsy Imholz, Special Projects Director, Consumer’s Union
A new tone toward Israel
Vice President Biden’s trip to Israel began well, with the usual smiles and well-worn rhetoric committing to peace, security and prosperity. Then the other shoe dropped. An Israeli official announced new settlements in Gaza—Secretary of State Hilary Clinton responded that Israel must “prove its commitment to peace” by reversing its decision to expand. Does the White House’s new tone toward Israel signal a shift in the alliance? Should Secretary Clinton back down? Or, is it time that the United States view its relationship with Israel more critically?
Guests:
Michael Berenbaum, PhD. Berenbaum is the director of the Sigi Ziering Center for the Study of the Holocaust and Ethics at American Jewish University where he is also a Professor of Jewish Studies.
David Makovsky, a senior fellow and director of the Project on the Middle East Peace Process at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. He is also an adjunct lecturer in Middle Eastern Studies at Johns Hopkins University's Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and a contributing editor to U.S. News and World Report.
The Quants: How math whizzes nearly destroyed Wall Street
Wall Street traders traditionally make decisions by following intuition and looking at the fundamentals of the market. But by the turn of the century, a group of math whizzes relied increasingly on quantitative investing- pairing complex analytical formulas with high-speed computers to predict the future of the stock market. These "quants" made billions with their strategy, and nearly destroyed the world's financial markets when it all went wrong in the 2007 housing meltdown. Neglecting to account for human influence, their funds took a big hit when outcomes that were supposed to happen once in 10,000 years happened three days in a row. Scott Patterson talks with Larry Mantle about how this highly profitable yet highly risky form of trading took over Wall Street.
Guest:
Scott Patterson, author, The Quants: How a New Breed of Math Whizzes Conquered Wall Street and Nearly Destroyed It (Crown Business). He is a staff reporter for The Wall Street Journal.