Jobless rate holds steady at zero. How to avoid student loan debt that can hound you for life. New Sunday Morning Edition Host. FilmWeek: Larry Mantle is joined by KPCC film critics Andy Klein and Wade Major to discuss this week’s films including The Debt, Seven Days in Utopia, Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life, A Good Old Fashioned Orgy and more. TGI-FilmWeek! 9/11 and its effect on the film industry.
Economy adds no new jobs ahead of Obama’s big jobs speech
How many new jobs were added in the past month in the U.S.? Zero, according to the monthly snapshot released today by the Department of Labor. About 14 million people are officially unemployed as of August; around six million of those have been out of work for six months or longer. None of these numbers bode well for the current administration, which is already making dour predictions for the economy through next year, according to a White House forecast released yesterday. The pressure is mounting for President Obama, who is expected to outline his plan for jobs recovery in a speech scheduled for next Thursday. The White House hints that triage efforts might include a mix of tax cuts, infrastructure projects and other government measures aimed at getting the long-term unemployed back into the work force. Obama’s team predicts such actions could push unemployment below 9% next year. But will it be too little, too late? The GOP is already spinning the miserable economic forecast into an administrative failure; at this point, any action Obama proposes is sure to be attacked by either disgruntled Republicans or disappointed Dems. Is there anything the President can do or say that will ease the country’s economic pain?
Guest:
Paddy Hirsch, Senior Editor, Marketplace, American Public Media
How to avoid student loan debt that can hound you for life
The numbers are frightening. Total amount owed in college loans across the country: $1 trillion (more than all U.S. households owe on credit cards). Number of undergraduates who have gone into debt for their education: two-thirds. Average student debt owed before accounting for interest, late-payment penalties, and the like: $27,650. What's worse, say the authors of "The Debt Crisis at American Colleges" in the August issue of The Atlantic, schools and banks are encouraging all of it. They argue colleges are expanding in extraneous, expensive ways and that modern campus life is gilded with too many luxuries (free music downloads at Penn State is just one example). Plus, with fewer parents chipping in, the cost taken on by 18-year olds can stay with them for decades. The most alarming warning is that the next subprime crisis could come from defaults on student debts. Similar to the housing disaster, the value of your education could shrink faster than you can build a Nevada subdivision. But unlike a foreclosed home recouping some costs from a short sale, and unlike a mortgage default that is dischargeable, student loans payments persist no matter what, even after bankruptcy. Not only can your wages and tax refunds be garnished, imagine your Social Security checks being docked. Is this our future? What's the alternative? Can a perfectly decent bachelor's degree be yours at a low price? What if you want to excel? Is there a roadmap to the Ivy League that costs less than a Nevada subdivision?
Guest:
Andrew Hacker, Professor, Department of Political Science, Queens College; co-author, Higher Education: How Colleges Are Wasting Our Money and Failing Our Kids---and What We Can Do About It
New Sunday Morning Edition Host
Audie Cornish, NPR reporter, will be the new voice of NPR on Sunday mornings starting September 4th replacing Liane Hansen, who hosted Weekend Edition for more than 20 years until her retirement. Audie Cornish has been reporting for public radio for ten years, first at WBUR in Boston and then NPR in DC. She's been covering Capitol Hill since 2009; before that, she was on the campaign trail reporting on the 2008 Presidential election. In recent years she has frequently guest hosted for Weekend Edition Sunday, All Things Considered and Tell Me More.
Guests
Audie Cornish, new host of NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday
FilmWeek: The Debt, Seven Days in Utopia, Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life, A Good Old Fashioned Orgy and more
Larry Mantle is joined by KPCC film critics Andy Klein and Wade Major to discuss this week’s films including The Debt, Seven Days in Utopia, Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life, A Good Old Fashioned Orgy and more. TGI-FilmWeek!
Guests:
Andy Klein, film critic for KPCC
Wade Major, film critic for KPCC and BoxOffice.com
9/11 and its effect on the film industry
It’s been a full decade since the attacks on the World Trade Center, and there are several aspects of modern life which have arisen in direct response to the tragic event. Whether it’s signage on the train you take to work, or the enhanced security screenings you pass through at the airport when flying, the world has definitively adapted to an increased focus on terrorism. Even an act such as going to the movies, a familiar form of escapism for most Americans, has been touched by September 11th. For instance, in the immediate aftermath, several movies which were slated to premier on September 15, 2001 were pushed back a few weeks. Others which were set in New York or had plots involving terrorism were delayed for months due to the sensitive nature of such content. Other films digitally edited footage to remove any instances of the World Trade Center before being released, and some omit any likeness of the towers when re-aired on television. Given enough time, filmmakers and the public became less hesitant and stopped shying away from the event. In fact, over the past decade several films have been made dealing with 9/11 head on, such as United 93, World Trade Center and Rebirth. What are your favorite films that address the attacks? Was the public being too sensitive, or Hollywood too fearful? How do you feel when you see images of the World Trade Center in the media? What else would you like to see from the film industry regarding this particular moment in our collective history?
Guests
Andy Klein, film critic for KPCC
Wade Major, film critic for KPCC and BoxOffice.com