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The fastest-growing, most dynamic capitalist country in the history of the world is the People’s Republic of China today.  PETER HESSLER has lived in China for the last ten years as a staff writer for The New Yorker; he spent months in a development zone, hanging around with businessmen and with workers.  Peter’s new book is COUNTRY DRIVING: A Journey Through China from Farm to Factory.

Plus: HAROLD MEYERSON says “Like earthquakes, Goldman Sachs can strike anytime. Its work can slumber undetected for years, only to erupt, unanticipated, with catastrophic consequences.”  He looks at how Wall Street greed and secrecy are bringing misery to Greece and endangering the European Union.  Harold writes an op-ed column for the Washington Post.

Also: The past and future of capitalism: historian JOYCE APPLEBY says capitalism isn’t an expression of human nature, but the specific result of some unlikely developments, mostly in England.  She emphasizes that capitalism is as much a cultural as an economic system.  Joyce’s new book is THE RELENTLESS REVOLUTION: A History of Capitalism.

For the record: the KPFK fund drive will feature a guest host at 4pm today.

For the record: the KPFK fund drive will feature a guest host at 4pm today.

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AMY WILENTZ has returned from a week in Haiti. “the problem is this,” she writes: “will people care about Haiti the way they did about New Orleans?  for the next three or four years, until the job gets done?”   She’ll talk about lessons from the streets in the art of survival. Amy is the award-winning author of The Rainy Season: Haiti Since Duvalier.
READ Amy’s “Haiti and the Art of Survival: Lessons from the Streets”  HERE

Plus: The DANIEL ELLSBERG documentary “The Most Dangerous Man in America” has been nominated for an Academy Award! The film opens Friday at the Music Hall in Beverly Hills, and we’ll be featuring passes to the show as add-ons to our fund drive premiums.
WATCH the trailer to “The Most Dangerous Man” HERE.

Also: we remember HOWARD ZINN, who died on Jan. 27. His People’s History of the US has sold more than two million copies – and he’s been an inspiration to activists since the 1960s. We’ll play some of our interviews with Howard, and feature the DVD of his Voices of a People’s History as a fund drive premium.
WATCH Howard Zinn’s interview with Bill Moyers HERE

For the record: the KPFK fund drive will feature a guest host today at 4pm.

(Guest-hosted by Alan Minsky while I was on jury duty–thank you Alan!)  Our president gives his first State of the Union speech tonight at 600pm, and apparently Obama will call for an across-the-board three-year spending freeze to placate Republicans who say the deficit is a big problem.  Question: Do ordinary people really care about the deficit?  And don’t we need a much bigger deficit right now? JOHN NICHOLS will comment: he’s Washington correspondent for The Nation and writes “The Beat” blog at TheNation.com.

Plus: The Supremes’ Blow to Democracy: last week the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that it was okay for corporations to spend unlimited money to overwhelm elections.  ERWIN CHEMERINSKY will comment: he says the same 5-4 majority that said corporations must have “free speech” has drastically limited free speech for others.  Erwin is founding dean of the UCI law school.

Also: The Culture of Fear: BARRY GLASSNER explains why Americans are afraid of the wrong things: Terrorists, Criminals, Drugs, Minorities, Teen Moms, Killer Kids, Mutant Microbes, Plane Crashes, Road Rage, & Vaccines.  “The Culture of Fear will amaze you, make you upset, and give you a new resolve to do what’s best for this country.”—Michael Moore.  Barry teaches sociology at USC, and was featured in Bowling for Columbine.

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It’s the first anniversary of Obama’s taking the oath of office, and the day after Obama lost the contest to replace Ted Kennedy with a Democrat.  Losing that 40th vote in the Senate is a disaster for the healthcare bill, the Democrats, the White House, and a lot of the American people.  Obama’s errors are no secret: helping the banks instead of providing jobs for ordinary people, and failing to fight for — and explain — a  healthcare reform bill (now opposed by a majority).

Is it all over now?  Will Obama follow Bill Clinton’s example, and focus on doing a few things the Republicans don’t object to?  We’ll have historical perspective from ERIC FONER, political commentary from JOHN NICHOLS, and  strategic analysis from HAROLD MEYERSON.

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The constitutional challenge to Prop. 8, Calfiornia’s initiative banning gay marriage, went to trial on Monday in San Francisco.   STEPHEN ROHDE will comment, he’s a constitutional lawyer, lecturer, writer and political activist. and Chair the ACLU Foundation of Southern California.

Also: FDR provides the model of a liberal activist president against which Obama is being measured – historian ALAN BRINKLEY will talk about what FDR did—about the banks, unemployment, social security, and racial justice–and how he did it.  His new book is Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Plus: Palestinian life in Gaza – now, and in 1956, when Israelis killed 275 people in two forgotten massacres. JOE SACCO, the pioneering comics journalist, will tell that story—and explain why it matters now.  His new book is Footnotes in Gaza. He will be reading and signing next Tues., Jan. 19, 730pm, at Skylight Books, 1818 N. Vermont Av.
READ Patrick Cockburn’s review  in the New York Times HERE
SEE Joe Sacco’s drawings from Footnotes in Gaza HERE.