March 4 – The Kushner Shakedown of Qatar; Trump’s Cavalier Declaration of a Trade War; An Activist Who Dressed at Louis XVI to Protest Treasury Secretary Mnuchin at UCLA

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the bombshell revelations by NBC News and The Intercept about the Kushner family shakedown of the Qatari government for a half a billion dollar loan to bailout Jared’s unwise investment in 666 5^thAvenue, a financial albatross which has a $1.4 billion balloon payment due in February. Ryan Grim, the DC Bureau Chief for The Intercept joins us to discuss his latest article at The Intercept “Jared Kushner’s Real-Estate Firm Sought Money Directly from Qatar Government Weeks Before Blockade”. We will look into the extraordinary nature of the self-dealing going on in the Trump White House where the lines between government duties and private business are all-but erased with Jared Kushner representing the United States with some of the most important and sensitive portfolios in our government all the while raising money for his family’s troubled real-estate business that is threatened by Jared’s 2007 vanity purchase of the most expensive building in Manhattan which is underwater and could take down the Kushner brand.

Part 2

Then we speak with Timothy Canova, a Professor of Law, and Public Finance at Nova Southeastern University who teaches Regulation of International Financial Institutions, International Business Transactions and International Trade and Development Law. He joins us to discuss Trump’s impetuous move to slap tariffs on steel and aluminum which has provoked reciprocal threats from other trading partners to slap tariffs on bourbon and Harley Davison motorcycles and could lead to a trade war which Trump is cavalierly unconcerned about, declaring “trade wars are good and easy to win”.'

Part 3

Then finally Mike Stutz joins us in the studio. He is a UCLA alumnus and activist with The Useful Idiots who led a demonstration at UCLA last week dressed as Louis XVI to protest Steven Mnuchin’s appearance on campus at which the Treasury Secretary’s answers to questions from moderator Kai Ryssdal of Marketplace and the audience were greeted with hisses and boos, prompting the Treasury Department to seize the videotape record of the event revoking an agreement to make it public.