Broadcast on Radio Left at 5:00 PM EST / 10:00 PM GMT - Tuesday December 21st, 2004

The Nation vs. The Economist 

A  battle of ideas between two of the world's most respected weekly magazines.

Co-sponsored by The Economist, The Nation and the New York Society for Ethical Culture.

Featuring
Clive Crook, Deputy Editor, The Economist
Ben Edwards, US Business Editor, The Economist
William Greider, National Affairs Correspondent, The Nation
Lori Wallach, Director, Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch

Moderated by
WNYC's Brian Lehrer, of The Brian Lehrer Show

Clive Crook, Deputy Editor, The Economist Clive Crook, Deputy Editor of The Economist, has, since joining the newspaper been Economics Correspondent, Washington DC Correspondent and from 1986 to 1993, Economics Editor. He is one of the paper's principal commentators on politics and economics and has a special interest in finance and development. Before joining The Economist, he worked as an official in H.M Treasury, preparing speeches and briefings for Treasury Ministers, including the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and working as assistant to Sir Terence Burns, the Treasury's Chief Economic Adviser. Ben Edwards, US Business Editor, The Economist Ben Edwards joined The Economist in 1996 as Finance Correspondent in London and then became Tokyo Correspondent in 1998 followed by Tokyo Bureau Chief in September 2000. Since November 2001 he has been the US Business Editor, based in New York. William Greider, National Affairs Correspondent, The Nation William Greider, a prominent political journalist and author, has been a reporter for more than 35 years for newspapers, magazines and television. Over the past two decades, he has persistently challenged mainstream thinking on economics. For 17 years Greider was the National Affairs Editor at Rolling Stone magazine, where his investigation of the defense establishment began. He is a former Assistant Managing Editor at the Washington Post, where he worked for fifteen years as a national correspondent, editor and columnist. While at the Post, he broke the story of how David Stockman, Ronald Reagan's budget director, grew disillusioned with supply-side economics and the budget deficits that policy caused, which still burden the American economy. He is the author of the national bestsellers One World, Ready or Not, Secrets of the Temple and Who Will Tell The People. In the award-winning Secrets of the Temple, he offered a critique of the Federal Reserve system. Greider has also served as a correspondent for six Frontline documentaries on PBS, including "Return to Beirut," which won an Emmy in 1985. Greider's book The Soul of Capitalism: Opening Paths to A Moral Economy untangles the systemic mysteries of American capitalism, details its destructive collisions with society and demonstrates how people can achieve decisive influence to reform the system's structure and operating values. Raised in Wyoming, Ohio, a suburb of Cincinnati, he graduated from Princeton University in 1958. He currently lives in Washington, DC. Lori Wallach, Director of Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch Lori Wallach has helped create new public awareness about globalization — the defining issue of our time. Working with non-governmental organizations, scholars, and activists in developing countries and with US congressional, environmental and labor leaders, Wallach has played an important role in the growing debate about the implications of different models of globalization on jobs, livelihoods and wages; the environment; our food supply; public health and safety; and democratically accountable governance. Dubbed "the Trade Debate's Guerilla Warrior" by the National Journal, Wallach is also the Director of Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch (GTW), which she launched in 1995. Since then GTW has become a leader in the global citizen movement for fair trade and investment policy. She is the author, most recently, of Whose Trade Organization: The Comprehensive Guide to the WTO, published in September, 2004, by The New Press. Brian Lehrer, Host of The Brian Lehrer Show, WNYC Though it's been a decade since Brian earned the New York Press Club's Heart of New York Award, he continues to intrigue New Yorkers with The Brian Lehrer Show, a weekday discussion program of politics and social issues. Before his arrival at WNYC, Brian was an anchor and reporter for NBC Radio Networks, a television host, and an award-winning author. He even plays an occasional ditty on the kazoo to spur on The Independents, WNYC's intrepid softball team, which he also coaches. Despite intensive treatment for Yankees fanaticism, Brian has happily resisted a cure.