China and the American Dream

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China is undergoing another Great Leap Forward - right into Orange County, California. In fact, Orange County is the name of an upscale housing development near Beijing that is being advertised as -Pure American- -- complete with recreation rooms and backyard barbeques. Are the Chinese-and other cultures-buying an image of the -American Dream- and ignoring the environmental and social consequences of suburban sprawl? Are US developers providing the Chinese with superior building technology, or creating a non-sustainable community? We ask an American developing these homes in China, a Chinese-American architect, a Harvard Professor of Urban Planning, and a State Senator from Minnesota why the Chinese may be buying million-dollar estates modeled on American suburbs, and at what cost. Newsmaker: Did the CIA Let Two 9/11 Hijackers Get Away? Newsweek magazine reports that the CIA tracked two suspected terrorists from an Al Qaeda summit meeting in Malaysia to the United States, but failed to notify anyone about them. The men are now thought to be two of the 9/11 hijackers. Could we have stopped them? Is this the worst intelligence failure of all? We ask Newsweek contributer Mark Hosenball. Reporter's Notebook:Will Excessive Wealth Bring Down the US? Kevin Phillips is a Republican commentator in the tradition of Teddy Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln, both of whom warned about the political consequences of excessive concentrations of money. Now Phillips himself is warning about the state of the nation when one man -- Bill Gates -- has assets 1.4 million times greater than the median US household. We ask Phillips why he is alarmed and what we can learn from history.
China is undergoing another Great Leap Forward - right into Orange County, California. In fact, Orange County is the name of an upscale housing development near Beijing that is being advertised as -Pure American- -- complete with recreation rooms and backyard barbeques. Are the Chinese-and other cultures-buying an image of the -American Dream- and ignoring the environmental and social consequences of suburban sprawl? Are US developers providing the Chinese with superior building technology, or creating a non-sustainable community? We ask an American developing these homes in China, a Chinese-American architect, a Harvard Professor of Urban Planning, and a State Senator from Minnesota why the Chinese may be buying million-dollar estates modeled on American suburbs, and at what cost.
  • Newsmaker: Did the CIA Let Two 9/11 Hijackers Get Away?
    Newsweek magazine reports that the CIA tracked two suspected terrorists from an Al Qaeda summit meeting in Malaysia to the United States, but failed to notify anyone about them. The men are now thought to be two of the 9/11 hijackers. Could we have stopped them? Is this the worst intelligence failure of all? We ask Newsweek contributer Mark Hosenball.
  • Reporter's Notebook:Will Excessive Wealth Bring Down the US?
    Kevin Phillips is a Republican commentator in the tradition of Teddy Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln, both of whom warned about the political consequences of excessive concentrations of money. Now Phillips himself is warning about the state of the nation when one man -- Bill Gates -- has assets 1.4 million times greater than the median US household. We ask Phillips why he is alarmed and what we can learn from history.

Newsweek

Metropolitan Area Research Corporation

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Warren Olney