- Newsmaker: Federal Reserve Lowers Interest Rates - With the economy slowing more quickly than expected, the Federal Reserve has lowered interest rates, giving the economy a great psychological boost. David Gaffen, markets writer at TheStreet.com, talks about the immediate effect on the Dow and Nasdaq.
- Reporter's Notebook: Arafat Racing Against Clinton's Timetable - Yasser Arafat is said to have given "qualified acceptance" to Clinton's recent outline for peace, but Israel's Barak sees little chance of an immediate settlement. George Irani, currently at the Center for Global Peace at American University, cautions that it's a peace decided at the elite rather than the grass-roots level.
Controversy in the Cabinet
George W. Bush has named the most diverse cabinet ever proposed by a Republican, but there are rocks on the road to Senate confirmation. Nominees possess great managerial experience but many question their intellectual skills. Will they be conventional corporate managers or activist ideologues? Will a Bush White House guide or delegate policy? Journalists from the Los Angeles Times, The Nation, and National Review, an economist and environmentalist set the stage for the next few weeks of debate.