Correspondent, Financial Times
Correspondent for the Financial Times, covering the auto industry in North America
PROFILE
Bernard Simon
Guest
FROM Bernard Simon
To the Point
Mounting Layoffs a Sign of a Deepening Economic Downturn The US is expected to lose 200,000 jobs this month and unemployment, now 6.1 percent, could rise to 7 or 8 percent. Xerox, Coca-Cola, Whirlpool, Merck and Yahoo are laying off workers, as are most of the airlines. But cuts are expected to hit the auto industry hardest of all. Cars are not selling, and unemployment in Michigan has already reached 9 percent. Even if General Motors and Chrysler merge, jobs will be lost, and if one of the Big Three goes bankrupt the ripple effect could be in the millions. Will Washington bail out another industry? Would another stimulus package invigorate the economy? Can money to be found in defense cuts? We look at those issues today as rising unemployment adds to the income inequality that separates Americans from each other.
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To the Point
What happens when America retreats from the world? Is President Trump taking his "America First" agenda to extremes, withdrawing the country from the international stage on trade and climate change, distancing America from its traditional allies across the Atlantic and even threatening to physically isolate the country through the building of a wall along its southern border? León Krauze guest hosts.
To the Point
Ex-FBI Director Comey tells his side of the story Today, former FBI Director James Comey came close to calling the President who fired him a liar. The White House denied the claim and called it insulting, but Republican Senators did not challenge Comey’s truthfulness. Many questions remain: did the President try to obstruct a federal investigation? Later, we’ll go behind the “velvet rope” for a look at 5-Star health care for the richest Americans.
To the Point
Trump plays scolder-in-chief with NATO allies At the opening of NATO’s dramatic new headquarters in Brussels today, President Trump acknowledged that Article 5 — promising that “an attack on one nation is an attack on all” -- has only been invoked one time: in the aftermath of September 11. But the President failed to provide what 27 other Alliance members have been waiting for: a re-commitment by America’s new leader to Article 5. Instead, they got a scolding.
To the Point
Human Rights in the era of Donald Trump President Trump’s UN Ambassador, Nikki Haley, said today the US might pull out of the United Nations’ Human Rights Council. Serious violators of human rights are members of the Council itself–and a US resignation could make things worse. Later on today’s show, now that he’s into his second term, comedian turned US Senator Al Franken is telling jokes again.