- Social:
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Daron Acemoğlu is Professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the co-author of Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty.
PROFILE
Daron Acemoğlu
Guest
FROM Daron Acemoğlu
To the Point
President Trump and the 'business' of government Donald Trump may be in the White House because he promised to "shake up Washington." But did that mean capsizing basic institutions? In just two weeks, he's consolidated decision making, ignored avenues of communication and flouted traditional protocols. He's run roughshod not just over professional civil servants but secretaries of Defense and Homeland Security he's just appointed. Some conservative veterans of the George W. Bush Administration are even predicting impeachment before he can finish his term. We compare Trump's uninhibited use of executive power to what's happened in other countries where "checks and balances" were not as strong as expected.
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To the Point
Who's to blame for the opioid crisis? Some of the lawyers who took on Big Tobacco are now going after Big Pharma. It’s all about the deadly epidemic of opioid use. Are the drug companies to blame? What about the users? Later, on today’s Talking Point: making sense of Britain’s upset election.
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
Is the threat from Russia missing from the Russia meddling probe? There's much being made about the Trump administration's possible ties with Russia. But the bottom line is Russia's effort to influence American democracy. Do the President and his aides care enough to take action before voters go back to the polls?