Carnegie Mellon University Engineering at Silicon Valley
Vivek Wadhwa is a distinguished fellow and adjunct professor at Carnegie Mellon University Engineering at Silicon Valley, a distinguished fellow at Singularity University and an adjunct professor in engineering and entrepreneurship at Duke University.
Wadhwa is a former fellow at Stanford University's Rock Center for Corporate Governance, and former writer for Bloomberg BusinessWeek and the Washington Post.
What should America look like? President Trump is supporting a new Senate bill on legal immigration, called the RAISE Act , standing for "Reforming American Immigration for Strong Employment." Trump wants legal immigration based on high skills and earning potential — not on family ties — and he'd reduce it by half. But high-skilled workers may not show up if they can't bring their families, and the economy may need more low-wage workers than it can produce. Beyond economics, this "nation of immigrants" has welcomed newcomers from all over the world, with the goal of "diversity." Will that be replaced by "assimilation" — as America's existential question heats up again?
Police, Planes, Videotapes and the Constitution Law enforcement agencies around the country are experimenting with technologies developed for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. These high-tech video recording can track whatever moves in an American city for hours at a time. One of the, called "wide-area surveillance" is like Google Earth with a rewind button: a kind of time machine, allowing police to review a crime and also track what happened before and after. It and other new technologies, including facial recognition, might even lead to stopping crimes in progress. But they're way ahead of the law. Will they increase public safety at the price of eliminating privacy in public places?
Do Techies Live in a Bubble? Silicon Valley is the epicenter of tech innovation, creating the infrastructure for the virtual universe so much of the real world now lives in. It's also creating a real-world elite of millionaires and billionaires who can be hard to live with. Consider the transformation of San Francisco. High rents, private bus systems and exclusive clubs are crowding out artists, families and middle-class workers. Long-time residents say a place famous for tolerance and diversity is losing itself to self-centered nerds with too much money and not enough social conscience. When Twitter made its public offering last November, 150 demonstrators protested outside its office. Their signs had phrases including, "People Not Profit" and, "We're the Public, What Are You Offering?" Are other cities prepared for an influx of wealthy, young technocrats looking for action they can't find in the suburbs?
How Much Are 140 Characters Really Worth? Shares in Twitter were initially priced at $26 during yesterday's stock-market launch. They immediately jumped by 73% to $45 and today they're down in the low $40's — with market capitalization of about $25 billion. That's bigger than half the firms in Standard & Poor's 500 — even though the digital social network has never turned a profit. So where does the value come from for shareholders, for users and for a culture that lives in the present and has an ever-declining attention span? Advertising will be Twitter's means to make money. Could it make even more, with a board including minorities and women?
America's Economic Resilience Former chief executive Bill Clinton has been campaigning for current President Barack Obama, but Clinton’s latest comment on the economy might not help Obama in the November election. As bad news piles up, more and more people are taking a dim view of America’s economic prospects. Is it really that bad? We hear that there is another side to the story.
Is There Good News about the Economy? Former chief executive Bill Clinton has been campaigning for current President Barack Obama, but Clinton's latest comment on the economy might not help Obama in the November election. As if to prove the point, the Labor Department announced today that American productivity fell by 0.9 percent , slightly more than had been anticipated. Yet, despite high unemployment, low home sales, troubles in Europe and a drop in consumer confidence, the US economy still has strength and resilience. Some economists say the half-empty glass is also half full, as major corporations stop out-sourcing jobs and start bringing them back to America. That doesn't mean there won't be trouble ahead. Economics is still the "dismal science." We hear about some hopeful signs and the importance of government action.
Preparing Americans for the 21st Century Workplace With employment at 9.1 percent, even graduates of expensive four-year colleges are finding it hard to get jobs. Did they waste their time and their parents' money? Are there alternatives to prepare for work in a changing economy? Photo of Microsoft founder, philanthropist -- and Harvard dropout -- Bill Gates: Raveendran/AFP/Getty Images
Is Higher Education Really Worth It? Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal and early investor in Facebook, is awarding $100,000 fellowships to young people who drop out of college. Although he's a graduate of Stanford Law School himself, he points to Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg as Harvard dropouts who made it big as entrepreneurs. On a campus in Northern Virginia today, President Obama touted an industry-led initiative linking companies with community colleges to create some 500,000 manufacturing jobs in years to come. Are America's most expensive schools failing to provide what graduates need to compete in the global economy? Is real-world experience a better investment, or is preparation for work the only important standard? Is a well-rounded education valuable just for itself, for those who can afford it?
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.
Venezuela spirals into economic and political chaos Venezuela, a country whose potential for prosperity is unmatched, finds itself on the verge of civil war. What sustains the repressive government? With time running out, guest host León Krauze looks at what the international community can do to pull the country from the edge of collapse.
The week that wouldn't quit Will next week get even weirder? (Special one-hour episode)
Trump's new look at civil rights and global warming President Trump is reportedly ready to pull the US out of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. We look at the possible consequences. On the second half of the program, we hear about cuts in Obama-Era civil rights programs called for by the Trump Administration's first budget plan.
