Locus Focus host Barbara Bernstein talks with Chuck Collins with the Institute for Policy Studies about what caused the current finanical meltdown and how a bottom up investment strategy is the best solution to the current crisis. Later in the hour we'll get an update on Alaskan election returns with Anchorage talk show host Shannyn Moore.
Chuck Collins is a senior scholar at the Institute for Policy (IPS) and directs IPS’s Program on Inequality and the Common Good. He is an expert on U.S. inequality and author of several books, including Economic Apartheid in America: A Primer on Economic Inequality and Insecurity (New Press, 2005). He coordinates a national effort to preserve the federal estate tax, our nation’s only tax on inherited wealth. He co-authored with Bill Gates Sr., Wealth and Our Commonwealth, a case for taxing inherited fortunes.
In 1995, he co-founded United for a Fair Economy (UFE) to raise the profile of the inequality issue and support popular education and organizing efforts to address inequality. In 1997, he co-founded Responsible Wealth, a project of UFE to bring together business leaders and investors to publicly speak out against economic policies and corporate practices that worsen economic inequality. He was Executive Director of UFE from 1995-2001 and Program Director until 2005.
Shannyn Moore is a top rated progressive broadcaster based in Anchorage, Alaska. A dynamic radio personality, she pioneered the progressive political talk forum for women in the 49th State. Shannyn has appeared on Democracy Now! with Amy Goodman as well as The Canadian Broadcasting Company’s mid-day news program Today and nationally syndicated shows hosted by Thom Hartmann. She has also appeared on Keith Olbermann’s Countdown. She can be seen Sundays on the weekly televised political show, The Fagan Report, on KIMO Channel 13. She does special project work for the Alaska Public Radio Network. She resides in Anchorage, Alaska.