If there was one topic Donald Trump really took out of the ‘never debate’ file and put front and center it was the issue of trade.  You might wonder how many decimated communities and burnt out factories, standing as shadowy hulks,were needed to remind us of an industrial past long since gone.  And, of course, the despair, then anger, that resulted from corporate abandonment. Well that about sums up the wins in Pennsylvania and Michigan.  So, is it too late to stem the outflow?  Has automation made the problem intractable? The best in the business on this issue is economist Alan Tonelson, author of the 2002 book, ‘Race to the Bottom’.  He joins us on ‘America Trends’.

www.alantonelson.wordpress.com

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Newspapers in America have a had a really bad decade as they grapple with the needs of the 21st century reader.  They have been contorting themselves to adapt–shorter articles, on-line versions, cost cutting measures of all sorts.  Is it working?  Who better to tell us than Kevin Convey, former editor of The Boston Herald and the New York Daily News, who found himself in the midst of a radical shift while in Gotham.

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Col. David Hunt, co-author of ‘Without Mercy’, a novel about an unthinkable attack on our country, which may actually be plausible, weighs in on the big questions about our military going forward.  It is prepared for the unconventional warfare of this era?  How much money are we prepared to spend on defense and how do we know if it’s going to functions that are necessary?  What is winning in these times when we see virtually no conclusion to conflict?  All this and more on America Trends.

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New studies suggest that the millennials, those born between 1980 and 1994, really have perfected self involvement. They make us boomers look like pikers.  Is that your experience?  How much are they a reflection and an exaggeration of their boomer parents, a product of the selfie age or do we plain have them all wrong? Dr. John Huber puts them on the couch for some analysis.

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Jim Barry, the digital answer man and spokesman for the Consumer Technology Association, hopes that these old walls can’t listen to what we’re about to say.  But your home really is pretty dumb compared to what it will be in the future.  How smart will we begin to design homes?  How can you retrofit yours to feature advances that will make life easier?  You’d be smart to listen in.

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It’s disturbing news that if you fast forward to 2030 our life expectancy in the US begins to look more like Mexico than Sweden.  Why is this?  Some of the factors are discernible with the naked eye(obesity), but others require a look at many other developing social trends.  We discuss this fascinating topic with Dr. Elaina George on this ‘America Trends’.

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Author David Schoenbrod, author of ‘DC Confidential’ joins us to figure out why we lack trust in Congress and how we fix these things going forward.  And it’s not necessarily for the reasons often cited, like partisan divides.  It’s a bi-partisan problem which will require some new thinking.  And that’s what you get on ‘America Trends’.

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There’s a whole lot more decision-making required than just determining if you have enough money to live out this new phase of life.  We talk about all the factors that go  into the retirement equation with Bob Powell from MarketWatch, who writes about this topic from many different perspectives.  It’s not your father’s retirement phase, but you do need a plan, Stan, to make it what you want.  Take a listen.  We’ll get you off and running…

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Peter Cove, founder of America Works and author of ‘Poor No More’ has been re-thinking the issues of dependency and the war on poverty and feels that he’s come up with a solution that puts work first and tears apart the bureaucracy that impedes innovation in favor of protecting their own turf.  He was a dedicated foot soldier in the War on Poverty in the 1960’s but was also involved in welfare reform in the 90’s, having started his own for profit organization to change the government model back in the 1980’s. Where are we today and where is the desire to lift people out of poverty going in the future?  Hear his informed perspective here.

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