The Bob Zadek Show

LA community college student fights for his rights to free speech on

campus.

Some viewed the fall of the Soviet Union as the beginning of “The End of

History.” Today's headlines remind us that history is not over. Russia's

aggressive imperialism in Ukraine and its meddling in the Middle East have

put it back at center stage.

Some viewed the fall of the Soviet Union as the beginning of “The End of History.” The U.S. and its allies, it seemed, were ushering in an era of global liberal democracy. Today's headlines remind us that history is not over. Russia's aggressive imperialism in Ukraine and its meddling in the Middle East have put it back at center stage. The last 25 years of economic history in Russia are the backdrop to this foreign policy challenge to the West – a time in which the old guard “nomenklatura” gave up on the Soviet experiment and transferred economic ownership to a new set of political elites. This wasn’t anyone’s idea of a smooth transition to an independent democratic regime, but many free-market economists (including Milton Friedman) gladly offered advice on how to jumpstart Russia’s stagnant economy. Andrei Illarionov also served as an early advisor to President Putin – counseling sound monetary and fiscal policy – but resigned when it became clear how the new government was being run. Now a Senior fellow at the Cato Institute’s Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity and a key contributor to the Human Freedom Index, Andrei recently participated in a Cato symposium on what went wrong. He joins the show to describe the economic and political inner workings of the Putin government and the Russian oligarchy. What does economic freedom have to do with political freedom and foreign policy interventionism? A whole lot, it turns out.

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What kind of Judge is Neil Gorsuch?

Following Justice Scalia's death last year, Republicans took a gamble with their #NoHearingsNoVote strategy, refusing to confirm any Supreme Court nominee for the remainder of the election year. Ilya Shapiro, Editor-in-chief of the Cato Supreme Court Review, defended this strategy on the show last May on the principle that the election should serve as a referendum on who would nominate the pivotal 9th member to the divided court. In something of a double surprise, Trump was elected, and almost immediately made good on the promise to select a judge from his list of 21 potential nominees. Since the start of Neil Gorsuch's Senate confirmation hearings, Shapiro has been on a media blitz, cutting through the "Kabuki theater" and interpreting the exchanges between the mild-mannered Colorado judge and his senatorial inquisitors (both friendly and unfriendly). He returns to examine how the rest of the process is likely to unfold, in light of Senator Chuck Schumer's promise to filibuster. Bob and Ilya also discuss what it means to be a judge "in the mold of Antonin Scalia," and how the founders' original intent still applies to the changed circumstances of modern times.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.bobzadek.com/subscribe

Jerry Brown thought we didn't need a Department of Education.

A new tool to monitor your representatives voting record.

Bain Capital Founder Ed Conard joins the show to talk straight on

inequality.

Mark Twain is often quoted as having said, “It’s not what you don't know that gets you in trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” Ironically, there is no evidence Twain ever said or wrote this line, but we can still reflect on its implications for today’s most contentious economic debates. In the case of rising economic inequality, conventional wisdom (coupled with noble motives) has produced policies that hurt the very people they are intended to help: the poor and middle class. Ed Conard – founding partner at Bain Capital and visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute – takes aim at what he sees as a wrong-headed redistributionist mindset in his latest best-selling book, The Upside of Inequality: How Good Intentions Undermine the Middle Class (Penguin). Conard goes beyond an apology for "the 1%" in explaining the real drivers of persistent poverty and relative stagnation of the American middle class. Though counter-intuitive, his insights are essential to improving policy, and the uncertain economic outlook. Conard joins to the show to help listeners understand the economic landscape like never before.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.bobzadek.com/subscribe

Where are the business-killing new regulations coming from?