Up Close: September 29, 2014

by TJC Staff

This week on Up Close, how economics and finance affect our lives and our country, and how to get more people talking about these numbers.

If most of us were asked about the major financial scandals of recent years, we’d point to those that led to the economic downturn of 2008 to 2009. But there’s been a boatload of scandal since then, as discussed by Bob Ivry, editor at Bloomberg News, in his book, The Seven Sins of Wall Street.

But many times the discussion of economic and financial problems leads people’s eyes to glaze over, thinking they can’t understand the numbers in play. Oakland University Professor Barbara Oakley thinks we can learn to do so pretty easily, and explains how in her book, A Mind for Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science.

And then finally, an interview from some time ago that sheds light on these matters. Steven I. Weiss geos back-and-forth with Andrew Schiff, a member of a family that has gone to extreme measures to protest the economic structure here in America. He’s a co-author on the re-release of a book his father wrote, How an Economy Grows and Why it Crashes.

Watch the complete episode on TJC on-demand on cable in the TJC Original Series/Interviews category. You can also watch highlights from the episode in the video above, or listen to the complete audio of this episode at the top of this post or by subscribing to our weekly audio podcast at http://feeds.feedburner.com/tjcupclose or on iTunes at https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/tjcs-up-close/id807702211.