Business & Economy

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews Icendiary, the debut novel by British writer Chris Cleave. The story is triggered by an al-Qaeda bomb attack on a London soccer match.

In his new book Offshore: The Dark Side of the Global Economy, reporter Brittain-Catlin delves into the shadowy world of offshore banking. He estimates that one-third of the world's wealth — or $7 trillion — is held in farflung locales such as the Cayman Islands.

Journalist and historian Martin Meredith has written extensively on Africa and its recent history. His new book is The Fate of Africa: From the Hopes of Freedom to the Heart of Despair.

Economists Isabel Sawhill and Brian Riedl discuss the federal deficit: how the country reached this point and how it might get back into the black. Sawhill is a senior fellow and vice president and director of economic studies at the Brookings Institution, a non-partisan think tank in Washington, D.C. Brian Riedl is lead budget analyst and the Grover M. Hermann Fellow in Federal Budgetary Affairs at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank also based in Washington.

New York Times foreign affairs columnist Thomas Friedman's new book, The World is Flat, explores the effects of outsourcing and globalization. The book, subtitled "a brief history of the 21st century," connects recent business trends with social issues.

Michael Tanner is director of Health and Welfare Studies at the libertarian think tank the Cato Institute. He launched the Project on Social Security Choice at the institute, which first looked at the possibility of turning the system into a private savings program. He supports Bush's Social Security plan.

Economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman. A professor of economics and international affairs at Princeton University, Paul Krugman opposes Bush's Social Security plan, and has written about it in his columns. He's also the author of Fuzzy Math, on the Bush tax cut.

Senior Vice President of Corporate Affairs for US Airways, Christopher Chiames responds to comments made last week on the show by Scott McCartney, who writes about the Airline industry for The Wall Street Journal.

What's going on with the airline industry? We talk to journalist Scott McCartney, who follows the airline industry and writes the weekly column "The Middle Seat" for The Wall Street Journal.

We speak to labor economist Jared Bernstein, senior economist at the Living Standards Program at the Economic Policy Institute, about how working families are faring in the current U.S. economy. Bernstein co-authored the forthcoming report The State of Working America 2004-05.

Leigh's social-realist comedies depict British working class life. He begins work on his films without a script, piecing them together from improvisations with his cast. His latest film is Vera Drake about a working class woman in Britain in the 1950s who secretly performs abortions.

Bonanno and his friend Andy Bichlbaum decided to go around the world posing as World Trade Organization representatives giving bogus talks to groups of experts. They fooled many. At their last fake WTO gathering, they rolled the camera, and made The Yes Men a documentary film that has received critical acclaim.

His new book is The World's Banker: A Story of Failed States, Financial Crises, and the Wealth and Poverty of Nations. Mallaby profiles World Bank leader James Wolfensohn, who came to the organization on 1995 determined to transform it.

DeParle is The New York Times' welfare policy reporter. His new book is American Dream: Three Women, Ten Kids and a Nation's Drive to End Welfare. DeParle tracks the lives of three families in Milwaukee affected by welfare reform laws.

In his new book, Blood and Oil, Klare argues that the United States and other world powers are jockeying to control diminishing global oil supplies. Klare is director of the Five College Program in Peace and World Security Studies at Hampshire College in Amherst.

We discuss the plans for rebuilding at ground zero in Lower Manhattan, and the debates surrounding those plans. Goldberger says idealism met cynicism at ground zero, and so far they have battled to a draw. His new book is Up from Zero: Politics, Architecture, and the Rebuilding of New York.

Dr. Jerry Avorn is a Harvard Medical school researcher and clinician. His new book, Powerful Medicines, uses patient vignettes, scientific critique and statistics to examine the benefits and side effects of prescription drugs.

Time magazine calls Gehry the world's most famous architect. Gehry just designed an outdoor music pavilion for Chicago's new Millennium Park, a former rail yard that's been transformed into a destination for the arts. He designed the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles and the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao.

In his new book, Cronies: Oil, the Bushes, and the Rise of Texas, America's Superstate he charts the history of the relationship between the powerful Texas oil industry and politics. His last book, Pipe Dreams, documented the infamous rise and fall of Enron. Bryce's work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Guardian.

New York Times Foreign Affairs columnist Thomas Friedman is the reporter/narrator of the Discovery Channel documentary, The Other Side of Outsourcing — about jobs going to India. (Thursday, June 3 at 10 p.m. EST). Friedman has written about outsourcing and globalization in his columns. He is the author of the best-selling book Longitudes and Attitudes: Exploring the World After September 11. He has won two Pulitzer Prizes for his coverage of the Middle East.