Business, Economics and Finance

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.

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.

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.

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.