Heads of state, central bankers, CEOs of multinational corporations and international financiers make up more than 1600 of the business leaders now pouring in from all over the globe to this tiny ski resort town of Davos for the world economic forum. It's invite only. High on the agenda is capitalism itself - it's problems and it's future - so what does this mean for the rest of us?
We're there to fill you in. We will also hear from Lauren, who just checked in with us, later in the show. And back in the US, tonight is the President's annual state of the union address, but what really is the state of our union? Gerald Ford delivered those famous words during a time of rising trade and budget deficits, an expanding national debt and high unemployment. America had already started down the road to empire long before that, but almost 40 years later, what do we have to show for it? Our next guest, co-writer and producer of the award winning documentary I.O.U.S.A. And best-selling author of the 2006 book, "Empire of Debt: the rise of an epic financial crisis," joined me earlier to discuss just that. And with the two-day FOMC meeting kicking off this morning, the only thing we've been promised is more transparency...kind of -- interest rate forecasts of individual committee members will now be made public. But considering that the Fed has already committed to keeping rates near zero as far s the eye can see, is this really a concession, or just more helpless PR by a central bank that has reached the limits of one...not so great...moderation?