57 years, 177 days. he has been a congressman longer than any member of my staff at "state of the union" has been alive. like i said, wow. thanks for watching "state of the union." i'm candy crowley in washington. you stay tuned for fareed zakaria. he is celebrating his fifth anniversary, up next. this is "gps, the global public square." welcome to all of you in the united states and around the world, i'm fareed zakaria. today's show marks our fifth anniversary and one of our classic "gps" panels to start us off. nicholas kristof, danielle pletka and david remnick will sit down to talk about syria, russia and the future of the republican party. then is the american economy back? we'll try to understand the new data with nobel prize-winning

economist paul krugman. and what to make of krugman the great celebrity food fight. i'll explain. also, a first look inside the hermit kingdom. exclusive video from dennis rodman and the harlem globetrotters. what is it like breaking bread with kim jong-un? we'll ask the correspondent who went in. a long a-awaited announcement from beijing. we'll figure out if it means anything. first, here's my take. the great american housing market is back. the case schiller housing index showed the largest annual increase in prices in seven years. so, despite dysfunction in washington, despite the sequester, the american economy, once again, shows its core character. flexibility and resilience. a housing revival was inevitable at some point. the united states is the only rich country in the world whose population is growing. we add 3 million people to our numbers every year, thanks largely to legal immigration.

that means over time, we will need new housing, unless kids want to live with their parents forever. consumer confidence has hit a five-year high and not without reason. americans have been paying off their debt at a steady clip since the financial crisis. the u.s. economy is susceptible to bubbles and manias, but also has the flexibility to adjust. american people and companies change past practices, take pain and prepare for the future. when you compare american companies since 2007 with say japan's great corporations after that company's prices and recession, it's clear that u.s. corporations are pretty ruthless in restoring productivity, even at the cost of firing people. and they're nimbler which often means they come through a crisis stronger and faster from automobiles to airlines to energy, companies are posting strong sales and profits. american banks have been under fire for many quarters. critics feel they should have been punished or broken up or

more tightly regulated. if you compare them with their principal competitors in europe, far better capitalized, more secure with stronger balance sheets. as home prices recover, that will create a virtuous cycle between credit and housing that will increase both stability and growth. the american private sector, individuals and firms, can take credit for the good news this week, but so can washington. looking back, it is now clear that the federal government handled the 2008 financial crisis extremely well. it acted quickly and with massive fire power. rescuing overextended banks and enacting a large stimulus. saving and restructuring two automobile giants. perhaps above all, we should thank the federal reserve for a bold strategy to flood the markets with equality and keep it up while the economy was distressed. compare that with japan after

its crash and you can see the differences. many problems remain. chiefly, high and persistent unemployment and stagnant wages. for the next generation of growth, we must focus on training and retraining workers, break the immigration deadlock, build out our infrastructure and invest in science and technology and to pay for these, we need reforms that will make our entitlement programs affordable as we age. now, if washington could just do a few of these things, imagine what the american economy might look like then. for more on this, go to cnn.com/fareed for a link to my "time" magazine column. let's get started. it was a tumultuous week in the united states and around the world from white house controversies to gop problems,

from syria to russia and more. lots to talk about with the panel and we'll get right to it. joining me today is nicholas kristof columnist for "new york times," dan senor who helped paul ryan with his vice presidential campaign and now the author and investor and david remnick editor of "the new yorker" and vice president at the american enterprise institute danielle pletka. who was a long-time staffer at the foreign relations committee. rate the scandals, david remnick? >> compared to what? what are these scandals? irs scandal in which something was clearly being done wrong at a very low level and should be pounced upon and taken care of. the element that concerns me most and it's not because i am a reporter and editor, but as

somebody who cares immensely about the first amendment has to do with wiretapping. it has to do with pressure on and possible prosecution of reporters and action against whistleblowers. that is extremely serious. i don't think the irs matter rises to the level despite the republican rhetoric and some commentator's rhetoric of iran contra or watergate. >> talking about benghazi. benghazi, daniel? danielle? >> >> continues to be the case that the president and the secretary of state could at any moment come out and say, look, we didn't handle this well. we said a lot of things that involved lack of careful investigation. we're going to go back and we're going to fix this. this shouldn't have happened this way and the public would go, okay, that kind of thing happens. yet, relentlessly refused to examine themselves and exam their own rhetoric and answer the question of why the american people were lied to for more than a week. so, you know, again, i think, for me, this is less troubling than the other two issues. but i still think that it is a sign of a white house that is tone deaf about the concerns

that the congress and the american people have about national security questions. >> you know, i think it's true that the white house has often been tone deaf, but every second term has scandals. if you compare these with iran contra and monica lewinsky, these just seem pretty minuscule. i agree with david that the issue of going after whistleblowers, that really does trouble me. but i also think one that troubles journalists much more than it troubles the american public as a whole. >> the intelligence community is hypersensitive on -- >> absolutely. i do think we tend to write about and pay attention to issues that concern us. if you look at all the challenges facing america, i guess i'd have a hard time placing a very high on the agenda. >> i'm guessing, dan, you disagree. >> >> i think the irs is unique because it touches so many americans lives in a really a concrete way.

people know the irs can ruin people's lives, ruin people's businesses and non-profit organizations. i think when you hear these stories, not just the irs going over 504c organizations, it is that donors to the same organizations. somehow those names got out there. the irs was going after individual donors and, by the way, those donors were being targeted by the epa and osha and other agencies at the exact time. i don't know if it's a grand conspiracy. you are absolutely right. the republicans have to be right to not overshoot here but there is something going on that has multiple layers and i do nooth not believe we are near the end of getting to the bottom. >> i think they are overshooting a lot because of an absence of core issues that are republicans can circle around. when bob dole started talking about the hole in the doughnut of the republican party, he was really getting at something.

>> let's listen to what bob dole said last week on fox. >> they ought to put a sign on the national committee, doors closed for repairs until new year's day next year. spend that time going over ideas and positive agenda. >> what did you think about what bob dole said? >> i thought he said something that many republicans feel, both moderate and conservative. in other words, you mentioned paul ryan. what paul ryan did with the budget committee over the last couple of years -- you can agree or disagree with it -- he pushed an argument about entitlement reform. republicans have not had an idea driven agenda about some of these big issues and that's a missed moment. we need that. it doesn't mean that we shouldn't also try to get to the bottom of these scandals like the irs. >> you grew up in oregon. what was the oregon republican

party like when you were growing up? >> i grew up in a very different oregon. i grew up in an oregon that was a republican state and it was a state of mark hatfield and tom packwood and these were republicans who were fiscally conservative. they also very much were looking after the environment. mark hatfield became a republican, he said, because that was the party that cared about civil rights. you know, nobody would say that kind of thing today. and because the oregon republican party tended to move very far to the right on social issues, they marginalized themselves. so, oregon today is essentially a blue state. and i wonder if, to some degree, the same thing isn't at risk of happening to the party as a whole nationally. >> you could say the same about bush 41 in some ways. even the same about reagan reaching his hand out to

gorbachev. >> danielle, what do you -- >> i think that, i think that these expressions of sean trotter, if i may be so bold, about the republican party are a little overstated. i think that everybody's right that a party that is not centered around a set of ideas and principles is a party that will lose. on the other hand, the suggestion that the republican party has suddenly moved out of the main stream of american life is a little bit silly to me. the republican party represents a small government. it represents free enterprise. and it represents a set of ideas and represents something more. and they walk a fine line here and that is accountability and it is right that the party that controls the house of representatives demands accountability from the president of the united states. this is what makes us great and this is what makes us stable. if you didn't have that, then we would have the white house going up to reporters. >> the person in the last week making the charge that the republican party has moved out of the main stream is the former republican presidential candidate.

>> look, we're always all attuned within parties. i like to read people disaffected with the president. people who left the administration and aren't happy and people in washington who haven't gotten jobs in his administration because they care about international policy and because they want smaller government or lower taxes. i understand that. i respect bob dole and i respectfully disagree with him. >> we have to come back and talk about the rest of the world, as usual. we'll talk about syria, iran and who knows what else, when we come back. tiny changes in the b. little things anyone can do. it steals your memories. your independence. ensures support, a breakthrough. and sooner than you'd like. sooner than you'd think. you die from alzheimer's disease. we cure alzheimer's disease. every little click, call or donation adds up to something big.

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congestion, for it's smog. but there are a lot of people that do ride the bus. and now that the busses are running on natural gas, they don't throw out as much pollution to the earth. so i feel good. i feel like i'm doing my part to help out the environment. your day to unplug. with centurylink as your technology partner, our visionary cloud infrastructure, and dedicated support, free you to focus on what matters. centurylink. your link to what's next. starts with ground beef, onions and peppers baked in a ketchup glaze with savory gravy and mashed russet potatoes. what makes stouffer's meatloaf best of all?

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...and we inspected his brakes for free. -free is good. -free is very good. [ male announcer ] now get 50% off brake pads and shoes at meineke. we are back with nick kristof, dan senor, david remnick and danielle pletka. let's talk about the rest of the world, syria. it feels like nothing is going to happen much until the conference that the russians and the americans are organizing. do you sense that the republican party is unifying behind this idea of intervening in syria, or is it just mccain, lindsey and a few others? >> it's mccain, lindsey and a few others. i think many -- there's -- danny

and i are on the same side of this. isolation politics on the right and some will rear its head in the primaries. until that action is assured that some kind of intervention does not involve boots on the ground, it will be hard to see a unified republican position. if they can be assured of that, i think conservatives, most conservatives in washington are pretty outraged about what is happening. effectively become a proxy war. the u.s. on one side and then, you know, russia, syria, the iranian revolutionary guard and hezbollah on the other side. conservatives are increasingly concerned about what the outcome of that looks like. whether that alliance remains in tact and the opposition is crushed or the opposition is not crushed, but the opposition that prevails is one that is populated by al qaeda affiliates and other jihadists. those are pretty bad outcomes. >> i think it's true that many democrats are deeply troubled

that president's strategy has been moral failure and practically has, you know, we have certainly seen the violence spread into lebanon, creating real risk to jordan, as well, and to iraq. now, it's not clear that any other strategy would be better. he may well say that. but i think it is, i think there is a lot of real discomfort that the administration has been essentially paralyzed and that this isn't working very well. >> i would love to have moral satisfaction of a successful intervention. an intervention that worked. and even independent of the disaster in iraq, please tell me what works here. the easy answer is the ability to create a safe haven. no flaws. no-fly zone. you know -- what is the strategic answer? >> look, the problem here is

we are pausing on a non-existent option. which is everything kind of goes back to a situation that we can ignore. the real issue for the united states is, do we get involved on our terms or do we get involved on someone else's terms? i also worry desperately not just about the moral and strategic failure about the credibility of the united states of america. and i don't think it matters whether the president is a republican or a democrat, whoever it might be. when you put something out there. when you put something else out there, the use of chemical weapons and then you do nothing and you stand up and give sort of a strange csi and i need the forensics and the chain of custody statement about it, it diminishes your credibility. let's say we couldn't care about syria or iran. >> what is the answer? >> for me the answer is very clear. we work with the turks and the arabs and allies in western europe and we put in place. we take syria's air power out and next step we create a no-fly zone.

that's an escalation. we don't have to do that to make a difference. we also arm the rebels. the truth is there is a small pocket of moderates. yes, they're not perfect. they're not perfect. but we work with what we have. >> it's small. >> it's true, but they're being left out. >> even if that happened and you achieved enormous success, which would be the overthrow of the regime. the regime of the 300,000 army as strong and let's say you retrieve them and 14% of syria that has ruled and that would be a blood bath and then the infighting among the rebels. now, we had 180,000 troops in iraq, as you well remember, dan. we couldn't stop al qaeda from establishing a huge base. we couldn't stop the saudis and the iranians from arming the other side and here we're going to do it by what? jon stewart calls we will effect syria by remote controlled magic. >> two things. one, if you believe that assad is ultimately is going to fall, do you believe the likelihood of a blood letting is going to be

worse or less worse than if we intervene in some way sooner? >> i mean, my experience in iraq was the longer we let these vendettas and grievances play out and this, you know, sort of low-level civil war, the blood letting was far fierce. reconciliation was far more difficult. secondly, i mean, we should deeply consider the lessons of iraq as we contemplate syria. we should absolutely do that and i do worry -- >> including invasion in the first place. >> everything. we should consider everything about -- everything that went right and wrong in the iraq model. but we also have to consider the risks of doing nothing. i feel there has not been a real discussion in washington about what we all know what can go wrong if we intervene, what goes wrong if we don't intervene? >> nick, you get the final word. >> fareed, i think you were right, if we may intervene we may end with syria turning into somalia. the point is right now syria is turning into somalia. that's 100% the avenue we're on.

>> we won't be in the middle of it. and we won't own it. >> we're not going to be in the middle of it in any case. we may reduce that chance from 100% to 60% and that would be success. >> the 60% solution. thank you very much. up next, what in the world. an unusual bold call for smaller government. it's not from the tea party, but the communist party. i'll explain when we come back. we used to live with a bear. [growl]

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now for our what in the world segment. a powerful new voice calling for smaller and more market friendly government. if you think it's the second coming of the tea party, you'd be wrong. in fact, this call doesn't come from america at all, it comes from halfway around the world from the communist party of china. last week, china's premier made an unusually rare speech, rare for a chinese leader. he said his government would loosen control of the economy and allow free market forces to blossom. a few days later, he made another speech, this time in

berlin, lee backed an ambitious set of proposals which included giving foreign companies the chance to compete on equal terms in china. this in a country where the state controls and manipulates almost every major industry, finance, transport, energy, communication. lee's comments may sound radical, but they're part of a trend. for many months now, the two most powerful people in beijing, lee and the president have said that the state's command system needs an overhaul. in fact, this is criticism of their predecessors. ten years in office were marked by a lack of courage to reform. corruption flourished under their watch. china is ranked as the 80th most corrupt country in the world by transparency international. state controls nepotism and a culture of bribery made it difficult to do business. the world bank ranked china 91st in the world.

behind the likes azerbaijan. and the kyrgyz republic. foreign investment is declining and trade with europe and the united states is slowing. according to a recent survey, more than a third of u.s. companies in china say that their business there is hindered by state favoritism for chinese companies. the same survey also reveals that the two biggest perceived risks in china are economic slowdown and rising labor costs. in short, there is a strong case to be made for a round of serious reforms in china. the question is, will any of it actually happen? economic reforms everywhere are politically difficult. beijing's leaders realize that reforms are necessary to boost long-term growth, but some of them will actually address public discontent on issues like corruption. but on the other hand, many reforms will face resistance from political elites that run

state-owned enterprises and local governments that make deal with developers. so, how beijing navigates these waters will be fascinating to watch. maybe next week when jing ping -- xi jinping meets president obama in california we will learn more. keep one thing in mind, though. china's new leaders want growth and modernity but they don't want to be a western style democracy. he claimed that his reforms do not equal westernization. one reason the soviet union collapsed he said is because it wavered on its beliefs. china wants to find and reform the state capitalist model and if its reforms are actually implemented, they will create larger and larger groups of chinese who think of themselves as middle class. do not owe their livelihood to the government and seek greater

individual autonomy and freedom. eventually that tends to produce political change. up next, the nobel prize winning economist, paul krugman joins me. good news about the american economy? we'll ask him. spokesman i have to look my so bbest on camera.sing whether i'm telling people about how they could save money on car insurance with geico... yeah, a little bit more of the lime green love yeah... or letting them know they can reach geico 24/7 using the latest technology. go on, slather it all over. don't hold back, go on... it's these high-definition televisions, i'll tell ya, they show every wrinkle. geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance.

a check on the top stories. three storm chasers are among the nine people killed in tornados in oklahoma. tim and his son and paul young were found following theened and they may have ended up in their cars in the path of the storm. we are getting a look at the destruction in else reno okay. oklahoma governor fallin was there touring the damage. the weather threat moves to the northeast. a twa coming up at 2:00 p.m. eastern. the streets of istanbul turkey are calmer today. they are cleaning up the mess after days of violent protests. police sprayed the protesters with water cannons and tear gas. it began as a small protest and

become the biggest protest movement against turkey's prime minister in ten years. saying god bod-bye to a beld tv star. we look back at the life of jean stapleton at 2:00 p.m. eastern. now back to "fareed zakaria, gps." if you caught the top of the show, you heard my thoughts on the american economy that seems to be bouncing back and if you tuned in late, you can look at it on our website. but i wanted to get another perspective from someone who has been worried about the effects of austerity, the rise in pay roll taxes, the cuts mandated by the sequester and it was a deep understanding of economics from the united states to europe to japan. that is why i invited paul krugman to join me. he is, of course, the columnist for "new york times" a princeton professor and nobel laureate in economics. welcome, paul. >> hi, there. >> if the sequester was so bad

if the expiration of the payroll tax was so bad, many, many people like you worried a great deal about the sequester, about raising taxes, and yet the new data seems to suggest the economy is doing pretty well. >> you know, this is, you always have to have some perspective here. we still when we look at payroll data and we get all excited about the kinds of numbers we have been seeing recently and we forget during the eight years when bill clinton was president and u.s. economy added 236,000 jobs on an average month and we had hardly any months that look as good as an average month during the '90s. so, let's not get carried away. this is not too bad. but, really, we have defined a good economy way, way down. >> so, when you, when you look at this and you say, you know, the u.s. economy for the next few months. do you think that we now kind of digested the sequester and payroll tax so it should take off even more strongly?

>> we don't know that. this is, i have to say, important that somebody get these things right but it is kind of witchcraft. we don't know whether households will look at a certain point and say, gee, i hadn't really noticed that payroll tax hike, but our bank account is dwindling and they pulled back some. we don't know whether some of these things, whether some of the cuts from the sequester have yet to happen. there is some other good news that people aren't talking about, which is actually a positive. state and local governments have many stabilized their finances. california has a budget surplus and that means one of the big drags, which is the cuts at state and local level is over. that's a positive. this could go either way. i guess what i would say, we're still deep in a hole and we need a lot of climb before i'm willing to call this anything like prosperity. >> i have to ask you about this because this is the spat between two celebrity economists.

ken rogoff and carmen rinehart which countries start growing much, much more slowly. they wrote a letter back because you criticized them for feeding this austerity mania which caused governments to slash spending and they say you have engaged in spectacularly uncivil behavior in the past weeks and you attacked us in very personal terms, virtually nonstop. you have doubled down, your characterization of our work to is selective and shallow. it is deeply misleading. you were graduate students in m.i.t. together. >> almost everybody you heard of. it is a village. it is kind of scary. >> it's very unpleasant. ken is a magnificent economist. does fabulous work over the years. one paper that was thrown out hastily, unfortunately, is the one that has had the greatest impact on policy debate.

you know, never mind the question. did they make the data available? well, other people, not in a way, that's all irrelevant. the fact of the matter is this one result, claimed result which is that growth falls off a cliff when debt exceeds 90% of gdp. that's what they picked up and that result is false. that result is clearly not true. there is a mild, negative correlation between debt and growth, but that cliff doesn't exist. never existed in the data and certainly isn't anything that anyone should believe now. that paper of theirs did a lot of damage by giving people who didn't want stimulus, who didn't want any kind of policy a way to scare their opponents to say, if we don't do it my way, we'll go over the 90% line and terrible things will happen. my problem now with carmen and ken while they have said a lot of things that indicate more flexibility, they have never, to

my knowledge said clearly, okay, there is no cliff at 90%. and we really need that from them. for them to say, look, we think debt is dangerous. we think it is a problem. but 90%, that thing, that was the artifact of some things in our original calculation that do not appear in subsequent work. >> are you surprised by how personal this has gotten? >> the stakes are high. from my point of view, they went pretty far out on a limb with work, which is far weaker than anything else in their careers. unfortunately, that became really, that became what they are known for and then if you said, this is really bad work and has had an effect on policy, which i believe to be the truth, how can it not be personal? you know -- and let me say it, who cares? right. who cares about my feelings or carmen rinehart's feelings or ken rogoff's feelings.

we are having an economic crisis, long-term unemployment with the united states. i don't think that -- i don't think the question of how civil a bunch of comfortable academic economists who went to m.i.t. in the mid-1970s i don't think that matters at all. compared to the question of the substantive issues and are we doing this wrong, which i think we are. >> paul krugman, thanks for coming on. a fascinating fly on the wall look inside north korea. vice tv was there in february and we have exclusive footage. right back. ason no one says "easy like monday morning." sundays are the warrior's day to unplug and recharge. what if this feeling could last all week? with centurylink as your trusted partner, it can.

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there's probably no weirder country in the world than north korea. with which, of course, the united states has no formal relations. but last february, a delegation of american sportsmen went to the hermit kingdom on a sports exchange program. they dubbed it basketball diplomacy.

you probably remember when basketball bad boy dennis rodman returned from pyongyang with news that kim jong-un wanted obama to call him and just wanted to be loved. well, the whole trip was organized by vice tv. i'm a consultant on vice's show and i was struck by a number of moments. here's one of my favorites. >> next, they took us to a computer lab where students were using the internet and your first thought was, okay, this looks like any lab at a university back home and then it dawns on you, it's completely silent. no one is doing anything. there is no typing, no mouse clicking, nothing. >> vice's north korea episode will air on june 14th on hbo and we've got an exclusive preview of their work. ryan duffy is the correspondent you just saw and shane smith is the co-founder of vice. we're joined by both. welcome, shane, ryan. >> thank you.

>> shane, what has always interested you in north korea? i remember seeing stuff on your website years ago. >> i think it's the holy grail because it's impossible to get in. everybody wants to get in because you can't. especially as a journalist or with the film crew. you just can't get into north korea and you can't film anything. if you do against all odds get in, then you see the exact same thing that everybody sees. they have the exact same tour. we want to see something that nobody had seen. >> you get there. what is your first impression when you're there? >> it's kind of shock and awe because we stepped off the plane and it was just kind of a media blitz because we were with the globetrotters and with dennis and kind of news of our arrival. we landed and barely oriented by the time. it's a blitz of photographers and reporters, but, more importantly, a constant throughout our trip. so, there are about 15 to 20 guards, translators, others who

are kind of with you the whole time. immediately there as you step off, ushering you into the buses which became kind of our freeway for the rest of the trip. >> i was struck by the opening shot in the documentary where it's the basketball stadium and there are few people who stand up and start cheering because they figure out that kim jong-un is coming and the others don't and then they realize what is happening and they jump to their feet because they're scared they're going to be seen as insufficiently enthusiastic about the leader. >> i have seen this a number of times. it's an amazing scene. i pick a different person to watch each time i watch that scene because it is amazing. everyone's reaction, which is, oh, look at that. here we go. that guy is clapping. let's clap, let's clap. that's what i'm clapping for. completely out of order human process.

but yeah, it's fascinating. >> what did you think of the people you met? they're all officials, minders, guards. but to the extent you could get a feel. >> on the tour, every stop is kind of well stocked. we went to north korea sea world and they had all attendees waiting. all 10,000 seats are filled. but we had these moments and that's what we are after breakthrough and conversation. there was a launch with the north korean basketball players which was a fantastic chance to sit down like this and talk about their day-to-day lives. >> what were they saying? >> it's interesting. they were very cordial and very kind and spoke highly of the leader and of north korea and also really happy to see us. they really were. they were optimistic about what the trip meant. even more so than i think we were. we were there to make a documentary and they were saying, look, this is big. this opens up, you know, a lot of opportunity for us. and then, of course, the moment on the basketball court at the end of the episode with the

kids. that's where it really hits home because those are kids. they're 5, 6-year-old kids and that's the same face i would have made if a harlem globetrotter was spinning a ball. >> you choked up at that point. that's just human-to human connection and that is apart of larger ideological con dekt. >> you got choked up at that point? you know, we had just been there at that point for six, seven days and you're in a very unique head space where, you know, you're going along this tour but constantly mindful of the larger context of this trip and where you are and, you know, all of that. so, we had been asking, can we please have this moment and stop at a basketball court and bring the globetrotters out and have some fun with the kids and five, six days of no, no, we have to go and get it and finally see that and the kids really were so happy and they, they've never seen foreigners before, yet alone gigantic basketball players who could do these tricks and it was just an amazing moment.

>> a lot of people have wondered, do you think you gave the regime something by going there. of course, it's a completely scripted trip. that's now how you would report if you went to any other country in the world. did you play into the regime's hands? >> i don't think so. look, within north korea, 100% of media is propaganda. the tv, the papers, it's all, you know, the glorious leader, the great marshal. this is what is happening, we're the greatest country, america's terrible. so, in north korea, i don't think so. outside of north korea, it was sort of looked at as, oh, vice and dennis rodman went to north korea. that's a crazy story or that's absurd. i think it would probably be the opposite and if you watch our documentary what they were doing is trying to answer criticisms against north korea by being crazy.

and, so, no, we have the internet. you know, we have food. we have all these things. >> what did you think of dennis rodman's attempt to end diplomacy after he came back? >> you know, i think that he's, kind of an absurd character. he's been on the real life and we sent him over there to play a basketball game. he's a very good basketball player. so, actually, trying to levee, you know, political questions or economic questions or, you know, it's kind of a cheap shot, i think. he just went over there to play a game. >> ryan, shane, pleasure to have you on. up next, gps's favorite past time, global rankings. which is the safest country in the world? and which has the best education? we have the answers. she got a parking ticket... ♪

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this weekend marks gps's fifth anniversary on the air. today's also the anniversary of an actual historical event. the 60th anniversary of queen elizabeth ii's coronation in westminster abbey on june 2nd, 1953. hers was the most recent of 38 coronations to be held in westminster. that brings me to my question. who was the first monarch to be crowned in westminster abbey, a, william the conquering, b, richard the lion heart, -- stay

tuned and we'll tell you the answer. go to cnn.com/fareed for a special look back at five years of gps. many asked what i'm drinking in this mug. to find out, go to our website, and make sure to follow us on twitter and facebook. this week's book of the week is "strange stones" by peter hessler. have you ever thought you really should spend some time in china to understand the world's next great power? well, here's the quick route. read this book. the new yorker correspondent takes you inside the lives and world of the chinese people in a way that few outsiders have ever been able to. this is long-form journalism at its finest, and now for the last look. what is the world's happiest country? it's the land down under, australia, for the third year in a row. that's according to the oecd's report on the best developed country to live in. what makes it happy? well, the nation's economy is in good shape, employment is good,

life expectancy is high, the air is relatively clean. so should we all up and move to australia? or down and move to australia? maybe not, but i found interesting that australia only does best if you measure all of the factors in the study equally, but take a look what happens if you prioritize different factors. for safety, japan ranks highest. in terms of overall life satisfaction, switzerland is first. if you want the best education, go to finland. if you prioritize the environment, sweden would be your choice. but if you are looking to maximize income, the u.s. far outranks the rest. so the question is what makes you happy? the correct answer to our gps challenge question was a, william the conquering. also known as william i. marched to london after his victory in the battle of hastings in 1066 and chose westminster abbey for his crowning on christmas day of that year.

all coronations since have taken place at the abbey, the building we see today having been constructed over centuries. the famous coronation chair, however, wasn't constructed until the 14th century under king edward i. and i thought my chair was old. thanks to all of you for being part of my program this week. i'll see you next week. hello, i'm miguel marquez in for fredricka whitfield. these are the stories we're following this hour. storm chasers trying to follow a deadly tornado end up victims of it. more details about the fatal toll the twisters took in oklahoma. this guy must have some contact lists around the world. we'll tell you what action hero steven seagal did to help out u.s. lawmakers on a fact finding trip to russia. >> a policy is keeping this dyin