captioning sponsored by , newshour productionsc >> nawaz: good evening. i'm amna nawaz. judy woodruff is away. on the newshour tonight: chaos in iraq. fears of continued violence, as the president and protesters reject a nominee for prime minister linked to iran. then, long recovery. fema's disaster relief in u.s. territories like puerto ricod lags behcovery efforts on the mainland. and, unconventional wisdom.no twl prize-winning economists question the impact of immigrants on competition in the workplace. >> for low-income rkers, there is no evidence that the influx of large numbers of outsiders does anything to their wages. >> nawaz: all that and more on toght's pbs newshour.

>> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by:ra >> bnsway. >> consumer cellular. >> and by the alfred p. sloan foundation. supporting science, technology, and improved economic performance and financial litecy in the 21st century. >> carnegie corporation of new york. supporting innovations inn, educatemocratic engagement, and the advancement of international peace and security. at carnegie.org. >> and with the ofgoing support hese institutions: and individuals.

>> this program was made possible by the corporation for and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> nawaz: wall street extended its year-end rally for another day. l three of the major indexes notched new record closing highs today,hanks to a boost from retail and technology companies. the dow jones industrial average gained 106 points to close at 28,621. the nasdaq rose 69 points, to cross the 9,000-point rk for the first time, and the s&p 500 added 16. businesses in parts of hong kong were brought to a standstill today, as anti-government protesters targeted shopping malls for a third day in a row. riot police stepped up their presence, at times confronting crowds and eorting several people out of the buildings. the unrest is rt of a months-

long campaign for more democracy in the semi-autonomous chinese territory. at least 20 people are dead after a powerful typhoon barreled through the philippines, bringing misery t christmas day celebrations. the storm made several landfalls ross the country's centr region yesterday, with high winds and pounding rains that forced thousands to flee their homes. residents woke up today to seeve swollen had inundated entire villages. they waded through floodedet stand sorted through piles cr debris. services were helds indonesia and thailand today, to mark the 15th anniversary of a devastating tsunami in the indian ocean. it claimed the lives o 230,000 people, making it one of modern history's worst natural disasters. hureds participated in mass prayers in indonesia's aceh province, one of the hardest-hit areas. in thailand, survivors visited memorials to lay wreaths and flowers for their loved ones,

and recalled the terr of that tragic day. >> ( translated ): i am still scared, very scared. i want to go tlive somewhere else, but it's not possible. sometimes i dream that a wave is coming. it's an image that still haunts me, when the wave was coming. i cod still remember it. >> nawaz: a 9.1-magnitude earthquake off sumatra isld triggered that deadly tsunami. a dozen countries from indonesia to east africa were hit. to this day, tusands of people are believed to still be unaccounted for. in israel, benjamin netanyahu faced his first major chalnge to his decade-long rule as prime minister today. voters cast their ballots in a primary election to pick the leader of his conservative likud party. his main party rival, veteran politician gideon saar, hoped to capitalize on a late surge in the run-up to the vote. netanyahu was widely expected to win, despite facing corruption indictments and failing to formt a con government twice this year. he declared victory tonight,th

even thougofficial results won't be announced until tomorrow. and back in this country, pennsylvania's roman catholic dioces have paid nearly $84 million to 564 victims of sexual abuse by clergy. that is according to a new associated press review. seven of t state's eight dioceses launched victims' mpensation funds after ann lvania grand jury report on the abuse and the church's efforts to cover it up f the jund that more than 300 priests had molested over a thsand children in the sta since the 1940s. still to come on the newshour: civil unrest continues in iraq, as protesters and the president reject the nominee for prime minister. fe's long-term disaster funding for u.s. territories la far behind money for th mainland. zimbabwe faces famine after decades of financial and agricultural decline. and, much more.

>> nawaz: in iraq, mons-long protests in major cities led to the resignation of one prime minister, bowing to demands for reform. but political leaders have beena unable t a replacement, leaving protesters as animated as ever. newshour correspondent lisa desjardins takes a closer look at how the protests have led to the current politicagridlock. >> desjardins: basra tonight, streets lit by the glow of burning tires. the nation has no prime minister, and protesters today have sharply rejected the latest choice for the job by a leading political bloc. assad al-eidani currently a regional governor, but protesters see another entrenched politician. >> ( translated ): what dii asaad al-eidfer?

did he fight corruption? it's still there. ?s he brought back servic there are no services. regarding you, asaad al-eidani, whatever you do, you will not gain the prime minister position >> desjardins: protesters have a pivotal ally, iraqi president barham saleh. in the past day, he reto designate the new nominee as prime minister, saying it would cause more bloodshed. that refusal may violate the constitution, and president saleh has offered to resign over the issue. key in the political uprising have been the protests in basra, and surrounding shiite areas in the south, and in baghdad itself. the map shows another issue for protesters: thinfluence of ighboring iran, which backs militias and political blocs in iraq. rejection of iran's influence and an outcry against iraqi corruption sparked a festorm of protests that began in october. that led directly to the resignation of the last prime

mister, adel abudly mahdi, last month. more than 450 protesters have died, largely after security forces fired tear gas or live ammunition at them. the leaderless protest is demanding a politically- independent ader. >> ( translated ): we don't want a prime minister from these political parties. we want to topple the political regime, and we want to change the constitution. >> desjardins: more fuel comes from the economy. anemic overall, with high unemployment among the young and concern from those who do have jobs that their wages fall short. >> ( translated ): my mother passed away atbehe hostal use there was no medicine, and i am a working man on daily payment and couldn't afford her treatment.in >> desja tonight in iraq, a country without a leader, and a protest movement with no sign of backing down. r more, i'm joined babaas kadhim. he leads the iraq initiative at the atlant council, a non- partisan foreign policy think tank. he is also the author of "reclaiming ir: the 1920 revolution and the founding of

the modern state." dr. kadhim, welcome back to the newshour. tothank you for coming bac "newshour". >> thanks for having me. >> nawaz: a lot of faces in that story just now. mobviously, the third tin a month iraq has been unable to name a prime minister. why is tis so difficult and how far out of the norm is thi is? eed, there are so many candidates, and all come from the same pool that is rejected by the protesters. the protesters are not protesting against a government or a party or a block, they are protesting against th entire political party that has been in charge since 2003 until now. the problems that have been accumulating in iraq are te accumulation of 15, 16 years of failurd people are fed up with everyone who was involved,i so they are for faces that have not been invved in any stage o the past 15 years, and people whose hands have beee by iraqi money or blood or

dignity of the iraqi people, and that's why it is very hard convince this to elect an. outsid >> nawaz: the protesters much like iraq's population itselfe nerally young. 24 years old or younger. they clearly, as you say, don't know what they do not want. but do these protesters know what they do want?ny is thereing that will be acceptable to them? >> that is the problem. so far they have been only acticing their o power. the parties are presenting names or the media and are saying, no, we don't want this person. because he protesters do not have ang organizmmittee or a central nerve that will coornate every activity they have, they are dispersed all over the south and central iraq, so it is very hard to speak to any group or it is ved,ry har also, to find, again, a spokesperson or a spokes -- an

entity that will speak on their behalf. and it is verhard to see them presenting what they want, andea it ier to see that they will wait for tlie pocal party to present their name or the process to bring up a name, and then the action is normally automatic, no, we don't want thisne. even though, in the last couple of days, we have seen some kind signs that they might be entertaining some of the namesth have been floating around, thlimember of parent maybe, and he is a secular member of parliament, and that is somehow in hi favor because most of the parties that are blamed are e islamist parties or the traditional parties. he is kind of a new slant of politician. >> nawaz: do the average iraqi agree with the protesters? >> the -- >> nawaz: the average iraqy, do they side with the protesters as a general sentiment?

>> the protesters are speaking on behalf of all the iraqis. this is very hard on the de facto, of course, they are the only ones spe we don't see any countervoices discrediting them frombuhe other side, of course, the only way to know what the silent majority of the iraqis want ifa you a referendum or a generally electiop we hoe the next party will prepare for a general election to know wherer the ties stand now. >> nawaz: who could benefit from the instability in iraq? >> a long list. certainly the neighboring countries come to mind fit because they are benefiting the weaker iraq getabthe more vuln, the more they can settle their scores on the iraqi rritory, the more they can advance their interest inside iraq. >> nawaz: iran? iran, saudi arabia, turkey, these are the ones that come to mind, and alsohe terrorists,

there are a lot of terrorist sleeper ces and organizations that are trying to find a space to expand and stretch and practice their maliciouses activiso that is -- also,le s face it. the iraqi political elite are interested in this because law and order and the rule of law is hurting and they are curbing the ability to practice their corruption. >> nawaz: how do iraqis see the u.s.? do they think the u.s. has any responsibility for the state of their nation right now or no? >> the united states is the midwife that brought this change in 2003, so everyveing that we s based on the activity to have the united states from 2001 to but there is a lot of blame to go around and i think a lot on thit dysfunctionof the government is on the iraqis thnselves because they not get their act together, but,

also, i think it is not just the united states.ra the average qi, there are actual numbers we presented at the atlantic council recently, iraqis, over 80%,e viw the american people in a favorable way, and 20% y,lhey favor the united states government.s so there that kind of dichotomy in the iraqi public opinion. n>>awaz: abaas kadhim from the drank couldn't, thank you very much. >> thank youviery much for me. >> nawaz: we're just days away from the start of a new year, and yet, ithe u.s. territories of the caribbean, american citizens say they are still dealing with a painfully slow response by fema when it comes to recovering from hurrines maria and irma. those hurricanes, which flooded and leveled parts of puerto rico e u.s. virgin islands, h more than two years ago, in september 2017. journalists from the "new yorke

times" spent t those islands in recent weeks, and found that thousands of recovery projects have yet to get the full money from fema that they need, and many buildings are in disrepair since the hurricane, or stalled from completion. zolan kanno-youngs is homeland security correspondent for the "new york times" who's been covering this.ns he je from boston.we >> solenome to the "newshour". tell me what the documents you got from the rquest. >> when my colleague and i were filing the public records request, we went in wth this question, you know, we though that the terrorist, puerto rico and the u.s. virgin islands, are still struggling since those two hurricanes devastated them, but is the reovery process actually slower for them rather than

states in the mainland of the country? we wanted to know specificall when it ca to federal funds, whether or not there was a system in place that made it haer for the teritories to receive that money so that they could expedite their repair and be resilient for the future. so we focused on critical infrastructure projects, schools and hospitals, roads, the things that you need, really, you know, for your home, and what we found is that the system for those projects was cumbersome and often complex andsften reulted in a debate between fema as well as the local government ovehow much fema would cover and how much the local government would cover. in regards t the exact results of our reporting, what we found was that, as you said, out of thousands of requests that these territories have made, just afr tion of them have actually been approved, meaning that just a small amounof the money actually allocated for the

territories has made it down toh people oground, which just isn't the case for other states that are prone to be hit by hurricanes. >> nawaz: help me understand, how big a di wsparity a talking about? you say the process is cumbersome when it comes to u.s. territories, ttht there are a sand requests, only a few have been funded, is it vastly different when you'rtalking about mainland united states? >> yes, the texas there wer more than 3,000 critical infrastructures approved thus far and in puerto rico there are about 190. right now you can see the disparity. what does that mean on the ground? in st. croix in th u.s. virgin islands where there is regularly only one hospital for people to go to, it means there is still i hotheir roof, it means an entire floor has been shut down due mold still spreading throughout the hospital, that nurses are stilworking in this area and, as a result of working there, have rasheas well d are fighting through that in order toprovide care to the people on the island. at one point, they had no

working operating rooms there, due to the damage thatill exists. this is this season, this is this fall, this is still the state thereof place, and the way fema works, it's important to note, it is a reimbursement system. so, you know, when you go and talk to governmenofficials about this, they might say, look, it is on the local government to front the money, and then we repay them for it. but when you talk to people in these communities, they say, well, look, we are already at a disadvantage financially, you don't receive some of the same grants, you know, fo hospitals, the same medicare, the medicare system is different. we're already at a disadvantage that way. but then you ad add on top of tt that the fema funding process for these teresritolsis different. up until earlier this year, ople on the territories basically needed to prove that a certain percentage of these critical infrastructures, that c tage of the damage was

caused by the hurricane and wasn pre-disaster damage. congress acknowledged that was leading delays andllowed fema to wave that requirement, but it sti took months in order for them to come to anth agreement he local government and decide whether or air they'd just partially rep or completely rebuild some of these filitie that hospital i was referencing on the virgin islands, they haven't even moved into their temporar that's scheduled for spring of 2020. actually, i just heard it might be summer 2020, wch would mean they would be in the thck of their third hurricane seaso without even moving into their temporary facility. >> in immediate response to therdisasters, was a lot of conversation about the fact that there are a lot of logistical hurdles to surmoun when you talk about getting aid t a place like puerto rico or to the u.virgin islands. it's a lot easier to put aid on a trd get things to texas,

for example, than it is to go to islands. is any of that, the logistical hurdles, is any of that s a more cumbersome process for the residents there?>> h, of course, absolutely. i mean, transportation, for one, as you acknowledged, that is a challenge to provide all the resources to these plthce are not a part of the mainland. we have to acknowledge the fact these two hurricanes hitting back-to-back, the damage was unprecedented, and i have to. it was at a time when fema was dealing wih a lot of natural disasters across the country, wildfires, flooding as wl, so absolutely. when you talk to certain local als in the territories, they'd say, look, we didn't -- there were some things we just didn't know. also, we have to provide paperwork for this process, some of which got damaged, and some of the employees tasked wi this were encouraged when fleeing the hurricane.

>> nawaz: another report you have out today, this one focusing on president trump's border wall.c you atually traveled to the area, much of which is on private land, rigvaht, pri land owners who control a lot of the land that the prerndent, the gont would need to claim by imminent domain to see according to his border wall hat did th tell you? >> in most of south texas the prder wall goes throuvate land. 93 miles, most of it in federal land, and they've only awired about three of 144 miles that is on private lad. those individuals face a choice, will they voluntarily give up their land to the government for the exchange of a sum of mey, or do they risk being taken to court, which a government can assert eminent domain and probably get that lanwad any? those people, they have a range of views. i've talked to land owners who

vocally support president trump and believe what he's saying in regards to border security, but they want to remind people, the border wall is not being built on the border. the border wall is being built about one mile within the united states, meing they would lose easy access, as they describe it, to much of their land. tbowrn individual, more that half oe acres he uses for farming. so that is kind of a real-world consequence for them, but they don't have many options, when it comes to, like you said, the ability to have e government tose eminent domain. >> zolan kanno-youngs, homeland security correspondent the "new york times." thank you very much. >> oh, thank you for having >> nawaz: stay with us. coming up on the newshour: two nobel prize-winning economists challge the economic orthodoxy on trade and the impact of immigrant workers.

author sarah broom discusses her national book award-winning work, "the yellow house." and, a connecticut meum showcases a collection of rare watercolors by legendary british painter j.m.w. turner. for over a mth, the united nations has been sounding the alarm abouthe growing food crisis in zimbabwe it's estimated that 60% of the population does not have access. to adequate fo we will talk with people with irep understanding of the situation, but f, we have this background report. in what used to be called authern africa's "breadbasket," today, zimbabweansre desperate for food. facing a climate disaster and an unprecedented economic meltdown, more than half of the population is food-insecure. the united nations' world food program is sounding the alarm. >> we are cing the worst hunger crisis in more than a decade. the situation is nrahing short ofc-- there is no other way of putting it.zi >> nawazabwe is enduring

its worst drought in decades.rm and for rural s, largely growing water-intensive maize, erratic rain patterns have proven catastrophic. in hwange nationalleark, herds ofants died of drought-related starvation earlier this year. but the crisis is largely man- made, according to w.f.p. >> the crisis is being exacerbated by a dire shortage of foreign currency, r inflation, mounting unemployment, lack of fuel, prolonged power outages and large-scale living livestock loss, and they inflict the urban polation just as well as rural villages. >> nawaz: the international monetary fund says zimbabwe's inflation rate is the world's highest, at 300%. many blame the political and economic turmoil on formeres prident robert mugabe. the anti-colonial icon was at the forefront of zimbwe'sen independ in 1980. but, he clung to power for t arly 30 years, presiding over

the decline of whas once one of the continent's most prosperous countries. was ousted in 2017. hope that mugabe's successor, president emmerson mnangagwa, can reverse the decline is running thin. the government is now scrapping a plan to remove grain subsidies next year, a move aimed at shielding zimbabweans from the rising food costs. for more on all of this, we turn to two men who know zimbwe well. gerry bourke is the southern africa spokesman for the united nations world food programme, the ad international agency working to alleviate the food crisis in zimbabwe. he was just there last week. and, harry thomas jr. had a 34ear career as an american diplomat, and served as the u.s. ambassador to mbabwe from 2016 to 2018. and welcome to you both. thank you for being hee. gerry, i do want to begin with you. 60% of thcountry's 14 million don't have to food to meet their

basic needs. yorewere just the tell mewhat you saw and heard from families on the ground.>> ell, it's really a national catastrophe, aalamity. people simply do not have enough food. the harvest comes in once a year in april. stocks from that ae largely exhausted. they're looking forward to the next harst in april. the rainy season arrived two months late. there are patches of green, but the lack of rain is really causing problems. eds put into the ground have ntingerminated, summer pl will have to be done, and in the metime, people are struggling to get by in a major way, taking ngds out of school, selling off ecious belon selling off cattle, for example, lots of people really hurting.

nawaz: gerry, give me a specific example, if you can, of the kinds of things peoe are telling you. what, for an example, is an average people eating and subsisting on from day to day? >> they're eating less, they're skipping meals. a little bit of maze meal. prices have skyrocketed. a loaf of bread is w20 tat it was six months ago. maze, the staple food, has increased multiple times. so it's a huge struggle just to get by. >> nawaz: ambassador thomas, you mentioned gerry mentioning the rainy season coming late, a broader crisis of drought in the region. this isn't just due to drought, is it? >> no, the people of zimbabwe this is because of massive corruption, mismanagement for many years, with e government and leaders of zimbabwe only interested in power accumulation and wealth. it's unfortunate. it's manmade, despite of the

drought,s gerry said. we're very pleased that the united states has stepped up, already put about $170 million toward food security. the british and the european union have as wel but the people of zimbabwe deserve >> nawaz: that mismanagement, that corruption you mentioned, it's sort of alrming for people to think about how a couny can go from being the continent's bread basket, as we said in the report, to this downward iral where people are struggling for basic needs. how does that happen soickly? >> it happens when its leaders take all of the money that they earn through selling minerals, as they sholuld -- gd, plutonium, they're a veryal y country -- and put it in their pockets. and you have to think, they had over 1300 dams. they're no longer maintained. the wells are no longer maintained. ople with are digging bore holes to get water, and that makes -- they keep digging deeper and deeper, and there'sa

lesser, and it's exacerbated by the drought andlite change. >> gerry, u mentioned some hard choice thaeot pple on the ground are having to make. we focus on theood crisis because that's visible. but zimbabweans are dealing with so much more. tell us about the ripple effects this crisis could have. >> we're very focused on scaling up ourselves. we'rgoing toouble within the next few weeks the number of zip bob wayans we ae supporting, those in crisis and emergency levels ogood insecurity. so we're going from about 2 million people now to over 4 million, and we'll be doing that through the peak of the lean season which is january to march, ahead of next havest in april. so a major scale requiring all hands to the pump and a significant amount of money if we are to fullyffect tha afft

that scale. >> nawaz: the prgram has been cash assistance largely. that no long interest cae. tell us what's happening on the ground now. >> in fact, what with hyper inflation and very limited availability of local curwerenc, re having to do a wholesale switch from cash assistance to in-kind food assistance. so we are -- and bausech of the rest of africa has also suffered from drought and flooding, we are having to source the food for zimbabwe much farther afiel in atlanta mark, asia and europe. some in africa, but mostly elseere. it's a massive, old-fashioned, logistical operationshipping food into durbin and south africa, in bara andmb moue and trucking the food into landlock zimbabwe. nawaz: you mentioned all the u.s. money going into zimbabwe and mentioned

corruption is part of the problem that got people where t they aay. is there any concern continuing corruption could mean people of zimbabwe don't get the help they need? >> yes, there is. that is our concern, ourve ment's concern, and it should be, but we need to hold the governmentccountable. for example, they are trying to -- they've imported wheatom anzania. the worldwide price is about 240 to $250 a ton. they charge $600.f so they've ited the price so the wealthy and the cronies can buy it and sell it at a price over double the worldwide price. they're trying to import some from mozambique, as gerry said, but mozambique wants to be paid in hard currency. this is another african nation saying you pay me in hard currency, and the people are suffering. these are brilliant people. i was there three years this

time they have si rhodes scholars. they will ha more. d to see people not to send their kids to school, to ve to walk to work, not to have the ability to get secretary education is heart rendering. >> nawaz: we have less than 30 seconds left. i have to ask you a big question. with all this aid, is there a hope things will get better for the people of sste ziabwe? >> i have confidence in the government, the european colleagues and people stepping up to the plate to help the people of zimbabwe. what we need to do is let the government of zimbabwe be transparent. they have grains in their storage. tell us how much they have so we can help them. >> be transparent and accountable. >> yes. >> nawaz: gerryu borke and harry thomas, jr., thank you so much to the both of you.

>> nawaz: as paul solman reported recently, economists esther duflo and abhijit banerjee won this year's nobel prize for their hard-nosed work tingoverty, cond experiments in developing nations, like banerjee's native india. they wanted to see what actually works-- and what doesn't-- to improve the lives of the poor. but, the married couple has also cast their critical eyes on the developed world and economic orthodoxy in their new book, "good economics for hard times." urul zeroes in on the ideas of their book for oeries, "making sen$e." >> we felt that there was a lot that economics could ts about the important issues that people are fighting about today. >> repter: important issues, say esther duflo and aijit ne, like i hesay, so many economists simply get wrong.y >> ty, "oh, well," you know, "it's supply and demand. supply goes up, price will go down >> reporter: that is, that there are more people willing to work

cheaply, then wages will go down. >> exactly. there is no evidence for it. in fact, there are many, many such episodes that have been studied, and for low-income works, there is no evidence that the influx of large numbers of outsidersoes anything to their wages. >> reporter: instead, he says, the influx of workers stimulates the economy. >> they're going to buy stuff. and they often buy stuff that other low-income workers sell. >> reporter: we actually saw this in immigrant-friendly utica, new york several years ago. bosnian refugee sakib duracak, who ca in the 1990s. >> at the time when we came in utica, it's a relatively, very dead and poor city. >> reporter: but immigrants li duracak revived the city by working, and spending. >> to have an economy, you have to have workers, and you have to have consumers.ep >>ter: professor ellen kraly teaches demography at nearby colgate university. >> the influx of refugees to utica allowed us to retain some smaller industries that were looking for highly-motivated labor.

>> reporter: moreover,he newly-minted nobels, the work the immigrants do doesn't ercompete with native work who, for the most part, won't take the se jobs. was skeptical. but look at union construction workers. they used to make a lot moremo y, adjusted for inflation, than they do now, due to, its, sehe influx of immigrants. >> i think that that's a very good example of something that hasn't been commented on, whiced is, high-skiabers do lose when there's an influx of other comparable people. bad in some sense, the political conversation has iwards. the high-skilled immigrants have actually an impact on ges of comparable people. the low-skilled immigrants are the ones who don't. >> reporter: another chapter of the new book is called "pains from trade," playing off a supposed economic truism, gains from trade. >> economists repeat until they are blue in the face that trade is good for you and that trade's good for the country.

but it's based on one very strong assumption... >> reporter: the assumption that people who lose jobs to foreign competition will simply up and move to get a new one. >> except that in the lastea 40, there's been enormous decline in mobility. 7% of the people used to move from county to county. >> reporter: in the u.s. >> in the u.s. 40 years ago. now, it's 4%. at's almost a halving of mobility. people have stopped moving. st it's the emotional invent in the community. your identity as someone who has been working in a factory forma ny, many years. >> reporter: plus, in factories i' visited over the years, workers develop specific skillsn that areransferable. ca a milliken textile mill in jonesville, soutlina... >> you go through about a 12-week training program, and then you need probably nine to ten months of practical exrerience on the machine be

you get really competent and actually know what you're doing with the machine, to be able to make it perform correctly. >> reporter: same story at a corn broom factory in alabama, whh we visited back in the early '90s on the eve of nafta, when debate over trade with mexico was raging. technically, this was unilled labor. but it took me eight minutes to do what the average worker ds in one-- and i'm basically hitting myself on the index finger at this point. no, that was the thumb-- getting hit-- getting hit. back then, it took a year to master this skill, useless anywhere else. but when we returned ten years later, the job was so mechanized, said the c.e.o... >> if you can screw in a light bulb, you can make a broom.te >> repor real expertise, rendered obsolete. yes, we have trade adjustment assistance to supposedly teachwh new skills, bu you bother to crunch the numbers, they show that what laid-off workers lose, in wages alone, is far greaterth what's spent to reimburse and retrain them.

and, mosof the money is spent a third and last example of where popular economics has led us astray, say the economists, is taxes. here's the architect of republican tax cuts, arthur laffermaking the classic argument a few years ago. >> if you raise x rates, you collect more money per dollar of income. but then you have the economic effect, which, if you raise tax rates, you reduce the ince tives for peopdo the activity, and you get lower income. >> rorter: arthur laffer tol me that he moved from california to tennessee for example because there was a lower tax rate. >> it would be really sad if he didn't move. i think a nice thing about economics is, we deal with large data sets. there's no clear evidence that if you raise taxes, the rich stop working. >> reporter: nor is there any credible evidence, say thela eates, that benefits keep the poor from working. is there not the "welfare queen" or "welfare ng" stereotype, it's just not true? >> there's no evidence for it.it

neher in the u.s. nor in poor countries do we see that when people are given more generous help packages, they become lazy. >> reporter: evidence, much of it upending the conventionalic wisdom in econ which is what, applied to poverty alleviation, earned esther duflo and abhijit bannerjee their nobel prize. this is paul solman in boston. >> nawaz: now, jeffrey brown has another title for the "newshour bookshelf." author sarah broom's memoir, "the yellow house," won the 2019 national book award for non-fiction. jeffrey began by asking brm about the owner of the yellow house-- her mother, ivory mae. >> she went on to raise me and my eleven siblings in this house, so beyond it being my mother's place, it's a

significant place emotionally for all of us. >> brown: it's a personal moir you've written, bu, interesting, you didn't show up till about page 100. you're telling a muclarger story about not only your family but this particular area of the city. >> that's true, and it felt completely natural to me to not show up for 1 pages. i tried it the other way.ng i tried beginhe story with me, but something about that felt like it lacked context, and i really wanted toa mke this world that existed inontext, and i wanted to talk about my grandmother and how she made houses, how she was obsessed with making place and howe sh passed that quality on to my mother, and how my mother passed it on to me, so that, ultimately, when this house is gone, what we el iso much more intense, right, because it's not just a house or you real lyle understand what madece

ths pl- or you really understand what made this place. my mother ivory may bout the yellow house when she was 19 ndars old. it was her firstnly house. within its walls, my mother made her world. i really wanted to think about what it means not just fr the person who isn't from a place, but for aso perwho really knows a place to get very up close to something and tell that story, but also think about and figure in what distance does, what it means, for instance, if lye story of new orleans becomes for someone on katrina, and they only seethat story or those images fm 200 miles away, right, how that chnges their relationship to a place. i wanted to go very gh up and present that view but then also say looat you're missing. you're missing this -year-old

who bought this house you're mio ing my brother karl whes there every sing daily after his job at n.a.s.a. and tends ton land, then also to think about the innate taboo for me of being the baby of h12ildren, telling this story. that felt painful to do, and it ckonsomething i had to re with the entire time i wasow writing,are i tell this story, it's not my story to tell, and i'm telling moouch. >> brown: and you told this or figured your way into telling it through memories, through archival -- i mean, there'sof clearly a loesearch, but you also interviewed family members and went as far back as you coul >> i did. the foundation was a year, in 2011, when i movedo new orleans and actually lived in the french quarter, moved back to new orleans and lived in the french quarter on the

busiest corner in all ofor neans and, during that year, i interviewed every single one of my siblings. i recorded them, so i gained om that year hundreds of hours of audio interviews, which i men transcribed. so those make the basis for the book. they're a ki of oral history. but then layered on top of tha is -- are hours and hours i spent driving to various louisiana towns, driving to cemeteries to get information, going tohi arcs, going to the local library, the louisiana collection, you know, intervtowing people, tryin interview people, and then reading everything i can because there were no books about new orleans east. it's just not atexy compared to the rest of n orleans. >> brown: did you feel compelled correct that record, in a sense iean, katrina plays a role cause katrina isat ended up destroying the yellow house,

right? >> of course. >> brown: trina and other parts of new orleans got so much attention. >> i felt moved and buoyed by the idea that i could write somethg that didn't exist. there's a little girl right now still living on the short end of e street in new orleans east where i grew up, and i wrote it for her so that there could be some history already in existence and, you know, one of the striking things about new orleans east is the way in which it doesn't always appear on a map of new orleansto so i wanteuite literally put new orleans east on the mapb wn: in this act of i oking back, right, did it make sense? an, do you see from there, from then to now foru yorself? >> i think i actually grew uphi withfeeling of being bifurcated as part of the way i thought about the world. i thought a lot about how our

street was cut o from the other end of itself, how new orleans east was cut off by the industrial canal from the rest of the city. i think it grew me into aerson who noticed bifurcations, whod notiisparities, who cared a lot about the ways in which injustice was baked into the soil of a place, you know. e of the things that intrigued me as a kid was how soft the ground was and,f course, whn i was a child playing hide and go seek, i didn't understand that the ground was su subsidin, but i just knew and my friends knew this was soft ground. it's our basketballsor when it rains the water pools for one or to weeks, right, and, so, sort of have been born out of this place where we were really thinking about environmental issues even then but not knowing what to call the so so much of i feel my composition and how

write and how i think as a human is based on having come from that very spe pcificlace. >> brown: who did you come to feelou were writing this book for? >> for my nieces and nephews, i'd say. >> brown: younger geerations? primarily, yes. and the entire moment now, now at the book exists in the world and even the national book award win i really for them. ardean, many of them never he of the national book award before this moment, and, so, to get the text fro sm thereen shots of them watching the national book award is profound for me. i feel like it's a stetoward making them better readers, even, and that makes me hugely proud. >> brown: all right. the book is the yellowouse, sarah broom. congratulations. >> thank you. thank you so much. thank you.

>> nawaz: british inter j.m.w. turner was both prolific and wide-ranging in his work. he traveled throughout englandeu anpe, often with a small watercolor case at his side. now, a rare show of watercolors turner made throughout his career is on view at the mystic seaport museum in connecticut through february, and it's the only north american stop these fragile works will make. special correspondent jaredn bowehas our report. it's part of our weekly series on arts and culture, "canvas." >>eporter: j.m.w. turner moved. from cathedrals to coasts. from the bright light of day to the deep dark of night. m and from tdy tones of his native england, to theen lumineglow of venice, italy. hefor the famed painter, ty were wanders in watercolor. >> i think some of his most inal and expressive and experimental groundbreaking work was actually in watercolor on

paper. >> reporter: that meerum is his ideas formed and flourished with a fervor. starting with the fit watercolor he painted of this gorge at age 17, turner pain,0d more than in his defetime. >> drawing, and , painting a watercolor, was almost a compulsion. it was like a kind of a nervous tick. he just wasn't comfortable unless he was doing it. >> reporter: turner scholar david blayney brown is a senior curator with tate britain, the london museum that holds thetu er bequest, a collection of tens of thousands of works, including these watercolors, that went to the museum after his death in 1851. >> he ceainly had a high opinion of himself, he wasn't a modest man. he realized that he was a great artist and, he wanted to leave a legacy to the nation, to the british tion. >> reporter: now, that legacy is getting some international burnishing. the watercolors, which are

extremely susceptible toight damage, can only be shown once in a generation. after stops in italy and argentina, the show is making its only north american m.pearance at connecticut's mystic seaport mus >> this is the most significant exhibition, i believe, that we have had in our 90-year existence. >> reporter: so significant that five years ago, when the museum was building this new facility, its president steve d ite says he te architectural team... >> the conditions and the specs for e space have to be good enough for turner, because that's-- i thi that for us would be the most defining exhibition. >> reporter: so this, says white, is a dream come true. to marry turner's lifelongim inerest in marpainting with the mystic river flowing just outside. >> this exhibition, because of rner, because of his expression of the sea, is expreson of landscapes. he brings the spirit of this place alive, and in a much different way. >> reporter: do we have a sense of how he's, he's working with movement her or it strictly

do you think about color? >> i thinkt's about movement as well, because the color has to move, doesn't it? i mean, this is-- this is a coastline. there's a storm approaching. a the clou presumably moving quite fast. and the waves are crashing on the beach. >> reporter: these are two studies for one turner's last exhibited watercolors. >> reporter: five years ago,e in 2104, the migh biopic, "mr. turner," painted the artist as a frenzied storm of creativity. >> that film was a movie. ( laughs ) is what i will say.tr >> reporter: ih, david blayney brown says, turner was likely much more methodical.e >> he must hrked with great care and great precision, certainly in some of the, the images in this exhibition. they're extraordinarily finely worked. some are minutely detailed. and instead of broad sweeping, o surgpaint, there are just tiny little dots... you know, laid onto the paper, almost like, like setting tiny diamonds

into a-- into a-- into a ring. >> reporter: while manksof turner's wppear ethereal and idealized, he was also fond of what art critics and schistorians have come to be as "litter"-- the little figus, animals and general stuff that frequently dot his foregrounds. >> they can look very untidy. but of course, the real world is often an untidy place. he wants to root things in reality, i tnk. >> reporter: as an inveterate traveler, his work changed as often as his landscapes did.ve especially ice. the work he produced during his third and final trip there in 1840 prompted one crit proclaim turner a "magician" with "command over the spirits of earth, air, fire and war." >> what the real thrill of venice for him was probably... the fact that it has this extraordinary aqueous light. for an artist who's very interested in luminous effects and how to bring light into pictures, the effect the light has and the way it seems to merge the sea and the sky... is something i think made an enormous impression on him.

>> reporter: and made for one of his myriad master strokes. for the pbs newshour, i'm jared bowen of wgbh in mysti connecticut. >> nawaz: tonight's "brief but spectacular" features singer and songwriter mike love, best known as one of the foundi members of the beach boys. the band won over fans aroundth the world nfectious harmonies and their unique california sound. >> for our original fans, it's nostalgic when we "wouldn't it be nice." but if somebody is in grade school and listens to the beach boys and hears "wouldn't it be nice" for the first time, it totally relates to them at that stage of life ♪ ♪ >> the beach boys ve always emphasized harmony.

and what brought us together is the love of harmonizing, at christmas parties, and thanksgiving. my earliest memories of my cousin brian, in the midst of a christmas party, let's say sitting on my grandmother wilson's lap, singing "danny boy," and what aamazg voice he had. i enjoy personally singing the ss parts, with all the other parts above. but the real specialness of it is when it all comes together, all the various parts and blending. that's the secret sauce there. the blend, as well as the harmonies. i remember the first time we ever heard our record on the radio in 196 ♪ ♪ng our "surfin'," was played on a radio station, which playef like four e brand-new singles by various groups. and the one that got the most call-in requests would become

the record of the week the following week. and we had cousins and uncles and aunts and everybody phoning in and we easily won the record of the week. the problem was started with my uncle murry not being very ethical. and he actlly took and sold our publishing for, whatever, a minuscule amount compared to what it really is worth. that was a tough thing to de with. i know it was tough on brian, dennis, and carl. it was tough on me, o. he also didn't credit me with writing so many of the songs that i created all the words for. i, unfortunately, because ofat had to go into a lawsuit situation to establish my authorship.e the unfortunate things that happened, but if you focus on that stuff, it loses sight on the incredible positivity that our music has meant. transcended boundaries, and borders, and ethnic groups. to be able to just go out on stage and sing these songs, and seeing that they're so

appreciated and people still love them, that is somewhat of a precious miracle. my name is mike love, and this is my "brief, but spectacular" take on my life as a beach boy. >> nawaz: and you can watch adtional "brief but spectacular" episodes on our website, pbs.org/newshour/brie on the newshour online, our in-dth series on the unrest that broke out acrs the globe this year. tonight, we ask, what happened to protests in iran? you can find a that and more when you follow us on instagram at newshour. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm amna nawaz.jo us online, and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and we'll see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour h been provided by: >> consumer cellular offerson noact wireless plans that are designed to help you do more

of the things you enjoy. whether you're a talker, texowr, brr, photographer, or a bit of everything, our u.s.-based customer service team is here to find a plan that fits u. to learn more, go to consumercellular.tv >> bnsf railway. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions r.and friends of the newsh >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewe like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productns, llc captioneacby media cess group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> you're watch

>> hello, everyone, and welcome to "amanpo & co." this holiday season, we're dippg into the archives d looking back at some of our favorite interviews from the year. so here's what's coming up. [ all cheering ] as the fight for climate justi marches on, author jonathan safran foerte s us what we can do to protect the planet. then... >> your majesties, welcomto downton abbey. >> ...a blast from the past as "downton abbey" returns to the big screen. wrer and producer julian fellowes tells me why we're all riveted by the upstairs-downstairs blockbuster. plus...ak >> i found mg this film probably the hardest thing i've ever done in my life.oc >>entarian and director ofnn the oscar-wiing "white helmets" tells us about his most challenging project yet -- confronting his own brother's suicide on camera. ♪