mark landler joins me from washington. welcome. >> good to be here, john. >> hockenberry: mark, would you say this is a test of the relationship between merkel and trump? seems to me always when i look at the body language merkel that she, from the beginning, has not known what to make of this man. is that settling down, is there more of a clarity here? >> well, i think, john, that angela merkel is someone who's used to dealing with mercurial sort of testosterone-style men, if you l. she's dealt with vladimir putin in russia, berlusconi in italy, xi jinping in china, erdogan in turkey, and now she's dealing with donald trump in the united states. the u.s. is such a major trading partner and ally of the u.s. that merkel has to figure out how to work with the new american president, and i think that's what you saw today. whatever she may make of him -- and it would be wonderful to know what her inside or interior oughts are -- she was going to make this relationship work. she came to washington to try to find some common grou

mark landler of the "new york times" joins me now from washington.ould you say this is a test of the relationship between merkel and trump? it seems when i look at the body language of angela merkel, that she from the beginning has not known what to make of this man. is there more clarity here? >> i think angela merkel is someone used to dealing with testosterone-style men. she has dealt with vladimir putin in russia, bruce ghani in italy, erdogan in turkey. now she is dealing with donald trump in the united states. the u.s. is such a major trading partner and ally of the u.s. that she has to figure out how to work with the new american president. i think that is what you saw today whenever she may make of him and it would be wonderful to know what her inside thoughts are, she was going to make this relationship work. she came to washington to try to find common ground. i think the news conference they held together was an illustration of two people literally poles apart on crucial issues. but at least from her perspective, trying very hard to find a

john: mark landler, thank you so much. mark: great to be here. ♪ ♪ ethan: good evening.ethan bronner filling in for charlie rose. venezuela, with more proven oil reserves then saudi arabia, was once one of the richest countries not only in latin america, but the world. michael: governed for the past two decades by the socialist party and ravaged by corruption and inefficiency, it is now on the verge of collapse with spreading hunger, rampant violent crime, in triple digit inflation. how bad will it get? is there a solution? and how should the trump administration react? joining me in new york is chris sabatini, professor of latin american studies at columbia university, and from philadelphia is michael mccarthy, a research fellow at american university's center for latin american studies. i am pleased to welcome them to the program. chris, you're in the studio with me. i will start with you. speak for a minute or two about how it got so bad, given all the wealth and talent that venezuela was famous for at one time. chris: it was a confluence of issues. in 1998 when hugo

mark landler