winthrop eldridge went around the country talking about the truman marshall plan and helping the countriesthat were on the side of the u.s. and so forth and open trade and free trade. so, there was an extensive alignment among the people that knew each other and had similar interests and used each other to expand. >> host: it's fascinating stuff. so you talk about that sense of alignment. and clearly coming out of the depression there was this anti-banker look what you just did to us in terms of speculation. working our way that went into world war ii where there was a sense of collaboration can and now it seems to have come full circle again. so i mean, it's this cycle of these ups and downs. you know, are the bankers in your opinion -- how do they balance that profit motive and incentive, versus national interest tax >> guest: yes and that is a big cycle. the fact that he's working with fdr for example to test the glass-steagall act, which tremendously reformed thinking and reduced the ability to speculate with other peoples money and with depositors funds was interesting to me because h

wenstrup eldridge went around the country talking about the truman marshall plan and helping and aiding the countries that were on the side of the u.s. and so forth. and open trade and free trade. so there was an extensive alignment is people that knew each other and had a similar interest and used each other to expand. >> host: truly fascinating stuff. so, you talk about the scent of a line meant and clearly coming out of the depression, there was this anti-banker you know, look what you just did to us in terms of speculation. you know, working our way into world war ii where there was a sense of collaboration. and you know, now it seems to have come full circle again. so it's this cycle of these ups and downs. you know, are the bankers in your opinion now -- how do they balance that profit motive and incentive versus the national interest? >> guest: that if something interesting to me in the buck and the fact that he's working to pass the banking and reduce the ability of the banks to speculate with depositors funds is interesting to me because he wouldn't assume on the surface that w

nixon's opening to china was quickly seen as historic, but harry truman's many bold decisions, nato, containment, the marshall plan were not lauded at the time. what about the current office? president obama has not made a major mistake. he has done a skillful job steering the united states out of the muddy waters he inherited, think iraq and afghanistan, and he resisted pushing the country into another major conflict with all the complications it would inevitably entail. but he has been less skillful at building up an edifice of achievements. he still has time to fix that. his critics claim the world is in disarray and geopolitics has returned with a vengeance. look at ukraine. but the reality is, as princeton's john eikenberry has often pointed out, that the american-led world order built after the second world war continues to endure seven decades after its creation. it has outlasted challengers from soviet russia, maoist china and most recently, radical islam. "the economist" magazine this week tallies the country's 90 richest countries. 99 lean or lean strongly toward the united states. 21 against. the u

marshals. the hearings were a public show trial, designed to convince the american public that the country, and even the truman were infected with a red menace. these congressmen were fighting back. the hollywood ten and their lawyers argued that the first amendment protected their right not to tell congress what their political affiliations were. including whether they had ever been members of the american communist party. they appealed their contempt citations and lost. the courts ruled the first amendment did not protect them. the mccarthy era lasted from the late 1940s to late '50s, led by joe mccarthy, and his permanent investigating subcommittee of the government operations committee. along with senator pat mckaren, senate internal subcommittees, under new jersey republican jay parnell thomas, a former investment banker, who believed the new deal had sabotaged the capitalist system. he's the guy who actually traveled to hollywood to try to ferret out communist influences in the motion picture business. it was taking the fifth in front of thomas' committee that landed the hollywood ten in jail for contemp