On Fireside Chats, Mike talks to Helaine about her new book on personal finance, Pound Foolish. Helaine explains why cutting coffee breaks won’t make you a millionaire. Mike asks how the financial crisis has changed the advice coming from Suze Orman and Dave Ramsey. Why have 401(k)s become so popular and Social Security so threatened? The two discuss a provocative case against financial literacy. Is there any way to stem the popularity of bad financial advice?
There’s a disturbance in the force of The DMZ, as the NSA leak story scrambles traditional notions of left and right. Do the last ten years of surveillance make the case that we’ve lost our freedoms or that we’ve struck the right balance? Even if Snowden is right, did he have to risk his own incarceration? Matt and Bill discuss Arnold Kling’s new e-book about why liberals, conservatives and libertarians don’t speak the same language. Have Obama’s actions as president betrayed his prior rhetoric about civil liberties?