The Brian Lehrer Show

(<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/daxiang/739794875/" target="_blank">daxiang</a>/flickr)

Rating the Housing Market

Thursday, September 20, 2007

The Fed just cut interest rates to counteract the sub prime mortgage crisis. We look at how much it might help the New York housing market, in our weekly look at real estate for the month of September. Also, Benjamin Barber on the state of Libya’s democratization; the MTA moves to add cell phone service to subway platforms and proposes new upgrades; we get analysis of Attorney General Cuomo's plan to use the Martin Act to go after energy companies; and we take calls from African-American listeners on the Republican presidential candidates' snub of the Tavis Smiley debate.

Listen to the whole show

Can You Hear Me Now?

Paul Fleuranges, spokesman for the MTA, talks about the the MTA's deal to allow cellphone service in subway stations.

Acting Out

New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo invoked the Martin Act this week to tackle five energy companies. Eric O. Corngold, executive deputy Attorney General for Economic Justice talks about the use of the Martin Act. Then, Alan Lewis, partner at Carter, Ledyard & Milburn, and Dale Bryk, senior attorney with NRDC, discuss if this is an innovative use of the Martin Act.

Link to the Attorney General's website with information on the Martin Act
Natural Resources Defense Council
Carter Ledyard & Milburn LLP

Rating the Housing Market

Bob Guskind, editor of the real estate blog, Curbed, examines the impact of the fed rate cut on New York's housing market, in our weekly look at real-estate during the month of September.

Democracy in Libya

Benjamin Barber, professor of civil society at the University of Maryland, senior fellow at Demos and the author of Consumed: How Markets Corrupt Children, Infantilize Adults, and Swallow Citizens Whole (Norton, 2007), discusses the democratization of Libya.

Prof. Barber's Washington Post op-ed
Conference website

Open Phones: Tavis Smiley Debate

African American callers express how they feel about some of the Republican presidential candidates dropping out of Tavis Smiley's debate on PBS.

Subway Talk

Sewell Chan, reporter for The New York Times and blogger for the City Room, tells us about other proposals made by the MTA to improve communication during a crisis in the transit system.

City Room Blog