Joining us for a new season of McCuistion TV, host Dennis McCuistion is joined by:

• Steve Forbes – President and CEO of Forbes Magazine and author of Power, Ambition, Glory: The Stunning Parallels between Great Leaders of the Ancient World and Today . . . and the Lessons You Can Learn
• Thomas E. Woods, JR., PhD – Senior Fellow at Ludwig von Mises Institute and author of Meltdown

During this conversation centering around the financial crisis, Thomas Woods asserts that people are tired of conventional wisdom.  Guest, Steve Forbes believes most of the present problem in the breakdown of the free market economic system was caused by huge government errors. Forbes contends that the Federal Reserve printed too much money and made it artificially cheap. In addition lenders such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac underwrote too many junk mortgages.

“If private business makes a mistake they pay for it, if government does, we all do. Wall Street underwrote and securitized, but government distorts the free market.”

Thomas Woods touches on his new book, Meltdown,  and the reason he pushed hard to have the book released early. He believes having a free market perspective on the credit crunch is essential for people to understand what has truly happened. He says, “the government and the Federal Reserve’s fingerprints are all over this situation.”

Dennis addresses the Fred Foldvary prediction of a real estate depression in 2008.

They conclude with comments on the speculation in real estate, the magnificent money creation machine government made and how this was an artificial stimulus to speculation.

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1801 – 09.27.09

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Dennis McCuistion is joined once again by Fawaz Gerges, Ph.D. to talk about the situation in the Middle East and the past and future of Jihadists. Fawaz Gerges is the author of Journey of the Jihadist: Inside Muslim Militancy and the Christian A. Johnson Chairholder in International Affairs and Middle East Studies at Sarah Lawrence College.

Dr. Gerges joins us once again to discuss the impact of Jihadists. He states, “A Jihadist is an Islamic activist who wants to replace the secular state with Islamic Sharia Law with all means at their disposal including violence and terrorism to bring about their Utopia.”  But he says, “we’re talking about a tiny group, thousands, not millions.”

[flashvideo file=wp-content/uploads/1600/1603_jihadists-Jihadists-1603.flv /]

Dr. Gerges  goes on to talk about the limited group of extremists such as Al Qaeda,“who manipulate and distort Islam in order to garner political support at home.” He acquaints viewers further with why he conducted his studies, spending over 16 months in the Middle East region, interviewing Jihadists as well as mainstream Muslims. Dr. Gerges helps us to better understand what caused this problem.

Join us to get a clearer perspective on how the Jihadist movement has changed since its inception in the 1970’s beginning in Egyptian Universities as a socialist movement.  Through this episode you’ll also gain a more thorough understanding of how we got to 9/11 and where the dangers still remain.

Niki Nicastro McCuistion
Executive Producer/Producer

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1603

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During this episode of McCuistion Television’s, “How America Is Seen in the Arab and Muslim World,” Dennis McCuistion is joined by Fawaz Gerges, Ph.D. Fawaz Gerges is the author of Journey of the Jihadist: Inside Muslim Militancy and the Christian A. Johnson Chairholder in International Affairs and Middle East Studies at Sarah Lawrence College.

In the wake of 9/11, Americans were seen favorably by most people in the Middle East. Dr. Gerges, a Middle East scholar, who spends time researching how America is viewed in the Arab and Muslim world has traveled from Lebanon, to Yemen, Syria to Jordan and Algeria. He believes that today the feeling against America has both consolidated and hardened. According to Dr. Gerges,

“There is a deep anger and rage, some of which has come about as  a result of the Iraq war… There is a problem. We are losing the average Muslim, the floating middle ground, and this is a red flag.”

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Dr. Gerges, who spent over 16 months in the region, interviewed hundreds of policy makers, opinion makers and Jihadists. He talks about his work as, “a book of voices. I let militants and Jihadists tell their own stories.”

Join us and Dr. Gerges as he shares his ideas as to why America was attacked on 9/11 and illuminates the differences between Jihadists and Islamists. He talks about why we should care about not alienating Muslim public opinion and why we are seen as a colonial power.

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1602

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