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The global financial crisis has focused attention on the power of unfettered free markets. But for decades now, that power has dealt a bad hand to those on the losing end of the global economy.

From the world’s poorest countries to its richest, whole populations have been battered as once secure jobs disappeared, and with them economic mobility.

Jon Jeter, former Washington Post bureau chief in southern Africa and South America, has seen globalization’s impact on the third world. And as an African-American man he’s seen the same forces undoing progress in black America.

This hour, On Point: what globalization has wrought, from South Africa to Chicago’s South Side.

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, and on Facebook.

-Jack Beatty, guest host

Guests:

Jon Jeter joins us from New York. He was The Washington Post’s bureau chief for southern Africa from 1999 to 2003, and the Post’s bureau chief for South America from 2003 to 2004. He was twice a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. His new book is “Flat Broke in the Free Market.” In a blog post at powells.com, Jeter describes what led him to write the book.

Joining us from Washington is Arvind Panagariya, professor of economics at Columbia University and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. He has worked at the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and World Trade Organization. He is author of “India: The Emerging Giant.”

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, third from right, speaks during a meeting with Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan, third from left, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Monday, June 1, 2009. (AP)

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While Barack Obama was dealing with the bankruptcy of GM yesterday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner was in Beijing, dealing with what may be even bigger issues for the USA.

China is now the biggest holder of U.S. government debt. When the U.S. spends money on GM or Iraq or stimulus at home, that is — in a very real sense — China’s money.

Geithner was there to make sure Chinese leaders believe the U.S. is good for it. A new poll, out while he was there, found 87 percent of Chinese respondents believe it is not.

This hour, On Point: Soothing America’s banker — China.

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, and on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Joining us from Beijing is James Fallows, national correspondent and widely read blogger for The Atlantic. He’s been based in China since 2006, and his latest book, “Postcards from Tomorrow Square,” collects his articles for the magazine during that time. His piece “Be Nice to the Countries That Lend You Money,” an interview with the president of China Investment Corporation, appeared in the December 2008 issue.

In our studio we’re joined by Li Jin, professor of finance at Harvard Business School. He has taught at Fudan University in Shanghai and served as a consultant for Shanghai International Securities Co. Ltd.

And from New York we’re joined by Brad Setser, economist and fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. He has worked at the U.S. Treasury Department and the International Monetary Fund. You can read his latest thoughts at his blog, Follow the Money.

Dambisa Moyo

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The world has poured aid into post-colonial Africa. And Africa remains overwhelmingly poor.

Now, one young African economist is speaking up to say, “stop the aid.” No more concerts for Africa. No more heartfelt appeals.

Dambisa Moyo — from Zambia by way of Harvard, Oxford, and Goldman Sachs — says tough market discipline is what African nations need, not handouts. She argues that the more than $1 trillion in aid that’s gone to Africa has not helped the continent, but put it on life support. Stifled entrepreneurship. Fed corruption. Made Africa’s leaders beholden to the West.

She’s been on the road with her controversial message. The pushback has been loud and strong.

This hour, On Point: We’re debating aid for Africa, with Dambisa Moyo.

You can join the conversation. Could Bono be wrong? What about Dambisa Moyo? How do you see aid to Africa?

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Joining us from London is Dambisa Moyo, economist and author of the new book “Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa.” She is former head of economic research and strategy for sub-Saharan Africa at Goldman Sachs and a former World Bank consultant.

From New York we’re joined by John McArthur, chief executive of the Millennium Promise, created to help achieve the United Nation’s eight Millennium Development goals, which include cutting global poverty in half by 2015.  He oversees the Millennium Villages project, which helps more than 400,000 people in rural communities across 10 countries in Africa to become economically viable. He is also research associate at the Earth Institute at Columbia University, where he teaches at the School of International and Public Affairs.

President Barack Obama gestures during a press conference at the end of the G20 Summit at the Excel centre in London on April 2, 2009. (AP)

It was G20 time this week. President Barack Obama’s debut on the world stage, and a stab at slowing global economic meltdown.

There were no miracles, but there were steps: a trillion dollars for emerging nations and — in spite of the First Lady touching the Queen (oh, horrors!) — a sense of shared purpose, for now.

Back home, the White House got most of the budget it wanted from Congress. Deficit to follow. And Detroit got a big, fat ultimatum. Bankruptcy for GM now a real and not-distant possibility.

This hour, On Point: Our weekly news roundtable goes behind the headlines.

You can join the conversation. Has the G20 done enough? Too much? The right thing? What about the Obamas abroad? The Obama budget at home? The White House ultimatum for GM and Chrysler?

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

From New York we’re joined by Chrystia Freeland, U.S. managing editor of The Financial Times. She interviewed President Obama on the eve of the G-20 summit in London.

Joining us from Washington is Liz Halloran, Washington correspndent for NPR.org.

And from Hanover, N.H., we’re joined by Jack Beatty, On Point news analyst and senior editor at The Atlantic.

Ahead of the G20 summit, a lone protester delivers a speech on the financial issues, back dropped by the Bank of England, left, and the Royal Exchange, right, in central London's City financial district, Tuesday March 31, 2009. World leaders are gathering in London for the Group of 20 summit amid an unprecedented security operation to protect the meeting from possible violent protests. (AP)

President Obama stepped off Air Force One onto British soil last night — his first venture across the Atlantic since cheering multitudes greeted him last summer.

What a difference this time. Heading into tomorrow’s G-20 summit, he faces a global challenge greater than any since perhaps World War II. And his European allies aren’t all falling in line with his agenda. Many blame American-style capitalism for the global economic crisis. Yet can anyone but America lead them out? Will they follow?

This hour, On Point: The view from Europe, on the eve of the G-20.

You can join the conversation. What’s at stake at the G-20 meeting? Do you expect anything to come out of it? What do President Obama and the world’s leaders need to accomplish in London?

-Jane Clayson, guest host

Guests:

Joining us from London is Edward Luce, Washington Bureau Chief for The Financial Times. He’s covering the G20 summit in London.

Also from London, we’re joined by Richard Jackman, professor at the London School of Economics.

Joining us from Berlin is Joachim Fritz-Vannahme, director of European Affairs at the Bertelsmann Foundation. He’s former deputy editor-in-chief, and now an online columnist, for the German newsweekly Die Zeit.

And joining us in studio is Dominique Moisi, a founder and senior advisor at the French Institute for International Relations and currently a visiting professor at Harvard University. His new book, out next month, is “The Geopolitics of Emotion: How Cultures of Fear, Humiliation, and Hope are Reshaping the World.”

Chief executives of major U.S. banks leave the White House on Friday, March 27, 2009, after a meeting with President Barack Obama. From left: Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf; Morgan Stanley CEO John Mack; US Bank CEO Richard Davis; and Bank of America CEO Kenneth Lewis. (AP)

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Simon Johnson is raising hell over our response to the economic crisis so far. The former chief economist at the IMF says it’s been half-measures and soft steps and hasn’t gone nearly far enough to break up failed banks and knock back the Wall Street lords of finance.

The reason, he says, is that a financial elite has quietly taken over this country and its assumptions — sewn up power, he charges, as surely as in any banana republic — and barred the way to real change.

These are hot words from a top scholar and economist.

This hour, On Point: Simon Johnson on where we stand now in the economic crisis, and why.

You can join the conversation. Does Johnson’s analysis sound over-the-top to you? Just right? Are we taking the right steps to reset the American economy? Does the U.S. really deserve the label “banana republic”?

-Tom Ashbrook

Guest:

Joining us from Washington is Simon Johnson, professor at MIT’s Sloan School of Management. Former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund, he’s now a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. His new article in The Atlantic, “The Quiet Coup,” argues that “the finance industry has effectively captured our government — a state of affairs that more typically describes emerging markets.” He co-founded the widely read blog The Baseline Scenario, where you can read his latest commentary.

Infosys Technologies Ltd. co-chairman Nandan Nilekani, looks on at the National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM) India Leadership Forum 2009 in Mumbai, India, Wednesday. Feb. 11, 2009. (AP)

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When it comes to business in India, the names don’t get much bigger the Nandan Nilekani.

He’s been compared to Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Steve Jobs. His company, Infosys, became huge taking over backroom software operations for companies around the world — many in the U.S. New York Times columnist Tom Friedman used Nilekani’s firm as Exhibit A in arguing that the world has turned “flat” — that is, wide open for global competition.

Now, the world economy has also turned stone cold. How does it look from the land of Nilekani?

This hour, On Point: Superstar Nandan Nilekani, and the view from India now.

You can join the conversation. If the world is flat, what do you need to hear from India about how we all get out of this mess? Do you see India as an economic partner? An economic problem?

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Nandan Nilekani joins us from New York. He is a co-founder and now co-chairman of Infosys Technologies, based in Bangalore, one of India’s largest IT companies. In 2006 Time magazine listed him as one of the world’s 100 most influential people and Forbes named him “Businessman of the Year” for Asia. New York Times columnist and author Tom Friedman made Nandan Nilekani a global brand in his book “The World is Flat.” Nilekani’s new book is “Imagining India: The Idea of a Renewed Nation.” Watch Nilekani’s appearance on last night’s Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

Joining us from Palo Alto, California, is Gururaj “Desh” Deshpande, co-founder of the American IT firm Sycamore Networks and chairman of its Board of Directors. He and his wife are founding donors of MIT’s Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation and trustees of the Deshpande Foundation in India. Himself Indian, he has lived here in the U.S. for the last 30 years.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner talks at a press conference at the G-20 Finance Ministers meeting near Horsham, England, on March 14, 2009. Finance officials from the world's richest and leading developing countries pledged a "sustained effort" to restore the global economy to growth. (AP)

While Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner was south of London over the weekend at a G-20 meeting to brace up global finance, things exploded back in the USA over news that bailout giant AIG was ready to ship nearly half a billion dollars out the door in fat bonuses — after raking in public billions to stay afloat.

It’s a minefield out there in the worlds of banking and finance, and the mines are not cleared yet. From global summits, to rage over Wall Street, to toxic assets and the bank next door, the race to repair and rethink is still on.

This hour, On Point: From the G-20 to AIG, the unfinished turmoil in global banking and finance.

You can join the conversation. Will America’s cowboy capitalism survive the global meltdown? Will European-style regulation let the economy come back? And what about those bonuses at AIG?

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Chris Giles, economics editor of The Financial Times. He covered the meeting of G-20 finance ministers at Horsham, England, this weekend.

Kenneth Rogoff, professor of economics and public policy at Harvard University. He was chief economist and director of research at the International Monetary Fund from 2001 to 2003.

Eswar Prasad, senior professor of trade policy at Cornell University and former head of the China Division and the Financial Studies Division at the International Monetary Fund. He is also a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. He wrote recently for Brookings about the G-20 stimulus plans.

The Earth as seen from space in a 2007 photo composite image from NASA made over a span of several months and from different angles. (AP/NASA)

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The U.S. stock market took a big jump yesterday, and everyone cheered.

Almost everyone.

There is a big school of thought out there that says we must not just bounce back from this downturn. We must come back changed. This isn’t just a great recession we’re in, they say. It’s “The Great Disruption” — nature and the economy hitting the wall, collapsing, at the same time.

Australian environmentalist Paul Gilding invented the phrase. American climate expert Joseph Romm says the free ride is over. They’re both with us today.

This hour, On Point: Money, Mother Nature, and “The Great Disruption.”

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Paul Gilding, former executive director of Greenpeace International and founder of the environmental consulting firm ECOS. He’s now an independent writer, advisor and advocate for issues of sustainability and climate change.  He first wrote about the idea of a “Great Disruption” in 2005.

Joseph Romm, physicist and climate expert. He served in the US Department of Energy in the Clinton Administration. He’s now a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and editor of the blog climateprogress.org.

More links:

New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman’s piece on Sunday, “The Inflection is Near?” – in which he highlights the work of both Paul Gilding and Joseph Romm – was #1 on NYTimes.com’s most e-mailed list this week.

A sign shows US President Barack Obama during a protest against job cuts and high interest rates outside the central bank in Sao Paulo on Jan. 21, 2009. Brazil's Labor Ministry says the country lost 654,000 jobs in December as the international financial crisis slammed Latin America's largest economy. (AP)

President Barack Obama got his first economic intelligence briefing last week from new CIA chief Leon Panetta. And in the midst of all the talk about global crisis fueling global unrest, Latin America got a special mention.

Eastern Europe has had violent protests. Ukraine is on the global watch list. But Panetta told reporters he has been warned of economic instability in Latin America, and he named names: Argentina, Venezuela, Ecuador. Is he right?

This hour, On Point: We’ll look at how the global economic meltdown is hitting Latin America.

You can join the conversation. Have you been following the crisis internationally? What are you hearing from friends and family to the south?

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Joining us from Fairfax, Virginia, is Joby Warrick, intelligence reporter for The Washington Post. He has been covering the security risks related to the global economic downturn, and reported last week on the president’s first economic intelligence briefing.

Joining us from Bogota, Colombia, is Ricardo Avila, editor-in-chief of Portafolio, a daily financial paper published in Colombia. He was chief of staff for the Organization of American States in Washington from 1996 to 2000 and served as Colombia’s deputy foreign affairs minister in 1992.

And from Toronto is John Price, managing director for business intelligence at Kroll Associates. Based in Miami, he has been watching Latin American markets and economies for 16 years.

James Fallows

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The Chinese New Year kicks off today: the Year of the Ox. Across China it’s firecrackers and New Year’s celebration.

But for the first time in years, China’s new year is not roaring in on an economic boom. After years of roaring double-digit growth, China’s export-driven economy has hit the skids. Factories closing. Millions out of work. And a new administration in Washington has already crossed swords with Beijing over the Chinese currency and trade.

China-watcher James Fallows has spent the last two and a half years in the country, digging deep into China’s realities and complexities. This hour, On Point: We’re looking at China with James Fallows.

You can join the conversation. What do you see ahead for China, and China-US relations, in the Year of the Ox? What’s your question on China now?

-Tom Ashbrook

Guest:

James Fallows is a national correspondent for The Atlantic. He’s been based in China since 2006, and his new book, “Postcards from Tomorrow Square: Reports from China,” collects his articles for The Atlantic during that time.  He’s the author of several other books, including “Blind Into Baghdad: America’s War in Iraq” (2006) and “Looking at the Sun: The Rise of the New East Asian Economic and Political System” (1995).

You can read an excerpt from “Postcards” at the Random House site. And for Fallows’ latest thoughts on China, U.S. politics, and much else, see his widely read Atlantic blog.

President Barack Obama speaks to reporters during a meeting about the economy with Congressional leaders, Friday, Jan. 23, 2009, in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington. From left are, House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif. and the president. (AP)

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The economy just gets worse. The new Obama administration is pushing urgently for a huge stimulus package. $825 billion. Now Republicans are saying no. Too big, too much spending, said minority leader John Boehner yesterday.

But the leading free-market economist of the last generation, Ronald Reagan’s top economic adviser in the White House, is saying yes to stimulus.

Economist Martin Feldstein says it wouldn’t be his first choice, but there is now no other way. We’re out of options.

This hour, On Point: Uber-economist Martin Feldstein on the global economy and the stimulus challenge.

You can join us. Are you ready to hit the giant spend button in Washington to save the economy? Are you with the Republican minority in resisting?

-Tom Ashbrook

Guest:

Joining us in our studio is Martin Feldstein, economics professor at Harvard University, president emeritus of the National Bureau of Economic Research, and former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Reagan. The Wall Street Journal says he “may be the most influential economist of his generation.” He’s taught everyone from Obama advisor Larry Summers and the new head of the Congressional Budget Office, Doug Elmendorf, to Bush advisors Lawrence Lindsay and Glenn Hubbard. A longtime advocate of free-market economics, he’s known as the “father” of the George W. Bush tax cuts.

More links:

Feldstein made waves recently by coming out strongly in support of a major stimulus package. Here you can read his recommendations on the economy to Congress.

A Wall Street Journal blog post provides an interesting look at Dr. Feldstein’s network of former students, who continue to populate Washington’s upper echelons. The Journal also notes that he’s found a new voice.

Meanwhile, Nouriel Roubini has real concerns that 2009 will bring even worse financial news. George Soros thinks there’s a right way and a wrong way to save the banks. And the New York Times’ Paul Krugman remains uncertain about President Obama’s direction on the economy.

Police stand guard as workers gather in a standoff over a wage dispute at the gate of Jianrong Suitcase Factory in Dongguan, China, on Dec. 19, 2008. (AP)

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Has any year ever begun with more of the world’s fate and fortune riding on China? Maybe not.

Thirty years ago last month, Deng Xiaoping put China on the path to its own brand of market capitalism. It’s been an explosion ever since. Now, at the dawn of 2009, China’s having trouble: Exports down, factories closing, millions losing jobs.

But more than ever, the world is tied into what China does next. Obama’s big stimulus? Chinese billions would make it happen. And then there’s China’s own stability.

This hour, On Point: China’s next move.

You can join the conversation. Is this just a Chinese hiccup? Will China refuel the U.S. economy? Will U.S. consumers restart the Chinese miracle?

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Joining us from Beijing is Anthony Kuhn, Beijing correspondent for NPR. See an archive of his recent reports from China at NPR.org.

From Shanghai we’re joined by James Areddy, Shanghai correspondent for The Wall Street Journal.  Last month the Journal reported on rising unrest as China’s economy falters.  He was with us in Shanghai last April.

Also from Shanghai is Shen Dingli, professor and executive dean of Fudan University’s Institute of International Studies. He’s also a fellow at the Asia Society, a global organization based in New York.

John Maynard Keynes, right, with Assistant U.S. Treasury Secretary Harry Dexter White at the inaugural meeting of the International Monetary Fund's Board of Governors in Savannah, Georgia, March 8, 1946.

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Economist John Maynard Keynes was a giant of the 20th century — until he wasn’t.

In the Great Depression and beyond, Keynesian economics had government rolling out massive spending to stimulate slumping economies. Then Keynes fell out of fashion, and the free market gurus ruled.

Now, in the rubble of the go-go market years, Keynes is back — big-time. Obama’s team is talking about maybe a trillion-dollar stimulus package. That’s Keynesian on a grand scale.

Economist Robert Skidelsky is the great biographer and master of Keynes. This hour, On Point: Skidelsky on Keynes.

You can join the conversation. Are we all Keynesian now — ready, with Barack Obama, to pour on the economic stimulus? The government spending? Do we have a choice? Share your thoughts.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guest:

Joining us from London is Lord Robert Skidelsky, emeritus professor of political economy at the University of Warwick, director of the Moscow School of Political Studies, and a trustee of the Manhattan Institute. He is the preeminent biographer of John Maynard Keynes, having published a three-volume work, now condensed into a single volume: “John Maynard Keynes, 1883 to 1946: Economist, Philosopher, Statesman.” Director and adviser to mutual and hedge funds and enterprises from New York to Europe to Moscow: Janus Capital, the Greater Europe Fund, and Russian telecom giant Sistema. His columns and essays appear in print around the world, and he is active in the British House of Lords.

Read an excerpt from Skidelsky’s biography of Keynes at Amazon.com.

More links:

Skidelsky’s latest pieces in the New York Times, Washington Post, and Prospect magazine all look at Keynesian thinking in the context of the current economic crisis.

Employees of a nanomanufacturing technology company play volleyball before a backdrop of office towers which house several information technology companies at the International Tech Park in Bangalore, India, the capital of Indian outsourcing. (AP)

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The parents came to America, out of India, for opportunity. The son went back to India, to see what the old country has become. To stare at a miracle — at what has changed, and what has not.

In a single generation, India has gone from economic backwater to sizzling global player. It was famous for temples and bureaucracy. Now it’s famous for economic growth and offshore software.

Shining India. But it’s also the India of Mumbai terror, of ethnic tension, of millions still locked in poverty.

This hour, On Point: An Indian-American goes back to India.

You can join the conversation. Have you gone back to where your family came from? Back to India? Is the opportunity there now? Or still here, in the USA?

-Tom Ashbrook

Guest:

Anand Giridharadas joins us from Goa, India. His column “Letter from India” appears twice a month in the International Herald Tribune. From 2005 to 2008 he was South Asia correspondent for the paper, based in Mumbai. The American-born child of Indian immigrants, he moved to India in 2003 to work at the management consulting firm McKinsey & Company. He now lives in the village of Verla and is writing a book about social change in modern India.

His recent essay in The New York Times, “India Calling,” discussed his return to the country.  He wrote about the Mumbai terror attacks one week later.

Paul Krugman on Oct. 13, 2008, after winning the 2008 Nobel Prize in Economics. (AP)

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Paul Krugman got the Nobel Prize for economics in October, and it’s been nothing but economic mayhem ever since.

There is no cause and effect there, but the prize has given Krugman an even bigger soapbox than usual in the urgent global conversation over how to handle the crisis.

As Barack Obama heads into office, Krugman is calling more loudly than ever for a massive federal stimulus for the U.S. economy, and thereby the global economy. A new New Deal. Bigger than FDR’s.

This hour, On Point: Economist, columnist, and Nobel Prize winner Paul Krugman, on an economy still in crisis.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guest:

Paul Krugman is an economist at Princeton, a columnist for The New York Times (where he also writes a blog), and winner of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Economics. His new book is “The Return of Depression Economics and the Crisis of 2008.”

Financial historian Niall Ferguson knows humanity’s long trail of boom and bust cycles. But he is hardly buried in the past.

In the long run-up to today’s crisis, Ferguson was warning loud and clear that we were headed for trouble. He called it early, and he called it right.

Now, Ferguson is sizing up the mess we’re in. Bottom line guess, he says: we’re headed for ten percent unemployment and five-plus years of hard times.

On the other side, the world could look quite different. But the U.S., he says, still has some good cards to play. Saving graces.

This hour, On Point: Niall Ferguson, and the big view of the mess we’re in.

You can join the conversation. Big picture, what do you see going on in this economic crisis? Big hiccup? End of an era? Passing of the crown of superpower?

-Tom Ashbrook

Guest:

Joining us in our studio is Niall Ferguson, professor of history at Harvard University, professor at Harvard Business School, senior research fellow at Oxford University, and senior fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. A contributing editor of The Financial Times, his books include, “Empire,” “Colossus” and “The War of the World.” His latest is “The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World.” His article titled, “Wall Street Lays Another Egg,” appears in the current issue of Vanity Fair.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, center, listens as President Bush (not pictured) makes a statement after meeting with G7 finance ministers about the financial crisis on Saturday, Oct. 11, 2008, in Washington, DC. (AP)

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Global giddiness to start this week, as stock markets right around the world bounced big steps back after days of paralyzing fear and panic — and global moves to coordinate massive measures to shore up beaten-down banks and finance.

The U.S. is right in the middle of the rescue moves. But is it in the lead anymore?

Loud voices from abroad have angrily blamed American-style economics for the crash of ’08, and promised the American era in world finance is over. That things will be different now.

What would that mean?

This hour, On Point: global financial crisis — and where Americans will stand when the dust settles.

You can join the conversation. When the great meltdown of ’08 is over, will America still be the “indispensible nation”? And will the U.S. be the one to set this right, or does tomorrow belong to Asia and Europe? Share your thoughts.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Joining us from London is Daniel Hertzberg, deputy managing editor at The Wall Street Journal. He oversees the Journal’s Europe and Asia editions. In 1987, he shared both a Pulitzer Prize and the George Polk Award for coverage of the 1987 stock market crash.

Joining us from New York is Frederic Mishkin, a professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business and an expert in economic crashes. Until August he was a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve. His most recent book is “The Next Great Globalization: How Disadvantaged Nations Can Harness Their Financial Systems to Get Rich” (2006).

And from Washington we’re joined by Eswar Prasad, professor of trade policy at Cornell University, research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and a senior fellow for global economy and development at the Brookings Institution. He worked for 16 years at the International Monetary Fund, serving part of that time as head of the Financial Studies Division and the China Division.

An investor looks at the stock price monitor at a private securities company in Shanghai, China. (AP)

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The great American financial crisis of 2008 is absolutely disdainful of borders. Millions of Americans awake everyday now aware that reports from frightened markets in Europe and Asia may decide whether they work or retire, live well or live scared.

And the world looks on Wall Street’s meltdown with fascination and horror. Subprime loans on homes in Cleveland and Colorado can upend banks in Germany and HongKong.

What’s the perception of the U.S. financial crisis like in Shanghai, in Moscow? We’ll talk with experts around the world with their finger on the pulse of the local and global economies, and ask them what the meltdown looks like from outside our borders.

This hour, On Point: The U.S. financial crisis and its global implications.

You can join the conversation. How do you think the Wall Street crisis affects the relationship of the U.S. with the rest of the world? What does it look like from your neck of the woods.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Joining us from London is Chris Giles, economic editor at The Financial Times. See its coverage of the global financial crisis.

Joining us from Shanghai is James Areddy, China correspondent for The Wall Street Journal.

From Frankfurt, we’re joined by Christoph Pauly, financial correspondent for Der Spiegel.

And joining us from Moscow is Charles Clover, Moscow bureau chief for The Financial Times.

But they’re not. With a major deal last week, ownership of Anheuser-Busch is headed overseas, to Belgium. Coors’ ownership is already gone — to Canada. Miller, to South Africa. And that’s just in beer.

Across the American economy, a weak dollar and struggling U.S. markets have made America a bargain-basement for foreign buyers, who are snatching up American assets at a record clip.

This hour, On Point: American assets, foreign owned, and what that means for Americans.

-Tom Ashbrook

* * *

Guests:

Jeremiah McWilliams, business reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Matthew Slaughter, associate dean and professor of international economics at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.

Robert Scott, senior international economist and director of international programs at the Economic Policy Institute.

* * *

Closing Segment:

Understanding Short Selling

Short sellers are driving down stocks. But are they good for the economy?

Guest: Jesse Eisinger, senior writer for Portfolio magazine.