In the first segment:
The congress continues to squabble over government shutdowns and a recent Pew poll shows that party lines determine how important a person think the debt ceiling deadline is with 52 percent of Republican respondents saying the country could go past it without major ramifications. Fitch Ratings has put the US AAA bond rating on a negative watch list, meaning it could soon be downgraded. Conversely, markets that plunged 2000 points in two weeks in the lead up to the 2011 debt ceiling clash have yet to respond as dramatically. So is it a big deal?
Stanford Economist, Scott Baker, joins us to talk about the impacts.
In the second segment:
The pecan has deep roots in Texas and the new book "The Pecan: A History of America's Native Nut" details just how deep they are. From the indigenous scavengers all the way up to the rise of China and India grabbing up everything they can these days, the book walks us through the history. And despite other agricultural products like tomatoes and potatoes being taken from their native soils of America and grown throughout, the pecan production remains largely in here at home.
James McWilliams, Ingram Professor of History at Texas State University, joins us to talk about his new book.