Business & Economy

Columnist Bob Sullivan covers Internet scams and consumer fraud for MSNBC.com, where he writes a column called The Red Tape Chronicles. His new book is about the hidden fees found in many phone, cable, credit card and other bills.

Investigative reporter David Cay Johnston explores in his new book how in recent years, government subsidies and new regulations have quietly funneled money from the poor and the middle class to the rich and politically connected.

Author Robert Kuttner writes in The Squandering of America that many of the economic policies and regulations established during the New Deal have since been replaced by a more business-friendly free market system. Kuttner is the founder and co-editor of The American Prospect.

Pulitzer Prize-winning business columnist Gretchen Morgenson talks about the subprime mortgage crisis and its effects on the markets and on the economy. Morgenson, an assistant business and financial editor for The New York Times, has covered the financial markets for The Times since 1998.

For 18 years, from 1987 to 2006, Alan Greenspan was chair of the Federal Reserve Board — the United States' central banker, in charge of steering the nation's monetary policy. His every word was scrutinized by markets, read like tea leaves by market makers and investors looking for clues to his thoughts on the economy's health.

We love low prices, sure, but we frown at the things companies do to get us good deals — like paying low wages. In his book Supercapitalism, economist Robert Reich looks at the divided mind of the consumer and citizen.

Forbes magazine writer Robyn Meredith talks about the economic realities behind her new book: The Elephant and the Dragon: The Rise of India and China and What It Means for All of Us. Previously, Meredith wrote for The New York Times and USA Today.

Harvard Law Professor Elizabeth Warren is an expert on bankruptcy and is an outspoken critic of consumer lenders.

Recently she appeared before the Senate Banking Committee to discuss the abusive lending practices by credit card companies. She considers the interest charges and late fees imposed by credit card companies to a "hidden tax" on cardholders.

Warren is also the author of The Two-Income Trap: Why Middle Class Mothers and Fathers Are Going Broke.

As president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Andy Stern led his union -- along with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and several others -- out of the AFL-CIO to start the Change to Win Federation, the first new labor movement in 50 years.

Our television critic reviews the new drama series Brothers & Sisters, which airs on Sunday night in the ABC time slot previously occupied by Grey's Anatomy.

Journalist Adam Roberts of The Economist talks about his new book, The Wonga Coup: Guns, Thugs and a Ruthless Determination to Create Mayhem in an Oil-Rich Corner of Africa. Roberts tells the story of a group of mercenaries and merchants who hatched a plan to topple the dictatorship of Equatorial Guinea in order to reap the profits from the country's oil resources.

Environmentalist William Powers' new book is Whispering in the Giant's Ear: A Frontline Chronicle From Bolivia's War on Globalization. Powers is also the author of Blue Clay People, about Liberia. He has worked for over a decade in development aid in Latin America, Africa and Washington DC.

While the Northern Marianas Islands are a U.S. territory, they are exempt from the usual American laws regulating minimum wage, tariffs, quotas and immigration. Yet clothing sewn in the sweatshops bears the "made in the USA" label. To further complicate matters, the Marianas were a client of Jack Abramoff, who, with the help of Tom Delay, blocked legislation that would have eliminated these exemptions.

We remember author and TV host Louis Rukeyser, who died Tuesday from a rare cancer of the bone marrow. He was 73. Rukeyser hosted Wall $treet Week With Louis Rukeyser on PBS from 1970-2002. We listen back to a 1984 interview with him.

Recent controversies such as Google's business in China and the U.S. government's role in policing eBay transactions have put a spotlight on the intersection between governments and the Internet. Legal scholars Jack Goldsmith and Tim Wu address the issue in their new book, Who Controls the Internet? Illusions of a Borderless World.

Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) talks about his new book, America Back on Track. In the book, Sen. Kennedy identifies what he sees as key challenges facing the United States now, and offers possible solutions.

New York Times business writer Louis Uchitelle argues for corporations to move towards preserving jobs. His new book, The Disposable American, is also a history of the rise of layoffs in the United States.

Two new documentaries probe the effects of outside influences on third-world countries. In Our Brand is Crisis, the arrival of U.S. campaign consultants threatens the outcome of a Bolivian presidential election. And Darwin's Nightmare is about the devastation of Lake Victoria in Tanzania.

Nixon adviser Kevin Phillips' book The Emerging Republican Majority was hailed as a visionary work of political analysis. But in American Theocracy, he argues that the Republican Party — and the country — is headed for disaster.

The new season of The Sopranos opens on Sunday, bringing the world of Tony and Carmela, Christopher and Paulie Walnuts back to dens around the country. The show's last previous episode aired in the summer of 2004.