NPR Marketplace Tonight: It’s a Brave New World Out There Folks . . .

Kai Ryssdal is the host of Marketplace on NPR. His parting comments this evening: “This final note on the way out today about what’s happening in and to this economy right now, an economy that I am obliged to remind you affects everyone. A lot of what happens in American capitalism is far from perfect, we all know that, but the same kind of capitalism that’s so problematic is also what makes the United States, despite those flaws, the economic envy of the world. And that doesn’t just happen out of nowhere. There’s a baseline set of conditions that foster the investment, the trust and the confidence that make the American economy what it is. The institutions of this economy work in no small part because the institutions of this democracy work. The rule of law, regulations and processes clearly set forth an expectation of fairness and of recourse when wronged. And all of them are under assault right now. There are illegal takeovers of government systems, there are illegal shutdowns of government agencies and departments, there are mass firings in critical agencies, and there are private operators assuming government power and government authority. I said two weeks ago that this program is not gonna chase everything that comes out of the White House, and we’re not, but the lasting structural damage that’s deliberately [his voice cracks on the word deliberately] being done to this economy and to everybody in it simply has to be pointed out.”