The Economy: A Survival Guide

What should you do in this troubled economy? In this joint production with American Public Media's Marketplace, Kai Ryssdal guest hosts and leads a panel of experts as they try to answer that question and provide a little context on what it all means for California. Guests include:

Dan Schnur
Director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at the University of Southern California
Schnur has appeared as an analyst and political commentator for CNN, MSNBC, Fox News and National Public Radio. He has worked on four presidential and three gubernatorial campaigns, serving as national director of communications for Sen. John McCain in 2000 and as both press secretary and communications director for California Gov. Pete Wilson before that. During the 2008 campaign Schnur wrote a regular column for The New York Times' political opinion website, Campaign Stops. Schnur is also an Adjunct Instructor at the University of California at Berkeley's Institute of Governmental Studies.

Chris Thornberg
Founding Partner, Beacon Economics
Thornberg is the chief economic advisor to the California State Controller's Office and serves as Chair of California State Controller John Chiang's Council of Economic Advisors. He was one of the earliest and most insistent predictors of the housing market crash and of the economic recession that has followed. He has been involved in a number of special studies measuring the effect of important events on the economy, including the NAFTA treaty, the California electricity crisis, port security, California's water transfer programs, and the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

Liz Weston
Award-winning, nationally-syndicated personal finance columnist 
Weston's question-and-answer column, "Money Talk," appears in newspapers throughout the country, including the Los Angeles Times, The Palm Beach Post, The Oregonian, Stars and Stripes and others. She is the most-read personal finance columnist on the Internet, according to Nielsen/NetRatings. Her latest book is "The 10 Commandments of Money: Survive and Thrive in the New Economy."  Weston is a regular commentator on American Public Media's "Marketplace Money" and has contributed to NPR's "Talk of the Nation" and "All Things Considered." She has appeared on "Dr. Phil," "Today Show" and "NBC Nightly News," and was for several years a weekly commentator on CNBC's "Power Lunch." She also writes a money column, "My Two Cents," for AARP The Magazine.

Kai Ryssdal is the host of Marketplace. He first appeared on SoCal Connected as correspondent for the episode Lot 354: A Tale of America's Housing Meltdown, which was also a joint production with American Public Media's Marketplace.