On the Monday November 6th, 2017 edition of WITF's Smart Talk:

If states learned anything from the Great Recession, it was to spot the warning signs of economic collapse and prepare accordingly.  America watched the dot-com bubble burst in 2001, it shouldn't have been a surprise to watch the real estate bubble explode in 2008.  It is called a bubble.

This is why the findings of an October report from Moody's Analytics should raise red flags for Pennsylvanians; the Commonwealth ranks near the bottom of the fifty states insofar as being prepared to confront another economic recession.

Prior to the recession, the states had a combined reserve of nearly $60 billion.  The impact of the recession on states' budget stabilization funds exceeded $117 billion.  Pennsylvania lacks the cash reserves needed to make the fiscal adjustments necessary to flex with the economic stress of a recession.  In fact, PA is carrying a negative balance in its annual reserve.  

On the Monday edition of Smart Talk, we'll speak with the report's author, Daniel White of Moody's Analytics, about the ramifications of being unprepared for financial meltdown.  We'll also be joined by Matthew Knittel, executive director of the state's Independent Fiscal Office who can speak to the status of the state's cash reserves and credit rating and, in turn, the state's overall preparedness.

Matthew Knittel, executive director, Pennsylvania Independent Fiscal Office

Also, in the confusion following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, it was Secretary of War Edwin Stanton who stepped up to manage the messaging and the search for the president's assassin.  As one of the architects of the North's victory in the Civil War, he modernized military supply and transportation methods.

Biographer Walter Stahr chronicles Stanton's career as the head of Lincoln's War Department and his administration of the Civil War in Stanton: Lincoln's War Secretary; Stahr joins Smart Talk to discuss the legacy of Edwin Stanton.

Walter Stahr appears at Midtown Scholar Bookstore in Harrisburg to discuss the book on November 11.