From PRI, Public Radio International and KCRW Santa Monica, this is To the Point.

Is the U.S. becoming a banana republic?

Hello again, I'm Armin Alney, and this is To the Point from Public Radio International, a daily look at the issues.

Americans care about most.

An article in the Atlantic magazine is drawing a lot of attention from Wall Street to Washington.

It's about cozy relations between financial and political institutions

that make the U.S. look like Argentina, Russia, Indonesia, and other emerging markets.

A former chief economist for the International Monetary Fund

says Democrats and Republicans

have enabled financial oligarchs

to accumulate too much political power.

So much they can resist the reforms that are needed

for economic recovery.

We'll talk with him and others

about some sobering realities today.

First, here's the news.

Support for To the Point comes from subscribers of KCRW Santa Monica

and from the Public Radio International Program Fund,

whose contributors include the Ford Foundation and the John D.

and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Hello again, Warren Olney, back with To the Point. As the U.S.

economy continues to struggle, it turns out that what was good for Wall Street wasn't good for America

after all. We'll talk with a former chief economist for the International Monetary Fund, who says

...