Hello and welcome to the Intelligence on Economist Radio.

I'm your host, Jason Palmer.

Every weekday, we provide a fresh perspective on the events shaping your world.

South Africa's president has a lot on his plate after his first year in office.

Unemployment is rising, international investment is falling,

and he's promised to tackle the corruption that runs rampant in his party.

Oh, and there's an election coming up.

Also, it's the elephant in the room, the smoking gun,

sometimes it's the straw that breaks the camel's back.

Metaphors can go too far, and our language columnist declares war.

First up, though.

Last week, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a new congresswoman with big policy ambitions, revealed her green New Deal.

It's a proposal for sweeping new legislation on the environment and much more.

Climate change and our environmental challenges are one of the biggest existential threats to our way of life, not just as a nation, but as a world. And in order for us to combat that threat, we must be as ambitious and

innovative in our solution as possible. That ambition is evident in the plan's name, harking back to

Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal, itself a radical set of policies to repair and rebuild a country wracked by the

Depression.

It is time for courageous action, and the recovery bill gives us the meaning.

Cory Booker was among the co-sponsors of the resolution and evinced the same spirit of radical

change.

I believe the America should lead, and it should lead boldly.

And so the Green New Deal is this bold idea that we need to lean in to do something about...

...