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"We know that two-thirds of corporations in the U.S. pay no taxes at all. General Electric was not only paying no taxes but taking a three billion dollar tax benefit," notes Josh Holland, editor & senior writer at AlterNet and author of The Fifteen Biggest Lies about the Economy. And while corporations are finagling their way out of paying taxes, working people still have no money to spend to keep the economy moving--and thus the recession goes on. Josh joins Laura in studio to talk about taxes and other lies politicians tell about the economy.

Glenn Beck might not have a lot of advertisers left, but he's got a lot of viewers still. And the Obama administration recently showed off just how terrified they are of the FOX News host by pressuring Shirley Sherrod to leave her position because of the threat of a video appearing on Beck's show. But Beck didn't start off as a journalist (or a demagogue), he came from much humbler beginnings. Alexander Zaitchik has a new book out, Common Nonsense, looking at the background and bluster of FOX's star, and he joins us in studio, along with historian and author of Nixonland Rick Perlstein via phone, to discuss, give some context, and to try and answer the serious question: How much attention should progressives really be paying to Beck?The St. Nicks Alliance Neighborhood Preservation Corp of North Brooklyn is putting a new spin on community development.

The financial reform bill made it through the first Republican filibuster last week and is being debated and amended now on the Senate floor. Regulating Wall Street isn't easy, though, and economics journalist Zach Carter has noted that the proposed reforms are "pretty flimsy"--he uncovered a loophole that allows banks to continue to make illegal trades without punishment! Zach joins us via Skype from Virginia to discuss the financial reform bill and to explain in plain language just why derivatives continue to be so scary. GRITtv with Laura Flanders brings participatory democracy onto your computer screen and into your living room, bridging the gap between audience and advocates. Watch any show, at any time: http://grittv.org Distributed by Tubemogul.

Last Friday, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed into law the country's most repressive immigration bill, SB 1070, which criminalizes undocumented immigrants and gives police the authority to demand papers from anyone they suspect of being undocumented. Though Brewer, a Republican who took over from Janet Napolitano when she left to become Obama's Homeland Security secretary, claims that there are protections in the bill to prevent racial profiling, it's hard to imagine a way that officers will decide from whom to demand papers that won't involve the color of their skin or the language that they speak. Rinku Sen of ColorLines and the Applied Research Center joins us to discuss the bill, the criminalization of immigrants, and what to do to fight back. "America is coming back stronger, better, and faster than nearly anyone expected, and faster than most of its international rivals," says Daniel Gross in Newsweek recently, declaring that all the doom and gloom about the economy was just exaggeration. But is that really the case? Or is the economy still failing far too many people? David DeGraw, author of "The Economic Elite vs. The People of the United States of America," says that the story of recovery is just a bit premature. Both men join Laura in studio to debate the state of the economy. New York City braced last week for a strike by the doormen of the Service Employees International Union's local 32BJ. Late negotiations might have prevented the strike for now, but GRITtv was on the scene as the mobilization grew and we're happy to bring you this report on their struggle. A special thanks to Anna Gold and Zuhal Danyildiz for this report. And speaking of New York's doormen, Laura has some thoughts about workers and the jobs they do--and how they get compensated for all that hard work.