On the Sunday, May 13 edition of CNN's FAREED ZAKARIA GPS, host Fareed Zakaria interviewed outgoing World Bank president Robert Zoellick about global poverty, his views on the global economic crisis, and his future plans.

While Zoellick declined to comment on speculation that he may be under consideration for a cabinet role in a potential Romney Administration, he seems to indicate an interest in continuing to help solve America's economic and foreign policy challenges in a future political capacity.  He also identifies America's budget challenges as its primary domestic and foreign policy challenge.  Here is the related exchange:

FAREED ZAKARIA, HOST, "FAREED ZAKARIA GPS":  It's no secret, Bob, that many people think if Mitt Romney were elected president, he would turn to you, perhaps, to be secretary of State, perhaps secretary of Treasury. You're an unusual figure in that you could plausibly take both jobs or either job. You couldn't take both. Will you get more active in advising Governor Romney once...once you leave this job? FULL POST

In a FAREED ZAKARIA GPS exclusive that aired Sunday, May 6, Fareed Zakaria interviewed Edward Conard, former managing director of Bain Capital and author of the forthcoming book, Unintended Consequences (2012), which offers solutions for fixing America's economy.  Conard puts forth a defense for the rise of "the 1%" as essential to encouraging economic risk-taking as an engine of growth for the country.

Here is the exchange: FULL POST

The Sunday, April 29th edition of FAREED ZAKARIA GPS included an interview with former National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft (Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush Administrations), about current national security challenges and the state of the Republican party.  On the latter, Scowcroft answered his critics who say he is no longer a Republican and says he feels there is room for people who share his views inside the party – and that the party has been through evolutions before but history suggests it will evolve to a moderate place.  The exchange from this portion of the interview is below:

FAREED ZAKARIA: Are you comfortable with the Republican Party these days?

BRENT SCOWCROFT: Well, many parts of the party call me a RINO. FULL POST

On the Sunday, April 22 edition of FAREED ZAKARIA GPS , Fareed Zakaria reflected upon the effects of austerity budgets upon economic growth for Europe's economies.  He also compares the economic projections for several of Europe's economies with those for the United States.  The text for this commentary is below – a link to the transcript for the full program follows:

FAREED ZAKARIA, CNN HOST, “FAREED ZAKARIA GPS”:     ...first, here's my take.  A new poll in the United States shows that Americans are still deeply frustrated at the slow pace of the economic recovery.  That's understandable. Unemployment stays  stubbornly high.  But I was just in Europe, and they think America is booming.

Consider this: the U.S. economy is on track to grow between 2 and 3 percent this year.  In Europe, by contrast, half the eurozone economies are going to actually shrink this year and not one major European country will grow over 1 percent. FULL POST

The Sunday, April 22 edition of FAREED ZAKARIA GPS included an interview with Andrew Sullivan, editor of "The Dish" and columnist for Newsweek, about immigration.  Sullivan offered very personal reflections, describing his dashed hopes at becoming an American citizen following learning his HIV positive status in 1993, and because his status as a married homosexual does not grant him federal recognition as a spouse by the American government.  A highlight of this interview is below: FULL POST

CNN's Fareed Zakaria welcomed the director of the White House National Economic Council, Gene Sperling to FAREED ZAKARIA GPS this weekend.  In a wide-ranging interview, Sperling remarks that the unemployment rate could have been well under eight percent if measures proposed by the president to prevent teacher layoffs and infrastructure proposals to encourage construction hiring had been passed by Congress.

For the interview with Mr. Sperling, and the full transcript of this program, please visit this link.

FAREED ZAKARIA GPS airs Sundays at 10:00am and 1:00pm ET/U.S.

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CNN's Fareed Zakaria says  Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) once pointed out that the tax code is the foundation for corruption in American politics - its complexity allows preferential tax treatment to lobbyists and special interests.  Zakaria described in his program on Sunday how America has the world's most complex tax code, why now is the time for tax reform, and how a consumption-based tax would be more fair.

The full transcript for this program may be found here.

FAREED ZAKARIA GPS airs Sundays on CNN/U.S. at 10:00am and 1:00pm ET, and at 8:00am and 3:00pm ET on CNN International.

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Global Lessons: The GPS Road Map for Saving Health Care debuts Sunday, March 18 at 8:00pm ET & PT

CNN and TIME’s Fareed Zakaria will launch a quarterly series of television specials for CNN/U.S. and CNN International and feature articles for TIME that pursue solutions to the most pressing issues central to the 2012 election: health care, immigration, jobs, and energy, it was announced today.  The first special, Global Lessons: The GPS Road Map for Saving Health Care, will debut on Sunday, March 18 at 8:00pm and 11:00pm ET & PT on CNN/U.S., and on CNN International on Saturday, March 24 at 9:00pm ET.  The companion article for TIME will be in the edition that hits newsstands on Friday, March 17.

“We Americans need to recognize that there are many areas where we could learn a lot from what other countries are doing.  America’s best companies routinely benchmark to global standards.  What we’re trying to do in this series is just that – look around the world and ask, ‘what can we learn?’  In the process, we also found areas where we could teach the rest of the world a thing or two.” Zakaria said. FULL POST

Former U.S. Secretary of State Dr. Henry Kissinger (Nixon Administration) has met one-on-one with Russian president-elect Vladimir Putin on approximately 20 occasions – more than any former or current senior American diplomat or official.  Dr. Kissinger appeared on CNN this weekend and told Fareed Zakaria that he believes that Putin is "above all, a Russian patriot."

Dr. Kissinger also weighed in on the 2012 GOP presidential candidates here in the United States.  For the full transcript of this program, please visit here.

FAREED ZAKARIA GPS airs Sundays at 10:00am and 1:00pm Eastern on CNN/U.S..

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In a wide-ranging interview with the nation's top military chief that covered an array of diplomatic issues, CNN's Fareed Zakaria asked Gen. Martin Dempsey, USA, about the rising tensions with Iran over that country's nuclear program.  Gen. Dempsey discusses the international cooperation that the U.S. has been able to gather around the implementation of the sanctions – and why he still considers it possible to negotiate with the Iranian regime to reconsider their commitment to nuclear weaponization.

Visit this link, for more of Fareed Zakaria's interview with Gen. Dempsey on the topic of why he feels it is premature to engage in an attack on Iran at this point; for the full transcript of this interview, please visit www.cnn.com/transcripts.

FAREED ZAKARIA GPS airs Sundays on CNN at 10:00am and 1:00pm and on CNN International at 8:00am and 3:00pm.  All times Eastern.

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