The guest host for today's show is Brad Bannon. Brad runs Bannon Communications Research, a polling, message development and media firm which helps labor unions, progressive issue groups and Democratic candidates win public affairs and political campaigns. His new show, 'Deadline D.C. with Brad Bannon,' airs every Monday from 3-4pm ET.

Brad is first joined by Dr. Robert Shapiro is Chairman of Sonecon, an economic advisory firm, and a Senior Fellow of the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University.  He is an internationally-known economist who has advised, among others, President Bill Clinton, Vice President Al Gore, Jr., British Prime Ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, and then U.S. Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.  He was Under Secretary of Commerce for Economic Affairs in the Clinton Administration. His Twitter handle is @RobShapiro.

Dr. Shapiro explains what caused today's historic stock market crash, as well as why he believes that the Federal Reserve cannot save the economy from the negative impact of the Coronavirus pandemic.  He outlined this argument on his Sonecon blog, which you can find the link to here: https://www.sonecon.com/the-federal-reserve-cant-rescue-the-economy-from-the-coronavirus/ (the piece also appeared in the March 4th edition of 'The Washington Post.') 

During the second half of the show, Brad leads a political round-table with Tim Zenk and Mark Grimaldi.  The roundtable discusses the effects of the Coronavirus pandemic, and downturn in the stock market, on the Democratic primary race between Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders.  They also discuss how the state of Washington, where Tim is located, is dealing with the Coronavirus outbreak in its state.

Tim is a Principle at 'Molecule,' a business and public affairs company, a former Democratic staffer, and a well known renewable energy expert. His Twitter handle is @greencrude.

Mark Grimaldi, or 'Marky Mark' as Leslie Marshall calls him, is the Executive Producer of this show.  In addition to being the Executive Producer for the Leslie Marshall show for 14 years, for the past 12 years Mark has been a progressive political activist and campaign volunteer of President Obama's (2008 and 2012), Senator Bernie Sanders' (2016), and Secretary Hillary Clinton's (2016).  Mark is also involved in campaign finance reform efforts around the country, and philanthropic efforts for Cancer research.  His Twitter handle is @MarkJGrimaldi.

Brad writes a column every Sunday on the 2020 Presidential race for 'The Hill.'  He's on the National Journal's panel of political insiders and is a national political analyst for WGN TV and Radio in Chicago and KNX Radio in Los Angeles.
You can read Brad's columns at www.MuckRack.com/Brad-Bannon. His Twitter handle is @BradBannon.

(Image Credit: Mike Luckovich)