Carlos Salinas de Gortari

Bob has operated at the highest intersections of global economics, grand strategy, and national security.

He served as the eleventh president of the World Bank, the US Trade Representative, and the Deputy Secretary of State.

From aggressively expanding US free trade agreements across the globe to help managing post-Cold War diplomatic strategy, few have been as deeply involved in shaping America's modern role on the world stage.

Bob, thanks for joining us.

Uh, Ronald Reagan had, in the speech opening his election campaign in 1979, said that we'd be better off if Mexico and Canada were stronger rather than weaker, and that it's time that we stopped treating our two neighbors as foreigners, which is, uh, quite a visionary view in contrast with what you see today.

So the first part, the Canada Free Trade Agreement, which had been negotiated in the late '80s, completed in 1988, was the idea that Canada and the United States would be stronger if we integrate our markets and work together, not only economically, but also on security issues or environmental and other questions.

And the historic change was, uh, with Mexico adding to NAFTA, was that you might recall the president, Carlos Salinas, you know, recognized that the old political system run by the PRI, a one-party state, was breaking down.

And he had gone to Davos and was trying to draw attention to possible investment in Mexico, and nobody was interested.

I'll say the same thing as you did.

Yeah, my understanding is that he is – that Carlos Salinas is on the team, but you're right.

I mean, he's more obviously a backup at this point.

It would be interesting to see where that goes, but we'll keep track of that and see how he does.

And for your birthday, I will be absolutely dragging your name through the mud and letting everyone know what a perverted, disgusting freak you are.

That's great, but anyway, from the top, Keith Raniere was born on August 26th, 1960 in Brooklyn, New York, and his father, James, worked in advertising, and his mother, Vera, taught ballroom dancing.

Now, when Keith was five, the family relocated to Suffern, a small village about 30 miles northwest of the city.

Now, Keith was an only child and his parents fought constantly.

It wasn't a really great relationship.

So he grew up wondering if he was the reason, and by the time he was seven or eight, they'd separated and divorced, and his father would move out, and Keith would stay with his mother.

Now, she had heart disease at this point, and at 13, Keith watched her go through open heart surgery, and the recovery nearly broke her, and every day carried that same fear, that she would die and he'd have no one left.

So as she declined, the roles between mother and son kind of reversed, and he became the one scheduling her doctor's appointments and telling her not to give up on herself, but Vera was drowning her pain in alcohol, and Keith poured everything he had into keeping her alive.