11/03/17 11/03/17 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from pacifica, this is dedemocracy no pres. trump: most americans will be able to file taxes on a single sheet of paper. amy: president trump and house republicans unveil their long-promised proposal to reform america's tax code that t expers does with trump calling itt a bg beautiful christmas present for the american people. worldl look at how the

elites benefit from global capitalism with former greek finance m minister yanis varoufakis. is due book, "adults in the room: my battle with europe's deep establishment." is a process. you cut government spending, increased taxes in order to balance the government's books but you fail. yes, you reduce government expenditure, but on the other tax, the economy shrinks so a reduced and your books don't balance a you cut even more. it shines even further and cut more, so it is a never-ending downward spiral. amy: then six weeks after hurricane maria hit puerto rico, millions still lack clean drinking water and electricity. just back from puerto rico, we will bring you a report from the

interior where the storm has exploded t the fault lines of poverty and austerity. >> my name is carmen. everything here was destroyed. it is not t easy to be strugglig like this, doing everything by hand. there are sick children and elders. that is how it is here. my father vanished. he died. so that hasn't been easy for us. we are alive. we have to thank god -- amy: all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. thousands protested in catalonia on thursday after eight regional ministers were jailed and accused of rebellion, sedition, and misuse of public funds as the constitutional crisis in spain continues. the regional ministers had already been fired by spain's central government over catalonia's independence referendum and they now face up to 50 years in prison. this is maria carrera at a

protest in barcelona. because theyameful have committed a coup d'd'etat. i want to go to the prison where our comrades are being held. it is unjust because there is done democracy like this. it is unjust because many politicians that have stolen our free and today they are in prison and that is unjust. amy: spanish prosecutors are also seeking a european arrest warrant for catalonia's leader carles puigdemont, who is in exile in belgium, along with other members of the catalan government. this is puigdemont. >> the spanish government decision to imprison a vice president and the cabinet members of the legitimate government of catalonia elected in the polls of september 27 is a very grave mistake. it is an attack on democracy. imprisoning political leaders

anh ample citizen support is act that violates the basic principle of democracy. amy: in late october, spain's government seized control of catalonia using article 155 of the spanish constitution, which had never been used before in modern spain's democratic history. the move striped the northeastern region of its autonomy in efforts to crush catalonia's growing independence movement. isis has claimed, without evidence, that tuesday's s attak in new york city was carried out by a "soldier of the caliphate." the attack left eight people , afterany others injured suspect sayfulullo saipov, an uzbek native, reportedly drove a rented home depot truck down a bike path along manhattan's hudson river, killing multiple people before crashing into a school bus. he was then shot by police. authorities claim sayfullo saipov has said, at his hospital bedside, that isis videos had inspired him to carry out the attack.

in the wake of the new york city attack, attorney general jeff sessions is escalating pressure on technology companies to turn over encrypted communications to law enforcement. sessions claimed, without evidence, that refusing to turn over the encrypted communications could have deadly consequences. >>'s failure to get encrypted information in a timely manner causes law enforcement to waste even more valuable time and resources than it could have potentially deadly consequences. amy: pope francis gave an emotional mass on thursday in nettuno, italy, warning of the world is having -- heading forcefully into war. he was speaking at the cemetery where thousands of u u.s. soldis who died liberating g southern italy during world war ii are buried.. >> please, lord, stop. no more war. no more of these useless massacres.

the world is preparing to go even more forcefully into war, no more, lord. let us pray for those who are dying in wars today and even innocent children. death is the fruit of war. may the lord give us the grace to be able to cry. amy: former democratic national committee interim chair donna brazile says the dnc made an unethical agreement with hillary clinton's presidential campaign during the 2016 election, skewing the primary in her favor in exchange for money to keep the indebted party afloat. in excerpts of her new book, brazile writes that clinton campaign manager robby mook struck a joint fund-raising agreement with the dnc, in which -- back in august 2015, nearly a year before hillary clinton officially had the party's nomination. under the agreement, the clinton campaign would raise money for the party and in exchange,

clinton would control the party's finances and strategy, including making all final decisions about party staff members and the party's communication's director. donna brazile writes -- "if the fight had been fair, one campaign would not have control of the party before the voters had decided which one they wanted to lead. this was not a criminal act, but as i saw it, it compromised the party's integrity." a twitter employee on this last jobn their last day on the briefly deactivated president trump's twitter account thursday evening. the account vanished for 11 full minutes. trump has used twitter to bully and insult women, people of color, and lawmakers. he's also used d it to ththreato annihilate the entire nation of north korea. in news on sexual harassment, the new republic's publisher hamilton fish has been placed on leave after a slew of allegations of sexual

harassment when he was the president of the nation institute. this comes after one of the new republic's most prominent longtime editors, leon wieseltier, , was also fired ovr sexual harassment allegations . he was fired from his job with the emerson collective, where he was slated to unveil a new magazine. meanwhile, two top staff members at seiu, the service employees international union, have been ousted over sexual harassment allegations. one of the national leaders, kekeall fells,s, has resigned; d detroit leader mark raleigh has been fired. billionaire investor and trump donor robert mercer is stepping down as head of his company, renaissance technologies, after a buzzfeed expose revealed the connections between the mercer-funded news outlet breitbart media and white nationalists and neo-nazis. the buzzfeed report revealed how breitbart's former tech editor, milo yiannopoulos, had collaborated closely with white

nationalists to generate story ideas and even to edit the website's articles. in his letter, mercer tried to distance himself from yiannopoulos, as well as from steve bannon, breitbart's longtime head who also served as trump's former chief strategist. the united nations is warning of an unfolding humanitarian emergency at an australian refugee detention center on manus island in papua, new guinea. the australian government officially closed the detention center on tuesday, cutting off water and electricity, but hundreds of asylum-seekers are still at the center where food, water, and medicine is growing scarce. the asylum-seekers are refusing to leave, saying they fear for their lives if they go along with the government's plans to relocate them to a nearby city where refugees have been attacked by men armed with knives and s screwdrivers. the university of notre dame has announced it will stop covering birth control for faculty, staff

, and students. the move comes less than one month after the trump administration sharply limited contraceptive coverage under the affordable care act. in new york city, the billionaire owner of the online news outlets gothamist and dnainfo has shut down the websites one week after the newsrooms voted to unionize. billionaire joe ricketts, who is also the owner of the chicago cubs, fired all 115 workers at gothamist and dnainfo. he's long been an opponent of unions, even posting on his personal blog a commentary entitled "why i'm against unions at businesses i create." both gothamist and dnainfo have been important local news sites in new york for years. among the final articles to be published at gothamist were an investigation into prison labor in new york and an article about rise of anti-semitic attacks in new york city. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!,

democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we begin today's show in puerto rico, where six weeks after hurricane maria devastated the island, millions of residents are still living without safe drinking water and electricity. health experts say the storm's massive damage to puerto rico's water system is threatening a looming public health crisis, as more and more people are exposed to contaminated water. on thursday, the white house finally agreed to release fema disaster aid with more flexibility to try to help rebuild puerto rico's devastated power grid and other infrastructure. the shift in aid disbursement was necessary because of puerto rico's massive debt crisis, which both severely limited the island's ability to prepare ahead of time for the storm -- and to respond fully in the days afterward. according to an investigation by puerto rico's center for investigative journalism --

"the permanent disaster has been largely due to the slow and inefficient deployment of the emergency response due to a fatal combination between the lack of liquidity of the government of puerto rico and its municipalities and the federal government's inaction." for the last year, puerto rico has been controlled by an unelected fiscal control board, imposed by the u.s. congress, whose role is to enact austerity measures to ensure bondholders of puerto rico's debt are repaid. well, over the weekend, democracy now! was in puerto rico. we traveled about three hours into puerto rico's mountainous highland region in the interior of the island in order to look at the ways austerity has exacerbated the crisis caused by hurricane maria. we began our journey in a town called lares, about two hours west of the capital san juan. i began there by asking

demomocracy now! juan cacarlos dadavila to tell us about the history of this town. isso the model of this town stream"m" inty of t the referencnce to the revolution of 1868 here in the town rereporter can revolutionaries rather did to overthrow the spanish forces from here and declare puerto rico independence. continues to administer the colony saying the momotto is to subversive.rsrtoo and try to " lares city of the beautiful women" or "open skies." in a way, to try to erase the history of lares. streett's go over r to the

. >> it is a revolutionary leader of puerto rico who was president of the nationalist party. amy: i think he was the first graduate -- porter can graduate of harvard law school. >> yes. a very important figure in puerto rico. he stood for the independence of puerto rico. he fough valiantlyly against the united states imperialism. is that hent thing represents the continuation of that struggle of the revolutionaries fighting against the spanish forces. and for that, he was jaileled ad tortured and many believe -- amy: he was imprisoned for decades. >> yes, for many years. was tortuturedhe and xm i into it with h radiatin him. amy: in n lares, we meet up wita professor at the university of

puerto rico and a member of the center for transdisciplinary studies in agro ecology. we had about an hour further to region. devastated, very much so, the highlands. from another perspective, it also and covered what was already a national crisis. remember, we had been under austerity measures for, i don't know how long will stop as far as i can remember, it feels like we have been under austerity forever. one of the areas hardest hit has been the highlands. not only in the terms of economies municipal money used to bring, that people used of

access to in the have lost them, but also in terms of just people leaving, migrating. because it is untenable to sustain a livelihood. lost marius, where we're going now. marias, were we are going now. one of the five poorest municipalities in puerto rico. and also the ones that have lost most population over the last five to 10 years. amy: innocence, maria not only exposed the fault lines and the weakness of the situation here, but it exploded those faultlines. >> yes, that is exactly it. amy: we reach a part of the road where the hurricane has s swept away the eararth below the pavement, which is something we

had to be very careful about everywhere we drove. a man whose house itself was precariously balanced between the road and what is now a clip, the earth swept away below. >> yeah, it is the main road. you can cross it now, but it is dangerous. if it stays like this, the road will fall off the e precipice. amamy: we keep driving. >> one of the main, if not the for most of this area, is agriculture. most of the agriculture in puerto rico has been destroyed or sustained heavy damage. this is a big concern because the cap of agriculture you find here, a lot of it is coffee production. for coffee to grow, you you need at least three to four years before you start producing.

trees thata lot of were adults and were producing and they were sustaining -- from large to small economies. that has been destroyed. the devastation is immense. i have a lot of friends who are farmers. they lost everything. many of them are thinking of quitting a moving to the city or migrating. amy: we have just arrived in los marias and coming to a place where doctors are coming to meet with people, bringing water. we passed an oasis where people gathered to get fresh water. and now we're going down to the field where the doctors are. what kind of doctor are you? >> a general practitioner. i am an internal medicine. amy: can you tell us what you're

doing? clinicsve been doing every saturday since the hurricane. amy: what our people's major complaints? >> medicine. unable to get insulin. unabable to see the doctors. hypertension, diabetes. we're doing statistics on how many deaths we had. i know we had one gentleman who died of heart attack in his car. another one after the hurricane, a mudslide came and took the machine he was working on try to clear the roads. it buried him. other than that, we got problems with oxygen, homecare care, things like that and all that stuff. went -- the people need to know in puerto rico, there are ofe than 60 cases leptospirosis. amy: people died as a result of

leptospirosis. >> people you the food without cleaning and washing it. they get sick from it. usually, the outcome is really bad. amy: how would you say the state , fema -- how would you rate how they responded? >> compared to george a couple of years back, they have been slow. it is been slow. been afaffecting usus in puerto rico. there is a lot of misgivings and stuff like that. we have not been receiving the help as soon as we needed it. amy: what did you make a president trump segment people puerto rico want everything done for them? is, theirst thing people of puerto rico are u.s. citizens. it is not people of puerto rico. it is your citizens of puerto rico. they want help. amy: would you say their treatment of you during hurricane maria and after was the treatment of a colony? >> yes.

it was. florida, look at florida. look at taxes. they got treated really quick. -- theyk to the states threw out paper towels. they should have flown him to see how it was out here. amy: you say president trump to rolls of paper towels. do you think if you voted for the president of the united dates, they would treat you differently? >> yes, because it is 3.5 haveon people and we at least two in the senate and five in the house. that is a big vote. the parties -- we affect the parties in the e states, too.. write me a a 70,000 people who left to florida. vote.f them do they like politics. most of them will vote. that will change the politics of florida and a couple of years from now. amy: did you hear about bodies being incinerated in the morgues and those bodies not being counted? did that happen around here? i i certified eight.

eight certified after hurricane maria. two of them were during hurricane or after, the day after. the others were a couple of days after, a week or so after the hurricane. that is why they ask for statistics. diedso eight people have since the hurricane. >> that i certified. amy: are there others? > probably a lot more. amy: to the jones act being enforced, at a time the waiver was inin a place, prevent, for example, medicines from getting an? i patientnt's stomach is difficult for them to get insulin. the thing is, if the united states does not help stimulate our economy, we are afraid. there was a joke a couple of years back, they wanted to give us to the european union and greece to the united states. it makes you think what the

united states thinks about us. do they want to help us or what? amy: after we leave dr. hussein -- jose dr. ramirez, we go to another neighborhood where residents are waiting for delivery of aid. along the way, we come across a caravan of more than 100 volunteers from all church members, traveling across the island distribution food and water. would come directly from the food bank. we're going around different cities from the country where we see there are special needs and stop. we're disturbing food. amy: what was in the most need? --i think it is pretty equal

all around. withwe continue driving the professor. >> what we've seen in puerto rico is the communities have to organize to survive in the middle of maria. amy: we're a asking for columni, known to are from really farar away and donon't really know the routes, but they're going to arrive. they're going to arrive. a communityve at gallery where hundreds of people, mainly women and children, are waiting for supplies to arrive. >> my name is rosa. we're here in the neighborhood in a small community. we are gathered together and waiting because we still don't have any electricity.

we have to take advantage of these moments, whenever they're going to bring us things. we have to take advantage of it. leaders to pay attention to us because we feel isolated. sometimes we have to demand their attention. my daughters school is a sheltered outcome and i don't think the school will reopen soon. the streets and how is our horrible. so as a parent, i would not send her. no, no. i understand the children need psychological support. they need something to orient them because young people have never experienced anything like this before. there are many children in the community. my daughter is 13 and she needs help because she is in special education. my name is carmen. everything here was destroyed. it is not easy to o be strugglig like this, washing everything and doing her thing by hand. there are sick children and elders. in terms of health, the worst father vanished.

he died. so that hasn't been easy for us. we have to thank god that we are alive. my name is rosita. i want to say hello to my son. i don't know if this will reach them. my s son has only been able to communicate twice since the hurricane. but i sent him greetings from here. i want to tell him that i love him. he knows the situation, what is hahappening here, and he worrie. but thank god we have been blessed throughout all of this because he saved our lives. my home wasn't damaged. it emotionally, also, we have not suffered physically. this affects as emotionally and mentally because my husband now is taking care of me and he is disabled also. my condition, and with my husband and disabled because he has a disability, he understands

he has to take care of all of the work at home. it has not been easy. it affects us emotionally because we are alone. our children are not with us. two sons. -- i have we're depending on the neighborhood where we live. we don't have any other family. the only support is from the church and our neighbors, our friends. we are all extending our hands to each other. in other words, we're all helping each other because we are all suffering the same. honestly, we are thankful to god we can help each other. >> my name is anthony. husband.ta's a lot of people have had to leave for many different reasons. one is they have lost their jojobs. another is although therere is some aid, when it arrives, sometimes people need things

urgently to survive. education isis on hold. the transportatition issues are schchools to be closed. we are still fighting. if they could bring some form of psychological help some people can strengthen themselves during all of t this them even though we're serving god, wewe have internal emotions that affect us as humanan beings. we're all h human beings and we need psychological support to help us and strengthen us t to face allll of this. it is really important. >> my name i is antonio. called -- section since i moved there, there's been no electricity. i have been living there for 28 years. my husband died recently waiting for the light and d it never arrived. the thing is, i live far from the community because the section in which i live is two kilometers away from where we are now.

this stretch has never had electricity. it was in the majors hands, and he kept telling us that they were going to put in electricity, but it never arrived. person.e elderly i am 75 years old. i use insulin and medicine that needs to be refrigerated. so whenever my y neighbor h has electrtricity, i p put my medice in his home. >> we have been waiting here since 1:00 p.m., and now it is 4:25 in the afternoon. we're waiting for food, water. in this moment, anything they bring us would be good. the hurricane was horrible. my house is on the side of the road. part of the road that leads to my house collapsed. when i go home, i cry because the road has collapsed. we will be grateful that when they arrive for all of us to please get in order as you know how to do. we're asking for calm.

they need the cooperation for each and everyone one of us. we will form a line. weekst has now been six since hurricane maria, the worst storm to hit puerto rico in 90 years. millions still lack clean water and electricity. special thanks to xml call, laura got the steamer, juan carlos davila and dennis one hand. when we come back, we look at the president's tax plan. he says it is a christmas gift for the american people. others say it is a gift for america's elite. we will look at how the world elite benefits from global clericalism -- capitalism with yanis varoufakis joining us in our studio. his new book, "adults in the room: my battle with europe's deep establishment." stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. president trump and republicans in the house have unveiled a long-promised proposal to reform america's tax code that experts say is really more of a tax cut for the rich. the bill introduced thursday would permanently lower the corporate tax rate from 35% to 20%, a and also repeals the inheritance tax on multimillion-dollar estates. an analysis by the joint committee on taxation said the bill is heavily weighted toward business, which would receceive about two-thirds of f an estimad $1.5 trillion in cuts. the white house praised ththe legislation as providing "the rocket fuel our economy needs to soar higher than ever before." president trump later said the legislation was a "big, beautiful christmas present in the form of a a tremdous tax cut."

pres. trump: at the end result will not be that complicated. taxle are going to pay less dialogue. companies are goining to pay les tax by a light. that is a big difference. companies are going to start rebuilding and stay here and expand and are going to build new plans in this country. they will not be going to other countries like i have been doing for many decades. amy: president trump said he wants lawmakers to pass a tax reform bill by thanksgiving, the democrats have vowed to oppose the bill. nancy pelosi called it a shell game. as lawmakers look for revenue to offset proposed tax cuts that will cost trillions of dollars, they've looked at repealing tax breaks for things like medical expenses, moving expenses, student loan interest, and adoption. today we look at how the world elite and if it from global capitalism with economist and former greek finance minister yanis varoufakis. he was the chief negotiator of greece bailout with european

union and international monetary fund. his new book is titled, "adults in the room: my battle with europe's s deep estabablishment" varoufakis served as finance minister in greece in 2015 before resigning from the syriza government. he later launched the democracy in europe movement 2025, or diem25. his forthcoming book is titled, "talking to my daughter about the economy." welcome back to democracy now! as you sat here watching this report of our trip to puerto rico and you see this rural doctor saying there is this joke me says going around puerto rico, that the u.s. would trade with the european union, with fellow puerto rico to the european union and the european union would give greece to the united states. you said that is not a joke. >> like with all excellent

jokes, they are far too close to reality for comfort. it was actually a statement that was said half jokingly by the minister,eral finance the finance minister of the most powerful country in europe, that was responsible, personally, for the process. it was a process, not a policy of austerity, and bank bailouts, which effectively put the european periphery with greece, the most obvious case, into, if you want, the dustbin of modern capitalist history. thatreated circumstances are not as extreme as those in -- he rico, but himself is making this comparison between puerto rico and greece, comparison.apt

they have a fiscal board effectively banning democracy anand creating a government - -- jujust what was done in my country. the reason i was elected was to into that. amy: going to bloomberg, who said -- after jack lew these days who could take puerto rico into the euro zone if u.s. were willing to take greece and of dollar zone. he thought that was a joke. what about puerto rico right now, as you watch it back up your generally in athens. you travel. you are here in the u.s. you see the utter devastation of puerto rico, yes, by the storm, but playing on this fault line, the total indebtedness of puerto rico right now and the u.s. control in posing this control board that controls all that happens in puerto rico, the finances. >> well, the grapes of wrath tells the ststory. the bookneeeed to read

and applied to the case of puerto rico. the whole point of the new deal of fdr was to stop this process thefter a binge of financial sector goes wrong and yet the collapsing cabins of debt that it creates to sift -- amy: the 1929 depression. >> to shift cynically the burden and liquidate the little people. to shift the burden of t the finances under the weakest of shoulders. ,he whole point of the new deal the institution'she new deall created by fdic, social security, and so on. puerto rico is part of the same monetary union. it's people are supposed to be u.s. citizens, yet they were never part of this new deal. and you have the whole -- amy: and they cannot vote for president t of united states. >>he whole force of evil that

was imposed upon the little people in 1929, 1930 under the hoover administration, being a post on a small island nation, that is also been devastated by this terrible hurricane -- which is not completely unconnected to the policies and the environment that mr. trump is so keen to keep promoting. amy: explain. >> well, climate change. absolutely no doubt anymore that the degree of devastation wreaked by hurricanes is intensifying as result of severe climate change. it is remarkable that we have in the white house a climate change denier who while removing all deallnefits of the new from the people of puerto rico at the same time exposes them to the great vagaries of climate change, the very phenomenon that

he denenies its existence. amy: you heard in the introduction the tax plan that has been put forward. you are here in this country in this is your specialty, you're anan economist.. you taught at the university of austin and are now in greece. you are finance minister, former finance minister in the syriza government. president trump calls this a christmas gift for the american people. what is yourur assessment ofof ? fitted into the picture of global capitalism. the set of the american people to be the same as his friends. we're assume it before. it began in the 1980's under ronald reagan. redistribution of wealth. again.eeing it

there's a difference now. the difference is the american capitalism has exhausted its capacity to reduce its capacity through tax cuts. the wealth rising from the bottom to the top, 0.1%. reagan1980's when ronald first applied this kind of tax cut based policy, the united states was still in control of what i call the recycling of global profits and surpluses. was,nited states economy if you want, the engine of growth internationally. tax cuts in this country were fueling demand for the net exports of japan, baback then, germany, holland, later china. this was keeping capitalism globally in that state of rational exuberance, if you will. after 2008, it collapsed. the american economy does not have the capacity anymore. the increase the federal budget deficit that supposedly t the

republicans are against, nevertheless, they're going to boost it magnificently now, are at the same time, amy, antagonizing china that owns a large chunk of american public debt -- which now they're going to keep increasing in order to line the pockets of their mates. you could not design a more catastrophic economic policy than that. boosting the death by lining the pockets of the rich, continuing to stagnate the incomes of the middle class and the working class, and antagonizing your main creditors. i rest my case. trump isresident headed to asia and will visit a number of countries. you will start off by playing golf with shinzo abe and then he is going to china will stop t significance of all of this? of course, in the midst of this,

you have the escalation of the crisis with north korea. yet the pope just giving aa speech saying we're headed toward war. very dangerous game. the united states and ministration of the last 10 to 15 years has been playing by antagonizing china through an alliance with a in japan and is predecessors. it is a very dangerous game. the united states completely and utterly depends on china. let's face it. the only white d dust reason why the 2008 collapsed did not lead to a great depression in this country is twofold. one is the fed kept printing money and floating the banking sector of wall street down the road from here. the other is china. the chinese boosted their own credit production, their own credit bubble in china -- intentionally. from something like 140% of their total income, gdpdp, to 20

80%. they did this on purpose because they were facing the prospect of an additional 40 million unemployed people. and by doing this, theyy stimululate american capitalismo a very lararge extent. and ministratioion and washington, d.c. that is simultaneously ganging up with prime minister abe agagainst cha while increasingly needing china to keep rebalancing the global an amemerican economy.y. what thes prerecisely global economy and the american economy do not need. amy: i want to ask you something about language. you are here in new york not far from zucotti park were not six years ago there was the massive protests, occupy wall street. they changed the language. you say the word 1%, 99%. everyone knows what you'rere talking about.

i want to talk about the language used now around the tax bill. we use language like tax cuts, tax relief, but is there another way to describe, to refer to the $1.5 trillion in austerity? >> class war. it is an out and out class war waged against the poorest, the weakest, the disenfranchised. the very same people that donald trump appealed to to get electeted. to breake going to go and come back to this discussion. our guest is yanis varoufakis, economist, author of the new book "adults in the room: my battle with europe's deep establishment." and that is where we arare going to start after break. whatat is the european and american deep establishment? yanis varoufakis served as finance minister of greece in 2015, the chief to go shooter of greece's debt and bailout with the european union.

this is democracy now! we will be back in a minute. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we continue our conversation with yanis varoufakis economist, author of the new book "adults in the room: my battle with europe's deep establishment." served asufakis finance minister in greece in before resigning from the syriza 2015 government. famous for his negotiations with the international monetary fund and the european union as he dealt with germany and other countries, later launched the democracy in europe movement 2025, known as diem25. so the subtitle of your book is "my battle with european and american deep establishment." what is that? >> it used to be in the united

states, the medical industrial complex in your, the cartel of big business called the first name of the european union, european community for coal and steel. it was like opec. it was a cartel for big business. but then with the collapse after administration, yet the rise of the financial administration. thanks for becoming absolutely significant, far more than karmic you, steelmaking. newncial is asian created a deep establishment that included -- remember the 1990's when people from goldman sachs, the 1990's happening today as we speak, people from goldman sachs took over the treasury. and in the people who are in

treasury went to goldman sachs and j.p. morgan. the deep establishment comprises primarily the banking community, their connections through the revolving doors with the administration and washington, d.c., in this country, in brussels, and various centers of government, particularly germany and paris in eurorope. the way they have co-opted it journalistsia and who acquire inside information only to the extent that they become functional to the interest of the deep establishment. amy: so explain. let's go back to 2015 to what happened. you became this famous figure who was clashing -- i mean, the picture on the front of the book you h have merkel, hollande in france, and president obama. merkel looks surprised, president obama is smiling.

talk about your dealings with these leaders. >> this is not a book about villains and heroes. this is -- the way i conceptualize it, especialally after i was out of f those corridors, once i had resigned, i conceptualized it as a tragedy. a shakespearean tragedy. when you watch king air, you realize these extremist, supremely awful people that you encounter in state are exceptionally powerless at the same time. i remember my conversation i have with barack obama who seemed supportive of what i was trying to do, yet completely powerless to do anything about it. jack lew, the u.s. treasury secretary, was absolutely straightforward on this. yes, i was right. it know, america did not have what it took anymore. amy: what were you trying to do? >> did our people out of debtor's prprison, which is w wt puerto ricans now deserve. anan escape from a permanent det

prison. 2010, it briefly, amy, in the big state went bankrupt. let's not get into the reasons why. it is a fact. the greater and a good decided to conceal fraudulently the bankruptcy. the only way you can conceal a bankruptcy is by giving a very large loan. so we got the largest loan in human history. not for the greek people, of course, all of that money was given to us so we can bailout and give it back to the german and the french banks. this was done fraudulently because the german and the french leadership and the greek leadership when to the parliament and effectively said this was an act of solidarity with the people of greece, when it was actually with the bankers. they never told the parliamentarians this was an act of solidarity with the bankers. they promised the people, the german parliament, that this was a loan given to greece for some

will do dirty dish solidarity purposes and they would get their money back with interest. it was never going to be the case. it was on condnditions of austerity that shrink entities income. there's no way are going to get your money back, because the debtor doesn't want to give it, .ut it is absolutely impossible like puerto rico today. once you commit that crime against logic and your parliament like angela then youd in berlin, commit one crime, you have to commit a second crime to cover-up the first one. tryinancial terms, if you to repay mortgage for the means of a credit card community to second credit card to repay the first credit card and other to the second. i was just trying to get greece out of that spiral. amy: why did you quit? >> because my promised her surrendered to the creditors.

i was not prepared to do the same. amy: you're talking about the great prime minister. so in 2016, the great primime surprisedaid he was donald trump had become the leading contender to win the "whatresident and said this nomination marks for the idea it represents, the appeal it reaches and the threat to become even president, i hope we will not face this evil." then just a few weeks ago, there's the greek prime minister standing with president trump at the whitite house. when trump was asked about what he is said because he has some nice words for him, he said, i guess i should have been informed of this before i had this nice words. what about what happened in the white house two weeks ago when tsipras can? u say greece was the beginning of brexit. >> i've no doubt it was. i campaigned against brexixit. i give speeches in towns and cities before brexit t against

brexit. the good people, mostly left-wingers who came to listen to me, would,, andnd say, we rey like you and agree with you on the analysis, but we cannot vote to stay in the european union afafter the way you were treate. this was a very paradoxical situation i find myself in. remember, brexit won with 1.8% of the vote. ofonly through percent or 5% those who voted in favor of brexit were motivated by the crashing of our government and of our democracy -- we are in a democracy now, amy, our democracy was crash like puerto rico. ours has been eliminated. my friend, the criminalist or of greece, he is less power than the mayor of a small town in the united states. sovereignty has completely shifted to a group called the choice that of lenders. by the way, to go back to the white house, the site of my

former comrades bowing his head to donald trump after everything he and i used to say about donald trump at about the old right and the rise -- alt right xenophobia.of sin of the donald is not going to do anything. obamama did not do anything to t our people out of debtor's prprison. the only thing they actualally d yearo sign $2.5 b billion a deal to refurbish the greek air force is the american sourced planes, which donald trump really liked. in a country where people are finding difficult to put food on the table, where we have refugees that are living in conditions that are despicable and a blight on the integrity

and soul of europe, to spend money now refurbishing airplanes in order to satisfy, to some anent, donald trump them is abomination. amy: i want to ask you quickly from earlier this year, members of the neo-nazi golden dawn party held a torchlight parade in athens, greece, calling for a ban on migrants entering greece. golden dawnas parliament member ilias pana jio tah-ros, who praised president donald trump's ban on muslim refugees and immigrants. >> tens of thousands of illegal immigrants in our country. our country is an open field. anyone can come whenever they want. they can leave whenever they want. policyd like to follow a like donald trump is doing in ththe states right now.

amy: golden dawnwn is the third-largest t party in the grk parliament. its members have been arrested for assaulting and murdering immigrants and political opponents, and the group's emblem is a red and black flag resembling a swastika. in october, the party endorsed donald trump in the u.s. election. you have been persononally threatened by the man whose voice we just played? >> well, yes. this is the worst aspect of it, to see these nazis. they're not neo-nazis. their fully fledged, old-d-shioned nazis. do you know the worst aspect of it was? the only good thing about them is they are thugs, so the proportion of the vote is not rising very fast. but their policies have infiltrated the mainstream, not just in greece. think of the new austrian government. they are number one priority is to control the borders, to fence the refugees out. it is spreading throughout europe. the worst aspect of the rise of their policies

are winning. amy: you have golden dawn endorsing president trump. he becomes president trump. you are in new york city where this terror attack just occurred host of eight people killed and president trump's immediate response is to try to crack down on immigration. you say that is the response that will actually promote terror. explain. >> isis loves donald t trump.. he is the best recruitment officer for isis. what isis once, they want our societies s to tun against migrants, to become xina phobic, to assault on the streets of our cities, to fence them out of our countries because that is the way that they will breed hatred within their own communities of muslims, for instance, and recruit them to isis. i think beieing here in new yor,

i have to say that i am very pleased because there is good news always. we should focus on the good news. by the way the people of new york are responding calm only, democratically to the tragedy befell them without grudges and without donald trumpmp's reacti, which is -- amy: we have 10 seconds. i want to touch on catalonia. massive protests in barcelona. you're headed there next week. any government ministers have now -- ofataloniaia have been jailed. >> this is f fantastic, isn't i? .t is under radical idiocy imagine the london government -- two years ago ththe scots had a referendum. imagine at thehe london governmt has sent the troops in to beat up voters in the stations. scotland would have been out of the united kingdom. amy: yanis varoufakis and we will do part two and post it online at democracynow.org.

economist and author of "adults in the room: my battle with europe's deep establishment." that does it for our show. democracy now! is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. e-mail your comments to outreach@democracynow.org or mail them to democracy now! p.o. box 693 new york, new york 10013. [captioning made possible by democracy now!]