[captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now. >> join a has in recent time made clear to the united states repeatedly its grave concern the stern condition opposing pelosi's visit to taiwan. we are prepared to meet the

challenge. as china -- amy: as china issues stark warnings to the white house, we will get an update from taiwanese american journalist -- in taipei. there is a global debt crisis coming and it will not stop at sri lanka. >> thehole nation, the whole cotry is suffering. >> the outok is darkened significantly since april. the world may be teetering on the edge of a global recession only two years after the last one. amy: the international monetary fund warns soaring inflation and the war in ukraine could push the world economy to the brink of recession. we will speak with an economics professor as the federal reserve is announcing another rate hike to fight inflation and soaring

prices. we will look at what a recession could mean for workers in the united states. >> remember the sloga the 1% versus the 99%? you are seeing it in action under the wonderful, politely cleansed term "economic policy." amy: all that and more coming up. welcome to democracynow, democracy.org, the war and peace report. i am amy goodman. "the washington post" is rerting the justice departme is investigating former president ump as part of its iminal probe into efforts to overturn the 2020 election. as part of t probe prosecutors , have rortedly received phone records of key officials within trump's circle including his former chief of staff, mark meadows. "the post" also revealed two aides to former vice president mike pence, his chief of staff, marc short, and lawyer, greg jacob, recently testifd before a grand jury.

on attorney general merrick tuesday, garland spoke to lester holt on nbc's nightly news. garland refused to rule out charging donald trump. ag garland: we plan to hold anyone who was responsible for events surrounding january 6 or any attempt to interfere with the lawful transfer of power from one administration to another, accountable. that's what we do. we don't pay attention to other issues. >> if donald trump were to become a candidate for president again, that would not change your schedule on how you move forward or not move forward? ag garland: we will hold accountable anyone who is criminally responsib for attempting to interfere with the lawful transfer of power from one administration to the next. amy: part of the justice department probe is reportedly focused on an effort by trump's

team to submit fake electors who would claim to the electoral college trump had won states where he had actually lost. on tuesday, "the new york times" revealed details of internal emails sent by lawyers working on this effort. in one email, the arizona based lawyer jack wilenchik described the plan as "kind of wild/creative." he wrote, "we would just be sending in fake electoral votes to pence so that someone in congress can make an objection when they start counting votes, and start arguing that the fake votes should be counted." in a followup email he wrote back writing, ""alternative" votes is probably a better term than "fake" votes." he then added a smiley face emoji to the email. in related news, the house january 6 committee has released an audio clip from testimony by former acting defense secretary christopher miller. he denied trump ever gave a formal order to have 10,000 troops ready to be deployed to the capitol on january 6, 2021, a claim that has been made by

former white house chief of staff mark meadows and others. in the clip, miller was questioned by committee vice chair liz cheney. >> to be clear, there was no direct order for president trump for 10,000 troops to be ready for january sex? >> no, -- january 6? >> no, that's correct. amy: donald trump gave his first speech since leaving office and hinted he would run for office again. oregon governor kate brown has declared a state of emergency in 25 counties due to a scorching heat wave in the pacific northwest. in portland temperatures reached , 102 degrees fahrenheit tuesday, breaking a new daily record which had been set just two years ago. forecasts show temperatures could rise above 110 degrees in eastern washinon laterhis week. meanwhile in missouri, at least one person has died in massive flooding after more than nine inches of rain fell in the st. los region. thstorm broka centurold

record. it came after a periodhen the region was experiencinan extendedrought. in the democratic republic of congo, at least 15 people have died after a series of protests targeting un troops who have been stationed in congo since 1999. on monday, protesters in the city of goma stormed the headquarters of the un peacekeeping force known as monusco. some un personnel had to be airlifted to safety. in a separate incident, one un peacekeeper from morocco and two un police officers from india were killed in the city of butembo. protesters have accused the united nations of failing to protect civilians from attacks by various armed groups in the region. >> we came to say it does not help us. they've been in congo for 22 years and nothing works. we came to demand our rights but they shoot us with tear gas. amy: russia has announced it plans to withdraw from the international space station

after 2024 and build its own orbital station. the united states and russia have been the core stakeholders in the project which has long , been a symbol of cooperation between washington and moscow after the cold war. u.s. basketball superstar brittney griner is testifying today in a russian courtroom as her trial continues. she has been jailed since february when she was arrested at a moscow airport for possession of cannabis oil in her luggage. on tuesday, griner's legal team argued she had the cannabis oil for legitimate medical uses. a russian narcologist was questioned by griner's attorney maria blagvolina. >> based on what you have said, if we understand you correctly, professional athletes suffering from chronic pain could have been prescribed medical cannabis in the u.s.. for example, the u.s. as therapy. >> i cannot testify for a doctor

working in the united states because they have their own standards of diagnostics and treatments but these treatments are prescribed. this is a fact. amy: the family of slain palestinian american journalist shireen abu akleh is calling on the united states to launch an independent investigation into her killing. on three members of her family tuesday, met with secretary of state tony blinken at the state department. the al jazeera correspondent was shot dead in the occupied west bank while covering an israeli military raid. the united nations as well as numerous news organizations have concluded she was shot by an israeli soldier. earlier this month, the u.s. said the bullet that killed her likely came from israeli military gunfire but stopped short of saying investigators had reached a definitive conclusion in her killing. the u.s. said her death was "the result of tragic circumstances." abu akleh's family criticized the biden administration's statements saying, "for far too long, the united states has enabled israel to kill with

impunity by providing weapons, immunity, and diplomatic cover. impunity leads to repetition. we are here to do our part to ensure that this cycle ends." the director of the federal bureau of prisons, michael carvajal, came under intense criticism during a senate subcommittee hearing tuesday examining the horrific conditions inside the federal penitentiary in atlanta, georgia where at least 13 prisoners have , died by suicide since 2012. georgia senator jon ossoff, who chairs the permanent subcommittee on investigations, said the conditions inside the prison were "abusive and inhumane." >> inmates hanging themselves in federal prisons, addicted to and high on drugs, that flow into the facilities virtually openly. and as they hang and suffocate, in the custody of the u.s.

government, there's no urgent response. from members of the staff. year after year after year, -- year. amy: a former administrator at the atlanta federal penitentiary, terri whitehead, also testified at tuesday's senate subcommittee hearing on conditions at the prison. >> i was shocked and appalled by the big picture. on a daily basis, there were numerous policy violations would put the staff, inmates, and community in danger. there were so many rats inside the facility dining hall and food preparation areas that staff intentionally left doors open for the stray cats that hung around to catch the rats. it is never a good idea to leave prison doors open. amy: in other prison news, 28 women who were held in a county jail in indiana have filed lawsuits over what is being

described as a night of terror. the women say they were raped, groped and assaulted by male prisoners inside the clark county jail after a jail official gave two male prisoners keys to the women's area in exchange for $1,000. the lawsuit also claims jail officials allowed the attack to go on for hours even though it could be seen on surveillance video. twenty women filed a lawsuit in june. eight more filed a lawsuit this week. and the senate has voted to advance a bill to provide as much as $76 billion in corporate subsidies to companies making semiconductor chips in the united states. senator bernie sanders said he supported expanding domestic microchip production but opposed subsidizing the industry. >> should american taxpayers provide the microchip industry with a blank check, blank check of over $76 billion at the same

exact time when semiconductor companies are making tens of billions of dollars in profits and paying their ceos exorbitant compensation packages? amy: and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. i am joined by juan gonzalez in new brunswick. juan: welcome to our viewers and listeners around the country in the world. amy: pentagon officials are increasing movement in the indo pacific region. if nancy pelosi makes her planned visit to taiwan, china has reportedly issued stark warnings to the biden administration over pelosi's proposed trip, which was first

reported last week, china threatening to take strong measures if pelosi travels to taiwan. but according to "the financial times," china has privately warned the biden administration it may respond militarily. president biden will speak with chinese leers xi jinping on thursday with fresh tensions over taiwan. pentagon officials told the associated press in a report published today that they are "developing plans for any contingency" and said "fighter jets, ships, surveillance assets and other military systems would likely be used to provide overlapping rings of protection for her flight to taiwan and any , time othe ground there." this comes as taiwan held air defense drills in its capital monday as they hold annual military exercises. if pelosi's august trip happens, she would become the most senior u.s. official to visit taiwan in a quarter of a century.

pelosi postponed a planned trip to taiwan in april, after she tested positive for covid-19. for more we go to taipei, taiwan to speak with brian hioe, a taiwanese-american journalist and founding editor of new bloom magazine, which covers youth culture and social movement politics. the magazine was founded after the 2014 sunflower movement. brian, welcome to democracynow. this is really coming to a head this week. we will see what happens when biden speaks with the chinese leader this week. what do you make of nancy pelosi saying she is coming to taiwan with a congressional delegation? brian: i think part of the issue is regarding the timing. in april this would have been viewed in light of ukraine and the u.s. port of taiwan. however, now this could lead to chinese aggression. the question is what steps would

they take and how far would they be willing to go? the questions are up in the air. one has seen visits from officials to taiwan. is the signal intended to -- china without benefiting taiwan or should it not be done? juan: why do you think the speaker decided to take this trip? obviously she represents a district with a large chinese-american population, but what do you feel is her reasoning and also the biden administration is publicly saying it is not a good time for this. brian: this is hard to judge. the policy is attempting to pressure biden. there may be concerns biden will -- regarding taiwan policy. another possibility is because

of the fact that republicans have intended to send signals to their voters with the support of taiwan and mike pompeo recently visited taiwan as part of his preparation for a presidential run. pelosi may be looking to answer that he is weak on china ahead of the midterm election. juan: and in terms of the conflict that has been growing between the biden administration and the leadership in beijing, how do you see this, affecting that in one way or another? brian: i think from the taiwanese standpoint, whenever there are talks between the u.s. and china there is concern taiwan will a playing card or a chess piece that perhaps the u.s. will negotiate on. this was a matter of concern under the trump administration

and biden. biden has more often made statements that seem to be supportive of taiwan, for example expressing -- there are also other points in which there are no agreements between the u.s. and taiwan so it is hard to say what would happen. it will be charged in the wake of the invasion of ukraine. if china were to invade taiwan, and there are further concerns. tyrone -- taiwan produces most of the semiconductors and china and the u.s. are reliant. the political and economic interests of the u.s. and china, taiwan is at the meeting point of the two regarding geopolitics, technology. have been reports but they are using the chinese missiles and are pointed at taiwan. amy: on tuesday, taiwan

conducted its annual ellet terry exercises simulating an invasion of taiwan off the northeast coast. this is the taiwan president speaking aboard a warship. >> to all the brothers and sisters fighting on the water the excellent drill by everyone just now demonstrated the ability and determination by the soldiers of the republic of china to defend the country. let's continue to work hard and guard our homeland together. amy: if you can talk about what this means and also the fact that many who are supporting nancy pelosi going to taiwan are republicans, as a taiwanese american in the capital of taiwan in taipei, if you could talk about the politics of this, both as an american but also as a taiwanese who has often criticized both what you call chinese imperialism and american

imperialism. brian: right, it has long-standing been the case the taiwan more often backs republicans who are strong on china or democrats are perceived that they are soft on china. the asian pacific is misinterpreted as -- attempt by china but attempts to build stronger economic conditions with china. when you have republicans, mike pompeo saying on twitter he would go with pelosi to taiwan, republicans seemingly are being very unified whereas democrats seem to be more divided. in this sense, what is also worth noting is if there are milita threats from china, this would be directed at taiwan. taiwan stands in the crossfire,

however this is not just in the terms of the damage to taiwan and the threats. but in terms of the potential to embroil the u.s. which is a concern. military tension has continued for sometimes they are not received as a threat and taiwan. chinese military threats on a nearly daily frequency becomes background noise so people do not necessarily perceive the influence he could have for geopolitics. they might just go on as usual. juan: you mentioned chinese military exercises. there have been on occasion also periodically u.s. warships that have gone through the taiwan straits and obviously china has protested on numerous occasions that if you believe in a one china policy, then it argues the taiwan straits are not

international waters. the u.s. ansome other countries differ on that. there have been periodic military ships of the u.s. that have gone through the straits. would you comment on that? brian: the danger with the u.s. and china as they are caught in a pattern of tit-for-tat escalation. one feels it is necessary to reciprocate in eve -- equal measure. taiwan has complicated the two and has faced risks from both sides. what is important to note, the u.s. and china do not perceive the action as the aggressor. they are only responding to the other. i think there are other regional considerations to keep in mind. after the death of shinzo abe, the vice president visited japan to mourn. this is the highest ranking visit by a taiwanese official in

years. they could say they don't want to send a signal with regional alignments but regarding taiwan, the u.s., and japan. amy: what about a blockade scenario? also because there is a congressional delegation going at the highest level, speaker nancy pelosi, the pentagon will be forced to deploy more weapons to the region, more military equipment or ships. this just increasing the tension naturally in that region and could lead to some kind of mish. brian: that's kind of interesting because one of the considerations for a plosive visit as you don't send anyone to china thinking this is pre-sect -- pelosi visit as you don't send anyone to china thinking this is -- much more

strongly republicans and democrats so framing the visit is bipartisan could be after the recent comments. i think they charge before the elections coming up this year, there's a question of how china would react in that the chinese presidt expected to obtain a third term in office, which is unprecedented. would he want stability from not having a confident -- conference to secure that or would he want that to happen to claim accomplishments or a distraction from efforts at expanding power? juan: also, could you talk about how the government in taiwan is going to be reacting to the visit? will she be received by official government leaders other than the parliamentary equivalent in taiwan? brian: that's a good question as

well. it is noteworthy that the taiwan administration has not made strong statements. it appears at least publicly they are in conflict, they do not want to take sides. if it were to take place, it would play at loki. what is noteworthy about the biden administration is it has different ways and how these visits are done, much more loki. -- loki. -- low key. it is also possible they would try to be much more low key. china did try to -- because this could be used as a domestic political achievement saying we have strengthened ties with the u.s. but in this case it would

not happen. how much of a red carpet would be rolled out for pelosi? i don't know. taiwan once lit up for pompeo. that will color the perception of whether taiwan is leading strongly. that is auestion. amy: the messages of both xi to biden and biden to xi when they speak, what should they be? brian: taiwan will definitely be an issue. biden has a history of statements on taiwan. i think biden will try to play down tensions. i think this remains to be seen. amy: brian, thank you for being with us, founding editor of new bloom magazine, speaking to us

from taipei, taiwan. next up, there is a global debt crisis coming in sri lanka. we will speak with an economics professor and richard wolf about inflation and recession and what it means for workers in the united states. [♪♪] [music break]

amy: "better way" by ben harper. the international monetary fund warned tuesday that soaring inflation and the war in ukraine could push the world economy to the brink of recession if immediate actions are not taken to ease a worsening global economic crisis. the imf's chief economist, pierre-olivier gourinchas, spoke in washington, d.c., during the launch of the imf's quarterly world economic outlook report. >> the outlo is darkened significantly since april. the world may soon be teetering on the edge of a global recession, only two ars after

the last one. all to lateral cooperation wil be key in many areas from climate to an dem a to food insecurity. -- endemic's to food insecurity. -- remains the best way to improve ecomic prospects. amy: the imf expects inflation to keep rising this year, with lower income countries in the global south facing higher inflation rates than wealthy nations, as well as some of the worst impacts of rising food and living costs. people around the world are taking to the streets in response. in sri lanka, months of massive protests in response to the country's economic meltdown forced the former president gotabaya rajapaksa to resign. he was accused of bankrupting sri lanka with massive corruption and economic mismanagement. many also blamed decades of neoliberal policies and forced dependency on international loans from the imf and the world bank for leading to sri lanka's current economic catastrophe.

sri lankans continue to face dire shortages of food, fuel and medicine. their new leader, ranil wickremesinghe, was sworn in last week, and has been overseeing debt bailout talks for sri lanka with the imf. protesters gathered in sri lanka's capital colombo last week after the sri lankan parliament chose wickremesinghe as the country's new president. >> we won't back down. we won't let it be. we won't settle for any less because at the same time this is exactly what we are fighting for. we are fighting to not settle for any less and to not be comfortable in the uncomfortable but fight for what we deserve. and the people deserve to get their basic necessities. they deserve fuel, they deserve transportation. they deserve anything that the citizens of sri lanka need.

amy: but it is not just sri lanka. this comes as global skyrocketing inflation is pushing many other countries to the brink of an economic collapse, including pakistan, nepal, nigeria, panama and , argentina, which in march agreed to a new multi billion dollar, 30-month debt repayment arrangement with the imf. argentinians have been leading massive protests in recent weeks against worsening poverty, unemployment, and soaring living and food costs in the country. they also denounced the government of president alberto fernandez over its handling of argentina's $44 billion debt with the imf. this is a protester in buenos aires. >> 50% of the population is below the poverty line and the rates of severe poverty are increasing more and more. inflation for food products is that 8%. they just changed the minister of the economy and nothing has changed. amy: well for more we're joined , in new delhi, india by jyati

ghosh, economics professor at the university of massachusetts-amherst, who writes about all of this in her guardian piece headlined, there is a global debt crisis coming and it won't stop at sri lanka. weome back to democracynow. jyati: we are seeing sething that we should'veeen morehan a year ago. people are warning that the covid pandemic destroyed some countries more than the developed world and they are still facing the pdemic because of the vaccine apaheid and they are being ravaged by e impact of the food and price increases. the ukraine war generally blamed for these massive increases in food an fuel but that's only part of the explanation. very large role has been played by profiteeringf big

companies and speculaon in the market. rich country governments are choosing not to control that. they are blaming supply shortages and the war when more than half comes from these other forces. then they are doing nothing about this massive emerging debt crisis which has been writing on the wall for at let a year. unless g7 government and by extension th g20 get their act together and decide they will make immediate changes and do some immediate actions, we are going to seen absolute perfect storof unrest in civilit economic disasr, hunger, starvation, and social and political consequences. juan: usually, professor, the reaction of the international lending groups is just even when

theyo a debt restructuring, it is just to roll over the debt for additional years. it is not really to take the burden off of these countries. i'm wondering what do you see as how the imf other international lenders are reacting to the current crisis. jyati: that's exactly the problem. what was done ding the pandemic was a debt moratorium to say you don't have to pay interest now for a year or a year and a half. they arell do now. they didn't change the debt. restructurg is reducing the debt, writing off part of the debt and it happens regularlin the credit mkets. it is haening in the united statesnd india. large corporations regularly write off large amounts of debt. this is not being done for sovereigns and that is a disaster. it is true that the bilateral debt or the imf and world bank

debt is only part, not even half of the total debt of emerging countries but you need to have a global system for debt restructuring and debt write off. we will not be able to repay a large part of this debt. a significant debt release that involves cutting out the absolute values of debt, it could be done in germany in the 1950's but cannot be done in developing countries today. juan: could you talk about the changes that have occurred in terms of this crisi and previous debt crises in the past, it was largely the multilateral lending organizations that were essential players. now of course in recent years, the people's republic of china has become an increasingly huge creditor to many developing countries and most of its agreements are completely bilateral agreements, just

between china and the government of a particular country. how has that affected the ability of the developing countries to reach global settlements or uniform settments with their creditors? jyati: i think china is usually unfair blamed for this. china accounts for only 10% of the debt of sri lanka and for mostf the countries in distress it is not more than 10% or 15%. the big pbl is private creditors, the bon market, big multilateral internatial financial institutions, most of which are based in the u.s. and europe. they are responsible now, the mutual funds, pension funds, they are responsible for a large part of the debt. private creditors are turning the screws, if you like, on these countries, and they are sitting back and lettinghis happen. you need to enforce a debt

resolution mechanism in which the private credit -- private countries and china have to be involved. just claiming china, in fact the real problem i that there are private creditors who are assuming all of their debt would be repaid and demanding complete and rigid repayment, and there is nothing to prevent them from continuing to do this. whereas you can think about regulations, you can think about buying up the debt of these countries and multilateral systems can do it. there are ways in which to get the debt resolution. this is a lack of political will, not because we don't know what to do. amy: why don't you lay out what should be done? you can name names with these private creditors, and what countries do you feel can weigh in especially in theole of the united states? jyati: the uted states definitely is responsibl for i would say -- that is to say

institutions based in e united stat are responsible for more than half of the private dt plaguing emerging markets. the most obvious solution iso have some kind of a global debt authority that could buy up this debt. at the moment, privatequity funds, you allow what i call vulture funds to buy the dt and do everything possible to extrt it from the poor countries invoed. why don't we have an international ency thais buying up debt and basically writg it off? that's what governnts do routinely within their own counies. the second is that the imf and world bank need to write off their own insience on repayment. the imf has an obscene syem of demanding fees, additional surcharges on countries that are deeply in debt and cannot repay.

which is frankly, unacceptable. it should immediately abandon that practice. the bilateral's should be giving up on some of their debt. they will not notice it. there has been a big expansion last year, $650 billion. $400 billion went to the rich countries and noneave used it. they don't need to use it. why not release those for debt relief? it is fairly straightforward and only requires a government action. at doesn't require going to congress. it requires a government action because it is less than 1% even. why not do these creative measures which are all feasible? if you can somehow manage the debt of these developing countries and you have an issue, developing countries get a small proportion but it is an absolute lifeline. it is an emergency saving

package which otherwise they will be starving their people of food and fuel annecessities. these are straightforward solutions, yet we find the imf come to these meetings and wring their hands and say things are dire. for god sake, we have multilateral institutions because they are supposed to do something about crisis, not just complain about it. juan: i wanted to ask you also, as the united states and the federal reserve continues to raise interest rates, the u.s. doar is becoming stronger and stronger versus other world currencies because more and more people are fleeing now, investors come into u.s. treasuries. how does this affect the debt crisis itself? aren't quite a few of these loans sometimes denominated to have to be paid back in

equivale u.s. dollars, not the currencies of the countries? jyati: absolutely, that's the problem. countries that he borrowed in foreign curren debt andhat hahappened nows all of this capil flow, we know it is very volatile. it moves at the slightest hint of any problem and eve if the neighbing country has a problem, the capital mov out of the other developin country. as the u.s. raises its interest rates, this has ppened in the st, capital slides back to 50. that means the currencies of these countries depreciate which makes the debt repayment even more expensive. you are usi foreign exchange because ur expor and tourism revenues and remittances are down. and then your currency has

depreciated so the repayment value -- appreciated so the repayment value is that much higher. you are getting hit from all sides. even as wheat prices are currently down from two months ago, it is higher in developing countries because their currencies have depreciated in the intervening period. u.s. monetary policy has huge implications for the rest of the world. unfortunately no one in the u.s. administration, not the government or congress ask about implications for the rest of the world and they are only looking at what happens in the u.s. it is devastating. amy: what does this mean and latin america where in argentina, half the children now living in poverty? in panama, massive protests like there have been in argentina. this cnt one of the wealthiest in central america but extremely unequal. jyati: yes.

you see it to the heaines when there are public protests or extreme cases t across the developing world, not just latin america but africa and asia, things are reall dire. in india, the food situation is horrific. we are hing levels that have shown we have go back two decades in terms of nutrition for mothers and cldren. we'veot starvation lel diets for about one third of r population. have 72% of the country unable to afford what is nsidered a nutritious diet. thiss just in india, supposedly a low mide income country. the vastation across the world will only hit u.s. headles when it translates into open protest. they are generating not just extreme misery buthey are als generating instability and protests that will have

demonstrated consequences everywhere including in the u.s. amy: jyati ghosh is an economics professor at the university of massachusetts-amherst. your article, "there is a global debt crisis coming and it won't stop at sri lanka." when we come back, we look at inflation, the possibility of recession, and economic policy overall in the united states. stay with us. [♪♪] [music break]

amy: "the truth" by handsome boy modeling school. this is democracynow, the war and peace report. united states is facing what is called a category five economic storm as they debate whether the economy is in recession and how to respond.

the federal reserve is announcing a new intest rate hike to fight inflation and bring down prices which are up some 9% since last year as , inflation reaches a 40-year-high. this week also marks 13 years since they u.s. last raised its federal minimum wage to $7.25 an hour in 2009, which is the longest time without a raise since the federal minimum wage was first implemented during the great depression. to make sense of what all this means for working people we are , joined by the marxist economist, richard wolff. emeritus professor of economics at university of massachusetts, amherst visiting professor at , the new school, and the founder of democracy at work. host of economic update and author of several books including "the sickness is the system: when capitalism fails to save us from pandemics or it self." welcome back to democracy now. explain what is happening in

this country and also if you can explain, define all of your terms from inflation to recession so all people have access. richard: thank you very much for the opportunity. let me try to be as brief as i can. over the last 30 to 40 years, we have experienced in the united states a radical redistribution of wealth and income. all manner of economists from all perspectives have done the research. it is all very well known. that has caused a pocket changing problems in the united states that our headlines are full of literally every day, but the last four years have been a cap on that process that really requires taking a deep rest. number one, -- a deep breath. number one, our society was not prepared for and did not well

manage a pandemic that could hand -- could and should have been much better prepared for as other countries were without our wealth and medical system. at the same time we had an economic crash. over half the labor force in this country lost their job for a few weeks or the entire time of 2020 and 2021. we've had viral catastrophes before. we've had economic crashes. we never had them at the same time. that was a body blow to a working class that as i said has been suffering for 30 to 40 years. as if that weren't enough, we then had when we thought we might be out of the worst of the crash and the pandemic, now in the last year as you just pointed out, we have whacked our working class with inflation. make no mistake, what an inflation is is a general rise in prices. that's all it means.

not all prices go up the same, not all prices go up, but in general prices rise. and obviously, as any child will understand, if the prices go up, that hurts most people in the middle and people at the botm because they are the ones with the least amount of money to pay the rising prices. it is a discrimination against the middle and the bottom. that is the vast majority. perhaps what is not understood is who raises the prices? that little economics detail is so often lost. employers, the class of employers in our society, that's who set the prices. employees are excluded from that activity. employers in the united states are 1% of the population if that. those of us who have to take the prices they choose to raise, we are the 99% and there is no

demoacy in allowing 1% of the people to set prices that 99% of the people are forced to pay for food, clothing, shelter, and all the rest. so damaging is this inflation and so unfairly damaging that the government is called upon as often happens, when the private capitalist system lurches into one extreme or another, the government is called in, please save the system. in our society, our central bank, which is what the federal reserve is, and other countries it is called the bank of france or bank of england, historic reasons we don't call it the bank of the u.s. we call it the bank -- the federal reserve. they are asked please fix it and magic happens. the federal reserve can be honest, admit that it's job -- which by the way is written into

its charter, price stability -- that's a fancy phrase for saying don't let prices go up too much. when you have an inflation, the central bank, the federal reserve has failed to maintain price stability. what is it proposing to do? it is proposing to come in and raise interest rates as he pointed out. late -- as you pointed out. later today we will have the announcement of the latest raising up interest rates. the idea is to make everybody who owes money worse off, basically, going to have to pay more in servicing your debt and paying your interest. your monthly credit card bills will go up because if you carry a debit because you've been using your card, they can charge higher interest. if you were thinking of buying a

car, it will cost you more. a mortgage to own a home will cost you more. the idea is, by making everything more expensive that involves debts and in our economy debt is everywhere, he is making it more expensive. masses of people and who again, the middle and bottom who are the worst hit, they will have to cut back expenditures because they are having to pay more for example on their credit cards every month. that will hopefully dissuade the employers from further increases of prices because you have really whacked the mass of the consumers who can't afford it. notice in each case, that whatever the problem of the economy is, the employers are in the position to raise the prices, to cut the supplies, to do all the things they do while

the rest of us are forced to be passive and to pay for the entirety of this. if i could make a final comment, this is not a sustainable arrangement, not in the sense of ecological unsustainability but you cannot continually assault working-class for 40 years of redistributed wealth, then a pandemic, economic crash, inflation, and now tell them, the only way to deal with that is to whack them again with a rising interest rate. it is ironic that richard nixon, a conservative republican president, back on august 15, 1971, went on the television and said we have a terrible

inflation, which we did, because it constantly comes back, and what i'm going to do said mr. nixon is declare a price wage freeze as of tomorrow morning. any business that raises its prices, we will arrest you. the union of the man that gets higher wages, look, it was an extreme measure. guess what, it worked. we can have a debate about it but the ironic reality that today we are all talking from the biden administration and the republicans as well, as if interest rate increases is the only thing to do, this is a manipulation of a people that has no justication and is more extreme now than i've seen and my lifetime as a professor of economics in the united states. juan: richard, i would like to ask, during the pandemic in the

worst times, the government unleashed an enormous amount, or rrowed an enormous amount of ney to tide society over, the capitalists and the employers got a huge share of the bailout money but so did many americans. the point that the united states now, as i understand it, it is one of the biggest debtor nations in the world, 137% of u.s. gdp in terms of debt yet the u.s. dollar continues to be stronger than other currencies in the world. can you explain how that's happening? richard: the basic answer is the following. the rest of the world, as your previous interviewe made very clear, the rest of the world is in such terrible shape that before we celebrate the strong dollar we have to face the reality that the reason loose money, mobile money around the

world is leaving countries in asia, africa, latin america, and europe to come to the united states is not because we are in good shape. we aren't. it is because they are in awful shape and they don't know what to do. and the united states for the last 75 years has been the safest place. they look around the world and say, we better cash in our euros or yen or whatever else they have, hold onto dollars. remember, to buy a treasury security these days which is what they do, how they do that, is to agree to lose money because the inflation being 9%, the treasury doesn't pay you 9% if you buy a treasury security these days which means you are putting money in the united states, buying a treasury that may pay you 2% to 4% if you are lucky, but that will be less of

an increase over the next year than the cost of everything a dollar buys so you are actually losing money by doing that. it tells you how bad thelobal economy now for everybody, that they woulcome to th united states. last point, be very careful. this can change on a dime. if problems arise here in the united states, the way we have treated our working-class guarantees -- all we don't know is the forms that crisis will take. will it be an extreme republican administration, a further surge in the unionization drives and strike drives we are seeing across the united states? the minute that mobile money from around the world that has come in and strengthened the dollar gets a sense that the

united states is spinning out of control, then that money will leave every bit as fast as it came here and we will be looking at a dollar dissolving on us and talking about that. juan: in terms of the continued squeeze as you've been saying, for the past 40 years, on the working and middle-class, it seems in many countries around the world that is leaning more and more towards fascist and right-wing movements then it is to strong left-wing or socialist movements. i'm wondering your sense of what the future holds. richard: i think what we are seeing and i follow it quite closely -- juan: whave about a minute and a half. richard: particularly in europe, you are seeing the fruits of the last 75 years. our country has been beset by the cold war, lost in this

notion of a great struggle between capitalism and socialism in which you can't allow anything on the left to get very far without repression by the government or without unfair treatment in the media. i'm not so surprised that as the situation unravels, the first instinct of people is to be responsive to the right which has been able to function in the western world much more freely than the left has. i don't find that at all surprising. i think when the people of this country realize how few solutions the right-winger has, look at what mr. trump didn't achieve in all the things he promised, that you will see an appreciation that maybe we ought to try the left. the crucial question is whether the left will be courageous enough to say what is going on and offer a real alternative. amy: richard wolfff -- richard

wolff, we want to thank you for visiting us emeritus professor , of economics at university of massachusetts, amherst and visiting professor at the new school. he is the founder of democracy at work and hosts a weekly national television and radio program called economic update. he's the author of several books including most recently: "the sickness is the system: when capitalism fails to save us from pandemics or itself.■é■í

hello, welcome to nhk newsline, i am catherin kobayashi in new york. they decided to raise their key interest rate again by three quarters of a percentage point. fed chair jerome powell said