he's the school for you. know sort of. a meeting of the minds on how to solve the world's financial problems sounds like a good idea right well not everyone thinks so and many believe the i.m.f. and the world bank may have had a hand in creating the crisis from the start. and creating the message as the internet opens up a whole new world to and from america is it a double edged sword and is america ready. and your hired from his famous hairdo to a t.v. show model wife and though small fortune could this man be the next u.s. president or is his time in the limelight just

a media hater. it's monday april eighteenth four pm in washington d.c. i'm christine you're watching our t.v. the international monetary fund and world bank wrapped up its spring meeting in washington with fresh concern over a global financial crisis but as the institutions prescribe solutions critics argue it's those very policies that played a role in the meltdown to begin with r g financial correspondent laura lister report. but. it was. i as protesters to cry their capitalist policies i the international monetary fund meets and the prescribe or of austerity reflects on the state of world economic progress the recovery is on the way and broadband soon

to hark this worry over jobs comes as greek labor unions announce fresh protests over i.m.f. policies they accuse of making their country's economic and job situation worse austerity measures public spending cuts tax rises and privatization part of the i.m.f. doctrine for debt crisis management is now imposed on greece a policy that has been forced on many developing nations for decades i think most western policymakers think that it's just imposing tough low tough love mark by reliance on the free market and not on the role of the state the critics like economist gerald epstein say hurt these countries and contributed to the financial meltdown just as leaders of these institutions brace for another we are one shock away from a food crisis the financial crisis taught us that prevention is better than cure.

we cannot afford to forget that lesson but a group of thinkers believe the curriculum is all wrong behind this very door the international monetary fund was signed into being by world leaders decades ago and behind the door is a different group of economic and policy leaders have gathered together who believe it's outdated and needs to be rethought altogether calling for a shift away from western dominance and thinking we've really been looking at this through our problems that our lens and most of our countries have not been subject to i.m.f. programs but even as some of those countries that have such as brazil as part of the brics block call for a greater say in the i.m.f. some don't see any real change in the works i expect that the next president of the world bank will be an american in the next manager of the i.m.f. will be european broadly construed and that's the same time with that since those institutions were established despite the limitations to global economic effect of this yes of course and that's a major limitation

a major weakness of the government but again it's not going to change anytime soon a warning over what could be in the pipeline as the i.m.f. talks austerity with portugal to secure its debt crisis loan lifeline and an economically strapped egypt talks about getting billions in soft loans from the bank the more things change the more they stay the same lauren mr r. t. washington and new hampshire. all this and also just today some unwelcome news not only for tom government officials but for the stock market as well standard and poor's issued a harsh warning saying ok bring a close eye on the decisions made on the debt and the deficit and will re-evaluate america's credit rating in the near future unless washington acts to control its red ink and that a lower rating and therefore higher interest payments could be under consideration but so for now a aaa rating remains in place but this is a sign that the s. and p. means business now when asked about all this by house spokesman jay carney

responded and said quote we believe the political process will outperform the s. and p. projection lauren lyster joins me to talk more about this we just watched her story lauren several things to talk about but love is jay carney i mean america's political process will outperform expectations i think that you know you always hear corporations and companies talk about the way that they talk about their business to the market to investors is all about in terms of performance outperforming underperforming so i think it essentially saying that he believes that democrats and republicans can get together and get a deal passed to deal with the deficit which is what this warning this negative outlook is all about so i think the markets need to say we're going to reform these negative expectations how big of a deal is this i mean s. and p. they didn't lower the rating but they said hey we're keeping an eye on you are you going to clean up your act is this a big deal i think that it is a it is certainly significant s. and p. has not ever given any outlook for the u.s.

in the time that is in rating the united states moody's did once the other major credit rating rating agency back in one thousand nine hundred six so we have heard some warnings even in january from the credit ratings agencies about the same issue of the u.s. debt and what this is doing to its you know what the what this means about the fundamentals of the u.s. economy they they put it at risk for a credit rating but as far as actually lowering their credit rating. and that's what would be the big huge weigh on me and no one's talking about that but i mean this is certainly significant and we saw stocks definitely take a hit today on the news of the debt and the deficit seems to be central to the conversation here in washington over the last few weeks you know as they've been wrangling over the budget democrats and republicans all these proposals for how to save money how to cut the debt and kind of get back on track what's the outlook in terms of these proposals the democrats you know the ryan budget obama's proposals will either of these i mean how realistic is this that these will get implemented and make the s. and p. happy again well so far from what we've seen in terms of the negotiation that just

barely avoided a budget that government shutdown i mean that wasn't too big of a dent so i think we'll have to wait and see what happens politically but as far as just in light of these i.m.f. meetings that we just heard you know such sharp criticism of i.m.f. policies and the i.m.f. you know it's widely believed that the united states really pulls a lot of the strings there you know all those policies are about austerity for countries that are facing deficit and debt problems cutting spending raising taxes and really suffering consequences at home as a result and it's pretty ironic that the united states that imposes these policies indirectly through the i.m.f. around the world doesn't take its own medicine you know the united states is allowed to have its debt skyrocket when there is a crises the banks get bailed out and they don't have to restructure so you kind of see this irony anyway the whole you know was always out exactly other concerns is what they take and now it's kind of funny that today we see the s. and p. make this stance on the united states credit and getting at this negative outlook for the first time do you think that this will be a sort of

a fire under the both of the decision makers to say you know what we can't beat around the bush any longer we actually have to do something we see how stop that things can get in washington so it's really hard for him to make a prediction there but some of the analysis that is coming out is saying that this s. and p. outlook is directly to do that to put political pressure on washington to do something more so than it is a real reflection of what they're going to do over the credit rating our financial correspondent laura lister. and i do want to say on this topic of the i.m.f. and exactly what its role is today and twenty eleven and you have an marshall with the center for research on globalization joins me now from montreal canada. hey there and euro i think from the i.m.f. the world bank is created back in one thousand nine hundred forty four you finance reconstruction in europe and to develop the third world but let's break down the evolution of what they've come to mean over the last half century what's changed in terms of what they were supposed to be and what they've become so we're going to

keep in mind as they grow they emerged and even if you wouldn't work it's confidence all plans to create them are actually implemented earlier and spit out specifically and once you were gone in one thousand into the council on foreign relations which is in the u.s. and in. war plans during the war the state department. redesigned the go on any new world order in which america will soon greet do this. he came up with you know if you know of three major institutions. in which he and which became the i.m.f. the world thank you would essentially and age the third world latin america or africa or asia or the benefits us western european nations but that's not the way it was sold i mean in some ways it was sort of portrayed as you know these

institutions looking out for the poor countries coming in to help them and you just said it's actually benefiting the wealthier countries. yeah well just as you are happy judge you are is and it won't be you as opposed to just say so do the effulgent institutions basis now while the i.m.f. and world bank say that the interest you do see are going to be developments and other actions and sent other repercussions of their actions have exacerbated poverty. created under-development you look at africa and latin america during the sixty's coming out oh don't loan your era independence movements these countries would develop quite rapidly in africa growth rates worse and you know the oil crises which are impacting europe increases were supported by the state department . and this created a flood of money through the western baking regime going to these developing countries going against industrialization and one hundred seventy nine minutes of

a reserve raise the interest rate so that they were two percent in the late seventy's and eighteen percent in the early eighty's all this money all these loans interest rates dramatically increase and this set off the one nine hundred eighty s. that priests would spread throughout latin america next door africa and asia is led the world bank and i.m.f. i mean the seemed to rescue. this development in a restructuring or items and as a manager they're not just a restructuring their economies to try to pay back this debt a lot of times they're restructuring the entire landscape of their country i mean you take these gorgeous rain forests in some of these third world countries places where certainly a lot of things could come out of and they're having to you know tear these down to build crops to make money to pay back that what do you make of all is that what do you make of the fact that you know the i.m.f. and the world bank have this meeting and they're talking about these policies and

how to fix things when a lot of critics at least say they're the ones who caused this. i was literally may have a significant room being prices based actually act is a new low new institutions like you pointed out they have to get construct rain forests and a group to and focus on what's exports induced growth so producing sea and cash crops like in rwanda they were forced to use hockey for export because this was for trade and something that would dramatically in construction. and benefits economic benefits profit center but if you look at the informal colonial era in africa european empires and falling to reconsider was done in the same way they make countries produce certain crops for exports and european nations and then that's making it and she's the and the nations for food and other services creates a dependency so the i.m.f. world bank and essentially create a global and then see south africa region that merican on western europe and north

america which heavily subsidize their agricultural products for export and in terms of today going trying to do how the how these institutions use institutions that change the way specifically is that not only are the interesting in kenya to manage on. the so-called developed world but they're also trying to integrate and advance the process and i hope governments by that we mean in emerging nations and constraining there in india and other nations in its institutional apparatus of global governance by bringing them into the game essentially and let's talk about accountability here i mean again these organizations i.m.f. world bank meeting about policies thinking ahead trying to figure out what to change the fact is from what i understand at least if you work for the world bank you're basically immune from any kind of legal action who you know who are these

organizations accountable to in terms of making sure that they actually are doing what they say they're going to do. they're accountable to the interests that i own and it's very simple to actually see who runs these institutions if you take the world bank historically many of its residents have always come from work been somehow related to chase and happen again which is now cheap in the chase and you look at a second president were up and in charge him or he was chairman of chase manhattan bank he was chairman of the council on foreign relations he was chairman of the ford foundation a trustee of the rock of the foundation so the interests that run these institutions are very well represented in their actions by from the rhetoric of serving them or you just have to sort of put that aside and not reality right hander gavin marshall from the center for research on globalization joining us from montreal canada. well the us is competing with countries like china and russia for

more than just resources they're also battling for influence but in a country with a foundation of ideals that includes the freedom of speech and also in the age of all the social media here's a question to what extent does the us government and us government officials really practice what they preach and especially with the explosion of information available out there on the internet could these freedoms at times be a double edged sword killen for looks for some answers. the battle for influence over the international airwaves has opened a new front. will be paid i'm afraid and it was better to win the red ideas and have to win in washington as a spoke spanish because part of china. distributed right i think consider every one of our governmental offices. over some.

of the trends government american international broadcasters do target china iran the middle east and other nations the voice of america would out and out it but audiences are shrinking the energy use and others two thousand and ten showed that only one percent of chinese listen to the voice of america in mandarin just a decade ago american and british outlets dominated the international broadcasting market. for today's multipolar world is reflected in its broadcast from china and its well cut through russia france baghdad international news agency you're watching i'll just hear of. this new media landscape has top officials in washington worried that u.s. broadcasters are losing influence we are in an information war and we are losing that war i'll be very blunt in my assessment al jazeera is winning. the chinese

have opened up a global english language and multi language television network the russians have opened up an english language network i've seen it in a few countries and it's quite instructive critics say the diminishing audiences are the result of the u.s. desire to influence rather than inform they're going to try to go into these countries and probably try to find news basically if it's a true propaganda arm rather than a news gathering and reporting which is what or t. al-jazeera and the chinese network are going to be but while many lebanese for freedom of information abroad other seek to have it silenced at home it's a propaganda campaign and right now we are at war and we would you have google's great casting turned over to would you have tokyo rose campaigning to have r.t. and al-jazeera taken off american airwaves american taxpayers are helping the poor right now at this time jihad t.v. on the air and investigate it in congress for their role radicalizing must we do

think they ought to be expanded into looking at the operations of foreign propaganda channel is like russia today on american soil we'd also like to look at . al-jazeera even as americans increasingly turn to them for pressure views and real news as u.s. corporate media at their entertainment programming and punditry we open up these huge gaps because we're more concerned with reality t.v. and people arguing and people attacking the president than we are with having people on the ground finding out what the problem the problems are the cold war was a cold any of us international broadcasting outlets like voice of america radio free europe but thirty years later the media and economic landscape has changed and voices have been added to the discussion from doha to paris to caracas and u.s. worry that it may not be the only one battling for the airwaves anymore here in florida artsy d.c.

. all right so in this information war who is the real winner and is there still a need for all these u.s. funded media outlets well joining me to discuss this is michael prince a lecturer scholar and also author of the book the face of imperialism michael a lot of interesting things going on here we just saw this report that showed among other things a group of people who came into washington and explicitly speaking out against stations like this one r.t. and also against al-jazeera somebody even calling it jihad t.v. what's going on here with you know this explosion of media and also this explosion of people who are a little worried about what's happening. hillary clinton secretary of state made it very clear that we are losing this information war well i find that very revealing is that a war what. isn't the goal of u.s.

information to and who. don't hold your conclusions. i'm so sorry we seem to be having some problems with our audio here hopefully we can bring him back that was michael parenti author of for the paper face of imperialism hopefully we do bring him back in the meantime we have a short break here and coming up in a few were going to talk about donald trump. what

drives the world the fear mongering used by politicians who makes decisions considerable breakthrough that sort of have been made who can you trust no one will is jim field with a global mission originally where we had a state controlled capitalism that's called session so when nobody dares to ask what we do our t. question morning. is a. new website with twenty four seven live streaming news towns what to do about it ongoing financial hardship unlimited free high quality videos for download. stories you never find on mainstream news. nothing that the said of me the

political. posts in my car to the trust. let me get that we met in a park right here right now. i think the rock in need of gone well. we're never got the book says they're going to keep you safe get ready because of their freedom.

you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else here so you sort the part of it and realize that everything is ok if you don't i'm sorry. all right let's talk now about a subject everyone else seems to be talking about as well donald trump to pay a man a real estate mogul love him or hate him he seems to be everywhere these days and the mainstream media is eating him up so is the limelight a part of a bigger story say a run for president or perhaps he just hopes to boost t.v. show ratings joining me now to talk about this is amanda carey reporter for the daily caller all right amanda let's take a step back here you know before we get blinded by the light certainly a wealthy man but this is also the owner of the miss universe pageant this is

somebody who's been married three times he is a multibillion air is a person that america could could relate to could get behind. i don't think you got a little ball that's my honest opinion and i don't know if it's it his personal i guess background with his wives i mean that's not a huge issue here i don't think you know if you look at giuliani he has a family a contender and yet issues there and newt gingrich is a contender. but whether he's relatable or not remains to be seen he obviously has this huge following right now which is are several different ways but little i'm not sure i mean i guess we'll see what's your prediction on it in terms of why you coming out there and talking about this run for president and being i would argue the most critical of obama from you know accusing him of not being born here. as you know saying a lot of different things i mean what do you think this is all about. it's donald trump on into my hands i think he's selling himself and he's doing

a really great job about it and he has the sort of populist message that resonates with a lot of people as crazy as it can and it seems he's sort of this anti-government anti-establishment guy that says whatever he wants whenever he wants to whomever you want to say and a lot of people appreciate that and whether it is as you say just sort of selling his brand the fact is a lot of polls show right now donald trump tied for first place but there is some evidence that he's not reported that he's not supported rather by a lot of republican someone important republicans i mean let's talk about karl rove a lot of people consider him the brains behind a bush administration he was on fox news channel recently also what he had to say and talk about it this is heard in the republican party well it hurts donald trump it removes he was an interesting candidate who had a business background included contributed the dialogue but his fall from a fall and grace of the bursaries you mean so he's off here in the nutty right and is known in consequential canada i'm shocked. inconsequential karl rove says

almost asserting that he's a little crazy what do you think about this i mean this is a voice that at least just a few years ago was pretty important when it came to making political waves right. is just one guy and there is sort of the split about whether their birth their strategy was a good one or not and whether it was smart i think so far it was a good strategy just because it sort of drawn this this attention and it has sort of translated into good poll results in the long term i don't think it will turn out to be that great but then in the long run. candidacy is a credible anyways. so well i mean it's an important question i mean this whole birth or issue because there are some who say you know if president obama you know what we've seen is a record of birth not the actual procedure to make it and some people say you know president obama loves this his people of this because the more you know presidential candidates and politicians get out there and you know try to talk

about the president not being born here it makes them look crazy and if that's the only thing that they can hold against the president if that's the only thing that they can criticize well then i think that there's going to be a victory for the democratic party in twenty twelve right and that is one of the arguments from some of the conservative wings. you know but i don't see a lot of other republican candidates sort of latching on with this but their strategy for a reason i don't see daniels out there technology out there you know calling for the person to africa and i think there's a very good reason for that i mean donald trump is a very fringe candidate you know the same media people that are hyping his candidates are also writing about how. he would never be like that anyways he's not a real conservative so this thing is a sort of a sideshow that scorning a lot of tension and i think that's all it was supposed to do how do you think people from other countries view the potential to from canada see i mean is this something that people are looking at and saying well that's interesting it's

certainly sick. person certainly maybe this is a country that needs help with making financial decisions or do people see him as a little bit of a clown i think it's more a little bit of a clown i mean he said he could do so much he's a successful businessman he could have a lot of clout in politics and instead he chose this route that sort of you know. caused people to make fun of him and you know comment as credible candidate and i think people around the romane i don't know but the consensus is in europe or asia or anything like that about donald trump but i think that definitely puts him in a bad light and i want to go back to something you were saying about the border issue and about the fact that this is one of his main things that he's been very outspoken on it seems to be because of this that a lot of the media a lot of the mainstream media is having him on to talk about this because it's almost so crazy it's almost like charlie sheen you know that was the main story for so many days. you know is that the fun to me and should the mainstream media simply

be giving anyone who says something crazy a platform because it brings in ratings or whether they should or shouldn't is the debate to be had but you know at the end of the day news organizations are a business and they are all about ratings and right now donald trump thrives those ratings are sort of like you know used to be sarah palin anything sarah palin said and there was a story on the news site. you know about but she said it was dry and place and heads and traffic and the same thing as truth donald trump and we look at candidates i mean certainly they can win primaries we think about christine o'donnell and people who did some some crazy i'm not a witch you know everyone went crazy for that but you know the fact is they can sometimes going primaries but so far they haven't really been able to win elections i think it'll be interesting to see what happens certainly amanda carey reporter for the daily caller and that is going to do it for now for more on the stories we covered go to our team.