match for this bright idea there's meanwhile the gap between the haves and the have nots is why even in the united states other countries across the globe are working to erase that divide so why haven't we been gone and the pain at the pump is being overshadowed by the pain of many american families struggling to eat so what's the reason behind the new spike in food prices. so what happens when you have all the money in the world to buy any item you want well if you're the koch brothers then you move on to buying ideas back in two thousand and eight charles koch wrote a big fat check to florida state university to help hire new professors in that schools economics department nice thing to do well not exactly made sure there were strings attached to his donation one of those strings is the charles coat now has

the authority to hire whatever economics professor he likes and he could over rule the florida state faculty hiring decisions which he's already done shooting down sixty percent of the teachers proposed by the faculty in two thousand and nine. and considering the koch brothers obsession with deregulated so-called free markets and iran's psychopathic or sociopathic broker ality you can bet that any new hires are going to have to subscribe to that same ideology maybe like paul ryan's staff they all at the read atlas shrugged so how is letting billionaires determine what students learn in public universities ethical and what are the consequences of this sort of philanthropic activism the following as a reporter and blogger extraordinary for think progress he joins me now lee welcome hey dumbass for having me thanks for joining us from your in faraway california is that i am not afraid i said you know i can understand. a

founder or a donor at a private colleges say jerry falwell's liberty college or whatever it's called saying you know i want certain kinds of teachers or for that matter a private college particularly a religious one or one that has a particular agenda saying we don't but but this is a state owned university. this this dog that's being waged by the tale of the koch brothers donation isn't there's some right fundamentally wrong about that. well you have to understand that the koch brothers fundamentally don't believe in public anything they don't believe that there is a public good for our air quality don't we have a public good as in our water quality and they don't believe there's a public good in education and this phenomenal story about their reaching in and taking control of the actual academic institutions at florida state is

a remarkable story but it's sadly nothing new could the koch brothers starting in the late seventy's started seeding money and attaching shearing's to universities all over the country particularly at schools like george mason where they literally own entire departments not just the economics department but they also have their hands in law and others forms of public policy i would yeah i would think that economics law and history would be the three areas where they would really want to have the greatest influence for just just as a wild guess what. you know i can understand the you know a billionaire saying ok we're going to invest money in a politician and to get a return other was ruled by a bunch of republicans and they'll make sure that the regulations on our polluting refineries are cut back so we can make more profit or they'll make it illegal for impossible for somebody to suicide for dumping benzene as is happening in texas

right now. but what's the financial return to investing in a university for something like this. well choose for one thing coke but what makes the koch political machine unique is that they don't just invest in politicians that's what any corporation does what coke does is invest in. different outlets in different organizations that mold society to be fun organizations that market their concern ideas to the elderly to students they have a young professional programmed into see that's huge that employs literally half the people i know in the conservative movement have a one point where it's for who are employed by a cocoa ship and universities are a prime place where concerts were coke can advance their extreme ideology this is an issue i wrote about last year at west virginia university they find an entire economics department similar to happily do it at florida state and some of

these professors one professor named russell so will he wrote an entire book arguing against regulation in particular he said that my regulations as a coal mine regulations actually hurt workers by increasing accident rates so we should actually deregulate the mines so we found that over the last thirty years of my recollection is it led to more miners being dead i mean it was it was a de facto regulation by bus to the unions but the effect is the same what course and you know into the biggest arena here is climate change they can find dozens of professors and i can follow a piece on this fantastic reporting showing the extent to which this is going on across the country coming out tomorrow it's not just employers say it's not just western it's not just you virginia it's really across the country and private colleges even places like brown university. but this is a trend where koch industries can fund professors that basically cast doubt on the

science of climate change and then when they want to make the argument to the public and say you know all these scientists are professors opposed action on climate change or don't believe in the war the better. there's warming i'm look at all these professors who signed this letter that agree with us they don't use they don't disclose that those professors are under a bike literature is like. waiting for them to come up with the idea that gravity isn't a law or it's amazing believe it i mean it sort of there yeah. well gravity who knows who knows you thanks for the great work you're doing over the center for american progress and the writing you don't think progress for thank you thank you so much for having me my pleasure the koch brothers are behind the tea party they're behind climate change deniers they're behind scott walker's union busting efforts you name the right wing cause the koch brothers are more than likely to have thrown a few million bucks at it so indoctrinating students in college seems like the next logical step for these guys now there's there's

a piece to this that's really worth thinking about look around the room that you're sitting in right now not not just of the t.v. set you might be watching or the computer or whatever but you know look at the furniture look at the windows look at the other the other items the pieces of you know electronics computers everything you see right down to the walls in the building everything you see are pretty much everything you see started as an idea in someone's mind that's the power of ideas ideas have have have more have tariff reform the planet changed the way that we interact with things change the way that we live in a very real way every culture and nation in history started as an idea everything started as an idea ideas are at the core of absolutely everything

so if you're a billionaire and you want to change the future and destiny and shape the nature of a nation get control of the ideas. it was because back to lewis powell as one nine hundred seventy four member of the chamber of commerce saying to the president chamber of commerce which was later adopted you know about a year later when he was put on the supreme court by richard nixon it was he said we need to be basically infiltrating the schools control ideas worldview if you can control them old ideas and beliefs and worldviews cult you have the the most ultimate power there is so for example you've got these guys out here peddling the idea that the rich should control the economy for themselves i call it the so-called free market or deregulation or low taxes you know keep the rich rich and poor poor old homes there or they're peddling the idea of the poor the poor because they're cursed or lazy i mean this is incredible if you consider where this started

i mean look back you know this this debate in american politics went back to the it to the seventeen eighty s. and the seven hundred ninety s. sir edmund burke was the leading conservative in the united kingdom and the leading conservative being courted in the united states certain burke who famously said words to the effect of i'm doing this from memory but it's pretty close it does me no harm of a man is a lot of doing gauge a profession is served by a was that of tallow maker or a hairdresser candle maker or hairdresser but it does society considerable violence of such a person is allowed to participate in governance in other words to vote or to get elected to office that was the conservative worldview society needs to be run by controlled by the wealthy few thomas paine actually knew cirebon burke went over spent two weeks in his home on his way to france to visit the french revolution which didn't turn out so well for pain that's a whole other story and he when he was there he got these huge battles with with

with sir edmund burke and the result of it was that he wrote two books the rights of man and agrarian justice and in these books thomas paine. one of the one of the founders of this country proposed in sin the seventeen ninety's proposed social security proposed estate tax provoked proposed progressive taxation and a cap on wealth in fact here's a quote from thomas paine he said the end therefore it is for the good of the whole as well as to the interest of the individual and everyone who can sets himself down to his business and contributes his quota of taxes as one of the first duties he owes to his family to himself and to his country i guarantee you any of the colleges that the koch brothers are funding for not teaching much thomas paine.

while republicans are blaming president obama for high gas prices the american people are pointing their fingers elsewhere at wall street to do a new c.n.n. poll ninety percent of americans say wall street speculators are driving up prices at the pump course gas prices aren't the only commodities spiking today so are food prices secretary of state hillary clinton addressed this issue last week saying rising food prices could have grave consequences for the entire planet back in two thousand and eight rising food prices led to violent riots and millions of people around the world nearly starved to death many did and like to date back those rising food prices were accompanied by rising oil prices yeah the thing is that back in two thousand and eight as oil and food prices were skyrocketing there were no actual shortages of oil or food in fact oil and food supplies were both at all time highs as a saudi oil minister ali nine ninety said in two thousand and eight quote recent

crude prices do not reflect the fundamentals of supply and demand in the oil market as much as they are caused by financial speculation. and wheat silos in the midwest were literally overflowing with supply so why were the prices going up and what does it seem like food and gas prices are always going up together but it's because ninety percent of americans are right it does have to do with wall street. this is the goldman sachs commodity index a market where people can place bets on what they think the price of certain commodities will be look what's in this index together the oil and food. back in the day it serve a useful purpose to let farmers and airlines lock in the prices of the food in oil so they can get their books straight reduce risk budget for the next year hedge against a future drought or a future oil shortage but today thanks to thirty years of deregulation of wall street and particularly due to the commodities futures modernization act back in

one thousand nine hundred ninety thousand kilograms practically anybody can jump in this market and place bets that the price of food or oil will rise and if enough people bet on it just like you know any other stock and sure enough these prices do rise and a bunch of gangsters make a whole ton of money that's what happened in two thousand and eight so that we're seeing unfold again today is the time to force regulations on wall street to stop them from starving the world wrecking our economy i guess prices joining me now to offer is take is ron vale science correspondent with reason magazine ron welcome. good to be with you thank you for joining us ron goldman sachs analysts released a report last month saying quote the unfolding events in north africa in the middle east have pushed up the price of brant crude oil is high price levels and by comparison in the spring of two thousand and eight when crude oil prices first breached these levels of maybe four peaking by early july we believe there are

fundamental differences between now in the spring of two thousand and eight. and spare capacity are much higher now and that speculative positions are four times as high as they were in june of two thousand and eight could be just guys this confirm that these jacking up the prices were seen as because they're gaming the system. well of course people who are speculating are also people who are in distinct people's money and things like pension funds and hedge funds and they're going to think so yes speculation is probably part of this there's also a responding mood right also is going on in the middle east right now with the arab spring which we all hope we're into with people becoming a lot triggered and they have dinner last twenty years have also cosyn tutors and you want to market as well so those things are going on they're definitely going to happen and i should remind you that goldman sachs are the same people who in the spring of two thousand its oil was going to go up in two thousand and eight to two hundred dollars a barrel when in fact it filled thirty four dollars

a barrel so you can't take it for granted so what they're saying they're doing their best but you know it's just more information for the grist mill yeah you know enron i get it that people are investing in oil and food and things and hoping that the price goes up and you can you can buy those futures entre even traded markets exchange markets but you know if i buy stock in exxon mobil and or if i buy stock in microsoft and that stock drops twenty thirty percent it doesn't make any difference i mean as an investor i was some money but it doesn't make any difference fundamentally the world hertha price their stock goes up thirty percent it doesn't make any difference to the to the world when the price of food and oil goes up people die shouldn't these commodities be separated from stocks as they were for the previous from one hundred thirty five until one thousand nine hundred nine during that period of time where if you bought a commodity future you actually had to take the liberty of it so the only people speculating in commodities were the people who were actually going to use them. i

don't think that's necessary overall it would make the market less able to to correct you so which as you saw last week it's purpose or whatever the major way when oil prices sort of would have a volatile in first place but possibly not but one of the things that adding to the volatility of course and something you don't mention is the pursuit and oil markets are being linked now because of their idiotic ethanol policies we're subsidizing the production of ethanol to the tune of a ten billion dollars a year and we're training a third of our corn crop into ethanol article whatever. you're making you're making the opposite of your own point because that does it it diminishes the demand for oil and it's creating you know we're subsidizing food i agree with the i hate the subsidies but the point is that the price of oil and and is going up at the very time when it should be going down but you know the point is that we're turning food into a few we are removing a third record crop in dispute and this is making

a terrible problem right now in the world and for that we're going to turn so much or in into the settlement of corn four point six billion barrels this coming year would supply calories for us up to six hundred million people for an entire year no less part of why food prices are going up is that we're turning food and if you were a sickly it takes thought they are going. to say it has to be and that amount of ethanol would supply enough calories to feed a person for a year ron and adam will is that we shouldn't be subsidiaries ing corn you know if we're going to subsidize something let's let subsidize and produce diesel fuel and it's much it's. orders of magnitude more fish and corn but. many thought the question is why should we allow banks and banks toure's or banks who are representing pension funds you know there's been one things as you started out why should we allow them to speculate in food in oil when speculation in these core

commodities is essential commodities can lead to wars and to famines. but the other thing that you don't mention in two thousand it wasn't the speculation so much but also the fact that what happened is prices started running go a lot of countries decided to put export controls on their food they basically shrink the size of the marketplace that we're not going to have anything. in response to speculation. but know that this increased the snow dilution it's because also the amount of food that's actually available in the market has been removed and this was a terrible problem the government policy go away again and there's one of the things that to her credit card the recall is you know if there was goldman sachs anything from two thousand three to two thousand and eight they went from thirteen billion to three hundred seventeen billion dollars in investments in commodity markets that's a twenty five percent one hundred percent increase but but right but i think i'm going through these things cycle through the fact is that we're going to you know gold has been going up a lot of things we've been doing i think there's that all agree with you there's

a bunch of bubbles here that are about to burst and people that are right there hills ron thank you very much for being with us tonight thank you very much to talk with you for the first time in history bank stars on wall street aren't just making profits and putting their competition out of business they're also ruining the american economy and destabilizing the food security and their world that's what happens when a lot of author least plan wall street these guys clearly claimed can't police themselves that's why we need to step in and put an end to this kind of harmful speculation. coming up now and spreading the wealth is becoming far more than just an embarrassment for the us of a after right after the break a delhi take on how america holds the number one spot for the world's biggest problems.

the latest sign. from. the future. it's time for the good of the very very unforgiving. first good lady gaga the biggest pop star in the world right now threw herself into the immigration debate over the weekend performing in mexico she unveiled a new song entitled america as a protest against arizona's unconstitutional anti immigration legislation.

was. the song she told the audience i can't stand by many of the unjust immigration laws are passed in my country millions of fans let's hope that translates into millions of people standing up to racist immigration laws in america the bad radio show host marc bernier the usual side of nonsense morning talk friends the florida radio show host had this question about torture. what are your listeners saying the post bin laden killing about technique. well let it go i mean what's all this whining about the use of waterboarding i mean you get the same people who would put a bullet. head now say hold this is too severe you're right what's all this whining

about war crimes suddenly somehow right wingers. to take a waterboarding a tactic that during world war two we executed japanese soldiers for using against american soldiers and turned it into a fine and dandy thing calling people who oppose torture going to use this is insanity. and the very very ugly fox news talking head vinson's. last night sean hannity gave this racist women seek a platform to talk about why it's ok to torture people. leon panetta and three cia directors have said former cia directors we have more intelligence from enhanced interrogations and all our intelligence agencies and most of it was bad you know what it's they have bad karma you do bad things bad things happen none of these people none of these camel jockeys ever should the started with us this is what they get when they play with that camel jockeys really. suffer so

much for us trying to win over hearts and minds in the middle east if the terrorists want a recruiting tool play to do is watch fox news and that's very very good. does your member of congress support teenage pregnancies drug abuse and violence. last week canadian members of parliament brought up an important issue in the house of commons wealth inequality a motion was agreed upon across party lines that read this house notes the findings that societies was smaller income differences between rich and poor have fewer health and social problems such as teenage births violence mental illness and drug

abuse further notes as such societies have higher levels of trust between citizens and more social mobility and therefore encourages the government to promote policies that reduce income inequality in other words they're going to do something about the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer in canada so isn't about time we do the same in two thousand and seven richard walker says in cape picking published a book titled the spirit level by equal societies almost always do better and work was based on decades of data where they looked at nearly two dozen developed nations on the planet and compared every u.s. state against the others and studied wealth inequality gaps what they found is that the more an equal a nation or even a state is the bigger the gap between the rich and the poor than the worse it's social ills like teenage pregnancy or drug abuse or violence in nearly every single

instance the higher the wealth inequality the bigger the problems and where does the u.s. rank well wilkerson pickett looked to japan sweden finland norway germany spain france the netherlands italy australia denmark belgium switzerland austria greece canada ireland israel the u.k. new zealand and portugal comparing all those countries what they found is that the u.s. is by far and away the most unequal we have the biggest gap between the rich and the poor of all of these other nations. and because of that we lead the way in problems take infant mortality we are the very very worst when it comes to how many failed births there are every year far more than any nation in the world down here you have jet was low japan sweden norway spain germany france as income inequality goes up portugal us say here we are here we're

infant this is infant deaths per live births all the way up here at seven down here three for japan and sweden low income inequality taken prison rates again with a very very worst with a far higher percentage of people serving in prison than any of these other nations take teenage birth rates again we blow other nations out of the water. this is this is the prisoners with how many kids get pregnant in our communities there's earth perth aus and women and usa is way up here over sixty. norway in japan down at the bottom your town take homicides guess what we win that too with far more murders than any other nation looked at and take drug abuse boom there we are at the top again with the most drug addicts all of this all of these problems because we've let the rich in the in this in this nation go wild massive tax cuts and

deregulation at the same time let the poor sink deeper and deeper into desperation but busting up unions and cutting away the social safety nets put into place by f.d.r. and l.b.j. but perhaps this is the most important data set of all social mobility wilkerson and pickett looked at other nations to see how often poor people moved up to higher wealth classes in other words how easy it is to become to come from a poor family and become middle class or even wealthy on your own this is essentially the basis of the american dream the idea that anyone can make it here regardless of where you came from and when it comes to social mobility when it comes to the american dream america finished dead last the lowest social mobility of all the other nations studied the lowest the american dream no longer exists because of extreme wealth inequality in america we can't continue on like this our government your member of congress must acknowledge soon

that its wealth inequality is the biggest threat to america today it's not al qaeda it's not our debt it's not illegal immigration it's not our taxes it's wealth inequality canada gets it the rest of the developed world gets it but we dumped so right now call your member of congress call your senators and tell them one thing it's the wealth inequality stupid. that's it for the big picture united for more information on the stories we covered this is our web site thom hartmann dot com and archie dot com also check out our youtube pages of youtube dot com slash the big picture our t. and slash on martin and this entire show is available as a free podcast on i tunes and don't forget i'm ocracy begins when you show up tag your it get out there and get after it will see them.

he. says.