motoko to leave the club small it's a circle so totally the gold circles are told but she is ski crazy in the steep limits reticent this is for him since he might go to twitch and say look you need to scan for him. now so. you need for the latest developments on the arrest of the head of the mask he said to be arraigned on sexual assault charges a hotel housekeeper accuses dominique strauss kahn of attempted rape and with that you have one of the day's biggest story but why is it taking a sex scandal and we want to talk about the eye and never mind its effect on greece portugal ireland and history and the developing world will get all that. and europe isn't alone when it comes to economic struggles the u.s. has officially reached its credit limit so what's next for america and can uncle sam be saved seems the average person cannot. put up with every.

party. adding insult maybe even criminality to injury debt collectors are bullying main street this as wall street and washington get pale doubt. that afternoon it's monday may sixteenth four pm here in washington d.c. i'm lauren lister and your watching our t.v. well it's a scandal of multinational proportions and top news on the u.s. mainstream media outlets is all reporting on it take a look. she's a lawyer for you now the head of the international monetary fund just arriving to new york courtroom he said to be arraigned on sexual assault charges in new york city. of course the latest developments on the arrest of the head of the i.m.f.

on charges of rape head of the international monetary fund the i.m.f. will be arraigned inside this manhattan courthouse shortly that is going to happen a hotel housekeeper accuses dominic strauss kahn of attempted rape well it's taken a great scandal for there to be any major attention paid to the international monetary fund in the u.s. never mind the bank's involvement in greece ireland and portugal bailouts of late war it's criticism of policies over the years by scholars like nobel prize winning economist joseph stiglitz and from countries who receive the bank's quote unquote help only to call it crippling they may be the real victims of the i.m.f. well joining me now to talk more about it is paul craig roberts an economist and former assistant treasury secretary during the reagan era sure mr roberts thanks so much for being with us first i'm just curious when's the last time you can recall the i.m.f. being you know a top story on u.s. media news. well if. it's not in the media at least it's

been on washington's nine for two reasons one. of the current director who's now being arrested strauss kahn was a likely. winner of the next french election at least according to polls and rushed and much prefers its mansour cozy. it's also unwise to mind that the i.m.f. recently announced to washington's great consternation that within five years the chinese economy was how will have some past the american economy. so even though ordinary people don't pay much attention to the i.m.f. or washington was paying attention and apparently strauss kahn was also paying attention to joseph stiglitz and his policies were being those by the banks because strauss kahn was. advocating

a return of regulation to have the banks. more carefully regulated so they couldn't produce such crises that poor people have to pay for and this was also you know getting attention are you what are you alluding to i mean what was the connection between washington billings on falchion and their concern about i.m.f. and rape. well. he is now eliminated as a threat. and that always raises questions you know with a prize directed by was the new york governor eliot spitzer and he was taken out on a sex charge and now we have. the i.m.f. director and he's taken out on a sex charge whether it proves to be true or false he's now out as

a purchaser and so this is a great relief to washington and to the banks where i've been in many new york hotels and hotels. and other cities all over the world and i have never had a maid come into the room and announced much less while i was in shock. it sounds like you don't buy the story is that what you're saying well we don't know we will never know we weren't there no one was there there were two people there and so it's a he said she said and what generally happens in american prosecutions is that. the defendant is forced into some kind of plea in exchange for accomplishing a couple shows i want to ask you real quickly so that we don't run out of time i want to ask you know that analysis that you made that i what washington everybody you know corporations maybe are breathing easier without frost on you know charge of the i.m.f. at this very moment people that have said that he was kind of changing course and

moving away from some of the neoliberal policies that that countries that had i.m.f. loans that they complained about. that he was moving away from that do you really have confidence that the i.m.f. was moving away from these policies and really adopting policies that were better for poor countries and not as good for corporations any more. well all i know for sure is that the banks were worried about that and washington was worried about that and joseph stiglitz seem to believe it so the two of them apparently were talking and we know what sequence position is on that so. i would think otherwise i believe strauss kahn would have been protected and thus in these charges. nothing much would have would have come up generally someone who's who's serving well doesn't encounter difficulty since only

people who become the rights encountered typical just put are people that have been embroiled in fact scandals in their careers bill clinton that sort of thing running and he survived it and we'll see what happens if outcome but i want to talk a little bit about the. that the things that have not been covered having to do with i.m.f. possible victims you know some would argue activist that the i.m.f. and its person will have fiscal policies by the rich world has been devastating for poor countries that it has quote unquote helped to ramp up but that's the general yes i think that's generally true and i.m.f. austerity program always makes the ordinary people pay the cost of adjustment and. the i.m.f. austerity programs are really despised by the so-called developing world but people's there because they invariably bear the brunt of them and they will be

just as they're bearing today in europe and that's something that you know i've reported on that in other countries and brazil and seen so that sentiment so i'm curious why you don't think any of those stories ever get any play in the united states you know those bigger more important profound stories to much more people than that one sex scandal well because they're not apply to the americans so they don't experience the policies and and because the. the austerity it's. forced upon these so-called developing countries is in order that the new york banks can be paid off. so you wouldn't you wouldn't the american media taking some. foreign relation to games wall street new york so i think those are the two reasons your policies were

to americans and they had to go through one of these programs which they may yet have to do. they would certainly pay attention to that it's not their pain it's the pain some grew much so it's not a media storm not a media dorie but we're making a media story right here thank you so much that was paul craig roberts former reagan administration official now the united states has reached its credit limit the debt ceiling and what's happening chaos in financial markets the u.s. defaulting on its debt armageddon well not exactly but this may be why the treasury department has employed what timothy geithner has labeled quote unquote extraordinary measures so that the government can pay its bills until august second these include borrowing from the civil service retirement and disability fund and suspending investment in the federal employees retirement system and short borrowing from peter to pay paul and here peter sounds

a lot like your average worker but here to talk about the debt ceiling and what this all means is raj joshi he's founder and president of many think this much for being with us now you know i want to ask you as an investor there is a debate going on now that we see you know beyond politicians and with politicians that one side saying if the u.s. doesn't raise the debt ceiling and ben bernanke you would be in a camp that this would be catastrophic to the world financial markets but then you have others on the other side including investors including analysts including average american folk i've interviewed that say you know this is hyperbole and this is continuing to perpetuate you know poor responsibility on the part of the u.s. by constantly increasing the debt ceiling as an investor what do you think would be the reality if the u.s. didn't raise the debt ceiling. what a shame he's not hearing me had i really was waiting to hear the answer to that question because it does seem to be the million dollar what do we have wrought. here you

know you can hear me ok did you hear my question. ok we're having some problems but hopefully we're going to get back to you after the break and we can plow into really what is at stake with this debt limit and the debt ceiling that we're waiting for politicians to move on still ahead here on r t though for those who have a hard time paying their bills who are the u.s. government it is no merger the up next you may not believe just how far debt collectors are going to get their money we'll have more after the break. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so. you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realize that everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm sorry is a big picture. of.

what drives the world the fear mongering used by politicians who makes decisions to didn't create through it if you had made who can you trust no one who is in view with a global missionary see where we had a state controlled capitalism school session so when nobody dares to ask we do our t. question more.

we. were never. safe and ready for freedom.

now while we may debate the u.s. government getting to raise the debt ceiling or not the reality is that they do get to raise it and continue borrowing more money whether the u.s. can pay off that debt or not average americans though not so lucky and wait until you see the length of debt collectors are going to in some cases criminal to get americans to pay up archies read a court now has a story. imagine a call coming to your home oh you pick up and assuring her demands your money and threatens your life they have said that so we know where you live we know your wife is you're not going to get away with this before they. embark brian's case he was

dealing with the mafia and i called them back to find out exactly who they were they were the voices of debt collectors harassing the fifty year old music producer over a small debt belonging to his son. craig . forty. with a record number of americans drowning in unpaid bills losing homes and searching for job abuse in the us debt collection industry has reached record highs and one hundred forty four thousand complaints were filed with the federal government last year among them collectors resorting to regional slurs anti-semitic remarks and threats of rate certainly any threats of violence or we'll you know we go contact with third parties somebody other than the consumer is illegal under unless it is under very specific circumstances however debt collector is routinely violate the

third party disclosure rules and contact neighbors and relatives as a means of putting pressure on consumers to pay attorney joseph morrow says most collection agents work on commission only getting paid when debts been recovered a climate of economic desperation intensifying the use of illegal and aggressive tactics just to net how bounty pay check there are to my knowledge about four or five cases of suicide coming from that collection harassment there's also been heart attacks and strokes ironically a lifeline is always extended to the biggest borer of them all the u.s. governments with exceptional debt. fourteen point three trillion dollars america keeps spending money printing more cash and relying on creditors like china who own one point one trillion dollars in u.s. treasury bonds don't make it perfectly clear that congress will raise them to assume washington gets a safety net wall street gets

a bailout. and the working americans facing financial hardship. is that unfair yes is the economic environment disasters right now yes it is but there's been traditional ways to to work your way out of these situations and those mechanisms are working anymore that the record. a sound on likely to be heard on wall street where the rich and powerful have lost billions in past years while poor americans on main street continue dealing with the consequences. are cheap. and join me for more is alex henderson he is a journalist who has investigated all phenomenon thank you so much for being with us now you know my first question is just very simple you know this is regulated there is laws governing that collection how are these guys get away with this and go i'm sure what well i think it's a number of things i think number one you have the consumer which is completely tapped out now and that the same time the f.t.c.

which regulates the behavior of their collectors they're under funded at this point so the f.t.c. doesn't really have the resources to as aggressively go after these people as they would like to and that of course falls on the backs of american people that are being harassed now i know that these numbers have increased significantly but obviously debt in this country after the financial collapse in the years proceeding that you know has really increased with more people not being able to pay it is that what is behind the increase are more factors behind this increase in abuse. that's that in a nutshell what's happening is the consumer is growing deeper and deeper in debt is facing more and more financial hardships what's happening is these debt collection agencies are growing increasingly aggressive with their tactics. and how you know what is fueling their aggression aggression in our tactics why is that increasing. while the consumer since it's more difficult for the consumer to pay. there really

the debt collection agencies are really turning up the heat and i say tearing up the we're seeing everything we're seeing racial slurs that think slurs just really quite a bit of abusive behavior how prevalent is that when i have profiled several stories you know are these kind of just bad seeds were that do the things that you're talking about or is this kind of a big you know broader issue that is really affecting so many of the americans that are and that it's unfortunate i think what's happening is i think you're seeing a print i think you're seeing just a pattern of more and more abusive behavior on the part of these that collectors whereas i think it exists in the past i think you're just seeing a lot more of it now than you were say five or ten years ago which i think is just a reflection of the fact that there's a lot more debt out there getting it unfair for the american people to go out there that. yes it most definitely is an old say that while i do see the need for a debt collection then surely if businesses are going to function that sort of road

to them have to be paid it's the sort of the abuse of tactics that object to. more broadly you know looking at it you know more philosophically and big picture you have you know wall street that's been bailed out by the u.s. government as the reporter pointed out and the u.s. government that's allowed to raise the debt ceiling and continue borrowing and and never really has to answer to investors or pay up you know the fourteen trillion dollars that it owes and then you have average americans facing this debt which you know they got themselves into so they have to pay it but they're being harassed and you find an irony here. that's the thing i mean certainly we've been on the funds to bail out wall street in september of two thousand and they but unfortunately the funds to build americans who fall upon difficult times are not necessarily there and so how better reflects the issue of their collection is a lot of i think a lot of these consumers who are in debt would like to pay that debt but it's difficult for him to do so and

a lot of these agencies as opposed to wanting to work with them they simply resort to abusive tactics and coercive tactics he sent to other industries that have kind of exploded and and you know done corrupt things and project things you know during the housing boom there was a lot of mortgage fraud is there that same kind of fraud going on with this industry now is this a growing burgeoning industry for that any any signs of that yeah i think what's happening is there's so much money to be made in the collection that a lot of these companies feel that even if they get fined by the f.t.c. that simply the cost of doing business so so essentially it pays to harass more than it does to follow the regulations in the laws. sadly i think that's what these large collection agencies have concluded they feel like if there's millions and millions of dollars to be made out for consumers who are in debt then the threat of

a fine of several hundred thousand dollars i really don't think faces a lot of these companies and if they have a really end up facing these fines you mentioned that the industry that regulates or the agency is underfunded. that's it i think that the f.t.c. doesn't have nearly the resources that they need to go after these companies aggressively as they would like to and you have had a few instances of their collection agencies receiving million dollar fines for abusive behavior but i think that unfortunately the fines that are in the million dollar range been few and far between so i think that in order for these people to really be fearful of conducting themselves in this fashion i think that you're going to need to see a lot more fines of this magnitude and do you think that's likely to happen there any reason why. the regulatory agency is underfunded. while part of it is just the fact that there's not nearly as much tax revenue being collected i mean the taxpayer is tapped out the consumer is tapped out and you know consequently f.t.c.

is underfunded they're having you know they have difficulty you know receiving the funds that they need nets to i think of government agencies all across the board. all right so everyone stretched and and poor people like the gentleman we saw there are being harassed that are trying to pay their debts that was journalist alex anderson thanks for giving us that perspective now the united states as we were talking about earlier has reached its credit limit the debt ceiling and what's happening word we don't know yet because timothy geithner has essentially extended the deadline with extraordinary measures including not investing in some pensions for federal workers it sounds like but we want to get to really what is at stake in this debate and we are going to try again to get raj doshi he is the founder i believe. manny capital he's also the president ana thank you so much for bearing with us i'm glad to see that we have you again so i was on to you earlier i wanted

to ask you in this debate you know you really have two sides you have the ben bernanke these and other economists that say if the u.s. did not raise the debt ceiling it would be catastrophic for the world's financial markets and then you have some investors analysts that say this is hardcore hyperbole continuing to increase the debt ceiling is what's really this is hastert d.c. and that the u.s. really needs to get its financial house in order as an investor what do you think that outcome would be of not raising the debt ceiling. of not raising the debt isn't not raising the debt ceiling so i think we don't raise the debt ceiling sure there will be some short term pullbacks here but that's really the right thing that we need to do here now you have house speaker boehner coming out today and saying that you know i'm ready to raise the debt ceiling i'm ready to cut a deal with obama you know we're broke i mean not that the woman has already been raised ten times over the past fifteen years meanwhile the national debt has tripled you know it's clear that these politicians have no real intention of going to the real fundamental issue at hand and that's where overspent and we're over

leverage here as a nation and it's clear that they have no intention of paying this bag without monetizing you know from government except cons of the tax evader himself to me gee you know we don't have a real leader out there was really to really ready to talk about the real issues at hand here and what do you think that they should be talking about as far as the real issues at hand and this debt ceiling discussion well what all this will amount to is eventually the death of the dollar you know when the united states doesn't have a revenue problem and we have a real spending problem you know as dr mark probert said you know we're really in the end game here and unless we really start to rebalance ourselves there won't be anyone to show up the treasury auctions auctions i mean ben bernanke he is the only one showing me three quarters of all treasury our issues are now being purchased by ben bernanke you mean this isn't bob way style economics pretty soon if we don't get this issue in order no one is going to be showing up i mean what kind of message are we really sending out to our creditors here i mean if you were the leader of a company whose triptans covenants just about every quarter if you keep your creditors or shareholders will continue to finance your business i mean what this

will amount to is a decrease in standard of living if we aren't if we don't raise the stand if we don't raise the debt ceiling but you know that's reality well i mean there are two really tough tough things you know you're you're saying the u.s. is competent iraq and a hard place you're saying it needs to get its debt under control to reassure the world that the dollars or something but you're saying you know if the united states doesn't raise it that feeling well then it's not going to be business as usual for the government you know things won't be funded by things that people rely on the government for so which do you think is the right thing to do at this point and where the united states is. you know like i said the right thing to do is come to terms with reality i mean pretty no one's even talking about servicing the national debt which is actually one of the largest the fastest increasing cost in the federal budget right now and then you also have i'd like to read a quote here by boston university economics professor lawrence kotlikoff in an article that he just published in and bloomberg i mean let's get real the united states is broke you know and we're all in he also goes on to say that this will

inevitably lead to hyperinflation you know we have a two hundred and two trillion dollar fiscal gap this is according to c.b.s. own figures no i mean we will have a decrease in standard of living but that's exactly what we need the government has gotten too big and spend far too spent we're now fighting three wars here and if we could we would be able to be fighting another five well that's a good point that you bring up in defense spending is a big chunk of the pie should average americans keep you know continuing to pay you know for example above street banks got bailed out main street did not hear saying that average people should be you know hurt by the government gave policy on its debt and not spending how it has you know is it time why should the united states you know average people have to pay again. well look we've had years of excess you know there's no real unfunded liabilities among one hundred thirteen trillion dollars you know eventually we need to come to terms with reality and eventually we need to let free markets do its thing i mean every time they've got her every time

markets try to clear themselves every time markets try to rebound there's ben bernanke you are running the printing press and there i mean eventually it's going to lead to hyperinflation in the united states i mean there's no other way to be able to get some to fund out there hundred thirteen trillion dollars unfunded liability which is a million dollars per taxpayer yet the average american may have to take a step back and standard of living that's for sure just like wall street will have to as well because pretty soon no one will be there to build them out and that's the price that we have to pay for years of excess and years of reckless government policy and you know it's one thing that it's interesting because at the c.f.a. institute conference which is a conference of it at a bar it controls it has a hedge fund managers that essentially fund managers that people buy they believe that the body you know controls access to the upper echelons of fund management and it's thought to drive the conventional wisdom a lot of kind of similar concerns about the financial recovery of the u.s. pretty gloomy prognosis and they're encouraging ab buying out i'm urging current

scenes and u.s. farmlands and gold as some of the things to hedge against that is that becoming the conventional wisdom or will it yes absolutely you know i also found it ironic how how tim geithner ruled out the possibility of an asset sale on the part of us which also included a half a trillion dollars in gold reserves that we have on hand you know who knows maybe even beat down tim geithner feels that the only thing they'll be left to cling onto pretty soon for the u.s. will be precisely those gold reserves but i wouldn't bet on it being that smart of the united states as in how it should but look the united states has increased its monetary base zimbabwe style in the last country to have this large increase in its monetary base has been seen by the way hedge fund managers worldwide are figuring that out figuring that out chinese president hu jintao is now realizing what kind of position that they're in and that's why it's not just the chinese central bank or the reserve bank of india that's loading up and another come out of na it's also got a regular at a time and i said i got here.