i mean the american president seems to be more worried about the work which t.v. star is divorcing which t.v. star more than anything you know not here we will get right down to it with on some fun founder jim rogers will talk everything from us debt to the prospect of q e three china and more. builder girls of the elite group said to perhaps the world is once again meeting so what's it all about we'll try to people what's on the agenda behind those closed doors. and introducing the newest russian voice in america and we take airwaves near you will give you a behind the scenes look at the voice of russia america. and just because we're

asking all the hard hitting questions artie's still labeled as anti-american but is it really ends a american to try to get to the truth so wide that the war on r.t.e. . evening it's thursday june ninth eight pm here in washington d.c. i'm lauren lyster you're watching our team now as the u.s. government remains deadlocked over the budget and the nation's debt the credit rating agency fitch has said if lawmakers can agree to raise the debt ceiling this could endanger the nation's aaa credit rating if you've heard this before it's because now this makes three all three credit ratings agencies that have come out with warnings over the u.s. debt debate as lawmakers grapple with where to cut spending and have social programs on the chopping block a new poll shows more americans blame the debt on the nation's wars and the federal

reserve's role trying to pump up the economy with more cash is set to expire at the end of the month so what does this all mean for the u.s. economy not to mention the global economy to help us sum it all up earlier i spoke with renowned investor jim rogers i asked him if lawmakers should be concerned about the three credit ratings agencies warning about the debt and here's what he said. one of the rating agencies doing america is already bankrupt the idea that there's still tell you thing it's a aaa credit and they may lower it is just absurd these low rating agencies have been wrong about nearly everything for the past ten or fifteen years don't pay any attention to them the u.s. is in terrible trouble congressman should be worried about that not what the rating agencies are saying what should u.s. congress do about the debt ceiling should they raise that or said they just not worry too much about the whole thing. they should cut spending dramatically they should take an axe no chain so they should take a chainsaw and cut spending america's going down the tubes we're the largest debtor

nation in the history of the world lauren this is a very serious thing that's going on around us and we're just watching ourselves sink into the sea now one thing i want to ask you know you say cut spending this is something we see lawmakers going back and forth about where to cut and we see medicare being on the chopping block at this poll that i just saw that i think it's pretty interesting shows that sixty percent of americans glane the national debt and the war that the united states is in any rock in afghanistan and not as much on domestic spending and on tax cuts i want to know what you think needs to be cut do you think that the u.s. needs to take back to defense spending big time. of course we do lauren we have troops and over one hundred twenty five countries around the world we're not doing this in the good they're just making in a mes all over the world we should cut defense spending was a chain so too but that's not going to do enough lauren we definitely have defense spending but we've got to cut everything i mean this cannot go on much longer what

will happen if the u.s. government officials if congress doesn't get it together a key country agreement on cutting down the debt and raising the debt ceiling well well sooner or later and probably sooner within the next couple of years you're going to see people just stop buying u.s. government bonds are going to stop living money to the united states you're going to see interest rates go a lot higher you're going to see turmoil in the currency markets you're going to see to a more than all financial markets and therefore in the real markets you know shops companies factories everything are going to be affected what about near term you know china is something that you know quite a lot about and they're saying that the u.s. is playing with fire if you default on its debts china holds obviously a huge amount of u.s. treasuries that the u.s. is largest foreign creditor they want to share it that they are in faith hands does the u.s. to china lauren wouldn't you if you were the largest creditor i mean if you if your brother in law if it was whoever it was of it your sister your mother your water

assurance is true i would too i wouldn't lend any money to the united states government and i'm going to american citizen of course not i mean america is in serious trouble other people are starting to catch your own largess not just you and me in the in the rating agencies the people are catching on to china russia india brazil everybody is saying hey what's wrong with you people you've got to shape up and we do do you think that these countries will actually stop buying u.s. debt. yes eventually they're already starting to cut back as you probably know the chinese and the koreans and some other countries are lending less to the u.s. now than they did before and eventually they'll just stop flat out now one of the things that is real issue and a sticking point also between countries like china and the united states has been the u.s. its policy and the federal reserve policy i should really say of quantitative easing they had the second round of bond buybacks which is now scheduled to end at

the end of this month and then bernanke you spoke earlier this week made it sound like there wouldn't be another quantitative easing program and i want to know what you think of that out then and also what will be the effect if there isn't more quantitative easing on the financial system globally lorand yes they will stop q.e. two because they've said it so many times they have to but then when things start getting worse again you're going to see them come back with q e three they may not call it that they may disguise it they may call it cupcakes who knows what they'll call it but it's coming back what is the expense of that on the global financial system and the u.s. economy. we learned we have serious inflation in many parts of the world most of the world already and we're going to have more inflation throughout history when you print money it leads to inflation that news pretty simple stuff america's the basing its currency on a rapid rate there's going to be more of it and eventually as i said before it's

going to lead to higher interest rates higher prices please i hope everybody watching this show starts protecting figure out ways to protect themselves how are you protecting yourself i know you don't really need a lot of protection you're here you've done very well but i mean what should average people be thinking about. well i mean if i would average the average person and i happen to own commodities including gold and silver you know there are lots of things stock up on rice i mean the price of everything is going to be going on learn about buying commodities or it doesn't have to be a dangerous and scary thing to do inflation by definition is prices rising well only things that are going to be rising in price own some rice own some silver on some natural gas these things are going to go up much much more upright and price and there is a role that many people believe that quantitative easing has played in the rise in some of those commodities and so on those prices you mentioned but it was supposed to help the u.s. economy do you think that it has or that any amount of getting money into the

system could help the u.s. economy lower and you're bad for my nervous system it hasn't helped there. are people who've got the money this is a lot of they've been throwing money out the window the people who've been catching the money certainly better all yes some parts of the american economy are better off with most of us are not and all of us are now deeper and deeper and deeper into debt this is going to end with a disaster unless we do something quickly and even then it might into the disaster oh great that's a good prediction mr rogers my question for you though you live in singapore where bureaucrats are paid a lot of money i read that the elite bureaucrats are paid two million dollars. our lawmakers can't seem to get it together on the economy or on balancing the budget or raising the debt ceiling figuring out a solution to the debt in the last. are people on to something in singapore is that the recipe for a better government or

a government that works. well we do know that the singapore singapore has been the most successful country in the past forty years so it works yes their theory is if we pay high prices two or three things one people don't have to because they've got enough money secondly other tracks very high quality people into government and to help running the government you know if you look at america most american congressman they're the people who did well the playground when they were in school they're not very smart people or they wouldn't be working for the government so do you think that the united states needs to do something to attract them brighter talent into the government. they certainly do and one thing might be to higher prices most people who go to into government in the us are not the brightest and smartest people i'm sure you know that. another thing that i want to ask you about you know it's not just money that the united states and china have sticking point surrounding another one is taiwan and we saw the cia director who's now being going

through confirmation to be head of the secretary of defense we saw him bring up the issue of taiwan in those hearings and he said. it appears that china has a near term focus on preparing for a potential contingencies with taiwan including possible u.s. military intervention and that the u.s. should continue to closely monitor china's military capabilities to preserve peace now i know that you are very much an expert on all things investing but i wondering if you feel comfortable way and i geopolitics to tell me if you feel like china is going to have plans to swallow taiwan and if the u.s. needs to ramp up militarily as a result. the u.s. doesn't have to worry about that at all i mean there's not going to be war between china and taiwan the taiwanese don't want it the chinese don't want to the americans may want to but this is all this talk about war between china and taiwan this peace now that that war spending the past five or six years everybody is

totally changed it sounds like people in washington are still saber rattling but there's no there's not going to be a war between china and taiwan sure you in america keep talking that way it's not doing anybody any good including america do you think that it is do you think that that is an excuse for american leaders to talk about china as a military threat and continue to ramp military spending as well as resources that direction of course it is lauren they talk about north korea they talk about taiwan they talk about anybody they can in order to ramp up military spending but what are we going to do with all these jets that are old in a.z. who are going to fight there's no there that kind of war doesn't exist anymore if there war is now it's guerrilla wars not stuff where you need. jet fighters and then jim just one last question what would be your big picture solution to the u.s. economy and do you think there is one. well you got to change the tax system in

target you've got to stop taxing saving and investing you've got to encourage saving and investing you've got to cut spending with an act of the chain so you've got to cut taxes dramatically you've got to encourage people to save them but you've got to change the whole litigation system in america there you go the solution from quantum fund co-founder and renowned investor jim rogers now this meeting brings together heads of state and public officials had the big banks and corporations from the united states and other world democracies but it's a secret meeting it's a secret informal meeting that critics and activists allege is anything but democratic it's called the builder group and its members are meeting right now in the swiss resort town of st moritz now the european union and the euro currency were reported to be brainchild of builder berg and analysis ranges from those who believe it's just a talk shop to those who believe it is global elites needing to carve up the world

earlier i spoke with andrew gavin marshall to get to the bottom of that he's from the center for research in globalization i asked him if the argument that the media is sowing they civs that it's important for leaders to get together without being quoted holds any water it's something that you know some builder person porters may say here's his take. it's pretty unfair the media is by and large. a failure at the media. and the idea that you shouldn't how. the discussion and the democratic leaders of supposedly democratic country where they should be able to go and meet with industrialists and being. intelligent without anybody knowing that's not a democracy older so the idea that that meeting should remain. and that the media should know. it is meeting. in braintree saying that we shouldn't have democracy

so if you believe that argument then you don't believe in democracy ok along those lines some would argue that you know no one there is making a law that's going to go into effect state law to go back at our country then go through a democratic process and if this is a talk shop do you have added it to refute that. well the former nato secretary general really played last year in twenty and sold belgian radio back and several that meeting every nato secretary general. said that each meeting they were given a. piece of paper documents essentially a basic policies and ideas that they are expected to implement in their respective countries in their respective institutions so it's optional and other leaders from north america and western europe it's about establishing. and coordination

so if there's somebody for example this is the way it is and this is what you can do a debate and discuss you can disagree with the aims of. a consensus and you coordinate their policy so they made a country and then they are expected to go home and implement. and there are certain decisions that are made. in regards to war for example in two thousand meetings. there will not be in iraq we're into that we will be in march of two thousand and three sure and that's what the. we also select the heads of the i.m.f. and world bank and world trade organization so that's one key decision that a company made but how is that how is that no how is that discovered idea from the document that we find that the department calling for days later is how is it now. well there's been some relief that have come out from the investigative journalists

have sources inside. and they've been proven to be correct so we say for example after going meeting the. head of. and as far as we know it by the speculation until of course they are like that it's kind of. and generally i think i mean politicians. meeting we don't know that they are elected to become. prime minister for example since the every day minister has attended a billboard meeting before becoming a minister now does that mean that they are selected to be prime minister to build a very very but it certainly doesn't hurt their career. if there's. for example the nine hundred fifty five meeting thinking meeting they discussed a european currency european union and two thousand and nine the chairman of the

billboard. in fact the euro was discussed and debated at the. out of anger gavin marshall from the center for research on globalization now and the not so secret world the head of the central intelligence agency is facing off with u.s. lawmakers very publicly and his confirmation hearings to become secretary of defense he is president obama's choice to replace the current defense secretary robert gates when he retires it's expected at the end of the month now for one panetta is known to be a cost cutter according to analysts so we want to find out what this means for military contractors who lobby hard for the status poll when it comes to defense spending well earlier i spoke to a former cia analyst ray mcgovern he is actually one of several who prepared the president's daily brief during the first bush bush administration and he told me why he feels that the public should actually be more concerned with panetta stance on afghanistan rather than with potential defense such as why. they are professionally nervous about these things as i say there's lots of fact that can be

cut but i'm more interested in what he said about afghanistan what he said about iraq because two wars going on there right now afghanistan he said that yes we can't lose we will be able to prevail if we get the up to stein nice to close the borders or stop the infiltration now that's very disingenuous i mean it's true in the face of it but he knows that there was a formal nation with calls for assessment list a sober that said in that if it accurately or there's not a snowball's chance in hell that we can get the pakistanis to stop the infiltration there go it's a fool's errand he knows it to be a fools are and as i watch the stuffed shirts of the fancy ties up there i think about the people with the grunts and the lieutenant colonels on the ground and if you had just one more minute i have a recent e-mail from the lieutenant colonel who travels all around the country lately i miss that and everything he says quote the mendacity is getting so

egregious these yarns of quote significant progress it quote being covered up by the blood and limbs of hundreds i say hundreds of american uniform service members each and every month and you know that the rest of the summer is going to sue the people that fly chip that's when he says you know you don't think this is going to go very well one of the things coming out of these hearings as some people believe that it would be far more significant troop withdrawal in afghanistan you say that's not no dice are not well likely to happen i think you'll be for whatever obama's for whatever the congress will tolerate. mean but the point here is simply that it is a fool's errand people going to have to be pulled out and when they're pulled out people like senator lindsey graham are going to say oh you lost afghanistan would be through that before vietnam really quickly though i want to go as far as panetta and it sounds like you're saying to me that you think that if he is director of air the secretary of defense in. there will be more of the same as far as u.s.

wars and u.s. defense spending i see no difference between between him and robert gates there you have it the analysis of former cia analyst ray mcgovern now maybe you have heard of voice of america well now the voice of russia radio announces the launch of two u.s. stations in both new york and washington d.c. now the new stations will air live programming with the russian perspective on international news culture arts and events the station's mark the first time v.o.r. will produce programming directly from the united states rather than broadcasting news from the moscow based radio program but artist guy inches you can has more all about it here's her story. welcome to voice of russia in washington i'm just going jordan time now five o'clock in d.c. and one in moscow they launched with the motto the more voices the better the voice of russia team in washington reports on international and u.s. news just like any other news radio station they say what makes them different is

their efforts to bring up what's being left out by the us mainstream media when you consider american for us foreign policy has around the world i would say we are not hearing enough of well from people around the world you know other than the americans and the people who are making about the need for more voices in the media was up for discussion at this panel in washington titled gateway to understanding it's facing an international environment that quite frankly the united states has never faced. that it's been a great power so a great deal of soul searching going on in this country right now can we use and are we open to voices from outside i think absolutely yes many analysts say there is stigma against the russian media something that voice of russia will have to fight through to become a credible source of information for the american audience you have to work with perceptions which are still existing and i think more it is important that you raise your voice and try to get people to think differently about russia and so far

i think this is extremely important to do it for years during the soviet union voice of america and it probably washington had been a source of alternative information for millions of russians now in modern russia it sees its mission as being little different to what it was during the cold war the lack of the truly alternative voice in the media has had serious consequences for the development for them of this issue of the russian society in my opinion and it is sheer the voice of america consequently filling an important vacuum voice of russia seems to be seeking to feel a similar information back. that many see in the u.s. media basically a lot of american media they will ask a democrat and a republican in the same question and then call it a day i mean that's that's a gram is what is we're hearing both sides is going to member it's not just the both sides and certainly not just those two sides it's not about truth or law it's about perspectives and i strongly believe that the american audience lonely when

from the variety of perspectives the radio audience in america is growing and with the demand for more voices and more perspectives and it seems a certainty that in the wake of the voice of russia other foreign stations will be launched in the last will really benefit from the right in the media always the viewers and the listeners i'm going to check our reporting from washington r.t. and speaking of alternative voices and stigma. it's time for another installment of the war on our t.v. this is where we give ourselves a chance to respond to some of the criticism that has been directed against us that we think is not fair or not merited now one of the accusations made against our t.v. is that it is anti american and that is an interview on n.p.r.'s on the media where the interviewee who is from global media ignores so that r.t. has an extremely confrontational stance when it comes to the us and in that

interview it is alleged that essentially our team is anti-american now this is also a criticism that is very popular on the blogosphere it seems and here is some of those remarks dripping with anti-american poison on one blog it said and they also noted that a demonstration fit right into the anti-american propaganda line of russia today and another said the following that russia today is verily i still can't get that word right anti-american propaganda every bit as dangerous as prague or the tass news agency during the cold war so my first question that we've all been trying to figure out is what does it mean to be anti-american what are these people trying to get at because we are certainly not anti-american people as in the american people unless you consider covering the labor or economic struggles of average people many that the mainstream media don't cover anti-american we certainly do not is that anti us authority if that's the case your question is was martin luther king jr

anti-american for questioning authority or anyone else who has a question who is question the status quo or authority throughout history are anti-american because we ask you know about the state of the economy because we question the official rhetoric of politicians and public officials for example that the economy is getting better as they say when in reality unemployment is rising or the because we question the constitutionality of things like the patriot act or the president being able to assassinate citizens abroad or let's take us wars i want to play just a few of the questions you may see asked here on r t about u.s. wars in afghanistan or libya. is it worth killing one hundred afghan civilians for the life of one american soldier this difficult to pursue a question that says that some lives are where the other lives maybe are ensue where the but i think all of us have to recognize that eight hundred fifty of current children single day the details you remain murky what is the stuff we're

going to cost american taxpayers what does victory in libya actually look like now we were obviously quick to get in but could anyone at the white house or on the hill explain exactly how and why importantly when we're going to get out we hear it from the pentagon that you know the u.s. is continuing to lead airstrikes in libya after the obama administration is trying to had tried to distance itself saying that nato is in charge of this operation should we be surprised or has the u.s. you know obama administration just did a good job of having a p.r. effort i think it's mostly a p.r. effort you know what most of the world knows that nato doesn't do anything without us direction and u.s. management so to question the motives and goals for wars that the united states is involved in which taxpayers are footing the bill for during a debt crisis when military spending in the u.s. is the largest in the world not to mention when people are losing their lives at an increasing quick clip are these unfair questions are they anti-american is that it

means free media asking questions like this about us wars and foreign policy well here's one example i found. it's the american led west attacking a muslim country that has a lawyer and careful to say it's not the american left west that nato is now only taking over the operations. or power was used in the beginning but that this is a coalition of both parties love to intervene in other people's business where there are no u.s. interests at stake and where we spend enormous amounts of money at a time when we're nearly bankrupt there doesn't seem to me to be a wise practice of american snatch me that's a whole nother story that. to call that it's bankrupt you guys is writing and i just have to suggest that the economy and this is a mission in libya are two separate issues they're not separate issues where we're just carrying the water for mr obama so toeing the government line was the accusation there from the former cia had been lodged in chief and in fact just yesterday legendary journalist bill moyers he's a former c.b.s. correspondent he worked for n.b.c. p.b.s.

it was the publisher of news day also a white house press secretary he was just warning about this very issue yesterday here's what he said. so the question of the mainstream media. is one of the most dangerous. toxins. in america today so that's his assessment and it was actually a former n.b.c. reporter who revealed what can happen if you aren't seduced by this relationship with the government she said that asking tough questions about another u.s. or led to her downfall if the network and here's how she recounted that in an interview she said the iraq war started to develop and quote i gave a very controversial speech i sent out a cautionary note to all of my colleagues covering this conflict and i chase in the press corps not to wave the banner and cover warfare and a jingle with dick way it didn't sit well with my employers that n.b.c. i was banished i sat in the outfield for

a long time. so really the question that we want to ask our critics is this is it anti-american to question the things that we are or is that anti american not to i'll leave you with that and that's going to do it for eight o'clock show for more on the stories we covered you can go to our t.v. dot com slash usa also you can go to youtube channel youtube dot com slash r.t.m. america of there you'll find lots more interviews on the stories we cover today the building for a conference are we have a reporter on the ground there laura and it's she is there and she gave us a full report which you can find online we also had more analysis on what it would mean to have leon panetta at the head as secretary of defense at the dia de also lots of other topics that we covered earlier today that you didn't see on this show we had an interview with the nato secretary general anders fogh rasmussen on libya a mission which now it is been shown that the u.s. is spending two million dollars a day on and which is.