we must protect the american dollar as a pillar of monetary ability around the world both forty years have gone by since nixon end of the last remnant of the gold standard but with the dollar in decline and gold basically golden and calls for sound money resoundingly is that even possible. plus grasping at straws holes all eyes are on fire with this weekend but in the land where korea is king are the people really the king makers of the country. and with obama now riding his jobs bus on the campaign trail exactly who's to blame for the state of the economy and i guess thinks he has the answer. i would welcome the opportunity of having anyone

assassinate fidel castro and any leader who was oppressing oppressing the people wow with powerful cuban americans in congress and powerful anti-cancer lobbies behind them is there any hope for americans who want to snuff out sanctions against cuba. it's monday august fifteenth eight pm here in washington d.c. i'm lauren lyster and you're watching our t.v. now as we see u.s. policymakers trying to figure out just how to respond to the market turmoil we saw last week coupled with the downgrade of the u.s. credit rating our standard and poor's we have a very powerful history lesson and we can look back on for guidance forty years ago to this day president nixon faced inflation staggering war costs which were causing money printing to go up and the value of the dollar to go down and we also faced.

joblessness and he would fifteen months away from reelection if that rings a bell because that's where president barack obama now stands now back then forty years ago dick then gave the country what's known as the nixon shock he ended the last remnants of the gold standard making it go dollars could no longer be converted to gold he rationalized it to the american people this way. in recent weeks the speculators have been waging an all out war on the american dollar. the strength of a nation's currency is based on the strength of that nation's economy and the american economy is by far the strongest in the world accordingly i have directed the secretary of the treasury to take the action necessary to defend the dollar against the speculators. that offense didn't include a teleprompter for that speech but that aside this is very serious he argued that this was to defend the u.s. dollar critics argue it was one of these most important decisions in modern

economic history for a different reason it cost the long term economy substantially now let's go what's happened to the value of the dollar since all right see that line going down that's the purchasing power of the u.s. dollar it's a kind ninety eight percent that redline going up that shows how much the monetary supply the number of dollars in circulation has increased convenient when students now let's look at what's happened to gold this is the price of gold it has gone up from thirty five dollars an ounce when dollar gold was pegged to the dollar that was back in the bretton woods system now it has talked eight hundred dollars in the last week per ounce now for more on what exactly this means the lessons we can learn coming out of that i spoke to lou rockwell chairman of the ludwig von niece's institute i asked him if nixon's decision was really meant to protect the dollar or if it set the stage for three decades of boom and bust that we've seen since then

here's what he said. well there's a reason the nixon was known as tricky dick and of course he was lying when he when he did all those things i remember that speech and he also unfroze present wage controls in the matter of a dictator but was a terrible thing again and he also took the dollar off the remnants of the gold standard by just executive fia just his own his own say so was a terrible thing what this inaugurated was for the first time in the history of the world money that was purely discretionary that is money that could be printed up by the central bank in our case the federal reserve just at infinitum so that is exactly what's happened and that's what richard nixon intended he wanted a lot of inflation to reelect him so i thought it would be good you want to disguise that inflation by putting prices which controls are what he did was he's been he's brought about the death of the dollar we should all remember nixon for the un but you did a lot of evil things in his life richard nixon but you're right this is probably

his most long lasting terrible thing you did and we're now suffering from it and we're go whole world is suffering from it because all the other countries that are allied with the us went on a similar paper money stance with no or even switzerland with no restriction on the central bank brought as you would exactly as you say booms and busts and it generally clyne in by the way the standard of living of the average american and the lower today lower right if i could just ask what art would you say is the the biggest example of how this causes a crisis you mentioned the booms and busts of the last three decades and we've seen the same economic crisis we've seen in the housing bubble and now critics say that this was a seminal moment going off of the gold standard entirely and the creation of the global debt crisis that we see today confronting the us confronting the world how so how do you connect next and decision back then to the debt crisis we face today but the central bank was founded at the behest of big bankers no one really

surprised to learn back in the. days of the tabs on that and the wilson administrations at the beginning of the last century. and gradually it's been unleashed so we can think of the central bank representing the big banks and representing wall street as having a leash around its neck nixon cut the finalist the thing was that it would undercut then the federal reserve was unleashed and the more that it prints the more that it lo i'm not going to get technical here but the more that lowers interest rates artificially it causes recessions and depressions we're in a depression right now the whole western world in fact is in a depression so that has a solution extend it but nixon depression the next and it's percent is a solution to the depression you're talking about that you believe is going on and it outward facing this country a return to sound money into the gold standard we certainly didn't return to some money we do need a gold standard i would say a free market gold standard because if there's one thing every american in fact everybody in the world ought to know you can't trust the government in fact i would

say nobody can be trusted with the power to just print of unlimited numbers of new hundred dollar bills in your basement and spend them on what you want and nobody can be trusted with that and certainly politicians can't be trusted so a government gold standard is not the answer ron paul isn't very correctly suggest as a as a baby step towards a sound money system allowing competitive currencies allow other things besides the dollar to be used legally and from a tax standpoint have the same status of the dollar that would be a huge step forward that's the kind of thing we need to do and i think there's no question the gold without compete everything else as money just as it has for thousands and thousands of years and over those thousands and thousands of years we thought currencies were tied to precious metals they were tied to things like gold now with a fee up currency that's based on faith that's based on the performance of politicians and central bankers who you say people can't trust now in the last couple weeks we've seen the u.s. credit rating downgraded because politicians failed to rein in. that and it was

largely a political assessment of how effective politicians are doing their jobs we've seen analysts say that the central bank is out of tools that the federal reserve give that you much quantitative easing or not enough money hated easing how big of a threat are the current leaders to the u.s. dollar right now and its value out of the apparently the let's understand first of all these people do not want to restrain debt they do not want to restrain spending both parties are dedicated to both parties or all of the economics of john maynard keynes they believe in spending they believe in you know on alternative days they refer to the debt as a stimulus so this is just government as usual keynesian government as usual they do not want to and i'm very glad that the standard report did that. not because the u.s. will default they're going to print all the paper dollars they need to pay everybody are but the question is of course what will the dollar be worth the dollar is in

your great chart pointed out has been plummeting in value it's going to continue to plummet in value and what the federal reserve is doing by holding interest rates near zero which the crazy keynes advocated back in nineteen thirty six is not only wrecking savers and investors but it's wrecking the future of the economy everything they're doing is a negative and by the way the republicans are every bit as much responsible for this nixon of course was a republican as the democrats are so both parties are in cahoots with you know goldman sachs and j.p. morgan and citibank and bank of america those sorts of institutions against the american people and i would say against the people world so we need a radical change and thank goodness ron paul is talking about the thinking of a radical change in return to sound money but that's even be possible after this point or as legendary gold trader jim sinclair is that is that impossible that opened pandora's box at derivatives that are still floating around the entire globe and reveals a lack of balance sheet integrity in the u.s.

banking system where you can buy your assets that whatever you think they're worth . well it would reveal of course absolutely the bankruptcy of many financial institutions but in order to get out of a depression once a month for the federal reserve is brought on a recession or a depression the only way to get out is to liquidate the bad investments not have the government tax regular people to bail out the caulk assets of the big banks we have to have bankruptcy once we have bankruptcy and we have the return of reality then we can rebuild but as long as we have this phony baloney system punishing the average person for the rich guy's connected to the government we're going to have more and more trouble so we have to have bankruptcy massive bankruptcy that will be the beginning of the healing and the beginning of a return to growth and prosperity but how much pain with that cause also the average person in the short run you know honestly there will be pain in the short run with that solution right of course of course there's been you know it's a little like the alcoholic goes into the doctor and the doctor says i want you to

stop drinking and the guy says well that's you know going to give me a lot of pain well that's right but first the to get on the path to help you have to stop drinking so we have to stop the money printing we have to allow the big banks to go out of business if that's what's going to happen and my guess is they would go out of business because these fractional reserve banks are bankrupt anyway and especially these days as you know they have so many phony assets they you know they have the accounting board of standards was prevented from putting correct accounting standards into place so that the banks can continue to lie about what the but the worth of their so-called assets is needs to be cleaned up again we need real ism no more phony opium dreams out of the federal reserve no more of the engine the kind of word that we heard from new rockwell chairman of the ludwig non nieces institute now one member who has really pushed this issue in congress is ron paul as my last guest said listen to him pressing federal reserve chairman ben

bernanke on the topic of money and gold. the goal is money no it's not going to achieve a decision either for six thousand years somebody reverse that and eliminate that economic loss ron paul went on to say some people still think it's money now he's running for the republican nomination for president he was in iowa this past weekend for the straw poll michele bachmann ended up winning first he came in a close second a little more than one hundred fifty votes behind very small margin but just why is this small state of just three million mostly white people not a lot of diversity why does it matter to all of these g.o.p. contenders so much anyway who knows what christine was outas here's why. it is the place where six stalks of corn blanket the landscape simultaneously standing proud and swaying. were city centers resemble

a different time. and those who live here say they are the true and bottom of main street in america. are the ways that. people are generally very welcoming and over. their very practical people. it turns out that they are also very powerful to the firsthand look at all the candidates they came to our city and they come to our area we get to sit and meetings with them and ask them questions right out what their real. core values are which is very very important the iowa caucuses is among the first stop in the presidential primary but for republicans the initial hurdle is always the iowa straw well you could say its popularity contest county fair

but don't want this carnival like atmosphere for you what is happening right now man and very significantly it can determine who states. and who is campaign kerry. is a prime example of small town politics big time on. you know not lived here for two years and i see a lot i never felt more energy and interest in politics than living here actually going to get my girlfriend a little they call it retail politics out here will you be able to talk to the candidates and i think there's a good good for iowa for sure. to get his fans out there is is that out of fifty states i was. thirtieth and a mere three million people. we all know more than ninety one percent of those who do live here are white. and its economy is primarily agricultural.

at the bottom of the group and it's nevertheless spent considerable time and money to. party. organize and should be taken seriously on behalf of over six hundred thousand i will republicans as for this year the winner of the two thousand and eleven i was dropped will is congresswoman michele bachmann and in second place by just one hundred fifty two votes congressman ron paul in one thousand nine hundred ninety four's w. bush won the iowa straw poll and while he is the only one that's gone on to win the presidency so far iowa voters treat voting as a duty the people by were pretty good at seeing through what's sometimes a little glitter a little bit shiny and they find the substance and the basics that are basically here in the candidates being from the midwest a lot of times. what's the really the best about america and i think that we both

people take it seriously. but for those on the outside it can also be a problem in reality that in a land where corn is king it's people are in some ways viewed as kingmakers in ames iowa christine for south archie and thinking of iowa almost every one of the presidential people buying for the republican presidential nomination a g.o.p. that based up there in a debate except for ron paul had something to say about iran as a nuclear threat. anyone who suggests that iran is not a threat to this country is not a threat to stability in the middle east is obviously not seen the world very clearly. that he wants to wipe of the face of the earth take that seriously i believe we should undertake every possible step to deny their intentions and their plans to get a nuclear weapon as president and i have states i will do everything to make sure

that iran does not become a nuclear power iran will not get a nuclear weapon because the world as we know it be no more so what justifies this focus well how about a response from the leader of iran himself r t correspondent kevin owen has sat down one on one with president mahmoud ahmadinejad last week here's what ahmadinejad said about his country's nuclear ambitions and nuclear weapons in general. we do not want nuclear weapons we do not seek nuclear weapon this is only human when. religion says it is prohibited and we are religious people nuclear weapons have no care. if any country tries to build a nuclear bomb in fact they waste their money and resources and they create great danger for themselves the international equations are not determined by nuclear arsenals today. in nuclear weapons and could they win in iraq and afghanistan could

have nuclear weapons help the israelis to gain. could nuclear weapons help the former soviet union from collapse a nuclear weapon this is weapons of the previous century. very heard it you can see the entire interview with president ahmadinejad online by going to our website r.t. dot com couldn't now back to the u.s. back to did west actually where president obama has set out on a bus tour to ride around and convince people that focusing on jobs is his number one priority meanwhile journalist david de graw argues the damage has been done to the economy and to blame is the economic elite making off with forty six trillion dollars well sixty two million americans have zero net worth now he says an economic world war is already unfolding what have those economic elites noticed because they're reading incidents like this we just couldn't help ourselves this is from the financial times it's an insert about how to spend your money on very

expensive things if you make a lot of money well earlier i spoke with david de graw i don't think he's focused on that is focused on digging up the details of this story he's a journalist and author of this book the rosary two thousand and twelve revolution or world war three now he explained he believes the mainstream media and financial elites are missing a big point here and here it is. i think of this new report i have that i'm trying to demonstrate the average american person who might not be as mean as they are. or . that there is an economic world war olding and in the united states we are under economic that it is not you think i've heard really say that we are on the economic back it is technically hardly a car so in this report i break down all those keys. and i show how the government and for me here are propaganda to make things look much better than they actually

are there's only so much propaganda when people see and experience personal finance or are just propaganda or are so you've got to have it and you know you can't hide that fact and more than that a little wobbly. not a percent of humanity in being economically destroyed right now and that. whose fault is that the political elite economic elite the blame well basically what happened was and the go back to a point that there's no way out there is a way out there common ground way out that everyone can agree on and that is one too big to fail banks and their central bank. and to end with a system of. liberal bribery which is campaign finance robbing and the revolving door we see washington and wall street and other major global corporations you know we saw david we saw with intel and we demanded and know instead of being passed

we're going for the bond with you so we go out of the manga and it's not going to happen i would say that i want to ask you we've got warren buffett and an editorial asked to be taxed more he said the super s. including himself and his friends should be taxed more essentially saying that right there my friend i have been coddled long enough by a billionaire from the congress it's time for our. government to get serious about shared sacrifice do you think that he represents more wealthy people or do you think that this is the anomaly in a friends think he's crazy though it's one thing like war of the state but it's another thing to actually put some substance behind their words. ok what about howard schultz the c.e.o. of starbucks he's frustrated over leaders playing partisan agendas over people's agendas he's saying the country should go on strike against it against politicians and stop making campaign campaign contributions that includes insult that includes corporations ok well you should take his money and use and so on i'm getting some action on the ground and so i've got all your anger working these people have are

economically destroyed are close but then you just say earlier that the problem is the amount of money funneled into politics yet but it's true i absolutely sure but and so they actually change the campaign finance robbery. ongoing losing that so it ourselves boycotts and some of his corporate buddies get on the bandwagon and they don't get campaign contributions you say that will make a change because it does set them. well i think all of this. you know every action right now. that was david de gras journalist and author of the book the road through two thousand and twelve revolution or world war three now it is a birthday over the weekend it happened core mark you've been president castro you celebrated his eighty fifth birthday happy birthday now more than a century later though the economic embargo the u.s. put in place designed to bring him down continues why i fear that anti castro lobby has their part. cuba ninety miles from america's shores and for fifty two years

a world apart oh and the cuban revolution in one thousand nine hundred nine the u.s. imposed an embargo on all trade investment in travel an attempt to bring down the communist government official castro. some of the cubans who fled the island for the u.s. push to keep this is gender alive and so the inside castro lobby was born to give a lot of you know u.s. elections are in fact privately financed so they've been able to figure out how to play the games even though they're a small percentage of the population they play very big in a key swing state polls consistently show that two thirds of americans favor ending the embargo and normalizing relations with cuba and some in congress agree it's about time we talked to cuba is to stop fighting these wars in about thirty or forty years old and take castro groups have given more than one point seven million dollars in donations to federal candidates from two thousand and four to two thousand and ten more than half a million dollars in two thousand and ten alone to both republicans and democrats

ensuring us cuba policy remains virtually unchanged a good ground. with military approach but. that it will enhance the effectiveness of the embargo the united states will keep the in burgos. fewer than one percent of americans are of cuban origin and the journey emigrated before the end of the cold war like frank tells own you yourself are cuban and came here when you were six have you ever been back. i usually say that never left cousins work has been partly funded by a grant from the national endowment for democracy where your think tank we gather and disseminating information about cuba to opinion makers and station making around the world financed by congress congress appropriates tens of millions of dollars for a purposes they were throwing the cuban government. a lot of that is supposed to be going to the dissidents in cuba but it never gets here and like the rest of the

spanish population in the u.s. fifty eight percent of cubans are u.s. citizens cubans who arrive and step foot beaches in south florida are on their way to citizenship haitians who arrive and set foot on the beaches of miami are on their way to a detention center in deportation cuban americans are also a force to be reckoned with in congress we definitely are the most over represented community in congress with two senators and four representatives that we say a lot of reichl more. including the chairman of the house foreign affairs committee and we gonna let and i welcome the opportunity of having anyone assassinate fidel castro and any leader who was suppressing oppressing the people they have powerful political action committees behind them like the u.s. cuba democracy pac the number one campaign donor in two thousand and six with more than five hundred thousand dollars our community is very focused and it's very

concentrated in florida in new jersey therefore we really have to make an effort to get out there and create the relationships a lot socially and agenda that has been known to change many politicians minds including president barack obama. you know obama changed his mind while campaigning before the cuban american national foundation. for the majority of americans favor ending the sanctions against cuba even protesting in the streets i think. we have yet to match the strength of it and say castro lobby killing ford r.t. washington d.c. now earlier i spoke with someone who can head to head with the cuba lobby attorney who told us about as friends. well in the case of the saga release sure it's played a role that the cuban american lobby in miami is very very strong the were able through the resources to mount a highly sophisticated defense in the federal case against those are going to use

for lying and because of its political clout they was able to get first the bush administration and later the obama administration not to go ahead and extradite him so far he is the extradition request is still pending with the government and they've painted the mind and greatly different people who may not know give us a tiny bit of background on a story of the saga really has wanted him in a sort of persone three counts of first degree murder for blowing up a passenger plane back in one thousand nine hundred seventy six for all the people aboard the plane perished but he's also the man who masterminded a campaign of terror against cuba that resulted in bombs of hotels restaurants and other tourists rich spots and cuban the late one nine hundred ninety s. in a number of other things through through the ages you are some of bin laden of latin america and yet it happened in one nine hundred seventy six why is the cuban lady still so strong and still so invested any of this shit like this extradition

world or saga has to do to them is a hero to the extreme right wing cubans is a hero and it's unfortunate because you can't you know you can you can understand why somebody may be opposed to produce a particular form of government but the really is no justification for blowing up people on airplanes and setting bombs in hotels and restaurants you say this is an example of obviously you have a vested interest you're representing venezuela in a scapegoat in your opinion is that an example of foreign policy that i if there is something that again i thought last week said he thinks as is the case and. he imparted they're responsible for funding a lot of the entry. cuban work that goes on in this town but you know somebody once said that in this town of no washington cuba bashing is a lot like ordering pizza it's cheaper and everybody loves you for it it's a great point you know in a g.o.p.

today ron paul said you know and the things against cuba and the embargo and i reported it was there said that that raised a lot of eyebrows and people were so taken aback at that an extreme idea i mean it's been decades what fidel castro just over his eighty fifth birthday he's fine you know his country is not why are these still in place. and why are people still so involved in that and the perspective towards these and target is weakening of there's not a single thing that works here in part it's electoral who has become a local issue in the sense of that plays a pivotal role as your piece noted in the election because of the state of florida and the representation in miami incarnates money and how well organized they are to give money to certain candidates. in part it's in russia in this country you know the for fifty years more than fifty years the united states has been not only blockading cuba but actively seeking a real.