running on empty as the u.s. economy sputters to a halt with no job creation in august is the gaslight on for the rest of the global financial system and will anyone be able to jump start the economy again. it's a fine line between a campaign contribution on the broad outline is what keeps you out of jail and of the people by the people and for the people the people with money that is congress is up for sale to the highest bidder but should this be the case belong to a g.o.p. presidential candidate who is seen through the dollar signs and closing his pockets to special interest. groups. who exactly is looking like

a fool people wearing the saggy pants are the ones who can't understand the depths of the social. it's tuesday september sixth eight pm in washington d.c. i'm christine for is out and you are watching our t.v. . well we're back from labor day labor day of course marks the end of summer for so many and clearly that is the case for the financial markets where the sun just doesn't seem to be shining at all and don't get me wrong it's already been a gloomy summer unemployment still above nine percent and on friday that depressing those are present jobs numbers that said essentially there were no new jobs created in the month of august that growth was flat and that may have been a signs of the rest of the world especially in europe and asia things are not looking good markets there yesterday. and here today plummeted there was also some

big economic news today out of switzerland where the swiss national bank basically said they're sick of it they set a limit on how far it will let the swiss franc rise against the euro this is the latest attempt to get a handle on the out of control currency they're out of control and overvalued in part because of the influx of euro's and us dollars that have been streaming into those swiss banks especially in the last few years greatly appreciate the value of the swiss franc so how do all these factors impact the financial future earlier i spoke to business insider deputy editor joe weisenthal to find out as stocks comment around the world and the u.s. faces increasingly depressing news on the job front i started out by asking him to give me his personal economic forecast here's what he had to say certainly it's hard to visit vision anything that's too strong obviously due to the sovereign debt issues in europe but there doesn't seem to be any hope of

a robust recovery there and then the u.s. really do what's going on in europe and also the slowdown in government spending clearly our growth is limited i'm not as negative as some i actually think there are some positive things that people are annoying ignoring sorry credit conditions are coming back a little bit housing seems to have bottomed and maybe is turning but overall it's very hard for measuring anything but very mediocre growth and best you mention the at the housing i want to ask you this real quick i know that that the u.s. has announced it's going to take some legal action against the losses that fannie and freddie experienced over the last few years kind of taking these big banks now that it doesn't seem like they're getting a whole lot of money from some of these banks that had a hand in you know the mortgage meltdown what do you make of that. ords i don't think. the losses are significant i mean they're not going to take so much money

that they're going to destroy the banking system i don't think i mean they're going to you know they want to. get their penalty and they want to make the banks hurt which they are already but they're not going to go so far and demand so much money you better basically wreck the big banks and goes right the entire economy the interesting ramification of the banking lawsuits is the extent to which it forces beings to do leverage lend even less money out and what that means for the broader economy so it may not be so much about a financial crisis but you could have a thing where all the banks kind of you know retrench all at the same time and so there's even less credit and less lending going on and that would hurt pretty much everyone wow let's move over to switzerland where the swiss national bank wants to see the currency that the swiss franc we can after it has appreciated way too much i know you wrote a little bit about this it's confusing for a lot of people around the world but it does sort of matter and there is sort of

a direct relationship between what's happening in the u.s. economy and switzerland talk about the significance of this natalie. you know basically for months and months investors and also just people who held assets in the european banking system have been rushing into switzerland because it's a safe haven because the country is so fiscally sound because it's not connected to the euro and that. has driven up the swiss franc to ridiculously high levels against the euro and the dollar and that's really it upsetting a lot of swiss companies because what that means is their products are more expensive on the foreign market and that's been hurting the swiss stock market and it's caused deflation an economic slowdown and the swiss national bank has tried to stem the rise of the franc in the past by buying euro's but nothing like what they've announced today basically then they're going to put a ceiling on swiss francs strength and they're going to stick to it so that basically they're going to print so many euro's an unlimited amount to whatever

extent is necessary to make sure that this was doesn't rise beyond a certain threshold which they have set and this is the strongest move by any country by. this entire post crisis era of countries trying to print more money this is gone far and above anything any other country has done it's a really dramatic move it'll be interesting to see how it plays out yet really interesting you always hear about some of the wealthiest people in corporations sending their money over there and a lot of people don't realize what kind of impact it can actually have on that economy let's talk about also this report out from u.b.s. kind of a controversial report basically saying the euro should not exist the way it is that either the current structure will have to change or the current membership will have to change i think you wrote about this do you think there was an actual threat. you know it definitely is and i think the great thing about this u.b.s.

report is incredibly honest is that look the euro doesn't work it's not a car it's not a temporary crisis and there is a temporary crisis but it is not just that it doesn't make sense countries every country in the euro would now have been better off never having joined in the first place everyone is getting hurt by this makes no sense for these countries with so you just economic economies to have one currency and one you know one central bank and so there really is no choice but to either massively change the current structure if you are through treaties that a lot of the countries to share more of their money or someone has to leave and the blog has do. be much more cohesion and that was business insider deputy editor joe weisenthal. well today we're talking to g.o.p. presidential candidate buddy roemer and if you're not familiar with him i could be because the mainstream media doesn't send a camera crew every time he makes a speech or releases

a report it could be because his fund raising efforts are coming a little slower than others or it could be because he's one candidate one of the most powerful entities in this country i hope you never hear about or vote for buddy roemer is a four term congressman former governor of louisiana and he joins us now from our studio in new york hey there by thanks so much for coming on today i want to start out with one idea that at the core of your campaign i know your campaign motto is free to lead and you speak a lot about the major need for campaign finance reform the reforms that connect the dots for me here well i'm the only person running for president of the united states who's been both a congressman and the governor. so i've seen politics at the bottom and at the top and there's one thing that ties it together in this country in the twenty first century and that's the power of checks the power of special interest money the

every citizen doesn't give money to campaigns in this country in fact ninety eight percent of the people don't give a penny it's the top one or two percent they hate of corporations they have pacs they have super pacs they get all the money and i think they call the strains they pull the strings they call the shots and to me when you talk about jobs when you talk about a budget that's clean and fair when you talk about a tax code that someone can read you have to first start with the money fall of the money and see who's pulling the strings i decided to run for president with my experience growing jobs but refuse the special interest money i have a hundred dollar limit no pacs no super pacs and full disclosure free to lean i mean i think it's a very interesting idea one hundred dollars cap on campaign contributions but you

are competing with some other people including candidates who have as you mentioned political action campaign political action committee is super pacs and think about this you know in two thousand and eight president obama raised seven hundred fifty million dollars that's more than all the candidates combined in two thousand and four so i mean it's a cool idea for sure but if you want to compete you need to raise the money right if you can't govern if you know where us that's you making a very good point let me come in to a different way. i'm not against money for campaigning or for advertising are stating what you believe and why i think that's part of our political system what i am against is the money that's not disclosed for its arjun's money from out corporate giant that doesn't want to pay taxes and they're the largest giver to politicians i don't oppose the money i just think it can it's needs to come from

average citizens plain people small business people in small amounts here is not gold i'm going to try to get a million people to stand with me in the primaries at a hundred dollars each a million that's one hundred million dollars that's more money than anybody else will spend in the primaries i just do it a different way i don't get it from five big corporations or six super pacs i get it from average people it wouldn't be possible in the twentieth century but in the twenty first century with internet i am reaching out every day across america every citizen's hour to have contributions from all fifty states from guam from puerto rico all not many of the candidates can say that we are coming it just takes a while to do it this way and look what happens why not do it this way a million people what an army that would be for the truth but that's still the

issue you know fair play one hundred million dollars is still a fraction of you know as i mentioned barrack obama last time around three thousand this is a yes no no no no this is just in a primary all right when i win the primary when i win the primary our challenge the president to five nationally televised debates will do it across the country. and i'll s. five million americans to join with me in this campaign to stop unfair trade with china to make our country break its addiction to middle eastern oil five million americans and a hundred dollars that'll be a half a billion and the president will have a billion and you say well he allowed spins you when i ran for governor of louisiana the governor that i whips spent sixteen million dollars i only spent one million if the money small and it comes from real people we can win our

about i want to talk about some of your ideas you talked a little bit about kind of doing away with large oil subsidies for some these oil companies you're a republican i know you weren't always a republican you were a democrat back before the ninety's but you've also said you know as a republican you like the idea of a large military and on the other hand that in your opinion excessive debt shrinks and nation so i'm wondering how you can justify you know let's talk right now about the wars in iraq and afghanistan sure sure difficult america was attacked our then president i think made a correct decision to respond in kind. up on a rack is it turned out was a mistake because weapons of mass destruction were not pay or president did not know that and when we entered the country and liberated it we felt a responsibility to stay as long as it took to rebuild

a healthy democratic society i have no problem with that it cannot go on forever afghanistan is different but country seems to be corrupt at the top and we're making very little progress at the bottom here is not a belief. i believe that we need to be militarily strong to maintain the peace and our security but you can overdo anything and was eleven hundred military bases around the world maybe we should begin to cut back back and my belief in foreign policy is that it ought to be economically centered not militarily centered we are for example we are to use our economic power to not allow any goods into this country that were made with the same goal drop over rainy and oil as long as they pursue nuclear weapons i would be tough i would be strong i would be

clear and that's not using the military that using our economic and my buddy i thought talk about something you just said regarding afghanistan you said that you agree with the decision you says that as a country that is corrupt at the top if this country got involved with every other country that's got corrupt at the top there's definitely going to be no money left at the end of the day it's true i mean you have to you have to call your shots. you have to leverage your position to make your point and get assistance now the country that i referred to was iraq in terms of the weapons of mass destruction i said afghanistan was different because it was corrupt at the top and i'm not nearly as constable with the peaceful and successful in there as i was without iraq iraq afghanistan is more difficult more dangerous more corrupt at the top and you're right your point is well made i mean our our job as americans is to keep our

country free and healthy and to help others as we can it's not our job to make every country look like the us how would like to help every country work with us from russia to argentina from our rack to kenya our that's not gold to reach out work together and build a world of peace but it does take our believe in a dangerous a whirl a military that's ready to defend this country and a president willing to use our economic power to pull things together i want to get in one more question about it as we're running out of time about the economy i know how your view now about sort of campaign financing about the super pacs about the large corporations and their power but what about the economy in the state that we're in now we just contest jobs report on friday that says there was no growth that it was flat caramel here in the white house right now today on the day after

labor day twenty eleven what changes would you be making do three things i would out would change the tax code to not allow american companies to deduct expenses overseas. we're not going to have our tax payers pay any companies building a plant overseas those days are gone we're the only nation on earth that does that we're going to stop number two i would eliminate the foreign tax credit that we give these major corporations we are not going to reward them for building plants elsewhere or build a plant in america number three we're going to have a fair trade adjustment so that goods made in a country like china which trades unfairly which manipulate its currency which has hidden trade barriers goods are not going to be excepted into the united states made by child labor force labor prison labor no standards on the environment they're going to at least meet minimum standards or we'll put

a fair trade or just loan them so we'll have a level level playing field look made in america has disappeared i will bring it back we will have an economic boom if we change our tax code and have a president with guns all right and just real quick but a lot of these ideas really interesting almost nothing that i've heard from you sounds sort of like it goes with the g.o.p. talking points memo i'm wondering if it doesn't work out for you this time around would you consider in the future perhaps running in as a third party candidate. but i wouldn't think about running for anything i've been out of politics for twenty years i built a small town banks i help small companies i love my life but i worry about america i love it i worry about its foreign policy its addiction to foreign oil it's unfair trading practices with china i worry about the fact that we don't have jobs we need

to stand up and get it right we can and you think you can do that as a republican certainly some interesting ideas and a really cool fashion forward tyo i've got a comment as well governor buddy roemer former governor of louisiana as well as g.o.p. presidential candidate in our new york studio well certainly some interesting ideas there but not always the way that we see that everything works where oftentimes if you really want something well you're going to have to pay for it perhaps that is true and nowhere more and here in washington d.c. where lobbyists spend lots of money to get what their clients want here's an idea of what i'm talking about just last year in two thousand and ten lobbyist spent three and a half billion dollars if its members of congress and federal agencies want that they get in return well we may never know the full answer to that but regardless it is important to keep our eye on the practice and the process and our chief callan ford has done just that here's her report. why should my banker morgan stanley have

fewer rights than my barber stanley morgan is the subject of jokes now will both be able to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on ads attacking breaking regulations and the big bucks spent on k. street journal the little guy and main street. but many say the money is no laughing matter it's a fine line between a campaign contribution and a bribe. and it's what keeps you out of jail in order to run for office in america we've got a system set up where private funds account for the bulk of the money so what would it take for americans to buy back congress let's take a look at one group's estimate all the big lobbying interests in corporate donations include it that's fifty million dollars per us senator five billion to buy back the senate and another twenty million per congressman that's eight point seven billion to buy back the house of representatives put it all together and

fourteen billion dollars is what it would take to buy back an entire branch of the u.s. government big dollar donations are nothing new congress passed its first campaign contribution limits in the early one nine hundred seventy s. we held one presidential election campaign under those limits in one nine hundred seventy six and immediately thereafter candidates began finding ways around those contributions the amount of money spent by lobbyist has more than doubled over the last decade to a record three point five billion dollars in two thousand and ten this presents a threat of corruption biggs to a two thousand and ten supreme court decision that fund raising can now include unlimited donations and my candidacy will be officially known as the hail to the cheese stephen colbert or not to change. course not all politicians have the same price tag california's barbara boxer is the priciest senator at two point three million dollars followed by harry reid john mccain and

tea party darling marco rubio. from a hardworking and humble family. one that was neither wealthy more connected who's raked in twenty one point seven million as a freshman senator. you know house michele bachmann leads with thirteen point five million dollars much of which comes from big oil which may explain her stance on drilling whether that is in the ever so ever that is the so-called fruit seller whether there was an oil supplier to. you to go with that and she lives and when corporations pay big those of us who can afford to write a twenty thousand dollars check we're left on the cold can't shell out to buy a congressman full time why not rent him for hearing when american investors shelled out twenty four hundred dollars to only angle. twenty four hundred dollars to denver and climax at five hundred dollars a mr oscar mr asker cern. sorana and made his cement company the center of a human rights hearing. both cheap and expensive but out of reach for the average

american the public needs to know their decisions are being made are they being made because of the merits of the proposal at hand or is it a perk that is due to some sort of backroom deal but with plenty on the budgetary chopping block of the debt super committee many expect lobbying dollars will once again set the agenda here when ford artsy washington d.c. . and still ahead on our t.v. bucks out saggy pants go from a fashion statement to a social movement coming up we'll bring you the lowdown and why some politicians are telling america's youth to call their pants. put a picture of me when i was like nine years old so if you told the truth. i am and. i was right because he is sick.

that is kind of the jester that. i'm very ill with a split.

you know some go to see a story and it seems so easy to understand it and then you give them something else here's some other part of it and realize that everything you thought you knew you don't. charge is a big. well the fact is though this evening we've talked about the economy about political corruption i want to talk about another thing that so many lawmakers and people in positions of power seem to be focused on and that is saggy pants it's not a new trend but a whole lot of new laws are being proposed and even passed to try to change the trend in florida state senator gary settling was at a florida school just

a few days ago helping out two hundred belts to high school boys so they would pull their pants up and get this billie joe armstrong the front man of green day was kicked off his flight last week for sagging his pants too low and he is not the only one i decided to take a look at the trend and the measures some are taking to get people to pull their pants up. in most urban neighborhoods across america this is a familiar sight. like this that is basically this you know enough t.v. cécile to be just my close calls money so yeah you have a show you. put on this u.s. airways flight a college football player showing his drawers brought the pilot out of the cockpit . but. twenty year old dijon marman was then arrested and escorted off the plane dr oz

says it was no accident believe he is a victim of discrimination that his civil rights were violated because some are situated that fly airplanes and may be dressed. in appropriate dress or unusual dress when that target as he was the sagging pants on this young man led to this awkward exchange with a police officer patting him down the street. still look at it. if you think. about this these young men not sorry at all. it's not like. he should he be looking at out what we want does that automatically mean you're trouble if you've got your hands down. probably the.

right way see a lady i know pampling to a got only a lock only let me get out because i'm looking like a fool more like it say some. on the ground looking like a phony which this video of a contestant on american idol went viral while lawmakers across the u.s. are taking a less humorous approach. in fort worth texas you can't sag and ride the city bus in opa-locka florida refusing to tighten your trousers will cost you two hundred fifty bucks and in collinsville illinois wearing saggy pants on any public property is banned in new york state senator eric adams used his own money to put up these billboards so why all the strict laws i think it says that failure to regulate customs and traditions and culture and our community will result in others using laws and rules to enforce how we should dress most people believe the saggy pants

trend originated in prison were not only are inmates not allowed to wear belts but rape is often prevalence outside of prison walls a lot of people say they sack their pants to show they're tough are some say it's just what's become comfortable in my head they say everything just so he is a positive one everyone even the soon to be president seem to have an opinion on what i think. about people were saying it's a waste of time having separate publishable at the pits obama may have won the highest seat in the land. getting these boys to pull up the seats of their pants may prove far more difficult in washington christine r.t. . and that is going to do it for now but for more on the stories we covered go to r.t. dot com slash usa we also post our interviews in our stories on you tube and check out that youtube dot com.