speaking of the twilight zone let's talk about iran it's the center of warmongering in this race. the united states of america that is willing in the final analysis if necessary to take military action to keep iran from having a nuclear weapon or looking back to two thousand and eight looks like a not a whole lot has changed. the world for sure well over a given. bullyboy. and now we're seeing that actual tete a tete between the u.s. and iran continue iran has threatened to act if the u.s. navy moves an aircraft carrier into the gulf this as new u.s. also e.u. sanctions target the islamic republic what does this mean for oil prices for you and i and is the u.s. saber rattling worth the cost and millions of dollars have been spent by the g.o.p. candidates and groups on t.v. ads in iowa the majority of them negative but what about just

a lobbying this ad against all of the candidates it was aired once but the follow helped propel johnson to the presidency back in sixty four but. i. will debate that today but let's get to today's capital account. all right happy new year welcome back and we have a big day because the iowa caucuses of course are tonight iowans will head to the polls to cast their first votes in the u.s. primary season the horse race what that really means is really underway here now

and what you could call the economy election for president in two thousand and twelve structurally high unemployment and a fifteen trillion dollar national debt are just a couple reasons why now looking back we can really see how much hasn't changed before election night in two thousand and eight just look at senator obama he was then senator was saying things like this. you can turn the page on policies that of. put greed and irresponsibility before hard work and sacrifice the as they were going to ford is four more years of deregulation in the health care industry and the financial services industry so that consumers don't have basic protections that we put the entire economic system at risk. maybe that was the last thing we could afford but three years later we see what do we see too big to fail banks are bigger dodd frank legislation supposed to

rein them in was watered down by lobbyist some argue that essentially this was a dog frank that targeted everybody but wall street and the department of justice that hasn't gone after the financial executives in charge of the financial crisis so looking ahead now what option is there really to change the country's course to give americans control over their financial future not to mention hope what option is there for leadership to unify the country is there any or is this just a useless exercise we want to talk to dr paul craig roberts about this because he is such a spicy saucy voice on the matter he's also an economist and former assistant secretary of the treasury for economic policy under ronald reagan so it's so nice to see you happy new year dr roberts thank you so let's get straight to this with the exception of ron paul who i know you've written about positively is there anybody that you see in this g.o.p. race that would be better then brock obama. they're all the same

the obama and the republicans are all. the only exception is ron paul you know which really depression is. the united states constitution has been repealed obama's legislation repealing the constitution and no one is concerned about it except ron paul and i want to get to all of that but i want to go back because you're saying ok no none of these guys are better so i want to talk about leadership and if any of them could lead the country could unify the country because many would argue you need leadership in order to be a successful president and although many support ron paul he is also a very divisive figure very polarizing obama you could argue did unify the country successfully three years ago but arguably has squandered that so is there anybody that could really unify the country and not among those running i'm not

sure that ron paul is is divisive. it depends on what you think is yours and if americans are happy having a police state which is what they now have. then perhaps ron paul could not unify the country but if they are aware of what they've lost he's the only one with a platform that does. unify the country the rest of them. all for their all want to attack or rather to to bomb. their all in the pockets of all straight. and they just like a bomb opponent in the banks just to run his government all of the republican chair and it's someone ron paul do the same thing if they try to get the deficit under control they have to take it out on poor people and social security on medicare all of that is highly divisive far more so than you could your good say about ron

paul also then this is what i want to want to ask if you want to continue this let's say that the american people did elect ron paul would that be tantamount to basically american people saying i'm pushing the panic button i want a total system reboot here i am sick of all of this i am sick of the system even if it means a decay and social order because the things he's calling for would be painful. well i don't think he would actually do any of that it have is it have his hands full just trying to restore the constitution and i think that's what's most important to him is what he most talks about but i don't think he'd be able to do very much because he wouldn't be able to get his appointees confirmed by the senate. the powerful interest groups would step in and the senate would block it supported so he wouldn't have anyone in the government that supported him so i doubt he'd be able to do much and if he remained

a problem for the establishment they would simply create a scandal and get rid of him maybe some scandals you would either not be reelected or you could be forced to resign it's very look what they did to jimmy carter they framed is going to be director of the freddie and his chief of staff and then deprives you of people who would support his government well i want to i want to stick on this point because it's interesting you know we often talk but we haven't talked about your days actually working for your old boss for ronald reagan and you wrote about this recently you were saying that even he had to give up certain appointees to what you call the establishment can you explain why and how this affected the policies that he wanted to push for and you mentioned stagflation. well he had you know i don't really know why he did it i imagine that he was simply told if you don't let the bush people come and and share the government then

they will campaign against to the way rockefeller yes barry goldwater and you'll lose and so he was sort of position that he had to give a bunch of the government back to george herbert walker bush who he had defeated for the presidential nomination so the bush people came in and they. bush's giant jim baker was chief of staff of the white house in the course of which was a vice president and he had all kinds of washington connections and if the government just simply filled up with bush people was harder for reagan to do anything and how did that impact policy his policies. the republican establishment did not want a big tax bill they were worried about the deficit and wall street was telling them if you cut taxes inflation will go out of course of iran and didn't went down

but they said the place will go up it will destroy our stock and bond portfolios and you've got to block it's crazy reagan and not let him do this and so i spent a lot of time in the government citing reagan's own government to get the tax bill out that the president wanted that he thought would restore the economy so that he could then move to his second agenda which was to end the cold war. you know interesting again you see this theme of protecting the assets and the wealth of the elite we have to go to break i want you to stay right there because i want to al capone americans are all bystanders in this but first i want to explain something you've been writing about the bystander effect to our viewers so we'll be back with more with dr paul craig roberts.

all right time now for word of the day and didn't you miss it when we were on break i definitely did this is where we break down a financial term or concept for a very smart viewer but maybe not the financial expert and today this veers into the political but because the economy is so important to the election it makes sense that's our our theory and we're sticking to it so it is the bystander effect and paul craig roberts our guest brought up an example of it in a recent article where he wrote like kitty genovese see who was stabbed to death in new york in one nine hundred sixty four and front of onlookers who failed to come to her aid the media congress bar associations law schools and the american public failed to come to the defense of the constitution now there dr roberts is talking about obama's policies such as targeting americans for assassination without due process but back to kitty genovese see the case and her death is often cited as an example of the bystander effect so what exactly is this is otherwise known as

fittingly the genovese syndrome and it is a slow social psychological phenomenon that refers to cases where individuals do not offer any means of help in an emergency situation to the victim when other people are present so the question now are we seeing the bystander effect in the political process electing candidates republican and democrat perpetuating the same policies the american people going along with it providing legitimacy to policies that benefit america's elites policies that dr craig roberts was just talking about back to murder according to media reports thirty eight witnesses watched and failed to intervene the murderer fled the scene after getting the attention of a neighbor then actually went back ten minutes later and finished assaulting her we asked does this remind you at all of president obama who came into office.

promising to put a leash on wall street only to let the bankers who were responsible for them and the financial crisis not only go unpunished but we're turn to the crime scene and loot some more that's why we're bringing you this definition so that you are not a victim of the bystander effect still ahead as iowa kicks off the two thousand and twelve election cycle we're going to continue asking is the whole us system flawed is this pointless we'll be right back. we just put a picture of me when i was like nine years old i want to tell the truth. i confess and i am a total ghetto princess i love driving hip hop music and pretty. much

it was kind of the jester day. i'm very proud of the world without you it's played. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else hears you some other part of it and realize everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm trying hard welcomes a big picture. of. what drives the world the fear mongering used by politicians who makes decisions to break through it's already been made who can you trust no one who is you know view with the global machinery see where we had

a state controlled capitalism is called. sessions when nobody dares to ask we do our t.v. question more. all right to look forward i think that's an important step to take a step back and look back i want to play you hank paulson former treasury secretary under fire over how he used tarp so we can remember what was going on that. you're using turbo completely differently than you told congress you're going to use did you mislead congress what so well. what we what we said to congress once we needed a financial rescue package because the credit markets were stopped up and so

hank paulson using tarp completely differently than how he presented to congress was the question and that happened that actually happened and hank paulson got off pretty unscathed for what many people have accused him of doing there we all move past it now we have president obama signing away our constitutional rights with the n.d.a. the national defense authorization act with an amendment that says american citizens can get military detention without due process so the question is the legislative i guess rape on autopilot i want to bring him back back and dr paul craig roberts to answer that question i just gave a couple of examples dr roberts going back to hank paulson to bring back that history lesson to our viewers i know our viewers are very familiar with it and then looking at obama today and the kind of acts that he's signing it is the legislative rate at this point on autopilot. where you don't look the legislature is always the weakest element and it needs to be very defensive the scholars but for reasons that

act and explained for years now the united states congress has just abrogated all of its powers and it has done nothing to hold the executive branch accountable when the executive branch behaved in criminal ways violating laws on the books and when the congress would have had the support of the people in holding the executive branch accountable so why have they. abrogated their power you know naomi wolf recently wrote that by passing this military detention amendment to the defense authorization act that the congress had issued their own arrest warrant and she makes the point very well that it's always the case that the executive branch uses those kinds of powers against the legislature that the legislature is often the first people to bear them brought some sort of dictatorial or police state but

i want to look at what's really going on here because we talk a lot about the power of wall street and influencing legislation and regulation and that i get i get that ok there's the revolving door there is wall street lobbying there is the threat of bringing down the financial system that they lob but with something like this amendment in this national defense authorization act which allows for the detention of americans and obama signs that despite his reservations what does that really what's really going on who doesn't really benefit. you know. it benefits the people who wield power and the executive branch they're the only beneficiaries and that's why the congress let them have this i do not know because it's not needed i mean what is the terrorist threat that has been no domestic acts of terrorism. in up in over

a decade and so what is it all about i don't know what it's about then they want to be sure that the people have no basis on which to complain while they continue to loot the country to continue to have well concentrated in the top one percent continue not to hold the banks troops accountable and continue wars that have no justification so i assume it's a way of shutting up the public of shutting down the ability of democracy to oppose leadership in directions that the people don't want because s. that's what the effect is it essentially negates the people they no longer have any power and if they persist then they can be accused of giving aid and comfort to the enemy because they're criticizing their government so get it cause i'm going to

swell the enemy validation of the elite i have to get to iran with you because i know you're going to be opinionated on this we've seen the saber rattling back and forth now it seems like there is really this escalation that could lead to i mean i don't want to speculate i don't know but it does seem like this is more than we've seen as far as actual actions my question when you look at those sound bites we played earlier in the show three years ago politicians were rattling the sabers against iran same thing now so why now has it taken so long for it actually to get this heated up because libya for example came out and nowhere in the u.s. just went to war but yet iran have been bubbling all this time why now. well i suppose they're running out of wars and the military security complex needs the profits to keep the stocks up you know the libyan war zone over iraq war is over and i think they're kind of giving up in afghanistan that it didn't get any further than the service to it so they need a new war on us i guess that's why i ran as is and the gross errors of course if

they can get rid of a rat in some way or neutralize them in some way then that takes the support away from hezbollah or in southern lebanon and then israel can seize the water resources of southern lebanon and maybe that has something to do with it as well and and then maybe syria will collapse and they can get rid of the barracks can get rid of the sort of view they will base and serious of it all sort of fits the motif if you have if you are a hedge of my ticket and par and you're trying to expand your control over the world then all of this all of this fits but there's no valid reason for a war with the red and i know it will leave iran will take any silly action about provoking one and if it's we have to see where it leads because of course there is the whole issue of imperial overreach and debt g.

seven nations will have to turn over seven point six trillion dollars in two thousand and twelve the u.s. of course leading the way with japan a conversation for another day though i would believe that you probably think this is all heading in the same lousy direction i really appreciate having on the show that was an economist and former reagan administration official dr paul craig roberts. all right so we've talked all about where this political process is heading but now i want to bring our producer jimmy trico phoenix and shannon donahoe in the control room to talk about really what some options are ok the candidates for

one we know have spent six million dollars on advertising in iowa alone with the majority of that three point seven million going to negative ads this is according to a new york based media firm kantar media so first let's take a look at what that looks like. why is this man smiling because his plan is working . mitt romney and hope newt gingrich is his opponent why newt has a ton of baggage. and romney insiders. are its plans to create jobs and overhaul washington part time can't make him. ok so blah blah blah back and forth against a political candidate millions of dollars spent to make sure things that doesn't seem like a lot of money in that case because we hear about trailing in and under the billions in almost every story we talk about but it is a fair amount of money but we have been talking this will show about the fact that perhaps it is there is no good option so what about airing something like this

towards all of the politicians and. it. hit. old thirty. one. it was dramatic it aired only once and it helped propel johnson to president despite only airing once dimitri why do you think this might be a good idea because you brought this up. because none of the candidates are worth voting for with the exception of me personally i have an a like ron paul but that doesn't mean enough other people feel that way and he's got he's in my view he has a lot of positions that a lot of people people wouldn't why so you need someone that is going to be able to lead the country and i don't see ron paul as a leader i mean i think

a lot of people he's a lot of supporters people that support his policies support his respect for the constitution for the bill of rights but. the reality is he's not the kind of candidate we need to unify this country in this very difficult time so there's a very difficult time in us and then we talk about on the show all the time is what is it takes the difficulty with the economy and with people's ability to achieve ability to earn money to save any money to have a job to have a good life and the impact of the government being involved in that so why because i feel like you actually represent kind of. an average american maybe they care about the stuff that we talk about every day but you are really pissed off about this this morning to me you're going on a giant rant why are you so personally angered i was pissed that i wasn't what i was a meltdown other than you have been on twitter to be at fault i was pissed and i you know last week gave us a chance we had the show off and i got to do a lot of reading like i used to always do is to read a lot of news the right i mean something i just haven't been able to so that we

start producing the show and i started watching the around here and it's very true you are very busy. and i started watching some of obama's speeches because i was a narrative obama i was cynical i knew that he was going to do everything you promised i recognize that but i just didn't do that he would be a complete and utter. pushover i don't even i can't even use the word to describe what he did how he disappointed me because i was also reading a book confidence and that's something that started a few months ago when he came out and says consent obama basically he was very critical of obama he said obama has the understand the economics so that's why he was able to push forward by geithner who he described as someone who could laugh in your face but slit your throat the same time by rahm emanuel who basically was described as obama's handler so he was being manipulated by these guys because he didn't understand economics fair enough fine whatever he does understand the constitution he was a constitutional professor wasn't he talk a social law yeah so what is he doing he's legalizing the criminality of george

bush and dick cheney who were more to radical than any other administration that i have either read about or certainly lived under will to meet you what do you think that's about because the but i want to see your wages would add some kind of conspiratorial new world order kind of analysis of this but what about some kind of thing that you suggested which is maybe it's not so you know codified but that there's some kind of i think that i think that i think that clearly you have people you put sides of hank paulson before basically went to congress and said and there are other good for you could play it i mean we haven't played the me basically said you better give us money because if you don't give us money this economy's going to crash so just give us money because we're basically holding a gun to your head we're we're coming here we're saying give us your money and i think that there are a lot of there are more and more people in business today in america whether they're in the military industrial complex whether they are in the financial sector or whatever who don't make their money more legitimately they don't make it in a way that if they were scrutinized they wouldn't go to jail so they're basically like you know what we're so wealthy at this point that if you actually if you

actually took how to move the way back the constitution we'd have to go to jail so we'll just consolidate power and create an orwellian police state and we're going to have to leave it at that but we want to let dimitri have his two cents that that for our show thanks so much for tuning in be sure to come back tomorrow for another capital account. wealthy british scientists are. right. market why not come to find out what's really happening to the global economy with mike stronger for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune into cars a report. download the official location on the phone on

called touch from the. life on the go. video on demand tease mine gold coast's and feeds now in the palm of your. question on the dot com. 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 everything you thought you

don't know i'm tom harpur welcome to the big picture. well let the race begin republican contenders are buttering up i went voters with their hawkeye is on the prize and with just hours until the caucus begins three have pulled ahead of the pack we'll tell you who and why. and while candidates and whether the iowa caucus there's a cold front moving in and i'm not talking about meteorology but deal politics so is the persian gulf ready for yet another u.s. war. and ringing in the new year as only big brother can it seems.