protesters frustrated crowds demand an end to the government's austerity measures and corruption going on the president to go. up next laura lister with an individual analysis of the global economic crisis artie's capital account coming up . good afternoon and welcome to capital account i'm lauren lyster here in washington d.c. and it's looking like the greek government may not be able to pay its bills come march out and is trying to negotiate with investors for them to take a bigger haircut the labor unions meanwhile are negotiating on proposed labor cost cutting so how will this greek tragedy play out no one seems to know but what does this mess tell us about the sanity of those who claim to be in control of this crazy economic world we're live in and that's a question we're going to try to answer and a ban on proprietary trading for big banks was debated in congress today as part of the volcker rule which is part of dog frank and surprise surprise lobbyists and so

a big bank exacts have come out against it will break down what's really at stake here and u.s. president barack obama has been pushing in-sourcing with his jobs council just as a new report comes out showing at least one of the very corporations represented on that council are outsourcing more jobs and r. and d. to asia so what is the deal we're going to hash it out let's get to today's capital account. so greece faces get another very large this time around fourteen point five billion euro bond repayment on march twentieth the problem is greece can't afford to service this debt and has been desperately trying to forge some sort of agreement

with its creditors that would allow further write downs and an extension of repayment times so basically let me break this down the greek government is desperately trying to avoid default trying to negotiate with its creditors to see a deal on debt relief that is going on right now that is the big news but what is really new here the seriousness of the situation in greece has been very clear or really should have been very clear to everyone involved in these debt negotiations from the start so our european leaders just imposing a bankrupt ideology onto a bankrupt banking system playing the fiddle while the euro project burns at their feet well let's see what yanis varoufakis thinks he's professor of economics at the university of athens he's also author of this book you see there the global minute america the true origins of the financial crisis and the future of the world economy professor fokus it's so great to have you on the show especially on this

big day for greece presumably so let's get right to this because it really seems like greece is in default already it seems that the greek government is really just trying to renegotiate its debt in a rational way that would allow it to continue servicing its payments without going into a total depression it seems like creditors and like the troika investors are really tries at trying to squeeze blood out of a rock here what am i missing. make much of a very. greece is going to hold. but the whole point of this is the good news how to find the youth which is. as you claim that this was not the fault of these defaulting. it may sound burdocks cold but this is the state of play. europe has decided to that was back in october in its

wisdom bows of on the backs. massive. debt right now i don't know that since the banks are already being fed by the. european taxpayer the mothers when they get hit for this mess that the furnace of them but the conundrum here is that. great and good european leaders decided that not only would they impose this haircut on the banks but they will impose upon them. that that haircut should be violent so as to of the getting of the c.d.'s contracts that are floating around in the marketplace and that's a great point i want to get to those c.d.'s but i want to ask as you're saying basically they're they're playing at what sounds like a p.r. game here and we were back reporting on this when all this was happening when those voluntary haircuts were announced and we were going to what is a voluntary haircut come on you want to take that what do you think greece should do at this point. i think there should be for the long time ago we should have

before the two years ago. well but the leave the never and what we should do we should call the bluff of the european union leadership and put an end to this vicious cycle of subterfuge of lies or. should i think it's because what. the short term. we're going to impose is heck of the banks like stopping the successes from going so we're going to force the banks looks at the this is that what to do. but in doing so. inadvertently idiotically let me put it partially they've created a new field of global hedge funds because hedge funds that they are that a little bit severed the work that we started but i think a government with a very clear start the gym in their mind they were going to say well you know what was the big problem they're going to end goal so the banks can agree to this

haircut if you force them to but we're not banks we're hedge fund. and you're going to be deemed the bombs that we just purchased what thirty five percent of the dollar of the europe. about one percent if you don't if you want to play ball and not to force this in the u.s. as the digger so this is what happens when you're trying to deny the island in the european leaders have been in gaza now they do years there has begun insolvent two years ago and so have many of the european banks instead of accepting this situation and dealing with europe is trying to deny that at the end to keep finding excuses for not facing it and because you bring up the c.d.'s and we don't know what these negotiations that are going on now if now the credit default swaps would be triggered you're talking a bit about the c.d.'s the role it's played longer term how is speculation in the c.d.r. as market how is that affecting negotiations now. immensely look bigger hedge fund

that has that owns a number of c.d.'s is which are if they trigger they give them plenty of money and at the same time this is what hedge fund and stood there the government bonds in case they managed to convince the european union and the i.m.f. to deem those bonds to the full so as not have this the esas to go now these hedge funds are going to play this game between pushing for the fold or accepting a haircut but they will demand their pound of flesh for it so europe has given the abundance of the. industry as well as the star the germans that have been utilized as a result of the silliness of are you really that heather has found so the driving seat at the moment even if the side of this deal is struck between the official

sector they could have been you know they are. nevertheless and the bankers on the other this is not going to be the end of the story because even if this agreement is announced with. joy and around. those will not be learns that in the next few weeks there's going to be some very hefty bargaining between the hedge funds and the powers of be absolutely sure seems like getting you're saying greece had a defaulted a long time ago greece is going to default you've actually said that the press takes for granted that a greek default would mean that greece accepts the euro so there you go clear it up for us in the press eon is why wouldn't it. be worse the question is in the euro zone why would have come get out of the euro zone firstly who is going to push. the falls to market now how will it be forced out of the euro what is the mechanism for doing that there's no legal mechanism for it so

the question of putting into the vote how much of the rest of the eurozone the only remaining sixteen members saying ok let's have a vote let's get rid of these big guys do that there's no legal mechanism for doing this so that there is no make it is for getting rid of greece what's cases in the eurozone stuck there for everyone and even if greece wanted to get out firstly it would have to get that not only of the euro zone but that the european union this is well clearly stated in that if you release them and that will be suicide the focus to do so wouldn't want to get out of the eurozone if they default and the rest of the eurozone couldn't get rid of greece so what is all let's talk about regarding the equation between a default in the next of the years and let me tell you what it is it's just an empty not credible threat on the part of the political look at. greece and outside of greece. it's a blackmail of the using against the greek people took two to have them accept. irrational and then work up a wall so you are saying the greek people are blackmail. it's interesting you bring

that up because it struck me today i was very early listening to the world economic forum's press conference about davos which is next week and angela merkel is going to deliver the opening remarks so she's presumably i'm guessing going to talk about some of these solutions that european leaders have come up with for the crisis to a room of the heads of state of some of the wealthiest and most powerful business elite in the world in a place that is literally and metaphorically very far removed from the actual people that have been most impacted by the policies of european leaders who is it more important for angela merkel to convince that these solutions are solutions or working those people in davos or the people all over europe who have been so impacted by austerity. neither members of parliament in berlin. this is not going to. trembling. with

being pulled from a seat she's. one of the. all in the next few months next year so the german and germany she wants to preserve the coalition she's good she she uses the german electorate the greek to look to that of the government's business men and women as. against which to project i don't start with you for a meeting about a very. very interesting you know let's broaden this out to a little bit because on monday we had an italian columnist on the show who writes for a financial paper and italy and we were talking about the l.t.r. it was one of the things that was supposed to alleviate problems for italy and first spain banks were extended cheap cash to buy sovereign debt how is this working in your opinion because we've seen deposits at the e.c. be reach record highs. if you go

it's going to go down in history. made of the buckle it has helped to some extent it is true that it alleviated the guy when it if you look at especially in spain and the summit then being shortened. later to build in italy it has given europe a little bit of a breathing space and you all have done because we're talking about have a duty in europe now being effectively and done by the e.c.b. and the best but since you spoke about italy let me give you an example. of something that it's quite widely known. banks like unicredit and the united bank integrated garnishing that they did they were. allowed by the e.c.b. to collect a very large sum of money with which to purchase the in bonds in order to reduce

the pressure on the telly and that and in the process to benefit from the calibrate that is some the difference in the interstate that those banks would be basically for the money that they're being lent by the e.c.b. right. now they're charging the italian debt right now that was at the that was what was that they were supposed to be doing so what is unique that and other italian banks and some portuguese banks in some spain spanish banks something astonishing in the annals of financial history they've created their own bonds the issued new private bonds of their own backs which of course nobody wants to buy because these banks are insolvent more or less so what they did was they went to the government of the technocrat with them wanting and they said prime minister we've got these bonds on our behalf so mr monti said yes interestingly

and bustling lee so certainly there had bonds that will get. garden state and then the dickless bones their own bones but bones bones and they boast of them up there with a c b and therefore borrowed from base to be using those bones that we're going to buy the italians state in order to get their filthy hands on warm. meanwhile because of they've done i'm good at these and these bombs they die liam public that group. it's an absurd process that you just don't understand how it's any kind of sustainable solution with everything we're talking about so here's the question there really remains for us the honest which is this maybe european leaders maybe bank executives some of these that you're talking about need psychotherapy because it's more than a write down that's needed ok you said that european leaders are in denial and if they're in denial that's a long way away from acceptance there are about seven stages of grief if i'm correct in dials on one and acceptance is all the way down on the other what do you

think. this is why i have been complaining now for a few days. but eventually in the last few days in favor of any media good fold and an end to the b. side that was asians because this will be the slump that the. i was about to start out. sixty because you have been having the really big and been effectively silencing all this time now agree the default not be exceeding. beneficial for europe as a whole it will be a wake up call it will be an opportunity for a fresh start. all right you know we are never here are you still your audio is breaking out but what i'm hearing you say is that a greek default would be just a slap on the face that europe needs i appreciate you bringing us that analysis straight from athens greece we always appreciated that was author and professor

yanis varoufakis. and still ahead it's been a top story all over the wiki pedia blackout protesting against online piracy laws but how much of a protest is it when you can push a button for business as usual we'll give you our three cents but first a close in market numbers. wealthy british soil. is not on the right.

market why not. 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 a report. all right at time now for word of the day when we break down a financial term or concept for our very smart viewers but just perhaps not the financial expert and to the u.s. now today it is proprietary trading why well for one it was the center of a heated debate over regulation at a hearing on capitol hill this morning when a some of the headlines that came out of that regulators defend volcker rule ban on

proprietary trade there it is right there. at the same time volcker rule shredded by republicans read another headline if we could bring that up and it pointed out again that the volcker rule asked the government to distinguish between banned proprietary trading and legitimate market making so what does that mean exactly what is proprietary trading let's see the definition is here it is when a firm trades for direct game instead of commission dollars essentially the firm has decided to profit from the market rather than from commissions from processing trades so a bank is betting for its own account as opposed to executing trades on behalf of its customers that's really the distinction so why is banning banks receive government backstops from trading their own account part of the volcker rule well it's supposed to reel in risk at some of those too big to fail banks that were you know reasons for the financial crisis now the idea is banks have been using their

taxpayer provided safety net deposit insurance to make riskier bets the ban on proprietary trading would allow banks still to continue short term trades for market making or for hedging but it's really that proprietary trading using its own money that is at stake here and it could put banks like goldman sachs and j.p. morgan chase at a competitive disadvantage of according to some which is why banks are complaining about this and the comptroller of currency john walsh at the hearing today said banks without u.s. operations could benefit because foreign jurisdictions have not adopted a similar ban now of course as i said big banks are worried about losing money they are lobbying against this according to the lobbyists three hundred fifty billion dollars for companies and investors is the claim of what they could lose that of the cost now this is obviously by some economists and analysts disputed but nonetheless banks are fighting through lobbyist against the proposal with of course a little help from their friends. close was your jamie dominick. this is psychology

he talked about and i don't think it's an exaggeration every trader is going to need a shock shock our truth from a lawyer to. bring in the psychiatrists and lawyers because anyone watching this show is a little suspicious of anybody who's quoting jamie dimon as the expert on whether this regulation should be effective or not that was chairman of house financial services committee at the hearing today saying that now the volcker rule is part of dog frank regulation and it is supposed to be in place by july twenty first so we've already seen the comment period extended because of some of the lobbying and interest that we've talked about so we'll see where it goes but now you know what is at the center of this debate is proprietary trading.

all right let's on with some loose change we're going to give your three cents on some of these stories coming out that affect the financial and business world as our producer is here to help me out so is shannon donahoe in the control room holding down the fort we start with some issues for the president of the united states so yesterday president obama met with his jobs council saying you know i'm really proud of the action we've taken on a majority of the council's recommendations on issues ranging from insourcing to clean energy and we've seen this push recently from obama's speeches about insourcing now of course the jobs commission is headed by g.e.'s jeff immelt the chair of g.e. now in the same breath literally yesterday report comes out the wall street journal reports on it today basically saying the national science board has reported the

u.s. is rapidly losing high. tech jobs as american companies expand r. and d. labs in china and other places in asia companies such as today yes caterpillar and can you guess the other one named in this report to me three. g. ding ding ding ding ding ok so come on is this another big loss for obama this is just ridiculous that people don't see through this how does anybody think that a council on jobs and competitiveness that is outsourcing is going to help obama's insourcing initiative i mean obama is a joke only taken seriously i don't think anyone i mean there are some people that are suckers i think obama seriously i'm not going to be one of those people i said i voted for obama to give money never again i'm not going to vote for mitt romney but i certainly will for brought here but come on channing you don't think that there are people in all over america that when they see this report obama has a jobs council he's working on jobs on insourcing that they don't buy that he's actually doing something for jobs. i think some of them but others are a little more skeptical do you buy it i don't think he's doing anything all right

you know ok we all agree one last for obama then we got news that obama will accept the democratic nomination at the bank of america stadium and charlotte north carolina couldn't they have figured out a better place that doesn't have an optic that like literally says wall street owns washington i mean literally there is washington and wall street together in that shot i'm sure when i heard it was a competition between between bank of america stadium and citi field where the mets play in new york. yeah. the become a target for exactly this amount of point is the competition who is the bankers competing with each other for who's going to have more influence in obama's ear but the fact that the financial sector overwhelmingly supports him and i think they've given more money than mitt romney they've given more money to the ira way yeah i mean the wall street owns the administration and the stadiums. anyway even when i was delving in financial burden so i mean even the firms that are. financial

powerhouses in finance and for the financial powerhouses to top it all off let's just leave you with this story a nonprofit company in iran wants to send obama some gifts they want to send him miniature size drones after asking iran to return u.s. drone remember that crashed there now this area's i guess playing with his toy drones in the bathroom but this is actually the one place he is winning because obama does follow through when it comes to killing people drone attacks. civil liberties in the name of the war on terror so i mean this is you know. the last hero like bush exactly right bush certainly like laid out the carpet he did a lot he. could the structure the static energy to get the block moving bombers had no problems going killing people continue the war in libya he loves war no problem here in georgia you know i mean. that's the irony of our platform but he's a big

a warmonger and you can get i mean the bush years worth of bush said he wanted to kill people it wasn't about freedom and obama wins in the battle with the drones just not against wall street wall street is more powerful than our rights let's switch gears because there was a pizza place that opened in d.c. today and we thought that it was worth seeing what happened because pizza said that they were going to give the first fifty customers free food for a year we figured times are really tough it be interesting to see what kind of a turnout this gets you can see the opening there we sent john called by our photographer out there to check it out he caught up with one lucky lady who was forty eight in line for free pizza and thought much like we count did when we found out about the story watch this. i'm surprised i didn't see you know i thought about the homeless or maybe even actually be more homeless people out here that's going to get to be. that's exactly what i thought i thought there was going to be a long long lines of homeless people you know forty six million people are on food

stamps a record number in this country. not the case it turns out because only people have learned to fend for themselves this point they don't want free food because i heard i heard most of the people that food i heard most people in these three want to starve for the pizza i've heard that they want to understand their waistlines know was a good guy this is pure storage crap actually to be fair i did see a business insider article about food in homes could be very high carb and low gain weight but that's my point i've heard that the vast overwhelming majority of people in this year are laughers intolerant so that might explain why they were ago and there you go really quickly before we go this is a big day for blackouts over sopa stop online piracy act those so-called laws really quickly we were looking at this morning was up at five am watching a press conference i was checking out google would get pedia i was you know tweeting about how the week of pedia blackout was going on and what do you know someone tweets me saying there's a way around it you can just had escaped it to not have the blackout so whatever

protest is that if you can just get around the blackout there were i think a lot of the of the of the you got her writers and i can say go go take it from me so just you're going to check it out you let us know what you think about a true protest that allows you to get around because that's all we have time for thanks for tune in and i'm lauren lyster you can follow me on twitter at lauren lester give us feedback at youtube dot com slash capital account and come back tomorrow for another show.

london admits an electronic spiral found by the f.s.b. in moscow six years ago belonged to her majesty's secret service the u.k. has denied involvement in the scandal till now. more tough new sanctions against the syrian regime an hour in the pipeline and the arab league observer mission from paris its final report on how to stop the daily deadly violence and. enter a mania gripped by mass protests as frustrated crowds demand an end to the government's austerity measures and corruption and call for the president to go. join us for more on these stories and more at the top of the next hour but first from.