we're still talking about the crisis in the same terms we were before two thousand and eight happened. before this cycle is done we will no one's going to care about housing at all the stock market is going to be like it was in one thousand nine hundred one when businessweek ran the the title the death of stocks people lose interest entirely before before it turns around before the contrary inflated jump back in is ignored but do you think that when we do bottom out in this cycle that the rules will be sufficiently altered where you'll be able to actually make investments or will the political climate be so different i mean will people have we willing to sacrifice so much of their freedom for security given what the environment will be like that you know i think it's a great question and one of the guys that i've been working with in the new film is one in week as who was his venture capitalist to help put together the financing for the human genome project and he talks about the amazing things that are going

on in the lab right now he's invested in a number of different businesses and they're innovating at a rate that they've never been able to innovate before because of the advent of advanced communications and quantum computing they're able to do a quantity of. experiments that they had never even imagined before but his greatest fear from an economics perspective and from a political perspective is that we will never get to take advantage of all those advancements because the rules will change to suffer such a significant degree because of the collapse of the credit bubble that entrepreneurs will never deploy their capital to get those things off the ground and that's the tension that we're facing right now when is that going to happen when is that moment going to take place when people shift from profound pessimism that we're seeing in the in the headlines today to profound optimism again the belief that the american economy is dynamic and and can grow our way. daily

reckoning is free it's a free website we give our analysis of the situation all away for free so if you visit w.w.w. dot daily reckoning dot com you can actually just enter your e-mail address and sign up and get our daily analysis on a regular basis through the daily reckoning we make a number of our paid for private subscriptions available so you'll be contacted from time to time with special offers but we've also set up a special page on the a core a financial website w w w a core of financial dot com slash r t four listeners today who have who are interested in the solutions that we're trying to provide for this macro environment that we see ourselves in. and that was that is we're going executive publisher of a core financial. i. i .

i. time now for word of the day when we break down a financial term or concept for a very smart the or but maybe not the financial expert and today the word is quite fittingly given that the world economic forum is upon us it's known simply as davos because that is the name of the swiss mountain hamlet it's held in every year how does the man fit in well here's one headline in ways future of capitalism. so what exactly does that refer to well we have a definition davos man is an expression which refers to the global elite of wealthy men whose members view themselves as completely international. where they come from samuel huntington the late harvard professor and influential american political scientist is credited with inventing that term he said the davos men have quote

little need for national loyalty the you naturally boundaries as obstacles that thankfully are vanishing and see national governments as a residues from the past whose useful function is to facilitate the elites global operations so who helps get to define this concept of modern global elite. men and women the guy who dos out the invites to davos the flagship event which is invitation only once a year here is its swab founder of the world economic forum german born harvard educated in one thousand nine hundred one he launched what later became known as the world economic forum bring together elites in every arena c.e.o.'s royalty heads of state cabinet members central bankers celebrities authors the forums agenda is meant to talk about some of the world's big problems and solutions to them but it's become better known as one giant networking

opportunity for davos men and women how valuable is that well check out what corporate sponsors shell out every year according to david rothkopf book superclass a handful of lead sponsors pay three hundred thousand bucks a year thirty sponsors do one hundred sponsors pay roughly one hundred fifty thousand dollars a year and two thousand sponsors pay thirty thousand a year so all pay this to attend and schmooze with a gathering of what you to use lead singer and global afficionado bonnell calls fact cats in the snow. that was upon us it's the world economic forum's annual flagship event

a couple thousand of the world's richest and most powerful people are packing into this tiny hamlet town in the swiss alps to schmooze and talk about what the world's problems are by invitation only who gets invited well the ellis is pretty long angle merkel opens up a form david cameron will speak famous economists like joseph stiglitz and nouriel roubini are regular attendees timothy geithner will be there of course i.m.f. head christine legarde billionaire fund manager george soros google's eric schmidt and of course head of the c b mario draghi will be in attendance so now what about everyone else the concern is the citizens are being made that could affect their lives maybe in a bad way but definitely without their say and lauren is there to see what's really going on. all right i'm here i've made it to davos i'm at the world economic forum my first time i'm not alone though turns out morgan stanley's c.e.o.

says first time which shows the caliber of the people that are here ok these are much of the corporate elite much of the global elite when it comes to wealth power all of that so they're all gathered here the question is what is davos man got on his agenda this year now of course the unofficial business is what davos has really become known for in many respects that's what you hear about that makes it worth all of the money that some of these corporations shell out to be here it's the networking and the deals that are done in private parties you know off the record in hallways in lobbies so this is where a lot of the global one percent or some of them at least a presumably are doing business according to past reports ironically on the actual official agenda this year is that the topic of capitalism and if it is or ambling what its future is and what the solutions to its problems are so schwab the founder of the world economic forum has said that we can't think of this is business as usual anymore that capitalism in its current form has no place in the world around

us talking about much of the of the discontent we've seen over in quality that we've seen with the occupy wall street movement which is on the agenda when some of these sessions are talking about remodelling capitalism occupy is one of the things that they're talking about interesting lee though none of those activists are invited to the forum to have that discussion but they are here really highlighting the difference separating everybody else from the elites that are meeting here they have the igloo encampment which many people are talking about but they're very much here now as far as what exactly is going to go on i'll do my best to show you that the more i'm looking at these reports of what the press is going to be able to do it looks like i'm not going to be able to see a film or go a lot of the places that i would want to go except for maybe in thirty minute increments what's a day hopefully as supported by someone from the world. economic forum for me to lock down from some of these big business leaders and heads of state and central bankers exactly what they're talking about me sessions that i may not be privy to

but that is what i'm going to try and do i'm going to do my best to bring all of that the forum starts tomorrow and i will be here be your intrepid reporter until then talk to you tomorrow back to you guys. that was the host of capital account the lovely lower lister in davos switzerland. and that's our show thanks for tuning in feel free to follow me on twitter at covering delta and as always follow lauren lauren lyster and give us feedback on our show at youtube dot com slash capital account time to make your goofiness and from everyone here a couple of count goodnight. wealthy british style. that's no time to write. for the. market find.

find out what's really happening to the global economy for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines to name two kinds of reports on are today.

the top stories from our team moscow tens of thousands of egyptians are back on tahrir square to mark a year since the uprising that toppled president mubarak's thirty year rule but it's frustration along with the celebration because of drug reforms. president obama kicks off his campaign to stay in the white house using the state of the union address to pledge saving the economy he stressed his successes and promised millions of new jobs but critics say it's upbeat tone doesn't quite reflect reality . on the world's top whistle blows to get others to spill the beans on t.v. as julian assange slams his own interview show right here he did with the leaks

founder exposed some of the world's darkest secrets in his new series this channel . and that when you look to the ten pm hour here on our t.v. be alone a show. welcome to the lower show we'll get the real headlines with none of them or see me live in washington d.c. now it's a night we're going to take a look at the continuous warmongering and cold war rhetoric of the g.o.p. candidates when it comes to cuba and iran will also discuss an upcoming speech to be given by attorney general eric holder or some secrets about the legal memo which allows for targeted killing of u.s. citizens just might come out colonel lawrence wilkerson will join us for that one but a former cia officer is being charged with leaking secrets to the press this is now

the sixth time the obama administration is attempting to use the espionage act to marcy wheeler will help us uncover the inconsistency s. and the dangers for whistle blowers and then last night the candidates spoke on immigration mitt romney suggested that self deportation should be the easiest fix so what exactly is self deportation. going to give us the details we're going to all that morphy tonight including a dose of happy hour but first take a look at the mainstream media has decided to miss. our so last night we were forced to sit through yet another republican debate this one was hosted by n.b.c. and moderated by brian williams who did an embarrassingly poor job of it and it one point i'm pretty sure that william just stepped out to have a smoke or something because he let mitt romney newt gingrich just ask each other questions and go back and forth for about ten minutes now there was a value to this exchange however romney really went after gingrich and expose what

is a systemic problem the revolving door of politicians then becoming lobbyists or is gingrich claims being hired as a historian to be a consultant now the mainstream media of course didn't really bother getting into those details they just love a good fight. stunning role reversal of the debate last night mitt romney taking off the gloves blasting newt gingrich on a number of issues including his time as speaker of the house and his consulting work with mortgage giant freddie mac. newt gingrich took a swipe at mitt romney over his tax returns romney fired back mitt romney went after newt gingrich last night in the debate but did he land any punches in the latest match up in tampa last night mitt romney hammer hammer away at newt gingrich and is record of leadership gingrich shot back accusing romney of lying. yeah yeah yeah they went at it they really took each other on now that took up hours of time this morning on the cable networks but let me highlight something for

you that didn't make the cut as usual we didn't see much coverage or wrap up of the foreign policy visions of the candidates from last night vision is a wish which with the exception of ron paul included wanting to go with to war with iran like it's no big deal keeping our troops in afghanistan and continuing a cold war era relationship with cuba and just sanctioning them forever but perhaps one of the most telling moments from last night's debate circled around iran threats of closing the strait of hormuz and the candidates trying to outdo each other with who would respond with more force and who thinks obama has done a weaker job the problem is that inside of all this talk one thing became very apparent that these guys don't have their facts straight here's mitt romney we have to have an aircraft carrier in the gulf an aircraft carrier and of course the task force with it in the mediterranean we want to show we run any action of that nature will be considered an act of war an act of terror and america is going to keep those she leans up. so mitt romney thinks that we ought to have an aircraft carrier

in the gulf well guess what mitt we do you see last thursday the u.s.s. abraham lincoln arrived in the arabian sea this past sunday it sailed through the strait of hormuz we also have two more aircraft carriers nearby the carl vinson in the. the arabian sea and the u.s.s. john c. stennis which was in the persian gulf for months but is currently sailing to the pacific but could very very very easily come back and the u.s. isn't even alone there the u.s.s. abraham lincoln went through the strait of hormuz flanked by british and french ships and guess what nothing happened iran didn't react violently war has not broken out because it's not in anyone's interest and where is danger room also pointed out a few more details about just how active a presence we have in the waters in this region they call it routine naval posture one point five to one point seven meaning that there is an average of at least one point five carriers in this region every twelve months which means that at any given time iran faces more u.s. sea power the most of the world he's can offer you might be saying that all that's

really technical the g.o.p. candidates they can expect you know it all but if you're going to attack the current president's policies and his actions and call for more they'd better already know what is currently being carried out so in this case mitt romney is trying to attack obama for being soft on iran when in fact he's calling for the exact same thing that the obama administration is already doing but more importantly the media needs to follow up and correct these kinds of mistakes counter aggressive foreign policy statements with facts i mean in an ideal world they should counter every untrue statement it's made on a debate stage with facts but well we all know they don't do that and we all know that there are especially lots of the details when it comes to foreign policy and military exercises but hello people we can't afford not to correct those kinds of mistakes did you learn nothing from iraq from the war that was based on lies of the media overwhelmingly supported and was shocked when it turned out that there were no w m d's to begin with if anything iraq should have been

a turning point for the mainstream media in this country should have been a moment where collectively the press said never again but unfortunately it wasn't . now maybe they've offered gotten maybe they're just too lazy maybe they're too scared to question tough foreign policy talk because the establishment will like them for it they want somebody who's vying to be the commander in chief makes mistakes like that the mainstream media should pick up on it and correct it but they actually do is they choose to miss. now aside from mitt romney's factual error on what our neighbor naval buildup should be in the persian gulf there was lot of other big talk about iran the dangers of them acquiring a nuclear weapon and what we must do to counter it there's also a lot of talk about cuba the need for sanctions and a travel of are going to stick around and much of the rhetoric coming from the g.o.p. candidates who makes you wonder if they're living in the past and they refuse to

acknowledge that the world has changed so here discuss this with me is lawrence wilkerson retired u.s. army colonel and former chief of staff to colin powell points thanks so much for joining us tonight so i'm losing my voice a little bit first let's go back and i want to show you a side from mitt romney's gaffe or mistake that he made there last night a few other clips of what exactly was being said about iran and i want to hear commentaries let's take a look. at it from people who have no interest in going to war anywhere we have no interest in going to war the japanese only bombed pearl harbor we had no interest in going to afghanistan when the hottest destroy the world trade center well the contrast with that is what happens if iran gets a nuclear weapon and the entire world changes bottom line is the theocracy that runs iran is the equivalent of having al qaeda in charge of a country with huge oil reserves gas reserves and a nuclear weapon that is something that no president could possibly allow to have

happen under any circumstances. i where do we start there when we go with rick santorum will the world change overnight if iran acquires a nuclear weapon let me just point out two things one that al qaeda and the leadership in tehran have getting their next have almost nothing in common and second and probably more important to the point is that north korea is in my view much more dangerous country with respect to our allies in the region and iran is north korea has tested not one but two nuclear devices at least and maybe weaponized where is all the brouhaha from rick santorum and the rest of the republican candidates about north korea and at the end of the day not either is the next an existential threat to the united states nor any of our real solid allies in the world so this posturing is simply political if they actually believe this in their heart of hearts they're idiots but then what what's the point why iran

specifically why has this become the popular you know rallying cry for the g.o.p. this is the new iraq for the neoconservatives and the new conserves is neo conservatives have infiltrated largely except for ron paul of course the campaigns of romney gingrich and others that might have had a chance back in the past primarily romney and gingrich right now and this is their mantra this is it this is war they love war they want to go to war now with iran they want to go to war with iran ever since iraq tumbled in two thousand and three two thousand and four we do have to make that point of course is that ron paul as always completely stood out on that stage last night when he left you ron paul and that was what i see when it came to talking about iran when it came to talking about cuba as well but what do you really see as happening right now clearly the fact that we do have aircraft carriers right now going through the strait of hormuz and nothing happened we've also had secretary defense robert gates saying that it

would be a red line if the iranians dared try to shut it down. for. you know what all these actions mean but iran isn't reacting on a ventilator and the proximity of forces those i've said to you before is frightening and i hope we have a really good i'm sure we do rules of engagement to preclude any thing turning into a tonkin gulf and soon the whatever the other aspect of this is that the republicans can't find as you sort of intimated in your introduction any space on national security with respect to the current president the united states they want to blame him for being the president who made america and secure he hasn't anything he's made us more secure and so they're trying desperately to find space and at the end of the day my party the republican party is close to committing suicide. but at the same time you and i have discussed this before too and so looking at the way in which they republican candidates try to attack president obama but the way that he's also acting what we have going on right now in the movements that are making

in the persian gulf no matter who wins this election in november of two thousand and twelve would the reaction to iran be exactly the same let's say if they did try to go after our navy there i don't i don't think so because i don't think they're going to try to go try to go after our navy and if they do i think the rules of engagement are going to tamp it down quickly and we won't have the tonkin gulf incident that said i do think we're probably although i'm alarmed at both president both the president and the presidential candidates and the rhetoric that they're throwing out there in the corner that therefore they're painting themselves into a do think that president obama's policies will be better than a republican and i'm planning on given the current cast of characters casting my own vote for the incumbent right now just because of that i would add also that i believe the situation in the goal is such that we've got carrier carrier task forces there we've got marine amphibious groups there we've got other forces there

as you pointed out who are operating on rules of engagement that will probably preclude there being a conflict that spirals out of control at least i hope that's the case at the same time i think you know the obama administration right now in concert with its tightening of sanctions and the use coming along and helping i think the obama administration is serious about reopening some sort of negotiations with tehran and i just hope that iran realizes that and is conducive to and ultimately except for the regime of those negotiations let's look at the way that the sanctions even on iran's oil are necessarily working out are we succeeding we haven't really succeeded in convincing all that much of the world to go along here with this and you know even iran is coming out and saying exactly the same thing that we. i have no problem selling oil to anybody will just find new customers you know that china and other actors out there are still going to be interested and at the end of the day does it come down to that but your story does have too much oil and it's not worth it for your opening to individual ye the abominated sanctions i don't think

they war i think they're terrible they hurt the people and not the rulers but in this case i do think that the combination of things that the european union the united states and others have orchestrated to at this point and i'm getting this from iranians is hurting them badly that plus the fact that they need an opening they need to calm and they need to do something goes is going to cause obama to have president obama have a much better opportunity to do it this time my fear is that we're really not serious about this and even if the iranians do put forward a position that we can take to a table somewhere however secret it might be that we will look we'll be so full of our own rhetoric that we won't take it and we won't sit down and at least try but i do see that effort being made by this administration whereas the administration i served for example didn't make any effort at all that it's well let's have sanctions and how you're no fan let's take

a look at what the candidates said about cuba last night. this president has taken a very dangerous course with regards to cuba saying we're going to relax relations we're going to open up travel to cuba this is the wrong time for that with this kind of going on this is the policy united states should be aggressively to overthrow the regime and to do everything we can to support those cubans who want freedom you know obama's very infatuated with an arab spring he doesn't seem to get a look ninety miles south of the united states to have a cuban screaming we should make it very clear that if you want the mountains of aid if you want normal relationships if you want to improve your economy if you want to have that opportunity for freedom that the united states stands ready now to embrace you now that you've got rid of these tyrants who have who have controlled you for these fifty plus years that's why the sanctions have to stay in place because we need to have a a a very solid offer to come forward and help the cuban people. right so newt gingrich wants to aggressively overthrow the regime he wants us to fabricate

a cuban spring santorum on thanks and stay in place forever artist has a living in the cold they're living your dark ages they're living in the dark ages of those came from havana and spent seven days there on their i was there in two thousand and seven i was there in two thousand and nine two thousand and twelve the changes are miraculous what's happening is the economy is slowly incrementally opening up it's it's opening up to market pressures and market dynamics people were beginning to talk i'd get in a taxi in a taxi driver would answer my questions and say i'm not being taped emma and then answer my questions i ate in restaurants that could be in buenos aires or in rio de janiero the cuban and they are idiots they haven't been to cuba they don't know what's happening they can't see what's in front of their face the forty year old technocrats in cuba are shaping the ground and raul the current leader is helping them to administer cuba in the future and to give cubans the kind of economy that raises their standard of living but not lose their incredible health care universal

health care or some the best help. better than ours and their money nine percent literacy among other gains despite what we might say to dylan raul castro when the revolution brought to cuba they're doing and ignoring us well that's another area where i guess you could say that president obama is ahead of the of the g.o.p. candidates at least in some way i want to really quickly switch gears running out of time but attorney general eric holder is going to be giving a speech soon about national security touting the administration's national security and they're there supposedly he's going to lay out the legal language that they used to kill on our locky without actually mentioning our locky or his case specifically just finally revealing that i guess they have the secret legal memo and maybe some of the logic behind it how do you see that we know who they think they're satisfying if they're not actually going to give us the evidence this is the attorney general of the united states attempting to justify legally and otherwise in the eyes of the american.