g.d.p. growth year over year we're talking in pre-recession territory talk to me a little bit about this. well the g.d.p. quarter to quarter rose two point eight percent one point nine percentage points of that two point eight was refinement of inventory wasn't supposed to be that way remember the inventory replenishment was supposed to be the last quarter it didn't happen that way and so now it's happening this quarter it's happening this quarter at a time of decreasing sales and look at some of the apparel reports that come out you know i had a chart on my blog not too long ago showing a decline in the cubic metric imports of apparel and we've seen j.c. penney's come out it's now competing with wal-mart everyday low pricing forty percent price reductions across the board so we're seeing a lot of signs here you know automobiles held up. pretty well so we had amatory

hold up well well if we look at what j.c. penney's is saying and doing i don't think retail sales are going to be holding up going ahead and in fact i think when the fed came out on wednesday and announced that they were going to hold rates all the way low as zero percent all the way through the end of two thousand and fourteen i think they had advance notice of these g.d.p. numbers but year over year. one point six percent the other reason why we're up anything at all is if you look at the g.d.p. deflator point four percent you believe that as an inflation rate i don't i don't think anyone else does either so these numbers were much much worse than what was reported and that thing you mentioned about rates being zero that's something that we always bring up the people on the show whenever they try to say that things are rosy you wouldn't have an economy on negative real rates if you thought the situation was good but also what about quality of growth that's something else i'd

like to talk about alec to point out because you have a lot of economists that always say we just. new growth and that's it will grow our way out of the problem but if you just put emphasis on growth and not the type of growth how does that prevent us from getting the kind of growth that we got during two thousand when we had a housing boom a credit boom and then when that blew up all we were left with was the nominal debt load. oh the tiger growth we have now is growth in food stamps growth in government programs. growth in government transfer payouts you know it's it's government spending that not private spending that's keeping these things together but you know to get back to to the point that was ironically brought up in the vase by the way how come you're not they're having fun you're letting a lower and. but. they are they were talking about this equity income problem you know look who's responsible for that

dimitri why if the fed in two thousand the greenspan fed came in and bailed out all the banks that then made. bad loans to dot com companies bad loans to foreign governments like argentina so in the wake of that greenspan purposely heal a housing bubble who did that benefit that benefited the bankers that benefited wall street brokers that didn't certainly did not benefit anyone that bought a house had their property taxes go up and up only to see property only to see their property prices stay high while the housing crash plunged wiping out stock market in the process then what what is what is the bush administration do what does the obama administration do we bail out the bankers who does that bonus well that benefits the banks that benefited wall street that we have record bonuses back

once again so you know you want to look for the source of the income inequity that they're talking about there by thought it comes from the fact now it comes from you know i think you're not going to disagree for me on that actually when i got out of college one of the first jobs i had interviewed for was lehman brothers and they were just busy slice and dice and mortgages they needed underwriters so it was a big boom time for them but i want to play for you part of a of an interview a long interview that jamie dimon gave at davos yesterday we played part of it earlier with laura you might have heard it but i want play this part now and i want to get your take on it. i've always believed going to muddle through because i don't think there's a better solution un rather than your is a terrible thing. so muddle through that that to me is code word for we the banks are going to need to stay solvent stay liquid can do to make profit not go bankrupt while the rest of the economy has to suffer for one two three however many decades it's it takes what does that say to you when he says muddle through without me but

will through what i think a muddle through i think of japan you know look at what japan is japan is muddled through now for two decades fighting deflation and then and the endgame of japan is near at hand the endgame of japan is the currency crisis they've now got the g.d.p. of two hundred thirty percent they're expecting to have this year is that muddling through well yeah for the last two decades they muddle through but what about the currency crisis that awaits that and the other interesting thing was with geitner who said oh you know austerity programs well oh those are for greece those are for france those are for germany you know what about an austerity program for the united states and i think a steri program is the united states that are you know one point four trillion deficit and we're heading into a recession so you know what that means it's going to get worse and no one believes the recession is coming there are very few people bleeding recessions coming united states i think one's right hand look at those g.d.p. numbers you look at g.d.p.

deflator that they're using where they came up with this preposterous g.d.p. in the first by you know we're on a fast track towards recession right here right now. bernanke the you know acted is trying to stave that off with preannouncement that survive ready to do another round of quantitative easing what it was that doing as propping up oil prices that's sending gold higher and that keeping interest rates low it's destroying everyone on fixed income so is his policies are counterproductive not contribute to the to this income inequality and distorting those on fixed income. that's what they're doing they have not learned a thing so the thing i'm actually worried about is that these heroes is a negative real interest rates these q.e. programs these lock in rates until twenty fourteen and beyond that they may actually work not that they'll work you know what the p.r.

rationale is but they'll actually work in preventing banks from going bankrupt and keep the financial system afloat while the rest of the economy can use the kind of model to do in this new normal of high structural employment eventually leads to social unrest and that's what we saw a kind of with the occupy movement and we're seeing more and more what do you think what do you think about the political dynamic that's going to come out of this. oh we're saying social unrest right now certainly in greece we're seeing social and unrest in the italy. big major major strike over there hardly anyone even reported and i didn't have time to report on and on my blog we're seeing politics in france the trade barriers in france spain is victory with france's bickering with spain. the president of france is is want to do things to protect french interests meanwhile spain is careening with twenty two point eight percent unemployment and the trade policies are not for was in the purpose of the euro zone was to get

everyone together well the trade policies now in france are isolationist not revolving around we had started cozy proposed and then backed off of this told in financial tax so you know what's up with that what's up with that with the banks protesting and i think it's a bad idea in the first place but cozy look preposterous to propose this and then back down on behalf of the bank so yes we're going to see all of the same kind of stuff happen here in the united states you know we're heading into another room recession i think why many rate me going to let me get if i can just because i want to bring it back to greece because you mentioned greece and you have that p.s.-i which is just basically it's it's a it's a deal to to have greece restructure that with private creditors involved really quick because we have to go what do you think is going to come out of these

negotiations are we going to eventually get that greek default sooner rather than later. well let's recognize that greece is already all i mean here we've written these bonds down already fifty percent the next card is going to take the seventy six percent the s. and p. or movies or cash one of the three came out and said you know that this is a default it's just not the default it's triggered credit default swaps it's looks increasingly likely that we're going to have a credit event but you know that drove this thing out now so long and at great expense but the banks are probably prepared for this now you see these not prepared for this now as easy b.'s in a situation where the easybeats going to have to take some losses on its bonds or a major shake and then i started to say that i don't know what i got with this oh i'm sorry to interrupt you miss but we have to go i wish there was a line we continue it but that was that was investment advisor for sympathetic capital my commish said locke. and thanks for tuning into that so that's our show for today you can follow me as always on twitter covering delta and you can follow

or not lauren lyster and you can give us feedback on our show at our you tube channel on you tube dot com slash capital account i'm dmitri goofiness from everyone here at capital account had a great night. it's just. 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 the. and realized everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm tom hartman welcome to the big picture. download the official anti up location to your i phone on pod touch from the i choose our store. one job life on the go. video on demand on teens in line gold costs and already says feed stock now in the palm of your. question on the dot com.

champagne caviar and a few economic issues on the side of the end you a world economic forum in davos is just wrapping up what was actually accomplished or a lister is in switzerland with the latest. and it's a case of cyber deja vu protesters taking to the streets against a new internet anti-piracy bill only this one isn't so. in the u.s. it's the act of built in poland and the difference is it passed. and that's like asking everybody to wear condoms in their home i don't think the government should

be interrelated regulating sex keeping the porn industry under wraps a new law in los angeles has this adult industry all worked up but why is the government regulating the use of condoms when there are so many other issues at stake there. well it's friday january twenty seventh five pm in washington d.c. i'm christine and you're watching r t well the world economic forum is wrapping up in davos switzerland now on the agenda for this conference of globe for the global elite discussions about economic growth global competitiveness education technology and health and today a large focus was on the crisis in the eurozone artie's lauren lyster host of the capital account and also our own financial guru is in davos she joined me just a short while ago and i asked her what's been on the agenda in davos davos and more importantly what's being talked about and what's not being talked about take

a look. yeah well to speak to that point i know this is something we've been talking about that the official agenda maybe isn't as important as the unofficial one but today i feel like i was really testing that because the euro zone discussions really made a lot of headlines there was a big debate of finance ministers and the economic and monetary affairs for the european union timothy geitner spoke about the u.s. economic outlook there were just some big news making debates and so the first time that i'm in the congress center to kind of get everybody's response to you know how they felt about the comment that came out on the euro zone and and that kind of thing they kind of look at you with a quizzical. what are you talking about you know. what is the most important thing that people when i ask them what you know what is the value in davos for you it's all the same kind of thing larry summers says you can see more people in one day than you can in a year you know that it's easier for the networking dare i say i was a u.s.

politician a congressman said the same thing it's the one place where you can see all these heavy hitters and network that's really it also c.e.o.'s i talk to c.e.o. bill gross of ideologues and said you know he's here he has this new idea this new business pre-fab houses for india and he gets there and starts networking about it and suddenly out of customers and he's you know figuring things out and getting buzz and possibly business from it so that is what seems to be driving the agenda because you know everybody's the world sees what's going on you know maybe sound bites from these these forums on the stage and maybe they matter to the people that are on there but i'm seeing the view of that yes but but the congress center which is where all of this gathering we're all these people are when they're not on stage there and it's a very different thing what people are talking about and caring about. and i know lauren here recently i think it was just a couple days ago federal reserve chairman ben bernanke spoke and basically said the same thing he's been saying for years now that interest rates will once again be kept near zero talk about what those you're meeting there in dollars are saying

i know lawmakers and others and how this decision that's been made. i mean time again affects this country. no one i talked to is very interested in the fed very concerned about the fed really talks about the fed when they talk about the economic problems that maybe they're thinking about and to give you an example i did bring this question to a couple of u.s. senators that i did stumble upon bob corker and also chambliss who's a senator as well and i said you know if the economy is proving as improving as timothy geithner says why are interest rates being kept at zero by the fed you know and their to their answer was over the economy's improving as much the fed's trying to help but then when you continue that discussion you know what impactors zero percent interest rates having on congress's inability to rein in the debt and to rein in spending and those issues and bob corker admitted he said you know if interest rates were higher the congress would be forced to take a closer look at debt and spending which is a huge issue for the united states which has fifteen trillion dollars in debt and

if really congress coming up with some solutions is all the u.s. has in store which is something that timothy geithner was banking on according to his remarks that the u.s. is in trouble not only because as the senator said that's not going to happen they're not going to agree on anything but also because they don't really have the fire lit under their rear ends to really do anything and it's a they said you know i don't think that's the fed's intention it's not maybe but there's unintended consequences for everything and i think that's a big one. you know it's really interesting when we talk about the agenda and we talk about this conference in general as a whole it seems to me you know one of the reasons you're there to is to network is to is to talk to people in this business and kind of find out their story get to the bottom of it how much actual questioning of the scheduled speakers is happening is this just sort of listen and. or is there actual questioning of the policies in the system that's in place right now. that is a good question because there is

a quite there as question and answer sessions and some of these you know debates and they have debates so these are people these are important people that are out there debating these issues but the thing that really sticks out to me is that they're all debating from a very establishment perspective for example there was a. session on banks are too big and the consequences of banks that are too big and it was roubini is obviously you know very well known economist and you have. got a central banking background and some finance ministers and they're also beating this but from within the viewpoint of the current system so when they talk about how you know small banks are really they want to historically fail not big banks so we shouldn't really be as worried about this well why don't big banks fail because they get bailed out by governments and they get supported by federal reserve banks now why isn't that question to time when people are out on the streets protesting bailouts and that's not just people that are the ninety nine percent those are people i talk to that are the one percent that just are wall street bankers or c.e.o.'s of these huge multinational companies so corporations i should say so

really you know the debate is framed in a very stylish way which i think is concerning when you do have the one thing i will say is a congressman a u.s. congressman he said you know i come here for the networking but also it's kind of one stop shopping to see where the global economy is going you know i can find out what's happening in greece what the prognosis is all of these things if that's the case no wonder we have the problems we have because everybody is just following the same herd mentality and kind of same set of different establishment arguments without really hearing very many contrarian view points if any that i've heard personally well certainly there is a group in this country that has some major contrarian view points those are the occupy wall street protesters you've been talking this week about how some are actually gathered there and i think i read that even the founder of this forum the world economic forum klaus schwab has invited some of them to come and have a negotiating session with him what can you tell us about that will that happen and if it does a sort of just a p.r. stunt or will something actually come out of that. my read on this just from

gathering kind of the telling of this forum and talking to a lot of people is this is good p.r. this looks good i'm not saying that maybe klaus schwab isn't very in concerned about inequality or doesn't care about what these protesters say i'm just saying that the world economic forum's agenda and klaus logs agenda is not reflective of what the twenty six hundred participants here in davos at this forum are here to pursue that's you know that's the organization's agenda may be that it that it's putting on or what they're concerned with but that's not everybody's concern so with the occupy protesters that are here they were invited to this open forum on remodelling capitalism but this is an event that is open to everybody this isn't at the congress center this isn't really just the davos crowd this is anybody from the community can go occupy protesters did go klaus schwab did invite them to discuss their issues to have a meeting and when i talked to the occupy protester they were negotiating how to do that where to do it when did you were looking to do that but as i said you know the clash of is one man he's an organizer he's not reflective of everybody i don't

think it will we will look forward to having you back here in d.c. enjoy the rest your time there are two years lauren lyster host of the capital account. well let's take a look at the complete other side of what you could say is happening in davos where we have a swiss ski resort inhabited this week by some of the wealthiest people in the world people that in many ways fight tooth and nail to keep the system of capitalism in place because well it benefits them also right now in porto alegre brazil thousands of activists have come together from around the world they're looking to bring attention to the flaws of capitalism some believe it's a dying system that should be put to rest they come together to talk about new ways to do business and new system perhaps to replace what others see as just a broken system they're having their own world forum they call it capitalist crisis social and environmental justice these are things we've heard discussed time and time again in our coverage of occupy wall street and so i want to go to a mean hussein now he's an occupy wall street organizer protester and he's in porto

alegre right now. hey there i mean tell us about the forum there about what you and the other activists are discussing and what you hope to accomplish. we got here a couple of days ago and it was a personal invitation and we came to me and another person called middle east down we're both from the occupy movement in new york and we took up the invitation to come over here because we thought it would be useful to meet other people and social movements around the world to actually acknowledge the gratitude for people in tunisia in a out with as well as people from greece from the movements there the indignados and spain and exchange of information and notes about how to proceed i know capitalism is certainly been a point of discussion in the us over the last few weeks for those especially paying attention to the republican republican debates the campaign in general mostly what

we're seeing is quite a few republicans coming out touting its benefits and really dismissing any other ideas if you're not for capitalism you must be a socialist or communist or what do you say to these people. i mean it's a bankrupt language you know there are politicians whether it's republican or democrat and again i speak on behalf of myself there are varieties there are a variety of views in the occupy movement. but i think it's fair to say that there is an anti-capitalist current but that is meant to create space for alternative views to come up when we started talking about the republican debate about capitalism those are just empty words i wonder whether they even know what it means a lot of isms being thrown around socialism capitalism these are labels in the occupy movement we try to stay away from because it's a big part of how we think about the crisis that it's tangible that we have you know a housing crisis that we have bankers on wall street that we have politicians that

are not accountable to the people and what's supposed to be a diff mock prosy so you know i don't focus too much on their conversations at all i don't think there's anything there that's why we've taken to the streets and we're reclaiming our parks we're planning for spring i mean i think it's brave i mean and i think it's a big i know that one of the goals of a lot of occupy wall street protests with the risotto is to quote reinvent the world now i definitely get dreaming big and fighting the system but let's talk for a moment realistically people in this country are going to have two choices for president in november president obama and whoever the republican rival is and you know of course also a slew of senatorial and congressional candidates now a lot of people feel that inequality is a huge problem but talk to me i mean about realistic goals for now for this year. well i mean they occupy movement was an aura not a real ism it was born out of necessity and i went to the people that want to see

real effort to change. who i mean it realistic change is what obama gave you for three years. i think that the idea of elections and it's a false choice between republican and democrat just like it's a false choice between what what the right and left have come to mean in our country and this is not you know this is not to say that there are not choices to be made but it's also shedding light on what this movement is this moment in a way in a broad sense it's about justice economic and social justice the way it works is that we're in solidarity with a lot of the existing movements that includes organized labor that includes the undocumented that it workers that includes those workers who are not organized it includes the people that lost their homes and whatever they have choices to make they are not bound by this movement this movement is theirs to own and shape the conversations about what's realistic those are conversations that are individual

right the person that lost their home what do you think i don't know i mean who are they going to vote for that's their question but as a movement what we're trying to do is do it through two things at the same time and this is something we learn from the egyptians if the government is not doing their job right they will lose legitimacy and legitimacy will be transferred to the people those people are the manifestations you see on the street simultaneously we are working on alternatives but they have really the choice of alternatives there are many alternatives to capitalism right but the question is what is the price that people are willing to pay so though and this i'll end on this point when we talk about economic and social justice we're also talking about a cultural shift in thinking about where value should be placed and these are conversations that are. going to go well beyond election. you know a side note here and then i got to wrap it up but i want to get your take on something that just came out today it shows

a link between the intelligence consulting firm struck for and possible spying on the occupy wall street movement and also another group called the deep green resistance this was laid out by the hacktivist group anonymous and they say they hacked into stratfor computer system they found a slew of e-mails written by stratfor employees that went into detail about information law enforcement officers in texas gave to them after and investigating an occupy meet up in austin texas so i mean if this is indeed happening occupy movement and others like it being under surveillance by police and private agencies working together on this what's your reaction. there's no surprise whatsoever on december seventeenth when i was taking a new park an hour before one of my friends got pulled up on the street by name we were surveilled days before we understand that only one security was involved in the conversations between eighteen mayors to the. encampments in the park we

know this is a challenge to power and we know that it's calling out the connection in the in the deep linkage between global capital and state in politics i mean we're going to have to wrap it up there occupy wall street organizer i mean hussein joining us from brazil all right it is yet another day of protest in a warsaw poland after lawmakers there signed the international web piracy act acta artie's alexy has been following the protests against actor he's outside the presidential palace in warsaw with more. i'm. down with censorship at the end so i counter a few trade agreement known as act which poland signed on thursday has upset many internet users across the country in the small town of libyan alone several thousand people hit the streets fearing the treaty would allow corporations to

crackdown on the freedom of speech online the idea of fun. for publishing the dried marked material with. somehow illogical to me it's like punishing the corporation that produces knifes for. being used to kill somebody that will be used to monitor our internet activity i believe that talking through the internet email charting forums form of self-expression this was yet another rally in a whole string of protests held in poland since tuesday large crowds in several cities voiced their anger at the government for signing the document most of the country's government websites were hijacked by the anonymous group they had threatened to reveal sensitive information about the authorities should they go ahead with the act there are certain countries which are very interested in art. this is you know this is of america this is a job.