power is that in my implanted in syria it's not at all representative of the people and you know the violence is just not going to and we see it happening and iraq neighboring iraq sectarian violence that is catastrophic and nobody is reporting on that they're reporting on syria and they're not focusing on the potential problems that syria could lead into another iraq so it's just really quite devastating right now the way things are progressing from the sort of queues university based in beirut thanks for your thoughts there. the prime minister of greece has cleared one major hurdle on the way towards more e.u. rescue cash cabinet approved the deep cuts needed to secure it however he lost six ministers who resigned in protest at the deal now the plan is to be given the green light by parliament so my p's from two major coalition parties are free to vote against the deal while conservative of calling for an early election a new deal includes foreign fifteen thousand civil servants and learn the minimum

wage has been pushed by e.u. leaders who put the next one hundred thirty billion euro bailout on hold trade unions are in the second day of their forty eight hour strike with crowds outside the parliament while on friday protesters clashed with police used tear gas in response to stones and bombs and to journalists dimitri kovtun us believes the greek leadership is not acting in the people's best interests. the governments are doing the people's best it's just doing what's in its own interests and the people don't trust the government the government had an option they could have just said no we're not going to accept these measures and will go to default and by the way there's no reason that a default has to equal an exit from the euro zone i don't see that that connection other people have made that point and that's used to intimidate the population of greece to scare them to say well if you don't accept these measures that are going to default i'm going to be part of the care are some of the drachma hyperinflation disaster and. these are scare tactics the only way that they're bailing out greece with more debt so more debt. more interest payments exact more exact more interest

payments and the end result of that is near feudalism you get to a point where you have no there's no capital and everything you have is credits that you get from your overlords who are the banks or who are the political elite who own you basically so of course the only solution is their repudiation default bankruptcy it's to write off the debt let someone else deal with it let the banks deal with the losses the extent of the loans they had a great time making profit making fees with their buddies in the greek government and agree politicians made a lot of money and now the greeks have to pay because everyone someone has to pay down the line but now then they instead of making the people that made all the money in the past pay they had a really great time you know it should be greek families and people on pensions and seven year olds and couples they can't afford to get in make money and they have to lose their living standards and not die very gracefully because people before them are kleptocrats and still are so it's actually quite outrageous. more analysis on europe's debt woes on our website dot com and one of the here's what else you can

find online at the moment you can find out how the cia website has become the latest victim in a series of hacker attacks from the anonymous group after suffering a crush on friday night. and one dollar could help delay any military strike on iran is ready activists are urging the government against an offensive ahead of the queen of pop's massive gig and television may that much more for you at r.t. dot com. america's mighty military presence around the world is leaving many locals with a bad taste in their mouths the pentagon is accused of causing massive and sometimes deadly pollution not just in other countries but at home too. as this report. the united states department of defense the planet's biggest polluter with hundreds of military bases around the world the department is responsible for more ways than any other company or country this is a. pattern of

a lack of concern for the environment and for human life and of course that's something that's part of an imperial mindset the problem has persisted throughout history from nuclear testing in the pacific in the fifty's fire. to nato attacks dropping depleted uranium in libya it gets into the water table and it does damage to the kidneys and the liver is very very highly dangerous some countries say they've had enough like japan which is pushing for the ouster of u.s. troops stationed in okinawa what looks like ninety thousand people in okinawa and thousands others across japan seems to represent people saying if they have been for quite some time that they have just had enough others suffer in silence and tends to be connected at least conceptually to environmental racism countries are being occupied and just leveled or destroyed afghanistan and iraq now libya and if you look at history in the late twentieth century i mentioned vietnam earlier. is

another place where you're going to see the sad thing this was going on a vehicle with naval bombing in puerto rico and it happens in our own backyard i can please you north carolina where for three decades people bathed and drank contaminated water. only. through. veteran gerry adams mayor believes he lost his nine year old daughter to cancer causing radioactive toxins he and his family were exposed to while base there they were told they have these and have minutes and they're risking more or have years. before they. were there well and he's not alone one in ten americans live near a military site or something some superfund site because military bases extreme approaching in not only radioactive pollution also you know jet fuel how is this able to happen the entire politics is controlled by fossil fuel interests

wall street interests and military interests and though the contamination is costing lives the cost to clean up the mast may be too big for the pentagon an estimated three hundred twenty billion dollars that's almost half the pentagon's budget instead the money is being spent here on wars in afghanistan and iraq and military operations elsewhere. and in today's climate in congress the environment is not at the top of the agenda this is the most environmentally house of representatives in history so far this congress the house of representatives has voted again and again to block action to address climate change to hold their fridge to reduce air and water pollution well president obama recently announced his plan to boost military presence in australia a military buildup also happening and why a province in south korea with the pentagon splurging on expanding their military

reach there seems to be a little funding left to clean up existing masses around the globe and washington was wall. some world news in brief you this now in our world update and we begin in sudan the newly independent south sudan of site a non aggression treaty the agreement aims to relieve tensions over disputed territory on the border and the sharing of oil revenues split from the north last year and decades of civil war in which some one and a half million people died. iran's president has to make a major announcement on the country's controversial nuclear program in the next few days gave no details but said it would never hold its program to enrich uranium which he says is for peaceful purposes he was speaking on the thirty third anniversary of the country's islamic revolution tens of thousands of pro-government demonstrators gathered across iran to mark the occasion.

lithuania has become the latest country to see public discontent with the international anti-piracy accord known as actor hundreds of rallied outside government buildings in the capital vilnius critics of the treaty which aims to protect intellectual property say it would harm freedom of speech and lead to online censorship similar rallies are expected in london with poland and denmark staging protests over the past few weeks by most states actor has yet to be ratified by the european parliament which is set to debate it in june. as russia city of sochi gears up for the winter olympics some of the biggest stars of winter sports have gathered at the resort to try out the slopes with just two years now until the big event now sampling the runs for the downhill world cup but just before the race kicked off russian president dmitry medvedev took to the snow to showcase his skiing skills. and he's been reports test for the twenty four teams

such a games are in full swing. so she's been known to have warm february's in the past but not this year blizzards and temperatures well below zero may be great for some winter sports but for downhill skiing you want good visibility and less snow that's already on the ground and not still falling preparing that this in such conditions was a challenge but the weather is of course a key factor in blizzard can hold us up and cause delays but it hasn't affected overall preparations in the resort it is now ready to host the world ski cup. despite bad weather delays were minimal and as the mountain skies cleared domestic competitions began in earnest to both facilities to the test the venues here on the slopes and bridges across napoleon are undergoing this sternest examination yet the head of the two thousand and fourteen winter games for both the organizers and the athletes it's a perfect chance to fly in tune their routines ladies were the first to compete on

the. slopes for russia's downhill ski co-op some compared the experience favorably with the two thousand and ten winter olympics in vancouver and i knew it was since they basically live peace here can the compared to what i signed canada except there was ice and then covert too which made it even more difficult but the overall conditions here are good because alexander procopio came out on the top of the competition she says smaller events like this one offer an important rehearsal before the main event in sochi in two thousand and fourteen. and it's a chance to train more and we'll have the advantage in comparison to other skiers who will only come here for the olympics with thirty kilometers of new posts and world class accommodation the organizers hope to make the test competition something gettable for spectators and athletes a lawyer but above all this experience is priceless for the soul to two thousand and fourteen organizing committee that will use this competition as a dry run to give olympic preparations

a boost. sochi. so that brings you up to date for the moment i'll be back with a recap of our main news stories for you very shortly after that it will be capital account with laura lister.

with the twenty four hours a day this is r t here in moscow top stories this hour egypt's streets and squares are alive with running crowds once again a year after president mubarak was forced from power. more pressure is pulled on the syrian regime as violence escalates in a new resolution blaming it lands at the u.n. general assembly. and greek lawmakers pander to brussels of more cuts in exchange for bailout cash while people vent their frustration on the streets of athens.

so that does bring up today for the moment as promised capital account is next with lauren mr. good afternoon and welcome to capital account i'm lauren lyster here in washington d.c. and here are your headlines for friday february tenth greek negotiations do not look like business as usual anymore greek police unions have called for the arrest of the i.m.f. and officials one of the greek coalition leaders said on television he was given an incomplete translation of the trade agreement to look over before signing away his country are we seeing in real time what happens under a modern financial occupation and what lessons should the u.s. and every other indebted nation be learning from this in the u.s. the house passes legislation to ban insider trading by congress it's called this doc act this just as the chairman of the house financial services committee who's

worked on efforts to tighten these rules on capitol hill in the past is under investigation for what else insider trading will talk about it and federal regulators approve the first new nuclear plant in the u.s. in thirty years since the partial meltdown at three mile island this is also of course a new less than a year after the meltdowns at tokyo electric fukushima plant is nuclear energy a solution for us and for is the deficit of trust towards government business and regulators what could make the risk simply too high we'll talk about it let's get to today's capital account.

ok so this is it we have said many times in the past over recent months greek leaders are negotiating blah blah blah nothing new business as usual just the negotiations going on given the crisis mode in the euro zone will tell you when anything changes well it looks like we may have reached that point where you have to ask now the question has it gotten to where politicians and international lenders are no longer able to impose their will on the citizens of a sovereign nation who don't want it here's why we think that could be the case now you have greek police unions calling for the arrest of i.m.f. officials for as they put it just strong social cohesion with a tough austerity plan on going for a third year in addition one of the three greek coalition leaders said on greek television national television that he was given an incomplete translation of the

troika agreement to read before signing on to the terms it was missing parts that made a material difference when he asked for a greek version of that document and that's not even taking into account the sentiment in the country dimitri our producer is going to tell us a little bit more on that later in the show of course there are the protests we've seen that many times before though the question really for us though is are we seeing in real time what happens under a modern financial occupation now people in latin american countries or perhaps an asian countries or eastern european countries might say come on this is nothing new this is the i.m.f. our work we have seen it before but is the western model of financial plunder and consolidation turning onto itself is that what we're seeing as the western world is now we're finding developed nations imploding under the gravity of their own debts well let's bring the rockwell in to tell us what he thinks is the exact. chairman

of the ludwig von mises institute and author of this book the left right and this state and its such a big day it's really good to have you on the show lou and nice to see you as always thanks for being here good to be with you absolutely so let's talk about greece because it really seems like in the past we've seen these negotiations and maybe some political theater but it felt like political grandstanding and like this was going to get done but now you really have some material difference one being one that i referred to which is that one of the coalition party leaders is that he may not sign on to this so my question to you are really reaching the point where the economic realities of debt deflation and depression are reaching the point where politicians can no longer control their society as they become accustomed to doing in the west. well politicians of course shouldn't be controlling society but let's hope that greece and does does indeed default that's the best thing for the people of greece the people who hold the bonds of the mostly the big banks in

western europe and some in the united states who hold the who will the greek government bonds the people of greece never agreed to pay these bonds and bond should be defaulted upon and greece should get a fresh start but whatever happens in greece the greek people should be deciding it not the international bankers and of course that's who's running things that's who runs the i.m.f. that's who's in charge of the world like to be in charge of greece of italy of all the other countries that are having trouble and it's true in this in this country too it's the big banks and they are the ones being bailed out we hear about you know the greeks being bailed out the greeks have never been bailed out this is been the big banks that hold the greek government debt the government should never have issued that debt the banks never should have bought it but given both those factors why should the average poor guy in greece who is whose standard of living is falling because of the greek government and bank policies why should he be further have a boot put on his throat by the i.m.f. and similar organizations the federal reserve the european central bank and can

society general and all the all the other big banks where do they get off making him poorer so they can be richer that's an outrageous system morally politically economically and let's hope that greece is only the beginning default is a wonderful thing these debts who are the people who don't have to pay for these debts are not the ones who contracted for them they shouldn't have to pay and another great thing that happens when greece defaults nobody is going to lend the government any more money that is exactly what greece needs they need a government that would shrink so that the people can be enlarged in their role and make their own decisions yet and you point out a lot of great points and the fault which is something that leaders policymakers don't even like is on even even to it which is ironic. but one thing you said you said politicians shouldn't be making these decisions but yet in the west there's really been this assumption that everybody's been operating under that economic problems will be solved by politicians policymakers central bankers by quote

unquote leaders does this give not a theoretical but a very real tangible example that that assumption is false. well you know any of us really think about politicians what kind of people do we think about do we think of people we'd like to have running our own individual laws i mean these are these are these are not the these are not the best people in society as if a higher claim is lee said the worst rise to the top in politics and so that these people don't solve economic problems they create a number of problems and of course they also engage in redistribution they take from some people they try to take from the average taxpayer and they give it to special interests like the big banks military industrial complex and there's a greek government in one of these recent bailouts but a huge number of tanks but i guess maybe they would use against the greek people certainly the for use against anybody else they rather than paying off things they spend more so the politicians are the problem we need to do everything we can to

decrease their role in society there and there are negative they never help they always make things worse and they live of course at the point of a gun everything government does remember it happens because they order you to do it or they're going to kill you or put you in jail i mean that's the sort of mafia way too so just because they put on a government suit and say they're a different so they're serving the you know the common weal it's a close ally in the joke so to the extent that this undermines politicians in greece and everywhere else in france and germany and in spain in the united states that is exactly what the world needs and you know it's really interesting that you took that you talk about the wealth transfer because appear periods of its social problems and a lot of turmoil is where you see that happen a lot in the united states you can think of two thousand and one and two thousand eight hundred very pivotal times where you saw wealth and power that consolidated and to fans of the government or the hands of certain elites but you saw these wild

consolidation in europe you seen this with the opportunity for more fiscal consolidation and moving more together into unions so my question for you do you think they will in fact bridge this crisis and move towards more of a united states of europe. i think that would be the worst thing that could happen to europe it's been a very bad thing and in the united states such as your first one i was warned against consolidated government as just being an outrage we want the central it's a they said we have government at all we want to decentralize so what's already happening in europe so that the the nations of europe seeing their their political thorough authority if it's going to be exercised at the smallest level possible to transfer it to brussels to washington d.c. or you know a lot of people advocate a world government this is this is tyranny with a capital t. so to the extent of the greek crisis and other crises in europe which of course the consolidators angle of merkel and the rest of these people are trying to use to create a centralised state in europe where all power goes to brussels to the extent that

can be undermined by these crises for a do you think that it would be even possible to move towards more of a united states as europe for that kind of thing without permanently compromising the sovereignty of nations like three no no it means of course abolishing the national authority that means abolishing nations and they want to just have you know just one entity called europe there is no one i mean europe is a conception on a map and there is no such thing as as europe except on a map these of their individual countries and i think all these individual countries themselves of consolidated germany and italy are really many little individual countries that have been consolidated into into nation states that was a mistake too but to compound the mistake by having a regional government that would control all of europe just a terrible thing taking away people's freedoms making the poor or making the government however in the government special interest the banks military industrial

complex pharma medical complex all the big interest groups they of course do better but the average people get stepped on well and do more broadly least seen the last blunder other countries we've seen in western countries use financial terms. oil to forests for example privatizations that we've seen it more in developing countries and in the developing world now that the west is where all of that debt is and we see western nations indebted are we seeing the west turn that model onto itself boy that would not be great i mean the national parks and a great thing so a lot of federal government in the united states owns most of california most of nevada most of many states we could sell all the land productive private use and the government owns just vast resources that it has no business on even if one believes in the government and so you know privatization is absolutely a way not typically of course the way it's happened in developing countries it's

sort of a fascist privatization in other words the government will pick some some privileges to private group to privatized to still it's better it's better that the resources be in private hands and that the be social laws though if that were taken on someone probably if that was a consequence i would advocate for it dimitri kovtun us want to jump in here for a question that are doing so i actually want to stick on the thing with the privatization isn't there though a difference from what you're advocating to what we're seeing in the case of greece or in latin american countries where under duress of debt they are forced to privatise everything and then eventually they do default. well i think you know i must say i'm for i am for that could be my slogan privatized everything because i i do agree with that and i don't like it as in greece when it's you know it's a special deal for this for the insiders. on the other hand it's good to get resources into private hands socialism is an economic is the worst economic system there is so the more the government owns the more the poorer of the society so even

though it's you know it's i don't like the seeing the stuff go to the bankers i mean that i'll agree that's a moral outrage but the government is too big and greece like it's too big in every single country the governments need to shrink and one of the ways they can shrink is to sell off some of the property their hold that they have no business holding and you can you could sell it to if you wanted to environmental groups or to be developed for farming to be developed for tourism to be developed for human beings to live and to work and to produce that's what that's what human society is all about not a monopolist like the government holding things off the market and acting in cahoots with the special interest against the interest of the rest of us and i want to get a conversation and bring it at the next part of our show kids both the federal reserve and also to. two nuclear plants have been our nuclear reactors are have been given a green light by by u.s. regulators for the first time in thirty years so the interest in

a container is conversation and both of those topics that we've got to get a break quickly but we will have more with lou rockwell he's chairman of course in the lead with funny faces in. and still lead ladies never want to occupy the time of a wall street man we'll give you our three cents on the reset how to article on that topic but first your closing market numbers.

welcome back let's stick to the u.s. now let's talk about the trust deficit congress is working on banning insider trading amongst themselves meanwhile house leader and financial services who put forward his own insider trading bill late last year spencer baucus is now being investigated for insider trading meanwhile there is a report from bloomberg that the federal reserve secretly selected a handful of banks to bid for debt securities bought by taxpayers and the bailout does not sound fair at all and the first nuclear plants in the u.s.

are approved by regulators this is the first time since the three mile island disaster thirty years ago and the dissenting regulator says hey we should have required the company to implement the lessons of fukushima yeah sounds like a good idea let's bring back in here executive chairman of the ludwig von niece's institute author of this book the left the right and the state to talk about these stories to bring this home to the u.s. so let's skip mr rockwell for a moment the stock at the insider trading thing because i want to talk to you about what what everybody wants to hear from you about which is the fed ok so this news story that comes out that the fed only selected a small handful of banks to sell these debt securities of a.i.g. that the taxpayers own ok a great case to make for the fed being corrupt i know you're a critic but i want to play you what dean baker he's an economist said in a debate over this issue about why we shouldn't get rid of the fed is one of his reasons let me play that for you and i want you to respond.