as our greatest teacher and thank you for being on the show we're always happy to get your perspective on these issues so let's get straight into this from the top ok the currency manipulator thing the under valuing of the currency i have heard this forever from u.s. politicians yet the administration has failed to ever name china a currency manipulator which is because a whole other set of issues presumably let's talk about now the chinese currency the renminbi as an eighteen year high also foreign capital inflows to china have slowed down so that would weaken expectations for a you want appreciation so as we stand now does the u.s. have a case on this issue. i never really even had a case it's been a baseless accusation from the very get go because the classic definition of a currency manipulator is a nation or group of actors that depreciate its currency china has been up reshaping its currency since two thousand and five it's appreciated over twenty

five per cent many estimates over forty percent if you include inflationary effects secondly the only way you could say that it's undervalued based on trade is if it was only trade that the term and currency values to date capital flows from currency speculators actually overwhelm trade flows by hundreds of times the turnover in foreign exchange markets from currency speculation. out numbers the total goods and services produced in the entire world for a whole year and this is turnover that only happens in two weeks' time so as you can imagine capital flows coming from big hedge funds big banks those flows determine currency prices more so than trade and so if you want to label someone a currency manipulator those should be the ones who should be named currency manipulators that's it and then thirdly. it's about. even if one argue

that the currency was undervalued at one point which is debatable because china is still very poor country and when they had pegged it to the dollar it was based on the overriding exchange rate of eight point two eight you want to the dollar but they have appreciated significantly since then the most important thing to trade is to have a stable pricing and so even if it were undervalued the inflationary effect over time to make businesses make sure that things are on. comparable terms that would have already over compensated for any undervaluation and by the way labor wages in china have been increasing about thirteen percent a year every year and so that would have the same exact effect as a currency appreciation on thirteen percent every year that's interesting and

always it's an issue to me is how it is the u.s. is behavior perceived because the federal reserve has been very active and getting involved in u.s. currency i want to play you would jim rickards author of currency war thought about this and get your reaction the u.s. is the biggest currency manipulator in the world the major countries manipulate their currencies of the speaker of the chinese do it the japanese do of europeans to the u.s. which is better than anybody else because we were bigger printing press. so that his view i'm curious what is your view and you being someone who is taught in china you're much more familiar with what's actually being talked about in chinese circles what is the view of u.s. policy in china they're frankly very worried because they know that all the debt they hold can be completely devalued china china holds over a trillion dollars of this but it could be completely worthless if the u.s. decides to run the printing press as this author mentioned the only way that china

could have had any effect on how much debt we run is if us was borrowing in chinese renminbi not in chinese and us dollars but because the debt is all denominated in us dollars the chinese have no ability to enforce. you know better behavior from the u.s. and in terms of trade and other things and so they're very worried because they feel that they have shipped out over truth you know trillions of dollars of goods and services to us and they might be getting absolutely nothing in exchange for nothing as an interesting point and then let's talk about that issue of trade because though the obama administration has shied away from officially labeling china a currency manipulator g.o.p. hopefuls like mitt romney are claiming that they will do that and we heard obama say in his state of the union he's put it in his budget that he wants to fund this

new trade enforcement unit to investigate unfair trading practices in countries anything goes out china ok a couple questions here are any of these likely to happen are any of them warranted and would they be helpful or harmful to what the u.s. wants to achieve with china certainly it would be helpful. shooting very hostile rhetoric when you're largest trading partners is just going to ruffle feathers and make negotiations more difficult going into the future. regarding whether it's really going to happen or not it's hard to say obviously some of this rhetoric is motivated by the fact that it's a presidential election year and so these people are playing to their bases people who may not understand what is going on in foreign exchange markets or global trade and so instead of owning up to the economic problems and coming up with real

solutions to fix them in the u.s. they'd rather scapegoat china and so part of it is is that to write it would they be well actually i guess you answered that but as far as the current rhetoric from the side of the united states as well as the posturing with that with the u.s. military focus moving more from the middle east to asia along with china's ambitions it seems like despite what any politician says this is could be moving more in the direction of some kind of military conflict even though that sounds you know like a good scenario do you agree with that or do you think that that threat is overblown . i personally am concerned with it even though military conflict. may be very small it's still not a zero possibility there is still obviously a potential for that especially when the rhetoric gets moved especially when we're

backing our rhetoric with very hostile actions by pivoting all our military into the asia pacific and so this is really coming from the u.s. not from china because if we look at the military spending in china it's less than a tenth of what the u.s. spends on military china spends more on their don't mistake police force than all their military operations put together and you u.s. has hundreds of military bases around the world china doesn't even have one yet so there is no reason why china want to start a military conflict with the u.s. and more so why would they block their own ships from shipping their goods to the u.s. because they want to obviously in the grow economically so it would just make no sense the u.s. on the other hand because there are so powerful because there's so much military power and they don't want to take military obviously in the pentagon they are

trying to find excuses in order to maintain the current spending and i think that this is very unhelpful really interesting insight there i appreciate you being on the show you always give us a unique perspective on these issues thanks that was author and professor and lee. ok it's valentine's day here in the u.s. so in the spirit we had to do something last week we talked about socio nomics with robert proctor he's founder of the elliott wave institute and the hemline indicator was part of our discussion ok this is where skirt length is a gauge of social mood and the health of markets and the economy you can say that

you see they went up in the sixty's here's what he said. short skirts in the late sixty's they certainly were turned in the late ninety's and you watch any of the videos by women you know they were barely dressed for most of those and when times or more difficult and i don't just mean the economy when mood is depressed but you saw in maxi skirts for example in the seventy's coming along maxis skirts for our male viewers are long skirts that go down to your ankles while joshua brown a reform broker writes this whole idea may be passe for a past generation he's admits a better indicator of financial wellbeing and national mood for our generation is what he does the boom indicator and he cites the rebound of plastic surgery along with some of the gains we've seen in the economy as usa today informs us americans got about one point six million cosmetic surgeries in two thousand and eleven the second year of a big increase after a big drop in two thousand and nine according to an annual report from the american

society of plastic surgeons and if you're wondering how this breaks down breast implants of course dominate breast augmentations far and away the highest perform surgery so this could be a reality check for the headline indicator you tell us what you think of the boob indicator and the recovery that's all we have time for have a great night come back tomorrow. well see british science. it's now time to. go to. market why not. find out what's really happening to the global economy

with max cons are a no holds barred look at the global fine. headlines tune into cars a report on our.

it is absolutely vital that we have a strong relationship with china. well we love them we love them not the u.s. has a love hate relationship with china we love taking their money but hey watching their economy do well as vice president. says. paying a visit to washington will show you these schizo phrenic the nature of u.s. rhetoric. and speaking of love hey relationships the republicans and democrats sure can't seem to agree on anything these days and in the d.c. spin machine telling the truth can cost you a campaign was the best way for president obama to get reelected from

a truth squad a volunteer. and they are the sites americans are all too familiar with but wait a minute i thought this war was over so why does the new budget a lock for another three billion dollars for operations in iraq looks like it might not be the dawn of a new day after all. it's tuesday feb fourteenth five pm in washington d.c. i'm liz wall and you're watching r t. well a meeting of the minds here in washington today as president obama meets with the man slated to be the next president of china here is china's vice president xi jingping meeting with president obama he is also planning to add to iowa and the west coast area his time here in the u.s. now while no major breakthroughs are expected the visit comes as tensions rise

between the two countries and we thought it would be a good time to take a closer look at the relationship between the u.s. and china it's often times a confusing wod with mixed signals r.t. is christian for as our ports he loves me loves me know that age old question is one china at least has every right to ask for guarding its relationship with the united states just in the last three years china has been wined and dined. praised and envied for its ability to do whatever it wants to right now in china the government can disconnect parts of its internet in the case of war we need to have that here too the chinese p.z. real capital gains tax folks in congress are also going to get a chance to decide later. in the month whether our construction workers should sit around doing nothing while china builds the best railroads the best schools the

best airports. in the world but it turns out those chocolate covered compliments seem to come just as frequently as those cold hearted criticisms from human rights to currency devaluation to trade we finally need to confront the issue of trade with china all too often china's been competing in a way that's tilting the playing field and is unfair to u.s. work and it's not just the president himself those hoping to take his job also tend to flip flop on china these guys are after us and and and and and looking for ways to. to work to harness china doesn't want to various they want to see has succeeded thrive so we can buy more chinese products ivan eland senior fellow at the independent institute says the paradox transcends the rhetoric we borrow a lot of money from china too so it's quite a curious thing that we're really borrowing money to pay for defending other countries from china right i mean that's what really doing the mixed messages are

reaching the masses as well in a recent gallup poll by fifty two percent to thirty two percent americans were more likely to name china than the united states as the leading economic power in the world today even though it's not however in a separate survey when asked which country represents the greatest danger china came in second only after iran in life and love there appears to be a fine line between resentment and respect i want to beat china i want to go to war with china and make america the most attractive place in the world to do business if you look at china they're in a very different such a they say for their own retirement security they don't have a f t c they don't have the modern welfare state and china's growing it's that growth and the sharing is caring relationship that has bound these countries in this holy union this trade and economic interdependence with china is is really a defining factor and perhaps like most relationships there's nothing simple. about

the one between the u.s. and china there are disagreements about who gets to lead when how to spend the money and how to raise the children but the fact is this relationship is one that's going to be around for generations to come in washington christine for r.t. . well the race for the white house is heating up from feisty debates to super funded super pacs now president obama has unveiled his new campaign tactic it's a so-called truth team now this is a team over two million volunteers tasked with spreading the good word when it comes to president obama and their talking points come straight from the white house so is networking your way to approval ratings really the best way to win an election joining me now to talk about this new campaign approach is kyle harrington from parents capital management welcome kyle so what do you make of this truth team and how can we count on these messengers to indeed tell the truth.

look i think the unforseen now seems to be routine in this country and can we count on them to to deliver the truth. and certain the truth is ok whether you're a republican or a democrat and i'm going to speak to you as someone that you know i'm a i'm a numbers person i went to wharton business school and and so i look at numbers i see fifteen percent of americans on food stamps we were once the largest creditor in the world now we're the largest debtor in the world can we count on them to deliver those facts. it sits in big us at this point i have a feeling that you're going to hear a lot from them touting the gains there in terms of the unemployment rate. or obamacare maybe things along those lines but as you sat certainly now both sides this is being called

a grass roots network so this is counting on passion of followers to ramp up support for head and this kind of reminds me of ron paul who has proven to have the most loyal and energized following among all the candidates so far so is the obama campaign a campaign learning from the once considered friend ron paul. you know i mean i think it's you know it's very possible but i'll you know hearken back to the fact that this is going to be in my opinion a tough record to run on so as much support that he can put together in order to deliver the message that he wants delivered is probably not not smart on his part it's probably relatively smart i just you know when i look at this record from a numbers perspective i see you know delivering worldwide that needs to take place else i see muted western economic growth and unemployment rate that i quite frankly i think is

a lot higher than the numbers are are suggesting so you know this might be a way to try and get the word out on the street in order to. get him reelected so you talked a lot about what the truth tellers won't be saying a what do you expect them to to say what message do you expect them to go at it but it's a great question i think that they'll talk a little bit about the fact that the unemployment rate has come down in the list you know twelve months to eight point three percent i think he'll talk a lot about job growth which in my opinion is mostly been in the public sector when you look deep within the numbers i think one of the things that you know we and you have to give credit to some things i mean it's not like i'm an obama hater i think that he's done you know from from an international perspective the reality is on his watch. that he has been eliminated we have osama bin ladin eliminated

and you know these are these are important critical international feats that he's accomplished under his watch so i think you'll he'll focus on on on some of that. i still believe he thinks that this obama care. plan is something that will work within this country so but i think he needs to dance and be very. are full and crafty which he is around some of those topics now president obama's first when is largely attribute it to his promises of hope and change and really riling up supporters and especially many young people who believe that hand but now with many voters disenchanted with hanwell this tactic work this time around oh it's going to be i think it's going to be a tough sell i've got to tell you i'm a little surprised by the fact that when you look at rest most of polls are you look at the polls across the board he's still in the popular vote side has you know forty three forty four percent so if on him i'm actually kind of excited going in

with that number hope and change i mean i guess you got to sit back and ask yourself some basics which are you know are you are you better off than you were three years ago do you think that what he has in place currently he came out with some budget talks recently is that something that you believe in. and so i think it's a little audacious to think that it's going to be an easy reelection for him were you're correct and i think that he's hoping he will be very effective is in that you know that use the area where people they might not understand the numbers as well as some of us older people and he can be influential charismatic creative and he definitely can run a rock star campaign and we saw that the less time so it'll be very interesting and by the way i think it's going to be a critical election for the united states and certainly in my opinion in my

lifetime probably the biggest one of most significance in my lifetime lastly just want to ask you how successful do you think your math that well be i mean especially compared to other tactics like the super pacs that are being funded very generously on the other side. look we live in in a different generation right it's twitter it's facebook it's social media i mean i can't even keep up with this stuff i have four and a half year old triplets and they're on the i pad buzzing around all these different places i don't even know what they're doing but so this is definitely a new generation of creativity in terms of how to get the word out how to fund the word and how to make sure that the election cycle and campaign is run aggressively and definitely differently so it's kind of cutting edge stuff in my opinion i'm watching very closely but again the i think it's going to be a tough sell with respect to his record unless things dramatically change before

the end of the year kyle thanks for weighing in that was kyle herring ten from harrington capital management from our studio and york. well so how on earth here the war in iraq is over the troops are coming home so then why is the pentagon spending another three billion dollars on operation post new don that story next. block to the capital account i'm learning mr. at first very let's just burn

gerard's right right i mean it's like a derivative of actual pepper it's a food product essentially. much stronger than anything you'd be biopsied dolls' use of terms was stronger than any one of the debris you were putting in. it were just put a picture of me when i was like nine years old and just you know with fruit. i confess and i am a total ghetto i love grabbing hip hop music and pretty sure. that it was kind of the gesture that. i'm very proud of the world with

its place. well president obama has unveiled the pardon of defenses a new budget among the military splurge is nearly three billion dollars for a war we're supposedly not fighting now this is supposed to go towards what's being called post operation new dawn and iraq what exactly that or what exactly is part of that operation though is unclear so months after the president announces the end war in iraq is this the most serious beginning of something else well joining me now to look deeper and this is michael o'brien he is the author of america's failure in iraq there you see on the screen so welcome first want to ask you three billion dollars for a war that's supposed to be over how does this add up it doesn't. why why are we

spending money in these tight economic times for something that we shouldn't be that is supposedly as you said over now of course with the main combat operations over for some time now we saw this coming though year or so ago when we were told quote unquote all combat troops were going to be pulled out of iraq and replaced with advise and assist brigades i posted on my website warfare inc what is an advise and assist brigade soldier is a soldier is a soldier are they going to change their unit patch on their sleeve we have soldiers there we just call them a different name they continue to get killed but we were just calling them a different name and now that the that those soldiers the uniforms are out and i emphasize the word uniforms security contractors are all over the place there was an article last week i posted on a about it on my website there are more security contractors being killed than

soldiers in afghanistan certainly and before we pulled out of iraq this case was the same for iraq so the military industrial complex that by president eisenhower warned our country of in one thousand nine hundred sixty one well this is that three and a half billion that that's were there now that three and a half billion is being spent on something what could it possibly be and the defense contractors that was going to be my next question to you i mean this is called post operation new dawn but it's really murky as to what exactly that means where it where do you anticipate the funds are how do you anticipate the funds to be used well to pay for security contractors which are nothing more than mercenaries that's just a p.c. way of referring to mercenaries these are civilians employed by the defense contractors in our country that's just an expansion of

a defense contractor selling weapons you know do. weapons systems. ships planes rifles and bullets well now we've expanded that to include warm bodies and these are firm you know blackwater you know is a good example i think it's on its third reiteration of it's its name now but. you know this is it's going all for. defense contractors of all kinds not just mercenaries but all sorts of other types of. things that the administration apparently thinks that are needed over there could be it could be related to construction of facilities but my understanding from what i've heard in news reports is that there the state department is not going to have as many facilities as as it was planned and just recently there was a there was an article that i also posted about the the embassy in baghdad there were going to be thousand sixteen.