coming together of the western european countries was an american idea and i'm not sure it was terribly well thought out the whole rationale was to prevent another war by putting all the europeans together tying their fate together but in terms of thinking through all of the details you know we've been doing it piecemeal so i just don't know what do you will be in two or three years i think there will be a euro but i'm just not sure if all of twenty five countries in the in the block at that point all right chris well now i don't want to get you in trouble with the f.b.i. but did. did going off the gold standard have anything to do with the u.s. going bankrupt and what role could gold play if any in making it solvent again so i kind of pursue presume that work they're talking about dollar weakness they are saudi so isn't that is the presumption can you just as gold question as i said in my my book inflated gold is is symbolic is a store of value it has had a great following in the u.s.

and you're right in the thirty's after your confiscated all the gold while he was devaluing the dollar to try and get the economy going. since then or even before then we essentially had the government. imposed their monopoly on the definition of money in the u.s. so today gold is considered a collectible it's not even a monetary asset but this goes back to lincoln if you recall how did we finance the civil war with paper money bad money and the little banks fought it the big banks national banks were created to buy the government's debt so the devaluation in the thirty's was really later the refutation if you will of a gold standard starts with lincoln and ever since the government has used paper money to propel growth layers of leverage if you think about it so we create the fed in one nine hundred thirteen you have the collapse in the twenty's and in the early thirty's they confiscate all the gold. and we continue you essentially

equating the dollar with gold up until today so all of the leverage we've seen accumulated since the thirty's housing global lending institutions big banks everything else or all predicated on this use of paper money as a substitute for gold in a monetary sense and we've kind of run full course if you will so if you go back to your point max gold is a haven yeah i think it is but don't be blowing toller opportunities because gold hasn't quite kept up with the inflation of the paper money world all right let's talk about paper money and the u.s. banking system in particular bank of america now i listen to you have been interviewed a number of times on eric king's king world news and i recommend anyone who wants to catch up on the banking sector very specifically to listen to those interviews because they are actually lent but can you speak about the bank of america and where we are now with the bank america story you know there was that when it was down to five or six dollars a share there was i know even i believe i heard you say that it had

a lot of risk on the downside of the stock price due to their act their problems etc can you give us an idea of where we are now that bank of america story in the u.s. banking as a whole your bank america you write went down to four dollars a share late last year largely because of the european troubles in their wisdom the european governments decided to prohibit short selling of bank shares because they're so closely tied with the government so obviously if the bank shares were falling in value so would the political prospects of the various governments in the e.u. so unfortunately when the markets get anxious they still the us financials because those markets are still open and that's i think what drove bank america down to four dollars now goes to bank you need to be restructured yes in my opinion the preponderance of litigation that they're facing involving mortgage backed securities the state of new york eric schneiderman the attorney general i think is going to be going after bank america for taxes. because many of these deals were

not put together properly so they were not exempt from state and federal taxes this is going to be a nuclear weapon max the nobody is paying attention to and let me just jump in for a second chris because what about obama's latest deal with these banks i mean again they seem to be getting a new unity so. how's a factor into this know about a limited immunity this was not a great deal for the banks what happened was the attorneys general around the country many of whom want to be governor that's what a.g. stands for by the way aspiring governor. they needed to get a deal done now because through election year schneiderman the california attorney general of delaware attorney general went along with this settlement on foreclosure abuse issues but it didn't get them immunity from more serious prosecution for taxes for securities fraud for other things that they're all facing bank america is facing over one hundred billion dollars in claims for securities fraud contractual

issues from investors they're all going to go to trial and i would tell you right now i've been following the stuff pretty closely i think b. is going to lose in court so we're there we restructure this company with the help of the bankruptcy court and bring this whole mess to a conclusion or we're going to face years more of headline risk when somebody like m.b.i.a. for example the insurance company wins in court against bank america and ends up with a double digit judgment against them what are we going to do then that's what i've been saying you know we really need to bring this to an end and the way you do that is either with a receiver as we saw in the stanford group or with a bankruptcy as in the case a lehman brothers but to me that would be the good news because if we go down that road then we're going to be near the end are let me describe your situation maybe tell us more about my naivete then anything else but tell me what i am or where my thinking is either on target or off target it seems that every time we hear about a bailout or a rescue package or a multibillion or chilean dollar. ash infusion to settle these bank debts banks

suddenly from that someplace called the shadow banking system say oh no we have another half a trillion dollars in debt that we didn't record last quarter and it's not ever going to stop number run is there a limitation or are they just playing with us well they are playing in a sense i mean look at the foreclosure settlement the banks have already stolen enough money from investors in terms of raping these mortgage backed securities trusts to pay for all the settlement so i don't feel sorry for them at all now the real question is what else have they not told us and this goes to your point about the off balance sheet vehicles grey market banking everything else that marketplace is shrinking it's running off and we're not creating any new assets and say private mortgage backed securities even fannie and freddie are starving to death because ninety percent of the new originations in the u.s. today are getting a guarantee from the federal housing administration interesting lee enough so yes there's more problems here and you're going to hear more about it in terms of

things like litigation and liquidated claims that nobody's heard about yet or give a good example look at j.p. morgan and the into gesturing they're getting from bear stearns you know jamie dimon told us two years ago the bear stearns would not be material to their results but it's going to be very material because investors of lost more than half their money on the securities that they created so there's still stuff to fall out in this whole mess we kind of know what the numbers are now max i don't think there's anything particularly new in terms of their exposures but the thing is risks that we haven't talked about like eric schneiderman deciding that these people owe him you know billions and billions of dollars for the taxes that's a new factor that nobody is thinking about now i we got a one minute left i just want to have you comment on something that's a bit on the technical side but i think it's very interesting while ben bernanke is talking about the need for lower rates as a stimulus you haven't quite yet i've heard you talk about this. then there's

a need for interbank lending just be stimulated by raising rates completely against what you hear the stream got and we'll have about a minute i'm sorry but can you kind of run through that a little bit because i think it's important that people understand this well again going back to the point about extreme swings i mean the fed has had to put interest rates at zero to just trying the u.s. economy moving forward it's like a shark you have to have water going through the gills in order for the creature to survive and yet at the same time by putting rates at zero you're taking only incentive away from banks to lend to one another why would you bother doing reposed for example where you lend treasuries overnight for nothing you're not being paid for the risk and there is risk in that transaction like was the hole in a bank market's going listen the jamie diamond in the most recent conference call he confirmed that they're not doing any on secured lending with other banks this is a disaster so what i've been saying is that the fed should gradually let short rates go up to a half a point maybe three quarters of

a point so we can again start to see the private short term credit markets revive because today all you've got is the fed the banks are dealing directly with the fed they don't want to deal with one another if we don't get credit to expand max we're not going to fix jobs we're not going to fix the global economy but it's got to be private credit expansion the central banks doing what they're supposed to do but they've done it for too long and we get out of it slowly let rates go up and imagine even if we had half a point fed funds rate that's still historically very low it's probably negative in terms of inflation but at least it would give people a reason to do business again right banks make money lending money so less rates are at a level that they can make some money lending money and you're not going to get any bank growth therefore no well that's right you know the great editor of the economist bag host said it well he said don't keep rates at zero for too long and what that we're out of time chris well thanks so much for being on the console report thank you backs look forward to it again. adding that's going to do it for

this edition of the kaiser report with me max kaiser and states that harbor and i thank my guests crist well and you can follow him on twitter at r c whalen course you can follow me on twitter too at max kaiser you can send me an e-mail at kaiser report it r t t v dot are you and so next time x. guys are saying by all.

top stories on our t.v. violence in syria escalates as a high ranking religious leader is assassinated in damascus allegedly for his pro-government stance our correspondent is a part of a dance in the syrian capital. gears of the confrontation between television tehran and grow fall with reports that ring answer arrested over recent thailand bombings were targeting israeli diplomats. and athens fulfills the last of the e.u.'s bailout demands but many greeks feel the nation vote for cover from a certain measures which harm their health care system leaving the military

unscathed. just after four pm here in the russian capital this is r.t. now the syrian opposition have accused the government of stepping up attacks on rebel held areas with the city of daraa the latest target meanwhile a high ranking religious leader was assassinated in the capital damascus reportedly for his political views now this comes after the president's announcement of a referendum on a new constitution which could create a multi-party system in the country but the proposal doesn't seem to have helped curb the violence as artie's body if an option of reports from syria. so there's a damascus has started within you so this is the nation the shake of one of the mosques of may done one of the districts of the capital was killed as far as local media is reporting he was shot dad with five scholz this area may dawn where we are right now he's famous to be very conservative people living here supporting

a very much pro-government procession but at the same time there's been many office issues people living in this neighborhood as well and tensions between these two sides have been very hard especially recently just last month this area saw as suicide bomber a type one twenty six people were killed and more than sixty all those injured speculations appeared as well that they say was killed because of his political views violence is continuing in the southern part of the country we are hearing from the opposition activists that the army of bashar al assad has attacked the city of daraa targeting free syrian army soldiers and as a respond the sources say. rebels are firing checkpoints inside the city and also targeting military and police buildings ati has actually just traveled to the city of daraa on wednesday and we've been able to speak to the governor over this

area on the ground and with many military there and they've told us that there is no free syrian army in this region right now and actually in generally they say that it doesn't exist such a thing as well called united opposition military force they've confirmed that they're fighting every day the military a ration but they're fighting against separate armed groups which are. mostly consisted they say of army defectors and foreign soldiers. now the u.n. general assembly is to vote on a non-binding resolution on syria sponsored by arab nations to put pressure on the ruling regime all the texas thought to be similar to the one vetoed by russia and china at the security council more than a week ago almost all has want it want to back that new document unless it stops putting all the blame for violence on the authorities making no mention of armed opposition groups operating in syria which you wish to those we've been asked to

vote on a resolution that only asks government forces to withdraw from cities and basically hundred them over to armed groups but it's very unclear who these groups are there are muslim brotherhood members army deserters but there's also al qaida it's not by chance that al qaeda leader has called on everyone to unite in a fight against syrian president assad's regime. who would hand syria over if such an approach won you can always find a compromise in conflict but only through carrying out negotiations this is what some from syria's opposition refuse to do being dissuaded by some external players who bear a huge responsibility for the ongoing violence for the deaths of peaceful civilians . now the u.s. has criticized the syrian government's promise of a new constitutional vote describing it as laughable and accusing the regime of making a mockery of the unrest well that's amid a growing chorus within the u.s. calling on washington to supply anti assad fighters with weapons and as art is going to check out reports it's

a move that many believe would make peace impossible. hawks in washington calling for the arming of things surgeons in syria we should start thinking all options including arming the opposition i give them training i give them communications equipment and then ultimately i give them weapons. experts say arming the fighting groups among the opposition is a sure way to drag the country into a protracted civil war it will also further marginalize those in the opposition who have advocated nonviolence or who advance political strategies that the more. plied to the to the factions of the syrian opposition the more that happens the less likely it is that they'll be a negotiated solution pleasing to a cease to be still settlement they're encouraged i think very much by the united states the civil war in lebanon went on for fifteen years absolutely appalling bloodshed and you could easily see that that could happen in syria like the u.s.

all qaida has indorse the rebels fighting in syria under president assad syria has been a secular state some analysts argue that one of the reasons why al qaeda supports the violent uprising in syria is that in a less secular environment it's easier to recruit new terrorists if the government folds or you'll be looking forward to just a very long period of complete disintegration and they will be able to attract more and more fanatical recruits look at the civil war in iraq in two thousand and six and seven it was absolutely appalling the calls to arm fighting groups in syria sound even more alarming given the u.s. history of arming radicals afghanistan want example that it was a placing itself in alliance with the mujahideen including osama bin laden and these people who now of course it is lately been deploring as fanatical fanatical

enemies of the united states so these these alliances. totally cynical and totally opportunistic there's not a shred of god's will and you know but despite the hawks outcry the obama administration is taking a more cautious stance with regards to syria we don't think more arms into syria is the right answer some analysts say arming the very much fractured syrian opposition would contribute to its for the radicalization and would make a political solution virtually impossible a number say washington might support arm supplies indirectly through its arab allies as of now the administration denies having such plans but will that position hold i'm going to shut down reporting from washington r.t. . michel chossudovsky from the center for research and globalization says foreign intelligence operatives on the ground are helping to stir up political chaos in syria. so leave a note that the government. that's its commitment to vote by the constitution that introduced politic

a multi-party system but the people who are well quoted will go a bit of a little bit interested in multi-party democracy and the lot there are directly as we know they are directly backed by doing so since the. operatives which are present. collaborating with the rebels the free syrian army is not something which is representative of the opposition because of this oh it's a reaction is to create political instability which will subsequently lead to all to be legitimizing the syrian government destabilizing syria as a nation state what they don't like about syria is that syria is not a proxy us state it's still the line with washington so it's not a big all those it's a secular government it's a country of tremendous religious tolerance and so lead on our team the arab spring

has already run its course in libya but a year on claims of post revolutionary atrocities cast a dark cloud over anniversary celebrations. the thai police say israeli diplomats were the target of a group of iranians arrested after prematurely setting off explosives in bangkok and the claims are expected to further fuel and to rein in rhetoric that television has ratcheted up after a bomb attacks targeted israelis in georgia and india and israel has also indicated it wants washington to hammer iran with tougher sanctions before its nuclear program reaches what it called a point of no return now this came in response to terror and demonstrating the progress of its atomic projects on wednesday iran in turn says it's one hundred percent ready. six party talks on its controversial program which the islamic state insists this peaceful a while concerns that israel might strike nuclear facilities grow some experts

believe such an attack would only achieve a full scale confrontation. the real problem here is that there is this escalation towards this military action that's not going to actually take out the nuclear capabilities of iran if israel bombs iran it sets the program back a couple years and then they have to go in and bomb again and then they have to go in and bomb again and you just have this cycle that really the end of the day this ends in full scale occupation total war there's no clean stright that happens this is if this happens it's the beginning of a long confrontation that really it's going to make you rock in afghanistan look like a cakewalk and it's going to plunge us into a very long term military engagement. meanwhile tehran house was spoken to stopping oil supplies to some states due to the extremely cold winter in europe the measure had long been contemplated in response to the blocks of bargo and rain and crude exports didn't come into force in july but the founder of the trends research

institute gerald celente says imposing such sanctions in the first place is equal to a declaration of war well here's a taste of his interview coming up in full in twenty minutes. the united states again with the national defense authorization act part of that was there president obama affectively has declared war against iran the latest legislation put sanctions on foreign companies dealing with iranian banks defectively putting in a bar go. wrong it's an act of war go back to world war two it's like when the united states stopped japan for being able to buy oil now the iranians can't sell it if they lose just twenty percent of their of their ability to sell oil you're looking at this sixty percent of their g.d.p. comes from oil sales you're putting a bad a business. now

greece has fulfilled the last conditions demanded by the e.u. in exchange for the second bailout but still there's no rush in brussels to release further aid as the decision has been postponed until monday well athens push through final cuts of wednesday and committed to a written promise to stick to the asserted plan after elections however frustration is growing among greeks and other european politicians the president lashed out at the e.u. questioning what right countries like germany holland and finland have to criticize out that's the british. brussels has tried to bring afghans to heel. what are you is now doing it's trying to influence the outcome of the greek general . actually not satisfied with getting rid of the last democratically elected prime minister and putting in a puppet in the form of us to papademos it now says it's now saying to the greek people unless you vote for the right party is unless you vote for parties that are happy to be subjugated do you control we will not give you the rest of the money

and you will go bankrupt i suspect that despite the dissatisfaction that is felt by many german politicians i think the german parliament just as the greek parliament did last sunday will continue to toe the line and continue to say that buy it out so the answer as far as i'm concerned it's rather like saving the cancer and not saving the patients we saw one of the commissioners. commissioners netty cruz said the other day that if greece left it wouldn't be a man overboard situation so even at the top there is now a crack beginning to appear and very interesting really what i've seen in the european parliament is for the first time in years we're hearing real criticism and the the socialist criticism is that these austerity cuts are damaging living standards to such an extent that they now want to acceptable so i'm beginning you know i'm not the lone voice anymore in this place that these policies are mad all the astaire the measures accepted by greece in the face of public outrage have hit

the health care system pensions and public sector workers and while the human cost of cuts keeps rising medo secretary general anders fogh rasmussen has to athens to secure the country's military spending well the nation has one of the largest military budgets compared to its g.d.p. with only the u.k. spending war as artie's jake agrees reports an eight or chiefs visit degree suggests the military may remain largely. the mini athens has been a battleground in recent years fighting against unpopular stare to sunday's events are showing there's little hope for a cease fire one shot being fired by those discontent is a discrepancy in spending when it comes to the military something serving m.p.'s from a defensive on relations or turkey remain for some as ever present a threat as a current debt crisis and nato partners don't seem very keen to help us not to need to spend so much i mean think about it we have been through we are being threatened

from a member of the alliance that we belong and the alliance doesn't do anything. so we have to spend huge amounts of money but there's the nato chief arise in athens the talks other things may be on the table among them weapons but you're meant to believe i mean there is a kind of negotiation if i may say sure between our major partners which are germany and france. if we spend more on you procurement of course that major part french and german origin france since the major critical of the last talks remain afloat another threat looms it be may nice but what we've been advised to do is to sell copies of medicine relations of patients are being forced to put their hand in their pockets to treatment this problem persists in other hospitals i've worked in dimitri's account comes on the

back of cuts slashed medical staff pay led to a desperate shortage of equipment including affordable prescription drugs this is the very human face the term austerity measure and increasing number of people on the treatment need the current health care system and desperation to turn to aid agencies like this regime nova care into athens immigrant population the midday queue at this center shows just how sought after. the treatment is first of all are seeing more and more people coming to us that are there is that we might see up to three hundred people and the numbers of the greeks are increasing the present many greeks remain too ashamed of the situation to be filmed those wanting to be heard paint a grim picture of. greece cannot recover from what's going on right now if you ask me greece is finished. it's a situation that has a country verging on implosion all during

a time of peace not war but once the nation remains sick cuts have a real damaging impact on the people's well being despite the sizeable military defenses protecting them to greece since well it's been no secret that from the onset of the euro crisis germany has spearheaded the e.u. is a sturdy drive and the original argument was that cots were necessary and pay a consequence what fifteen thirty g.m.t. the issue gets the kaiser treatment with max and stacey. germany's carthaginian terms for greece now ambrose evans pritchard of the telegraph says the last time germany needed a bailout from world creditors it secured better terms and shattered greece last week so in one nine hundred fifty three recall there was a london debt agreement whereby creditors for all of germany's debt agreed to take a fifty percent haircut on german debt yeah well this is interesting isn't it a bit of a double standard here.