since it's been no secret that from the onset of the euro crisis germany is spearheading the e.u. austerity drive the original argument was that cuts were necessary and the pain a consequence coming up a little later the issue gets the kaiser treatment with max and stacey take a look. germany's carthaginian terms for greece now amber is evans pritchard of the telegraph says the last time germany needed a bailout from world creditors it secured better terms than shattered greece last week so nine hundred fifty three we call that that was the 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 of a double standard here the germans got a huge break on the debt back in one nine hundred fifty three the other countries rallied to give them a break because they felt that it was in everyone's best interests now here we are in two thousand and twelve and germany is in a position to return the favor but they bought. the.

outgoing russian president dmitri medvedev submitted the fourth and final bill which is part of the so-called liberalization campaign is seen as a response to the latest opposition rallies in the country following the parliamentary vote in december the latest amendments concern the formation of the lower house of parliament or tease peter all over explains. well the idea behind this bill is to try and make the lower house of russian parliament the duma more representative of the whole country and not just a disassociated political body in moscow it's to involve the whole of russia in the political system now the country's going to be divided up into two hundred twenty five electoral districts each one of those districts guaranteed to have at least one duma deputy coming from there now these districts all be roughly around the

same size in terms of the amount of people who are. in those groups now. what the idea is is to get people away from voting for a party or a leader based in moscow and to get local people essentially voting for local politicians that will represent their needs in the state duma this is all part of the the fallout from the the parliamentary elections in december of last year and the protests that we saw there now president medvedev has faced some some dissenting voices when it comes to putting forward this bill people from inside his own party not too happy with it but he's gone ahead with that put this bill to the state duma and after it's read through it will be decided whether it will be brought into law. take a look now at some other stories making headlines across the globe some two hundred prisoners have been freed during a jail break in central nigeria prison officials say a large group of armed men stormed the prison late wednesday before freeing the inmates details remain scarce but authorities don't think the attack was the work

of the islamist group boko haram which orchestrated a massive jailbreak in two thousand and ten. north korea's military parade in the nation's capital to mark the birthday of late leader kim jong il a pledge to defend his son and civs excess or kim jong un with their lives and crushed enemy forces attacked the crowds have been making their way to the city's main square to leave flowers next to his portrait since kim jong un died of a heart attack two months ago relations with neighboring south korea are at their lowest point in years. as libya celebrates the first anniversary in start of its nato backed up rising its national transitional council is struggling to take control over the country's volatile situation and mr internationals recently accused the n t c a failing to protect human rights claiming thousands of khadafi supporters are being held without charge and even tortured there are reports at least a dozen have died in a rebel prison since september as a result of mistreatment reports from libya say former rebels want to take over

power civilians remain armed and the economy has crumbled since the war political scientist dr not a hush we tells r.t. there's even more trouble on the horizon. i see a very grim future in libya i see a civil war in libya i see it's never going to have a good stable. environment there and this is exactly what the western one wants to happen because they want to get control of all the oil all the natural resources there now these days who hold the economy control the world and this is exactly what they want i see no future no good future i hope i'm mistaken but i'm not unfortunately libya is going towards. credible civil war people are going to be killing each other left and right green is up next with all the latest business news stay with us here on our team.

it's twenty two past nine pm here in moscow welcome to a business here in r.t. the u.s. is looking to cut iran's economic lifeblood by removing it from the world financial clearing system known as swift it will rack up pressure on tehran as the country's leadership reveals new progress on its nuclear program but as already general bushell reports america's action could end up backfiring on its own people. this is a bid to coup iran's economy washington's move to wrong from the swift world transaction system would choke its ability to trade internationally swift payments orders the worlds of business or the world of business practically every company and state in the world to exchange financial info the legality of america's move is highly questioned it's unprecedented political interference in the work which is always such issues should be handled on a national level what is clear is barack obama's frustration the sanctions on work

in iran hasn't backed down in the nuclear dispute in fact is no one else to fuel production mean more misery for u.s. consumers brant. over one hundred nineteen dollars a barrel. of swift will again hit not just the energy price but the recovery of the world's economy. and time to look and the markets will start with all first prices are mixed on thursday as you can see right now despite u.s. couldn't tori's following for the first time in four years like. trading over one hundred one dollars a barrel brand at one hundred nineteen and a half dollars per barrel now over to currencies the euro is trading lower to the u.s. dollar after talks over a second bailout for greece have been called off the ruble is losing value against the euro the european currency and u.s. currency stocks are rising on wall street on signs of strength in the u.s. job market continuing on certainty about greece's debt problems keeping gains in

check general motors is up six percent boosted by news that its income record in two thousand and eleven. and european stock markets pared losses on thursday afternoon karajan data from the u.s. showed signs of economic recovery in the world's largest economy stocks fell after moody's investors service threatened to downgrade more than one hundred financial institutions hey. in russia markets ended in the red with the r.t.s. losing one and a quarter of a percent. half a percent but check on the index what was otherwise x. banking stocks were along the main which reaches of the days of one percent of the to be closed one point four percent in the red is january net profit growth sixty percent of that russian accounting standards bucking the trend all companies have gained a quarter of a percent. russia's economy will have a dynamic start to the year but is set to lose stream in the second half at least

that's the verdict of standard and poor's ratings agency which says that the country's growth will drop to three and a half percent this year among the reasons the central bank slowing growth to cut inflation wrists and continued capital outflow. russia's largest lender has finally got the key to access the european market sperm bank assigning a long awaited deal to purchase. international since agreeing the acquisition back in september bank has managed to drive down the final price by eighty million euros to five hundred and a five million the bank's head sees no risk and entering the european market despite the current debt crisis. for an answer is the greek default has already happened contra structuring of greek debt is a trial to find a way out of this default we're no more interested in what's happening in the south of you or. italy but we're not present in these countries countries where we are presumed to have clear my career comic picture and. well that's our business update

this hour but i'll be back in less than two hours time for the more our business up to.

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played. nine pm in moscow these iraqi headlines fears of pending confrontation between tel aviv in tehran grow following reports that iranians arrested over recent tie bombings were targeting israeli diplomats. violence in syria escalates as a high ranking religious leader is assassinated in damascus allegedly for his pro-government stance this is the syrian opposition accuses the government of stepping up attacks on rebel held areas with the city of daraa the latest target. athens fulfills the last of the e.u.'s belo demands but many greeks feel the nation

won't recover from the austerity measures that harm their health consist health care system while leaving the military unscathed. capital account with lauren lyster coming up stay with us. good afternoon and welcome to capital account i'm lauren lister here in washington d.c. here are your headlines for february fifteenth two thousand and twelve europe is shrinking at least the economy is italy's things into recession the eurozone contract for the first time since the second quarter of two thousand and nine. is reportedly going to help with the bailout athens appears to be bowing to ministers additional demands over their bailout but at what cost for the country for europe and for democracy are we going to see a revolution you'll hear from european m.e.p. nigel farage on that and iran cuts crude to european nations preempting saying since we did they will they are they are conflicting reports as far confusion as

oil prices have hit a six month high earlier today of a hundred and twenty dollar a barrel oil up until now there has been talk but yeah there are real consequences to sanctions a price to pay for saying since for cutting off oil we'll look at all of those and despite the tough economic times here in the us there are entire counties in the us where the median household incomes are six figures i guess one of the top fifteen are all around the nation's capital how's that for social welfare let's get to today's capital account. so reports of iran cutting oil exports to europe caused quite an uproar today this

is what press t.v. and iranian news network is saying now last time we checked in response to the latest sanctions imposed by the e.u. against iran's energy and banking sectors the islamic republic says it is cutting oil exports to six european countries now earlier reported the press t.v. issued a breaking news alert that iran had already cut oil exports to those six european countries now since then the iranian oil ministry denied it later reportedly said they could not confirm or deny it iran's official news agency said iran warned him of those european countries about this so a lot of confusion needless to say wall crude oil hit a six month high of nearly one hundred twenty dollars a barrel now there are fears of course that iran could preempt the e.u. embargo which is going to go through july first based on what the e.u. voted into place so yeah there are consequences and costs to saying there are costs

to cutting off oil maybe it's time to take a harder look at what those consequences are we certainly want to we have dr levy here he's an authority on energy especially while he's also c.i.a.o. of lead capital management an author of this book red alert how china's growing prosperity threatens the way of american life dr levy it's nice to see you thanks for being on the show today thank you so much lorne yeah let's get straight let's get straight to this ok obviously there are concerns over iran possibly halting oil exports to europe we saw that with the reports that came out today but this is something that you have approved to begin july first already my question to you why wouldn't iran want to do this this is seems like a pretty little logical way that they would want to retaliate. well i think that for personal i don't think it's really

a grave threat i think that fungible they will be able to europeans will be able to find oil in other places i think the message here is that iran is telling the world they're going to play hardball they're not going to be backed into a corner and they are not going to give in to worldwide demands that they stop their nuclear development and what really worries me is i really don't see a middle game never mind the end game as far as the west goes in dealing with this situation and iran i don't know exactly what we can do i think iran has made it abundantly clear that whatever sanctions were willing to impose they're going to power it those signals and they're going to come back strong i don't think that there's an immediate threat of a cutoff to europe i think even if there were we have plenty of oil in the strategic petroleum reserves both here and in europe to make up for any temporary shortfall but. and rand i don't think can afford to stop pumping oil because their

economy is in total shambles from what i hear hyperinflation a trash currency twenty percent interest rates let's get to some of these things that you're talking about more in depth when you talk about sanctions and we don't know what iran is planning as far as cutting off oil what they're going to do but does the fact that they're hinting at cutting off oil to europe at this point to show that they're not concerned about finding a customer for their oil in the past you've said that china could pick up the slack . yeah china if china someone else will pick up the slack what really worries me right now is that there are raining and rainy in the elections this year also us elections this year the economy is in total shambles it almost seems and i hope this ends well i mean there's a tremendous amount of complacency out there lauren that this is just another one of those stand offs and nothing bad will happen but you know iran is right near saudi arabia and there's a lot of shiites in saudi arabia that are protesting now and they're very

instrumental in saudi oil production and iran you know has these. these nuclear plants under the ground very very deep under the ground and it's not so easy to take them out i mean you know for whatever it's worth israel cannot take them out despite the threats it would take a massive amount of bombing and you know you know heaven forbid it might even take a nuclear device to get to those to those nuclear facilities and if that happened goodness knows i mean you're really opening up pandora's box i mean even if the west started bombing iran very aggressively. in saudi arabia are going to get very very upset extremely upset and i don't i think will be letting out of the box something that we really may not be able to control i mean the arab spring sort of prove that i mean what's going on in syria right now what happened in egypt what happened in libya what happened in tunisia iran you know has to do something to

maintain civil control but i mean they already had a battle against protesters and with an election coming up dr levy i know maybe. go ahead and finish. i'm sorry. it seems to me they may almost be daring us to try something and that really really worries me well and you're talking about the worst case scenario of war which it seems like there is evidence that there could be some kind of military conflict i want to back up i want to talk about the impact of these sanctions you're saying that iran will find a customer for their oil you're saying that europe will find another place to buy their oil but we've seen oil prices rise as a result of the concerns surrounding this so what will this ichy aside from possibly higher oil prices for people in the u.s. and europe who are sanctioning iran. you know it will achieve i guess peace of mind that iran may not be able to develop

a nuclear weapon but you know frankly our options may be very very limited as far as that goes i mean higher oil prices ironically are good for rand right and they're terrible for the u.s. economy i mean these kinds of headwinds have been one of the reasons you alluded at the top of the show to high median incomes in this in parts of this country but overall median real incomes are back to where they were in the one nine hundred ninety s. absolutely a big reason a big reason for that have been these sky high oil prices i mean or used to trade at twenty dollars a barrel i mean yes it's down from one forty one fifty but it's still over one hundred dollars a barrel and we may be looking at four five dollars price gasoline this summer so you know high oil prices are exactly what this country doesn't need at this point and ironically will help the middle east including iran so then dr well you're going to be here for a second so then what is the point of these sanctions clearly for the average american or the average greek where they're in a depression poverty is

a greater threat to them then whether or not iran may or may not be developing a nuclear weapon. it is you know you're absolutely right and if we are engaged in sanctions we better have a middle and an end game that justifies what we're doing and part of the end game should be prices returning or at least not continuing to climb and i'm absolutely not convinced that we have that middle or end game the only thing i'm convinced about is that it's going to be extremely difficult to military means to really take out the iranian nuclear facilities very very difficult so i'm not sure that we do know what we're doing and that really is what worries me the most to be very honest with you if i was convinced we had a plan that took us you know to the point where ram would be producing oil. at full capacity again and the middle east would be relatively calm i would sleep well at night but you know these are not conditions like that i mean i can give you so many

dire scenarios you'll have trouble going to sleep at night i mean there are a lot of plausible dire scenarios out there including our attacking iran and what that would do to the rest of the middle east including the shia population that i mentioned before in saudi arabia i mean this is no this is a huge very very big deal and when i read the press reports and i see analysts saying well you know they'll shut down the straits of hormuz for you know maybe five or ten days we'll be able to make that up with the strategic petroleum reserves i get nervous i mean no one is taking this stuff very seriously i mean we all know from reading history if your economy is in shambles one thing that gets you out of it or may get people united behind you would be a war i mean iran may be daring us to attack them or attack their nuclear facilities. it could be that i'm not saying it is but i don't see any semblance

laura none whatsoever that we've really thought this out thoroughly and that is very alarming ok sitting here in washington i. i don't want a war i don't want higher prices i think that americans support that to a majority of americans in a c.n.n. poll that just came out they don't want any kind of force against iran they want diplomatic or economic action that sixty percent twenty two percent say no action should be taken so why should average americans or europeans be forced to pay for this. they should not i mean they absolutely should not get any more involved than they already are and they should try and do this in a if you know once you put a military option on the table and i think the secretary of defense did the other day or at least he said we wouldn't take it off the table once you go down that slope and once you actually an active military option i mean all bets are off i mean we should have learned that in the wreck i mean she relayed by i wish we did i

wish i had assurance that we did but politicians talk about why this is all necessary even though many people don't support it is this because these people are in an elite stratosphere where they it's necessary maybe for them for political reasons they're facing reelection or to please their constituents or or whatever but these decisions won't affect them they're not the people that are going to be crippled by higher oil prices or have their kids sent off to war for that matter. well i mean it depends how high oil prices go i mean you could make a scenario and i'm not saying it's likely or probable but it's not impossible where you know or oil prices go to any number you could pick to fifty three hundred if we do something and it affects saudi arabia see that's the elephant in the room i mean everybody's looking at israel and existential threat to israel and that's serious i agree i think we should support israel with everyone in every way we can but the

elephant in the room is not israel the elephant in the room right now is saudi arabia and if we attack iran just a very local look a focused on those nuclear facilities it's going to have to be with major bombs i hope not nuclear but you cannot rule that out and you have to reason that scoring because of massive stirrings in saudi arabia i mean saudi arabia is you know it's not amusing from you know what is a fact that so many other arab countries in the past year or two you know the arab spring saudi arabia bought off a lot of people but that's a good point major attack on a rant. on iran lots of really good points we're totally out of time but it's really been a pleasure to talk to you a lot of really horrible scenarios it sounds like what i am glad that people are hearing hopefully that will help avoid some of them i appreciate being on the show that was dr steven levy he is author and see the leaves capital management. and still ahead what will be the consequences of the kind of european leadership

we've been seeing in greece managing the debt crisis we spoke to any nigel farage about the risk of political assassinations revolution and the rise of extreme nationalist political parties but first their closing market numbers. wealthy british style.

market why not. find out what's really happening to the global economy with much stronger no holds barred look at the global financial headlines kaiser reports on our. welcome back today was supposed to be a meeting of finance ministers to push through that bailout of greece as government this is of course after the greek parliament passed through extremely tough austerity measures while athens literally burned all around them outside and riots were going on in the streets now the greek prime minister said about that that that kind of violence had no place in a democratic country but european member of parliament nigel farage question that

entire premise and european parliament today. democratic country he's not even a democratically elected prime minister he's been appointed by you guys agree season runs through democracy now is run through a choice three forward officials fly into about the example and sell the greeks what they can and do and the troika has reportedly told greek leaders that needs more assurances and it's getting them antinous some modest an influence a very influential great member of parliament roy wrote a letter to troika creditors committing himself to austerity this is after he alarmed euro zone leaders when he said he may seek to renegotiate the terms of the bailout after elections also adding insult to injury german finance minister wolfgang schauble said.