welcome to the alona show where you'll get the real headlines with none of the mersey are coming live out of washington d.c. i'm christine for south filling in for a loan and today the brits are meeting today in india well time to economic analyst gonzalo lira about the role these new emerging economies will play in the global economy and i'll talk with associate editor for alter net sarah jaffe about why some people think we might be entering a second gilded age and after two decades with the f.b.i. our number one hunger tracker is leaving the bureau claiming that we are losing the

cybersecurity war i'll talk to cato's jim harper to try to figure out of the threats are real or just fodder for new regulations we'll have all that and more for you tonight including a dose of happy hour but first let's take a look at what the mainstream media has decided to miss. so there's something going on today regarding an issue that applies to each and every one of you it feels with your rights and your freedoms as an american and how those rights have changed immensely in the last few months based on a new law a law that's now being challenged all righty partiers i'm not talking about health care it's something much more important and more far reaching and what you want to know it because here's what you would have seen surfing throughout the mainstream media today. who wants to be a mega millionaire the jackpot has gone into orbit some players already making

plans for the five hundred million dollars or so fortune and we spend more money than any country on the planet per person on health care the president knows that as gas prices continue to rise his approval ratings will fall to fair or rather his popular anchorman character ron burgundy it important announcement on conan if family barely escapes a huge fast moving wildfire and now florida senator marco rubio is officially endorsing presidential candidate mitt romney we have news now that sheldon adelson may be closing his pocketbook to newt gingrich what happens when you kiran elephant with a smart nine justices novel liberating after wrapping up three days of grueling hearings on the health care overhaul tuesday's wisconsin primary he's seen formes final opportunity to clinch republicans at this race isn't over just a datsun up the way just over four ounces new details and new developments in the shooting of trayvon martin gas prices are up at the pump the national average for

regular gas just a gallon three dollars and ninety two cents. all right ron burgundy santorum bowling all of those interesting i guess but none of those items are with the mainstream media should be talking about they should be talking about the national defense authorization act now if you watch the show if there's no way you don't know about n.d.a. the military spending bill that's a whole lot more than just how much money is spent on what and also includes some questionable and that is a very polite word provisions specifically i'm referring to faction ten twenty one a provision that permits the indefinite military detention without formal charge or public trial of anyone suspected of her to supporting in aiding a terrorist organization engaged in hostilities against the united states and that includes u.s. citizens. well president obama said it would not in fact be used on u.s. citizens part was not taken out of the bill which is now the law of the land and the last several people have taken to court in the case hedges v obama had is chris

hedges who will be on the show on monday he's a reporter with truthdig who previously worked for other publications including working as a middle east bureau chief for the new york times and he has himself interviewed members of al cato members of the palestinian liberation organization hamas and many more i just said under this law even being associated with terrorist groups could land people in jail for hearings kick off today and plaintiffs also include pentagon papers whistleblower daniel ellsberg writer and linguist noam chomsky and a lot so brian the founder of the website us day of rage all of them argue that some of these provisions in the n.b.a. could impact them directly because of their work either in activism or journalism. you know you care look up your theory of journalists i don't think they're going to come get it tomorrow they're think we're all crazy theory and a chilling effect and informally anecdotally i'm hearing it from many many

journalists when they're on it you know across the country it changes how we do our work so that the harms that illegal and that's why i think it's important kate. all right so i guess we shouldn't be surprised that this is not the lead story but attorneys fighting the law say it violates a free speech and due process rights if they it turns this country into a quote homeland a battlefield that could eventually allow for the indefinite detention of journalists who report the views of groups the u.s. government considers to be terrorists a journalist can do their jobs you are kept in the dark under the shade of ignorance selective knowledge sounds to me like a whole lot of other countries the u.s. likes to criticize only with m.c.a. we're following in those countries footsteps we're not reporting on some of the court hearings or a debate even if it's pundits on fox news talking about why the president and the military need this power but no when it comes to the national defense authorization

it is eerily quiet because that's what the mainstream media decided to miss. well today was the annual meeting of the minds for the five countries known simply as brics the leaders of brazil russia india china and south africa together to talk about some of the ways they might be able to work together to make moves that make a difference on the global chessboard and what it's only a one day summit of these countries together make up half of the world's population and one fifth of global economic output and some of their supporters see their mission as creating a new global architecture of sorts on the docket this year a pretty unified front when it came to the subject of military intervention isn't from iran to syria the group is vehemently opposed to any outside military involvement and they also talk about the role of bricks in decisions regarding the

global economy and i want to talk about some of these things with economic analysts because ali or oh hey there. this is a group that has really been able to speak in some cases with one voice on a number of issues book light a few critics of brics ask you know what is this group accomplished since its inception back in two thousand and nine. well two years of existence is very little to accomplish much so that's a silly point people are being worried about because the fall they are the largest economic group on the planet yet since economy the g.d.p. of the united states last year was approximately fifteen one trillion dollars the equivalent for europe was about sixteen trillion the brics that is reserved russia india china south africa account for over eighteen trillion dollars last year that's the size of their g.d.p. from but now their interest rate is growing at a rate of thirty percent per year that's the trade within those five senses so this

is very important this is a key group that the mainstream media is not paying attention to but ought to be paying attention to because you know it's the biggest economy in the world now if these five countries starts to implement a close trading system among themselves and exclude europe and the united states well then we're going to see some serious serious shifts in the world economy and i think some of these leaders are also sort of feel that power not only with trade but with the economy especially as a lot of them are you know what we call emerging markets and there's been a lot of talk probably as a result of the so-called south south development fund the formation in the future possibly of a joint development bank well what's it you know what are the possibilities that this could actually happen that those five countries forming a bank i think to me they want to have an alternative to you know institutions like the world bank which they complain is always been led by somebody in america and the i.m.f.

which is always led by european a they seem to want to have an alternative is that viable yes it is the key issue of the summit is that there are going to be so any agreements to trade among themselves in their own currency and have agreements that is currency exchange agreements between their central banks you know to the egg. for instance they can meet up each other's the nomination. for instance between russia and brazil say no they'll below as the but similarly currency in either one of those two countries their central banks will stop those differences in order to maintain the balance of trade which is the typical. function and central bank now this is important because it creates a some sustaining cycle among these countries now south africa is really good at the small and the really the ones that would matter horse are was ill russia and yet china of those countries if they start doing this this independent bloc will present an economic challenge to the west that is to the european union the euro

zone and suit the american free trade and. this is really really important now if they manage to create an analogous institution what bank that's a good fight but that's not really important it's the currency swaps which seems so obscure but that's the key issue because it smooths each trade between those five countries as i said before they are trading there are there and there are trade among themselves growing at a rate of about thirty percent a year it's only two hundred thirty billion dollars per year at this point but if you're growing that area that number from you know by thirty percent every year year after year you know very good numbers that can come huge and that is when these five countries will present a serious challenge to the us but i think surprising to me an invalid that just these five countries and if they're going to sort of create all dollar around

themselves at concerning trade. hard to swallow that they'd be able to function without the help of the last hour. that's not an issue that i'm sorry i didn't it's that there really are wall that there are any substantial not at all the continue to trade with the west but the point is that the dollar will no longer be the undisputed research current's now the current research currency because it's part of the agreement the tacit agreement between the united states and saudi arabia was the united states supplied military protection and saudi arabia to guarantee that it would only trade oil in dollars or saudi arabia is the largest exporter of oil in and it has the arse proven reserves on the planet so this ensured that the dollar would remain as he. currency of choice in the world's global trade but if these five countries succeed and this seemed to stop each of those currency and maintain a. foreign currency exchange among themselves this will

erode the dollar sabs now why is this important because it will be conquered harder now it states to fund its deficit remember people only buy it as foreign countries only buy u.s. treasury problems because the dollar is the world's trading currency now if that's that's status as he wrote it if the dollar is no longer it will reserve currency if it becomes atomize among you know the reason the russian ruble the indian rupee and so forth then there will not be that needs for buying treasury bonds because after all for that you see countries are buying treasury bonds because they need those dollars in order to buy oil and other commodities which are currently priced in dollars now as that is the road by the scene vacation of the preps it's just start affecting the american economy specifically the american at though it's from fund

itself yet debt and that will put added pressure on the federal reserve to go into the. no printing press no and print out more dollars and less accelerating and carry up to dollars in reserve for us well let's talk to certainly this tipping the scales of the economy is one of the most important things that these countries talk about but they also seem to want to make sure that the rest of the world knew their position on military intervention is and certainly china and russia already had that opportunity at the united nations but they made sure that everyone knew that all brics countries are unified in the fact that they are vehemently opposed to any sort of intervention in iran in syria why do you think that this is necessary for them to sort of put that out there well because they depend on one for their oil i mean both india and china the world's oil to india and china is a raw now they want to make sure that iranian oil continues to flow their way

reasonable prices and the more uncertainty and the war warmongering that's going on in the west and east of iraq the higher the price of oil that hurts in china they certainly don't want that so they're going to be making clear that there is no war with there was no war in the middle east they just want things to just settle into a new as they are so that they are you know that they love iran which is what i mean to start as you noted sue not be worried about your domestic economic situation which is perfectly reasonable just now i just want to get one more question in as we're almost out of china. what do you have to say to those people and a lot of people as you said the mainstream media is not really covering this at all some people are taking a look at this and just and saying this is just a photo op really quick what would you say to those people. wait five years and when the dollar reserve currency status. as it is today.

all right economic analysts gonzalo lira thanks so much for joining us my pleasure . time for a quick break but when we return we'll fade a time on collective bargaining rights leave you right into a second gilded age and then i will look at why america hates contact and i'm not talking about the ones with her and me out. return. you know the story. is if you understand it and the. other part of it and realized. it was a big. blow

to the capital account i'm mr. you know the real headline not. the problem with the mainstream media today is that they're completely disconnected from the viewers from what actually matters to those viewers and so that's like young people just don't watch t.v. if they want news they go online and we're trying to take those stories that people actually care about and transfer them back to t.v. .

is the state english speaking russian channel it's kind of like. russia today has an extremely confrontational stance when it comes to us. last february months before occupy wall street began we saw the populist movement take shape in wisconsin when public sector workers collective bargaining rights were in jeopardy more than a year later despite recall campaigns are now gone as x. ten is still intact its lead to lost wages difficulties and recertification and a loss of bargaining power over vacations benefits working conditions sick days and

overtime alternate compared the situation in wisconsin to ohio or a similar type of attack on collective bargaining rights led to a public referendum that ended up overturning the law so looking at the two even the situation around the country is the republican attack on unions taking workers back to the gilded age or has that maybe rekindle the populist movement by reminding it what's at stake joining me from our studio in new york is sarah jaffe associate editor at alter net. let's talk a little bit about this i know that that act and went into effect on june twenty ninth two thousand and eleven in wisconsin talk to me in specifics here what exactly have workers had to give up. it had to get up a lot i mean the comment that marty bill from me told me was that this is actually reminding workers the value of their union because they can't bargain over anything except wages up to a very small cap now so things like bathroom breaks or what they can where are now

up for whatever their employer wants to institute teachers are can be fired for having their students as friends on facebook and you know prison guards have to get a replacement to come out if they want to take a bathroom break and also if we look just sort of a pin money here of the dollars from what i understand look take a state worker who earns about forty thousand dollars a year has lost an average of thirty six hundred dollars in a paycheck i mean that is a lot of money when you when you look at it when you talk about your household expenses for the year. do you think that they've started to feel the brunt of this . so absolutely i mean forty thousand dollars a year is not a lot of money to lose four grand for eight. it's not only that it's also you know they're losing jobs they're people are retiring they're not replacing them and knots hitting the economy in the state overall i mean if you look at the jobs numbers nationwide the last few months the private sector has been adding jobs and the public sector has been losing jobs and that's what's keeping our unemployment

rate high but when you look at the public and private sector i mean you can't sort of put them as two separate entities certainly when you say there's sort of a trickle down effect when the public sector jobs disappear. oh yeah the money is coming straight out of the economy it's and it's impacting everyone and this is one of the reasons that the movement in wisconsin and the movement in ohio were not just union workers it's everybody because i mean first off people do actually still relate especially in states like wisconsin ohio to the idea that the workers should have a say on the job there is that this is an idea that we value in this country and then second of all they know that if you're teacher if you were. you know the person at the d.m.v. . yes losing it going to be used people are losing money they have less money to spend in local businesses they have less money to spend your store they have less money to spend when they go on vacation this is impacting everyone it's not even just impacting ohio and wisconsin the other states that i've just seen this go

through i mean it's impacting people around the country my parents own a bicycle shop in south carolina and they rent bikes to people on vacation people in ohio are making less money they don't go on vacation to south carolina i have a really good kind of in your face example talk a little specifically though and i think you mentioned a few things in terms of teachers being punished in their facebook friends with their students about some of the more specific ways in which the rights of people have sort of been taken away yeah i mean when you have a union contract like the madison teachers incorporated the teachers union their contract would specify all sorts of things like the amount of hours they could work for the same amount of money. dress code violations all these things dress codes. there is a new girl and teachers that i wrote about in the piece they are now required to report their speeding to or not their speeding tickets the traffic violations to

their bosses business is it of your bosses if you're a lousy driver right now if you want to go to work why not a right. yeah i don't think that that's a standard that you should be held to on the job right that has nothing to do with whether you're a good teacher or not i know we asked this last year when we saw those protests in wisconsin and again when we saw them in ohio. as much damage as this law has done for a lot of people sort of feeling it directly do you think it's also sort of reawakened spirit and reminded people of the importance of bargaining rights the importance of workers' rights it absolutely has i mean first up we would've seen occupy wall street if we didn't see wisconsin we wouldn't have seen the fight back in ohio if we didn't see what happened in wisconsin you wouldn't have seen this around the country this absolutely started there and it absolutely started with people realizing that the republican governors that came in you know promising to create jobs in their states they're really just interested in cutting taxes on the rich cutting corporate taxes and hitting working people where it where it hurts whether

that's their wages or whether that's controlled the top it's really interesting when we hear these discussions i've certainly heard the party rallies and of course you see them in the back and forth debate on the mainstream media a lot of people like to say you know let's cut government make it smaller smaller. cut government jobs things like that but i want to put up a map that actually shows it turns out a lot of jobs have been cut from government public sector jobs in a lot of what we call red states states that tend to be conservative and vote republican it looks like and i think we have a graphic of those guys ok the red states when you look at red states versus blue states there's a lot of more problems in these red states if you look here i mean it's only one. so even though they like to speak a big game and sort of fearmonger. it's hurting the people in these states directly

. yeah i mean literally these are governors that came in in two thousand and ten right everybody was concerned about jobs and these governors scott walker john case in ohio the ones in the south to my my friend nikki haley who might be indicted shortly here in south carolina they all came in promising to create jobs i don't know how you create jobs and cut government which equals cutting government jobs at the same time and on top with a lot of them came in and cut taxes they cut corporate taxes some of them cut taxes on the wealthy they're doing these things then you throw in some of these really invasive anti one laws these ultrasound laws that somebody has to pay for these voter id regulations that somebody has to pay for and they're actually increasing the size of government and the control of government and those two fronts and then there are people who you know needed this paycheck to continue to spend money make a living pay rent pay the bills. and so what you're getting is worse economy in the

states which really should have been pretty obvious i want to kind of round this all out with something interesting that is i mean you said that the occupy movement would not have happened if it weren't for wisconsin it certainly seems that so many of the issues for are very much on the same page we talk about the one percent versus the ninety nine percent the plight of the public sector workers on one hand that we just found out about the c.e.o. of bank of america brian moynihan was paid seven point five million dollars last year that's six times what he made in two thousand and ten and was that an extra little gold star for doing a good job hard to say about because a good job i mean b. of a stocks plunged fifty eight percent last year so. what's going on here. what's going on here is failing upward is these people are in a position right who's on the board of bank of america that decides on his the c.e.o. salary rate it's other people who make a ton of money it's not the workers it's not bank employees from bank of america

it's not you and me. it's going to be interesting this year because i know that several unions and progressive groups are planning to do shareholder actions at a lot of the major banks and other big corporations and we'll see because they do have to hold shareholder meetings and it's shareholder meeting season so there will be people going into these shareholder meetings and saying hey wait a minute why are we paying these guys so much money to continue to tank the economy to keep foreclosing on your working family is to i mean the list you know it's very very interesting why is he making seven million dollars and we do appreciate all your reporting on this it's really brought to light a lot of interesting stuff there jaffe associate editor at alter net. well we're four years out from the collapse of the u.s. and world economies and millions of americans are still struggling to find work pay their bills and feed their families now according to a survey published in the financial times two thirds of americans are unhappy with the current model of the current economic model everyone on the internet loves cats

it seems like a fat camp of wall street and don't get the same love argues i was going to reports from the big apple. i mean. god was decades past but this rule still applies wall street the key poppy to your america's economy. it's recklessness set off the financial meltdown overweight was just one credit. report since fundamentally it's an attack on the rest of the world and the bankers. are leading the army traditionally a symbol of the polish economy and financial might the statue near wall street has for many become associated with a system of economic justice the power of the few over the many for main street america pays for wall street remains untouchable so they're making like ten thousand dollars last in their bonus they were last year big deal when they're making still like ten or twenty times more than i and that makes me angry he is not

alone according to a survey published in the financial times two thirds of americans are unhappy with the current economic model i'm a high school student and my admission seems to be buying into college to go into debt. not get a job which doesn't seem to make sense to me there and in the restaurant business his entire life for the last two years homeless with a passion for puzzles and the yankees he sleeps in an abandoned jail in new jersey i've had problems you know we're ok with incarceration i've been locked up in everything and sometimes i don't get is how. they're able to do some of the things they're they going down there. that they don't you know they're not helping out or it just doesn't make sense and sometimes it really can be very for free and i have no problem with people being i will do my criminal acts because i did it. a convicted white collar criminal sam antara says he's milked what he could out of

the us economy i committed a massive securities fraud during the 1980's we fleeced investors out of five hundred million dollars and we caused twenty five hundred people to be unemployed so i'm part of the bad part of the system you know about. that i got yes i feel bad that i got caught found says he do it all over again as politicians today care even less but the system is flawed in the dark of the night these guys are legislating the country away from the people to the. among them among supposedly the bankers while the bright of date was beaten down or left to face their demons on their own it's tough to get started when we really don't have a place to stay in. this is. just the future doesn't look so bright. but on the plus side i think go down much further so.