well i'm john berman in washington d.c. and here's what's coming up tonight on the big picture yesterday a man walked up to the greek parliament building in athens and shot himself in the has the latest consequence of trickle down austerity measures choking the greek nation so the republicans are ready to bring the same trickle down austerity to the united states the pain and suffering follow suit here also kids in america have been eating twinkies and one hundred thirty people running that corporation of manufacturers the twinkies might just have broken the lot story of c.e.o.

greed at the twinkie factory and what it means for american capitalism in general and finally the koch funded american legislative exchange council alec they have met its match coming up how one campaign is having success cutting off the flow of corporate money out. you need to know this the gangsters and technocrats pushing trickle down austerity in greece now have blood on their hands on wednesday a seventy seven year old retired pharmacist walked up to the greek parliament building and shot himself in the head to protest the crippling austerity measures that are ripping apart that nation and then left a suicide note we'll get into that in just a minute but his suicide prompted thousands of greeks to take to the streets in central athens in fresh new protests against trickle down austerity since trickle

down austerity began in greece suicide rates have jumped up forty percent so not only is trickle down austerity bad economically it's bad morally as well yet it's just the thing that the republican budget written by multi-millionaire congressman paul ryan wants to bring to the united states of america and if republicans win big in november and are able to carry out their trickle down austerity agenda and we we can expect more suicides here in the united states as well here's the bigger picture back in two thousand and two and b.b.c. reported on the science of the relationship between political decisions and suicides with a headline b.b.c. headline more suicides under conservative rule this is the friggin b.b.c. it's not polemic could stop political it's straight up science the article opens the suicide rate increases under conservative governments research suggests look at the study look at virtually the entire twentieth century started one thousand one

right through ninety ninety eight and both the u.k. and australia we looked at all of these various prime ministers and governments in both countries were to actually did impact the suicide rate the u.k. raised it and droughts in australia periodic drought so at the family farms in australia raise the suicide rate in a country so as the b.b.c. reported quote after adjusting for these factors the figures clearly show the highest rates of suicide occurred when both conservative state and federal governments were in power. they also look at what happened with the liberal labor party their version of our democratic party when that party was in power what happened then the conclusion reported by the b.b.c. conversely the lowest rates occurred on state and federal governments were both labor they were able to pretty tightly pinpoint the numbers in fact here's how the b.b.c. reported it when the conservatives ruled both state and federal governments men were seventeen percent more likely to commit suicide than when the labor party was

in power women were forty percent more likely to kill themselves. why would that be the b.b.c. said of the researchers saying conservative rule traditionally implies a less interventionist and more market oriented policy than labor rule this may make people feel more detached from society conservatives also make the rich richer the poor poorer and you know we've seen a number of studies are all around the world that increases suicide rates inequality the b.b.c. ended their article with these two very almost characteristically british blunt paragraphs but overall they say the figures suggest that thirty five thousand people even when this is the b.b.c. would not have died had the conservatives not been in power equivalent to one suicide for every day of the twentieth century or two for every day that the conservatives ruled the u.k. conservative party refused to comment on the research the arab spring you'll recall began with a very public suicide of a street vendor in tunisia soon that government was in egypt and libya now in

athens seventy seven year old retired pharmacist left his daughter the suicide note in which he compared the bank's toure's who kicked out the democratically elected prime minister agrees with the greeks who collaborated with the nazis during world war two and pointed out how the banks are stealing people's pensions are so called out of our social security the same way republicans have worked in the strike medicare and social security in the united states for generations he wrote the occupation government has for years literally annihilated any possibility for my survival depended on a decent pension which i personally paid for thirty five years without any state support because my age does not give me the possibility for a dynamic reaction like picking up a kalashnikov i see no other solution than the decent and therefore i start searching in the garbage for food as happened only a few hundred yards from the parliament building and is setting off a new round of protests against this whole conservative mystery program meanwhile here in the us last year the c.d.c. reported on

a us study of most of the twentieth century and found. suicide rates more than doubled during economic disasters like the last republican great depression bloomberg quote of the study's lead author and economist the c.d.c. is saying economic problems can impact how people feel about themselves and their futures as well as their relationships with families and friends it's truly tragic that it takes suicides to show us how destructive trickledown conservative austerity programs are and it's tragic that it's taking a second republican great depression to wake up americans to the need for a strong social safety net we have our repeat of the great depression bonus army right now the occupiers and suicides are up as more and more people are being thrown out of their houses by bankers are being denied health coverage by for profit health insurance. underlying all of this is massive wealth inequality in the united states currently at levels that we haven't seen since the one nine hundred twenty s. right before the last republican great depression and when you look at any kind of social ills and suicide rates to crime rates and drug abuse wealth inequality

amplifies the wealth inequality is not a disease of the national economy it's a disease caused by these same trickle down austerity measures that had pushed on the greeks and are being pushed now in the united states the republican house of representatives joining me now for more about the effects of wealth inequality and how it's destroying the global economy is chuck collets senior scholar of his two policy studies and co-author of the coeditor of the website inequality dot org and author of the book ninety nine one how wealth inequality is wrecking the world and what we can do about it great book chuck thanks tom good to be with you welcome to the program this is this is marvelous what's your take on what's coming out of greece right now well i think you you know i think that the this expansion of austerity is is waking people up i mean we're going to see it here we're not broke and people know that there's plenty of wealth out there that we're living in an unequal society and yet paul ryan budget the house budget is like it's the

blueprint for funneling more wealth to the one percent so how did. are there parallels and conserves of draw parallels between the u.s. in greece and say i have a great if they were living beyond their means we're living beyond our means we go these big budget deficits. our wealth i think in a way it's a manufactured crisis if we all had interest but i don't know so much about greece i think that i know that revenue system in greece does not function very well for quite a while you know it's always that rich we do have a tax system we have attempted to tax our rich over the last fifty years it's the share of taxes paid by that one percent just keeps going down down down there are more global companies that are gaming the system and moving their taxes or pretending that their profits are and offshore so they're not paying taxes here. so we're not broke there's substantial wealth and income out there that could be invested in the things that we're cutting right now so so what's the situation in the united states of wealth inequality well i think since the first gilded age

a hundred years ago we're now at this this zenith really of extreme inequality since world war two and it as you were saying in your in your talking it's really undermines everything we hold dear whether it's our public health. opportunity for kids the stability of the economy even the people who care about market capitalism should care about these extreme inequalities because it's distorting. the function of the market so it really matters you know people say oh i don't care about how rich the rich are well guess what that actually affects the quality of all of our lives you're familiar with rishon workers and k. think it's for yeah absolutely i mean inequality makes us sick and it makes us unhappy so it's really quite remarkable what's the end game of these people pushing this i call it trickle down austerity because it really ties back to the reagan trickle down theory. and if anybody else is calling. me mother. what's

the end game where they don't say well you know at a certain point there's sort of this inequality death spiral where the a segment of the one percent i call them the rule riggers the game change game riggers keep changing the rules to benefit themselves at the expense of the ninety nine percent but it starts to backfire even for the one percent you know when wealth concentrates as it has i think that two thousand and eight economic meltdown was a little window into what happens when you have these extreme wealth inequality that that sixty percent of the population's real wages are stagnant or falling and their real buying power has roaded and then the very rich are speculating and gambling in the economy basically it takes us to the brink of economic instability theme and there was a. a report from the center for american progress i think a couple days ago that the return on investment lobby for the oil industry is smart four thousand percent some it's a massive amount and in the banking industry it was over it was

a five figure it was a trial over seventeen thousand person. you know and then they ask the question which are your ira doing or you're for a one way or g of numbers or. to what extent is the fact that the supreme court in a whole series of decisions over the last century has brought us the best government money can buy to what extent is that responsible for this inequality and and what solutions are yeah well it's it's a huge part of that inequality death spiral the wealthy get more power they use their power to influence the political process change the rules of the economy so they get more wealth and power that undermines the quality of life for the ninety nine percent so that spiral just keeps getting worse and the key is to intervene in it and really the only thing meaningful interventions directly address this concentration of wealth and power taxing inherited wealth taxing high incomes breaking up the banks the six mega banks that now they're not only too big to fail

they're too big to save their share of the economy's grown since two thousand and eight so we have to kind of look at more bolder interventions and they're good at the underlying concentration of wealth and power the last time this happened i'm a sherman act is eight hundred eighty one me the progressive income tax is nine hundred thirteen i was two generations apart are there you. are you hopeful in the thirty seconds we have left or are you hopeful that we can pull this off in the next couple of years or is this going to be a multi generational struggle like it was breaking up the last mail or you know i guess i don't think we have a lot of a time i mean i think that we have a climate crisis and other factors that mean we sort of have to wake up fast i think the good news is people are waking up people are starting to see that these inequalities really do touch their lives and the. we can't wait for our leaders to sort of wake up fast enough that it's going to really pay social movements they're taken with a challenge thanks so much great to see how great is the right way to end a massive wealth inequality in america and the suicides that will come along with

it we all need to work to expose the socially destructive nature of trickle down austerity programs like those being pushed by paul ryan and mitt romney. objects with the company facing bankruptcy you won't believe what the manufacturers of what iconic american treat did to screw over their workers full story coming up next. wealthy british scientists. sometimes. markets why not. why not what's really happening to the global economy with my next concert the no holds barred look at the global financial headlines

tune into cars report.

workers who make twenty's and has been eons are screwed and the corruption of american capitalism by reaganomics deregulation on full display at hostess brands companies according to a court filing reported on by dow jones hostess may have violated bankruptcy laws

by looting in its corporate treasury to pay executives a massive bonuses just before their company went bankrupt apparently knowing that the company was about to go under the twinkie makers paid out all the company's remaining cash to top executives like c.e.o. brian driscoll who ran off with a three hundred percent salary increase to two and a half million bucks bankrupting his country his company at the same time hostess demanded its workers take drastic pay and benefit cuts and reneged on its obligations to fund retirees and shins. so isn't this what the regulated capitalism is all about instead of running a business in the best interest of the workers the community or even the business itself it's become all about running a business like a personal a.t.m. machine for a handful of fat cat executives how caracol to be survive if this is how corporate capitalism behaves joining me now for more on this is david cay johnston investigative reporter with reuters and author of numerous best selling books david

welcome. thank you for having me including a free lunch which were showing on the screen right at the moment david the story of hostess is an anomaly or at looking as this as a question is this an anomaly or is this business as usual in corporate america well we don't we have heard the creditor side of the story the bankruptcy law does have provisions that insiders and mr driscoll the former c.e.o. of the insider take excessive amounts of money out within the year of a filing bankruptcy they can be forced to give that back that's why the quote is raising that he clearly thinks something is amiss but hostess is part of a pattern or same of the company's problems are being blamed on the unions but this is a company that was put together with the number of unions that a lot of different plants and management didn't go around try to organize in such a way that they could get coordinated plans among the different players and it's also a company the demographics of this country are not working so well for so may have

problems well beyond its unique contracts one how has the role of the corporation changed since reagan. well you know actually discussed regulate really the right in one thousand seventy one the new york times magazine a great liberal newspaper that i used to work for ran a piece by milton friedman in which he argued that the only duty the corporate officer had was to the shareholders and sole duty was to them so you could work your whole life for the company a community could chat. self and undertake all sorts things that benefit a particular company vendors that set up their entire factories to benefit a company but the only person who has any rights at all into friedman's view of ronald reagan's view were shareholders who come across split in out of that company in a matter of seconds and this is fundamentally change the country and take away the idea that there is any social contract you know friedman used to say to people that

we're not a society we are some next several hundred million people who just share the chain geography and that's an awful terrible way to try and create stability and long term will be it's individual ism and greed run amok how have the laws how is congress you know. the saluted this transformation oh oh there are so many things congress has done and in that the news media has done such a poor job of reporting on. it that have reduced the rights of workers think about this this argument that we should be individuals so the anti-union moves you're seeing all around the country reflect this idea you know tom hartman sally smith newly minted kindergarten teacher has to go negotiate with multibillion dollar state government or corporation over how much they should be paid when the other side has experts has lawyers has years of experience that's not

a market that's nothing but a system by which to push down wages and allow the people who are buying labor to pay less them but the real market would be when you have unions you have information on the other side and the opportunity to create a more local playing field right and then there's there's also. one throw this out is this the change in tax code that allowed corporations to start compensating c.e.o.'s and stock which changes their fundamental commitment to what they were doing and that's when we saw. stuff explodes through the roof and by the way if the interests of shareholders are aligned with c.e.o.'s the market overall it was reversed the dividend is below where it was in two thousand how come c.e.o. pay is so much from there you go there you go david cay johnston brilliant thank you so much for being with us and what host is accused of in screwing over it's workers is a moral crime possibly illegal crime unfortunately it's

a type of crime that rarely is punished in today's post reagan economy. but now for some good news the organization color of change may have figured out a way to fight back against the koch funded corporatocracy known as the american legislative exchange council alec alex is behind several right wing laws being passed in republican controlled state legislatures around the nation limiting collective bargaining rights in wisconsin to privatizing prisons in ohio the new voter id laws in a slew of other states. on wednesday in response to alec written voter id laws a group color of change with the help of several democratic lawmakers announced a boycott against corporations that donate to alec that includes corporations like coke and c. ok enough scale c.-h. like the brothers coke at coca-cola and wal-mart which according to john nichols of the nation magazine played an important role in writing the so-called stand your ground or shoot first law that led to the death of trayvon martin down in florida

the law mart is the biggest gun retailer america course just five hours after the breakout was called for coke bolded releasing the statement saying the coca-cola company is elected to discontinue its membership with the american legislative exchange council alec are involved with alec was focused on efforts to oppose discriminatory food and beverage taxes not on issues that have no direct bearing on our business wal-mart however continues to plan to continue its relationship its membership with alec so how might this sort of grassroots activism be a model to stand up to the corporate power that is hijacking our democracy here to offer some answers to that is rashad robinson executive director of color of change rashad welcome to the program thanks for having me thanks for joining us first off what benefits to doing a corporation get from working with alec joining me now getting out with the money . well immediately that would have been if it is that alex alex works behind the

scenes so you don't oftentimes see alex fingerprints on the legislation that becomes laws and states around the country and so our crafts piece of legislation and works with legislators at the state level to push those laws through the times laws that are there are crafted and developed in partnership with corporations that help them with their code of market share their strategies of of making more money and so corporations can have a relationship with alec and legislators can have a relationship with alec and alex these behind the scenes and there's the research and the work to sort of push and amplify these policies around the country and so what we've done is we're pulling back the mask on alec and helping americans all around the country who who have been outraged in and inspired to act as they've heard about the trayvon martin story and folks who have known for a while about the discriminatory voter idealise and help them to understand how these bills have actually become law and the organization in d.c.

who's behind it in the american legislative exchange council that people the american legislative exchange council yes and and the cooperation that allowed our to do the work they get it right so coca-cola has no thanks i understand that the pepsi companies are also good old. wal-mart is saying no no we ride for putting words in their mouths they're not budging. apparently is it that they're just so big they don't they don't care about losing a few customers are they they have basically monopolized markets they run our competition out of business so they don't they don't care. well we actually haven't publicly escalated on on wal-mart or any other country the only company that we've actually called up publicly at this point has been coca-cola and so a number of corporations have been discussed and talked about but we've we've had behind the scenes conversations with about fifteen major public facing corporations that every single day try to market their products or sell their services to the

black community and we've we've come to them with a simple message that you can't come for black folks money during the day and try to support laws that take away our vote by night and as we've learned about the trayvon martin story it's also taking away our life by night and and to the extent that over the next couple of weeks we're going to be highlighting more corporations that have played a role in ensuring that alec is is big and strong and able to do this work around the country will be asked leaning on more corporations giving our members the ability to make their voices heard and ensuring that no corporation gets to partner with our without being a public conversation with the folks who purchase their products is there any new legislation or it seems to be pushing down the road particularly alarms you or is this a response to what's happened the past year alone. this is only a response of the past which is part of their ongoing agenda not only is it supporting you know this criminal to a voter id laws are or supporting mandatory minimum sentencing or are some of the

work that they've done around immigration law you know alec has had his hand had its hand in so many pieces of legislation which hurts communities around this country and puts folks in harm's way and to the extent that our community is working every day to have an empowered voice in our democracy to be able to make sure their voices are heard the idea that allocates supporting laws which you know in some places are you know makes it makes it possible for you to vote with a gun lysis but not but with a student id these are the type of things that alec is behind and for coca-cola or for any of the corporations to align themselves with that they can't have it both ways they can't say we're just aligning with this small piece of ours and so what holding them accountable and we're shining a light very very well that we should thank you so much for being with us today thank you for having me once corporations know that there are consequences to meddle in our democracy than maybe a little ceremony in your own business or a color of change or to find out more about campaigns you can get.

crazy or snakes on a plane no really a pilot in canberra australia was making a cargo run when he noticed he had an unexpected passenger onboard a slew of the rings this summer you see right here that's right just like out of a scene from the infamous snakes on a plane movie the snake crawled out from under the dashboard and begins slithering all over. lenora. planning. which is. they have to realizing that the snake was on his plane blennerhassett radio to the local air traffic control tower and told him i'm going to have to return i got a snake on board the plane spotting

a snake crawl all over his body he stayed calm and collected and managed to land the plane successfully sneaking out there was called in to catch the snake but had no luck told authorities the snake may have escaped on landing no word yet if authorities have called in samuel l. jackson to catch the snake. after the break mitt romney resorts to lying about president obama should be too surprising what is surprising is that the media goes right along with so have a republican speaker about a way to win in november why all the way to the white house. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else here so you saw the part of it and realized everything you saw. i'm sorry is a big picture.