we have no problem doing because if you call on our website we have big fat headline me and that's the excuse for internet freedoms well that does it for this hour we'll see you right back here at a. well see british scientists are. time to. market why not. come to. find out what's really happening to the global economy

with my stronger no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune in to congress report on our. good afternoon and welcome to capital account i'm more in the store here in washington d.c. easier headlines for a full tenth two thousand and twelve u.s. president barack obama makes the case in florida for the buffett rule a minimum tax rate for millionaires take a look. warren buffett is paying a lower tax rate than his secretary. that's well. that's not fair. well then he reportedly has to a fifteen thousand dollars a head campaign fundraiser so how work exactly that presumably wealthy people paying fifteen grand for dinner with obama are giving them money for him to raise their taxes or they think better for them both talk about how the political process really works when it comes to the money being thrown around and here to do it.

just right yes sure agent paterson with the f.b.i. i have to call you back mr president. because they know jack movie version of his story and real like he's former super lobbyist jack abrams off he pleaded guilty to lobbying related crime did the time now he's exposing the secrets of how special interests get their way and washington will get an inside look also look at how to be a crook. instead of just printing money and buying stuff with it you print money and lowering it to other people. if that's their goal we'll talk about it let's get to today's capital account.

so when it comes to lobbying and special interests in washington we talk a lot about wall street and the financial sector and their purported influence and of course one of the facts to support that is the logging dollars they spend so the finance along with real estate and insurance sector ranks third in the amount of lobbying dollars spent over the last thirteen years and more than four point eight billion dollars you can see there that's after health and miscellaneous business now one might deduce that it's paying off because look at how much more banks are spending is one example this is commercial banks and they spent sixty million dollars in two thousand and eleven it's been going up now the biggest spenders for two thousand and eleven the american bankers association and a lot of names you know well wells fargo j.p. morgan citigroup also on that list up there is bank of america and take a look at hedge funds they've really increased their spending

a lot too and also private equity which is obviously attracting new heat these days if we can do that for you see it there with mitt romney is the republican front runner and his bain background getting a lot of attention so remains to be seen what that number will look like for two thousand and twelve now the biggie for finance recently posted anshul crisis seems to really have been dog regulation and more recently the volcker rule portion of it which we've been talking a lot about now we see the facts and figures but how exactly do special interest influence washington how does it work well we're lucky because today we have an insider here to tell us our guest was the republican super lobbyist kevin spacey played him in the movie version because you know jack we played a bit of he was convicted on charges of fraud corruption in conspiracy related to his illegal logging efforts back in two thousand and six he did the time he was released in two thousand and ten and has been sneaking out against lobbying since

then working to reform the system jack a vermont is here he's a former lobbyist out i said also author of capita. punishment the hard truth about washington corruption from america's most notorious lobbyist thank you so much for being on the show curtis for having me and i think our viewers are going to be really excited to hear how this all really works from telling his experience firsthand so you have called lobbying legalized bribery i heard you say that a number of times in what ways are these map it's the legal methods used to lobby special interests as well i should note that not all lobbying is bribery not a lobbying is bad and being is guaranteed by our constitution petition our government we're only sorry and then there are no yes no we're going to where money comes into play that we're lobbyist use resources and money in their clients use it to tilt the playing field and that's where the bribery comes in and that's where the corruption comes in and that frankly if you look at some of the successful sectors we're going to talk about the banking sector and others like that are labor

unions that's where the money comes into play in the campaigns and how they deal with congressman please like that and that's the corruption will give me an example of what you would consider legalized bribery well any time but i didn't hold this way by the way when i was a lobbyist obviously i have a different view of the matter but. yes yes but i never have been like a two by four to the head to get your attention as it was with me but basically any time somebody who's trying to get something back from the federal government gives something to the nation and meal tickets to a ballgame to a public servant with the intent of getting that public servant to do something for them it's a problem if we did that with a judge everybody would get it immediately it's a bribe these people basically in our system are judges they're making judgments of they have the american people been giving them things or raising money for them that look out the interesting part of it talk about the raising money that lobbyists do for politicians and what i thought was interesting that i heard you say was it's the politicians expect that if they're going to do something in the cases that you get yeah i think that you know the lobbyists the way the obvious

could save the most is by raising money these these folks if you look at the can read. certainly the senate races they cost tens of millions of dollars they have to spend their time raising money all the time and the people who have the incentive to get their money are people who want something back from them until we get to a system where all of those people are excluded we're going to have a corrupt system and that unfortunately is what we have in congress understands the game and they understand that if somebody gives the money that they have to at least be attentive to their in these numbers simply do everything they want. to that is where the corruption actually enters the process how much money i'm just you know what is the figure that's a significant enough figure to where someone is going to feel responsible to do something or for a law well i hold by the way that any amount gets them going because you're a normal human being somebody does something for you something nice for you buys you something gives you something deep down at least you're going to feel gratitude you may be a jerk and don't feel gratitude but that's unlikely that somebody like that is going to want to buy it on the politicians well maybe there are some of those

certainly don't i don't like. to the public and they're going to feel gratitude in the moment that gratitude enters the process it's not a question of how much frankly ten dollars that anything that's good starts the process and that's why we have to cut off all money from their clients to public officials at ten dollars was good enough by when some of these maybe people that are trying to reform the banking system be more successful than they j.p. morgan's and the world that are spending a lot of money well i mean out of washington exactly i mean the people who are spending a lot of money you're getting all the more it's not the ten dollars everybody's equal if you give ten dollars or ten million dollars i guess what i'm saying is once the process starts and once the gratitude starts there's a problem and that's something that we don't want in our public servants and unfortunately something we see virtually entirely through the the whole system i am with you there i want you to talk and specific because you've been writing recently about one of your clients that was typo in the past and how you convince members of congress not to impose a retroactive tax on inverted companies so these are companies that reincorporate

overseas usually it's to avoid paying u.s. corporate taxes tax haven. and moving money overseas is something we hear a lot about with corporations so how did you go about doing let's attack there well tyco came to me they were basically far down the road of being in trouble with the senate had already put them into their bill the house was about to do it and they've been failed by other lobbying firms and the tack i took was that i organize the company psychosis is basic conglomerate about three hundred fifty companies and i took all the vendors of all the companies the heads of all these vendors and organized them to call the centers in the congressman so as to say to them listen we're your donors were your friends were your neighbors what are you doing you're killing the goose that laid the golden a basically you're interfering in business in a way that's unfair they actually were proposing to put a retroactive tax to the tune of about four point eight billion dollars on psycho that would have wiped them out and basically wiped out all these vendors as well so i don't lobby it now i used to be hard to get out as to how great the bathtub got

an example of a common tactic to rally the troops to yes i think we've seen more and more of the last decade that lobbyists realize they can't just do everything inside the beltway they've got to go outside the beltway they've got to go into this person in the states and this is one of the dangers by the way with the decision citizens united and super pacs that lobbyists can marshal unlimited funds if they're good at what they do and have dramatic impact in some of the races out there and that's i think is something we certainly didn't something we see a lot of the way you think that's going on now and that is worse than when you were a lobbyist i don't know if it was more of it was pretty bad is it was pretty bad but what we did i think basically our attitude was we were going to do everything we can to win and that meant that we're going to play harder we're going to get more resources together we're going to send more contributions that anybody else and we in fact one i only lost one time over ten years and that's because of the amount of resources i have a tilt of the playing field in a way that frankly made it impossible for people to compete against us ok let's

talk about banking because that's obviously a sector that spent a lot of money and we've seen again bank continue to get what they want it's. as regulation is backing the bills the taxes the rules i mean far beyond the bailout that we saw in two thousand and eight so i want to talk a little bit about you actually brought up in one of your recent pieces you talked about what the top lobbyist really of the american bankers association executive v.p. was talking about launching a fight against obama's proposed increase to the bank tax you point out that the banks have been successful in lobbying against taxes like this it's not just the bailout money in two thousand a way that they've been successful in kind of having a say in and he said they were going to deploy some grassroots pressure that's known as astroturfing you said come on i don't buy that is working what how do you think the banks are effective in lobbying and getting their way but i think one of the things i took issue with what he did was that he's he's announcing what he's doing in advance and there's a there's a certain arrogance there frankly that we're going to deploy the grassroots sort of

undercuts the whole notion that it's actually grassroots who are paid you know least the bands should go on what has been going on in washington for years they have put hypocritical bands so he's actually boarded that whole situation let them be trusting do you think that shows that that lobbyist feel they can get away with anything they don't even have to to kind of give the p.r. to make it sound like they're not trying to crack it i think that's definitely the case certainly in this case and i think we find another others to lobbyists feel all powerful lobbyists such as i was really get almost everything they want because you know so you have a team of people you know this system you have experts on your staff as i did who know every intricate detail the people you're up against they don't know what's going on they don't know the timing they don't have the inside information that you do in terms of what congress is doing you're giving the money they're not you're taking them out to play golf they're not you're traveling with them they're not you're doing mance advantage over the common people and anyone who's frankly

doesn't have the resources you do so then i kind of got a soft track because of the tangent on his comments. how do you think the banking sector gets their interest in dance well i think the banking sector to the agree that anything proposes a tax increase they have a built in advantage in the sense that republicans are just not in favor of tax increases and then on paper closing loopholes the less the marginal rate comes down so anything that's proposed that can be fashioned is the tax increase there's an immense advantage going in and we saw that also by the way in terms of what what was going on with the oil companies the energy companies with the so-called subsidy that was defeated a few weeks ago all they needed to do was really say this is a tax increase so that's number one number two you're talking about lobbyists that come off capitol hill they are oftentimes members who were on those committees they not only know every intricate detail they know all the players are going to move all the decisions so they know exactly how to say what they have to say to them to keep the status quo in place and i think that's been immensely effective med

industry and by the way many industries that it's a point somebody who knows the game and knows the players knows how to work the process then add to it a little shake a little money in there and you have a you have a wonderful lobbying stake but when we get back i want to talk more about that revolving door we have some good examples i want to ask you also about the revolving door from washington not to case to me but to wall street so we will have more with jack abrams author and former lobbyist in a moment still ahead we will have more with mr abrams i want to find out if they may be money has bought junk or is their free and they've experienced now if it goes that far but first to close the market numbers. put into the media and i was like nine years old i just told the truth.

a confession i am a total get over that i love crime and hip hop is a planned trip. but it was kind of the just today. i'm very proud of the all the belgians here it's a place. oh. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else and you hear or see some other part of it and realize that everything is ok. i'm charging welcome to the big picture.

what drives the world the fear mongering used by politicians who makes decisions through it's already made who can you trust no one will is you in view with the global machinery of sea where we had a state controlled capitalism is called sessions when nobody dares to ask why we do our t. question more. welcome back we're talking to jack abramoff former super lobbyist about the influence that wall street and a financial sector has on the political process the let's talk about the revolving door because we started before the break now the center for responsive politics reports there are two hundred ninety former government workers employees work as lobbyist for the financial sector now that was at the end of two thousand and ten

now here are some examples so you have former congressman michael oxley former chairman of the financial services committee now he's a lobbyist some of his firm's clients include now back thomson reuters trent lott the former senate majority leader lobbying firm clients include citi group goldman sachs g.e. great the on another example would be richard gephardt house majority leader formerly now the firm that he works for clients include boeing goldman sachs g b that so jack aber mark when you have these guys as you kind of started to get into before the break going from washington to lobbying for the financial services sector what exactly does that tie these companies what do they get with that it's the it's the connections. the connections the access but it's also the expertise there are people of immense importance the gentlemen that you put up on the screen are obviously incredibly powerful but there are only three among many that you mention by the way it's not just to get in this sector this is happening in every

sector revolving door spin so quickly in washington there's really no way you can go to watch it people don't go right out of the congress and jump right into the lobby world the influence world they'll call themselves a lobbyist by the way as we saw with newt gingrich calling himself a history professor but i think that there's some focus now even the american league a lobbyist is starting to focus on what is the definition of a lobbyist we have to basically start looking at that because people are sneaking into the lobbying industry lobbying the way and then just sneaking onto the under the radar and we don't american american people want to actually get to see it but he said strategic advisor is one that is kind of a code name and you call for ending the revolving door that correct i do i do working with you know i don't recall. and some of the other reform groups were trying to come up with a promo that would survive constitutionally i'm not sure a lifetime ban which is what i advocate would work but certainly at least a decade ban if you are somebody on capitol hill you should not be able to talk about congress and the in the senate and their staff and probably apply to the administration as well you shouldn't be able to go through the door and benefit

from the influence industry by influencing people and i think that it's a very dangerous thing for the republicans but you mentioned a staffer and i want to talk about that because you talk about how you used to hire them and you're going to advance the rights of it that may feel like they're both working for you when they're still working for these members and i mean it just an example that stuck out to me you have the chair of the senate banking committee who brought on as his staff director a former lobbyist for the american bankers association j.p. morgan and freddie mac. so what is the influence of these staffers well i think the staffers when they come off the hill or actually more affected by members i would actually try never to hire members because they were kind of lazy and they were sort of self-important and felt inside of stampers were real raisers and killers they could get things done they knew exactly where the trains were flying to and both how to put things on them and unfortunately members are generally a little less active to say so i would only go with staffers but the other side of the revolving door going from industry back to capitol hill or into the ministry can personally frankly i think it's fine if they want to see several things one

that they don't have any big pack parting package financial package if you will see them get a several million dollars as a little gift on the way out there they don't have that in order to they can't go back once they make it into the ministration that's it now they have to find some place else to work if that were to happen frankly i don't think we'd see any of them doing it but then your reasoning with the staffers and hiring them early was they felt that they're working for you if they were if you're in the administration and you know that when you're done goldman sachs is going to hire you again are you doing their bidding when you're working for the united seriously absolutely i mean they have so-called protections that he people sequestered from certain issues but the truth is they. they all wind up influencing in some way there's some even if it's not illegal by the way and one of the problems in washington is that the laws are drawn in a way that you can be completely contemptuous within the law or you can be completely corrupt and not get near or going over the line and so unfortunately we see these people to get into the administration to get on to capitol hill or they're getting ready to come back off capitol hill and they are indeed working on

behalf the interest there are virtually going to benefit from and i want to along those lines talk about some of the washington to wall street revolving door movement there are so many i mean we talk about them all the time on this show but just to give our audience a few you have phil gramm who was the chairman of the senate banking committee he was an outspoken champion of deregulation ok he played a role and pushing and writing the repeal of glass steagall also inserted a provision into the commodities futures modernization act that exempted over the counter derivatives problem regulation we all know who that how that wound up he went on to join u.b.s. the vice chairman another example would be peter or is that he left office of management budget to work as a vice chairman for citigroup robert rubin former treasury secretary joined citi group he was chairman of the executive committee as the group's board of course before he was treasury secretary he was a top trader and in fact i called him and sachs so before you say you don't really disagree with this is this ok well i mean it depends what they do if they're coming

out in there with their expertise by the way is phil gramm i think does he was going to come to professor maybe ruben as well because they have expertise in financial markets and they're working in areas that are related to their influence where they're not going to be spending time using their past connections or trying to help shape the strategies of government affairs for these companies i don't have a problem with it but loosely doesn't happen i think most of them are very involved in the government affairs strategies because they know it better than anybody in the government affairs because they know well that's why they're desirable to a firm like they have sort of all been sacked right yes and i think they have to be i don't have a problem with somebody going and working for goldman sachs if they want to work in the. financial sector but the minute they are back in the government sector that's where we have a problem and i think that the begin to make bad jump they have to be barred from having any influence at all on any concept at all there has to be an absolute wall set up so they can't be involved in government appears yeah i don't know how that would be possible banking really good at finding loopholes as we've seen with the volcker rule that they've lobbied so many loopholes that i want to ask you one of

when i was doing this research and this is something that's come up time and time again on the show is the amount of money goldman sachs employees have spent on on contributions then john corazon is the number one guy pay nine hundred sixteen thousand dollars over the years eight puts them in one of the top spots we know with m.f. global his firm and plummeted and he seemingly still customer money was the c.e.o. of that firm i have not seen him in cuts yet do you think there's a case to be made that spending that kind of money and politics can get you a get out of jail free that's you know i think that unless the industry it space is going to be the decision of the administration. the people of the just certainly those who work on my case that the trial attorney and one level are very honest generally and they're going to look for the facts and look for the evidence and try to act in that way however of the political decisions that are made at these sort of top of the just apartment sometimes you find say in a republican administration that they're going to really go after

a republican right kind of had a little bit of that myself you know with the with the bush administration or they make the opposition between administration was famous for not going after their people what the administration will do we know i can't imagine for a minute that nobody at the just part is looking into this even if it's at a very low level i can imagine also that somehow former governor corzine is that in the clear i think you'd probably going to need to go through all these things that a crime is committed to going to bury me during that i think the pressure from the republicans will be immense and i think the administration doesn't need that headache so if they do see something there i would unfortunately for senator who is i expect to see some trouble ahead. i appreciate your being here i wish i had more time with you there's so much to get to maybe for another day that was jack avram author and former lobbyist.

all right let's wrap it up a loose change i've got to be trained shannon to talk about a few. loose points so have you ever had an interest in being a crock well we have good news for you there is a youtube clip detailing how to do just that unfortunately the video also details how you're being rod every day let's see if you notice any similarity. they will all be reduced to impoverish slaves for you to do as you please you sit this think megalo markel sociopathic bastard. so they're the narrator was referring to bank loans so if you want to beat a super a crook who owns the world how many someone unfortunately already been to it's a way to dimitry the banker the sadistic not the maniacal bastard banker the federal reserve on top of the heap right with the banks also create loans out of

thin air they create money out of nothing only a loan to keep the fractional reserve lending right but doing that and that was ok they don't have reserves there's nothing they do have reserves so they really don't actually because there's no reserves in the system and this is not a right because the loan to value the loans that make are become the reserves but there's no capital this is going to just create loans and they lead to us of this that way they need to fall and they think your home and that's produced a system that's where the itself or the stories the middle class and i tell you had of having is these all of our sitting on top of this. system where everyone is working for nothing and the whole system just collapsed and you have used robber hoods out in the jungle and in the forests shooting people with arrows and gangs it's like that that's the world we're heading into that's what hunger games is all about people should watch it's very dark where you are in advertising promoting them there let me go i want to get on and running but nothing bad ok with this space shuttle program ending last year nathen he added a new way to get astronauts into space and her serve richard branson and virgin

galactic. we have a great relationship with. the starter ready please study nasa to see if you're like that space travel will continue. to go over the next five or six years. get you to build a new vehicles or move over grantham because as shift in policy could open up space to ownership by private companies a space policy consultant is shopping around a bill in the capital allowing property rights for private companies who seek to develop space resources and infrastructure because the one nine hundred sixty seven outer space treaty prohibits sovereign nations from owning a less chill body that has been signed by one hundred countries including the us but there is a loop wall street does not explicitly prohibit ownership of space resources by private enterprises of course the u.s. is taking imperial mission to outer space they hey we can make this private property for you are powerful and listen i couldn't write so i mean i think the key

here is is can we have the small businessman in the space that should be the key the entrepreneurs to be out there and trying to mine some. feels like that because you don't i'm pretty sure the barriers to entry are really high on getting your hands on. training to be an astronaut and everything that entails and so sure that . the whole point of entrepreneur. capitalism is you want to drop those burgers and you want to get those young entrepreneurs that are now in silicon valley want to get them into space ships and space suits and offer the space mining some space rocks and make some stuff happen in space that's what i'd like to see press on all about i don't know what happens when the aliens come and dispute your property rights janet. i'm not sure about that if it's a p.r. campaign in order to get someone to go and be entrepreneurial in your anus is going to be all right you know i mean is allowed hey well good thing that then we're out of time so we can hear dimitris respond that's all we have time part of they try to

do anything and don't forget to follow me on twitter out or unless they're going to be back on the show you can dot com flash capital account thanks for watching and have a great night.