syrian government troops will stop all military operations on thursday morning in accordance with the u.n. brokered deadline pour a cease fire with opposition fighters. the british prime minister turns his tour of asia into a weapon sales pitch seeking arms deals with nations in the pacific and move many see as an attempt to undermine china's growing ground. and a powerful earthquake and subsequent aftershocks triggered tsunami warnings in indonesia own several other countries in the indian ocean. next it's over to our

washington studios and capital account with lauren lyster who explains how the political process works when it comes to money being thrown around. good afternoon and welcome to capital account i'm lauren lyster here in washington d.c. easier headlines grable ten two thousand and twelve u.s. president barack obama makes a case in florida for the buffett rule a minimum tax rate for millionaires take a look. at warren buffett is paying a lower tax rate than his secretary. that's well. that's not. well then he reportedly has to a fifteen thousand dollars a head campaign fundraiser so how does that work exactly that presumably wealthy people paying fifteen grand for a dinner with obama are giving him money for him to raise their taxes what do you think that it 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. right yes. it would be if i have to call you brown mr president. well that's a casino jack movie version of his story in real life 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 in washington will get an inside look also look at how to be a crook. instead of just printing money and buying stuff or did you print money in the learn is there are people. it's that simple 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 lobbying 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 so 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 of this is commercial banks and they spent sixteen 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 could 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 post financial crisis seems to really have been dogged frank 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 jack we played a bit of he was convicted on charges of fraud corruption and conspiracy related to his illegal lobbying efforts back in two thousand and six he did the time he was released in two thousand and ten and has been speaking out against lobbying since

then working to reform the system jack avram off is here he's a lobbyist as i said also author of capita. punishment the hard truth about washington corruption from america's most notorious lobbyist so thank you so much for being on the show purpose for having me and i think our viewers are going to be really excited to hear how this really works from someone who's experienced first hand so you have called god being legalized bribery i heard you say that a number of times in what ways are these methods the legal not used to lobby special interests because. not all lobbying is bribery not wilding is bad and lobbying is guarantee of our constitution to petition our government we're only sorry and there are no yes no world where money comes into play and use resources and money and our clients use it to tilt the playing field that's where the bribery comes in and that's where the corruption comes in and that break lee 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 things like that and that's a corruption will give me an example of what you would consider legalized bribery well any time but i didn't hope this way by the way when i was a lobbyist obviously i have a different view of the matter but any time yes yes well i never 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 give something donation and we'll say 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 on behalf of the american people and giving them things or raising money for them that that's private law that's an 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 lobbyists can say they have the most is the reason why these these folks if you look at the convert. certainly the senate races they cost tens of millions of dollars they have to spend their time raising money all the time to people who have been sent to get their money or 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 somebody gives the money that they have to at least be attentive to their needs and them certainly do everything they want but 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 for a lobby well i hold by the way that any amount gets them going because that the 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 go on and prolification well maybe some of this certainly don't

but at least 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 does anything that's good starts the process and that's why we have to cut off all money from lobbyists their clients to public officials if 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. morgans of the world that are spending a lot of money i mean of course not exactly i mean the people who are spending a lot of money are getting all the more it's not the ten dollars everybody's equal can give ten dollars or ten million dollars i guess what i'm saying is once the process starts 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 some specifics because you've been writing recently about one of your clients that was tyco in the past and how you convince members of congress not to impose a retroactive tax on inverting 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 the attack there a typo came to me they were basically far down the road to being in trouble because 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 of your picky companies and it's all the benders of all the companies the heads of all these vendors and organize them to call the senators and the congressman so as to say to them listen we're your donors who are your friends who are your neighbors and what are you doing you're killing the goose that laid the golden basically you're interfering in business in a way that is unfair they actually were proposing to put a retroactive tax so the tune of about four point eight billion dollars on psycho that would have wiped them out and basically wiped out all these lenders as well so i don't lobby it now i used to be hard to get out of this is how great the bathtub

but that's 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 in the districts into the states and this is one of the dangers by the way with the decision systems united super pacs that lobbyists can marshal unlimited funds that they are 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 that you think that's going on now is worse than when you were a lobbyist and i don't know who was worse was pretty bad as a lot of is that 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 than anybody else and we in fact one of our only lost one time over ten years and that's because of the research side that tilts 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 spends a lot of money and we've seen it bank bank continue to get what they want it's. ours regulation is our is that in backing the bills the taxes the rules i mean beyond a bailout that we saw in two thousand and eight so i want to talk a little bit about you actually brought up by one of your recent pieces you talked about what the top lobbyist that really 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 logging 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 he said they were going to deploy some grassroots pressure that's known as astor turf and you said come on i don't buy that is working what how do you think the banks are effective well and lobbying and getting their way but i think one of the things i had i took issue with what he did was that he's he's announcing what he's a doing 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 lost on. the dancefloor go on or has been going on in washington for years they have put hypocritical bands actually boarded that whole situation but interesting do you think that that shows that that lobbyist feel they can get away with anything they don't even have to take kind of give the p.r. to make it sound like they're not trying in fact i think that's definitely the case certainly in this case and i think we find another others to lobbyist feel all powerful lobbyists and such as i was really get almost everything they want because you know there's no you have a team of people you know this is tim you have experts on your staff as i did who know every intricate detail that 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 so play golf they're not you're traveling to them they're not you're doing advantage over the common people and anyone who's frankly doesn't have

the resources you do so then i kind of got us off track because of the tangent on his comments. how do you think the banking sector gets their interest in well i think the banking sector to the degree that anything proposes a tax increase they have a built in advantage in the sense of republicans are just not in favor of tax increases and they're on paper closing loopholes unless the marginal rate comes down so anything that's proposed that can be fashioned is a 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 repeated 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 talk about lobbyists that come all the capitol hill they are often times members who were on those committees they not only know every intricate detail they know all the players are going to make 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 mentally effective net

industry and by the way many industries that it's not lobbying is to find somebody who knows the game 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 lobby and 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 k. street by to wall street so we will have more with jackie there and former lobbyists in a moment still ahead we will have more with mr abrams i want to find out if they maybe money has bought junk or design in free and experience now if it goes that far at first or close the market and there's.

wealthy british. markets. into the global economy. for. the. super exists. welcome back we're talking to jack every month former super lobbyist about the influence that wall street and the actual sector has on the political process so let's talk about the revolving door because we started before the break now the center for responsive politics reports thirteen hundred ninety former government

workers employees worked as a 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 financial services committee now he's a lobbyist some of his clients include now dak thompson reuters trent lott the former senate majority leader lobbying firm clients include citi group goldman sachs g.e. great the on another example of you richard gephardt house majority leader formerly now the firm that he works for clients include boeing goldman sachs g b that so jack abrams off 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 i need companies what do they get with that it's the it's the connections here is the connections the access but it's also the expertise there are people of immense importance the german of that you put up on the screen

are obviously incredibly powerful but there are only three among the many that you mention by the way it's not just again this sector this is happening in every sector revolving door soon so quickly in washington there's really no way you can go to watch people dump right out of the clone verse and jump right into the logging world the influence world they often will cope themselves 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 logging industry lobbying the way and then just sneaking under the under the radar and we don't american american people want to actually get to see it because it strategic adviser is one that is kind of a code name and you call for ending the revolving door craft i do i do working with the united. in some of the other reform groups we're trying to come up with a point 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 republican what you mentioned a staffer and i want to talk about that because you talk about how you used to hire them and years in advance rights of it and they feel like they're almost working for you when they're still working for these members and i mean it just an example that second 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 this hampers when they come off the hill or actually more affected the members i would actually try never to hire members because they were kind of lazy and they were sort of self-important and felt entitle stampers were real raisers and killers they could get things done they knew exactly where the trains were flying to and book how to put things on them and unfortunately you members are generally a little less active let's just 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 administration personally frankly i think it's fine if you want to see several things one they don't have any big pat parting package financial package will see them get a several million dollars as a little gift on the way out there they don't have that a number two they can't go back once they make it into the ministration that's it now they have to find some. work if that were to happen frankly i don't think we'd see any of them doing it but then you're reasoning with the staffers and hiring them early with 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 these kind of seriously absolutely i mean they have so-called protections to keep people sequestered from certain issues but the truth is they. they all wind up influencing this 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 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 them to help will or they're getting ready to come back off capitol hill and they are indeed working on being at the interest of actually going to benefit probe and i want to along those lines talk about some of the washington wall street revolving door movements 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 graham 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 frog 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 the vice chairman first a group robert rubin former treasury secretary joined citi group he was chairman of the executive committee that's the group board of course before he was treasury secretary he was a top trader and exact

a goldman sachs so before you say you don't really disagree with this is this ok well i it depends what they do if they're coming out and there were bad expertise the other way is phil gramm i think does he was thinking economics professor maybe ruben as well pay their 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 mostly doesn't happen though i think most of them are very involved in the government affairs strategies because they know it better than anybody humor government appears that they will that's why they're desirable to a firm like sort of goldman sachs 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 if they're going to make bad 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 affairs yeah i don't know how to get

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 contributions and john corazon is the number one guy ok nine hundred sixteen thousand dollars over the years eight point seven one of the top spots we know with m.f. global his firm imploded and he is seemingly still customer money was the c.e.o. of that firm i have not seen him in cuffs 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 administration space are going to be the decision of the administration. the people of the just certainly those have worked on my case that the trial attorney and law and 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 if the political decisions that are

made at these sort of top of the just apartment sometimes you call and say in a republican administration that they're going to really go after a republican i kind of had a little bit of that myself you know with the with the bush administration were they make the other decision because when administration was famous for not going after their people what the obama administration will do we just don't know i can't imagine for a minute nobody at the just government is looking into this even if it's at a very low level i can imagine also that somehow former governor corazon is there in the clear probably going to need to go through all these things that a crime is committed to going to very tough time ignoring that i think the pressure from the republicans will be immense and i think the administration doesn't need that headache so they do see something there i would unfortunately for senator corson 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 jackie brown author and former lobbyist.

live . all right let's wrap it up with loose change i've got to train shannon to talk about a few. loose coins so have you ever had an interest in being a crook well we have good news for you there is a you tube clip detailing how did you just that unfortunately he also details how your being rog every day let's see if you notice any similarities. they will all be reduced to impoverished slaves for you to do with as you please you said this to make a little markos sociopath a bastard. so they're the narrator was referring to bank loans so if you want to be to super owns the world so many someone unfortunately already being too it's

a way to me the banker the sadistic mogul michael bastard banker the federal reserve on top of the heap right but the banks also create loans out of thin air they create money out of nothing on their loan to keep fractional reserve lending right but it is not exactly that they don't have reserves that nothing well they do have reserves but they really don't actually because there's no reserve system there's not a right because the loan to value the loans that make are become the reserves because the capital the system of discrete loans and they lend it to us of the way they need to fall and they think their home and that's pretty much the system that's why this is the itself of the story the middle class and all you have of having is these all of them are sitting on top of this. system where everyone is working for nothing in the whole system just collapsed and you have these rocker hoods on the jungle and in the forests shooting people with arrows and gangsters like that that's the world we're heading into that's what hunger games all about people should watch these very dark where you are in advertising promoting them there let's move on to. the number that ok with this

a shuttle program ending last year nasa needed a new way to get it astronauts into space and to earth for richard branson and virgin galactic. we have a great relationship with. this author ready please study nasa to see that here like that space travel will continue. to go over the next five or six years while they get to build the new vehicles or move over branson because as shift in policy could open up space 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 chilled body that has been signed by one hundred countries including the us but there is a loophole in the tree which is not explicitly prohibit ownership of space resources by private enterprises of course the us is taking imperial mission to the

outer space saying hey we can make this private property for you. and listen well right 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 entrepreneurship be out there and try to mind some some fields of like that get things going 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 intrapreneur ism and capitalism is one of those birds and you want to get those young entrepreneurs that are now also going to want to get them into space ships and space suits and off of the space mining some space rocks and make some stuff happen in space that's what i'd like to see that's all about i don't know what happens when the aliens come and dispute your property rights janet. i'm not sure about that but the p.r. campaign in order to get someone to go and be entrepreneurial in your anus is going

to be ok. ok well good thing that they are out of time so we can hear dimitris response that's all we come time for i think we're doing it and don't forget to follow me on twitter out lauren lyster give us feedback on the show at youtube dot com flash powerful account thanks for watching and have a great night.