what about the big picture i'm tom arbonne coming up in this half hour some of the world's leading economists are suggesting the japan is a shining example of a country become great through the global economic disaster but is that island nation really showing the rest of the world how to escape recession or is that more of those. right now the united states is experiencing one of its most worst influenza outbreaks in recent memory what if a far more deadly strain of the flu were to make its way into the general

population would you be looking at the next great pandemic and over the weekend a young internet trailblazer an activist took his own life thanks in part to overzealous and possibly politically motivated or career chasing prosecutors how do we make sure that aaron swartz didn't die in vain and that his dreams and ideals for the american society are one day real. in the midst of the rest of the news in japan can we find a new way to break out of this global economic disaster that's the message economist paul krugman is trying to relay as recent new york times op ed crewman highlights how japan is breaking away from the austerity orthodoxy that is taking down much of europe and hampering growth here in the united states as crude minorites for three years economic policy throughout the advanced world has been

paralyzed despite high unemployment by a dismal austerity orthodoxy but now it seems that one major nation is breaking ranks and that nation is of all places japan and a prime minister abbay who has been pressuring the bank of japan into seeking higher inflation in effect helping to inflate away part of the government's debt and has also just announced a large new program a fiscal stimulus i have the market gods responded the answer is it's all good so it's crude when right is japan showing the rest of the world how to get out of this global recession let's ask a man fingal's an economics journalist contributor to forbes dot com and author of numerous books most recently in the jaws of the dragon a man walk welcome. great to be with you tom thank you it's great to have you with us is japan a model for the united states and anyway. that's

a very big question i think on balance no but krueger has a point that panders is doing a lot better than people realize and maybe there are some lessons from japanese. japan has much more control of its economy so that for instance the authorities when they stimulate the economy grow it works right through to jobs and their unemployment rate is much much lower than in the united states and has been all along what is the nature of that control. they have a protected market frankly so that in manufacturers'. they don't have to worry about. being under. china. they have. an industrial policy that makes sure that their jobs are pretty solid. supported were necessary but i controls on imports we have the so-called deficit hawks here

in the united states who are downright his stare at all that our debt to g.d.p. ratio is depending on whose numbers you're using and whether or not your kind of social security somewhere that ever had a seventy percent to one hundred ten percent and yet japan is over two hundred percent of their g.d.p. is dead is that not the case if i'm remembering correctly and if so why is that not a problem for them. well are they and their figures them on that circuit or are it's hard to know with japanese figures what's what's really going on because there may be double counting there but the larger issue here is that the deficit hawks in the united states are looking at the wrong thing they're looking at. the borrowing debt relative to the domestic economy what they should be looking at is the extent to which the united states is having to borrow berard and of course these days particularly borrow or borrow from china in effect american defense

policy these days and months to borrowing from china to defend the world from china it is a totally nonsensical position in india and what with what about our stare at he has just digit did your parents buy end of the sauce therapy stuff or have they always just. you have even just pretended to be following our sturdy way in fact they were not. on their own just as a very rich country and people say they're encouraged to save they're not encouraged to consume so. our stereotype in the sense that americans are seeing it and they have not experienced a they're basically quite disciplined about saving and they don't spend much but dearmer but they have all the incest is of life and everybody basically has

a job the unemployment rate are now fully adjusted basis according to the u.s. government the unemployment rate japan is there some four percent whereas in the united states on the same apples to apples basis it's nearly eight percent. we just to have a military man if prime minister are there. i think that the western press always exaggerates the extent to which partitions for have influence and in japan the key thing is the bureaucracy particular the ministry of finance those people really that decide on the issues and the politicians basically rubber stamp what's coming out of mr spencer really as anything autumn thank you so much for your advice and insight i treasure. so sometimes you know as you know sometimes you know what you don't know and sometimes is the fires and

peter says everything you know is wrong and you know that you're wrong if you think you're right. it's. not your fault. you know it's wrong. right now millions of americans are suffering from the flu thanks to one of the worst outbreaks of that virus in recent memory fortunately most of those suffering from the flu this year will fully recover from it however what if that wasn't the case one of millions of americans and billions of people worldwide contract that a strain of the flu and many or most of them died over the better part of the past two decades a killer strain of avian influenza bird flu has been ravaging asia europe in the middle east and even africa all the deadly strain has been as mostly affected only birds up to this point there are increasing concerns that it could become the world's next great and demick so if you think that the bird flu in birds is only

concern for poultry and wildlife and everything you know is wrong joining me now is dr michael greger director of public health an animal agriculture at the humane society of the united states and author of the book bird flu a virus of our own hatching dr gregor walker thank you thanks for joining us tonight what is this avian influenza this bird flu. and in a certain sense all influences originally avian influenza viruses existed for millions of years as a harmless and testing the water borne infection of aquatic birds like ducks but should it attack a land based animal like a chicken or a pig it can mutate into a airborne pathogen which is bad news for terrestrial mammals like ourselves can turn into a human flu. and and this bird flu right now that's in the birds what's what and why should we be concerned about it well all eyes are on this each file. one strain which is now endemic in poultry populations across four countries in the

rare instances where it's transmitted from poultry into people it's been exceedingly deadly the deadliest flu virus ever described currently the case fatality rate sixty percent don't even get a queen toss as to whether or not you live through this disease sixty percent what for can first of all age five and watch what was the deadly flu epidemic of one nine hundred eighteen one thousand with an h one n one bird virus but now the current concern is about this h five n one highly pathogenic highly disease causing strain particularly disease causing in birds but when it does get into people only about six hundred people have become infected but of those three hundred fifty have died the concern of the worst case scenario as to me it is what if this bird flu were able to mutate into easy human to human transmissibility should that happen we may be facing and that kind of what keeps viral just up at night something like the

black death in europe in the fourteenth century well i mean up to sixty million americans get the flu every year what if it turned deadly i mean the current you know c.d.c. category five pandemic definition is a two percent mortality virus like the one nine hundred eighteen pandemic which is the deadliest plague in human history and that was two percent that was two point five percent and now we have something at sixty percent so regular seasonal flu is about point one percent so twenty five deadly or twenty five times deadlier plague in history two point five percent twenty five times deadlier is this current h five n one so this if this were going to get better more on a ball others it's like crossing one of the deadliest known human diseases ebola with one of the most contagious known diseases influenza. the the coronavirus got loose out of out of china back about a decade ago or so sars is. a virus is the right a virus is the cold viruses are different from flu viruses but that moved very quickly

it got stopped very quickly by international action might we be looking at something like that or would this be in the system so fast there'd be no way to stop you can't stop influenza see the difference between sars and influenza is that first song ours you become symptomatic and then you become contagious and so you could set up temperature at airports or you know any one of the fever get on the on the plane but with influenza you are shedding virus for a day or two before you will the first sniffle before the sore throat and so you're passing this virus around that's why you can't quarantine it that's why you cannot stop influenza and we know that year after year after year millions of americans become infected but only one thousand die usually elderly the infirm but the concern is what a highly pathogenic virulent virus what's the route this virus would take to become a human pathogen it would have to mutate to better settle into the human lungs right now it's good it infecting the particular viral receptors that coat the

trache or the windpipe of birds it needs to mutate to better attach to human receptors but there's evidence that this strain in indonesian a strain in egypt or are acquiring slowly those mutations in fact in indonesia last year it was a hundred percent mortality every person that got the h five n one bird flu died does this have any relation to destroy agriculture giant poultry factories or is this the wild birds i know will see that's where these highly pathogenic strains are thought to come from i mean again we've we've domesticated birds for thousands of years it's really just been in the last few years where everything is unpressed and emergence of these highly pathogenic strains which have killed hundreds of millions of birds and it's. that is the you know when we cram tens of thousands of animals in these cramped filthy football fields. like to be cursed not just now to top their own ways it's kind of a perfect storm environment for the merchants and spread of these so-called super strains of influenza choose so we're doing it to ourselves dr mike over thank you

so much for being with us and thank you. after the break when a young tunisian activist set himself on fire the arab spring was born what kinds of change could or should the death of a young activist here in america where. i think the worst you're going to think. white house soup of a. radio guy minutes from a click. away. because you've never seen anything like this i'm sorry. let me let me i want to know what not let me ask you a question from. here on this network is what we have in the bank we have our

knives out for. the truth is this right it's about staying there if you get here in a situation where b. and i don't agree to talk about surveillance me. 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 realized everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm tom harpur welcome to the big picture.

and welcome back one quick story to update you on i guess we can take the trillion dollar platinum coin off the table just like the fourteenth amendment solution the obama administration ruled out using a platinum coin to raise the debt ceiling should republicans in the house not at a statement from the treasury released on saturday read neither the treasury department nor the federal reserve believes that the walk and or should be used to facilitate the production of platinum coins for the first purpose of avoiding an increase in the debt limit and with that the best chance for ronald reagan a man who ran up a lot of our debt the first place to stablish the practice to have his face put on

the u.s. coin was lost white house spokesman jay carney said that there's no backup plan it's just up to congress to raise the debt limit in other words the fate of the entire global economy is in the hands of house republicans the concern to be very concerned. just. the. it's the good the bad and the very very. goal is slowly. the good san diego mayor bob filner filner has memos designing and code enforcement officers in san diego ordering them to end all code actions against medical marijuana facilities in that city filner is also encouraging the city council to take up the issue of formal zoning rules for medical marijuana distribution and he's directed the city's police chief to end all

medical marijuana enforcement actions elected in november filner actually ran largely on a platform decriminalizing marijuana and protecting the use of medical marijuana looks like mayor filner is one politician who understands just how outdated and ineffective our nation's drug laws are let's hope it's just the first of many. the bad the bad rants priebus priebus the chairman of the republican national committee told the aki wisconsin journal sentinel that republicans across the country need to do more gerrymandering in order to gain electoral votes in states that are republican controlled but usually vote democratic in national elections. i think it's something that a lot of states have been consistently blue that are fully controlled red to be looking at so it looks like republicans are content with expanding their two thousand and twelve election strategy when all else fails reveal action and the

very very ugly. back the former republican congressman was on c.n.n. this morning live from newtown connecticut the wake of the one month anniversary of the newtown tragedy mack told c.n.n. soledad o'brien that it's impossible to stop people who want to do bad things and therefore congress is wasting its time talking about new gun control measures act went on to say that passing new laws only serves to quote restrict the law abiding citizens of these countries rights of the bad people do bad things are good went on the right is a very popular one on the right but it certainly isn't a reason to give up making america's schools streets and communities safer mack is content with the notion that there will always be gun violence in america and that we shouldn't try to prevent it and that is really very.

in the profiteers in hollywood and corporate america tried to wall up censor the internet last year with sopa and. activists needed a spark to fight back against this assault on the free and open web and aaron swartz was there the internet trailblazer an activist who had already contributed such things to the web as an early version of the r.s.s. feed and read it stood up and joined the vanguard in this movement he co-founded the organization demand progress which was instrumental in leading the largest online protest in the history of the internet against sopa and pipe. thanks to this effort on january eighteenth two thousand and twelve tens of thousands of websites blacked out and ultimately sopa and pipa were defeated by this online grassroots activism today that same internet is blacked out with remembrances and obituaries

of aaron swartz who took his own life over the weekend and in each of these remember and says aaron is described as a spark that made things happen and for the rest of us who still believe is there and did in a free and open internet and a compassionate and just nation a message he often espoused as a guest on the show and we can only hope he provides the same sort of spark in death that he did in life he was never afraid to talk about the depression he battled most of his life often giving eloquent and deeply personal insight into how difficult it is to fight this disease ultimately aaron lost his battle with depression just like so many other americans who never receive the help they need in a nation that doesn't consider health care especially mental health care a basic human right. but the depression alone didn't kill. in a statement released over the weekend aaron's family placed the blame on our justice department which was prosecuting aaron for an incident that happened on the

campus of mit back in two thousand and eleven aaron snuck into a utility closet on mit's campus plugged a computer into the network and began downloading millions of academic journals that were stored behind it a wall belonging to the on line database j. store. aaron likely knew this was illegal although the expert witness for his defense alex stamos argued that aaron's actions may not have been criminal after all regardless aaron was an activist who was willing to challenge the status quo of corporate war welfare copyright laws that restrict the flow of free flow of information from academic journals to movies and music on the internet and he was willing to blur the lines of legality in this effort in fact aaron was acting in the spirit of thomas jefferson who himself was not too keen on the idea of heavy handed patents on ideas and intellectual property as he wrote nine hundred thirteen

that ideas should freely spread from one to another over the globe for the moral and mutual instruction of man and improvement of his condition seems to have been peculiar and benevolently designed by nature when she made them like fire expanse of all over space without lessening their density in any point and like the air and which you breathe move and have our physical being incapable of confinement or exclusive appropriation jefferson one concluded inventions then cannot in nature be a subject of property society may give an exclusive right to the profits arising from them as an infringement of men to pursue ideas which may produce utility but this may or may not be done according to the will and convenience of the society without claim or complaint from any one. given the activism we've seen on the internet over the last few years one could conclude that just as jefferson described patent and copyright laws should be changed according to the will and

convenience of the society this was one of aaron's pursuits that's not to justify its crime but instead to put it in some much needed context there are gray haired lawmakers and corporate suits writing laws that no longer makes sense given how the vast majority of this new generation actually uses the internet and arguably we're nearing a tipping point in which this disconnect will become untenable this might explain why the department of justice reacted to aaron's mit antics in the way that it did rather than see ground in this upcoming struggle the powers that be wanted to squash the struggle from the get go by making an example of their despite it being a victimless crime and j. store itself subtle in the matter with their the department of justice threw the book at him he was charged with multiple crimes and facing the possibility of serving decades in prison a harsher penalty

a harsher punishment than most killers bank robbers child pornographers or even terrorist sympathizers get the secret service even involve itself in the matter and at the urging of the u.s. attorney for the massachusetts district carmen ortiz aaron was looking at the very real possibility of spending much of the rest of his life in prison. as aaron's family said in a statement his death was the result of an exceptionally harsh shari'a of charges carrying potentially over thirty years in prison to punish an alleged crime that had no victims aaron was an activist not a murderer the punishment for his crime should have reflected that reality but it didn't. instead aaron was dogged to death by an oversea list justice department that targets activists and whistleblowers with all its fury while turning a blind eye to actual criminals thieves and murderers on wall street and in

corporate america this is the same sort of prosecutorial overreach we're now getting used to in a nation that more and more resembles a police state it's a nation where soldiers like bradley manning whistleblowers like john kerry. politicians like former alabama governor don siegelman who dared to take on karl rove and medical marijuana growers receive the full brunt of the american justice system and suffer dearly for their crimes or non crimes but at the same time banks who steal billions of dollars and corporate executives who are responsible for the deaths of their employees that oil rigs in a mine shaft never see a day in jail. remember when conservative photojournalist james o'keefe and his colleagues walked into a sitting united states senator's office and tried to wiretap or phones o'keefe got three years probation. but aaron's crime was worth thirty years in

a million dollar fine. it's clear if you are right winger defending the oligarchy of corporate america or the justice department gives you a break but if you try to speak truth to america and protect the common man's access to information and economic opportunity then you're treated as an enemy of the state the occupy movement drew attention to those two tiered corrupt justice system just as it gave attention to the threats to a free and open internet and just as it gave attention to the broader struggle underway in america taken over by wall street and corporate executives out to destroy what's left of the american middle class. in aaron's death all of these justice injustices again confront us and based on what we've seen so far on the internet the days since aaron stuff it's clear that the problem that the progressive online community will not let aaron's fight be forgotten often out of the tragedy of death comes

a spark that makes life better for the rest of us who are living we saw that play out in tunisia when a young street vendor mohamed bouazizi set himself on fire to protest the kleptocratic rule of his government and bring attention to the suffering of his generation within weeks tunisia's oppressive government was toppled by largely nonviolent actions of average citizens so too were egypt's and libya's arab spring was let's hope that aaron's death will be just like his life a spark for nonviolent revolutionary change to bring about a more just freer and more equitable america. and that's the way it is that i have monday january fourteenth two thousand and thirteen more information than any of the stories we covered visit our website the thom hartmann dot com free speech dot org and our team. and if you missed any and tonight's show you can now watch it in h.d. on hulu at hulu dot com slash the big picture also check out our two you tube channels

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