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 that can break through the global economic disaster but is that island nation really showing the rest of the world how to escape recession or is there more to this than meets the eye also right now the united states is experiencing one of its most worst influenza outbreaks recent memory what a far more deadly strain of the flu were to make its way into the general population would 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 krugman writes 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. that nation is of all places japan had

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 of fiscal stimulus have the market gods responded the answer is it's all good so it's criminal right is japan showing the rest of the world how to get out of this global recession let's ask alan fingal's an economics journalist contributor to forbes dot com and author of numerous books most recently in the joy 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 good crew going to disappoint that panas 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 sort of the authorities when they stimulate the economy. 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. well they have a protected market frankly so that in manufacturers'. they don't have to worry about. being undercut by china. they have. an industrial policy that makes sure that their jobs are pretty solid. and that is supported where necessary by. controls on imports we have the so-called deficit hawks here in the united states who are downright hysterical that our debt to g.d.p. ratio is depending on whose numbers you're using and whether social security somewhere that ever had a seventy percent or 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 it is their figures them on that circuit or on it's hard to know with just these figures for us 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 abroad and of course these days particularly borrow borrow from china in effect american defense policy these days and months to borrowing from china to defend the curled up from china

it is a totally nonsensical passage in india and what. what about austerity has just digit did your pant ever buy into the sauce sturdy stuff or have they always just. had you have they've just pretended to be following austerity when in fact they were not. there then just as a very rich country and people say they're encouraged to save they're not encouraged to consume so. steady in the sense that americans are seeing it and they have not experienced they're basically quite disciplined about saving and they don't spend much but. they have all the incest is that why for now but it basically has a job the unemployment rate are now fully adjusted basis according to the us government the unemployment rate dropped is there some four percent whereas in the united states on the same apples to apples basis it's nearly eight percent.

in just a half a minute left here and 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 particularly the ministry of finance those people really that decide on the issues and birth the politicians basically rubber stamp what's coming out of mr spencer really as anything autumn thank you so much for your thoughts inside the country. so sometimes you know if you know some names you know i could are now and sometimes as the fires and there are says everything you know is wrong. i know you think you know what you mean you're right. to make. sure.

you're always right. 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 of 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 gregory 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 intestinal 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 h five n 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 to us 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 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 kind of the worst case scenario as to mit 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 keep 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 worse 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 be better born bowler's 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 route of viruses 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 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 mondo's 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 kill 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 if a highly pathogenic view you went viral was that 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 trachea or the windpipe of birds it needs to mutate to better attach to human receptors but there's evidence that a 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 drive poultry factories or is this the wild birds i know of a few 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 on preston emergence of these highly pathogenic strains which have killed hundreds of millions of birds and it's. i want that is the you know when we cram tens of thousands of animals in these cramped filthy football fields. like b. 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 the so-called super strains of influenza trees so we're doing it to ourselves dr mike over thank you so much for being with us and thank you. after the break with a young today asian activist sudden self on fire the arab spring was born what kinds of change could or should the death of a young activist here in america where it.

makes life complete. and a happy family. or self-expression. that seems so true. when it's a. child. a mission. could you take three years for charges free. richmond's free. three stooges free. download free broadcast quality video for your media projects

a freebie deal done to our teeth dot com. 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 act a statement from the treasury released on saturday read neither the treasury department nor the federal reserve believes that the law and or should be used to facilitate the production of platinum coins for the perfect 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 and stablished 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 be concerned be very concerned. it's just. 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 the owners also encouraging the city council to take up the issue of formal zoning rules for medical marijuana distribution and he's director of 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. priebus the chairman of the republican national committee told the

milwaukee 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 that usually vote democratic in national elections. and i think it's something that a lot of states have been consistently blue that are fully controlled red ought to be looking at so it looks like republicans are content with expanding their two thousand and twelve election strategy and all else fails. and a very very ugly. match 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 thing argument 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 safe 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 it's really very. in the profiteers in hollywood and corporate america tried to wall up censor the internet last year with sopa and.

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 remembrances 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 get in a nation that doesn't consider health care especially mental health care a basic human right. but the depression alone didn't kill air 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 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 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 or 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 jay store itself subtle in the matter with their. 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 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 overzealous 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 who are 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 and 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 this is a gave attention to the threats to

a free and open internet and just as i 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's death it's clear that the problem that the progressive online community will not let aarons 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 to news oppressive government was toppled by largely nonviolent actions of average citizens so too were egypt's and libyans the 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. monday january fourteenth two thousand and thirteen for more information to any of the stories we covered visit our website to thom hartmann dot com free speech dead or get r t dot com and if you missed any and tonight's show you can now watch it in a studio who had all the dot com slash the big picture also check out our two you tube channels or a link to tom hartman dot com also there you can check out all the different ways you can send us feedback and don't forget marker supervenes when you get out there get active tag your suitable.

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