tv Cross Talk RT November 20, 2013 4:30pm-5:01pm EST
4:30 pm
there i marinate it this is boom bust and here are some of the stories we're tracking for you today first stop the boat will will will it or won't it be up and running by the end of the year that's the question on deck as the ruling faces new obstacles from top the regulators we'll tell you what's going on coming right up and big banks sure are known for their loyalty aren't they especially when it comes to governments that bail them out right right you know we'll tell you about j.p. morgan's already whipped up plans for a u.s. debt default and finally lori wallach from public citizen fred watson joins me live in here to discuss the controversial transpacific partnership agreement say that three times fast you won't want to miss it and it all starts right now.
4:31 pm
kicking off your boom bust headlines the volcker rule it faces new hurdles today as top regulators argue that the law is too soft on banks now officials from the security and exchange commission along with you see have to see are threatening to further delay its implementation the ruling was slated to go into effect at the end of this year now the newly installed democratic commissioner of the f.c.c. chorus john has raised a number of concerns about the current version of the wall strong believes the rules allows banks to sidestep its intended purpose now these new objections are
4:32 pm
creating a frantic scramble by regulators to complete the rule which is intended to curb risk taking and ban banks from trading on their own games. now elsewhere when the u.s. was threatening to default on its debts last month big banks wasted no time coming up with a plan b. now it was reported by reuters that quote major u.s. banks set up war rooms spend many millions of dollars on contingency planning and in some cases even prepared to underwrite federal government benefits talk about cutting your losses and running the front runners maybe perhaps i don't know now this is all according to a series of interviews with top banking officials the planning for a worst case scenario situation it didn't come cheap either in recent years j.p. morgan alone has spent more than one hundred million dollars on contingency plans for a potential u.s. budget crisis and all that money may not go to waste with another impending budget
4:33 pm
crisis likely for february that's when the current temporary budget agreements run out. and finally before the federal reserve winds back its loose monetary policy it seems us corporations are issuing more bonds than ever before in an effort to take advantage of these rock bottom interest rate prices now the only problem with this is that every borrow or borrow or needs to eventually be paid back and in twenty eighteen that could be the year when the borrowing bevvy begins to it home now according to deal logic a record one point one trillion dollars worth of corporate debt is scheduled to mature in twenty eighteen that was also be the third straight year when companies will need to either refinance or pay back more than one trillion in borrowing concerns about the corporate debt with our center are centered around these high yield markets now the debt maturing between twenty sixteen and twenty eighteen is predominantly made up and of investment grade debt or bonds issued by blue chip
4:34 pm
companies and with interest rates likely to be higher in twenty eighteen than they are today companies will have to pay up ford well there you have it we'll be tracking these stories and keeping you posted on all the latest. the virtual currency bit coin took a step forward this week in terms of mainstream acceptance now the senate banking committee took up the topic on a special hearing that was called the present and future impact of virtual currencies i was on the hill covering the hearings tuesday and here's what some of the senators had to say about these virtual currencies. becomes a standard currency or tool it could radically and dramatically
4:35 pm
transform. the role of central banks monetary policy i have been worried about bitcoin so that because it's so complicated it could. be it could facilitate illegal activities or terrorist activities or bitcoin wallets like instant wallet going to replace swiss bank accounts. so many questions well before you make a wish on bitcoin it would be best to get some of the facts straight now earlier i spoke with john young we of the bitcoin foundation and i asked her whether the very fact that these hearings were taking place at all was a step forward for the virtual currency here's what she had to say. it's a great opportunity for the foundation and the members in the streets to educate to educate the public to educate the media on what the queen is and what the queen is that were you surprised by the reception positive reception you know basically both
4:36 pm
this and those in the hearing and the media response to how they responded we were a little surprised but at the same time not because what we have found are these government agencies and even the members of congress and their staff they've taken a very reasonable approach to big claim and said this is a new technology it's not going away so how do we find ways for it to fit into existing regulatory structures so you find them fighting progress less than may be reported sometimes yes definitely ok now one of the federal reserve ben bernanke he he said in a written statement he wasn't at the hearing on monday but he said a recent written statement quote here i let me get this up on screen i think we have a picture of it now although the federal reserve generally monitors developments and virtual currencies and other payment systems innovations it does not necessarily have authority to directly supervisor regulate these innovations or the entities that provide them to the market now what does this mean from
4:37 pm
a legal standpoint in terms of cryptocurrency well i think zachary politico capsize or analyzed the hearing on monday very well he said basically a lot of different agencies have taken a look at the coin have decided that it's nothing that they can't handle and that may already fit into regulatory existing structures and so it's nothing new they just need more resources in order to adapt to the new technology but not necessarily more laws on the books those are already there are plenty of i mean banking financial services. in america so what these agencies are finding is laws already exist we just have to understand and apply existing laws to the technology ok now the justice department's acting attorney assistant attorney general is probably in a bunch of this mess fairly ramana i believe that's correct she said that we all recognize virtual currencies and. want to serve virtual currencies and are not
4:38 pm
illegal like we were saying before you know this is an illegal thing as it stands today does this very kind of say enough to keep crypto currencies from further scrutiny by the government it does appear as if a clean community can breathe a sigh of relief knowing that you know the agencies members of congress are not out to get them they understand that this is a new technology that holds a lot of promise not just for america but for the global south for the millions of people that are being around the world and they are wanting to let the industry foster and grow much like the internet they just want to sit back let's see how it grows and see what innovation comes out of it you know there was a massive rally in the price of bitcoin on monday i believe valued sort of went all the way past seven hundred the first time it ever done that now do you believe that the rally was a sign of the government that the government would not stand in the way of big
4:39 pm
point because the fact that the government came out pretty much said we're going to let this continue and figure out how to work with it. triggered this incredible rally. i think i mean as a foundation we don't typically comment on the price because the price is not what's important what's important is that the protocol stays open source and that people can build upon that. i think with the surge in price there's you know the government is actually going to pay more attention but we're not afraid of that because their approach has been pretty reasonable. now much of the demand for digital currencies that comes from countries where you know they have banking sectors they're looking to improve upon this do you think the central bank is that all the u.s. central bank is that all threatened by this reality. so to go back on the first question this search for the demand for because it is not just dictated by countries it's. it's brought on by mainstream people by investors by entrepreneurs
4:40 pm
who see this as the next evolution of payments much like how credit cards allowed us to buy things without. allows us to securely buy things online and transact peer to peer the second part of the question is that. why you have one part questions now do you think the central banks here the u.s. central bank is threatened by the this could pose that this is good for countries with weaker banking systems. i don't think the central bank has anything to worry about the coin is not meant to replace existing currencies it's meant to complement and so some people are going to choose to use the coin other people are going to choose to stay with their credit cards other people are still going to only use cash now the big going foundation it's reported you guys are considering moving your headquarters citing the regulatory concerns here in the us is there any truth to this so i think it's not the point foundation but what you're hearing is because
4:41 pm
companies are moving overseas because of actually the lack of regulation because there isn't aside from the fence and guidance we're still waiting for the other agencies to come out with so this is how quickly it fits in our existing structure and so without that especially for example the i r s i r s hasn't provided any guidance on how people with a client account for that during tax season it makes it very hard for companies to plan and so some of them have considered moving overseas do you think of anything on the books. or because we hope so there are a lot of people who will want to know how to comply with the law or the one of us will be able to continue to keep all their crimes to grow now pay taxes on it now also this week it was the first court court hearing on the silk road case and during those senate hearings on big court on monday and tuesday there there was much concern expressed about bitcoin being used for illicit purposes almost
4:42 pm
exclusively not the good stuff do you expect to see extensive legislative legislative action and regulation on crypto currencies in the near future so again while the agencies and the foundation as well we admit that criminals they will use anything to achieve their deeds to achieve their goals and so while we don't expect greater or more legislation we expect agencies to as we understand big quite see how it fits in their existing structures and. where we're not afraid of what's ahead. that was genuinely england from the big question foundation coming up later it's big deal and we're going to talk about who's your ideal boss to gender really make a difference well you might be surprised to find out that many people prefer the males to males ladies are a joke or as is and i discuss this in today's big deal it's all coming up stay tuned.
4:43 pm
4:44 pm
this week a new round of trans-pacific partnership t p p talks commenced in salt lake city utah now representatives from twelve countries are meeting to discuss what crude be the world's largest free trade deal however exactly what is being discussed is unknown as the negotiations are being kept secret from the public and even congress now activists have gathered outside the meetings to protest and joining me now to
4:45 pm
discuss the t p p is lori wallach director of public citizens global trade watch thank you laurie for being here we're glad to have you now first and foremost i want to start by asking you transpacific partnership agreement i want to make this clear to the audience it's been highly criticized for its lack of transparency and even michael froman u.s. trade representative to the people he has even acknowledge these transparency issues now why do you think even our representative to the t.p. is acknowledging these issues does what i think happened well in a moment of candor the top trade official admitted the last time that what the public looked at the text of one of these agreements they couldn't finish it to me and well more importantly someone like senator elizabeth warren is what's in the agreement is so problematic you have to keep it from the american public you have probably shouldn't sign that agreement now what do we know about the meetings and
4:46 pm
from the meetings that have gone on this week so this is allegedly going to be the last big push to make a deal it's twenty nine chapters about ten of them are done the remaining chapters are not mainly about trade they would set up corporate tribunals or foreign companies could attacked each government outside their courts and demand cash compensation out of our treasuries not making this up that chapter leaked jack up medicine prices new monopolies. in a free trade agreement for big pharma grannies medicine prices go up limits on internet freedom remember that sneaky online limiting advocacy that parts that no copyright chapter limits on food safety their limits on financial regulation it is like a big corporate trojan horse painted to say free trade. is about to get rolled right through congress but there's what to be done folks can stop it it's not necessary that it be something we have to live with we all work together can
4:47 pm
you expand on how folks can stop it so i would say there are two big things one of them we call the dracula strategy something this secretive and rotten does not do well in the sunshine so folks need to make sure they know the details just the basics of what we do on your mind their lives and to make sure their friends do their colleagues do the place to go is expose the t p p w w w expose the t p p it lays out exactly all the ways to undermine you it has a huge provision offshoring of jobs and it tells you how to get involved specifically which types of multinational corporations are most likely to benefit from this agreement well while the public's out in the press is out there are six hundred official corporate advisors to the trade negotiations and it reads like the who's who of the big fortune five hundred multinationals so the guys who really love it the big pharmaceutical companies because they could raid medicine prices the big oil and gas companies because we give them a new rights to get out from under the kind of laws that both protect consumers and
4:48 pm
the environment the chronic us jobs offshore so the big manufacturing companies have a brand name but if shipped all their jobs away this deal has vietnam in it that's goal low wage alternative to offshoring jobs compared even to china so they're all thinking we can have all these cheap jobs profit no more us jobs basically is every company that you didn't love before. got together to try to achieve what they can't do in congress through the sneaky back door and i want to get to that in a second but first can you talk to me about the currency manipulation and how it comes into play in the trans-pacific partnership agreement and we understand it but it's kind of expanded on a you bet so right theoretically able to trade agreements about trade which this one mainly is it's about cutting border taxes and there is a chapter that's about that and here's the problem let's say you have a border tax of twenty percent on tuna fish we make a deal you want my apples i want you to fish you both say we're taking the border
4:49 pm
taxes out but they knew devalue the value of your currency so suddenly when i exchanged my currency to your currency it was so you devalued twenty percent it's like you just put your tariff back twenty percent even though you just cut tariffs so if a trade agreements doesn't simultaneously make sure you can't cheat by changing the value of the currency anything you bargain for to send more exports to your country you can take away the change in a currency so two hundred thirty house members and sixty senators wrote a letter to president obama it is true that many don't agree on anything because obviously democrats and republicans and they said that c.p.p. has to have currency cheating rules because as countries have had a history of cheating with the currency to get more exports to us and not take their imports and so far the administration is just ignored the u.s. congress it's interesting number two p.p. might change bans on risky financial products including the toxic derivatives that
4:50 pm
we always hear so much about how does this fit into the trade agreement how does this play into the tepee so this is the part a lot of people have a hard time believing so again go to expose the t p p dot org the binding provision of the agreement is each signatory country shall ensure the conformity of all of its laws regulations and procedures so what that means is the united states has congress has sat we read. elation for the bank stirs in the wall street disaster makers. that were. implemented. but we all have right now the congress makes those rules if this agreement were to go into a fact we'd have to conform our domestic laws to all these constraints on policy so what here are two really clear ones we know about are ready from leaks number one you simply can't bear a risky derivative or other financial product if you have taken market access
4:51 pm
commitments a band is considered a zero quote we consider a bad or something risky could be the way to have financial stability for both second thing you can't use were called capital controls or other what are called macro prudential regulations so that would be friends to stop speculators from jacking up the currency and then raiding it causing your help to do basically happened iceland among other countries you're not supposed to be able to use any of the mechanisms that would stop that kind of speculation what the heck is that doing a trade agreement it's behind the borders it's anti sovereignty and it's not me interest to most of us and that's what they're trying to finish a t.p. pay can you answer what is it going to be on a trade agreement well you know it's basically been incredibly clever branding stunts because in the us there is this peculiar elite consensus free trade good no one thinks about what's in the agreement as a recovering trade attorney i actually read the damn things and the philosophers of
4:52 pm
free trade like adam smith and david ricardo are rolling in their graves because it's like one page of real free trade tariffs and then all the other stuff is again like a trojan horse you put the brand what a nice present and then it rolls right into your country and causes disaster now the good news is in the u.s. constitution this agreement can only go into effect if congress says yes so even if the administration signs it does it mean anything all of us need to get real noise . see the site's going to be in the house of representatives not the senate if we all call our house members and insist that they keep their constitutional authority over trade because now president obama's trying to get the delegates away is the fast track that i ask if you want to can you quickly expand on what that is so fast track is this procedure that was actually cooked up by richard nixon and the idea was to get congress to give away all of its authorities in the u.s. constitution that the founders gave control over trade and the right to write legislation and just ask track a president would be allowed to sign an agreement before congress votes write
4:53 pm
legislation remember from civics class that's not what the president does that's what congress does and then put that through congress guaranteed vote ninety days no amendments limit to debate a verbal legislative lose run if there's normal process because congress has to give that away if congress doesn't give it away it does not exist that's where you and i and everyone watching can make the difference because if we make sure our member of the house of representatives simply says i'm not giving away my constitutional authority there is no way this stinky d.p.p. will get through a normal process very one takes a good look it's not going by warren thank you for your time and concisely and clearly explaining what's going on here behind the g.o.p. really appreciate and hope to have you back that was a lorry wallach director of the public citizen's global trade watch time now for today's big deal.
4:54 pm
thanks. thanks. thanks thanks. thanks. thanks. rachel crow as she joins me now to chalk a ballot to the corporate hierarchy who. the hierarchy now hollywood stereotypes be controlling demanding boss doesn't paint such a pretty picture for women check it out. emily how many times you have to scream your name actually it's andy my name is andy andrea that everybody calls me andy. i need ten or fifteen skirts from calvin klein ok what kind of skirts to use these bore someone else with your questions and make sure we have people. who are called however male bosses they
4:55 pm
don't look much better either check this one out. the charts do you treat me any differently because i'm a woman are you a little less. personally i find everybody. we're going to turn to rachel if you had to choose miranda priestly or jack donaghy from thirty rock who would you want to be your boss even if i got paid less probably jack don't you because he's funny and interesting isn't a total ice cream and he said it was blonde i knew what he was honest about it yeah i mean under the louie lead better act i would then be able to ask for more money so definitely jack donaghy jack donaghy is your choice now a little more general here if you had to choose a male or female boss. i know we're on television but i do what you choose as truthful as you can as. i would i know this kind of sounds like cheating but i'm going to have to go with no preference right so long. pays me more than jack
4:56 pm
donaghy would. promise is to you know respect my creative energy i think i don't care if it's a man or woman so long as they let me do my job i do think that that's the truth you know if they can let you do your job the way you want to be done even if they're going to fail a little what i prefer because we have is i want to get paid a lot i want to do a lot more to do what i want to do you know it's just my generation where you know now gender doesn't matter to you which actually puts you with the forty one percent of americans when it comes to gender issues this is according to a gallup poll however twenty three percent of americans would prefer a female boss and this is a record high and thirty five percent prefer a male boss that's down from sixty six percent you would prefer males in one nine hundred fifty three ritual is this a sign of progress for women in the workplace i mean i guess so the fact that people are prefer ing female bosses than they did before is certainly a sign of progress i mean that means at least twenty three percent of people can envision a woman in a leadership role aim to actually prefer it that's pretty big though i do think of
4:57 pm
real sign of you know gender equality would be not caring whether it's a man or a woman but you know we both do the informal polling around the office and found that a lot of women would actually prefer. that's what the gallup poll bore out as well you know it is there you go now also striking is why don't we look at the preferences broken down by a group now more than fifty percent of each group has either no preference or prefers a female boss what i mean that's pretty crazy to me it is a lot of maybe there's a lot of women loathing other women bosses are feeling you may be feeling competition or something like that to say that i think that it is pretty important in the office place to have a lot of diversity not for tokenism because studies have borne out that it actually creates better more profitable outcomes now check out the two groups with the lowest combined scores now their republican women know what we're at a time where we can tell how they were going to talk about every bit of us thank you for watching we'll see you tomorrow come back same time same place if you want
4:58 pm
more you tube dot com slash boom bust r.t. . technology innovation. developments around. the future. that is a silly and secret world the vast majority of the syrian people the sunni population there that want outside stuff is a limited genuine people's uprising and it was appropriated very early on by outside powers turkey saudi arabia and qatar turkey is almost regretting its role because it now has to deal with militants on its borders saudi arabia is funding them continuing to bomb them it things it has a free it has a license to destroy syria and it's astonishing that no one in the west has said
4:59 pm
that saudi arabia should get out of the syrian conflict right the reality is you can't put a blame going on how this started when people jumped in i mean you have backers on both sides and people there will benefactors on both sides but today that bombing in beirut that was claimed by an al-qaeda affiliate in levanon they said in their message that they will continue attacks until hezbollah and iran leave syria i mean that right there shows you how complicated this is and messy it is right now.
5:00 pm
coming up on r t get ready for the next chapter of international trade negotiators from twelve nations are gathering pork talks on the t.v. of the trade deal but they're not the only ones protesters are voicing opposition to the far reaching path to form the protests ahead law enforcement officials throughout the u.s. are collecting the d.n.a. of arrestees even if those people are never charged or convicted is that a good way to solve a crime or is a violation of individual privacy left the evidence ahead and on capitol hill victims of u.s. drone strikes are testifying on capitol hill many families told lawmakers about the horrors of drone strikes and the loved ones they've lost we'll bring you one of those tragic story later today.
46 Views
Uploaded by TV Archive on