i'm max kaiser this is the kaiser report the show that takes you places that you never thought you'd ever go. they say well i have a headline here that i never thought i would ever read because it looks like there's some crack down on this opioid epidemic and the giant pharmaceutical companies push it former insist c.e.o. pleads guilty to opioid kickback scheme this is michael babiche he's a former chief executive and insists there are pure dicks and he pleaded guilty to participating in a nationwide scheme to bribe doctors to prescribe an addictive opioid medication and has agreed to become a government witness he's going to be a witness against john kept poor who was the former billionaire founder of this company they had basically a fentanyl spray which is one hundred times more addictive than heroin and they

were sprayed under the tongue by the pharmaceutical companies bribing doctors to kill their patients with heroin last year in america of course more heroin overdoses enabled by doctors enabled by pharmaceutical companies here in america than americans died in the vietnam war or have an american like vietnam or death plague every single year for the pharmaceutical companies because they're greedy and they see americans like the french see ducks on a farm. then you're a bush roads and he sells our livers you sold our bits on e bay you're about their kidneys you know that's the american way you look at american that figure out what the value of their organs are on e-bay and that's the way the pharmaceutical company gets rich we pay for it and we love it because we're self hating americans just can't get enough of it you know one thing that's interesting in this about how they bribe the doctors they really reminds me of our entire system here in america where we have the corruption but it doesn't look like

it on the outside in the way they did this as prosecutors say insist pay doctors kickbacks in the form of fees to participate in speaker programs a stent simply meant to educate medical professionals about this phantom spray that were actually sham events so think of the way that. how presidents or senator or the likes of hillary clinton or other big names like say a timothy geitner or all those think tanks how they pay huge free for these sort of officials and former officials and powerful people to come speak at events and or book deals for books that sell a fifty copies i mean michelle obama's been a huge hit but you know there's a lot of these books that just like hillary clinton that nobody shows up at her vents but these are a way to do like polite kickbacks and it's all like and all looks official it's

just capitalism this is official there's no there's no corruption here there's no all of archy and you know i just was reading that starbucks is going to offer in their bathrooms a place for people to needle disposal. right so there are a lot of americans with diabetes so there's more heroin addicts because they have a problem of heroin people shooting up you know when in their bathrooms so they're going to give them a place to dispose of the needles in the bathrooms at starbucks among you know trying to make any other point than this there's a fricken opiate a whole costs going on in america for profit and the drug companies are killing millions of americans for profit and if no politician does anything about it i mean i look around the world and see there's you know in the france protests and i see that is growing going globally john locke said in sixteen ninety i believe that if

the social contract was broken then it's up to the people to revolt the social contract has been shattered revolution is a necessity ok so again like continue with a theme of that the sham of vance and paying a doctor one hundred thousand two hundred thousand dollars to speak and then this is how the corruption happens that's how. it happens in politics that's how it happens in culture that's how it happens where you get you know well known newsreaders they they show up at shama vents like from the integrity initiative in the u.k. where you know the intelligence agencies are presenting but they have sort of think tanks to present to basically get everybody on side as a way to bribe in and silence the population but it's i want to turn to another headline that has happened in the past week and this is from tucker carlson on fox news so we do see a topsy turvy didn't happening in the united states where we have the democratic

base is very pro-war now the republican base is actually anti-war like what you see that in the latest polling data about pulling out of afghanistan or pulling out of syria that in fact most democratic voters are against ending those wars and a vast majority of republican voters are actually for ending those wars here here's tucker carlson sounding very progressive at least economically for get his social and you know racial stuff but here is tougher carlson has sparked the most interesting debate in conservative politics america's ruling class karlsson says are the mercenaries behind the failures of the middle class including sinking marriage rates he says and the ugliest parts of our financial system he won he went on any economic system that weakens and destroys families is not worth having a system like that is the enemy of a healthy society he concluded with

a demand for quote a fair country a decent country a cohesive country a country whose whose leaders don't accelerate the forces of change purely for their own profit and amusement so profit in a museum and just what you're suggesting with the opioid epidemic it's. you know it's for profit and you know they muse meant by the way of the cable news sort of oh this is interesting in other words we're saying that the family is being attacked by drug companies who are pushing heroin synthetic heroin in the form of fentanyl no other drugs that they prescribe and we're saying fox news and tucker carlson is coming out and saying you know what if you just draw the family you're destroying the fabric of american society and let's not kill our fellow americans with drugs because that's counterproductive but the left will understand that any suggestion that the family is disintegrating is a suggestion that the definition of the family needs to be looked at and that the

definition of a family must include many different variations than what we have seen traditionally and that's their social justice warrior position that a family can be made up of all kinds of stitcher one parts and they totally missed the point and in so doing they support heroin overdose they support war and they support the degradation of the economy well certainly the economy is suffering in terms if you look at the numbers of the male participation rate. the this the participation rate in employment in the economy for those between like twenty five and forty five and a lot of it has to do with this fence and all abuse in this addiction to opioids is that they're just unable to work and they all you know of course that also the prison industrial complex prevents a lot of people from participating in the economy so here he goes on the monologue was stunning in itself an incredible moment in which a fox news host stated that for generations quote republicans have considered their

duty to make the world safer banking while simultaneously prosecuting ever more foreign wars more broadly though carlson's position and the ensuing controversy reveals an ongoing in nearly unsolvable tension in conservative politics about the meaning of populism a political ideology that trump campaigned on but carlson argues he may not truly under stand right ok i get it what he's saying there he's saying he's equating family cohesion with the need to prevent all kinds of abuse from the corporate power houses that are preying on individuals but the left the rachel maddow of the world will ignore the economics because they're financially illiterate and they'll focus only on this used to work family and then go on a tirade about why that is being misused in the context of the economy. the word family is a trigger and more right wing because of exactly the southern baptist sort of

evangelical sort of regiment of the dr karl sort of thing yet no they were of the left won't accept the fact that he's making a profound point about the economy because there are economic leigh and sort of listen to see who i love where things can be president twenty twenty four but you know i love the fact that she doesn't know what she doesn't know she's doesn't really have any understanding of how the economy works i went over you know that's going to work in. favor and she's an interesting so he goes on to say that i'm just saying as a matter of fact he told me a country where a shrinking percentage of the population is taking home an ever expanding proportion of the money is not a recipe for a stable society it's not so the concentration of wealth in the top one percent is a bad thing and he said showing that he's seeing that but in terms of the populism what the definition of populism why this has led to controversy so he's talking about carlson told me he he was interviewed for this piece and he said he wanted it

to be clear he is not a populist but he believes some version of populism is necessary to prevent a full scale political revolt or the onset of socialism using theodore roosevelt as an example of a president who recognized that labor needs economic power he told me quote unless you want something really extreme to happen you need to take this seriously and figure out how to protect average people from these remarkably powerful forces that have been unleashed i think populism is potentially really disrupt of what i am saying is that populism is a symptom of something being wrong again populism is a smoke alarm do not ignore it so we need something like a teddy roosevelt an order to prevent something worse from happening right now we see the elites we see the rachel maddow as you've mentioned of the world very scared and all they they are so scared they're in a total panic that they are unwilling and unable perhaps to even look at themselves

and look at their role in their the fact that their wealth concentration has benefited them and their friends that they are always looking for a scapegoat a foreign person that they could point to who can be a bogeyman in this case of course is putin but here he's pointing out that if you look at america if you look at france if you look at italy who they elected you know populist governments they're like. something's going on that there's something more and bigger to look at and maybe. a populist leader like a theodore roosevelt who is a trust buster who who basically destroyed he was a traitor to his class as they said he was a very wealthy from a wealthy family and he destroyed his monopolistic sort of classic mo that that's been our position if you go back to our shows for the past ten years you'll find out that we've talked about teddy roosevelt many times as a necessary corrective to bust up the trusts that you had a core pocker see and that is populist revolt could have been countered by breaking

up the trusts was included of course the central bank and he doesn't mention labor there and he does mention that the labor perhaps could be thrown a bone in this mix if if interest rates are going to be controlled by a cobol a poll of bureau a soviet like organization like the central bank then you gotta let interest you have minimum wage. rise along with the money being printed don't don't tie wages to inflation because that's a manipulated number i wager as to the money printing then you'll see a balancing in the effect tucker carlson have me on your show to explain this over there fox if you dare have the real thing on that show tucker you have professor stephen cohen. think about it all right we're going to take a break i don't expect i'll be hearing from fox anytime soon. and we'll be having a lot more coming away after this short break.

because you know provision of my point i wanted to. get. his boss because. then people. so i said you know what i was you know. you know just i mean what i'm already but it was. i mean it was we're going to. give it up as well i might just we'll get up on the disabled list but those were the. people are going to respond on one of this part of. this where this part of. my body and

we could all credible by just but that's already yes it will be and he thought of getting up there with you. trump when he was running in two thousand and sixteen articulated a vision of foreign policy that was clearly at odds with what you would consider the sort of post-war liberal international consensus that that americans want. and might be some claim that there are elements of that critique that have some validity here's the problem though it's not enough to offer a critique you can see that there are problems with the existing foreign policy and then you have to offer something that's a better person period altering. and this is where i think trump is has failed miserably.

wolf like there's someone else living inside of me or controlling my body. the byproduct of that drug is the cause like some fear depression. because it literally meet him into a zombie it's crazy. you know we don't have to do anything it's not our fault you know she was crazy and all that. it. took years traumatic takes a long time to get rid of. welcome back to the kaiser report imax keyser time that i got out of a cloud of gold money for this quarter i own some stock and gold money yea for me alister welcome back to the kaiser report hello max hey great to see

a let's talk about the e.u. so in the e.u. as it is it certainly looks like it's heading off the rails economically germany is in technical recession what's happening going to happen next alister well i mean you're right about germany this is an easy use self-inflicted wound i mean they've decided they don't want diesel so they've basically screwed the whole of the most car industry. and so it's not just germany as everybody else who makes motor cars and all the suppliers and everything else who are suffering from this crazy situation but the real problem i think is monetary and that the e.c.b. as of december did it last as it purchase and now it will only reinvest coupons it will reinvest money from britain. redeemed government bonds basically is no new money coming into the system and. if we do get

a slowdown in the economy or even a recession then government borrowing is going to go up and guess where it's going to go up most it's going to go up most in places like italy so we've got another crisis in the making because the one big buyer in the market is withdrawn just ahead of the other you know the governments needing needed desperately needing a finance already well that begs the question what about european banks because if the e.c.b. is stopped their asset repurchase program and now their words they are no longer bailing out the banks because that's what their program is all about if they want big continuous bell out and the banks are preparing a precarious position european. banks much worse condition than american banks so what about the other that are they going to let some banks go under i mean alst or are they going to have a come to jesus moment and let the deadwood die you know the fact of being bailing out the governments officially they've been supporting unofficial and more

correctly to be the government but under the banking regulation rules there is no risk haircut on government debt so guess what all the banks in the euro zone they sort of build up portfolios of bank debt sorry government debt and whether you start rising costs capital gets under pressure and they've got you know all these they are core capital to pursue capital you know systemic risk back you know all the sort of different levels of capital that are required and they're going to have to sell don't they government debt making the situation worse in other words we could actually see a contraction of bank credit in the euro zone as bond yields rice and you're absolutely right to say that this is a very dangerous situation i can't see and i think i think it's going to be a crisis first and rescue second i'm afraid is always in the in that order but this

is not good news right i mean or making the assumption that they are paying such a bank doesn't simply reverse policy and go back to bailing out the banks but let's let's go with that assumption that they're actually going to adhere to some kind of an accounting standards here that the european central bank the got a much bigger balance sheet now than the u.s. fed interest rates are at the moment lower and so that's the question out there is a template just job on ing for the time being before they open the floodgates again as every other central bank has done all over the world out there well i don't think that's going to work because job opening by central banks only work. when the pushing money into the system in other words asset prices continue to go up is a reflection of the amount of money go good but none of the money is no longer going in drop owning is just not going to work i'm afraid is the simplest first all right fair enough so now across the or opinion we have political unrest by

populations or jack ting the a late certainly the government italy is an example of popular unrest we have the heel a job in france or other otherwise known as yellow vast now is this the result of the global financial crisis can you make in other words a wave set on our show that the occupy wall street was really the kickoff for a global insurrection against banker occupation and that john is just an extension of that as all part of the financial crisis of two thousand and eight do you connect those dots also what are your thoughts there no i don't i don't connect those dots to jolo it is purely down to the incompetence of the individual governments in the e.u. trying to you know shoehorn populaces into something they don't really want and by the way to setting up their own army you might ask who you know who they want to put the army against in the big picture look increasingly like it's through people . right ok so to dig down into that a little bit so you are laying

a tremendous amount of blame onto the governments in the and is it fair to say or characterize them the government of germany france italy as basically how would you characterize them. just saying they're incompetent or what's going on i think incompetence got a good word divorced from populations in terms of thought process is probably no way to look at it they no longer seem to represent people this is that this is the program and i mean you came across this problem in america. president truman got elected and you're only going to have a government that works if the government actually truly represents its people. that went to north a long time ago we're finding this in britain with the brits it because the people say one thing we want out. the parliament areas are trying to prevent. this. they are not on the side we are not electing people who represent to set it

all right i don't want to digress too deeply into the bragg said scenario but just to pick up on that point for a second as i understand it the recent vote in parliament is a fact of a two d. fang tourism a the prime minister's ability to is the. failing out crashing out of the brags that as kind of a prompt to get a vote throw for her d.l. parliament has said no you need to get parliamentary approval so this what you're talking about other parliament has basically taken over against what would have faired to have banned the will of the people in the referendum is that correct alister well broadly yes i mean aside it will come together and you say i mean we've got a deadline coming up on march the twenty ninth and that is actually written in stone. talking about perhaps postponing it but you can't just sort of this true. oh

the date this is now banned in an international treaty with the e.u. it's really very very complicated reason may has got no plan b. as all other than world trade organization terms and they tried to frighten everybody that worked for trade organization terms i absolutely terrible and you know medicine is going to stop coming in airplanes going to be grounded and all the rest of it gradually with finding all these scare stories are completely untrue and consequently i think that was more more support going to war c.w.t. . not enough yet to you know for it to actually sort of happen but certainly enough to ensure that theresa may next tuesday does not get her withdrawal of agreement past all right ok so to put this in a context or so in your view of the air is pretty dire pretty damn that governments are incompetent and of course we're talking about institutions in the air including

ones coming out of brussels and that albrecht that referendum was an attempt or an expression of getting out of the e.u. and they want sovereignty and britain and now are at a juncture however where the government in the u.k. needs to really distinguish itself as being very different than the governments in the e.u. and with it to me from an outsider it seems as though we're not seeing that differentiation that it seems like the government in the in the u.k. our purpose is to in terms of incompetence with the government in the e.u. alister your thoughts absolutely right i mean you know let's let's not get too hung up on levels of competence i think we can agree. not all that good but really what it's of bucks is not so much trade i mean everybody's banging on about trade but the reality of the situation is that in this country we have a system where. by

a government is reelected every five yes we get a chance as voters to say yeah we think you've done a good joke we're going to reelect you or no we don't think you got a good job we're going to put someone else it now the point is that all the powers that go with that are being transferred every day over towards brussels and that basically is the issue who governs do we have control of our own rules or is it something unaccountable in brussels where we have absolutely no say and basically that is the maid is you trade a secondary though they are trying you know the remain as a trying to avoid the constitutionalists here but you have to remember also that these these guys the remain as have been brought up for the last forty years within the e.u. everybody gets promoted into the house of lords the civil servants and all the rest of it only know one thing and that is working with the e.u. and that's why the mindset is so hard to knock over there i found

a half hour before a.o.l. we say good bye for this segment i want to talk to you about golf golf having a great feel month after you know a bad hair or a bear market you could say and thought a couple of questions is galled out entering into a secular bull market and why if so why is gold acting so wealthy ok well to to enter into a new secular secular bull market i mean i think you know it already started what was it in december two thousand and fifteen minute finally boss of but really we need to break out about the thirteen sixty thirty and seventy level so we've got a little bit of a way to go before we can say that we're on the next leg of the bull market and having said that we've got a lot of things in go favor seasonal seasonality for the last four or five years has bottomed in december or bottom shortly before december in this case and gone on to run into the first quarter of the following year so we got that seasonality behind that we have. which show has no been of the past which is the indian first

of all you've got the chinese new year which is coming up in early february and the other thing we've got this time which is actually rather difficult different is that the major trading nations in asia are definitely moving out against the dollar they they have too much of america trying to run their affairs through the dollar and they are moving away from it i mean obviously we've seen this russia has seen it was china we're seeing it with iran you see it with turkey and so on and india as well or so they may not be all going for goat but the point i'm making is that the people who have been buying the dollar buying u.s. government debt basically are turning round and changing their priorities now i think it's going to have enormous ramifications as far as the dollar is concerned i can see a funding crisis developing in america unless you rise. on an even pass so that

there is no crisis just higher rates. but with all this i mean i can see the dollar going done and if the dollar is going to go done and i think the possibility that gold is so on and you you know really firmly on a new bull leg is actually i think very very likely all right out there a kind of out there of keeping a far second segment that's ok that's going to do it for this edition of the cause a report with me max kaiser and stacey herbert i want to thank our guest out from a cloud of gold money if you want to catch us on twitter at kaiser report until next time buy off. or when i came back from iraq now whoa marijuana her. remains. anything that's altering trying to get us out of. that bad

mindset using the chemical there would be so. i want to be dream clean and drink enough just killing myself. out of the whole links don't drink to get drunk alcoholics drink to feel normal. that's why alcoholics that's why a drug addict. shot while still running near here star cool under which these guys are going through to do it he just needs to. use need to be hoped and not get pushed on by the v.a.'s are as drugs go and stuff they need to be helped. and they just really shouldn't be looked at like numbers they should be looked at by people if they go to a veteran center for health issues be considered as someone who really needs attention and. join me everything on the alex salmond show and i'll be speaking to get out of the world of

politics small business i'm show business i'll see of an. officer. told you to get up off the ground sir begin to pay him down. here and then freeze on the sounds of an mit grown man with misleading essentially . through his return. it is your wish to go away from the officer. of his group. they obviously did make kind of a lunge for the web in one smiths and then when it happened on trace one and observations didn't hit him i never saw any contact with. any kind went back to where they were so the answer is back here there try again fifteen feet apart at this point and that's when the officer is gonna need to turn three.