during the great depression which i'm old enough to remember there was and most of my family were unemployed working class there wasn't it was bed you know much worse objectively than today but there was an expectation that things were going to get better. there was

a real sense of hopefulness there isn't today. inequality is really unprecedented i'm sure that total inequality it's like the worst periods of american history. but if you're a find it more closely inequality comes from the extreme wealth in a tiny sector of the population fraction of one percent. there were periods like the gilded age in the twenty's the early ninety's and so on when a situation developed rather similar to this. now this period six trillion because if you look at their wealth distribution the inequality mostly comes from super wealth. literally the cup one tenth of

a percent are just super wealthy. not only is it extremely i'm just in it so. inequality as highly negative consequences on the side is awful. because the very fact of inequality has a corrosive harmful effect markers if. you open by talk about the american dream part of the american dream is closed and diluted it will infer that you were kurds. ridge it was possible for a worker to get a decent job. in a corps of children who are school. collapse.

imagine yourself in an outside position looking for mars. what do you see. in the united states where there are professed to like democracy. in a democracy public opinion is going to have some influence on policy. and then the government carries out actions determined by the population and that's

what democracy means. it's important to understand that privileged and powerful sectors have never liked democracy and for very good reasons. democracy puts power into the hands of the general population and takes it away from them. as kind of the principle of concentration of wealth and power. concentration of wealth yields concentration of power particularly so as the cost of elections skyrockets which kind of forces the political parties into the pockets of major corporations. and this political power. translates into

legislation that increases the concentration of wealth so fiscal policy like expo i see the deregulation. rules of corporate governance a whole variety of measures political measures designed to increase the concentration of wealth and power which in turn to yield more political power to do the same thing. and that's what we've been seeing. so we have this kind of vicious cycle in progress. you know actually it is so traditional that it was described by adam smith in seven hundred seventy six he read the famous wealth of nations. he says in england the principle architects of policy are the people on the society

in his day merchants and manufacturers. and they make sure that their own interests are very well cared for however greed is the impact on the people of england there are others. now it's not a merger of manufacturers it's financial institutions and multinational corporations the people who adam smith told the masters of mankind and they're following the vile maxim over our selves and nothing for anyone else. they're just going to pursue policies that benefit them and harm everyone else. and in the absence of a general popular reaction that's pretty much what you'd expect. right

through american history there. it's been an ongoing clash between. pressure for more freedom and democracy coming from below and the efforts that elite control and domination coming from above. goes back to the founding of the country. james madison the main framer who was as much of the believer in democracy is anybody in the world that they nevertheless felt that the united states' system should be designed and indeed was his initiative was designed so that power should be in the hands of the wealthy . because the wealthier there are more responsible set of men and therefore the structure of the formal constitutional system placed most power in the hands of the senate or the senate was not elected in those days it was selected from the wealthy

men as madison put it had sympathy for property owners in their right. to read the debates at the constitutional convention. madison says the major concern of the society has to be to protect the minority of the opulent against the majority. and here arguments suppose everyone had to vote freely as they will the majority of the poor get together and they would organize to take away the property of the rich and he said that would obviously be unjust so he can't have that so therefore the constitutional system has to be set up to prevent democracy. which is of some interest that this debate has a hurried tradition goes back to the first major book on political. systems

aristotle's politics. he says of all of them the best is democracy and it only points out exactly the flaws that medicine put it. if absent were a democracy for free men the poor would get together and take away the property the rich. well the same dilemma they had opposite solutions or settle for posed what we would nowadays call a welfare state and try to reduce inequality. so the same problem absent solutions one is reduce inequality will have this problem and the other is reduced democracy. if you look at the history of the united states it's a constant struggle between these two tendencies democratising tendency that's

mostly coming from the population pressure from below and you get these constant battle going on periods or gratian periods of progress in one thousand nine hundred six for example were a period of significant democratization. sectors of the fabulous sure that were usually passive and the city became organized active story pressing their demand. and they became more and more involved in decision making and activism and so on. they just changed consciousness and always.

minority rights. we don't why our. women's rights. if we force it to say. in terms of the family. american history. or a good plan of safety that's all survived opposition to aggression to those who criticize us. dissent they are serious about law. provided for the vietnamese people black people and people concerned for other people one. million poor people in america when you begin. to reason a. system of distribution of wealth. restructuring

american society these are all symbolizing say. that caused great fear. her. hadn't. anticipated the power of a should have but it didn't anticipate the power of the reaction to the civilizing effects of the sixty's did not anticipate the strength of the reaction to it. the backlash. joined me every thursday on the alex salmond's chill and i'll be speaking to guest of the wall the politics spoke this list. on show business i'll see it.

as an officer. told him to get up off the ground the officer began to pay him down . and then freeze on the sounds of kind of fighting into a grown man like wrestling essentially the officer hurling. through his window. which threw away from the officer. of his crew. the obvious or did they kind of lunge for the weapon once missed and then when it happened on tree swung at the officers hands didn't hit him i never saw any contact between the two any kind went back to where they were so the officers back here there try again fifteen feet apart at this point and that's when the officer pulled out his gun and aimed it on three.

you know my phone lines don't make an important moment in the muslim on muslim or form going to november going to a photo from to get a. lot of the comedy just that they get nothing. but from the sun no money to go to the british course they're going to love them but. i mean you got. to. take.

the money polaski is dead right so the money velocity would measure how money is being along down from bank to bank to bank bank bank which is a measure of economic health is dead and if the money printing continues to increase some sort of asking the question why is the money not getting into the economy they're printing more of it. is a tense situation in venezuela is still all over the news the problem in venezuela is not that socialism has been poorly implemented but that socialism has been faithfully implement from the inside venezuela things look different we're going to announce sanctions against a troll is to venezuela associate. famously have a supplement please move it out. that. data to see on the.

moment of the who story isn't new nixon called in henry kissinger to tell him that it would not be tolerated in latin america an alternative economic and social system could take hold and therefore the policy would be to make. the economy scream so wants to make the economy of venezuela screed. there has been an enormous concentrated coordinated business offensive beginning in the seventy's to try to beat back the egalitarian efforts that went right through the nixon years and you see it in many respects and over on the right you see it in things like the famous pell memorandum. sent to the chamber of

commerce major business lobby and later supreme court justice powell warning them that business is losing control over the society. and something has to be done to counter these forces corsi puts it in terms of defense defending ourselves against outside power. if you look at it it's a call for business to use its control over resources to carry out a major offensive to beat back this democratizing wave. over on the liberal side something exactly similar to the first. major report of the trial lateral commission is concerned that this. called the crisis of

democracy. predator a commission is liberal internationalists in their flavors indicated by the fact that they pretty much staff the carter administration. and they were also called the democratizing tendencies of the sixty's and so we have to react to that. they were concerned that there was an excess of democracy developing . previously. passive and obedient parts of the population are sometimes called the special interests who are beginning to organize and try to enter the political arena and they said that imposes too much pressure on the state can't deal with all these pressures so therefore they have to return to a city becomes the politicized. and they were particularly concerned with what was happening to young people the young people getting to free and independent.

in the way they put it there's a failure on the part of the schools the universities churches the institutions responsible for the indoctrination of the young are there for it's not mine. if you look at their study there's one interest they never mention private business and that makes sense they're not special interest they're the national interest kind of by definition so they're ok they're a lead the you know how flabby is good by campaign staff the executive make decisions that's fine but it's the rest of the special interest the general population who have to be subdued. when that's the specter it's the kind of ideological level of the backlash but the

major backlash which was in peril of this. was just redesigning the economy. since the one nine hundred seventy is there's been a concerted effort on the part of the masters of mankind the owners of the society to shift the economy. in two crucial respects one to increase the role of financial institutions banks investment firms and so on insurance companies. but a two thousand and seven break before the latest crash they had literally forty percent of corporate profits. far beyond anything in the past.

back in the one nine hundred fifty s. as for many years before the united states economy was based largely on production . in the united states as the great manufacturing center of the world. financial institutions used to be a relatively small part of the economy and their task was to distribute unused assets like bank savings to productive activity and buying our way and had on hand a reserve money. holders to monitor on the matter of the reserve bank can create around and call behind providing an. auditing money on bank or of the community by making national. money for a manufacturer and i'm even going. to enlarge them remodel her car and her money on

her own reasons why people are always needing more and i have immediately available . that's a contribution to the economy. regulatory system was established banks were regulated the commercial investment banks were separated to back for a risk in this practices that could harm private people. there had been remember no financial crashes during the period of regulation. by the one nine hundred seventy s. that changed. the story getting that of huge increase in the flows of speculative capital just astronomically increased an enormous changes in the financial sector from traditional banks to risky investments. complex financial instruments money

manipulations and so on increasingly the business of the country isn't production at least not here. the primary business here is business. you can even see it in the choice of directors so the director of a major american corporation back in the fifty's and sixty's was very likely to be an engineer and as somebody who graduated from a place like mit maybe industrial management more recently the directorship in the top managerial positions or people who came out of business schools learned financial trickery of various kinds and so on. by the one nine hundred seventy s. say general electric can make more profit playing games with money than you could buy produce and in the united states. you have to remember that general electric is substantially a financial institution today it makes half its profits just by moving money around

in complicated ways and it's very unclear that they're doing anything that's of value to the economy. so that's one phenomena let's go financial ization of the economy. going along with that is the oil sure into production. the trade system was reconstructed with a very explicit design of putting working people in competition with one another all over the world. and what it's led to is a reduction in the share of income on the part of working people. it's been particularly striking in the united states but happening worldwide it

means that an american workers in competition with a super exploited worker in china. meanwhile highly paid professionals are protected they're not placed in competition with the rest of the world far from it and of course a capitalist free to move a workers are free to move labor can't move but capital can well again going back to the classics like adam smith as he pointed out free circulation of labor is the foundation of any free trade system but workers are pretty much stuck the wealthy in the privileged are protected so you get obvious consequences and they're recognized in fact praised. policy is designed to increase in security. alan greenspan and when he testified to conquers he explained his success in running the economy as based on what he called greater

worker insecurity. a typical restraint on compensation increases has been evident for a few years but as i outlined in some detail in testimony last month i believe that job insecurity has played the dominant role workers in security are going to be under control. they are not going to ask for say decent wages were a decent working conditions or the opera. we need to free association meaning unions. now for the masters of mankind that's fine they may show their profits but for the population it's devastating. for these two processes financial ization and will sure are part of what led to the vicious cycle of concentration of wealth concentration of power.

join me every thursday on the alex salmond show and i'll be speaking to guest of the world the politics sports business i'm show business i'll see you than. i did saying the numbers mean something they've matter us is over one trillion dollars in debt more than ten white collar crime happened each day. eighty five percent of global wealth he longs to be ultra rich eight point six percent world market rose thirty percent somewhat four hundred to five hundred three first second first second and fifth when he rose to twenty thousand dollars. china's building two point one billion dollars a i industrial park but don't let the numbers overwhelm. the only number you need to remember one one business showed you know

for the mid one and only boom bust. i think contests are b.s. did not tell you that the last. possible because it is a still a tourney thing to. say. the same position upsetter be out in the context. of the international law honor our are more more. on the serbian side i think not all noticing. but also just find. that in peace i'm alone in an ability of flood waters. to.

see. such konami for months my fighting only coming for them it is not the one who's been for appointments novembers the sun love photos of stuff to get up. close up was all but let's just let it get that. she was you make a. noise you are your friend. john bombard from the sun know my last book you go to the british course that's enough of them roughed up. i mean you got. to. take a. long

time welcomes the findings of the long awaited live report which concludes that he did not conspire with russia to win the twenty six u.s. election there was no collusion with the russian there was no ups truck. and none whatsoever. and. one million people march in london a gates brags it piling the pressure on the prime minister meets with a world that is already in time to. come sunday marks twenty years since nato started the so-called humanitarian campaign and then yugoslavia many local steel and military offensive in which thousands were killed as a regime change operation.