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 subjectively 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 in american history. ready

but history 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 by the similar to this. now this period 6 trillion because if you look at their wealth distribution the inequality mostly comes from super wealth . literally the top 110th of a percent are just super wealthy. not only is it extremely unjust in itself. inequality as highly negative consequences on the so it is awful. because the very fact of inequality has a corrosive harmful effect a person. you open

by talking about the american dream or the american dream is questioning dillard it will infuriate you were card. get rich it was possible for a worker to get a decent job. in a corps of children to school. to a collapse. imagine yourself in an outside position looking for mars. what do you see.

in the united states when there are professed to like democracy. in a democracy public opinion is going to have some influence on poesy. 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. to not proceed 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. it translates into legislation that increases the concentration of wealth so fiscal policy like tax policy deregulation. rules of corporate governance a whole variety of measures political measures designed to increase the concentration of wealth and power which in turn the 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 776 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 or 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 all for 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. spin an ongoing clash between. pressure for more freedom and democracy coming from below and the efforts that elite control and domination coming from above. because back to the founding of the country 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 the major concern of the society has to be to protect the minority of the opulent against the majority. and here argument 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 you 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 1st major book on political systems aristotle's politics. he says of all of them the best is democracy and then he points out exactly the floor as that. medicine put it out. if it's into a democracy for free men the poor would get together and take away the property the rich. well same dilemma they had opposite solutions aristotle proposed what we would nowadays call a welfare state and try to reduce inequality. so

the same problem is that 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 2 tendencies democratizing tendencies that's mostly coming from the population pressure from below and you get this constant battle going on periods or gratian periods of progress in 1906 for example were a period of significant democratization. sectors of the fucking lation that were usually passive campus it became organized active story pressing their demand.

and they became more and more involved in decision making and their wisdom and so on. they just changed consciousness and. minority rights in the region where. did. you see me. women's rights. or. concern for the family. american as. they supplied or ago planted the seed of a viable opposition to the creation i'm sorry that i was criticized as. dissent they are serious about law. and the vietnamese people black people and

people concerned for other people one. 1000000 poor people in america when you begin. to reason a. system of distribution of wealth. these are all symbolizing the fact. that caused great fear. 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

was the backlash. just manufactured sentenced to the public will. when the room in closest to protect themselves. in the final merry go round lifts only the one percent. who ignore middle of the room signals. in the real news

room. to see on his attorney one name for you. born one food is a little bit. it. was a rule in a game. of those who know people who supposed to know it's going to be put see what's true. and that's the ticket. if you ask them if they're printed that you give. so what we've got to do is identify the threats that we have it's crazy. let it be

an arms race off and spearing dramatic development only closely i'm going to resist i don't see how that strategy will be successful very critical time to sit down and talk. what is it calling his magic the new type of digital currency the centralized digital scarcity chancellor bring a 2nd. banker's call that got us a lot for risen to coin a civil disobedience a source of optimism because i can't control my own financial death any it's just a new way of coming to consensus is a game changer in the human history of. columbus discovering a new world this paradigm shifting technology that transforms economics and finance in a heartbeat the apollo 11 landing on to the moon with max and stacey. join

me every thursday on the alex salmond show and i'll be speaking to guest of the world of politics or business i'm showbusiness i'll see of that. there has been an enormous concentrated coordinated business offensive beginning in the seventy's to try to beat back the golan tarion efforts that went right through the nixon years you see it in many respects and over on the right you see it in things like the famous poem memorandum. sent to the chamber of commerce major business. leaders supreme court justice powell morning that business is losing control over the society. and something has to be done to

counter these forces course we put 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 the 1st to major report of the trail lateral commission is concerned that this. is called the crisis of democracy. trilateral commission is liberal internationalists in their flavors indicated by the fact that they pretty much staff the corridor ministration.

they were also told that democratizing tendencies of the sixty's and so we have to react to it. they were concerned that there was an excessive to not proceed developing. previously passive and obedient parts of the population or sometimes called the special interests who were 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 and become the politicized. and they were particularly concerned with what was happening to young people and young people get into 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 there for it is 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 allowed to you know flub is said by campaign staff the executive make decisions that's fine but it's the rest the special interests the general popular. asian who have to be subdued. well that's the specter it's the kind of ideological level of the backlash but the major backlash which was unparalleled this. was just redesigning the economy.

since the $1970.00 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 2 crucial respects one to increase the role of financial institutions banks investment firms and so on insurance companies. but a $2007.00 break before the latest crash they had literally 40 percent of corporate profits. far beyond anything in the past. back in the 1950 s. and 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 a bank savings to productive activity buying harmony. on the magnitude of the. a bank can create granite call behind providing an. awning money on banks serve the community by making additional credit available for many purposes for a manufacturer to meet an ongoing fight. to unlock and remodel her car and her money on a good reason why people are always needing more granite and have immediately available. that's a contribution to the economy. regulatory system was established banks were

regulated the commercial investment banks were separated cut back very risky investment practices that could harm private people. there had been remember no financial crashes during the period of regulation by the 1970 s. that changed. the sort of getting the shoe increase in the flows of speculative capital just astronomical increase 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 because 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 1970 s. say general electric can make more profit playing games with money. then you could buy producing 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 sort 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 and production. 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 reduction in the share of income on the part of working people. has been particularly striking in the united states but happening worldwide it means that an american workers in competition with 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 move but chattel 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 pray. policy is designed to increase in security. alan greenspan and when he testified to congress 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 secure they're going to be under control. they're not going to ask for say decent wages were a decent working conditions or the opportunity to free association meaning unionized. now for the masters of mankind that's fine they may show their profits but for the population it's devastating. some of these 2 presses financial ization i'm sure are part of what led to the vicious cycle of concentration of wealth concentration of power.

in a world of big partisan new things lot and conspiracy it's time to wake up to dig deeper to hit the stories that mainstream media refuses to tell more than ever we need to be smarter we need to stop slamming the door on the path and shouting past each other it's time for critical thinking it's time to fight for the middle for the truth the time is now for watching closely watching the hawks. what politicians do something to. put themselves on the line to get accepted or rejected. so when you want to be president. or somehow want to be. the 2 going to be press this is what the full story in the morning can't be good good i'm interested

always in the waters about how. this should. be have a situation that is very new and that's why. it's like a relay before the war with to when people were dying but in the morning and there was no and go to school or going to the to do so the boy it was through to the right of the world through and. through the as a medic and that's with widespread simplicity is good code of people today. in many diseases because of this would you coolly broke up the. in 2040 you know bloody revolution to to correct the demonstrations going from being relatively peaceful political protests to be creasing the violent revolution is always spontaneous or is it still or hiccough what if i mean your list put video

it's really in the new bill is that i mean you split needle the former ukrainian president recalls the events of 2014. of those who took both sides invested over $5000000000.00 to assist ukraine in these and other goals that will ensure a secure and prosperous and democratic. so what we've got to do is identify the threats that we have it's crazy confront dacian let it be an arms for. spearing dramatic development only personally i'm going to resist i don't see how that strategy will be successful very critical time to sit down and talk. is this is a stick up from the water bottle phone in the stomach of a fish the brand is part of the coca-cola company which sells millions of bottles

of soda every day the idea was that let's tell consumers there are the bad ones they're the litter bugs are trying this way industry should be blamed for all this waste the company has long promised to reuse the plastic. that seems. to. stay on your. funding me. on the. team but for now the mountains of waste only grow higher.

and the week's top stories russia is still reeling from a plane crash killing 41 people when a passenger jet burst in. the flames were making an emergency landing at a moscow airport. russia's foreign minister sergey lavrov and his u.s. counterpart mike grappled with the crisis in venezuela with the follow up talks expected from russia in 2 days' time and iran partially suspends the 2015 you can.