gonzalez battles alan greenspan's bank. first of all, or faster auerbach, who was henry gonzalez, for those who may not don't? >> he was the first mexican-american to be elected from texas to the u.s. congress. he was also in the senate here, and he is from san antonio. spin and he was chairman of the house banking to me for a long time, greg? >> chairman of house banking committee, that's correct. >> what was his relationship with the various fed chairs? >> he was cordial, but he kept them at arms length, because he believed that the banking committee has a duty to oversee the federal reserve. so he would not go to lunch with them or dinner, but he would investigate them to make sure that they were doing what they were supposed to do. >> and what is the premise of your book, the section and abuse at the fed, particularly when it comes to alan greenspan's? >> right. let me just mention that i've worked at the federal reserve for two years. i know some the things i say are critical, they are very good people at the federal r

alan greenspan was forced to admit that the u.s. economy was not growing as fast as he had assumed it would earlier in the year. in fact, he conceded, it wasn't growing at all, it had paused. it was greenspan who warned the president that the economy was so fragile that even a 15% increase in the price of oil might be enough to tip the u.s. economy and the economies of its trading partners back into recession with the risk of government failures and bank collapses. in the oval office that day, greenspan explain today the ambassador that oil prices had caused so much chaos that the lending flexibility of big banks had vanishes and financial networks around the world were stretched thin. he added that the huge increase in debts taken on after 1973 when oil consumers had tried to borrow their way out of the fiscal hole they found themselves in had badly shaken the confidence of markets, governments and big business. it was essential, he said, that the shah of iran show restraint on oil prices. when i first read that transcript more tha

greenspan be, the man behind money, was a national bestseller and chosen by "the new york times" book review as one of the notable books of 2000. nadering, crusader, spoiler, icon published in 2002, is thes definitive biography of the perennial presidential candidate who sometimes leaves voice messages on my voicemail asking the post to cover one thing or another. and he also plays, certainly, a controversial role in the disputed election of 2000. justin became one of the go-to experts to explain nader, appearing on cnn and other television shows and also the 2006 documentary, "an unreasonable man." his latest biography is of a less controversial figure, at least by today's twitter standards. "genius of place: the life of frederick law olmstead," is the story of the brilliant landscape architect who with designed central park and about 50 other green spaces around the country. olmsted also was a sailor a scientific farmer, a crusading journalist, a noted abolitionist and civil war hero, a life worthy of the careful, illuminating justin martin treatment. justin is a former staff write

greenspan, the mind behind money was chosen with book review as one of the notable books of 2000.ph nader who was published in 2002 is the definitive biography of the consumer advocate and presidential candidate who sometimes leaves voice messages on my phone asking the post to cover one thing or another, and he also played a controversial rule in the election of 2000. he became one of the experts appearing on cnn and other television shows and the 2006 documentary and unresolvable ban. the latest biography is a less controversial figure at least by twitter standards. genius of place the life frederick law olmstead is the story of a brilliant landscape architect who designed central park and about 50 of her green spaces of the country. he also was a sailor, scientist, former who had notable shyness of the civil war hero, a life with the of the terrible and eliminating the justin treatment. justin is a former stuff collector of "fortune magazine" and has written publicationss such as newsweek and money andw is a graduate of the university of business and he seems to have been des

he's the author of the widely spread biography, the two iconic figures, alan greenspan, and ralph nader, both of whom would be interesting dinner guests at the same dinner. [laughter] i couldn't think of two different figures and i was asking justin about that, and he said after he had written the greenspan book, he didn't want to do anymore economists, and the agent said carve out a career economist. he went in a different direction, and with ralph nader, he did. it was a best seller and chosen by the "new york times" book review was chosen as a notable book in 2000. published in 2002, it's the definitive biography of the consumer advocate and perennial presidential candidate who sometimes leaves voice messages on my voice mail asking the post to cover one thing or another, and he also plays certainly a controversial role in the dispute election of 2000. justin became one of the go-to experts to explain nader appearing 07b cnn and other -- appearing on cnn and other television shows, and also the 2006 documentary, an unreasonably man. the latest biography is of a less controversial fig

to read some of his books include created on equal the crisis in american pay and unbearable cost greenspan and the economics of empire. as a public policy example what do you think about how the obama administration interactive with a car companies with gm and chrysler to bail them out as we say in the colloquial? >> they help preserve the company's and transform them and go through the bankruptcy process and i think the was appropriate. but we now have a same approach should of been taken to the large banks. certain ones should have been taken over under the authority that the government has under the insurance corporation's authority basically and restructured and downsized. that sector is too big and it is not serving any useful purpose now which is a part of the reason we are still in the doldrums. >> what is your relationship to john kenneth galbraith? >> he was my father. >> how many of his ideas to you think they share? if he were around today what would he be saying about the current economic situation the u.s. faces? >> my father's great contribution was an analysis of the america

some of his books include created unequal: the crisis of un-american pay, bush, greenspan and the economics empire. as a public policy example, what do you think about how the obama administration interacted with the car companies? with gm and chrysler to help -- to bail them out as we say in the colloquial? >> well, they helped preserve those companies and transformed them. they did go through a bankruptcy process, and i think that was appropriate. but we now have companies that otherwise would have folded up taking down with them vast networks of suppliers and they have a chance now to prove themselves in the marketplace. i think that's sensible, defensible practice. i don't agree that the same approach should have been taken to the large banks. they should have been -- certain ones should have been taken over under the authorities that the government has, under the deposit insurance corporation's authority basically and restructured and downsized. that sector is too big. it's not serving any useful purpose now which is part of the reason we're still in the doll drums. >> what's your rela

his name is justin martin, author of the widely heralded biographies, alan greenspan and ralph nader, both of whom i think would be interesting dinner guests -- [laughter] at the same dinner. [laughter] i couldn't think of better figures, and he said after he wrote the greenspan book, he didn't want to do anymore economists, and his agent said you can carve a career with economists, so he went with raffle nader. he was chosen by the new york times book review is one of the notable books of 2000. nader, icon published in 2002, is the definitive biography of the consumer advocate and paren yell presidential -- perennial presidential candidate who sometimes leaves messages on my voice mail asking the post to cover one thing or the other, and he also played a controversial role in the disputed election of 2000. justin became one of the go-to experts to explain nader appearing on c nan and other -- cnn and other television shows, and also in the 2006 documentary, "an unreasonable man." his latest biography is about a less controversial figure. "yen -- "genius a place" is about an architect

leading up to this is the comments about deregulation or regulation by the banking industry, alan greenspan's philosophy of free markets. >> in history it is notoriously difficult to determine cause and effect but i will just say going along with what you mention, in 1933 franklin roosevelt and congress passed a number of banking regulations trying to ensure that banks not do again what they had done during the 1920s, namely they took depositors money and they invested in the stock market. and it seemed like a really good idea. as long as shares were going up because while they might be able to land it out that 3% on mortgages, they could make 25% a year on the stock market. and they were paying their depositors 2% and pocketing the rest. it seemed like a wonderful thing until the stock market crashed in 1929. and in the depositors, who would put their money in banks rather than buying shares of stock themselves because of the perceived greater security in banks, bound that they had lost their money and they had no reward. so, under the roosevelt administration, the democratic new deal congre

over you know i don't understand why people go see that we've got here trying to put remember the greenspan put you know whatever the market went down they lowered interest rates and bail out these got owners in greenwich connecticut this is the kind of put you prime goal the summer you're not going to lose because china's right behind you own tons of it but look at how silver is treated there six fold increase in the imports in september alone over in the u.s. we have the biggest player in the silver market is jamie dimon and j.p. morgan of course which is they have a huge naked short position they're shorting more silver than there is mined in the history of the world practically that's right they picked it up they inherited it when they took over bear stearns that's correct now max with this in mind i'm looking at this next headline from the china money report thief in china scolds a woman for having nothing of value to steal so women in china woke up and found an intruder in our apartment in the middle of the night but rather than run away the guy stayed there and the thief launched int

but after 2008; after the worst crisis since the depression, after the king of deregulation, alan greenspan, said he has been, quote, mistaken, about what the banks would do when face wt the risks and opportunities they did, even then wall street was able to blackmail both republicans an democrats into imposing not any change on the fundamental structural program that gai us that collapse. that's the sense of distortion i think everybody on the right and left has to acknowledge. tavis: to your point if congress is corrupted that means both the left and right, as you suggested, have been constructed -- corrupted in the process. but how do we define what bad governance is? it's impossible to use that phrase without attaching that to politics on both the left and right. it's such a politically loaded phrase. >> it is. let's be clear what i mean by corruption, first. there's a corruption in the sense of rod blagojevich or randy cunningham, people taking money and bribery. i don't think our congress is corrupt in that sense. in that sense, our congress is the cleanest congress in the history of

reserve bank itself as leverage fifty to one that goes back to two thousand and four i believe when greenspanlifted that cap but you refer to that as ignoring leverage limitations but isn't that a hard coded law in terms of what the leverage limitations are corning under laws in place is it going back to the balance all yes ok so they are there far no it depends on who max it depends on which financial institution talking about if you're talking about depository banks they have reserve rules which are implemented by the f.b.i. cia and others if you're talking about investment banks there's the one nine hundred seventy five rule that limited them to twelve to one of the five biggest investment houses in the u.s. got a waiver of that ironically it was called the bear stearns waiver there stearns lehman merrill morgan and goldman the only ones somehow exempted from that law stop and think about what that means here is a lot applies to everybody except you five guys who happen to be the single biggest donors to congress and that by the way that waiver was granted by the security and exchange comm

history to justify this utopian vision that the market always iran snubs and had read their god well greenspan favorite book. said that we should all sacrifice human behavior to the it's an absurdity and it's utopianism you know which francis fukuyama and larry summers and thomas friedman feed us and say all this human suffering is worth worth it because we're going to get to paradise that's what isms do that's what and you and you and so it's a religion it's a religion it's a utopian belief system and remember utopia comes from a word cloying by thomas more in fifteen sixteen from the greek roots meaning no place doesn't exist it's actually just hope. it's not so i think that. i think that that that system that wall and describes is probably a correct characterization of where we are with this interesting twist. wolen argues in his book democracy incorporated that. you maintain a system of inverted totalitarianism even as wages decrease which real wages for most american reporters have to climb for three or four years exact. through credit and through cheap mass produced goods now we're seein

the was greenspan's view. there was defining also. it was very important because that was carried through even to the clinton administration where businesses continue to restructure their corporation to allow intervention, and i think it could be a state and globally competitive. right now is becoming. that is the case. i certainly personally because i help so much, think that his tax policies were a defining moment as watching him sign the '81 tax act and then following through with the '86 tax reform act. people don't remember the late 70's the top marginal income-tax rate on income was 70%. you were only allowed to keep 40% of every extra dollar you weren't, the top tax bracket. people were spending all of their time sheltering their income. the tax rates were reduced to its 50% with 81 tax act and the other moved down. there were tremendous exemptions for the lowest levels and then in '86, the tax rate -- the brackets were shrunk down to just three simple tax brackets with the top rate at 28%. and in fact there were huge exclusion

creditors the chance of them taking you know fifty percent haircut all of this again right you know alan greenspan slammed the campaign here with me when we were told the only one i would jump in here was all run out of time here in this part of the program after a short break we'll continue our spirit to be on the euro stay with r.t. . anything. from los angeles to chicago to birmingham twenty trauma centers of close since two thousand severe problem is not enough inpatient beds not enough urgency department beds and not enough nurses commandos to take care of all the people who are the only real health care system that we have in the city of los angeles is the los angeles fire department in fact when i started my venture is for her i didn't want to do and i started out going to just do fire fighting it's about eighty two percent of what we do the fire the problem is medical that a risk you. couple weeks i waited for hours for i waited sometimes three hours but i wouldn't say the same francis and then wait for four hours and fifty minutes staring at a wall with a patient and we have a federal law

there that it is rigged we have told the workers or central bank chief we don't have we then we had greenspan who said we're going to this bill you guys are going trouble and you just continue that and you know what it's not the united states is not the same as other countries we've seen the prime minister of iceland for example based criminal charges because of the financial crisis in that country so the question remains open ended if you have any answers please feel free and let us know what you think why the. well aren't being facing criminal charges now because that's all we have time for thanks for tuning in and feel free to follow me on twitter at lauren lester give us feedback on you tube dot com slash capital account mafia mom. you know how sometimes you see a story and it seems so poorly pleasing you understand it and then you glimpse something else and you hear or see some other part of it and realize everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm sorry welcome to the big picture. download the official antione cation job on the phone called talk from the all you choose option. o

you made your own mistakes just to see video ways of europe we have people you guys that are under greenspan and cleans and got rid of the glass steagall act we did much the same we've made catastrophic errors with our banking industry we are governments of work on the basis that you can go on boring forever and the day of reckoning is not i. i have to say what i look at mr obama he just doesn't seem to recognize that national debt is a serious issue in america just as it is in europe we haven't got governments that are realistic we haven't got governments that are being truthful frankly with the people there is worse to come there are very hard times ahead but at least america it's a democratic state in the late least you've got the chance to vote for a different president if you want one the poor people of greece have got nothing like we also have an extended executive powers in our country as well but sounds like a plague on both of our houses i appreciate you being on the show mr fries. thank you very much now our interview did not end there i continued talking tonight authorising you ca

greenspan said we needed a plan to pay off the national debt. the first thing bush did, he gave a tax cut to the rich, put this in two wars, unfunded prescriptions, and now we hear about them, the republicans want to cut social security and medicare. so, yes, the democrats are at fault, they both are at fault. but we have a broken government. there is something that needs to break this impasse. is ridiculous. thank you. host: thank you. this is the latest of a series of committees and endeavors to cut government spending and reduce the now $15 trillion debt ceiling. last week, we had a forum,ceo's looking at ways to reduce the deficit. among them, president bill clinton was the co-chair of the president's commission on deficit reduction. here is what he had to say. >> i think we face the most predictable economic crisis in history. it is as clear as the nose on my face. i know the fiscal path here in washington is not sustainable. and i know every member of that fiscal commission knows it, to o. the economics is very clear. the politics is very

as with allen greenspan and others this morning in new york, we were talking about this.he point everyone's making is that in many ways, america's biggest problem is europe and the fact that there could well be a slowdown in growth globally as a result of the european crisis if not an outright double dip. the financial market turmoil is going to sap competence once again and make it that much harder to get the banks say lending money into the economy. and actually dealing with say the housing markets and mortgage problems. and so, all in all, it's a very heavy drag on not just europe, but america, too. >> and the director was up there, were you interviewing him? did he have any easy answers to this for us? >> well, of course, the point he made was that unfortunately, the problems if europe, they can't be factored into the kind of budget projections his team are working with because how do you prepare for something like, or project something like a full blown italian political dramas and stuff, but it's making it that much harder. the reality is that if growth slows down,

but i think one story, you know, alan greenspan said this to me one time.i was asking him, what do you think reagan's greatest impact was. and he said, you know, to mean it was when he confronted the air traffic controllers at the beginning of his administration. and he confronted this important public sector union and fired all of the air traffic controllers who were striking, and everyone thought well, you know, this is sacred. they can't touch it because it's such a sensitive area. he replaced them all with no damage to the safety record. and greenspan always said that was a defining moment because it sent the message to ceos and business managers all over the country that they would not be political interference with the downsizing and restructuring that needed to be done that was so obvious in the '70s and early '80s to be able to be globally competitive. now, that was greenspan's view. i actually think that was a defining moment, too. i think it was very, very important, because that was carried through it even through bush and into the clinton admini

where were these free-market, dedicated regulators from alan greenspan, the fed chairman on down, toaded by their own market ideology and perhaps by the power of wall street itself, they did not look into this. >> but is it the cyclical overdose of greed that has created this? because once people get a certain taste for it, it's hard to let it go? >> well, you put your finger on it. once you get a taste for it and you are not checked and it's tolerated culturally, it keeps going. and this excess was a function of greed. very high fees. lots of money made on very risky deals, and people didn't understand the level of risk. and so on and so forth. but people always tell me, hey, greed always existed. yeah, we have a tendency to greed, but we don't have tendency of greed that overruns. >> jeff madrick, nice to have you here again. the book is called "age of greed," and i appreciate you coming in and talking to me. >>> south korean lawmakers were attacked by tear gas during a debate over a trade deal with the u.s. just take a look at this. you won't believe who threw that powder. >>> and

though, i come back to, because real deficit hawks, many of them happen to be republicans, alan greenspan, former fed chief, michael bloomberg, now the independent mayor of new york, and democrats like peter orszag who ran the budget office for this president said let them all expire for everybody. for the rich, for the middle class, if you really want to get serious about the deficit, let the bush tax cuts expire for everybody. >> if you really want to get serious about the deficit, our country has to grow economically. we have to put people back to work. that's what creates wealth that can be taxed. we're not going to tax our way out of this. we need to grow. and you can't grow if you raise taxes in the middle of a recession. that's what president obama said when unemployment was at 9% a few months ago. he said don't raise taxes in a recession. and he's right. that impairs job creation by taking more money from the very people, primarily small business folks, who will create most of the jobs coming out of the recession. >> let me ask you this, is there any potential deal that's still po

is being created not by wall street, but by central bankers, led in particular by the fed under greenspan bernanke. so now the u.s. dollar is actually at the epicenter, although shielded for the moment, by the euro. and we're watching a threat to the whole paper money system. and that would create a mammoth depression and abject poverty for everybody. so everybody's got to be really worried about it. >> what can you do about it? >> and you saw yesterday -- well, the first thing is you, i think, you have to start cutting government waste, rather than spending, and you have to get down to restoring faith in money, in paper money. there has to be a return to some form of gold link. even if it's just for central banks, as it was until 1971, from 1944 to '71. that was only the central banks. the next stage would be to get t that we had before, which was where sterling and dollars were convertible into gold by individuals. and that is a true, honest money system. i don't mind what the price is, of course, people argue, there's not enough gold. but it depends what price. if you took the conversi

alan greenspan used to joke. he said we could fix social security for 99% of americans in 10 minutes and the first five minutes we would be first -- we would just be saying hello to each other in their room. host: said vernon gill, california. -- san bernadine know, california. tina, a democrat. caller: i want america to know that when they want to expand the base, we are the base. most people would be picking up that tax and pay more in their taxes to cover the deduction for the corporations that are not paying. second, we know there was a problem with the mortgages, and we know on wall street there are winners and there are losers. we know who the losers are, but america never found out who the winners are, and that is why people are in the street and we have a problem. we do not know who the winners are. it was like the money totally evaporated. i'm 48 years old. i have been working since i was 15 years old. i cannot see increasing my age two more years. it is not fair to ask me based on 30 years of work to wo

it was done in a very thoughtful way in the early 1980's with the greenspan commission, headed by alanenspan, bob dole, senator moynihan, and a lot of people from various political persuasions got together in a thoughtful way that dealt with the financing and the benefits and put the program in a sound wave. we're talking about 2036 as a solvency date. back then, it was four or five months. that was really a crisis. i do not want to get to that point. we did not need to solve these enormous issues, complicated issues, by thanksgiving. host: let's get to phone calls. bob, a republican in ohio, go ahead. caller: yeah, i think the tax break on social security is a big mistake. they are talking about having to do something to fix it. the way i look at it, it has been butchered over the years. taking it out of there just to make another stimulus is ridiculous. host: you're talking about the payroll tax holiday. you oppose that. caller: totally. that money is for social security. using that to prop up something else is just another way of putting up the bank. host: max richtman, do you agree