so sort of selling their willingness to punish other foreign financial institutions that do business with iran and the dangers and as well you know remember this is not a you end authorized sanctions regime so countries are not therefore under any obligation to follow what are essentially european and american sanctions you know so there's no legal you know an issue meant for india or china to so-called rick the american sanctions but what the united states is pressuring these countries on is if they continue to do trades with iran the united states will punish them for its trades with say india oh it's trades with china the issue is the united states is not currently in a position to punish china so this is a lot of smoke in the water you know that is being put out there the chinese are playing this very close to their chest they have been meeting the indians they've been discussing things with the turks to see if they can create so got exemptions

to the american sanctions so one should not come to this question of sanctions believing that the united states here is the biggest dog at the table all right and finally we just have a little bit of time left on but i've got to say you know there you turn on any station and there's a discussion about iran and there are some people who say that war with iran is not only imminent that it's actually a good idea you know critics of the critics say iran doesn't have that much conventional military capability and wouldn't be able to retaliate other than with their oil so might as well strike them what's your response to this sort of way of thinking there are seventy eight million people that live in the islamic republic of iran and i'm afraid there is a very cavalier sentiment in the world where people talk about things like we're not going to attack you know you know as if there is a sort of god view available to certain people about the killing about. when

seventy eight million people are held hostage like this i find it unforgivable it's a very uncivilized to approach questions of diplomacy and international relations i have no respect for people who. you know simply and easily about killing other people i think that they have lost control of their own rationality i think that's a really good point unfortunately in this era of twenty four hour cable networks a lot of times what you just hear is those ten second sound bites a lot of them sort of fear mongering and that's what's being put out there right now i always appreciate your insight director of international studies at trinity college thank you. well also throughout the day today an increasingly tense and violent situation in syria over the weekend the u.n. security council met to vote on a draft resolution condemning the syrian government's crackdown and also urging syrian presence syrian president bashar al assad to step down now within the country itself there have been deadly clashes on both sides and western leaders

have criticized the decision by moscow and beijing not to cooperate here's a response by u.s. ambassador susan rice mr president the united states is disgusted that a couple members of this council continue to prevent us from fulfilling our sole purpose here addressing an ever deepening crisis in syria and a growing threat to regional peace and security for months this council has been held hostage by a couple members five. secretary of state hillary clinton calls the unwillingness a travesty pointing to an event a few days ago in which as many as two hundred people were killed by syrian forces in the city of horns and today the united states closed its embassy in damascus citing security concerns now are due course why honest going to has been covering this process she's in new york to shed some more light on the process and the

problems still in play ana safiya let's talk about russia first moscow has made it clear from day one that any transfer of power must be a decision made from within syria and not by others so talk about this point of view and why you think it's getting so much backlash. well love crissy is definitely like a vocabulary vocabulary lesson gone sour some of the words we're hearing from the western counterparts really at the united nations have been quite expressive and we have to say that after those comments that we just showed to our viewers made by susan rice russia was asked to reiterate and comment on this kind of feeling of disgust coming from the united states and russia was quick to say that it would not mimic similar language that russia simply does not conduct diplomacy in such a manner so it is something that russian diplomats are not used to using these kinds of words and we're hearing a lot of those like you said coming out of the united states in the west discussed

betrayal of the syrian people. really suggesting that russia and china would bear full responsibility for protecting the brutal regime on the ground and so on and so forth and russia saying look guys why are you surprised that this veto took place we were telling you in the days leading up to the vote that we would not support a resolution that would be biased that would support one side of the conflict and that would promote any sort of regime change so this kind of really shock is something that russia is a reason it's eyebrows too because it was telling the west what would happen all along take a listen to how the russian foreign minister has been commenting on this whole situation. new clues those old western comments on the outcome of the u.n. security council vote on syria sound indecent and almost hysterical in this connection i can't remember the saying that those who are angry are really right.

statements attempts are being made to create a full picture of what is really going on in syria and what's really happening is that there are several and not just one sources violence in syria that's sure speak . well it's key that russia's been pointing out this entire time christine that it's not just the syrian government that's conducting the violence but also the opposition groups and it's been saying that coal amendments that was it was suggesting to the rest of the international community were simply ignored such as things like. the political opposition separating from extremist groups on the ground and underlining the importance of talks involving both parties and the russian foreign minister has said that it's just sad that the international community pushed through this vote where now russia was calling for just a few more extra days honest and say i've got to say this you've got anti-government protesters in the street the u.s. staying out of it at first and now calling for the leader to step down it seems to me other than the resolution not passing there are

a lot of echoes here of libya i guess i want to know from you i mean how do you think what happened in libya or do you think what happened in libya will play a role in what's happening now in syria. well you know christine the libya has definitely been talked about a lot at the at the united nations leading up to this vote because russia's been expressing huge concerns that the libyan scenario could repeat itself and it was actually saying that it does not want this possibility for months it's not just you know minutes or days before the international community sat down to vote and as we remember when the libyan resolution was being passed at the security council russia abstained from that vote and this time around it just felt like it would not be a wise thing to do because what we saw happen in libya was instead of a no fly zone being up lamented we saw a full blown military operation where is that time the international community was the same way trying to convince russia and the other countries that

a military scenario is not being considered where in fact it obviously was and that's exactly what ended up happening real quick on the. u.n. ambassador susan rice seems today to be sort of on a campaign of finger pointing at russia and china but what are you hearing what is next. well what is next is definitely the most complicated question right now we know that the united states and the e.u. are considering regional and you know a lot of measures against syria and this is something that russia does not support by any means we do know that the russian foreign minister and the russian chief foreign intelligence officer will be in damascus syria tomorrow for talks so we're hoping that some more light will be shed on exactly what happens next but we do know that what russia has offered is a stage for talks in moscow for the syrian government and the opposition but whether or not this is going to play out in this more peaceful scenario or in a more aggressive way including the west in the u.s.

we're going to have to wait and see in the days to come correspondence stuff going to keep her in her eyes on all of the action there at the u.n. thanks so much. and for the latest of the very latest on the u.n. security council meeting and debate over syria you should follow on a study on twitter. while the capital account is up next on our t.v. let's check in with laura will start to see what's on today's agenda hey there lauren what do you are cooking for us hi christine we are good at the great debt crisis cook and as it's continued to be cookin given that we have the super bowl maybe this isn't one of those crock pots where takes forever to boil over and get cooked but this is the same story that we see meanwhile numbers come out christine that show that countries that have gotten bailouts in europe those that are under the prescriptions of international lenders have seen their debt ride so we're going to talk about what kind of solution exactly that is benefiting other was an

interesting analogy but i like it already that's going to do it for us for now but for more on the stories we covered go to our t.v. dot com slash usa or youtube dot com slash r t america where you can follow me on twitter at christine. culture is the same of jargon joe you know lottery winners of the old world come to the same search of national determination and sovereignty this is what many scots say they want a realistic is an independent scotland would appeal for. guitar sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realize that everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm sorry welcome to the big picture.

but i define it as a struggle for failure australia doing the telly on new zealand knowing thank you see the film on. if you want to have sex go and have sex. well the british soil the sun. that's the time to write.

market why not. come to. find out what's really happening to the global economy with much stronger for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune in to conjure reports on our. good afternoon and welcome to capital account i'm lauren lyster here in washington d.c. have been monday what a week the greek debt talks continue to painfully drag on and on new e.u. statistics meanwhile speak to the success of debt crisis policy prescriptions and countries forced to seek bailouts the debt grows in greece portugal and ireland looking back to q three two thousand and eleven some solutions those are we'll talk about where this is headed and the emasculation of wall street are we witnessing it come on we'd like to see financial crisis criminals face charges for their roles

bailed out bank executives forced to give up their bonuses and hey knighthood like they do in the u.k. and get fired how about that so far we still see a lot of signs the biggest firms are getting favors not punishment from the regulators who may have the power to emasculate we'll tell you all about those signs later on and ron paul may not be leading the polls for the u.s. republican presidential nomination but is he a mouse in the political capital needed to rein in the bad rohani capital we'll tell you why you may be building the clout he needs to do just that limit the power of the federal reserve one of his signature goals let's get to today's capital account.

so great debt talks are dragging on but we're used to that by now come on negotiations have been going on and on to try to get greece to cut spending to meet the terms to get its next bailout to avoid default we know the drill we could recite it in our sleep the latest so more cozy has met there stepping up pressure to meet conditions of the next bailout merkel is saying time is running out but does all of this kind of show a bigger political issue that a lot of times we view things from this international prism but the reality is there are our internal politics going on in all of these countries this type of political wrangling for example going on in greece could give politicians the cover they need to say oh we got strong arms we had to do this so they can say we did the best we could just a thought as we look at what euro zone solutions mean for europe and for the rest of the globe and the impact not to mention let's look at the cost of the solutions

debt to g.d.p. numbers came out from the euro step showing there were wide variations among different nations but there was one trend countries with bailouts from the e.u. and i.m.f. all saw their debts. greece ireland portugal same thing here is greece for example so their debt to g.d.p. was one hundred fifty nine percent about for q three two thousand and eleven that's up from just under one hundred fifty five percent which is up from a hundred thirty eight percent at the same time q three two thousand and ten so how are those solutions and what should we be looking at when it comes to debt and regulations and these solutions for the us to know where we've got a big debt load here where i'm sitting in that washington is supposed to be taken care of mike norman is here to talk about it all chief economist at john thomas financial he's going to help us sort this out it's really nice to see you mike too

because i haven't gone to interview you. more and while because you were on contract with a certain network fox news according to your tweets that i've been reading you are no longer going to be doing that just do you want to tell us briefly why because your tweet seems quite opinionated about why i know it's look it's been a great run ten years you know it's time for me to move on i mean i've been under an exclusive contract at fox for the last ten years i'd like to be able to do other media but i had a great time and it's just time to move on that's what i'm going to say about that mike your tweets up here right now it says i don't have to deal with their propaganda anymore you want to add me think. well look i just think there's a big opportunity out there right now to talk about economics and policy sort of in a non mainstream way and that's what i do and that's what i bring to the table and i think you know my voice might fit better at another venue we'll see but i had a great run it's

a great organization and it started to move on my personally mike what can i say i couldn't agree with you more about the opportunity for non-mainstream views especially given the economic turmoil that we continue to see you know three years after the financial crisis i can't tell if it's getting better or worse but let's talk about greece because here is somewhere where we can we can apply all that ok talks are going on same old thing blah blah blah more cozies pressuring them leaders are trying to figure out how to cut spending in order to meet the terms they need to get bailed out meanwhile you are the numbers i read to pay debt to g.d.p. has grown for greece same as other bailouts nations as a result perhaps of the policies that have been prescribed to them it seems like the basic issue here is that these countries have been prescribed medicine that are making their economies worse not better. yes exactly you know this is the classic this is einstein's definition of insanity right keep doing the same thing over and over again and expecting

a different result look the problem with these bailouts is that they always come with conditions and the conditions are deep deep austerity and was happens is that you create a vicious cycle the austerity causes the economy to contract further it causes unemployment to go up it causes tax revenues to these nations to go down and you're left with a bigger deficit the way out of this is through growth but you're never going to get that with austerity i think the important thing to remember in all this is that these countries in the eurozone they're functionally like states in the united states i mean they can go bankrupt they no longer issue their own currency they have no control really over their own monetary policy so they can get into a debt trap and when you prescribe you know when you get these loans but at the same time these conditions are imposed where you have to basically shrink your economy the debt becomes greater as

a percentage of the economy and we're seeing that happen right now so it's a vicious circle it's a spiral down and we're you know the problem is that it's not only a debt crisis or an economic crisis it's devolved into a humanitarian crisis i mean and see people now really really destitute and desperate and it's an awful thing to watch and it's again the same policy over and over i couldn't agree more and there isn't an effort to fix the actual economies which is what you're kind of getting at but it does seem there is an effort to extract as much money as possible for investors is this a form of extraction as capitalism were saying. that's one way to put it right i mean imagine a scenario where some investor made a bunch of terrible decisions lost all their money and then went to the original clients and said ok now you've got to pay me back a hundred cents on the dollar for those terrible investments i just made well

that's essentially the situation that we're seeing right now in these countries where the financial sector. took huge risks and lost trillions and trillions of dollars and now basically asking the people through their governments to make them whole again one hundred cents on the dollar and forcing the governments to impose these conditions on the people in their nations have basically giving up their own sovereignty in order for that to happen i mean if you look at greece right there of former. democratically elected yet resident pop and radio he has stepped down i mean and say what you want about the guy maybe you don't like him but he was a democratically elected leader and you say the same thing about italy yet same thing exactly and you know the thing that's the funniest to me mike is that we've kind of gotten used to this you're talking about how this is even a humanitarian crisis now and it's a vicious cycle but it's become in

a sense the right norm where we're measuring progress against the financial crisis in two thousand and eight this is a little better than we could have hoped and this is a little worse but you know there's not a lot of hope and not so i'm curious where you think this is headed you mentioned some of these countries could go bankrupt. yeah well for now we have the e.c.b. sort of acting like a cause fiscal authority for europe but i think that has taken at least for now the whole solvent see issue off the table you know laurent an individual could be insolvent right they could have debts or liabilities greater than their assets but if they're able to pay their monthly payment every month even if it's the minimum you know they could probably existed that condition or go on in that condition for a long period of time and that's kind of like what we're seeing right now in europe where the e.c.b. you could equate the e.c.b. to sort of the rich uncle who's stepping up and making that payment for these countries but you know it's kind of not in the d.n.a. of the e.c.b.

to do that germany is putting pressure on the e.c.b. so i don't know how long that could continue it almost seems like every time we're ready to go over the edge the e.c.b. is there and it's supporting these nations but the policies are just designed to fail it's a matter of time unless we see a change in the european constitution that allows the e.c.b. to basically fund and allow these countries to run deficits long enough so that they could resume growth but then you could still argue that you're pushing them to that cleft they're not going over it yet you're just prolonging how long they're able to stay going down the road so my question to you is what does this say about dad not just in europe but in the u.s. i know you think it's a different scenario but come on there's got to be some lessons for the u.s. where we have high debt and we're running these fiscal deficits that are pretty big . why it's not that i think it's different it is different i mean the debt in the

united states yes it's a liability of the united states government but it's not a liability that the united states government can never meet because the u.s. government is the monopoly issuer of the dollar our debts are denominated in dollars and so therefore it's not a dead where we have borrowed another currency or it's tied to some fixed rate of exchange or there's a gold backing or something like that and the proof is in the putting lauren i mean we've been hearing so much about the debt in the united states and remember it's and p. downgraded the credit rating of the united states and guess what interest rates have been going down down down down down and we were warned that oh gosh if this ever happened we're going to see a spike in interest rates and foreigners are going to sell their bonds and foreigners are selling their bonds the chinese have been selling a lot of their u.s. securities interest rates are going down and that simply because the rate is set by

the fed i mean that's the way it works is mike isn't that an unsustainable model ok we're talking about rates being loud and they're low because the everybody still has confidence in the u.s. and it's not as bad as the alternatives right now the euro zone is a disaster what about when you lose that confidence even ben bernanke he says that you can't keep confidence and have fiscal deficit this high. ben bernanke i mean he has basically lied to congress in these statements that he made i mean and he knows better more and he knows better he you know when he tries to equate the united states to europe or to greece for that matter he knows that is not the case and i have no idea why he goes on record and makes those statements look what we on any idea call it want you could want congress to act to do something that could be putting pressure on them but that aside what you're saying that the solution is the fed can you know print money we can get out of this debt it isn't got a tax on everyone that's holding dollars isn't that affecting the purchasing power

and taxing every american one how is that because if you read i mean the fed cannot we hear this all the time that the fed prints money the fed does not print money if you read the federal reserve act the only thing the fed can do is make a loan is discount something so it'll take one asset a bond or something from the public and it'll exchange that for a balance in the banking system a reserve balance ok so they have to creates there they have to create debt in order to issue money but at the end of the day that's still issuing money so expanding the money is monetary supply lauren if i take a million dollars worth of treasury bonds from you which is this an obligation or a liability of the united states government in the value of one trillion and i give you one trillion in cash yeah your net worth has in chains you haven't suddenly

received a million new a dollar or nine new net financial knowledge my god i don't know about that for just one second i'm not interrupting you i literally have to go to break we will be right back with more with you that in just a minute i was back with mike norman he is chief economist at john thomas financial . and still ahead a new report about ron paul says he may be building the clout to move reigning in the bed more to the republican agenda mike norman if he thinks we could see a more comprehensive audit of the fed but first your closing market. can be the same. people calling what you said

for free and fair elections. and we're still reporting from the it's a public interest as you can hear behind me loud explosions. i mean. they gave. a. gerard's right right i mean it's like a derivative of actual pepper it's a food product essentially. this is much stronger than anything in the bios. thousands of times i'm stronger than any one of the word you ever put in your.

welcome back ok i want to continue this conversation with mike norman we were talking about money printing he says it's not money printing i want to bring up this issue of who exactly though is benefiting and one of the people we're talking about often is wall street take a look at this cover of new york magazine it says the emasculation of wall street that's a cover story and it's about how it's a really different time for wall street now that this is a bad year in

a different way cording to people on wall street bonuses have been kept dodd frank is changing the shape of the system but what emasculating wall street be more like pressing charges firing c.e.o.'s taking away bonuses entirely like we've seen in the u.k. and what about reports that show that these regulations aren't exactly applied fairly i want to talk to mike norman about all of that mike i want to bring back into the conversation i hope you don't i wasn't cut you off before literally we have to hit our break so it's not my control but i do want to ask you about about this this issue of regulations because you have you know new york magazine on one side saying hey wall street is change these regulations are hitting them but i mean really wouldn't. be a lot better than that we see in the u.k. the heads of banks that have received huge bailouts not being able to accept huge bonuses and also i mean even losing their knighthood that sounds like emasculation to me. listen for a hundred. not a hundred years or so.