iran says it has been considering counseling or oil sales to six e.u. countries but it wouldn't do so at the moment because of the cold winter in europe because as the israeli pm accuses the islamic state of being behind. talan and urges americans to look he's sad it's not a problem. also russia says external players are encouraging opposition groups to stay out of domino with the syrian government. also a bit superdelegate. meanwhile the president the son of announced a referendum on a new constitution. for a democracy uprising in bahrain protests is a crazy as another hot with police using tactics and weapons from the.

headlines time to go tell washington's to do is for the big picture with tom. oh i'm going to washington d.c. and here's what's coming up tonight the big picture. banks are bulldozing their way through europe what will be left in the rubble when they're done also is the tea party losing its political mojo that more coming up in tonight's liberal rumble and new hampshire is trying to repeal gay marriage and minnesota's try to

constitutionally ban it their quality ever be accepted in america like it is in canada and mexico so. you need to know this the bank's toure's plan to remake europe is now well underway there's an iconic quote chuck book the fight club which the main character tyler durden says only after disaster can we be resurrected it's only after you've lost everything you're free to do anything that quote has new meaning now when we look at the technocrats at the i.m.f. and what they're doing to europe and in particular greece at the behest of global banks toure's if the i.m.s. was tyler durden portrayed by brad pitt in the movie it would say it's only after europe has lost everything the banks can profit off anything we're seeing in europe now is the takedown of a small but important part of a comma of a continent's economy through forced austerity the big news in all the financial

rags today from the financial times to the wall street journal is the collapsing parts of the european economy. for the first time since two thousand and nine the seventeen nation euro zone economy contract and shrinking three tenths of a percent in the last quarter of two thousand and eleven one more quarter a negative growth and europe will officially be in a recession and looking at individual nations you can see why the british economy shrank by two tenths of a percent the fourth quarter of the way to austerity measures from conservative prime minister david cameron who proudly proclaim that europe has entered the quote age of austerity quote portugal's economy shrank by one and a half percent in two thousand and eleven and is projected to shrink by three percent this year and portugal has done everything the i.m.f. has asked it to do taking austerity poison pills and slashing budgets and what's happened things have gotten worse portugal's debt to g.d.p.

ratio went up from one hundred seven percent to one hundred eighteen percent and that's not because portugal added more debt but instead because their economy shrank thanks to austerity spain and italy are also adopting austerity and also watching their economies tank spain's debt to g.d.p. ratio was thirty six percent for the crisis now after austerity it's expected to more than double to eighty four percent by next year as for italy in two thousand and nine their debt to g.d.p. ratio was one hundred five percent and now thanks to austerity it's going to tick up to one hundred twenty six percent by next year this is sweeping across europe or at least parts of it and is the reason why the entire continent is on the verge of another recession but nowhere is it worse than in greece athens is just now putting out the flames after days of violent riots in the streets greek people went on strike said buildings on fire and clashed with police to fight back against austerity measures being shoved down their throats by the i.m.f. austerity measures that aren't working going on two years into the austerity

assault the greek economy is still tanking shrinking by seven percent in just the final quarter of two thousand and eleven and still in need of another bailout since . two thousand and nine a quarter of all greek companies have gone out of business half of small businesses in that country say they can't meet their payroll in the first half of two thousand and eleven the suicide rate in greece spiked by forty percent half of the entire greek population under the age of twenty five is right now out of work if greece has in-laws debt everything yet thanks to austerity and it's getting pretty damn close as economist and author max fraud wolf said on this show earlier this week. this is an ambiguously a disaster this is a sort of excel aerated great depression shock being delivered to greece we've never really seen anyone cut their way to prosperity in fact and that's where we get to the bigger picture of all this back to where we started it austerity doesn't work in fact if it has never ever worked ever in the history of the world in any

country then why are people who we consider to be smart economists still pursuing it why didn't these so-called smart economists look what happened in the one nine hundred seventy s. in the one nine hundred eighty s. when forced us therapy in places like chile argentina and nations that were formerly part of the soviet union led to years and years of pain and suffering for average working people by what they see what's in front of their very eyes today as athens burns. reason why because austerity isn't supposed to work it's not supposed to make economies better it's supposed to make economies worse remember what i said at the beginning only after europe has lost everything in the banks to profit off anything what's going on right now is a financial bulldozing of europe nation by nation so the bankers and the rich buddies can come in and buy up whatever's left of the commons at a low low price and make enormous profits into the future this is crisis capitalism it's what naomi klein wrote an entire book about europe has a long history of embracing the commons the health care system as part of the

commons they have public utilities their telecom infrastructure we talked about this last night it's considered part of the commons and you've got the obvious commons of police and fire schools there commons extends even to things like colleges but in countries like greece the commons also is their historic here and their ports democratic socialism which is the principal form of governance in europe has been very very strong in those countries that are pursuing it like denmark sweden norway germany france they're doing just fine but some of the particular when you look at what happened with goldman sachs and respect four years ago see how this is all begun if these commons if these countries like it can become privatized then there's a bunch of people who can make a whole lot of money off and the way to do that is to create a crisis or exploit one you bulldoze the economy with austerity and you let the banks gather up whatever is left. a nation with

a lot of resources it is for example greece the chinese are making huge investments and reese's main porton iris qatar's investing five billion dollars in tourism an infrastructure there is selling off their country wealthy germans and scandinavians want to make greece the florida of europe as an article about this in the new york times over the weekend greek there turning greek islands that used to be the property of the government of the people into expensive retirement homes for wealthy europeans now that the economy has collapsed it's a fire sale for the country if you take down the government space is created so the corporations and very wealthy individuals can step in this is a piece from russia's russell short post piece in the new york times he said whether or not the country pays its debts other nations and foreign companies now understand the greek government is powerless so the future they'll take over buyable assets and run parts of the country by themselves this isn't just happening

greets other cash strapped nations are going to be following suit and they're selling off their comments they'd love to turn you know it again same thing with spain it used to be a big vacation paradise now it's going to become a private vacation paradise europe is going to turn into a giant disney world for the rich it's already happening by the way in the united states were seen this with c.c.a. buying up state prisons they're actually they contacted all fifty states last week and so you know we'll buy a few prison facilities you have to guarantee customers to us and we'd like to lobby you for harsher drug laws of things like that but in any case our public utilities are being sold off education is be sold off austerity is working is exactly as it should it's taking us basically back to feudalism it's destroying our nation is destroying parts of europe other parts of europe are profiting tremendously off this and who wins the banks toure's.

i. was there you ready to rumble joining me on the panel for tonight's lone liberal rumble don. gino own geno u.s. senate candidate former special agent with the u.s. secret service and former new york police department officer and lachlan mark a mark that's right market investigative reporter with the heritage foundation center for media and public policy thanks to both of you for being here and my list let's get started i was just reading about austerity in europe and it seems like the republicans are hell bent for leather to bring this to the united states you know cutting we've seen in twenty five. twenty four red states. so far three years seven hundred thousand people laid off and you know like this. now we've got this tax deal this payroll tax cut and unemployment benefit cut and.

you know they're talking about extending this but the republican succeeded in lowering the number of weeks for unemployment benefits for ninety nine dollars seventy three weeks why would that be a good thing you know to take more money out of people's pockets who would be consumers who would otherwise stimulate the economy well i think the data the unemployment rates are pretty clear you'll see that if unemployment was given for five years unemployment takes down not coincidentally after five years the incentive to not work is there i think that you realize that most people if they're if they're given just a couple hundred bucks a week they'll just not work it's not just because you don't mind it's not just conservatives saying that you can look at anyone from new york times poll paul krugman of new york times the cold mist or alan krueger the recent edition right now white every job opening there are for people who are but but the point is that for a job i mean that my my my you go serious about blame and not all of the we're not talking about blaming the victim here we're talking about incentives and i'm telling you that it's not just free marketeers who are who who say that an

incentive it's a safety net giving people money for doing something will inevitably result in more people doing that and not just certainly depends on how much money you give the business is textbook economics and i say that literally because paul krugman himself has written it into his textbooks that one of the reasons for prolonging unemployment spells in europe were unemployment benefits are much more generous generally is been precisely because of those on where you got your you get unemployment benefits you get free health care you get free childcare you get out you have nothing to none of those things or have well that's what people are paying for i'll agree with you but none of those things are available in the united states people people when they're on an unemployment they're screwed and they know it and they're not trying to stay on. the vast majority are not trying to just cause all of this is fun right but you're making a simplistic ad hominem argument when the reality is having studied psychology and economics what lachlan said is right the incentives are there i'm not saying everyone what we're saying is the incentive is there to not work if you don't have

so very proud so you agree with cutting the number of available weeks for unemployment from ninety nine down to seventy three we need to make it realistic we can look at that right now is a very prolonged the profession but that's what makes it but that's also a form of austerity i mean what drives an economy is people spending money i don't agree with a celebrity we're still spending it's just a third party spending your money there's no one hundred less but they're spending your money there's still money being spent going after the seventy third week they're not spending anything they don't have any money they're spending the taxpayers their money not the third party government money still being spent in other words on the benefits that would be spent by unemployment people instead of unemployed people excuse me instead of tax dollars being taken from taxpayers to then go towards unemployment benefits that are being spent by the taxpayers them so i. know well you could say if you're too if you're talking about wealthy taxpayers i'd say no there is simply put it this was bank accounts but. it was what the thing what drives and what creates jobs is demand and demand is caused by people but what

i did what i always say to the folks who bring up that topic is where did the man go people don't demand things now that they say that demand is a function of wages period econ one hundred one no wait wages drive down wages are a function of productivity we get it we're going to take a break we'll be right we'll be right back coming up why do republicans think a nineteenth century energy transfer implant suits twenty first century america just five more rubble coming up after the break. resistance is not of politics but a culture. this could test. on its own.

cultures of resistance on march. first. back. joined by dan bongino u.s. senate candidate former special agent with the u.s. secret service and former n.y.p.d. officer and lachlan marc a investigative reporter with the heritage foundation center for media and public policy welcome back eyes. the transportation funding

bill this is there's the obama version of the house version and since the constitution says all spending begins in the house version is the one that counts and the house version put together by the house republicans calls for a nine percent reduction in infrastructure we're back to austerity. the republican secretary of transportation ray la hood who is still are registered republican calls this the most partisan worst transportation bill he's ever seen from a member of congress as well republican member covers it it it's a two tional ises the war on unions makes it harder for them to unionize. it also blows up california proposed high speed rail system and ends consistent funding of highways the gas tax have been doing this since eighty two every year was forty billion dollars last year that out of the gas tax that was dedicated for highway funding this is going to end one year and again and oil and there's

a huge giveaway to big oil. in this thing how how can this be good for america davis bacon there's been no greater act the u.s. government has instituted of his had a more disparate impact upon minority construction workers so i find it odd that we as republicans are constantly lectured on inequality and yet davis bacon the numbers are there when davis bacon says it is that if the federal government is funding a project in and in a community whoever is hiring the people in that project have to pay whatever the prevailing wage of the community might be twelve dollars an hour might be thirty dollars which happened to her defining what the prevailing wages were which is the wage that you. ploy years pay pay their employees only when you have a majority union employers but the point is that these are not as used all over the country in areas where there's no you know that's right and the prevailing wage laws are and the reality defined by the marketplace between the employers and employees but when those rates are defined by what union workers in the state pay but they're not it what would you find by the prevailing wage rate and that we're

going to davis bacon even mentions unions ok we're talking about prevailing wage laws state prevailing wage laws are based on what union contractors pay in that state ok so so apparently there's something in this transportation bill blows up davis bacon is that why you brought this up because i find it ironic that where lectured constantly on any quality when you look at things like school choice and the fact that a relatively small portion of union construction workers happen to be minorities where is the change there what if i said if we just eliminated davis bake it out that had that to do with the transportation bill that is decimating transportation why is it that the republicans are saying we need to move high speed oil from canada mexico i this or that we can export it but we can't move high speed people well i dispute that it's decimating transportation we have two point two trillion dollars in tax revenue can we stop spending it on cowboy poets and actually build a road i mean how is it that the roads are constantly falling apart with all this tax revenue i mean it's just absurd it's a hierarchy of means you know i think that that's a good point because what republicans in the you know the reason that they are

opposing spending more on transportation is not because they don't want to spend more in transportation it's because they would like to pay for it they don't want to implement a measure that's going to sort of raise the national debt even know the point is that when you have a federal government that already spends three point five trillion dollars you know it it makes it much more difficult to do governments are being suspended or functioning once or cent of g.d.p. and there was twenty two and a half percent under ronald reagan it was twenty three twenty four percent last year was not i don't i don't believe so we're only making eighteen this sixteen eighteen percent we don't have the money none of the chinese are building always right now you could say that i mean but. that's a fact it is at this tax rate yeah but only a quarter of you know the last ten years of deficit is that there's no evidence about the the highest the highest income to the united states government was under forty three george bush forty three that was the highest an absolute dollar value but if you look at absolute you know what people were paying as a percentage it was it was higher during the eisenhower the republican i had her fall through inflating away the value of our currency i was i was this that was

a pretty strong growth industry this country. that's kind of a disingenuous argument that the way the discretionary budget as alex was when the middle class was and growing ali the middle class is shrinking and the wealthy class is growing i don't have something to do with the fact that back then wealthy people paid ninety one percent income tax and now they only paid fifty no no no he did not have to do with that because when you look at historical not tax rates but tax revenue tax revenue has never been more than twenty one percent of g.d.p. regardless of what the top tax rate is it's been ninety percent it's been closer to thirty percent and revenue has never gone over twenty one percent of g.d.p. and what that should have been always the makers rather revenue and what that should tell policy makers is that the goal from eight from the perspective of getting the most tax revenue we possibly can should be growing the economic pie not slice to get us over quickly and the countries that are doing really well like denmark finland sweden norway why do you always put forth germany you know sweden would be the poorest state in the union right now if they were in the united states

poorer than west virginia if you're going to sweden i travel i did a show in there a week it's a wonderful place you know every week sweden is always put up as this utopian question weeds in the united states they're there their average income is higher than sweden sweden like but life is more life is going to is that the government spending as a percentage of g.d.p. and all of those countries over fifty percent. then you don't always get a sense of already eight percent but they can always go to canada and sweden i don't see people doing it they're all coming here. the wall street reform the wall street wants to crash the economy again in july of two thousand and twelve. the volcker rule goes into place now this is basically would have to put in place in one nine hundred thirty five to stop to prevent another crash on wall street and what it says is banks toure's if you want to gamble with your own money no problem but you can't co-mingle your investors funds you know people you me at the you know the three of us you can take the money that we've put in the our checking accounts or our savings accounts and go out and gamble that money in wall street and and

this was blown up in one thousand nine hundred by phil gramm and you know led right to in large part the crash of the the wall street crash and so paul volcker a good republican says want to do this and and and the obama and congress republicans as well bode for this thing and now the banks want to blow it up and it looks like the republicans want to go along with it i don't understand why i mean the problem i see with essentially you know we're referring to banks not being able to make proprietary trades on the road be halfwit other people's money so they're going with the reason that you know that i mean this is exactly what applies to putting the rule back in would basically it would disallow banks from being able to use that money to provide the reason we don't have a static economic pie in this country is if i invest something the person that i give that money to the person who i make that investment with is then free cheat use that money into other economic pursuits that then create more wealth in other areas of the economy so if you don't if you don't allow. which part of that was

which was i mean if you if you give money to a stock broker he can buy stock on your behalf you put it right you buy stock in it coming to you but now it's more capital to invest well actually no it doesn't unless it's an i.p.o. companies don't end up with the stock and somebody else has sold the stock my point is when when when i make an investment that that person then has money to make their own investments with that only if it's an i.p.o. or your venture capital it's the vast majority of people who are investing you know states are buying stocks from one another and only have an honest conversation about this what the truth is this is finding a problem for a solution the downfall and the cause of. crisis was not prop trading it was it was maturity mismatching and the quality of the credit portfolios it was not prop trading well i'm not saying argument it was nine hundred trillion dollars worth of worth of what derivatives out there are being traded in but then that's not accurate it was it was actually maturity mismatching long dated maturity versus short dated maturity and liquidity problems so i guess that we can have an honest conversation about that and i'm not saying you're completely inadequate happening

in a regulated market or an even just a transparent market i don't think anyone would have right but they're going to be saying the regulators fail so we get more regs say now and result in failure when he said we shouldn't have any regular of these anointed geniuses the who are regulators that failed us last time we found new ones you know are you leaving those don't they were on the books were not being we were just as you said we never issue is you know in force regulations on the books before you pass a word in washington until franklin roosevelt this country never went more than fifteen years at a bank and iker a stock market crash or both never more than fifteen years in the entire history the country from one hundred thirty five a glass steagall until until just recently you know we had a stable economy until phil gramm pulled apart glass steagall in one thousand nine hundred ninety this puts it half way back together and just seems to be like a rat is an honest argument to be had for separating shareholder equity investment but i don't i think we're making again we're making a problem for a solution that was not the cause of the financial crisis it wasn't there we just leave data we have an economy now that is you know twenty five percent of our

economy now is fire it's the financial services but that benefits it was only ten percent you know when reagan came into office thirty years ago at that time we had twenty six percent of our economy was manufacturing it's down to ten or eleven percent now our commies flipped completely upside down right but when you send word to reveal a lot of these banks just make anything of value we use the word the rivet and i think that word gets demonized but the reality is when you're an airline company that specializes in service and airlines you don't want to deal with the price of oil that's not a value added activity so for you to go level in favor of people being able to buy futures right but that's done through investment banking. and really what we're talking about is the cost of capital increase i don't know but what this law that what this what this rule says is that you as a banker not as american airlines but as a banker can't be buying futures on oil with my deposit right no it's not deposits shareholder equity there's a difference there's a very clear there was a can't take your deposit then go out and invest it in a risk they have there or they will be able to enjoy twelve thousand women when

this law goes into effect there are leverage ratios to prevent all that so it's not it's not leverage ratio it's commingling of funds that's that's what the volcker rule prevents that but it doesn't prevent also from buying if you there was an exemption for what treasury bills and fannie and freddie stock i find that ironic is enough it really wasn't there i think we're just kind of hit the wall question here for all of our viewers and time for our last question quickfire as you may know comedian roseanne barr's trying to run for president is a green party candidate and a public policy poll polling poll between president obama mitt romney and roseanne roseanne pulled six percent of the vote ahead of undecided of five percent which makes me wonder what are the ninety's t.v. star would run for president and what would their platform be about scooby doo on marijuana legalization or winning cooper on a platform of abstinence or al bundy on a platform of birth control because got any ideas are you a picture. i've been a bit of ninety's t.v. producer because if we could get larry david in the white house i think we. would

certainly get a lot of straight talk from the what you know is a little. bit of caruso he's probably looking for a job after my p.t. boo that was a terrible decision right so david caruso let's have a record of the hell of a good actor he is very very good essence or yeah mike my suggestion would be george kinds. of quadrupling that's good that maybe you could live up. to dan locking. thank you very much sort of thing i would do. crazy alert move over twitter it's pigeon time while the brutal crackdown in syria continues the citizen activists of holmes the main site of the crackdown have found a new way to communicate with each other carrier pigeons since the crackdown has taken out most modern forms of communications in and to the city the residents of to.