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I remember in 2008, Paul Volker, who used
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to be the chairman of the Fed, not a left winger,
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but he was brought in by Barack Obama to oversee
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a project for defanging the financial sector.
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It didn't go down very well with the financial sector
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as you can imagine, but there was this remarkable conference
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in which all the representatives
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of the financial community were there
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and they were looking at Paul Volker as the devil
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because he was there in order
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to impose restrictions upon them.
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And their arguments were all about the financial innovation
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that their banks were performing
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and what a great service to the world that was.
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They were warning them that if you constrain us,
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then all this financial innovation goes away.
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Paul Volker listened to them,
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and then at some point he got up
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and he said, "I'm 80 something years old.
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I've been in banking all my life, not just central banking,
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but private, commercial banking.
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The only financial innovation
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I've ever come across was the ATM."
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"Everything else was differently bundled forms of debt
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that you are producing against the interests of society."
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That was a very interesting comment coming from somebody
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that was in the banking community all his life.
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In 1944, President Roosevelt convened
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in Bretton Woods the conference
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of representatives of different states.
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It is quite interesting that within a few weeks
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they designed the post-war financial
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and economic system, which oversaw the the golden age,
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the golden era of capitalism.
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What I find fascinating is that the President
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of the United States of America only made one condition
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regarding who attends that conference.
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Remember, Roosevelt made sure
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that in the Bretton Woods Conference, which
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designed the post-war... the first post-war phase
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between the 1940s
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and 1971, 1973, he had stipulated
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that one kind of person should not be allowed into
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the Bretton Woods Conference.
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You know who these people were? Bankers.
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Not one banker attended the Bretton Woods Conference,
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and that was at the explicit order of FDR. True.
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So you had boring banks
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between 1944 and 1971.
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This explains to a very large extent
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the serious reduction in inequality.
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The difference between what a CEO made
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and what a janitor made collapsed
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to unprecedented levels, low levels,
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and that had to do with the fact that
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the financial genie was put into the bottle.
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The Bretton Woods system banned the transfer
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of capital from one country to another without permission,
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and totally did away with the right of financiers to
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send money around the world in search of means
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to escape taxation.
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They were not in a position to gamble with
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people's deposits.
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This is why the Bretton Woods system was so very hated by bankers.
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While that system was viable, you had the highest level
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of growth together with the lowest level of unemployment
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and shrinking inequality. Alas,
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that system could not survive,
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and the United States just jettisoned it
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famously on the 15th of August 1971,
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and all hell broke loose.
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Most people believe that money is printed
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by the State via the Central Bank.
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Well, it is true that the money in our pocket, cash,
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is printed by the Central Bank,
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but that only constitutes about 3%
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of the money doing the rounds.
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So, when you get from Barclays Bank, from ING,
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from whichever bank a loan, 50,000 quid,
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where is the money coming from?
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The money is conjured up from thin air.
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Somebody just typed 50,000,
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somebody from within the bank. This is why 97%
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of the money in an economy
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has nothing to do with the state.
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It's produced by the banks. They just type it in.
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You pay interest to the bank. The bank has a profit.
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Imagine the power that this gives a banker.
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A banker can create money out of thin air and earn a profit.
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This is more or less like having a free ATM in your own
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living room producing money out of the wall
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but, actually, it gets worse.
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With financialization,
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this process of creating money is turbocharged.
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Capitalism is a wonderful beast with a unique capacity
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to undermine itself, to be pregnant with its opposite.
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Not only is it producing immense wealth
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and immense poverty at the same time
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but, when it is stable, its stability breeds instability.
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When financiers place all sorts of bets
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and everything works out
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and they make money, they become increasingly greedy, and
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therefore they keep taking new risks
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that eventually blow up in their face.
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Now, in 2008, the whole thing came crashing down
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but because the financiers have so much power in society,
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when the crisis happens, they also have the political
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weight to ensure that their misdeeds,
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the losses that they have created,
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are shifted onto the shoulders of the weakest
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of the proletariat, of the precariat, of those
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who did not have the political power to oppose them.
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The result is austerity for the many.
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Economics is really simple. I've got
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£10 in my pocket.
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If I go out and buy three pints of beer in Cambridge,
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I'm probably borrowing money.
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If I carry on doing that, then I'm going to run out of money,
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and I'm going to go bust.
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It's not difficult guys to sit down, work out
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what the country needs to do,
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and work collectively together.
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Because the country does not operate as your budget
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does. We have a magic money tree.
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But why not?
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Why not?
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Why not? In the country, total
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expenditure equals total
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income. In your life,
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you have a wonderful independence
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between your expenses and your income.
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So, when you cut down on your expenses,
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your income doesn't cut... is not cut.
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But for the country as a whole, if the country
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as a whole goes into a major savings spree,
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then its total income is going to come down.
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So, your personal life is not a good model on which
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to base planning.
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Economists do not know many things about the economy.
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We're not real experts in the economy.
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There are a few things we know.
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One is that you cannot overcome a
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bankruptcy through more loans.
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And the other is that austerity never works.
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Hi. You went on Question Time -
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it was probably about six weeks ago -
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and there was a bloke in the audience
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and he tried to start a parable about having £10 at
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the end of the week and going
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to the pub and buying four pints,
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and you explained to him correctly that his
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personal life wasn't a very good model
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for economics. But his personal life has been used
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as a model for economics by, particularly in this country,
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by the Conservative Party.
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I just wanted to ask why you thought the center-left
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and the left in this country
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and in Europe has failed so spectacularly really to
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debug that myth. You're
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right.
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The main point he was making is one which
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is dominant around the world
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to this day. It's dominant in the Republican Party
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in the United States.
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It's dominant even in the socialist parties of Europe.
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The idea of belt tightening... of austerity.
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Austerity is a very specific macroeconomic policy.
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It is the policy of trying to
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prevent debt from rising, even forcing it to fall,
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during periods of recession
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by cutting on government expenditure and increasing taxes.
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That's austerity. That has never worked and never will work
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because it's a law of nature that it cannot work.
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Pigs are more likely
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to fly than austerity is likely to work.
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The problem is exacerbated, the problem of falling incomes,
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by an attempt to cut down.
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So, if tonight you don't have a pint, you abstain
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from having a pint. How much is a pint these days?
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£4? Okay, let's say £4.
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You've saved £4. Your income doesn't
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shrink, doesn't increase.
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Stays the same. In an economy like Britain,
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total expenditure equals total income.
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So, my expenditure is your income
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if I'm buying something from you.
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Our total expenditure equals our total income.
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Suddenly there is a complete breakdown in the
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independence between expenditure and income.
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What happens during a crisis is this. Corporations
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and households seeing that now they're in trouble,
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they stop spending. The private sector as a whole,
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families, individuals, companies, spend less.
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If suddenly you panic
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and you try to apply the principles of austerity
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that work at the private level, you try
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to apply this at the governmental macroeconomic level,
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what happens is while private expenditure shrinks,
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public expenditure shrinks. What's the sum of these two,
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private and public expenditure? It's total income.
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So what should we do instead of austerity
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if we are serious about cutting down on debt
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and on deficits? The answer is, stimulate
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investment. Periods of recession are typified by
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lots of losses and debts
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but at the same time savings that are too
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terrified to be invested into productive activity
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because those who own that money fear
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that if they invest it in productive activity,
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then there won't be enough demand for those goods
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and services that are being produced
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because the rest of society
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doesn't have enough money to buy them.
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We must remember that, at times of recession,
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we are not missing out on money, on people, on skills.
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They're all there. The money is there...
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idle savings. The workers are there waiting to work,
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if only somebody will gainfully employ them.
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What we have is a massive coordination failure.
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That failure can only be overcome
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through the political system.
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I'm astounded to hear neoliberals telling us
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that we just can't afford a welfare state.
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We cannot afford all the public goods
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that society absolutely needs.
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Think of 1945 in the United Kingdom.
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The country was coming out of a war.
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There was scarcity everywhere, rationing,
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and yet the country managed to finance the most spectacular
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welfare state creation process, including pensions,
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including the National Health Service.
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Tomorrow, there will come into operation
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the most comprehensive system of social security
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ever introduced into any country.
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When the political will is there, the money becomes
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immediately available as a result of bringing together
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of economic forces that can contribute
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to the generation of those public goods.
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After 2008,
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when the financial sector had created this massive crisis,
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it was treated to a version of socialism - the bailouts
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that the public was providing
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to the bankers - while the public was
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being treated to austerity.
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What was effectively happening at the time was a cynical
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shift of the losses
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of the financial sector onto the shoulders of the poor.
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Austerity is another term for class war against the poor.
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That's what it is.
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I grew up in a Greece where you could lose your life
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or freedom because you read a book that was banned.
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My greatest fear is a fascist Europe.
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We had it in the 1930s, we may have it again.
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The forces of fascism are feeding off the fragmentation
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of the liberal establishment. Greece
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was the canary in the mine.
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It should be seen as a warning sign that the galleries
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of the mine were about to collapse. The powers that be chose
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to blame the canary, not the mine's architecture,
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not the methane gas that was about to blow up the mine.
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And the result is
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that now we're facing a postmodern 1930s across Europe,
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across the world. Our generation
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has to study very carefully the Weimar Republic.
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John Maynard Keynes wrote a beautiful piece at the end
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of the Great War in which he admonished the winners for
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imposing harsh reparations upon the defeated Germans.
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So harsh, that it was clear
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that they would never be able to repay them.
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And Keynes's concern was
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that the moment you impose unsustainable debts simply
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because you have the military power to do it
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or the political power to do it,
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not only are you destroying the life prospects
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of the vast majority of the people in the defeated country,
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but you're also creating economic stagnation
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that will only foment political forces, social forces,
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that will result in another great war.
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Moreover, during the 1920s
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and early 1930s in Germany,
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the liberal establishment at the time
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was committing one error after the other.
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It was a comedy of errors.
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It was constantly shifting the burden of the economic crisis
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onto the shoulders of the many, of the disenfranchised,
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of those who were finding it very
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difficult to make ends meet.
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And at the same time, while it was being genuinely
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threatened by the monstrosity of the Nazis,
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the Weimar Republic was far more preoccupied with the task
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of not allowing progressives, genuine progressives,
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to gain any kind of influence within German society.
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The result was Nazi Germany.
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It seems to me that the liberal establishment today
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is struggling in order to emulate the Weimar Republic.
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Yes, we can.
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We are in the middle
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of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.
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So, at a moment like this, the last thing we can afford
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is four more years of the same old, tired,
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worn-out economic theories that say, as long as we give more
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and more to billionaires and millionaires
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and big corporations, prosperity will somehow
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trickle down on everybody else.
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These are the economic theories that got us into this mess.
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They have not worked. It is time for a change,
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and that's why I'm running for President
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00:19:03,305 --> 00:19:04,685
of the United States of America.
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Obama rode into the White House on a tsunami of
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expectations that he cultivated,
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and which he spectacularly failed to honor.
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In the one and only meeting I had
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with Barack Obama in the White House when he was president,
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he felt the need, possibly
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because he was talking to a left-wing finance minister,
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00:19:30,425 --> 00:19:35,125
without being prompted to justify himself, he said
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00:19:35,125 --> 00:19:38,325
to me, "Oh, Yanis, you know, when I was first elected,
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I had to save the bankers,
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00:19:40,105 --> 00:19:42,165
and this was really very unappetising.
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It was like drinking a glass of poison."
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So, that's his excuse for what he did.
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You've got to save the banks.
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They are like the arteries of the capitalist system.
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He was right on this but he didn't just save the banks,
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he saved the bankers.
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These two are not one
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00:20:01,925 --> 00:20:06,325
the same thing. In 1992, when
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Sweden's Banks collapsed, in 1998
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00:20:09,995 --> 00:20:13,685
when South Korea's banks collapsed, the states of Sweden
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00:20:13,865 --> 00:20:15,765
and South Korea saved the banks,
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but they got rid of the bankers.
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They nationalised the banks. They cleansed the banks.
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00:20:22,315 --> 00:20:24,125
They made sure that the practices
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that had brought about their bankruptcy
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were never to be repeated.
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Instead of doing that, he brought into the treasury
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00:20:34,025 --> 00:20:35,485
people like Larry Summers
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00:20:35,485 --> 00:20:37,405
and Tim Geithner, who were the ones
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00:20:37,405 --> 00:20:40,085
who had unshackled Wall Street, and allowed them to run riot
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and effectively, in my view, bring about the
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00:20:44,615 --> 00:20:46,445
Great Crash of 2008.
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He brings these people back in with one
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remit: to refloat the bankers,
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00:20:55,265 --> 00:20:59,085
and they spent around $1 trillion without
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00:20:59,475 --> 00:21:00,925
even this being transparent,
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00:21:01,065 --> 00:21:04,125
the so-called Geithner-Summers plan, which was
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00:21:04,805 --> 00:21:06,525
a dastardly plan - very clever
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00:21:06,785 --> 00:21:08,365
but very dastardly at the same time.
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00:21:09,435 --> 00:21:11,565
This was his window of opportunity
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00:21:12,145 --> 00:21:15,285
to bring back the New Deal into American politics.
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He misses it.
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00:21:22,345 --> 00:21:25,285
The combination of austerity for the many
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with this restoration of Wall Street
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and illiberalism when it came
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00:21:33,345 --> 00:21:35,325
to never closing down Guantanamo Bay,
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introducing increasingly authoritarian powers
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00:21:42,105 --> 00:21:43,965
for the national security apparatus,
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if you put all this together, you end up with Donald Trump.
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00:21:52,345 --> 00:21:55,645
We will have strong borders and we will have the wall
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00:21:55,945 --> 00:21:59,325
and Mexico will pay for the wall
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Mexico will pay for the wall, believe me.
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00:22:01,845 --> 00:22:06,175
Donald Trump
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00:22:06,635 --> 00:22:11,375
was created by the Democratic Party's failure to perform
364
00:22:11,955 --> 00:22:16,775
the duties that a New Deal administration should
365
00:22:16,835 --> 00:22:18,055
and could have performed
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00:22:18,505 --> 00:22:19,735
after 2008.
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00:22:23,275 --> 00:22:27,775
In 2016, for the first time in 50 years,
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more than half of American families
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00:22:30,745 --> 00:22:34,015
could not afford the cheapest new car on the market.
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00:22:34,015 --> 00:22:35,775
When I say that they couldn't afford it,
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00:22:36,275 --> 00:22:39,335
not only did they not have the money, the $14,000,
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00:22:39,755 --> 00:22:41,575
but they did not have the credit worthiness
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00:22:41,595 --> 00:22:43,495
to borrow the money to buy that car.
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00:22:43,835 --> 00:22:45,815
In the United States, if you can't buy a car,
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00:22:45,815 --> 00:22:46,935
you can't get a a job,
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00:22:47,275 --> 00:22:49,815
you can't take your kids to school,
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00:22:49,995 --> 00:22:51,175
you can't go to the supermarket.
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00:22:56,075 --> 00:23:01,055
There is no doubt that Trump weaponised racism
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00:23:01,995 --> 00:23:04,535
and the 75 million that voted
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00:23:04,555 --> 00:23:07,815
for him are either tolerant of racism or actively racist.
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00:23:08,155 --> 00:23:10,775
But people are not born racist.
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00:23:11,515 --> 00:23:12,855
They're made racist.
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00:23:13,275 --> 00:23:14,575
They're made racist by
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00:23:14,575 --> 00:23:16,215
circumstances not of their choosing.
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00:23:17,675 --> 00:23:21,655
We need a humanist embracing of the Trumpists,
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00:23:21,755 --> 00:23:24,175
of the supporters of Trump, not to vilify them
387
00:23:24,475 --> 00:23:27,495
but to treat them like human beings who
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00:23:27,565 --> 00:23:29,135
have surrendered to despair.
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00:23:29,325 --> 00:23:31,095
Nothing is going to change until and
390
00:23:31,095 --> 00:23:34,775
unless we can talk to people who have been deluded,
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00:23:34,835 --> 00:23:37,815
who have been oppressed, who've been suppressed,
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00:23:37,815 --> 00:23:39,255
who've been exploited, you know,
393
00:23:39,435 --> 00:23:42,855
and who've become effectively enslaved in a machine
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00:23:43,365 --> 00:23:44,895
that uses them as fodder
395
00:23:45,105 --> 00:23:48,405
to produce value for the very, very few. You have to speak
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00:23:48,405 --> 00:23:50,085
to their concerns
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00:23:50,185 --> 00:23:51,365
and you've got to do it in a way
398
00:23:51,365 --> 00:23:52,485
you have to engage with them.
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00:23:54,315 --> 00:23:58,485
Fascism only rises up during moments of crisis,
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00:23:59,575 --> 00:24:01,325
capitalist crisis, to be precise.
401
00:24:01,875 --> 00:24:06,325
Fascism is all about harnessing the discontent
402
00:24:07,065 --> 00:24:10,965
in the people's hearts to grab power
403
00:24:11,585 --> 00:24:15,925
by strongmen, by authoritarians like Mussolini,
404
00:24:15,925 --> 00:24:17,525
like Salvini, like Donald Trump,
405
00:24:18,865 --> 00:24:20,605
and then use this power
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00:24:21,785 --> 00:24:23,125
to ingratiate themselves
407
00:24:23,595 --> 00:24:25,805
with the financiers, with industrialists.
408
00:24:26,505 --> 00:24:30,365
We have the legendary Wall Street genius, Wilbur Ross,
409
00:24:30,395 --> 00:24:32,245
here. He is our Secretary of Commerce.
410
00:24:32,905 --> 00:24:36,565
We have Gary Cohn, who's the President of Goldman Sachs.
411
00:24:37,745 --> 00:24:40,365
When you get the president, this is the President
412
00:24:40,605 --> 00:24:44,645
of Goldman Sachs. Smart. And I love all people, rich
413
00:24:44,665 --> 00:24:47,445
or poor, but in those particular positions,
414
00:24:47,565 --> 00:24:49,565
I just don't want a poor person. Does that make sense?
415
00:24:50,395 --> 00:24:53,685
Fascism never became powerful
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00:24:54,505 --> 00:24:55,645
by promising war,
417
00:24:56,545 --> 00:25:00,885
the Gulag concentration camps, pogroms.
418
00:25:02,665 --> 00:25:06,685
It combines the rhetoric of nationalism, jingoism, racism
419
00:25:07,795 --> 00:25:09,925
with genuine
420
00:25:10,745 --> 00:25:13,125
or genuine-sounding concern for the weak.
421
00:25:13,905 --> 00:25:16,525
As long as the weak are the right kind of people.
422
00:25:17,425 --> 00:25:18,925
I'm going to deliver jobs,
423
00:25:19,905 --> 00:25:24,525
safety, great education, help small businesses to thrive and
424
00:25:24,525 --> 00:25:25,525
grow. We must
425
00:25:25,525 --> 00:25:27,085
remember that Mussolini was the first
426
00:25:27,085 --> 00:25:29,245
to introduce universal pensions
427
00:25:29,245 --> 00:25:31,445
in Europe, a welfare state. Too
428
00:25:31,445 --> 00:25:33,485
many Americans are living in terrible
429
00:25:33,555 --> 00:25:35,085
poverty and violence.
430
00:25:35,745 --> 00:25:38,445
We need jobs and we're going to produce those jobs.
431
00:25:38,595 --> 00:25:42,405
They look into the eyes of those disenfranchised people,
432
00:25:43,195 --> 00:25:47,805
desperate people, and they promise them their pride back.
433
00:25:48,875 --> 00:25:52,405
They say to them, we will make you feel good about being
434
00:25:52,415 --> 00:25:55,645
Greek again, about being American, about being German,
435
00:25:55,935 --> 00:25:58,845
about being white, about being Italian.
436
00:25:59,275 --> 00:26:02,725
What the Brexit campaign did is we reached those people
437
00:26:03,345 --> 00:26:07,125
who've been let down by modern global corporatism.
438
00:26:07,465 --> 00:26:10,725
We reached those people who have never voted in their lives
439
00:26:11,425 --> 00:26:14,365
but believed by going out and voting for Brexit
440
00:26:14,595 --> 00:26:16,525
they could take back control of their country,
441
00:26:17,035 --> 00:26:20,685
take back control of their borders, and get back their pride
442
00:26:21,025 --> 00:26:22,405
and self-respect.
443
00:26:23,385 --> 00:26:27,125
If the ordinary decent people are prepared to stand up
444
00:26:27,305 --> 00:26:29,005
and fight for what they believe in,
445
00:26:29,345 --> 00:26:30,885
we can overcome the big banks.
446
00:26:31,425 --> 00:26:33,285
We can overcome the multinationals.
447
00:26:34,035 --> 00:26:37,085
They promise them that they will look
448
00:26:37,085 --> 00:26:41,245
after them, that they will shield them from the vagaries
449
00:26:41,245 --> 00:26:43,845
of austerity on condition
450
00:26:44,435 --> 00:26:45,965
that there will be no trades unions,
451
00:26:46,555 --> 00:26:49,485
that you'd never contest the authority, our authority,
452
00:26:49,665 --> 00:26:51,525
or the authority of the industrialists,
453
00:26:52,675 --> 00:26:55,365
that you'll simply follow
454
00:26:56,065 --> 00:27:00,405
the patriarchal authoritarian
455
00:27:00,405 --> 00:27:05,125
social norms that fascists are building up
456
00:27:06,025 --> 00:27:10,325
in order to create solid foundations for the reproduction
457
00:27:10,505 --> 00:27:11,765
of their authoritarianism.
458
00:27:11,955 --> 00:27:13,445
That is fascism. That's
459
00:27:13,445 --> 00:27:16,005
how it grew up in the 1920s and 30s,
460
00:27:16,435 --> 00:27:18,045
this is how it's growing up today.
461
00:27:24,395 --> 00:27:27,525
Really... you know, I campaigned against Brexit
462
00:27:27,785 --> 00:27:30,725
and yet the contempt
463
00:27:30,835 --> 00:27:34,605
with which radical left-wing, good people,
464
00:27:34,705 --> 00:27:36,085
my friends
465
00:27:36,545 --> 00:27:39,445
who were on the pro-remain side, the way
466
00:27:39,555 --> 00:27:43,045
with which they treated contemptuously, people who had voted
467
00:27:43,105 --> 00:27:45,005
for Brexit, that really upset me.
468
00:27:45,265 --> 00:27:50,085
And until and unless younger, more liberal,
469
00:27:50,475 --> 00:27:53,845
more urbanite and more upwardly mobile leftists
470
00:27:54,945 --> 00:27:58,045
can start paying their dues
471
00:27:58,305 --> 00:28:03,085
and be more respectful to those who have been held behind
472
00:28:03,085 --> 00:28:05,565
and left behind in the Rust Belt areas,
473
00:28:05,945 --> 00:28:08,645
or in the Clacton-on-Sea areas
474
00:28:08,865 --> 00:28:10,965
and the Bournemouth areas of the world,
475
00:28:11,265 --> 00:28:15,245
it can't work. I'm all for, for instance,
476
00:28:15,525 --> 00:28:18,125
bringing down the symbols of
477
00:28:18,825 --> 00:28:20,965
institutionalised racism,
478
00:28:21,595 --> 00:28:24,365
whether it is changing the name of Yale University
479
00:28:25,065 --> 00:28:27,765
or bringing down a statue in Bristol.
480
00:28:28,105 --> 00:28:29,525
I don't have a problem with that.
481
00:28:29,605 --> 00:28:33,525
I don't mind it. But what we must understand is
482
00:28:33,525 --> 00:28:37,165
that when somebody is about to lose their job in a factory
483
00:28:38,145 --> 00:28:42,405
or they've lost it, it really offers them no succour,
484
00:28:42,745 --> 00:28:46,605
it offers them no satisfaction to hear
485
00:28:46,605 --> 00:28:48,565
that Yale University now is called something else.
486
00:28:52,635 --> 00:28:55,285
What do you make of those politicians whose reaction
487
00:28:55,285 --> 00:28:57,565
to the rise of fascism is to concede ground?
488
00:28:59,545 --> 00:29:02,965
The so-called liberals who were in power
489
00:29:03,145 --> 00:29:06,085
or close to power at the time of the fragmentation
490
00:29:06,425 --> 00:29:09,365
of the liberal establishment order, fragmentation
491
00:29:09,365 --> 00:29:11,285
that was due to the inane policies
492
00:29:11,285 --> 00:29:14,685
that they were pursuing while in power, panicked.
493
00:29:15,755 --> 00:29:18,965
Started competing with the racists
494
00:29:19,425 --> 00:29:23,885
and the fascists by offering light versions of racism
495
00:29:25,025 --> 00:29:29,645
in juxtaposition to the fully blown versions
496
00:29:29,645 --> 00:29:31,045
of racism from the right.
497
00:29:31,185 --> 00:29:32,405
So you had François Hollande,
498
00:29:33,265 --> 00:29:37,125
who was cuddly socialist... social democrat up
499
00:29:37,125 --> 00:29:39,765
until he became president of the Republic in France
500
00:29:40,625 --> 00:29:42,925
and then succumbed to the austerian logic
501
00:29:42,925 --> 00:29:47,045
of the European Union. When his regime was collapsing
502
00:29:47,145 --> 00:29:50,325
and the ultra-right was increasing its strength,
503
00:29:51,145 --> 00:29:54,405
he introduced in the National Assembly of the people
504
00:29:54,405 --> 00:29:57,565
of France, legislation against migrants
505
00:29:57,595 --> 00:30:01,205
that allowed the state to withdraw the passports
506
00:30:01,665 --> 00:30:02,925
of the children of migrants
507
00:30:02,925 --> 00:30:05,485
who had become naturalised, and citizenship.
508
00:30:08,365 --> 00:30:11,205
A measure that even the right would not have contemplated
509
00:30:11,205 --> 00:30:15,745
up until recently. When Hillary Clinton is
510
00:30:16,065 --> 00:30:20,505
advising European liberals to be tougher on
511
00:30:21,485 --> 00:30:23,945
the migrants and on the refugees so as
512
00:30:23,965 --> 00:30:26,505
to stem the rise of xenophobia,
513
00:30:27,355 --> 00:30:31,345
she's following the same path of xenophobia-lite.
514
00:30:32,325 --> 00:30:34,305
But of course, xenophobia-lite is never
515
00:30:35,145 --> 00:30:37,065
a bulwark against xenophobia.
516
00:30:37,685 --> 00:30:39,145
It simply feeds the beast.
517
00:30:39,565 --> 00:30:42,225
It makes the Le Pens of the world, the Trumps
518
00:30:42,225 --> 00:30:43,705
of the world, the Kurzes of the world,
519
00:30:43,725 --> 00:30:47,545
the Salvinis of the world feel that they're onto something... feel
520
00:30:47,545 --> 00:30:50,825
that all they need to do is up the ante,
521
00:30:51,905 --> 00:30:54,905
increase the toxicity of their racism. Because
522
00:30:55,735 --> 00:30:59,625
however much to the right Hillary Clinton and François Hollande
523
00:30:59,765 --> 00:31:01,985
and Emmanuel Macron moved,
524
00:31:02,685 --> 00:31:04,545
the alt-right will move further to the right.
525
00:31:05,285 --> 00:31:09,305
The fascists do not need to win office to be in power.
526
00:31:10,485 --> 00:31:15,305
Simply by existing, simply by being, simply by
527
00:31:15,865 --> 00:31:16,945
altering the agenda,
528
00:31:17,655 --> 00:31:20,945
they can shift the whole of the spectrum of politics,
529
00:31:21,245 --> 00:31:24,865
the political center, towards increasingly right-wing
530
00:31:24,865 --> 00:31:26,305
and racist narratives
531
00:31:26,325 --> 00:31:29,595
and policies without ever winning office.
532
00:31:30,895 --> 00:31:34,835
And this is a truth about fascism that
533
00:31:35,435 --> 00:31:38,955
I think should keep all of us awake at night.
534
00:31:40,685 --> 00:31:43,025
We are in a church, so let me tell you a story
535
00:31:43,335 --> 00:31:45,705
that has a Christian dimension.
536
00:31:46,805 --> 00:31:49,635
His name is Shabbir. He comes from Pakistan.
537
00:31:50,825 --> 00:31:55,445
His great move that completely wrecked his life
538
00:31:56,185 --> 00:31:57,805
was to come to the aid of his neighbour.
539
00:31:57,945 --> 00:31:59,045
His neighbour was a Christian,
540
00:31:59,465 --> 00:32:02,045
a Christian family in a town in Pakistan.
541
00:32:02,585 --> 00:32:05,485
The Islamists petrol bombed the house
542
00:32:05,485 --> 00:32:06,925
of the Christians in the middle of the night
543
00:32:07,465 --> 00:32:11,005
and Shabbir, who is a Muslim, went out and helped that family.
544
00:32:11,545 --> 00:32:14,005
The next day, he was branded an apostate
545
00:32:14,425 --> 00:32:15,845
for having helped the Christian family.
546
00:32:16,705 --> 00:32:19,605
His brother was killed. He was a businessman,
547
00:32:19,605 --> 00:32:21,205
he had a rent-a-car business.
548
00:32:21,385 --> 00:32:22,565
His cars were burned down,
549
00:32:23,185 --> 00:32:25,725
and then he had, in order to divert the attention
550
00:32:25,785 --> 00:32:28,165
of the Islamic fundamentalists away from his family,
551
00:32:28,665 --> 00:32:30,285
he took his elderly father
552
00:32:30,585 --> 00:32:34,205
and walked across Iran into Turkey.
553
00:32:34,705 --> 00:32:39,405
In Turkey, he was at attacked by robbers. His father died.
554
00:32:39,585 --> 00:32:42,925
He carried his father's corpse in his arms.
555
00:32:43,675 --> 00:32:46,365
Policemen attacked him. He managed to escape.
556
00:32:46,425 --> 00:32:48,925
To cut a very long story, an odyssey, short,
557
00:32:49,585 --> 00:32:53,005
he ends up on the boat from the Turkish coast
558
00:32:53,505 --> 00:32:54,965
to Lesbos.
559
00:32:55,385 --> 00:32:59,645
The boat sinks. There were 70 people on board. 35 died.
560
00:33:00,065 --> 00:33:03,605
He managed to just about survive, to escape with his life.
561
00:33:03,865 --> 00:33:07,525
He ends up in Mitilini in Lesbos, and he applies for asylum.
562
00:33:08,075 --> 00:33:10,605
This person whose life was wrecked
563
00:33:10,805 --> 00:33:12,565
because he tried to help a Christian neighbor,
564
00:33:12,745 --> 00:33:16,125
and what does Christian Europe do? In the context
565
00:33:16,305 --> 00:33:17,925
of the EU/Turkey treaty,
566
00:33:18,395 --> 00:33:21,005
he's now waiting extradition back to Turkey.
567
00:33:21,545 --> 00:33:23,885
Now, you only have to tell the story in order
568
00:33:23,885 --> 00:33:25,445
to capture the horrors
569
00:33:25,835 --> 00:33:29,125
that is the European Union/Turkey deal
570
00:33:29,305 --> 00:33:31,605
and this humanitarian refugee crisis.
571
00:34:04,675 --> 00:34:09,045
Civilised Europe is using the Mediterranean Sea as a means
572
00:34:09,065 --> 00:34:11,765
by which to drown migrants
573
00:34:11,865 --> 00:34:15,805
and other refugees trying to make the passage to Europe so
574
00:34:15,805 --> 00:34:18,565
as to deter more of them from making the crossing.
575
00:34:19,665 --> 00:34:23,445
The moment Europe behaves that way, it loses the right
576
00:34:23,465 --> 00:34:27,245
to call itself civilised. It becomes barbaric
577
00:34:28,105 --> 00:34:32,285
and, in the end, such barbarism turns against its own people
578
00:34:32,755 --> 00:34:35,725
because it's a very short step
579
00:34:36,555 --> 00:34:38,205
from turning a blind eye
580
00:34:38,785 --> 00:34:42,765
to the way in which you are using other people as means
581
00:34:42,765 --> 00:34:46,485
to an end and accepting that you can be used
582
00:34:46,505 --> 00:34:47,565
as a means to an end.
583
00:35:07,755 --> 00:35:10,965
Borders are a scar on the face of the earth.
584
00:35:11,465 --> 00:35:15,765
The only way to beat this project
585
00:35:16,145 --> 00:35:19,725
of creating fear, terror in the mind of the natives
586
00:35:20,455 --> 00:35:25,085
about a refugee crisis is to confront it head-on.
587
00:35:25,465 --> 00:35:30,325
We need to take the courageous position, let them in.
588
00:35:30,765 --> 00:35:32,005
I think it should be a slogan for
589
00:35:32,145 --> 00:35:33,565
all progressives across the world.
590
00:35:34,505 --> 00:35:35,165
Let them in.
591
00:35:45,635 --> 00:35:50,005
Globalisation was a process of liberating capital.
592
00:35:52,825 --> 00:35:56,405
If you want an image of globalisation,
593
00:35:56,915 --> 00:35:58,485
take the US-Mexican border.
594
00:35:59,625 --> 00:36:02,365
It prevents any movement of humanity,
595
00:36:03,775 --> 00:36:07,005
while at the very same time, it's got large openings
596
00:36:07,065 --> 00:36:09,925
for huge trucks to be going up and down, in
597
00:36:09,925 --> 00:36:13,645
and out, ferrying commodities while
598
00:36:14,385 --> 00:36:18,725
across the ether through electronic means, trillions
599
00:36:18,785 --> 00:36:20,805
of dollars are going backwards and forwards.
600
00:36:20,805 --> 00:36:25,485
That's globalisation. Internationalism is
601
00:36:26,005 --> 00:36:29,125
a project of reversing that, of liberating people
602
00:36:29,985 --> 00:36:31,405
and constraining capital.
603
00:36:32,985 --> 00:36:35,765
Our freedom as human beings
604
00:36:37,305 --> 00:36:40,325
is oppressed by the freedom of capital
605
00:36:40,945 --> 00:36:42,405
to move about unimpeded.
606
00:36:45,785 --> 00:36:47,685
So, internationalism is all about going back
607
00:36:47,685 --> 00:36:49,085
to the original Bretton Woods idea
608
00:36:49,515 --> 00:36:52,205
that the financial genie must be placed back into its bottle,
609
00:36:52,745 --> 00:36:54,165
that banking must be boring,
610
00:36:54,395 --> 00:36:57,245
capital flows must be politically controlled,
611
00:36:58,495 --> 00:37:00,205
money is socially produced
612
00:37:00,385 --> 00:37:03,085
and must be controlled socially and democratically.
613
00:37:07,435 --> 00:37:08,925
That is internationalism.
614
00:37:10,505 --> 00:37:12,685
Of course, it is a major challenge to the model
615
00:37:12,705 --> 00:37:17,085
of society which has been bred under globalisation.
616
00:37:39,665 --> 00:37:43,405
The establishment has always been in denial. The worst
617
00:37:43,455 --> 00:37:47,525
were the Social Democrats, the SPD in Germany, the
618
00:37:48,115 --> 00:37:50,765
Parti Socialiste in France, the PASOK people in Greece.
619
00:37:51,315 --> 00:37:55,045
They were the ones who used the name of social democracy
620
00:37:55,945 --> 00:37:58,085
in order to do favours to the bankers
621
00:37:58,465 --> 00:38:03,325
and in order to shift all the pain onto the innocent
622
00:38:03,325 --> 00:38:05,525
victims of the financial sector.
623
00:38:06,075 --> 00:38:08,005
Once you have the political centre,
624
00:38:08,195 --> 00:38:09,765
whether it's the centre left
625
00:38:10,105 --> 00:38:13,685
or the centre right, participate in this
626
00:38:13,685 --> 00:38:14,925
crime against logic,
627
00:38:16,945 --> 00:38:19,805
the result is infinite discontent.
628
00:38:20,545 --> 00:38:23,565
Out of infinite discontent and hopelessness,
629
00:38:24,385 --> 00:38:29,085
one thing grows. Xenophobia, antisemitism,
630
00:38:29,685 --> 00:38:31,645
Islamophobia, misogyny.
631
00:38:32,625 --> 00:38:34,005
It is a mistake to believe
632
00:38:34,515 --> 00:38:36,805
that there is an almighty political clash
633
00:38:36,875 --> 00:38:39,605
between the establishment and the populists.
634
00:38:40,885 --> 00:38:44,245
I think of them as accomplices. They need each other.
635
00:38:44,785 --> 00:38:49,085
Le Pen thrives on the failures of Brussels.
636
00:38:50,025 --> 00:38:54,485
Farage would not have existed without the inane handling
637
00:38:54,485 --> 00:38:55,925
of Europe's inevitable crisis.
638
00:38:57,105 --> 00:38:59,805
And at the same time, the establishment needs Le Pen
639
00:38:59,955 --> 00:39:03,005
because what is the only argument today for voting
640
00:39:03,105 --> 00:39:04,645
for somebody like Fillon
641
00:39:04,825 --> 00:39:08,045
for God's sakes. Vote for him otherwise
642
00:39:08,045 --> 00:39:10,805
Le Pen will come in. So, they need each other. They are
643
00:39:10,805 --> 00:39:15,445
accomplices. The toxic deception is that there is a clash
644
00:39:15,795 --> 00:39:20,005
between the so-called liberal establishment on the one hand,
645
00:39:20,675 --> 00:39:23,005
Mateo Salvini, Le Pen and so on
646
00:39:23,005 --> 00:39:27,005
on the other hand. Nothing could be further from the truth.
647
00:39:27,625 --> 00:39:31,805
Macron, Juncker and Merkel draw their authority
648
00:39:32,795 --> 00:39:35,045
from the fact that they are facing Salvini
649
00:39:35,185 --> 00:39:36,485
and they're facing Le Pen.
650
00:39:36,955 --> 00:39:39,765
Macron would never have been President without Le Pen.
651
00:39:40,905 --> 00:39:42,125
Juncker would never have a leg
652
00:39:42,125 --> 00:39:44,565
to stand on if you could not say, if it's not me,
653
00:39:44,995 --> 00:39:46,765
après moi, Salvini.
654
00:39:47,555 --> 00:39:51,165
What you see there is an evil dance
655
00:39:51,955 --> 00:39:53,125
between partners.
656
00:39:54,005 --> 00:39:57,725
Comrades in arms. The inane austerity
657
00:39:57,725 --> 00:39:59,925
politics create
658
00:40:01,595 --> 00:40:02,965
greater economic failure.
659
00:40:04,185 --> 00:40:05,725
The greater the economic failure,
660
00:40:06,745 --> 00:40:09,525
the more austerity you need in order to keep a lid on it,
661
00:40:10,215 --> 00:40:12,765
which means you need more authoritarianism.
662
00:40:13,305 --> 00:40:16,325
So, there is this vicious cycle, process
663
00:40:16,825 --> 00:40:20,485
of positive reinforcement, between authoritarianism,
664
00:40:21,435 --> 00:40:23,285
austerity and economic failure.
665
00:40:35,085 --> 00:40:37,105
The Weimar Republic lives on.
50707
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