Pandemic and who are the damnable profiteers who state attorneys general should be busting right and left lets ask the university of massachusetts Professor EmeritusRichard Wolfe richard as we wait instructions to return to our t americas broadcast headquarters in washington where cleaners look like theyre mopping up plutonium weve been issued a 17 page manual handsome instruction book for re entering the workplace now is a long time consultant im green with envy i can only imagine how many billable hours went into producing that document but for what other products and services is this pandemic a legitimate gold rush and richard who are the opportunistic profiteers. Well there are so many it kind of lago to the mind on the one hand you have the hustlers and im trying to are like the people who are using a social media on the internet to sell fake medicines to sell fake cures to sell fake vaccines and to sell all manner of things that are going to protect you from the virus and from getting sick. Much of that is illegal many of the claims involved are straight out of the regal but its going on its very hard to stop it exists both in the United States and in the larger world so thats one con but even when you get upset about it its a small amount of money compared to what you might call the legitimate examples like you were mentioning of levy strouds with the genes. Lets take one example amazon where you cant go to a store safely when you dont want to get joe masks and gloves on and all the rigamarole what do you do you use a Delivery Service amazon is a Delivery Service jeffry be so host is a delivery boy it tells you a lot about the United States that the richest reward we give is do someone who can deliver packages quickly but hes cashing in the current estimate is that his personal wealth every tied up in amazon stock went up something on the order of 24000000000. 00 in the last and weeks so theres something extraordinary in an economy that makes what was already the richest man in the world that much richer while 42000000 people went on Employment Benefits facebook anything that the internet offers is something that is now going to be purchased as were all stuck at home trying to figure out how to pass the time im worried over the job we may or may not have when all this is over and cetera et cetera huge amounts of money being lost by the Neighborhood Store or lost by the local restaurant lost by all manner of people that money has however moving somewhere and its moving to the people who are in a position through no effort of their own theyre just lucky that the way this virus works brought then an avalanche of new business in europe less point theyre trying to tax all of it so theyre claiming that they have a National Emergency and those who are already rich and became richer should get at least a significant portion of their windfall to help a country and problem were not doing that in this country and its making that the tension between europe and the United States more difficult than them they already were. And history has not been kind to the widening gap between the haves and the have nots you are raising 2 interesting points when you say a mouthful when you say amazon because amazon is more than stuff ive been watching movies and t. V. Shows and i have access to 14000 songs if i bark at alexa because im an amazon prime so hes got a big software play there jeff bezos does but in terms of the delivery dynamic dont think that him or whatever the new normal turns out to be that thats something thats going to sustain have we gotten spoiled by this bring it to me moment weve been in. I dont think so and i only thing in the argument and youre quite right to look to ask the question president news and the reason that i think it wont go that way my wife is a psychotherapist and so i am earning whether i want it or not to all of the discussions among there and one of the most profound. Swirling around the internet among psychologists like dieters and all of that is that ridge will do need loneliness that americans had as a people going into this but that has become much worse because youre locked down in your home you cant visit your children dont go out and meet the kids their own age theyre with you all the time you cant really give them that to i mean that tensions and the difficult these but also are building up to what at least im hearing are explosive levels of loneliness and that we are told you know when this breaks when finally theres a rock scene or whatever allows us to go back to whatever the normal is there is going to be a desire to go to the mall to go to the. Or to go to the restaurant not simply and not even primarily to buy the object going to have remedial its going to be with the people again even if youre only your casual station because its becoming a very urgent need that this stores and malls will be able to fill and amazon shant do that we are social animals and the browsing is something we have messed were speaking with Richard Wolffe of the economist and its hard to imagine that our economy is not going to suffer in cleanup mode after uncle sam has been running the Printing Presses day and night creating the monopoly money for all these relief payments is hurtful inflation inevitable and are we at risk of what guys our age remember as stagflation. You know im afraid the answer. Yes we are subject to it and yes we are going to pay for the policies that have been in use today it is important and i say this as a professional economist it is important to understand that this is the worst economic corrupt rat in 99 years its a its worst the only thing worse than this is a Great Depression itself of the one thing pretty and not only do we had such a collapse but we have my own crisis on top of it it is a rod to deal with and the people in charge of our economy oh secretary of the treasury the new chairman or the head the Federal Reserve mr powell and so on they are what ever they show the public they are on it they know a hole that we dont have any roadmap out of this the mess throwing money just as you say printing it out of going out and you know throwing the money theyre saying the kind of things you say when youre running and if i can get out of this mess now sewing everything i got theres no point in worrying about the future so if theyre not were going to have to rid in that future but its a kind of a scary prospect its all one train all that money where has it gone it has not gone to masses of people to produce more goods and services we know that because theyre all on the employed and companies cant even sell whats already in their inventory then of course the money isnt going to go into producing more where is the money going its going into the stock market which has added insulation now thats wonderful mood but a 10 percent of americans who own a be present of the shares went for everybody else not at all and finally theres the wrist if and when that money. That runs into the stock market were to become serious full about a crash in the stock market again wheres that money going to go theyre going to start buying what are called real goods Land Buildings inventories and then youre going to see the inflation where it hits our pocketbooks rather than in the stock market where it makes the rich even richer and all the while the difference between rich and poor worsens. Well i just got a minute left but i must ask to that point look weve just seen in the space of about 3 weeks we went from 3 percent unemployment to over 40000000 unemployed and beyond those round numbers gaze into the crystal ball which occupations in the new normal will be dead ends and what will be the opportune new career paths i got just a minute richer. Well im afraid we dont know i wish i could give you an answer and tell you but to variables are so many and the unknown nature of all of this my guess is however that one of the areas that will come back strong is everything having to do with health and much though has to do with education we were unprepared for a virus we could and should have been prepared for we dont have in place a medical system that is as good as many other countries who have less resources than we do i think youre going to see a reaction in which people demand and we as a society will give ourselves then asked new jobs in the Health Care Clinic care etc and the other big crisis is education we stopped at your schools im a professor we dont teach at a distance to do proper teaching you need an interactive arrangement that is private and that is intense and were going to want that back in the same way that will repeat a want to get back into the browsing and the interactions with other human beings i think youre absolutely right economist Richard Wolfe thank you again for your time always appreciate your perspective on these issues coming up while weve been hunkered down at Mother Nature is on the mend are we seeing the green. In future this is the big picture on r t america. Or. The big. American so long as theyre growing at propitious rates because america empire right because its easy for the top to feed everything and leave nothing for everyone else america would be better off if it was not an empire so the collapse of the us dollar it will be thankful for a period of time but what comes on the other side will be i think a lot more amenable to no. Secret prisons and usually what comes to mind when thinking about europe however he even the most prosperous can be deceived weve been busy roads own the work to view the houses were allegedly preserved words located only people had access to the story to investigators sure l. Z. Uncovered the darkest dealings of the secret services but i mean. You go ativan or. He see maybe a sore knee for. Justice. While something terrible has been happening Something Wonderful has been happening fewer cars and trucks on the road fewer planes in the sky and if you look up at that sky over los angeles even over new delhi its actually blue on land and sea critters are returning to places that they had shunned and while the 50th anniversary of earth day went to unnoticed dramatic changes in our environment seem to be happening overnight as a result of lockdown orders taking place around the globe while these orders intend to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus the unintended consequences have been some quick and stunning anecdotal. Changes to our climate challenges have we seen the greener future in the new normal or have we given planet earth a gift were going to have to take back lets ask brian keane who is president of smart power dot org a nonprofit washington based firm and brian was the very 1st guest on the very 1st show i did on our team america almost 3 years ago brian we havent sketch off welcome back its. Great to be back in your good you remember that 1st show about that the the midnight how ling of coyotes hua ventured back in the music to the ears of city folk but long time no see dolphins in the canals in venice what are some of the other good things that have happened while weve been torturing the environment less lately. Its been unbelievable its and you know its i think everybody watching says is pricing part of this its were seeing in a mls kind of that weve never seen were seeing cleaner air i mean you mentioned new delhi were seeing cleaner air you can see beijing than from space where weve never been able to see that before dolphins in venice and were talking about theres literally deer now walking down the streets in major major cities major cities and towns across the United States and youve never seen that before the trip here that we had to keep reminding ourselves is. Theyve actually probably already always been there its just that now were not so whats happened say in venice for instance the dolphins have actually always been there its just that there have been so many people so many boats so much mud and muck being picked up every day that we just never saw and so its happening is actually that were the ones going away in the end to taking over and so its really kind of passing to see it happen where its really very cool to see him to realize what weve done is that we have changed human be here because. So the coronavirus literally overnight we changed quickly we changed Human Behavior in the lesson there and kind of the exciting point if you will is that we can change Human Behavior now hopefully we dont have to do it again as dramatically as drastically but if were going to actually solve the Climate Crisis is going to take a piece of changing our Human Behavior and so what were seeing is a you know what we can drive less we can actually go to the store less we can actually change our lifestyle to improve human kind of human nature for the better and thats whats really been pretty exciting throughout this process it is if you will the Silver Lining that really between from the coronavirus. Well and nowhere will that behavioral change be more apparent than in the workplace with all this telecommuting weve been doing youve got the boss rethinking the return on investment of x. 100. 00 per square foot of pricey new York Real Estate and many employees now prefer to work at home wall street journal article recently said theyre questioning why do we even live here because where their home was was predicated on commuting to an office many employees remain aware of rejoining the work space or traveling to it on Public Transportation and in a survey of 425. 00 companies by Human ResourcesConsulting Firm operations and 57 percent of the employers surveyed said we will allow these employees to continue to work from home only 6 percent say we will stand by our Safety Measures and insist that these employees come to the office with their coworkers and 37 percent are unsure at this time heres operations and c. E. O. David lewis thats one of the big stories i think were going to see out of all of this is that weve learned how to do business on a face to face basis without being in the same room when we do that and so businesses who have figured out how to master the art of skype or teams or zoom or whatever the product is that theyre using have really come to realize that this is going to be a game changer. Brian could this shift in the way we work lock in some of the relief the environment has enjoyed lately. Well i 1st preface this by saying i always knew i should have gone into commercial real estate some let it into. Good. Exactly i dont do many things right that was one of them. But you know i think were going to see him keep in mind you know we are social beings we really dont like just being locked in our homes for months potentially years on end so hopefully this will end and were going to want to be with other people and when i would quit im going to work with other people i think were going to see then what were realizing and you know the work force was moving towards this eventually anyway very slowly that we can be as productive at home for it. First for certain months of time that you know we can do work but via broadband we can do work by assuming all that and then go and meet with their own. Colleagues in person for a certain amount of months of time we just dont have to all be in highway traffic and traffic jams from 7 am to 9 am and then from 5 pm to 7 pm so we really can save all of their gasoline we can actually say not produce all of that smog we dont have to waste all of that time quite frankly we are having people be much more productive because today they are the 1st in the office because they dont leave home and then the last to leave and so its really been fascinating to see people be more productive without creating the pollution that goes along with it its also very interesting that there were seeing some insular challenges as well because you know a simple get garbage pickup is now spiking its way on it because were all creating this much trash were just creating it now at home not in downtown cities you know at the workplace and so you have kind of just challenges moving back and forth there along the long story interestingly though is there. It is isnt it lasting a kind if you kind of dont think these things i said in but is going to write like is that so much more trash it all now and were eating so much more at home or a i think you see just at lunch downtown but now its here so its really very interesting but what were actually going to somewhere is. It does it just doesnt go away and we still just perhaps that end you then so its like wow we really can going to change the way the timing works and so it is like oh you know i really dont care if you come into the office at noon or 2 because i actually realize that youre going to do that work from home and its just really kind of a matter of you know lets meet can we have a meeting at 2 oclock because we can do a basin but actually at some point why dont we just meet in person and have that meeting would be great you make a great point about drama utility because you and i know people right there in the Washington Area doing the beltway bop every day there drive on an hour and 45 minutes each day in each direction and we have recovered that time were speaking with brian keene from smart power dot org brian while nature has been enjoying the lock down the economic consequences have been dire how has slamming the brakes on business impacted Green Technology progress. So its been fascinating you know that its that those numbers have been dire to just having a meeting but that the other day and i actually think its a short term hit that what were going to see in what i think what were seeing is that especially as we talk about solar power that people are now saying well wait a minute i actually really need to prepare for. Worst Case Scenarios now and residential solar is actually a big salute piece of that solution and so were starting to see as people say well wait a minute you know ive never actually taken Renewable Energy seriously before but it actually could be a piece of a worst Case Scenario and so you can get so it a by the way in it can be done very socially distant you know when we still sold it to folks people just you go on to group maps or google earth and you look at someones house you can tell them right away whether their house is good for solar when they come in look at your house bill they climb under your roof they dont even have to see you want to meet with you they can actually do it without even talking to without actually meeting you in person it can all be done socially distant and so its actually not a problem in fact you know we recently are seeing this increasingly have people saying well actually i hadnt thought about it before but now i think i want to have my own Energy Supply too can i get a battery with that and so its really actually going to start having a really big uptick not to change and fix the sustainability land but simply to start protecting themselves and thats fine with me as long as people are understanding that hey we could actually you know take care of things here and i dont know how things are going to play on the long term so i want to make sure i have my my own energies of lines do and thats really pretty not going to change. And were all in survival mindset now im running short on time but when you mentioned small solar i must ask you a couple of years ago post hurricane mario we were talking about the fragile grid on puerto rico and here we are again and another Hurricane Season and you were talking about neighborhood size power grids i got about a minute left is puerto rico still a sitting duck and if its not being done there is this kind of technology being implemented elsewhere and places that are fraught. Yes and puerto rico has serious has its own jets significant challenges still but the concept and putting in place microgrid is really exciting and is in Solar Community solar plants really exciting and since we talked about it before adding to them Solar Storage solar batteries which are really coming on the market now so basically what you have is not only just solar that can work you know during the day when the sun is out but it actually collects the energy and then that community can tap into that energy actually even in the in the middle of the night when this big storm hits and theres no power that community that has power when it needs it most so the concept now of Solar Storage is a real thing and really happening so you have communities solar plants that are really actually able to sustain local communities and thats really saying were actually seeing utilities use that you know in arizona the largest retailer in arizona is actually seeing that that is part of their Long Term Plan for sustainability to 2050 and thats really exciting theyre actually talking about local Community Solar arrays we have storage as part of their long term solution. Small is beautiful writing a keen smart power dot org thanks again for joining us i look forward to seeing you back when they let us into the mothership in washington meantime stay safe and thank you things i change to see the big picture from rhode island the great ocean state ill be back here next week and in the meantime if you want to look at any of the shows weve done theyre all available on demand at youtube dot com slash the big picture r t you can watch us live in a bunch of places including youtube dot com slash r t America Direct t. V. Channel 321 pluto t. V. 279 dish 280 and right there on your device when you download our portable t. V. App have a good week and happy birthday ill call sam. Cultural now states and other world over. Luxury goods ceased to be a city. Tour of the compromised bike but is a sure National Interest people talk about gridlock in congress you see people talk about. Their rights. Radicals in both parties. This. Bipartisan centrist approach to politics both domestic and more. Dates. Time after time corporations repeat the same mantra sustainability its very important to excel or transition to sustainable transport sustainability. A more equitable and sustainable well. They claim their production is completely harmless. It. Companies want us to feel good about buying their products while the damage is being done far away and this isnt just going to. Look. We didnt. Understand it looks so good and. I just. Want. The world according to shares. Today we discuss why the troops may not be leaving afghanistan after all price gouging essential medicine and irans arrest warrant for president. The war a good question. I am brigitta santos for our top story today u. S. Intelligence officials have accused russia of secretly paying bounties to taliban linked militants in afghanistan to kill occupying american troops and their