Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 20130825

Third, one of the featured speakers at yesterdays daylong march on washington, celebrating 19630th anniversary of the march on washington. Welcome to washington journal on the sunday, august 25, 2013. We will play you a couple of more comments from yesterdays speech. The question this morning, does new Technology Create better jobs . We will show you the opinion piece that is prompting our question. Here are a couple of ways to participate in the discussion, as usual. By phone make sure you mute your television or radio when you call in. You can reach us on twitter or facebook. Or send journal cspan. Org us an email, the email address is or send us an email, the address is journal cspan. Org. The front page this morning of t,e washington pos the headline part of the reporting this morning area did president obama will be speaking on the actual Anniversary Day at the lincoln memorial. That is coming up on wednesday. Heres the front page of the New York Times and their front page photo from the march yesterday e froml play you mor that. Comeshnology and jobs, it in an opinion peas from the New York Times, written by two economics professors. They write the Unemployment Rate is stuck at levels not seen since the early 1990s. The portion of adults working is four Percentage Points below its peak in 2000. Our question to you, does Technology Create better jobs . What is your experience . Alabama is were the first caller is. Good morning. Factr yes, as a matter of i have formed a civil rights nonprofit organization. We have a new concept, the new everyone, to have starting with fifth raiders, to own their own business. Graders, to own their own business. Whatever your passion is, own your own business. We support each other and our businesses. That is going to eliminate us looking for jobs and we will be creating jobs. When we have the young people on a mindset of owning a business of course, people who cannot find jobs, that is how we will create jobs. We start with the elementary and go all the way up to adults. Even senior citizens. If we arer of fact, opening a business we are going to have more passion. Not only that, we can create jobs. Even with the technology we are going to use that in such a way that it will be more effective in Going Forward. As long as we actually have jobs we are going to have racism, discrimination, favoritism, and these are the things we have been fighting against ever since we have been in this country. Owning our own businesses, whatever it may be, we are going to and of course not only if you are owning a business, you may actually be an employee someplace else. You still will have your business and you can actually employee others. Do you understand the concept that we have . Host thank you for calling and telling us about. Omar is on our democratic slime in new york. Democratics line in new york. Go ahead with your comment. Caller the discrimination rate in this country is high against blacks. These are the things we are trying to fight against, you know . We will overcome it. It takes time. Blood, sweat, and tears, you know . Im proud of the work your people are doing. Georgia, joan, does new Technology Help create jobs . Caller i believe new Technology Creates new jobs. I also feel education in the schools from Early Childhood on up have not cared not along withd ride we could have a population of students who are prepared for the job. I have heard that we need to go overseas because we do not have the educated population here. Why dont we . We havent provided the education that kept abreast with what is happening with the technology area. It is education and technology. I do believe that since technology has made unveils and bundles of money that they should be giving back to internships and training programs, particularly in areas where schools have been closed, where they are underfunded, and begin to train the population here at home rather than going overseas. Host what do you think about the idea a couple of callers mentioned ago. Teaching kids from fifth grade to own their own business. Caller i think that is absolutely excellent. I am a retired educator from new york. Even in our special ed programs we had our manual our middle School Students clock in. They would write up what there will be doing for the day what they will be doing for the day. I think that is important. We had Occupational Therapy for those students, so theyve received what the general education students did not receive. We need to bring our children bring our parents to train children at home how to use technology. Into moreill get specifics of the opinion peas we talked about this morning. Some news on that huge fire in yosemite on the west coast, this is the l. A. Times. The separatist the San Francisco chronicle, a bit more optimistic. Lets go to Lebanon Junction kentucky. Pat is on our independent line. What you think about the role of technology in creating jobs . Host i think it has hurt the country as a whole. I work in the printing industry. Profits have gone down and they actually let go of a lot of people because of the kindle and all of that stuff. A lot of magazine titles are going to the internet instead of being printed in paper form. That is really hurt us. That has really hurt us. Host is there training for you for Newer Technology that comes in . Aller not really rea it is mainly warehouse type jobs. It is a service type job. Great demand of Technology Type jobs in this area. Host how far are you from louisville . Caller 30 miles. Host thanks for your call. From the New York Times lets hear from lisa in jacksonville, florida. Good morning on our democrats line. Host i wanted to weigh in on the technology issue. I have a masters degree in urban planning. I have worked in Civil Service for about 25 years. Recently, due to budgetary a reduction in my income for 11,000. It has spurred me to start my own business and the insurance industry. With lowcost websites i should be able to help increase my own my ownn crumb personal income and may be able to employ others in a parttime basis. Host without a commercial plug, what are you doing on facebook . Will cut thing are you doing . What kind of thing are you doing . Local history is an untapped industry. I am going to launch my business through being a tour guide for National Conferences are coming in, looking for people who can identify and highlight the african history right here in town. Mere is no cost to it for but i am using my own innovation and passion for history to cityight my new adopted and i am using the Online Market to help advertise. It is a winwin situation. Conferences and jacksonville is a very major city for that. How do you network with conferences coming to town and how do you know who to contact . Caller because of the passion and because of my work i have made contacts it is about networking. You have to be involved when there is a speaker or a conference or when there is a when someone does a book signing. You put your face out there, people get to know you. They see the work youre doing and see what youre passionate they know i am passionate about African American history. I put on a tour through my job. Visit jacksonville has become is alsoess someone who interested in propelling jacksonville through these conferences, they have called me through the last several months and asked him what i would be interested in. I decided to incorporate and get a license to do business in florida. It grew from the passion i had and the passion i showed. It wasnt overnight. It took about a year and a half to really get this idea in my head. It was through being out there and being interested in the history. Host do you think that what you are doing with your Side Business is going to ever replace your urban planning business . Caller i dont think it will replace, but i am looking toward my retirement years. I have to think about 10 years and the future. I definitely need something that is going to supplement whatever it is i may or may not get from retirement. Host thank you for being with us this morning. At the question, does Technology Create better jobs . Eventslooking at the here in washington, which cspan covered all day yesterday. The 50th anniversary of the march on washington and a huge expressed in the Washington Post this morning. One of the speakers was the republican from georgia who first marched in 1963 and spoke yesterday about the Voting Rights act. [video clip] 1963, hundreds of thousands and millions of our brothers and sisters could not register to vote. Ago i stood here 50 years said one man, one vote is the african cry. I also said that people tell us to wait and be patient. I say 50 years later, we cannot wait, we cannot be patient, we want jobs, and we want our freedom now. All of us. It doesnt matter if we are latino, asian, american, or native american. It doesnt matter if we are straight or gay. We are one people, one family, one house, we all live in the same house. I say to you, my brothers and up, we, we cannot give cannot give out, we cannot give in. Host representative john lewis from yesterday. Back to your comments and questions, does new Technology Create better jobs . In us go to jacqueline houston, texas on the independent line. Caller good morning. Technology itself does not actually hurt our country. I think it is the lack of education about technology that hurts our country. Our country is reflective on how we treat our poor. If you do not educate your poor of course everything is going to go down. Host thank you for your comments. On the democrats line in tampa, florida. Caller i do think Technology Create better jobs. Have aple who already job, with Technology Comes a theyre looking to downsize the manpower. It does destroy jobs. Host are you in a position that requires advanced technology . Caller i was in a position that required advanced technology. They continued to downsize that department. Now it might be to people when we had a team of eight people. Host are you working now . Caller no, i am not. I am unemployed. Host thank you for calling. We will talk about u. S. Foreign policy and egypt later. The headline this morning from the region, this is an Associated Press rick port and associated per this is an Associated Press report calls to oklahoma, calls, davis is on our fact two back to calls. Davis is on our republican line in oklahoma. Caller i worked as a systems analyst in the transitional. Between in the transitional period between the 1960s and 2000. The word job is becoming an anachronism. I urge them to plan a lifetime of contracting, as contractors. Groundswellogical we are living through now is ,ust the beginning of a time when the key to success is not the job you have but what you can do. Is illequipped to respond on the short term to these lightning quick changes in technology. We have a lot of thinking to do as a society about how to build a workforce that can be stable in this world of constant change. Host you mentioned this idea of being a contractor. Inherenta certain instability . If you look, in comparison, to somebody who is an actor who is essentially a contractor from , is there an instability you are worried about in that approach . Caller i tell my students they have to learn to be stable in a constantly changing world. I told them they should get nervous when things stop changing. Its at that point that they become they are beginning to become not so valuable to their next employer. A contractor has to think is an independent businessperson. They have to lay back a reserve, they have to prepare for their own retirement, they have to buy their own insurance. Those are some of the downsides. The upsides are that contractors make an unbelievably high salary when they are working. When they are working, if they have a good and marketable skill. It is their responsibility to maintain that skill. That gets into problems with his tradition of wealth and how the Education System is put together right now. It is 50 years behind the times. We have a lot of thinking. We need our philosophers and scholars to direct their attention at this there he significant problem. Host we appreciate the call. Economist on technology , were aat tweets cspanwj isalls back to callsm, jim n connecticut. Caller one example of how i feel technology wrecks jobs is the easy pads at tolls. The people who are collecting tolls were a middleclass union wage and now we have a speed through that allows for faster commute but those people lost their jobs. We do not know what happens to them. The advent of the electronic scanning check out and Grocery Stores lost a good entrylevel job for young people. I was working and middleclass corporations. I saw myself being outed by the introduction of a new technology. I am now presently in a skilled majoron, but one of the manufacturers has introduced a device that could potentially eliminate my skill. Whered you go from here . Where do you go from here . I am finding myself being pushed away by the introduction of technology. Going back to the toll , how dod the easy pass you balance the benefit for the consumer in this case, travelers . I dont think there is any perp any interest in retraining the people. The introduction of those devices is equally reducing labor and keeping revenue. I find it really hard to understand what we are doing with the vast majority of those bedleclass they may dont have the necessary skills for the next century. We have a population problem as well is a skill problem. Host we appreciate your call. Tongass returns in two weeks from their august recess. Heres the headline Congress Returns in two weeks from their august recess. Heres their headline ringing some more detail to the story ringing some more detail to the story bringing some more detail to the story host that is from the Washington Post this morning. Democratic line. Go ahead. Take for granted that the issue is the back of qualified labor in the United States. That is a diversion it. Tactic. And whether greed or not we allow companies to continually pay less for labor than other countries that ship products into us. If we ask any company, no matter how technical the job, to give you the qualifications, there will be Many Americans here who will call in that are qualified to back and that position. Do thepanies can not same thing to the individual as they came from as they can from india and south korea and so protect their balanced line. The balance is not between technology and labor. We have to take a look at talents and profits. You walk into walmart or home depot and they are downgrading the workforce only for profits not because there are not enough mollified people, even to take care of the machines to replace them. For lack of a better term, they go through and rape the American Public. Host thanks for your call. Dede talks about job training. Job used to do their own training. Now they expect employees to be job ready. Back to yesterdays march on washington. This is the headline of the Richmond Times dispatch. Some see drop in urgency. Martin luther king the third talk about his fathers dream and the realization. Here are some of he had to say. [video clip] four little his o children would not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. It is sadly, the tears of Trayvon Martins mother and father rebind is that far too frequently once skin remains a license to seek out a murder with no regard for the content of ones character. Stand your ground laws must be repealed. Federal antiprofiling legislation must be enacted. Comprehensive Immigration Reform must be adopted to and the arrests of our Brown Brothers and sisters and provide a path to citizenship to then just as was done for the millions who passed through ellis island yesterday. Host Martin Luther king the third yesterday at the 50th anniversary of the march on washington. President obama will speak on the actual anniversary date on wednesday. Look for coverage on cspan on that day. Back to the question. Does new Technology Create better jobs . Piece in the New York Times prompting this. Middleweight adjustment not to take one prominent example, paraprofessional jobs, radiology technician, here is pennsylvania on our republican line. Caller i think that a couple of callers back there made some good points. I know a number of different types of people. One of my friends has a dad that has a mechanical job in the middle class. It is really hard. We are best friends. Understanding of technology in different programs and computers. Computer sciences general that can help us. We understand how easy it is to start a business these days with but both our, parents do not understand that. For some people who are in the 40 or 50 year old range they have their own businesses and they do not understand how they could go obsolete just because of the new technology. In school i would find myself experiencing people being sho cked that you could do something with this kind of technology. Technology is created newer jobs. People are not understanding how easy it is to create a business. Some of these jobs are just not going to disappear in general. There is, somebody mentioned to the automatic tech out link. They still have to hire people to do something in the back. It maybe 30 or 50 years before they have totally Automated Stores or store services. There are some service jobs that are still unique to individualized people that will, technology these days helped. I do not think theyll ever go away. Some of the Technology Like that. What what i see is that the technology is probably the best thing that has come along for america. They arethis area, looking at the down side. They are not really understanding how easy is even sidehem to operate on the or their fulltime job to get into the system and to use it. I think a lot of people are looking at the negative. We cannot go back with some of these jobs. India and china will be using this, too. We have to transform. Andle have to realize listen to other people around them like out e. G. It is to create more, a better economy and let the other stuff go away. Thank you for those comments. Here is a tweet from boston who ask us designate Technology Create better jobs question market doesnt cspan wj use a robotic camera . That is true. It is run by an individual. In many ways it helps us provide more coverage of congressional hearings, more things we would not have been able to cover. There is a human being operating that robotic camera. Lets hear from brian and pittsburgh. Independent mind. In pittsburgh. In dependent line. China graduated 600,000 engineers. We only graduated 30,000 engineers. We are never going to be able to keep up. Got a masters degree in math. Run a computerto class. I so what do you know . He said not much. Innercity kids do not want to learn anyway. Were never going to get anywhere. Host lets talk a little 2016 politics. A piece this morning about iowa. Fears it roles in president ial selection is diminishing. Chicago, next up. Keith on our democrat line. What you think about technology . Does it create better jobs . Is not. It it increases the bottom line. That is what technology is designed to do. There to create jobs. It is there to increase the companys profitability. I can give you an example. I have been doing Public Relations for over 20 years. I came from a top school. I cannot find work. Whenhould i be able to it themselves with social media . You do not need a pr firm. You might need a freelance person with social media skills. Thisve to look at realistically. Of combination globalization and technology has created a nonworking class. Host in your argument, wouldnt you need somebody with some proven social media success . Caller right. But you are looking at one or two people that can manage that versus a team of 10, which i used to operate a decade ago. Those are highpaying, six figure jobs that are completely gone. They are not coming back. Jobs are noted coming back. We have to find another way to redirect our resources so that everyone is dead and contributing to society. Ands productive contributing to society. We have to accept that. Compete with lowwage workers in china. Host that is keith in chicago. Darrell says the u. S. Went from an Agrarian Society to what mercantile and manufacturing. Now and the 21st century we have gone from Manufacturing Society to an i. T. Society but the opportunities have shrunken. Nabeela says it Technology Keeps up, cspan should be concerned because hard finding what exist as more people drop cable and satellite for netflix and web programming. Lets give one more call to our republican law. Jim, louisiana. Are you there . Go ahead. Technology can create better jobs if the politicians get out of the way. For example, a company in dallas has a new technology that creates ethanol out of natural gas and coal. He can do it with in government a smaller Carbon Footprint than you can get out of corn. The create more ethanol out of corn. It creates more ethanol out of corn. We could have that. Host thanks for your contribution this morning. Thanks for all your calls and more coming up. Were going to turn our attention next to u. S. Foreign policy, focusing on the areas of egypt and syria. A roundtable discussion coming up here and we will hear from washington of the lafranchi. Howard all of that coming up. Associatedr from the press economics reporter. As you mentioned, we will hear more about the situation in syria here at topics include the 50th anniversary of the wash on march on washington and health care law. You can hear rebroadcast beginning at noon and jus. Jack reed, michael mccaul, and congressman john lewis. A 1 00 p. M. , we will meet with andrew young and congressman john lewis. At 2 00 p. M. It is fox news sunday. Sts include off Corker Bob Corker and mary fallin of oklahoma. A corporate p. M. It is face the nation at 4 00 p. M. It is face the nation. This is brought as a Public Service by the networks and c span. This begins at noon eastern. State of the union and at 4 00, face the nation. Theen to them all here in washington dc area. Across the country, Satellite Channel 119. \ download a free app or listen online at cspan cspanradio. Org. I do not want to see the loss of print journalism. Am frustrated when i see the loss of so many state and local journalisms. A lot of this National Journalism is. As good if you do not have local journalism. A lot of what i do is watching, reading local and state stories and figuring out how it is bubbling up to the national level. If there are not people on the ground doing that sort of work, i think National Journalism suffers. I really hope that someone figures out a way to keep thats up say no to keep that sustainable. We will see more social media where people do not maybe go to the website of the news outlets quite as much but they see stories being shared by others, by what their friends are talking about. You go to these four websites. Amanda terkel on what is shaping modern journalism tonight. , we haveginal series looked at the public and private lives of the women who served as first lady during the nations first 1200 years. Now we move into the modern era. We will each are the ladies in their own words. It would be one of the foundations on which we would build in the world. I do not think the white house completely belongs to one person. But a lot of the people of america. Firstr lives in it, the lady should enhance it. Season two of first ladies from Edith Roosevelt to michelle obama. Starting september 9 at 9 00 eastern. Encoreude the presentation with ida mckinley. On your screen is guy taylor she was a senior who is a Senior Correspondent with the Washington Times in joining as is lafranchi. Joining us for a discussion challengesgn policy with. Egypt in the middle east in general. We will start with a look at the headline this morning. Obama reviews Response Options syria. Tion to seriou what are they trying to figure out . Tost they are trying figure out how they could respond to this red line issue with syria. Andresident has come out said the use of chemical weapons would be the crossing of a red line. Warning froms a president obama that the use of chemical weapons would trigger some sort of military strike by the United States. They are debating what to do now. Time for the United States to do some kind of a military strike . How can they talk their way out of not doing that . Given the definition of this red line, what are the administration at this point in conjunction with our allies or through the un . President obama friday morning. Laid out some of the steps and challenges Going Forward on this he did not lay out what might happen. The white house discussions they are talking about perhaps starting with cruise missiles that would be launched from offshore and hitting i think Syrian Military installations. Anythinwe have heard some talk t there earlier meetings of maybe the talk coast of oman will of kosovo thel of referring back to 90s when president clinton ordered airstrikes against the regime. Where theat may be comparison is made there is step that was taken without un approval. Obviously, theres not going to be un approval for anything the u. S. And other western powers might do here. Russia would stand in the way. Might be are kosovo model. I do not think in the sense that kosovo went on for three months and was designed to turn away from the ethnic cleansing and things are going on. In this case case, a first step cruise missiles or warning shots. Maybe ratchet it up before some reason the assad regime continued with chemical weapon use. At first it would be a warning a specification for at a full not aimed military intervention. Host we will bring our viewers into the conversation. ,oining us by phone, email facebook, and twitter. Here are the phone numbers. Lets quickly look at egypt as well as part of this conversation. Report an egypt that they are moving forward with the trial of hauls me of hose nieman embarq Hosni Mubarak. Just been released from his Military Hospital or at least the risen. What is next there . Thet what is in play is extent to which the military is now taking control of the government in cairo and can control the situation on the streets. If there are not massive fivest and the next two or weeks with clashes resulting in the deaths of citizens regardless of who they are and what everyone else thinks about the Muslim Brotherhood, how can the government that is now Holding Power in cairo create a peaceful situation . The question of mubarak being released from prison in calling for a new trial is certainly disconcerting from the washington perspective regardless of who is in power. That is the big question. How does this government shore up the reputation . Ways cracking down in a that hundreds of egyptian citizens were killed. Where a a situation dialogue can be created. About therd wrote administrations careful efforts to preserve a decade old regional strategy based on egypt. They can proceed knowing that the u. S. Needs egypt more than the then egypt needs the u. S. They cut up 1. 6 million in military assistance. It reminds us of a scene from brooke Back Mountain where one mountain broke back where one cowboy says i cannot quit you guest i think he was saying the we are seeing administration being very careful about egypt. They do not even want to determine whether or not what happened was a military coup, because by doing that we would have to say it is a to and cut aidaid coup and cut off according to law. The administration look at the National Security interest that they see in play here. There is islamist militants that are ever more active in the siani. We have seen that more recently. We saw oil prices go up in the aftermath of events in egypt. I think the administration is showing that they are very , toctant to cut off aid cut bridges with Egyptian Military. The u. S. And Egyptian Military have a very long, close relationship. In the view of many, the generals see this and they feel like they know it and they can go pretty far without risking a closed door and washington. Host several countries are just fine with the generals in power. They would rather see that. Guest sure. Isn at the Big Questions what is better for the United States and its allies, to have brotherhood in power for a few years in cairo or a military junta that is very secular and interested in controlling volatile elements right there is such as hamas in gaza. The United States is trying to pursue greater peace. In the last month or so, the narrative is that the state department is going to want to pursue Israeli Palestinian peace. A Muslim Brotherhood in cairo with hamas which has disavowed the peace process. Lots of different strains to this. Host i want to get to a broader look. You wrote about a couple of weeks after the crackdown in egypt following wednesday, you rode the middle east Democracy Movement is hailed as the arab spring and was transformed wednesday. Do you think that will cause a reset . Both what is happening in egypt and syria, do you think it will cause the administration to look at a reset of the Foreign Policy . What they do is a big question. With regard to the lofty goals, it is not a reference to the last five years of the Obama Administration with the eight when the neoconservative push was to spread democracy to the middle east. Elected democratically government in cairo getting knocked back down by a military coup essentially, even though that is the dirty word in washington, dc that happen does raise the question of how are we. Oing to proceed here doe i think what we need to reset i do not know, but the administration would like to keep the middle east to the background. That is not what it wanted. Obama came in. He wanted his administration to be the one that turned away from the middle east or pivoted from the middle east in u. S. Foreign policy and focus to asia. Secretary defense hagel is in asia right now. He is having to talk about syria in the middle east and the middle east. President obama, and this is coloring their decisions. Knows that to get involved directly in the war in syria that is it for the rest of his administration. That isthat think one beer being careful about. He still hopes to they are being careful about. He still has lofty hopes for the middle east. He wants to pivot away from this region and put american Foreign Policy attention elsewhere, primarily in asia. A middlewant to go to east correspondent to his joining us from syria. Good morning to you. I think we may have lost him. All right. We will go with our caller. Is concerning to me that regarding the chemical use in syria is slanted to one. Thatca has concluded facade has artie use chemical weapons. Do we have any evidence that already have any evidence . We have concluded that facade used it assad used it. What is the evidence . I would like to know. Host what is the latest . Guest we do not have evidence that was standup. We we have video of people testifying to reporters, locally on the ground, footage that suggests pretty seriously missiles landed in a couple of towns. It is a great question. I applaud the viewer for bringing it up. This is something the Obama Administration will want to strategically hide behind. We have had a time in the united six or sevenut years of a very militarized foreignpolicy where we responded to these threats around the world and even going back to the former u. S. Lobby where we responded with military strikes. There is a kneejerk sense that we have to respond with a military strike. The Obama Administrations mantra has been we are going to be the administration that does not do that. That is what is playing out here. Slow resistance to jumping to conclusions. Organizations such as yesterday, Doctors Without Borders said that three of their hospitals that they work with in the damascus area reported thousands of, or within hours, victims coming in with symptoms of some sort of neurotoxicit attack. You go back prior to that and both, not just u. S. Intelligence but the israelis, have been saying that the assad regime has been keeping very careful control on their stockpiles of chemical weapons. That does not mean that there is proof that it was the solid that it was a solid and his regime. There are all sorts of possibilities. Is he losing control of some of his commanders may be . Might it have been someone separate who decided to test the limits . We do not know. Is correct in saying the administration, we also do not know what evidence has come and. Video. S there are photos. As of thursday and friday, we do know the rebel opposition representatives working very hard to smuggle out what would be more conclusive evidence, blood and hair samples and things like that. Host lets see if we can get some update on the ground. We are joined by sam thacker he was in syria. He is the middle east correspondent. Thank you for joining us. We have our first question regarding the gas attacks. What are you hearing from damascus . Absolutely. Were still dealing with the allegations and the accusations made onpposition wednesday about these chemical weapons attacks in the suburbs, mainly be eastern suffers of suburbs of damascus in a couple of various areas southwest of the city. I am in the capital. Statement madee yesterday by the syrian minister of information. He was speaking to a news camera. That itasically saying is most likely that the rebels themselves were the ones that used the chemical weapons. , repeated, his government denial that they would use such weapons against its people. The government basically had a set of moral values that prevented them from doing such a thing. There are reports this morning that the un representative is on the ground in syria. What is the United Nations helping for . Hoping for . [indiscernible] as you may know already, it this team has been on the ground for the past week. They arrived last sunday in damascus. They are here to investigate accusations of chemical weapon use in public heart of syria. This broke out while they were here. Definitely the top priority is to hammer out some sort of a deal to be able to visit these areas. Dagher joining us this morning. Thank you for your update. Into youren following comments. The Washington Post reports the Doctors Without Borders group and their receiving all these people coming in. Three hospitals were saying patients aitian the group itself was not able to confirm that this was an attack. They came up short of describing it as an attack. They pointed out, these are hospitals that they work with. They were going on the information they were getting from the hospitals. I think this sort of thing obviously is more evidence that something happens. Happened. That is the point of the un team there and ban kimoon sending in his representative, to reinforce with the syrian government. If you have nothing to hide, what better than to completely open up the area . , the Opposition Forces have given the Obama Administration assurances that any un team coming into the area, which is a disputed area with pockets of rebel held territory, that any un representatives would be safe. I think there is an effort. Where i would disagree with the caller is that there is any rush to judgment. Attacks thathe were the original attacks back until april too untik and june for the administration to conclude that there had been attacks at that time. I think it is incorrect to say there is a rush to judgment. A pretty closes conclusion that it was the syrian government. Host that perpetrated the attacks. Republican line. Good morning. Caller good morning. The first have comment i have is a question to try to understand. I have been trying to follow this from the beginning. Why do you guys think that al on any is. Available cable stations in the u. S. . I do not know why anyone doesnt say anything would it be areible that cia agent trying to get us into the war the way we got into the conflict with libya. It is obvious that obama did not want to get involved. That is not an open question. Host thanks for your call. Guest these are great questions. One of the hardest things as a serious journalist as you do not want to get sucked into the realm of conspiracy theories. Howard wrapped up the possibility that there could be generals in syria that are not aligned with the Assad Government. Possiblyck and say cia agents are doing that, that is a valid question. You have to step back and say when youre talking to the cia and policymakers on the hill who have have talked to the cia and monitor it, you get into the realm of conspiracy very quickly. You have got to realize what is happening in syria. We just heard from sam on this. It is basically an all out civil war. There are large pockets of the country where there is serious fighting. The First Casualty is going to be the troops. Figuring out who did this is not going to be easy. Sitting back on our laurels would be the easy way out. The administration has a heavy task to push through the truth. Talked about al jazeera. A couple of reports, they reported on the trial in egypt of Muslim Brotherhood leaders begins. Members were arrested after the army took control of the country. Fromthis morning, a report o iran saying Myrtle Beach South Carolina on our independent mind. I have relatives in syria and lebanon. Administrations, say egypt was wrong. Keen about [indiscernible] bodydiscussion is maybe no knows it. We got the informations from our thatives inside syria said this attack. Egypte relatives in also. The newl be affecting elections. Thanks for joining us. He mentioned both syria and egypt. Lets go to egypt next. Une as from cairo joining us from cairo. Good morning. About military trials underway. What can you tell us about those . It has been a symbolic day in terms of everything that is happening in egypt. All morning you had lawyers or resident mubarak and the former interior minister accused of killing protesters in 2011. You had that trial on the Egyptian Television all morning with their lawyers arguing that they should go free. Has been released to a Military Hospital earlier last week. This afternoon be will have top leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood making their first appearances in court since they were arrested in the past month. Is changing back to the way they were. Anything expect concrete. You have both of these cases visible on the same day. I was reading yesterday about the military making a strong presence in particular in front of the court in cairo. What is the situation on the street . Since the initial days after the bid crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood, we saw hundreds killed. Of ongoings instability and clashes. Those have largely calmed down. There were supposed to be friday. On they mostly fizzled. They did not get any turnout. It seems like things are calming here partially because the Muslim Brotherhood is unable or decided not to continue challenging in the streets to the same degree in the size of the protests and partially because the crackdown has been effective. Host on the retrial ahead of , were people surprise . People were stunned. It seemed like such a crude move especially after the ousting of morsi, which most were calling 82 a coup. Egypt was saying it was a corrective to the revolution that had gone awry. Hundreds were killed and announced by much of the world. The Egyptian Army was trying to seemingly out of nowhere move toward releasing president mubarak. Intentionst was the of the military or old regime type that the timing was just extremely poorly chosen. What have you seen in the presence of the u. S. Ambassador and other military officials in the day since the crackdown a couple of weeks ago . In here relatively recently. I have not been in to see the american ambassador. The americans are keeping a relatively low profile here. Some Embassy Officials have been doing some off the record briefings with press in recent taking acertainly not very high profile. The whole outcome of this clash right now, the americans have found themselves blamed on both sides. The Muslim Brotherhood is convinced the americans are conspired against it. Arethe other side that this convinced is with the brotherhood. Caught in as are lose lose situation. Theres little leverage over the course of events. Host an update from charles levinson. Thank you for your reporting. About the trials that he is saying that are on television and egypt, what do you think the purpose of that is . They are putting them on television. Thet i think we are seeing media are government controlled. The media are blanketed with s andonting the terrorist bringing them down. I see it in that context that ringing these leaders, these were the full who were taking egypt in the wrong direction. They were juxtaposing it then with blanketed coverage of the militarys perspective that we acted against the terrorist who were taking egypt in the wrong direction. Host what are the risks they run putting Hosni Mubarak back . Therefore theisks military leadership . Guest the risk is that they will undercut their own legitimacy with the brother and then the secular young Democracy Movement will see them as backing down and not upholding what the revolution was all about. The question of mubaraks release from prison, we have to look at the greater air of spring movement. Lets start with tunisia and ben ali who fled. Gaddafi was essentially assassinated in a battlefield situation. Thatuld go before and Saddam Hussein and other military leaders who were hung who was ultimately hung. This is very symbolic. This is big in a subconscious sense of what happens. Host ousting the old and bringing in the new. Into does mubarak executedeen cairo . What what happens to his family . His son was being groomed to take over the dictatorship in egypt. What happens is very important. Host is his son in captivity . Guest no. I think he got out of the country. Host lets go back to the calls. Republican caller. Think you for your comments. Caller good morning. I appreciate them acknowledging that we do not really know what has happened in syria in regards to these chemical attacks. I think you have got to look at the fact that why would syria even use chemical weapons . Usedast month the rebels terrorist tactics. They engage in assassinations. They are killing christians and desecrating churches. Are the ones that have the most interesting getting getting the United States to intervene. They are getting beat of the battlefield. That is where i think that to is where they should be looking at. It is the rebels that have the most to gain from using chemical a situationreate where the u. S. Can say what we have to go in. This is a disastrous Foreign Policy, this whole syrian episode. We are supporting terrorists. That is what they are using, terrorist tactics. One of the reasons obama does not want to go in there is 70 of the American People are against going into syria. That is from a wall street journal poll. Guest the caller brings up a number of very good points. Are listed rebels as a terrorist organizations by the United States. A homogeneousnear group. The chairman of the joint chiefs the other day in a letter to a member of Congress Said if we get involved in syria it is a side,tter of choosing we have to choose among sides within the rebels and the opposition. The point about it being only in , in the interest interest of sync u. S. Intervention that there be a iemical weapons attack, think that is a little murkier. We did see an earlier attack and president obama spoke forcefully about cap and nothing happens. That isalso the theory sought is testing the limits, pushing things. Is testing the limits, pushing things. There have been things from the damascus suburbs. This is a threat to the government. There had been fierce fighting going on. They are continuing afterward. It is not as though what happened there was not threat. Ve of a grave it has rubble rebel strongholds. He cannot afford to lose damascus. Host how much is russia calling the shots for syria . At this point i think it is limited. In the global stage in terms of International Rhetoric and geopolitical rhetoric, we hear moscow come up a lot in as being the fly in the ointment of the Obama Administrations attempt to bring peace in syria. Meetingcomes to rubber the road, the russians have acknowledged that their military presence which had been a navy base in syria is the only one outside of the former soviet union and they are pulling out of it. Theres evidence to suggest they are telling the Assad Government what to do. Host herb is on the democratic line. Ler shades of a rack iraw. Iraq. Ades of a few years ago we did not give the Inspection Team on the ground enough time. The cia chief at the time walked into the Oval Office Just before the invasion and said mr. President , it is slamdunk. There are weapons of mass destruction. Played out. That it is very important that we allowed the un inspectors on the ground to do a thorough investigation. That thei am fearful reemerge. Could six weeks ago president obama was quoted as saying they have i have proof of that. However, the president never indicated what his proof was and that one tended to die. I am fearful that the warships moving in closer to syria may use their missiles to take out government airfields and Government Installations without waiting for the u. N. Team to do their full investigation, but which may well show that the rebels of the ones complicity. Host thank you for that call. We are putting pawning between egypt and syria, i wanted to jump to an email question that a viewer had. Host that is from john in new jersey. Guest certainly, we heard that theory, even from some in egypt, is using exactly that phrase, continuing to pull the strings from his jail cell. Having you know, we have seen promubarak demonstrations and taking steps and inlowing sort of the pattern brutal way that egypt has ever seen, following the pattern along military rule. I think that that is where that comes from, but we do not know that that is the case. Certainly, egyptians feel that way. , it wasck to the caller a reference to iraq and if you look at president obamas the interview on friday, he alluded to iraq without mentioning iraq by name, but he himself said that we need to be careful and judicious about this, that they have paid the price in the past four rushing in to things. And it is true that yes, the warships, destroyers in the mediterranean. I do not know that any military hardware is moving in. I think yesterday we learned that a destroyer that was scheduled to pull out was ordered to stay in the region. President sthe approach to looking at these reports. How do you think that these reports will be different from the bush administrations . Theou have to consider powell doctrine being so much more important to this administration. Host which is . Guest we will not do anything without a clear edge it clear exit strategy. 50,000 feet, what they are talking about at the white house now is what the exit strategy will be, like putting a lot of troops on the ground. Even if there was a commitment of repeated surgical strikes or military involvement, how do they get out of this . I do not think there is a clear answer, which is why i do not think there will be a major u. S. Engagement Going Forward. This is very different from the previous a ministration, a strategy that is going to a fall after using military force. Princeton, new jersey, keith, independent line. Guest go to youtube and caller go to youtube and do a inrch, it is pretty grim asir eyes and fairly obvious far as a video. U. S. Marine corps officer, with conventional artillery on the targets they are trying to attack, they are trying to make sure they are accurate. Shellsere are nerve gas from the same two that you fire high explosive shelling. Take a look at what happens. The intervention in africa, 16 or 20 times in the last 30 the Un Security Council has asked for resolution. And has moved along the back end of the c130s. The question is, what does the United States do . A great power or not, do they ask for permission from the Security Council . We know that russia and china will veto any actions. This is the kind of quandary we are in. I think that the United States needs to take a close look at not just an exit strategy, but making official declarations about red lines that cannot be crossed. You have to be careful of what you say and when you stop willing to be able to back up your words, you cease to be taken seriously. Guest i would note that in the case of the french, that was different in that certainly the government of mali welcomed the french intervention. Host they asked for it . They i believe they did, certainly paved the way. Was a former colony, correct . Or a former territory . Guest i think it was more that the Al Qaeda Affiliated group threatening the government in the north, defeating the south, it was a threat to the government. Much of ant know how economic interest there is. , would also say that, you know i think that what the caller said about backing up your words, i think that that is a concern in the white house. United states gets to the point, red line or no, the use of chemical weapons is banned. Most countries have signed the international ban. It is a taboo. A taboo that the United States and other countries should not cross. When it happens again, it looks like a larger scale. How long can you go . What happens to your influence . World . Fluence in the as president obama said, thatca remains the country can still sort of intervene in the situations. Long can you just rely on rhetoric . The point the caller made about other countries, like france and molly, not waiting for u. S. , as we said earlier, there is not going to be a Un Resolution opening the door to a military intervention. Said earlier,s i there is this talk of getting back to kosovo. Howas a regime change, but we can intervene with some semblance of international backing, International Law on our side, even if it is just cruise missiles to say that enough is enough regarding attacks on military installations stopping there. Host guy taylor . Guest what howard is saying is right on the money to a degree, but we have to remember that this paradigm of the United States getting involved in expensive wars in the middle east has become a thing of the past. Part of the reason that obama won two terms in office is america wanted the United States out of this extremely expensive occupation and war in the middle east. In the same way this paradigm of america taking the lead in peacekeeping operations became thewhat unpopular after operations were agreed to as being a success or not. I do not know that there is a big appetite among the American Public to be the worlds policemen. Host the french model, the mali model, working for the u. S. In the case of syria . What i just said about the lack of appetite, i would say no. Host first a couple of twitter messages. This one from bill host i will leave that hanging for a second and go to pat on the republican line from new jersey. Caller i would classify syria as the classic nowin situation. Have we ever had a vital interest in syria itself . I do not see what we are going to accomplish, either with boots on the ground or what we accomplish by going into syria. Are we really going to put ourselves on the same side as al qaeda . Ben, mclean, virginia, democratic line. Hello. Caller i have two questions concerning the situation in the peninsula. I would like the guests to comment on the root causes on the militancy and what the mubarak government did to from those jobs, including the military, in that way alienating them and forcing ,hem into illegal activity like sabotages against government representatives. The second question concerns the attacks on churches. The interim government is now responsible for security, but they have done nothing to protect these churches and in some cases these attacks have been next to police stations and so on. So, please comment on that as well. Guest first of all, we know that the cyanide has been in the nautilus region for a long time. I think that some of the things the caller mentioned, in a sense, are coming back to those chickens are coming back to roost. The way that the government treated the region, that is a problem. Guest the issue of how much control and stability there is in cairo and what can be achieved right now, if you are cooking a big thing ofs the,nce a big thing ofs the you cannot really get the Water Package and into the pot did. The pot. Does this government have the ability to clamp down on the fracturing potential terrorists next twoegypt in the months to three months . Host both of our guests this morning have plenty of Foreign Correspondent experience. Howard writes for the Christian Science monitor. Writes for the Washington Times, thank you both for joining us this morning. The races on to replace ben bernanke before the end of the year. We will hear from an Associated Press reporter who covers economics and, later on, we will hear about the syrian refugee from a doctor who is just back from largest in syria. More open washington journal ahead on more washington journal ahead on cspan. From [video clip] had 16y on we said we acres of land that we had to put something on. Or maybe not. Everyone wanted a say. Leadersy readers promised a public process for input on the master plan, but at the same time that was going on, however, you have larry silverstein, the developer Leasing Office space and the port authority, who really believed in the importance of the commercial space being destroyed. They wanted to make sure that Lower Manhattan remained an International Financial hub and believed that for that to happen they had to rebuild the commercial space. The battle for ground zero tonight at 9 00 on cspan 2. Begin with a wellknown american novelist, james baldwin. Mr. Baldwin, what about the mark in washington . Country,tely in this it was enough to be around one president being more significant, the most noted. Emonstration to free americans i express my support of civil rights largely by talking about it at cocktail parties, i am afraid. Like many this summer i could no longer pay only lip service to a cause that was so urgently rights in a time that is so urgently now. Today American History television marks the 50th anniversary of the march on washington with historic and contemporary archival films, a visit to the National Portrait gallery, a theater of performance on the civil rights movement, starting at 1 00 p. M. Eastern, part of American History television every weekend on cspan 3. Washington journal continues. Host by all accounts, ben bernanke will retire by the end of the year. Joining us to talk about the process and who might be next, christopher rugaber, reporter for open for us the economic press. The economicor press. Guest they are trying to maximize employment so that they have a role in managing the shortterm Interest Rate and influence in the Interest Rates across the economy for things like home loans and things like that. They have taken a lead role in getting at the recession to accelerate recovery. A major role. Ken host he has been the chairman for how long . Guest coming up on eight years. Longer. E served his predecessor, alan greenspan, was there for a little more than 18 years. He is not necessarily the longest serving. Average tenure, i suppose. When the book comes out about ben bernanke, how will his approach be viewed in general to the dual mandate that you talked about . Best you will certainly focusing more on employment that others would like. His low Interest Rate policies may fuel inflation down the road. Inflation is still pretty much he has definitely put more emphasis on trying to get the economy going. Host why all of this attention in the middle of august on who might replace them . Guest it has become clear in , and he isw months not attending the annual retreat that the fed has in jackson hole, wyoming, people are paying attention to this issue right chairman almost always attends that retreat. Privately he has made it known that he is ready to step down. People do not want to disrupt with uncertainty about who the next fed chairman will summer and late fall. Invite viewers to join us to in this conversation about the resignation of ben bernanke. For democrats, a nine for republicans, 2025853881. For democrats, 2025853880. For independents, 2025853882. You can also join us on twitter, twitter. Com cspanwj. Lets look at some of the names out there for potential replacements. Give us a word or two about each champion. What is the background . Guest she was the president of the San Francisco Federal Reserve bank. She is basically the no. 2 to ben bernanke, the current chairman, and has been vocal and insistent as a spokesperson for the low interestrate policy, trying to bring down unemployment. Runner, an early front surly many economists i spoke to thought she would get the nomination, and it has become this kind of unprecedented, in debate aboutblic whether it would be hurt or some of these other folks. Is a former treasury secretary under bill clinton. Host what makes him so appealing as a potential replacement . Guest the white house likes him for various reasons. He was a top adviser to president obama in 2009, 2010, particularly when the financial crisis was still reverberating in the deep recession, he was a strong advocate for the auto bailout and a lot of white house officials felt comfortable with his experience that he had managing these kinds of crises. Earlier he had been a point person for these crises in the 1990s. That is one reason he will be seen as a strong potential potential choice. . Ost what about donald cohen guest the president through his name out recently, he was viewed as a dark horse, likely viewed as a way to break up this two person fight between summers and yelen. Would you put Roger Ferguson in that camp . Guest i think so. He was no. 2 under greenspan and is now working at cia craft tiaa cref. Host going on to the conclave in jackson hole, not only as the Federal Reserve there, but members of the International Monetary community as well. Reporting this morning, front the big question challenges for the fed, with others just beginning after ben bernanke, is the rest of the world looking for the u. S. To set the next step, whenever that may be . Guest to a degree, yes. We are already seeing that with the fact that chairman burning he has made it clear that they will be pulling back on that policy that they have been , currently 85 billion per month. That has created some international consequences. Potentiallyn seen as the u. S. Seeing Interest Rates going higher, leaving these developing countries to fall or potentially have higher Interest Rates. Carolina, don, are you there . Caller, i wanted to say that i support janet yellen, i think she is more labour oriented. I think ben bernanke has done a respectable job and trying to please the charter of the reserve. Keeping Interest Rates low makes , this ability to get into restructuring our roads and Water Systems and everything. Larry summers is too close to the Banking Industry and it would really dampened my enthusiasm for the 2014 elections if president obama decides to go with Larry Summers as opposed to selecting janet yellen. Thank you very much. Guest that is part of the division in the labour oriented wing of the Democratic Party, about onethird of the , summers hasnators been criticized by many as possibly being too close to wall streets, working for citigroup , leading funds supporters to point out that he has supported title regulation in things like the dog frank regulation bill. On the other hand, yellen did people assume that she will be tighter and financial regulations, although neither of them excuse me, yellen does not have a strong track record either way. Host milli is on the independent line. Go ahead. As an independent, i think it does not matter who the next chairman will be. I think the u. S. Congress should take back its power to issue currency. That way, the Federal Reserve will not create these bubbles and expand Monetary Policy which are going to end up with inflation or deflation. What do you think about that . Worrieshere are those out there. When you talk of giving the power back to congress, the concern is they will become more political. People might demand lower Interest Rates beyond what would bea healthy or there might pressure to raise rates for political reasons. The idea behind the fed is to have that independent from political pressure. There have been concerns the pumped a little less than 3 trillion in the economy. Much of that remains on the books and is not circulating in the economy. The result is inflation has shown no signs of taking off. At the moment, we have tamed inflation for now. Host a couple of comments on twitter. This is benwi always athed by republicans for having saved this economy. Far are the limits to how the fed can influence the American Economy with qe . Guest there are limits. That is something the fed policymakers have been debating. There are issues they may not be able to address the matter how low Interest Rates are. If consumers do not have the ability to buy more cars or a lower Interest Rates can only do so much. The brakes until recently have been reluctant to lend in many cases. The credit standards are higher. In some ways, that is a good thing. But it has made it difficult for firsttime home buyers and they have not been able to take a viow much as they would like. To take advantage of the lower rates as much as they would like. In terms of unemployment, some argue some of the unemployed workers may not have the skills necessary. That is something the fed cannot address no matter how much monetary easing it does. Host looking ahead to the next fed chairman and Monetary Policy with Chris Rugaber. Gary, welcome to the conversation. He is on the republican line. Caller i would like to see Roger Ferguson take it. He held the big ball of wax together during 9 11 when the temperatures were going up and atrything was in turmoil that particular time. To see the tea party spend their time defunding nafta instead of obamacare. Thank you larry much. Thank you very much. Host he mentioned Roger Ferguson. He was overseas and received word inflight returning to the United States. The plane had to land in europe. I do not remember exactly where. He did call Roger Ferguson, his deputy, who was trying to keep things together in the wake of the attacks on 9 11. Host mr. Ferguson had the position janet yellen has now as deputy fed chair. Guest exactly. Janet yellen would be the first woman. Roger ferguson would be the first africanamerican chair. He has been involved with the obama white house, not in any official capacity but has been a more frequent visitor then janet yellen. That may have some impact. Host de from long island on the democrats line. Dave from long island on the democrats line. Caller i want to talk about inflation. I see it in gas and home heating. The dollar is the worlds reserve currency. We export a lot of inflation into the other countries. When you look at the arab spring, one of the primary reasons for the revolution was food prices. He said there is no effect from quantitative easing. We were just talking about syria and egypt. You cannot just print money and not have consequences. What about half of these people and the federal government Work Together . If you applied the rico laws, could you apply that to the government as far as counterfeiting with the printing of money or collusion were the banks Work Together to fix the prices on securities and where racketeering with racketeering where the inment put the banks am curious about that. I think janet yellen and Larry Summers are the same type of person. You will get the same kind of printing. Larry summers started during the mexican currency crisis. They started printing money. Host plenty of questions. Thank you. Guest a lot of what was said has some merit in terms of yellen and janet Larry Summers being similar in terms of their Monetary Policy. Most people expect they would pursue similar policies is appointed, at least in the near term. Janet yellen has been more outspoken in support of quantitative easing them Larry Summers. As far as inflation, some things like gas and some food prices have risen. My thing was only that there have been forecasts of significant price increases which has not yet come true. The point was made you cannot just print money and have no consequences. There is some truth to that. Lower Interest Rates have impacted savers and Older Americans who live on fixed incomes and often their savings. It is hard for them to earn money from that. That is one consequence some people see as a negative. Host back to the choice the president will make about the next fed chairman. In the an opinion Washington Post. They say we express no preference between janet yellen and Larry Summers. What have you heard from the white house in terms of when they may make a decision, when the president may make his decision . Guest were hearing possibly next month. It is likely they may try to do that quickly in terms of putting an end to the backandforth. That would leave several months for the hearings in the senate. Whoever is nominated would have to receive senate confirmation. The decision could come in the next month or so. Ben bernanke was nominated for his second term in late august. Itt is about the time usually takes place. The betting seems to be slightly towards summers. We will see. Host who is the favorite on capitol hill . Guest that is a good question. There was one prominent republican senator from kansas who said he would not have Larry Summers no his lawn. Presumably he would prefer janet yellen over Larry Summers. Both have a democratic background. Not sure if republicans will have a dog in the fight. The most outspoken Democratic Senators seem to support janet yellen. Summers has been on capitol hill more. He has been there to testify in the past and negotiate. He may have his own allies there as well. Question for you from twitter. I assume she means the quantitative easing. Directly, it goes to banks. These would be some of the banks on wall street in new york. Jpmorgan, bank of america, etc. It is a more complicated process in terms of they would sell the securities to the fed. The fed would place some of the money with the banks as reserves. S haveoncern is the bank not circulated the money through lending and other practices as much as they could. The may have held back economy somewhat. It is one reason people are not as worried about inflation as a result of this practice where the money has not been pushed out to the economy as much as it could have been. From temple hills on the independent line. Caller i enjoy cspan so as nmuch. Your guest is mentioned what my question was. Economiststhat some suggest high Unemployment Rates in america make it convenient quantitative using, quantitative easing, minimizing inflation and the political pressure on the Federal Reserve . Interestingit is because the goal of quantitative easing is to lower Interest Rates, pushed down the cost of money, and revive the economy making it easier to buy homes and cars and making it easier for businesses to borrow and hopefully expand. Many true one reason people are not as concerned about inflation is with things like high unemployment, the factories are not at full capacity. Those things are checks on the inflationary trends. Workers do not have the same leverage to ask for higher wages. That could be a cause of inflation. Wages have been flat for some time. It would be nice to see them go look. Those things are helping keep inflation in check. Is in howard beach, n. Y. , republican line. Not and historian with regards to foreignpolicy, but my understanding is the 85 85, in purchasing billion a month in purchasing was considered a trusted move. Lets consider they get it wrong. The result is hyperinflation. What are the consequences of that . Thank you. The 85 milliobillion a month and other things are unprecedented. Chairman bernanke made other changes such as being much more open in the communications of the fed in what theyre planning to do in the way they are thinking about the economy. He is the first fed chairman to hold press conferences. Janet yellen has been the force behind it. She has supported the open communication. As far as the 85 billion and whether they get it wrong, that is always a concern. It may be one reason they start to wind down later in the year as bernanke has said they plan to do as long as the economy continues to grow. The fed is leaning toward winding down those purchases. In terms of the consequences, hyperinflation raises the prices of a lot of things and is unpleasant. It is hard to have hyperinflation. It is rare in a deep and mature economy like the United States. Inflation could rise more than we would like. The hyperinflation where you get 100 or higher is unlikely. News conferences, he said ben bernanke is the first as. Chairman to hold these. Have you been to some of those . Guest we have a team approach. We have someone in the room. I have helped monitor the press conferences. We write updates as the press conferences go along. Host do the reporters feel they get a lot of information and insight they may not have gone before . Guest i think so. Ben bernanke, like all fed chairmen, will not want to show his hand all the time. In many cases, he may repeat some boilerplate. Even those who say it is too that thermation in markets may read it differently than bernanke may have intended, but i think most reporters would prefer to keep them. Host is the fed careful with what they release question no. They just released the minutes of the federal open Market Committee meeting in july. Are they careful about what the release for the markets . Yes, it keeps pressure off of the Decision Making to give them some space. The minutes being released at all is a recent innovation. This did not start coming out until the 1990s. Even now, full transcripts have only recently became the become available with a fiveyear lag. The fed has been becoming more transparent over the years, mostly for the better. Rugaber has a masters of american university. Masters is in . Guest political science. Host lets get back to your calls. We have about 50 more minutes with Chris Rugaber. The next call is from portland, maine. Caller a want to add my voice to the course of those who say it is ridiculous for Larry Summers to be considered given his past statements. He is the prime architect of the regulation, the policies that brought about the banking collapse in the first place. For him to even be considered over paul krugman, it is ridiculous. We voted for president obama to rein in wall street and not cooperate with it. It shows the extent to which the Democratic Party has been captured by the wall street people. Represents a popular in any shape or form. I would like to get the correspondents thoughts on that knows of any reaction of the consideration of Larry Summers for the post. Guest the white house is hearing from democrats on capitol milk and stir up the country. Obama has made it clear he is upset by that, perhaps feeling blindsided. They feel Larry Summers was a strong advocate of the auto bailout plan. His supporters argue his views on Bank Regulation perhaps have changed in response to the financial crisis. 1990s under the bill clinton he was one of support a lot of the deregulation of the financial industry that some say clear the way for the fed into a crisis. That has been probably the Biggest Issue for summers. In the obama and others white house feel this was someone in the room as they dealt with the great recession. When obama came to office, the economy was cratering. 800,000 jobs lost per month in the beginning of 2009. They feel this was someone in the crucible with them. Yellen wasjanet perhaps more precious prescient on the financial press. She has had less contact with the white house the last couple of years than Larry Summers. Some think that maybe one challenge for her. Washington examiner has a piece looking at donald kohn. He is considered a distant third. The right is not clear what his opinion is on the tape. The fed purchases because he left the fed before ben bernanke started the sector round of quantitative easing in 2010. Said itterview, he could help on the margins but could also distort asset prices and raise fuel prices. St doubtently, he ca on the usefulness of stimulus measures. So much why have we had and monetary easing and so little girl . Otherwise, he has been quiet about the recent move. We have not talked about that in terms of growth. How successful has the program then . U. S. Economy is still growing at a modest pace. Only 7 in the second quarter. Some think it will be revised up. Beers argue init would worse without the quantitative easing. It has helped home sales. Of those sales have risen to sixyear highs. Auto sales have risen to six year highs. Overall, the economy is sluggish. We have an Unemployment Rate of 7. 4 . Some argue quantitative easing is more appropriate for crisis situations rather than sluggish growth. Host lets get back to calls. Don is on the republican line. In the beltway say there is no inflation. I am telling you prices have gone up 10 to 15 . The gas prices. The American People have to pay this. With the quantitative easing, the big boys take care of themselves. Says there is no inflation. There is definitely inflation. The American People are getting killed by it. Bernanke is taking care of the big boys. I do think you. Host some inflation on the ground that inflation is there. Guest there have been fluctuations in prices. Gas is more expensive than it used to be. Inflation is broad where everything is going up in price. As measured by the government, we have inflation at about 2 a year, which is low historically. One reason people feel there is more inflation is we have seen such little growth in wages. When you do not have a race and have the same pay or slightly increase in small wills at the Grocery Store feel like inflation. That has been issued. We hear that a lot from readers and other folks. There has been inflationary pressure. I suspect. Flex the low wage growth region suspect that reflects the low wage growth weve seen the past five years. Host raymond is on the line. Caller i have a question. Ronald reagan. Th when he signed the bill a free trade, nobodyee knew what the consequences were. Do you think now we are in this looks it is best to regulating what comes into this that we can open up our own industry so we can make jobs for our own selves instead of depending on other countries that say they are our friends when they are not . , they are soolicy unscrupulous, you might say. I want to know what you got to say about this. Thank you, sir. Guest free trade is a controversial subject. More economists think it may have held down wages for average americans. On the other hand, it has made some things cheaper. That is one reason inflation in some areas has been lower. Trade is a huge issue. There is little prospect of it being drawn back, what ever we may want. There is not a lot of movement in washington to cut back on trade agreements and things like that. As far as the fed is concerned, i think the fed has pursued this quantitative easing even as they have been criticized overseas. Many governments, china, brazil, other countries, have been nervous about the impact of pointede reason to easing. It can create volatility in their own countries. The fed has not worry so much about what people overseas are saying. That is something to keep in mind. The sunday business section has a look at the career of ben bernanke. This is in the business section of the New York Times. But becamecademic one of the most daring shares in its history. A quick twitter question for you. Do any of the candidate support the reinstatement of glass steagall . Guest that is a good question. I do not think so is the short answer. Glasssteagall separated out commercial and investment and was thought to keep deposits in the banks separate from the riskier trading and financialthat the firms on wall street do. Glasssteagall was repealed in 1999 with the support of people like Larry Summers. That is controversial in terms of what role that has played in the financial crisis. I do not believe janet yellen support restoring that. Larry summers was a supporter of the. Create moreit did risks of the big banks, created some of the huge banks that became too big to fail. It may be too hard to put that genie back in the bottle from what i understand. Host lets take more calls. Danny, on the independent line. Question is simply this. I do not believe they are using the correct items in the economy to determine whether or not there is inflation. True inflation is based on whether or not a family anywhere in the United States is able to survive, whether they are able to go out and bought a washer and dryer and things like that. That is fine for the gdp account. But not when it comes to living. Trulys what i believe is what drives inflation. If you do not have any money left over to buy anything, that there is where your Inflation Numbers really are. Host earlier, Chris Rugaber mentioned the wage stagnation. Would you agree with him on that . Caller sure, i think our trade policies are drivers of the stagnant wage. Minutet believe for one the United States needs all of this trade. We can be selfsufficient. It is good trade policy. I am not trying to knock down other countries who need to learn how to grow in their economies. But when the United States is purchasing things from everybody, you need to have a balance on the. We need jobs here. And bankongress policies is what is wrong with the gdp. Host all right. Thank you, sir. Guest trade is certainly controversial. One thing people in washington talk about is how to make United States better able to compete with countries all over the world. You get into the need for more skilled workers, perhaps more investment in education. Likely democrats would argue for investments in various industries or in basic research on things Like Pharmaceuticals and other technologies to give the u. S. A bit of an edge. That is one way to help counteract the competition from lowwage countries where the skills are not so high. Ist marshall, texas, kevin on the republican line. Caller i have two points. I am troubled about the all are using for inflation. Inflation refers to the monetary supply and not prices. We have increased the money supply by italians of dollars. That will lower the value of the u. S. Dollar where the imports are higher in price such as gas and oil. , as far as the domestic prices of things produced here, the prices would have went down significantly if they did not do quantities in and flood the market with the money supply. That is very significant that is why the economy never hit the bottom. That is why we are staggering now trying to grow. My second point, i wanted to mention Richard Fisher, the chairman of the dallas fed. He has been against the lower Interest Rates from the first administration. In his words, he was willing to take away the punch bowl. I think we need to get someone in their willing to do that and bring some value to the u. S. Dollars so we can grow out of this recession. Host but get a reaction from Chris Rugaber. Been Richard Fisher has less supportive of some of the quantitative easing and other policies. In somelly voted cases voted in line with the committee. Among some ofular the republican politicians. I think he was the one that joke is chances of being named this time were 10 . It is unlikely he would be named. It does not mean people like the caller cannot support him. He has been on the more skeptical side of quantitative easing. I think he is popular among some of the republican members of congress. Host we will take one more quick call. I wanted to point out to do a chart of the honorable a rate in the stock market during the tenure of ben bernanke. For our radio listeners, is a lookto right 2006 to 2013 with the stock market plummeting early in 2009. What was the toughest trick for ben bernanke . Guest think the toughest stretch for him was in the fall of 2008 when the crisis intensified. You have the collapse of lehman brothers. You have any idea seeking the youilout review have had aig seeking the huge bailout. There were concerns about what it would entail and how much trouble it would create for the larger economy. I think it is safe to say the fall of 2008 was probably his toughest point. By early 2009, the Unemployment Rate was peaking. Some signsen he saw so som of stabilization. That is when he was talking about green shoots in the economy, which may have been premature. Host lets get one more view. Arlington, john, what is your question or comment . Do you think she was right when she was on the hill and have Larry Summers and greenspan sitting next to her perpetrating their crime that transpired that were all talking about this morning . Host who is brooks leborn . Guest she was the head of the Trading Commission in the 1990s. She wanted to regulate certain types of financial derivatives. Thwarted by a group of folks including Larry Summers. Turning points a that perhaps if there have been more regulation it would have offered an opportunity to forestall the worst of the financial crisis. Been hardals may have to implement. In retrospect, it does seem perhaps she was on the right track, absolutely. Host Chris Rugaber has been our guest. A look this morning at ben bernanke and the next frontier. Still more washington journal ahead. We will hear next from dr. Ron waldman who is with the Group Doctors of the world usa. He will talk about their activities, most recently his visit to a syrian refugee camp in jordan. First, a look at what is ahead on the sunday shows with cspan radio. On todays talk shows, the topics include the 50th anniversary of the march on washington, the situation on syria, and the health care law. You can hear broadcasts of the programs on cspan beginning at noon eastern with meet the press. Includet today politicians. At 1 00, this week with former mayor andrew young. Cnns state of the union follows at 3 00. Include senator ted cruz and jim dement, now president of the heritage foundation. At 4 00 eastern, face the nation from cbs. Network tv talk shows on cspan real are brought to you as a Public Service by the networks and cspan. The shows begin at noon eastern. News sunday. E listen on cspan radio listen on cspan radio. You can download the free app for your smartphone or listen online. From bring public event washington directly to you, putting you in the room at congressional hearings, white house events, and briefings, and conferences, and offering complete gaveltogavel coverage of the u. S. House, all as a Public Service and private industry. We are cspan, created by the cabletv industry 34 years ago and funded by your local cable or satellite provider. Now you can watch us in h. D. See the do not want to loss of print journalism. I am frustrated when i see the loss of so much state and local journalism covering what is happening on the ground. A lot of the National Journalism is not as good if you do not have the local journalism. A lot of what they do is watching, reading local and state stories, see what is happening et that level and how it is bubbling up to the national level. If there are not people on the ground doing that work, National Journalism suffers. Out a wayeone figures to keep that and keep those people in place. Were going to see a lot more social media where people need to not go to the websites of the news outlets as much as c stories being shared by others, what their friends are talking wayt, and news goes that instead of you going to these four websites. Modern journalism tonight at 8 00. Series, weriginal look at the public and private lives of the women who served as first lady during the first 112 years of the nation. As we move into the modern era, we will feature the first ladies in their own words. Human rights would be one of the Foundation Stones on which we would build in the world an atmosphere in which peace could grow. How i do not think the white house ever completely belonged to one person. It belongs to the people of america. I think whoever lives in it, the first lady should perverts the preserve the traditions and leave something of herself there. Live monday nights from. Ncluding your calls and tweets monday night, we will conclude the encore presentation of season 1 of our series. Washington journal continues. Host joining us next is dr. Ron waldman, president of doctors of the world usa, joining us to talk about the groups activities among the world with refugees, in particular the syrian refugee camp from which he has recently returned. Thank you for being with us. This is a photo in this weeks new York Magazine with an of ale and a photograph camp. It is open two weeks. It is now home to 120,000 people. The population of hartford, conn. You were recently at this camp. Tentoks like largely a city. What was your experience like . Guest a very large encampment of refugees. It is now the second largest refugee camp in the world after the one in northern kenya. It is the third oil fourth largest city in jordan. It is no longer as much of a tent city. There are more signs of permanence as the shelters it is note permanent a bad thing with winter coming up, but there are signs of people come in there coming there who may be there for a much longer time than would be desirable. It is a Thriving Community with a lot of goods for sale. There is a main street through the middle of the community that calledy call the were many things are for sale. The conditions are terrible. People are dependent for food and water. The sanitation conditions are not satisfactory. It is not a place anyone would want to be for any long period of time. Host is created because of what is happening in syria. None of this existed before. You are with doctors of the world. What is the most pressing concern . Guest are a number of pressing concern as the conditions in syria deteriorated. Syria is a middle income countries. Conditions were not so bad prior to the opera gun violence. Conflict makes things worse in the short period of time. Now you have the complete disintegration of what was a fairly strong medical and publichealth system. Some of the things one would need to be worried about our ,asic child in diseases especially preventable diseases ake measles, pneumonia, diary, bacchanal prevented diarrhea, things that can all be prevented. Coming overrefugees are not in such bad shape acutely, but as things continued , thateriorate in syria will change rapidly. Host tell us about your organization, doctors of the world usa. Hell are you funded and how you get called in to replace like this refugee camp . Guest we are in Non Governmental Organization that works around the world. It is an International Network with chapters in 14 countries. We do medical humanitarian work. We feel we are distinguished from others in our commitment to the long term relief and rehabilitation. We do not go in only for an emergency and lead. Leave. We stay with them as long as we can and as long as the need is there. We also put an emphasis on domestic projects in each of the countries we are constituted. Doctors of the world usa is going soon to open a free clinic in new york city for people who have not fully recovered from the effects of hurricane sandy. The National Sections has a similar domestic project or series of projects they were gone. Host we will invite our listeners and viewers to join the conversation on refugee camps around the world, in particular looking at syria. Here are the numbers if you are , republican, democrat independent or others. The situation in syria at this camp, that is not only the displacement of 120,000 people or so. But that most impact the local jordanian population as well. What problems does it cause customer what problems does it cause . Guest syria is the largest country between jordan and lebanon. We have 120,000 people approximately in the camp. There is a town or village outside of the camp that does not benefit from receiving the same International Assistance because those people are not refugees. They are jordanians living there. This kind of differentiation does have the potential to create tensions between the different populations in some resentment from the local population toward the refugees. Islebanon, the situation quite acute. Are an estimated 1 million refugees from syria who have come across in the last couple of years. Imagine the burden this puts on all the social services, not only the help system, but on the schools, because there are no camps in lebanon. They decided they do not want camps. The refugees are more dispersed. This puts enormous pressure on the schools. This puts enormous pressure on employment opportunities. It puts pressure because many of these people come with the money. It puts pressure on the availability of housing in the capital and even in smaller villages and rural areas. This has the potential to create tensions between the populations, which is not unusual one large influxes of refugees come in two countries entirelyountries not prepared to handle them. Host a picture in the new yorker. Lots of kids. Unitedyesterday the nations high commissioner for refugees announced there are now 1 million refugees under the age of 18 who have fled from syria. That is about half of the total refugee population. Is this risks becoming a lost generation of syrians who will not have the same opportunities for school or employment as they get over and who will be living in conditions one would not wish on anyone. Host lets hear from our viewers. Sammy is from new jersey on our independent line. The u. S. Notoes give visas to the professionals and pick up some good people from the area . That might help. It would also give some expertise that would help with the economy. Guest that is a good question. In all refugees situations, there are refugees who eventually make it to a third country. We have been talking about the camp in jordan, which is the First Destination for the refugees. Would beal solution to cease andict for people to be able to go back and pick up their lifeves. If that does not occur, a refugee camp is not a good solution. Either the host country needs to be provided assistance to absorb people from all walks of life and children or third countries often do take a substantial number of refugees from these settings. The United States has been very generous excepting refugees. Many other countries around the world as well, not only for economic but for humanitarian reasons as well. How often are you out in camps . Guest i have been president of doctors of the world usa or may be little less than one year. This was my first trip on their behalf. I have been doing humanitarian with thesome time centers for disease prevention and another agency. I personally work more on the policy side of things. I Work Together with the u. N. Agencies. I work with other Non Governmental Organizations engaged in activities similar to ours. We tried to make sure is not just a question of being there and how much we do. It is important maintain professional standards and pay careful attention to the quality of work were doing as well. Host here is, is in saddam island, the democratic column. From s. I t caller is taten island, a democratic caller. Caller i think the main reason is the invasion of iraq. Guest the politics are complicated. The syrian situation is distinct from what happened previously in iraq when the United States was involved. I think this is a conflict that has been going on for about two with and has more to do internal syrian politics. There are certainly extra players involved as well. Host the brochure for doctors of the world usa talks about priority initiatives. Mali. Ked about what is your organization doing . What are you seeing on the ground . Guest we have emergency relief operations. We work in places where there is the need for development as well. Our organization has been working in malo for over 10 years. When you discussed it, it was probably in relation to recent in thethat have resulted imposition of a new humanitarian emergency on what was already a difficult situation. Programs. D our we increased our efforts to meet the humanitarian needs of the population. Were running several hospitals and a number of clinics in two of the larger cities in the north. A chapter from belgium is first thoseremost providing services. They have done a remarkable job in meeting the needs of the population. On the democrats line. Go ahead. Reminded of palestinians and their refugees were camped as refugees politically by their arab brethren to bring terrorism and dissatisfaction and all the other good stuff. It says were talking not only about the Syrian Refugees in jordan, but were also talking about lebanon where hezbollah holds sway. They are causing a great deal syria. M and drank in an islamiste have in rebellion. People are when in rebellion against his efforts to destroy the secular government in turkey. I am wondering if this is just another in a long line of humanitarian issues caused by ization of the arab body politic. When will we have been in to this constant political and humanitarian debacle . I will wait offscreen for your answer. Guest thank you. I assume the question is rhetorical. I do not have a good answer for when it will end. Our organization and ones like it are most interested in providing a humanitarian assistance to the many people not directly implicated or involved in the politics of these situations. A lot of people get caught in the crossfire. They lose all sense of normality about their lives. It is not only in the middle east. It is all around the world this happens. Through no action of their own, people like you and me get involved in situations where they just need relief. They need assistance for a period of time. Hopefully the situation can resolve that will allow them to get on with their lives. Host a recent publication looks of the sources of refugees around the world. Afghanistan. Rom 1. 1 million from somalia. Iraq with nearly 750,000. By the end of 2013, what is the estimate in syria . How many refugees will there be . Guest the estimates range into the millions. There are approximately 2 million now. I have seen figures that say if the conflict does not stop soon, we can suspect expect a 4 million from syria. When were talking about official statistics of refugees, a person can only become a refugee women across an international border. That is the official definition. , thethe conflict going on ability of people to cross borders becomes more difficult. We have a larger problem with water called internally displaced people. People love been forced to flee their homes but cannot cross an international border. They do not qualify under Legal Definition for International Assistance as refugees. There are many more internally displaced people around the world than there are people counted as refugees. Is a the next caller doctor from texas. Go ahead. Mute television or radio and go ahead. Caller yes, i am a doctor. Trying for the last couple of months to go there on my own through u. S. Agencies. I have emailed and called to see if theres opportunity for me to go there and work. I have not gotten any answers. I just got an email a couple of weeks ago. I have been trying for months of on email and phone. There is an opportunity to go, but you would have to come as a consultant, as an intern to work because you are not a licensed physician in syria and cannot work over there. Could i go through you to go and help . I worked for 15 days and it 15 days off. I do want to work a little bit over there. Guest thank you for your call. You are very generous with your time. It can be greatly appreciated. Better chanceve a of being able to volunteer or devote your time working with a Nongovernmental Organization ann by applying directly to agency. There are groups you can consult. There are umbrellas of Non Governmental Organizations. In the u. S. , there is one called interaction based in washington. You should consult web site. 15 days or two weeks is a relatively short time, but i think you have skills that are in great need. I hope you will keep trying. Host lets get one more call. Next. Rooklyn, ephraim is caller and was calling to make this statement. I do not feel the United States should intervene in what is going on in the middle east. I understand it is important region for us and we have strategic areas like the suez canal and israel. Understand that. But every time we intervene, it backfires on us. This is an arab problem. They should take care of themselves. That is what i wanted to say. Thank you can have a nice day. Guest thank you. I am also from brooklyn. There are probably many people who share your sentiment. Of doctorsentative not getorld usa, we do involved in the politics of the situation. The fact of the matter for us is there are innocent people caught up in the situation and we feel is our duty as physicians and human beings to do what we can to provide them with appropriate assistance. Because we work in the Public Health and medical sectors, that is our area of concentration. To work as doctors providing primary health care, hospital care, to people whose ability to of services kinds has been interrupted through no fault of their own. We do not take sides. We do not necessarily take political stances. We do whatever we can to provide people are caught up in difficult circumstances with whatever assistance we can, regardless of what side they are on for their politics or where they come from or their walk of life. Host our guest has been dr. Ron waldman, president of doctors of the world usa. Thank you for joining us this morning on washington journal. That will do it for this morning. Were back tomorrow morning at 7 00 eastern with more of washington journal. We will hear about the u. S. Economy he will be talking about the recent decision of you yes on the decision not to ensure houses of some employees. Will talkillingham about the effort to improve air Traffic Safety and reduce delays. That is tomorrow morning beginning at 7 00 a. M. Eastern. I hope you have a great rest of the weekend. We will see you here tomorrow morning. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2013]