Anytime soon either. Progress. We have to go forward well, you can make it come back if you restrict peoples ability to vote and control their reproduction. [laughter] and thats what the fight is right now. Were at the heart of it. Were at the heart of, you know [inaudible conversations] i think weve got time for one more. Wheres my timer . I have a san antonio question. The Economic Innovation Group came out with a study recently talking about income inequality, and san antonio is one of those places where theyre side by side, some of the worst poverty and well off. And i was thinking about your point about women having children out of wedlock more and more. And i think historically weve always been taught to think thats a bad thing, thats something that we need to help those women not do. Just like we need to improve the educational system and everything. Are we thinking about this wrongly . I believe that we are. I am, however, a lefty feminist. [laughter] it is conservative dogma, and you can hear from many republicans who really believe for persuasive reasons that one of the cures for poverty is, in fact, a reestablishment of marriage as an early norm. Any republican politician will tell you this. And they will tell you it in terms that make sense. Like its one income, how are you going to raise a kid on one income, you know . I believe the reverse is true. I believe that stabilizing people economically promotes and im not particularly interested in repromoting marriage as a norm, but promote emotional and familial stability. So what youre asking is a question that theres a real fight about. I happen to be on the side that says the kind of policies i was talking about earlier; higher minimum wages, paid leave, expanded welfare programs, more protected pay and reproductive control. That contributes to stabilizing populations financially that then better enables them to form the kind of bonds and raise the kind of families that are going to be, you know, healthier and more economically stable. Conservatives will tell you that its about repromoting early marriage as the norm. So its a fundamental disagreement. I think were going to have to stop, but thank you all for a great, greater great session. [applause] im going to remind you, wait they will be signing books, again, on the second floor the gallery. The gallery, okay. My instructions were wrong. And dont forget to shop in the book tent and in the gallery. Youre good. [laughter] tell her i did it. [inaudible conversations] we want to hear from you. Tweet us your feedback about the programs you see here. Twitter. Com booktv. As chief economist at a Major International consulting firm, john perkins advised the world bank, the United Nations, the International Monetary fund, the u. S. Treasury department, fortune 500 corporations and leaders of countries in africa, asia, latin america and the middle east. His groundbreaking expose the confessions of an economic hitman spent an astonishing 73 weeks on the New York Times bestsellers list. His books have sold more than one million copies. He is also a founder and board member of the to nonprofits dream change and the alliance. Would you please give a big round of amaze and help us welcome john perkins. [applause] thank you. Thanks, clay. Thanks to this amazing independent bookstore. A round of applause for this bookstore. We love these independent bookstores. Thank you. [applause] thank you all for being here tonight. Its a great pleasure to be here with you. I think, well, i wanted to actually share a st. Patricks day story with you. [laughter] happy st. Patricks day. So a couple years ago i was in washington, d. C. , and i was at a dinner with a bunch of people from the state department, very highlevel people at the tate department. State department. And i was actually in washington to speak at the green festival. And somebodys mentioned to one of these highlevel people that i was there to speak at the green festival, and he says, oh, my gosh, but its not st. Patricks day yet. [laughter] thats the state department for you. [laughter] so i think my being here begs the question, why would i write a new confessions of an economic hitman 12 years after the original was written . And theres really two parts to that answer, to that question. One is that things have changed so radically since then. The whole economic hitman system that i describe in my book is taking place in the developing countries. There is now like a cancer, metastasized, and its spread to the United States, europe and the rest of the world. And the second part of the question is that people around the planet have become aware of this. Were waking up. Theres a consciousness revolution. People everywhere are understanding that this systems a failure and that we live on a very tine theny space station tiny space station without any shuttles. We cant get off. Were going to have to fix it, were going to have to take care of it. And i think also then, to realize where we are today begs four questions. One is how did we get to this situation that were in today, a space station thats on the verge of crashing . And two, what the system . Three, do we have any reason to help we can change it, and, four, if we have reason to hope, what do we do to change it . So id like to answer those questions tonight. I want to start by saying, yes, we have tremendous hope. I have tremendous hope. I know that were winning this revolution, this battle, this war, this movement. Were winning it, and were going to continue to win it. And were going to move forward, and were going to create something marvelous. But lets go back and take a look at this first question, how did we get here. And i think im in a rather unique position to describe that because i was in the front lines of creating some of the problems as an economic hit man. My real job was to identify countries with resources that our corporations covet like oil. Arrange a huge loan to that country from the world bank or one of its sister organizations. However, the money didnt go to the country, it went to our own corporations like one not too far from here, bechtel, and a number of others who made huge profits off these deals and built big Infrastructure Projects like Power Systems and industrial parks, highways, ports, airports, things that would benefit as few wealthy families in these countries the ones who own the industries and the commercial establishments but didnt help the majority of the people. In fact, the majority of the people suffered tremendously because money was diverted from paying for health care, education and other social services to go toward trying to pay the interest on the loan. In the end, the principal was never paid. And so wed go back to the country and say since you cant pay your debt, sell your resource, oil or whatever, real cheap to our corporations without any social regulations or environmental restrictions or privatize, sell your utilities, sell your water and sewage system, sell your schools, sell your prisons to our corporations. And in the few cases where we failed, the jackals would go in. And these are people that either overthrow governments or assassinate their leaders. Twomy clients two of my clients who actually became good friends, the democraticallyelected president of ecuador and the head of state of panama, they had tremendous integrity. They didnt buy into my deals. I couldnt convince them. [laughter] and they were both assassinated by cia assets. And so in this way oh, and ill just also mention that when the jackals also a fail as with Saddam Hussein and gadhafi of libya who had very good security forces, were hard to get at, when the jackals also failed, then the military would go in. So in this way we created first truly global empire. Its not an american empire, its a corporate empire. And its global. Its the first global one. And its become even more prevalent since those days. So i would just like to share with you a little story to give a little more detail about that. Using the ecuadoran president , for example. Ive been i became chief economist, economic hitman. And i was sent back to ecuador. There was a military junta in charge, and they were our puppets. We controlled them. The Oil Companies were making huge progress in the amazon destroying the ecuadoran amazon, and a lot of you know the texaco chevron story. How many of you know about the alliance . All right. You know im a cofounder with bill and lynn twist, and if you dont know, john perkins. Org, and itll take you there. Were working on correcting a lot of the mistakes that were made during that time. The military junta was supporting Oil Companies, and eventually in the late 70s, a decision was made to have democratic elections. Its a long story. The details are in the new confessions of an economic hitman, how that came about. To make the long story short, the elected president ran on a platform that said the revenues from ecuadoran oil are going to help the ecuadoran people. Texaco and the other Oil Companies are going to pay a fair share of their profits to the ecuadoran people. So as soon as he won the election, i was sent down along with other economic hitmen to convince him not to fulfill his campaign promises. To convince him by getting him to to take large loans that would make his family and friends very wealthy, because these projects do that for the people in contl. Jaime refused. He had tremendous integrity. And no matter what i did, he wouldnt go along with it. Id try and do the same thing with the panamanian president , and he also refused. And yet these men both knew that salvador yen day had been taken out by the cia in chile, the guatemalan president , vietnam, they were very familiar with these stories, and i would tell them these stories. Listen, you play the game and get rich or in this pocket over here ive got a couple of hundred Million Dollars for your family. This is a metaphor, but basically if you dont play the game in this pocket, the jackals are right behind me. I didnt actually carry a gun, but they did. Nonetheless, jaime had tremendous integrity and died in an airplane crash in may of 1981. Theres no question that it was a rigged plane crash. The panamanian president got his family together right after that and said my brother jaime has been assassinated, and im probably next. But dont worry too much about me, because ive accomplished what i the most important thing i came here to accomplish, i signed the canal treaty with jimmy carter. The panama canal is going to be in the hands of the panamanian people. Thats what i wanted to see happen. Less than three months later, the exact same thing happened to him. It was almost the same plane that crashed with him aboard, killing him. And, you know, in more recent times weve seen, just in 2009, something very similar happened to the president of honduras who tried to raise the minimum wage of honduras by 60 . And big corporations like chiquita and dole and other global corporations, u. S. Corporations objected to this. The economic hitmen went to honduras in 2009, tried to convince him to come around. He wouldnt, so he was taken out in a coup. He was not assassinated. And i think we all know now whats happened in honduras just in the last two weeks weve seen two very, very important environmental activists assassinated in honduras. In the three years after he was taken out, 101 environmental activists were assassinated in honduras. Its now the most dangerous country in the hemisphere, maybe in the world. These are the things that happen. And today we have another whole set of economic hitmen who have come to the United States. As i said earlier. These are wall street moguls, bankers. They go by the name of consultant, political adviser, and the vulture capital people, the managers of these vulture Capital Funds like ones that just settled a deal with argentina for argentina to pay them almost 5 billion, these are for economic hitmen. This is whats happened to the system. This is whats brought us to here. And i go into great detail in the book about all of these different forms of the new economic hitmen that have come along, but ill just share a couple of things with you. I met with a bank, senior Bank Vice President from chase bank not too long ago. Its in the book in detail, but in the short version he explained to me, he said, you know, back a few years ago we bankers, we had a lot of integrity. If you came to me and asked me for a 500,000 loan for your house, a house you wanted to buy. Id probably try to convince you to buy a 300,000. Because i didnt want to foreclose. But after 9 11, which was really the cutoff date, after 9 11 we all got together and kind of decided, no, were going to tell you go ahead and take out a 700,000 loan. You may have to tighten your belt, but in the end youll be able to to get twice for that in a few years. Then, of course, the market crashes, the person loses their house, the bank repackages it and sells it to some developer, makes a double profit off of it. And this banker was very frank about this. This is whats been happening in our industry. Weve been brought up all our lives to trust, they failed us. Our politicians, you know, every politician out there just about accepts a lot of money from big corporations for campaign, their campaign financing, and they also are told that if they dont get elected or if they decide not to run next time, theyll have very lucrative consulting jobs. One example out of many, christopher dodd. Chris dodd of connecticut was a senator for about 20 years. Highly respected. He was chairman of the Senate Banking committee, and when he ran for president , the Financial Services industry gave him huge amounts of donations for his campaign. The very people that he was watchdogging. Thats extreme corruption. Thats this modern form of economic hitmen. And i dont have time to go into any more detail on that, but theres a lot in the book about this whole new branch of economic hitmen. We use all the tools that i use in these developing countries, but theyre then used here. Debt, student debt, credit card debt, health care debt, you know . Debt is slavery. Its being used in such a big way. But i want to move on to the second question, what drives the system . Well, as i said earlier, this new global empire is a corporate empire. And its driven by one goal, to maximize profits regardless of the social and environmental costs. Now, thats a new goal. When the American Revolution was actually fought not against the king of england, but against the east India Company which controlled the king of england. Look, people dont think that way very often, but the east India Company controlled more than half the worlds trade in those days, and it basically wrote the laws for england. The king of england was part of that organization. And the east India Company was extremely powerful. And once the colonists won their freedom from england, the founders decided no corporation should ever have that kind of power again. Imagine that. So the laws were written across the land that no corporation in the United States, in any state could get a charter unless it guaranteed to serve a Public Interest. Nothing about profit. That was maintained for over a hundred years. Charters lasted on average for ten years. Then the corporation had to go back and demonstrate that it had served a Public Interest and would continue to do so. That all ended in the late 1800s when john k. Rockefeller convinced john d. Rockefeller convinced the state of delaware to change that law. My Oil Companies cant work under that kind of agreement. Youve got to change the law. Oh, and if you do, well pay really good taxes, and you legislators can make a lot of money off this deal. And as we all know, its gotten worse since then. But when i was in Business School in the late 60s, there was still this concept of Public Interest, Public Service. I was taught in Business School that a good ceo makes a decent rate of return for investors and also serves the Public Interest, basically. Takes good care of his employees, takes good care of his customers and pays taxes, is a good citizen. Imagine paying taxes if youre a corporation. Pays taxes and also contributes money to the Education System and recreational facilities. That all changed almost exactly 200 years to the day after the original intent of the Public Service thing was signed. This all changed in 1976 when Milton Friedman won the nobel prize in economics by stating amongst other things, and probably the most important thing he said was the only responsibility of business is to maximize profits, regardless of the social and environmental costs. And businesses have bought into that ever since. Its given license to ceos in fact, some would say a mandate to ceos to do whatever it takes to maximize profits, including corrupting the system. Government system. And yet its a relatively new concept, just in 76. And when Milton Friedman came up with that concept, we had everyone believed we had a shortage of capital and an abundance of nature. We had plenty of resources. That was the belief in 76. Many of you can remember that, im sure. And the that the earth would absorb whatever trash we threw at her, you know . The air, the water, the earth. Nobody was talking about peak oil. Nobody was talking about Climate Change in those days. So maybe friedman had something going for him at that time. But what we know now is things have changed radically. And so what drives this system today, this concept of maximizing profits regardless of social and environmental costs is no longer valid. We cant live with it any longer, can we . No you live with it any longer . No. Were going to change it, arent we . Yeah. Yes. [laughter] so that takes us to the next question, where do we get hope . Is there hope for change . And i justin want to say that just want to say that throughout history human beings have gone through extremely difficult circumstances. I think about my great grandmother who figured the United States was ending with is the civil war. And my grandmother who thought the world was going to be over with world war i and hen the depression. And then there was world war ii, and then there was stalinism. And weve gone through so many times in history, but always we human beings have come together. Weve brought our resources and our communities together, and weve created change. And one of the ways that weve done that is by understanding that theres two realities. Theres the objective reality, this microphone, and then theres the perceived reality which is what im speaking through these microphones. And perceived reality is what really drives human societies. Theres no such thing as a corporation. Except as we perceive of it and then codify it into law. Theres no such thing as a country until we perceive of borders and codify them into law. Theres no such thing as an economy until we perceive of it. The perceived reality. And thats whats driven cultures, and thats where our hope for change comes in. Im struck by how in 1773, 1773, the perceived reality was that the British Empire was invincible, the strongest empire in the list of the history of the world. Theres no way a bunch of farmers and hunters and fishermen could possibly stand up against it. And then George Washington remembered 12 years earlier a long time between my books how he fought in the french and indian war x. Hed seen 1400 british soldiers completely defeated by 300 indians. The british lost a thousand men in that battle. The indians lost less than 100. The british general braddock himself died in that battle, and washington had witnessed it. He went to the continental congress, and he said all we gotta do is stand behind trees. [laughter] theyre wearing red coats, and theyre just standing out there in a line waiting to be shot. And then tom paine and Thomas Jefferson and others wrote amazing pamphlets to empower the people. In less than a year, the perceived reality went from they cant be defeated to we got em. Thats where we are today. So theres hope. Yes, is there hope . By god, theres so much hope. Weve changed so many things throughout history, you know . You just look at when i was in college, there was apartheid in south africa. We convinced corporations, just a few of us, convinced corporations all it takes is the Critical Mass to convince corporations to stop supporting apartheid. It ended. The Charles River was on fire with pollution. We got the corporations to clean them up, to open their doors wider to minorities and women. And recently thats completely changed everybodys attitude toward gender. Weve got calories and nutrition and fat and all that stuff being labeled. Weve gone from ten years ago a country that had almost no solar or wind power to one that now has tremendous amounts of it. The growth in wind power is a curve like that. All the renewables. Meanwhile, coal production, coalpowered plants, theyve ended, basically. Theres still a few out there, but there arent any more being built. Weve made huge changes. We can do it. You can do it. So now we have to move into an era where were really looking at whats the how do we change the driving force. So this brings us to the next question, what do we do . How do we change this . And the real answer is all weve got to do is what the american colonists did change that perception overnight. And like the american colonists, it isnt a question of who can do it, the answer is you. Us. We, the people. Our president , whoever the next president is, is not going to do it. A president is symbolically important but has very limited powers, and so do all of our leaders. Its the corporations that control washington. Even if we elect a president , lets say sanders gets elected, and lets say he hasnt accepted a penny from a corporation. Hes still going to be surrounded by politicians and lobbyists who have accepted a lot of money from corporations and also who have been promised consulting jobs when they get out of whatever theyre doing as elected officials. So we know that the system is stacked against them. Im getting some sort of feedback here. Is that a problem . Okay, good. Its only a problem for me. [laughter] so its always been that we, the people, have to do it. It was that way during the American Revolution, it was that way during the wars, it was that way during the depression, its that way now. The circus of the president ial elections and god bless all those people that are pouring their hearts out to run. But its a diversion in a way. We want to think if only our person gets elected, everything will change, but we know in our hearts, dont we, that it wont. Weve got to make it happen, you and i have to make it happen. And how do we do that . Well, thats a big reason why i wrote the new confessions of an economic hitman, because theres a whole strategy in there for how all of us can make this happen. There was actually this long list of what students can do, what retired people can do, what executives can do, what investors can do. But the main part of this is to recognize that the corporations have the control, the driving force is this idea that they have to maximize profits, and thats what we have to change. We have to understand that the corporations depend on you to the buy their goods and services, to invest in them, to work for them, to support them with your tax dollars and government policies. They are totally dependent on us. And i have to say that i spend a lot of time, ive been lecturing to recently i lectured to a corporate summit of over 4,000 ceos and cfos. And i, when i was asked to speak to them, i contacted the organizers, and they said this must be a mistake, you must have the wrong john perkins. [laughter] no, they said. If youre the one that wrote gone negativeses of an economic hitman, youre the one we want. I said, but why . [laughter] they said because our executives are smart people, and they know the system isnt working. You know, and they quote statistics. Theres a lot of statistics, but one of the most important ones, i think, is less than 5 of us live in the United States. We consume almost 30 of the worlds resources. Thats not a model. China, with 19 percent of the worlds population, cant do it. India cant, brazil cant, russia cant. Its a failed system. We need to understand that. We cant continue with it. Weve got to change it. And what its going to take is a new role for corporations. Instead of maximizing profits, lets say, hey, make a decent return for your investors. We need investors for new technologies. And serve a Public Interest. Lets go back to the wisdom of the founding fathers. Corporations need to serve us. Not just a handful of wealthy people. You and me. And we need to convince these corporations to convert the death economy into a life economy. A life economy is an economy thats based on cleaning up pollution, regenerating devastated environments and mediating the causes of desperation, violence, terrorism around the world. Is so imagine, just imagine if our corporations, the ones that are building missiles, tanks, war equipment, if instead our tax dollars went to pay them to figure out how to mine the plastic thats in the oceans, how to clean up all that terrible oil thats delaware stated the ecuadoran amazon devastated the ecuadoran amazon. In fact, every gas station that weve ever built in this country, use that oil x. Imagine if we were to invest in young people, entrepreneurs to come along and create new technologies for energy. Ten years from now the solar and wind we have today is going to look archaic, hopefully. Well come up with new forms of energy. And transportation and communications, banking and wholesale and retail trade. Imagine if we convinced the big agribusinesses to instead of continuing to poison the earth with chemicals, they really came up with methods for starving people around the world to grow food or organically and efficiently to store it, distribute it efficiently. This is reality. This is new perceived reality. We dont have to imagine these things. We can make them happen. You ready to do that . Yeah. [laughter] this is an exciting time to be alive. And so creating converting a death economy into a life economy, thats the challenge here. And every Corporate Executive i know wants to see that happen. What i hear from Corporate Executives is we want to be green. Weve got kids, weve got grandchildren. But, theyll say, im afraid that if i lose half a percentage of market share, my stockholders, big boys will fire me. And replace me with someone who only cares about market share. So what they want is for you, all of us to go out and demand that they change. Overload them we mails, tweetses, posts on facebook saying i love your product. Theyre not bad guys. I love your product. Im never going to buy it again million you pay your workers in indonesia a fair wage or clean up the amazon, whatever it is. And get all your friends and neighbors, all your social networking circles to send that same email. These executives want that, even the ones that are sociopaths. [laughter] if they hear this message, theyll listen because sociopaths are not about making money, theyre about being successful. And if we define success not as maximizing profit, but instead serving a Public Interest, theyll do it. And we do have to pay a decent rate of return for the investors who are going to create these new technologies, but just a decent rate of return. And so, you know, i just want to leave you im going to open this to discussion and questions in a minute, but i just want to leave you with this incredible optimistic thought. Im so excited. I know were going to do this, were already doing it. Its happening around the world. I travel all over. Since coessions was published 12 years ago, ive been giving speeches almost nonstop. Ive been on the roadconstantly probably 80 of my life for the last ten years. Ive been in china, ive been in the former soviet countries, ive been talking to the russian people, ive been in the middle east and europe and latin america and all over the United States, and everywhere i go people are waking up. Theres a consciousness revolution just like you. Theyre understanding that we live on a very fragile space station that has no shuttles. My 8yearold grandson, grant, wont be able to get off. Maybe a few people will go to mars, never come back. Maybe a few will go to the moon, but most of us are stuck here. And we want to be here, dont we . Beautiful planet. So we are the answer. This is the revolution. So just a little bit more about what we all can do. Im going to mention a few specific things in a minute, but the most important thing to recognize we need to change these corporations. And every one of you needs to follow your passion. Because its only passion that keeps us going. I dont know what your passion is, but i know that each one of you has passion. I have a passion for writing, so i focus on writing. Earlier tonight i was talking with a friend who has a passion for designing houses, furniture, cabinets and is so forth. From the very environmental standpoint. If youre a carpenter, thats what you can do. If youre a dentist, when you have your hands in your clients mouths, talk to them about creating a better world. [laughter] if youre a parent, bring your kids up that way. We can all take different routes, different paths, but lets all head for that same destination of creating an environmentallysustainable, sociallyjust world, life economy instead of a death economy. I often think how lucky we are that George Washington did not try to write pamphlets. And tom paine didnt try to lead armies. Washington had a passion for leading men and paine had a passion for writing pamphlets. Martha washington had a passion for organizing women to make clothes for men at the front. And they each followed their passion, and they headed for the same destination of getting out from under the tyranny of the british east India Company. We can all take different paths, but lets head for the same destination of getting out from under the tyranny of a death economy. Each one of us has a role play in this. And again in the book, theres a number of recommendations. And i would just mention three of them, just as sort of an example. Ive already started on one. I would ask every one of you, every one of you to pick a corporation that youd like to see changed. You can probably think of a lot of them. Walmart, chevron, monsanto, nike. Take a corporation that you want to see changed and dedicate yourself to sending an email once a week to all your contacts. And writing this email to that corporation saying, monsanto or whatever it is we want you to change. Were going to help you survive into the next century, because we want you to change. So thats one thing you can do. A second thing you can do is think about the candidate youre considering voting for, or maybe decided to vote for. What is the Biggest Issue that that candidate has presented that appeals to you . Make a commitment to follow through on that issue regardless of whos in the white house. If your candidate makes it, make sure that candidate gets all your support and encouragement, and you force that candidate to move forward with that issue. If your candidate doesnt get elected, you go for it anyway because the power of the internet, the power of social networking now, its much more powerful than the power of the oval office. And the third thing you can do is support movements that you believe in, movement to amend, Climate Change, support our alliance. I know a lot of you already are, an amazing organization. But get behind organizations. Join likeminded people. Come together in communities. Thats a really good way to change this perceived reality when we come together and bring that Energy Together to make that happen. You have the power. You have the power. Think of a hero in your life. Think of someone that you consider a hero. I dont know who that might be. I like to think of rosa parks. When i was a kid growing up in rural New Hampshire, i had no idea that africanamericans had to ride on the back of a bus in parts of my country until rosa parks showed me. How many of you have ever heard of rosa parks . Well, who was rosa parks . A woman who rode once in the back of the bus to a front she did a lot of other thing, but that was one of the most significant things. You can do that. I had no idea the ddt my dad and i were spraying on the mosquitoes on the swamp behind our house in New Hampshire to kill moss quitos until Rachel Carson wrote silent spring and taught us that and also started a whole worldwide environmental movement. How many of you have ever heard of Rachel Carson . Who was Rachel Carson . A woman who sat behind a little desk in a tiny house in pennsylvania, took out a piece of scratch paper and a pencil and started writing a book having no idea it would ever be published, much less that it would change the world. While im on that subject, this book the original of this book was rejected by 39 publishers. [laughter] ah, yes, i got 39 rejection slips. And one very brave publisher just down the street from you here published it. A courageous publisher. It went to the New York Times bestseller list and stayed there for a long time. And then all the other publishers wanted to buy paperback rights. Stay with it, you know . We have tremendous power. How many of you ever heard of Jack Woodbury or Richard Davis and mrs. Shnair . Oh, my goodness. Wow. California. [laughter] i thought you guys were educated here. [laughter] well, richard and jack were my High School English and history teachers. [laughter] mrs. Shnair was my third grade teacher. They taught me the power of writing to change history, and my third grade teacher taught me how to deal with a bully. This was a 15yearold guy in my class, and he was mean. He used to push me around on the playground. And id go running to the teacher, but she didnt know what to do. You could kick him out for a week, but then he had to come back, and he was meaner than ever. [laughter] so one time as i go running up to her crying, she says, well, johnny, im afraid youre just going to have to take care of this yourself. And i said but hes big. And she said, well, heres my suggestion. Next time he pushes you, you just haul off and kick him in the shins and run like hell. [laughter] i dont think she used the h word. I did. Funny thing happened. He whimpered, and then he beme my friend. [laughter] my ally. My protector. And i learned that to deal with a bully, youve got to stand up to them. And this bully system that weve got right now is maximizing profits. Its a predatory form of capitalism. Its bullying us, isnt it . Yeah. And we better stand up to it. And the way to stand up to it is to convince these people that weve got to turn this economy around. Weve got to transform the death economy into a life economy. Weve got to change that goal of maximizing profits into a goal of serving us. The Public Interest. You ready to do that . Yeah. [laughter] youd better be ready. So i just want to leave you with one final quote, and its a 200yearold quote. But i think its very, very relevant to these times. Its a quote that came out of the beginning of the American Revolution. December, 1776. Tom paine wrote these are the times that try mens souls. And then he went on to say if there must be trouble, let it be in my day that my child may have peace. And so i think thats why were all here today, so that maybe years from now when my 8yearold grandson is my age, he and his brothers and sisters around the world can look back at this time and say thank god those people came together in 2016 and were all committed to taking care of the trouble in their day so that my generation can all live in peace. And i so look forward to doing this with you, and thank you so much for being here with me. Its is such a great honor and pleasure to be with you. Thank you so much. [applause] thank you. So i think we can have a few questions, and clay has the microphone. Yeah, absolutely. Please raise your hands. One of us will come around with a microphone. Please speak directly into the microphone. We do have some kind guests here tonight from cspan, so well start right here in the front. Thanks for coming out. One thing that you dont mention is all of this corruption is centered around the World Reserve currency, the u. S. Dollar and putting people in debt, you refer to debt as slavery. And there are, i mean, one thing that i am aware of is something called bitcoin and crypto current is in general. And i think one of the most important things people can do to subvert this arbitrary power of the dollar system is to stop using, to whatever extent possible, the dollar. I mean, id just like to get your feeling about that. Yeah, the power of the dollar is incredible. And, you know, one of the things i talk about in the book is how got my was really gadhafi was really taken down because he was trying to create a new currency and have all the african nations and all the muslim nations sell oil for currency. Saddam hussein tried to do something similar, several others, the mullahs in iran. Theyve all been taken down when theyve done this or threatened that. And just recently some of emails, Hillary Clintons emails have come out that have really talked about that. The Edward Snowden revelations about what a huge impact that decision of gadhafi had on taking gadhafi out. And so, yeah, the u. S. Dollar needs to be the whole Federal Reserve system is terrible. It is an enslavement tool, and be we need to change it. And i think, you know, this is your passion. So heres a great chance for you to go into it. [laughter] i love that. I think, yeah, lets make it happen x. Its going to take a lot of work to make it happen, but lets make it happen. And realize that youre up against a tough system here which makes it even more fun. [laughter] the the bigger the challenge the better, you know . The bigger they are, the harder they fall. [laughter] so go for it, please. Absolutely. Im totally behind you on that. Thank you. Yeah, hi, john. So one interesting thing about corporations is theyre treated like people. And theres a lot to the movement, you know, lets not treat them like people, but i read some interesting Economic Analysis that was actually saying, well, thatll just make things worse. But one thing that ive thought about a lot is that theres the con especially of punitive damages which could be quadruple compensatory damages, you know, for the same type of thing, but its something to avoid the same thing happening again in another similar situation. And what if there was some deal where you say, okay, corporations, well still let you be people, but were going to do this under a specific circumstance so that we now have this thing called corporation damages, right . And so if youre a corporation, then it would be tenfold compensatory damages. And so you build into the economic capitalistic system all the driving forces. Its a very simple idea, but i was just wondering your thoughts on what, if anything like that could drive. Thank you. Thank you. Well, first of all, i think we absolutely need to change the law so that corporations are not treated like people. And one big reason for that has become very clear in the recent banking scandals. So about half a dozen of the worlds biggest banks have recently admitted to creating huge crimes; rigging libor, rigging the exchange rates, rigging on all the different systems that set interest rates. Theyve been doing this for over 20 years. And theyve admitted to creating, to criminal activities. Theyve paid 25 billion in fines for criminal activities, and not one banker has been indicted. Why . Because corporations are considered individuals. But i ask you, do corporations commit crimes . No. Banks dont commit crimes, people in banks commit crimes. Not one of those has been indicted. In fact, most of them have gotten bonuses, because that 25 billion is a small percentage of the profits that they were allowed to keep by paying the 25 billion. And so the criminals have not only not been indicted, theyve given themselves huge raises. And, therefore, we need to take that personhood out of corporations, i believe, completely. Theres no and the other thing in there, we people, what do you pay, what do you pay taxes on . Your income, right . Corporations pay it on their profits. Id rather pay taxes on my profits than my income. [laughter] deduct all my expenses and then, yeah, right. Its not quite that simple. And, you know, we just see this over and over and over again, the terrible abuse of the system. Why should corporations why would they even consider . And we know, too, that that whole idea came out of a late 1800 Supreme Court case where it was actually just a note on the folder. It was not actually part of the decision. The corporations have that status. But then Citizens United strengthened it, and theres been a lot of strengthening of it since. We need to get that out of there. Corporations are not they dont go to jail. You cant put a corporation in jail. So my answer, lets change that m. I think thats the most important part of it. Thank you. Lets see if we can do a woman this time. [laughter] okay. Well, id like to wish you happy st. Patricks day. Wearing green. I am. But i taught your book for about seven years in ireland to students, and they were all really responding to it and could relate it to the irish situation. But i wanted to know what made you change, and since youve changed have you ever felt under threat . Yeah. And i talk about that in the new book quite significantly. So, yeah. I spent some time traveling around ireland, too, trying to convince the irish people to vote against paying their debts on the referenda, but they turned that down. Im not sure a they did. Ive heard since that maybe the results worryinged. Anyway were rigged. Anyway, so so for ten years as i was in that system, more and more i began to see how flawed it was. When i first went in, i thought it was the right thing to do because Business Schools teach you, they still do, that the way to help a poor country is to invest a lot of money in infrastructure. Thats what i was doing. And, in fact, the statistics show that the economy does increase when you do that. But as i got into this more and more, what i saw was that the statistics only represent the very wealthy people. You know, right now we know that theres 62 people on this planet, individuals, who have as much wealth as half the worlds population. So the statistics are very skewed to those people, as they are in the United States today. And for the poor were getting poorer, the rich were getting richer, and yet the statistics were looking really good. I understood that the system was a bad one. But, you know, i have to say, i have to confess that once i was in there and i realized i shouldnt be, i was kind of trapped. I was living a life that id always wanted to live. I grew up the son of a fairly poor teacher in a very wealthy prep school in New Hampshire surrounded by boys with lots and lots of money, hearing about the incredible adventures they had in buenos aires, paris, tehran and many other places, and now suddenly im traveling to all those places, flying first class, eating in the best restaurants, wining and dining with president s and beautiful women. I was stuck. [laughter] i didnt want to hear the truth. Then i began to realize, though, i was living on a lot of valium and alcohol. And i really wasnt all that happy. And then after ten years, i was i took a vacation in the virgin islands. I rented a small sailboat, and i road the dinggy ashore and ding hi ashore. Climbed up to a sugarcane plantation. It was beautiful. Just gorgeous. And im looking out at the sun setting over the caribbean, it just seems totally idyllic, and suddenly i was struck by the fact that this plantation had been built on the bones of thousands of slaves. And then i thought about the whole hemispheres been built on bones of millions of slaves. And then i had to admit that i was a slaver. Different, i wasnt dragging Anyone Around in chains, but i was enslaving people in debt. And that moment i made the decision never to do it again. I went back and quit. But then i started writing a book. And i wanted it to be an expose that talked about a lot of these things. So i contacted other people that had been in that business, and other jackals. Very soon i got phone calls threatening my life and my infant daughters life. At the same time, i get taken out to dinner by the ceo of the Major Consulting Firm that had been a competitor of ours, sterling webster. And he took me out to dinner, he said, you know, youve got a great resume. Id been chief economist of his rifle. He said, wed like rival. He said, wed like to use you in proposals. You dont have to work for us. Ill write you a check for half a Million Dollars. Just dont write the book. So what would you do . [laughter] my daughters lifes being threatened as well as mine. I took the money. And in my own defense, id say i didnt buy a fancy mansion or fast car or something. I reinvested it in a new career. I went back to the countries id screwed. Thats where i started forming these nonprofits. I went back and worked with people that id screwed to try to change things. And i started writing other books, books about shamanism, shape shifting, the world is as you dream it. And i and that was okay. But i didnt write the book. And then at 9 11, after 9 11 i went to ground zero, and as im standing there looking at that stillsmoldering pit, i just thought i had to write this book, but this time i wouldnt tell anybody. Id do it completely in secret, and it would be a confession, not an expose. And once i got it out, i figured it was my best insurance policy, that any good jackal would know that if they shot me or killed me, it would id be a martyr, id sell a lot more books than i already was selling. [laughter] however, about five months after the book came out, i was in new york city, and i was supposed to speak at the United Nations on a tuesday. Monday night, under very i was taken to to lunch by a very strange freelance journalist. And i went in the restroom, id just flown up from florida. When the food was being served, a couple hours later i lost 70 of the blood in my body, internal bleeding. I was rushed Olen Knox Hill hospital to lennox hill hospital. And i didnt talk about this i mean, it happened after the first book was written. Theres a whole chapter in this book devoted to the details. And to make a long story short, in the end i had 70 percent of my large intest ton removed. And when i asked the doctor if it could have been poisoning, he said, yes, certainly Something Like ground glass that would never show up in blood tests and so on. It could have been. He didnt know for sure. But that really impacted me. However, book was already written, and i just did i just got a little more careful about who i have lunch with. [laughter]. Stay in your seats once we finish. Heres our last question. Good evening. I was was wondering giving over the last 15 years there been a shift in consciousness and awareness and simultaneously the increase in platform for people to make their voices heard such as twitter as an alternative media. Why is this on the one hand awareness increasing and yet on the other hand, corporations seeming to have more power than before in our political system . When do you think therell be a Tipping Point at which the corporations and institutions will feel pressure that there will be a shift in how they are structured . I think the answer to the
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