Of indonesia from the military repression in west papua to discriminatory laws restricting the rights of religious minorities and women. We will speak to john sifton of Human Rights Watch and journalist allan nairn who will also talk about sundays election in guatemala. Been to nobel prizeWinning Economist joe stiglitz on rewriting the rules of the American Economy. Would in some of the problems we face, inequality, global warming, pollution, environment problems, and we need to create jobs. And what i show is we can have a tax reform that does all of those and raise money. Amy the university of mississippi has removed the state flag with the confederate emblem on the schools grounds, and a victory for student activists. All that and more, coming up. Welcome to democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. By the end of this century, areas of the persian gulf could be hit by waves of heat and humid they are intolerable to human. From the burning of the fossil fuels, well rich countries in the middle east, cities across the persian gulf could reach a point where people could not safely be outside for more than a few hours. The study comes as catholic leaders from five continents have issued an appeal to negotiators at the upcoming Paris Climate Summit to adopt a transformative agreement to address Climate Change. The death toll from an early dust earthquake in northern afghanistan has topped 300, the majority of them in pakistan. At least 2000 people were injured. The tremors from the 7. 5 magnitude quake were felt as far away as india. The death toll is expected to climb with the devastation in remote villages still unknown. After years of discord, the white house and republican congressional leaders have struck a tentative budget deal to avert a looming default on the governments debts. The deal reportedly raises spending by relatively slim 80 billion over two years, not including an additional 32 billion in war funding. It includes cuts to Social Security disability benefits and medicare payments to providers. New revenue would come from sales of u. S. Strategic oil reserves and the use of public airwaves for telecommunications firms. The debt limit would be suspended until march 2017, after obama leaves office. The budget still needs to be approved by the house and senate. A vote is expected on wednesday. A u. S. Navy destroyer has entered disputed waters in the South China Sea in a direct challenge to chinas claim over artificial islands in the region. China says the u. S. Maneuvers near the Spratly Islands are illegal, but the United States says its defending freedom of navigation in international waters. Indonesian president joko widodo has announced the worlds fourthlargest country will join the tpp, Transpacific Partnership trade deal. He made the announcement during his visit to the white house monday. Indonesia is an open economy and with the population, where the largest economy in southeast asia. We are the largest economy in southeast asia. Amy the indonesian president , also known as jokowi, his visit comes amidst raging forest fires in indonesia, the Worlds Largest producer of palm oil. Fires are often set on purpose to clear land for palm oil, but amid dry conditions and the strongest el nino on record, thousands of fires have burned into National Parks and other sensitive areas. Environmentalists are warning the fires are threatening a third of the worlds remaining wild orangutans. The fires have created a dense haze across malaysia and singapore, and are believed to be responsible for up to 500,000 respiratory infections. Well have more on indonesia after headlines. More than 30 academics from dozens of british universities have vowed to join the academic boycott of israel. In a fullpage ad in todays guardian, the scholars say they are deeply disturbed by israels illegation occupation of Palestinian Land and intolerable human rights violations. The scholars vow not to visit or take part in events organized or funded by israeli institutions, but say they will still work with individual israeli scholars. The move comes as violence continues in israel and the occupied territories. Israeli forces have killed about 60 palestinians, many of whom have been accused of attacking israelis. About 10 israelis have been killed. Meanwhile palestinian women in , occupied East Jerusalem has issued a call to the International Community for protection, saying we feel displaced even at home, as the israeli soldiers, armed settlers, Border Patrol and Police Invade our homes, attack our families, stripsearch our bodies, and terrorize us all. In colombia, the government has vowed retaliation against National Liberation army rebel group, or eln, accusing the group of killing 12 state security personnel who were transporting Regional Election ballots. The attack came after president Juan Manuel Santos declared the elections the most peaceful and least violent in decades. They were the first Regional Elections since santos government began negotiations with another rebel group the , farc, three years ago. The university of mississippi has removed the state flag from the schools grounds. The move comes after the Student Government voted to remove the flag, which is the only state flag in the country that continues to feature confederate symbol. Its the latest confederate symbol targeted for removal since a white supremacist who embraced the Confederate Flag killed nine africanamerican worshipers in charleston, South Carolina, in june. On monday, university of mississippi interim chancellor morris stocks said in a statement because the flag remains mississippis official banner, this was a hard decision. We will have more with university of mississippi student Dominique Scott later in the broadcast. In columbia, South Carolina, a series of videos posted to social media showing a police officer, employed as a School Resource officer, slamming an africanamerican student to the ground and dragging her, have gone viral. Officer ben fields has been suspended from the Richland County School District amid an outcry over the incident at Spring Valley high school. The video shows the girl sitting at her desk as officer fields grabs her around the neck and flips both her and her desk the ground, before dragging her. Fbi director james comey has acknowledged he does not have evidence to support his claim added scrutiny and criticism of Police Officers has fueled an increase in crime. Speaking to Police Officials at a conference in chicago, comey said the socalled ferguson effect is just common sense. And so the suggestion, the question asked of me is, are these kinds of things changing Police Behavior all over the country . And that would explain the map the calendar. The honest answer is, i dont know. I dont know that explains it entirely. But i do have a strong sense that some part of the thatnation is a chill wind has blown through Law Enforcement over the last year. Amy the white house, meanwhile, disputed the fbi director has claims about the supposed connection between increased crime and increased scrutiny of police, saying the evidence we have seen so far doesnt support the contention that Law Enforcement officials are shirking their responsibilities. An arm of the World Health Organization has issued an analysis linking the consumption of processed meat to colon cancer. Research dana loomis elaborated on the findings. Concluded processed meat, the consumption of processed meat is carcinogenic to humans and that the consumption of red meat is probably carcinogenic to humans. These findings reinforce existing dietary guidelines from a number of health of 40s Health Authorities including the World Health Organization, the people who eat meat should consider reducing their riskmption to reduce the of several diseases, including cancer. Amy among the Food Products pointed out our bacon, sausage, and hot dogs. In news from the vermont capital montpelier, three people were arrested monday at the end of a threeday protest against a natural gas pipeline. Hundreds of vermonters descended on the State Capitol over the weekend, and a smaller number blockaded the department of Public Service building for two days. Rising tide vermont has called on the department to revoke approval of a pipeline that will carry gas extracted through hydraulic fracturing or fracking. Vermont banned fracking three years ago amid health and environmental concerns. A new investigation has revealed the pentagon used as a humanitarian ngo as a front for spying on north korea. The intercept reports the pentagon paid humanitarian International Services Group Millions of dollars to infiltrate north korea and spy on its nuclear program. But none of the christian missionaries, aid workers or smugglers who were hired to move increment as part of the effort were aware the were part of the secret pentagon operation. And the conference south by southwest interactive has cancelled two panels about Sexual Harassment and the gaming industry following threats of violence. Its the latest chapter in the rampant Online Harassment of women who critique sexism in video games. South by southwest said it cancelled the panels after numerous threats of onsite violence related to this programming. And those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. We begin todays show looking at indonesia, the worlds fourth largest country. On monday, president obama met at the white house with indonesias new president joko widodo, who is known as jokowi, to discuss Climate Change, trade, and strengthening u. S. Indonesian ties. Our partnership is very much in the interests of the united large, given indonesias population, its leadership in the region, its democratic aaditions, the fact it is large Muslim Country with a tradition of tolerance and its role inand trade and commerce and economic development. Amy during his visit, indonesian president jokowi announced indonesia intends to join the tpp, the Transpacific Partnership trade deal the United States has forged with 11 other nations. Indonesia is an open economy. And with the population, where the largest economy in southeast asia. We are the largest economy in southeast asia. Indonesia plans to join the tpp. Amy jokowi was planning to head next to the west coast but has decided to cut his u. S. Trip short due to raging fires that have resulted in haze and toxic fumes covering much of the country as well as parts of malaysia and singapore. Many of the fires were illegally set in order to clear land for palm oil and paper plantations. The fires have been described as one of the biggest environmental crimes of the 21st century. Institute, since september, the according to the world resource institute, since september, the fires have generated more Carbon Emissions than the entire u. S. Economy. Meanwhile, indonesias human rights record is also coming under criticism. On monday, president obama described indonesia as one of the Worlds Largest democracies, but human Rights Groups paint a different story citing the militarys repression in west papua as well as discriminatory laws restricting the rights of religious minorities and women. Indonesia has also been criticized for attempting to silence any discussion about the 50th anniversary of the 1965 indonesian genocide that left more than one Million People dead. Last week, indonesias largest writers festival, the ubud writers and readers festival, was forced to cancel a series of events tied to the anniversary of the massacre including a , screening of joshua oppenheimers documentary, the look of silence. To talk more about indonesia, we are joined by two guests. In washington john sifton is the , asia advocacy director of Human Rights Watch. His new book is titled, violence all around. Allan nairn is a journalist and activist reporting who has covered indonesia for decades. He is joining us from guatemala city. We welcome you both to democracy now john sifton, in this meeting that jokowi is having with president obama, can you talk about the issues you feel president obama needs to raise with the indonesian president . It is too late now and useddent obama already [inaudible] we hoped he would have talked about how indonesia is going astray, is losing some of its tolerance qualities and principles and starting to give too much power to sunni extremist groups which want to basically make indonesia a place that is unfriendly to shia, to christians, to secularists, and two women. Amy you consulted with the state department, is that right, on this visit . What did you tell them . Of course. Whenever there is a world visit, we talk to the state house and the what house and we said, please, avoid this cliche. Unfortunately, president obama did not. But did he raise issues of human rights behind the scenes in his bilateral meetings with president jokowi . I like to hope so. He has expressed interest in the situation. In the past he has raised that issue, and i would have hoped he would have done so again. The more accident shoals to the more existential threat is the intolerance toward sunni excuse me, toward shia, christians, toward others were not sunni extremists. It is not part of the indonesian society, but there are Fringe Groups pushing this agenda and of exercised the hecklers veto. The worst problem is the onerous new restrictions being placed on women at the local level come all caps of little laws restricting their movement at night, making sure they have to wear hijab, scores of a certain link, preventing them from startling motorcycles they can sit sideways, but not forward. These little laws have accumulative impact and are incredibly discriminatory toward women and girls. Amy allan nairn, can you talk about the significance of president widodos visit to the United States . John sifton just mentioned west papua. And if you can place it, specially for viewers and listeners and the United States who may know little about the indonesian archipelago. West papua is on the eastern and of the archipelago. It is legally in the eyes of the u. N. Considered part of indonesia, but indonesian government, the army, the police, intelligence much read it as if it is an occupied foreign land. They shoot demonstrators, arrest anyone who speaks for independence were against the army to raises a pop one papua n flag. I released a series of documents of u. S. Trained special forces which showed they had a Massive Network of intelligence informants modeled on that that israel uses in the west bank, and theres this ongoing terror of papuans. President jokowi as indicated he would like to pull back on a lot of this army and police intel repression in papua, but the Security Forces have resisted him. And he has not been brave enough have,rrule obama could with one word, facilitated the pullout of the repression from u. S. Wouldying, the cut off all military aid unless they stop the terror in papua. By doing that, he could have strengthened the hand of jokowi and others in the government, because the government is divided on this. We want to rein in the army and the police. At a fairly, obama did not do that. U. S. Has always maintained a separate channel to the army from the days of the dictatorship and even before when u. S. Was trying to overthrow a previous president , and that strengthens the hand of the army and the cia against the elected civilian president like jokowi. A previously happened with a muslim cleric, reformist president , who was under minded and in effect ousted. One of the key sources of the powers is that they had their separate channels in washington. In fact, as jokowi was meeting with obama, ash carter, the secretary of defense, was welcoming the defense minister of indonesia, who is the chief ideologist in favor of killing civilians. He said previously that anyone who dislikes the army is a legitimate target for killing. Reacting to massacre civilians of children a number of years ago, he joked about it and said, well, children can be dangerous, too. In terms of the religious indeed,nce, there is, religious intolerance in indonesia as there is in europe and the United States in this moment since the 9 11 attack and then u. S. Invasions of , settingan and iraq off a series of events. The main backer, the main outside backer of this religious intolerance in indonesia is saudi arabia. They are going into the local mosques, spreading around a great deal of money, pushing this intolerant ideology. And also, i have seen, just talking to people over the past couple of years, that one of the main things that gives credibility to a lot of thesefunded extremists who go around urging people to abandon indonesian tradition of tolerance is when they see in the news with the news of the obama rhone attacks against various muslim countries, and things like the israeli invasion of gaza. Stood up and said privately and publicly to obama, the u. S. Should stop this, the u. S. Should stop running israel, that would have been consistent with a lot of the propalestinian rhetoric the critical rhetoric that one sees and politicians inciting in indonesia, and also wouldve had a real impact. Because the u. S. Always like to claim the moderate muslim nations indonesia is the largest muslim nation in the world. Usually when the uss moderate muslim nations, it means radical dictatorships like saudi arabia. Indonesia is it like that. Indonesia is a cause i democracy like the United States and if jokowi had spoken out in that way, it wouldve had a huge impact. Also there are other major issues on the table between jokowi and obama, indonesia and the u. S. One is the massive Mining Corporation based largely in west papua, which extracts huge amounts of gold and copper. They take bribes to be able to do that they pay bribes to be able to do that. They spoil the rivers. Many have turned colors never seen a nature. They cut off the mountains. And a local papuan population surrounding the minds often live with hunger and lack of clean water. The freeport mine contract is up for renewal. Theres a big battle within the indonesian government as whether it will be renewed or indonesia will take over the minus up as it has the technical capacity to do. It u. S. And obama have been pushing indonesia to extend this contract. U. S. For years has backed the repression of papua, in large part because of report. The previous leader of freeport used to be a golfing partner with a dictator. Accounting records which show freeport was paying massive bribes to the special forces through press local population. Last your i interviewed a former senior indonesian official who told me that he had received two personal checks from freeport worth hundreds of thousands of u. S. Dollars as bribes come although he said to me, he did not cash the checks. This is a violation of local indonesian law and the u. S. Foreign corrupt practices. But neither the indonesian or u. S. Governments have dared to toe against freeport to try stop this type of corruption. At this contract is on the table. Indonesia could change things drastically by not renewing it, but obama and the u. S. Is twisting their arms to continue to give freeport free reign in west papua. Theres also the issue of the massive forest fires, as you mentioned. More than 100,000. These are deliberately set. The u. S. Says in order to fight Climate Change, they want to help indonesia rein in these forest fires. And the u. S. Has given some money to send firefighters into trying to douse the flames, to help and jokowi is returning to indonesia, cutting short his u. S. Trip because of the crisis. And he is going to try to manage the evacuation of children and areas whereparts of the smoke is the worst. In order to actually stop the fire problem, you have to change the way the economy works. Tppby indonesia joining the , which u. S. Was urging them to do, indonesia will be losing much of the capacity they would need to regulate the cooperation stash corporations. A lot of the burning takes place to produce palm oil and other things. , ifcorporations under tpp indonesia tries to restrict them, will be able to go to the tpp, so this is a restraint on trade, try to get these regulations knocked down. Just setting the fires to clear the underbrush for plantations and farming is actually marketdriven, because that is the cheapest way to do it. It is much cheaper than going in with machetes and trying to cut away the plants. You set a fire, that is the cheapest, most economically efficient. The only way to reign that in is your Government Action in regulation, and that is precisely the kind of thing the tpp enables corporations to annul. So president s like obama and jokowi, by joining the tpp, in effect are limiting their own power, their own ability as elected representatives of their the powercounteract of international corporations. Amy john sifton, you just returned from malaysia, which is also suffering from these fires. Can you amplify this point of allan nairns him and you agree the tpp and the leaked documents really raise questions about what the environmental protections are in the tpp could be exacerbating these fires . Tpp is stillhe secret. Frankly, it is such a flawed document from what we have seen so far that really the only choice is to try to kill it in congress and at the u. S. Trade representative to go back and read negotiate, at least to some of the most loathsome parts of it. Yes, i was in malaysia. It was devastating. The entire country is living in a haze. One of our researchers ended up in the hospital because of it. And that is one of my colleagues. Lanes of people are living and breathing this air. It is true the transpacific permission limits the democratic governance capacities of countries. He puts into corporate hands the rights to stop democratic governments from taking measures to protect its own citizens, from health care, environment, and a host of other issues. That is why it is important to try to kill it right now in congress and get it to be renegotiated. There are some good things in the tpp, a few small good things like labor rights improvements, but stacked up against all be bad, it has got to go. Amy were going to go to break. John sifton, thank you for being with us asia advocacy director, Human Rights Watch. His new book is titled, violence all around. Allan nairn, if you could stay with us, journalist and activist he is actually speaking to us from guatemala city. The elections just a lace on sunday. We will talk about the significance of what has taken place, elections, just after the past president of guatemala has been in prison. Then we will be joined by the nobel prizeWinning Economist joe stiglitz. Stay with us. [music break] amy this is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. In guatemala, Jimmy Morales, a rightleaning, former Television Comedian with no government experience won the presidency , after less than half of eligible voters cast ballots on sunday. Morales received 67 of the vote more than double the votes cast for his contender, exfirst lady sandra torres. The election comes after massive popular protests ousted former president Otto Perez Molina in september. Perez molina is now in jail facing corruption charges. President elect Jimmy Morales is well known for his starring role in a longrunning sketch comedy show, which often featured lewd sketches that some have criticized as being homophobic and sexist. But little is known about morales political platform, although, he has unveiled a handful of eccentric proposals such as tagging teachers with gps trackers to ensure they attend classes. He celebrated his victory on sunday. We have been blessed today with a beautiful day. Let us do everything in our power so that the next few years will also be the best for guatemala. Because constructing guatemala is in a job just for one man, nor to men, it is a job for each and every citizen of this great nation. Amy for more we go to guatemala where we will continue our conversation with journalist allan nairn is been covering guatemala since the 1980s. What is most important to understand about what has just taken place in guatemala . In theemala has been middle of a popular uprising, which brought down the former president general Dominique Scott who is an officer indicated in the massacres molina who was an officer indicated in the massacres. This is an interruption of that uprising, probably a temporary uprising interruption. As many guatemalan said, that a chance to vote but not to choose because if someone wanted to vote against the system, there was no option on the ballot. Both candidates came out of the oligarchy, one in particular, atdra torres, Jimmy Morales special backing from the army massacre offices. As he celebrated his victory sitting next to him sitting next to him was colonel maldonado who used to be at the military base where they have so far discovered more than 500 corpses, many of them women and children, who were executed by the army. And another one of his key people were there. The founder of jimmys political party, said explicitly that the party was founded in order to protect officers from prosecution. And he also said, i kill anyone i want. So the army is still in the palace, as they were under perez molina. But now a sense, that palace is feed,s we fix the video let me go to guatemala, to an interview from prison with the jailed expresident Otto Perez Molina claiming that Vice President joe biden threatened to cut off u. S. A two guatemala unless molina allowed the corruption probe to continue. Vice President Biden did not just tell me that it was practically conditioned, the way he handled it was to convince u. S. Congress that if we dont have the International Commission against impunity in guatemala, support will not be forthcoming for the plans of prosperity. Amy Otto Perez Molina who went on to say that the u. S. Ambassador had demanded he ask for a public present nation of guatemalas former Vice President roxana baldetti. The guatemalan foreign minister, look, foreign minister, do me a favor and tell this gentleman, do Us Ambassador in guatemala, that he needs to understand what his job is here. He is ambassador, not the countrys president come in her desire to put conditions, wanting to ask for ministers to change, asking that i publicly ask for the resignation of the Vice President . I told him i would not do it. Amy Vice President baldetti resigned amid a Corruption Scandal in may. Allan nairn, if you could comment. Perez molina was washingtons man for decades. He was trained at the school of the americas. He was on the cia payroll when he ran the g2 military intelligence hit squad. The u. S. Was telling him not to resign as the people were in the streets demanding his resignation. And as prosecutors were trying to conduct for corruption. And now in prison as a pariah, he is trying to rebuild himself as, suddenly, an internationalist. He is become a joke of guatemala because everyone knows he was washingtons man and suddenly he is try to blame his plight on the u. S. Was basically asking washington to step in and save him as he was about to be toppled. At that did not work out for him. The important point is that there is this Popular Movement and now the army is even more strongly in the palace of the most the soldiers the officers with the most blood on their hands around Jimmy Morales. These are the people who have been involved in massacres, countless massacres. Jamming jimmy should be willing to prosecute all of these officers, to bring them to justice. And also to prosecute the u. S. Cia and military people who are working hand in glove with them. Theres a danger of increased repression now, especially in the countryside, against guatemalan grassroots activists who are brave enough to stand against u. S. And canadian mining companies, and against environmental abuses like corrupt officials. A number of them have been murdered in recent years. And many of these murders have been done by private security corporations that are contracted to the oligarchs, to the foreign investors, and to narcotics syndicates. And these are precisely the people that are now surrounding Jimmy Morales. Amy you interviewed Otto Perez Molina before he was president , more than 20 years ago in the highlands of guatemala as you stood over dead hotties. You talk about him as being a massacre residents. Will Jimmy Morales be open to the prosecution and be generals, many of whom you say support him . Well, probably not. They are his people. Many people thought when they went to the polls, because that was his propaganda, and is what the guatemalan Corporate Press let him get away with, that they were voting for someone who was a little newer. If he is in fact different than the previous, he should allow such prosecutions. But his money, his political backing comes from the massacre officers. What people send the street is, yeah, theyre all thieves, but at least jimmy hasnt had the chance to steal yet to miss a maybe that is better than someone like sondra, the other candidate, who had already been in office and had proven to be corrupt. The Popular Movement, though, has two key weaknesses. One, theyve yet to move beyond the issue of corruption to the issue of massacre. And two, it has yet to broaden widely to the mayan population that makes up half of the surviving guatemalan regulation. The political elite of guatemala, in particular the military and of squad elements whose around jimmy, are racist against the mayan population. Becomesayan population a part and even larger part of the uprising, and they go to the streets, this government, too, can be shaken. There was an store near a scene in one of the national tv debates sponsored by the Corporate Press between a debate between jimmy and sondra. The moderator asked both candidates if the people go to the streets resign. That question was an acknowledgment of the power and legitimacy of the movement, and it is also the kind of question that would be inconceivable and in, say, u. S. President ial debate. Amy allan nairn, thank you for being with us, reporting from guatemala city. He has covered guatemala since the 1980s. You can follow him on twitter allannairn14 for the latest news. Later in the broadcast, we are. Oing to oxford, Mississippi University of mississippi has taken down the Confederate Flag. Well, it is the mississippi flag with the confederate battle flag within it. Students protested and the university has just complied. The first, we will be speaking with a nobel prizeWinning Economist joe stiglitz. Stay with us. [music break] amy stay strong. The young woman who took down the flag in South Carolina off the flagpole on the statehouse grounds before the state legislature voted to take it down. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. On saturday, leading democratic president ial contenders addressed the Iowa Democratic Party Gathering known as the jeffersonjackson dinner. The highprofile party dinner has been a defining moment on the Campaign Calendar since 1975. This is former secretary of state Hillary Clinton. There is something wrong when managers5 hedge fund earn more in a year than all the kindergarten teachers in america combined. [applause] or when top ceos make 300 times what a typical worker does or when corporate profits soar, but employees dont share in his profits. When it is easy for a Big Corporation to get a tax break, but it is still too hard for a Small Business to get a loan. Amy vermont senator Bernie Sanders also spoke in iowa over the weekend, calling for a raise in the minimum wage. When you see the middleclass of this country disappearing, and when you see people you know working two or three jobs trying to cobble together some income and some health care, you dont just shrug your shoulders and say, thats the way it is. You fight to raise the minimum wage to a living wage. Amy that was vermont senator Bernie Sanders speaking at the dinner. As president ial candidates spar over economic policies, one of the nations leading economists if calling for a comprehensive overhaul of the u. S. Economy. Nobel prize Winning Economist Columbia University Professor Joseph stiglitz has just published a new book called, rewriting the rules of the American Economy an agenda for growth and shared prosperity. Joseph stiglitz, it is great to have you with us. Welcome to democracy now talk about these candidates and what theyre saying and what they actually do, what they support. I think were in a new moment in america, because i think we have had one third of a century of you might call an experiment, a grand experiment, where beginning with reagan and we said, lets lower the tax rates from the top, lets rip away the regulations. Were going to free up the American Economy. Were going to incentivize it. The result will be the economy will grow so much yes, the top will get a larger share, but everybody is going to get a bigger piece. So everybody is going to be better off. Within one third century of this experiment, and it has failed, it has failed miserably. The fact is, the bottom 90 are seeing their incomes stagnate. Median income today is as low as it was a quarter century ago, talking about the minimum wage. If an economy cant deliver for most of its citizens, it is a failing becoming. The economy has performed worse. What the two candidates are saying, it is really echoing, i think, the basic message of this book, which is, something is wrong with the rules of the economy. It is not the American Workers. Theyre working hard. Productivity has continued to grow. What is striking is how that pie. S being shared, not fairly in fact, the distortions in the economy that hillary was talking about have actually impeded, maybe economy perform more poorly than ever. You take the ceos getting 300 times the amount of the typical worker. When youre taking the corporate income, giving so much to the top, obviously, youre going to have less either to give to the people at the bottom or youre going to have less to invest in the corporation. And actually, both of those are happening. So weaker investment, more inequality, weaker wages, then you get a vicious cycle going so the economy isnt performing as well as it should be. Amy the candidates dont actually agree. I think Hillary Clinton is getting rather nervous at the massive crowds that Bernie Sanders is drawing across the political spectrum. So she has moved in on criticizing him. Speaking of the same dinner saturday, Hillary Clinton appeared to question Bernie Sanders electability. I know and you know, it is not enough just to rail against the republicans or the billionaires. We actually have to win this election in order to rebuild the middle class and make a positive difference in peoples lives. Amy what is Bernie Sanders message . Why do you think it has resonated so strongly and, actually, it seems like forced other clinton to adopt some of the language same link which he has used . I think the point is the merrick of people have figured out that this model hasnt worked. The model that began a third of a century ago. They are angry. This is important, like 35 years ago . It addresses some kind of natural phenomenon that we cannot get in the way up. We have to allow capitalism to work. Youre saying this is a very New Invention that has written roles and these rules should be changed . Exactly. Productivity of the American Workers has continued to grow pretty steadily. Historically, wages moved with productivity. You do these two charts, they move right together. 1980,ly, around productivity continues to grow but wages stagnate. This is a really unusual phenomenon. That is one of the things that motivated writing the book. We said, what has happened is, particularly in america, we began to change the rules. The labor rules, rules about the Financial Sector, rules about corporate governance, tax rules, you know, it wasnt inevitable speculation at a lower rate than you tax people who are working for a living. A marketot inherent in economy. What we say, this is a distortion of capitalism. This is distortion of a market economy. Amy what do you think most contributed to the inequality in terms of the rules . I think if i had to say one thing, i think it is the whole package, but one thing specific as the Financial Sector. The Financial Sector was about 2. 5 of gdp. It went to as large as 8 of gdp. As a group, if it had led to the economy growing so much faster you have said, well, theyre getting their just desserts, helping all of us do better. But they were really doing, you can see in the data at all any effect in economic growth. What we do know is it led to this kind of greater volatility, the Great Recession of 2008 from which we still have not recovered. And what they were doing is figuring out how to seize a larger share of the National Income pie in a whole variety of ways. Amy where does the American Labor movement fit into this . That is another important these. You go back to the 1930s, we passed the wagner act. The wagner act made it easier for workers to bargain. What has happened in the last 35 years, we have made it more and more difficult for workers to bargain. Globalization has made that even more difficult because youre sitting there with 2 billion people around the world brought into the labor market, and weakening the protection, strengthening the competition. Inevitably, it has weakened the bargaining position of workers. You get results today, for instance, where america is a must unique among the advanced countries and not having family leave, sick leave. We are at the bottom. For another example, america has more inequality than any other of the advanced countries. Why is that . It is because of the way we have written the rules. It is the kind of choice we have made. One key part of that is the fact that unions have been made weaker. Amy glasssteagall. Glasssteagall is amy explain what it is. After the Great Depression, we divided the banks into two groups. The commercial banks, the take your deposits, ordinary people, supposed to give money to Small Businesses to help grow the economy. And then you had the Investment Banks taking money from rich people, investing it in more speculative activities. And we had a big fight during the Clinton Administration over whether we should eliminate that division. I strongly opposed it. When was chairman of the consulate of economic and visors, it did not happen. Amy under clinton. Under clinton. , they wanted to bring together these various Financial Institutions and amy around clinton. As a result of that, we repealed glasssteagall. What i was worried about precisely happened, we wound up with bigger banks that became too big to fail, the culture of risktaking associated with the Investment Bank spread to the whole banking system, so all of. He banks became speculators actually, lending to Small Businesses lower than it was before the crisis. And the kinds of conflicts of interest that were rampant in the years before the Great Depression started to appear all over the place in our Financial Sector. Amy so Bernie Sanders has called for the reinstate of glasssteagall. Hillary clinton has not. I hope that she will, but i think the phenomenal issue is, we have to tame the Financial Sector. In our book, rewriting the rules, we describe how that can be done. Amy how exactly . There are many things. Glasssteagall is one approach that i we have to dont talk about it in the book will stop there some other ways that we do focus on, on things like curbing their excessive risktaking. One of the important things that people havent realized is, every time they use the debit card, merchants pay a significant price for their use. It is like a tax on every transaction, but a tax that doesnt go for public purpose, he goes to enrich the coffers of the credit card companies, the debacle companies. Oneere supposed to curtail part of that and the debit card was called the durban amendment to dodd frank. But we delegated the Federal Reserve. The Federal Reserves staff recommended a fee, that i thought was excessive, and then the Federal Reserve doubled the fee the had recommended. So it is much better than it was before dodd frank, but it is still a tax on every transaction, a tax that winds up being paid for by everybody who buys any good in our economy. That is an example how you transfer money from ordinary individuals to the Financial Sector. And it is one of the reasons why the Financial Sector is making so much money and the rest of us pay the price. One other example that president obama has emphasized is, you know, people have savings accounts. The question is, when you put your money in an ira, does the person who is supposed to manage that have a fiduciary responsibility . That is to say, cant he manage it for his own interest, turning it over and getting a lot of commission, or does he ever responsibility, a fiduciary responsibility, to manage it in your interest . You would say, obvious, you should have that fiduciary responsibility. Resistingnks are imposing that as a condition. And the result of not having that is the banks are making billions and billions tens of billions of dollars every year more than he otherwise would. Amy finally, joseph stiglitz, you rizzoli wrote aps, the Transpacific Partnership charade tpp is an about free trade at all. Explain. Madery much the point you in her segment you had about indonesia joining. The basic point that this is a trade agreement that has all kinds of provisions intended to restrict regulations. Pieceved out one little tpp carved that one little piece that was so, so outrageous that everybody was up in arms, and that was a provision about tobacco. On a provision similar to this, berg way is being sued by phillip morris, the successor to phillip morris, because they passed a regulation as did australia that on the package you have to say that this is bad for your help. Amy what we have in the United States. Exactly. It is a little more graphic because at a picture of what it did it worked. People started stopped smoking. Not everybody, but smoking was reduced. Under the provisions of this, sue berglip morris can way for the loss of their expected profits as result of the relation. In other words, the view is the have the right to kill people and if you want to take away that right, you have to pay them not to kill. Now, we carved that provision was carved out, but all the other areas were left in. So they were talking about Climate Change regulation. We know were going to need regulations to restrict the emissions of carbon. But under these provisions, corporations can sue the , including the american government, by the way, so it is all the governments in losspp can be sued for the of profits as a result of the regulations that restrict their ability to to emit Carbon Emissions that lead to global warming. If this provision had been in place when we discovered that is best us was that for your help asbestos was that for your th, currently, the manufacturers have to pay billions and billions of dollars for the damage. If the tpb had been in place, we sould have to pay the asbesto manufacturers for not killing us. It is outrageous. Amy we have to leave it there but we will continue the conversation after the show and post it on democracynow. Org. Joseph stiglitz nobel prize , Winning Economist, Columbia University professor, and chief economist for the roosevelt institute. His new book is called, rewriting the rules of the American Economy an agenda for growth and shared prosperity. Go to democracynow. Org for part two. We will end today show in mississippi. Early monday morning, three campus Police Officers at the university of mississippi removed the state flag with its confederate emblem from the grounds of the schools campus. The move comes after the Student Government voted to remove the flag. For more we could likely to oxford to the university of mississippi where we are joined by Dominique Scott, an undergraduate at the university of mississippi and the secretary of the universitys chapter of the naacp. Dominique, welcome back to democracy now we just talked to you last week when the vote of the Student Legislature come the Student Senate was about to take lace. You voted to take the flag down, but that was just advisory. What happened . Will, on tuesday, the afc past resolution to take down the Mississippi State flag the current Mississippi State flag from the university. I believe it was 3315. 33 in favor, 15 opposed and one abstained. Right after that, the council post the resolution in support. And on thursday, Faculty Senate passed the resolution with 14 in favor and one opposing. Then the graduate school past theirs. Yesterday morning, they took it down. Amy were you surprised . I was very surprised. It wase in a very very secret. Nobody really knew about it. I just woke up. I always check my email when i woke up. When i woke up, there was an email that said they took it down. I was just, like, wow. I checked my email from before i checked my Text Messages were booming with all my friends us and, oh, my gosh, they did it. Amy Dominique Scott, the chancellor and the offices of the administration had originally said, this isnt about us taking it down, this is about the mississippi flag having the Confederate Flag with in it. Are you moving on to the state flag, removing the confederate symbol in it . In the resolution, there was an amendment made that said the students would pursue pressuring thestate to change Mississippi State flag. The issue with the flag is the confederate emblem, and it is not the state flag itself, the current flag as it is. Amy how do you feel having started a revolution in mississippi . I feel like it doesnt stop here. I feel like we might be having some our conversations later on in the year. We have a lot of things planned. I believe it was angela davis said, the revolution isnt a onetime thing. So there are a lot of things going on on our campus. There is a lot of issues and, you know, i think it is so awesome the students have built power. I am so wonderfully proud of what we have done. Amy Dominique Scott, we have to leave it there. We will be back talking to you on the cap said the university of mississippi. Democracy now is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. Email your comments to outreach democracynow. Org or mail them to democracy now p. O. Box 693 new york, new york 10013. [captioning made possible by democracy now ]
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