Transcripts For RT Boom Bust 20240712

These critical times with a packed show today so lets dive right in. And we lead the program with the European Union stating wednesday that it will impose economic sanctions against russia after russian Opposition Leader alexei no bawly a corruption investigator and longtime opponent of russian president Vladimir Putin was reportedly poisoned with a nerve agent now according to German Authorities no bawly is in germany and is now recovering this week e. U. Foreign ministers agreed to impose sanctions on russian officials fish tales and organizations blame for the poisoning these sanctions according to Russian Foreign minister Sergei Lavrov are not surprising and could lead to further economic strains between the 2. The question is not just whether business as usual is possible but with the any business with the European Union is possible a tool the e. U. Behaves arrogantly towards us and looks condescendingly down with russia demanding answers from us for all the crimes it imagines we have committed i think we are under no obligation to respond to that the west will always try to hold us back to undermine our political and economic capacities this is all part of the same old game they want to throw russia off balance not just with direct assaults like dirty competition and illegitimate sanctions but also by creating instability on our borders. And joining us now to discuss this boom bust cause that investigative journalist ben swan has been following the story now but i want to start with what we know about the poisoning of alexina vali yeah we actually dont know a whole lot about it according to reuters there is some information he was travelling apparently between siberia and moscow in august he became violently ill he was an air flight into germany where doctors began to treat him and they say that he was poisoned with some kind of a nerve agent and so the details of exactly how he was poisoned are not known at this time and the fact that russia and specifically certain members of the russian government have been accused by the french and the germans as being responsible for this is a little bit strange because we dont have any details surrounding that having said that it was enough as you just said for the e. U. To say that theyre going to impose sanctions against russia and now we know that those sanctions being proposed come from a Franco German player but who specifically is being targeted here. Yes so apparently and i want to get this right but these are employees of the president ial administration in total were talking about 9 individuals again employees of the president ial Administration Law enforcement agencies and people who working for those agencies as well according to a french newspaper that list implies Freezing Bank accounts for those 9 people and banning travel to europe and you know weve talked about this in the past before brand but this is a fairly interesting and somewhat even relatively new form of sanction that really hasnt been used in other ways in the past right sanctions traditionally have been ways for governments to impose penalties on other governments as a way of punishing them for not doing what you want without having to go to war thats in theory how it works we could have a long debate about it whether it actually works or not but this newer form is for governments to try to freeze the Bank Accounts and the travel in the businesses of individual people in certain countries if they believe those people have done wrong and its a fairly strange process because it doesnt require a trial it doesnt require for anyone to actually be convicted of a crime and yet youre being punished as if you have committed a crime that is not by the way not just done to russia this is being done all over the world in iran in venezuela any place in the me of either the United States or nato they do this well whats the purpose of doing of imposing sanctions in that way versus you know the traditional form of section that we talked about there. Well the point of it is is that youre what youre really doing is youre targeting individual so for instance in the past you know the way the sentients have worked as youll say well were going to punish a country like lets say venezuela right and if youre going to punish venezuela you go in and you would say were not going to allow you to process any more oil what winds up actually happening is you wind up hurting the entire population of People Living in that country and so sanctions have come under fire especially in the last decade or so over the fact that traditionally sagans her poor people in these countries it does not hurt the ruling class it does not hurt those who have incredible wealth or who are in charge of the societies it hurts the lowest people in society because they can access water they can Access Medicine they can access toilet paper those kinds of things so sanctions traditionally hurt those people the idea here is its more targeted right its a target exemption against certain individuals but again as i said when you impose sanctions in this way theres no due process as a part of that so youre essentially saying we believe that some people may be responsible for this so were going to freeze their Bank Accounts not allow them to travel and try to essentially apply punitive damages to them without their ever being any kind of a process that confirms whether or not this person has done anything illegal and thats a good point because we heard from Russian Foreign minister Sergei Lavrov there at the beginning of a 2nd now he says that this is a rush to judgment by the e. U. Essentially following up on what you just said about no due process why is he specifically claiming that in this instance so he makes a pretty interesting point here and the point that hes making is that germany essentially saying this is not a because remember that this guy was flown to germany right and so what hes saying is the saying is that germany is no longer treating this as a bilateral issue between germany and russia and instead theyre saying its an International Issue that involves all these Different Countries in the e. U. Does it and if it does why is that why would it involve all these countries but more importantly what lavrov says is because its now international and its not bilateral the germans are not sharing information about the investigation theyre not sure. Information as to what they have found so essentially what youre doing is youre having this rush to judgment that allows again the e. U. To impose economic punishment on individuals or even if they decide to later on the actual country of russia without having to show any proof that anything was done or without actually requiring that certain individuals be brought to justice if youre sharing information with another country you would assume that Intelligence Services in those countries within work to bring these people to justice now i know the idea here is that you know this was done on the behest of lattimer putin but again youve got to provide information that proves that not just make these wild outlandish statements and then try to apply penalties and what does this mean for these continued economic strains between the e. U. And russia moving forward when we talk about these sanctions being in place as well as what you just mentioned there. Well i think when we talk about whats happening with russia right now that lavrov also made a point he said you know how does russia do any business with the e. U. At this point because there are so many problems that are that are popping up and then the u. S. Being part of those problems as well as we know there are sanctions that have been leveled against the companies that are putting in that north stream to pipeline right this pipeline is supposed to run natural gas between russia and germany and this is an agreement between 2 countries but the u. S. Doesnt like it and so they impose sanctions against the companies that are doing this same sions in the past the audience has to remember were used as a way to deter war now they are used to impose the world view of certain countries and certain governments over other governments and individuals and individual companies and weve seen this happen in venezuela in iran as well any individual company that attempts to work with those countries is then punished Bank Accounts frozen in the case of weiwei your c. F. O. Detained in canada and so you have this very strange almost spiraling war sanction which used to mean one thing now means so many things robust cohost and investigative journalist ben swan thank you for keeping up this up to date your. Right you got it. And the world bank has allocated 12000000000. 00 in funding to help developing countries acquire and distribute kovan 1000. 00 bags scenes tests and treatments with hopes of supporting vaccination of 1000000000. 00 people now the financing is part of a broader package of up to 160000000000 to fight the pandemic in developing countries the organization said in a Statement Released tuesday now the World Bank Says its Emergency Response programs are already active in more than 100. 00 nations worldwide this pledge comes amid concerns that the worlds most developed countries have already acquired most of the supply of a potential vaccine through the end of 2021 leaving poorer nations without the ability to get vaccines when one is approved. And you tube announced wednesday it would remove any videos which contain misinformation about covert 900. 00 vaccines the platform says it will remove post with claims that these vaccines will kill people cause infertility or implant microchips into those who receive them on a broader note you tube says it will ban vaccine related content which goes against the guidance of local Health Officials and the World Health Organization this news comes after facebook made a similar move tuesday banning ads that discourage the use of accedes social media diet has been recently taking steps to police content on their platform facebook however did say they will allow ads which question Government Policies surrounding vaccines including a possible corona virus vaccine. And trading was mostly flat wednesday as the market is just within reach of all time highs earnings thus far have been decent not spectacular but decent due to low expectations and the market is now hoping for smooth a smooth election in the coming weeks and another coronavirus stimulus package joining us now to discuss it julie but cohost christiane has got all the deep. Well that analysis for christie how are markets going to react you know we just mentioned its Election Year how are markets going to react if you either one of the Major Party Nominees are selected by joe biden or donald trump what are you seeing here well stocks apparently have said that they will stay strong regardless of whether trump is reelected or Biden Takes Office because really in the end the market has decided that trump will cut taxes and biden will apparently spend big so you also have the ever present fed micromanaging all of the risk and keeping the liquidity tops flowing for good so right now the biggest concern politically will be a democratic blowout where they take both the white house and the majorities in both chambers of congress so that the narrow could tank stock values with the specter of the much higher taxes thats why they have been touting so in the case of a democratic blowout stocks are expected to suffer a hit and potentially reducing the s. And p. A. P. S. By as much as 12 percent but analysts think that it should be offset by the massive fiscal stimulus that the democrats would then pass but the big question as for how long stimulus doesnt last forever so right now according to Goldman Sachs a giant 7 trillion dollar fiscal stimulus will last at most 2 years which point it would then be exhausted and more more stimulus will be needed in order to keep the stocks up but the thing is by 2023 total u. S. Debt will be about 40 trillion dollars while the u. S. G. D. P. While its crippled by cold is no vaccine no real end date in site that will take g. D. P. Bat barely back 22001000 level so essentially no growth at all but apparently by 2024 that will become someone elses problem so in short no matter who wins or if theres a democratic blowout taxes would definitely go up spending by the middle and upper costs will be hit but the trillions in new debt that will offset any of the tax hikes slow down but from the. Acro standpoint there will be a reduced trade risk with china a firmer Global Growth outlook as well as easier u. S. Fiscal policy. It seems like as you kind of mentioned their hope for a stimulus package before the election is pretty much off the table and that caused a 150 point drop in the markets midday whats the latest there well the good thing is we didnt see the entire market sell off after minucci and commented that quote getting something done before the election is getting difficult so the market is taking that as a sign that not there will likely not be a deal despite the many discussions between the parties so at least the good thing is that the market expected and thats actually what weve been saying all along for the past week actually that nothing will get done or passed before elections but the thing is now that expectations have just shifted so now we expect something after election but before the end of the year and theres still a lot of hurdles to get through in order to get something passed so if we dont get something before the end of 2020 then we could potentially see some very nasty sell off especially as the Global Situation seems to be getting worse right now we have the situation now in europe where infections are rising and Prime Minister Boris Johnson is now facing a lot of pressure to order a National Lockdown again kristie chinas main stock markets they just hit a combined record high of 10 trillion dollars what was behind that rally so this is a very significant milestone for china actually where it hit a new peak of 10. 00 trillion whereas the previous milestone was in june of 2015 where i hit 10. 09 trillion before subsequently just crashing and wiping down over half of its value in a just a few months so it actually took china over 5 years to recoup all those losses and its really interesting that its recouping all of these losses in one of the most difficult years for Global Growth and where growth is essentially elusive due to co the 19 so its really meaningful that china is managed to still find growth. Its very difficult backdrop right now and analysts believe that it is possible that chinas market value will continue to grow from this point and expand faster now that we have major market forms coming into play such as the registration based i. P. O. Systems so the recent rally was powered by a couple of factors 1st was obvious the fast recovery in china due to the very quick complete and total lockdown that china took and took when they 1st had coded that lock down actually accelerate the entire Recovery Process so you also have the appreciation of the army and an increased number of China Company listing as i. P. O. Due to the star market which is basically the equivalent to the nasdaq so that actually helped to attract more investments more Foreign Direct Investments now and margin financing is now almost twice as low as 5 years ago so finally you also have to compare against the rest of the world the rest of the world currently remains paralyzed in the midst of chrono and china will begin to see more and more Foreign Direct Investments more and more as it is literally the only place where there is still growth to be found boom bust cohost christine thank you for that expert analysis as always thank you. And time now for a quick break but here because when we return trade deficits are back in the spotlight as chinese imports of u. S. Goods have jumped on the other side of the break we analyze the numbers and what impact they could have moving forward as we go to break here are the numbers of the. Industry comes to life in. Los angeles every night. Dozens of women sells their bodies on the streets many of them underage. Los Angeles Police reveal a taste of their daily challenge no if youre going to exploit a child here in los angeles there were going to come out you see officers going undercover as 6 workers and customers to fight 6 trade. The world is driven by shaped by phone person of. The day or thinks. We dare to ask. About that get a list of all the. People one macau one quiet why the fuck. Out of the. Police hope will be but there are also friends that the us are still so that the soul hoping to do something to see. The child for. They have about the life of a simple alan ball and i was there with them on the back of a book at that. And welcome back the United States trade deficit with china rose more than 18 percent in september from the year prior according to data from chinas Custom Agency now despite this large deficit beijing also said imports of u. S. Goods into china rose by 24. 7 percent year over year pushed by tech and soybeans the 13200000000. 00 in imports was the highest since august of 28 team news comes as the u. S. Census bureau reported last week a 67000000000. 00 trade deficit with china for august the widest margin in more than 14 years this widening gap comes amid a trade war between the worlds 2 largest economies which started back in july of 2018 so what has been the real impact of this trade war well to discover for your special richard bove hes the author of the sickness is the system when capitalism fails to save us from pandemics or itself and john dean of the Business School thank you both for being here today i actually want to start with you here the trade gap between the United States and china has grown 43 percent since january of 2017 when the president took office he made a big deal about closing this gap and thats why we have had this prolonged trade dispute so is this trade war the cause of this widening gap or are there other factors at play. So i think the september figure is a one month blip related to restoration of supply chains out of china and the stabilization of the us economy the us china trade deficit actually peaked in 2018 at 400 and 18000000000. 00 in dollar gap and then in 2019 it fell back if i just can consult my figures to 345000000000. 00 there was actually a 73000000000. 00 drop in the deficit from 2018 to 2019 and a 91000000000. 00 drop in total trade so if you look at the 2020 figures overall leave aside the month of september the 2020 figures overall are tracking 2019. Except the deficit in 292000 and 20 looks like its around about 58 percent of total trade volume in goods as opposed to 60 percent and 2019 so my bottom line is this. The trade war has had an impact directionally in the way in which President Trump intended it to however the political cost and the relationship cost between the 2 biggest economies in the world. The price thats been paid in that regard relative to the gain in deficit reduction a lot of people would question whether or not its been worth it and were going to get to that here in just a few minutes the effect actually was as good right to a professor what do you make of that statement i mean are those relationship costs and the political cost between the 2 nations is that going to be an issue moving forward. Absolutely i think if you introduce an enormous uncertainty. As to whether this kind of behavior from the ministration will continue even with mr truong or with mr pike knew whether theres been a shift from a commitment to open trade trade to a protectionist and of the sort that mr trump has him that is causing all kinds of tensions with our allies not just with china but with everybody adults who has to trade with our necks is no real her along straight or habits of fact i would also like to add as i had said to you on occasion in that most of this was a Little Theater thats why the numbers havent moved very much in reasons why American Companies do business in china and become more attractive in terms of china its growth its expansion compared to the stagnation in the web those things that continuing through what and they will have it needs as much effect as the political theater that president drum and anybody else might want to play in this seat american models and now professor wolf i want to hit on that rise on imports from the u. S. Because that would seem like positive data but is this do to the provisions in the phase one trade deal do you see it that way. I think to a small we can stand it is i think a bigger factors that are playing a role but certainly read or heard there of the songbirds was already being done some of the right products and some high tech material and those were the drivers of the improvement in employment in china those are attempts to cultivate that trying their own so poor and very tech characteristics of the chinese each time trumpet the more that our they came back but with less of an era the very measured small arsenal response they dont want to ruffle the water its letter. Mr trump do his little see it in as long as the underlying economic rapid growth in china stagnation or lower growth in the United States as long as that continues the succession of china over the last 30 years will continue e. S. P. N. Or a Little Theater or not and indeed quotes now generally when we look at an election here in the United States its always seen as the conservative leadership or Republican Leadership would be more beneficial to business wallowed democratic leadership maybe not so much but obviously in this situation where we have President Trump who has waged this trade war you say that these are going to be strained for the long term but if there is a change in power to joe biden do you see that relationship Getting Better or are we just going to keep with the same situation here. The policy statements of the 2 campaigns are pretty similar on china but i think in 2 ways biden could be better 1st of all he is much more of a multilateral lest as opposed to a unilateralist President Trump things in terms of deals as one on one negotiations. Biden has a more globalist view of reality off the many years on the Foreign Relations committee in the senate secondly related to that basically the day to day dialogue between beijing and washington is down to trade representative like hisor and his counterpart and you on the chinese side we used to have a regular Strategic Dialogue with china we used to have dialogue on Climate Change we used to have dialogue even military to military i expect President Biden to quietly restore all of those Communications Lines and thatll be good for the relationship and its going to be interesting to see what happens here because we did see when joe biden was in the white house with president obama as the Vice President he was obviously a big part of the Transpacific Partnership was a which was a multilateral trade agreement as you just discussed in quotes but we cant tell you how much we appreciate both of your expertise on this important subject professor Richard Wolfe and dean john thank you both for your time. Thank you and thats it for this time you can catch boom bust on demand on the brand new portable t. V. App which is available on smartphones and tablets through google play and the Apple App Store by searching portable t. V. Portable t. V. Can also be downloaded on newer model Samsung Smart t. V. s as well as roku devices or you can simply check it out at portable t. V. Well see you next time your uncle. High and low poker thats the low here and the high hand. So weve got a situation in the Global Economy right now where in the currency markets various countries are trying to win with the worst possible hand lets see how this works out. Give me to meet up with them he said. Theres enough. But im also the most companies he knows. When i meet. Those companies he most people and most people even know he goes from getting notices to c. B. C. Is pro you sure. You see him you. Know kid is. Always they. Come to you almost to. Make noise you know borders into nationalities. You. Have so much time with you we dont look like seen the whole world petes sake. Judgment commentary crisis of this list until. We can do better we should be. Everyone is contributing its your own way but we also know that this crisis will not go on forever the challenges created with the response has been much so many good people are helping us. It makes us feel very proud that we are in it together. Crying out for how the hospital was in front stage a protest over a law called for thoughts as they say is still needed to fight the pandemic that 1000 present not crawl announces new ways like cut hughes in the battle against hope that we hope it is a measure that can be beneficial to see what happens i think it is not enough the curfews not the only problem we lack hospital baths no sick stuff can all be magics out of a hat it is the responsibility of all ministers and president s. Fix it up to the i made 17 tragedy rush up with sly bennett