Bits and pieces down in mexico and i will tell you this the Mexican Government was kind but they asked all of us gringos to please go home and that was simply because they havent gotten hit yet and they feel if they do get hit they dont have the capability to take care of their people as well as our people so i followed their advice i drove my wife and i drove home and i got to tell you it was one of the greatest drives home traffic is down to virtually nothing you can get a hotel rooms any way you want food is there but you gotta go pick it up you can go sit down and eat and all the gas stations are open and the prices i cant believe i was paying a 1. 73 a gallon out there now isnt it ironic that the prices are dropping through are so low now and yet were not allowed to or shouldnt be. Dr big i guarantee you the minute this virus has passed watch those gas prices shoot right up. Well well have to wait and see whether that happens is a heck of a time for you to be back since you said you dont know whats going on lets get into our top story the International Monetary fund has officially declared that the Global Economy is in a recession now due to the cove of 1000. 00 outbreak Economic Activity around the world has significantly slowed down as countries cities and local governments issue stay at home or quarantine orders the i. M. F. Defines a global recession as an extended period in which economic output falls and unemployment rises many economists say that this recession could be just as bad or even worse than the one in 2009 layoffs have already started bankruptcies are imminent what are your thoughts on how this is going to play out how long can people afford not to go to work. I dont know you know this is an experiment bridgette on all of us i dont think anybody at least i cant recall d in my lifetime ever facing anything like this where really its like volunteer martial law in a way you know they havent declared martial law but theyre asking us all to stay home to not go out in the course the economy grogs to a halt and the thing that i dont understand is now theyre going to come out with this stimulus package i dont get it the government off operates off our money how can they simply give us back our money to stimulate the autonomy and then once get short changed because if theyre handing our money back to us then obviously theyre not going to be doing things that they normally do with our money 1. 00 of the big things they ought to do is get the hell out of these wars in the middle east and start taking care of our country and preparing us for situations. Were facing right now. Experts say containing the virus is really the best thing for economic recovery now do you think that the u. S. Is doing a job a good job as a whole to curb the spread of this virus what about certain states are there any we can look to for examples like in california. Well like i said im not a doctor but they want us to keep separated by putting us in our houses we dont contract with other people out there like the normal its probably the only thing we can do we need to heed the warning and continue to do what were asked to do just as long as they dont try to force it on us were some type of martial law this is a voluntary thing and the one thing i can tell you in traveling across the country this past week i will say this everyone has been exceptionally courteous and friendly something that when i left the country last january was an album and we were divided we were hating each other so maybe the positive thing out of this whole deal is that it will bring us back together as a nation. I agree ive been going to the Grocery Store on occasion and everybodys been really kind to each other sharing you know food with each other if they can obviously safely doing so to not spread germs that i have seen the goodness and humanity even of all this terrible stuff thats going on so that i do think is a Silver Lining now this week in stock car and amazon delivery workers went on strike demanding coronavirus protection and hazard pay the companys referred to their workers as heroes but they fail to provide these heroes with adequate protective gear as they go out and deliver food goods and services to people like you and i who are stuck at home what do you think about how these workers are being treated by these corporations most of them are independent contractors they dont get Health Benefits they cannot afford not to work and theyre doing all of us a great service. Well and again were running out of plastic gloves were running out of facial protection all of this because we waste our time effort and money fighting these useless wars for 20 years that literally bankrupt our country and make us ill prepared for what is happening now what do i think about the workers ill tell you whos the real some of the real heroes are how about your garbage man i thought about that today because we had a garbage pick up and i thought you know nobody looks at garbage man as heroes but they truly are today because theyre out there where would you be right now if they didnt pick up the garbage while youre living at home and look at the chances theyre taking in picking up that garbage i sure hope their faces are covered in their hands that they have plastic gloves on but its people that do every day work like that who are truly the heroes in the situation like this it isnt donald trump it is not a big leaders who are the heroes here its the everyday person that takes it upon him skimmer herself to do the right thing and to look at their neighbors and for us all to Work Together i think that parts wonderful so im going to say hip hip hooray to all the garbage men of america for keep it for picking up our garbage in this time of need. Yes lets go back to what you said about the wars you know more people are slated to die in america as a result of this virus of then died on 911 during the attacks we got we went to war over those 911 attacks and if we brought the soldiers home to go to war on this virus by ramping up ventilators helping with the delivery of food and things to people would be a lot better than having them go out to foreign wars. Absolutely i mean this stuff has stuck and these theres foreign involvement of our military we need to take care of our country and make our country prepared for things like this its pollution and its Climate Change that are truly going to lead to our destruction not this nonsense over in the middle east this money grabbing garbage that goes on where they use our military as the Security Force while all the profiteers over there raised in all the dough lets start tasted terror of our country 1st 1st and foremost and let the rest of the world take care of themselves i think well all be better off. Than we send these soldiers over toward to fight war and they end up dying and putting their lives on the lines in the same thing can now be said of these amazon drivers and over drivers you know they put their lives on the line they say that theyve only received a single wipe in many cases to disinfect the delivery vans before their shifts and this is so common in america that we see people being treated so poorly and this coronaviruses really highlighting just how poorly these companies treat the workers. Oh yeah and lets remember Something Else lets lets not get everybody so petrified and stared here and this isnt necessarily fatal if you get it i play gulf of mexico with a good old friend of mine whos a doctor from canada a retired bascule or surgeon and i asked him point blank i said doc if you contract this are you going to die or he goes out. Absolutely not every flu thats come out throughout the years yes people die from it people who have deficient immune systems elderly people may be young Young Children but if you contract this doesnt mean youre you we have a death sentence it means you probably get sick for maybe 55. 00 to 10. 00 days with the most and your body will fight it off and youll overcome it hopefully now certainly there will be tragedies but you know i was driving through nebraska on the way home and so far 41. 00 people just 3 months have died on the highways of just nebraska now if you multiply that out that means nearly 200. 00 people this year only in the state of nebraska are going to die from auto accidents so lets put this into some perspective here yes its a dangerous thing we need to guard against it but it is not necessarily a death sentence if you contract it yes and i think irving that panic is very important now unfortunately this virus has also kicked a mass surveillance into high gear of course the u. S. And other governments around the world are now tracking the movements of coronavirus patients using mobile phone data to curb the spread of the disease the idea is to track those whove been in physical contact with people who have been infected or who suspect that theyve been infected now some of the data thats been collected is anonymous but other data is more individualized. Privacy advocates say that this kind of tracking might be helpful right now but you know its going to become the new normal or it could be along after this pandemic is over to those critics i say its pretty much already going to harm jesse. Well lets remember all clapper and graham and got in front of our congress and sat there and why said we werent under surveillance is a couple years ago and then 3 months later we found out were all under surveillance you know it was weird about this whole thing bridgette up for me and all of this the minute it came out and it exploded down in mexico i right away suspected our government of lying now thats really bad when you and then i wasnt put clear on until i spoke to some friends from canada who said no italys hit hard shyness hit hard this isnt just the u. S. Government pulling the false flag thing because initially this is how i thought i thought oh this was a false flag operation for them to practice martial law well fortunately it wasnt but it is still Good Practice for them to practice martial law just like they did on the bombing in boston at the marathon that was a playground up in the practice for martial law what they did up there but its sad when you cannot trust your government and the 1st thing that comes into your head is something negative that theyre doing something to accomplish something and sneak it over on us and that was the feeling that i initially got from this whole thing now its requiring all of us to Work Together and for all of us to be our own heroes to look in the mirror and realize are we doing what we can do best to to stop this epidemic and move on from there and thats really the key is taking responsibility and helping the community to be safer now another Economic News the board of governors of the Federal Reserve have reduced a reserve ratio to 0 percent effective this week the reserve requirement is a 2. Total amount of money that a bank must have on hand every night that amount is typically 10 percent of the banks total deposits which is also a little bit bizarre now sometimes though the fed uses liquidity rates as a tool of Monetary Policy to influence the countrys borrowing and Interest Rates now in this case the fed is acting on the belief that lowering reserve rates will clear up more cash to than lend out to people and businesses so now banks can basically print money just like the Federal Reserve does to loan out to anyone without Regulatory Oversight on one hand this policy could help people with their mortgages loans etc but on the other hand if theres a run on the banks and everyone goes to pull out their cash in a crisis like this the banks will not have any now thats also the case of the 10 percent reserve just me what do you think about this new change. I say that its a dangerous were walking on the edge right now and made these decisions are going to be huge these economic decisions but we have to let them play out everybodys got to relax a little bit and let them play out and see what happens economically again im confused i govern the state of minnesota and the state of minnesota required a balanced budget by law the federal government dont operate that way and again like i said earlier where are they going to get this bailout money they operate on our money. How is it that they can just create theyre going to just rigged up more money thats as simple as it is they can just make more money and then add this to the death the death is ridiculous right now and theyre just going to be allowed to add more to it i guess because where did they get the money from they get it from us if we dont have the money then where did they get the money from that i guess is the trillion dollar question. You know this outbreak is a once in a century event and the economic fallout unfortunately could be to you know the Great Depression happened in 91 years ago. You and i are not economists but were all affected by the falling productivity stemming from this outbreak again how bad do you think this is going to get what is the government really going to do to help people feel better and secure and like theyre not going to lose everything right now. Well you know the main thing is not to panic you know that thats the bottom line take a deep breath dont panic. You know donald trump our president if you listen to him hes a perfect guy he does everything perfectly so this ought to be you know home for him to get us out of this right. But its time for our break when we return jesse sits down with professor richard wolf for more on the Economic Impact of the corona Virus Outbreak well be right back. The world. Should. Anyone else seem wrong. Why dont we just dont call. Me. Yet to see how this day comes after. And in detroit because the trail. When so many find themselves worlds apart we choose to look for common ground. Im going to. Charge kenny with capital murder even though he didnt have the gun didnt pull the trigger didnt intend to kill anybody magic living in your best for the week with the 23. Days through. The war. Professor Richard Wolfe is a marxist economist cofounder of democracy at work and the author of a new book understanding socialism he joins me now from new york city to talk about the impact of the coronavirus professor well thanks for joining me and let me hit you with a simple question here they talk about this bailout money of trillions of dollars now i was governor of minnesota and we have to operate off of the law said we have to have a balanced budget now the feds dont operate that way but they do operate off our money how can they give us bailout money when its our money to begin with and what are they going to deprive by giving this money or does it simply just go on to the machinable debt. Ok jesse glad to be here and hope that i can shed some light on all of this you have to keep in mind that the government has 2 major agencies that carry out Economic Policy one is the Treasury Department directly under the president and the other one is our central bank in the United States which is called the Federal Reserve system the treasury can only spend money that comes into the government either as taxes or as money borrowed from anyone in the World Americans of foreigners who will lend to it so when you heard the other day about a Stimulus Program 2. 00 plus trillion dollars that is the treasury and thats what its going to spend and it is not going to tax us for it because that would pull money out of the economy equivalent to what the government is going to spend so thats a wash so what in fact it means is that the government which is already in record debt is going of borrow money from us to spend on us in this society if that sounds a little crazy good then you understand that you and i live this despair thats crazier than ever number 2 the Federal Reserve our central bank in other countries its called things like the bank of england or the bank of france we dont call it that thats for historical reasons but its the same institution that we call the Federal Reserve their job is to manage the Monetary System of the United States and that means 2 things. To control as much as they can how much money is in circulation and number 2 what the Interest Rates off the terms on which a lender and a borrower strike a deal the Federal Reserve is basically for free to create as much money as they think the economy needs. Federal reserve board 12 people led by a man named powell that you know of they sit around they have a staff they make that decision they can basically theres some constraints but not many they can basically print as many dollar bills a 100. 00 bills as they see fit mint as many coins as they see fit create as many Bank Accounts with the stroke of a computer of touchpad as they see fit and so they have created trillions of dollars over the last few weeks but those are in addition to in step with her on this stimulus plan which is a borrowing in order to stimulate the economy when you put the 2 together. What you need to understand is that it says sign that the breakdown of our economy now is on up car with the Great Depression of the 1930 years this is already what we are into and were just at the beginning as bad a breakdown of the capitalist Economic System as we have seen it is there for something to take im afraid i have to say this to you in all honesty dreadfully serious leak and it means that on top of the threat to our health of the virus we now have a threat to our economic viability because our Economic System failed to foresee this failed to prepare for it failed to cope with it in its ear