Ohio's `Straight Talk Live' Radio
Interviews `the Legendary Lyndon LaRouche'
Lyndon LaRouche was interviewed April 26 on radio host Khari Enaharo's "Straight Talk Live" broadcast on Magic 98.9 in Columbus, Ohio. Here is an edited and abridged transcript. PDF version, including graphics.
Enaharo: Good morning! And welcome to Straight Talk Live. We've got a lot to cover in this next hour with the world-renowned expert on economics and a whole bunch of other things.
But let me open up by saying, economic demand is falling faster than any time since the 1930s. Inventories have been trimmed, and budgets cut to muddle through the down times. Foreign trade has slowed to a crawl, auto sales are down by 40%, some say even more now. Unemployment is rising, at 650,000 per month. Policymakers have pushed through an $800 billion stimulus plan, but it won't be nearly enough, many say, to stop the steady rise in unemployment, or take up the slack in the economy, where industrial output has been cut in half; some say even less than that. New construction has dropped to record lows; manufacturing has fallen off a cliff, and economists warn that when the government doesn't step in to provide stimulus to increase aggregate demand, consumers cut back sharply on spending, and push the economy deeper into a depression.
Joining me to discuss this, is the legendary Lyndon LaRouche, who said, on July 25, 2007 in a worldwide webcast, and I quote: "There is no possibility of a non-collapse of the present financial system. None! It's finished now! The present financial system cannot continue to exist under any circumstances, under any Presidency, under any leadership, or any leadership of nations. Only a fundamental and sudden change in the world monetary financial system will prevent a general immediate chain-reaction type of collapse, at what speed we don't know, but it will go on, and it will be unstoppable! And, the longer it goes on before coming to an end, the worse it will get."
Mr. LaRouche, how are you doing?
LaRouche: Well, I'm holding up; the country's not doing too well.
A Collapsing Global System
Enaharo: Talk to me. Now, we've got a lot of things I want to talk about, covering that. But before we even get to the collapse of the system: You mentioned on your website—I just saw it, and I've been following it very closely—the swine flu outbreak. You're saying that this could—and I remember you mentioning that one of the things that the world leaders, the British as you say, wanted to do, was to cut the world population dramatically. Are we beginning to the see the beginning of a widespread pandemic, or is it possible that this could be the thing that they're putting in place to make that happen?
LaRouche: Well, you've got an epidemic condition, more than any one disease. What's happening is, the feeding of the population, the health care of the population, the physical conditions of life, are all presently in such a form that disease is spreading, all kinds of disease is spreading in an epidemic form internationally. It's a global economic breakdown crisis which is the principal cause of this.
Enaharo: Now, when you say "global economic breakdown crisis," what do you mean?
LaRouche: That the present financial system can not exist in any form. The only chance is to create a new economic system—which we could do on a dime, if we wanted to—to get us out of this mess. But the present system, the present financial system with all its bailout features especially, can not survive. And either we change the system, or we don't survive.
Enaharo: Now, when you say we don't survive, you're talking about the entire world is crashing down?
LaRouche: I'm talking about an intention, by the British monarchy, explicitly said, the World Wildlife Fund: The intention is to reduce the present world population from over 6.5 billion people to less than two.
Enaharo: Whooaa! Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! You mean that—now isn't that Prince Philip?
LaRouche: Yep, that's him....
Enaharo: What can we do? What steps should be taken right now, to get us out of this?
LaRouche: Well, if the President of the United States wished to save the nation, he has the power to launch proposals with other nations, and this would include Russia, China, India, other countries. We could have an international change in economic policy, and by that cooperation, we could reverse this trend.
Enaharo: What kind of change would that be?
LaRouche: He'd have to say, "First of all, stop the bailout." If my proposals had been carried out, that I made back in July of 2007, we would have been out of the mess by the Fall of the year. But what happened instead of taking those kinds of measures, what they did, is, they went with this process which we call bailout. The bailout has simply created a lot of money to bail out a bunch of thieves—Wall Street and similar types around the world—instead of trying to save the economic system. They're shutting down our industries; they're shutting down our agriculture; shutting down our infrastructure; breaking up, ruining our health-care system. So, all the things which are happening now, are things which, if they are allowed to continue, will put this world into chaos internationally.
Insane Economic Policies
Enaharo: If you were talking to President Obama right now, what would you say to him?
LaRouche: [chuckles] I'd probably say to him, "C'mon, cut it out, kiddo. Wake up! Get these bankers out! Get out of these crazy ideas."
Enaharo: Now, you've talked about these behavioral economists, that are developing economic policy, like Larry Summers, who was the former president of Harvard. You seem, according to your website, that you've got a big problem with them.
LaRouche: Of course. They're terrible. I would say that they have to be fired immediately, or there's no chance that this Administration, Obama—it won't exist; it'll collapse under this crisis. For example, he's still maintaining a surface popularity of about 64%, something like that. But his actual popularity, in terms of the economy, is down to about 35%.
Enaharo: It's 35%? Based on what?
LaRouche: Based on what people just don't like about this economy. They think his policy is crazy; they think the present policies of the United States are crazy. And they're right! ...
Enaharo: It's crazy? Whooa, whoa, whoa, whoa. People love Obama! What do you mean when you say it's crazy?
LaRouche: It's crazy! This policy, this bailout he's going with now, the rate of collapse of mortgages, the rate of evictions, is skyrocketting, and that doesn't have to be the case. But the President has been induced, by Larry Summers and other people, to take this kind of cover-up policy instead of telling the truth. If the President were to tell the truth, he wouldn't have any problem.
Enaharo: So, you want Obama to fire the behavioral economists and get them out of there so that he can move forward. What's wrong with these people?
LaRouche: Well, they're evil, actually. Larry Summers is evil. I know his record, I've known him for a long time. I don't know him personally, but I've followed him. I followed him when he came into the Administration before, the Clinton Administration. And he was the guy who sank Glass-Steagall. It was his sinking of Glass-Steagall that led to this crash. This was back in the last period of the Clinton Administration, while Clinton was in trouble. And Summers took over, and rammed through this cancellation of Glass-Steagall, which had been put in by Roosevelt, to protect us from exactly this kind of problem. Now, he's on record as a thief, from Harvard, where he had a swindle with Russia. And he's on the record on that. The amount of money he's stolen in effect, is enormous, even personally. He's tied to a bunch in Britain who are trying to bring us down.
And Obama's mistake was that trip to London, to kiss the Queen.
Enaharo: What do you mean, his mistake? That's something he had to do. He was going to the G20 summit. Why was that a mistake?
LaRouche: He shouldn't have gone there. He should have simply said, "I'm not going." He should have stuck to the policy he had when the Prime Minister was coming here. He should have stuck to that policy. He went over and kissed the Queen, and it's the British that are sinking us.
The British Empire and Drugs
Enaharo: Now, what's wrong with him paying homage, or acknowledging the Queen? All Presidents have done this.
LaRouche: Well, not good ones.
Enaharo: What? Wait a minute! Maybe I need an understanding. Many people have this view of the Queen as being this kindly old woman, who has led Britain all of these years. What is your problem with the Queen?
LaRouche: She's a poor imitation of the Witch of Endor.
Enaharo: Oh! You calling the Queen a witch! Oh, my goodness!
LaRouche: Well, that's what she is, in effect. She's evil.
Enaharo: Okay, give me documented evidence of her wickedness.
LaRouche: How about drugs?
Enaharo: Okay, let's start with drugs. Go ahead.
LaRouche: The British Empire, since the 1790s, has been running the international drug traffic. And the Queen, as head of state, is responsible for this. For example, let's take Afghanistan. Now, in Afghanistan, a farmer who is working under duress, that is, the gangsters who run this drug operation, force the farmer to grow opium. They say, we'll kill you if you don't. He grows opium. He doesn't get paid much for it. He gets maybe the equivalent of a few hundred dollars a year for his crop. That crop, when it gets into Europe, or the United States, is peddled as opium products for well over $1 million. The dope traffic, just as it was under the British who launched this dope operation against China back in the 1790s when it began. And this thing has been run by the British Empire ever since then.
Enaharo: You mean—whoa, whoa, whoa! We have heard just the opposite, as you well know. We have never heard, except through you guys, that Britain has been associated with any drugs; the British Empire's ever been associated—well, there's something historically, but certainly not now, we haven't heard this.
LaRouche: Oh yeah. This is all the time. It's what you hear about George Soros.
Enaharo: All right, tell me about George Soros.
LaRouche: George Soros is the world's biggest drug pusher, and he does it for the British Crown. He's an agent of the British Foreign Office.
Enaharo: Now, where's the Queen's hand in all of this?
LaRouche: The British monarchy is behind it.
Enaharo: The British monarchy is responsible for the world's drug trade?
LaRouche: Yes.
Enaharo: But wait a minute. We've heard about the guys down in Colombia, we've heard about everywhere else but the British Empire. Is it because they control the media?
LaRouche: Well, that's why I got into a lot of trouble, you know, because I exposed this stuff. And the Colombia thing is run by the British. You see, we had people like George H.W. Bush, who was also complicit in this operation. I had a big fight with George Bush, you know, especially back in the 1980s.
Enaharo: I remember that.
LaRouche: And it over his deal with the drug pushers. He wanted the money!
Enaharo: Oh, my goodness! Whooo! What people don't know! What we really don't know!
Okay, now let me be clear about this. That means that the Queen of England, according to what you're saying, the Queen of England is the number one controller of the illegal drug trafficking on the planet.
LaRouche: Well, as the head of state, she is.
Enaharo: As the head of state, she is. Now, when you say British Empire, give me a definition of what you mean, because I know you're not talking about the nation of Great Britain, are you?
LaRouche: The British Empire is actually an international financial cartel, which happens to control the seat of government of the United Kingdom. It also is the greatest oppressor of Africa. I mean, one of my concerns is, there's only one way to save Africa: the first thing you've got to do is get the British Empire out of there.
Enaharo: Are they running drugs into Africa now?
LaRouche: Not so much drugs; they're killing people. They had a policy. It was a policy Henry Kissinger supported back in the middle of the 1970s. The policy was, Africa has natural resources. "We don't want the population of Africa to increase. We don't want"—we and the British, and that's Kissinger—"We and the British don't want Africa to maintain its present level of population. We want them to reduce their population and not get modern technology. Because we want to conserve the raw materials of Africa for our future use," that is, the British Empire and the United States. That was the policy that Kissinger and others enunciated in the middle of the 1970s, and that is the policy today. The policy today for Africa, is mass murder, and leading elements in the United States are behind it....
A New World Currency?
Enaharo: We've heard a lot about the possibility of a world bank and a new world currency replacing the dollar. What's your take on that?
LaRouche: That it's an idiotic idea. What you have to do is, you have to save the U.S. dollar. But you have to save it according to our Constitution, not according to British ideas. If we put the world into bankruptcy reorganization, under what we in the United States understand as bankruptcy law, we then freeze things that can't be paid, or we cancel them. If they're swindlers, we cancel them. What we have to do also is save our dollar, and save our banking system, under Glass-Steagall standards.
Enaharo: Now, for people who don't know about Glass-Steagall, and there are many people who don't, what was the Glass-Steagall Act?
LaRouche: It said that the regular banks, the banks upon which the economy depends, and the people depend, individually, cannot afford to put their savings at risk because of high-binding Wall Street-type operations. Therefore, Roosevelt introduced the Glass-Steagall Act, which actually is the intention of the Constitution, to prevent banks, real banks, banks of deposit, so-called chartered state and Federal banks, from engaging in Wall Street-type speculative practices, such as Goldman Sucks, as I call it.
Enaharo: Ha, ha, ha! Not Goldman Sachs, Goldman Sucks!
LaRouche: So, what's happened is, that what I proposed, back in 2007, is that the Federal government must look at the general collapse coming on, put the banking system under bankruptcy protection. That means, freeze the situation on these mortgages, until we can sort the thing out. And we have to keep the people in their homes, because we cannot have people evicted from their homes. That's the beginning of the end for the economy....
Enaharo: Now, we're seeing the collapse of the U.S. automobile industry. I mean, I'm even afraid to go out here and buy a new car here from General Motors, because I don't even know if they're going to be around. They're giving me these great guarantees, but they may not be around.
LaRouche: That's right. They're being collapsed; they're being collapsed intentionally. Look, I was involved in this, in reorganizing the auto industry in 2005. At that time, you know, I was involved in defending Social Security. We succeeded in defending that; mobilizing people to do that. But then, in February of [2007], under Pelosi and company, we went in the opposite direction. And we haven't had any decent legislation out of the Congress since February [2007].
Enaharo: Now, wait a minute. You're a Democrat, and yet, you are really angry with Nancy Pelosi, who is the Speaker of the House. Why?
LaRouche: She's no damn good!
Enaharo: [laughs] Okay, why is she no good?
LaRouche: She's just a stooge for these high binders, you know, financial high binders like George Soros, the drug pusher....
Obama Is Heading for Disaster
Caller: I need to ask Dr. LaRouche a couple of questions on Barack. Are you honestly, are you trying to tell the American people that he's not aware of what's going on? I'm concerned with African-Americans. Is he going to help them in the long run, or is he going to end up hurting them in the long run?
LaRouche: That's what I've been trying to get him to change. I've been warning him, scolding him strongly, that what he's doing under the influence of Larry Summers and people like that, and under the British influence, is against the interests of the United States, and against what he said he stood for when he became President. He changed his policy from what it had been when he was still in the United States, when the British visited here. And he went to London, and he kissed their butt.
But I'm still trying to save the guy, but he's headed for disaster.
Caller: African-Americans love him. They worship him. Why can't he see what's happening to them, what's going on in this country?
LaRouche: That's a question I posed; exactly that. You've got to start with the basics, without speculation. What we know is, that his policies are destroying the United States, his current policies. These policies were a change in policy from what he initially stated were his intentions when he became President. So, he underwent a change in policy. The guy who has most of the face-to-face time with the President, is Larry Summers, who is a crook. So, it's Larry Summers who is the strongest influence on the President. My proposal is fire Larry Summers now, while you still have a country to save....
Enaharo: Now, Mr. LaRouche, let me go back a little bit. I want people to try to understand behavioral economics. We're hearing it more and more and more. What is behavioral economics?
LaRouche: It's brainwashing. Mass brainwashing of the population. Trying to fool them.
Enaharo: Give me an example of what you're talking about so it can connect with people.
LaRouche: Well, what they're saying is, the policy now is environmentalist, and the policy is to get people to accept a lower standard of living, even if it means their death. Now, what you have to do is try and find some way to sell that garbage to a credulous population. And that's all it is. You say, "Do you want a choice? You can have a choice. How many deaths do you want? You can have more this way, less this way. Which do you want?" In other words, all they're doing is giving you choices between two bad things, and asking you which is your democratic preference. Do you want to die this way, or do you want to die that way? Do you want to hang yourself, or be shot? It's that kind of policy.
Enaharo: So, in effect, we're being hoodwinked into a sick acceptance of two evils. Is that what you're telling me?
LaRouche: Well, more than that. What I'm saying is, the American people are generally not too courageous. They're worried, they're frightened. Now, you have two layers. You have the upper income brackets, which tend to be, tend to go along with this stuff more. You know, the upper 20% will say, "Look, I'm not a bad person, but I've got to take care of my own interest. I can't take care of all those poor people. I cannot sacrifice my interest for all these poor people. I've got to keep my money. I've got to protect my financial interest. I've got a health-care policy; I've got this. You want me to sacrifice this for those poor people?" That's the policy; that's the way it works. Now, what's happening though, is you'll find—see, the people still defend Obama, because they remember George Bush.
Enaharo: Aah! Good point; good point. Because Bush was so bad.
LaRouche: They were so glad to get rid of this bum....
Enaharo: Mr. LaRouche, should we get rid of the Federal Reserve, or should we keep it?
LaRouche: We should put it in bankruptcy reorganization, and create a Bank of the United States, to re-establish our private banking system under Federal protection....
The Federal government walks in to the Federal Reserve system: "Hey, buddy, we own you. You're bankrupt. We're putting you into bankruptcy reorganization. We're taking all your assets, we're taking them over, we're parking them in a new place under reorganization. We're foreclosing, buddy. You got bankrupt, and we're foreclosing on you, and now everything you have, we own. And we're going to reorganize you."
Enaharo: Mr. LaRouche, how long do we have? At present course, since you have been an accurate predictor of economic issues and how they relate to social issues, if we do not change our present course, how long do we have?
LaRouche: We're on a runaway train, a runaway locomotive, on a track that's crumbling. We don't have any time to waste. We've got to start acting now, not down the line. We don't have any maneuvering room. The disease factor we have now, there's no protection against disease. Our health-care system is disintegrating, under this Administration as it was under the previous administrations. The health-care system is collapsing....
Enaharo: In closing, what do you recommend we do, Mr. LaRouche?
LaRouche: I think we have to have a gut move from people in leadership, who are beginning to move in that direction, to put my measures through. Because there's nothing else on the table, there's nothing else competent on the agenda. And I think there are a lot of people out there who agree with what I'm saying. People of influence. If Obama would simply get rid of this bunch of creeps, there are people in the Administration—that is, on the Cabinet level, and on other levels of the Federal government—there are people in the Administration who will respond to reason and take reasonable action.