Analyst of geopolitics and foreign policy, Craig B. Hulet talked about how corporate interests now dominate over governments, and the fallout we're seeing from this around the world. He characterized the US as a surveillance state, and bemoaned the loss of personal liberties; yet the public, suffering from the recession, has not made much of an outcry, he observed. Regarding military conflicts, America will go to war "over and over again, for only one purpose, and that is the self-interest of the wealthy, and most powerful corporations," he commented. In the years to come, Hulet believes we'll see a violent reaction of citizens against the corporate government that is "as feudal as anything the Middle Ages ever produced." Of the 100 largest economies in the world, 51 of them are corporations, not nation states, he added.

Discussing the recent attack in Libya, he suggested that it was well planned and was essentially unrelated to the controversial American film that has been protested there. The Muslim people are objecting to the American corporate government's control in their region, he argued. Archer Daniels Midland and Monsanto, and a host of other US and western corporations, are buying up land in North Africa, running the locals off, and planning enormous farms and use of infrastructure there, he reported. Further, he said that military hardware that's being pulled out of Iraq and Afghanistan is going to Italy (so that the US can be prepared to invade North Africa via Libya) and Uzbekistan (to serve as a buffer between Russia and China, when the US takes over Iran).

Hulet's vision of America in the next 15 years is as a kind of "high tech medieval feudalism based on the ancient principles of mercantilism. There'll be no free enterprise, but there will be a bizarre kind of managed competition. But for the folks down here at the bottom, there's nothing more autocratic than the corporatism that the largest multi-nationals practice." This corporate government has every corner of the world mapped out for their control, and is capable of crushing anyone who gets in their way, he lamented.

Financial Analysis & Advice

First hour guest, author and former investment banker, John Talbott, talked about the ongoing economic crisis, and how to protect yourself financially. After the 2008 collapse, the banks should have been restructured, he declared. But instead, the sanctity of every dollar invested in the banks was preserved, and now everybody else is suffering, with the economy swimming in debt, he said. The largest US banks manage some two trillion in assets each, but going into the crisis they were leveraged some 30 to 1 on their money, he pointed out. One suggestion he made, is for people to look closely at their bank statements, as sometimes fees are added on without their knowledge or consent, and many customers just let this slip by.

News segment guests: Douglas Hagmann, Lauren Weinstein