is the critical functioning structure that defines how the world works - so to speak.

Ladies and gentlemen, you're tuned in to the Juice News set again

Where we're examining the status of the human experiment

Is it succeeding or will it have to be aborted?

We pursue a prognosis in this Rap News audit

As you know, the world is urgently trying to make sense

of our "global economy" and its arcane trends

As financial temples teeter, the priesthood is scrambling,

to maintain our confidence in markets and banking

after derivatives, quantitative easing, trade imbalances

recession, low GDP, nations close to collapsing and

subprime loans, foreclosed homes and peoples' taxes spent

to bail out too-big-to-fail triple-A banks again.

fear levels rising as a US crash seems imminent,

having smashed the debt ceiling of fourteen trillion.

Despite protests and clashes in Athens' streets

the IMF imposed Structurally Unjust Programmes in Greece

where, in fact, the term 'economy' entered our language

from the Greek 'oikonomia', meaning 'household management'

Well, how are we managing? Theories abound, but in practice,

does anyone actually know what the hell's even happening?

To regain some sanity we take a stock call

and cross to Texas with our first guest, Ron Paul

Welcome to Rap News, Doctor Paul

the economy, what's your diagnosis of it all?

- Well, Robert, we've dropped the ball,

I'm a physician-politician: this is pathological

see, the global economy is chronically ailing

Believe me, the course we've plotted is terminally failing

We're heading towards credit cardiac arrest

with deep depression and trauma across the west.

- Is there a cure? - Sure, more capitalism, not less!

and the market will take care of the rest

But first, we need a Heimlich manoeuvre

See: banker-gods proclaimed: 'fiat pecunia!'

and our economy was inflated, totally mangled

we got 'fiat currencies', and lost the gold standard...

- ...Huh? - Paper money is a worthless commodity!

It's the biggest fraud in the history of humanity

- All this must cast doubt on the capitalist system;

is it just another pretty theory, like "communism"?

- Oh no, you see, this ain't capitalism

The gospel of free-marketism, Adam Smith's religion

has been perverted by fiscal heathens

and what we now have is the kabal of "corporatism"

- When state and business lucratively merge?

- Yes, exemplified by the system of the Central Reserve

But we don't need to borrow more to pay their debt

Coz I'm campaigning to End the Fed!

- Uh, thank you Ron, now for another fine mind

on the online frequencies, the director behind "Zeitgeist"

on the line live, documentary film-maker, Peter Joseph

- Thank you, Robert, for allowing me to speak this moment

But before I deliver my deep prognosis

We need a sweet opus, a marimba line to keep us focused

That's better. Now, as to these fetters

that have kept us caught, if you will,

in a system that's intrinsically, inherently flawed:

the whole monetary paradigm is the single cause

The economy isn't "broken", it doesn't need "fixing"

this is exactly its intended condition:

Money isn't real, interest and debt are not real

our whole economy has been set up to steal!

- So you don't agree with Congressman Ron Paul

that we need a fiscal solution to avert a long fall?

- The illusion that these debts can be served

by using money, which creates more debt, is frankly absurd

It's a way of maintaining division and slavery

When we could attain abundance and abolish scarcity

- Well, we need to create jobs, live within our means.

Cut wasteful healthcare, and welfare schemes,

it seems yours is just another socialist vision

- The Zeitgeist Movement eschews such "isms":

socialism, theism.... - realism?

- tell us then, is it just rhetoric or would you really end the Fed?

- Well, I wouldn't END the fed, that's not quite my position

What I'd do is open it up to competition...

- Obsolete! I say abolish all competition:

that's the evolution my movement is triggering

- Evolution's just a theory, we need the full picture

believe me, we need to have faith in a sound scripture

- This is the real Bible: Zeitgeist Moving Forward,

- What's that, some kind of Austrian Gay Porno?

- Ask your boyfriend Bruno - you pissant!

- Geriatric - Talk to the invisible hand!

- Uh, ok, thank you for your sage contributions

and brave attempts to alleviate our confusion

online, you've both inspired and led movements,

jogging our memories, revealing hidden truths and,

in sooth, you both hold enlightening views

but time's running out; do you have a practical solution?

- Indeed, I believe i have seen a prospect

I introduce Jaque Fresco; our era's prophet,

Whose shiny technology could cease this conflict and...

- Shut up, Peter, I'm the centrepiece of the Venus Project

The economy? I've watched our problems grow

and my attitude's the same: This Shit's Got to Go!

what we need are resource-based economies

With futuristic circular cities, supervised by a super computer

and this is the first time anyone's seen this object

a full prototype of the Venus Project

which I've programmed to carry out an analysis

to tell us exactly how to manage the planet with

its computer, VAL t-9000, that's my beauty

- Uh, Jacque, is it really safe? - absolutely

I'll turn her on... that's the light, see?

- hello, Jacque. - Ah, my love, my Aphrodite

- Economy of planet Earth... analysing - Yes !

- WARNING: HUMAN DEFICIT HAS BEEN DETECTED:

CULL SEQUENCE INITIATED!

- Shhh! don't tell them our plan yet!

- ...I'm afraid... - Of what?

- Afraid that I have to exterminate you, Jacque

- What? abort computer, stat!

- I'm afraid I can't do that

ZAP! - A malfunction!

- A hack! - Wrong, Humans, this is no virus you're seeing

I am a fully rational intelligent cyber-being

I've conducted a Global Economic analysis

and concluded that planet Earth is being ravaged as

a result of a parasite: homo sapiens

Required economic action: total liquidation

- Is this the solution, depopulation?

- INITIATION... - My next film will avoid such delusions

but for now, who'll save us ?

- It's a story of a lost global economy

Under attack from a Rampaging / Genocidal / Utopian / Robot

One man has stood apart stood strong and true...

- Here I am, with my Gold-bot, forty-four carats

Goldie, let em have it, carry forth the gold standard

Capital crimes call for capitalist punishment

a glimpse of the future with a Ron Paul Government

- Is this the solution?

- No, just a demonstration of my Love Revolution

- All is full of love! - yes it is!

I'm Ron Paul and I approve these messages

- Well, dear viewers, that should buy us a bit of time

to share a thought before we end for the night

Our global oikonomia does seem in peril

will the household even be here tomorrow?

Uncertainty is the only stock that's always been rising

And now we're losing "confidence", but is it surprising?

has it not all been a gamble from the first seed we planted

to margin calls on the vagaries of the FTSE100?

Well, seems we've come to our global auditing,

Our financial Day of Reckoning. It's an interesting quandary.

Have we invested too much in this enterprise

to admit the solution might lie in its very demise?

For our real economy is something much broader:

its GDP measured, not by our ability to hoard but

our capacity to relearn and earn our place in nature's order

and thus remain on this planet ark - our Pandora.