File photo shows Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr. is making a speech in October, 2005, in Washington, US.

Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr. is an American political activist and founder of various political organizations in the United States and elsewhere. He is perhaps best known for being a "perennial candidate" for U.S. Presidency, having set a minor record for most consecutive attempts at the office by running eight times; Harold Stassen ran for President nine times, but not consecutively. LaRouche has run for the Democratic nomination for President in every election year since 1980, including in 1992 while he was in prison. Yet he and his "LaRouche movement" have gained only limited electoral support, although he has received some support in Democratic presidential primaries.

Although he has no formal qualifications, LaRouche has written extensively on economic, scientific, political, and cultural topics. Critics consider him to be a conspiracy theorist and political attention-seeker. He is frequently described as an extremist, cult leader, a communist, a fascist, and an anti-Semite, all of which he denies. LaRouche is regarded by his followers as a brilliant individual who for political reasons has been unfairly persecuted.

In 1988 LaRouche was sentenced to fifteen years imprisonment for conspiracy, mail fraud, and tax code violations. He continued his political activities from behind bars. He was released in 1994 on parole after having served five years.

LaRouche lists his formal position as a director and contributing editor of the Executive Intelligence Review News Service, a core part of the LaRouche movement.

Recently Yong Tang, People's Daily Online Washington-based staff writer, has conducted an exclusive interview with LaRouche at his home in Virginia.





Yong Tang: It is quite well know that you don't like Wall Street. Do you think we should use stocks?

LaRouche: No, we shouldn't. Or similar things. We create something, like financial derivatives. It's a fantastic area. It's gambling.

Yong Tang: Does that mean Wall Street should be wiped out?

LaRouche: Wall Street should be put into an insane asylum. And let them play their games in an insane asylum where they won't affect the world. Get them pieces of paper. They can play their games every day. But they're locked in there, so they don't affect the world outside. It's insane.

Yong Tang: But the invention of stocks is an economic miracle.

LaRouche:(Laughs) Like the fellow who goes through a gambling casino.

Yong Tang: China is trying to learn from America in developing a better security exchanges system.

LaRouche:These people are gamblers, are thieves, they're murderers. These people are the ultimate criminals on this planet.

Yong Tang: Are you a stock-holder yourself? Have you any bought any stocks?

LaRouche: I did once, but it won't happen again.

Yong Tang: You did it once, and you didn't win.

LaRouche: That was the time when it was safe to do so.

Yong Tang: So you are unhappy with the stock market.

LaRouche: The stock market I can do without. We don't need it.

Yong Tang: You don't need the stock market!

LaRouche: You don't need a gambling hall. Look at the United States. it gives you an idea. If you look at the United States you'll find over the past period, especially the past quarter century, the spread of legalized gambling in the United States. And state governments will come in and say, ``We have to have legalized gambling.'' Legalized gambling! As a source of income for the state.

Yong Tang: Many people say gambling is a good idea, isn't it?

LaRouche: [Laughs]

Yong Tang: Have you ever been to Las Vegas?

LaRouche: I've been through there, but I didn't stay.

Yong Tang: It's very prosperous! The State of Nevada makes a lot of money.

LaRouche: If the food comes in to be eaten by the predator, the predator gets fat as long as the fools come in to be eaten. So Las Vegas looks prosperous. Who runs it? Gangsters. They're all gangsters. Organized crime people.

Yong Tang: A lot of gamblers come from Asia, especially from China. So they just get a lot of money from Asia, and from China.

LaRouche: It's a notorious Chinese disease, the gambling disease. And any government in China has to be afraid of the gambling disease, because they're afraid people get taken over by the gambling disease which can lead to a disaster for the nation. And this is why there is a danger for China in the stock market.

Yong Tang: But it's the only way for remote places like Las Vegas or Nevada to be prosperous.

LaRouche: But this is not good for the economy. Look at the way this works. I was down on a consulting job in 1957 in Cuba. They had the Cuban Development Company. The Pimento Bank had a proposal from the government, not the Castro government but the Batista government for financial development of the shoe industry. So I went down there, as I was an expert in the area, one of my expertises, as a consultant to advise the bank on how to deal with this offer. And we all knew that the Batista Government was finished. So I said, yes, we should help the industry, but we should not let the Batista government steal the money. Give them the assistance by credit, but don't give them any money.

So I went down there and I stayed in the Hotel Nacional. And the Hotel Nacional is actually a gambling casino run by Clark. When Castro took over, Clark the gambling institution left Havana. So what you're seeing in Las Vegas is what left Havana. It's organized crime. These people are thieves. They're murderers. Real criminality.

Yong Tang: Do you see how to reform the Wall Street system?

LaRouche: It's very simple. We, the United States, have a tradition, the constitutional system, We are a federal government system. We are a federal system, under a presidential system. You see, European governments are not real governments. They are governments that are under the control of the so-called independent central banking systems. The central banking system controls the government. So the government is not really sovereign. It is a parliamentary system under which the financiers and the bankers control the government through a central banking system.

In our system we are a national banking system under the Constitution. We violate that with the Federal Reserve system. But our Constitution, our institutions, are presidential. So therefore, if we have a problem, as Roosevelt did, you look at Franklin Roosevelt's government and what he did. Roosevelt is a true American. And what he did represents the American System. Those who attack him are the enemies of the American System.

Whenever the people of the United States turn to their government and say ``Save us,'' if the government responds, we're going to respond with a presidential system. Under a presidential system, we will do what Roosevelt did, the kind of things he did. The government will put things into bankruptcy, reorganize things, create credit, regulate things in order to make sure that things that are useful to the nation will prosper, and things that are not useful to the nation will not prosper. So we make the laws accordingly. So those things which are useful to the nation, which solve the problems of the nation, will be helped. We will create the credit to help them. Those things which are bad for the nation, we will destroy, simply by law. We will make it difficult for them to function. We will tax them, we will do various things, and they will not prosper.

Yong Tang: How can you tax them?

LaRouche: We will have a prohibitive tax. Our system is a system of regulation. We are not a money system. We are a physical economy system. We use money as a medium of exchange, but we regulate the money. We regulate the way it's used. Because we have a national purpose, which is the purpose of the benefit of our nation and our people. And whenever a patriotic government gets into a crisis, as Roosevelt did, that's what we do. So, in the case of Wall Street, we don't shut it down. We allow it to function. But we give it rules by which it functions. And if it doesn't obey the rules, it goes to jail. If it obeys the rules, fine. Almost like Chinese thinking.

By Yong Tang, People's Daily Online Washington-based Staff Writer