World Financial Crisis Redux - Part 2
Thu, 2009-04-23 10:56
#1
N.Beltov
World Financial Crisis Redux - Part 2
Thu, 2009-04-23 11:06
#2
N.Beltov
Prabhat Pathaik has an interesting article exposing the Global Financial Community, its membership, recruitment, and so on. It's interesting reading to see how these things work, what is the pay-off for preaching the ideology of finance capital, how these current oligarchies share the same humbug of finance, and the snow job that is bourgeois democracy.
Bourgeois elections, says the author, are the prelude to a process that ensures what the people vote for counts for nothing. "Winning elections is not enough; defeating this post-election game acquires even greater significance." Certainly in his own country of India, where a million people make a living carrying other people's shit on their heads, where most of the population have no rule of law to speak of, and where the state is viewed as a sinister enemy, elections are a farce. Our farce is less smelly but no less farcical.
Thu, 2009-04-23 21:33
#3
I'm with doug on the big wig from Freddie Mac. We have seen an unusal percentage of important people lately that have died in an "accident" or "suicide" Why wouldn't he have done it months ago. I know I have a tin foil hat, but it is strange.
Sun, 2009-04-26 16:06
#5
"Times are tough for us too," said Karin Ahrens, who manages the Yes, Sir brothel in Hanover. Revenue had dropped by 30 per cent at her establishment, she said, while turnover had fallen by as much as 50 per cent at other clubs. "We're definitely feeling the crisis. Clients are being tight with their money. They're afraid. You can't charge for the extras any more and there is pressure to cut prices."
Mon, 2009-04-27 04:30
#6
Unless this capital is forthcoming, a clutch of countries will prove unable to roll over their debts at a bearable cost. Those that cannot print money to tide them through, either because they no longer have a national currency (Ireland, Club Med), or because they borrowed abroad (East Europe), run the biggest risk of default.
Traders already whisper that some governments are buying their own debt through proxies at bond auctions to keep up illusions – not to be confused with transparent buying by central banks under quantitative easing. This cannot continue for long.
Mon, 2009-04-27 09:34
#7
Central bankers still believe that once the crisis has passed they will return to their pre-2007 roles as apolitical technocrats pulling a single lever and eyeing a single variable. It may be a vain hope. “When you question the basic premise which you have worked under for the last 15 to 20 years, which is that markets are rational and efficient, there is a case for a different approach to both monetary policy and regulation,” says Thomas Mayer, chief European economist of Deutsche Bank.
http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13527329
Sad that took 20 years, but better late than never.
Mon, 2009-04-27 22:04
#8
GM said it will ask the government to take more than 50 per cent of its common stock in exchange for cancelling half the government loans to the company as of June 1. The swap would cancel about $10-billion in government debt.
In addition, GM is offering the United Auto Workers stock for at least 50 per cent of the $20-billion the company must pay into a union run trust that will take over retiree health care expenses starting next year.
If both are successful, the government and UAW health care trust would own 89 per cent of the company's stock, with the government holding more than a 50 per cent stake, GM CEO Fritz Henderson said.
http://business.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090427.wgm0427...
So there it is. GM under public ownership should the government choose to accept it. Though they might not really have the option. Wouldn't previous generations of American poltiicians just have a cow? 
The painful part is that half the jobs at GM will be disappearing.
Tue, 2009-04-28 00:31
#9
And this is almost as depressing
[url=http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=12953]Geithner's 'Dirty Little Secret': The Entire Global Financial System is at Risk[/url] When the Solution to the Financial Crisis becomes the Cause
Dirty secretsThe Geithner Plan, his so-called Public-Private Partnership Investment Program or PPPIP, as we have noted previously is designed not to restore a healthy lending system which would funnel credit to business and consumers. Rather it is yet another intricate scheme to pour even more hundreds of billions directly to the leading banks and Wall Street firms responsible for the current mess in world credit markets without demanding they change their business model. Yet, one might say, won't this eventually help the problem by getting the banks back to health?
Not the way the Obama Administration is proceeding. In defending his plan on US TV recently, Geithner, a protégé of Henry Kissinger who previously was CEO of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, argued that his intent was 'not to sustain weak banks at the expense of strong.' Yet this is precisely what the PPPIP does. The weak banks are the five largest banks in the system.
The 'dirty little secret' which Geithner is going to great degrees to obscure from the public is very simple. There are only at most perhaps five US banks which are the source of the toxic poison that is causing such dislocation in the world financial system. What Geithner is desperately trying to protect is that reality. The heart of the present problem and the reason ordinary loan losses as in prior bank crises are not the problem, is a variety of exotic financial derivatives, most especially so-called Credit Default Swaps.
. . .
Wed, 2009-05-13 11:23
#10
Wed, 2009-05-13 16:00
#11
N.Beltov
What's amazing is how what is called "the sales effort" (by the likes of the late Paul Sweezy et al) is a prerequisite for keeping the current monopoly (or monopoly-finance) capitalism afloat. There's a good article summarizing some of the arguments around the sales effort in a recent Montly Review lead article. Given the dismal results in yesterday's BC election, it may also be worth reminding ourselves that capitalism specializes in this selling activity, spends trillions on it, and wastes huge amount of resources in proping itself up.
People who have travelled to Cuba, e.g., comment on the lack of endless brainwashing in the form of advertising and marketing. Mind you, the French don't allow the same volume of billboard pollution as we North Americans do, and France is still a capitalist country. So there is still plenty of room to make our current society more livable without recourse to fundamental social change.
Wouldn't it be nice if social change was simply the result of good thinking and common sense?
Sat, 2009-05-16 09:00
#12
I attempted to post this as a "New Topic" but all I get is a "Preview" button and no "Submit" button. I can only "Reply" to topics and not create a topic.
I hope nobody minds if I post it here.
Economic Armageddon
By Calm
May 16, 2009
'When I give money to the poor, they call
me a saint. When I ask "why are they poor?" they call me a communist.'
--Archbishop Oscar Romero--
"Get off this estate."
"What for?"
"Because it's mine."
"Where did you get it?"
"From my father."
"Where did he get it?"
"From his father."
"And where did he get it?"
"He fought for it."
"Well, I'll fight you for it."
--Carl Sandburg--
"When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men living in society, they create for themselves, in the course of time, a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it."
--Frederic Bastiat, "The Law" (1850)--
DAVID KAY: [Iraq] was really spinning into a vortex of corruption from the very top in which people were lying to Saddam, lying to each other for money; the graft and how much you could get out of the system rather than how much you could produce was a dominant issue.
--Tom Brokaw interviews David Kay, U.S. Weapons Inspector, January 26, 2004--
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4066462
I think that this "financial crisis" is a direct result of a deliberate and calculated fraud.
We can't admire the American "Success" while at the same time suggest that the American's did not plan for this "Success" and that very smart and intelligent furturists within the American government see at least 15 or 25 years into the future.
We can't praise the American "Genius" while at the same time suggest that this economic crisis is the result of stupidity.
The American Capitalist system is a scheme of conceit, delusion, debt and deceit.
When I hear a Christian or Republican supporter praise Ronnie Ray-Gun, I chuckle aloud.
Remember when the chips were down? And, when the economy was crashing through the huge recession of 1980-82-83 .... Where was Ronnie and Nancy to be found?
In the arms of a Tarot Card reader! ..... At the table with the astrologers and cosmic demons .... During the brutal recession of the 1980's, Ray-Gun never reached for his "Christian God" .... Instead, both Ronnie and Nancy were found to be seeking advice from "False Gods" and "Demons" .... something which Ronnie's own bible warned him against .... and this man is said to represent the "Trickle-Down" theory.
http://lifestyle.indiainfo.com/home-living/astrology/reagans-astrology.html
I quite well remember watching an interview with Dick Armey (R-Tx) about 5 years ago. He chuckled aloud mockingly when detailing how the world was giving America goods and services in trade for a simple piece of paper.
In 1982, The Federal debt was $1.142 trillion.
In 1999 the US debt was "only" $3.6 trillion; the government was running a surplus and projecting to pay off the debt by 2015.
--Jacob Steelman, November 13, 2008--
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig9/steelman6.html
When George W. Bush took office in 2001 when the U.S. debt stood at $5.6 trillion.
On September 30, 2007 the U.S. government owed $8.993 trillion.
The 2009 budget plan calls for raising the ceiling to $10.615 trillion
US to borrow 46 cents for every dollar spent
The U.S. government will have to borrow nearly 50 cents for every dollar it spends this year, exploding the record federal deficit past $1.8 trillion under new White House estimates.
By Andrew Taylor
May 11, 2009
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/05/11/national/w06...
Consumer Credit
Federal Reserve Statistical Release
March 2009
http://www.federalreserve.gov/Releases/g19/current
The only reason America "appeared" to be recovering since the 1982 recession is because the Americans borrowed 12 trillion dollars.
Consumers have borrowed 75 Trillion.
American banks polluted the world financial system with 600 Trillion worth of fraudulent derivatives and commerical paper.
And one must not forget that Roosevelt defaulted on American loans in 1930. The Americans have no intention of honouring their debt.
America is spending 7% more then what it earns or produces each year.
The U.S. government has a ton of futurists working and calculating the financial status of the country. Just as Britain knew well in advance of it's decline as a world economic power in 1870 and which did not occur till immediately after World War One, the American's know too that the writing is on the wall as China takes it's place upon the world stage.
The United States was not called a "Great Power" until about 1892.
After the Napoleonic Wars in Europe, (1814-15) there was no power on earth which was greater than the British Empire. "As good as Sterling" was the same as the U.S. dollar or "Greenback" is today. Around 1850, is when the British Empire began it's decline.
An Empire Like No Other
National Review
September 01, 2003
http://olimu.com/Journalism/Texts/Commentary/BritishEmpire.htm
Just as America is doing now, from 1883 to 1913, Britain increased its dependence on imported goods following the introduction of free trade.
About 1870 the German Reich emerged as a new economic player on the map of Continental Europe in the same way that China is doing so at this moment in time. In August 1914, Britain declared war against Germany in an attempt to stop the development of Germany's economy which was a threat to British hegemony.
Immediately following the end of World War I, Britain collapsed as an "Economic Power" and America became the dominant world power. The Balfour agreement (1917) initiated by the British and giving the Jewish Folks a home in Palestine was in return for Jewish Banking assistance during World War I. Britain's World War II costs were financed by American banks and Britain did not complete repayment of these American loans until December 2006.
This housing crisis .... this credit crunch is not a mistake!
But rather a well planned event and is being deliberately engineered.
I don't understand how this financial calamity could be chalked up as "Boom-Bust".
It was a deliberate fraud sanctioned by the American government .... by the American Capitalist System.
This "Total" fraud within the American Capitalist System could not of happened without an "organized" and concerted effort.
Where were the accounting firms such as PricewaterhouseCoopers : Deloitte & Touche : Ernst & Young?
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/04/11
What about the property appraisers and their fraudulent appraisals?
http://www.publicintegrity.org/investigations/luap/articles/entry/1264
Sat, 2009-05-16 09:01
#13
That is how the script was written, that is how it was orchestrated to appear but that is not what caused the crash. The mortgages were just the necessary raw material required for the trade, the leverage, the manipulation and the running of the rouse. It was designed to fail and designed to mask itself behind a wall of plausible deniabilty.
Each Free Trade Agreement which was signed was actually a method or means for the Economic Terrorists to enter the banking systems of every country in the universe. It had nothing to do with manufactured goods. The American's negotiated Free Trade agreements for the unfettered access to foreign banking systems and were then able to pollute other sovereign systems with fictious money.
In doing so, the American's purchased everything on the globe and the collateral used was 6 cents on the dollar. American banks were allowed to finance 40 dollars for each dollar they had on deposit.
This was a deliberate scheme to take possession of every asset (oil and mineral deposits) on the globe prior the collapse of empire. And worse .... with the collapse of the American Capitalist system, the American's will still be allowed to retain ownership of all these assets even though they were obtained in a fraudulent manner.
The American's have no intention of repaying any of their outstanding loans.
Greenspan went from one bubble to another during his time as the Federal Reserve chairman. Somebody compared his chairmanship as a guy riding around in a bumper car and when he hit one bubble-barrier, he careened off into another.
Since at least 1980, the American's have been on a "Kamakaze Mission" of sorts. They became suicidal as so many past empires have done prior their collapse. (Britain and the Dutch empires.) Before America collapsed as an empire, they were prepared to take the whole world down with them.
And in the background .... while all this financial fraud was taking place, and when Western populations felt secure and dreamed of a prosperous future, the governments were introducing laws under the guise of "Anti-Terror" and setting the stage for the imposition of Martial Law.
It was necessary to have the economic situation appear to be successful so that all the domestic surveillance laws could be introduced without suspicion being cast upon governments and having citizens feel that it was not a reaction to street riots and civil unrest.
The housing boom was instigated because it created employment for 60% of the American workforce. This contruction also bailed out the retail sector.
It was Bill Clinton who first introduced the Patriot Act and appointed a "domestic military czar". Clinton and his furturists recognized the decline of the American empire.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PDD-62
During the 60's and when the young people formed a "Movement", the Ruling Class introduced the term "Druggie" in the same way they introduced the term "Terrorist" today. Both terms were created by fear and both terms allowed the Ruling Class an opportunity of "Police Actions" against what was said to be a threat.
All the "Toys" which the Ruling Class required to control uprisings and civil unrest are in place now. Every police force has been militarized and every city has a SWAT team.
There is no "Terrorist" threat! The "Terrorist" is only a replacement word for "Druggie".
There must be at least 100 million Western tourists trippin' around the Middle East each and every day. None are being attacked by crazed Muslims! You woudld think that if Muslims were on the rampage, tourists would be getting killed by the dozens.
Airport security is a hoax!
If anybody wanted to bring America to a standstill, all they need to do is attack the railway system. 80% of all goods and products in America are transported by rail and not by plane. Every type of hazardous chemical is transported by rail and most railways run right through the downtown section of every city in America. Chemicals being transported by rail are some of the most deadly chemicals known to mankind.
When rioting and civil unrest break out, the "No Fly" list will have every union leader and every "Professional" protest organizers name listed. There are a million or more activists names on the No-Fly list. The Ruling Class does not want people trippin' around the country organizing protests.
It is protests which are capable of bankrupting any city within America.
Remember the recent immigrant protests which took place in 2006 during the government discussions of the immigration problems and the introduction of legislation in Washington?
These protesters shut down New York and Los Angeles overnight! Had the protests continued for a week, thousands of business establishments would of been bankrupt.
We can expect to see a huge increase of religious orientated television programming in TV Land.
It is very important for the Ruling Class to sell all the Poor Folks a conscience.
As the Rich Folks walked by the homeless people and sneered for the past 25 years, it is the Rich Folks who are now terrified about being strung-up on lamp posts out behind some gas station or in some sinister dark alley.
We can expect a huge amount of "good news" coming out of churches and other religious enities. The worse the economy gets, the more religion (the more conscience) the establishment will sell. The Rich Folks gotta sell the Poor Folks a conscience so that the Poor Folks won't strike out at the Rich Folks in anger. The CBC will be broadcasting shows about every God and every religion in the universe. The military and SWAT teams must be shown as "Guardian Angels". The History Channel will start up the Hogan Heros series again and more re-runs of Ann Frank and The Boys. Re-runs of Schindler's List are better than talking about the Swindler's List.
The truth about the American Capitalist System Collapse is right here
"Capitalism will never fail because socialism will always be there to bail it out."
--Ralph Nader--
Capitalism without losses is like religion without hell.
Capitalism is the theory that the worst people, acting from their worst motives, will somehow produce the most good.
--William Blum, October 01, 2008--
Sat, 2009-05-16 09:03
#14
First they blamed the Poor People for being too greedy .... and then they sit before a congressional committee and tell some truth.
Rating Agencies
Committee Holds Hearing on the Credit Rating Agencies and the Financial Crisis
Corporate Accountability
Chairman Henry A. Waxman
October 22, 2008
http://oversight.house.gov/story.asp?ID=2250
http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/446/index.html
(Flash Video)
http://oversight.house.gov/story.asp?ID=2258
Where were the rating agencies?
S&P: Moody's : Fitch ?
The rating service employees knew they were acting fraudulently.
Employees at Moody's Investors Service told executives that issuing dubious creditworthy ratings to mortgage-backed securities made it appear they were incompetent or "sold our soul to the devil for revenue,'' according to e-mails obtained by U.S. House investigators.
The Securities and Exchange Commission in a July report found the credit-rating companies improperly managed conflicts of interest and violated internal procedures in granting top rankings to mortgage bonds.
An e-mail that a S&P employee wrote to a co-worker in 2006, obtained by committee investigators, said, "Let's hope we are all wealthy and retired by the time this house of cards falters.''
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=ac8Bkp_7F4Rc
The same Establishment Class are losing 3 trillion dollars in one single government department and we are now being asked to trust these Economic Terrorists to rate bonds and securities.
Dov S. Zakheim
During his term as Comptroller, he was tasked to help track down the Pentagon's 2.6 trillion dollars ($2,600,000,000,000) worth of unaccounted transactions
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dov_S._Zakheim
Would you trust any financial document or transaction originating from the American Capitalist System? And, if the rating agencies begin to lower the credit ratings or worthiness of banking financial documents .... just who decides how much to cut? Just how exagerated are the present ratings on U.S. securities? Ratings manipulations seemed to be quite pervasive within the rating companies. It seems that every credit rating agency was in on the "Joke" and just continued floating worthless paper around the universe. Once the American Capitalists begin to manipulate the credit ratings system, that spelled doom for the system itself.
This program discussed the Senate Hearings:
Credit and Credibility
What role did the credit rating agencies play in the current economic crisis? This week, a former managing director at Standard & Poor's speaks out on U.S. television for the first time about how he was pressured to compromise standards in a push for profits. Frank Raiter reveals what was really going on behind closed doors at the credit rating agencies the public relies on to evaluate the safety of their investments.
"During this period, profit was primary; analytics were secondary," Raiter tells NOW Senior Correspondent Maria Hinojosa.
Who was watching the watchers? Surprising new revelations about the economic debacle, this week on NOW.
PBS NOW
Host David Brancaccio
Correspondent Maria Hinojosa
November 21, 2008
http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/446/index.html
Debt Watchdogs: Tamed or Caught Napping?
By Gretchen Morgenson
December 07, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/07/business/07rating.html
"These errors make us look either incompetent at credit analysis or like we sold our soul to the devil for revenue, or a little bit of both." --A Moody's managing director responding anonymously to an internal management survey, September 2007--
Sat, 2009-05-16 09:07
#15
Every week the government is introducing anti-terror laws and biker-gang (private courtrooms) across the country .... I expect to see soldiers patrolling the streets of our major cities by next summer at the latest.
The media is calling it "Populism" ..... because they don't want to use "Class War". The A.I.G. executives will need their millions in bonus money because they need to pay for 24-7 security. People are standing on the street, right in front of A.I.G. homes and protesting. The Rich Folks can't enjoy their wealth anymore.
The media is working overtime to "Personalize" the economy and not discuss the "System" itself. The media is placing blame on individuals and attacking the credibility of individuals and not the System itself. They want everyone to be angry at people and not the system. It is not that the "System" is corrupt .... it is just a few "Mistaken" or "Negligent" or "Stupid" or sometimes "Greedy People" .... The System is just fine .... The "System" needs no tinkering at all .... We just had the wrong people in charge .... The media will never be seen as attacking the very system which feeds them. CNN has a CIA desk in New York and it is a companionship. Obama is only "Managing" the collapse of the American Empire. Obama is only trying to save the "System" and not the "Economy".
I remember when Obama was running for the Democratic Pary Leadership and where he spoke about people being angry and wanting their guns. The press jumped up and down and demeaned any notion that people were angry .... They did not want the election to be about anger .... The day after the election, the whole world press is telling everybody just how angry people are. It was only after Bush and The Clowns lost almost every seat they had .... it was only then that the media told us that people were angry. A huge surprise .... But the press knew just how angry people were. They were getting a zillion e-mail's each and every day from angry people.
The terrorists of tomorrow will be called "Populist Fanatics" ..... every police department in the contry is wiretapping every known activist in Canada. Especially during the Olympics in Vancover this summer. There could be huge demonstrations against corporations. Perhaps huge campus demonstrations and sit-ins at parliamentary offices.
There is going to be huge unrest all across the world.
The Rich Folks are "Terrified" .... That why all the anti-terror laws have been introduced. They will use these same laws to lock up protest organizers and use the NoFly List to control their movements and allow the Rich Folks to travel without abuse and violence pounded upon them. The Rich Folks need to travel directly onto the airport runway and get on their planes without being harassed.
Every government across the universe is increasing military spending .... because military spending is "Socialism" at it's best .... where defense department jobs are totally paid for by the government. The military industrial complex is the purest form of socialism on the face of this earth. A totally subsidized lifestyle paid for by the government. Their pension and healthcare plans only the best .... and they will kill anybody who threatens that. The military will pepper spray and kill any protester who insists on the same type of socialism that the military complex itself enjoys. The military complex and SWAT members love their own Socialism and anybody who thinks otherwise is an Anti-Capitalist and deserves a hit of pepper spray.
America will be given a choice .... default on their loans or find a place to go to war and create jobs. America will go to war to protect the "System" and the "Credit Rating" Folks. Obama is all about "Fix" and never was about "Change". He does not intend to "Change" the "System" .... He is just gonna tinker around the edges .... He is just gonna try and "Fix" things. (And everything remains the same.)
We are entering the worst of times.
The media (the establishment) are doing their utmost to fill the air waves with "positive" news. It is very important in times of distress to have the Sheeple convinced that everything is under control. Also; Canadian politicans love hiding behind American politicians. The more American news being piped into Canadian homes would mean the less demands there are for Canadian politicians to take center stage. Our Canadian politicians just sit around with their fingers up their noses and let the American media do all the talking for them. As if on cue, once a week Harper and The Clowns take center stage and brag about spending another billion .... then it's back to American-Obama 24-7.
Also; When the U.S. economy collapses and America needs a new currency, it will probably be the Amero, a North American currency. If this is the plan, then it would be important for the Canadian media to stream American TV into Canadian homes 24-7. In order for Canadians to walk away from the Canadian dollar, we would need to feel "North American" and not Canadian.
Calm
Sat, 2009-05-16 23:47
#16
The military industrial complex is the purest form of socialism on the face of this earth. A totally subsidized lifestyle paid for by the government. Their pension and healthcare plans only the best ...
You can say that again. It's a self contained socialist economy propped up by taxpayers. They always resort to socialism when something needs doing right.
Sun, 2009-05-17 15:47
#17
If there was anybody who should have avoided the mortgage catastrophe, it was I. As an economics reporter for The New York Times, I have been the paper's chief eyes and ears on the Federal Reserve for the past six years. I watched Alan Greenspan and his successor, Ben S. Bernanke, at close range. I wrote several early-warning articles in 2004 about the spike in go-go mortgages. Before that, I had a hand in covering the Asian financial crisis of 1997, the Russia meltdown in 1998 and the dot-com collapse in 2000. I know a lot about the curveballs that the economy can throw at us.
But in 2004, I joined millions of otherwise-sane Americans in what we now know was a catastrophic binge on overpriced real estate and reckless mortgages. Nobody duped or hypnotized me. Like so many others - borrowers, lenders and the Wall Street dealmakers behind them - I just thought I could beat the odds.
New York Times economics reporter owns up to hosing himself
Sun, 2009-05-17 18:55
#18
Doug,
The reporter reveals his continued ignorance of money with that article.
He says he was not stingy enough, doing only little things like skipping lunch. He was skipping lunch on a salary of $120,000 a year !!!
The problem are his relationship partner. His first wife took a gargantuan ~70% of his salary as alimony, and then with the second wife he went out of his way to spend money to impress her.
I wonder how much of the remaining 30% he gets to keep when they divorce.
This man was doomed in any economic climate. It's really a bad article to put out there in my opinion, because there's a whole lot of people who were primarily victims of this mortgage system, rather than the housing bust being merely the final nail in the coffin like with this guy.
Sun, 2009-05-17 19:02
#19
[url=http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=13619]Witches, hobbits, and fire[/url]
Hansel and Gretel is quite a gruesome tale. In it, the family is starving, and the mother persuades the father to take Hansel and Gretel into the forest and leave them. They make their way to a house made of gingerbread and candy owned by a witch. The witch decides to fatten up Hansel and eat him, but Gretel tricks the old lady into getting inside a cooking stove to check the temperature. Gretel slams the door shut, the witch burns up, then, after helping themselves to the witch's collection of jewels and gold coins, the children find their way back home. Their mother has died, but they and their father now are able to live in a degree of comfort "happily ever after."
All the old fairy tales are symbolic, so naturally, as a monetary reformer, I view the witch with her treasures as a symbol of how the peasants of olden days regarded the money lenders who fattened themselves through usury while the people starved. . .
Thu, 2009-05-21 14:22
#20
UK facing credit rating downgrade
Ratings agency Standard & Poor's lowered the outlook to negative from stable. A lower rating would mean that S&P believes Britain is no longer fit to be in the club of top creditworthy nations, undermining its critical ability to borrow cheaply on financial markets.
The move by S&P came minutes before figures showed that the Government's budget deficit hit £8.5bn in April, the most for that month since records began.
Thu, 2009-05-21 15:08
#21
RevolutionPlease
I attempted to post this as a "New Topic" but all I get is a "Preview" button and no "Submit" button. I can only "Reply" to topics and not create a topic.
It's like that for me as well CalmCalm. I have to click "Preview" and then on the next screen I get an option to "Submit".
Fri, 2009-05-22 16:22
#22
[url=http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=13702]Bogus "Solutions" to the Financial Crisis: The Latest in Junk Economics[/url]
by Prof. Michael Hudson
Obama's Liberal Democrats are trying to re-inflate the credit bubble. Their solution to the debt crisis is more debt. Doom.
Fri, 2009-05-22 18:45
#23
I think [url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/dec/29/stalin-name-of-russia]Stalin... might be considered more electible today in Russia than Steve Harper is here. The Russian TV station is said to have intervened to discourage Russians from voting for Stalin. Steve Harper has 22% of eligible voter support in Canada.
Fri, 2009-05-22 19:43
#24
In Passing:
"The crowds were so dense and chaotic outside that some people were trampled underfoot, others rammed against traffic lights, and some others choked to death. It is estimated that 500 people lost their lives while trying to get a glimpse of Harper's corpse." The string quartet playing at Harper's graveside wept openly - for Brian Mulroney, who died the same day and hour as Harper. Harper was first interred next to John Difenbaker, under glass. But (maybe) five years later, it will be time to physically remove Harper from a place of honor. "Harper had been a dictator and a tyrant. Yet he presented himself as the Father of Peoples, a wise leader, and the continuer of John Difenbaker's cause. After his death, people began to acknowledge that he was responsible for the bankruptcy of millions of our own countrymen."
Please Note: I Changed The Names (and a few facts) To "Protect The Innocent". These Changes appear in Bold.
http://stalin.narod.ru/index.htm
Thu, 2009-05-28 09:39
#25
there's a lot of info here, but i'm not sure how accurate some of the details are on eg. what happened in 1914. i think global bankers are, and have always been of many ethnic backgrounds, eg. Rockefellers, Morgans, etc. useful is the comment about the 5 banks in the US that are a core problem of the system, being protected by the US administration, and us, at the expense of everything else.
recent thoughts;
- the lines about some wanting to get what they can before house of cards collapses, i wonder about the timing on this.
- collapse and start over with new currencies? same old? with billions more people and the earth even more abysmally abject than now?
- the 'informal' economy, which i did mention in passing at a conference some years ago to a couple economists, is perhaps the only thing that keeps many struggling people going these days- barter, neighbourly help, but it's getting more difficult to even sustain that as pressures increase. yesterday i visited a neighbour, one more split up family, one more house up for sale, one more small business going under, can't pay the bills. people looking at individual survival strategies- the Dilbert cartoon isn't far off - and there already people in this area living out of their cars.
- not sure what the solutions are at this point.
-meanwhile we have so many people believing in the little stock blips time to time, still hoping, still trusting the financial advisors, maybe they think, sure, fine, new currency, new boat, others will sink in some third world country, not me.
- the still-hoping-and-in-denial crowd will mostly get eaten by more vicious vultures, then rely on those who have worked hard over the years building real alternatives. this is unjust, and more importantly, runs the risk that there will be no built alternative because those who would have done that work have been economically-and-in-every-other-way wiped out.
- i guess at the least, to start, there needs to be more awareness of what is actually going on with global $$, using language that is accessible to people, linking up with what they're doing now.
Thu, 2009-05-28 10:11
#26
from the advance unedited UN Report of the Secretary General, for the Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis and its Impact on Development:. nb. this conference date has been moved to June 24-26.
"C. The need for systemic reform
50. Our response to the crisis must address an immediate and global development emergency as well as the systemic causes of the crisis itself. As such, as we build on initiatives already underway and complement them with additional efforts, we should strive to:
• reflect the realities of the existing global imbalances;
• reduce the asymmetries between developed and developing countries in undertaking necessary counter-cyclical policies and providing additional social protection;
• tackle the systemic flaws in the global financial system;
• ensure the stimulus for economic recovery avoids reproducing the past, unsustainable growth pattern, and instead prioritizes job creation and poverty reduction while laying the foundation for truly sustainable global development.
Unless this is done, an even more acute development emergency will likely emerge.."
http://www.un.org/ga/econcrisissummit/docs/Advance_unedited_version_REVI...
the above includes some good lines, but the rest of the document (aside from some important comments on eg. migrants), seems to cave.
Thu, 2009-05-28 10:27
#27
This is a revised outcomes draft (May 18 2009) for the June 24-26 UN Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis and Its Impact on Development, and it's better than the item quoted above in post #25.
http://www.un.org/ga/president/63/interactive/financialcrisis/outcomedoc...
i have to head out for a bit, haven't read it all carefully but did like the way it started,
"2. As the fickle tides of financial optimism have ebbed, they have revealed the unfortunate shoals of poverty,
suffering and wretchedness. Both within and between countries, the amassing of wealth has been
accompanied by the accumulation of misery..."
Fri, 2009-05-29 05:32
#28
[url=http://www.theonion.com/content/news/nation_ready_to_be_lied_to_about?ut... Ready To Be Lied To About Economy Again[/url] (USA)
WASHINGTON-After nearly four months of frank, honest, and open dialogue about the failing economy, a weary U.S. populace announced this week that it is once again ready to be lied to about the current state of the financial system.
Tired of hearing the grim truth about their economic future, Americans demanded that the bald-faced lies resume immediately, particularly whenever politicians feel the need to divulge another terrifying problem with Wall Street, the housing market, or any one of a hundred other ticking time bombs everyone was better off not knowing about.
In addition, citizens are requesting that the phrase, "It will only get worse before it gets better," be permanently replaced with, "Things are going great. Enjoy yourselves."
"I thought I wanted a new era of transparency and accountability, but honestly, I just can't handle it," Ohio resident Nathan Pletcher said. "All I ever hear about now is how my retirement has been pushed back 15 years and how I won't be able to afford my daughter's tuition when she grows up."
"From now on, just tell me the bullshit I want to hear," Pletcher added. "Tell me my savings are okay, everybody has a job, and we're No. 1 again. Please, just lie to my face."
Fri, 2009-05-29 12:14
#29
popping back here, i have a chance with this weather now,
to sort out what's been bothering me with some of the UN statements on the finance/ economic situation.
- banks are reporting huge profits. they are spinning this as 'less than last year', but still in the hundreds of millions if not billions in the last quarter. We had a crash last year ! Even my relatives were aghast- ie) How can this inequity exist? Companies are going under, millions are unemployed, people don't have access to basic necessities, pensions have been liquidated, kids can't afford school, their parents can't afford their homes and bills, yet we have banks making billions.
- some will say, 'well at least some sector is keeping the world from utter economic devastation' but the truth is more that, as one of the posts above mentioned, we are rescuing the private profiteers of the banking sector at the expense of everything else. ie) It is because our system is geared to sink everything into a few hands that the world and its inhabitants are going to hell in a handbasket.
- then we come to various optioned alternatives, including that of the UN.
- a major disconnect needs to be clarified here as well: statements from the UN decry 'protectionism' and call for conclusion of the Doha Round, but the Doha Round was predicated on so-called 'free trade' which was nothing-but. 'Free trade' is Free for big players and Finance, but no one else.
- the last thing we need is more room for private finance to exploit on the planet. we do NOT want to open up more countries to the strangulating greed of private finance, a system which has brought destruction to ordinary people and the earth.
- so in advocating for alternatives, it seems to me that the UN and everyone else needs to call for public finance. That needs to be made clear- fair trade, human rights, nature's rights, an equitable system, can't happen when private bankers are running the system as they are now. Public finance is pre-eminently under participatory democratic control. Its the details of what that means which need to be worked out, but when so many countries' central banks are actually boards made up of private bankers, or like the US Federal Reserve system- are outright owned by private shareholders, there are some large challenges here.
- this is where attention is being given to the rules and voting powers of financial and other structures.
- But the bottom line is that if there is no real democratization of the structures, and no success in transforming the private casino into public and acccountable bodies, the UN should not be advocating for global openness to trade in finance.
Sun, 2009-05-31 08:13
#30
"The insufficient income that results from low wages is a major cause of divorce and when family members are dispersed by having to move to where jobs are, the extended family disintegrates. A year or so ago, a study on divorce rates showed that divorce was highest in those red, conservative states in the Bible belt. Protestant clerics bemoaned this finding, attributing it to their own failure to instill Christian values in their flocks, but they failed to notice that per capita income is also lowest in these same Bible belt states. As the extended family disintegrates, the needed support groups collapse, and the individual who is unable "to operate within his own societal space, assume his responsibilities, and exploit his potential" is abandoned. Abandoning one's children is considered by conservatives to be criminal, but apparently they do not consider a nation that abandons its people to even be wrong."
Sun, 2009-05-31 12:07
#31
Hi! Slumberjack
That was a pretty good read.
Calm
Mon, 2009-06-01 16:23
#32
N.Beltov
from the Editors at Monthly Review:
As he [Steindl] wrote in the mid-1980s: "Neoclassicism [in economics] lacks the candid innocence of the classics who maintained that poverty was necessary to make people work. Conscious of guilt and always on the defensive, it is purely apologetic. Its basic strategy is to eliminate history and society from the subject and reduce it to a mathematical exercise-an optimization problem. In this way capitalism is made to appear everlasting and unchanging ...
Thu, 2009-06-04 05:45
#33
[url=http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123836431014467281.html]State Bank of India -- Has Cash, Will Lend[/url] March 09
MUMBAI -- State-owned State Bank of India is lending like the global credit crisis never happened as it looks for places to park billions of dollars in new deposits.Consumers have shifted tens of billions of dollars to India's state-run banks amid the bailouts of the world's most sophisticated financial institutions and concerns that global problems could infect India's private-sector banks.
State Bank of India has been the biggest beneficiary of that trend. It is India's largest bank by assets, including private-sector lenders, and is 60% owned by the government, but has remained a traditional lender rather than expanding into other financial instruments that sank many international banks. That conservatism saw its deposit base swell by close to 40% in the three months ended Dec. 31.
Now, it is on a lending spree, cutting interest rates on loans, snatching customers from competitors and doing its part to prevent India from getting stuck in the global slowdown. . .
"State Banks history goes back more than 200 years to Indias days as a British colony. After independence, the government took it over, and the bank has been expected since then to act in the interest of uplifting the People of India.
Theyre expanding, hiring thousands of workers, and asking people to smile more often. Imagine that.
Thu, 2009-06-18 16:05
#34
It's Finished - by John Lanchester
One of the better articles I've read on the origins and causes of the financial crisis, from a British perspective, frequently interspersed with typical characteristics of British humour like innuendo, disrespect, absurdity, manic and the macabre.
"There are four reasons for the reluctance to take over the banks, of which the first isn't a real reason but a piece of political bullshit.
1. Because the government would be bad at it....... only a professional politician can say it with a straight face. Bad at running the banks, compared to the bankers who broke capitalism? Please....But this is the closest they can get to admitting the first real reason, which is:
2. Because if the banks were taken over, then every decision they take would come at a potential political cost to the government. Your state-owned mortgage lender is threatening to repossess your house, after you fell behind on the payments? Blame the government. Your firm is laying off half its workforce because the bank won't roll over its loan? Blame the government. .....People are grumbling now, but to nothing like the extent they would if the banks were directly owned by the state. Politicians simply aren't willing to take on the responsibility for the banks' actions.
3. They also don't want to admit the extent to which we are all now liable for the losses made by the banks. Guess what, though: it's too late. ....The total projected borrowing for the next four years is £606 billion. National debt will hit 79 per cent of GDP - the highest peacetime figure ever. The economy is going to have its worst year since 1945. The debt is going to cost in the range of £35 to £47 billion a year to service. That's just the debt alone; we're going to be spending more on debt than we are on the entire transport budget. Perhaps New Labour might consider changing its motto from 'Education, education, education' to 'Debt, debt, debt'......
All of this leads us to the fourth and deepest reason why the government won't nationalise the banks. The deepest reason is:
4. Because it would be so embarrassing. Some of the embarrassment is superficial: on the not-remembering-somebody's-name-at-a-social-occasion level. The Anglo-Saxon economies have had decades of boom mixed with what now seem, in retrospect, smallish periods of downturn. During that they/we have shamelessly lectured the rest of the world on how they should be running their economies. We've gloated at the French fear of debt, laughed at the Germans' 19th-century emphasis on manufacturing, told the Japanese that they can't expect to get over their 'lost decade' until they kill their zombie banks, and so on. It's embarrassing to be in a worse condition than all of them.
There is, however, a deeper embarrassment, one which verges on a form of psychological or ideological crisis. To nationalise major financial institutions would mean that the Anglo-Saxon model of capitalism had failed."
Thu, 2009-06-18 20:25
#35
It's Finished - by John Lanchester
One of the better articles I've read on the origins and causes of the financial crisis, from a British perspective, frequently interspersed with typical characteristics of British humour like innuendo, disrespect, absurdity, manic and the macabre.
"There are four reasons for the reluctance to take over the banks, of which the first isn't a real reason but a piece of political bullshit.
1. Because the government would be bad at it....... only a professional politician can say it with a straight face.
Good article, SlumberJ. I'll say it with a straight face: The feds used our nationalised Bank of Canada to create and spend up to a quarter of the money supply between 1938 and 1974. The first argument against the feds creating money is typically that it would result in runaway inflation. But there is no record of it happening during the time period in question.
Fri, 2009-06-19 16:26
#36
Oh where, oh where can I find a nanotech violin?
Texas billionaire Allen Stanford was taken into custody Thursday night on a fraud-related charge in Stafford, Virginia, the FBI said.
Allen Stanford, right, poses with his Antigua cricket team in November 2008.
FBI Supervisory Special Agent M.A. Myers would not provide further details on Stanford's arrest, but his attorney, Dick DeGuerin, told CNN that Stanford had surrendered to agents.
Stanford, accused of a $9.2 billion fraud by U.S. regulators, denied all wrongdoing in a tearful interview in April during which he threatened to punch his questioner in the mouth....
During his ABC interview, Stanford complained that he had to fly commercial airlines after the federal government confiscated his six private jets.
"They make you take your shoes off and everything," he said. "It's terrible."
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/06/18/stanford.fraud.charge/index.html?ere...
Fri, 2009-06-19 20:55
#37
[url=http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=13992]US cities may have to be bulldozed in order to survive[/url]
The government is looking at expanding a pioneering scheme in Flint, one of the poorest US cities, which involves razing entire districts and returning the land to nature.
Local politicians believe the city must contract by as much as 40 per cent, concentrating the dwindling population and local services into a more viable area.
The radical experiment is the brainchild of Dan Kildee, treasurer of Genesee County, which includes Flint.
Having outlined his strategy to Barack Obama during the election campaign, Mr Kildee has now been approached by the US government and a group of charities who want him to apply what he has learnt to the rest of the country. . .
"Places like Flint have hit rock bottom. They're at the point where it's better to start knocking a lot of buildings down," she said.
Flint, sixty miles north of Detroit, was the original home of General Motors. The car giant once employed 79,000 local people but that figure has shrunk to around 8,000
Thu, 2009-07-02 09:41
#38
The battered U.S. labor market took a step backwards last month as employers trimmed more jobs from their payrolls in June, according to a government report Thursday.
There was a net loss of 467,000 jobs in June, compared with a revised loss of 322,000 jobs in May. This was the first time in four months that the number of jobs lost rose from the prior month.
The June job losses were also far worse than the forecast of a loss of 365,000 jobs by economists surveyed by Briefing.com.
The unemployment rate rose for the ninth straight month, climbing to 9.5% from 9.4%, and hitting another 26-year high.
http://money.cnn.com/2009/07/02/news/companies/jobs_june/?postversion=2009070209
Sun, 2009-07-05 09:47
#39
Canadian Real Estate, Bank Bubbles and Collapse:
http://marketdepth.typepad.com/marketdepth/2009/06/sell-the-banks.html
The Unemployment Timebomb is quietly ticking
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/574293...
"We are moving into Phase 2 of the Great Unwinding. It may be time to put away our texts of Keynes, Friedman and Fisher, so useful for Phase 1 and start studying what happens to society when global unemployment went haywire in 1932.."
Sun, 2009-07-05 14:42
#40
The June employment report suggests that the alleged 'green shoots' are mostly yellow weeds that may eventually turn into brown manure. The employment report shows that conditions in the labor market continue to be extremely weak, with job losses in June of over 460,000. With the current rate of job losses, it is very clear that the unemployment rate could reach 10 percent by later this summer, around August or September, and will be closer to 10.5 percent if not 11 percent by year-end. I expect the unemployment rate is going to peak at around 11 percent at some point in 2010, well above historical standards for even severe recessions.
It's clear that even if the recession were to be over anytime soon - and it's not going to be over before the end of the year - job losses are going to continue for at least another year and a half.
http://www.rgemonitor.com/roubini-monitor/257210/us_job_report_suggests_that_green_shoots_are_mostly_yellow_weeds
So far, we're getting off easy in relative terms in Canada, but that may not last.
Sun, 2009-07-05 16:08
#41
Matt Taibbi on how Goldman Sachs has engineered every major market manipulation since the Great Depression
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/28816321/the_great_american_b...
Sun, 2009-07-05 16:43
#42
i'm thinking about Calm's remarks at #11,12 ;
"American banks polluted the world financial system with 600 Trillion worth of fraudulent derivatives and commerical paper....
"Each Free Trade Agreement which was signed was actually a method or means for the Economic Terrorists to enter the banking systems of every country in the universe. It had nothing to do with manufactured goods. The American's negotiated Free Trade agreements for the unfettered access to foreign banking systems and were then able to pollute other sovereign systems with fictious money.
"In doing so, the American's purchased everything on the globe and the collateral used was 6 cents on the dollar. American banks were allowed to finance 40 dollars for each dollar they had on deposit.
"This was a deliberate scheme to take possession of every asset (oil and mineral deposits) on the globe prior the collapse of empire. And worse .... with the collapse of the American Capitalist system, the American's will still be allowed to retain ownership of all these assets even though they were obtained in a fraudulent manner."
and further on militarizing the planet, domestically and as occupiers.
this makes sense, in the context as well of the article on Canadian real estate at #38. CMHC practice in taking on unsustainable mortgage debt will lead to more crash here. i guess the recent market valuation process for home properties has contributed. like a binge that will come to an end. with more unemployment there will be more foreclosures. the housing market will really crash here and we will be in trouble like in the US. in the context of Calm's comments, this sets us up for more privatization of the financial system, as Obama/Geithner did in their recent proposals for 'regulating' finance. the US already has control of our oil through NAFTA, and our military is becoming integrated, with domestic surveillance.
the author of that article said the solution was to return to proper use of the Bank of Canada, and to 'sell the banks'- does that mean nationalize banking? looks like a benign solution in view of the alternative.
Tue, 2009-07-07 15:06
#43
"As it turns out, France's more centralized, state-directed economy - so often criticized in good times for smothering entrepreneurship and holding back growth - is proving remarkably effective at deploying funds quickly and efficiently in bad times.
"All projects must start in 2009," Mr. Devedjian said. "We want rapid results."
The confidence evident in the words of Mr. Devedjian, a close adviser to President Nicolas Sarkozy, echoes a broader pride among French business and political leaders that their government has done a better job dodging the worst of the economic turmoil than its European neighbors like Britain, Germany and Spain."
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/07/business/global/07stimulus.html?ref=bu...
Tue, 2009-07-07 23:36
#44
oops
Wed, 2009-07-08 09:28
#45
remind
But more free trade is going to save us all!
Mélisa Leclerc, a spokeswoman for Trade Minister Stockwell Day, said Canada supports the completion of Doha, although she declined to say whether leaders are poised to commit to a deadline. “In the current global economic crisis, pursuing an ambitious free-trade agenda is more important than ever,” she said.
Wed, 2009-07-08 12:23
#46
[url=http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/second-wave-of-financial-cr... wave of economic crisis coming, Brown warns[/url]
While Brown and other G8 leaders point to the meltdown of deregulated financial capitalism for the global crisis, Canada's crazy Steve Harper and minority Conservatives continue to blame unions and the unemployed for Canada's ballooning debt. The Harpers are out of step with Obama, Brown and Sarkozy, Rudd administrations etc on the need for more global stimulus, as well as the need to tackle environmental issues. And 79 confidence votes later ...
Wed, 2009-07-08 14:50
#47
The economic problems of American families are now pounding many state governments which are in turn slashing services to balance their budgets in one of the most difficult years in decades.
High on the chopping block are benefits to the poor, money for education, highway repairs, hours that state offices are open and even closures of state parks and recreation areas.
Things are so bad that 48 states addressed or are facing shortfalls in the fiscal year that just started. The total deficit: $166 billion, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Many states are also already predicting shortfalls next year.
Wed, 2009-07-08 16:47
#48
Obama's Cap and Trade Carbon Emissions Bill: Stealth, Pollution and Fraud
http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2009/07/obamas-cap-and-trade-carbon-emissi...
"unless stopped it will transfer more of our wealth to corporate polluters and Wall Street on top of all they've stole so far from derivatives, fraud and the imploded housing and other bubbles.."
Tue, 2009-07-14 19:33
#49
"We should be used by now to the clanging contradictions of U2. It's been noted here before that Bono's castigation of the Irish Government for directing too small a proportion of its tax receipts to aid for the developing world was swiftly followed by the band transferring its business operation to the Netherlands to avoid paying tax to the Irish Government.
Now Larry Mullen has noticed "a new resentment of rich people in this country ... We have experienced [a situation] where coming in and out of the country at certain times is made more difficult than it should be - not only for us, but for a lot of wealthy people ... The better-off (are) being sort of humiliated."
So it isn't the people writhing on trolleys in hospital corridors because wards have been closed on account of the economy or children learning arithmetic from the relative speed of rats scuttling across the classroom as a result of the education budget being slashed to bail out the bankers who are being humiliated in Ireland but....the better off."
Wed, 2009-07-15 19:21
#50
'Government Sachs' Strikes Gold...Again'
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20090714_government_sachs_strikes_go...
"Since most of the increase in the federal deficit is due to bailing out the banks and salvaging the greater economy they helped destroy, why is the top investment bank doing so well?
Thu, 2009-07-16 12:36
#51
How Bad Will the Economy Get? Really, Really Bad
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article23062.htm
"Historically, every financial and economic crisis has been used to further centralize power and concentrate wealth. This one is no different and in fact the moves being promoted by the Obama administration and the central banks of the western powers will take the whole world to the pinnacle of financial despotism..."