Posts Tagged ‘financial collapse’
Posted by seumasach on October 20, 2008
Whereas in Britain the oligarchy is taking advantage of the crisis to massively increase their wealth and power, in Russia the opposite is happening.
David Litterick
Telegraph
20th October, 2008
The collective wealth of the 25 wealthiest Russian businessmen has fallen by $230bn (£132bn) since May, when the commodities boom peaked, according to Bloomberg calculations. Since then, equity markets across the world have tumbled, with Russia’s benchmark Micex index losing 61pc. Concerns over Russia’s strategy in Georgia have added to the impact of the credit crisis.
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Posted by seumasach on October 20, 2008
“UK public finances have deteriorated further, recording the biggest half-yearly shortfall since 1946 when Britain was emerging from the ravages of the second world war.”
Now we have not only the ravages of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, but the ravages of a new war: against the British people themselves on behalf of the financiers.
Norma Cohen
FT
20th October, 2008
UK public finances have deteriorated further, recording the biggest half-yearly shortfall since 1946 when Britain was emerging from the ravages of the second world war.
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Posted by seumasach on October 18, 2008
Jean Shaoul
WSWS
18 October 2008
Within days of announcing an unprecedented £37 billion bailout of three high street lenders—the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), Lloyds TSB and HBOS—that will involve the British government taking shares in the banks, Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling has caved in to the City’s demands for the banks to make dividend payouts.
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Posted by seumasach on October 18, 2008
As we have been at pains to stress, purchase of shares does not in any constitute, in itself, nationalization.
“One problem with Plan B was that it did not really mean nationalization (public ownership and control of the participating banks). Rather, it came closer to what has been called “crony capitalism” or “corporate welfare.” The bank stock being bought would be non-voting preferred stock, meaning the government would have no say in how the bank was run. The Treasury would just be feeding the bank money to do with as it would. Management could continue to collect enormous salaries while investing in wildly speculative ventures with the taxpayers’ money. The banks could not be forced to use the money to make much-needed loans but could just use it to clean up their derivative-infested balance sheets. In the end, the banks were still liable to go bankrupt, wiping out the taxpayers’ investment altogether. Even if $700 billion were fanned into $7 trillion, the sum would not come close to removing the $180 trillion in derivative liabilities from the banks’ books. Shifting those liabilities onto the public purse would just empty the purse without filling the derivative black hole.”
Ellen Brown
Web of Debt
16th October, 2008
Last night, the Presidential candidates had their last debate before the election. They talked of the baleful state of the economy and the stock market; but omitted from the discussion was what actually caused the credit freeze, and whether the banks should be nationalized as Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson is now proceeding to do. The omission was probably excusable, since the financial landscape has been changing so fast that it is hard to keep up. A year ago, the Dow Jones Industrial Average broke through 14,000 to make a new all-time high. Anyone predicting then that a year later the Dow would drop nearly by half and the Treasury would move to nationalize the banks would have been regarded with amused disbelief. But that is where we are today.1
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Posted by seumasach on October 17, 2008
Jose Saramago
Avisora
La historia es conocida, y, en aquellos tiempos antiguos en que la escuela se proclamaba educadora perfecta, se le enseñaba a los niños como ejemplo de la modestia y la discreción que siempre deberían acompañarnos cuando el demonio nos tentara para opinar sobre lo que no conocemos o conocemos poco y mal.
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Posted by smeddum on October 16, 2008
World Focus: Racism, Obama and the Fall of the American Economy
Posted on Tuesday, October 14 @ 04:30:01 EDT by admin Rastafarispeaks
By Fidel Castro
October 14, 2008
Trade, within a society and between countries, is the exchange of goods and services produced by human beings. The owners of the means of production appropriate the profits. As a class, they are the leaders of the capitalist state and they boast of fostering development and social wellbeing through market. This they worship as an infallible God. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Castro, Election 2008, financial collapse, McCain, Obama, Sarah Palin, US elctions | Leave a Comment »
Posted by smeddum on October 16, 2008
Surprise! The Global Bailouts Fail
Increase Decrease
October 15 2008 (LPAC)–The gigantic US and European bailouts of the last 48 hours of some $2.6 trillion, had zero effect on the corpse they were supposedly intended to resuscitate, i.e. the world interbank lending system, a senior European banking source told EIR today. This, despite the fact that a large part of the guarantees issued on both sides of the Atlantic is a 100% guarantee of interbanking lending. Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted by smeddum on October 15, 2008
Largest Bubble Burst in History
16 October 2008
By Nouriel Roubini MoscowTimes
The rich world’s financial system is headed toward a meltdown. Stock markets have been falling most days, money markets and credit markets have shut down as their interest-rate spreads skyrocket, and it is still too early to tell whether the raft of measures adopted by the United States and Europe will stem the bleeding on a sustained basis. Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted by seumasach on October 12, 2008
George Washington’s Blog
Bush begged the G-7 to help fix America’s economic meltdown. Like a drowning man trying to hang onto the back of a good swimmer, or like a criminal trying to bring in others to his defense, he pleadingly said “We’re all in this together.”
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: financial collapse, independent Europe | 1 Comment »
Posted by seumasach on October 12, 2008
Cailean Bochanan
12th October, 2008
The reason all the deception and hype about the government’s midweek intitiative is now becoming clear: it wasn’t just about fooling the British public but was aimed at a wider audience. Brown wished this bailout plan to be the model which the wider world will follow as collapsing markets lead,he will be hoping, to panic and loss of judgement. The government has just announced they will be taking major stakes in the main banks, which is odd because that was meant to be what last Wednesday’s announcement was about. Are the falling markets simply forcing the government’s hand? -after all,the banks and the government were keen to avoid a government stake but now there is even talk of full nationalisation. Or is this just further deception providing cover for those who may wish to impose similar plans on other economies?
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: financial collapse, stop the bailout | 1 Comment »
Posted by seumasach on October 10, 2008
City gang pulls off £500 billion heist.
Cailean Bochanan
10th October, 2008
After Wednesday’s dramatic events I dreamt that that was the headline in the Sun newspaper. But it was a dream; just that.
I awoke to the nightmare: The Sun, of course, had joined the rest in the great chorus of approval for Champagne Gordon, toast of the city. And an impressive chorus it was, including some onetime mavericks and black sheep who had returned to the fold just in time and were now singing with even greater gusto than more longstanding stalwarts such as the chairman of the Bank of England or the leader of the Tory party. There, was former scourge of anglo-saxon finance, Will Hutton; there, George Galloway purring with admiration now former colleague Alisdair Darling has finally decided to deliver (or, rather, stand and deliver) even if it was “too little, too late.” There too were the brand new party leaders, like Nick Clegg with his freshly-tamed financial spokesman, Vince Cable. All were there of the great and the good and they were singing off the same hymn sheet that great puritan hymn, “To be a Pilgrim”. These were the words, which in a transport of bitterness I imagined them to intone to that august melody. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Financial crisis | Tagged: bailout, financial collapse, stop the bailout | 2 Comments »
In These New Times 