The economic elite have robbed us all. The amount of suffering in the United States of America is literally a crime against humanity.
“The American oligarchy spares no pains in promoting the belief that it does not exist, but the success of its disappearing act depends on equally strenuous efforts on the part of an American public anxious to believe in egalitarian fictions and unwilling to see what is hidden in plain sight.” – Michael Lind, To Have and to Have Not
We all have very strong differences of opinion on many issues. However, like our founding fathers before us, we must put aside our differences and unite to fight a common enemy.
As investors quickly forget about Dubai, and shield their eyes (apparently using now almost limitless US dollars or Japanese yen) from any potential sovereign road bumps ahead [Nov 27, 2009: UK Telegraph – Greece Tests the Limits of Sovereign Debt as it Grinds Toward Slump], Morgan Stanely (MS) Europe is out with an interesting report for 2010 that highlights an interesting “fat tail” risk: the UK becoming the first of the G10 to have a major fiscal crisis as elections lead to a hung parliament.
The biggest mystery of the Dubai debt crisis is not why this desert dream has turned into a nightmare, but why it took so long. Ever since US homeowners started defaulting on sub-prime mortgages two years ago, the tightening of international lending conditions has put the squeeze on investment bubbles around the world. Some, like Iceland or the British housing boom, popped relatively quickly, but others have been slower to collapse.
A leading member of the Icelandic parliament called Monday night for the country to declare a debt moratorium and stop attempting to pay the $6 billion which the British and Netherlands governments are seeking to extort from Iceland with the help of the International Monetary Fund and the European Commission in Brussels. This dramatic call was issued by Birgitta Jónsdóttir, the chairman of the parliamentary faction of The Movement in the Icelandic parliament, the Althing. Birgitta Jónsdóttir was speaking during a special session of the Althing called to address the rapidly deteriorating economic and financial position of Iceland, one year after the collapse of the three hot-money offshore banks, Landsbanki, Kaupthing, and Glitnir.In her remarks, Birgitta Jónsdóttir observed that Iceland is already technically bankrupt, and ought to cease payment. She also pointed to the hostility to Iceland of the IMF and EU. The current prime minister, Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir, who leads a moribund coalition of Social Democrats and Left Greens, had attempted to justify her policy of financial appeasement of the British and Dutch. London and The Hague are demanding $6 billion in restitution for losses incurred by private Icelandic bankers operating in their countries as Icesave, even though the Icelandic government had never guaranteed these operations, and even though British and Dutch regulators were deeply implicated in the Icesave debacle, which came in the wake of the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy. Read the rest of this entry »
Of course, spending has to be cut: let’s start with ending our wars, slashing defence spending and dismantling the apparatus of empire, as well as ending welfare for parasitic city financiers.
Britain is clocking up debt at a rate of £6,017 per second as the Government struggles to balance the books. With tax receipts plummeting because of the recession, state borrowing grew by £16.1 billion last month — almost twice the entire budget for the 2012 Olympics.
Banks are significantly overvaluing assets to be included in the government’s insurance scheme, which could leave the taxpayer footing the bill for any shortfall, experts have warned.
Last week on NPR a professor in the Sloan School of Management at MIT explained that what is really at stake in the health care bill is the US government’s ability to borrow. In other words, the bill is about cutting health care costs, not about providing hard-pressed Americans with health care.
What do China, India, Brazil, Russia, France and Germany have in common? These countries most often can’t agree on anything. But they are united in one strange—and ominous—way. They blame the United States for wrecking the global economy. And they think the dollar is the wrecking ball.
Global Vision 2000 and the Universal Peace Federation jointly organised, on July 13th, an emergency seminar in a parliamentary Committee room to examine the underlying causes of the financial and economic crisis and the need for a fundamental paradigm shift to restore stability, prosperity, justice and peace.
Celente is a bit hard on Mussolini who would , of course, have been appalled at government backing for purely parasitic financial wheeling and dealing. The problem is not state intervention per se but the fact that it is not orientated to rebuilding infrastructure, productive capacity and the general welfare.
In These New Times 