In December of last year I wrote an article called “The cost of the bail out – Just your Democracy.” In it I referenced an IMF document called “Lifting Euro Area Growth: Priorities for Structural Reforms and Governance.” What prompted me to look at that IMF publication was the injudicious way the IMF publicly told Portugal that it should cut its unemployment payouts.
The document in question, I argued, was nothing short of the IMF’s blue-print for how to ensure the public in every country were forced to bear austerity measures in order to pay off their bankers’ debts. The paper detailed how collective wage bargaining had to be curtailed, wages lowered and laws over hiring and firing made more business friendly. It laid out how taxes should be moved from labour to consumption which is disguised way of saying shift taxes from graduated income taxes to flat rate VAT – shifting from high earners and businesses to ordinary consumers. And last and most fundamentally, how these ‘essentail reforms’ could only be achieved if decision about them were removed from democratic control. Leaving such decisions too near to the electorate and their representatives was why they had not happened yet.
The document, I felt, was a thinly disguised argument for elevating finance above democracy – a direct attack on sovereignty and democracy. At the time all I could point to were the unfolding events in Ireland – the way the IMF with the EU’s support was throwing its weight around in Dublin.
The IMF has been busy since then.
In Hungary the Right Wing Fidesz has pushed through a re-write of the Constitution. The new constitutions was largely written by one man, József Szajer, who is a Fidesz MEP. In the European Parliament Mr Szajer sits on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee which is dedicated to “identification and removal of potential obstacles to the functioning of the internal market.” He is also vice chair of something called The American Institute on Political and Economic Systems which was set up, “to introduce the foundations of democracy and free market economics to young leaders from nations that have emerged as newly independent nations.” Not the foundations of Democracy, but Democracy and Free market economics linked. As if the purpose of democracy was the support of Free Market Economics. It is only a certain mind set which seeks to inculcate the belief that the two are inseparable: A Washington DC and Wall Street mind set.
Among donors to the institute are The US Air Force Academy Foundation, J P Morgan International Limited and the United States Military Academy Scholarship Fund. Among the alumni it has turned out are:
Alexandra Caracoti, Chief Press Officer, Office of the President of Romania,
Ilmars Rimsevics, Deputy Governor, Bank of Latvia,
Szabolcs Foldvari, ING Bank, Hungary,
Sandor Gallai, Assistant Professor, Budapest University of Economics,
Naomi Koranyi, Staff Director, Foreign Affairs Committee, Hungarian Parliament
The institute and Mr Szajer have fairly clear notions about the right and might of the American free market way of life. Such clear ideas that even the commission which advises the EU itself on constitutional matters was forced to admit Mr Szajer and the Hungarian government’s re-write of Hungary’s Constitution “had shown a lack of transparency, had failed to consult adequately with the opposition and had rushed the whole process.” In fact there was hardly any parliamentary discussion at all.
So what was it that Mr Szajer and the Fidesz party have forced through with as little discussion as possible? I think it is the IMF blue print from last December. Article 43 of the new constitution creates an entirely new and non-democratic entity within the government, The Fiscal Council, which the new constitution says,
“…will have a right of veto over the budget, giving it a strong say on fiscal policy.”
The veto here is a veto of parliament. This council will have three member who will all be unelected. They will be the Chairman who will be appointed for a six year term by the President, the Governor of the central bank and the Chair of The State Audit Office. All people whose likely world view and professional training, the IMF would approve of. So an unelected council of three all drawn from and sharing the world view of free market economics – no labour representation, no civil representation and no public accountability at all – who will have the right to veto what elected members of parliament might think. Economic decision removed from democratic control – check!
And if the parliament should try to stand against what the Council thinks, let’s say because… people asked their Parliament to do so for example, the constitution, as written by Mr Szajer, also,
“gives the president the right to dissolve parliament if it fails to pass a budget by the end of March. (Article 3)”
Not only a veto but the right to get rid of the whole democratic charade if necessary. IMF 2, the people of Hungary 0.
In Hungary last week in the run up to the vote on adopting the new constitution Reuter’s reported,
“Around 10,000 Hungarian police, firefighters, soldiers and customs officers protested on Saturday against the centre-right government’s austerity measures at a union rally in Budapest.”
The constitution was adopted, the people can protest all they like, vote for who they like. The ‘Council’ will decide what’s best now.
That is Hungary.The IMF has also been busy in Romania.
Back in March Balkan Insight ran the headline, New Labour Code Fast-tracked through Romanian Parliament. The article explained how,
The centre-right government of Emil Boc officially ‘took responsibility’ for the adoption of new, IMF-approved labour legislation in parliament on Tuesday
The government decision to ‘take responsibility’ for the law is a procedural move which allows the legislation to pass into law without a parliamentary vote.
The Labour Code, agreed with the International Monetary Fund, allows more flexible work contracts and part-time employment….”
Exactly as per the IMF blue-print: Curb or curtail democracy. Erode labour laws.
Two countries down. The IMF will now set its sights upon getting it’s teeth in to Ireland and then Portugal.
Surely the signs are now clear. This is NOT just a financial crisis. It is a crisis of, and a direct attack on, our democracy. If we do not wake up soon it will be too late.
Holy crap! Thanks Golem. This really is war.
Preserving democracy is not the IMF’s responsibility. Like any lender they want to attach conditions to their loan to ensure it gets repaid. The alternative is to just give it away.
A democratically elected government gave up control of Portugal’s currency. It ran budget deficits and accumulated debt. It’s efforts to manage the debt were rejected by the electorate. It looks like democracy in Portugal is producing the wrong results. Who’s fault is that?
The IMF cannot impose loans on Portugal. Portugal has to ask. If they do not like the terms then they do not have to accept. If they have no alternative but to accept, then who’s fault is that?
Beer: I take it you are not a big fan of democracy then.
Thos Jefferson covered this long ago. The pendulum does eventually swing against the Khazars, OK?
As I suffered from my attempt to blow a whistle in Ireland all I can do now is smile at how others are catching up. Schadenfreude?! That is all I have left. They will have moved on with the goods by the time you wake up. The BRICs are next on their agenda. Teaching expensive lessons in government and money!
You deserve what you get….
Pat, democracy seems to work fine in Germany
Where do we think Gordon Brown would stand on all this (if he took over as head of the IMF, as has been suggested)?
I find it troubling that Alassane Ouattara worked/works for the IMF. What chance do you have if your President is an economic hitman reporting to banksters?
Just pulling strands together to make myself a bigger picture. My conclusions are that we now have an "International financial power elite" who are comprised of banks, corporations, organisations like the IMF & the World bank, who are supported by a myriad of smaller bodies who collectively intend to apply control to the worlds economies, in order to make them ripe for the picking.
Unlike previous tyrannies this one has no head, like Hitler or Stalin, it is not grounded in one particular country & doesn't need to invade a country to loot it, except for countries like Libya of course.
It uses austerity measures to exert control of a population, aided by kowtowing governments & a controlled media, political entities opposed to this will be undermined with threats of economic sanctions etc. The usual scapegoats & bogeymen, single parent mothers, immigrants, Al Qaida etc will be blamed for all of societies ills. The last bastions of union power will be broken & there will be the sale of the century. As in Pat's Rome, bread & circuses (X factor & cheap chicken) will also be used to control the mob. In this dog eat dog society they calculate that only nationalism will breed which can be skillfully manipulated by the powers that be.
If I am at all close to the mark on this, it's mainly thanks to this blog.
@Beer.
If & when the countries that have been pillaged to pay up for Germanys & others banks dodgy investments are left lying in ruin, do you really think that the rapacious unquenchable appetite of neo-liberalism is going to leave the Fatherland lying there like a big fat basted turkey & leave it at that ?
If that's your preferred version of Democracy you're welcome to it.
Hi Golem hope things are better. I see all your predictions are coming true bit by bit. If you worked for the other side as a predictive analyst you would be rich.
I just hope our European Tahir moment is getting closer.
What is astonishing is how this malign and evidently false ideology continues to have traction. It depends on a whole horde of yeah sayers and paid "pundits" who never have a real word to say. You might find Matt Taibbi's typical irreverent take on the way they push the same crap politically in America
HERE
dustysurface,
I think the Cameron/Gordon Brown IMF veto story is interesting. I think Mr Brown would find himself very much at home in the IMF. And in a way I think that is why Cameron doesn't like the idea.
Gyg3s,
I am pretty sure all is not as it is being reported in the Cote D'Ivorie situation. France has deep interests there. There are very important resource wars and revolutions being faught in teh shadows all over Africa. Cote D'Ivorie is one of them. Iron is one of the resources in question there. The Iron mining industry has a list of future resources it plans to exploit. I have seen the list and talked to an insider about how it works.
StevieFinn,
sadly I think you've got it.
Fungus,
I didn't know you had got burned yourself. I am sorry to hear that. Yes, this is only teh beginning isn't it.
Wirplit,
thanks for the Matt Talibi link. I'll have a read later. Right now I have three boys wanting to go surfing.
Beer,
I have obvioulsy failed to put my point as clearly as I should have. I'll try to reply in full to you later – but right now – if I don't get the boys to the beach there will be a mutiny.
there hasn't been much talk about eastern European economies since the crash, which is not surprising because with the exception of Poland and a few others the entire region is f**ked and is not the shining example of free market utopia, i read somewhere that the roumanian finance minister is known as Dracula. it almost as if the entire region has been cordoned off like they do at crime scenes
Beer,
Of course if you want money from a lender they can and should impose conditions. I'm not arguing with it.
What I was trying to point out is that there seems to me to be a conserted effort to remove from the people of various nations the power to decide democractically IF they want to accept or refuse. That power along with the power to manage their own economy day to day is being removed from their control.
Perhaps you look at the evidence I provided and don't agree with my analysis. Fair enough. But it seems clear to me that those who agree with the IMF policies are ensuring they are adopted and that there is no chance to reject or refuse by re-writing constitutions and 'adopting' measures without allowing any parlimentary scrutiny. And then once adopted have ensured that all future financial decisions are similarly removed from democratic control.
Now that is NOT what a lender should be party to. Nor is it democracy.
Some years ago there was the principle of "No taxation without representation " on this the most profound revolution on this planet was based and thus was born the United Staes of America .
So now we have a situation where the persons who govern want to do nice things for the electorate without raising taxes . The answer of course was to borrow against the future knowing that the persons who govern would not have to pay at that time or ever and by the time it all became apparent they would be long gone ,having won an election on the feel good factor . For years nobody was asked ,at an election , to live within their means .
Surely the answer is that Governments should no longer borrow, if more money is needed , raise taxes.
Where are those people now who decided that it was a good idea to borrow against the income of future generations , they have suffered no sanction nor have they bothered to ask their electorate.
It appears that I have no alternative under UK PAYE but to pay off the bankers but as the debts inexorably mount perhaps a person will come forward to say "Enough"
Golem,
Yesterday we had act number umpteen in the farce that is Irish democracy. Even Dr. Nyberg, who had previously worked as a senior economist at the International Monetary Fund and as an adviser to the board of Bank of Finland, felt obliged to tell us a little bit of the truth.
'Conformist' agencies failed to foresee risk – today's Irish Times
"GOVERNMENT REGULATION: IN ITS assessment of the role of government departments and agencies in bubble-era bank supervision and crisis management up to January 2009, yesterday’s Nyberg report was wide-ranging in its criticisms… "
However, fear not, the 'Irish Democracy Show' does go on. Allow me to share with you my blog posting from last night:
===============================================
THE NYBERG REPORT. Minister Noonan, allow me to confuse you with the facts.
RTÉ – Noonan demands shake-up of bank boards
RTÉ – Noonan demands shake-up of bank boards
Updated: 18:56, Tuesday, 19 April 2011
The Government is to hold a referendum later this year to enable Oireachtas committees to compel witnesses to attend hearings. The development follows the publication of the Nyberg Report into the Irish banking crisis.
At a press conference this afternoon, Finance Minister Michael Noonan said the previous Government had failed to deal with the Abbeylara court decision which had limited the powers of investigation of committees…
REALLY?!? Minister Noonan, the Mr. Nyberg was was appointed on Sept 22nd. 2010, seven months after Senator David Norris raised the issue of the liquidity catastrophe at UniCredit Ireland which was ignored by the Financial Regulator.
Sepetmber 2010 was FOUR months after I met with a senior Fine Gael deputy at a law firm in Ballsbridge. This is the meeting you allegedly know nothing about, why else would you have issued such a sweeping denial of the fact that Fine Gael had had any dealings with me?
Sepetmber 2010 was also two years after the entire Irish banking sector ran dry of liquidity which was why the 'blanket gurantee' was put in place. Now you want to "compel witnesses to attend hearings"? I volutarily provided Fine Gael with an account of the liquidity breaches at UniCredit Ireland, and this was evidenced by a very senior banker. What more could you have wanted?
Please Minister Noonan, spare us the drama. We will be paying for the Fianna Fail saga for generations to come. We expected more of our new government.
PS
If it is the 'honest truth' that you are after, how do you explain the fact that Kathleen Barrington of the Sunday Business Post can not get a straight answer from anyone in official Dublin in regard of Anglo's austrian deposists? Let us not forget that Anglo is now headed by a FG man.
How FitzPatrick sent a €600m deposit book waltzing to Vienna
€600m Anglo deposits that got away
All we want to know is:
Are we bailing out via NAMA and/or other schemes people who are allegedly bankcrupt, but actually have millions stashed away in a bank which is now Swiss-owned? We do not want names, just a simple Yes/No answer will suffice. Surely now that we, the people of Ireland, own Anglo-Irish Bank, we are entiteled to know what it got up to in the 'good old days'.
Regards,
WhistleblowerIRL
UniCredit Ireland's EX Risk-Manager
what i don't understand is how does reducing the minimum wage help Ireland pay it's debts, it seems to be a bit self defeating. but that is one of the IMF conditions
God help us in France. By the looks of the opinion polls at the present time the second round of next year's presidential election will see a run-off between Marine Le Pen (Front National) and Dominique Strauss-Kahn. The latter would win hands down. Presumably as *socialist* President he would then set to work putting into practice all the leftwing policies he's been saving up while head of the IMF.
Good post, Golem. The only thing that makes your post more worrying is the fact that you can't read this shit anywhere else…
@Richard in Norway
Neoliberal cheerleaders figure that government-set minimum wages are a disruption of the normal forces that should govern the market (just like those pesky unions and collective wage bargaining), ie the free transaction that takes place between an employer seeking labour and a worker seeking some means of revenue to avoid dying of starvation. The interplay of supply and demand should fix the level of wages, not some annoying bolchevik red tape which sets the wage at an arbitrary level. A minimum wage, in times of hardship and unemployment, will be *too high* because workers would presumably have been willing to work for less through desperation. Cutting the minimum wage will therefore allow the market to get closer to its level of optimum efficiency, presumably allowing for higher levels of growth as firms cut costs, and therefore remain active and profitable.
However, I suspect your point goes beyond this and points to one of the paradoxes of modern capitalism, ie the fact that all firms want to cut payroll costs while still expecting strong consumer demand.
Export-led recovery, anyone?
(But preferably not everyone at once!)
thrawn pop,
great last line. Made me snigger.
thrawn pop
well there is that but i was more thinking that wages are taxed and it unavoidable, whereas profits are only taxed in theory but seldom in practice. therefore lowering the min wage will lead to lower tax receipts
@ Richard in Norway
I believe the cut in irish minimum wage has been reversed by the new government (with the IMF's OK.)
The original cut was baffling. A relatively small percentage of the irish workforce is paid the minimum wage (it is of course intended to protect workers from working for wages not commensurate with the cost of living) but the proportional cut in earnings would have been higher than any other income bracket. Hit those at the bottom hardest!?
As alternatives to austerity there is a fascinating interview with Michael Hudson where he relates huge marginal tax rates in previous times on the super rich in the USA – the idea being if your earnings were so much more than the average worker, then you didn't bloody well need it all(again, common sense i would have thought). Instead, as you rightly point out profits can be tricky to tax, and we now have a situation where the rich & super rich pay the least tax(proportionally speaking).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnrEHFwZ9hk
I was reading somewhere (possibly Steve Keen or Michael Hudgson) that once upon a time a government's economic priority was traditionally to maximise employment(common sense) whereas now it is seemingly to minimise the deficit at all costs, even if that means inhibiting economic recovery and results in joblosses. What fecking use is a jobless recovery, I mean really?
And Steve Keen has written how national budgets are fundamentally different to household budgets because you can control the money supply to finance government spending. Ideally we are talking non-debt based money so instead of quantitive easing we are talking deficit easing. I have earlier come across this theme discussed by Richard Douthwaite: http://smarttaxes.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Douthwaite-Deficit-easing.pdf
If a government issues its own(non-debt based) money supply (i.e. does not have to 'Buy' its money by selling IOU's) that can of course present problems if you are in a monetary union (a la ireland) and your fellow member nations take a dim view of you devaluing their currency, and perhaps even moreso if you are running a country like the USA, whose money is a global reserve currency.
Although, government spending (non-debt based or otherwise) isn't much use unless it is used for job creation and socially beneficial projects, it's downright criminal if it is used to funnel money into blackhole insolvent banks who don't even bother to make it accessible to society but instead speculate with it. (I think Douthwaite even suggests distributing the debt free money equally amongst the populace to help pay off private debt).
Thanks for your reply Golem.
As I understand it, the caretaker government is negotiating with the IMF the terms of the forthcoming loan. Those terms may be uncomfortable, and they may impinge on Portugal’s sovereignty, but the deal will not last forever. Eventually the IMF will be repaid and Portugal can return to its ruinous ways, if it so decides, and in the meantime the politicians can blame the IMF for all pain caused by austerity measures.
@ Beer.
You should watch this, 5 steps to tyranny, you are already on step 1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=68GzOJQ8NMw
I can only assume that you think that the ordinary people of Portugal should pay for the mess which they have somehow caused presumably by having all day siestas & playing beach volleyball. Try telling that to the Portuguese imigrant workers just down the road from me who work like slaves in a meat processing factory, doing the work that people from N.I. won't do.
I assume you also think that the ordinary people of Ireland like my extremely hardworking daughter should pay for the fiasco caused by banks, corrupt goverment, property developers etc, whilst these pillars of society get off scot free. The very nature of the chosen IMF austerity measures are aimed at the people at the bottom.
Must be great to be a member of the master race.
ahimsa
Sounds like Professors Wrandall Ray & Bill Mitchell you've been reading besides Hudson & Keen?
Ray is going to be speaking at a one day conference in Dublin on May 9th. It's at the Croke Park conference centre, is free & open to all, organised by Feasta offshoot 'Smart Taxes Network'. Richard Douthwaite will be speaking, and there will be a contribution by Irish progressive economists from 'TASC'.
Nyberg report is just out (on Irish banking collapse). Funny how the media seem to be spinning it…saying crap like 'all to blame', 'herd mentality' etc. No names named of course, the usual 'insider' bullshit by (yet) another banking 'expert', given the usual soft ride by churnalists far more interested in serving themselves & the financial sector than writing anything real.
So let's try here then. I think 'systemic' failure might be more accurate. Of course the problem we have with 'systemic' is that every banking executive, dept of finance 'expert' or economist, academic or otherwise (besides the 0.5% notable exceptions who spoke out) is entirely guilty of complete intellectual bankruptcy, fraud or incompetence or some combination. That is to say, the fecking lot of them (besides the aformentioned tiny minority of notable exceptions) should really no longer be in the jobs that they are still occupying.
But they are, aren't they? And Instead of doing the decent, honest thing & recognising the monumentally flawed basis of the last 3 decades of economic & monetary policy, whose teat they have all royally sucked at, they are keeping schtum. Thus ensuring the economic injustice & social division will continue.
There's a part of me that just can't resist imagining the delicious irony of David Cameron grovelling to Gordon Brown for an IMF bailout.
It's a part of me of which I'm thoroughly ashamed – to get to that stage would be disasterous for the population of the UK who aren't lucky enough to be super-rich.
However, it does remind me that our unelected elites are not only immune to feelings of solidarity with their countrymen and women but also that they have absolutely no loyalty to each other. The coercive laws of competition haven't broken down under the mutated form of capitalism we are now experiencing. Quite the contrary. The undemocratic entities imposing the above described edicts have sprung into action precisely because our ruling classes have the jitters and are taking steps towards assuring their self-preservation.
At the moment there is broad consensus among them on how to achieve this (use sovereign governments to cover their losses and central banks to subsidise profiteering through low interest rates). But this can't last forever. The host governments and peoples in the West supporting these parasites will eventually be bled dry as their economies slip into austerity induced debt spirals. Few opportunities will remain for the super-rich to put their money to 'work'.
This is when the competition will turn into a bloodbath. The elites will be fighting each other not only for the rights to exploit the last remaining scraps of domestic value but for access to emerging markets overseas.
The cracks are already beginning to emerge along the usual faultlines (pseudo left-right divisions, nationalism, etc) and can only continue to grow as our elites scrabble to maintain their supremacy and not be overtaken by the rising stars of the BRICS.
I'm rambling here, but my point is this: is there an opportunity for those of us who are desperate to preserve and strengthen our democracy in the face of this onslaught by the richest 0.1% to exploit these divisions?
I know Golem has touched on this before when discussing national competitions within the EU over bailouts. I feel there is more here.
Golem – Thank you for your continued efforts to make sense of these strange times. Your work is invaluable.
Golem, a great post which really highlights the current insanity.
@Beer – But you are missing an important point. The people of Portugal and Greece etc have not been asked if they want the bailout! And one would hasten a guess that most don't. In Greece certainly the view tends to be that Greece would be much better of just defaulting. Even the Greek economics minister has said as much.
The people on the ground would rather see Greece default than accept the IMF and EU loans with their savage caveats, as polls show. Yet this wish is totally ignored by a government in hock to the IMF and EU bankers who demand they just keep following the austerity path.
Because a Greek default will hurt a lot of member states banks badly. That is the bottom line and that is why Portugal, Ireland and Greece are being made to go this route.
What I can't quite get my head around really is what the powers that be are really playing at. I cannot imagine that the IMF economists and EU cheifs are so stupid as to believe that Greece can implement austerity, as severe as is being demanded, and not end up imploding eventually and defaulting anyway.
Which if true, means that the powers that be are merely playing for time. If they believe (and I think they must)that Greece (and maybe others) will eventually default anyway (but further down the line and with much more disastrous consequences for the Greek people than an earlier default) they are purely wanting time. But time for what? To try and desparately shore up their banks?
On a brighter note (not) – Leap 2020 who predicted this crisis back in 2006 have released their latest predictions where they state: ''At this stage, LEAP/E2020 can confirm that the next stage of the crisis will really be the "Very Serious Breakdown of the world economic, financial and monetary system' and that this historic failure will occur in autumn 2011. The monetary, financial, economic and geopolitical consequences of this Very Serious Breakdown, will be of historic proportions and will show the crisis of autumn 2008 for what it really was: a simple detonator.''
They also talk about the crisis being caused in part by 'ghost assets' worth 30 trillion dollars and that half those assets were wiped out in the crash but that QE propped them back up again and that once QE has stopped and the US, in particular, implements austerity – the ghost assets will be wiped out all over again causing a second financial system shock. But this time governments won't be able to print the shock away. I am not sure what they mean by 'ghost assets'. Unless they mean the whole load of CDS's, CDO's, sub-prime mortgages, property values and values of other asset classes that were all inflated way beyond any real value?
http://www.leap2020.eu/English_r25.html
@Golum Nice work, as usual.
@princesschipchops Very very interesting link. Regarding why the PIG must dance to Eurobeat, it may well be that the Euro bods know the game is up for the dollar and they want to keep the euro as an option for replacing the dollar as the defacto reserve currency when the dollar crashes. 65% US GDP from a paper trail on Wall St, 60% (and rising) of US citizens dependent on govt for income in one form or other (these stats are from Simon Johnson and Time Magazine). My neighbour's cat can see the game is up there.
@ahisma, Richard The minimum wage reversal was accompanied by a halving of the PRSI contributions for employees ON the minimum wage. No incentive there for an employer to take you off the minimum wage. I'm taking this cut as softening the outcry at an impending raising of the base tax rate.
i remember being on the youth worker scheme, i kept pressing for a pay rise and kept getting knocked back but then i found out that the govt was paying them 15 pounds a week as long as i was paid no more than 40. i was disgusted a £1 pay rice would cost them £16, so i quit
Some think this is inherent in the money system, particularly of the Austrian School. Strangely, there are many threads that lead to media and to bankers, that seem to recur for over a century.
Wars are an example of a business model for some? I think these are clever people who see others as stupid for not stopping them or joining them. Some laws against corruption of public officials are neither enforced nor in some jurisdictions, ever enacted.
The bust that has yet to come will dwarf that of 1929 … and many could have stopped it, but did not. Fascinating!
Hi folks,
I found this blog, it details a persons discovery of the big scam following the research he carried out, amazing statistics, like the world is in external debt to the tune of approx. 60 trillion dollars……
http://sturdyblog.wordpress.com/2011/04/08/to-whom-do-we-owe-this-money-exactly/#comment-419
HERE is a short film about a man that gets bitten by a banker and his misses shoots him in the head to stop him from becoming a banker.
Great story.
Once again a very good post. But I resent the implication that speculators are somehow to blame for what is brought about by aberrant and criminal Western monetary policies.
I seem to be a speculator as defined by many politicians. I have been investing in grains and oil for a good many years. I do so because I can see what the monetary authorities are doing and I can calculate the ramifications. Stop the political and monetary idiocy and I'll get out of my positions. How else am I going to protect the intrinsic value of my savings and make a living?
Speculators only exist because of the idiocy and self serving nature of politicians. I am doing nothing illegal. I merely can see what these idiots are doing rather than listening to what they are saying.
@ Guidoromero
"How else am I going to protect the intrinsic value of my savings and make a living?"
What if your 'savings' have no intrinsic value?
What if 'making a living' just means providing yourself with food & shelter and enjoying life?
Guidoromero,
Western monetary policy is, as you say, insane and to blame for a great deal of what is now happening. I would not dispute that for a seecond. Perhaps you and I would disagree about speculators. But then again maybe not completely.
I understand the logic of hedging and from what you say that is, at least in part, what you are doing. But would you not accept that many speculators have been delighted with and been keen partners in Western Monetary insanity? Those are one of the groups of people I do blame. They have the understanding to know what lunacy is being pursued but chose to profit from it rather than help stop it.
Drop me an email and let's talk some more if you wish. It is not my desire to alienate anyone from whom I can learn and with whom I can exchange views and refine ideas.
Am not alienated mate. I learn a great deal from you posts.
I am at pains to make people understand the tyranny we live under. Monetary policy is an unseen evil that touches all aspects of life. But it is unimaginably difficult to make people understand why the quantity of money in circulation may result in, for example, food shortages.
The speculators that are knowingly making out like bandits are the Primary Dealers and the banks that gravitate around them. It is an apparently invisible evil. And yet their actions are perpetrated in broad day light and the logic of the dynamic is deceptively simple.
Let's do talk.
@ Ahimsa
In terms of enjoying my life, I have done my bit. I dropped out of the corporate world some eleven years ago now and have endeavored ever since to achieve freedom just so I could enjoy life. Hence the epiphany of how we are being enslaved and guided.
@ guidoromero
Am a bit of a drop out myself. Visited guido's temple of the absurd. Nice commentary. Monetary system is a pet peeve of mine too.
I take your point contending savings should retain their value of exchange, though as I understand it, fiat money, regardless of whether it is debt based or not, has no 'intrinsic value' and so neither do monetary savings.
Lifelong investments in enterprises requiring direct responsibility and involvement such as community friendships, healthy lifestyle choices, developing practical skills, tools, home improvements, cultivating land, etc offer dividends which weather the test of time well.
I hear your dilemma, in the face of systemic inequality, the individual is inclined to play the system in order to protect their private patch even while hungering for a more united response.
I suppose the paradox is that only by endeavouring to provide for our neighbours do we ultimately succeed in ensuring our personal welfare.
p.s. I wholeheartedly disagree that everything begins and ends with money. I consider energy much more fundamental basis and moreover the interplay of energy and consciousness to be the crux.
Hi, David. I have mentioned Sean Gervasi on your blog before, but in relation to this comment
"Not the foundations of Democracy, but Democracy and Free market economics linked. As if the purpose of democracy was the support of Free Market Economics."
as well as the donors you mention, I have to point out this lecture: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9_aYcpxClA
"…a great deal of misunderstanding about the kind of society that American democracy really represents."
He talks about "a tremndous tension of which we're all aware of in our society…a tension between egalitarianism and inequality…a tension born of the evolution in the 16th, 17th and 18th century in England, and a transfer of a particular kind of society onto American soil through the British political traditions."
It's maybe an interesting context for this conclusion from your latest post on offshore banking:
"The largest and most powerful parts of the tax evasion and financial secrecy system are in fact the UK and the US.
Not to transcribe or paraphrase the lecture any further, as I hope you will find the time to hear it through. It's been almost 20 years since, but it's very relevant, and his sense of urgency back then is perfectly in accordance with the current state of affairs. I hope you will find interesting.
Great read.
I'm doing a little digging to understand the fundamentals AND gathering people that want the bailouts reversed and also people that really know the details of it.
The Movement can be found here:
http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/The-Great-Bailout-Scam/122643921151216
Thanks for the posting. And the comments, lots of goodies there 🙂
Hölli Vals.
@ Ahimsa
Apologies, I 've only just seen your comment.
Regarding savings, fiat money has no intrinsic value but it does have exchange value.
Fiat money is actually quite a brilliant concept. Not so Debt Based Fiat Money.
The difference is that DBFM is inherently and necessarily inflationary because of the interest component attached to it. Hence the paradox brought about by the following; if one hypothetically collected all the money in the realm to return it to the monetary authority, they would still be out of pocket by the amount of the interest… but having returned all the money, how can they pay interest?
In a situation whereby a country adopted a fixed amount of fiat money, the exchange value of the currency would fluctuate according to people's preference to save or spend. So, if people's preference is to spend, then the exchange value of the currency would diminish in comparison to the value of material goods or services and vice versa.