Comments on: The Ugly Sisters – PART 2 – The Misery-go-round

By: StevieFinn

StevieFinn — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 10:14:42 +0000

@ Zardoz & @ David Lloyd

You're both very welcome, pass it on, you might make a dent in the wall of apathy.

By: David Lloyd

David Lloyd — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 07:31:01 +0000

@StevieFinn:

thanks also for the link Stevie, great to know where the expression stockholder comes from. Incredible that such a simple system of money could function so well!

By: zardoz3006

zardoz3006 — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 23:38:27 +0000

StevieFinn, Thanks for the link, illuminating

By: fitzy103

fitzy103 — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 20:39:16 +0000

To a certain extent it applies to China too. Their greatest resource – their people – have been exploited to make all the crap we fill our houses with.

If the US does completely trash the Dollar, what will the Saudi's and the Chinese have to say about being left with a load of worthless paper money.

By: Gordon

Gordon — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 20:27:49 +0000

And what happens to the ill-gotten wealth of your Latin American dictator or drug dealer? Why it's safely deposited in the good old US of A. Tax free, naturally.

http://treasureislands.org/tax-haven-usa-attracts-over-3-trillion-in-foreign-dirty-money/

By: john

john — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 19:35:58 +0000

Golem thanks
very succinct,
What really bothers me is that I think its quite possible that the bankstards bond holders have run war game scenarios on all this and on every move they own the initiative. No contrary sign so far.

By: Hawkeye

Hawkeye — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 19:03:10 +0000

fitzy / michael

Thanks for the recommendation of the film. I'm just finishing up "Confessions of an Economic Hitman" by John Perkins which covers exactly this ground.

He was in on the game of coercing regimes to let the US exploit resources. The US would loan the county the money (maybe via IMF), use this to then pay US contractors to exploit the nation, AND then demanded repayment.

If the regime didn't play ball then, well either a plane crash or full scale invasion (e.g. Panama) results.

I've often wondered how Saudi Arabia switched from being a lead OPEC instigator of the price hike in 1973, to complete US capitulation in 74. This books explains it perfectly.

By: StevieFinn

StevieFinn — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 18:26:20 +0000

I'v just finished watching this, perhaps you have all seen it, I think it is amazing. The historical aspect of the mess we are in explained, a real eye-opener for me. It's a video called " The Secret of Oz " by Bill Still. If you havn't seen it give it a go.
http://www.sovereignity.org.uk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swkq2E8mswI&feature=player_detailpage

By: fitzy103

fitzy103 — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 18:22:02 +0000

Hi Golem,
I watched an interesting documentary the other day. I'm sure you'll have seen it. It’s called the War on Democracy and is about how the Americans go about taking the natural resources of Latin American countries.
The basic principal is this. The CIA helps overthrow the (usually democratically elected) government and replace it with a friendly dictator. The dictator then allows the American companies access to their natural resources at a cheap price. Obviously the dictator and his inner council become pretty wealthy in the process whilst the indigenous peoples tend to get shafted. It showed how this had happened in Chile under Pinochet, and in Guatemala, Panama, Nicaragua, Honduras and El Salvador. It also alluded to potential support for the dictators in Brazil, Argentina and elsewhere.

It got me thinking about the Middle East. Whatever your views are on religion, it’s fair to say that it’s a pretty effective form of population control (except when 2 factions collide). In my opinion, the champion of this has to be the Saudi's. Here, the friendly Islamic monarchy has been great for the US.

To get to the point, Saudi is controlled by a Monarch who, just like Latin American dictators gives his countries resources to the US at a reasonable price for in return for their support. This might be in the form of weapons, technology or invasion of Iraq in Gulf War 1.

If QE (via speculation)is leading to inflation abroad, and the people of these countries are beginning to overthrow their dictators who are loyal to Washington, could America be in a perfect storm of not only losing their supply of overseas raw materials, but haveing debased the Dollar so much that they can no longer afford to bring them in at an affordable price when the markets settle back down again?

In short, could QE be a sort of suicide for the American empire?

Keep up the good work!!

Michael

By: Gordon

Gordon — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 17:48:19 +0000

Golem,

You are in good company when you reason that bankers are creating their own 'currency'. Aussie economist Steve Keen laid out how it works in a long but worthwhile post written some time ago.

http://www.debtdeflation.com/blogs/2009/01/31/therovingcavaliersofcredit/#_ftn6