For those who might be interested I will be giving a talk in Edinburgh on Dec. 6th. There will also be what I hope will be another lively Q&A afterwards as well as a chance to meet in person and talk informally. I hope you can make it.
It will be at 7.30 pm at Saint Johns Church at the corner of Princess St and Lothain Road. It is free though the organizers wouldn’t turn you away if you offered a small doantion to cover their costs. The talk is hosted and organized by The Scottish Green Party to whom I am grateful. It is a public event to which all are welcome.
Here is a web page with many more details.
And here is a flyer if you feel like posting it elsewhere. You can also download the flyer as a pdf for yourself from here
Excellent. A short walk from my office. I look forward to it.
See you there!
Splendid news David, am looking forward to it!
It’ll be good to meet up again. hope you are well.
Went along to the Positive Money presentation in Edinburgh a few weeks ago so I will definitely make this talk as well. It is also only a few minutes walk away for one of the big banks where I work.
I wonder if they will mind me distributing flyers in the building!!
We will be putting up flyers in local bookshops, cafes etc, so if anyone living locally wants to print off a couple and ask their local sandwich shop to display them, put them up on staff noticeboards at work and so on, then that would be very helpful.
The venue can take 300, and we have absolutely no idea how many are going to come.
It has been tweeted by those who do such things, and we are setting up a twitter hashtag for it in the next couple of days – something slightly less rude than #bastardbankers, which was the first suggestion…
Interesting article entitled, “How Venice Rigged the First, and Worst, Global Financial Collapse”.
“Six hundred and fifty years ago came the climax of the worst financial collapse in history to date. The 1930’s Great Depression was a mild and brief episode, compared to the bank crash of the 1340’s, which decimated the human population. […]
This work shows that it was Venetian finance which, by dominating and controlling a huge international “bubble” of currency speculation from 1275 through 1350, rigged the great collapse of the 1340’s. Rather than sharing the peace of mutual greed and free enterprise with their “allies,” the bankers of Florence, the merchants of Venice bankrupted them, and the economies of Europe and the Mediterranean along with them. Florence was the Fourteenth-century “New York,” the apparent center of banking with the world’s biggest banks. But Venice was “London,” manipulating Florentine bankers, kings, and emperors alike, by tight-knit financial conspiracy and complete dominance of the markets by which money was minted and credit created.”
http://abundanthope.net/pages/Political_Information_43/How-Venice-Rigged-The-First-and-Worst-Global-Financial-Collapse.shtml
Worse than plagues, these bankers are.
thanks backward
It is interesting and full of intriguing historical facts but is the author actually blaming the Black Death and the death of a quarter of Europe’s population on … a financial collapse in 1343? I think the writer got a little deductively over-excited there.
Wirplit – “I think the writer got a little deductively over-excited there.” I agree.
The crisis may have led to lack of money, shortage of food, filthy living conditions, which contributed to the Black Death gaining a foothold, but the author needed to expand on his thoughts a little more.
Nonetheless, it sure was interesting to see the same culprits (bankers) causing chaos even back then.
David,
Are you likely to be speaking in London in the near future?
Best
Antony
Heres a interesting view that suggests that the answer to the Euro disaster is the introduction of Conditional Eurobonds. These would be like Eurobonds as often proposed but with their interest rate in part determined conditionally depending on the public finances obtaining in the borrowing country. So a borrowing country pays less if its finances are in order rather I take it, like a car insurance policy which costs less if you are judged to be a safe driver.
John Muellbauer a professor at Oxford believes that through it and the management so far of the crisis by the tough line Merkel has taken with corrupt and inefficient governments like Greece and Italy, German will have scored ” a remarkable moral, political and economic triumph”… which is not how many British commentators have tended to describe it.
http://www.voxeu.org/index.php?q=node/7332
So is that possible a kind of morally reformist Bond? A loan which is cheaper the more ” rectitude” the borrower can show. Of course its is key what is meant by rectitude and one can imagine the bad sides of that but it could equally be things like financial transparency, environmental standards, lack of corruption, access to education any and all of which are directly pertinent to the economic health of a sovereign nation.
A moral loan. It sounds like something the early anxious Quaker Capitalists would or should have thought of as they wrestled with the way God rewarded hard work, well applied capital and productive intelligence.
David it is wonderful that you are getting the word out I have enjoyed your Talks that appear on You Tube very much.
I have been preoccupied with the question raised in a number of your columns of how we can get people to the meat of the information of what is causing the problem. People are already interested everyone knows the tide has gone out as money goes if you listen carefully there a collective mumbling of Who Ate all the Pies?
I link to your blog very often and use the links from all of the other contributors in discussions I participate in usually on the BBC ( Peston and Flanders occasionally Hewitt)
and the Economist Group in Linked in. I also speak to friends regularly and post to my Facebook and Twitter.
In one of my first posts on your Blog when you so graciously replied with a message of welcome you recommended me to Guido’s Blog, I have also followed to Tobyś Blog and also to Russels ( Forensic Statistician) there are others as Well. Mike Hall and Charles Wheeler being huge influences with their own words and excellent source materials.
Being more of a reader than a write myself I felt a sort of Librarian function or Richard And Judy book review could usefully be performed to try and get people to find the meat of the subject. It is true in Life that to find the Prince we have to Kiss a lot of frogs, no less true on the Internet and the Charlatans and Snake Oil Salesmen and the agents of Establishment misinformation are Everywhere. If people are looking for Truth and Knowledge rather than just some one to Agree with and share beliefs.
On a Guitar Club site that I participate in we have occasionally an invited guest speaker on line where the members ask questions the discussions go on for as long as they go on for after the speaker is introduced by the Host, this could work really well.
My freind who set up the Club suggested that he also set up such a web discussion group for me, the discussions with Guest Speakers is a good one but could work well by placing links into open forums promoting discussions and linking back to here or elsewhere and engaging the regular participants in a discussion. A lot of forums are really quite loud and aggressive unhappily, I have had some interesting discourse with various upset folk that are not used to hearing an alternative non-Establishment viewpoint.
Anyway I decided to do a blog when I got my subscription alert through from Guidos blog this morning.
http://letthemconfectsweeterlies.blogspot.com/2011/11/blogging-new-free-press-21st-century.html
Sorry to labour the point I can only begin to imagine how busy you must be.
Best Wishes,
Roger
Hi David
I have finally read your book after holding my nose and purchasing it from amazon. It was very good, I hope you will be writing another one, but perhaps one that sets out the dangers for democracy and how this whole episode has been planned. I also bought and read(when you have dealings with the devil why stop at one) leverage by Karl, also a good book but a little US focused.
Anyhow good work as always.
Good article entitled, “The New Authoritarianism: From Decaying Democracies to Technocratic Dictatorships and Beyond” by Professor James Petras.
Professor Petras lays out the stages that will most likely occur as the technocrats gain a firmer hold, the increased police state, etc. Anything can happen from this point onward.
“The bankers realistically recognize the technocrats must move quickly and decisively. […]
Technocratic rule is by its nature transitory. Under threat of a mass revolt the new rulers will flee to their overseas financial sanctuaries. Local oligarchical collaboraters will hasten to augment their billion dollar euro overseas bank accounts in London , New York and Zurich .
The technocratic dictatorship will make every effort to hand power back to the oligarchical democratic politicians with the proviso that they retain the regressive changes in place. Technocratic rule will end up with “paper victories” unless the overseas bankers insist the “return to democracy” operates within the ‘new order’.
The application of force could boomerang. The technocrats and democratic oligarchs renewed threats of an economic catastrophe for non-compliance will be counter-manded by the reality of real existing misery and mass unemployment. For millions the living catastrophe resulting from technocratic policies will outweigh any future threats. The rebellious majority may choose to rise up and overthrow the old order and take its chances in an independent democratic socialist republic. One of the unforeseen consequences of imposing radical colonial appointed technocratic dictatorship is that it clears the political landscape of parasitic political oligarchies and lays the groundwork for a clean break. It facilitates renouncing the debt and reconstituting the social fabric of an independent democratic republic.”
Spells out what’s about to happen.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=27908
“I’ve repeatedly documented that the Neocons planned regime change in Iraq, Libya, Iran, Syria and a host of other countries right after 9/11 … if not before. […]
General Wesley Clark … said the aim of this plot [to “destroy the governments in … Iraq, … Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Iran”] was this: “They wanted us to destabilize the Middle East, turn it upside down, make it under our control.” He then recounted a conversation he had had ten years earlier with Paul Wolfowitz — back in 1991 — in which the then-number-3-Pentagon-official, after criticizing Bush 41 for not toppling Saddam, told Clark: “But one thing we did learn [from the Persian Gulf War] is that we can use our military in the region – in the Middle East – and the Soviets won’t stop us. And we’ve got about 5 or 10 years to clean up those old Soviet regimes – Syria, Iran [sic], Iraq – before the next great superpower comes on to challenge us.” Clark said he was shocked by Wolfowitz’s desires because, as Clark put it: “the purpose of the military is to start wars and change governments? It’s not to deter conflicts?”
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=27906
Get in and control these countries before the next superpower comes on stream?
“Anonymous describes itself as a leaderless, spontaneous, unorganized, grassroots movement. How anyone can believe this is beyond me, given the professional quality of the videos, the consistency of the style and content of the videos, and the sophisticated branding techniques, such as the ‘V for Vendetta’ masks. The words in the videos are spoken by computer software, giving the impression that the authors are successfully hiding their identities from the authorities. One needs to be incredibly naive to think the authors couldn’t be tracked down, and the videos taken down, if the authorities actually felt threatened by Anonymous.
The credibility of Anonymous is somewhat enhanced by various successful hacker attacks that have been attributed to it. But again, only the naive could believe the authorities couldn’t put a stop to this, if the perpetrators really were grassroots activists trying to take down the system. In fact, the hacker attacks, as well as Anonymous itself, are undoubtedly false-flag operations of the Pentagon’s new Cyber Warfare division, carrying out its part in the class war against we the people.
Apart from propagating an anti-system message, and channeling the attention of some number of naive people, it is not clear what the real purpose of Anonymous is. My best guess at this point is that a really outrageous and unpopular hacker attack will come along, Anonymous will claim credit, and that will be used as an excuse to seriously crack down on the use of the Internet by genuine activists. The Internet would then be politically sterilized, giving Internet psy-ops a clear field.”
Curtailing the Internet with a false hacker attack? Using agents provocateurs (admitted to after rock-throwing plainclothes officers were photographed all wearing their police-issue boots at the G20 Conference in Toronto) in order to crack down on protesting?
Makes you wonder what is REALLY going on, doesn’t it?
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=27891
I thought the recent piece on Iran was also very good. For any one interested in this stuff one can do a lot worse than go back and revisit some of Noam Chomsky’s stuff on the Iran Contras, Sandinistas, Haitis Etc South American CIA intrigues in the 70’s and 80’s and one George Bush senior.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=27864
Had the ‘pleasure’ of being at the 99% Dublin march and heard you talking afterwards and briefly introduced myself.
Since read the article you wrote in The Guardian which I am printing up as you’ve put it so clearly in a nutshell !
Is there anyway we might get you over to Rome in a foreseeable future on the basis of organising a decent and large forum?
Accommodation could be assured if that’s any help !
This is probably a dream but one must always live in hope !
yours Julia S-L
Hi David
Certainly be there just round the road from my office, see if I can round up some likeminds too
Cheers
Jason
Hi David. Unfortunately me and my colleague, Keekster will be unable to make it tonight. However, I’m finally getting round to reading your book which is refreshing my memory of how we got here today. My partner is going to read it after me and I’m going to try and get it to as many as possible. I even took it last week to the pub before the football to show my mates!
I hope there is a good turnout and that there are some people who are opening their eyes for the first time to what is actually happening.
Me and Keekster were also at the positive money meeting a few weeks back and the more people like you can spread the word the better.
I myself joined the Labour Party because I am fed up of the politics in this country. The reason we have got to where we have is because the socialist parties throughout the western world have been hijacked by a so called ‘thinking’ elite. I may end up at a dead end, but I thought I’d give it a go trying to get change happening. There are many people at the grass roots of the Labour Party who do not have the same views as those at the top. Until this group regain control then the current system will not end without some form of revolt.
As each day passes, I sadly can’t see how things will not change without it all hitting the fan. The thing that saddens me the most with this is that this is all avoidable, but for the greed by the elite who believe their end game of domination over the masses is achievable.
Hi adundeemonkey, I’m with you re trying to make change happen (especially after attending David’s talk last night)! But I’m interested in why you’ve chosen joining the Labour Party as the means? We obviously need ways of coming together in sufficient numbers to achieve change and in the past these were the political parties, and hopefully can be again. I rather think at the moment though that they might not be appropriate vehicles for it and we rather need to come together in a new mass movement to achieve our own Arab-spring equivalent. I suppose the Occupy movement is the nearest thing so far, and perhaps the myriad of organisations and protest groups will at some point reach that tipping point and all coalesce to demand and achieve the changes we seek. I’m worried though that this might not happen and how I can most effectively contribute to achieving that.
Ben, I understand where you are coming from and maybe the Labour Party are not the vehicle to get the change that is needed. However, I feel there is already an existing base of support for change in the interest of the wider good in the Labour Party. Although I doubt those at the top share that interest, I know those at the bottom do. I’ve been debating with myself on ways to do this. Some involved enacting a party wide strike by all the grass roots members in the party until change comes, while some involve trying to change peoples views one by one.
Labour was founded at a time to give people a voice who didn’t have one. The underlying principles for the party are still there regardless of what those at the top have tried to do. It angers me no end when I think about what the Labour party have become. They are supposed to be a party made up of working people who care about society. But what it has become is a vehicle for people to have a career. The current Labour Party is not going to bring about change, but I feel it has the potential to do so if the party can be won back. Seeing people like Ed Balls in the party breaks my heart. The Tories and Lib Dems have always been parties for the establishment, the Labour Party should not, and must not be like them. Otherwise what hope do we have?
Alas, sick family has put paid to my intention to attend. However, in addition to my colleagues comments above. If history does repeat itself, its the failure of a ruling elite to see that their ever more extreme ideology will lead to their downfall (just as it seems to happen to every empire). Unfortunately, history seems to show us that once the people have booted out the old ruling elite, they simply replace it with another, who simply replace one ideology with another new one, that in the short term meets our needs, but ultimately leads once again to excess. etc etc. The failure seems to be to give the power to rule to a small elite time and time again. And that power always seems to corrupt.
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Thanks