Top 10 Events of 2010

 There can never be a definitive list of the ten biggest events of a year, especially one as mad(dening) and as filled with newsmaking events as this year. Nor is this list meant to in any way diminish any of the other big events of the year that are not mentioned. Below are ten of those events that I believed shaped 2010, some of which will resonate for years to come:

1.  Wikileaks cables: Because they scared the hell out of those that have too much sinister power behind the scenes and too much leverage over our lives. Because we all have a right to know what is going on. Because state secrecy is not absolute, nor should it ever be. Because the too-powerful Establishment needs to be jolted sometimes
2. Global warming/ climate change/ deforestation/ biodiversity loss, etc: Because these issues will not go away, nor should they as long as the eco-carnage continues. Because many love to speak 'sustainability' in breathless tones, but don't have a blinking clue of what it actually means. Because we're humans and remain lousy stewards of this planet 
3. Chilean miners: Because all 33 Chilean miners stuck underground made it up alive after more than 60 days. Because this event made me wish with all my heart that total strangers would be alive and well. Because amongst all the doom and gloom in these scary and sinister times, wonderful miracles still do happen.
4. International financial terrorism: Because it showed, time and time again, what blood-sucking scheisters international finance and banking can be. Because it proved just how speculative the world capital economy has become, and how speculators are at war against savers and governments. Because it showed that most top bankers and banks are not geniuses but a bunch of lying, conniving vampires who are sucking nations (and us) dry  
5. Eurozone crisis, Greece & Ireland: Because it showed us just how dangerous this little thing called 'soverign debt' can actually be when hijacked by international banking terrorism. Because it shows what big bullies the likes of Germany, France and the IMF actually are. Because it shows how uncompromising, unfair (to poorer EU countries) and doomed the Euro project actually is. Because the citizens of Greece and Ireland deserved better 
6. Iceland - the financial meltdown and volcano: Because Iceland and its citizens had the bravery to be bankrupt rather than be indentured slaves to international financial terrorists. Because Icelandic citizens voted against being hostage to the monstrous risk-taking of a few bankers. Because the Icelandic volcanic ash was the sweetest and most ironic gift that Iceland could send to disrupt one of its chief hostage-takers, the UK   
7. Ascendancy of China: Because the decline of the American Empire is happening faster than we thought. Because China is definitely on the ascendancy on the world stage, and that's not a good thing either. Because the West has only itself to blame for destroying its own industries and selling itself out like a whore to the cheap labour, cheap (and badly made) products and human rights abuses of China
8. Haiti earthquake: Because this was the one nation on Earth that did not deserve, nor cope with, such a devastating natural disaster. Because it showed (along with many other events this year) that Mother Nature can be one blindly vindictive, nasty lady. Because subsequent events proved that Haiti really needs to get its act together, once and for all. 
9. Gulf of Mexico oil spill: Because this proved, yet again and for the umpteenth time, that our addiction to oil is not sustainable. Because this proved, yet again and for the umpteenth time, that offshore oil drilling is ludicrous in its environmental and social risks. Because this proved, yet again and for the umpteenth time, that multinational oil companies are amongst the biggest lying, greenwashing environmental pillagers on the planet. 
10. Ascendancy of alternative media: Because most traditional media has been asleep at the wheel (or worse) for far too long. Because the 'news' is more subjective than ever (wasn't it always?), and the alternative media is doing it so much better. Because the Internet, for all its pitfalls and inherent dangers, remains a powerful tool for necessary change

RANT OR RAVE?: Whaling, Where to Next?

I simply do not not know whether to be happy or not that happy with the outcome of the recent International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting held in Agadir, Morocco.

There was much nervousness and angst amongst environmental campaigners and countries like Australia, New Zealand, most of the EU and an entire Latin American bloc that the 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling would be overturned. And right they were to be afraid. The tide is turning in favour of those who want a return to all-out commercial whaling, even with 'quotas' in place, bizarre and outrageous as that might sound.

Thirty different meetings were held over more than two days worth of negotiations. On the one hand, environmental organizations like Greenpeace and activist groups like Avaaz declared that their missions  to protest at the IWC talks had been a success. Avaaz, an excellent online activist group, had been able to obtain 1.2-million online signatures (of which I signed and forwarded to many others) in a petition they claim was heard loud and clear in Agadir. It was a tremendous effort and Avaaz deserve all credit for their tenacity in obtaining so many online supporters.

On the other hand, Japan, whaling bastards par excellence, looked decidedly upbeat and with good reason: there has been no moratorium on whaling in the frigid Southern Ocean, where Japanese whaling vessels do most of their massacres. The Japanese claim their culling of whales is for 'scientific purposes', a preposterous pack of lies that fools no one, and thanks to a stupid loophole in the 1986 compromise to ban annual quotas of whale slaughter. They may have wanted a lifting on the ban of whaling for 'non-scientific' purposes and the return of the annual quotas that existed prior to 1986 at this meeting. But the annual slaughter of whales in the Southern Ocean will continue unabated next year - yet again.

So, Japan were hardly big losers after all. Right?

The other two nations in the 'Whaling Axis of Evil', Iceland and Norway, also get to keep their refusal to recognize the 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling. Those two Scandinavian nations are thought to export most of their whale meat to Japan - which is farcical, given that Japan itself has 'mountains of stockpiles of whale meat' already, as according to Greenpeace Japan.

So much for the moral rectitude and 'high ethics' ordinarily attributed to Norway and Iceland. Bloody hypocrites. Shame on them and their people for allowing this slaughter.

And now South Korea wants to have the right to join in on the blood-drenched fun with the Whaling Axis of Evil nations! Jesus wept.

Scandals were rife both prior to and at the Agadir meeting. In the weeks leading up to the critical vote, the media was rife with reports of undercover journalists gathering hard evidence that delegates from poorer nations had been bribed by the Japanese with everything from development 'loans' to free holidays and paid flights to even prostitutes at their hotels. Then at the meeting there was outrage when only governmental delegates were allowed and the doors promptly closed to all NGOs and other observers.

Yet again, an international organization conducts its affairs behind closed doors and in huge secrecy. One can only wonder why.

The IWC is so rife with allegations of corruption and ineptitude it makes FIFA look like the International Red Cross. It's known that the Whaling Axis of Evil nations wield inordinate power in the IWC, particularly the Land of the Rising Sun. Why are countries like Canada no longer members? Why did they leave? And why the hell are some of the IWC member nations landlocked countries (most of them European nations, by the way, and including Austria, Hungary, Slovakia and Switzerland, as well as other counties without coastlines like Mali and Mongolia)?!

According to Morocco's Agence Maghreb Arabe Presse, "Although it failed to reach a compromise, the meeting of Agadir was described by several participating delegations as a “success” and a “historical turning point”, as the organization remained committed to its mission despite the fundamental disagreements between its members."

Hmmmm, success to whom? Is a stalemate and a firm retention of the current status quo (which still allows hundreds of whales to be slaughtered by Japan, Iceland and Norway) really such a huge success? Perhaps it is success in this day and age of high cynicism (by the Japanese) and downright hypocrisy (read: Iceland and Norway) on the issue of whaling.

Perhaps the likes of Greenpeace and Avaaz can take some comfort in a job well done in protesting a possible lifting on the ban and roll up their sleeves to fight this battle all over again another day. When up against the likes of Japan and Norway, perhaps that is indeed a victory - for now.

And so the species considered to be amongst the most evolved and intelligent on Earth continue to be at the mercy of homo sapiens. A species that has peacefully roamed the great oceans and seas for millenia and which communicate in complex sonar language at the mercy of a species that kills its own, declares war on its own and devastates all that surrounds it.

Pity the whales, to be at the mercy of such a species.


And these are the fights that must still be fought in the second decade of the 21st century?
 
Should this be a rant or a rave? I remain unsure...
 
Do you get my point?

RAVE: Iceland Votes 'NO'!!!

What GREAT news from yesterday - Iceland has resolutely VOTED NO in the Icesave referendum!!!

That means that the Icelandic people have basically told their government that they should not re-pay the UK and Netherlands governments billions of pounds for what it has cost those governments to pay their account holders in the Icesave collapse.

What FANTASTIC news!

And, better still, the vote was overwhelming in its resounding NO. Latest estimates from the poll put the 'NO' vote at 93%, with only 2% voting in favour of 'honouring' Iceland's debt to the UK and Netherlands. The rest of the voters cast invalid votes, which pundits assess as being a protest vote in itself. Hence, many believe that, in fact, 98% of Icelandic voters were against the debt re-payment, in one way or another. Amazing.

Talk about a nation united in their collective fury and anger at having to be the 'fall guy' for an unregulated global financial system that is clearly perverted, inequitable and entirely out of control.

It has been stated that the referendum has shown far more all-out opposition to the debt repayment by this small country's citizens than was originally expected. And this in the first referendum held in this country since 1944; one of the world's oldest continuous democracies, by the way.

My respect for the people of Iceland today is enormous. They may still hunt whales (to which I have a huge problem - please, stop that, Iceland), but at least they had the courage to stand up to the British and Dutch bullies and, more importantly, to have the vision to realize that they simply cannot have their economic future held hostage because of what uber-capitalism has become today - namely, unfair, unjust and unsustainable.

There will be tough days ahead for Iceland. That IMF loan has just become a lot more difficult to get. I just wish Iceland would see that for the beautiful silver lining that it will be for the country. Think middle- to long-term, Iceland - you do not need that IMF loan. The cost will simply be too high for your society.

Even EU membership may have to go on hold for now. Too bad. Nothing is worth getting if it means having to sell your soul to the Devil incarnate that is the current global financial system, sick and twisted as it is of now.

The relative silence on this Icelandic vote on most of the major international TV news stations today has been deafening. That in itself says everything. The corporatist powers-that-be are scared. Very scared. This small North Atlantic island nation of just 350 000 people has just scared the living daylights out of the world's financial establishment with the biggest middle finger to the rest of the world in recent times.

The corporate powers-that-be and economic terrorists on Wall Street and in the City of London can pooh-pooh this result all they like. They don't fool me. They know that the tide may just be turning against them. The people, quite frankly, have had enough.

Good for you, Iceland. Now, please Greece, be the next...

RAVE: Brilliant Image re Iceland Crisis

As a follow up to my rather lengthy rant about the Icelandic vote tomorrow on their 'debt' to the UK and Netherlands, I could not resist raving about this brilliant image I just came across:

It shows a bulldog (synonymous with the UK and, by extension, Gordon Brown) standing over a map of Iceland. Sheer, simple brilliance - it says it all.

Due credit for this image is given to the Debtonation site - a brilliant site that I highly recommend (www.debtonation.org) with insights regarding the current financial crisis.

RANT: Iceland - Please Vote NO

Tomorrow the citizens of Iceland will vote on whether or not Iceland should honour its so-called 'Icesave Bill'. This is a piece of legislation whereby Iceland must pay back the debt it supposedly owes to the United Kingdom and the Netherlands due to the collapse of one of its own banks, Landsbanki, in 2008 and, in turn, the collapse of Icesave.



Landsbanki offered their 'Icesave' brand as an online savings account - the draw being very high interest rates (read: greed) on this savings loan, thank you very much. Hence, the large number of investors who bought these loans - over 400 000 in the UK and Netherlands combined. When Landsbanki went into receivership in 2008, so too did their online savings buckeroo. For 6-8 weeks people holding these loans could not get their money out. A diplomatic row broke out between Iceland, on the one hand, and the UK and Netherlands on the other as to how Iceland would pay out these debts to so many foreign account holders.

But one has to first ask the question: Why did all of Iceland's three biggest banks, including Landsbanki, collapse in 2008? Some analysts have been critical of the way that Iceland's banks were so heavily leveraged (i.e. the amount of debt they had over and above their assets) by international standards. It was estimated that Icelandic banks were leveraged by more than five times Iceland's GDP. Not good economics.

With the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008 (beautifully orchestrated by the likes of JP Morgan and those mega-scheisters, Goldman Sachs - more on that another time) came uncertainty as to the solvency of Icelandic banks. There was a rush on foreign accounts held in Icelandic banks and, well, the whole Icelandic banking system went into crisis, their three biggest banks collapsed and, suddenly, the Icelandic government and its parliament, the Althing, were left holding the baby.

The Althing formulated this 'Icesave Bill' as an attempt to bring into law a means by which these foreign account debts could be 'honoured' and it was passed in December 2009 (this after previous similar bills had been rejected by the British and Dutch as unacceptable). The proposed law was highly unpopular with Icelandic citizens, given how much debt Iceland would incur as a nation.

Then, on January 5th of this year the Icelandic President, Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, stunned many by refusing to sign the bill into law. All hell broke loose. The Brits and Dutch threatening that Iceland's plans to join the EU would be vetoed, not to mention threats of international lawsuits against Iceland, and so forth.

My admiration of President Grimsson's refusal to sign into law measures that would be so prejudicial to Iceland knows no bounds. I have included a picture of him in this post. The man showed enormous courage and determination in refusing to succumb to the threats and bullying by the British and Dutch governments.

So, is Iceland really to blame? If you listen to the analysts 'critical' of their over-leveraged banks then, yes, the Icelandic banking system should take the rap. Please note these analysts tend to be of the CNN-MSNBC-BBC-Sky-News ilk, i.e. Wall Street and City of London parakeets to the hilt.

I mean, Iceland should be held accountable for its banks, right? These foreign accounts should be paid back by Iceland, right? Ummm, no.

Why do I scoff at these supposedly erudite analysts? And why do I make the assertion in this post that the Icelandic government and its people should not be held accountable for this debt? I'll tell you why:

1. Because just about every major bank in the world was super-leveraged by the time the global financial crisis hit in 2008, folks! Why the hell do you think so many major banks, especially in the USA and the UK, had to bailed out with government aid packages, i.e. taxpayer money?! They were in hock to the bloody hilt.

2. Because, unlike many other countries, Iceland's government simply did not have the public money to bail out its own banks. The money just wasn't there because international speculators, those economic terrorists from hell, had specifically targeted the Icelandic kroner and it had devalued enormously in 2008. Remember, Iceland is not a member of the EU and so did not have the 'comfort blanket' of the Euro (the bittersweet irony is that now the Euro is itself coming under attack from these speculators! Don't you just love globalized finance?)

3. Because, why must Iceland be vilified for its banking practices, when most banks worldwide, especially most of the big ones in the US and the UK, were being operated along the exact same, unsustainable lines?

4. Because why must, if the Icesave Bill is finally signed into law in Iceland, the country's citizens be okay with the fact that the country's debt will then be the equivalent of 13000 euros for every single citizen? Iceland will become the most indebted nation per capita on the planet. Would you be willing for your country to take on that amount of debt because of the shenanigans of a few of your own country's bankers in full cohorts with international bankers and financiers in other countries? Not to mention the fact that your country's currency had been specifically targeted for obscene speculation by a bunch of economic terrorists?

No, I didn't think you would be happy to do that? So why must Iceland?

5. Because why must Iceland be threatened with being vetoed entry into the EU or threatened with huge lawsuits just because it may choose not to honour a debt that will be so prejudicial to its national debt per capita? Why is it acceptable that the UK and the Netherlands are allowed to be such bullies against such a relatively small economy? Would they do that if the country in question was Italy? Or Spain? Or the United States? Hmmmm, interesting question that...no?

6. Because I hope that a 'NO' vote tomorrow in Iceland will force that country to review its way of getting out of its current financial nightmare. I do believe that being denied a bailout by the IMF, that Antichrist of international government aid, will be a very dark cloud with a beautiful silver lining to it for Iceland. An IMF loan always comes with stipulations designed to further enslave a nation to the whims of international investors and international (Mafia) finance, not to mention the slashing of public spending (read: education, healthcare, etc) and the lowering of labour costs and protections.

Don't let the Chicago Boys in, Iceland!

7. Because, quite frankly, I don't see why there should be any need for a country to 'honour' debt in an international financial system that is obviously so inherently rotten to the core and which it, like most countries worldwide, had been duped into believing was a basically 'honourable' and safe capitalist system. It is NOT honourable and it is not safe - the globalized capital market has become a Mafia domain. Countries are having their economies taken out by economic hitmen in the shape of investment banks and financiers (Greece, anyone?) and being forced (somehow) to have to pay for the mess and debt chaos that these economic terrorists wreak upon their economies. Why be honourable with a bunch of crooks? Stuff them.

8. Because for all the talk of 'innocent' account holders in this Icesave scandal, the majority are nothing but a bunch of middle- to upper-income people and organizations who wanted to make a quick buck with a savings account promising higher interest rates. Understandable, but still an element of greed existed. So, you got burned - I am sorry but, as they say, boo hoo. Welcome to the modern form of global capitalism. There is no level playing field in the markets, you dupes. Nice, isn't it? Time yuppies who love to 'play' the markets thinking they were so clever learned that often all that happens is they get played yourselves by a bunch of economic conmen.

And to all those municipalities who invested in these types of accounts and junk bonds just to try and 'raise more money' - shame on you for playing the markets with public money. You had no right to do so.

Let the UK and Dutch governments have to pay out these debts themselves if they care so much about all these account holders. Maybe then they'll think twice about allowing their own financial systems to become so rampantly unregulated and so at the mercy of international bankers and speculators.

9. Because the current globalized financial system is corrupt, perverse and is not here to serve you or I. It is in the hands of a very few of the mega-rich and the mega-bought-out and they are holding entire country economies and currencies to ransom. THIS is what you get when you allow capitalism to become unregulated uber-capitalism and allow for rampant speculation to become normative.

10. Because Iceland's vote tomorrow is a litmus test for just how much anger there is against the current global financial system. And because this could very well be the starting point of a citizen-led revolt worldwide against this sick, perverse system. This Icelandic vote may yet prove an interesting chapter in years to come about just what led the international uber-capitalist system to be overhauled.

Iceland needs to regain its dignity. And by saying 'NO' to its international debt obligations it will, paradoxically, regain a sense of self and a sense of nationhood. Any nation held hostage to the arbitrary vagaries and collusion of globalized finance should do just that.

Therefore, for all the above, and so much more, I can only hope that Iceland will vote a big, resounding NO tomorrow in the Icesave referendum.

Do you get my point?

RANT: Sovereign Debt - the UK 'Slide' Show

Sovereign Debt - ah yes, my pet economic issue of the day. Here comes another rant on this issue, scant days after my first one on it.

The big talk this past week was about how now it was not only Portugal or Ireland or Greece or Italy or Spain or (the infamous 'PIGIS' group of European countries) that may be in danger of default on their sovereign debt but...nay, wait for it...

the United Kingdom.

Oh, how that particular news filled me with a delicious sense of irony. I did get a big kick out of hearing that the UK's budget deficit could very soon balloon to even larger than that of the much-maligned Greece.

Don't get me wrong: this is not some anti-British tirade on my part. I lived in England for five years, got an excellent degree at a respected English university and made some truly wonderful friends of whom I care about to this very day. My love of British music, cinema, humour and much beside, years and years in the making, know no bounds.

No, this is not some childish tirade against the English, the British or anything Anglo. Rather, it is an all-out assault on that mother of all centres for global financial markets and, therefore, economic terrorism, namely 'The City', as London's financial district is pedantically referred to by many.



And throw in that appalling British government for good measure.

London is, along with Wall Street in New York City, the most important centre for global finance. Much is said and ranted about regarding the obscene bonuses and stock option payouts, etc, being paid in this economic recession to corporate America and, in particular, on Wall Street. However, the City of London and all its British banks, investment banks and financiers are not doing too shabbily either.

The levels of cynical gorging by these 'City' financial rogues at the trough, much of it with the help of billions of pounds in taxpayer money by the British government, are plain S-I-C-K-E-N-I-N-G.

And all of this has been done with the full blessing and collusion of the Gordon Brown government.

Hence, my being tickled pink at hearing that the UK may soon join the likes of Spain or Ireland or even...gasp...Greece as yet another example of a government that is simply too much in debt to pay all of its creditors and domestic obligations.

I snicker at the news because turns out that having the 'financial epicentre' of the global financial scene in your own back garden is no guarantee against having an economy as up to pawpaws as that of Greece. Delicious.

I snicker at the news because that's what you get for racking up billions and billions of pounds for fighting wars that you had no rhyme or reason to get involved in. Yes, Britain, what the hell are you doing having been part of the illegal Iraq war and still stuck in the morass that is Afghanistan?

And I think I'll puke from here all the way to Buckingham Palace if I hear any of that 'our brave men in uniform fighting for our freedom' crap on faux-news stations like Sky News or even the BBC one more time. Your brave men in uniform are tragically losing their lives for nothing. That's tragic. And stop all that patriotic chest-thumping. You lost your empire ages ago. Get over it.

And I snicker hardest because the UK recently tried to bully Iceland into bailing out British investors over the collapse of Icesave, an Icelandic investment fund (this along with those other bullies, the Netherlands). Gordon Brown invoked anti-terrorism legislation against Iceland in late 2008 because of the threat of Iceland defaulting on payments to the UK. Yes, anti-terrorism laws! Iceland was understandably outraged at being considered a 'terrorist state'. Diplomatic relations between the two countries, centuries-long allies, plummeted to all-time lows. All over money.

Even worse, it has even been alleged in some media that Gordon Brown himself is said to have made the OUTRAGEOUS statement that, if need be, the UK would be willing to invade Iceland because of their 'terrorist-like activities' in not paying up. What the hell is going on here?!!

And all of this by Brown with the full-blown pressure and constant braying of and by the 'City of London'. Not to mention that it is those pompous twats in their pinstripe suits and driving their Jaguars and Bentleys to their Home Counties weekend homes that will benefit most if Iceland capitulates and pays out the UK. That is, pays for what was the result of the 'financial shenanigans' (read: economic terrorist activities) of a few Icelandic investment bankers in full cohorts with a whole bunch of 'City' bankers and the like.

The Icelandic President refused to sign the law that would beholden Iceland to 'honour' those debts (all power to him for that) and a referendum on that issue yet awaits the Icelandic people in March. More on that very soon.

So, let's recap:

We have a country's government that has seen fit to terrorize another sovereign European country over a few billion pounds that was largely caused by the badly regulated financial mechanisms and market in its own country.

We have two successive governments that have ensnared a country and its soldiers in immoral and illegal wars that are only strengthening terrorism, not weakening it.

And we have a financial heartland that is at the very heart of what has been and continues to be so horrendously wrong with world economics and financial systems.

And now the warmongering bully that genuflects to 'the City' at every given moment has an economy that is tanking quicker and worse than most others.

Talk about karma.

So, yes, that's why I get a mischievous thrill out of seeing the UK's economy slip-sliding even further down as it rides on the coattails of those City bastards.

I don't wish unemployment or hard times on any of my friends or the people that I love and care about in the UK. Of course I don't. The British people deserve so much better than the corrupt financial masters and their government puppets that they currently have. In fact, the rest of the world deserves and needs better than that, so inflated is the financial clout that the City of London exerts in the world's economy.

What I do wish is for more sanity in British politics - highly unlikely given New Labour's track record to date, not to mention that the slimy David Cameron and his creepy Tories will be even more in the pocket of the City of London. The Tories and the City have been best buddies for ages. Conservatives and fat cat financiers, like really ugly, decrepit birds, always flock together.

Even more importantly, I can only hope that the ongoing economic crisis will somehow metamorphose into a significant and meaningful overhaul of the current capitalism-out-of-control that currently plagues the world.

Uber-capitalism and its equally demented side-kick, globalized finance, must be stopped once and for all and a more rational, equitable and sustainable system of capitalism (or something even better of the ilk) evolve in its place.

The likes of the City of London and Wall Street need to be relegated to nothing more than a sideshow in global economics. If that's at all possible. They've been the Ringmasters of this Three-Ring Circus from Hell for long enough.

For now, the UK economy gets everything it deserves.

Do you get my point?

RANT: The Scam that is 'Sovereign Debt'

'Sovereign debt.' The latest chapter in the mess that is the ongoing financial and economic crisis hitting most of the Western world, and many other countries aside. In short, sovereign debt is supposedly what a country's treasury (i.e. government coffers) has in terms of debt.

And, oh boy, are many countries now on the verge of sovereign debt default, i.e. the inability to pay national debt, whether it to be foreign creditors, pay for social programs at home, raise sufficient capital through treasury bonds issuance, etc. The effect on local economies, not to mention the global economy, if countries start to default on their own national debt, could be quite catastrophic.

Greece is first up.

Greece is on the verge of defaulting on its debt payments. The European Union is freaking out. The Eurozone is freaking out. I mean, countries in Europe don't default on their payments, do they? That's something the likes of Brazil and Argentina and Nigeria did back in the 1980s. Not an EU and euro-based country. Right? Well...no. Greece is on the verge of default. That is fact.

The Greek Prime Minister, George Papandreou, has blamed his country's economic crisis on international speculators (i.e. the likes of Goldman Sachs and their fellow blood-sucking brethren in the international financial world) with their buying up of Greek treasury bonds and, now, dumping of them. Some pooh-pooh that notion (always international financiers or Wall Street apologists, by the way), but don't get analysts like my man, Max Keiser, started on that notion. For him, and many others, the imminent collapse of Greece is entirely the fault of international speculators that are playing havoc with entire national economies.

I, for one, totally believe what Papandreou accuses Wall Street of doing to Greece.

And there are others too who may almost be on the verge of national debt default...

Spain





Ireland





Italy - beautiful land of my ancestors...





Portugal - the other land of my ancestors and a beautiful country I know so well...what a shame...




And don't let's forget about a country that has already defaulted on it's so-called 'debt'...

Yes, Iceland




The land of geysers and volcanoes, the fabled Blue Lagoon, green energy - and, now, the highest debt per capita load on the planet...

Poor Iceland. A canary in the coalmine of what is fundamentally sick - nay, perverted and twisted - about the current global uber-capitalist model.

Sovereign debt is a scam because how can national treasuries be in control of their economies when they are at the mercy of international financial and currency speculators? There's nothing sovereign about this debt any more, hence the total and utter scam thereof.

It's a farce and just the latest chapter, writ HUGE, that demonstrates just how fundamentally flawed, corrupt and outrageously amoral the current neo-liberal, profit-at-all-costs, unregulated financial markets a la Milton Friedman and the Chicago Boys that is world capitalism. It's sick to the core. Adam Smith and Maynard Keynes must be turning in their graves with just how sick the system has become.

Yet, national governments in Europe must also take the blame (not to mention that of the United States, now in debt to the tune of 14 TRILLION dollars, although that endless warmongering is hardly cheap, now is it?). This is what you get when you bail out banks and financial institutions that were reckless and perverse in how they played the stock markets and economies of the world.

Using public money (i.e. the money of citizens) to bail out, to the tune of billions and billions of dollars and euros, the very crooks and scheisters that got us into the mess, was not only madness, but MORALLY BANKRUPT of all those politicians who allowed this to happen. You bloody bastards, all of you.

So what would I like to see? I would like to see the likes of Greece, Spain, Portgal and Ireland DEFAULT on their so-called sovereign debts. And, better still, give the IMF the biggest middle finger ever seen in financial history by saying 'NO! We will not take your loans!' Because these countries should know these IMF 'loans' will come laden with Friedmanite and Chicagoesque preconditions to 'liberalize' economies, slash public spending, 'open up markets even more', and all the other Friedmanite bullshit that got us into this horrific and amoral mess in the first place.

But, of course, I have better chances of seeing pink elephants having a full-scale Grand Prix in the sky than I do of those countries having the courage and the foresight to do just that.

THIS is the perfect time for a complete review and even overhaul of capitalism as we know it. It has never been more perfect - or more needed. I'm certainly not advocating communism or any other 'ism' for that matter. What I am advocating is that we stop this madness where 0.01% of the richest people in the richest economies can hold entire countries to ransom. And, in the process, destroy the very fabric and social and human rights within those countries. I don't want to see European countries like Greece, Ireland and Spain collapse or relegated to economic basketcase status. I'm funny that way.

Stop this obsession with Friedmanite uber-capitalism and the 'Stock Market is King' economic mentality, like some demented mantra. It is NOT working.

Enough is enough. Basta!

Do you get my point?