RAVE: Go Hang 'Em, Ken!

Ken Livingstone, the former mayor of London and notorious leftwing rabble rouser, has not only become my man of the week, but quite possibly of the next few months too.



Turns out that 'Red Ken' as he is known was quoted as saying, "Hang a banker a week until the others improve."

I fricking love it!

I heard about this for the first time yesterday on The Keiser Report on Russia Today. It certainly got the thumbs up from Max Keiser and Stacey Herbert! In fact, Max has been baying for the blood of bankers for months now. And in no uncertain terms.

Better still, Ken said this out loud at a business conference of all places. And, according to a spokesman of his, he's said the same thing "about twenty or thirty times before." Talk about a guy with balls the size of an elephant's!

Hurrah! At last, a well-known peson in the UK is openly verbalizing what so many of us 'down below' and around the world believe more and more - that the thieving, degenerate, corrupt banking scheisters that are literally decapitating the world should literally be hanged or shot so that the message gets out there to all banking terrorists:

 STOP YOUR OBSCENITY AND STOP DESTROYING THE WORLD! WE HAVE HAD ENOUGH!

Of course, there's been high and mighty 'shock' and 'dismay' from some in the City's banking community. According to Angela Knight, chief executive of the British Bankers’ Association, which these days is like being the head of the London Chapter of the Gambino clan, the industry employs half a million “ordinary, hard-working people” [yeah, who've aided and abetted in screwing over tens of millions of ordinary, hardworking people around the world], including 140,000 in London. “Continual demonisation of the entire banking industry . . . is unhelpful and won’t attract jobs and business to the UK,” she said.

Oh, boo hoo to you, you stupid banking bitch.

For too long the banking and financial mavens of the City in London, along with their mafiosi cohorts on Wall Street, have held sway over the world economy and socio-political discourse. With a strangle grip of Olympian proportions. And look at the disgusting mess they've left us in.

All power to Ken for having the balls to say out loud what so many of us want and discuss behind closed doors.

Ken is my Man of the Week - and perhaps beyond.

Do you get my point?

RAVE: Chopsticks Made in America!

I came across such an interesting little article a few days ago. Simply: it detailed 10 products still made in the United States of America. The link: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/10-American-Industries-Still-minyanville-2666915551.html



For a country in such interminable industrial and manufacturing decline, not to mention teetering on the edge of bankruptcy, it was a very sobering read.

A once great nation built on an economy that made things, all types of things, and was damn proud of that too - well, how very little it has to show for itself today. The list of '10 Products Made in America' is depressing - socks, sparklers, compact discs, ironing boards and pencils - yip, American industry has much to be proud of.

Well, I have to admit - I actually found myself laughing. Laughing quite loudly in that knowing, Machiavellian way of someone proven right, if I may say so myself.

Oh, America! You, the country that foisted the dogma of 'free trade' and globalization and cheap labour upon the rest of us like some cheap, tacky religion, are now yourself living proof of why what you preached was so pathetic, so hollow, so self-serving and, ultimately, your own economic harakiri.

My personal favourite? The fact that the biggest maker of chopsticks in the world today is...yip, an American company! It's biggest market? China, of course. 

The irony is so rich, it's almost unreal...

You had it coming to you, America, I'm sorry to say. And what a pity that is.

Do you get my point?

Bubblewrapped: Chew On That For a LAUGH

Bubblewrapped (www.bubblewrapped.org) is a deceptively simple-looking site, as it is in fact chock-full of the most delicious tidbits regarding the various shenanigans and red faces of the financial terrorists (including Alan Greenspan, a cartoon of which I just had to include here) who helped cause the recent global financial implosion.



Courtesy of wallpaperz.co.nu

 The priceless pic on Bubblewrapped's site banner alone tells you where they stand... 

I clicked back on to their site today and read through their list of 'must-read' book titles in their "Humble Pie' section:

•Dow 30,000 by 2008: Why It's Different This Time



•Dow 40,000: Strategies for Profiting From the Greatest Bull Market in History


•Dow 100,000: Fact or Fiction


•Why the Real Estate Boom Will Not Bust – And How You Can Profit from It


•The Bush Boom: How a Misunderestimated President Fixed a Broken Economy

Brilliant, tongue-in-cheek stuff. And some of the (caustic, vicious) comments by readers of these titles on Amazon.com is a terrific read in and of itself!

Oh boy... 

RANT: Goat Poo In International Banking

Oh boy, those financial terrorists are at it again.

The latest to come out of the ongoing lawsuits by JP Morgan Chase against Barclays bank and the failed financial giant, Lehman Brothers, is the stuff of high comedy.

Once again, this came to my attention after seeing an episode of the Keiser Report with the simply brilliant Max Keiser on Russia Today. Hail, Max!

It turns out that JP Morgan says it has evidence in the form of e-mails that Lehman employees at the time of the 2008 collapse referred to their bank's assets as "toxic waste" and even "goat poo'. Yip, goat poo.

And that Barclays bank, involved in buying out the failed Lehman Brothers, knew fully well about this and saved themselves from having to buy this goat poo.

Courtesy of julieluongo.wordpress.com

Poor goats - such lovely animals; as if they deserve their excrement to be compared to the excrement that are international investment bankers.

So now JP Morgan Chase is doing that which corporations, and especially financial powerhouses (read: thieves), do best: they're suing the crap out of one of their competitors. Or should that be suing the goat poo out of them?

As if JP Morgan Chase were so lily white in their own role in the financial terrorism that has crippled the global economy since 2008 and continues to do so...

They're all full of poo - goat or otherwise, and all these banks and financial terrorists deserve each other. To the hilt.

Do you get my point?

RANT: Austerity & Other Nonsense

There is so much talk these days about austerity, austerity, austerity. Governments worldwide are brandishing this word around like financial sabres, ready to cut and thrust at everything and everybody in their wake.

It's been all the talk, nay, all the rage at the G-20 talks in Toronto.

It's all about cut, cut, cut.

And why? Because of the current global financial crisis (read: meltdown), of course. We're all told again and again and again in the media about how bad many developed countries' public finances are and how it is so necessary for austerity measures to be introduced so that the 'deficits' can be brought under control.

It all sounds so utterly convincing - if one hears it enough times (and, boy, don't we just). After all, the finances of a country need to be 'balanced', right?

Wrong.

This current obsession with 'balancing the books' of countries so that debt levels can be somehow 'stabilized' is NOT the only solution to governments around the world. Yet, the way many leaders and 'economic experts' (now there's perhaps the biggest oxymoron of our times...) speak, one would believe that only by slashing away at any public spending are governments going to get out of their current debt spiral.

This austerity obsession, deliriously manic in its 'all-or-nothing' worldview, has taken its grip. And it will not let go. Thus the need to dissect just what all this austerity will actually mean:

• slashed public (read: government) spending on health
• slashed public spending on education
• slashed public spending on infrastructure
• slashed public spending on social services
• slashed public spending on social upliftment programmes
• slashed public spending on single mothers
• slashed public spending on poor children
• slashed public spending on the poor - period
• slashed everything that creates any semblance of a welfare, communitarian state

But there's more. Inevitably, without exception, these austerity measures also mean:

• more selling of public (government-owned) assets
• more privatization, including of public utilities
• more 'open markets' (i.e. to foreign, cheaper imports)
• less trade barriers of any kind - whatsoever
• diminished unionization and union powers
• 'liberalization' of labour laws (as if workers being protected and having minimum rights somehow needs to be 'liberated')
• less restrictions on banks and other financial institutions

Hey, hold on a moment - this all sounds terribly familiar. This sounds just like the type of painful, nation-destroying program (obliquely referred to as 'structural adjustment') that is ALWAYS imposed by the IMF whenever it grants a loan to a country, right? Absolutely. And aren't the IMF and its other Evil Twin, the World Bank, nothing more than the international bank and finance versions of the so-called 'Washington Consensus' - i.e. the wholesale embrace of the Chicago School of Economics and its architect, that most vile economist, Milton Friedman?

Friedman is thankfully dead, but his nihilistic vision of economics is alive and well, i.e. the market always 'knows best', the market should be left completely unregulated, there should be no government interference in the market, etc. That magic 'market' that knows best and will make all of our lives so much better. You know - all that utter neoconservative economic crap that got us into this whole mess in the first place...

The very antithesis of Friedmanite economics is that of the Keynesians, the economic theory that dominated world economics and public financing from the 1930s until Friedman started to rear his ugly, perverse head in the 1970s.

We can thank the brilliant British economist John Maynard Keynes (in the photo) for his brand of 'caring capitalism' economics. Brilliant because the Americans stuck in the nightmare of the Great Depression in the early 1930s can thank Keynes for getting them out of it. The New Deal anyone? Where the hell do people think Franklin D. Roosevelt got the idea to pump money into the American economy with huge public works, thereby creating jobs and new prosperity?

The post-World War II Marshall Plan, not to mention the social welfare-based market economies of Western Europe from 1945 to the 1980s, were entirely Keynesian in theory and practice.

Where the Friedmanite (aka monetarists) cultists dictate that in bad times one should switch off the public spending taps, Keynesians believe that governments should spend, spend, spend. Keynesian theory says that in order to create wealth one must spend money to do so. Pump the economy full of cash, even if it creates more initial public debt.

Friedmanites, cultish to the hilt in their governments-out-of-markets-at-all-times hysteria, say this is madness. Debt is debt and debt is bad, they preach. So, it's slash, slash, slash for them.

Oh, but do make sure that the banks and stock markets remain completely unregulated so that they can run riot like the financial terrorists that some of them wish to be...and plunge us into this crisis all over again.

Yeah, the Friedman approach makes perfect sense.

And so we now live in this surreal and schizophrenic world of contemporary global finance and public spending. On the one hand, governments have pumped huge amounts of public money into the economy. That's Keynesian, whichever way you look at it. Except they've thrown all the money at the speculators and at the rogues (i.e. the banks, investment houses, etc), rather than benefiting the savers and those needing work in the economy. Ummmm, Keynes would not have approved.

On the other hand, governments resolutely refuse to really clamp down on banks, financial institutions on the whole, stock markets, etc. It's all been so wimpish, so piecemeal, so ineffective. And, worse still, now plunged into further debt because of bailing out banks, governments all over now insist on slashing public spending so that they can 'control the public debts'...!!! They simply can't seem to get out of the Friedman horror show that has gripped the world's economic imagination since the 1980s.

Hence the current economic schizophrenia.

It's madness. Just yesterday on the Keiser Report on Russia Today TV, Ellen Brown, who has written the critically acclaimed book "Web of Debt" (which I absolutely must read ASAP), spoke of how ridiculous it was that the new British government have been quoted as saying that they will need to slash spending in order to save the welfare state. She stated that warped logic was akin to "starving the patient even more in order to save the patient." In a word - preposterous.

Governments do NOT need to slash public spending in order to jumpstart ailing and debt-ridden economies. On the contrary - more than ever, they need to inject huge amounts of money into protecting those who save and don't merely speculate and, more importantly, making huge investments in job creation, skills development and other socio-economic programs. Yes, a country will get into more debt. A lot more debt even - without a doubt. Initially, that is. But at least the 'stimulus plan' will be effective in the long run - more jobs actually created, more spending power as a result by all citizens, more sustained growth.

The 1930s New Deal anyone?

AND, most importantly, at least public money will be kept in the public domain for the public good and not handed over to the robber barons just so that they can loudly say NO whenever anyone asks to borrow some of 'their' precious money (which is actually the public's, but anyway)...

Austerity is not inevitable. Austerity is not the only way.

Austerity. It's the 'A' word that should be an 'F' word.

Do you get my point?

RANT: WANTED: Financial Terrorists

This post has been boiling inside me like a volcano for literally months now. You'll soon see why...

Let me say it here, loud and strong: This ongoing global financial crisis has nothing to do with "governments overspending" (the accusations hurled at Greece) or "governments being irresponsible with their debt" (again, the wretched Greece - and ditto at Spain, Portugal and Italy) or "public finances that are too generous and over-exploited by undeserving recipients" (the type of rhetoric coming out of the now-Tory UK) or any other such deceptive doublespeak.

These are just political fluff balls and psychological teargas used by (useless, bought out, corrupt, stupid - take your pick) politicians and economists on a confused and bewildered public. Because folks, the only reason nearly every economy now in 'crisis' with its public finances is in the depths of despair and now swallowing the 'austerity pill' en masse is because PUBLIC MONEY WAS SPENT TO BAIL OUT PRIVATELY OWNED BANKS AND FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS!!!

Starting with the United States last year, and ever since, country after country has been bailing out banks and financial institutions with literally trillions of dollars in PUBLIC MONEY in the demented hope that by giving all this money to these banks and financial terrorists they would somehow start re-lending money to people and get economies circulating money again and recovering.

The very banks and financial institutions that are privately held, unelected and not accountable to the very public whose money has been given over to these corporate swine on a silver platter. Their only concern are their top management and executives making a killing, along with a few rogue traders and other despicable insiders, and perhaps their shareholders - a crowd of people in this context I dub the 'Three Monkeys Crowd' (you know - the monkeys that saw nothing, say nothing and hear nothing).

The very banks and financials institutions that GOT US INTO THIS WHOLE BLOODY MESS WITH THEIR RECKLESS LENDING, BREATHTAKINGLY RECKLESS RISK-TAKING & ASTOUNDING RATES OF LEVERAGED DEBT!!!

And then people wonder why the hell people like me are so bloody angry!!!

And what's happened with all that bail-out money handed over to these undeserving financial terrorists?
Did they open the taps and lend money to the public? NO.
Did they inject new life into economies with all their new money, i.e. public money paid to them for their own reckless and economically suicidal decisions? NO. 
Did nearly all of them still go out and pay their top executives bonuses at the end of 2009 and already this year, even though they were technically insolvent and were using public money to pay these gigantic bonuses to the very financial bosses who got us all into this mess in the first place? YES, BUT OF COURSE - HOW DARE YOU ASK!

These financial bastards must be laughing themselves sick at how they pulled off what is probably the biggest financial con job of the modern era.

So, now governments like Greece, Spain, the UK and many others are scrambling around with all this public debt due to these ginormous payouts to banks. All because they chose to 'save' these reckless financial terrorist organizations masquerading as 'bona fide' going concerns, rather than telling them that the party is OVER, allowing most of these banks to collapse - kaput. After all, doesn't classical capitalism tell us that when a business is no longer viable it should not be allowed to survive?

But, of course, most of these banks and financial institutions have become 'too big to fail'. Again, how the hell is that stupendous logic reconciled with true free market capitalism?

Adam Smith is rolling in his grave.

This is not free, open market capitalism. This is globalized casino capitalism, whereby reckless and frankly dangerous banks and financial institutions now have the power to bring entire economies to their knees because of their own outrageous risk-taking and market manipulating.

 Or, at the very least, they should have chopped up these financial behemoths into smaller, less reckless and HEAVILY REGULATED banks - oh, and fired every bloody conniving or useless financial terrorist (aka senior executives and top brass) in every one of these failed enterprises. And named and shamed every one of them for the financial terrorists that they have been.

They subvert national economies. They wreck national stock markets and currencies. They destabilize the entire planet. These are financial terrorists.

Yet they continue to thrive, like the devious well-heeled cockroaches that they are. Swanning around in their huge limousines, guzzling down haute cuisine and swilling expensive drink at chichi restaurants, living in their swanky (multiple) homes and even having the gall to appear in the media as 'financial pundits' or 'gurus'.

Uh huh.

What makes these men and women in the financial world who have accepted public money for their own reckless, dangerous acts and threaten to destroy countries' economies any less terrorists than the likes of al-Qaeda? Is it because they wear designer suits and expensive watches? Is it because they obtained their MBAs at prestigious universities? Is it because they look 'more like us' than those crazies brandishing AK-47s and suicide bomb vests?

They're not like the rest of us - at all. They live in a stratosphere of disgusting wealth acquisition and inordinate economic power. They are dangerous. They are a threat. They too are the enemy.

And countries are left broke and unable (or unwilling?) to properly control this plague of arrogant, financial terrorists in our midst. Economies shrink, people lose work and homes and dignity, and these entities that 'simply could not fail' continue to fail all of us again and again and again.

My anger - like so many others in Greece and Spain and Romania and Iceland and countless other countries - knows no bounds.

Do you get my point?

RAVE: The Greeks Who Shout OXI!

OXI, OXI, OXI! NO, NO, NO!

That has been the resounding shout by thousands of Greeks in their protests against massive public spending cuts by the Greek government. A massive rejection to the capitulation by the Greek government to both the IMF and the EU on a crisis that is very little the doing of Greek citizens themselves.

OXI! NO!

I have spent the last few days being shocked and angered by what the Greek people are being put through. But I have also been genuinely impressed by the sheer passion and the visceral outrage of ordinary Greek citizens in their streets. Impressed because less and less one sees this in the world, particularly in the West, and never before in recent history has there been a time when mass protest by citizens has been more necessary and more justified.

I admire the Greek people for their powerful vitriol, as well as for their clearly intelligent political discourse. Slogans on banners and signs show that the Greeks understand perfectly the evil incarnate that is the IMF. The Greeks understand perfectly how unfair and socially devastating the current globalized economic reality is for a European country like Greece. They understand perfectly how economically devastating Wall Street investment bankers and international speculators and other financial terrorists have been to their economy. They understand it all.

And they are totally on to the sell-out and the cop-out that is the Greek government's capitulation to the nefarious IMF (and, also, by the way, the shameful EU).

One of the most interesting and indeed commendable aspects of the general strike that hit Greece today was the fact that the entire private sector came out in support of the strike, even though the majority of the proposed cuts for this highly unpopular deal will be done on the public sector. All Greeks understand what is at stake here, even if it does not directly affect them...for now. That is the spirit of true community, that is the spirit of true nationhood and citizenship.

And I am duly impressed by that. A nation that is so politically savvy and so socio-economically passionate is one that is to admired and respected.

I mean, how can one not respect a people who saw fit to storm the Parthenon yesterday and allow all tourists free entry, so as to deny the state any money that day from the country's most iconic monument! It may have been the actions of the Greek Communists with their own 'anti-capitalist agenda' (whatever the hell that means in this day and age), but it was highly visual and effective drama. Brilliant!

Many Greeks seem ready to keep this fight with their government going. At least that is how it looks for now. May their pressure be unrelenting in their opposition to this IMF deal, a deal that will assuredly a very, very, very bad deal for most Greeks.

I can only wish them the very best of luck. And continued courage and belief in what they are doing.

For now, the Greek protesters in the streets of their country have my utmost respect and admiration. And support.

RANT: (Bad) Luck of the Irish

My rant for today is a follow-on from earlier my rants on the financial crises that have afflicted Iceland and Greece of late. Now it's the turn of Ireland.

The Irish, it would seem from the actions of their government, are not that lucky after all.

Last Tuesday, March 30th, was known as 'Bailout Tuesday' in Ireland. Yet again, the Irish government saw fit to bail out the five biggest banks in that country from their 'financial predicaments', i.e. mountains of bad, bad, bad debt. So, once again, taxpayers in a country are having to bail out the bad (read: greedy and reckless) actions of private financial institutions with public (taxpayer) money. Actions that have basically sunk the Irish economy.

So, yet again, the poor and the middle classes are having to bail out the (stinking) rich. Whoever said that robber capitalism wasn't alive and well?

And to what tune is this bailout? Well, no less than an estimated 81 BILLION EUROS is what the Irish government is expected to buy back in bad debt via its own artificially created 'bad bank' known as the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA - or "VietNAMA" as Max Keiser hilariously referred to it on his most recent show!).

That is a hell of a lot of money in public expenditure that was not exactly budgeted for. Especially when one considers that Ireland's total Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was 167 billion euros in 2008. So, in effect, the Irish government is buying bad debt created by banks that is worth nearly one-half of the country's entire GDP! Where's a friendly leprechaun when you need one?

Even the man who set up NAMA, Peter Bacon, has likened the actual debt of the bank in biggest trouble, Anglo Irish Bank, to that of "an Irish Chernobyl". Such is the amount of as yet undeclared debt that some of these banks are still hiding for now. Very reassuring indeed.

As was stated in an editorial in the Irish newspaper, the Limerick Post, "No matter what spin the government ministers attempt to put on NAMA and its decision to prop up Anglo Irish Bank, the Irish economy is in tatters...Well in excess of 20 billion Euros is to be pipelined into Anglo, a bank that contributed more than its share in bringing down the Irish economy...This is the very bank that loaned monopoly money to developers, builders and speculators, with no questions asked. The very people facilitated, and the bank's hierarchy, will, unlike the ordinary Joe Soap, see little impact on their personal lives."

The Limerick Post article concludes, "How much more can the public take?"

How much indeed. Quite a lot it would seem, given that the Irish government is set to prop up these banks (yet again) using public money...and no one seems set to stop them doing just that.

Is this a system of capitalism even worth preserving? Is this robber capitalism, masquerading as 'the free market", really what the Irish and most of us in the world must be content with?

Max Keiser has made the statement that, with this latest bank bail-out, the Irish people are for all intents and purposes currently being "occupied" by investment bankers and financial robber barons. Their economy and their political system has been hijacked by the very economic terrorists who got them into this entire mess in the first place. It is indeed an occupation by a hostile force. And because of it Ireland is in the toilet, demoralized, defeated for now. Kaput, essentially.

One can only hope that the Irish will see fit to eventually overhaul their entire banking system and the financial-political Mafia that is currently strangling their economy.

There has been talk of a 'Revolution Sunday' looming in Sunday. Who knows. But change is definitely needed in Ireland. Without that, it is doubtful if their luck will turn around any time soon.

Do you get my point?

RANT: Cuidado Portugal y España, Careful Ireland

My rant for today is essentially three words: Portugal, Ireland, Spain.

It's very simple - if the European Union saw fit to literally throw Greece to the proverbial wolves (i.e. the detestable IMF), then what is stopping it happening to these three countries?

The cartoon here by the brilliant Brazilian Latuff says it all...

The plates to be broken here are those of Portugal, Spain and Italy. However, although Italy was cited as being 'in trouble' a few weeks back, to my understanding it really is Ireland that is the actual 'I' in 'PIGS'...at least for now.

'PIGS' is the frankly disgusting acronym given to these four Eurozone countries, all in apparent trouble with their so-called 'sovereign debt'. Greece was in the worst trouble, hence it being sold down the river last week. But the public coffers in Portugal look pretty bad too, as is the case for Ireland. And Spain, the fourth biggest economy in the Eurozone, is said to be in very bad shape too.

So, will the EU allow three more countries to go the way of Greece? Certainly, Portugal and Ireland look quite expendable, for want of a better word. Portugal never seemed to ride very well on the EU bandwagon (must be that 'Club Med-southern European thing', methinks). But it's quite ironic that Ireland is in the 'PIGS club' given that it was a shining beacon of free market, neo-liberal economics until just recently. Ireland was the place to be in the EU, a true 'success story' it seemed - especially for those in IT, direct marketing, business or anyone with a bit of cash or an entrepreneurial streak.

How the tables have turned. Now Ireland is just another basket case. Hmmmm, yet another strike for neo-liberal Friedmanite economics.

And what of Spain? Can the EU really afford to let a country of that size and importance falter and possibly even be in danger of defaulting on its debt obligations? What then? And what will be of the Euro?

How much longer can this madness go on? Are Germany and France going to snub these countries too? Will the IMF simply become the de facto bank for the Eurozone?

For now, I am very worried for these three countries - not to mention all of the European Union.

I am half-Portuguese, a heritage of which I am proud, and I lived in Lisbon for a few years, a city in which I finished my schooling and which I visited every opportunity I had during my university vacations, it being a city I love and know so well. I do not want to see that beautiful country thrown to the dogs.

When will this European club ever finally come together and be united and there for all its members?

After all, is the second word in the letters 'EU' not union? Where is the union in this band of misfits?

Do you get my point?

RANT: Greece - Sold (Out)

My second rant for today is a follow-up to my first rant. It's all about the Greeks again.

So what happened yesterday at the frantic EU conference in Brussels, of which the Greek financial crisis was top of the agenda?

Well, Greece got sold out of course.

And we have Germany and France in particular to thank for that. The 'deal' for Greece (read: sell-out of Greece) is that there will be a bail-out (of sorts) at the behest of both the EU and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Or rather, very much under the control of the IMF.

Talk about shockingly bad news. Consider this:

1. The IMF is the Satan of international finance. It's that simple. This horrific organization, along with its evil twin, the World Bank, has single-handedly wreaked more havoc on the economies of the world than any other multilateral entity on the planet. The IMF is the 'world arm' of Wall Street and international banking and finance. Have any doubts? Think I'm being overly melodramatic? Then please do take the time to read "The Shock Doctrine" by Naomi Klein. And get real.

2. It is de facto guaranteed that an IMF bail-out means that a country must slash all public spending. So, bye bye to spending on education, health, pensions and other social welfare programs for the Greeks.

3. It is de facto guaranteed that an IMF bail-out means that a country must privatize more of its public entities, and that could include for energy, transport and even water. Yeah, and we all know what a huge success privatized electricity is (California and the UK, anyone?), not to mention privatized water (Bolivia, anyone?).

4. It is de facto guaranteed that an IMF bail-out means that a country must 'open' up its economy even more to foreign bankers, foreign creditors, foreign anything-that-can-rip-your-economy-off-in-the-name-of-'free-trade'. Yeah, like that's just what Greece needs right now: to be even more exposed, legs flayed wide open, to the very financial and economic terrorists that destroyed their economy in the first place. For sure.

What surprises me is that the Greek Prime Minister, who at the beginning of this crisis so virulently attacked the global financial sharks for artificially creating the crisis in his country, is now quoted as saying that he sees this 'deal' as a "big step forward". Yes, a big step forward into the abyss for Greece and for the Greek people. When was he taken away by the aliens and a Stepford Prime Minister put in his place?

Did Papandreou really need to kiss Angela's feet quite to that extent?

Look at the talons on those feet. Snicker.

Why do countries always feel so obliged to sell themselves so down the river when they are in a 'crisis'? It's the international relations equivalent of battered wife syndrome - the more battered you are, the more you go back to the aggressors for more. Just ask Argentina, circa the early 2000s.

This deal will definitely mean less sovereignty for Greece as a nation and untold more suffering and hardship for most Greek citizens, very probably for years to come. How can this be ever be a good deal?

And all of this thanks to the pressure of fellow European countries, starting with that Uber-Meister of the EU, Germany, and given greater impetus with that inimitable French je ne sais quoi.

With friends like these, what the hell does Greece need enemies for?

Do you get my point?

RANT: Greece for Sale

My rant for today has been brewing inside me for days, even weeks. I've touched on this issue in another post, with the Icelandic vote on March 6th being my touchstone for this rant as well (again, hurrah for Iceland for saying NO to the financial and political terrorists!).

In short, it's all about Greece.

It's well-known that Greece is in a huge 'debt crisis'. Meaning that it owes billions of Euros by the end of May, money that it simply does not have. As quoted from James Jubak in the Huffington Post: "Greece needs to refinance about $27 billion in debt that matures in May, according to calculations by Bloomberg. Already investors are demanding a 3.48 percentage point premium over the benchmark German bonds before they'll buy Greek 10-year debt. That premium is four times the average premium of the last five years."

Which means Greece is in deep trouble. Hence the recent attempts by the Greek parliament to introduce austerity measures (read: slash public spending on civil servant salaries and other social benefit-related slashing). These measures have been met with mass strikes and protests in Athens and other Greek cities and towns.

The people of the Hellenic Republic are not pleased. It has been well recorded in various news media that the Greek people feel victimised and angry as a result. And why shouldn't they be bloody upset and bloody angry?

Consider the following:

1. Why did this Greek crisis occur so suddenly? Because it was a carefully orchestrated assassination of the Greek economy, and in particular Greek treasury bonds, by the financial and economic speculators (read: terrorists) from Wall Street and across Europe, especially that poster child for speculative terrorism on the world economy, JP Morgan. Greece was targeted, simple as that. Iceland, anyone?

2. Why must the Greek government be so ridiculed by other countries for its large public spending bill? As if countries like Germany, France and the UK don't have huge public spending bills themselves. Isn't the UK currently sitting with the biggest ratio of public (sovereign) debt to GDP in all of the EU? And why should the Greek people should be accused, as if they were petulant little brats, of wanting nothing more than decent health care, education for all and their pensions paid out after all their years of work and service? How totally unreasonable of the Greeks to expect the very same of their government that the French, the Germans and the other hypocrites in Europe expect of their governments.

3. Why shouldn't Germany and the rest of the Eurozone bail out Greece? Why not? What is the purpose of having a monetary zone like the Eurozone, one which was supposed to be for the benefit of all Europeans, and which was to unite all of Europe, when stronger partners are not willing to assist a partner in trouble? With friends like this, who the bloody hell needs enemies?

4. And, speaking of Herr Deutschland, Germany is the richest EU country with the biggest national surplus, largely thanks to the power of the Euro over the past decade. Why must Greece be made to pay for the fact that Germany is holding elections later this year, and that German voters may hold helping out Greece against that Grosse Deutsche Hausfrau, aka Angela Merkel? Why must Greece pay for the fact that Germany's reunification cost so much money? You Germans went all mushy and wanted to unify, that's your bloody problem. Now you're a member of a monetary zone that has been of most benefit to your economy, and you think you have the right to be damn stingy to help out a fellow European country in need?

5. And, by the way, Germany, don't you think it's time that you gave Greece back all those billions of dollars of gold bullion that your Nazi ancestors plundered from Greece during World War 2? I think that's overdue, you ungrateful and patronising prigs.

6. And if I see one more television footage of some pasty-faced, ugly German in some grey German city crinkling up their little Teutonic nose at the suggestion of helping out Greece, I'll scream! Or I'll get on a bloody flight (not on Lufthansa, by the way), land in Germany and just start slapping faces left and right! But let the German economy be in as much trouble as that of Greece, and that German begging bowl would be casting a huge shadow over all of Europe, no questions about it. You hypocrites.

7. I need to say it here: this Greek crisis has really brought out the ever-simmering contempt which many Northern Europeans have for their Southern European neighbours. It's there - always just below that very thin patina of northern European 'respect' for their fellow Europeans to the south. One can literally sense it when northern Europeans, smug and patronizing to the hilt, are asked their opinions on TV news and shows about the crisis. It's palpable.

Comments are made about the 'Club Med country' crisis, thereby reducing Greece, Spain and Portugal to nothing more than what many northern Europeans believe them to be - that is, nothing more than holiday destinations where the weather is better and the locals a darn sight cuter and more fun.

I wonder how Ireland feels, being that it's in the same crappy sovereign debt position, yet hardly a sunny Club Med destination...?

Endless commentaries are made about the 'recklessness' of how these countries have governed their finances, always with that undertone that southerners are somehow less 'restrained', less 'responsible'. Even the acronym 'PIGS' (which stands for Portugal Ireland Greece Spain) says it all. Italy is now out of that spotlight, even if only for now. The main subtext is simple: the southerners just can't get it right, even if one of those countries (Ireland) is not a so-called 'Club Med economy'.

As if the likes of the UK have done any better. It makes me bristle with anger, given my southern European ancestry.

Which is why I so appreciated this cartoon from the UK's Independent newspaper lampooning the musical 'Grease'. Says it all.

And the poor Greeks are now at the mercy of their northern partners. I pity them for that. Greece and citizens of Greece deserved better than to be held responsible for the devious and destructive machinations of the global financial system that saw fit to wreak havoc on their economy.

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?

SITE OF THE DAY: Little Sis

My recommended site for today is Little Sis. Once again, I have Max Keiser and his show on Russia Today (RT), the Keiser Report, to thank (bow to Max, yet again) for bringing my attention to this website last night - and what is a terrific initiative.

Basically, if my understanding is correct, Little Sis is a loose group of people online who track, analyze, cross-reference, corroborate and, above all else, expose the ongoing financial shenanigans (read: financial and economic terrorism) of the richest and most financially powerful people in America. This they accomplish by having everyone doing their own analysis, adding content, etc. It appears to me like a hybrid cross between Wikipedia (which I love and respect, with all its flaws) and Facebook (which I hate on many levels - more on that another time) - except its focus is very singular and very expressly stated: as the byline in the website's banner states, "Profiling the powers that be".

As the introduction to their (very young and obviously very dedicated) team states: LittleSis is a project of Public Accountability Initiative, a 501(c)3 organization focused on corporate and government accountability. Our mission is to facilitate and produce investigative research that promotes transparent and accountable governance. PAI was founded in early 2008 by a group of activists, public interest lawyers, and academics associated with leading universities and major social change organizations.

It's the whole accountability part of the Little Sis project that is especially appealing to me. And the fact that their emphasis is so markedly on the very rich and the very financially powerful, i.e. the bunch of lying, greedy weasels that got us into this worldwide financial crisis in the first place - yet still keep getting away with it!

A further direct, italicized quote from their site: LittleSis features interlinked profiles of powerful individuals and organizations in the public and private sectors. Profiles detail a wealth of information vital to any investigation of the ways power and money guide the formulation of public policy, from board memberships to campaign contributions, old school ties to government contracts. I have added the bold for added emphasis, because how very, very true. This simple yet innovative follow-the-money-and-power-paper-trail approach is precisely exactly the type of online initiatives that are so badly needed and that all concerned and outraged people worldwide should be a part of or support, one way or another.

Am I fazed by the fact that the Little Sis emphasis is on the American stinking rich? Not all all. For one thing, the rich and powerful of today have their putrid and money-grabbing tentacles all over the world. Just take all the speculating that is coming to light of late with the entire Greek default crisis - lots of American and other foreign dirty hands in that pie. For another, the influence of the mega-wealthy and the uber-capitalists in America continue to have huge impacts on the global financial and money markets. To deny the importance these American billionaires have in playing with one's own country's economy, sickening and perverse as that idea might be, just because one does not live in the United States is naive folly. Nor does it recognize just how globalized (and, thus, horribly dangerous) international finance has become.

For those reasons and, hopefully, many more to come, I immediately signed up with them today. And, hopefully, as a member I may yet add content to their posted lists, as any member of Little Sis is able to do.

So, if you wish to know more about just how powerful and all-pervasive the likes of Warren Buffet or Bill Gates or that evil incarnation du jour, Goldman Sachs, really are and where they come from and how they possibly get their money, then this is the site for you. Please become a member. As I hope for myself, you may even yet become a content contributor.

Visit www.littlesis.org - and be part of the growing groundswell movement of people worldwide who want to empower themselves by exposing the truth about the wealth of the super-rich and their distorted power. We need to expose them for the mega-greedy, manipulative and economically destructive pack of bastards that they really are.

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?