WORD OF THE YEAR: Kakistocracy

Today I heard what has to be my 'Word of the Year' for 2011:

KAKISTOCRACY

And cited by no other than the inimitable and simply brilliant Max Keiser, whose show The Keiser Report on Russia Today I continue to watch as often as possible.

K-A-K-I-S-T-O-C-R-A-C-Y

And I thought he said 'cacastocracy', believing it to be his play on the word 'aristocracy' and the word 'caca' which, well, we all know means shit, shite, crap...call it what you will. I thought it was his take on the shitty power financial-military-corporate elites that currently rule (and destroy) the world. That sure made me laugh out loud.

But, much to my surprise, it is an actual word, the meaning of which is:

(kăk'ĭ-stŏk'rə-sē, kä'kĭ-)
n., pl., -cies.
Government by the least qualified or most unprincipled citizens.

[Greek kakistos, worst, superlative of kakos, bad; see caco- + -CRACY.]

What a word that so eloquently and precisely conjures up these morally corrupt and filthy elites that continue to hold sway in this increasingly mad and unjust world.

This priceless word is the living epitome of what 2011 became and for which it will go down in years to come - as the watershed year in which the working and middle classes all over the world finally woke up and realized that the rich and the powerful most certainly do NOT have our interests at hand, never mind at heart...

So, once again, I must tip my hat to the brilliant Mr. Keiser. He has done it again.

Or maybe it should be cacastocracy after all...?

Do you get my point?

2011: Looking Forward

Here is a mix of things that I look forward to in 2011 (in no particular order):

* More of Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert weaving their magic against the financial terrorists on the Keiser Report and all over the alternative media

* Wikileaks going from strength to strength

* Julian Assange left in peace to do what we all need him to do

* The alternative media going from strength to strength

* A 'two-tier', more corporatist Internet being stopped in its tracks

* The Euro possibly collapsing - or at least countries like Greece, Portugal, Ireland and Belgium going back to their former currencies - hurrah to the drachma, escudo, punt and Belgian franc!

* The slowdown or even demise of the too-powerful and destructive Germany-France axis in the EU (Merkel and Sarkozy should get a room and leave Europe in peace)

* The cringe-worthy 'Tea Party' crowd in Washington D. C. being shown up for the showboating, embarrassing rightwing nut jobs that we all know they are

* Sarah Palin having less power and shutting that big, worthless poodle mouth of hers

* Michael Schumacher winning races again in Formula 1 and proving why he's the best ever - go Michael!

* Less environmental disasters, wherever and however possible

* More medical breakthroughs, especially in stem cell research

* Less conspicuous consumption, less greed - the planet can't take it (I can't take it)

* More sanity in business, finance and the global financial markets

* Less religious fanaticism of all stripes - religious lunacy remains one of the biggest cancers in the world

* More social and political unrest and upheaval in China - it needs it, we need it

* Less stupidity, bad grammar and bad manners, thank you very much!

2010 Other Man of the Year: MAX KEISER

 

Until Wikileaks and Julian Assange blew the lid off international news in late 2010, it would have been Max Keiser all the way. This man was my revelation of the year:

• Because his twice weekly show 'The Keiser Report' on Russia Today is my must-see TV show
• Because he and Stacy Herbert are so terrific and in sync on his show that it's scary
• Because he calls the bastard banking and finance swine on Wall Street and globally "financial terrorists" - because they are
• Because the man is an ex-Wall Street trader and financial expert who knows his stuff
• Because he taught me more about how financial markets work in just a few months than countless others together have been able to do for nearly twenty years
• Because I now understand more about globalized finance - thanks to him
• Because I learn something new every time I watch his show
• Because some of his guests have been amazing minds that have taught me even more
• Because he hilariously rants and raves on TV like no one else - and it's terrific
• Because he is unbelievably passionate about what the financial terrorists are doing to all of us
• Because he has utter contempt for the thieving "kleptocracy" that seem to rule the world
• Because he calls the bankers and politicians the crooks and scheisters they absolutely are 
• Because he supported Iceland's brave attempts to save itself from the financial terrorists this year
• Because he hates the likes of Goldman Sachs with a relish that is terrific to watch
• Because he took on JP Morgan's illegal silver dealings and scared the hell out of those crooks
• Because the only person that hates globalized casino capitalism more than me is Max Keiser
• Because he is the coolest, smartest financial guy on TV and the Internet

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: 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?

RAVE: People Who Make A Difference

The weekend is here and I thought it only appropriate to start it on a positive note. Below are four people whom I admire. People who, in my opinion, do whatever they can in their respective fields and in their own ways to try and make this a more just, more equitable and less corrupt world.

They are from the top: Vandana Shiva, Max Keiser, Naomi Klein and Noam Chomsky.













It's better with them in the world...

MAN OF THE DAY: John Perkins

My Man of the Day today is the economist and author John Perkins. And, once again, I have the brilliant Max Keiser and his sublime 'Keiser Report' show on Russia Today (RT) satellite TV to thank for bringing this man into sharper focus in my mind's eye.

John Perkins is the author of the 2004 bestselling book "Confessions of an Economic Hitman", a book that I have time and time again wanted to buy, yet somehow just never done so. To be very honest, I'm rather sheepish in admitting that. So many books, you know...Still, it's one to buy for sure. His latest is called "Hoodwinked" and has just recently been released.

The premise of his book "Confessions" was simple - America used to send out 'economic hitmen' to (mostly) developing countries and would get those governments to agree to American hegemony in their markets and American influence in their political and economic systems. If developing country leaders or governments were inclined not to want to acquiesce to such demands...well, the American 'hitmen' would just make sure that 'regime change' or the like would occur. Of course, as one can easily imagine, lurking in the background and manipulating all of this was none other than that most secretive and nefarious of American agencies, the CIA.

"Hoodwinked" continues this premise, except now it's America itself that is getting hit (and hard) by these 'hitmen'. Talk about cosmic kharma coming back to haunt America. Or, as Perkins himself likes to call it, "the chickens have really come to roost." Indeed they have. Bem feito, as we say in Portuguese.

Again, one is exposed to ideas and thinking and ways of looking at the world which simply do not get adequate exposure or coverage in most of the world's media. And it is exactly voices like that of John Perkins that we need to hear more and more of, as more and more of the shocking lies, deception and outright "economic terrorism" (cue: Max Keiser) that the top firms of Wall Street, top bankers and hedge fund analysts have perpetrated on world economies come to light and get exposed.

Yet again, the theme is the same: rampant, unchecked and flat-out profits-at-all-costs globalization (including of money markets and finance) is neither sustainable nor just NOR IS IT ACCEPTABLE ANY MORE.

The times, they are a changin'...

Please visit John Perkins' interesting site at www.johnperkins.org

SITE OF THE DAY: Renegade Economist

My site for today is Renegade Economist. Please check it out at renegadeeconomist.com, or click on the link in my list of site links in this blog.

This site came to my attention when I was watching Max Keiser's brilliant half-hour show on RTV last night (see my previous post with Max as my Man of the Day). He was interviewing an economist by the name of Fred Harrison (the 'Renegade Economist') who was offering his views on why the current global economic system, especially in the USA and UK, is so geared towards constant 'boom and bust' cycles that average 18 years.

What I especially liked about what Mr. Harrison had to say was his insistence that the system is so bad and so prone to busts because of the way taxation revenue is generated by governments. I'm no economist, but I believe what he said is that the current tax regimes of taxing people's incomes never allows true growth to occur. It suppresses wages, obviously eats into net earnings and allows for less money in the economy. Rather, he argues, taxation should be based solely on the one asset that always values the most over the longer-term, namely land. By taxing land ownership, and not people's incomes, government will, in fact, according to him, generate more income and allow people to fully bear the fruits of their production, i.e. their wages, non-land generated income, etc.

He is convinced that this taxation model (which I'm sure is alot more complex than what I have stated above, and which I need to further understand myself) will be more equitable, be far less onerous on the lower- and middle-classes, and more fairly tax where the money really is, i.e. in land ownership.

He does acknowledge that there is currently no political will whatsoever to overhaul a system that is over a hundred years old but is convinced his system is worth trying out. Let's face it, in my opinion this economic system of constant booms and busts simply cannot be 'the best' solution that there is to the world's economy or even to economies in individual countries.

What I also liked is how he spoke of a 'sustainable' economic system that is not prone to the ridiculous highs and terrible lows of the current system. Sustainability is what I'm about, and a more sustainable, far less erratic (not to mention often grossly skewered) economic system is part of that sustainability for the future.

A free market at all costs is NOT the answer.

In a world commandeered by economists, bankers and politicians who genuflect quasi-religiously and without question to the rightwing, elitist and absolutist tenets of the 'Chicago School' of economics (and its guru, the despicable Milton Friedman), we need to hear the voices and opinions of economists like Fred Harrison.

Below I have taken the liberty of directly quoting from one of the pages on this website. If you like what you read, explore further, okay.

"Fred Harrison is one of a band of renegade thinkers who challenge the misinformation being purveyed by once trusted political and financial institutions.

Governments and central bankers are scrambling to understand how they allowed the global financial crisis to occur. They rationalise these events (to avoid blame being pinned on them) while searching for ways to mitigate the damage inflicted on the global economy.

In 1997 Harrison warned Tony Blair and Gordon Brown that the British economy was heading for disaster. They didn’t listen. He then spent a decade telling politicians and central bankers how to avoid the looming crisis. They didn’t listen.

In 2005 his book Boom Bust: House Prices, Banking and the Depression of 2010 enjoyed substantial public response, which inspired this website. The Renegade Economist exists to challenge the increasingly desperate measures adopted in response to the deepening global depression."

MAN OF THE DAY: Max Keiser

Have you heard of Max Keiser? Well, to be honest, I only recently heard about this renegade NYU-educated former stockbroker on Wall Street - and thank goodness I have.

The man is a breath of fresh air when it comes to ripping and tearing into the banking and political systems of today that have created the current economic recession in so many countries, not to mention the very decline of democracy itself.

After all, I know that I feel that there's a real sense of 'malaise' when it comes to the state of the world's economy and political state of affairs. A sense that this is increasingly an uber-rich person's world where most of us simply don't count at all. Don't you?

Well, Max Keiser taps into those feelings of alienation and frustration I feel - and, wow, does he pack it with a punch!

Max is a force of nature on television as he rips into everything that is so bad about the current global banking system - the banking system, loans and mortgages system, rich-protecting-the-rich syndrome, etc, not to mention the collusion between politicians and the super-rich in guaranteeing that the very rich are protected at all times and that laws are enacted thereto.

Need I say more about the recent US Supreme Court decision to now allow corporations to make limitless contributions to political candidates? You should have seen Max Keiser rip into THAT decision yesterday on satellite Russian TV (RTV) - brilliant stuff.

Max shouts, rants and raves like no other commentator I have ever seen on television - the man is unrelenting as he tears into leaders, institutions, corporations, politicians, special interest groups, and the like. And this man NAMES NAMES. There is no pussyfooting with him. He tells it as it is, in his rather shrill and bombastic but always hilariously funny and on-the-mark way.

He has his detractors, of course, and those who belittle or ridicule what he says or some of what he has propounded. He is divisive and he is corrosive and not to every one's liking at all - no doubt about that. 'Polite' and 'demure' he most certainly is not. Controversial and relentlessly in-your-face he most certainly is. And thank goodness for that.

This is precisely the type of voice we need in this world of corporate-sanctioned packaged news and endless soundbites that mean nothing to most of us and can hardly be trusted.

Please visit his site at www.maxkeiser.com and, if at all possible, try and watch his show on satellite station RTV at 6:30pm CET/CAT on Thursdays. The show is brilliant.

Max Keiser for President!

Jeez, if only one could live in a world like that...