We need enough people like the striking Quebec students ready to fight for a better future for all.
banking system
G20 and national deficits at the expense of the poor
A major turn took place at the G20 finance ministers meeting in Busan, South Korea, two weeks ago, as the G20 reasserted deficit and spending reduction as its top priority, marking the final step in the (re)triumph of neoliberalism as global economy's modus operandi. Britain and Canada were the major proponents at the meeting of this deficit warrior approach to recovery, while China has cautioned against too rapid an end to stimulus efforts.
Banks and the derivatives scam
John Kenneth Galbraith famously described financial genius as "a rising market." This was on display in the expansionary era of the 1950s and 1960s. New bank credits funded growing businesses. Investment bankers injected their own capital into initial share offerings of "public" companies, allowing businesses to grow by taking in shareholders as partners. Finance flourished.
Using debt for the common good
Students do society a favour when they pay the full cost of borrowing money to finance their studies. Since it serves all of us to live among knowledgeable citizens: the education they receive is a public good; it works for us all.
Those graduates who educate others, care for us when we are sick, or help us when we are in need of professional assistance are especially valued; we expect to pay decently for their services, and professionals expect to be taxed on earned income throughout their careers. What individual benefits are derived from education are paid for throughout a lifetime of work.
ibanklocally
Big banks are everywhere. The banking industry has designed ways to expand their services at a huge cost to local communities, taking money out of these communities to be used by large central banks located elsewhere. The bank's local branch may be community based but the shareholders and owners all are outside of local communities. Branches extract money and send it to the central headquarters where local money is invested in big international deals that don't affect the community.
ibanklocally is trying to stop this.
Occupy Ottawa - In Review
February at Occupy Ottawa saw artistic events celebrating local Ottawa artists, rallies against the Bill C-10 Crime Bill, support for the Families of Sisters in Spirit 2nd annual day of Justice and Occupy Winterlude. Discussion at Occupy Ottawa revolved around the banking system, the South March highlands, the Northern Gateway pipeline, Bill C-10 , Monsanto, the Federal Court of Appeal challenge on the constitutionality of Security Certificates, concern over the talk of military action on Iran, the planned clearcutting of 200-300 year old trees in Gatineau park for the highway 5 expansion, the strike by support workers at the Ottawa Salvation Army, continued discussion on Vic Toews and Bill C-30 and the Harper Government’s Robo-call scandal.
Just say no to corporate greed: The case of Iceland
Capitalism is looking pretty mean these days. No amount of profit is enough, and no level of collateral damage to get that profit is unreasonable. And when capitalism on steroids runs amok, any extremes of public pain are justified to save the butts of those who made the mess in the first place.
Corporations understand that they have a green light to punish people ruthlessly for even a modest improvement to their bottom line (ask Caterpillar workers if you want details). Whole nations may be bled dry to shield financial institutions from the consequences of their own bad behaviour. The Greek government is deliberately creating a national great depression to appease international financial interests.
Canada supports dark side of international finance
You can say one thing for the powers that be in the banking industry. They've got a lot of nerve.
This past week, our own finance minister, Jim Flaherty, along with Mark Carney, the Governor of the Bank of Canada, came out strongly in opposition to a modest proposal to regulate the U.S. banking system.
Their interventions followed a concerted effort by American bank lobbyists to spark international opposition to U.S. regulatory reforms.
Of bailouts and liquidity shakedowns
Here is an amazing multimedia article published by Bloomberg Markets Magazine in the U.S., that lists all of the individual banks which received financial assistance from the U.S. Federal Reserve during the 2008-09 crisis. It shows each bank's peak borrowing from the Fed, the number of days they held the funds, and the timeline for paying it back. You can sort the banks by name, amount borrowed, and other criteria.
Closing accounts with Wall Street megabanks
Less than a month after Occupy Wall Street began, a group was gathered in New York's historical Washington Square Park, in the heart of Greenwich Village. This was a moment of critical growth for the movement, with increasing participation from the thousands of students attending the cluster of colleges and universities there. A decision was made to march on local branches of the too-big-to-fail banks, so participants could close their accounts, and others could hold "teach-ins" to discuss the problems created by these unaccountable institutions.
