Children abandoned at schools and charities in Athens
"Over the last year we have hundreds of cases of parents who want to leave their children with us - they know us and trust us," Father Antonios says."They say they do not have any money or shelter or food for their kids, so they hope we might be able to provide them with what they need." Requests of this kind were not unknown before the crisis - but Father Antonios has never until now come across children being simply abandoned.
The US $ Dollar Centric Derivatives Complex: Progenitor of Parasitic, Ponzi, Price Fixing
http://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/The-U-S-Dollar-Centric-D-in-General_Ne...
"...It was Citibank Toronto who first engineered a financial model to successfully book accounting profits from Future Rate Agreements [FRAs] and interest rate swaps. In the beginning - these trades were ENORMOUSLY profitable - so much so that Citibank Toronto very quickly became the world's biggest Over-the-Counter interest rate derivative house and was, in fact, the clearing house for OTC interest rate derivatives for Citibank worldwide..."
UK 'Planning for Eurozone Collapse'
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-24028690-uk-planning-for-...
"The Government is undertaking 'extensive contingency planning' in the event of a eurozone collapse, peers have been told..."
Greece is Insolvent: Will Default on Debt
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-17/greece-is-insolvent-will-defaul...
IMF Executive Warns of Eurozone 'Spiral'
http://www.france24.com/en/20120116-imf-executive-warns-eurozone-spiral
"A senior International Monetary Fund executive warned on Monday that Europe required bold action to avert a 'downward spiral' that could drag the world economy into 'catastrophe'.."
Economic Predictions For 2012 -- by Jack Rasmus
http://zcommunications.org/economic-predictions-for-2012-by-jack-rasmus
"Should a bonafide banking crisis erupt in the eurozone, the odds of a global depression will rise significantly."
Never Underestimate the Desperation of a Broke(n) Government - by Martin Armstrong
http://www.financialsense.com/contributors/martin-armstrong/2011/01/06/n...
"...And every possible mistake that every government has made before us, we are following step by step. This is exactly how Rome collapsed."
IMF Seeks $500 Billion Amid Europe Crisis
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-18/imf-said-to-seek-1-trillion-boo...
"...The IMF is preparing to raise its lending capacity by as much as $500 billion to insulate the global economy against any worsening of Europe's debt crisis. The Washington based lender is aiming to increase its resources after identifying a potential need for $1 Trillion in financing in coming years, an IMF spokesman said in a statement..."
..hudson also discusses the rise of facism and where it is coming from.
Background Briefing
January 19, 2012
By Admin
Michael appeared on KPFK’s Background Briefing to discuss the recent Euro downgrades and the state of the EU. What is behind the S & P downgrades?
That was a good interview with Michael Hudson. Jeez, it sounds like socialists in Europe are actually far right wing schills for the banking oligarchy and that fascism is growing stronger. They are lying to the people in ways not so different to ways in which Hitler lied to Germans about whose side he was on. They are definitely on the side of the superrich today similarly.
As Hudson says, there is an alternative. There needs to be financial disarmament of marauding international capital and euthanizing rentier class and their unearned incomes.
Never Underestimate the Desperation of a Broke(n) Government - by Martin Armstrong
http://www.financialsense.com/contributors/martin-armstrong/2011/01/06/n...
"...And every possible mistake that every government has made before us, we are following step by step. This is exactly how Rome collapsed."
Any particular reason you feel the need to share the ultra-right fascist opinions of this criminal scumbag?
Lots of that here - Obama, Netanyahu, Harper.. Point is further demonstration of an increasingly shared consensus that the global financial system is on the edge of collapse - and he oughta know right?
Occupy London: archbishop of Canterbury backs new tax on banking November 2011
Endorsing the idea of a "Robin Hood" tax on financial transactions, he said: "There is still a powerful sense around - fair or not - of a whole society paying for the errors and irresponsibility of bankers; of impatience with a return to 'business as usual' - represented by still-soaring bonuses and little visible change in banking practices."
Whilst the financial sector has chided the Church for its involvement, it is well worth noting that, unlike politicians, the influence of the financial sector over the Church is relatively weak, and it is hard to dismiss the Church's overall objectives and policy proposals.
England's Church versus London's financial oligarchy.
At Davos, Debating Capitalism's Future
In my country, I believe that changing the rules of capitalism will mean a change of government. But more generally, it will require a change in what citizens expect and ask of politics. The question is not so much whether 20th-century capitalism is failing 21st-century society but whether politics can rise to the challenge of changing a flawed economic model.
Now even capitalists are questioning capitalism :rolleyeyes:
Canada wants Europe to erect larger 'firewall' Harper to seek urgent action on debt crisis
Firewall as in a Wall of money' and not firewalls of regulation to prevent the thing from burning all the way to the ground. Harper must be an Alan Greenspan wannabe.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/commentary/chrystia-fr...
Thanks for bringing reality to balance the wild exaqggeration and silliness purveyed in this thread, NR.
Isn't Buffet also calling for "taxing the rich"?
Charade they are. Western world capitalism is hopelessly bankrupt.
Hudson, Keiser on 2012 Imperialism
video
See Dr Hudson with Max Keiser in On the Edge as they sift through the latest issues including the EU, Ron Paul, Austrian economics, Iran and the role of the US dollar.
Ha ha, that was good, epaulo. To summarize, Austrian economics is basically central economic planning in the hands of bankers - - they've been surrounding Russia and BRIC countries militarily and getting those countries to finance it through dollar imperialism - the gold standard could be used as a peaceful means of settling balance of payments between countries but not to back domestic currency only - and Wall Street banksters make Carlo Ponzi appear to have been an honest business person by comparison.
fidel
..hudson is one of the very few economists i follow. he makes so clear how capital is fucking us over in a economic language i understand from start to finish. interesting remark he made about working with the occupy movement on something that will be released in a few days. and yes the point about the real gangsters being in full control now.
NDPPHudson, Keiser on 2012 Imperialism
video
See Dr Hudson with Max Keiser in On the Edge as they sift through the latest issues including the EU, Ron Paul, Austrian economics, Iran and the role of the US dollar.
and this courtesy of Press TV. No wonder they're trying to shut it down. You will never see a show like this on CBC
Yes, I forgot to mention that he is working with Occupy on a list of demands. Can't wait to see that.
Hudson also said recently that there will be no real fix for the financial mess until deep-seated corruption in U.S. government and justice system are cleaned up. Only then can they begin to fix things in his country. Hudson says, and I agree, that the world is becoming more and more politically conscious. People are no longer blaming themselves and are becoming less afraid as a result. It's leading to conditions typical of countries pregnant with revolution.
Hudson also said recently that there will be no real fix for the financial mess until deep-seated corruption in U.S. government and justice system are cleaned up. Only then can they begin to fix things in his country. Hudson says, and I agree, that the world is becoming more and more politically conscious. People are no longer blaming themselves and are becoming less afraid as a result. It's leading to conditions typical of countries pregnant with revolution.
..his idea that going back to using gold to pay for oil etc transactions would bring about a more peaceful world. and the greek people saying the will not honour any deals signed by a government that doesn't represent them. this is good information. his message seems positive in spite of the content. i think he's hooked. he sees another world. 
edit
Yes, I thought he said BRIC countries have used, or will be using, gold to back their currencies payable to each other nation for the purpose of balance of payments wrt trade, and they will use their own domestic currencies for circulating at home. The BRIC countries are reverting to the way it was before Nixon's floating exchange rate dollar implemented by 1971 and are avoiding using U.S. petro dollars where possible. This will make it harder for those countries to spend on military, and at the same time make things more difficult for the U.S. to finance their own largest in the world war machine and hundreds of foreign military bases around the world. Not sure but I think this is sort of what Keynes meant by financial disarmament of global capital. If so, it's a good thing. Let's hope WW III doesn't happen in the mean time.
If our only problems were the food industry causing physical heart attacks and the financial industry facilitating their economic equivalent, that would be bad enough. But the pathological regulatory-political-economic dynamic that characterizes these industries is far broader. We need to develop new and much better institutions to protect society’s long-run interests.
Decided to rent rather than buy before I read this article, but reading it confirms my suspicions that the real estate market in Vancouver has only one way to go and that is South!
http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2012/02/01/Economic-Warning-Signs/index1.html
good one - yes, lots of denial around this process of collapse unfortunately.
Where is the uprising from the left? Good question, Spiegel.
Socialists aren't proposing anything as grandiose as prosperous middle class capitalism, it's true. And come to think of it, neither are capitalists promising or delivering on those former cold war era promises at the same time. It was a colossal lie from the beginning. The shine is off.
RSA Animate - Crises of Capitalism
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOP2V_np2c0&feature=player_embedded#!
ECONOMISTS: Greece to leave euro
Some of Denmark’s top economists say that Greece can be expected to leave the euro this year, despite the fact the country is close to reaching agreement on a national debt haircut of some DKK740 billion and therefore a new EU rescue package.
The immediate rescue notwithstanding, seven top Danish economists say that the only way to save Greece is for the country to abandon the euro.
“Even with a haircut, the Greeks are in an impossible situation. Their tax infrastructure is terrible and at the same time there is no prospect of growth in the country,” says Aalborg University Economy Professor Per Kongshøj Madsen.
The final rescue package for Greece is therefore to abandon the euro, Kongshøj Madsen says, as it will enable them to devalue the Drachma, in turn enabling them to regain the competitiveness needed to revitalise the economy....
http://politiken.dk/newsinenglish/ECE1528106/economists-greece-to-leave-...
The Background to the Euro Crisis (2 parts)
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/feb2012/euro-f08.shtml
"The power of the financial aristocracy.."
Occupy Talks: What Gravy Train? [3/4]
Austerity, Finance, and the Polarization of Wealth.
Linda McQuaig is an acclaimed Canadian journalist and best-selling author. She currently writes an op-ed column for the Toronto Star and has written eight books on politics and economics, including It's the Crude, Dude, and most recently, The Trouble With Billionaires.
International Currencies Increasingly Rejected in the Face of Inflation (and vid)
http://www.activistpost.com/2012/02/international-currencies-increasingl...
"...The modern day planet-wide collapse of fiat currencies is providing additional real-time examples of how forsaken citizens are taking matters into their own hands. Let us look at just the two most affected: Greece and Spain.."
Our Very Own Oscar Night in Rimini - by Michael Hudson
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article30659.htm
"...The basic thrust of our argument is that just as commercial banks create credit electronically on their computer keyboards (creating a bank account credit for borrowers in exchange for their signing an IOU at interest), governments can create money. There is no need to borrow from banks, as computer keyboards provide nearly free credit creation to finance spending. Unfortunately, the flow of earnings is now being diverted increasingly to the financial sector..'
“People who don’t have money don’t understand the stress,” said Alan Dlugash, a partner at accounting firm Marks Paneth & Shron LLP in New York who specializes in financial planning for the wealthy. “Could you imagine what it’s like to say I got three kids in private school, I have to think about pulling them out? How do you do that?”
Oh, you will just weep! Weep for the New York financiers who are having their bonuses reduced!
'Anti-Iran Sanctions Are Counterproductive For US Economy' (and vid)
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/229574.html
"the unemployment rate in the eurozone has hit an all-time high in January, leaving tens of thousands more out of the job market.."
interview with Ian Williams, Max Keiser etc.
The Ugly Truth Behind Michigan's Budget Surplus
Michigan is a model of fiscal recuperation. At least that’s what the headlines said as I stepped off a plane in Detroit recently: its spending was slashed so ruthlessly in the past few years that the New York Times quoted a former state budget director as moaning, “We were so far down that the floor looked like up to us.” But now there is a budget surplus projected for 2013, of anywhere from half a billion to a billion dollars, with yet sunnier fiscal predictions ahead. This apotheosis is generally credited to the enactment of Republican Governor Rick Snyder’s stern austerity policies, which include replacing “a business tax with a corporate income tax that is expected to save businesses $1.5 billion a year,” according to the same Times article. “To make up lost dollars, lawmakers agreed to tax public workers’ pensions, reduce the state’s Earned-Income Tax Credit for the working poor, and remove or reduce other tax exemptions and deductions.”
On the ride from the airport, my friend Dee gave me an earful about what he described as “Snyder’s for-profit governance, while for us ordinary non-corporate humans, things just get bleaker.” The schools are decimated, he told me. Infrastructure is crumbling, zoos and parks are being eliminated, libraries closed and daycare all but nonexistent. Snyder has slashed funding for the state’s colleges and universities by 15 percent in the past year alone....
http://www.thenation.com/article/166293/ugly-truth-behind-michigans-budg...
Iceland's ex-PM becomes first world leader to face trial over financial crisis
REYKJAVIK, Iceland -- Iceland's former prime minister went on trial Monday as the first world leader to face criminal charges over the 2008 financial crisis that affected much of the world economy.
Geir Haarde became a symbol of the bubble economy for Icelanders who lost their jobs and homes after the country's main commercial bank collapsed in 2008, sending its currency into a nosedive and inflation soaring.
Prosecutors opened the case at the Landsdomur, a special court being convened for the first time in Iceland's history. The trial is expected to last until mid-March, with the court taking another four to six weeks to deliver its verdict.
Haarde is accused of negligence for failing to prevent the financial implosion from which the small island country is still struggling to recover....
http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/05/10582106-icelands-ex-pm-...
Max Keiser Report: Episode 259 (and vid)
http://rt.com/programs/keiser-report/episode-259-max-keiser/
The latest on the predatory financial masters of the universe. Economist Michael Hudson interviewed on modern monetary theory..
This was no boat accident.
lol!
Public Sector Banks: From Black Sheep to Global Leaders
The BRICs have been the main locus of world economic growth in the last decade. China Daily reports, "Between 2000 and 2010, BRIC's GDP grew by an incredible 92.7 percent, compared to a global GDP growth of just 32 percent, with industrialized economies having a very modest 15.5 percent."
All the leading banks in the BRIC half of the globe are state-owned. In fact the largest banks globally are state-owned, including:· The two largest banks by market capitalization (ICBC and China Construction Bank)
· The largest bank by deposits (Japan Post Bank)
· The largest bank by assets (Royal Bank of Scotland, now nationalized)
· The world's largest development bank (BNDES in Brazil).
A May 2010 article in The Economist noted that the strong and stable publicly-owned banks of India, China and Brazil helped those countries weather the banking crisis afflicting most of the rest of the world in the last few years. According to Professor Kurt von Mettenheim of the Sao Paulo Business School of Brazil:
Government banks provided counter cyclical credit and policy options to counter the effects of the recent financial crisis, while realizing competitive advantage over private and foreign banks. Greater client confidence and official deposits reinforced liability base and lending capacity. The credit policies of BRIC government banks help explain why these countries experienced shorter and milder economic downturns during 2007-2008.
Meanwhile our corrupt stooges are paralyzed from the necks up by their imaginary impotence.
Rise of Neoliberal and Undemocratic Europe
From Maastricht to the Fiscal Treaty. An interview with Susan George
with video
We are punishing the innocent, the people who are supposed to pay through austerity, and we are rewarding the guilty because the banks are continuing to receive huge privileges and subsidies from our governments....
http://www.tni.org/article/rise-neoliberal-and-undemocratic-europe
States Begin to Prepare For Economic Collapse
http://www.examiner.com/finance-examiner-in-national/states-begin-to-pre...
"On Friday, February 24th, legislators in the state of Wyoming began passage of a bill that will launch a study to determine how the state would deal with a complete economic or political collapse in the US. The state of Wyoming is just one of several states across the country seeking ways to deal with the very real potential of an economic collapse as debt and dollar devaluation threatens the monetary fabric of American society..."
Tax havens, banking system & UK Uncut
video
Nicholas Shaxson, journalist, author and consultant gives an insight into his book Treasure Islands: Tax Havens and the Men Who Stole the World. Millions of people have a queasy feeling that something is not right in the global economy – but they struggle to put their fingers on what exactly the problem is. Treasure Islands at last tells the real story of where it all went wrong. This is the great untold story of globalisation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=BqhcMAE1ekA#!
'Cameron Government Set to Create 'Financial Apartheid' (and vid - panel discussion)
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/232835.html
"British Finance Minister George Osborne has unveiled the country's 2012 annual budget for the House of Commons which is intended to maintain the tough austerity push for yet another year.
Max Keiser:
"Well, Osborne says that there is no money and that austerity must be imposed. But let us keep in mind that bankers and corporations are flush with cash. The corporations are sitting on huge cash bonuses, they are hitting record profits, banks are sitting on huge cash bonuses, they are awarding record bonuses and salaries to their top executives.
And so what we have here, is a situation where the Bank of England is printing cash to satisfy the interests of these very large banks and corporations. But the cash does not make it into the general economy. It does not do anything in terms of creating jobs but it does have the effect of forcing the price of food and energy higher.
So if you are not part of the elite banking infrastructure you have the problem of no job and the price of your food and energy going higher. So you are being squeezed at both ends because the Bank of England, George Osborne, David Cameron, Mervyn King, work together to create what I call this 'financial segregation' or 'financial apartheid'. where it is very easy for the one portion of the economy but bloody hell for everybody else.."
Social and Political Crisis Intensifies in Eastern Europe - by Markus Salzman
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/apr2012/east-a07.shtml
"...A few days ago the German business newspaper Handelsblatt wrote: 'The economic downturn which began at the end of 2011 in Western Europe has now clearly reached the East in 2012."
US Standard of Living Fallen More Than 50% - by Jeff Neilson
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article31010.htm
"On several occasions I have glibly referred to how it now takes two spouses working to equal the wages of a one-income family of forty years ago. Unfortunately that is now an understatement. In fact, Western wages have plummeted so low that a two-income family is now (on average) 15% poorer than a one-income family of 40 years ago..."
European Stock Markets Rocked by Panic Selling as Debt Crisis Reignites
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/apr/10/european-stock-market-panic-...
"Europe's sovereign debt crisis exploded back into life on Tuesday, with markets across the continent rocked by a wave of panic selling around renewed fears about the impact of savage austerity measures in Spain and Italy.."
'To Undo the Folded Lie' - by Phil Rockstroh
http://www.countercurrents.org/rockstroh100412.htm
"Resisting palliatives in an age of oligarchic excess and Anthropocene Age devastation . Wall Street is again flush with the electronic facsimile of the stuff once known as money. But this is a Botox recovery.."
EU IMF’d
video
Hudson on Lauren Lyster’s Capital Account discussing the upcoming Washington Consensus meetings.
