The US empire exposed again. How do you colonise the world? Use the world bank and IMF to dictate to target countries. How do you enforce these dictations? Multi billion dollar military bases located in 'friendly' nations right next to the target ones. Makes you wonder why there's 30, 000 marines in Haiti..
Here's a great video exposing US corporate fascism and IMF colonisation in the Horn of Africa:
See more here.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Friday, January 29, 2010
Europe and Spanish Flu
We Europeans have been slaughtering each other ever since the genocidal removal of neanderthals by we homosapiens. Isn't it strange that we call people we think are uncivilised 'neanderthal'? I mean we wiped them out. Homosapien history stems then from that original genocide - our real original sin, our template.
And then came the bomb. Nuclear weapons meant that Europeans realised the game was up. We simply couldn't risk war, nomatter how profitable it is, as the elite themselves would be wiped out.
And so we have the European Union and the Euro. Align Europe so that the people don't turn to desperate despots and if we're all in the same boat then there's no culture of envy.
In more recent times we have begun to believe that as the US nosedives into moral, political and economic collapse, with the hands of the corporate elite firmly round the throats of the people and their former constitution, that Europe would emerge as a genuinely democratic superpower inhibiting the corporate takeover of the world through the US's control of the IMF, World Bank, WTO etc.
Now, with countries collapsing all over the place the IMF can step in and offer loans whilst demanding that the country sell its assets off to global companies - mostly US but UK and some other of the usual suspects. And these countries are so desperate that they must be sold at fire-sale prices. And you wonder if the 'crisis' was engineered or not..?
Now it seems the European dream is crumbling:
Funds flee Greece as Germany warns of "fatal" eurozone crisis
screams The Telegraph. And The Guardian:
No EU bailout for Greece as PM promises to 'put house in order'
Daniel Roubini is a 'Nobel' (that's not the real 'nobel' prize - it gets to pass off) economist and is a favourite of the establishment said this week:
As the world remains fixated on the financial problems of Greece, Nouriel Roubini warns that Spain is actually a far larger and deadly financial time bomb.
Now, as the US goes down the tubes there's a certain satisfaction in Washington and beyond that Europe may well go down with it. The Euro is starting to become a rival reserve currency. If Greece is kicked out of the Euro the speculators will turn on Spain - capital will flee. They say that Greece was hiding its problems - the fact is that everyone is.
Spain may well bring down the Euro. 5% of all Spanish mortgage holders are now not paying their mortgage. How does this work? Well, if the banks throw people out their houses they have to put those houses on the market and the prices will nosedive. Their asset base will then be shown up to be dangerous and illegally so - insolvent in short. So, mortgage holders are now not paying and who can blame them after the banks have been stuffed with their tax money. This figure will grow until the banks offload their properties and at that point house prices will collapse - there's been no correction like in the US so who knows - maybe prices have anything from a 40% to a 80% price correction to come.
Construction accounted for 40% of all government revenues before El Crisis began. That's gone. 40% youth unemployment and 20% on average are scraping a living. Savings are running out and things are getting desperate. The IMF are predicting contraction but the Spanish finance minister Elena Salgado is pumping out the government line that the IMF is wrong and that Spain is heading for 'recovery'. It's so abused as a word that when a politician mentions the word 'recovery' I imagine them smoking 'green-shoots'.
There's a million empty houses in Spain which is a 7 year supply. In the US there was a housing crisis because they had an 11 month supply..
President Zapatero cuts a rediculous figure lecturing the EU on competativeness. An ex-finance minister developed a twitch in his eye, such was the stress of holding the party line. To make Madrid look busy he has forced councils into highly visible public works. All along the La Castallana statues are being moved, roundabouts 'fixed' and to keep the construction companies afloat he has Plan E; Residents have the delight of having the same piece of road being dug up several times. One engineer I know asked some workmen why they were digging a hole and the answer was they didn't know and that their instructions were to fill it in after they dug it. Meanwhile buildings that were under construction just two years ago remain unfinished, cranes stand quiet and all that cheap South American labour which recently deprived many Spanish tradesmen of well paid work are nowhere to be seen - many are back home..
The good news for Spain is that the Germans have the money printer and not Zapatero. That won't stop him from selling off chunks of Spain to the Chinese and borrowing money. He loves throwing money around - it's his trademark. And that's why the EU was such a good idea. Countries couldn't get out of control and be exploited.
Now though the Euro in Spain is worth about 90 centimos and in Germany 115. The Euro block is diverging and cuts in public services will be political suicide. So, many are now talking about the return to the peseta. For large sums of money the Spanish still think in pesetas and many think they were ripped off when they converted. The Spanish though like being part of Europe. Under Franco the outside world was a long way away. Briefly, they felt economic power and only a couple of years ago they built some skyscrapers in the financial district which, immediately after being built, stand as a monument to the illusion created by debt driven economics - Torre Espacio (below), where I work.
Those aren't giants they're windmills (Cervantes). Unfortunately, they're not windmills - windmills are productive. No, these giants are testamony to the age just past: aggressive capitalism. In Torre Espacio the 'chapel' is on the 33rd floor and from god's vantage point in the Torre you can look down on a wonderful city but a city where begging and pick-pocketing is proliferating, where you can't take a metro ride without buskers competing for your small change and where there are queues at the social security office from 5am in the morning. When you take the train to the outskirsts you see slums filled with gypsies, Easter Europeans and 'sudakas' - the equivalent of 'nigger' for South Americans.
One businessman patted me on the back when Iberdrola took over Scottish Power. "Spain is becoming a powerful force in the world again" he gloated. Every morning I arrive at the Torre and am reminded of the power of illusion. Like Ireland the Spanish bought the capitalist dream.
There was a wizard behind the curtain. The masters of the universe - the global bankers sold them their dream and now having enriched themselves have left an uncertain country behind. It's now starting to sink in that the empire is not coming back and Spain is in deep trouble.
It may not just mean the end of the Spanish dream though, it may well mean the end of a European vision that kept us all from annihilating each other. Is the Spanish flu back?
Joder!
And then came the bomb. Nuclear weapons meant that Europeans realised the game was up. We simply couldn't risk war, nomatter how profitable it is, as the elite themselves would be wiped out.
And so we have the European Union and the Euro. Align Europe so that the people don't turn to desperate despots and if we're all in the same boat then there's no culture of envy.
In more recent times we have begun to believe that as the US nosedives into moral, political and economic collapse, with the hands of the corporate elite firmly round the throats of the people and their former constitution, that Europe would emerge as a genuinely democratic superpower inhibiting the corporate takeover of the world through the US's control of the IMF, World Bank, WTO etc.
Now, with countries collapsing all over the place the IMF can step in and offer loans whilst demanding that the country sell its assets off to global companies - mostly US but UK and some other of the usual suspects. And these countries are so desperate that they must be sold at fire-sale prices. And you wonder if the 'crisis' was engineered or not..?
Now it seems the European dream is crumbling:
Funds flee Greece as Germany warns of "fatal" eurozone crisis
screams The Telegraph. And The Guardian:
No EU bailout for Greece as PM promises to 'put house in order'
Daniel Roubini is a 'Nobel' (that's not the real 'nobel' prize - it gets to pass off) economist and is a favourite of the establishment said this week:
As the world remains fixated on the financial problems of Greece, Nouriel Roubini warns that Spain is actually a far larger and deadly financial time bomb.
Now, as the US goes down the tubes there's a certain satisfaction in Washington and beyond that Europe may well go down with it. The Euro is starting to become a rival reserve currency. If Greece is kicked out of the Euro the speculators will turn on Spain - capital will flee. They say that Greece was hiding its problems - the fact is that everyone is.
Spain may well bring down the Euro. 5% of all Spanish mortgage holders are now not paying their mortgage. How does this work? Well, if the banks throw people out their houses they have to put those houses on the market and the prices will nosedive. Their asset base will then be shown up to be dangerous and illegally so - insolvent in short. So, mortgage holders are now not paying and who can blame them after the banks have been stuffed with their tax money. This figure will grow until the banks offload their properties and at that point house prices will collapse - there's been no correction like in the US so who knows - maybe prices have anything from a 40% to a 80% price correction to come.
Construction accounted for 40% of all government revenues before El Crisis began. That's gone. 40% youth unemployment and 20% on average are scraping a living. Savings are running out and things are getting desperate. The IMF are predicting contraction but the Spanish finance minister Elena Salgado is pumping out the government line that the IMF is wrong and that Spain is heading for 'recovery'. It's so abused as a word that when a politician mentions the word 'recovery' I imagine them smoking 'green-shoots'.
There's a million empty houses in Spain which is a 7 year supply. In the US there was a housing crisis because they had an 11 month supply..
President Zapatero cuts a rediculous figure lecturing the EU on competativeness. An ex-finance minister developed a twitch in his eye, such was the stress of holding the party line. To make Madrid look busy he has forced councils into highly visible public works. All along the La Castallana statues are being moved, roundabouts 'fixed' and to keep the construction companies afloat he has Plan E; Residents have the delight of having the same piece of road being dug up several times. One engineer I know asked some workmen why they were digging a hole and the answer was they didn't know and that their instructions were to fill it in after they dug it. Meanwhile buildings that were under construction just two years ago remain unfinished, cranes stand quiet and all that cheap South American labour which recently deprived many Spanish tradesmen of well paid work are nowhere to be seen - many are back home..
The good news for Spain is that the Germans have the money printer and not Zapatero. That won't stop him from selling off chunks of Spain to the Chinese and borrowing money. He loves throwing money around - it's his trademark. And that's why the EU was such a good idea. Countries couldn't get out of control and be exploited.
Now though the Euro in Spain is worth about 90 centimos and in Germany 115. The Euro block is diverging and cuts in public services will be political suicide. So, many are now talking about the return to the peseta. For large sums of money the Spanish still think in pesetas and many think they were ripped off when they converted. The Spanish though like being part of Europe. Under Franco the outside world was a long way away. Briefly, they felt economic power and only a couple of years ago they built some skyscrapers in the financial district which, immediately after being built, stand as a monument to the illusion created by debt driven economics - Torre Espacio (below), where I work.
Those aren't giants they're windmills (Cervantes). Unfortunately, they're not windmills - windmills are productive. No, these giants are testamony to the age just past: aggressive capitalism. In Torre Espacio the 'chapel' is on the 33rd floor and from god's vantage point in the Torre you can look down on a wonderful city but a city where begging and pick-pocketing is proliferating, where you can't take a metro ride without buskers competing for your small change and where there are queues at the social security office from 5am in the morning. When you take the train to the outskirsts you see slums filled with gypsies, Easter Europeans and 'sudakas' - the equivalent of 'nigger' for South Americans.
One businessman patted me on the back when Iberdrola took over Scottish Power. "Spain is becoming a powerful force in the world again" he gloated. Every morning I arrive at the Torre and am reminded of the power of illusion. Like Ireland the Spanish bought the capitalist dream.
There was a wizard behind the curtain. The masters of the universe - the global bankers sold them their dream and now having enriched themselves have left an uncertain country behind. It's now starting to sink in that the empire is not coming back and Spain is in deep trouble.
It may not just mean the end of the Spanish dream though, it may well mean the end of a European vision that kept us all from annihilating each other. Is the Spanish flu back?
Joder!
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Obama the Messiah: He Can Turn Garbage Into Money!
It's kinda sweet that your still read so much faff about Obama being the man for this or that. He has done nothing except accelerate all the problem from the previous administration. He is bought and sold with bankers' gold and the sooner the morning capuccino wafts up your nostrils the better. Ive heard it all: People telling me that they 'just know' he's a good guy and that he's super intelligent (remember Wendy Alexander?) but none of his flock seem to know anything about what he's actually done in real life.
You think they fixed the system with all that taxpayers money and stimulus? They didn't; things are now worse. And just so that you can hold your own with the Obamanoids out there who believe every headline in the corporate media, here's a great vid. An interview with an ex-managing director of Goldman Sachs. It tells you how the system is worse, how taxpayers are still getting ripped off and how for all his bark there's nothing approaching a bite from Black Jesus, sorry Obama.
Interview is with Max Keiser on Russia Today and starts at 13.00
You think they fixed the system with all that taxpayers money and stimulus? They didn't; things are now worse. And just so that you can hold your own with the Obamanoids out there who believe every headline in the corporate media, here's a great vid. An interview with an ex-managing director of Goldman Sachs. It tells you how the system is worse, how taxpayers are still getting ripped off and how for all his bark there's nothing approaching a bite from Black Jesus, sorry Obama.
Interview is with Max Keiser on Russia Today and starts at 13.00
Yeh Gordon, The Recession is Over, right.
We know in Scotland that there is no greater fan of PM Brown than Das Herald Sturmer. It is no surprise then for me to read this headline this morning:
Britain’s worst recession at an end, say economists
Speculation is that an election will be called shortly. It doesn't tell you which economists exactly and sort of infers that all economists agree which is bull.
The evidence?
A 0.1% expansion in the economy between October and December ended six straight quarters of shrinking output, according to first estimates from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Wooohooo. It is a rise though just like the chancellor said. What a fairytale for the government just before the election, indeed.
What the headline doesn't tell you about is all the changes to the accounting that's taken place. Things called 'adjustments' and other costs left off the balance sheet. Nor does it mention the hundrends of billions of taxpayers money that are being used to pump the economy up artificially. Nor does it mention that public and private debt in Britain has reached 449% of GDP. That's in the same territory as Iceland before that country's economy collapsed in a heap. Meanwhile corporate tax and income tax revenue has fallen off a cliff.
No, don't buy the bull. After the election is over the cuts will come and the taxes will sky-rocket. When interest rates finally go up you can expect to see something approaching half of the budget being spend on interest payments meaning public services will be decimated. Did you wonder why they are giving police balloons in the air to spy on the population? They're terrified of civil unrest.
You won't get to hear all that before the election though. How many green-shoots have we had? Believe me, this is just another false dawn. Lies being concocted to create a re-election platform.
These people are destroying the economy and bombarding you with propaganda. Britain is bankrupt and none of the dodgy accounting and money printing is going to fix that. In fact, it's going to make things worse. How many times have people been sold 'jam tomorrow'?
If you believe governments and banks you'll lose everything. Think for yourselves. Look around and ask yourself: are more of my friends finding jobs or losing them? Don't leave your future in the hands of demagogues and warmongerers!
Britain’s worst recession at an end, say economists
Speculation is that an election will be called shortly. It doesn't tell you which economists exactly and sort of infers that all economists agree which is bull.
The evidence?
A 0.1% expansion in the economy between October and December ended six straight quarters of shrinking output, according to first estimates from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Wooohooo. It is a rise though just like the chancellor said. What a fairytale for the government just before the election, indeed.
What the headline doesn't tell you about is all the changes to the accounting that's taken place. Things called 'adjustments' and other costs left off the balance sheet. Nor does it mention the hundrends of billions of taxpayers money that are being used to pump the economy up artificially. Nor does it mention that public and private debt in Britain has reached 449% of GDP. That's in the same territory as Iceland before that country's economy collapsed in a heap. Meanwhile corporate tax and income tax revenue has fallen off a cliff.
No, don't buy the bull. After the election is over the cuts will come and the taxes will sky-rocket. When interest rates finally go up you can expect to see something approaching half of the budget being spend on interest payments meaning public services will be decimated. Did you wonder why they are giving police balloons in the air to spy on the population? They're terrified of civil unrest.
You won't get to hear all that before the election though. How many green-shoots have we had? Believe me, this is just another false dawn. Lies being concocted to create a re-election platform.
These people are destroying the economy and bombarding you with propaganda. Britain is bankrupt and none of the dodgy accounting and money printing is going to fix that. In fact, it's going to make things worse. How many times have people been sold 'jam tomorrow'?
If you believe governments and banks you'll lose everything. Think for yourselves. Look around and ask yourself: are more of my friends finding jobs or losing them? Don't leave your future in the hands of demagogues and warmongerers!
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Scotland and Fake Recovery
So, what is the reality facing Scots trying to feed families and keep their jobs?
There are very few sources for finding out what's really going on in the British economy. As international investors will tell you though, what happens to the US happens to Britain. And it will probably happen first because Britain doesn't have the delaying cusion of having the world reserve currency.
While many on the blogosphere will tell you not to talk about independence Scots really should be allowed to think about whatever they want. And right now, as Britain teeters on the brink of economic disintegration Scots really should be allowed to think about staying in bankrupt Britain or getting out asap! Obama or Brown or whoever can't do much about it and it was them and some others who got us into it. So, take internet blogs about messiahs with a pinch of salt.
So, what is the truth about the economy of our US cousins? The truth that the mainstream media and the hope peddlars who want to relieve you of your wealth, don't want you to know?
The following article spells it out well:
Economic Black Hole: 20 Reasons Why The U.S. Economy Is Dying And Is Simply Not Going To Recover
Here's a taster:
#1) Do you remember that massive wave of subprime mortgages that defaulted in 2007 and 2008 and caused the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression? Well, the "second wave" of mortgage defaults in on the way and there is simply no way that we are going to be able to avoid it. A huge mountain of mortgages is going to reset starting in 2010, and once those mortgage payments go up there are once again going to be millons of people who simply cannot pay their mortgages. The chart below reveals just how bad the second wave of adjustable rate mortgages is likely to be over the next several years....
There are very few sources for finding out what's really going on in the British economy. As international investors will tell you though, what happens to the US happens to Britain. And it will probably happen first because Britain doesn't have the delaying cusion of having the world reserve currency.
While many on the blogosphere will tell you not to talk about independence Scots really should be allowed to think about whatever they want. And right now, as Britain teeters on the brink of economic disintegration Scots really should be allowed to think about staying in bankrupt Britain or getting out asap! Obama or Brown or whoever can't do much about it and it was them and some others who got us into it. So, take internet blogs about messiahs with a pinch of salt.
So, what is the truth about the economy of our US cousins? The truth that the mainstream media and the hope peddlars who want to relieve you of your wealth, don't want you to know?
The following article spells it out well:
Economic Black Hole: 20 Reasons Why The U.S. Economy Is Dying And Is Simply Not Going To Recover
Here's a taster:
#1) Do you remember that massive wave of subprime mortgages that defaulted in 2007 and 2008 and caused the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression? Well, the "second wave" of mortgage defaults in on the way and there is simply no way that we are going to be able to avoid it. A huge mountain of mortgages is going to reset starting in 2010, and once those mortgage payments go up there are once again going to be millons of people who simply cannot pay their mortgages. The chart below reveals just how bad the second wave of adjustable rate mortgages is likely to be over the next several years....
Friday, January 22, 2010
Scotland: Last Person To Leave Turn The Lights Out.
Britain's public and private debt is now 449% of GDP according to McKinsey. Yes, Britain is now approaching the same level of debt to GDP that little Iceland found itself in.
Remember our propagandist in chief at the ministry of information, sorry the Scottish Office scoffing about the Arc of Insolvency? Ah, Jim Murphy - how history will judge him. His mighty British state at the same economic level as Iceland - the worst case scenario in his 'Arc'. So, not only was it a diplomatic embarassment for Scotland but he laid a little trap for himself and the scoffing herds of Neu Leiber shills lined up behind him.
Very soon interest on this debt will become the majority of the current budget meaning more expensive than education and Labour's wars together. At these levels speculation on a run on the pound begins to circulate and it is. Under Brown and King we could well see interest payments becoming more than GDP and then the game is up and the pound will be history.
It's all waiting for you on the other side of the election. When the scoffing Murphy and his warmongering party are out of power. Then, they'll try to tell you all it was the Tories fault.
If we don't talk independence now the last person to leave Scotland should turn the lights out behind them.
Remember our propagandist in chief at the ministry of information, sorry the Scottish Office scoffing about the Arc of Insolvency? Ah, Jim Murphy - how history will judge him. His mighty British state at the same economic level as Iceland - the worst case scenario in his 'Arc'. So, not only was it a diplomatic embarassment for Scotland but he laid a little trap for himself and the scoffing herds of Neu Leiber shills lined up behind him.
Very soon interest on this debt will become the majority of the current budget meaning more expensive than education and Labour's wars together. At these levels speculation on a run on the pound begins to circulate and it is. Under Brown and King we could well see interest payments becoming more than GDP and then the game is up and the pound will be history.
It's all waiting for you on the other side of the election. When the scoffing Murphy and his warmongering party are out of power. Then, they'll try to tell you all it was the Tories fault.
If we don't talk independence now the last person to leave Scotland should turn the lights out behind them.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
anti-SNP propaganda CBI style
It's quite a sight when Scotland's anti-Independence propagandists get together.
Another article twisted into an anti-SNP attack by Eddie Barns in Das Schottishman today quotes their favourite anti-SNP businessman, as often they do. What a cosey little gathering they make..
Headline is:
UK may leave Scotland mired in recession as jobs toll grows
Now, the article is about making Scots believe that their economy is more vulnerable than the English economy and that somehow that is something to do with the SNP.
Let me tell these so-called economic commetators and 'business leaders' something. The economy of Britain is getting worse. The only reason that there are growth figures is because of the all taxpayers money going into the economy in the form of 'stimulus' and money printing. Clearly the 'stimulus' is being dispersed disproportionatly higher in England than in Scotland. Now, giving out 'stimulus' money means taking it away from the productive economy and that causes productive companies, like you have in Scotland, to fail.
So by diluting the economy with money you kill the real economy to prop up a false one. The false one will die as soon as the taxpayers stop propping it up. Not until after the election you understand but there really won't be any money left to prop up London.
So, how do they twist this into an anti-SNP story?
But business groups have criticised Mr Swinney for not doing more, both to cut the government's own costs and to spend more on projects such as the Glasgow Airport Rail Link.
Excuse me but the SNP have cut the size of government and civil service departments massively and created savings that Westminster wouldn't be bothered to do anyway.
Then 'business leaders' meaning Das Schottishman's pet pro-union propagandists in the business sector or in short CBI Scotland director Iain McMillan is wheeled out for his latest wheeze:
The competitiveness of and prospects for Scots firms are greatly strengthened when government keeps a tight lid on those costs under its control that affect business,
The principle hike in government spending is on private sector goods in the government sector. How many of those contracts would Iain like to see withdrawn?
However his best is saved for last and what a mouthful it is:
..and when important GDP-enhancing investments in much-needed infrastructure and support for enterprise are protected.
Which is yet another unionist co-ordinated swipe at the Glasgow Airport Rail Link. The unionist establishment obviously think the SNP are vulnerable on this one.
For a start because of London-led monetary policies the value of the pound has shrunk hugely and so infrastructure is more expensive to pay for. Also, because of the London-led depression there are a lot less business trips taking place and a lot less people going to work or even spending money on leisure trips. Pressure on the transport system has receded. It follows that there is no urgency for this link.
Now some people think that during a recession that is the best time to build infrastructure. Such was the theory of Maynard Keynes. However Keynes' philosophy strongly emphasised that when you are in the good times of the economic cycle you save so that you can spend in the bad times. The problem with that is that Britain went into depression because it had a mountain of debt before the global recession - thanks to Gordon Brown. The reason why people are losing jobs is because debt is seizing up credit to business and consumers.
The answer therefore is to cut spending to the bone. However that is a tough proposition for an unpopular prime minister facing a general election so his answer is to print money and that is destroying the real economy although creating the illusion of 'recovery' in the short-term. By borrowing and printing money Brown is increasing the debt load and preventing the economy from correcting itself. And the banks love it because they sell debt and want as many governments, local governments, businesses and citizens as possible to be beholden to them.
You'd think that Iain MacMillan would have an opinion on such matters. I don't think he is the idiot on economics that he sounds like, so the only reason he could be punting this line is because he's controlled by bankers and his politics and circles are anti-SNP. That can be the only excuse for such contortions of the basic logic of economics. Indeed, he was so anti-Independence that his own members had to reel him in on a pre-election vitriolic outburst.
Scotland should beware such propagandists. They will sacrifice the productive economy to benefit the interests of the elite. It is not about having a productive economy, it is about controlling and enslaving the population with debt and corporate influence. That is where the Iain MacMillans of this world will lead you. If you value democracy, keep a watchful eye on such characters!
Another article twisted into an anti-SNP attack by Eddie Barns in Das Schottishman today quotes their favourite anti-SNP businessman, as often they do. What a cosey little gathering they make..
Headline is:
UK may leave Scotland mired in recession as jobs toll grows
Now, the article is about making Scots believe that their economy is more vulnerable than the English economy and that somehow that is something to do with the SNP.
Let me tell these so-called economic commetators and 'business leaders' something. The economy of Britain is getting worse. The only reason that there are growth figures is because of the all taxpayers money going into the economy in the form of 'stimulus' and money printing. Clearly the 'stimulus' is being dispersed disproportionatly higher in England than in Scotland. Now, giving out 'stimulus' money means taking it away from the productive economy and that causes productive companies, like you have in Scotland, to fail.
So by diluting the economy with money you kill the real economy to prop up a false one. The false one will die as soon as the taxpayers stop propping it up. Not until after the election you understand but there really won't be any money left to prop up London.
So, how do they twist this into an anti-SNP story?
But business groups have criticised Mr Swinney for not doing more, both to cut the government's own costs and to spend more on projects such as the Glasgow Airport Rail Link.
Excuse me but the SNP have cut the size of government and civil service departments massively and created savings that Westminster wouldn't be bothered to do anyway.
Then 'business leaders' meaning Das Schottishman's pet pro-union propagandists in the business sector or in short CBI Scotland director Iain McMillan is wheeled out for his latest wheeze:
The competitiveness of and prospects for Scots firms are greatly strengthened when government keeps a tight lid on those costs under its control that affect business,
The principle hike in government spending is on private sector goods in the government sector. How many of those contracts would Iain like to see withdrawn?
However his best is saved for last and what a mouthful it is:
..and when important GDP-enhancing investments in much-needed infrastructure and support for enterprise are protected.
Which is yet another unionist co-ordinated swipe at the Glasgow Airport Rail Link. The unionist establishment obviously think the SNP are vulnerable on this one.
For a start because of London-led monetary policies the value of the pound has shrunk hugely and so infrastructure is more expensive to pay for. Also, because of the London-led depression there are a lot less business trips taking place and a lot less people going to work or even spending money on leisure trips. Pressure on the transport system has receded. It follows that there is no urgency for this link.
Now some people think that during a recession that is the best time to build infrastructure. Such was the theory of Maynard Keynes. However Keynes' philosophy strongly emphasised that when you are in the good times of the economic cycle you save so that you can spend in the bad times. The problem with that is that Britain went into depression because it had a mountain of debt before the global recession - thanks to Gordon Brown. The reason why people are losing jobs is because debt is seizing up credit to business and consumers.
The answer therefore is to cut spending to the bone. However that is a tough proposition for an unpopular prime minister facing a general election so his answer is to print money and that is destroying the real economy although creating the illusion of 'recovery' in the short-term. By borrowing and printing money Brown is increasing the debt load and preventing the economy from correcting itself. And the banks love it because they sell debt and want as many governments, local governments, businesses and citizens as possible to be beholden to them.
You'd think that Iain MacMillan would have an opinion on such matters. I don't think he is the idiot on economics that he sounds like, so the only reason he could be punting this line is because he's controlled by bankers and his politics and circles are anti-SNP. That can be the only excuse for such contortions of the basic logic of economics. Indeed, he was so anti-Independence that his own members had to reel him in on a pre-election vitriolic outburst.
Scotland should beware such propagandists. They will sacrifice the productive economy to benefit the interests of the elite. It is not about having a productive economy, it is about controlling and enslaving the population with debt and corporate influence. That is where the Iain MacMillans of this world will lead you. If you value democracy, keep a watchful eye on such characters!
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
SNP WAKING UP?
In Today's Das Shottishman David 'Mad Dog' Maddox is at his propagandist best.
Covering the story that the Scottish government can prove what all sentient beings know:
SNP: Scots 'subsidise the rest of UK by billions of pounds a year'
Notice the apostrophes that you don't get in anti-SNP pieces. Mad Dog fires off his 'rebuttals' as facts. Talking about a UK government report which apparently showed Scotland in deficit he mentioned that the UK report didn't -
..include the £37bn paid by the Treasury to bail out Scotland's banks, with the cumulative total of just over £60bn accounting for almost two years' worth of the Scottish Government's annual expenditure.
What Mad Dog doesn't tell you is that it wasn't Scottish depositors who were bailed out but institutional investors most of whom are based outside Scotland, mostly in London..
Why let such facts get in the way of a good unionist propaganda piece?
However it was Swinney's spokesman who really mentioned something interesting:
It is Britain that is bust, not Scotland and these figures prove it.
Finally, what we've all been waiting for - the SNP finally pressing the case that Scotland needs out of Bankrupt Britain!
Is the SNP starting to play hard-ball? Or is this another false dawn?
Covering the story that the Scottish government can prove what all sentient beings know:
SNP: Scots 'subsidise the rest of UK by billions of pounds a year'
Notice the apostrophes that you don't get in anti-SNP pieces. Mad Dog fires off his 'rebuttals' as facts. Talking about a UK government report which apparently showed Scotland in deficit he mentioned that the UK report didn't -
..include the £37bn paid by the Treasury to bail out Scotland's banks, with the cumulative total of just over £60bn accounting for almost two years' worth of the Scottish Government's annual expenditure.
What Mad Dog doesn't tell you is that it wasn't Scottish depositors who were bailed out but institutional investors most of whom are based outside Scotland, mostly in London..
Why let such facts get in the way of a good unionist propaganda piece?
However it was Swinney's spokesman who really mentioned something interesting:
It is Britain that is bust, not Scotland and these figures prove it.
Finally, what we've all been waiting for - the SNP finally pressing the case that Scotland needs out of Bankrupt Britain!
Is the SNP starting to play hard-ball? Or is this another false dawn?
Monday, January 18, 2010
Greece On Edge! Scotland And Europe?
Ah, the European dream of a rival reserve currency to the $. It may just be about to be kaput.
So goes the argument by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard of The Telegraph:
ECB prepares legal ground for euro rupture as Greek crisis escalates
And the sub-header is worth a peeky too:
Fears of a euro break-up have reached the point where the European Central Bank feels compelled to issue a legal analysis of what would happen if a country tried to leave monetary union.
Spain is looking on nervously. The banks' capital ratios are being covered up and house prices have not been allowed to reset. Youth unemployment is around 40% and the general unemployment 'official' rate is almost 20%. Spain is now in so much debt it is basically playing a game of German Roulette. If the Germans don't bail-out Spain then Spain will leave the Euro. With Spain gone the Euro is finished!
If a handful of super powerful banksters wanted to wreak havoc they couldn't have done a better job. With the US teetering on the brink of popular uprising against Banksters and Britain not far behind Europe South and East is suffering and it's clear that Germany alone can't pick up the tab. If the US/Ukanian axis is to go down then the Euro will go down too. Can't leave a powerful and genuinely democratic super-power kicking around post US..
Back to Spain: President Zapatero enjoys dishing out money like confetti. Fortunately for Spain he can't just print more money like Gordon Brown and Mervyn King. The Germans wisely confiscated their money printer. That doesn't stop Zapatero from borrowing against bonds.. Indeed, he's borrowed so much that there is now a huge internal exchange rate between Germany and Spain. Off the top of my head €1 in Germany is now worth €1.15 and in Spain €0.90. Sounds like divergence to me..
Will the Euro survive? What's the European Central Bank saying? In a document entitled
Withdrawal and expulsion from the EU and EMU
the following points are made:
Recent developments have, perhaps, increased the risk of secession (however modestly), as well as the urgency of addressing it as a possible scenario,
The document goes on to explain that countries who leave the Euro must leave the European Union.
That warning is coupled with the chief of the ECB warning:
No state can expect any special treatment,
We can see that there really is a game of hard-ball going on. In banking you have 'moral hazard' meaning that if a bank gambles recklessly and loses it can turn to the taxpayer for a bail-out so it ain't going to stop! This is the sovereign equivalent of 'moral hazard'. The City is betting on a bail-out. However German taxpayers can't bail-out Spain, Italy, Portugal and others indefinately. And when they do, who's going to keep the Zapateros from going on another spending spree come election time?
Pritchard's verdict on Greece?
Even if Greece can cut wages without setting off mass protest, it lacks the open economy and export sector that may yet save Ireland in similar circumstances. Greece is caught in a textbook deflation trap.
If you think Europe has problems just wait till deficit spending catches up with Britain. There is a money-printing machine and it's still going ten-to-the-dozen in support of The City. After the election you're living standards are going to take a good kicking the like of which you've never seen before..
If Scotland gets out and uses the oil money to rescue its economy we could normalise the economy much like Norway has. The problem is that our 'tea and biscuit nationalist community' believe that now is not the time to talk independence. How utterly wrong can you be?
So fellow Scots my advice would be demand independence and ifyour countrymen lack the bottle -
Go East young man!
So goes the argument by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard of The Telegraph:
ECB prepares legal ground for euro rupture as Greek crisis escalates
And the sub-header is worth a peeky too:
Fears of a euro break-up have reached the point where the European Central Bank feels compelled to issue a legal analysis of what would happen if a country tried to leave monetary union.
Spain is looking on nervously. The banks' capital ratios are being covered up and house prices have not been allowed to reset. Youth unemployment is around 40% and the general unemployment 'official' rate is almost 20%. Spain is now in so much debt it is basically playing a game of German Roulette. If the Germans don't bail-out Spain then Spain will leave the Euro. With Spain gone the Euro is finished!
If a handful of super powerful banksters wanted to wreak havoc they couldn't have done a better job. With the US teetering on the brink of popular uprising against Banksters and Britain not far behind Europe South and East is suffering and it's clear that Germany alone can't pick up the tab. If the US/Ukanian axis is to go down then the Euro will go down too. Can't leave a powerful and genuinely democratic super-power kicking around post US..
Back to Spain: President Zapatero enjoys dishing out money like confetti. Fortunately for Spain he can't just print more money like Gordon Brown and Mervyn King. The Germans wisely confiscated their money printer. That doesn't stop Zapatero from borrowing against bonds.. Indeed, he's borrowed so much that there is now a huge internal exchange rate between Germany and Spain. Off the top of my head €1 in Germany is now worth €1.15 and in Spain €0.90. Sounds like divergence to me..
Will the Euro survive? What's the European Central Bank saying? In a document entitled
Withdrawal and expulsion from the EU and EMU
the following points are made:
Recent developments have, perhaps, increased the risk of secession (however modestly), as well as the urgency of addressing it as a possible scenario,
The document goes on to explain that countries who leave the Euro must leave the European Union.
That warning is coupled with the chief of the ECB warning:
No state can expect any special treatment,
We can see that there really is a game of hard-ball going on. In banking you have 'moral hazard' meaning that if a bank gambles recklessly and loses it can turn to the taxpayer for a bail-out so it ain't going to stop! This is the sovereign equivalent of 'moral hazard'. The City is betting on a bail-out. However German taxpayers can't bail-out Spain, Italy, Portugal and others indefinately. And when they do, who's going to keep the Zapateros from going on another spending spree come election time?
Pritchard's verdict on Greece?
Even if Greece can cut wages without setting off mass protest, it lacks the open economy and export sector that may yet save Ireland in similar circumstances. Greece is caught in a textbook deflation trap.
If you think Europe has problems just wait till deficit spending catches up with Britain. There is a money-printing machine and it's still going ten-to-the-dozen in support of The City. After the election you're living standards are going to take a good kicking the like of which you've never seen before..
If Scotland gets out and uses the oil money to rescue its economy we could normalise the economy much like Norway has. The problem is that our 'tea and biscuit nationalist community' believe that now is not the time to talk independence. How utterly wrong can you be?
So fellow Scots my advice would be demand independence and ifyour countrymen lack the bottle -
Go East young man!
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Scotland: Move Your Money!
Clearly the British political class have been intimidated and controlled by the banking elite. So, people must take matters into their own hands!
MOVE YOUR MONEY is a campaign to get ordinary people to take their deposits and savings out of the big banks who are robbing the country blind and destroying economies and move them to local banks and credit unions. The campaign was launched on hogmanay and in the US has had a phenomenal response.
As reported in The Nation:
In the first forty-eight hours more than 100,000 responded with inquiries. Within a week, people had searched for good banks in 16,631 ZIP codes--nearly 40 percent of the nation. The search tool is now getting 45,000 users a day. Naturally, the corporate media promptly assured readers that "ordinary Americans lack the power to hurt the big banks," as a Washington Post headline put it.
Banks really do vie for your deposits. Every pound deposited is multiplied by banks between 10 and a hundred times. Then they use it to buy and sell derivative contract which are fraudulant. When these fraudulant contracts go bust the banks then threaten the government with economic ruin unless they receive bail-outs. So, there is no risk for the banks to prevent them from gambling recklessly with your deposits. If our idiot PM can't take them on the we, the people, must!
The propaganda is that the man on the street can't hurt the banks but no so:
The cynics either do not understand banking or misunderstand the widespread public anger. Dennis Santiago, IRA's CEO and managing director, explained that banks compete fiercely for the "core deposits" provided by individual and small business accounts--this stable money is their preferred base for profitable lending. Take away core deposits, and bankers feel immediate balance-sheet stress. Expand the account base for community banks, and they gain greater stability and greater lending power. "Will moving your money have an effect?" Santiago asked. "And by effect, I don't mean making a momentary political statement. I mean making a structural difference to the country's financial system. The answer is yes."
There you are people. If you don't join the campaign you are allowing the destruction of your economy and future. If you do you bring the beast to its knees. Need I say more?
MOVE YOUR MONEY!
MOVE YOUR MONEY is a campaign to get ordinary people to take their deposits and savings out of the big banks who are robbing the country blind and destroying economies and move them to local banks and credit unions. The campaign was launched on hogmanay and in the US has had a phenomenal response.
As reported in The Nation:
In the first forty-eight hours more than 100,000 responded with inquiries. Within a week, people had searched for good banks in 16,631 ZIP codes--nearly 40 percent of the nation. The search tool is now getting 45,000 users a day. Naturally, the corporate media promptly assured readers that "ordinary Americans lack the power to hurt the big banks," as a Washington Post headline put it.
Banks really do vie for your deposits. Every pound deposited is multiplied by banks between 10 and a hundred times. Then they use it to buy and sell derivative contract which are fraudulant. When these fraudulant contracts go bust the banks then threaten the government with economic ruin unless they receive bail-outs. So, there is no risk for the banks to prevent them from gambling recklessly with your deposits. If our idiot PM can't take them on the we, the people, must!
The propaganda is that the man on the street can't hurt the banks but no so:
The cynics either do not understand banking or misunderstand the widespread public anger. Dennis Santiago, IRA's CEO and managing director, explained that banks compete fiercely for the "core deposits" provided by individual and small business accounts--this stable money is their preferred base for profitable lending. Take away core deposits, and bankers feel immediate balance-sheet stress. Expand the account base for community banks, and they gain greater stability and greater lending power. "Will moving your money have an effect?" Santiago asked. "And by effect, I don't mean making a momentary political statement. I mean making a structural difference to the country's financial system. The answer is yes."
There you are people. If you don't join the campaign you are allowing the destruction of your economy and future. If you do you bring the beast to its knees. Need I say more?
MOVE YOUR MONEY!
Banker Conmen: Shameless Liars
Honour Bound?
In Britain, the same things are going on and Brown knows it. We have to drive out the scammers from our country!
Update:
I understand some people can't see this video. It's US but can be viewed from Spain - not sure why the UK won't allow but the EU does.. Here is the link:
http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/261785/january-14-2010/the-word---honor-bound
| The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| The Word - Honor Bound | ||||
| ||||
In Britain, the same things are going on and Brown knows it. We have to drive out the scammers from our country!
Update:
I understand some people can't see this video. It's US but can be viewed from Spain - not sure why the UK won't allow but the EU does.. Here is the link:
http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/261785/january-14-2010/the-word---honor-bound
Friday, January 15, 2010
Got Fascism? Scotland Must Stand Up!
If you saw the video below you'd see that islanders from tiny Iceland are taking on the tyranny that threatens all of us. Bankers controlling governments have created economies which are collapsing meaning poverty and ill-health for millions.
Would that Scots had the same bravery as the Icelanders! Alas, we're a vassal 'nation'. Would you discuss the closure of the local paper-shop whilst watching your house burn down in a fire? No! I wonder why then, while the citizens are being looted, helped by government, by a financial elite and while millions are killed in our name do we give all our attention to such issues as inquiries about a minister's emails and stigmatising the poor with legislation on alcohal prices?
The answer is clear, no? Mass distraction. Noam Chomsky talks about how debate is kept within narrow confines. We are only allowed to discuss what is comfortable to our government and their corporate bosses.
In the Labour party it started long ago and became more noticable under Kinnock and then Smith. However it wasn't till Blair and Brown hit the scene that big business took control of the Labour agenda. They were competing with Thatcherites for big business patronage and the consequent endorsements from the tabloid press. A faustian pact. The price? There's never a right time to discuss disarmament and don't argue about war! Oh no, banks and arms manufacturers make far too much money out of these policies. Never forget that Blair took a consultancy job with JP Morgan days after he left office as PM. The same JP Morgan who won the contract to run the Trading Bank of Iraq just after the invasion..
Have we been sold out to pharmaceutical companies? Well, who was behind the propaganda about swine flu and the purchase of millions of 'vaccines'?
There is a view of the world right now that dictatorship takes two forms. Firstly, there is big government which offers no political choice i.e. communist countries. Then, there is corporate-fascist states which keeps up the veneer of democracy. America is obviously the latter. Both parties are controlled by the same interests but the illusion is maintained so that the masses don't have to pretend not to be freedom lovers.
Britain is clearly very close to the latter.
The psychology of British politics policed by the media is such that people who are interested in politics allow themselves to be constrained by the corporate media controlled agenda. You used to have so-called socialists who said you can't talk about war or disarmament and now you have so-called nationalists who say you can't talk about independence.
As a nationalist, I am insulted by this tendency. Hundreds of thousands of Scots want independence yet fellow nationalists designate themselves the responsibility of telling us to shut up. Yes, it's all well-meaning but we're never going to be independent if we give in to the jedi mind tricks of the coroporate elite who control the British state.
A fascinating incident in the US has exposed exactly how the government and their corporate bosses fear and manipulate us. In The Rag Blog there is an excellent entry entitled:
Got Fascism? : Obama Advisor Promotes 'Cognitive Infiltration'
The blog, written by Marc Estrin, looks at how Obama advisor and Harvard buddy Cass Sunstein is encouraging 'cognitive' provocateurs.
Here is one extract from a Sunstein article:
[W]e suggest a distinctive tactic for breaking up the hard core of extremists who supply conspiracy theories: cognitive infiltration of extremist groups, whereby government agents or their allies (acting either virtually or in real space, and either openly or anonymously) will undermine the crippled epistemology of believers by planting doubts about the theories and stylized facts that circulate within such groups, thereby introducing beneficial cognitive diversity. (Page 219.)
Marc Estrin picks this loaded paragraph apart thus:
It is "extremists" who "supply" "conspiracy theories."
Their "hard core" must be "broken up" with distinctive tactics. What tactics?
"Infiltration" ("cognitive") of groups with questions about official explanations or obfuscations or lies. Who is to infiltrate?
"Government agents or their allies," virtually (i.e. on-line) or in "real-space" (as at meetings), and "either openly or anonymously," though "infiltration" would imply the latter. What will these agents do?
Undermine "crippled epistemology" -- one's theory and technique of knowledge. How will they do this?
By "planting doubts" which will "circulate." Will these doubts be beneficial?
Certainly. Because they will introduce "cognitive diversity."
The Blog continues:
Put into English, what Sunstein is proposing is government infiltration of groups opposing prevailing policy. Palestinian Liberation? 9/11 Truth? Anti-nuclear power? Stop the wars? End the Fed? Support Nader? Eat the Rich?
We know that nationalists, CND activists and other groups were considered dangerous to the state and membership lists went missing. I remember this as far back as the 80s.
It's easy to destroy groups with "cognitive diversity." You just take up meeting time with arguments to the point where people don't come back. You make protest signs which alienate 90% of colleagues. You demand revolutionary violence from pacifist groups.
I remember thinking this as a student about the SWP whose members destroyed any genuine student agitation at the universities and colleges.
We expect such tactics from undercover cops, or FBI. There the agents are called "provocateurs" -- even if only "cognitive." One learns to smell or deal with them in a group, or recognize trolling online. But even suspicion or partial exposure can “sow uncertainty and distrust within conspiratorial groups [now conflated with conspiracy theory discussion groups] and among their members,” and “raise the costs of organization and communication” -- which Sunstein applauds as "desirable." "[N]ew recruits will be suspect and participants in the group’s virtual networks will doubt each other’s bona fides." (p.225).
The trolls and shills on comment boards of Das Schottishman are clearly part of a corporate fascist agenda to control debate.
Back to the US and the true face of Obama. Remember, this is his friend from Uni who has been brought in to dream this stuff up. It is clear that Obama was handpicked by Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, arms manufacturers and other. He' s their song and dance man brought in as a messiah figure who can perform miracles and provide left cover so that the banks can finish off the looting of the citizens' wealth whilst the veneer of left v right keeps the masses distracted. Many actually believe Obama is on their side, what a sting.
Clearly we have entered into an Orwellian nightmare period. Everyone is shutting down free thinking. Instead of protecting our democracies we attack the poor and their habits. Scapegoating is rampant.
It reminds me of the poem by Pastor Martin Niemöller who incidently died in 1984:
First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak out.
Scots died in great numbers fighting tyrrany and it is our duty to challenge it wherever we can. We must not be distracted by agendas designed to dumb down debate about the future of our nation. We must be brave enough to think big and not stigmatise the weakest in our society. There is a real battle on which has been engaged by little Iceland. I urge that Scots examine their soul and history and find the mettle to fight for our country and democracy against greedy warmongering elitists - the real enemy.
We need bloggers like Marc Estrin. And thinkers not consumed by petty corporate endorced politics and see politics as a virtual reality video game but about the futures and happiness of real people:
Would that Scots had the same bravery as the Icelanders! Alas, we're a vassal 'nation'. Would you discuss the closure of the local paper-shop whilst watching your house burn down in a fire? No! I wonder why then, while the citizens are being looted, helped by government, by a financial elite and while millions are killed in our name do we give all our attention to such issues as inquiries about a minister's emails and stigmatising the poor with legislation on alcohal prices?
The answer is clear, no? Mass distraction. Noam Chomsky talks about how debate is kept within narrow confines. We are only allowed to discuss what is comfortable to our government and their corporate bosses.
In the Labour party it started long ago and became more noticable under Kinnock and then Smith. However it wasn't till Blair and Brown hit the scene that big business took control of the Labour agenda. They were competing with Thatcherites for big business patronage and the consequent endorsements from the tabloid press. A faustian pact. The price? There's never a right time to discuss disarmament and don't argue about war! Oh no, banks and arms manufacturers make far too much money out of these policies. Never forget that Blair took a consultancy job with JP Morgan days after he left office as PM. The same JP Morgan who won the contract to run the Trading Bank of Iraq just after the invasion..
Have we been sold out to pharmaceutical companies? Well, who was behind the propaganda about swine flu and the purchase of millions of 'vaccines'?
There is a view of the world right now that dictatorship takes two forms. Firstly, there is big government which offers no political choice i.e. communist countries. Then, there is corporate-fascist states which keeps up the veneer of democracy. America is obviously the latter. Both parties are controlled by the same interests but the illusion is maintained so that the masses don't have to pretend not to be freedom lovers.
Britain is clearly very close to the latter.
The psychology of British politics policed by the media is such that people who are interested in politics allow themselves to be constrained by the corporate media controlled agenda. You used to have so-called socialists who said you can't talk about war or disarmament and now you have so-called nationalists who say you can't talk about independence.
As a nationalist, I am insulted by this tendency. Hundreds of thousands of Scots want independence yet fellow nationalists designate themselves the responsibility of telling us to shut up. Yes, it's all well-meaning but we're never going to be independent if we give in to the jedi mind tricks of the coroporate elite who control the British state.
A fascinating incident in the US has exposed exactly how the government and their corporate bosses fear and manipulate us. In The Rag Blog there is an excellent entry entitled:
Got Fascism? : Obama Advisor Promotes 'Cognitive Infiltration'
The blog, written by Marc Estrin, looks at how Obama advisor and Harvard buddy Cass Sunstein is encouraging 'cognitive' provocateurs.
Here is one extract from a Sunstein article:
[W]e suggest a distinctive tactic for breaking up the hard core of extremists who supply conspiracy theories: cognitive infiltration of extremist groups, whereby government agents or their allies (acting either virtually or in real space, and either openly or anonymously) will undermine the crippled epistemology of believers by planting doubts about the theories and stylized facts that circulate within such groups, thereby introducing beneficial cognitive diversity. (Page 219.)
Marc Estrin picks this loaded paragraph apart thus:
It is "extremists" who "supply" "conspiracy theories."
Their "hard core" must be "broken up" with distinctive tactics. What tactics?
"Infiltration" ("cognitive") of groups with questions about official explanations or obfuscations or lies. Who is to infiltrate?
"Government agents or their allies," virtually (i.e. on-line) or in "real-space" (as at meetings), and "either openly or anonymously," though "infiltration" would imply the latter. What will these agents do?
Undermine "crippled epistemology" -- one's theory and technique of knowledge. How will they do this?
By "planting doubts" which will "circulate." Will these doubts be beneficial?
Certainly. Because they will introduce "cognitive diversity."
The Blog continues:
Put into English, what Sunstein is proposing is government infiltration of groups opposing prevailing policy. Palestinian Liberation? 9/11 Truth? Anti-nuclear power? Stop the wars? End the Fed? Support Nader? Eat the Rich?
We know that nationalists, CND activists and other groups were considered dangerous to the state and membership lists went missing. I remember this as far back as the 80s.
It's easy to destroy groups with "cognitive diversity." You just take up meeting time with arguments to the point where people don't come back. You make protest signs which alienate 90% of colleagues. You demand revolutionary violence from pacifist groups.
I remember thinking this as a student about the SWP whose members destroyed any genuine student agitation at the universities and colleges.
We expect such tactics from undercover cops, or FBI. There the agents are called "provocateurs" -- even if only "cognitive." One learns to smell or deal with them in a group, or recognize trolling online. But even suspicion or partial exposure can “sow uncertainty and distrust within conspiratorial groups [now conflated with conspiracy theory discussion groups] and among their members,” and “raise the costs of organization and communication” -- which Sunstein applauds as "desirable." "[N]ew recruits will be suspect and participants in the group’s virtual networks will doubt each other’s bona fides." (p.225).
The trolls and shills on comment boards of Das Schottishman are clearly part of a corporate fascist agenda to control debate.
Back to the US and the true face of Obama. Remember, this is his friend from Uni who has been brought in to dream this stuff up. It is clear that Obama was handpicked by Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, arms manufacturers and other. He' s their song and dance man brought in as a messiah figure who can perform miracles and provide left cover so that the banks can finish off the looting of the citizens' wealth whilst the veneer of left v right keeps the masses distracted. Many actually believe Obama is on their side, what a sting.
Clearly we have entered into an Orwellian nightmare period. Everyone is shutting down free thinking. Instead of protecting our democracies we attack the poor and their habits. Scapegoating is rampant.
It reminds me of the poem by Pastor Martin Niemöller who incidently died in 1984:
First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak out.
Scots died in great numbers fighting tyrrany and it is our duty to challenge it wherever we can. We must not be distracted by agendas designed to dumb down debate about the future of our nation. We must be brave enough to think big and not stigmatise the weakest in our society. There is a real battle on which has been engaged by little Iceland. I urge that Scots examine their soul and history and find the mettle to fight for our country and democracy against greedy warmongering elitists - the real enemy.
We need bloggers like Marc Estrin. And thinkers not consumed by petty corporate endorced politics and see politics as a virtual reality video game but about the futures and happiness of real people:
Britain and the Coming Sovereign Debt Crisis
One of the best blogs on economy is Mish Shedlock's MISH'S Global EconomicTrend Analysis and todays entry is illuminating on the subject of the looming sovereign debt crisis:
Sovereign Debt Crisis Coming As Recovery Stalls
Britain is an economic basket-case. It is vital for Scotland's future that you preach independence and a way out of the mess that we're in. Some will tell you that independence is not relevant right now. Don't be fooled out of your wealth - there has never been a better time to urge independence! And it is certainly more relevant than a lot of dubious and populist legislative proposals doing the rounds.
Anyway, given the pervasive lack of understanding about Britain's actual economy here is a video that has a look at economy without being hoodwinked by all the propaganda that's going on. It's one of my favourite shows and I thought it would be useful:
Sovereign Debt Crisis Coming As Recovery Stalls
Britain is an economic basket-case. It is vital for Scotland's future that you preach independence and a way out of the mess that we're in. Some will tell you that independence is not relevant right now. Don't be fooled out of your wealth - there has never been a better time to urge independence! And it is certainly more relevant than a lot of dubious and populist legislative proposals doing the rounds.
Anyway, given the pervasive lack of understanding about Britain's actual economy here is a video that has a look at economy without being hoodwinked by all the propaganda that's going on. It's one of my favourite shows and I thought it would be useful:
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Scotland Like Iceland?
It's an epic David and Goliath struggle. Little Iceland taking on the international bankster cartel and indeed their attack dogs like Gordon Brown.
Yep, Labour prove they are in the pockets of the international banking cartel. Yet, any authentic Labour movement should be proud of how Icelanders are facing up to these criminal gangs. Will it happen in Scotland? Not as long as people allow themselves to be sold out by the likes of Labour, that's for sure.
Instead of rolling over and taking it, Icelanders are standing up to their own government and the IMF. What happened is that a privately owned Icelandic bank engaged in derivative fraud (based on a model designed in London and Wall St. and encouraged by them) on a scale equalling 5 to 10 times Iceland's GDP. Yes, just like RBS, Lloyds, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and a whole other bunch of criminal slime did. Now they want Icelandic taxpayers to pay off the debts accrued by that private contract. Behind the scenes the IMF, the British government and the Iceland government are trying to put all the private debt onto the taxpayers - just like Gordon Brown did and continues to do in Britain. Except that the Icelandic people are not cowards and are refusing to take all the responsibility.
Shamefully, Gordon Brown invoked legislation to declare Iceland a 'terrorist state' so that he could freeze people's banks accounts. They almost ran out of food because of it. Brown, acting on behalf of his bankster bosses has been party to creating a document that makes Icelanders responsible for repaying all the debts that the Icelandic bank fraudulantly accrued.
Nice guy that Gordon Brown - warmongering and putting citizens into debt-bondage to thieving mega-banksters etc. No wonder the Church of Scotland welcomed him to the fold. Remember Burns' 'Address to the Unco Guid'?
...
Ye see your state wi’ theirs compared,
And shudder at the niffer;
But cast a moment’s fair regard,
What maks the mighty differ;
Discount what scant occasion gave,
That purity ye pride in;
And (what’s aft mair than a’ the lave),
Your better art o’ hidin.
See the video below of what's going on and how the brave Icelanders are standing up. And ask yourself why no-one in Britain is doing the same..
If you want an indepth look at the subject I recommend economist Mike Hudson's fantastic article entitled:
The Specter of Debt Revolt Is Haunting Europe
Why Iceland and Latvia Won't (and Can't) Pay for the Kleptocrats' Ripoffs
Update
Sally Magnusson gets caught up in the debate. Seems there are some brave heros out there:
Sally Magnusson in hot water over Iceland bank row
Yep, Labour prove they are in the pockets of the international banking cartel. Yet, any authentic Labour movement should be proud of how Icelanders are facing up to these criminal gangs. Will it happen in Scotland? Not as long as people allow themselves to be sold out by the likes of Labour, that's for sure.
Instead of rolling over and taking it, Icelanders are standing up to their own government and the IMF. What happened is that a privately owned Icelandic bank engaged in derivative fraud (based on a model designed in London and Wall St. and encouraged by them) on a scale equalling 5 to 10 times Iceland's GDP. Yes, just like RBS, Lloyds, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and a whole other bunch of criminal slime did. Now they want Icelandic taxpayers to pay off the debts accrued by that private contract. Behind the scenes the IMF, the British government and the Iceland government are trying to put all the private debt onto the taxpayers - just like Gordon Brown did and continues to do in Britain. Except that the Icelandic people are not cowards and are refusing to take all the responsibility.
Shamefully, Gordon Brown invoked legislation to declare Iceland a 'terrorist state' so that he could freeze people's banks accounts. They almost ran out of food because of it. Brown, acting on behalf of his bankster bosses has been party to creating a document that makes Icelanders responsible for repaying all the debts that the Icelandic bank fraudulantly accrued.
Nice guy that Gordon Brown - warmongering and putting citizens into debt-bondage to thieving mega-banksters etc. No wonder the Church of Scotland welcomed him to the fold. Remember Burns' 'Address to the Unco Guid'?
...
Ye see your state wi’ theirs compared,
And shudder at the niffer;
But cast a moment’s fair regard,
What maks the mighty differ;
Discount what scant occasion gave,
That purity ye pride in;
And (what’s aft mair than a’ the lave),
Your better art o’ hidin.
See the video below of what's going on and how the brave Icelanders are standing up. And ask yourself why no-one in Britain is doing the same..
If you want an indepth look at the subject I recommend economist Mike Hudson's fantastic article entitled:
The Specter of Debt Revolt Is Haunting Europe
Why Iceland and Latvia Won't (and Can't) Pay for the Kleptocrats' Ripoffs
Update
Sally Magnusson gets caught up in the debate. Seems there are some brave heros out there:
Sally Magnusson in hot water over Iceland bank row
Monday, January 11, 2010
Division of Labour
The weakness in the propaganda punted by our unashamedly pro-Union press is its partisan division between Labour and Tory.
Today Das Herald Sturmer is providing succour to Labour by pumping economic positivity messages into its heartlesslands:
Smile put back into Scotland’s service sector
and
House of Fraser reports best ever Christmas trading
The first story neglects to mention if it is for economic reasons that banks are seeing profits or is it just down to taxpayers blood transfusions..
The same problem with the second. We just don't know if Brown managed to get out emergency benefits to the christmas present buying masses in December or not, mm.
A cold blast of reality comes from that other unionist tribune. You see there's an election coming and they just can't help Labour out even if it means the horrible 'gnats' benefit:
Tough year in store for retail after a festive 'false dawn'
According to Das Shottishman:
Stephen Robertson, the director general of the British Retail Consortium (BRC), predicted no growth in consumer spending over 2010 and indicated the recent glut of positive updates from the festive season may represent a "false dawn".
...Robertson said consumers' concerns over higher taxes and the end of many fixed-rate mortgage deals would squeeze spending.
"There will be increasing consumer uncertainty and we will see consumer confidence dropping," Robertson told a Sunday newspaper. "There will be tough sales and perhaps no growth."
So, who's telling the truth? Well, mostly Das Schottishman. Christmas sales and the upswing the 'service sector' is down to money printing. How do we know? We'll it's nothing to do with production because unemployment is going up. Credit is not increasing as the following chart (Ok, It's the US but you can be assured it's the same picture)
So, where did the consumer get money from to buy christmas presents? Yes, Santa Brown. Where is the money coming from to prop up the 'service sector'? Yes, Santa Brown.
Ah, elections and propaganda, eh?
Today Das Herald Sturmer is providing succour to Labour by pumping economic positivity messages into its heartlesslands:
Smile put back into Scotland’s service sector
and
House of Fraser reports best ever Christmas trading
The first story neglects to mention if it is for economic reasons that banks are seeing profits or is it just down to taxpayers blood transfusions..
The same problem with the second. We just don't know if Brown managed to get out emergency benefits to the christmas present buying masses in December or not, mm.
A cold blast of reality comes from that other unionist tribune. You see there's an election coming and they just can't help Labour out even if it means the horrible 'gnats' benefit:
Tough year in store for retail after a festive 'false dawn'
According to Das Shottishman:
Stephen Robertson, the director general of the British Retail Consortium (BRC), predicted no growth in consumer spending over 2010 and indicated the recent glut of positive updates from the festive season may represent a "false dawn".
...Robertson said consumers' concerns over higher taxes and the end of many fixed-rate mortgage deals would squeeze spending.
"There will be increasing consumer uncertainty and we will see consumer confidence dropping," Robertson told a Sunday newspaper. "There will be tough sales and perhaps no growth."
So, who's telling the truth? Well, mostly Das Schottishman. Christmas sales and the upswing the 'service sector' is down to money printing. How do we know? We'll it's nothing to do with production because unemployment is going up. Credit is not increasing as the following chart (Ok, It's the US but you can be assured it's the same picture)
So, where did the consumer get money from to buy christmas presents? Yes, Santa Brown. Where is the money coming from to prop up the 'service sector'? Yes, Santa Brown.
Ah, elections and propaganda, eh?
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Banksters Can Be Defeated!
A trade-union with some brains!
Did you know that banks can make bets on companies failing? When they fail the banksters stand to make a fortune. They do this through what's called 'Credit Default Swaps' (CDS) or 'derivatives'. Theft packaged up in a bamboozling name.
Theft? Well, during the bubble years (caused by fraudulant derivatives trading and money printing) the company grew thanks to buying other companies at high distorted prices. So, with the economic correction taking place these companies are now loaded with debts they owe investors.
So, what happens is the banksters have clients who invest in a company and which have voting rights on the board. To fix the financial problem the company asks shareholders and bondholders to take a greater share of the ownership of the company in return for cancelling the debt the company owes them. At that point said investors refuse. The result? Banksters and said clients rake it in through collecting on the bet and a perfectly good company is destroyed, laying off thousands of workers in the process.
This is one of the reasons there is a 'recession'. You see Brown and Darling would have you believe that it just happens. The economy is a thing that works on its own and you can try this or that to fix it but there's no guarantees. TOTAL BULL. They've caused it - they allowed these City casino bets on company collapses to fly. They encouraged it. They're giving your money to the banks to continue the practice.
Yes, free taxpayers money to destroy the economy - that's what happened and that's what's still happening.
One success in the US has emerged for trade unions. The union realised what was going on and that "all of Wall St" was trying to destroy its trucking company with the consequent laying off of 30, 000 workers just so they could turn a quick buck! Killing people's jobs using those peoples' money..
The success of this trade-union against the Wall St. thieves is written about by Andrew Cockburn in counterpunch:
How the Teamsters Beat Goldman Sachs
Allowing exemptions from regulation of Credit Default Swaps had the banksters licking their lips because:
This allowed Wall Street to conclude that any risk could be hedged with a bet.
The consequence?
The result, of course, was disaster, with economic consequences that we will be feeling for a very long time.
And you thought it was just the way the economy works.. No, Britain sold these things all over the world. That's why companies where exploding in countries on other continents - not because of a global recession but because of a system of globalised theft orchestrated in The City and Wall St.
Goldman Sachs was the biggest contributor to the Obama campaign. The political influence of these people is strong in Britain and Brown has been in thrall to them too. It goes back to the Blair administration and remember that Blair got a consultancy with JP Morgan just 3 days after leaving office getting paid GBP 2, 000, 000 a year. And that's the Labour Party!
People, this scourge of robbery hasn't stopped. It's going on and on. It's your jobs their destroying and it's your money they're using to do it.
Please see my previous entry about boycotting the banks. They take your deposits, multiply those deposits by as much as 100 times and they use that money to make bets on companies collapsing.
Then they mulitply your deposits, that means that if you take out GBP 1, 000 from your account that deprives the banksters of between GBP 10, 000 and GBP 100, 000 that they then use to attack you and your friends jobs..
You simply have to defend yourselves by taking out your money and putting it into community banks instead of these corporate giants who are hell-bent on stealing your wealth and futures!
Did you know that banks can make bets on companies failing? When they fail the banksters stand to make a fortune. They do this through what's called 'Credit Default Swaps' (CDS) or 'derivatives'. Theft packaged up in a bamboozling name.
Theft? Well, during the bubble years (caused by fraudulant derivatives trading and money printing) the company grew thanks to buying other companies at high distorted prices. So, with the economic correction taking place these companies are now loaded with debts they owe investors.
So, what happens is the banksters have clients who invest in a company and which have voting rights on the board. To fix the financial problem the company asks shareholders and bondholders to take a greater share of the ownership of the company in return for cancelling the debt the company owes them. At that point said investors refuse. The result? Banksters and said clients rake it in through collecting on the bet and a perfectly good company is destroyed, laying off thousands of workers in the process.
This is one of the reasons there is a 'recession'. You see Brown and Darling would have you believe that it just happens. The economy is a thing that works on its own and you can try this or that to fix it but there's no guarantees. TOTAL BULL. They've caused it - they allowed these City casino bets on company collapses to fly. They encouraged it. They're giving your money to the banks to continue the practice.
Yes, free taxpayers money to destroy the economy - that's what happened and that's what's still happening.
One success in the US has emerged for trade unions. The union realised what was going on and that "all of Wall St" was trying to destroy its trucking company with the consequent laying off of 30, 000 workers just so they could turn a quick buck! Killing people's jobs using those peoples' money..
The success of this trade-union against the Wall St. thieves is written about by Andrew Cockburn in counterpunch:
How the Teamsters Beat Goldman Sachs
Allowing exemptions from regulation of Credit Default Swaps had the banksters licking their lips because:
This allowed Wall Street to conclude that any risk could be hedged with a bet.
The consequence?
The result, of course, was disaster, with economic consequences that we will be feeling for a very long time.
And you thought it was just the way the economy works.. No, Britain sold these things all over the world. That's why companies where exploding in countries on other continents - not because of a global recession but because of a system of globalised theft orchestrated in The City and Wall St.
Goldman Sachs was the biggest contributor to the Obama campaign. The political influence of these people is strong in Britain and Brown has been in thrall to them too. It goes back to the Blair administration and remember that Blair got a consultancy with JP Morgan just 3 days after leaving office getting paid GBP 2, 000, 000 a year. And that's the Labour Party!
People, this scourge of robbery hasn't stopped. It's going on and on. It's your jobs their destroying and it's your money they're using to do it.
Please see my previous entry about boycotting the banks. They take your deposits, multiply those deposits by as much as 100 times and they use that money to make bets on companies collapsing.
Then they mulitply your deposits, that means that if you take out GBP 1, 000 from your account that deprives the banksters of between GBP 10, 000 and GBP 100, 000 that they then use to attack you and your friends jobs..
You simply have to defend yourselves by taking out your money and putting it into community banks instead of these corporate giants who are hell-bent on stealing your wealth and futures!
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Scotland Must Boycott the Big Banks, Now!
Move Your Money!
It seems that politicians and the press are going to conceal the massive levels of fraud that is now collapsing Britain's economy. Helped by Brown and Darling the big banks have robbed the citizens blind.
You're already hearing from Darling about how after the election there will have to be cuts in public services. See here. He told The Times:
Once recovery is established, we have to act
This clown caused the 'recession'. The problem is that the banks gambled fraudulant money on derivatives and lost it. Now they want YOU the taxpayer to take the hit. Brown and Darling made it possible for them to gamble away all your money and are now forcing YOU and your children and their children to cover those losses.
This week the people of Iceland are telling the big banks to take a hike. The banks knew they were loaning money that would never be paid back. This is a system which spans the globe but eminates essentially from London and Wall St.
So, Britain now needs its own revolution. You take it in the neck? They'll tell you that we need to stick together during the bad times. No, don't take it in the neck, tell the government to take a hike. Your taxes will soon rise hugely, services will be cut and your assets will lose most of their value because Brown and Darling transferred money to the bankers by printing pounds and giving it to them.
The banks use your deposits to invest in fraudulant derivatives and when the system explodes the taxpayer bails them out.
STOP the madness. You must take your money out of the big banks so that they stop doing it and put it into small community banks. Starve the beast!
In the US, boycotts of the offending banks are starting to take off. Citizens are voting with their feet. Here's a video that is going viral to start the campaign.
I urge everyone in Scotland and in Britain to do the same:
It seems that politicians and the press are going to conceal the massive levels of fraud that is now collapsing Britain's economy. Helped by Brown and Darling the big banks have robbed the citizens blind.
You're already hearing from Darling about how after the election there will have to be cuts in public services. See here. He told The Times:
Once recovery is established, we have to act
This clown caused the 'recession'. The problem is that the banks gambled fraudulant money on derivatives and lost it. Now they want YOU the taxpayer to take the hit. Brown and Darling made it possible for them to gamble away all your money and are now forcing YOU and your children and their children to cover those losses.
This week the people of Iceland are telling the big banks to take a hike. The banks knew they were loaning money that would never be paid back. This is a system which spans the globe but eminates essentially from London and Wall St.
So, Britain now needs its own revolution. You take it in the neck? They'll tell you that we need to stick together during the bad times. No, don't take it in the neck, tell the government to take a hike. Your taxes will soon rise hugely, services will be cut and your assets will lose most of their value because Brown and Darling transferred money to the bankers by printing pounds and giving it to them.
The banks use your deposits to invest in fraudulant derivatives and when the system explodes the taxpayer bails them out.
STOP the madness. You must take your money out of the big banks so that they stop doing it and put it into small community banks. Starve the beast!
In the US, boycotts of the offending banks are starting to take off. Citizens are voting with their feet. Here's a video that is going viral to start the campaign.
I urge everyone in Scotland and in Britain to do the same:
Friday, January 8, 2010
Is the British Consumer Dead? Doh!
Brown and Obama leading the world out of recovery with 'stimulus' and 'quantative easing' huh? Well, how much of an increase has there been in consumer credit in the US?
Oh, none at all.
Ok, if you borrow some money you need some security. You get a loan on the basis of a piece of land you have, or some gold you keep or your car or your second home or whatever. The problem is that when all that 'collateral' has ALREADY been used to get a loan you can't use it any more. Everything is loaned against. And so, no-one is lending and no-one can borrow any more even if they wanted.
Exactly where does anyone see a 'consumer recovery'? It doesn't exist no matter how much Brown, his press chums and everyone else want it to.
As Karl Denninger of Market Ticker says:
We cannot recover until we purge the excess debt from the system, and the longer we take to do that, the longer the pain will last and the worse it will be.
What we are getting from everyone from banks to corporate economists and from government to the press is 'pretend and extend' tactics. They think that by throwing taxpayers' money at the problem everything will be ok. So, they print and print because otherwise we'll have to accept that the banks are all insolvent. Why do you think the government can't get the banks to lend money? Cause the banks need money to shore up their losses. Credit is not coming back. As we see above, the consumer is dead.
DEAD
Oh, none at all.
Ok, if you borrow some money you need some security. You get a loan on the basis of a piece of land you have, or some gold you keep or your car or your second home or whatever. The problem is that when all that 'collateral' has ALREADY been used to get a loan you can't use it any more. Everything is loaned against. And so, no-one is lending and no-one can borrow any more even if they wanted.
Exactly where does anyone see a 'consumer recovery'? It doesn't exist no matter how much Brown, his press chums and everyone else want it to.
As Karl Denninger of Market Ticker says:
We cannot recover until we purge the excess debt from the system, and the longer we take to do that, the longer the pain will last and the worse it will be.
What we are getting from everyone from banks to corporate economists and from government to the press is 'pretend and extend' tactics. They think that by throwing taxpayers' money at the problem everything will be ok. So, they print and print because otherwise we'll have to accept that the banks are all insolvent. Why do you think the government can't get the banks to lend money? Cause the banks need money to shore up their losses. Credit is not coming back. As we see above, the consumer is dead.
DEAD
Smell the Coffee Scotland, Please!
News from ZeroHedge doesn't correlate to the 'green-shoots' vegetative economics commentariat.
Oh no:
Today PIMCO's Scott Mather told Dow Jones his expectation for a rating downgrade of the island nation: "It's just a question of when on the current trajectory, not if. Based on what we know today about the debt trajectory and about the inability to adjust that, I think it's greater than a 50% likelihood for sure. Call it more like 80%.
Who? PIMCO is an investment management fund and runs the world's biggest bond fund. Are we about to see the bond market explode? When the Bank of England and commercial banks stop actually buying government bonds using printed money what's going to happen to the price? Yes indeedy, everyone is going to want out.
What does it mean to Britain loses its AAA investment rating? Ah, it means foreign debt will become more expensive as the risk of Britain not paying back loans is seen as much higher. Mmm, and Gordon Brown says he has a plan to reduce government spending? How? Using dodgy accounting methods as I wrote about regarding the 'December 2009 Treasury UK Government Spending Outturn Reports'.
So, the UK is on the verge of a seismic shift in terms of its international image and we get so-called businessmen like like Scottish CBI honcho Iain McMillan demanding more government spending. Absolute madness and the media perpetuates it.
I mean even those late converts who are starting to understand what's really going on like Iain Macwhirter can't help himself:
there is no more pressing issue facing our legislators as the British economy hauls itself wheezing out of recession in 2010.
Recovery Iain? How is it possible? The banks can't be fixed with public money and credit is not coming back to business generally so the private sector will continue to plummet. When interest rates go up the economy is going to contract further whilst we also face a massive spike in inflation. So, Iain - apart from just jawing a mantra, just how do you think Britain is coming out of a recession? How Iain? How? How? Even when we understand why the problem happened we imagine a miracle is going to come along and fix it. It has to because the behaviour that got us here has worsened. Brown is trying to cure Tiger Woods by putting him in a brothel. You get it yet? The problem was debt and that has increased since the problem caused the bubble to burst. All they've done is try to reinflate it and that IS NOT GOING TO WORK!
One dispairs. It truly is Alice in Wonderland stuff. As underlined in The Tap in his entry:
The Infliction Of Unreality Is Taking Us To Breaking Point
What is going on? Normally the world has the occasional thing that goes wrong but most of the time people are able to grasp the reality of the situation they are in. But right now, starting right from the top in Britain in the Downing Street bunker, and extending outwards from there into the media and to other countries, there seems a disconnect between what is possible to be achieved and peoples' aspirations and beliefs.
And, not only is the UK going down the toilet in terms of standards of living but also is now considered 25th in the world, in terms of quality of life, behind such paradises as Lithuania.
When the bubble burst in 1998, the taxpayers bailed-out the banksters. Who's going to bail-out the taxpayers when the bubble bursts again? No-one! The bankster executives will have stuffed their Swiss bank accounts full to the brim and will be swanning around some exotic island while your grandchildren will be borne with a massive debt around their necks like an albatross and Brown will be in his sinility and pondering why no-one really understood how much of a historical figure he really was.
People, you simply have to switch on and ask your government for answers. A democracy is not about believing in whatever the government tells you. Mind you, the government goes to war when the people don't want it to so I suppose they'll do anything for the big money men and you'll just capitulate.
Do you want to live in an 'economy' where people think that stuffing their faces with big macs and watching Big Brother is good for them? Or do you want to live in a country where the happiness of citizens is more important than the self-interest of greedy swines? If the latter, then you better start smelling the coffee!
Oh no:
Today PIMCO's Scott Mather told Dow Jones his expectation for a rating downgrade of the island nation: "It's just a question of when on the current trajectory, not if. Based on what we know today about the debt trajectory and about the inability to adjust that, I think it's greater than a 50% likelihood for sure. Call it more like 80%.
Who? PIMCO is an investment management fund and runs the world's biggest bond fund. Are we about to see the bond market explode? When the Bank of England and commercial banks stop actually buying government bonds using printed money what's going to happen to the price? Yes indeedy, everyone is going to want out.
What does it mean to Britain loses its AAA investment rating? Ah, it means foreign debt will become more expensive as the risk of Britain not paying back loans is seen as much higher. Mmm, and Gordon Brown says he has a plan to reduce government spending? How? Using dodgy accounting methods as I wrote about regarding the 'December 2009 Treasury UK Government Spending Outturn Reports'.
So, the UK is on the verge of a seismic shift in terms of its international image and we get so-called businessmen like like Scottish CBI honcho Iain McMillan demanding more government spending. Absolute madness and the media perpetuates it.
I mean even those late converts who are starting to understand what's really going on like Iain Macwhirter can't help himself:
there is no more pressing issue facing our legislators as the British economy hauls itself wheezing out of recession in 2010.
Recovery Iain? How is it possible? The banks can't be fixed with public money and credit is not coming back to business generally so the private sector will continue to plummet. When interest rates go up the economy is going to contract further whilst we also face a massive spike in inflation. So, Iain - apart from just jawing a mantra, just how do you think Britain is coming out of a recession? How Iain? How? How? Even when we understand why the problem happened we imagine a miracle is going to come along and fix it. It has to because the behaviour that got us here has worsened. Brown is trying to cure Tiger Woods by putting him in a brothel. You get it yet? The problem was debt and that has increased since the problem caused the bubble to burst. All they've done is try to reinflate it and that IS NOT GOING TO WORK!
One dispairs. It truly is Alice in Wonderland stuff. As underlined in The Tap in his entry:
The Infliction Of Unreality Is Taking Us To Breaking Point
What is going on? Normally the world has the occasional thing that goes wrong but most of the time people are able to grasp the reality of the situation they are in. But right now, starting right from the top in Britain in the Downing Street bunker, and extending outwards from there into the media and to other countries, there seems a disconnect between what is possible to be achieved and peoples' aspirations and beliefs.
And, not only is the UK going down the toilet in terms of standards of living but also is now considered 25th in the world, in terms of quality of life, behind such paradises as Lithuania.
When the bubble burst in 1998, the taxpayers bailed-out the banksters. Who's going to bail-out the taxpayers when the bubble bursts again? No-one! The bankster executives will have stuffed their Swiss bank accounts full to the brim and will be swanning around some exotic island while your grandchildren will be borne with a massive debt around their necks like an albatross and Brown will be in his sinility and pondering why no-one really understood how much of a historical figure he really was.
People, you simply have to switch on and ask your government for answers. A democracy is not about believing in whatever the government tells you. Mind you, the government goes to war when the people don't want it to so I suppose they'll do anything for the big money men and you'll just capitulate.
Do you want to live in an 'economy' where people think that stuffing their faces with big macs and watching Big Brother is good for them? Or do you want to live in a country where the happiness of citizens is more important than the self-interest of greedy swines? If the latter, then you better start smelling the coffee!
Scottish Bloggery and Money Printers
Iain Macwhirter always had a good writing style but nowadays he's adding substance to it. Well, to the subject of economics anyway:
But we surely learned from the Soviet experience just how dangerous it is to allow a small clique to seize control of the economy, whether bankers or communist party bureaucrats.
Indeed Iain. And a very apt conlusion:
We have created a bastard synthesis of finance capitalism and communism – a system of socialism for the banks. Time for a little bit of Thatcherite medicine to be applied to people who were so keen to apply it to the rest of society. Let's have some capitalism for capitalists.
Iain's blog is getting better and better. There really isn't much in the way of useful comment on the subject of what's just happened in the economy i.e. widespread financial fraud by all the top bankers. So, it's nice to see some astute observation sneaking in.
The problem with Iain's excellent piece is that it doesn't really get to the heart of the problem. He praises Mervin King in his entry but Mervin and Gordon Brown are the true authors of the banking malaise. Brown changed the regulations in line with what was going on in the US to allow main street banks to speculate on fraudulant derivatives. Low interest rates fueled these speculations to the point were British banks now owe perhaps 100 times Britain's GDP. All of them are insolvent as the 'profits' that are posted are simply printed money and nothing to do with production. The same with the stock market..
When the bubble burst Brown and Mervin went about giving the banks lots more of taxpayers money so they could leverage it up and get back to where we were which is a position where the bubble burst - insane but that's economic theologies for you.
So, why can't Iain Macwhirter point the finger at Mervin and Brown?
The brings me to the subject of Das Herald Sturmer. Proclamations of green-shoots abound with headlines like:
Service sector figures boost hopes of end to recession
and
Good Christmas for Marks and Spencer - but challenging year ahead
Unfortunately for Das Herald Sturmer it can't avoid publishing real stories like:
Scottish property sector hit by second big failure
There's no commentary in the article on this. This is just business and nothing to do with Britain's economy so doesn't need a comment right? Not this side of an election anyway..
Now, everyone and their granny knows that Brown and Mervin have been pumping new money into the economy so why does anyone believe that these stories represent economic recovery as opposed to money printing? When the printing stops won't consumption stop with it? How long can Brown and King create new money before inflation hits?
How near is said inflation? Close. How do we know. Well, it's there we just haven't seen it yet. Why? Cause the banks have been using public money to trade with each other and pay themselves commission on each trade and then call that profit. None of the money was getting out to the real economy and so in the real economy we've seen a reduction in the money supply. When money is in the hands of poorer people it passes through lots of hands very quickly - this is called money velocity. When the rich get it they hang on to it so the money velocity is low. As the money that was given to the banks hits main street the velocity picks up.
We know its coming because the way to deal with inflation is through increasing interest rates. Bloomberg yesterday:
U.S. regulators including the FederalReserve warned banks to guard against possible losses from an end to low interest rates and reduce exposure or raise capital if needed.
When the interest rates come you'll then find out just how much you've been tapped to bail-out Brown's pals in The City. The real economy has been sacrificed, people have lost jobs etc. Mortgage payments went down a bit recently - I hope you save up.
What they did was print money and give it to banks. Now there's too much money and they'll have to suck money out but guess whose money they're going to suck out? YOURS. Yes, when those interest rates go up that means mortgage payments will sky-rocket. That means small-business getting slaughtered again. That means raising taxes and cutting services to pay government debt interest payments.
Yes, when the interest rates go up that's when you start to see the real damage done by Brown, King and their Bankster paymasters. When the interest rates kick in (ahem, after the election you understand) Britain is going to nose-dive. Mortgage payment massive, defaults on mortgages and credit cards will go exponential and prices will be going through the roof. The standard of living is going to be nothing like what you recognise today. Get ready cause it ain't gonnie be nice.
But we surely learned from the Soviet experience just how dangerous it is to allow a small clique to seize control of the economy, whether bankers or communist party bureaucrats.
Indeed Iain. And a very apt conlusion:
We have created a bastard synthesis of finance capitalism and communism – a system of socialism for the banks. Time for a little bit of Thatcherite medicine to be applied to people who were so keen to apply it to the rest of society. Let's have some capitalism for capitalists.
Iain's blog is getting better and better. There really isn't much in the way of useful comment on the subject of what's just happened in the economy i.e. widespread financial fraud by all the top bankers. So, it's nice to see some astute observation sneaking in.
The problem with Iain's excellent piece is that it doesn't really get to the heart of the problem. He praises Mervin King in his entry but Mervin and Gordon Brown are the true authors of the banking malaise. Brown changed the regulations in line with what was going on in the US to allow main street banks to speculate on fraudulant derivatives. Low interest rates fueled these speculations to the point were British banks now owe perhaps 100 times Britain's GDP. All of them are insolvent as the 'profits' that are posted are simply printed money and nothing to do with production. The same with the stock market..
When the bubble burst Brown and Mervin went about giving the banks lots more of taxpayers money so they could leverage it up and get back to where we were which is a position where the bubble burst - insane but that's economic theologies for you.
So, why can't Iain Macwhirter point the finger at Mervin and Brown?
The brings me to the subject of Das Herald Sturmer. Proclamations of green-shoots abound with headlines like:
Service sector figures boost hopes of end to recession
and
Good Christmas for Marks and Spencer - but challenging year ahead
Unfortunately for Das Herald Sturmer it can't avoid publishing real stories like:
Scottish property sector hit by second big failure
There's no commentary in the article on this. This is just business and nothing to do with Britain's economy so doesn't need a comment right? Not this side of an election anyway..
Now, everyone and their granny knows that Brown and Mervin have been pumping new money into the economy so why does anyone believe that these stories represent economic recovery as opposed to money printing? When the printing stops won't consumption stop with it? How long can Brown and King create new money before inflation hits?
How near is said inflation? Close. How do we know. Well, it's there we just haven't seen it yet. Why? Cause the banks have been using public money to trade with each other and pay themselves commission on each trade and then call that profit. None of the money was getting out to the real economy and so in the real economy we've seen a reduction in the money supply. When money is in the hands of poorer people it passes through lots of hands very quickly - this is called money velocity. When the rich get it they hang on to it so the money velocity is low. As the money that was given to the banks hits main street the velocity picks up.
We know its coming because the way to deal with inflation is through increasing interest rates. Bloomberg yesterday:
U.S. regulators including the FederalReserve warned banks to guard against possible losses from an end to low interest rates and reduce exposure or raise capital if needed.
When the interest rates come you'll then find out just how much you've been tapped to bail-out Brown's pals in The City. The real economy has been sacrificed, people have lost jobs etc. Mortgage payments went down a bit recently - I hope you save up.
What they did was print money and give it to banks. Now there's too much money and they'll have to suck money out but guess whose money they're going to suck out? YOURS. Yes, when those interest rates go up that means mortgage payments will sky-rocket. That means small-business getting slaughtered again. That means raising taxes and cutting services to pay government debt interest payments.
Yes, when the interest rates go up that's when you start to see the real damage done by Brown, King and their Bankster paymasters. When the interest rates kick in (ahem, after the election you understand) Britain is going to nose-dive. Mortgage payment massive, defaults on mortgages and credit cards will go exponential and prices will be going through the roof. The standard of living is going to be nothing like what you recognise today. Get ready cause it ain't gonnie be nice.
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Gordon Brown is actually Santa
Amazing christmas sales, no?
Well, word is out that that in December the US Treasury dished out almost 70% more on social security and unemployment insurance just in time for christmas shopping. Here's the US month on month chart for combined social security and unemployment insurance:
Some people might think that mighty generous and well-intended. Others who know about markets will know that if christmas sales went down there'd be panic in the retail sector. Retail christmas sales are considered a key economic indicator in our 'consumer economy'. If sales went down the idea of a recovery would be laughed out of the public court.
Given that Gordon Brown gets up to all the same nonsense as our cousins over the pond, do you think he may have pumped more printed money into the system just in time for christmas? And months before the coming election?
He really is Santa!
Well, word is out that that in December the US Treasury dished out almost 70% more on social security and unemployment insurance just in time for christmas shopping. Here's the US month on month chart for combined social security and unemployment insurance:
Some people might think that mighty generous and well-intended. Others who know about markets will know that if christmas sales went down there'd be panic in the retail sector. Retail christmas sales are considered a key economic indicator in our 'consumer economy'. If sales went down the idea of a recovery would be laughed out of the public court.
Given that Gordon Brown gets up to all the same nonsense as our cousins over the pond, do you think he may have pumped more printed money into the system just in time for christmas? And months before the coming election?
He really is Santa!
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Massive Treasury Lying Exposed?
Now you see it now you don't.
In the December Treasury UK Government Spending Outturn Reports a new element suddenly appeared in the tables called 'Accounting Adjustments'. Sterling detective work at The Tap Blog reveals that this new element has appeared after it was pointed out that the grand total and the combining of the sub-totals didn't match.
If you added up the sub-totals then government spending would have been 58% of the UK's GDP. This does't match up to Gordon Brown's forecasts so they had to go.
Apparently the largest accounting adjustment in previous years amounted to GBP 10 billion but now we're looking at minimum GBP 180 billion. I'll bet the SNP could reach their teacher targets with that loot and still have enough left over for umpteen GARLs!
None of this money is itemised.
Miraculously, government spending forecasts are reduced from GBP 800 billion to around GBP 615 billion (or 30% of total spending - more than health) and very close to government forecasts which going into a general election period is, nice.
There's nothing in these accounts which reflect the losses the taxpayer has been hit for as owners of Royal Bank of Scotland according to Tap Blog. Shares were bought by the government at 65p and are now 29.5p meaning a loss of around GBP 10 billion. On top of that the debts owned by the bank which are toxic is likely to explode and yours 'taxpayer' truly is left carrying the can. And that's only 1 bank..
There's a lot of lying, spinning and robbing going on. Seems that Gordy new year's resolution was to get elected - at all costs to the taxpayer!
Is anyone going to wake up to this story? Nope, still smoking them green-shoots.
Happy New Year!
In the December Treasury UK Government Spending Outturn Reports a new element suddenly appeared in the tables called 'Accounting Adjustments'. Sterling detective work at The Tap Blog reveals that this new element has appeared after it was pointed out that the grand total and the combining of the sub-totals didn't match.
If you added up the sub-totals then government spending would have been 58% of the UK's GDP. This does't match up to Gordon Brown's forecasts so they had to go.
Apparently the largest accounting adjustment in previous years amounted to GBP 10 billion but now we're looking at minimum GBP 180 billion. I'll bet the SNP could reach their teacher targets with that loot and still have enough left over for umpteen GARLs!
None of this money is itemised.
Miraculously, government spending forecasts are reduced from GBP 800 billion to around GBP 615 billion (or 30% of total spending - more than health) and very close to government forecasts which going into a general election period is, nice.
There's nothing in these accounts which reflect the losses the taxpayer has been hit for as owners of Royal Bank of Scotland according to Tap Blog. Shares were bought by the government at 65p and are now 29.5p meaning a loss of around GBP 10 billion. On top of that the debts owned by the bank which are toxic is likely to explode and yours 'taxpayer' truly is left carrying the can. And that's only 1 bank..
There's a lot of lying, spinning and robbing going on. Seems that Gordy new year's resolution was to get elected - at all costs to the taxpayer!
Is anyone going to wake up to this story? Nope, still smoking them green-shoots.
Happy New Year!