NO!
The problem is old-fashioned theft. The economy is suffering because all the money is being stolen. First it was fraud and they needed bail-outs to conceal the fraud. The population borrowed money from the fraudsters to bail-out the fraudsters. We borrowed at massive rates of interest and we lent at almost nothing. The original fraud was so big that the bail-outs can't plug the gap. So, there's no credit for business to survive and business and consumer are being cash-starved and loaded up with more and more debt.
We didn't have to bail out the banks. That was a lie to start with. I mean what do we need them for anyway? They ain't lending.. And with all that public money we gave them through quantative easing (money printing) they're simply buying and selling more fraudulant derivatives. When these derivatives explode you the tax payer will have to foot the bill again.
The problem is you can't. The economy is log jammed with debt. It's not a 'recession' like you are familiar with, it is a system failure caused by debt load. So, borrowing more money will only make the problem worse.
They talk about 'recovery'- it isn't going to happen. No-one is yet ready to fix the problem. The banks need to fail and all the debt from the bail-outs repudiated. Then and only then will consumers consume and savers save.
Until you realise that the economy and your democracy is broken you will continue to be squeezed out of your wealth. Look at Greece. Public services hacked to bits and taxes going through the roof. All this because they've been looted by international merchant banks on Wall St and The City of London. Their products have been sold to banks and financial institutions round the world and were so complicated that no-one really knew what they were buying.
So, why don't we send JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs packing? We will but not till we go hungry and that is in the post.
Today, as the Greek government agrees to cut services and raise taxes in what will be a huge shock to all Greeks, the Greek people have occupied their finance ministry and blocked roads to the city centre of Athens.
Folks, Greece (and Iceland) are on the verge of revolution. The answer to all this is is to take the merchant banks to criminal courts and try them. They're deliberately destroying economies around the world. Governments are afraid to take them on. Well then the answer is to take down your government and demand debt repudiation. Tell the parasites to get packing, that's what Iceland is doing. Why should Greece destroy its people's wealth and destroy its standard of living to 'bail-out' international banks?
People, this is not a problem of the economy that governments are trying to fix. Governments are being conned by bankers who are now helping governments to hide debts and using 'derivative' finance based on fraudulant assets. It is difficult for governments to expose the real state of their public finances so we must force them before they sell their citizens into debt bondage.
You must take your countries back because your governments have been co-opted by smart, super-rich international bankers.
Watch you lifestyles disappear or take to the streets. What's happening in Greece is going to be in Britain soon - shortly after the election. For the sake of all our futures you must wake up and destroy the beast before it destroys you.
I suppose the public are partly to blame for the problem though. Taking out 125% mortgages on flimsy houses and re mortgaging at every opportunity to use the 'spare' cash for new cars and holidays.
ReplyDeleteI think in 100 years time historians will agree with you that the banks should have been allowed to collapse ( as they will have to do eventually anyway). A government bank could have been set up ( or use Northern Rock ) to administer accounts. It would have been chaotic for a while but would have avoided the £125Bn bailout. A bailout which has given the bankers confidence to carry on with the high risk banking and high bonuses culture.
hell bob, if you can con Harvard University and governments around the world to buy toxic derivatives you can con people into buying toxic mortgages. Speculators were driving up house prices whilst betting on people not being able to pay.. I mean everyone was sold the dream and with wages low people thought it was the only way to get the kids through college so the conmen with their little charts showing ever increaing house prices for the last 20 years had an open goal.
ReplyDeleteI think there is a lot of propaganda out there which is all about exonerating the merchant banks, government and ratings agencies. It won't wash; people were depending on Brown's death of boom and bust, mortgage advisors etc. And corporate economists were constantly wheeled out by the corporate controlled press to perpetuate the theology. These guys need to be tried for fraud especially the merchant bankers who sold products which they knew would explode.
I agree that the economy will continue to collapse till the banks are forced under and the debt repudiated.
I can see why younger folk were conned by the mortgage advisers etc but don't understand why older folk seem to have been aswell. I can remember the slump from 1992 until 1996 where there was no increase in house prices so I was immune from all the talk of 'house prices will always go up'. Heck 1996 isn't that long ago !
ReplyDeleteOh forgot to mention. Your 'ligthening' doesn't look right.
A personal refinement here re allowing banks to collapse.
ReplyDeleteThe casino banking should have been separated fro the High Street version
The deposits in banks should have been guaranteed and the shareholder allowed to carry the losses. That is, the second part, the principle of limited liability. The former would have underpinned the High Street banking system.
The Gubint was too in the pockets of the banking casino team, especially Brown for his taxation machine, so we took on the casino losses.
Some years ago Norway did the sae thing and sorted their banking system out.
Yeh, I remember that slump too Bob. Signs up 'For Sale' everywhere. I remember my brother in law put up a yellow SNP sign on his window and the little girl next door asked if he was flitting..
ReplyDeleteI was explaining negative equity here in Spain to my students 3 years ago and warned them about it..
Still, people will get caught out and I think need protection. I mean after Enron regulations should have been tightened but no..
@Bugger,
Good points,
casinos and high street banks need seperating. I think that the financial sector is still insolvent and should be allowed to go under. I don't think there'll be any economy till that happens. Thereafter anyone who wants to become a bank should choose between the two types..
I think we should look at decentralising credit. I mean the BoE has complete monopoly. And I'd look at local banks with remits to look after the economy not just shareholders.
I'd consider preventing foreign companies have shareholdings in UK banks too..
Thanks for the info on Norway - it seems that Scots should look at that country long and hard. Lot's to learn from them..
About 20 years ago Building Societies and Banks were allowed to buy up Estates Agencies. Once upon a time most people didn't use Estate agents. But in the brave new world these experts became the norm. I had one once who had to phone his head office to work out how much his 1% of sale price was. Duh!
ReplyDeleteOnce the banksters - who also owned the Insurance Companies - controlled the whole transaction from house sale/purchase to mortgage lending to payment protection to endowment provision to home contents insurance. Well it suited all parties to drive prices one way. And then along came Gordon Clown as chancellor with all his stamp duty and reliance on the taxes the banks were giving him to waste... Recipe for disaster.
A number of antitrust measures should be introduced. Banks should be limited in size. They should not be allowed to operate in areas apart from pure banking. Estates Agencies should not be owned by Banks or Insurance Companies. Insurance Companies should not be owned by banks. The salaries of their employees are a distraction. They carry on as before and we shmuck taxpayers are abetting them.
There are many things the powers that be seem to ignore in the vertical integration of businesses. A strong competition commission is vital. But this crash was inevitable and the real surprise is that anyone was really surprised.
I wouldn't minimise what the banks are doing, but I would rather have an explanation because I thought the debt-infested greek economy was debt-infested in the first place by trying to finance a giant welfare state full of entitlements and lavishly paid bureaucracy with corruption cream on top of that.
ReplyDeleteSo, ending that welfare state, the massive state employees' perks and the corruption was the right thing to do.
The bankers are not the only ones to blame, but it doesn't matter; a greek revolution might be on its way.