Webster Griffin Tarpley predicted our current economic meltdown in his book Surviving the Cataclysm (1999). In this second edition he continues his analysis of the “globalized hot money casino run by a tiny financier oligarchy”.
Tarpley calls for “wiping out derivatives, banning foreclosures, and nationalizing the failed Federal Reserve System”.
“Capital must protect itself in every possible manner by combination and legislation. Debts must be collected, bonds and mortgages must be foreclosed as rapidly as possible.
When, through a process of law, the common people lose their homes they will become more docile and more easily governed through the influence of the strong arm of government, applied by a central power of wealth under control of leading financiers.
This truth is well known among our principal men now engaged in forming an imperialism of Capital to govern the world. By dividing the voters through the political party system, we can get them to expend their energies in fighting over questions of no importance.
Thus by discreet action we can secure for ourselves what has been so well planned and so successfully accomplished.”
In times of turmoil and uncertainty it can be helpful to remember what historians and philosophers have said.
Will Durant wrote. “Civilization is a stream with banks. The stream is sometimes filled with blood from people killing, stealing, shouting, and doing the things historians usually record, while on the banks, unnoticed, people build homes, make love, raise children, sing songs, write poetry, and even whittle statues.”
And Krishnamurti said “It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.”
It was heartwarming to observe the first reactions of the transnational corporate giants that have graced our country with their industrious presence, to the suggestion that they might help in restoring an economically failed nation.
However, do to the harsh realities in the international markets (and this and that and the other) this was not a viable proposition in the current time frame. I must inform you, that this totally inconsiderate suggestion originated from a leftist MP, – and we all know that communists have no heart.
It will thus be up to the poor widow’s offering to manage the restorations.
The latest trend in our ‘democratic’ and ‘crime free’ society is the hostility expressed towards bloggers / reporters. The self appointed ‘elite’, financial or otherwise, id est those who have acceptable opinions are mightily indignant over inappropriate comments and leaks in the blogger sphere and want it stopped. The old tools they are so grief-stricken for are the mass media, proper academics and of course their legal technicians (as they are now called).
I my self find Chomsky’s explanations illuminating when he writes: “The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum – even encourage the more critical and dissident views. That gives people the sense that there’s free thinking going on, while all the time the presuppositions of the system are being reinforced by the limits put on the range of the debate.”
Joseph Stiglitz will be here over the weekend.
Is he a true insider convert from the past or is he just trying to restore faith in his masters? – The Central bank didn’t listen to him in 2001, maybe it should have?
Until then take a look at this.
“Market Fundamentalism Is Dead”
Or this Greg Palast report for BBC Newsnight
Finally his lecture here (not omf)
The Specter of Debt Revolt Is Haunting Europe
Why Iceland and Latvia Won’t (and Can’t) Pay for the Kleptocrats’ Ripoffs.
We are mightily blessed. – Hells Angels are in town taking over the last remnants of this godforsaken country that wasn’t already in the hands of angels.
However, while the authorities have no difficulty in identifying the former, a leather vest and a Harley, they seem somewhat disabled in recognizing the latter, a suit (white shirt and a tie) and a luxury SUVs.?
