US Banker’s Magazine, Aug. 25, 1924. (attributed)

“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.”

while on the banks …

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.”

Corporate welfare

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 Silence of the Web

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

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)

Hells Angels

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.?

A new home on the web

I have had to give up my beloved spot at Dreamhost because of the economic meltdown in my country. WordPress will fill the gaping void nicely.

  • And, Its Gone. [South Park Epsiode]

Bold Riders or corporate swindlers, their bankers and politicians.

We have been living a nightmare, almost every day after the rapture, new information of fraud and financial misconduct has surfaced that is just unbelievable. After months of horrors, people are blocking their senses just to survive. From all of this the question arises, – is bankrupting a nation a crime or just a minor mishap?

The old formula of privatizing profits and nationalizing costs and losses is right at work. So ingrained is this ‘tradition’ that the nation is going to pay for bankers that went plundering around the world, committing criminal acts the people knew nothing about and were never consulted for, – not to speak of gains and profits (just the usual contempt). And how are we going to pay? – Out of lost moms and papas businesses, out of lost savings and pensions, lost homes, lowered salaries, increased prices and taxes and with our unemployment benefits? – You won’t get any prices for spotting the obvious alternative.

The untouchables strut around the world continuing their luxurious life stiles, taking up residencies in tax havens, where their kind is welcomed, out of reach of justice, – which in it self has lost all meaning.

What have the juristic and police authorities been doing about the scam and sleaze at the top? Investigating? Star advocates are seeing opportunities ahead defending the business bosses, advertising their services by vilifying their potential counterparts and I suppose judges are preparing the usual no verdict to their own upper echelons, nothing else is to be expected, after all the bosses have been writing their own laws for decades. Yes fighting the good fight against lower class crime continues unabated, police tirelessly go around greenhouses cutting ‘grass’, chasing children out of derelict houses they try to occupy, arresting drunks for peeing in the sea, etc. – What glory.

So is nothing of this current crisis our own fault? Yes of course, we bought into massive propaganda and public manipulation, into “sound” economic doctrines (junk science) taught in schools and academia, or in short a cult asserting that we were living in ideal conditions, actually the best of all worlds. Now that our social contract has been broken it will take much to convince us that things will ever be even tolerable.

New Government, new Governors in the Central Bank, new Governor at the Financial Supervisory Authority (already in place), even a new Constitutional Assembly (promised by some) will not do it. Swift Justice over the architects of this system, over the financiers the thirty men and three woman who are said to be responsible for the collapse of the country and their political cronies – just might.

However, swift is already very, very late, the shredders have long since gone quiet, – the Nazgûls of our world are recuperating.

Thankfully we are not alone, many countries if not all, have lived or are living under the same conditions. The Swindler’s List is endless, but the colossal propaganda on the behalf of the “Dark” (sorry) “Bold Riders” only doing much needed and proper business is faulting. Many people have thought long and hard about why we are here in the middle of an utterly unnecessary crisis, they have come here, shared their experience, their knowledge, and much valued expertise.

– Thanks to you all.

Nemesis on visit

The Icelandic nation is thunderstruck. The much acclaimed experiment in neocon-free-market-capitalist -governance has collapsed. People in this long-standing parliamentary democracy are now asking; Who knew? Who was informed? Who gave the permission for this to go on to its inevitable conclusion?

I for one would want to ask every single member of parliament these two questions.

  1. Did you know that Private Corporations where operating abroad backed by state guaranties?

  2. Did you ever inform your electorate of this fact? *

The only information I’ve got is that these are the rules of the EU and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA). – Which justifies it?

It seams to me that we as a nation have lost our reputation much like a rape victim, that “we the people” have been led into debt slavery for generations to come, and finally, to sweeten the blow will be the first ‘developed’ nation in years, having to ask the IMF for ‘help’.

Is this a prime example: of shock doctrine and disaster capitalism, of corrupt politicians in bed with corporations, of idiot ideologues, of marginalized public, or are the answers to be found in the sacred texts of the Chicago School of Economics (…which of course were not followed to the Marxist letter)?

If you are living in a privileged country like we were, maybe it’s time to come out of the hypnotic trance so lovingly catered for by the mass media. – After all, the bursting of the ‘fractional reserve’ and/or derivative bubble’s is waiting for all of us.

* Deep (legal) Thought is already hard at work disputing the nature of reality in general and of facts in particular.

Scroll to Top