Meltdown (1:4) “Greedy criminals or complete fools”
“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” ~ Albert Einstein, (attributed)
Banks
Who Runs the World?
Democratically elected representatives or 147 “super-entities”:
1. Barclays plc
2. Capital Group Companies Inc
3. FMR Corporation
4. AXA
5. State Street Corporation
6. JP Morgan Chase & Co
7. Legal & General Group plc
8. Vanguard Group Inc
9. UBS AG
10. Merrill Lynch & Co Inc
11. Wellington Management Co LLP
12. Deutsche Bank AG
13. Franklin Resources Inc
14. Credit Suisse Group
15. Walton Enterprises LLC
16. Bank of New York Mellon Corp
17. Natixis
18. Goldman Sachs Group Inc
19. T Rowe Price Group Inc
20. Legg Mason Inc
…
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“The crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear.” ~ Antonio Gramsci
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Compared to a Cult?
Three years on and the cultural landscape with banks, parliament and public relations is back in 2007 mode, – the bankruptcy guard has reassembled.
The Guru is always right.
You are always wrong.
No Exit.
No Graduates.
Cult-speak.
Group-think, Suppression of Dissent, and Enforced Conformity in Thinking
Irrationality.
Suspension of disbelief.
Denigration of competing sects, cults, religions…
Personal attacks on critics.
Insistence that the cult is THE ONLY WAY.
etc.
The Option of Public Utility
“Competition is a sin.” ~ John D. Rockefeller
naked capitalism
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Growth Dies
The Oil Drum
Coup d’etat.
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Klein’s errata
Overdosing on Silence
In Manufacturing Consent (1988), Herman & Chomsky, presented the “Propaganda model” and it’s components: Agenda Setting by Predetermine, Select, Shape, Control and Restrict by: Selection of Topics, Distribution of Concerns, Emphasis, Framing of Issues, Filtering of Information and Bounding of Debate.
From September 2008 we have seen these unfold before our very eyes, but also a strong sense of inverse relationship between importance and relevance, claimed- and actual responsibility, crime and punishment.
What is almost entirely missing is the ‘Technical’ Bankruptcy of the Central Bank (CBI), easily the biggest, most costly and singular, with its political ramifications right at the top of the political sphere.
The SIC report, 21.4.3 The CBI, talks about ‘communication problems’ and, that, “it cannot be considered desirable to appoint former politicians as CBI Governors, as has been the practice at the CBI for many years.” (?)
The Special Prosecutor needs 3 – 4 years to investigate the banks, while the Central Bank gets Zero?
Who needs Aircraft Accident Investigations when the Banks are to big to fail, just like RMS Titanic.
The SIC Report
Propaganda model
The History Of Central Banks (US)
Bank Failures US (2008–present)
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Webster Tarpley (2009)
[PDF] The Rape of the Mind
A Systems Analysis Perspective
Icelandic Economic Collapse
A Systems Analysis Perspective on financial, social and world system links
“We live in a time with ever increasing complexity in society and this is reflected in our lives becoming more complex and less easy to understand. Globalization has meant that events andcausal chains span larger distances, structures are less transparent and the way the world worksis becoming more difficult to understand. The Icelandic bank crisis, the co-occurring national financial collapse and world financial crisis was part of a larger set of linked events that are difficult to overview and penetrate.”
…
“The Icelandic economic collapse was real and very serious for a small country. Only by silent intervention of its Nordic neighbours were certain basic functions of supplying the country with essentials maintained. Without this, the situation for the Icelandic population would have been noticeably bad or even dangerous”
….
“After the financial collapse of the banks and later the state, the financial transactions and transfers were mapped out in detail in a Parliamentary Special Investigative Report (2010), including who was involved and their actions described as far as possible. However, these results are all outputs from an economic system where decisions were made somewhere else in the larger societal system. To come closer to the question of how and why the economic bubble could go so far, we also need to address the social dimension of the collapse.”
…
“One issue stands out clear from the global financial crisis, and that is that the there is no way back, the old system was flawed on a fundamental level, and the international financial and policy context is still very unsustainable. The whole world´s economic system, which is based on material resource consumption forever, has reached a limit we knew would be there somewhere in time, and which will eventually stop it (Meadows et al. 1972, 1992, 2005, Latouche 2007,Jackson 2009). Growth economics on a limited planet is unrealistic.”
…
Icelandic Economic Collapse
A Systems Analysis Perspective on financial,
social and world system links (.pdf)
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System dynamics
Causal loop diagram
“Anyone who believes that exponential growth can go on for ever in a finite
world is either a madman or an economist” ~ Kenneth Boulding
Al Bartlett: In Growth We Trust (the simple math 1 to 8 ) and
The Essential Exponential!
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Related ?
The Four Horsemen
“The prostitution of the economics profession” [1].[2]
“not much to do with what the Constitution calls for.” [1].[2]
In the Valley of Elah
The “Honey Trap”
”
Repeat: “…a fundamental rethinking of economic theory”…. (a greater) “distribution of income”…(more) “regulation of financial companies”, “central banks need to do more to prevent lending and asset prices from expanding too fast”.
Are you kidding me? Read that passage again and I think you’ll agree with me that Strauss-Kahn had signed his own death warrant.
There’s not going to be any revolution at the IMF. That’s baloney. The institution was created with the clear intention of ripping people off and it’s done an impressive job in that regard. There’s not going to be any change of policy either. Why would there be? Have the bankers and corporate bilge-rats suddenly grown a conscience and decided to lend a helping hand to long-suffering humanity? Get real.
Strauss-Kahn broke ranks and ventured into no man’s land. That’s why he was set up and then crushed like a bug.
(Note: Strauss-Kahn has been replaced by the IMF’s number 2 guy, John Lipsky, former Vice Chairman of the JPMorgan Investment Bank. How’s that for “change you can believe in”?)
”
IMF chief Strauss-Kahn caught in “Honey Trap”
… Police State Strides Forward
… Smoke and Mirrors
Treasure Islands
Treasure Islands: Uncovering the Damage of Offshore Banking and Tax Havens
“And now we have “too big to fail” banks and this offshore system, the ability of banks in the United States to go elsewhere to do things that allow them to grow faster and take more risks, away from the democratic curbs. It’s one of the reasons why they’ve grown so powerful and why we have got such a difficult situation today with Wall Street having such power over the politicians in this country and my country and others.”
Treasure Islands
Amazon
Nicholas Shaxson on Democracy Now
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War By Other Means
Plutocracy, Get Used To It
(or hangthebankers)
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Stiglitz on the upper 1% …
E. Warren “We are in trouble”
“Mad” Max & Janet Tavakoli
-“- & our enslaved Gaelic mothers
Iceland’s St. Pete connection
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And the media coverage
Who Let the Dogs out??
“Mr. Kucinich said “No.” So the banks brought in their bully-boys, the ratings agencies.” ~ M.Hudson.
How very surprising, the vote does not upset the IMF-EU agenda, the Chicago boys must be smiling.
I’m sure we vote again, until we get it right.
The Shock Doctrine
“a game as old as empire”
Who’s financial suicide?
Ratings for Sale, Aye, Aye, Aye.
Why Iceland Voted ‘No” to the Diktats of the Creditor Banks
However, there was an deceptive undercurrent
No to hostile takeover.
& the short Taiwanese version 🙂
And I thought we had problems!
GS Misled Congress After Duping Clients