Impunity

Manufacturing righteousness

What would we do without the industrious public relations people?

Not a day passes without “news” about his boyish charms. Boy: walking in a public place, – in a tent, – on his motorbike, – promising to pay his debts.

No improper mention of is private jet or yacht, his days in Petersburg, his offshore accounts, his massive loans days before “his” bank went bankrupt, – leaving Icesave with a humiliated nation.

And of course the neo-con-religious find no fault in him, after all he is the living proof for their ‘Weltanschauung’.

I’m King David, and I did not approve.
– ” – , and it’s not to much for the state to swallow.

Les 7 salopards de la crise  (3/7) – Marianne N°692
Trust Me, What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

Quotes from “The Truth Report”

National Newspapers Editor:

” I’ve been monitoring this for 50 years. It’s a disgusting society, it’s all disgusting. There are no principles, there are no ideals, there is nothing. It is just opportunism and power struggle.”

Kaupthing Bank HQ:

“Hi Magnus, We didn’t finalize our bonuses for last year. I suggest 1 million euros. What say you. Bye. Se. ”

Sigurdur Einarsson email to Magnus Gudmundsson, date. 9th July 2008.

Kaupthing Bank Luxembourg:

“Thank you more than enough :-).”

Responses to Magnus Gudmundsson, date. 9th July 2008, to the above Email from Sigurdur Einarsson.
. . .
” The largest owners of all the big banks had abnormally easy access to credit at the banks they owned, apparently in their capacity as owners.”

” Unfortunately, it seems to be unavoidable to conclude that the state’s budget policy increased in fact the imbalance.”

” The Board of Governors of the CBI was more often in favour of less restraint than the chief economist of the Bank had proposed.”

” All the banks purchased their own shares on a large scale in automatically matched trades in the Stock Exchange.”

” During the meetings of the Board of Governors of the CBI with ministers, the bank would not be in the habit of handing out documents with summarised information, along with the bank’s review of that information and proposals for actions, where applicable.”

” In statements by ministers and representatives of the governmental institutions before the SIC, each pointed a finger at the other concerning positive obligation and no one assumed responsibility.”

” On 15 April 2008 Mr. David Oddsson sent a formal request for a currency swap agreement to the Bank of England. Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England, replied to Mr. Oddsson’s letter on 23 April and rejected the request by the CBI. However, he declared that foreign central banks could help Iceland find an effective way to reduce the size of its banking system. In his opinion, this was the only practical solution to the problem. In closing, King said that he offered all the help he could provide to tackle the issue at hand. The CBI did not accept this offer.”

” The aforementioned procedures by the authorities with regard to contingency plans for protecting the financial system of the country, and other fundamental interests of state and the nation, were unacceptable. These methods were not in keeping with the manner in which nations with developed financial markets and administration operate in general.”

” In its supervisory duties the FME was lacking in firmness and assertiveness, as regards the resolution of and the follow-up of cases. The Authority did not sufficiently ensure that formal procedures were followed in cases where it had been discovered that regulated entities did not comply with the laws and regulations applicable to their operations.”

” However, when the size of the financial system of a country is nine times its gross domestic product the roles are reversed. This was the case in Iceland. It appears that both the parliament and the government lacked both the power and the courage to set reasonable limits to the financial system.”

” … the Commission was not expected to address possible criminal conduct of the directors of the banks in their operations. …
the SIC is of the opinion that Mr. Geir H. Haarde, then Prime Minister, Mr. Árni M. Mathiesen, then Minister of Finance, and Mr. Björgvin G. Sigurðsson, then Minister of Business Affairs, showed negligence, within the meaning of Article 1(1) of Act No 142/2008, during the time leading up to the collapse of the Icelandic banks, by omitting to respond in an appropriate fashion to the impending danger for the Icelandic economy that was caused by the deteriorating situation of the banks.
The SIC is also of the opinion that Mr. Jónas Fr. Jónsson, then Director General of the FME, and Mr. Davíð Oddsson, Mr. Eiríkur Guðnason and Mr. Ingimundur Friðriksson, then Governors of the CBI, showed negligence, within the meaning of Article 1(1) of Act No 142/2008, in the course of particular work during the administration of laws and rules on financial activities, and monitoring thereof.” …

The Truth Report
Press conference 12.04.2010 in English

Vulture Capitalism

After a successful spell of Shock Doctrine, the Vultures flock to our shores in all shapes, forms and disguises.

Our own Vultures either attack or welcome them according to their own Vulture interests. Foreign investment in a “free” market system is paramount. To hell with the fact that we can’t pay “our” current debt, lets borrow some more money. We can’t save our selfs without more, without more “stuff” we suffer from irritability, insomnia, depression, anorexia, you name it.

What can we sell, how can we prostitute our selfs, we must satisfy our addiction for more, more, yes for the golden sustainable and endless growth.

Yes, our next fix will come from: casinos, money laundering, destroying our natural resources, and inviting “Blackwater” to use our airspace to prepare for the next war. Sure, our daughters could do with some money.

Vultures are, in spite of their image problem, really marked by humanistic values and devotion to human welfare. This is apparent in their classic promise that “Job creation” is an inevitable result of their actions, and to their dedication to human progress and survival.

Vulture Capitalism
Keiser Report:
No.23 Greg Palast @gregpalast.com
No.28 Helen Skopis @Athens International

Plunder: The Crime Of Our Time

“I used to think of Wall Street as a
financial center.
I now think of it as a crime scene.”

– Filmmaker Danny Schechter, Plunder (2009)

“When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men,
they create for themselves in the course of time,
a legal system that authorizes it,
and a moral code that glorifies it.”

– Political economist Frederic Bastiat, The Law (1850)

Plunder: The Crime Of Our Time

Financial Crime: Did white collar crime and fraud trigger the meltdown?
Above the law? Thinking Allowed investigates white collar crime
Suite Violence: Why managers murder and corporations kill
Robin Hood (Toibin) Tax

The New Spirit (is getting Old)

Our betters are getting in to the Christmas spirit.
After a year of “damage control” they are now testing the waters for the release of a censored ‘truth’ report by adding an 80 year ‘ban’ on the really sensitive stuff. Some of them are furious to be under investigation, others are not being investigated at all.

Smaller fish are offered to be fried but as usual ‘names’ are nowhere to be found.

The propaganda machine continues spreading the gospel truth that a well-behaved public must fund the bill. They call it Scandinavian welfare, except in Scandinavia people get something in return while we only get to appease the angry creditors of private corporations.

Or as they say, this inspired ‘Crash’ is shared with you by the _______. Corporation

Walt Disney – The New Spirit

The crisis: a year on

After the economic collapse and a year of corruption revelations, not a single kleptocrat has been arrested.

Do we simply have to take Herbert Marcuse’s quote as given, that, “Law and order are everywhere the law and order which protect the established hierarchy.” ?

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.”

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.

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