THE ECONOMY & YOU # (Daily Updated Videos & Articles)

It's not so much the working classes they want to pauperise, it's the middle class they want to get rid off.

And they are succeeding in it.

The Federal Centralization Economy
James Hall, Contributor
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Activist Post

A new hybrid of the command economy is being adapted to replace the last traces of a free market economy. The federal government, through the increase of administrative regulations and bureaucratic oversight is forcing a dangerous planned economy with dire consequences. It will not resemble the Soviet style of government ownership, because many business decisions will no longer rest with owners, but will need conformity to rules that benefit favored enterprises.

Investopedia explains the old version of the ‘Command Economy’ as a planned economy.

- Command economies are unable to efficiently allocate goods because of the knowledge problem - the central planner's inability to discern how much of a good should be produced.

- Shortages and surpluses are a common consequence of command economies. A free-market price system, on the other hand, signals to producers what they should be creating and in what quantities, resulting in a much more efficient allocation of goods.

CONTINUE: [link to www.activistpost.com]

hammer, nail, coffin, ...bang!

"Grain Prices Could Be The Nail in the Economic Coffin"

[link to pointsandfigures.com]

Are Big Banks Criminal Enterprises?
by Washington's Blog
July 19, 2012

Here are some recent improprieties by the big banks:

CONTINUE: [link to globalresearch.ca]

The Libor Scandal In Full Perspective
Paul Craig Roberts, Contributor
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Activist Post

The article about the Libor scandal, coauthored with Nomi Prins, received much attention, with Internet repostings, foreign translation, and video interviews. To further clarify the situation, this article brings to the forefront implications that might not be obvious to those without insider experience and knowledge.

The price of Treasury bonds is supported by the Federal Reserve’s large purchases. The Federal Reserve’s purchases are often misread as demand arising from a “flight to quality” due to concern about the EU sovereign debt problem and possible failure of the euro.

Another rationale used to explain the demand for Treasuries despite their negative yield is the “flight to safety.” A 2% yield on a Treasury bond is less of a negative interest rate than the yield of a few basis points on a bank CD, and the US government, unlike banks, can use its central bank to print the money to pay off its debts.

It is possible that some investors purchase Treasuries for these reasons. However, the “safety” and “flight to quality” explanations could not exist if interest rates were rising or were expected to rise. The Federal Reserve prevents the rise in interest rates and decline in bond prices, which normally result from continually issuing new debt in enormous quantities at negative interest rates, by announcing that it has a low interest rate policy and will purchase bonds to keep bond prices high.

Without this Fed policy, there could be no flight to safety or quality.

CONTINUE: [link to www.activistpost.com]

1#Meltdown - The Secret History of the Global Financial Collapse 2010 (1/4)



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[link to www.youtube.com]

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There is no middle class Roxy. It's a fallacy in a falsely hierarchical system and divides. There is only those who own the means of production and those who sell their labour, physical or otherwise. This is evident during times of crises when the latter group falls through the net.

It is impossible to have any regulation free component of civil society. Rules to some extent set the tone for societal forms and structures. A capitalism that strives to be utterly free of economic regulation instead demands social regulation, for example benefit rules and the unemployed. In an utterly free economy, there would be no rules whatsoever governing access to engagement at whatever level...which of course would be considered absurd, even by capitalist "libertarians".

There is no free market and never was.

Titanic Banks Hit LIBOR Iceberg: Will Lawsuits Sink the Ship? - Antitrust violations, wire fraud, bid-rigging, and price-fixing
by Ellen Brown
July 20, 2012

At one time, calling the large multinational banks a “cartel” branded you as a conspiracy theorist. Today the banking giants are being called that and worse, not just in the major media but in court documents intended to prove the allegations as facts. Charges include racketeering (organized crime under the U.S. Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act or RICO), antitrust violations, wire fraud, bid-rigging, and price-fixing. Damning charges have already been proven, and major damages and penalties assessed. Conspiracy theory has become established fact.

In an article in the July 3rd Guardian titled “Private Banks Have Failed – We Need a Public Solution”, Seumas Milne writes of the LIBOR rate-rigging scandal admitted to by Barclays Bank:

It’s already clear that the rate rigging, which depends on collusion, goes far beyond Barclays, and indeed the City of London. This is one of multiple scams that have become endemic in a disastrously deregulated system with inbuilt incentives for cartels to manipulate the core price of finance.

. . . It could of course have happened only in a private-dominated financial sector, and makes a nonsense of the bankrupt free-market ideology that still holds sway in public life.

. . . A crucial part of the explanation is the unmuzzled political and economic power of the City. . . . Finance has usurped democracy.

CONTINUE: [link to globalresearch.ca]

Two tendencies run side by side in capitalism.....the urge to be free of regulation at times of prosperity (otherwise deemed "excessive" government) as well as the compulsion to survive during times of crises,(otherwise deemed too big to fail.....gaming the system and/or demanding "excessive" government to name a few examples.)

On cannot make sense of these tendencies without understanding the underlying survival and accumulate urge which drives all the functions of capital. They alternately dance like two marionettes, one during times of aplenty, the other during lean times.

These forces will ultimately come to a head although I suspect that it will not be within this crisis. Instead, this crisis will set the tone for a deregulated truly global capital. The nature of political consciousness suggests that we are on track for further deregulation and the deepening of globalisation.

Failing to Break Up the Big Banks is Destroying America
by Washington's Blog
July 21, 2012

The Size of the Big Banks Is – Literally – Destroying the Rule of Law
Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Ron Suskind quotes Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner as saying: The confidence in the system is so fragile still… a disclosure of a fraud… could result in a run, just like Lehman.

In other words, Geithner said that the big bankers are “too big to jail”, because disclosing any portion of their massive fraud would cause bank runs.

Former IMF economist Simon Johnson notes: The main motivation behind the administration’s indulgence of serious criminality evidently is fear of the consequences of taking tough action on individual bankers.

The message to bank executives today is simple: build your bank to be as big as possible – and then keep growing. If you manage to become big enough, you and your employees are not just too big to fail, but also too big to jail.

CONTINUE: [link to globalresearch.ca]

Consolidation of surplus value is a function of the system, whether it be a bank, a company selling wholefoods, one dealing in baby products or a supermarket chain. Banks tend to be the conduit through which trust flows (trust an essential where exchange is involved...strange, yet a noble selfless value such as this underpins all the bloodletting in the quest for supremacy.)

The upshot of this is that this conduit cannot be allowed to become clogged with such things as fear and panic or the systemic consequences, from your local supermarket to the high street lingerie shop, would be catastrophic. Consequently. it is rather simplistic to see this as some sort of advantage to the banks although the net effect will advantage the managerial within banks.

In conclusion, the momentum of capital is the primary concern, any effects on those who manage capital's counduit, the banks, is incidental.

Last Edited by Marxist on 07/21/2012 11:22 PM

Report: at least $20.3 trillion hidden in offshore banks by global elite
Madison Ruppert, Contributor
Sunday, July 22, 2012
Activist Post

According to the most detailed study of the so-called offshore economy to date, conducted by James Henry, former chief economist with the consultancy McKinsey, the world’s richest people have taken advantage of cross-border tax laws in order to put away a shocking $20.31 trillion in offshore banks.

While this likely isn’t all that crazy to those who are familiar with the massive conflicts of interest in the Federal Reserve and the fact that the Federal Reserve works with banks to put Americans on the line for the failures of banks, it might be surprising to those who have no clue how the international financial system works.

The astounding sum uncovered by the Henry is slightly less than the 2011 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Japan ($5.87 trillion) on top of the 2011 United States GDP ($15.09 trillion).

CONTINUE: [link to www.activistpost.com]

Turnover of Global Organized Crime: $870 Billion a Year
July 20, 2012

The annual turnover of transnational organized criminal activities such as drug trafficking, counterfeiting, illegal arms trade and the smuggling of immigrants is estimated at around $870 billion, the UN Office for Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said.

Screenshot from UNODC’s global awareness-raising campaign emphasizing the size and cost of transnational organized crime.

“Transnational organized crime reaches into every region, and every country across the world. Stopping this transnational threat represents one of the international community’s greatest global challenges,” said UNODC’s Executive Director, Yury Fedotov, in a news release.

“Crucial to our success is our ability to raise public awareness and generate understanding among key decision and policymakers.”The $870 billion turnover from transnational organized crime is six times the amount of official development assistance, and is comparable to 1.5 per cent of the global domestic product, or seven per cent of the world’s exports of merchandise, according to UNODC.

Drug trafficking is the most lucrative form of business for criminals, with an estimated value of $320 billion a year. Human trafficking brings in about $32 billion annually, while some estimates place the global value of smuggling of migrants at $7 billion per year, according to a UN news release on 16 June.

CONTINUE: [link to globalresearch.ca]

NB: The writer of this article did not include the illegal (criminal) turnover of the banksters...

Winds of Change: Kim Jong-Un Wants More economic reform for North Korea

Now is not the time to be reforming into global capitalism. Stick with collectivisation, imperfect as it is. It is what we will have to turn to when global labour has been exhausted by successive bailouts.

Down Goes Britain: The UK Economy Tumbles Deep Into Recession
Michael Snyder, Contributor
Thursday, July 26, 2012
Activist Post

The economic crisis that is sweeping Europe is starting to hit Britain really hard. Over the last couple of years economists have been warning that we can't let the "contagion" spread from troubled nations such as Greece and Portugal to the rest of Europe. Well, it is too late for that now. Spain and Italy are coming apart at the seams at this point, and even "stronger" nations such as the UK and France appear to be deeply troubled.

CONTINUE: [link to www.activistpost.com]

Ron Paul Grills Geithner on LIBOR and Bankster Profits
Thursday, July 26, 2012

CONTINUE TO VIDEO: [link to www.activistpost.com]

I was listening to some dingbat of an economist suggesting that we need export economies and not credit driven ones. I was like.,....wow...are these people for real?

If everyone sold ice cream, who would buy the goods. In addition, how would we sustain growth without futurised spending (credit.)

Capitalist economists are seriously stupid.

Greek government, European officials plan billions in new social cuts
by Alex Lantier and John Vassilopoulos
July 27, 2012

Greek officials met with European Commission (EC) President José Manuel Barroso and international financial officials yesterday to discuss a new round of budget cuts worth 11.5 billion euros (US$14.4 billion) in 2013-2014.

These cuts, amounting to over 5 percent of Greece’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), will devastate a Greek economy already bled white by repeated waves of social cuts over the last three years. The Labor Ministry budget is to contract by €5 billion, largely at the expense of pensions.

Greece’s devastated public hospital system faces another €300 million in cuts. Health minister Andreas Lykourentzos was forced to deny reports that Athens plans to impose a mandatory €1,500 upper limit on health spending per patient in Greece.

Relative to the size of Greece’s economy, these cuts are massive; corresponding amounts would be $802 billion in the United States, £82 billion in Britain, or €136 billion in Germany. They come on top of the deepest economic contraction in Greece since the Nazi occupation of that country; most workers have lost 30 to 50 percent of their wages and benefits. Reports earlier this year suggested that roughly 30 percent of Greece’s population is forced to rely on street clinics for health care.

Athens is making the latest budget cuts in a desperate attempt to meet European Union (EU) debt-cutting targets, which it has missed as austerity policies shrank Greece’s economy faster than it could pay down its debts. The economy is projected to contract by 7 percent in 2012, more than earlier forecasts of 4.5 percent. Greece needs further assistance to meet a €3.26 billion debt payment due on August 20.

The leaders of the Greek government coalition met last night to finalize the budget cuts. Prime Minister Antonis Samaras of New Democracy (ND), PASOK leader Evangelos Venizelos, and Democratic Left (DIMAR) leader Fotis Kouvelis approved roughly €10 billion of the cuts. Government spokesman Simos Kedikoglou said the meeting had been “constructive,” adding: “Everyone wants to contribute to achieving fiscal targets.”

CONTINUE: [link to globalresearch.ca]

1#Reality Check: Harry Reid Flips His 25 Year Position on Auditing The Fed?

After Greece & Spain, who's next? - The US Bailout - Who Will Help the USA?
Let me guess... China?

Capitalism will collapse (terminally is not clear as the requisite level of globalsm has not yet been reached.) However, the arrangement of our lives as a sentient species (civil systems or civilisation) will not end there (unless of course something beyond our control such as planetary climate collapse follows shortly thereafter.

List of Bankers and Brokers and Inside Traders Arrested
July 25, 2012

1. 6/23/12: Social welfare ‘scam’: Two bank officials arrested Muzaffarnagar, India Jul 23 (PTI) Two officials of a public sector bank were arrested for their alleged involvement in a multi-crore Rupee scam in the Uttar Pradesh social welfare department, police said today. The bank’s branch manager Pramod Sharma and cashier Rajender Sharma were arrested yesterday in this connection, SP (City) Raj Kamal Yadav said. He also said that a hunt was on to nab Anil Verma, the main accused in the scam that took place during 2008-09. A former district welfare officer, Rinku Singh Rahi, had alleged a multi-crore scam in the social welfare department by staging a dharna in Lucknow seeking reply to an RTI query in connection with the “scam”. The Samajwadi Party government had ordered a probe into Rahi’s charges after coming to power in March this year.

2. 6/25/12: Ex-SMBC Banker Arrested Amid Insider Trading Probe - Tokyo, A former SMBC Nikko Securities Inc. executive was arrested yesterday, becoming the first banker from a major Japanese brokerage to be detained for suspected insider trading since 2008. The Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission and Yokohama city prosecutors are investigating former SMBC Nikko executive Hiroyoshi Yoshioka, 50, and three other people, the financial watchdog said in a statement.

CONTINUE: [link to consciouslyconnecting.blog.com]

Devastating US drought heralds global food inflation
By Naomi Spencer
28 July 2012

Severe drought spread rapidly across the central US this week, further damaging staple crops and heightening the risk of a global food crisis. The Midwest, where roughly one-third of the world’s staple grains are produced, is experiencing the deepest dry spell in over half a century.

The National Drought Mitigation Center in a statement Thursday reported “tremendous intensification of drought through Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Indiana, Arkansas, Kansas and Nebraska, and into part of Wyoming and South Dakota in the last week.” Almost 30 percent of the Midwest is under extreme drought, triple that of the previous week.

CONTINUE: [link to www.wsws.org]

The Economic Collapse For Dummies