IRATE GOD, THE MARKET
In the old times the economy and markets managed to function without stock exchanges, daily ratings and real time minute by minute updates. With the coming of the “Information Highway” all this changed. Suddenly an entire eco political system panics when stock markets numbers plunge and cheer soaring stock figures. It seems the entire world has been drawn into this matrix which revolves around one thing, numbers which provide the illusion of money, ratings based on assumptions and economic power based on speculation.
THE POWER OF NUMBERS
The majority of us does not even understanding the complex and obscured arithmetic’s of the “holy grail”, The Stock Market, but nevertheless we seems to be drawn into the believe that such fluctuations will affect our live. Considering that physical money accounts only for 10% in today’s markets and that 90% of “money transactions” are simple numeral data transfer within “cyberspace”, it becomes clear that physical money is only a tool to control people but not a necessity. Money gives the illusion of freedom and independence to the common man, yet we see how that very tool is used to implement austerity over the working class. US President Thomas Jefferson back in 1826 said:
“I BELIEVE THAT BANKING INSTITUTIONS ARE MORE DANGEROUS THAN STANDING ARMIES…
IF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE EVER ALLOW PRIVATE BANKS TO CONTROL THE ISSUE OF CURRENCY …… THE BANKS AND CORPORATIONS THAT WILL GROW UP AROUND THEM WILL DEPRIVE THE PEOPLE OF THEIR PROPERTY UNTIL THEIR CHILDREN WAKE UP HOMELESS ON THE CONTINENT THEIR FATHERS CONQUERED”
THOMAS JEFFERSON 1743 -1826
THOMAS JEFFERSON 1743 -1826
Wise words, unfortunately no one seemed to take the advice, not in the 19th century, nor in the 20th century and certainly not in the 21st century.
To a large extend Financial institutions have caused the havoc we are currently experiencing, especially in Europe. Nevertheless governments are using taxpayer’s money to rescue those very institutions that caused the chaos in the first place.
GREECE’S LOOMING DEFAULT,......... A SOLUTION TO THE PROBLEM
To solve the current financial crisis in Europe and especially Greece one should consider asking exactly those institutions that caused to a large extent the crisis in Greece to bail out Greece, namely GOLDMAN SACHS.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Sreeram Chaulia, Geopolitical analyst kindly permitted me to republish an article he wrote for THE GLOBALIST, which highlights the Goldman Sachs involvement in Greece’s dept dilemma.
As Greece teeters on the edge of sovereign default of around $300 billion and sends shudders of premonition throughout the global economy, the fingerprints of Goldman Sachs are once again to be found, as in so many crises beforehand. Sreeram Chaulia argues that Goldman should accept moral responsibility and contribute funds to bailing out Greece. |
As more skeletons fall out of the closet, it is coming to light that Greece's profligacy was abetted and managed for several years by the top Wall Street financial firms via complex instruments.
In 2001, before spendthrift Greece could enter the eurozone by satisfying the deficit limit rules of the currency union, Goldman Sachs entered the picture with a tricky currency trade deal that would hide billions of dollars of additional public borrowing and not make it look like debt. For this piece of consultancy, which helped Greece join the euro by hook or by crook, Goldman received fees of $300 million. In 2005, Goldman sold to the National Bank of Greece an “interest rate swap,” one of the notorious derivatives that have come under scrutiny since the Wall Street implosion of 2008. Greek critics of such dubious debt-hiding transactions had warned their government of the mounting long-term liabilities to the likes of Goldman, but to no avail. According to news reports, Greece mortgaged revenue-generating assets like the national lottery, airports and highways as part of the agreements with Goldman in what amounted to "a garage sale on a national scale." Goldman Sachs is reported to have attempted a redux of 2001 when its president, Gary Cohn, landed in Athens in November 2009 with a similar debt deferral proposal that would continue to fool investors and the EU. This time around, Greece did not oblige. But the damage had already been done over a decade of spiraling foreign debt that was repackaged and postponed with Wall Street's wizardry. We now know that similar borrowing binges were occurring in the rest of the PIGS (Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain) economies courtesy of the financial dodging expertise of Goldman, JPMorgan and the entire cadre of hedge funds.
Economies of developing countries, especially in Africa and Latin America, have endured decades of bitter experiences of falling into debt traps that sap productive resources, benefit speculative financiers and weaken state capacities to govern. In their cases, the Bretton Woods institutions acted as economic restructuring consultants and funding taps that only opened if the recipients met crushing conditionalities. John Perkins's book, "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man," reveals how highly paid professionals with knowledge of macroeconomics and world affairs were deployed to convince political and financial leaders of poor countries to accept massive "development loans" from the World Bank and USAID. Once ensnared, the supplicants would be subjected to pressure on different issues from Washington. In the PIGS economies, it was not so much strategically motivated hit men working for the U.S. government but rather some freewheeling U.S. financial corporations that could make a killing out of clients who were addicted to reckless state spending. In late February 2010, as the EU began investigating the Wall Street shenanigans in Athens, Goldman defended its Greek misadventures by arguing, predictably enough, that they were legal actions consistent with the regulations of their time. Of course, much of the fault lay with the Greek politicians who were seduced by the Wall Street financial advisers who, for their part, were simply pursuing the bread-and-butter business of circulating wealth for profit.
Had Athens been more disciplined in organizing its finances, there would not have been a window of opportunity for Goldman and company to exploit its vulnerability. But southern Europe's debt-proneness has systemic consequences from which Wall Street cannot easily extricate itself. While there is no evidence to suggest that U.S. investment banks deliberately dug the graves of PIGS to weaken the euro, the disastrous social costs of their financial chicanery call for reparations. It may not be unfair if the EU demands that Goldman, which now leads the earnings chart on Wall Street, accept moral responsibility and contribute to bailing out Greece. Who knows — now that even the U.S. Federal Reserve is making noises about investigating Goldman’s practices, the firm may be in a hurry to pay up. Editor's Note: This feature is adapted from a longer version published in The Financial Express on February 25, 2010 Interesting reading: Occupy World Street By Pepe Escobar |
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BANKING INSTITUTIONS ARE MORE DANGEROUS THAN STANDING ARMIES Updated at :
5:12 PM
Saturday, October 22, 2011
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