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Democracy?: As the Capitalist Robber Barons Steal from the 99% — Only the 1% Voted For Austerity — The 99% Should Decide On Austerity — Not Just The Who Profit From Austerity! Under Austerity, All of the World Will Eventually Be Pauperized, Humbled, and Desecrated Like Greece and Puerto Rico.
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Nomi Prins, the prolific and astute chronicler of banking and finance, returns to print in May 2018 with Collusion: How Central Bankers Rigged the World, a meticulously researched account of how central bankers from the world’s major economies responded in the aftermath of the global financial crisis spawned by the reckless behavior of major U.S. banks. Prins, a former Wall Street executive, shines a klieg light on the policy machinations and individuals that typically operate in the shadow of representative bodies. With a forensic eye, Prins explains how central bankers in Mexico, Brazil, Japan, Europe, and, with some strategic reluctance, China, followed the lead of the U.S. Federal Reserve and conjured money out of thin air in order to provide liquidity and stimulus for the benefit of banks and capital markets. Prins writes, “The 2007-2008 financial crisis that ravaged the global economy was ignited by a rapacious banking system in the United States. In response, herded by the Fed, the central banks of the G7 nations careened down an endless money-manufacturing trail — in broad daylight.” Unconventional monetary policies such as zero-interest rates, “quantitative easing” — the purchase by central banks of government bonds or other securities — and other extraordinary actions undertaken by central bankers were designed to prop up banks and markets, not the everyday economy of Main Street. While banks gorged themselves on an endless supply of cheap money, the citizens of Greece, Ireland, Portugal, and Spain endured austerity, high unemployment, and the loss of public pensions. In the U.S., millions of people lost their homes, jobs, or retirement funds. While the recovery on Wall Street was celebrated by politicians and the media, the cheap money lavished on banks didn’t trickle down to the real economy or fund productive investments in infrastructure, a fact Prins illustrates with relentless clarity. Why do the policies pursued by central bankers over the last decade matter? Because the global economy is fragile and could easily collapse again, with consequences worse than 2008. As Prins writes, “The world economy remains imperiled, an opportunistic game to the central banks, a field day for speculators, a hazard for populations.” Collusionis a warning that the lessons of 2008 haven’t been learned. — Author Nomi Prins Releases ‘Collusion: How Central Bankers Rigged the World’
Videos of the Day:
Economic Update: Employees VS EmployersThis week: German workers who elect almost half of corporate boards of directors; major US corporations with negative tax rates; Kentucky governor maneuvers against black-lung victims; involuntary part-time employment; epidemic of U.S. evictions; Trump’s tariffs on China
Israeli Military Attacks Iranian Backed Syrian BasesCol. Larry Wilkerson: Israel does not want to end the war in Syria, it is in their interest to keep this war going, and to keep the Iran Nuclear Deal from succeeding
U.S.:
Imperial Road to Conquest: Peace and Disarmament Agreements In recent years US imperial strategy has sought to lessen the cost of defeating and overthrowing independent countries. The means and method are fairly straight forward. World-wide propaganda campaigns which demonize the adversary; the enlistment and collaboration of European and regional allies (England, France, Saudi Arabia and Israel); the recruitment, contracting, training and arming of local and overseas mercenaries dubbed “rebels”, or ‘democrats’; economic sanctions to provoke domestic social tensions and political instability of the government; proposals to negotiate a settlement; negotiations which demand non-reciprocal concessions and which include changes in strategic weapons in exchange for promises to end sanctions, diplomatic recognition and peaceful co- existence. The strategic goal is disarmament in order to facilitate military and political intervention leading up to and beyond defeat, occupation, regime change; the impositions of a‘client regime’ to facilitate the pillage of economic resources and the securing of military bases, international alignment with the US empire and a military springboard for further conquests against neighbors and independent adversaries. We will apply this model to recent and current examples of US tactical and strategic empire building in diverse regions, especially focusing on North Africa (Libya), the Middle East (Iraq, Palestine, Syria and Iran), Asia (North Korea), and Latin America (FARC in Colombia). By James Petras
Border patrol violence: US paid $60m to cover claims against the agencyExclusive:analysis of more than a decade of official data reveals government paid settlements after deaths, alleged assaults and wrongful detention The US government has paid out more than $60m in legal settlements where border agents were involved in deaths, driving injuries, alleged assaults and wrongful detention, an analysis of more than a decade of official data reveals. By Sarah Macaraeg
“Clerical Error”? Trump White House Forced to Retract False Claim Iran Has Nuclear Weapons Program “The details matter when you’re talking about nukes, people.”By Jake Johnson
Environment:
Trump plan to tackle lead in drinking water criticized as ’empty exercise’Sources within EPA tell Guardian that proposals are threadbare and muddled – ‘they’re are just making it up as they go along’ The federal government says it is currently drawing up a new plan to tackle lead contamination, which the Environmental Protection Agency says will be unveiled in June. Public details of the plans are, however, scant. And some sources inside the EPA, speaking to the Guardian anonymously, said they were skeptical about whether what was being developed could meet such a challenge. “It’s a fig leaf,” one source claimed. By Oliver Milman
Ongoing Big Energy Crisis:
Civil Rights Black Liberation:
The Truth About the Cosby Verdict: Women Are Not Believed Moments after Bill Cosby was convicted of three counts of committing aggravated indecent assault against Andrea Constand at his Pennsylvania mansion in 2004, Gloria Allred, the lawyer who represented her and many of Bill Cosby accusers, stood before the press and said, “We are so happy that finally we can say, women are believed—and not only in a hashtag #MeToo, but also in a court of law.” By Julian Vigo
Environmental Racism: Al Gore warns worst of climate change will be felt by black and poor peopleSpeaking at a memorial to the victims of lynching, the former vice-president warned of the disproportionate impacts of global warming Al Gore, the former US vice-president turned climate change advocate, has warned that the deepening crisis of global temperature and sea level rise – and the consequent spate of natural disasters in America – will increasingly affect black and poor people more than others. By Ed Pilkington
“Free Mumia” is a Strategy, Not a Slogan:Supporters of Mumia Abu Jamal believe there is a real possibility to free the nation’s best known political prisoner. Activists gathered inside and outside a Pennsylvania court to demand that the Philadelphia district attorney turn over all records on Ronald Castille, the former DA that helped convict Abu Jamal in the death of a cop and then, as a judge, ruled against his appeals. “They’ll try to make us think Castille had no involvement in the case, but that is patently false,” said Gwen DeBrow, of the Campaign to Bring Mumia Home.
Peace Means Building a New World: “We need a peace movement of a new type,” said Dr Anthony Monteiro, the Philadelphia-based Dubosian scholar. “Most peace activists are only looking at the most recent US intervention.” What’s needed “is a peace movement which centers upon development of the productive forces of the world, to seek the uplift of humanity.”
Bolton, the Reflexive Bomber: Trump national security advisor John Bolton “is simply a militarist,” said Phyllis Bennis, director of the New International Project at the Institute for Policy Studies, in Washington. “He has never seen an international challenge, an international crisis, that did not require direct US military intervention to solve it.” Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo are heading up the administration’s negotiations with North Korea.
Black Activists Detained in Colombia… : Afro-Colombians fear for the lives of two leaders of the Black Communities Process, or PCN, the main organization defending the collective land rights of Afro-descended peoples. Sara Quiñonez and her mother, Tulia Maris Valencia, were detained on false charges of collaborating with the ELN guerilla group – an allegation that could mark them for assassination. But the PCN is “an organization that promotes peace, and peaceful struggle, said spokesperson Charo Mina-Rojas, who called on progressives everywhere to demand the two women’s release.
Labor:
Economy:
Bronze Age Redux: On Debt, Clean Slates and What the Ancients Have to Teach UOne of the most compelling sequences in the Oscar-winningInside Job, Charles Ferguson’s indictment of Wall Street’s role in the 2008 global financial meltdown, involved not the banker culprits but their supporting cast. These were the Ivy League accomplices. Ferguson mightily skewered these economists for the cover they gave the sub-prime Hamptons dwelling wise guys whose rescue turned out to be a pretext for one of the largest reverse-Robin Hood wealth transfers in history. Though for the foreseeable future they enjoy their tenured posts, control prestigious academic journals and continue to prey on the unformed minds of students, the speculative financial implosion has shaken confidence in the economics academy. And through those cracks (to borrow from Leonard Cohen) shards of light are getting in. Economists once on the academic fringes – in university outposts like the University of Missouri Kansas City and Bard’s Levy Institute – are being looked to not only for understanding how to prevent bankers from setting the economy on fire again, but on how to build a social system that works for the majority. by Michael Hudson – Harold Crooks
Robert Rubin Exorcises Citigroup from His Career in Today’s NYT OpEdFormer U.S. Treasury Secretary, Robert Rubin, has decided he wants to rewrite his resume, removing the ugly warts from his days at Citigroup. That mega bank started as a financial supermarket that Rubin helped to make possible behind the scenes in the Bill Clinton administration, followed by a giant crash and the largest bank bailout in U.S. history from 2007 to 2010. Rubin strolled out the door of Citigroup in early 2009 $120 million richer than when he originally rolled his shopping cart into the well-stocked aisles of hubris at Citigroup almost a decade earlier. By Pam Martens and Russ Martens
World:
The spectre of Marx is haunting capitalism“The Governor of the Bank of England has warned that massive job losses driven by technology could resuscitate Marxism in the West,” announced the Daily Telegraph recently. By Rob Sewell
Health, Science, Education, and Welfare:
During This Economic Crisis, Capitalism’s Three Point Political Program: 1. Austerity, 2. Scapegoating Blacks, Minorities, and ‘Illegal Immigrants’ for Unemployment, and 3. The Iron Heel.
Philippine workers march in protest at short-term contracts
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