Ellen Brown

We have been distracted here and in Europe by a sudden panic over our “sovereign debt” crises, when the real crisis is that our debt is NOT sovereign.

On November 27, Bloomberg News reported the results of its successful case to force the Federal Reserve to reveal the lending details of its 2008-09 bank bailout. Bloomberg reported that by March 2009, the Fed had committed $7.77 trillion in below-market loans and guarantees to rescuing the financial system; and that these nearly interest-free loans came without strings attached.

The Fed insisted that the loans were repaid and there have been no losses, but the Bloomberg report said the banks reaped a $13 billion windfall in profits; and “details suggest taxpayers paid a price beyond dollars as the secret funding helped preserve a broken status quo and enabled the biggest banks to grow even bigger.”

The revelations provoked shock and outrage among commentators. But in a letter to the leaders of the House and Senate Committees focused on the financial services industry, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke responded on December 6th that the figures were greatly exaggerated. He said the loans were being double-counted: short-term loans rolled over from day to day were counted as separate cumulative loans rather than as a single extended loan.

The Fed, it seems, was doing only what banks and the money market do for each other every day: making “liquidity” available at very low interest rates. In 2008, bank liquidity dried up after Lehman Brothers collapsed, and the banks could not get the cheap, ready credit on which their lending scheme depends. The Fed then stepped in as “lender of last resort,” doing what it had to do to keep the banking scheme going.

Keeping the banking system afloat is all well and good. What is wrong with the existing scheme is that it allows the Fed to play favorites.

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Adnan Al-Daini

“It doesn’t really matter if it’s Labour or Conservative because the people behind the scenes are always the same...” said a 23 year-old man from Liverpool, who took part in the UK (August 2011) riots. The quote is from a report “Reading the Riots” commissioned by the Guardian and the London School of Economics.

It tells us something that has now become common knowledge, namely that people have lost faith in the democratic process.  Politicians and society, all of us, the 99% and the 1% must take heed.  People do not like this government, but they do not have much faith in Labour either.  This explains why the Labour party is not benefiting from the dire economic situation we find ourselves in.   Labour is not trusted. Their so called “light touch regulation” was an abdication of their responsibility to control the explosion of a debt fuelled economy, and the voracious greed of the “moneymen” that brought the country into this sorry state. 

Some commentators blame Labour’s difficulties on choosing the wrong leader, Ed Miliband.  I think it is the lack of credible policies that lie at the heart of the problem for Labour.   It has no vision.  It has articulated no alternative policies that are up to the job of tackling the immense problems faced by capitalism today.  

Do they have a policy on bringing a fairer distribution of wealth in a rich country like Britain? A report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), referenced in the Guardian, concludes that “income inequality among working-age people has risen faster in Britain than in any other rich nation since the mid-1970s.” What are their policies on reducing unemployment, particularly among the young, that has now topped one million?  What are their policies on reforming the banks and financial institutions? What are their policies to bring a more equitable balance between capital and labour? What are their policies to address the democratic deficit by wresting control from the “moneymen”?

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Kenny's Sideshow

Everyone has heard a similar story. A small business, a working class entrepreneur trying to keep some semblance of a middle class existence continues to lose business through no fault of his own until there is no business. The recession turns into a depression for the little man who only wants to work for himself and not be a cog in some sort of corporate machine. Being your own boss means make or break.

For almost six years I've worked right alongside my son-in-law. He's been in business for about 15 years doing what he likes to do. Until 2008 there was never a time without a job waiting in the wings. So successful it seemed like it would never end except on his own terms. Pride in workmanship was never lacking. A bulldozer, a tractor trailer to haul it with and a four wheel drive dually with tools and fuel tank, all paid for, combined with independence, desire and drive should be a very practical situation but as the old say goes, "nothing lasts forever." Tomorrow the dozer is being sold.

The business is not ending because of competition. All the small time full time competition in the area went out over two years ago. Being essentially the local last man standing didn't make any difference. It wasn't because of shoddy work. The work done was equal or better than anyone else. It wasn't because of excessive rates or dishonesty. It was an honest business charging less than most. No, it was an economic collapse that all along was designed to strip the middle class individual of not only the chance to work but to eventually take everything he had worked for.

These kinds of businesses don't show up in the statistics. There's no unemployment to be paid. It won't even be counted as one of the many small businesses to fall because those that do the counting won't even know. It will be as if it never existed except in the memory of a few.

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PressTV

An exclusive PressTV interview with James Fetzer, philosopher of science.

Q: I'd like to have your reaction to what has been happening especially in Oakland. Of course we know that the police are getting involved in trying to crackdown on these protesters throughout the United States. But in Oakland, we are seeing extreme action now and it looks like the protesters are trying to stay on despite the police action.

Fetzer: We are seeing the increase in militarization of the police forces throughout the United States and that is a very bad tendency that has been taking place since 9/11. We see the rich getting richer and the increasing gap between the rich and the poor. This gap has been widening since the administration of Ronald Reagan.

What they are doing, the politicians are ignoring the needs of the average American and the working families. We have had increasing foreclosures, and unemployment is seen as the tip of an iceberg resistance to the corruption of politics in America. We are finding the police are even asking to use active denial systems, a form of microwave radiation that is only going to serve to radicalize the youth of America.

I believe this movement is not going to go away, and that what we are seeing is the real face of the police state of America has become.

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