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Archive for category Austerity

Goldman, Other Welfare Queens Tell Us Forget Social Security-Medicare Until 70

Jan 22

Posted by Michael Collins in Austerity, Big Money, Corruption, Populism, Wall St | 4 Comments

Michael Collins

(Washington, DC 1/21)  A long standing  Money Party front, the Business Roundtable, wants you to wait until you’re 70 years old before you get Social Security and Medicare benefits.  This is just a reprise of the November 2012 dictate from the king of corporate cronyism, Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein.  (Image: DonkeyHotey)  (Greenspan statement)

The boss announced, “So there will be things that, you know, the retirement age has to be changed, maybe some of the benefits have to be affected, maybe some of the inflation adjustments have to be revised. But in general, entitlements have to be slowed down and contained.”  Lloyd Blankfein, CBS News, November 2012

That’s easy for Lloyd to say.  He makes tens of millions of dollars a year without so much as lifting a finger.  You can be sure that Blankfein has a deluxe health insurance and retirement plan. Read the rest of this entry »

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Debt Ceiling Disaster – Crazy or Criminal?

Jan 9

Posted by Michael Collins in Austerity, Big Money, Corruption, Financial Crisis | 1 Comment

By Michael Collins
Photobucket

(Washington, DC 1/9/13) Let’s say that on a Monday, you sit down and take a hard  look at your finances.  Your bills exceed your income, assets are just a feint memory, and there is no relief in sight.  Reluctantly, you decide that your only choice is to declare bankruptcy.  On Tuesday you say, I think I’ll do some  shopping before it’s all over.  You proceed to charge $2,000 on  your VISA card for some jewelry and other non essentials.  On Wednesday, you get a lawyer and file for bankruptcy.

Guess what? You still owe the $2,000 since the court will conclude that you made the purchases  fraudulently. You knew you were filing for bankruptcy and made the charges anyway. Even worse, the court may refuse to grant the bankruptcy filing all together as a result of the obvious fraud.

That is exactly what the Republicans in the House of Representatives are doing with their open announcement that they will vote against raising the debt ceiling without their solution to government spending. Since that announcement, has one single deficit hawk stood up and said, We must stop all spending as of this moment since we are proposing to default on those expenditures?

They haven’t said any such thing and they won’t. That would mean an end of all Federal spending in their districts and states. They are more than happy to incur expenditures that they have no intention of paying anywhere close to on time.

Why is the refusal to raise the debt ceiling such a threat to the good faith and credit of the United States of America? Simple. The majority party in the House is engaged in flat out fraud. That party is spending money as it promises to default on the very amounts spent.

It is fraud, pure and simple.  The behavior of key leaders attacks the credit worthiness of the country.

You may say, Look, it’s only a temporary default. The loss of confidence still attaches to the action. In fact, the fraud of purchasing after declaring an intention to default is compounded by the grotesque insincerity of the threat. It’s enough to make your head spin.

The Republicans in the House of Representatives are involved in a very real, common conspiracy to commit fraud based on their statements and actions. In addition, they’re lying to the public since a real declaration default is not just extremely improbable, it is impossible. Sovereign states have the ability to issue currency.  That unique ability and asset can’t be denied due to a legislative tantrum.  Just like individuals and businesses, sovereign states have the very real option to develop a viable plan to work out of a financial crisis

The ever present double standard emerges. It is not OK for us to defraud creditors when we declare bankruptcy but the House can acquire goods and make promises to pay after openly declaring their intention to not pay. Nothing will happen to these politicians as a result of this conspicuous contempt for the law. If it looks like it might, they’ll just pass a law to make their crimes legal.

Every day, we suffer the undeserved indignity of being ruled by fools and fraudsters.

END

This article may be reposted with attribution of authorship and a link to this article.

The Money Party

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Real Unemployment at 23% – Dampening the Excitement

Sep 9

Posted by Michael Collins in Austerity, Big Money, Election 2012, Financial Crisis | Comments off

There was a shadow over the national conventions of both political parties.  The people know that the economy is much worse than anyone in the power structure will admit.  As usual, the people are right.  The real rate of unemployment is 23%, not the official figures we hear on a regular basis.  The 23% figure  represents all of those unemployed no matter how long, the involuntarily under employed (part time), and those who have given up looking, the discouraged, due to an chronically arid job market.   If either wing of The Money Party, Democratic or Republican, admits to the the real unemployment situation,  they would be forced to admit a complete system failure and compelled to act now.  There would be no choice but to drop the nonsense about austerity and balanced budgets.

Here is how the fantasy of the official unemployment figure works.

Official unemployment  includes those who are both unemployed during the week of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) survey and without a job for the prior four weeks.

The official unemployment number we see excludes those marginally attached to the labor force, discouraged workers, and those working part time due to the absence of full time work. The Alternative unemployment statistic is always higher than the official version. It includes most of the unemployed but excludes discouraged workers after twelve months without a job (See Appendix).  In the chart above, you will see the official government unemployment number (U-3), the alternative number (U-6), and the shadowstats.com figure, which includes U-3 and U-6 plus  all those unemployed who have given up. That represents 23% of the work force. (Graph Courtesy of Shadowstats.Com Shadow Government Statistics – John Williams)

How can citizens make responsible decisions when the official unemployment rate, 8.1%, is just 35% of the real unemployment rate, 23%?

Who benefits?

Read the rest of this entry »

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Springtime for Neocons, Egypt’s Government Jacks Medicine Prices Way Up

Jul 14

Posted by Michael Collins in Austerity, Big Money, Egypt, Middle East | Comments off

Michael Collins

Newly elected Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi announced that medicine prices would be pegged to those on the international market. This will increase costs significantly since pharmaceuticals are currently subsidized due to Egypt’s very low per capita income ($6,300 in 2011). (Image: idea_hampster)

Egypt had its first presidential election since Tahrir Square demonstrations that ousted President Hosni Mubarak. Turnout was miserable. By the time voters got to the polls, the top two candidates were removed from the ballot. The winner, Morsi, polled last in the field of five before Egypt’s judiciary pruned the ballot. He ended up winning the election.by around 2 points. Morsi’s only remaining opponent, Ahmed Shafiq, had been an official in the Mubarak government.

President Morsi is setting a recognizable tone since his election. His first state visit was to Saudi Arabia. Now this. You would think he was auditioning for a seat on the Carlyle Group’s board.

In Brief: Worries over new Egyptian policy on medicines
Health Ministry to link medicine costs to prices abroad  Read the rest of this entry »

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Who guards the guardians? IMF and Standard and Poor’s

May 26

Posted by Michael Collins in Austerity, Big Money, Corruption, Financial Crisis | 1 Comment

By Michael Collins

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Standard and Poor’s are highly placed guardians of the world economy. IMF is supposed to teach developing nations how to be just like us, i.e., onerously indebted to the big banks. Standard and Poor’s is the keeper of the credit, ratings that ripple through the economy and impact hundreds of millions. Nobody elected these folks. They were begotten, not made.

After IMF finished helping Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya with privatization and free markets, those nations descended into chaos and they’re now broke, all of them, with lower living standards to boot. (See IMF Rates Up Dictatorships Just Before Revolutions)

When Standard and Poor’s (S&P) downgraded the credit rating of the United States, money stayed tight although Fed Chairman Bernanke said he was ignoring the change.

Who are these folks anyway?

IMF is headed by Christine Lagarde. (Image: WikiComons)  She is still under judicial investigation  for settling a law suit in favor of her boss’s pal. President Sarkozy appointed Lagarde as Finance Minister. When Sarkozy supporter Bernard Tapie lost a big court case to state owned bank Credit Lyonnais, Lagarde intervened and got the decision reversed.  Instead of losing the case, multimillionaire Tapie walking off with $280 million.

The vaunted S&P relies on integrity and competence. How can that stand after S&P agreed to a consent decreed when the Connecticut State Attorney General charged S&P with fraud in rating municipal bonds.   The company agreed to all sorts of corrections in their policies, essentially admitting guilt. As if that weren’t bad enough, Standard and Poor’s played a central role in the inflation and collapse of the real estate bubble. Quite a record!

How arrogant these guardians are. They are the ones in need of guarding.

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Eurozone just about 100 percent in favor of pro-growth strategy, dumping austerity

May 24

Posted by Michael Collins in Austerity, Eurozone | Comments off

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is like a phlegmatic dominatrix. She enjoys delivering pain, lots of it, but she does so in a sluggish fashion, without any flair.  She’s had a free ride for too long.  Now, her day has come.  Merkel is the last impediment to throwing austerity overboard in Europe and the United States.  Correction:  the last impediment to appearing to throw austerity overboard.

Obama gave up the rhetoric of austerity before the kickoff of his 2012 campaign.   His opening speech in Columbus, Ohio was so populist-infused; you might have thought he was campaigning against himself.

Newly elected President of France François Hollande arrived at the right time to lead the move away from austerity.  Andrew Grice of The Independent noted, “The French leader said the EU had to consider all ways to increase growth. And eurobonds are part of the discussion.”

British Prime Minister David Cameron is trying o get his approval numbers in double digits agaub.  He’s fallen back on the once powerless Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg to cooperate with Europe on a growth based program.

This came just a day after leftist leader Alexis Tsipras reached out to Europeans with this undeniable truth:

“The public debt crisis is hitting the south of Europe but it will soon hit central Europe. People have to realise that their own country could be threatened.

“We are here to explain to people in Europe that we have nothing against them. We are fighting the battle in Greece not just for the Greek people but for people in France, Germany and all European countries.”

“I am not here to blackmail, I am here to mobilise,” he said. Guardian, May 21

See:

Eurozone set to abandon Greece – and austerity, Andrew Grice, The Independent May 23

Greece debt creating healthcare crisis, warn chemists Helena Smith, Guardian, May 23

At some point, maybe these leaders will get really serious and talk about the horrendous impact of the derivatives market and how it needs to be abolished.

 

 

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‘Our imperative is to promote growth and jobs,’ G-8 Leaders

May 20

Posted by Michael Collins in Austerity, Big Money, G-8 | Comments off

By Michael Collins
So, now it’s an imperative to “promote growth.”

The joint statement (full text after the jump) from the G-8 meeting in Chicago documents the utter failure of the very leaders who issued it.  Were they capable leaders with the least knowledge of economic downturns, the statement would not be necessary.  Nevertheless, they deserve some credit for admitting their deficiencies.  Unfortunately, they have no serious solutions.  (Image Banksy)

The joint statement has some weasel words like “We commit to fiscal responsibility” to balance the urgent words about growth and jobs”.  That reflects the atavistic positions of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister David Cameron.  Merkel suffered a huge set back in the Westphalia  state elections with her Christian Democratic Party losing 25% to 50%.  Corporate media maintains that her popularity as a leader is higher than ever.

Her Scrooge faction comrade, PM Cameron is also pushing austerity.  Nobody can pretend that his polling is any better than his party.  The Conservatives were wiped out in local elections and Cameron is going down without a life jacket.

The closing paragraph is the give away.  The urgent need for growth must accommodate “the importance of intellectual property rights (IPR) to stimulating job and economic growth“  We will regulate our way out of this crisis by taking the Yellow Brick Road to oppressive copyright laws.  What a relief!  They’re serious. Read the rest of this entry »

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