Triumviri Mensari Imperia
"Only a madman or an economist could believe in infinite growth in a finite system." - Kenneth Boulding
Is it just me, or did we not just narrowly avoid a complete failure of the global market economy? Yet the corporate incest we call news media, the same outlets that were just trumpeting the end of the world as we know it, now refer us to the global 'recession'. Certainly the thousands who have lost their homes, jobs and savings must be insulted by newspeak euphemisms like 'adjustment' and 'downturn'? Didn't we all see "The Wizard", as former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan is known, pulling the levers that control the smoke and mirrors of market capitalism?! The Orwellian doublethink of Central Bank intervention in "free" markets, as proselytized by the pope of deregulation himself, seemed once and for all exposed as heresy. They must be putting something in the water; how else is it possible that things are already back to business as usual... even while the banks continue to fall, more quietly granted, but
without ceasing.
In the '90s, amid the wilderness of token regulatory bodies like the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, there emerged a prophetess of profit. Brooksley Born, then chair of the CFTC, began to preach against what she called a “dark market” of derivatives. So called hedges, bets, swaps and other arcane instruments with names evocative more of gambling than finance, were being exploited in a rigged casino game of high-stakes and perverse profit. Born descried a covert market totally unregulated, not traded on exchanges, without records or official reporting of any kind.... carte-blanche for black-box derivative trading. Not surprisingly, with 5 lobbyists for every congressman in the federal financial sector, a brief inquisition was held and Born was excommunicated from Whitewash-ington.
Six weeks later, LTCM's John Meriwether, head alchemist responsible for converting 500 million into a trillion-dollar golden hedge, soon saw his wizard hat turn into a dunce cap when the titanic fund started turning into lead. Losses of 50 million dollars a day soon got the attention of the 15 banks duped into thinking they were the belle of the ball, in what turned out to be just another capitalist gangbang. The President's Working Group, a sort of star chamber of finance created by Reagan, also noticed and formed a Crisis Group which identified the 'systemic risk'. The system in question, of course, was no less than the US economy. Worried that the first domino had toppled, the cabal of elite geniuses first did nothing; for four days. They then brilliantly suggested that the banks bail themselves out...which they did. Crisis averted. That was 1998!
Even the over-lobbied congress seemed alarmed by this near monetary meltdown. So Greenspan, Robert Rubin and Larry Summers stirred the magic commerce cauldron and came up with a Great Depression anti-formula. Rather than implementing the safeguards based on lessons learned from 1931, they conversely argued that they should be completely subverted and actually used as a reverse template: there should be NO transparency, NO capital reserve requirements, NO regulation on intermediaries, NO prohibition on manipulation and NO prohibition on fraud. They arrogantly insisted that the 'invisible hand' of market regulation, continue to be allowed to deal secrecy, impunity, manipulation and FRAUD into the money game.
No wonder the pseudo-science of economics is thought to be complicated. I, for one, do not have a mind capable of resolving such paradox. Maybe, like Greenspan, you have to be an acolyte of Ayn Rand to grasp such mysteries?
By 2007, the sleight-of-hand sub prime crisis and other forms of hot-potato fund management (Credit Default Swaps...etc) precipitated another Chernobyl of capital. Though, by then it was 600 times worse. Literally. The same unchecked grotesquery of greed and hubris had been allowed to reach 595 trillion dollars. This time the failing banks, brokers, trusts and investment houses couldn't bail themselves out. So, in the hopeless, opposite-world logic of 'reward the wicked and punish the victims', generations of working taxpayers will be forced to carry this cross of debt.
Greenspan, conveniently after retiring, recanted in a stunning public admission that his 50yr career and entire world view were based on a fallacy. Tragically, not all of his zealots have joined him in his reformation; Rubin went on to 'earn' 126 million dollars in compensation... for applying the same ideological wrecking-ball to Citibank. Larry Summers is a high-level economic adviser to Obama! Present high priests, the current chair of the CFT commission, the Federal Reserve chairman and Treasury Secretary were drawn right from the same laissez-faire cult that oversaw the '08 abomination; deregulation devotees and champions of corporate capitalism, all.
Sometimes, all you can do is listen to the blood pound in your temples when trying to rationalize insanity.
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"It's a Hanukkah miracle" -Israeli settler
It may not be possible for most of us to understand the level of animosity and open hostility required to describe the death of innocents, including children, as a holiday gift from god. However, it may serve to illuminate the mind-set of Zionists willing to give their government a mandate to bomb UN schools being used as sanctuary for non-combatants.
Ron Prosor, Israeli ambassador to the UK, recently conducted himself with commendable restraint and dignity during a difficult interview on Hardtalk (BBC). But despite his impressive demeanor, or perhaps because of it, I found his argument chilling and maddening. He repeatedly stressed the concept of defense to explain the ongoing bombardment of Gaza. It took only 6 days in 1967 to gain control of the Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights, but the current strike is in its 11th day. I suppose his motto must be "the best defense is a good offence." Hey, it worked so well in Lebanon against Hezbollah right?
According to The Guardian, "In the fighting 1,200 Lebanese and 158 Israelis were killed. Of the dead almost 1,000 Lebanese and 41 Israelis were civilians."[78]
The euphemistic language and justifications were exactly the same then, in 2006, when Lebanese refugees were killed in a UN base in Qana. Sorry, that was a mistake, they were firing rockets from that location, we don't target civilians, it's the militants' fault...etc. The result of Israel's military solution? Hezbollah is, arguably, stronger than before the invasion and certainly more galvanized and determined. "some people" refuse to live peacefully in the region
I doubt anyone denies Israel's right of defense, but there is something to be said for the punishment suiting the crime, yet the scale of the offensive currently pummeling Gaza is seemingly grotesque. Tony Blair, the Quartet's (Russia, EU, UN, US) Special Envoy called the situation on the ground "hell".
So I bristle at the ambassador's 'diplomatic' language in describing the worsening humanitarian crisis . Of innocent casualties his explanation was "inevitable", continuing with the reasoning that the people who voted for Hamas have a "price tag to pay". Since when are populations who democratically elect a government subject to collective punishment for that government's actions? To follow that logic to its absurd reduction, we would include a convicted murderer's family, friends and neighbors in the punitive death sentence. Israel is, by definition (UN member state), held to higher account than so-called terrorist organizations like Hamas, yet they seek to justify terrorism many-times the ferocity and destructiveness of anything they have suffered."War is not nice...War creates bad pictures."
What appears to be happening is a familiar pattern: Israel is getting its licks in and expanding while it can, resisting international law, outrage and cries for an immediate ceasefire as long as possible, to achieve its stated aim. In this case, "weakening" Hamas. To strengthen Mahmoud Abbas and Fatah, presumably. I guess all this hellishness is somehow meant to discourage, or kill, the more radical voters and encourage, by not killing, the moderates. Tzipi Livni, Israeli Foreign Minister, recently blamed the violence on "some people" who just refuse to live peacefully in the region. So we'll bomb and shoot them until they do, she might have continued paradoxically.
That should work as well as it always has.
In the end, there will be no independent investigation and, for the most part, we will be left to guess about most details, as "unprofessional" foreign journalists (Danny Seaman, Israeli government Press Secretary) are not being allowed to cover the attacks. Maybe that's because, as ambassador Prosor said, "War is not nice...War creates bad pictures."
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Pro-rogues, Knaves and Other NeoCon Cads
Wow, just as I was going into withdrawal from the end of the US election, the Canadian political scene erupts in fireworks. And it's not July 1st!
Stephen Harper, seeking to avoid the opposition calling his bluff on yet another confidence motion, is asking the Governor General to adjourn parliament and end the current session. The same PM who ignored his own fixed date for the last election and asked for
that parliament to be dissolved hoping to consolidate power with a shiny new majority, this time would see the constitution twisted into a Möbius strip by his ambition. What else will he willing to do in order to avoid playing nice with the 62% of opposition MPs?
Not surprisingly, the opposition to the current minority government has tired of the my-way-or-the-highway style of governance; making every vote in the House a confidence issue, parliament has finally lost its patience
and confidence.
During the 2 hours Harper met with the GG, and while a ludicrous handful of his own
staffers posed as protesters outside his office, there was an interview with John Baird, Minister of Transport, by Don Newman. What a guilty pleasure it was to see Mr. Newman fairly spank Baird during their contentious conversation. To see a journalist ballsy enough to be so frank with a politician to his face, and to insist on honest answers in return, well, it was electrifying. Baird, besides being exposed as ignorant or misleading of the coalition agreement, resorted to jingoist talking points like "separatism" and the "Bloc on the government side" of the House, but was relentlessly called to account on his errors and evasions by a determined Newman. It is yet to be seen what fallout there will be as a result of Baird's more controversial remarks regarding "going over the heads" of fellow parliamentarians and the Governor General.
So despite claiming that the main reason is the economy, Harper has had parliament prorogued for the next several weeks, crisis or no crisis. Having lost the trust of parliament, the Conservative party will campaign aggressively for the opinion of the Canadian people directly. In doing so, will we be exposed to weeks of propaganda only to see the inevitable postponed for the holidays? And what kind of precedent has been set for future PMs with majority aspirations and minority status? In the short term, if the consumer contact sport of Christmas is not to your liking, there should be no shortage of rough and tumble state craft to cheer-on 'til the new year.
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Is it just me, or did we not just narrowly avoid a complete failure of the global market economy? Yet the corporate incest we call news media, the same outlets that were just trumpeting the end of the world as we know it, now refer us to the global 'recession'. Certainly the thousands who have lost their homes, jobs and savings must be insulted by newspeak euphemisms like 'adjustment' and 'downturn'? Didn't we all see "The Wizard", as former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan is known, pulling the levers that control the smoke and mirrors of market capitalism?! The Orwellian doublethink of Central Bank intervention in "free" markets, as proselytized by the pope of deregulation himself, seemed once and for all exposed as heresy. They must be putting something in the water; how else is it possible that things are already back to business as usual... even while the banks continue to fall, more quietly granted, but without ceasing.
Even the over-lobbied congress seemed alarmed by this near monetary meltdown. So Greenspan, Robert Rubin and Larry Summers stirred the magic commerce cauldron and came up with a Great Depression anti-formula. Rather than implementing the safeguards based on lessons learned from 1931, they conversely argued that they should be completely subverted and actually used as a reverse template: there should be NO transparency, NO capital reserve requirements, NO regulation on intermediaries, NO prohibition on manipulation and NO prohibition on fraud. They arrogantly insisted that the 'invisible hand' of market regulation, continue to be allowed to deal secrecy, impunity, manipulation and FRAUD into the money game.
