The depth of the current economic crisis is leading many people to favour a form of governance that would place economic and political life under the trusteeship of international organisations. Barack Obama’s new cabinet, which is made up of those responsible for the crisis, will ensure the ascendancy of financial interests. In the meantime no one is calling for the people to have power in the monetary sphere. The result is that democracy is being killed by financial power.
A new world order has been in the making for quite some time and is now becoming “inevitable”. Many a politician and economist are quick to say that great sacrifices are called for, and that any “reasonable” person will see that suffering and hardship are “necessary.”
The crisis that is currently affecting our lives is behind this global shift. The slow fire has moved from real estate, to banking and finances, and is now reaching industry, agriculture and the whole economy. From the heartland in the United States it is reverberating outward touching the entire world.
The fear of a domino effect and its potential for economic, political and social upheavals and the fear of widespread anarchy will provide the necessary tools to install this new order, which for most people will appear as the only possible outcome. The act of governing will change as a world body will be in charge the financial, economic and tax systems. Police, prisons and private relations inside and outside the family will come under its purview, so will national sovereignty of the peoples and the right to express opinions that are different from those of the single thought of relativism, which will be seen as the only solution that is available and desirable.
The G20 and the New World Order
Until a few decades ago such a new world order would have been anathema, a nightmare, a first step towards a worldwide dictatorship. Now world leaders will be praised when they show concern for the well-being of the earth’s peoples and social groups at a time of difficulties. Of course, this is what we will hear, and very soon too, in terms more unambiguous that we might think now. This said, new rules, a new Bretton Woods, are not anything new; discussions have been going on for some time. Perhaps the next G20 summit on 15 November will be a time when the “miracle” cure is found, one that will entail a world central bank that regulates a single currency of account and its relationship to local currencies.
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After a short lesson and a quick diagnosis of the current problems, during which G20 participants will hear that “it was all the fault of Bush’s brainless laissez-faire advocates,” the same people responsible for the current crisis will supply the treatment for putting things right.
All we have to do is see who funded the most expensive presidential campaign in the former US superpower (more than a billion dollars at a time of great recession). As always some have bet on both horses just to be on the safe side. As we know Barack Obama pulled it off, money-wise too, almost twice as much as the Republican candidate. In addition to traditional sectors like show business, media, academe, education, information technology and the Internet, hedge funds, law firms (closely linked to the world of creative financial mediation) and private equity funds have bankrolled the new president’s campaign.”
In order to change nothing, the appearance of everything has to change. In fact, only the surface had to change a bit; the new president’s darker skin. For everything else, it was business as usual. Indeed the cabinet of the new president is made up of the same, reckless people. Let’s see! We have Larry Summers, Tim Geithner and Robert Rubin who have been short-listed for the Treasury Department; all of whom are extreme laissez-faire advocates who believe in an unfettered financial system, enemies of the Glass-Steagall Act. They are same people who swapped jobs at the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, Clinton Administration; played sidekicks for Alan Greenspan and Ben Shalom Bernanke, or at the headquarters of Federal Reserve Bank of New York (Geithner); that is the same people who masterminded events before and after the current crisis.
Old faces in Obama’s new government
Obama picked Rahm Emanuel to be his chief of staff, a man whose career straddled politics and Wall Street’s great financial groups. But there is more to his case. Not only his father was a member of the Irgun but he holds Israeli citizenship, has fought for Israel and represents that country’s armed forces. He also endorsed Obama before the leadership of the AIPAC, a US Zionist organisation that is also funded by the State of Israel and which has recently been involved in espionage cases. In Israel many view Rahm as “our man in the White House.”
Based on this perhaps the choice between the two candidates was not really equal. See-sawing in the polls for quite a while after an apparent jump, buoyed by the war in Georgia, the Republican camp saw its fortunes nosedive after President Bush refused in late August to provide Israel’s air force refuelling aircrafts for a long range mission, in effect vetoing an attack against Iran. Starting with oil, the prices of primary commodities began dropping a few days later, negatively affecting investment banks, which had bet on high prices to compensate for losses in the home mortgage market, thus throwing the world’s stock markets into a tailspin in early September.
Democracy and money
From all of the above it is clear that an Obama presidency will not change how the financial crisis will be handled. On the contrary, it will strengthen the trend to protect large institutions and industries at the expense of small enterprises and the man and woman of the street who voted for him. It is quite obvious that the G20 summit in Washington will not affect the central issue of the present financial and economic crisis (and the many preceding crises of modernity and post-modernity), i.e. sovereignty and system legitimacy.
In today’s world the only political regime that is considered fully legitimate in political and economic terms is democracy. Many wars have been fought to spread democracy and in democracy, by definition, the people are sovereign. However, if a highly developed and complex democracy like that of the United States can be guided (in the sense that voters are left with the illusion that they can choose when in fact their choices like in a supermarket are shaped by marketing, political marketing that is) by those with deep pockets, the legitimacy of the system no longer lies in the consent of the people since the latter goes to the highest bidder. Hence money becomes the basis of consent and power in a democracy.
There is nothing new in all this but the crucial point is that printing money is a sovereign act and is governed by laws. A creditor cannot refuse payment in money that has legal tender and demand instead payment according to his or her wish (gold, silver or what not) if he or she has not negotiated it beforehand. Those who control the money supply through ad hoc rules can favour some over others.
Thus the paradox of modern democracy is that a sovereign people (through its supposed representatives, parliaments, heads of state and government) have de facto no power or right over the US Federal reserve (or the European Central Bank) with regards to such an important sovereign act.
In order to protect the public and avoid political interference printing money has been privatised and placed beyond public control. Through its representatives the sovereign cannot be trusted and thus is not sovereign. Few know that the US Federal Reserve was established under private law; the same is true for the Bank of Italy and many other central banks.
November 15th, 2008 at 1:48 am
The only way we will stop these people is to help the indigenous peoples worldwide to file criminal charges on genocides, theft of resources and seize each countries assets and money while they go to court for non payment of land claims and treaties along with figuring out the interest owned by all companies that have made money from their resources and lands.
Maybe the bad karma would end and we can all live in peace and harmoney without the control of Government control by the corporations and the CFR’s intent on controling the global economy.
Obama will be worse than Bush. The avian flu pandemic preparedness and man made virus was launched by Obama (also guilty of insider trading) and backed by bush to the tune of 7.9+ billion dolars in 2005 – Now, who was in bed with Bush huh?
How sad that people couldn’t see it coming!
November 15th, 2008 at 2:43 am
Kenya is the greatest country in the world…where else can a man born in an African village grow up to be the President of the United States of America.
November 15th, 2008 at 7:15 am
I heard that Bretton Woods took about two years to draft. Let’s see how quickly they roll out this new system. The speed at which they do this will speak volumes as to how much foreknowlege they had.
November 15th, 2008 at 8:05 am
“Kenya is the greatest country in the world…where else can a man born in an African village grow up to be the President of the United States of America.”
“If something sounds too good to be true – it usually is.”
Sorry mate.
November 15th, 2008 at 5:48 pm
Rob, you’re an idiot, Barack Obama was born in Hawaii NOT Kenya. Get your facts straight moron, if he was born in Kenya he could not even run for office!
November 15th, 2008 at 6:36 pm
Economic Collapse: The Financial Death of the US Empire
Doug Bandow
The American empire is kaput. Neither John McCain nor Barack Obama realizes that fact yet, but the myth of the omnipotent unipower, the essential nation, the country which declares that what it says goes, has been exposed to all. The Iraq debacle sullied Washington’s reputation, but did not destroy the illusion of American indispensability. Assorted politicians, like McCain and Obama, promised to restore US primacy, either through more bluster or better diplomacy. But the financial crash has wrecked the economic basis of America’s imperial pretentions. Washington simply can’t afford to attempt to run the world any longer.
The US stock market has dropped 2500 points in 9 days. Trillions of dollars in wealth disappeared as the Dow lost six years worth of growth. The Bush administration and Congress have tossed ever increasing amounts of money at failing firms, hoping to appease the economic gods, rather as the ancient Canaanites sacrificed children to Baal. But the markets refuse to be appeased, and financial contagion has circled the globe.
Even before the economic crisis spiraled out of control, the US government was effectively broke. The national debt currently stands at $9.8 trillion, up $4 trillion (about 72 percent) since George W. Bush took office. With the pre-bail-out federal deficit in 2009 expected to hit a half trillion dollars, earlier this year Congress upped the debt ceiling to $10.6 trillion. But truly frightening are the many liabilities yet to come due. Uncle Sam is an extraordinary wastral and soft touch, like the person who cosigns notes for relatives, buys rounds of drinks for his friends, and promises everyone he knows that he’ll take care of them.
The federal government makes loans and loan guarantees for most any purpose known to man or woman – education, energy research, housing, agricultural land, airlines, veterans, and more. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation is billions of dollars short of the reserves necessary to cover expected bank losses. Washington is on the hook for generous pensions for its own workers as well as billions of dollars in guarantees of pensions for private workers whose companies fail. Then there’s Medicare and Social Security, which together have an unfunded liability – that is, promised benefits exceeding expected revenues – of more than $100 trillion. No one knows where the money is going to come from to pay all of these bills, but that hasn’t stopped Congress from continuing to expand benefits. In 2003 the Republican Congress and Republican president created the Medicare drug benefit without bothering to figure out how to pay for it, adding trillions of dollars more to the system’s unfunded liabilities.
Now the government’s liabilities are going up again, as Congress and the administration spend wildly in an attempt to revitalize the economy. Indeed, the administration and Congress apparently are prepared to bankrupt America to save American business. So far this year they have spent: $850 billion for the Wall Street bailout plus the financial “sweeteners” needed to buy enough votes for passage; $300 billion to bail out the housing industry largely through the Federal Housing Administration; $200 billion in Federal Reserve loans to commercial banks; $200 billion (and probably more) to bail out and essentially nationalize the political piggy banks Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac; $144 billion or more to buy mortgage-backed securities through Fannie and Freddie (yes, the same entities being bailed out by Uncle Sam because of their past purchases of bad debt); $87 billion to repay JPMorgan Chase for financing Lehman Brothers trades; $85 billion for a loan to bail out and effectively nationalize insurer American International Group; $50 billion to guarantee money market funds; $37.8 billion in a second loan to AIG, $29 billion to finance the buyout of Bear Stearns; $25 billion in loans to the auto industry, which continues to sink as demand for cars falls; $10 billion in direct Treasury Department purchases of mortgage-backed securities; $4 billion in mortgage community grants.
That’s $2 trillion, which is real money even in Washington. It’s even more to the American people, running about $18,000 per household. Some, and hopefully much, of that money eventually will be repaid. But don’t hold your breath. And the bailouts aren’t over. Just two business days after Congress approved the $700 billion buy of bad securities and any other assets desired by the Treasury Secretary, the Federal Reserve announced that it may purchase unsecured short-term corporate debt. If so, the Fed will be directly lending to the firms in the biggest financial trouble with no security; we all know how that is likely to end. Moreover, the Treasury Department says it wants to “directly strengthen the balance sheet of individual institutions” by acting like a common investor and buying an equity stake in companies. Treasury also is considering taking a formal ownership position in US banks, giving them cash directly. The Fed then cut interest rates, even though its ongoing policy of cheap, easy money is one of the primary causes of the boom that just went bust.
As Congress and the president continue to pile debt upon debt, America’s financial problems will cascade. In May the Congressional Budget Office warned: “Budget deficits that grow faster than the economy ultimately become unsustainable. As the government attempts to finance its interest payments by issuing more debt, the rise in deficits accelerates. That, in turn, leads to a vicious circle in which the government issues ever-larger amounts of debt in order to pay ever-higher interest charges. In the end, the costs of servicing the debt outstrip the economic resources available for financing those expenditures. At some point, then, policy has to change: Taxes must be raised, spending must be reduced, or both.”
With the post-bailout 2009 budget deficit now expected to run around one trillion dollars, Uncle Sam may soon have to worry about who is going to buy all of this debt. Will the Chinese continue purchasing securities from a financially irresponsible entity that keeps adding obligations with no obvious means of paying? Will Americans want to take on the increasingly risky paper? Will they be able to afford to do so?
Earlier this year – before the tsunami of federal bailouts covering anyone even walking near Wall Street – Moody’s Investors Services announced that it was considering downgrading federal bonds, citing the government’s failure to fund Social Security and Medicare. “These two programs are the largest threats to the long-term financial health of the United States and to the governments’ AAA rating,” Moody’s Vice President Steven Hess explained. Tom Lemmon, also of Moody’s, warned that “the underlying credit rating of the US government faces the risk of downgrading in the next ten years if solutions are not found to our growing Medicare and Social Security unfunded obligations.” Lowering the investment rating for US debt would hike federal expenditures even more.
As credit dries up and the US economy stalls, how can Washington continue to engage in social engineering the world over? The Iraq war continues. Nearly $600 billion so far has been wasted on Bush’s folly, and the total cost will exceed $2 trillion, according to the Congressional Budget Office, and maybe $3 trillion or even more, if Joseph Stiglitz’s and Linda Bilmes’s numbers come true. Getting out now would cut the expense, but many of the costs are impossible to escape, such as the expense of caring for America’s grievously wounded, which will stay with us throughout their lifetimes.
Then there are Washington’s other military activities. America accounts for roughly half of the globe’s military outlays. The US maintains nearly 800 military bases and other facilities around the world. In 2009 Uncle Sam will be spending roughly $515 billion on “normal” military operations – more, in real terms, that at any time since World War II. That means Americans now are spending more per year to patrol the globe than they spent to fight the Cold War, Korean War, and Vietnam War.
But that’s not including Iraq and Afghanistan, which together cost roughly $12 billion a month. Toss in those costs and include some money for unexpected contingencies, and we’re talking $700 billion. That’s the amount of the Wall Street bailout, but an expense that will continue year after year.
It’s one thing to act like the global dominatrix when the country is living on easy street, enjoying record economic growth and government revenue. But as the economy is crashing and Uncle Sam will soon have to visit the equivalent of global loan sharks to finance its operations, the time for the pretention of international hegemony is over.
Why are over-burdened US taxpayers expected to defend the Europeans, who have a larger collective economy and population, from nonexistent threats? Yes, the government in Moscow has an ugly edge, but Vladimir Putin is not the reincarnation of Joseph Stalin and there will be no Red Army dash through Germany and France and on to the Atlantic. And if that was a possibility, then why shouldn’t the Europeans sacrifice a little more of their abundant wealth to defend against it? In fact, with the financial crisis hitting Europe as well, military spending there is likely to drop. Observed Mark Stoker of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, “I can’t see defense is going to escape any kind of austerity measures. It would be very difficult for any government to justify cutting health and education in favor of, say, building two aircraft carriers and buying a load of planes to stick on them.” Surely the US shouldn’t be subsidizing Europe if those nations spend even less on their own defense. What they spend for the military obviously is their decision to make, but they should bear the full consequences of whatever decision they do make.
Even worse, why should Washington take on the role of protecting former pieces of the Soviet Union and even the Russian empire? We should wish the Baltic States, Georgia, and Ukraine well. But they never counted as a security interest to America. Just how much US money and blood should be spent to guarantee Georgia’s right to supress secessionists and settle a century-old feud to its satisfaction? If Europe believes this to be an important goal, wonderful. Let the Europeans spend the money and take the risks necessary to make it happen.
It is equally nonsensical for America to continue subsidizing the defense of Japan, which has the second or third largest economy in the world, depending on the measure used. Yet it spends less than one percent of its GDP on defense, a quarter of America’s burden. The ongoing economic crisis is a good time to tell Tokyo: you’re a big country now, so defend yourself and your region.
The same goes for South Korea. It possesses one of the largest economies in the world and has 40 times the GDP of its decrepit northern antagonist. A majority of younger South Koreans say they fear America more than North Korea. Why are nearly 26,000 US troops still on station there? Bring them home and demobilize them, while the Republic of Korea takes over responsibility for its own defense. South Korea has matured. It should act like it and take on “adult” international responsibilities.
Finally, it’s time for Washington to give up on nation-building. Social engineering is difficult enough at home. It’s well-nigh impossible for outsiders, especially naïve and ignorant – even if well-intentioned – Americans, to transcend history, tradition, geography, religion, ethnicity, and culture to remake other societies. Iraq has been a catastrophe. We’ve been trying to fix Haiti for more than a century. Arresting warlords in Somalia was one of Washington’s dumbest ideas. Neither Bosnia nor Kosovo are real countries, despite years of American attention.
And, to be perfectly blunt, who cares if they become real countries? We should be concerned about the mistreatment of people everywhere. But Washington has demonstrated no competence in setting foreign nations right, and ivory tower humanitarians have no right to risk the lives of our brave servicemen and women in the name of a glorious crusade for democracy in Mesopotamia, the Balkans, Caribbean, Africa, or anywhere else. War truly must be a last resort, which means no resort at all unless American society truly is at risk in some fundamental way. No wars of choice or convenience, no matter how easy and cheap they appear likely to be.
The American economy will eventually recover from its current trauma. But the myth of US omnipotence likely is shattered forever. Over the last six years the US has tossed away its moral superiority, diplomatic indispensability, and military infallibility. Now it has lost its economic security. Washington is broke, having made a succession of financial promises the country can ill afford to cover.
There was never a good time for empire. But if there ever was a good time, it has passed. Instead of attempting to micro-manage global affairs, America should again become a normal country, strong enough to protect itself, but no longer claiming responsibility for maintaining global security, stability, and prosperity. Doing so isn’t possible, at least at an affordable price.
Empire isn’t worth the risk to American society or the lives of American military personnel. It certainly isn’t worth the cost, especially at a time of economic crisis. Let us make John Quincy Adams’ apt dictum the lodestar of our new foreign policy: America “goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own.”
November 15th, 2008 at 6:40 pm
Remember Vitamin C has anti-viral properties when take in doses over 2 Grams or 2000 mg.
It can be taken from 1-12gram until you go too high and get the runs.
There are over three hundred known enzyme systems for which vitamin C is essential for healthy functioning. Vitamin C is a powerful free radical getter and chelating agent for heavy metals, i.e. lead, arsenic, cadmium, and mercury. As if all this was not enough it is also a powerful anti- viral and anti-bacterial agent. As a matter of fact it should be the “drug” of choice of an enlightened medical profession. Instead it has been maligned, persecuted and suppressed by what passes in America as good competent medical professionals, as exemplified by AMA doctors. To prove my above stated claims of vitamin C being a anti-viral and anti-bacterial agent par excellent we need look no further than the work of Dr. Fred R. Klenner, M.D., former chief of staff at Memorial Hospital in Reidsville, North Carolina.
Read the rest:
rifeenergymedicineDOTcom/vitaminc.html
November 15th, 2008 at 9:48 pm
Hey Transduction, #5.
You must only get your news from the controlled main stream media. So you haven’t heard a single word about the ongoing litigation over Obama’s refusal to produce a Long form Certified (with raised seal and signed) Birth Certificate.
No one can get a passport or your 1st drivers license without one. So he now can become President without a Constitutional verification??? What’s that about.??
I guess you’re right. The Constitution is now only a shredded forgotten historical document. I think W Bush put that in one of his signing statements.
If American’s don’t wake up right now, and take action, we’re all done; stick a fork in and see.!!
November 15th, 2008 at 11:34 pm
So everyone is saying the end is near, so what is the solution to a world organization that has its hands in almost everything? I have yet to see anyone come up with any solutions, other than stockpile food and go hide in the mountains.
November 16th, 2008 at 2:24 am
no. 9 i suggest ‘laughing at the emperors new clothes’,don’t fight with each other or enemies,a campain of laughing at the elites and stupid laws so that the people who are not aware of the situation can join in as well all on the same side, till awareness spreads,it sounds feble but if we all try to fight using ‘their’way of fighting ‘they’ are prepared 4 it,and ready to knock us out one by one legaly[by using anti -terriost laws and cops/military.
November 17th, 2008 at 9:42 am
Good News! I have this great link for you:
http://www.ballot-access.org/2.....igibility/
If the question of Obama being “natural born” is even considered, he is sunk. He has no vault birth certificate, and his own relatives in Africa have already said he was born in Kenya. He cannot prove he was “natural born” as required by the US Constitution, Article II, Section 1!
Obama is therefore ineligible to be President.
The Truth is Kreep’ing forward.