Voodoo Economics

The banking dominoes will start falling by this summer ...

Rumor is Morgan Stanley - another Lehman Bros in size - has a LOT of exposure to European banks via derivatives. So if there is a run on the European banks - or they just go bust before a run - its 2008 all over again and time for another TARP. Why not? It worked the LAST time, right.

What do you call it when taxpayers are used to bail out Capitalism? Surely not Socialism or Communism and it most certainly cannot be called Capitalism. So that leaves Fascism - using middle class tax money to bail out the upper class as necessary to maintain the status quo ...

The way you get out of a deep recession or depression is spend, current policies of austerity just drive the economic ship into deeper water. And some of you want to drill more and bigger holes in the bottom, idiocy. We have had 35 plus years of voodoo economics, cutting taxes, running up ever greater deficits and we are to get out of it by cutting more taxes, more jobs, again idiocy. Running major wars while cutting taxes, reducing protections against bank speculations and other stupidity, all this is beyond idiocy - it verges on treason. These are in fact, acts of treason, in the name of big business and the criminal class of talking faces owned by their (the wealthy) think tanks and foundations. Ever since Reagan we have been told that if we cut taxes the economy would be the better for it, that the growth in wealth would trickle down, well it does not trickle - it goes to the wealthy and there it sits, more idiocy ...

So all you 'game show host' (Mitt Romney) supporters out there - be it now or a hundred years from now - the trickle will still be 'any day' now ... You have fallen for a con job, your head has run into the same wall over and over and you still believe that the Republicans help the economy ... This goes beyond idiocy into the realm of the moronic.

End the Fed

Those blaming the working class and the backbone of any economy for the economic woes of the country or for the world for that matter have no clue how money is created and used in our society.

Once a person understands the Federal Reserve and its fractional reserve banking system (if they have half a brain) know it is the most corrupt institution on the planet and it is by design a system that causes economies to fail.

These are the same people who have us playing the Democrat/Republican blame. They keep us in fear, divided, and distracted while they steal our wealth, civil liberties, and security. It is idiotic at best to think if we change parties in the White House that things will change. Our political system has turned into a two-headed one party system serving their masters the banksters/Federal Reserve and Wall Street.

Greece is in trouble like all countries who are tied into the Federal Reserve and their fractional reserve banking system. Greece's troubles started when Goldman Sachs helped them fudge their economic numbers to get into the Euro zone. They went off their currency the Drachma to the Euro which is part of the European Central Bank/Federal Reserve.

The Federal Reserve system is designed to cause economies to fail and be subservient to them. The Federal Reserve (a group of mostly European banksters) which is neither Federal nor a reserve creates money out of thin air and charges interest on it insuring a debtor economy. Who died and made them the lords of our currency? It was the Federal Reserve Act of 1913!

If someone loans you two dollars to run your economy and expects three back for the loan and interest how are you going to pay the third back? You can’t unless you borrow more dollars which puts you in perpetual debt and in a constant borrowing cycle to pay off the debt. This design is not accidental ...

Here’s the clincher - once the Federal Reserve/banksters have you struggling to pay off your interest, they send in their loan sharks - the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The IMF will loan you money to cover your ever-burdening interest payments but they attach a provision that if you default, you will have to give them your assets in what they call privatization (foreclosure).

Since the interest is exponential, you will default and the banksters will come in and try to foreclose on your country, like Greece (Spain is next ...) They are being told to sell off their own country to pay back the people who caused the mess to begin with. This allows the elite to steal your intrinsic valuable assets because they gave you paper (loans/debt) and the interest on the debt that is systematically impossible to pay back. It has been the corrupt political and business leaders who have made the decisions to allow this to happen. It’s all about greed, power, and corruption folks.

In the United States case, it doesn’t have to be that way. In our constitution, in Article 1, Section 8, it stipulates that we can 'coin money' as a nation and avoid the Federal Reserve’s interest (fee charged on loans) black hole.

The Federal Reserve has a 100 year charter and it is up in 2013. We have to stop these banksters from gaining an extension by our corrupt paid off politicians. If we can stop the extension, we will take control of our currency and our income taxes will drop dramatically! End the Fed!

Austerity Measures

Everyone in the financial sector knew that the austerity measures put in place by Greece, would not last, they were just buying time to try to force the Central Banks to come up with a new stimulus package; it did not materialize since all the central banks are tapped out, and any more stimulus will send inflation into the stratosphere. I mentioned in an older post there would be riots in the streets of Greece as a result of the austerity measures ... Greece will collapse into a monetary disaster within 6 months, followed by Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Italy ... Guess who is next?

"Euro zone paymaster Germany has warned there would be 'consequences' to an anti-bailout vote and the EU and IMF insist whoever wins the election must stick to austerity if they want to receive the aid that keeps Greece afloat."

So, the paymaster is demanding that Greece continue "austerity" measures that plunged the country into economic collapse? I don't blame the Greek people for being outraged just as Americans should be outraged at the Republican "austerity" political agenda.

The term "austerity" really means transfer of wealth from citizens to rich barons and corporations. It didn't work in Europe and it won't work in America. Just about any economist knows that you don't cut spending in a depression, quite the opposite is required to spur growth.

Here in America the only reason employment is still high is because Republican governors are cutting government jobs across the nation. The jobs report shows that private sector jobs have made a good rebound and the lackluster jobs numbers reflect steep job cuts in public jobs. This is part of an agenda to undermine government and the economy so they can turn around and blame Obama and the 1% can cash in, yet again.

Let Greece and the rest of Europe be a lesson for those that insist that cutting stimulus will somehow boost growth or cut the deficit - it will do the opposite.

The German banks loaned Greece money so they could afford to buy German products. Its not anybody's fault that THEY decided to scrape the bottom of the barrel for loans but THEIRS ... I hope Greece takes them for every mark they can and THEN goes bust. Why? Because, haven't you heard, greed is GOOD!

Bye Bye Sarkozy!

President Nicolas Sarkozy just told his supporters in an address that he called François Hollande to congratulate the Socialist candidate on his victory.

France has crowned Hollande as its first Socialist president in nearly two decades, marking a swing to the left at the heart of Europe and heralding a fight-back against German-led austerity.

Conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy, swamped by anger at a surge in unemployment during his five-year term, is the 11th euro zone leader to be swept away by the European economic crisis.

Homeless Greeks

The homeless begging in Greece ...

Since the first memorandum vote and the introduction of austerity measures, more and more people now live on the street. The number of desperate, unemployed, homeless and/or drug addicted people has increased. The economic crisis has become a social crisis ...

Greeks and French rise up!

You can push people only so far before they rise up ... What is remarkable about both the French and Greek elections is that people are voting against their parties. Greeks are voting for leftists parties because they have had it with the two parties who have been in power for over 50 years - New Democracy and PASOK. The French backed the socialist Hollande because they have had enough ...

Greeks hope Hollande will bring change in Europe. Not surprising since the German agenda is deeply unpopular across Europe. A 72-year old lady voted in both the French and Greek elections. "Enough is enough. There is too much austerity," 72-year old Maria said as she cast a ballot for Socialist Francois Hollande at the French consulate in Athens, before heading to a Greek polling station to back a leftist party.

Like many Greeks angered by the economic hardship imposed in exchange for an international bailout, the bi-national pensioner hopes Hollande will turn Europe away from a German-led agenda focused tightly on cutting debt.

That agenda made Germany extremely unpopular and pushed voters in Greece's parallel poll today away from the two biggest parties, which support the bailout, and towards a host of small groups opposing it.

Wouldn't it be nice to hear Hollande's first phonen call to Merkel!

Wall Street - All Eyes on European Elections

After Wall Street's worst week of the year, U.S. stock investors will now be taking a closer look at the election outcomes in Greece and France.

Markets worldwide have closely watched developments in Europe for the past several months, with calls for austerity seen as positive for stocks as they seek to prevent a credit crisis in the region that could take down or deeply hurt the global economic recovery.

But an economic slowdown throughout the region has resulted in a change of direction.

Hollande's win now is a hurdle to the German-led drive for austerity in Europe. The French voters have spoken ...

French Elections 2012

Flunked Euro history? Maybe we will relive it - Golden Dawn leader Michaloliakos warns: "Be afraid, we're coming." The fascists are coming to France too ...

Breaking News: Hollande beats Sarkozy by 51.9 percent to 48.1 percent in French runoff vote: Harris Institute Projection ...

Socialist Francois Hollande can expect a left-wing parliamentary majority. Why? Because the far-right National Front has shaken Nicolas Sarkozy's conservative UMP party to its foundations!

Voters will grant Hollande a working majority in legislative elections on June 10 and 17, as they have each time a new president has been installed.

Sarkozy's UMP party, the dominant force in French politics for a decade, cracked under pressure from a resurgent far-right as factions feud over whether to shun or embrace backers of Marine Le Pen's anti-immigration National Front (FN).

Xenophobia in France ... It's amazing how history has a way of repeating itself.

Panic in the streets of Greece ... Panic in the streets of France ...

Golden Dawn (Nea Avgi) - 1936 again?

I came, I saw, I beat the shit out of anyone who looked different. Veni, videi, vici screams Golden Dawn leader in press conference ... Shame on you shithead. Xenophobia is introduced in my beloved country. The circus has come to town in Greece ...

(3 May 2012: Waiting at a bus stop in the center of Athens, an African immigrant looks at the political advertisement of one of the two far right parties.)

Entry of neofascist Golden Dawn into Parliament is a shock but was not entirely unexpected. With a 50% unemployment rate in Greece among 18 to 54 year olds what did they expect?

So the Neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party is set to get 14-23 seats in Greece's 300 seat parliament. The biggest shock is SYRIZA beating PASOK into 2nd place and likely to make a New Democracy - PASOK coalition government a no-no ... If there is no clear outcome, Greece has until May 17th to form an interim government or call a second election.

What I find very troubling though is that half of Europe is blaming foreigners for it's troubles. It was wrong in 1936 when Hitler came to power and it's wrong in 2012. History is repeating itself again ...

We will have to see what happens in Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Italy. The euro and EU are going down when Spain goes bust so why not get out now and start anew sooner rather than later. Rumor has it a Spain default is inevitable as their banks get downgraded and tax revenues fall further due to recession, austerity measures and deflation.

At this point, Greece's election is an indication of what's in the horizon for pro-austerity parties across Europe.

Looking forward to the results of France's election (the numbers) ... bye-bye Sarkozy!!!

Greek Elections 2012

It's now just after 5 pm in Greece and within a couple of hours the voting will have finished and the first exit polls will be published. Unlike many other elections the outcome of today's vote is far from clear. The largest party is most likely to be the conservative New Democracy with about 20-25%. This is in sharp contrast to the 2009 national elections in which New Democracy and PASOK got the lion share of the vote with 78% combined, reflecting the stranglehold they have had over power since the late 70's.

(A rally for the candidate of the New Democracy party, Antonis Samaras, who is likely to head a coalition government as prime minister.)

Our Greek flag held by thousands of Greeks at New Democracy rallies. Where is the Greek flag at the leftist rallies?

On the other hand many other smaller parties are picking up support from disgruntled New Democracy/PASOK voters and that is really the joker in the pack, threatening to overturn the political status quo that was created in the aftermath of the fall of brutal Regime of the Colonels in 1974. Some parties such as the rightist Independent Greeks are new creations whilst others such as the Neo-Nazi Golden Dawn have a longer, if more savage lineage, either way they are attracting votes at a rate that would have been inconceivable even a couple of years ago.

On the left of the spectrum the old school communist party KKE has gained ground as have other leftist parties such as The Radical Left (SYRIZA) and the newly minted Democratic Left with some estimates saying their combined share of the vote may pass 40%. The one thing that unites such disparate groups is their opposition to the austerity package imposed by Greece's creditors, however what else could possibly bring them together remains a mystery.

I'm going to put my money where my mouth is and say that I believe that the polls will produce a three party coalition government including PASOK, New Democracy and possibly Independent Greeks party. I base this prediction on nothing more than a hunch and past experience of Greek politics. The thing to remember when analyzing politics in Greece is that ideological labels often count for little when power is concerned and so a coalition will be based on mutually aligned interests rather than political overlap.

If such an alliance does take power I believe that it is destined to fall apart as the political cost of yet more job cuts and tax hikes takes its toll. So quite possibly Greece will be going to the polls once more before September.

Getting By

We stuff our credit cards deeper into the drawer. We lose our jobs and call it "going freelance." We lie to our parents and tell them we still have health insurance. We see protesters mingle with people who have been without a home or a job for a long time - a really long time - and we wonder if they're on the same spectrum. We don't ask that question out loud. We respect that everyone has a side hustle. A side hustle to the side hustle. Survival, we come to realize, is its own form of activism. We buy less crap. We make dinner at home. We hold out hope that our projects will become paychecks. We share. We rely on each other. We get through it together.