Ill Fares the Land

A gift to the next generation of engaged citizens, from one of our most celebrated intellectuals. 

As the economic collapse of 2008 made clear, the social contract that defined postwar life in Europe and America-the guarantee of security, stability, and fairness-is no longer guaranteed; in fact, it's no longer part of the common discourse. Tony Judt, one of our leading historians and thinkers, offers the language we need to address our common needs, rejecting the nihilistic individualism of the far Right and the debunked socialism of the past. In reintroducing alternatives to the status quo, Judt invigorates our political conversation, furnishing the tools necessary to imagine a new form of governance and a better way of life.
http://www.amazon.com/Ill-Fares-Land-Tony-Judt/dp/0143118765/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1347764897&sr=8-1&keywords=ill+fares+the+land

Tony Robert Judt, FBA (/dʒʌt/ jut; 2 January 1948 – 6 August 2010)^[1] was a British historian, essayist, and university professor who specialized in European history. Judt moved to New York and served as the Erich Maria Remarque Professor in European Studies at New York University, and Director of NYU's Erich Maria Remarque Institute. He was a frequent contributor to the New York Review of Books. In 1996 Judt was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and in 2007 a corresponding Fellow of the British Academy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Judt

ISDA Panel to Meet Today to Decide If Greece Swap Constitutes Credit Event

The International Swaps and Derivatives Association said its determinations committee will meet today to consider a “potential credit event” relating to Greece.

The committee will meet at 1 p.m. Greenwich Mean Time to determine whether a credit event has occurred, according to a statement posted on ISDA’s website today. Greece’s government said it reached its target in the biggest sovereign restructuring in history, with a 95.7 percent participation rate among investors after it received approval to activate collective action clauses.

Bondholders tendered 152 billion euros ($201 billion) of Greek-law bonds, or 85.8 percent, after the government offered to swap their holdings for new securities under the debt exchange. Twenty billion euros of foreign-law bonds were also tendered, according to an e-mailed statement from the Greek Finance Ministry. Greece aimed to cut its 206 billion euros of eligible debt by about 100 billion euros. ISDA said last week that credit-default swaps on Greek bonds hadn’t been triggered by the European Central Bank’s exchange of Greek bonds for new securities exempt from losses taken by private investors. Under ISDA rules the use of collective action clauses should trigger the swaps.

The volume of contracts on Greece has tumbled, with the net amount of debt protected representing less than one percent of the nation’s bonds and loans outstanding. Swaps on Greece now cover $3.16 billion, down from about $5.56 billion a year ago, according to the Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. That compares with contracts covering $22.7 billion of Italian government debt and $22.5 billion of France’s debt.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-09/isda-panel-to-meet-today-to-decide-if-greece-swap-constitutes-credit-event.html

Word of the Day: Hypothecation, Re-hypothecation and Churning!
http://intheendwerealldebt.blogspot.com/2012/03/word-of-day-hypothecation-re.html

A Planned Economy for the 1%

Michael Hudson: All economies have a certain amount of planning, the question is, for whom?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=InQ7l4Nv1YE#!

John Williams of Shadow Stats "This is end of the world type stuff"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b02-ZlrEj9w&feature=g-vrec&context=G260284fRVAAAAAAAAAg

Congress Has Secret Meetings With Hedge Fund Managers Before They Announce What's In A Bill!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWGiFoj91Po&feature=related

Inside Capitol, Investor Access Yields Rich Tips
When Senate Democrats finally brokered a compromise over the proposed health-care law, a group of hedge funds were let in on the deal, learning details hours before a public announcement on Dec. 8, 2009.

The news was potentially worth millions of dollars to the investors, though none would publicly divulge how they used the information. They belong to a select group who pay for early, firsthand reports on Capitol Hill.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204844504577100260349084878.html

Gerald Celente,- Capital Account - 24 February 2012

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXNqgk5XzA8&feature=player_embedded#!

Word of the Day: Volcker Rule
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8q0Xia_DveU

How Goldman Sachs Helped Mask Greece's Debt

Nick Dunbar, author of 'The Devil's Derivatives', reveals how the country turned to investment bank Goldman Sachs for help getting around the deficit rules.In his report for Newsnight, some of those who did the deal, talk publicly for the first time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07-hA9DW-Po&feature=player_embedded

Ross Ashcroft - Four Horsemen

The modern day Four Horsemen continue to ride roughshod over the people who can least afford it. Crises are converging when governments, religion and mainstream economists have stalled. 23 international thinkers come together and break their silence about how the world really works and why there is still hope in re-establishing a moral and just society. Four Horsemen is free from mainstream media propaganda, doesn't bash bankers, criticize politicians or get involved in conspiracy theories. The film ignites the debate about how we usher a new economic paradigm into the world which, globally, would dramatically improve the quality of life for billions. Written by Anonymous (IMDB)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=qMVWYWIpk_c

Four Horsemen - Official Trailer I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=wLoB1eCJ93k

Four Horsemen - Official Trailer II
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=LKs6-KjSD-A

Max Keiser - On The Federal Reserve
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXkY7Bus3T0&feature=relmfu

John Perkins - on Secret Empires
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQmQ4KLqRnY&feature=relmfu

Simon Johnson - on Starting a Revolution
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRXYHVftNUQ&feature=relmfu

Herman Daly - on Globalisation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgWrfp187YI&feature=relmfu

Greek Junk: Condemned to slow death

Greece has just been thrust further into junk status by the Fitch credit rating agency, which is predicting a Greek default very soon. That as the government in Athens rushes through its most punishing package of cuts yet. They're a precondition for the next 130 billion Euro bailout - which will be handed over once Athens yields to the last of the EU's demands. But unions, weary of years of austerity, are already mobilising for new rallies. Today and tomorrow - it's expected that thousands will surround the Greek Parliament. For more on what they may, or may not achieve, RT talks to George Katrougalos, lawyer and professor of constitutional law, live from Athens.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=W5Tqgrl21L8#!

Ron Paul: US is slipping into a fascist system

The Arizona and Michigan primaries will kick off next week and the GOP candidates are gearing up for another dramatic day at the polls. Over the weekend, Ron Paul addressed a crowd in Kansas City, Missouri and warned that the US is slipping into a fascist system. Paul continued to inform the public of the relationship between government and big business and how this collaboration is infringing on civil rights. Lew Rockwell, chairman of the Ludwig Von Mises Institute, joins us to explore Paul's statements.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_blH6m6CGUk&feature=youtu.be

SOPA bill takes on new name in the Senate
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxUOyNzBePA&feature=related

Ordinary Greeks battle the debt crisis.

As the economic crisis take hold of Greece, ordinary people struggle stress and anxiety as they go about their lives.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlX08Lp1Q70&feature=player_embedded#!

World Crisis Radio Special Broadcast

World Crisis Radio Broadcast: Iran Offers Negotiations; Panetta Admits Tehran Has No Nuclear Weapons Program; Al Qaeda Leads NATO’s Syrian Death Squads vs. Assad; US Mounts False Flags; General War in Sight
http://tarpley.net/2012/02/19/special-broadcast/

PIIGS debacle will highlight the risk aspect of sovereign states financing

In the old days the bond markets used to be the real safe haven for investors. Solid returns on risk free papers. The basic logic here is - anyone lending to a sovereign state will never lose money as there always is this wonderful resource to tap out. You know that aspect of a free market apparently everything hinges on – the taxpayer.

The taxpayer not only guarantees your investment as a bond investor it also guarantees all needs to save a financial sector in need via bailouts. And in this frenzy to privatize sure enough the financing of these sovereign states has been 100%last couple of decades via the private finace sector. This as in the US via the implementation of the FED and also in Europe via the so called Maastricht criteria whereby sovereign states not are allowed to create their own credit (without interest).

Instead all central banks merely act as lobbyist for the private commercial banks as it is to them they turn in order to finance their debt and in that process then all are charged with interest. Only issue here and now is that were in the midst of a process that ultimately will result in that the basic foundation making all of this possible – the taxpayer – start to or in many cases already has been more than tapped out. Tax payers in OECD countries are totally not only burdened with massive amounts of private debt but in addition to this they are all citizens of sovereign states all carrying what only can be described as utterly insane levels of debt.

In short the tax payer is no longer physically able to guarantee any further amounts of debt and thus as credit agencies downgrades the ratings for sovereign stated the interest burden of each country increases.

Enter austerity. But even here it is becoming evident that you can not in any way possible save your way out of a debt burden as the social costs and given the amounts of debt and the debt saturation currently at hand. Its also becoming evident the outright looting that is unfolding in front of our eyes as the private financial sector now with all means possible tries to grab all tangible assets worth mentioning from these debt burdened citisens as well as countries. These assets then are in all cases assets owned and already paired for by the taxpayers.

So the taxpayer that already paid for e.g. their utility company via tax funding is now as he as a taxpayer has been the guarantee for the private financial sectors excessive lending without any limit finding himself in a situation of being dumped upon all the debt as well as ripped of all his assets.

Given all of this the risk for sovereign states to involve the private financing industry in any aspect of their future financing will simply become political suicide. What this financial crisis thus has unveiled is the extent to witch the looting has been going on. As long as it quietly was made and then without any excesses these hidden costs has now and with the crises been brought out in bright daylight evident for all to see.

As sovereign states now one after the other, and as the tax payer will be unable to either carry any further debt and at the same time will revolt politically against them doing so, will default it will become evident for all in the private financing sector the actual risk in the bond markets.

And this now is a risk that will be highlighted to such extent e.g. via hiked interest rated that it will become evident for everybody, financing of a sovereign state cannot be made via the private finance sector.

So when all current debt will be cleared of by simple accounting methods (you cannot pay what is impossible to pay) and where more and more people will see the benefit of following Island example of simply refusing to pay the foreign banks and not allowing then to steal their recourses and wealth in bright day light, no body politically sane will look at the private financing industry for funding.

With this then sovereign states will start to implement one after the other financing solutions based on the principle they themselves create their own and interest free credit as a means to fund real infrastructure large scale project and thus getting their people in real work.

As the amount of interest paid for on the debt will be negligible well then the need for an income tax will be significantly reduced. At the same time with significantely reduced interest charges forcing the ecomomy in to a vortex of inflation ordinary peoples puchasing power will be maintained with a stable currency and at the same time as their savings will be protected.

The end result of all of this then will be people having real work and a prosperous economy as people with incomes will be able to use their income on consumption and savings as they are rebuilding their country infrastructure vice.

Now is the time to follow Jesus example and throw out the money changers out of the temple!

Bill Still
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGEPqe7DwLc

No More National Debt
http://www.billstill.com/nomorenationaldebt/

Stephen Zarlenga
works with Rep. Kucinich on The American Monetary Act, designed to resolve the banking crisis. This clip from a longer film defines 3 steps: In addition to nationalizing the Fed. and removing the power of banks to
create money as debt out of thin air, the Act reminds us of the Constitution, Article I, Sec. 8, that states that our government has the sovereign power to issue money and spend it into circulation. Whatever you think about point 3 - the government could not possibly do any worse than the banks.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_kbyAl3-AM&feature=related

In the above Zarlenga discusses the FED relationship vs the Treasurie but rest assured the same kind of issues prevails relative how now central banks act in Europe. Listen here to what proffessor Hudson says at 06:30 about real choises and also at 09:30 about the Maastricht criteria and the ability of European Central Banks to act as Central banks:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HWPxQV9FFgu

2012-02-13 Athens burns: has #Greece entered its Argentina moment?

Yet as the elites persist with their scaremongering just to buy themselves a little more time, at least the 82-year old WWII survivor Stella Papafagou won’t be afraid of the “apocalyptic” consequences that Prime Minister warned of in Parliament today. “We’ve fought several times for liberation,” she told the New York Times. “But this slavery is worse than any other. This is worse than the ’40s. I would prefer to die with dignity than with my head bent down.”
http://wlcentral.org/node/2457

The Billionaires' Brokered GOP Convention with BBC's Greg Palast

On the Friday, February 17 edition of the Alex Jones Show, Alex talks with bestselling author and freelance journalist for the BBC and the British newspaper The Observer, Greg Palast. He is the author of The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, Vultures' Picnic, and other titles and has appeared in a number of films, including American Blackout, a documentary about voter disenfranchisement and the use of voting machines in both the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=-6-SDMlO9yE#!

When the team further untangled the web of ownership, it found much of it tracked back to a “super-entity” of 147 even more tightly knit companies – all of their ownership was held by other members of the super-entity – that
controlled 40 per cent of the total wealth in the network. “In effect, less than 1 per cent of the companies were able to control 40 per cent of the entire network,” says Glattfelder. Most were financial institutions. The top 20 included Barclays Bank, JPMorgan Chase & Co, and The Goldman Sachs Group.
http://hypervocal.com/news/2011/the-corporate-1-percent-just-147-companies-control-40-of-worlds-economy/

The Goldman Sachs Network Now Controlling Europe
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpNlnpn0Jvk&feature=player_embedded

Jim Sinclair: The Impending Undeclared Default Of 5 Major US Bank The following interview with Ellis Martin of www.EllisMartinReport.com covers in detail the impending undeclared default of 5 major US banks this week by the International Swaps and Derivatives Association. This even has the potential to cause a second financial crisis that would require significant financial intervention. If you have time to spare, listen to this interview. If you don’t have time to spare, listen to it anyway.
http://profitimes.com/free-articles/jim-sinclair-the-impending-undeclared-default-of-5-major-us-banks/

Sherry Peel Jackson - Breaking The Invisible Shackles Of The IRS

By Sherry Peel Jackson, Certified Fraud Examiner and Ex-IRS agent. She Challenges all citizens to demand answers from congress about the legality of Federal Income taxes and the Federal Reserve. This is a 2 hour lecture about some of the inner secrets of the IRS, and the fundamental lack of juridical framework that supports it.Read her story here: http://conspiracyplanet.com/channel.cfm?channelid=111&contentid=4480

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btJtIImmGfw

The CADTM downgrades its IMF rating and places this institution on very negative outlook.

The Committee for the Abolition of Third World Debt (CADTM) has decided to downgrade the IMF’s rating due to this institution’s heavy share of responsibility for the deterioration of people’s living standards in countries subjected to austerity policies it has openly imposed or dictated from behind the scenes. The resulting high levels of unemployment, aggravation of the crisis and the increase in public debt of the States following its counter productive and unjust recommendations justify downgrading the IMF’s rating from NNN to NO- with a further very negative outlook.
http://www.cadtm.org/The-CADTM-downgrades-its-IMF#.Tz4MJtshQxw.twitter

IRS Fraud: There Is No Law That Requires You To File A 1040!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wj_PTqtzqro&feature=related

Bill Still address the Libertarian Nation on 11 important issues
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gzbq-rZiIQ

The loan sharks are now beating up a poor viktim as an example for all the others

Greece now is entering in to a phase of what only can be characterized as extreme austerity. The Greeks are now function on more or less a day by day basis, after having been financially depressed down to a mere survival mode.
Seems totally insane as well as completely illogical as you try to make someone already technically bankrupt and financially totally depressed by extensive over in debt ness take on even more debt while at the same time forcing them to save even more.

If you really want to make a future for these people well then you need first of all to clear off all debt so that you may be able from there to then grow your way out of misery. With an already extensive debt situation getting on even more debt and try to save your way out of your dilemma is not a viable method to solve the issue.

The real underlying problem in fact is not the Greek over in debt ness but that the large worldwide banks in fact already are insolvent and thus technically bankrupt and only made to keep on surviving due to extensive creative bookkeeping measures.

What they then clearly cannot cope with is a default of a country and this then would make it utterly impossible to further delay the unavoidable – a bankruptcy of what in fact is most of our financial system as we know it.

Now if Greece is forced to sell out all its assets well then these insolvent financial institutes will be able to try to exchange what in fact is their toxic waste of humongous and totally, completely valueless paper assets (e.g. Derivatives junk)and replace this with real tangible stuff like e.g. Greek airports, subways, electric grid, water- and sour system etc. Stuff that in fact may also provide some cash flow and earning capacity. So take over the electric grid then hike prices and you may make some money and have som actual wealth in you books as a change for the paper junk you had before.

So clearly that then one drivers behind what’s now going on as all of the earlier publicly owned assets now and as we speak are being transferred to private hands. Shame then for the bank there is one challenge in all of this and that's the people living in Greece that somehow and in a totally wrecked economy somehow then must survive, one way or the other.

As long as there is no real threat to this privatization process it will go on in what then can be described as a chicken race. Grab as much as you can for as long as you can and keep at it until it really is no way you can continue e.g. the host really has no oxygen or blood left in is body. You know even a parasite needs it’s host and somewhere along the line killing it off completely may in fact be contra productive. But until then expect no mercy and expect no forgiveness (in this case debt forgiveness).

Second issue here is that as this already today insolvent finance sector had been forced to take the hit it may survive the blow from a small economy like Greece. But rest assured if Greece will default and is able to get away with it then Ireland will see this also as the only logical next step, as will Portugal, as will Italy as will Spain. There is no way the financial secort will be able such an avalance of defaults.

So now by blocking Greece from defaulting and in the meantime trying to ring fence the negative outcome of a possible Greek default (inevitable) the banks are hoping they will be able to in the meantime not only reduce the risks but also trade of some of their paper junk to real cash flow real worth stuff.

Then when actually Greece defaults as it then becoming evident for all it may not survive at all other vice the indeed chilling message to all other over in debted countries will be “sure you can default but don’t you dare think of it or well totally wreck your economy like we did Greece”.

That’s the way loan sharks go about their business by stating an example beating up a failing lender in front of other possible debt challenged individuals. The real question is why on earth are the, by the people elected politicians in e.g. Germany, in France, in the UK and USA, to this extent trying to save a financial system that anyway cannot be saved?

What’s really in it for them promoting the interests of the finance industry and by doing so clearly then working against the will and what’s best for the people that acually elected them in the first place? Bottom line - who really are our politicians working for?

Mind you all of what now is going on is made possible in the name of democracy. Clearly then this proves how democracy has become just another spin word for oligarchic interest as publicly owned and paid for property is transferred to the private few as we speak.

What is needed in fact is not democracy buy real rule of law! Re-regulatio of the fianancial markets, remove the banks ability to create money and removing the Maastricht Clausul restriction on Central Banks thus allowing them to issue a soverig states own money without any interest.

In short whats needed now is rule of law and a monetary reform. Democracy however without it is something you can store in what then will become a historical dust bin of feodalistic fachisem.

Iceland Did ‘The Right Thing" Defaulting
http://intheendwerealldebt.blogspot.com/2012/02/iceland-did-right-thing-defaulting.html

The Greek Experiment

Michael Hudson: Greek crisis used to find out how far finance can drive down wages and privatize
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJ7m-gXzQCs&feature=player_embedded#!