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07 October 2010 By Stephen
Lendman
Long planned, the current
economic storm erupted violently in late 2007. It
wasn't by accident. It was engineered years back, so
financial racketeers could profit from wrecking global
economies and destroying their middle class, including
America's.
On February 1, 2009, former
high-level Wall Street and government insider,
Catherine Austin Fitts, explained it an article
headlined, "Financial Coup d'Etat," saying:
A global financial cabal
"engineered a fraudulent housing and debt bubble;
illegally shifted vast amounts of capital out of the
US; and used 'privatization' as a form of piracy - a
pretext to move government assets to private investors
at below-market prices and then shift private
liabilities back to government at no cost to the
private liability holder....Clearly, there was a
global financial coup d'etat underway," its magnitude
overwhelming and incomprehensible to most people, as
planned.
Many trillions of dollars have
been stolen, shifted from public to elitist private
hands - by far, the greatest ever wealth transfer in
history, a global heist, sucking capital out of one
country after another, including America. It's an
ongoing "de-moderniz(ation)" process, transforming
Western countries into third world ones - in real
time, in plain sight, yet few people understand.
In stark terms, Fitts says it's
more than just "a process designed to wipe out the
middle class. This is genocide (by other means) - a
much more subtle and lethal version than ever before
perpetrated by the scoundrels of our history texts."
It's a government-business cabal
for enormous profits through "legislation, contracts,
regulation (or lack of it), financing, subsidies," and
massive handouts to Wall Street favorites. Carefully
rigged for powerful elitists, the public is so
cleverly harmed that few understand what's happening -
literally that their livelihoods, welfare and lives
are being destroyed in real time. The America older
generations knew no longer exists, the dream of
millions wiped out, and it's also happening throughout
Europe.
In his September 30 article
titled, "The Neoliberal Experiment and Europe's
anti-Austerity Strikes," Michael Hudson explained
sinister plans "to drastically change the laws and
structure of how European society will function for
the next generation. If (successful, they'll) break up
Europe, destroy the internal market, and render that
continent a backwater. This is how serious the
financial coup d'etat has become. And it is going to
get much worse - quickly....The bankers are demanding
that (governments) rebuild their loan reserves at
labor's expense." It's also Obama's scheme, shifting
greater wealth to the rich, impoverishing the rest.
Throughout the West, neoliberals
are in control. "From Brussels to Latvia, (they) aim
to shrink their economies to roll back wage levels by
30 percent or more - depression-style levels - (for)
'more surplus'....to pay in debt service," tribute to
global bankers, turning Europe "into a banana
republic." It's also planned for America.
"This requires dictatorship."
Labor is targeted for destruction. "Europe (like
America) is entering an era of totalitarian neoliberal
rule." So-called "free markets" aren't possible
without it. But wait - "This is economic suicide,
taxing labor, not the rich, and at the same time "slash(ing)
wages and pensions, cut(ting) back public spending and
employment, and shrink(ing) the economy," turning
Western societies into dystopian backwaters, a dark
future unfolding in real time.
In his October 2 International
Forecaster report, former insider and long-time
financial expert Bob Chapman adds more about America,
saying:
"There is no question that those
who control our government from behind the scenes are
bound and determined to take over the $6 trillion in
private pension plans. Whether they'll be successful
remains to be seen. The Department of Labor wants to
force all IRAs and 401ks into the arms of a corporate
fascist government, that knows (best what's) good for
you." They want public investments exchanged for "a
guaranteed, government annuity that is not worth the
paper it is written on."
"Small amounts would go into"
government retirement R-bonds, the larger portion
earmarked for Wall Street - the usual suspects
profiting, including Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase,
Citigroup, Bank of America, and other giants for even
greater market control than already, and far more
capital to manipulate for profit. Chapman calls it
"monopoly control and subjugation of worldwide
investments, a total hold on the control of all
investments" to scam the public more than ever and
head them deeper into poverty, exactly what Washington
and Western governments propose.
On the pretext of reform,
destroying Medicare and Social Security are also
planned by privatizing them, earmarking them for Wall
Street, the same way 401ks killed corporate pensions.
The House Republicans' "Pledge to
America" aims to wreck them by promising to save them,
including by "reviewing Social Security and other
entitlement programs" - meaning, let Wall Street
bandits, not Washington run them.
A longtime GOP priority,
congressional Republicans, Reps. Paul Ryan, Kevin
McCarthy, and Eric Cantor explained it in their book,
titled "Young Guns: A New Generation of Conservative
Leaders," proposing privatizing Social Security and
replacing Medicare with a voucher system that amounts
to the same thing. If enacted, of course, it will
leave workers and seniors high and dry by providing
Wall Street racketeers with a new opportunity for
pillage.
Democrats have the same plan, to
be unveiled in the lame duck session on the pretext of
deficit reduction and fiscal austerity, ideas Obama
endorses. On February 18, he signed an Executive
Order, establishing a "bipartisan National Commission
on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform" (a deficit
reduction commission) to slash social spending,
focusing heavily on Medicare and Social Security.
Stacked with neoliberal
ideologues, Congress will get its recommendations
during the lame duck session, and according to
observers, then enact legislation before the 112th
body's first session in January. On the pretext of
saving the economy, bipartisan chicanery plans to
wreck it, leaving millions high and dry on their own.
Fiscal responsibility means class
warfare, the agenda Professor Carroll Quigley
explained in his 1966 book, titled "Tragedy and Hope,"
saying:
"(T)he powers of financial
capitalism (have a) far-reaching aim, nothing less
than to create a world system of financial control in
private hands to dominate the political system of each
country and the (entire world economy). This system
(would) be controlled in a feudalist fashion by
(global, privately run central banks), acting in
concert" secretly.
With bipartisan support, their
plan is virtually complete. It will be advanced in the
lame duck session, then further by the 112th Congress
until all social programs end and finance capital has
full control.
America's
Economic Landscape
On September 19, the Business
Cycle Dating Committee of the National Bureau of
Economic Research (NBER), "determined that a trough in
business activity occurred in the US economy in June
2009. The trough marks the end of the recession that
began in December 2007."
Stacked with corporate economists
(practicing what Michael Hudson calls "junk
economics"), the types featured on business channels
and in mainstream publications, the NBER is a Wall
Street tool.
Non-member David Rosenberg has
another view, saying "it is very difficult (getting)
excited about (today's) economic landscape."
Unemployment is dangerously high.
It'll worsen, not improve, and there's "absolutely no
recovery in bank lending - especially to households."
In fact, consumer loans and real estate credit keep
dropping, hardly a sign of recovery, besides
disturbing consumer sentiment levels, a deep housing
depression, and any number of other indicators showing
a hugely troubled economy. It's why independent
observers like Hudson and Chapman expect worse to
come, a tsunami of economic pain, hitting ordinary
people hardest.
In 2008/09, the Fed's near zero
interest rate policy and quantitative easy money (QE1)
failed. Sustainable economic growth, job creation,
revived consumer spending, and normalized housing
haven't happened. No matter. Though already underway,
on September 21, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC)
announced QE2, saying:
"Measures of underlying inflation
are currently at levels somewhat below those the
Committee judges most consistent, over the long run,
(and are) likely to remain subdued for some time...."
"The Committee will continue to
monitor the economic outlook and financial
developments and is prepared (read has already begun
providing) additional accommodation (as) needed to
support the economic recovery...."
In other words, money creation
and asset buying will continue even though nearly two
years of doing it failed. Key indicators show deep
economic weakness. Gold is at record highs, and bond
markets are signaling a depressed economic climate.
According to investment analyst
Claus Vogt, the economic picture is "bleak....With the
housing market in shambles, bank lending contracting,
and consumers tapped out, there is no base for a
sustainable recovery."
"Will QE2 help? QE1's failure
showed even "the mighty Fed was not strong enough to"
reverse the trend. "I can't see a single reason" to
think this time is different. "If anything, I expect
the Fed's efforts to prove even more ineffective this
time around" because QE2 is its only remaining tool.
QE1's failure proved it ineffective.
Moreover, Bernanke knows it,
having argued (with former Fed vice chairman Alan
Blinder) against this type multiplier in 1988. In
addition, bank reserves aren't being loaned. They're
being stockpiling or held at the Fed for above-market
rates. As a result, QE2 ad infinitum won't work
without lending, what's not happening, nor will it
under Bernanke's scheme to prevent it. Further, under
the fractional reserve system, banks don't need credit
to make loans. They do it by creating money out of
thin air every time they issue one.
Thus, expect stagnation and more
slowdown ahead, exacerbating existing problems,
especially with bipartisan support for fiscal
austerity at a time massive stimulus is needed. In
addition, the Fed needs to put its money where our
mouths are instead of handing it over to Wall Street.
Instead counterproductive
policies are planned, Rosenberg saying, "It does not
leave us with a very warm and fuzzy feeling." In other
commentaries, he's expressed alarm, believing economic
conditions describe depression, a conclusion he's
repeated several times.
A Final
Comment
On September 28, the US Census
Bureau provided more evidence of economic trouble,
reporting America's highest ever income gap. In 2009,
median household income fell nearly 3% from $51,726 to
$50,221, the second consecutive annual drop.
Moreover, among all developed
nations, America has the highest income disparity, and
it's showing up in record numbers needing Medicaid,
food stamps, and emergency food help. In addition,
higher levels of poverty, homelessness and other
worrying signs show economic weakness, not strength.
Yet, with growing human
depravation, bipartisan indifference cares only about
serving wealth and privilege. Expect that attitude to
harden post-election, leaving growing millions on
their own, out of luck, and if new legislation passes
as expected, eventually without Social Security and
Medicare, once Wall Street bandits gets their hands on
them.
On September 18, Obama explained
it when he told the Congressional Black Caucus, "You
didn't elect me to do what was popular. You elected me
to do what was right," his hidden message meaning
populism will be sacrificed for privilege. As a
result, expect lots tougher times ahead because
political leaders plan it - wrecking the American
dream for business at the public's expense unless
enough outrage erupts to stop it.
Stephen Lendman lives in
Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and
listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished
guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the
Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central
time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs
are archived for easy listening.
http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.
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