The bealach to serfdom
While things look pretty bleak in America, we can take comfort from the fact that we aren't alone in letting our economy get looted by multinational financial institutions. In Ireland, where eyes are doing anything but smiling, things are getting really dire:
The cost of bailing out the Republic of Ireland's stricken banks has risen to 45bn euro (£39bn), opening a huge hole in the Irish government's finances.
Oh. That sounds bad.
The increased cost will see the government run a budget deficit equivalent to 32% of GDP this year.
Yeah, that's pretty bad. But how much will this hurt Seamus Average?
Mr Lenihan defended the cost of the bail-out measures, which will cost the Republic's two million taxpayers the equivalent of 22,500 euros each
Holy crap! And the Irish have already implemented austerity measures to raise taxes and cut public services. Does this mean they'll have to do even more of that to pay for yet another massive bank bailout? Why, yes it does:
Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan today warned that further austerity measures will have to be imposed after the Central Bank revealed the total cost of the bailout for Irish banks will be almost €50 billion. [...]
Speaking separately, Taoiseach Brian Cowen refused to rule out further tax increases in the forthcoming Budget and said "revenue raising" options would be required as well as spending cuts in the Budget, which is due to take place in December.
Speaking on RTE radio at lunchtime, Mr Cowen refused to outline how much would have to be found through austerity measures.
Ireland, then, is becoming a feudal state where people are taxed not to pay for police, fire departments, schools, hospitals or pensions. Instead they're taxed to bail out failed financial institutions. And what's more, they're having their taxes increased to bail out failed financial institutions. The banks are the feudal lords living in castles and the taxpayers are the serfs.
But hey, some people are happy about this charming turn of events! Here's Danny McCoy, the director-general at the Irish Business and Employers Confederation (which I gather is their version of the Chamber of Commerce):
The announcement of the final scale of its bank rescue plan concludes a month in which the troubles of Ireland’s economy have again been centre stage. Rating agencies and analysts have questioned the capacity of our small economy to cope with its emerging debt. Ireland has also become a test bed for state recovery strategies, including the introduction of austerity measures and the resolution of complex banking problems.
Thursday’s figures reveal the undeniably high, but manageable, costs of the domestic bank bail-out. The one-off impact is to push the ratio of deficit to gross domestic product to 32 per cent. However, the Irish government has also committed to framing a budgetary plan to reduce the underlying deficit to 3 per cent by 2014. This plan will help to satisfy market concerns by providing clarity on the scale of the painful, but deliverable, fiscal adjustments needed in coming years. And underneath, Ireland’s economy is much stronger than it at first appears.
Well yeah, you definitely don't want to go by how it "appears," do you? Because it appears that Ireland has unemployment of almost 14%. That's, like, pretty bad and stuff. But Mr. McCoy tells us the Irish are eating their crap sandwich and loving it:
Difficult though the situation is, the state has reacted swiftly. Stern measures to address the public finances – including public sector wage cuts, expenditure cuts and increases in personal taxation – have been introduced with widespread acceptance by the public.
Acceptance. Riiiiiiiight. That's why the ruling Fianna Fáil party is facing a nine-point deficit against the center-left Labour Party. After all, who doesn't love having their taxes jacked up even as their pension gets slashed? It's like having an angel eat whipped cream off your nipples!
Measures to fix the banking crisis through a new National Asset Management Agency have received a more mixed reaction. However, the aim of taking bad property loans off bank balance sheets to enable recapitalisation is sound.
Oh joys! The Irish have their own version of Timmy Geithner's cash-for-trash initiative! I can't imagine why that would get a mixed review! After all, buying worthless housing securities is almost as much fun as having your pension looted!
Of course, I shouldn't mock the Irish too much for their impending enslavement by the financial industry. After all, as Digby notes, we're about to get the same treatment here in the US:
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) slammed Democrats Thursday for campaigning against Republicans on Social Security.
At an event for the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget Thursday morning, he took on Democrats who have gone after Republican candidates for supporting Ryan’s Roadmap for America’s Future. The plan includes partial privatization of accounts for those under 55.
What! How dare you campaign against policy proposals I made! The opposition party isn't supposed to oppose things!
“We’ve got to get beyond weaponizing these issues for political gain in the short run,” he said, adding that Congress and President Barack Obama aren’t offering any solutions on Social Security. “We’ve got to get through this political moment. The political weaponization of entitlement reform is very unfortunate. It’s hurting our chances of actually getting bipartisan agreement in the near future. It’s unfortunate but we’ve got to get out there."
Gee, Paul, I'd feel so bad for you, except Republicans have successfully and relentlessly weaponized any and all tax increases for the past 30 years.
Anyway, I hope lots of people are prepared to fight this crap in the coming years. Our corrupt business and political elites aren't satisfied with the looting they gave us with the 2008 financial crisis. They're going to start coming after everything else we have too.
And as long as nations borrow from banks their citizens will remain serfs.
Nations should never borrow from banks.
States should never borrow from banks.
Nations should control their own currency.
When will government of the people, by the politicians, for the corporations perish from this Earth?
Not soon enough!
Blueprint for the new slavery model. Gamble until you lose, convince the local government that things will be BAD if you don't get money. Collect money. Enjoy huge bonuses. Make sure the people believe it's all their fault, and that they need to tighten their belts some more and work harder, dammit.
Oh, and gimme your house, bitch. I'll sell it to you again, then repo it 20 years from now to sell it to you again.
When gangsters do it, it's called a shakedown...and they get arrested.
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
we give them bonuses.
Here's more of the truth!!!
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?contex...
A war has already been launched against us.
In just the past three years we have lost an unprecedented amount of national wealth, trillions upon trillions of our tax dollars have been looted by Wall Street, endless wars, enormous subsidies for the most profitable global corporations and tax cuts for the richest one percent of the population. Never before, in the history of civilization, has a nation been so thoroughly and systematically fleeced.
This is all the result of a coordinated economic attack by a global banking cartel against 99 percent of the US population...
The result is an unsuspecting population of confused and passive people having their future ripped out from under them, right before their eyes, without any organized defense or resistance.
Read Full Article Here:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?contex...
"Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people." ~ Eleanor Roosevelt
Seriously,
when are assorted nations going to adopt the Norwegian way of doing this, which was done about 1990, during our bank crisis.
The short version: The banks(several of them) were bankrupt, and the owners had lost all their stock value, but keeping the banks running was vital to the economy and country, so, the government took over the banks, and since they were bankrupt, the stock holders (also known as owners) of the banks lost nothing, but the banks kept running. Govt. cleaned up the banks, and resold them to the open market, making up the cost with cleaning them up.
Result: Bank bankruptcies these last 2-3 years in Norway=0. They knew better than to mess around.
Bailout packages this crisis= 0, there is a fund the banks can borrow from, at an interest, as it is difficult to borrow money abroad for the time being, but no handouts.
Unemployment rate, about 2,5%
Bank On It: How Cash-Starved States Can Create Their Own Credit
When will government of the people, by the politicians, for the corporations perish from this Earth?
Not soon enough!
If the state bank is a true savior of the people, then it must be under constant attack from outside forces and inside Republicans. Is this happening? Is it being called a boondoggle and a waste and bankrupt and an entitlement?
North Dakota was the first state to legalize farmers' growing hemp. It is truly a land-saving crop.
"Courtesy is owed. Respect is earned. Love is given." --Unknown author, found in Guide to Texas Etiquette by Kinky Friedman
How is it decided that banks should have their money guaranteed and not subject to risk, the same as any other business or investment?
where people are taxed not to pay for police, fire departments, schools, hospitals or pensions. Instead they're taxed to bail out failed financial institutions.
Yes indeed. It is called the American Model after its source.
Fight on behalf of their feudal lords. What's wrong with this picture?
Men are basically smart or dumb and lazy or ambitious. The dumb and ambitious ones are dangerous and I get rid of them. The dumb and lazy ones I give mundane duties. The smart ambitious ones I put on my staff. The smart and lazy ones I make my commanders.
as i lay on the ground, body shattered from my fall over the cliff, i take no comfort in the fact that others lie beside me, with more broken bones then i.
Welcome to the new world order just like the old man Bush proclaimed some years go .
Insanity , it is what it is , there is no understanding it .
Somewhere yesterday maybe on DemocracyNow or KPFK I heard talk about how some American Unions are starting to watch and learn from the Europeans tactics which means Americans may be starting to finally stand up for themselves. Europeans do not take crap from their Governments nor their Corporations and especially not the Banks. As more and more Euros are spent on bailout, more and larger protests are likely to give Americans the guts to stand up.
A rising tide raises all boats doesn't it? It raises some quite a lot more than others. That's very nice if your boat is a yacht that gets raised the most. On the other hand a systemic failure of the banking system sinks everyone's boat from the biggest yacht to the smallest rowboat. So the Irish, like everyone else,get to bite the bullet. Sad and more than a little unjust but necessary.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
that bullet was used, by the yacht owner, to put a hole in seamus average's dinghy.
it doesn't mean they don't have to stop a systemic collapse of their banking system or Seamus won't have a dinghy or a life preserver either.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
"More than a little unjust?" This is outright looting and extortion. The financial industry can now say at any time, "OH NO OH NO OH NO, WE'RE ABOUT TO GO BANKRUPT AND TAKE YOU DOWN WITH US, HEEEEEELLLLLP US!!!" That is an intolerable state of affairs for any nation that purports to be a democracy.
and I wouldn't for one second disagree with you on that point. This is why proper regulation of financial markets is so freaking important. Especially those nasty high risk derivatives. But the fact remains that while the financial markets around the world were chasing short term high yield toxic risky investments they also fulfill their old functions. They provide the day to day financing of receivables and payrolls and bridge financing that makes the rest of the economy work. Without that the whole economy grinds to a halt. Almost all businesses from farms to giant corporations depend on credit facilities to exist. Without those credit facilities the economy reverts to a cash economy and that's what a depression looks like. Now the interlocking obligations of the banks have created a system that is exactly what you described, if they go down they're taking us with them. It sucks so bad it physically hurts. If my little litote was offensive I'm sorry but it is the truth.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTwmjOySDjA
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
better, ya know? If the middle and working classes had just made enough money to be filthy rich, they'd make out OK in these tough times. Too bad they just didn't have it in them to be Richie Rich.
the banks fail, I don't know what is. Those poor people, 22,500 pounds, each! That's more than the median income in the U.S. Get ready for more economic refugees, I see an exodus out of Ireland.
anyway.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
slashing services and not helping people afford to, well, live? Keep roofs over their heads and food on their tables?
I thought that was what they said would bring all those new jobs!
Tax increases must have killed the jobs. How much of an increase did the Uberwealthy see, btw?
Anyone know?
If Irelands economy flushes down the toilet, maybe they won't be so fucking stupid as to believe right wing bankers anymore.
has it?
Yep, Ireland. It's the main reason that Microsoft funnels all its European business through Ireland. Set up a small office and pay next to nothing in taxes. The same thing happens to every city, state, and country that lowers taxes to "attract business". Invariably the businesses that arrive find some way to take all the advantages of the situation. Eventually someone wakes up and figures out what a raw deal the citizens are getting out this arrangement and the company that was going to be the jobs savior pulls up stakes and leaves the people holding the bag. No problem for the corporation; they always seem to find some some other city, state, or country dangling a lower tax bill in front of them. I predict, now that the Irish are in dire financial straits, that it's about to happen in Ireland with Microsoft and other large corporations about to bolt for some new tax haven. How long do you think it would take a Microsoft or some other major corporation to lay off all the locals, close down their rented office space, and move operations to a neighboring country. (Hint: blink and you'll miss it.) Frankly, I'm amazed that we're still falling for it.
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