But is China working in the background? This is what intrigues me. A
quarter of China's export profits of the last few years are invested
in Eurobonds (about half of what is invested in US bonds). Thus China
wouldn't want to see any sort of catastrophic collapse of the
Eurozone, though it's really only interested in high-tech imports
from the northern Eurozone countries -- Germany, Finland and
Netherlands. Premier Wen has been in and out of Germany like a yo-yo
in the past few months -- with no comment in the press as to what was
being discussed. China is also building major ports facilities in
Greece (useful entry point to central Europe). So there may be a lot
more going on than we're aware of.
Keith
At 17:07 17/06/2011, you wrote:
Agree. Fatal flaw at the outset was no central fiscal control
system. Fine as long as things are going well. The flaws are
revealed when there is stress to the system, as there is now.
arthur
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Ed Weick
Sent: Friday, June 17, 2011 11:34 AM
To: RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION, EDUCATION
Subject: Re: [Futurework] FW: Riot as Performance Art
From what I've read, the Greeks on the streets maybe mad as hell,
but if so, it's because they've been spoiled as hell. Greece has
become something of a 'social paradise'. About the only way the
Greek government can straighten things out and get back into a
manageable position is to default on its debts, get out of the EU
and go back to using a currency whose value it can control - i.e.
the drachma. This of course would put the ECB and the Eurozone
into huge difficulty. Perhaps what I'm really saying is that the
European Union, which has a single currency but no central fiscal
control system, will not likely last much longer.
Ed
----- Original Message -----
From: <mailto:[email protected]>michael gurstein
To: <mailto:[email protected]>'Keith Hudson' ;
<mailto:[email protected]>'RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME
DISTRIBUTION,EDUCATION'
Sent: Friday, June 17, 2011 10:13 AM
Subject: Re: [Futurework] FW: Riot as Performance Art
Yes for sure, the situation in Athens is very significant not the
least because it signals that the people in the streets "are made as
hell and they aren't going to take it anymore"... and good for
them. Why the general population should be made to suffer while the
banksters and corrupt polliticians and business people get off
unscathed is beyond my understanding. The problem is that at this
point there are no credible alternatives conceptually or politically
to the disastrous neo-liberal "matrix" that we find ourselves
trapped inside. The irony of course is that Papendreiou (sp) who has
(or had) a lot of street cred as a fairly radical economist and
progressive politician is the one who has to impose the hurt (mostly
not of his causation). That it is him and not one of his right wing
colleagues who is being called out by the people in the street
signals that the old paradigm is essentially bankrupt and about to
topple but no one has any idea of what (apart from possible chaos)
will replace it.
Which brings me back to the "riots" in Vancouver which to my mind
signal not very much at all except that the (still) largely
privileged young people in N Am are also disengaged from an older
paradigm of action/consequences (posing with face exposed for
pictures commiting criminal acts). Exactly what their paradigm is
(perhaps something similar to the "we are no longer afraid" paradigm
of the young people in the Middle East but this time without any
political content) is not clear, but that we are in extremely
volatile and unstable times economically, politically AND culturally
is to my mind very clear.
M
-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Keith Hudson
Sent: Friday, June 17, 2011 12:50 AM
To: RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION,EDUCATION
Subject: Re: [Futurework] FW: Riot as Performance Art
The one riot that needs to be watched -- and taken very seriously --
is that which is going on in Athens right now. Greece is now very
close to a default which could ripple disastrously through to
several large French and German banks (which have bought Greek
eurobonds) and thence to American banks which have largely sold
insurance to them (credit default swaps). This week-end might see
the beginning of the same sort of panic that occurred at the
tail-end of 2007 and, if anything, could be far worse.
Keith
Keith Hudson, Saltford, England
<http://allisstatus.wordpress.com/2011/06/>http://allisstatus.wordpress.com/2011/06/
----------
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Keith Hudson, Saltford, England http://allisstatus.wordpress.com/2011/06/
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