Add one more condition: Dissolution of the Federal reserve or, at
least, take away its 'right to print money' - Oh, I forgot, 2 prior
presidents who did that were both assassinated.
This is all much deeper than mere economics. This is an insanity for
*World Dominance* and they will stop at nothing. Whoever they are - but
a pretty good guess is the /*BANKERS */.
Darryl
On 10/14/2011 8:27 AM, Keith Hudson wrote:
At 13:27 14/10/2011, Ed wrote:
Great ideas, but what are the chances of any of them being
implemented? Not very good, I'd say.
I agree. Besides, a lot of this is just retribution. A few dollops of
retribution is no bad thing and I wouldn't mind seeing more than a few
bankers and city traders in the stocks or breaking rocks but Matt
Taibbi's suggestions don't really answer to the really serious
underlying trends. One is that most advanced (money-printing)
governments and their (excessive credit-making) sidekicks, the banks,
are now deeply in debt and there's little prospect of any recovery
from this unless there's superabundant economic growth (based on
what?), or taxation over many years or high inflation. Another is that
we're now moving into a far more specialized world than ever before
with a consequent yawning skills gap between the value-adders and the
rest. Also, because of automation we're moving into an economy which
simply doesn't need so many adult workers. Yet another is that we're
all becoming largely locked into a dense urban way of life with a
standard repertoire of consumer goods. In short, the last 300 years of
the industrial revolution has now come to an end and an altogether new
type of society and government has to emerge.
Keith
*My Advice to the Occupy Wall Street Protesters*
*Hit bankers where it hurts*
*by: Matt Taibbi*
Protesters with the 'Occupy Wall Street' movement demonstrate in New
York.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
I've been down to "Occupy Wall Street" twice now, and I love it. The
protests building at Liberty Square and spreading over Lower
Manhattan are a great thing, the logical answer to the Tea Party and
a long-overdue middle finger to the financial elite. The protesters
picked the right target and, through their refusal to disband after
just one day, the right tactic, showing the public at large that the
movement against Wall Street has stamina, resolve and growing popular
appeal.
But... there's a /but/. And for me this is a deeply personal thing,
because this issue of how to combat Wall Street corruption has
consumed my life for years now, and it's hard for me not to see where
Occupy Wall Street could be better and more dangerous. I'm guessing,
for instance, that the banks were secretly thrilled in the early
going of the protests, sure they'd won round one of the messaging war.
Why? Because after a decade of unparalleled thievery and corruption,
with tens of millions entering the ranks of the hungry thanks to
artificially inflated commodity prices, and millions more displaced
from their homes by corruption in the mortgage markets, the headline
from the first week of protests against the financial-services sector
was an old cop macing a quartet of college girls.
That, to me, speaks volumes about the primary challenge of opposing
the 50-headed hydra of Wall Street corruption, which is that it's
extremely difficult to explain the crimes of the modern financial
elite in a simple visual. The essence of this particular sort of
oligarchic power is its complexity and day-to-day invisibility: Its
worst crimes, from bribery and insider trading and market
manipulation, to backroom dominance of government and the usurping of
the regulatory structure from within, simply can't be seen by the
public or put on TV. There just isn't going to be an iconic "Running
Girl" photo with Goldman Sachs, Citigroup or Bank of America -- just
62 million Americans with zero or negative net worth, scratching
their heads and wondering where the hell all their money went and why
their votes seem to count less and less each and every year.
No matter what, I'll be supporting Occupy Wall Street. And I think
the movement's basic strategy -- to build numbers and stay in the
fight, rather than tying itself to any particular set of principles
-- makes a lot of sense early on. But the time is rapidly approaching
when the movement is going to have to offer concrete solutions to the
problems posed by Wall Street. To do that, it will need a short but
powerful list of demands. There are thousands one could make, but I'd
suggest focusing on five:
*1. Break up the monopolies.* The so-called "Too Big to Fail"
financial companies -- now sometimes called by the more accurate term
"Systemically Dangerous Institutions" -- are a direct threat to
national security. They are above the law and above market
consequence, making them more dangerous and unaccountable than a
thousand mafias combined. There are about 20 such firms in America,
and they need to be dismantled; a good start would be to repeal the
Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and mandate the separation of insurance
companies, investment banks and commercial banks.
*2. Pay for your own bailouts.* A tax of 0.1 percent on all trades of
stocks and bonds and a 0.01 percent tax on all trades of derivatives
would generate enough revenue to pay us back for the bailouts, and
still have plenty left over to fight the deficits the banks claim to
be so worried about. It would also deter the endless chase for
instant profits through computerized insider-trading schemes like
High Frequency Trading, and force Wall Street to go back to the job
it's supposed to be doing, i.e., making sober investments in
job-creating businesses and watching them grow.
*3. No public money for private lobbying.* A company that receives a
public bailout should not be allowed to use the taxpayer's own money
to lobby against him. You can either suck on the public teat or
influence the next presidential race, but you can't do both. Butt out
for once and let the people choose the next president and Congress.
*4. Tax hedge-fund gamblers.* For starters, we need an immediate
repeal of the preposterous and indefensible carried-interest tax
break, which allows hedge-fund titans like Stevie Cohen and John
Paulson to pay taxes of only 15 percent on their billions in gambling
income, while ordinary Americans pay twice that for teaching kids and
putting out fires. I defy any politician to stand up and defend that
loophole during an election year.
*5. Change the way bankers get paid.* We need new laws preventing
Wall Street executives from getting bonuses upfront for deals that
might blow up in all of our faces later. It should be: You make a
deal today, you get company stock you can redeem two or three years
from now. That forces everyone to be invested in his own company's
long-term health -- no more Joe Cassanos pocketing
multimillion-dollar bonuses for destroying the AIGs of the world.
To quote the immortal political philosopher Matt Damon from
/Rounders/, "The key to No Limit poker is to put a man to a decision
for all his chips." The only reason the Lloyd Blankfeins and Jamie
Dimons of the world survive is that they're never forced, by the
media or anyone else, to put all their cards on the table. If Occupy
Wall Street can do that -- if it can speak to the millions of people
the banks have driven into foreclosure and joblessness -- it has a
chance to build a massive grassroots movement. All it has to do is
light a match in the right place, and the overwhelming public support
for real reform -- not later, but /right now/ -- will be there in an
instant.
/This story is from the October 27, 2011 issue of Rolling Stone.
/_______________________________________________
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Keith Hudson, Saltford, England http://allisstatus.wordpress.com/2011/10/
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