Richard Clark
(Based in part on a recent article by journalist and author Chris Hedges.)
This week marks the end of the dollar’s reign as the world’s reserve currency. It also, therefore, marks the start of a terrible period of economic and political decline in the United States, and signals the last gasp of the American imperium.
Barack Obama, and the criminal class on Wall Street, aided by a corporate media that continues to peddle fatuous gossip and trash talk as news (while we endure the greatest economic crisis in our history) may have fooled us, but the rest of the world knows we are bankrupt. And these nations are damned if they are going to lay out any more money to continue to prop up an inflated dollar and sustain massive US federal budget deficits, already swollen to over $2 trillion, which fund both our imperial expansion into Eurasia and our system of casino capitalism. They have us by the throat and they are about to tighten their grip.
Crucially important meetings were recently held in Yekaterinburg, Russia, which presaged America’s soon-to-be greatly reduced status. Attending the meetings were Chinese President Hu Jintao, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and other top officials of the six-nation Shanghai Cooperation Organization. The United States, which asked to attend, was denied admittance, even as a silent observer.
This high level gathering was, in the words of economist Michael Hudson, “the most important meeting of the 21st century so far.”
Why? Because it was the first formal step by our major trading partners to replace the dollar as the world’s reserve currency.
When politicians plan reform, it’s wise to be skeptical and hold on to your wallets. So fixing the economy by bailing out Wall Street is wrecking it, and Obama’s proposed health care reform taxes more, provides less, places profits above human need, avoids the most vital solutions, and leaves a broken system in place.
Now there’s “Financial Regulatory Reform, A New Foundation: Rebuilding Financial Supervision and Regulation” – announced June 17 with Obama saying he’ll send Congress a plan to create new government agencies, give the private banking cartel Federal Reserve more power, and address five major problems needing regulatory and legislative measures to fix.
Addressing business executives in the White House East Room, he said:
“A culture of irresponsibility took root from Wall Street to Washington to Main Street” with no mention that months of it worsened on his watch. “A regulatory regime basically crafted in the wake of a 20th century economic crisis – the Great Depression – was overwhelmed by the speed, scope and sophistication of a 21st century global economy.” In fact, 30 years of deregulation since the late 1970s, not technology, caused speculative excesses, market bubbles, and inevitable collapses that always follow.
In just recent weeks, the federal government has designated billions of tax dollars for bank bailouts, including vast quantities to quasi-government agencies that helped create the economic crisis; billions more for automakers, and billions more for homeowners who default on their loans, so where will it end? Republican Rep. Ron Paul of Texas says he has at least part of the answer: abolish the Federal Reserve.
“Abolishing the Federal Reserve will allow Congress to reassert its constitutional authority over monetary policy,” Paul said in a statement at the time the proposal was introduced.
“The United States Constitution grants to Congress the authority to coin money and regulate the value of the currency,” Paul said. “The Constitution does not give Congress the authority to delegate control over monetary policy to a central bank. Furthermore, the Constitution certainly does not empower the federal government to erode the American standard of living via an inflationary monetary policy.”
By José Miguel Alonso Trabanco Global Research
February 21, 2009
The financial and economic turmoil the world is currently experiencing will certainly have many serious consequences beyond those fields. Indeed, its geopolitical fallout could be far more serious than commonly acknowledged and it is an element that cannot be neglected by neither statesmen nor analysts.
Some scholars frequently hold that politics and economics are somehow separate. Such view is profoundly mistaken because politics and economics are strongly interlinked. Actually, political power and economic wealth cultivate one another. Likewise, economic trouble, more often than not, tends to lead to political trouble and the reverse is equally true.
Therefore, it is fairly reasonable to assert that this financial crisis will have a major impact on the international system’s balance of power. Some states (including Great Powers) could redefine their priorities. Other states are in a direr situation so they would have to make dramatic adjustments concerning their policies.
Take the case of the United States. Following the end of the Cold War, the US intended to establish a unipolar era in which its hegemonic position would remain unrivaled (the so called ‘Project for a New American Century’). However, Washington has had to deal with several setbacks and challenges like the rise of other great powers (China and Russia), the proliferation of anti-American regimes (Iran, Venezuela) as well as Washington’s military quagmires (Iraq and Afghanistan). Thus, the position of the US could be weakened as a result of the financial crisis.
Economists continually try and sell the public the idea that recessions or depressions are a natural part of what they call the “business cycle”. This timeline below will prove that is simply not the case. Recessions and depressions only occur because the Central Bankers manipulate the money supply, to ensure more and more is in their hands and less and less is in the hands of the people.
Central Bankers developed out of the ancient money changers and it is with these people we pick up the story.
48 B.C. Julius Caesar took back from the money changers the power to coin money and then minted coins for the benefit of all. With this new, plentiful supply of money, he established many massive construction projects and built great public works. By making money plentiful, Caesar won the love of the common people, but the money changers hated him for it and this is why Caesar was assassinated. Immediately after his assassination came the demise of plentiful money in Rome, taxes increased, as did corruption.
Eventually the Roman money supply was reduced by 90 per cent, which resulted in the common people losing their lands and homes.
30 A.D. Jesus Christ in the last year of his life uses physical force to throw the money changers out of the temple. This was the only time during the the life of his ministry in which he used physical force against anyone.
A few weeks ago, I warned in my website that the Dow would dive below 7,000 at the earliest by end of December 2008 and at the latest by the end of the first quarter 2009.
Any responsible central banker would want to control a downturn, preferably by a gradual slide of the market as opposed to a sharp hard landing.
But events and data have revealed that these financial handlers are not responsible and are hard core gamblers in their very soul.
Their mindset is that of the ultimate gambler and nothing in this world will change their behavior not even the thought that millions will starve and die and that national economies will be shattered. They are totally unconcerned as the devastating consequences of their actions. And anyone still having illusions about their altruistic aims will be disappointed.
The stock market and the derivative market is their ultimate casino. Fix this in your mind in the months to come. Then you will understand and agree with me and my conclusions in the next few paragraphs.
The financial crisis is deepening, with the risk of seriously disrupting the system of international payments.
This crisis is far more serious than the Great Depression. All major sectors of the global economy are affected. Recent reports suggest that the system of Letters of Credit as well as international shipping, which constitute the lifeline of the international trading system, are potentially in jeopardy.
The proposed bank “bailout” under the so-called Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) is not a “solution” to the crisis but the “cause” of further collapse.
The “bailout” contributes to a further process of destabilization of the financial architecture. It transfers large amounts of public money, at taxpayers expense, into the hands of private financiers. It leads to a spiraling public debt and an unprecedented centralization of banking power. Moreover, the bailout money is used by the financial giants to secure corporate acquisitions both in the financial sector and the real economy.
Economists continually try and sell the public the idea that recessions or depressions are a natural part of what they call the “business cycle”. This timeline below will prove that is simply not the case. Recessions and depressions only occur because the Central Bankers manipulate the money supply, to ensure more and more is in their hands and less and less is in the hands of the people.
-
Designed by