Day: June 17, 2011

A More Austere Greece

Greece has lots of problems, along with several other countries in the EU and some even say that the US is looking at major economic problems….Greece has erupted in violence….again.

I have been writing about the problems and some of the solutions that the IMF will look for and some of the other choices that Greece must come to terms with and soon……..

I wrote a piece the other day about what the IMF will most likely demand of Greece…..http://bit.ly/mEUNw0……and today there is another post on the austerity politics ….all are related to the happenings in Greece….

But if Greece is to save itself from financial ruin what must it do?

In an article written by Wayne Madson…..

What lies in store for Greece, Portugal, Spain, Ireland, Italy, and, in short order, the United States, is the wholesale sell-off of public property to private corporations at bargain basement prices. What the despots who gather in their secretive lairs at Davos, Cernobbio, Bilderberg, and G8/G20 are bringing about is a world where no property is owned by the state, which by default means the people. Total corporate control over every facet of life equals extreme fascism.What is occurring in Greece is a bellwether for what will befall other nations in Europe, as well as the United States, if the bankers get their way. And in Greece, the people know how generations of investments by the taxpayers are being turned over to vampire capitalists who have the full backing of the International Monetary Fund, European Commission, and the European Central Bank.

The European and global bankers have demanded that the Greek government sell off entirely or assume a minority stake in a number of state enterprises and utilities.

For example, this year global capitalists are slated to acquire 84 percent of OTE, the Greek telecommunications provider. In addition, private bankers will assume 66 percent ownership of the Greek Postal Savings Bank; 51 percent of the National Lottery; 60 percent of the Salonika Water Authority; 68 percent of DEPA, the natural gas utility; and 25 percent ownership of the ports of Piraeus and Salonika.

Next year, the capitalist grab for public property increases in intensity with Athens International Airport coming under 79 percent private ownership. The global capitalists will also obtain 100 percent ownership of the Egniata toll motorway; 60 percent of Hellenic Post; 66 percent of OPAP, the state-run video-lotto and online sports betting firm; 73 percent of the Athens Water Authority; 83 percent of DEI, the Greek Electric Authority; and 51 percent of the Greek Regional Airports Authority.

There you are……an all out assault on the public sector…….an attempt to make everything and I mean everything is controlled by the private sector….everything will be for profit and NOTHING will be based on need or society’s needs….not a bad deal…..one gets to control the public sector for pennies on the dollar………..and NO one can see why the people are pissed off?  What is the first thing companies do when they buy another company?  (pause here for reflection)…..do not hurt yourself…..they fire people and shit can benefits…..and this what the whole world is looking at when the people scream about austerity…….

What part of any of this austerity crap is good for the people?  Where will it improve their lives?

Happy days are here again!

The War Without End

From the VOMITORIUM

Fifty years ago today…..Pres. Richard Nixon made the War on Drugs official…….

No this is not a post on WW1 or WW2, wars that cost a lot, especially in human lives…..but rather the endless War on Drugs….anyone that has been a avid reader of Info Ink knows that I think that this country has pissed away billions upon billions of dollars fighting a war they cannot win….the War on Drugs.  I have said that the country should legalize them and then tax them…..this would do away with the massive profits of the cartels…in essence cut out the middle man and in doing so lessen the violence against civilians….back on 29 Dec 2009 I wrote a piece on the War and just how stupid it is (if you want read it go to archives)….but now I feel a bit vindicated from the criticism I took……

The Global Commission on Drug Policy, which includes several former heads of state and UN officials, has released a report calling the global war on drugs a failure.

“The global war on drugs has failed, with devastating consequences for individuals and societies around the world,” the report reads. “Fifty years after the initiation of the UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, and 40 years after President Nixon launched the US government’s war on drugs, fundamental reforms in national and global drug control policies are urgently needed.”

Among the members of the commission are former presidents of Columbia, Mexico and Brazil, former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, former U.S. Secretary of State George P. Shultz and former Fed Chair Paul Volcker, among others.

The report calls for an end to the “criminalization, marginalization and stigmatization of people who use drugs but who do no harm to others,” and for governments to experiment with ways to regulate drugs so as to undercut organized crime and improve public health.

“Begin the transformation of the global drug prohibition regime,” the report says. “Replace drug policies and strategies driven by ideology and political convenience with fiscally responsible policies and strategies grounded in science, health, security and human rights – and adopt appropriate criteria for their evaluation.”

Read the full report here.

It would seem that more thoughtful people will see just how useless this War on Drugs is……makes criminals rich and pisses away billions on something that cannot be stopped…no matter how much cash or how many useless laws that are passed….then why waste the time and effort…..face reality!

Austerity Politics

Austerity….the “hip” word of the common era, meaning today’s politics…….it seems that a lot of the politicos want a more austere America….no spending except for pet projects like war or such…….and they will cut taxes so there is little revenue and thus NO services will be supplied to the people that make up the society…..a good plan (that is sarcasm)…….

Austerity?  What about austerity?  John Case observes……..

The lesson drawn by these “realists” from the Republican, anti-democratic, soak-the-people attacks in the November 2010 elections is that there is no alternative to austerity politics. Debt and deficits are more important than jobs. This is the same philosophy that is tearing up Europe, and will likely fracture the European Union. It is the same policy that took hold of Congress in 1936-37, beat back Roosevelt reforms, and led to the famous “double-dip” in the Great Depression. That “dip” was only reversed by the massive 110 percent of GDP investments of World War II. It is the same policies for which Paul Krugman and the best minds in the economics profession have compellingly argued there is absolutely no foundation in the short run. The truth is – there will be no solution to the debt problem unless people BOTH go back to work, AND their incomes rise. You don’t really have to be an economist to understand that.

I heard a couple of pundits on the tube use Germany as an example of how to come out of this recession….they say that Germany is doing all the right things……really?  What is the key to Germany’s success in this crisis?

Thomas Mucha has analyzed the situation thusly……

The brief story is that, despite its reputation for austerity, Germany has been far more willing than the United States to use the power of government to help its economy. Yet it has also been more ruthless about cutting wasteful parts of government.

After performing worse than the American economy for years, the German economy has grown faster since the middle of last decade. (It did better than our economy before the crisis and has endured the crisis about equally.) Just as important, most Germans have fared much better than most Americans, because the bounty of their growth has not been concentrated among a small slice of the affluent.

Germany has used government to prevent their slide into oblivion….and Germany is doing everything right….but it is NOT a good idea for the US to use government in such a way……why?  Germany in the last 30 years has had an increase in wages of 30% and the best the US can do is 6% for the same 30 years….their educational system is better and they have protected the middle class…..

So the next time you hear about the marvelous job Germany is doing with their recession….ask how did they do it and wait to see if the answer is complete or a half truth that is normally given…..government can be used to help solve the economic problems…..but not now for it is more important to wreak unions, put minors back to work, stop gays from marrying and give all the money to the wealthy and that will solve our problems…..(thinking)….if you believe that then I have some land in Florida that I will sell you by the gallon or better yet a bridge in Brooklyn……