Tag: Austerity

The Poisoning of Flint

Think back a couple of years ago and the term “Austerity” was all the rage…..trying to cope with an economic disaster these countries of the EU were making cuts and dropping many social programs…..all in the name of austerity…..

Those programs got me to thinking about Michigan and more importantly the city of Flint and their water supply problem……

I had tried to find a got explanation to why this had happened and I think I found a pretty good article that will help people understand what the situation is and how it was a problem that could have been avoided…..

In early 2015, shortly after his victory in a heated reelection contest, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) began exploring a run for president. With his business experience and electoral success in a blue state, Snyder was considered a viable potential candidate, so he embarked on a national speaking tour and set up a fundraising organization. Its name: “Making Government Accountable.”

Source: The Poisoning of Flint | Common Dreams | Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community

Japan is showing the world that stimulus works | Al Jazeera America

Just thought I would share this for all my friends that think the answer to all our problems is austerity……personally, I think that type of solution is just pure BS……the economy must be stimulated and austerity does nothing but hurt middle class and the poor……and making the wealthy richer…..

But let us look at other countries that have tried the unthinkable…….

Japan is showing the world that stimulus works | Al Jazeera America.

Yet Another Greek Post

Inkwell Institute

European Desk

I know….we all are well aware of the problems that Greece is having……socially, economic and political……….violence, forced austerity and dissension……people having to pay for the problems created by a government…. that is pretty much always the case……

The EU and IMF plan is that Greece needs to cut spending, suspend benefits and to sell off as much as possible of the governments assets….like airports or bridges or toll roads….etc…..but there is a problem…..

As reported in UK’s Guardian……

Up for sale are 39 airports, 850 ports, railways, motorways, sewage works, a couple of energy companies, banks, defence groups, thousands of acres of land for development, casinos and Greece’s national lottery. George Christodoulakis, Greece’s special secretary for asset restructuring and privatisations, said the sell-off would raise €50bn (£44bn) to help pay back the country’s €110bn bailout debt.

The private equity bosses gathered in the hotel’s ballroom for the parade of Greece’s national treasures showed little interest in buying anything.

But why would rock bottom prices for assets not be attractive to speculators and developers?

Aref Lahham, managing director and founding partner of Orion Capital Managers, said most private equity firms would not buy Greek assets because the “risks are too high”. He added: “I think people will not buy those assets, that is the sad truth.”

Lahham said more than half of the assets up for sale comprises land for commercial or residential development, which is unattractive because of the difficulty of securing financing to build in Greece. His firm was attracted by the potential of Greek tourism but legislation made it difficult for foreign companies to develop the country’s islands and beaches. “Greece is a fantastic tourism destination with very undeveloped infrastructure. There isn’t a Four Seasons or a Shangri-La or a Peninsula or any of the major hotel chains in Greece,” he said. “It’s strange, they would love to be there and we would love to build it for them, but somehow regulations don’t allow you to do so.”

To me that sounds like the people with the cash want to eliminate any regulations that would keep them honest…….kinda like the big corporations in the US…….in a recent vote even more austerity measures have been approved by the Greek parliament……and since the first round of austerity was not as productive as anticipated….I ask what happens if this round is not successful?

The claim that “healing” and “renewed growth” will come from the further suppression of wages, deeper government spending cuts and the sell-off of government-owned assets is a contemptible lie as millions of people know through their own bitter experiences. The austerity measures of the past year—also introduced with the promise of “recovery”—have seen a rapid economic contraction and rising unemployment. But rather than bring down the level of debt, the ratio of debt to gross domestic product has continued to rise and is heading to 160 percent.

Who will pay the next round?  Will the people be cut even deeper?  The people have little left to be taken away….or maybe this time they can have the people work for free and to keep working until they drop dead….now that would settle a bunch of costs to the government……Greece is being RAPED!

I swear if I was a hard core conspiracist I would say that this is a world wide plan to eliminate the middle class and to return us back to the days of serfdoms…..(now that sounds like a future post in the making)…….

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!

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……

They Get An “A” For Austerity

Daily Agitator

Austerity?  Now there is a word that is making the rounds on the tube…..not only in the US but the entire world…at least the part that is coping with an economic slowdown…….austerity?  Good word….but what does it mean?

Austerity:

1. The quality of being austere.  2. Severe and rigid economy: wartime austerity.  3. An austere habit or practice.

Austere?  Oh crap now we gotta explain this!

1. stern or severe in attitude or manner
2. grave, sober, or serious
3. self-disciplined, abstemious, or ascetic
4. severely simple or plain
Now that it is explained….we shall continue……
Right now there seems to be two approaches to austerity…..

The Republicans propose a further trillion-dollar tax cut for the financial criminals, while imposing $6 trillion in budget cuts on the American people. They represent the most rapacious and aggressive section of corporate America.

The Democrats propose to leave the financial criminals in possession of their ill-gotten gains, while demanding “only” $4 trillion in cuts. They are in alliance with the trade union executives, who agree that the working class must pay for the crisis caused by the corporate elite.

But what will the American be forced to do in these austerity plans?  Yes, I said forced!  Will the Repubs win this battle and we Americans are forced to give up our retirement safety net?  I know it will not be me, for I am an old fart but it could effect my granddaughter….what will she have to look forward to in her declining years?

Or will the Dems win the contest and the wealthy will be paying a bit more in income taxes?  But the Dems are also calling for reforms to the entitlement programs….what will my granddaughter’s declining years look like then?

Austerity!  A lovely word…a bit overused these days….but a lovely word nonetheless.  Will it be a shared austerity?  Or will it fall on the backs of the middle class to be austere, while the top 1% live high on the hog?……..what will austerity look like?