(Sorry, no post. A family emergency that requires some travel etc. keeps me busy.)
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(..and pleaze behave …)
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January 17, 2015
Open Thread 2015-04
Comments
Mike Whitney reminds us who the central banks work for but is unclear, it seems to me, on the real reason for bailout of the German and other European banks by the unsulted rhe European public …
Money for Stocks, Zilch for the Economy
The way QE is supposed to work and the way it actually works, is the difference between public relations and reality. Bernanke and Co. know the difference. You can trust me on this. Monetary policy is not a random, shot-in-the-dark experiment with uncertain outcomes. The reason that inequality has grown to levels not seen since the Gilded Age, is because the Fed knows who is supposed to gain from its programs, and implements its polices accordingly. Nothing is left to chance.
So what’s Draghi’s game? Is he merely flooding the markets with liquidity to push stocks higher and further enrich the investor class or is there something else going on here?
How about the banks? Could EZQE (Eurozone QE) actually be a stealth bailout of the banks?
Vicente Navarro zeros in on the real reason for the trillion Euro QE announcement, it seems to me.
What is Going On in Spain?
The design of the euro was the starting point of the nightmare. It was formulated by financial interests to give financial capital a strong command of the governance of the euro. It is not by chance that the ECB is physically located in front of the Bundesbank, the German Central Bank, in Frankfurt. The Bundesbank is basically the spokesperson of German financial capital, the center of the European financial system.
The ECB, however, is not a central bank: It is a lobby for the banks, primarily the German ones. The ECB prints money but it does not help the states: It does not buy states’ public debt, making them dependent on the financial markets (i.e., the private banks). The ECB lends money to the private banks at very low interest rates. And the banks buy public debt at extremely high interest. It is a killing for the private banks! These are the causes of the enormous growth of the Spanish public debt (of which, German banks own 20% of all the public debt owed by foreign banks, which is 50% of all Spanish public debt). Consequently, the second item in the Spanish budget, after social security, is payment of public debt interests. Germany has 700,000 million euros it lent to the PIGS (200,000 to Spain). This was the reason the EU lent up to 100,000 million euros to Spain (el Rescate Bancario) with the understanding that Spain must pay back the debt to German banks. Meanwhile, public debt in Spain is increasing to an unpayable level.
The wsws.org says, accustomed to dissociating itself from the ‘fraudulent left’, says … its all a fraud.
The election in Greece and the political tasks of the working class
Syriza’s “socialism” does not go beyond making a few demands that the rich should pay their taxes more consistently and the poor should receive a few pitiful handouts. But even these promises will not be kept should the party enter government.
But Pablo Iglesias Turrion is certainly talking the talk …
Change is in the Air Across Southern Europe
Winning the elections is far from winning power. That’s why we must bring everyone who is committed to change and decency together around our shared task, which is nothing more than turning the Universal Declaration of Human Rights into a manual for government. Our aim today, unfortunately, is not the withering away of the state, or the disappearance of prisons, or that Earth become a paradise. But we do aspire, as I said, to make it so that all children go to public schools clean and well-fed; that all the elderly receive a pension and be taken care of in the best hospitals; that any young person—independently of who their parents are—be able to go to college; that nobody have their heat turned off in the winter because they can’t pay their bill; that no bank be allowed to leave a family in the street without alternative housing; that everyone be able to work in decent conditions without having to accept shameful wages; that the production of information in newspapers and on television not be a privilege of multi-millionaires; that a country not have to kneel down before foreign speculators. In one word: that a society be able to provide the basic material conditions that make dignity and happiness possible.
These modest objectives that today seem so radical simply represent democracy. Tomorrow is ours, brothers and sisters!
… can the popular parties in Greece, Spian, Portugal, and Ireland deliver? Will the ‘contagion’ spread? For all of Europe? Further?
Stay tuned …
Posted by: jfl | Jan 25 2015 3:17 utc | 201
@195 @197
I think the hatred of Russians is tailored to the overriding plan for a smash and grab of Eurasian resources – which lie primarily in Russia. If it were the Inuit in control of those resources we’d be eating ‘freedom pies’ in the summer and hating ‘our’ enemy, the Eskimos.
It’s all about resources and control … whoever has got some are, de facto, ‘our’ enemy.
It’s garden variety greed that “growe’d like Topsy” behind the overwhelming military/economic power built up by the US after WWII, now run its course and fading, during the New American Götterdämmerung.
Posted by: jfl | Jan 25 2015 3:53 utc | 202
@rufus magister:
Do you recall Fail-Safe, — we accidentally strike Moscow, Henry Fonda takes out New York.
No, I forgot about that. I will watch it now, because I love Henry Fonda. I think his best role was in Once upon a Time in the West, by the way.
In many ways, US and Russia are alike. On the edges of Western Civilization, amalgamated peoples, expansive frontiers for the unruly, ambitious, out-of-the-mainstream.
Very well put. During the Cold War, USans had a respect for Russia as an adversary. The contempt of Russia USG now displays is a sign that America has stopped being American, and is now Zionist. In the 1960s, even with the Vietnam War, Americans were perceived as cool by Europeans. The USG treated its European allies as partners, not as vassals, as it does now. Now the US treats countries other than Israel in the same way that Israel treats the Palestinians.
jfl at 202 —
Resources, be they populations, strategic locations, raw materials, or finished goods have long been the currency/objects of int’l. relations. When the Russians under Yeltsin let us grab what we wanted, they were a brave and noble people. Now….
I think Demian @ 203 raises a very interesting point. In many senses, our dislike for the Russians is more visceral than that of the Soviets, who were a much more existential threat to capital than the oligarchic Federation. We picked up immense layers of hubris after the collapse of the Union.
No “Red Menance,” then, we’ll do as we please, at home and abroad. No Union to play against us, Europe, where you gonna go? France now follows Wash. slavishly, something that didn’t happen under deGaulle and Khrushchev. Workers, unions on the ropes, its austerity for you but “QE” for banksters.
And as I have noted before, despite the weakness of the left, the specter of socialism haunts the discourse of the right; some Rethuglican called Barry Choom’s SOTU Euro-socialism. Part traditional rhetoric, part realistic threat assessment.
The growth of erratic, eccentric behaviours in people is often the symptom of some pathology. The world’s body politic is feeling the effects of Uncle Sam’s condition, “tea party dementia.” Let’s hope we can effect a cure.
Posted by: rufus magister | Jan 25 2015 4:58 utc | 204
@Vintage Red #72:
it is good to listen to old favorites with new ears…
After I discovered the Who and Pink Floyd, I basically dismissed “progressive rock” (King Crimson, Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Gentle Giant) as shit. So I am really surprised by how good Pawn Hearts sounds to my ears today. (I can’t listen to some bands I got into after I was into Van der Graaf Generator, Talking Heads for example.) Here is another track from Pawn Hearts: Man Erg. Consider just this line: “Am I really me?” Those were the days.
WHY DID INDIA ABANDON ITS NAM PRINCIPLE , TILT TO THE RIGHT AND LOOK TO THE WEST ?
who wiped out the ghandi family in india ?…
indira ghandi was gunned down by *sikh insurgents*,
rajiv ghandi was blown to smithereen by a female ltte cadre, the very first suicide bomber in the world,
rajiv’s bro sanjay died in an air *accident* ?
i’ve documented numerous cases where cozyness with beijing/moscow led to the downfall and/or death of chavez, ghadafi etc etc.
yingluck of thailand was ousted by a horde of *swarming adolecense*, she is now facing impeachment, a possible ten yr jail term. sri lanka’s pro china prez was deposed in a recent election, new pro usa prez vow to press corruption charges and *review* chinese investments in sri lanka…..[1]
could the following be the reason that brought multiple tragedies to the ghandi clan ?
Prime Minister Indira Gandhi Visits USSR
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJ1l5f4XylA
http://www.csmonitor.com/1983/1129/112929.html
rajiv ghandi warmly embraced by deng xiao ping,
http://www.firstpost.com/world/missed-opportunities-25-years-after-deng-xiaoping-rajiv-gandhi-1313413.html
the usual suspects ?
https://therearenosunglasses.wordpress.com/2015/01/11/the-cia-mossad-ltte-link-in-the-rajiv-gandhi-killing/
http://www.countercurrents.org/ind-naqwi271106.htm
Posted by: denk | Jan 25 2015 5:21 utc | 206
Demian @ 203 —
I saw part of Once Upon a Time in the West on TV recently, I was unaware of it. Fonda against type as the villain is great, Bronson, Jason Robards always good, Claudia Cardinale, too!
On music —
The prog. rock discussion that I believe Vintage Red prompted with Van der Graaf Generator got me thinking about progrock.
I was nowhere near the “in crowd” in high school, Tull and Chicago were my faves then (sucker for horns), didn’t get into partying and tunes into college (made up for lost time though). By the time I caught up (briefly) to progressive rock, punk/new wave had burst upon the scene. That took the wind out of the sails of bands like Yes.
They were my favorite prog band; later albums had cooler covers, but I liked the “Yes Album” best. But probably Roundabout is their best song, from “Fragile,” love the Spanish style intro. with the harmonics. Haven’t listened to this stuff in a while, it’s been a nice visit.
College friends also turned me on to the experimental glam/art of Eno and Roxy Music. You can’t get much darker and kinkier than In Every Dream Home a Heartache about consumerism and, um, diversions. “Your skin is like vinyl, my breathe is inside you.” Really cuts loose at the end.
But folks might like this contemp. remix of Love is the Drug, audio is nice, video is mind-blowing. I’ve not heard of Todd Terje, but they’re on the radar now.
Posted by: rufus magister | Jan 25 2015 5:52 utc | 207
@Demian, 195:
“I flirted with learning Spanish, which wouldn’t be that difficult, since I learned French in high school. Anyway, Spanish is familiar to me, since I hung around with Spanish girls for a couple of years. That led me to the opinion that Spanish is a more beautiful language than Italian. No experience with Latin Americans, though.”
In the most technical sense Spanish and Italian are my first languages, as until age four I lived with my mother’s Italian family in Venezuela. US English has effectively been my first language since then, as my father wanted to raise me in the US. My Spanish is still pretty fluent, albeit with an Italian accent (unexpected from a USian). French is the one Romance language that is teflon to my language skills.
Everyone’s experience and ear are different of course; in my own I’ve come to the conclusion that any language can be made to sound any way depending on delivery and intent. I’ve heard Spanish and Italian made harsh and staccato, and languages Anglophones consider stereotypically harsh such as German and Russian delivered so fluidly they could dissolve any poet’s heart.
Posted by: Vintage Red | Jan 25 2015 6:18 utc | 208
@rufus magister, 196:
“Kubrick really did some insightful, provocative work. I like the black-comic edge of Dr. Strangelove. Unfortunately, I think some of our more apocalyptic types in the leadership might not mind living in a bunker, provided they can think they “won” a nuclear exchange. But we’ll still have our “Purity of Essence,” makes it all worthwhile…”
When I was a child my father worked both for General Dynamics and then RAND, programming computers for the Atlas missile program (both Mercury and ICBMs). I used to use the blank sides of the reams of (likely top secret) printouts he brought home to color on. I still have his copy of the Department of the Army’s 700 pp. pamphlet “The Effects of Nuclear Weapons.” I still have the circular slide rule it came with by which you can set variables such as blast elevation, kilotons/megatons, and distance from ground zero to determine radiation dose, overpressure, heat, velocity a person will be thrown by the shock wave, etc., data gathered from all those tests in the US Southwest and South Pacific… and of course Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Later he told me of running war games in which it was considered possible to declare “victory” after an “limited” thermonuclear exchange in which 300 million (mostly European) people died. Quite an political education for a “more US than anything else, but not enough to be US” kid.
The only “Purity of Essence” I wanna hear about is from the Neoplatonists…
Posted by: Vintage Red | Jan 25 2015 6:32 utc | 209
@Demian, 205:
I don’t think I dismissed the first wave of prog rock out of hand, but I did definitely leave most of it behind as belonging to that phase of my life. Rediscovering gems such as VDGG is a joy; T. Heads’ live bootlegs such as Electrically are such gems (sorry, can’t find audio link), their studio albums don’t come anywhere near in power.
“Am I really me?”
Therapist, calling to waiting room: “Is that you?”
Patient, answering: “If I knew that, I wouldn’t be here!”
Posted by: Vintage Red | Jan 25 2015 6:45 utc | 210
VR at 209 —
As close as I got to guts of the cold war was in grad school, one of my colleagues was a retired Air Force officer who flew recon in and around the Soviet Union and other cloak and dagger stuff. He used to get along splendidly with his Soviet counterparts. You would think there would be an app now for those calcs….
I’m still pretty fond of the Heads myself; I have this clip of I Zimbra (from “Fear of Music”) live in my browser history. I think “Remain in Light” matches the intensity live, I’m not sure if “Stop Making Sense” really does — too much artifice involved. In the early years, they had no light show, they just played.
Byrnes’ other work with Eno at that time was ground breaking, “My Life in the Bush of Ghosts” was an early use of found vocals, e.g., America is waiting.
Posted by: rufus magister | Jan 25 2015 7:29 utc | 211
@rufus magister #207:
But probably Roundabout is their best song, from “Fragile,” love the Spanish style intro. with the harmonics.
Sure. Roundabout is the only Yes song I grooved on. I’ve never even listened to any of their other albums, and have no plans to do so. Yes, Roxy Music were one of the great bands of that era, but I only discovered them in the eighties.
@Vintage Red #208:
I’ve come to the conclusion that any language can be made to sound any way depending on delivery and intent.
Polish is the exception that proves that rule.
In Poland, it became difficult for me. The people who live there are cold and deceitful. I did not know their snake language. They all hiss… What do they hiss? God gave them such a snake-like language because they are mendacious. – a character from a work by Maxim Gorky
“Obama’s Lists: A Dubious History of Targeted Killings in Afghanistan”
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/secret-docs-reveal-dubious-details-of-targeted-killings-in-afghanistan-a-1010358.html
Posted by: Willy2 | Jan 25 2015 12:47 utc | 213
TARGET YEMEN…
TRUE TO FORM, MURCUNTS YEMEN CAPER STARTED WITH A FF,
*n December, US officials claimed Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian citizen, traveled to Yemen, was trained by Al Qaeda, obtained explosive chemicals (PETN), and tried using them to blow up an Amsterdam-Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day.
According to Webster Tarpley in a December 29 Russia Today interview, Abdulmutallab is a CIA “protected patsy (for the) provocation designed to facilitate US meddling in [Yemen’s) civil war (pitting) the Saudi-backed central government against the Iranian-backed Shiite Houthi rebels,” being bombed by US and Saudi air strikes.
He was denied a UK entrance visa, [YET] wasn’t on a No Fly List, paid cash for a one-way ticket to Detroit, checked no luggage, had a US visa but no passport, and was helped on board by a “well-dressed Indian” to facilitate what appears to be a Washington false flag plot using Abdulmutallab as a convenient dupe.
…………………..
What’s at stake? At most, Yemen has four billion proved barrels of oil reserves and modest amounts of natural gas, hardly a reason for war.
More important is its strategic location near the Horn of Africa on Saudi Arabia’s southern border, the Red Sea, its Bab el- Mandeb strait (a key chokepoint separating Yemen from Eritrea through which three million barrels of oil pass daily), and the Gulf of Aden connection to the Indian Ocean.
ANOTHER OIL TRANSIT CHOKE POINT WHERE THE MURCUNTS INTEND TO GET THE CHINESE *BY THEIR BALLS* !
http://www.countercurrents.org/lendman040110.htm
Posted by: denk | Jan 25 2015 13:33 utc | 214
Demian @ 212 —
To each their own. Though “Roundabout” is my favorite, I can’t get Yours is no Disgrace out of my head. Sending it out to all the “cyborgs” who survived to surrender at the Donetsk airport.
“Death defying, mutilated armies scatter the earth
Crawling out of dirty holes, their morals, their morals disappear, yeah”
I think I’ll have to cue up “Starship Trooper” before too long.
Roxy’s live “Viva,” awesome stuff. I would have seen Ferry’s recent tour, but too much money and a bunch of youngsters backing up, not Manzanera or Spedding. Check YouTube, there’s a version of “Jealous Guy” with David Gilmour.
Posted by: rufus magister | Jan 25 2015 14:37 utc | 215
A clarification on the Auschwitz commemoration, Russia Insider has a nice account from the AP. It’s a subtle mix of not-invited and blew-it-off.
The organizers of the ceremonies, the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum and the International Auschwitz Council, did not issue specific invitations to national leaders this year, but asked nations contributing funds to the site — including Russia — if they were going to attend.
Poland appears to have used this form of protocol as a way of avoiding a direct invitation to Putin.
Some Poles have been critical of this, saying politics should not intrude on such a major Holocaust commemoration, the last one where a significant number of Auschwitz survivors can still be expected to attend.
[Polish FM] Schetyna, though, put the blame on Putin for not attending, saying it was his decision.
Posted by: rufus magister | Jan 25 2015 15:09 utc | 216
the sri lanka regime change,
a joint fukusi[ndia] op ?
*No sooner had Rajapakse called the election than his own health minister, Sirisena, announced that he would contest the poll in what the Financial Times characterised as an “unexpectedly well-organised opposition campaign.”
For obvious reasons, the article did not dwell on how and who organised Sirisena’s candidacy so well. While Sirisena’s sudden defection from the government might have come as a surprise to Rajapakse, the top US and British diplomats had been informed weeks before.
The key go-between brokering the arrangement between Sirisena and the pro-US opposition United National Party (UNP) was former president Chandrika Kumaratunga who, since leaving office, had cultivated relations in Washington via her work with the Clinton Foundation.*
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2014/12/30/slus-d30.html
*Fresh evidence has emerged pointing to a concerted international effort behind the defeat of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse in the country’s presidential election on January 8. Reuters reported on Sunday that the Colombo station chief for India’s external spy agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), was recalled to New Delhi before the election, following complaints by the Sri Lankan government that he was helping the opposition parties.
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2015/01/21/sril-j21.html
India rejected any suggestion that it meddled in the Sri Lankan election*
and i believe them,
hehehehe
Posted by: denk | Jan 25 2015 16:56 utc | 217
SYRIZA won Greece election
http://rt.com/news/226119-greece-election-results-syriza/
Dont think nothing will change, will keep on with EU/aid.
Posted by: Anonymous | Jan 25 2015 19:41 utc | 218