This is a snippet of Eric Toussaint's latest piece over at counterpunch -
"The response of the US and European political and financial authorities to the liquidity crisis which began in August 2007 is a far cry from the response imposed on the Indonesian authorities by the IMF, supported by these same governments, at the time of the Asian crisis of 1997-1998. In the first case, the US and European authorities saved the banks by placing liquidities at their disposal, whereas in Indonesia, the IMF enforced bankruptcy on dozens of banks by refusing to let either the Indonesian Central Bank or the IMF itself lend them liquidities. This ended in a social disaster and a huge increase in the internal public debt because the debts of the failed private banks were transferred to the Indonesian State. Another glaring difference: to stem the crisis, the US monetary authorities have since August 2007 lowered interest rates (as they did between 2001 and May 2004), whereas the IMF demanded that the Indonesian government increase interest rates, a factor which considerably aggravated the crisis. Double standards for the North and South."So much for sovereignty. Who owns and controls the Indonesian Central Bank? Not the Indonesians obviously. Who owns and controls the IMF? Seriously. I'd love to know. We seemed to be able to figure out who did what in the Enron scam (allegedly the biggest in history, ha ha) but on the subject of banking these questions are never asked. Somehow it's a force of nature, an agenda-less thing from nowhere, a variation of an act of god. But as sure as eggs is eggs there are people responsible for this. They have names and, in spite of their hubristic delusion, corporeal bodies. Their bodies, just like those guilty of infinitely lesser crimes, are perfectly capable of dangling from a lamp-post or being put on a hook in a butcher's shop window.
4 comments:
Double standards? Yeah, what else is news? Not being glib or jaded, though it's difficult at times not to sound that way.
silly nobody, you don't really expect the money-grubbers to play fair and square now, do you?
besides see my other comment, reference to pigs, some being more equal than others.
heh heh cause that's what they think. Joke's on them. What an awakening that's going to be, huh.
One time there was talk of canceling all debt of third world countries.
I don't know where that went to but 'we the people' should look at the implications of doing this for all of the world. Start afresh with a world currency? This is just an extension of the 'only purchase basics' philosophy. Break the corporations.
Tony
"They have names and, in spite of their hubristic delusion, corporeal bodies. Their bodies, just like those guilty of infinitely lesser crimes, are perfectly capable of dangling from a lamp-post or being put on a hook in a butcher's shop window."
ROFLMAO
Hey Chiron,
I love that line too. It rolled around in my head and I loved it so much I couldn't resist writing it down as proof of the cleverness of it.
But really, everything about it is wrong. The thrust of it is a too-clever attempt to put fear into the hearts of those who think they are greater than God. As such it's contrary to everything it is that I'm on about here. But I shan't remove, I'll just the words you are reading now.
Remember 'fear is the mindkiller'? From the age of fifteen until recently-ish I thought that was new-age bullshit. And in Star Wars' magical deus-ex-machina context it was bullshit. But in the real world it's true.
Paragons of selfishness are the way they are because their lives are ruled by fear - believe it or not. And for me to pile fuel on the fire ain't helping. It confirms for them their misperceived rightness in lying, stealing and killing. Fundamentally, I'm on about redemption and I shall resist the temptation (get the behind me, selfishness!) and shall avoid resorting to fear-inducement. Broad daylight is sufficient to kill the beast of selfishness.
But by the same token, mobs are a dangerous beast well capable of eating the person who thinks they can ride them. To those people I say, read chaos theory and wonder if your knowledge of control will ever be complete. A butterfly can cause a thunderstorm. One definition of hubris might be - the sin of people who think they can control all the butterflies.
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