DIR Return Create A Forum - Home
---------------------------------------------------------
Renewable Revolution
HTML https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com
---------------------------------------------------------
*****************************************************
DIR Return to: Geopolitics
*****************************************************
#Post#: 3143--------------------------------------------------
Re: Money
By: AGelbert Date: May 16, 2015, 2:28 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
[quote author=Surly1 link=topic=4646.msg73891#msg73891
date=1430053948]
[quote author=RE link=topic=4646.msg73810#msg73810
date=1429990419]
[quote author=Surly1 link=topic=4646.msg73801#msg73801
date=1429981362]
“There is only one party in the United States, the Property
Party … and it has two right wings: Republican and Democrat.”
― Gore Vidal
That said, why vote?
In case you've missed it, I am VEHEMENTLY against BOYCOTTING the
vote. Many say we need a new and better system, and agree that
the D&R kabuki is a scam - all paid for by the same criminal
cabal.... yet boycotters say "we don't have enough people" to
make a difference. There's a self-fulfilling prophecy.
[/quote]
You should expand this into a Blog Article.
RE
[/quote]
I probably will. It's (at least) half written as a blog post.
Not nearly enough profanity, though...[/quote]
[center]
HTML http://www.pic4ever.com/images/bc3.gif[/center]
[quote author=jdwheeler42 link=topic=4646.msg73883#msg73883
date=1430032878]
[quote author=TD0S link=topic=4646.msg73878#msg73878
date=1430023703]
Voting legitimizes voting.[/quote]
Not necessarily....
HTML http://www.desismileys.com/smileys/desismileys_2932.gif
HTML http://images.sodahead.com/polls/002193991/122891225_disney_vote_mickey_mouse_tote_xlarge.jpeg
Vote... Don't vote... I don't really care... TPTB don't
either....
HTML http://www.desismileys.com/smileys/desismileys_2932.gif
These are the only presidents they really care about:
HTML http://www.desismileys.com/smileys/desismileys_2932.gif
HTML http://s3.amazonaws.com/rapgenius/690px-USDnotes.png
As long as you keep using them, THAT is the vote that really
matters.[/quote]
Not necessarily. In fact,
HTML http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TzWpwHzCvCI/T_sBEnhCCpI/AAAAAAAAME8/IsLpuU8HYxc/s1600/nooo-way-smiley.gif
JD,
I suggest that, in the service of logic and CFS, you casually
mention that minor detail called the LEGAL TENDER LAWS when you
castigate we-the-people for "supporting voting" by using fiat
currency, given "value" by "virtue" of a gun pointed at our
heads by TPTB.
And yeah, that APPLIES EQUALLY to the concept that voting has
any value whatsoever. ANY argument presented by Surly (a person
I have utmost respect for BECAUSE he is honest to the core, NOT
because he is erudite - which he most certainly is), if not
presented with the caveat that there IS A GUN pointed at our
heads 24/7 protecting TPTB in any and all "democratic"
activities we-the-people are "urged" to engage in., is NAIVE OR
COMPLICIT.
IOW TDOS is RIGHT! No matter how you approach this voting OR
fiat currency thing, the game is RIGGED. BUT the REASON the
voting is rigged is not just to control the outcome of the vote.
THAT is "TAKEN CARE OF" by limiting the choices on the ballot.
it is NOT JUST THE RESULTS of voting that are rigged. THE MOST
IMPORTANT RIGGING is PSYCHOLOGICAL MINDFU CK.
HTML http://www.coh2.org/images/Smileys/huhsign.gif
The PERCEPTION of Democratic Elections is the sine qua non
RIGGING required in an inverted totalitarian system of
DICTATORSHIP.
WHY? FOR THE PURPOSE OF PROVIDING DOCUMENTED LEGITIMACY in the
CORRUPT SYSTEM of TPTB. That is the mindful ck tool then used
to herd us into participating.
HOW? By propagandizing we-the-people with BLAME THE VICTIM
castigation that that we are "Aiding" TPTB by not
"participating" in voting.
AND THEREFORE, if we do not "vote" (good luck convincing TDOS or
me that voting in a U.S. election is voting 8) ), we "deserve
whatever corrupt leaders we are saddled with".
[center][img width=540
height=480]
HTML http://www.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-010215144153.png[/img][/center]
Surly, TPTB are evil and stupid in that their world view is
ultimately suicidal; but they are clever. Perhaps I am wrong and
you are right. But for you to convince me of that, you will have
to make a case that invalidates my allegation that TPTB use
propaganda with a threat of force (carrot and stick) as a more
efficient ( see religion of TPTB
=
HTML http://www.pic4ever.com/images/d2.gif
[img width=060
height=040]
HTML http://www.envisionyourdreamsllc.com/Golden-Pig.jpg[/img])<br
/>way to exploit the masses than in-your-face force with 24/7
propaganda that nobody believes (stick with a carrot that looks
like a turd).
TPTB like to spend as little energy as possible in keeping us in
line, so to speak. They KNOW that they are TOAST if they lose
their legitimacy, no matter how much force they have available.
SO, they CONSTANTLY remind us of how WE are the ones that are
toast if we rock the boat. The REALITY is, however, that ANY
TIME THE PUBLIC WANTS TO, it can become Donald Duck "monitoring"
TPTB as in the graphic below. Donald Duck did not do that by
voting. 8)
[center][img width=640
height=380]
HTML http://www.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-260415155340.png[/img][/center]
PS added May 16, 2015:
I may have been fooled and Surly has been gaming people to push
the baloney that voting has merit. A professional propagandist
would certainly pose as a person who is honest to the core. We
live and learn. Et Tu Brute. Surly? ;)
[center] Agelbert message to all clever propagandists posing as
honest, responsible humans: [/center]
[center]
HTML http://www.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-140415130805.png[/center]
#Post#: 3208--------------------------------------------------
Re: Money
By: AGelbert Date: May 27, 2015, 1:18 am
---------------------------------------------------------
Sunday, 24 May 2015 02:30
Bernie Sanders Exposes 18 CEOs who took Trillions in Bailouts,
Evaded Taxes and Outsourced Jobs
Written by Jason Easley | PoliticusUSA
Sen. Bernie Sanders fired back at 80 CEOs who wrote a letter
lecturing America about deficit reduction by released a report
detailing how 18 of these CEOs have wrecked the economy by
evading taxes and outsourcing jobs. 80 CEO’s raised the ire of
Sen. Sanders by publishing a letter in the Wall Street Journal
urging America to act on the deficit, and reform Medicare and
Medicaid.
Sen. Sanders responded to the lecture from America’s CEO’s by
releasing a report that detailed how 18 of them have helped blow
up the deficit and wreck the economy by outsourcing jobs and
evading US taxes.
Sanders said,
There really is no shame. The Wall Street leaders whose
recklessness and illegal behavior caused this terrible recession
are now lecturing the American people on the need for courage to
deal with the nation’s finances and deficit crisis. Before
telling us why we should cut Social Security, Medicare and other
vitally important programs, these CEOs might want to take a hard
look at their responsibility for causing the deficit and this
terrible recession.
Our Wall Street friends might also want to show some courage of
their own by suggesting that the wealthiest people in this
country, like them, start paying their fair share of taxes. They
might work to end the outrageous corporate loopholes, tax havens
and outsourcing provisions that their lobbyists have littered
throughout the tax code – contributing greatly to our deficit.
Many of the CEO’s who signed the deficit-reduction letter run
corporations that evaded at least $34.5 billion in taxes by
setting up more than 600 subsidiaries in the Cayman Islands and
other offshore tax havens since 2008. As a result, at least a
dozen of the companies avoided paying any federal income taxes
in recent years, and even received more than $6.4 billion in tax
refunds from the IRS since 2008.
Several of the companies received a total taxpayer bailout of
more than $2.5 trillion from the Federal Reserve and the
Treasury Department.
Many of the companies also have outsourced hundreds of thousands
of American jobs to China and other low wage countries, forcing
their workers to receive unemployment insurance and other
federal benefits. In other words, these are some of the same
people who have significantly caused the deficit to explode over
the last four years.
Here are the 18 CEO’s Sanders labeled job destroyers in his
report. (All data from Top Corporate Dodgers report.)
1). 1. Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan
Amount of federal income taxes paid in 2010? Zero. $1.9 billion
tax refund.
Taxpayer Bailout from the Federal Reserve and the Treasury
Department? Over $1.3 trillion.
Amount of federal income taxes Bank of America would have owed
if offshore tax havens were eliminated? $2.6 billion.
2). Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein
Amount of federal income taxes paid in 2008? Zero. $278 million
tax refund.
Taxpayer Bailout from the Federal Reserve and the Treasury
Department? $824 billion.
Amount of federal income taxes Goldman Sachs would have owed if
offshore tax havens were eliminated? $2.7 billion
3). JP Morgan Chase CEO James Dimon
Taxpayer Bailout from the Federal Reserve and the Treasury
Department? $416 billion.
Amount of federal income taxes JP Morgan Chase would have owed
if offshore tax havens were eliminated? $4.9 billion.
4). General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt
Amount of federal income taxes paid in 2010? Zero. $3.3 billion
tax refund.
Taxpayer Bailout from the Federal Reserve? $16 billion.
Jobs Shipped Overseas? At least 25,000 since 2001.
5). Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam
Amount of federal income taxes paid in 2010? Zero. $705 million
tax refund.
American Jobs Cut in 2010? In 2010, Verizon announced 13,000 job
cuts, the third highest corporate layoff total that year.
6). Boeing CEO James McNerney, Jr.
Amount of federal income taxes paid in 2010? None. $124 million
tax refund.
American Jobs Shipped overseas? Over 57,000.
Amount of Corporate Welfare? At least $58 billion.
7). Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer
Amount of federal income taxes Microsoft would have owed if
offshore tax havens were eliminated? $19.4 billion.
8 ). Honeywell International CEO David Cote
Amount of federal income taxes paid from 2008-2010? Zero. $34
million tax refund.
9). Corning CEO Wendell Weeks
Amount of federal income taxes paid from 2008-2010? Zero. $4
million tax refund.
10). Time Warner CEO Glenn Britt
Amount of federal income taxes paid in 2008? Zero. $74 million
tax refund.
11). Merck CEO Kenneth Frazier
Amount of federal income taxes paid in 2009? Zero. $55 million
tax refund.
12). Deere & Company CEO Samuel Allen
Amount of federal income taxes paid in 2009? Zero. $1 million
tax refund.
13). Marsh & McLennan Companies CEO Brian Duperreault
Amount of federal income taxes paid in 2010? Zero. $90 million
refund.
14). Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs
Amount of federal income taxes Qualcomm would have owed if
offshore tax havens were eliminated? $4.7 billion.
15). Tenneco CEO Gregg Sherill
Amount of federal income taxes Tenneco would have owed if
offshore tax havens were eliminated? $269 million.
16). Express Scripts CEO George Paz
Amount of federal income taxes Express Scripts would have owed
if offshore tax havens were eliminated? $20 million.
17). Caesars Entertainment CEO Gary Loveman
Amount of federal income taxes Caesars Entertainment would have
owed if offshore tax havens were eliminated? $9 million.
18). R.R. Donnelly & Sons CEO Thomas Quinlan III
Amount of federal income taxes paid in 2008? Zero. $49 million
tax refund.
Eighteen of the 80 CEOs who signed the call for deficit action
are actually some of the biggest outsourcers and tax cheats in
America. First, they crashed the economy in 2008. They followed
that up by taking billions in taxpayer bailout dollars. Their
next step was to outsource jobs and evade taxes. Now they are
calling for action on a deficit that they helped create over the
past four years.
Bernie Sanders is exposing the hypocrisy of these CEOs, and
every American should understand that if Mitt Romney is elected
president, these pigs see potential for unlimited feeding from
the taxpayer trough. Only by standing together can we tell these
CEOs that the bill has come due, and it is time for them to pay.
We can tell these gluttons of our dollars that the all you can
eat taxpayer buffet is now closed.
Original article on PoliticusUSA
HTML http://pdafund.com/component/k2/item/65-bernie-sanders-exposes-18-ceos-who-took-trillions-in-bailouts-evaded-taxes-and-outsourced-jobs
#Post#: 3212--------------------------------------------------
Re: Money
By: AGelbert Date: May 29, 2015, 11:23 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
HTML https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRTgRQbGeQE&feature=player_embedded
The Mega Crash is coming soon. :P
Watch all four videos in sequence. Learn how the Neocon
CRIMINALS want to forgive Ukraine's debt but refuse to do the
same for Greece. Learn how Germany, the main country that does
NOT want to forgive Greece's debt or take a haircut, had ITS
DEBT hugely reduced in 1953 AFTER they had destroyed and
tortured most of Europe during Hitler's horrors. Talk about
hypocrisy! :(
#Post#: 3296--------------------------------------------------
Re: Money
By: AGelbert Date: June 14, 2015, 4:38 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
[move]Jamie Dimon displays his EMPATHY DEFICT DISORDER
HTML http://www.pic4ever.com/images/acigar.gif
[/move]
[quote]This week, Jamie Dimon, CEO of mega-bank JPMorgan Chase,
told a Chicago audience that he doesn’t know if Senator
Elizabeth Warren “fully understands the global banking system.”
Elizabeth Warren is having none of it. Friday she fired back,
telling the Huffington Post, "The problem is not that I don’t
understand the global banking system. The problem for these guys
is that I fully understand the system and I understand how they
make their money. And that’s what they don’t like about me."
Donate $3 or more today and your donation will be matched 2-to-1
by a generous donor who shares Elizabeth Warren's values.
Jamie Dimon was a key player in the 2008 financial crisis that
killed millions of jobs, destroyed the savings of millions of
American families, and plunged the global economy into chaos.
Meanwhile, Elizabeth Warren has studied the global banking
system for more than 20 years, sits on the Senate Banking
Committee, taught about banking at Harvard University and -- oh
yeah! -- oversaw the bailout of Jamie Dimon's bank.
Donate $3 or more today and your donation will be matched
2-to-1.
This isn't the first encounter between Dimon and Senator Warren.
In her book A Fighting Chance, Warren writes about a tense 2013
meeting with the JPMorgan Chase CEO:
When the conversation turned to financial regulation and Dimon
began complaining about all the burdensome rules his bank had to
follow, I finally interrupted. I was polite, but definite… [I
told him] “I think you guys are breaking the law.”
Suddenly Dimon got quiet. He leaned back and slowly smiled. “So
hit me with a fine. We can afford it.”
Well, guess what? In November 2013, Dimon's bank paid a $13
billion settlement for funding bad mortgages. Then last month,
JPMorgan Chase was one of five banks to pay a $5.7 billion fine
for global currency manipulation. In fact, in one quarter of
2013, Dimon’s bank spent more on legal fees than it did on
paying its entire staff.
[/quote]
HTML http://boldprogressives.org/
#Post#: 3336--------------------------------------------------
Re: Money
By: AGelbert Date: June 21, 2015, 8:37 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
I think Paul Craig Roberts, former Assistant Secretary of the
Treasury for Ronald Reagan, has the situation in Greece analyzed
correctly:
SNIPPET:
[quote]The alleged “Greek crisis” makes no sense whatsoever. It
is obvious that Greece cannot with its devastated economy repay
the debts that Goldman Sachs hid and then capitalized on the
inside information, helping to cause the crisis. If the solvency
of the holders of the Greek debt, apparently the NY hedge funds
and German and Dutch banks, depends on being repaid, the
European Central Bank could just follow the example of the
Federal Reserve and print the money to secure the Greek debt.
The ECB is already printing 60 billion euros a month to save the
European financial system, so why not include Greece?
A conservative might say that such a course of action would
cause inflation, but it hasn’t. The Fed has been creating money
hands over fists for seven years, and according to the
government there is no inflation. We even have negative interest
rates attesting to the absence of inflation. Why will creating
money for Greece create inflation but not for Goldman Sachs,
Citibank, and JPMorganChase?
Obviously, the Western world doesn’t want to help Greece. The
West wants to loot Greece. The deal is that Greece gets new
loans with which to repay existing loans in exchange for selling
municipal water companies to private investors (water rates will
go up on the Greek people), for selling the state lottery to
private investors (Greek government revenues drop, thus making
debt repayment more difficult), and for other such
“privatizations” such as selling the protected Greek islands to
real estate developers.
This is a good deal for everyone but Greece.
If the Greek government had any sense, it would simply default.
That would make Greece debt free. With just a few words, Greece
can go from a heavily indebted country to a debt-free country.
Greece could then finance its own bond issues, and if it needed
external credit, Greece could accept the Russian offer.
Indeed, if the Russian and Chinese governments had any sense,
they would pay Greece to default and to leave the EU and NATO.
The unravelling of Washington’s empire would begin, and the
threat of war that Russia and China face would go away. The
Russians and Chinese would save far more on unnecessary war
preparation that saving Greece would cost them.
[/quote]
Starvation Is The Price Greeks Will Pay For Remaining In The EU
HTML http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2015/06/15/starvation-price-greeks-will-pay-remaining-eu-paul-craig-roberts/<br
/>
#Post#: 3387--------------------------------------------------
Re: Money
By: AGelbert Date: July 2, 2015, 1:55 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
[quote]Some mutual funds have exposure to Puerto Rico
bonds[/quote]
[img width=640
height=380]
HTML http://www.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-020715144740.png[/img]
HTML http://www.schwab.com/public/schwab/nn/articles/Puerto-Rico-Bonds-How-a-Default-Might-Affect-the-Municipal-Bond-Market
HTML http://www.schwab.com/public/schwab/nn/articles/Puerto-Rico-Bonds-How-a-Default-Might-Affect-the-Municipal-Bond-Market
#Post#: 3388--------------------------------------------------
Re: Money
By: AGelbert Date: July 2, 2015, 5:24 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
[quote author=Surly1 link=topic=5132.msg79689#msg79689
date=1435870714]
[quote author=Golden Oxen link=topic=5132.msg79659#msg79659
date=1435848967]
[quote]And for the record, I am agnostic about gold, as befits a
peasant. I don't have any money, but some gold would be good to
have. As would beans, rice, potatoes, and weapons. Plus a
storage locker full of pint bottles of whiskey to use as trade
goods when TSHTF, but we've all heard all this before...
:laugh: :laugh:[/quote]
Look to put some Silver on you list Surly.
Poor man's gold is currently 75 % off its recent high of 50, a
bargain in my view. Gold's friendly less noble cousin metal is a
great alternative which offers protection from Fiat going
berserk and you get some real bang for a buck with the silver
gold ratio currently around all time highs about 80 to 1.
[/quote]
I hear you.
I had thought about it when silver was going up a while back,
then talked myself out of buying into the teeth of a spike.
If you have any disposable cash, it couldn't hurt to have some
silver. AG has also written about its medicinal properties as
well, so eddie's point about it being valuable as a commodity
via severqal demand vectors is a good one. IMO.
[/quote]
I learned a fascinating tidbit about a metal that was once
considered more precious than Silver, Gold, or even Platinum!
HTML http://www.coh2.org/images/Smileys/huhsign.gif
That metal is Aluminum.
The obelisk in DC has an Aluminum cap because there was no metal
more precious in those days.
It was a high energy process, needed to produce pure aluminum,
despite the fact that about 7% of the crust has it (unlike
Silver, Gold and Platinum that are really rare in comparison),
that made Aluminum super cheap in the 20th century.
Can that happen to the precious metals too? If MKing and his
pals have their way, certainly.
It is a scientific fact that if you can get out of our planetary
gravity well cheaply, you can get an unlimited supply of ANY
metal from precious metals to rare earths (they ain't rare out
there) and ANY hydrocarbon (see Titan) as well.
Outer space energy expenditure needed to move something from
here to several million miles over there, once you are out of
our gravity well, is akin to a slight push on a boat in New York
harbor sending a giant ship to China (distance multiplied by
several million times) with no added energy except the slight
push to stop it when it gets there. Friction is, in comparison
to travel here on Earth, not a factor.
Another upside from getting our Gold and Silver from outer space
is that mining asteroids has zero environmental impact, low
energy expenditure because your mining and processing factory is
at zero or low G and, thanks to robotics and computers, can be
operated remotely (low personnel costs). A corporation has
already been established to do exactly that.
Of course nobody needs to run out and sell their precious metals
now. But, if there is a future, you can be certain that said
precious metals will eventually be plentiful = cheap.
Considering the health applications that precious metals have, I
would welcome that. Considering the electronics applications
that precious metals have, that means faster and cooler running
computers. Considering the fact that Silver is better than
Copper for the transmission of electricity, I don't need to say
why I would welcome silver wiring.
HTML http://www.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-200714191258.bmp<br
/>
Aluminum: Common Metal, Uncommon Past
In the mid-1800s aluminum was more valuable than gold. :o
Napoléon III's most important guests were given aluminum
cutlery, while those less worthy dined with mere silver;
fashionable and wealthy women wore jewelry crafted of aluminum.
Today aluminum is a critical component of modern life, found in
airplanes, automobiles, soft drink cans, construction materials,
cooking equipment, guardrails, and countless other products. The
difference between scarcity and abundance (and between obscurity
and ubiquity) of this metal depended solely on scientists'
ability to find the way to release it—the third most common
element in the earth's crust by weight—from its ore.
The most familiar story of the first extraction of aluminum is
that the youthful Ohioan Charles Martin Hall developed
aluminum's electrolytic extraction process in his family's
woodshed in 1886, patented the invention, helped found the
company that would later become Alcoa, and died a rich man. [img
width=80
height=40]
HTML http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_9HT4xZyDmh4/TOHhxzA0wLI/AAAAAAAAEUk/oeHDS2cfxWQ/s200/Smiley_Angel_Wings_Halo.jpg[/img]<br
/>
A more complicated version ;) reveals that Paul Héroult
developed a similar process in France at the same time. In
reality both Héroult and Hall were participants in a much larger
program of aluminum research that started in the 1850s and
lasted until 1903, when the last major patent dispute was
settled.
By then Alcoa was the undisputed world leader in aluminum
production, and Hall himself was a multimillionaire. But neither
Hall nor Héroult operated in a vacuum—their nearly simultaneous
discovery of a process for aluminum extraction built on several
decades' worth of electrochemistry and, indeed, centuries' worth
of knowledge on the nature of metals.
Early History
While aluminum metal is a recent discovery, its compounds were
fairly common in various industries throughout history. Alum
(aluminum potassium sulfate, KAl(SO4)2 ), was best known as a
dye fixer (or mordant) first developed in Egypt over 5,000 years
ago, and clays containing aluminum silicates appear to have been
favored by contemporary Persian potters for their strength.
Anhydrous aluminum sulfate (Al2(SO4)3) was used by the ancient
Greeks as an astringent to stanch wounds—a use that continues to
this day in styptic pencils.
Electrolysis, a process central to the modern history of
aluminum, has its roots in the early 19th century. In 1800 the
Italian Alessandro Volta invented the "pile" battery, which
provided the source of stored power that pioneering Englishmen
William Nicholson and Anthony Carlisle used to break a compound
(water) into its constitutive elements through a process known
as electrolysis. Generally defined, the process involves
applying live electrodes to a liquid containing the compound to
be electrolyzed. The negative electrode in electrolysis, the
cathode, naturally attracts positive ions, which take on
electrons; the positive electrode, the anode, attracts
negatively charged ions. When water is subjected to
electrolysis, hydrogen gas is produced at the cathode and oxygen
is released at the anode.
The remarkable Cornish chemist Humphry Davy also started
experiments in electrolysis in 1800. He struggled to isolate
metals by putting a current through solutions of their alkali
salts, which did nothing more than free hydrogen. But he met
with much better results when he started to electrolyze molten
compounds, first isolating potassium from potash and sodium from
table salt in 1807.
The following year Davy used electrolysis to produce elemental
calcium, strontium, barium, and magnesium before capping off his
remarkable string of success with the identification and naming
of aluminum.
He did not actually isolate aluminum; rather, as Norman C.
Craig, professor emeritus of chemistry at Oberlin College,
explains, "Davy had learned enough about compounds of other
metals to conclude from the composition of aluminum compounds
that they contained a new metal, aluminum." He first called the
metal alumium, although it has evolved to aluminium in most
English-speaking countries, and to aluminum in the United
States.
One of early chemistry's true geniuses, Davy was knighted and
received a baronetcy in 1812 and became president of the Royal
Society in 1820. (The society has awarded an annual "Davy Medal"
in his honor since 1877.) Nevertheless, his repeated attempts to
isolate aluminum metal met with no success before his death in
1829.
Read more here: [img width=175
height=120]
HTML http://www.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-060914180936.jpeg[/img]
HTML http://www.chemheritage.org/discover/media/magazine/articles/25-4-aluminum-common-metal-uncommon-past.aspx
HTML http://www.chemheritage.org/discover/media/magazine/articles/25-4-aluminum-common-metal-uncommon-past.aspx
#Post#: 3406--------------------------------------------------
Re: Money
By: AGelbert Date: July 5, 2015, 7:32 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
[quote author=Uncle Bob link=topic=5139.msg79923#msg79923
date=1436140287]
[quote author=agelbert link=topic=5139.msg79922#msg79922
date=1436137738]
I find it curious that all present luminaries ignore the facts
as Hudson and Black have clearly stated them.
1) Greece does not need a "bail out" because ALL of the debt was
fabricated.
2) A default and a Drachma is the best course of action for
Greek sovereignty.
3) ANY investor in any country, from the Eurozone to China or
Russia, can then buy low risk bonds emitted by Greece in
Drachmas BECAUSE Greece will have a LOW to NO debt at the time.
NO BAILOUT IS REQUIRED.
4) There is ZERO reason for Greece to lower pensions or other
austerity measures. The BASKET CASE is the Troika monetary
system, NOT GREECE.
As Hudson and Black have pointed out, the bigoted and defamatory
propaganda the media has pushed that the Greeks "brought this on
themselves" is inaccurate, to put it mildly. I posted the video
earlier. It looks like nobody watched it here. :(
[quote][font=times new roman]"Facts do not cease to exist
because they are ignored." -- Aldous Huxley[/font][/quote]
[/quote]
All debt is fabricated the same way. all fiat is fabricated we
still use it and owe it if we sign for it.
I dont believe we ignored discussion of drachma. RE has said
repeatedly he thinks it would be instantly worthless due to
hyperinflation, u can make your case why hes wrong to him. I
hope this result translates to using their own currency and
localised self sufficiency instead of more can kicking.
Take the story of the villagers with their gardens and goats.
Abd their 40 euro taxi rides ti go get their pension 18km
awsyawsaway. Nice new german mercedes taxis... they used to ride
scooters and
[/quote]
NO UB, ALL debt is NOT fabricated the same way. RE has said a
lot of the right things but he STILL claims that TSHTF if the
people vote no. I disagree. But the IMPORTANT THING is that
Hudson and Black ALSO disagree. The TROIKA is the BASKET CASE,
not the Greeks!
Michael Hudson is a Distinguished Research Professor of
Economics at the University of Missouri, Kansas City. He is the
author of The Bubble and Beyond and Finance Capitalism and its
Discontents. His most recent book is titled Killing the Host:
How Financial Parasites and Debt Bondage Destroy the Global
Economy.
William K. Black, author of The Best Way to Rob a Bank is to Own
One, teaches economics and law at the University of Missouri
Kansas City (UMKC). He was the Executive Director of the
Institute for Fraud Prevention from 2005-2007. He has taught
previously at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University
of Texas at Austin and at Santa Clara University, where he was
also the distinguished scholar in residence for insurance law
and a visiting scholar at the Markkula Center for Applied
Ethics.
Black was litigation director of the Federal Home Loan Bank
Board, deputy director of the FSLIC, SVP and general counsel of
the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco, and senior deputy
chief counsel, Office of Thrift Supervision. He was deputy
director of the National Commission on Financial Institution
Reform, Recovery and Enforcement.
Black developed the concept of “control fraud” frauds in which
the CEO or head of state uses the entity as a “weapon.” Control
frauds cause greater financial losses than all other forms of
property crime combined. He recently helped the World Bank
develop anti-corruption initiatives and served as an expert for
OFHEO in its enforcement action against Fannie Mae’s former
senior management.
Transcript
US Hedge Funds Get Bailed Out If Greeks Pass Bailout Referendum
(1/2)
Part 1
JESSICA DESVARIEUX, PRODUCER, TRNN: Welcome to The Real News
Network. I’m Jessica Desvarieux in Baltimore.
If you’re in Greece this week, good luck trying to go to the
bank. Greek banks are closed all week after news broke that the
country will be holding a referendum vote on whether to accept
the bailout measures offered by international creditors. But if
the Greek population decides to vote yes for the bailout deal,
does this mean that they will be handing creditor banks a
bailout?
Now joining us to give us their take on the issue are our two
guests. Joining us from Quito, Ecuador, is Bill Black. Bill is
an associate professor of economics and law at the University of
Missouri Kansas City. He’s a white collar criminologist and a
former financial regulator, and author of the book The Best Way
To Rob A Bank is to Own One. And also joining us from Germany is
Michael Hudson. Michael is distinguished research professor of
economics at the University of Missouri, Kansas City. His latest
book is Killing the Host: How Financial Parasites and Debt
Bondage Destroyed the Global Economy.
Thank you both for joining us.
MICHAEL HUDSON, PROF. OF ECONOMICS, UMKC: Good to be here.
WILLIAM K. BLACK, PROF. OF ECONOMICS, UMKC: Thank you.
DESVARIEUX: So Bill, I’m going to start off with you. Can you
just explain to our viewers who’s actually getting bailed out in
this deal. Are creditor banks the ones benefiting at the end of
the day?
BLACK: Well, the same people are getting bailed out that have
been getting bailed out from the beginning of the Greek crisis,
and that is foreign banks. So this money just moves in sort of
an elaborate circle from the Troika, which is the European
Commission, the European Central Bank, and the IMF, through the
Greek government, through the Greek banks, and then they pay the
foreign creditors. And they pay them just enough that they don’t
have to recognize a loss for accounting purposes.
As Michael will explain, of late the big investors tend to be
American hedge funds, as opposed to what used to be primarily
French banks.
DESVARIEUX: Okay. Michael, I want to ask you about the role of
French banks in all of this. Can you just speak to this, give us
a sense of how they even got entangled in Greek debt.
HUDSON: Well, today’s problem with the debts really stem back
from 2010 and 2011 when Greece obviously couldn’t pay. When
Greece joined the Eurozone, it falsified its debt figures. The
head of its central bank worked with Goldman Sachs to make it
complicated derivatives to hide it all, and that was Lucas
Papademos.
Well, in 2010 right after the PASOK party came to power in
Greece, they revealed the fact that their figures had been
fudged all along, and that the debt was so large that Greece
couldn’t pay. So the International Monetary Fund, which hadn’t
been making loan–almost had no customers in the world, had its
European staff calculate. And the staff unanimously said, Greece
can’t pay these debts. These are fraudulent debts that are all,
that are way beyond the ability to pay. They’ve got to be
written down. And the board of directors agreed.
But Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who was the head of the IMF when he
wasn’t going to the sex parties, wanted to run for president of
France. And he talked to Sarkozy, and Sarkozy said, wait a
minute, French banks are the largest holders of Greek debt. If
Greece doesn’t pay and writes them down, the French banks will
go under. And German banks are the second. But then at the G8
meetings in 2011, President Obama went over along with Tim
Geithner and said, our big campaign contributors are on Wall
Street, and they’ve made huge bets that Greece can pay. If
Greece doesn’t pay, then all these gamblers and derivative
players are going to lose their bets. You’ve got to sacrifice
Greece and you’ve got to drive it into poverty, and lend the
Greek government the money to pay the bond holders so that our
Wall Street banks won’t lose money.
So the European Central Bank told the IMF if you want to be a
player, you’ve got to ignore what the stats said, and they did.
And the European Central Bank and the IMF paid over 100 billion
Euros to the bond holders. So Greece, instead of owing private
bond holders, owed the IMF and the European Central Bank.
Now the European Central Bank wants to get paid, but the debts
can’t be paid. So the central bank says, okay Greece. Sell us
your islands. Sell us your ports. Sell us your lands. Sell us
your raw materials. This is foreclosure time. And if you can’t
pay, we want everything in the public domain. And you also have
to impose austerity. You have–only 20 percent of your population
has emigrated. You only have a 60 percent unemployment rate for
youth. You’ve got to increase the unemployment rate to 80
percent, double the emigration, in order for us to make the
loans to your government that will turn right around and pay us.
[Crosstalk].
DESVARIEUX: But Michael, there really could be real
consequences. You mentioned obviously financial markets. There’s
some real consequences for them. But what about everyday people?
I’m thinking of those folks who might have their money in banks,
in the banking system. And if this bank is insolvent, what would
happen to them?
HUDSON: There need not have been any consequences for the people
at all of Greece not paying the IMF and not paying the European
Central Bank, because this money was all paper money created to
begin with. It’s just a book loss.
But the Europeans said something else, that although we don’t
need the money, we will bankrupt you and we will cause a bank
crisis if you don’t comply with what we want. So it’s either
austerity or we will smash and grab, take your pick.
DESVARIEUX: Bill, I’m going to ask you the same question. What
do you do if you’re a person who’s going to be facing that
referendum vote? Do you vote no for this bill, or do you say yes
and hope for the best?
BLACK: Well, I would definitely vote against the bankers. What
is–the other thing is, Michael is correct, but on top of that
the Troika said it’s not enough that 60 percent of your
pensioners are in poverty. We want to push it so 70 or 80
percent of your pensioners are below the poverty level as well.
And privatization, this is what made, depending on the poll,
Carlos Slim the richest or the second-richest person in the
world. They’re sold on sweetheart terms to cronies, and this is
crony capitalism, basically. People are familiar with Indonesia
under Suharto. It’s very similar.
What do you do is, as Michael said, the normal thing that has
been done in the past is to write down the debts when they can’t
be paid. That is done all the time routinely in the commercial
world, and it was done with Latin America back in the debt
crisis in the ’70s and ’80s, with what became known as the Brady
Plan. So you can’t keep a country, or at least there’s no
economically rational basis for doing so, and of course it’s
completely inhumane, to keep a country in a condition where it
constantly will be in ever greater debt. And that’s precisely
what the Troika wants to do.
And as Michael has said, German politicians have openly demanded
that Greece begin selling islands. In other words, selling the
nation. Just a complete destruction of sovereignty.
DESVARIEUX: All right. Bill Black and Michael Hudson, we’re
going to pause the conversation here. In part two we’ll talk
more about specifics related to alternatives to this deal. So
thank you both for joining us.
BLACK: Thank you.
HUDSON: Good to be here.
DESVARIEUX: And thank you for joining us on The Real News
Network.
Part 2
JESSICA DESVARIEUX, PRODUCER, TRNN: Welcome back to The Real
News. I’m Jessica Desvarieux in Baltimore.
I’m joined now by Bill Black, as well as Michael Hudson. Bill
Black is in Quito, Ecuador, and Michael.
DESVARIEUX: All right. Let’s pick up where we left off. We were
talking about alternatives to the deal that’s being presented to
the Greek people in this referendum vote. Michael, lay out some
specifics. What are some alternatives that would be in the
interest of everyday Greek people?
HUDSON: Well, what Bill was describing in the first half is
really finance as war. What they want is the same thing that
warfare wants. They want the land, and they want a tribute in
the form of interest. Basically, the Eurozone went to Greece and
said, look, we’re going to–just in case Spain’s Podemos party or
other countries want to not pay their debts, we’re going to use
you as an example and we’re going to wreck you.
And it’s begun to backfire this week, because what they show is
that remaining in the Eurozone itself is pretty hopeless,
financially. And the leaders of the Syriza party have said,
look, we’re not only fighting for Greece, we’re fighting for all
of Europe. And what we want to do is save Europe from austerity.
And we want to save Europe by having a real central bank whose
role is to create money, to spend money into the economy. We
want a central bank that doesn’t give money to banks. We want a
central bank that pays for government spending and rebuilding
the Greek economy. And we need to be out of the Eurozone in
order to do that.
DESVARIEUX: Wouldn’t they also have to reform their tax system,
or enforcement, at least, of that tax system?
HUDSON: Yes. I mean, they’re talking about what–a lot of debts
are going to be canceled. Not only to the European banks, but
we’re talking about a domestic debt holiday very much like
Germany’s economic miracle, in 1948 the Allied monetary reform,
where they canceled all the internal German debts except for the
debts that employers used for wages. We’re talking about a huge
debt write off. But you don’t want to make real estate owners
suddenly owning their property free and clear. So we need a tax
system that not only is going to stop the tax evasion by the
oligarchs who have used the banks to avoid it.
We’re going to take away the tax deductibility of interest
payments, so that they can’t pretend to expense all their
profits and interest, and we’re also going to have a rent tax.
For what we’ve privatized already, we’re going to tax the
economic rent to recover for the country what these owners
didn’t create, like the phone systems that Carlos Slim made in
Mexico that Bill mentioned before. We’re going to collect the
economic rent fully in a tax system. So financial reform is
going to go hand-in-hand with tax reform, and that’s what
terrifies the Europeans. Because they say, wait a minute, all of
the money that you call profits is actually rent extraction.
It’s all exploitation. You can’t stop exploitation, that’s what
our financial system is all about.
DESVARIEUX: But Bill, I could imagine people who are in the
elite are going to say, hold on a minute. You want to raise
taxes, you want to create new taxes. I’m going to leave. I’m
going to another country and setting up shop. What do you make
of that argument?
BLACK: Well first, all their money already left. They’ve been
evading taxes for years, so them leaving will have next to no
effect.
But yes, I mean, forget them. What the Troika has done
throughout huge expanses of Europe, roughly nations with half
the population of Europe, their leading export these days is
their college graduates. As soon as you get your degree, you
leave. And that isn’t just the southern periphery, the so-called
Mediterranean. That’s also the Baltic states as well.
There’s an incredibly insipid article in the New York Times at
the time that we are taping this interview about Bulgaria that
says, Bulgarians have no sympathy for the Greeks. Well, and then
it turns out this is a hard-right government that has welcomed
austerity and produced the usual problems. And of course, their
government would fail within 24 hours, as would the Spanish
government, if they ever admitted that Austerity was
economically illiterate. The equivalent of bleeding a patient to
make them better.
So all of these nations and the Troika is locked into this
position that they can never admit the truth.
DESVARIEUX: All right. Michael, I know you’re going to be headed
to Brussels, you’re giving a speech to the Euro parliament on
Thursday on the Greek situation and the IMF. Can you just
quickly lay out for us, what are you going to be advocating for?
HUDSON: Well first of all, for treating the debt claims of the
IMF and the European Central Bank as odious debts. This means
they shouldn’t have been put in place to begin with, and the
debts, the money that was lent to Greece, except it went right
through Greece to pay the French banks and the German banks, and
to enable the American Wall Street banks to make a killing.
The Wall Street banks made whole reputations of buying bonds at
30 cents on the dollar and suddenly they went up to 100 cents on
the dollar. The market basically said Greece couldn’t pay in
2010. The market priced its bonds very low. Right now Greek
bonds are yielding 33 percent. So the market says Greece can’t
pay.
And so when Europe is saying, we want to impose a market
economy, everything the European Central Bank and IMF is doing
is against the market. They’re not recognizing what any real
market analyst realizes, that the debts can’t be paid. We want
to create a real market economy by getting rid of the
[rentiers?] [incompr.], by getting rid of the exploitation, by
writing off the bad debts, by reforming the tax system.
And in–a few years ago Christine Lagarde provided a list to
Greece of Greek tax evaders that had 50 billion Euros in
Switzerland. This 50 billion Euros is enough to pay–was enough
to pay all of Greece’s debts. And the technocratic leader that
the financial interests installed, Lucas Papademos, the very man
who falsified all of the Greek payments and debt statements in
2001, didn’t do anything at all with the list. He refused to
move against the oligarchs.
So what you have is, is really a combination of treason and
criminal behavior. Now that there is a crisis in Greece this
enables Syriza to get the support of the people to throw the bad
guys in jail. I’d like to say to throw the lawbreakers in jail,
but they don’t have any laws against that kind of crime taking
place. So they have to draw up a whole new set of laws to make
Greece a fair economy instead of the unfair economy that the IMF
and the European Central Banks have turned it into.
DESVARIEUX: And it’s now being reported by the Associated Press
that Greece’s credit rating has been pretty much cut in half,
and it’s now a junk, junk credit rating.
I just want to thank you both, gentlemen, for joining us, and
we’re going to continue to cover this story here on The Real
News. You guys always have such interesting perspectives to
bring to this program. Thank you both for being with us.
BLACK: Thank you.
DESVARIEUX: And thank you for joining us on The Real News
Network.
HTML http://michael-hudson.com/2015/06/greece-on-behalf-of-europe/
HTML http://michael-hudson.com/2015/06/greece-on-behalf-of-europe/
#Post#: 3408--------------------------------------------------
Re: Money
By: AGelbert Date: July 5, 2015, 10:55 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
[center][img width=640
height=580]
HTML http://www.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-050715234711.jpeg[/img][/center]
[center][img width=100
height=100]
HTML http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys/smiley-forum/popcorn.gif[/img][/center]
#Post#: 3409--------------------------------------------------
Re: Money
By: AGelbert Date: July 6, 2015, 5:03 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
Agelbert NOTE: Come one, come all worshippers of Predatory
Capitalism! Listen to the amazing glorification of situational
ethics as a justification for avoiding any responsibility by the
TROIKA goons for creating this situation in the first place.
Notice the claim that the Greeks "cheated" the 'honorable and
ethical' rules of the Troika. That is world class Orwellian
discourse! Observe how this totally false premise is THEN used
to justify (with historical references and rallying cry quotes,
no less [img width=80
height=40]
HTML http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_9HT4xZyDmh4/TOHhxzA0wLI/AAAAAAAAEUk/oeHDS2cfxWQ/s200/Smiley_Angel_Wings_Halo.jpg[/img])<br
/> DOING what the TROIKA has ALWAYS DONE (asset stripping under
the guise of prudent, measured, and so on, "economics".).
HTML http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys/smiley-devil19.gif
The bottom line is that David Marsh
HTML http://www.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-200714191329.bmpis<br
/>just one more Empathy Deficit Disordered Nurse Ratched doing h
is
evil part to justify the lack of conscience, integrity, honesty,
responsibility, along with the mens rea asset stripping grand
larceny practiced by those he represents.
HTML http://www.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-200714183337.bmp
This article is a repetition of many, many clever propaganda
pieces in the sad historical record of our "civilization" used
to convince people that ethical behavior is not applicable to an
apex predator. Unfortunately, most Homo SAPS have been swayed by
this biosphere math challenged, short sighted and suicidal
argument. So it goes. :(
Opinion: After Greece’s ‘no’ vote, let the punishment begin
HTML http://www.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-200714191329.bmp
By David Marsh
Published: July 6, 2015 8:06 a.m. ET
Greece faces infighting and pain, and Europe must confront
contagion
The warring over Greece’s future has been a debtor versus
creditor battle. So far, the Greeks seem to be winning.
In achieving a decisive “no” vote in Sunday’s referendum, Alexis
Tsipras, the Greek prime minister, has implemented the credo
attributed to his forebear Philip of Macedon, father of
Alexander the Great: divide et impera. (Divide and rule.)
The failure of the creditor countries, led by Germany and the
Netherlands, to recognize a central maxim of guerrilla fighting
— the enemy will always surprise — provides a key reason for the
oxi (no) win. If you’re outnumbered, practice the unorthodox.
Tearing up the rules of Brussels conduct, Tspiras and Yanis
Varoufakis, his finance minister-cum-field-marshal, have
outmaneuvered and divided the surplus states by constantly
re-engaging, over five months, from unexpected, demanding and
outrageous battle positions.
The fruits of victory will turn sour. Creditors and debtors
alike will be punished. Greece faces a wrenching period of
infighting and pain, during which devaluation-stamped bank
notes, rationing of high-street goods and exchange controls
enforced by armed police will be only the least of the ills.
The euro states must confront contagion and schism in their
ranks, both political and economic.
The Syriza partisans arrived in power in January on the horns of
an impossible trilemma. They wanted simultaneously to end
austerity, gain debt relief and remain in the euro. The chances
are that Greece will say goodbye to the single currency. They
lack the means to stay. If they are forced out, the Athenians
will go neither quietly nor with good grace. They will threaten
to bring the edifice crashing down around them.
Also read: Greece’s ‘no’ vote is really no vote at all
For the moment, the “no” vote gives the Greek government
authority and momentum to fight the next stage. Adding to
Tsipras’ temporary sense of triumph, the creditor states
themselves administered the coup de grace.
All along, the Greeks have mercilessly exposed fault lines in
the creditor ranks. The International Monetary Fund official who
haplessly briefed journalists on July 2 that Greece (as the
Athens government and many other observers had been saying all
along) needed massive debt relief — and, by the way, would the
Europeans kindly foot the bill? — handed Tsipras and Varoufakis
a propaganda coup. The IMF guillotined itself. Christine
Lagarde, its hyperactive managing director, should have stayed
in Washington masterminding operations rather than uselessly and
visibly trail-blazing around Europe.
Another Syriza helper turned out to be Wolfgang Schäuble, the
German finance minister, who, I have always suspected, is far
too intelligent and worldly wise to be taken in by his own
rhetoric. He conceded on the eve of the referendum that,
whatever happened, the rest of Europe would have to continue
Greek financing, thus removing the fear of creditor cruelty that
would have been the main motivation for a “yes.”
Schäuble’s admission was a mark of humanity and honesty.
Clausewitzian it was not.
No doubt Tsipras and Varoufakis will spring more surprises. Euro
negotiators will have cause to remember what Mario Draghi,
European Central Bank president, said in Helsinki on Nov. 27:
“[Euro] members have to be better off inside than they would be
outside. … If there are parts of the euro area that are worse
off inside the union, doubts may grow about whether they might
ultimately have to leave. And if one country can potentially
leave the monetary union, then this creates a replicable
precedent for all countries.”
If Greece leaves, some of the euro magic that Draghi has
sustained with so much creativity will wear off. It is difficult
to imagine that Europe will display the thoroughgoing solidarity
— open-ended ECB bond purchases, across-the-board bank
guarantees and so on — needed to nullify fears of contagion.
The Duke of Wellington reflected 200 years ago that nothing
except a battle lost can be half as melancholy as a battle won.
A parable for the euro, a line from T.S. Eliot’s “Murder in the
Cathedral,” comes to mind: “For every evil, every sacrilege,
crime, wrong, oppression and the axe’s edge, indifference,
exploitation — you, and you, and you, must all be punished.” As
the smoke rises from the field of battle, the euro area will not
be a peaceful place.
David Marsh is managing director of the Official Monetary and
Financial Institutions Forum (OMFIF), an independent research
and advisory group and a platform for confidential exchanges of
views between official institutions and the private sector.
HTML http://www.marketwatch.com/story/after-greeces-no-vote-let-the-punishment-begin-2015-07-06
HTML http://www.marketwatch.com/story/after-greeces-no-vote-let-the-punishment-begin-2015-07-06
[center][img width=640
height=440]
HTML http://www.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-111214174727.png[/img][/center]
*****************************************************
DIR Previous Page
DIR Next Page