The Market has a Name. It is Goldman Sachs
82"Money is a new form of slavery, and distinguishable from the old simply by the fact that it is impersonal - that there is no human relation between master and slave." Leo Tolstoy. From What Shall We Say? in the Complete Works of Leo Tolstoy
Corporatocracy
A few months ago Ken Clarke, the justice secretary and former chancellor, said that it would take two to three years for Britain to get out of the recession.
"People have got to understand it is going to be a long haul,” he said. “We have got ourselves into a real mess."
Meanwhile Mervyn King, the governor of the Bank of England, has warned that UK take-home pay will continue to be squeezed.
You get the feeling we may be being softened up by statements such as these: that we are being prepared for a permanent reduction in our living standards rather than a temporary one.
A pay freeze alongside rising inflation means an effective pay-cut. We are seeing massive cuts in our public services and large scale redundancies. Restructuring of the NHS means privatisation by the back door. Libraries are closing. The lift on the cap on council house rents will lead to a form of social cleansing, as poorer people in wealthy areas are forced to leave.
Bankers bonuses, on the other hand, continue to rise. CEOs of large corporations continue to receive the kind of pay and benefits that would keep whole nations afloat.
The narrative being used to justify all of this is one of economic competence. There is a massive black hole in our budget which needs to be filled. At the same time, the government’s economic advisors - the ones who are prescribing these austerity measures - are also the same people who entirely failed to predict the financial crisis in the first place.
Worse: they are the very people whose economic theories brought the financial system to the brink of collapse. Remember, it was these same “experts” who argued for bank deregulation and a liberalisation of the markets. Wherever these policies have been instituted they have lead to financial chaos and a break down in the social order, as wealth flows upward, from the poor to the rich.
Is this deliberate? Are we seeing the creation of a form of corporate feudalism in which a capitalist aristocracy – a corporatocracy - lords it over the rest of us, with democracy as a convenient front?
Look around you folks: it is already here.
Alessio Rastani on BBC News 24
- The Great American Bubble Machine | Politics News | Rolling Stone
The first thing you need to know about Goldman Sachs is that it's everywhere. The world's most powerful investment bank is a great vampire squid....
The Market
In an interview on BBC News 24 on the 26th of September, Alessio Rastani, an independent trader, made certain predictions about the economy.
He said that the euro will crash. “Markets are ruled by fear,” he said. “The big funds don’t buy this rescue plan. They know the market is toast. The stock market is finished. They’re moving their money away to other, safer, assets.”
The interviewer asked him if there’s anything that governments can do to prevent it? “I don’t care,” he said. “If I see an opportunity to make money, I go with that. People don’t remember, but the 30s depression wasn’t just about the market crash. There were some people who were prepared to make money off that crash. It’s not a time right now for wishful thinking hoping that the government is going to sort things out. Governments don’t rule the world. Goldman Sachs rules the world.”
Goldman Sachs, in case you don’t know, is the world’s most powerful investment bank.
Some of you may remember an interview in the Times two years ago with Lloyd Blankfein, the CEO of Goldman Sachs. In it he said that he was “doing God’s work.” That interview came out as a response to an article in Rolling Stone magazine by Matt Taibbi, which accused Goldman Sachs of being like “a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity.”
The article was called The Great American Bubble Machine. I recommend you read it.
Taibbi was very clear. Not only did Goldman Sachs make money from the depression, but it engineered it as well. In fact Taibbi goes on to list a whole series of economic crises that Goldman Sachs specifically engineered in order to make money from them, including the sub-prime crisis which brought about the financial collapse of 2008.
It’s a measure of the veracity of the information in the article that Goldman Sachs never sued him over it.
So the next time you hear someone on the TV telling you what “the market” demands, you should remember this.
The market has a name. It is Goldman Sachs.
Michael Hudson on the public option for banking and Occupy Wall Street
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Debt
So our nation is in debt. It is so horribly in debt that it will take several generations to pay it off. It doesn’t matter what party is in power, the end result is the same. It’s job cuts and pay cuts and austerity measures for the foreseeable future.
All nations throughout the western world are in debt. There is so much debt, according to financial experts, that there isn’t enough money in the entire world to pay it off.
Stop and think about that for a second. The human race is in debt to itself for more money than there actually is in existence. Even if we all tightened all of our belts and starved ourselves to death to pay off the debt, we still couldn’t succeed. There just isn’t enough money to do it.
You wonder how this came about. One branch of the human family is in debt to the other. A very few people have so much money they couldn’t spend it in a thousand lifetimes, while large numbers are so poor they can’t even afford the basic necessities of life.
Here’s the problem. Money is created as debt. Banks issue money, but they charge interest on it, so in order to pay the money back the economy as a whole is forced to borrow even more money. It’s a vicious cycle which will go on forever. There can never be enough money to pay off all the accumulated debts.
As a consequence money is always depreciating in value. The term “pound sterling” arises from the fact that originally a pound in money represented a pound weight in silver. At the current rate a pound of silver is worth £316 in sterling. That’s how far the value of our money has depreciated. Where has all this value gone?
Why has gold gone up recently? Actually it hasn’t: it is paper money that has gone down.
Something has gone horribly wrong with our financial system. Since when did we give control of our money supply to a handful of private corporations? The banking system is a parasite on the real economy, and the cause of, not the solution to, the financial crisis.
Links
- A Simple Solution to the Debt Crisis | Positive Money
Ever wondered why we're all in so much debt? Watch this three minute video to discover what we need to do to end the debt crisis... - AMI (American Monetary Institute) - Monetary Reform and Solutions to the Financial Crisis
- Capitalism – Neoliberalism, Plutonomy, and Neo-feudalism. | Think Left
- Revealed – the capitalist network that runs the world - physics-math - 19 October 2011 - New Scienti
As anti-capitalist protesters take to the streets, mathematics has teased apart the global economic network to show who's really pulling the strings - A MONETARY MANIFESTO FOR THE PEOPLE
- The Economic Collapse
Are You Prepared For The Coming Economic Collapse And The Next Great Depression? - Who Has Said What About the Creation of the Money Supply by the Private Banks - About Money - Money
Quotes - Common Appeal for the Rescue of the Peoples of Europe
65 years after the defeat of nazism and fascism, European people are today confronting a dramatic threat, this time not military, but a financial, social and political one. A new “Empire of Money”...
More hubs on the banking crisis by CJ Stone
- We do the work. Someone else takes the wealth.
Economics is easy to understand. It is work that makes wealth. It’s as simple as that - Who Says We're All In This Together?
Economics is not science. It is propaganda for the corporate sector. How politicians blind you with pseudo science in order to disguise the corporate rape of our economy. - The Empire of Things. On The Social Psychology of Looting
In the social sphere, the financial sector is a kind of collective psychopath, destroying the health of the economy for its private gratification. - Useless Idiots: cuts, war-crimes and quantitative easing
While the banks are busy looting the world in what is effectively a financial protection racket, forcing the sell-off of public assets at rock bottom prices, the defence of those assets becomes a priority for all concerned citizens.
Think Left
- Captain Ska Tribute
Oct 25, 2010 No 1 In the UK Reggae Charts Dec 2010 http://www.captainska.com/ Feb 28, 2011 Captain SKA is back with “SHAME ON YOU” aimed at all FAT CATS not prepared to pay their fair share. Jun 28, 2011 Captain … Continue reading → - 17 hours ago
- Tory-Led Government Crimes Against British Policing.
By David Harney First posted on THE 67 MISSING PAGES! Tens of thousands of off duty Police Officers marched in protest at Government imposed cuts of 20%, causing the loss of 16,000 Officers. In addition, Government plans mass privatization of British … Continue reading → - 2 days ago
- United Against Austerity. The Voices Grow Ever Louder!
By David Harney First posted on THE 67 MISSING PAGES! 21 May 2012 March 26th 2011.. Over Half A Million People Took To The Streets Of London To `March For The Alternative` Fourteen months ago, along with another 500,000 people … Continue reading → - 2 days ago
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Great but profoundly depressing article... As you have previously described, we are being deliberately driven into Neo-feudalism or Plutonomy. The richest 1000 UK citizens have quadrupled their wealth to 400 billion, since 2008. They alone could pay off the so-called structural deficit, and would still have made a tidy profit. Instead of which, the disabled are having to take to the streets tomorrow to demonstrate to protect their basic needs. It is appalling and cynical.
Bravo, CJ. This could just as easily have been written about the U.S. economy/government. Those who say corporate greed isn't destroying the global economy would do well to read this Hub. Up and awesome.
Yup, news just out here is that 100 of the most important pension funds no longer have all the money we "entrusted" (this is mandatory,you're not allowed to earn a salary unless you fork monthly sums over to the pension funds) to them. Put simply, you lend someone 100 quid, they give back 70. Unfortunately the rest was gambled away. I've been robbed in clear daylight, the thieves have government support and even get bonuses for their great work.
I have to say, I couldn't read that all the way through - fills me with despair and a sense of no answers... I think that thinking won't solve the disease.... schisters will run the banks and the governments will always be beholden to the schisters... revolution is the only answer, and I believe in non-violent direct action. What do we do now?
I felt good and bad about this article.
It is good to note that America is not alone with it's economic problems.
It is sad to note that America is not alone with it's economic problems, that in fact it is a world wide problem.
An excellent post, which accurately sums up a situation. The greedy rule the world. But there are more of us. Our destiny is in our hands.
Pam @earwiggle
Hi Chris - the trouble is that even though more people are beginning to understand the debt-interest scam, it is very difficult to defeat it. Mass protest is a start, but actually the only way would seem to be opting out of the economy, via barter and local currencies. The powers aren't keen to let that happen!
How about suggesting a positive alternative to the current parasitic banking system, as in 'A People's Monetary Manifesto' - see http://eu-social-nationalist-manifesto.blogspot.co
These are worrying times. The spiral of debt and desparation is exactly what has historically led to revolution. There are solutions, but they're not easy ones. The ideal would of course be for all the major powers to put their egos aside and draw a line under the current situation. Debt could be written off, re-structured, at the stroke of a pen. That won't happen of course, so the solution must come from the people themselves. In America and Australia, where credit unions are widespread, people have an easy way of hurting the banks. Move your money. Don't give the big banks your business. In the UK there aren't so many credit unions, although their numbers are increasing. There are, however, still a number of independent building societies and smaller banks around. Protests are great for expressing general discontent, but action is what's really needed. If banks are the problem, don't feed them. Keep them hungry.
Voted up for this brilliant hub that tell it like it is! I have already seen that Alessio Rastani video and posted it on my Facebook wall a couple of weeks back.
It is a dire situation that has been in the making for many years. There have been warnings along the way, but we failed to heed them. Oh, we may have noticed, but nothing was done, and where has that led us? To the brink of utter ruin. Sadly, I think even this we will not learn from. Getting money out of politics would be a start, but as you point out, it's too little too late. Generations will suffer.
What dark and evil forces are at work behind the scenes today.
Greed and waste. Too many bankers not enough people making things. The Chinese might be on to something.
I know some are putting their money in gold bars kept in safe storage. If there is going to be a major depression it would make sense to take your money out of the banks.
If the banks collapse a lot will lose their savings. Money will be worthless whereas things will become very valuable. Maybe better to invest in things.
Chris, you said "We need governments to take the power back for us by making it illegal for banks to issue money, and then issuing our own debt-free currency as a substitute".
That is exactly right. There should be no privately owned 'for profit' banks, and and the debt-interest economy should be abolished. It's very simple in principle, but where is the will to do it?
Great article CJ, you obviously know what you're talking about. I am in complete agreement with the points raised, and would like to add that at the general assembly at the 'Block the Bridge' protest in Westminster there were murmurs of a protest currency. I'm not sure how exactly this would be brought to fruition but an idea to share for sure.
I do have concerns about reform though. Not that I'm against it or anything, it's just that I don't know how we can make the governments work in our interests. Right now the Conservatives are in power in the UK (and indeed throughout the world; scaremongering the ignorant into voting), funded by the banks. Legislation is bought. The powers that be don't give a damn about what we do. I saw a video of the rich types drinking champagne and laughing at OWS as they marched past.
I am of the belief that violence be-gets violence, and thus violent revolution will lead to instability. Permanent, peaceful change can only be achieved by evolution, education, enlightenment. However, I can't see peaceful protesting making any difference in this particular issue. Although, perhaps general strikes would work. If everyone united and brought the country to a standstill, for a prolonged period of time, it would show those in office who really holds power (us!). There is a general strike 30th November in the UK, it would be great to see it spread around the world.
Sorry if some of this sounded very negative and hopeless. I'm not wanting to moan people into inaction or apathy, It's just that I have been feeling quite disillusioned lately.. Nothing I do seems to be making a blind bit of difference.
Matt, you're not the only one who feels like that. I'm appalled that the most common reaction to the pensions news seems to be interest in a Ajax-Feijenoord football match. Many people seem to think it doesn't matter what they do or feel, we get screwed over anyway. Again, the insurance/pensions companies here are backed by the government. There will be no inquiry, no investigation, no blame, just bonuses. They're laughing in our face.
I watched a documentary last night called "The Ascent of Money," by Niall Ferguson, which is a fascinating and enraging look at money from it's creation to now and how it has become so important and, as you say, a fiction. Smoke and mirrors, the truth behind bonds, derivatives, etc. I think it was on the BBC. Everyone should watch this, but it's 5 episodes at 1 hr. each, and the whole thing is currently available. It's eye opening, to say the least. http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2011/06/07/
Is the general strike a UK one? Can we try and create a FB viral, get people from all EU countries to pressure their unions to participate?
You're right, twice.
CJ, an astute analysis of the money fiasco. Just a reminder, JFK had put together a proposal to eliminate the "FED" and was assasinated within a short time. They will not go qietly into the night. They will destroy countries and armies if they have to to preserve their power. The mass movements in the world now must take the steps to get us off the debt wagon and eliminate the Large banks like Goldman Sachs, BofA, etc. If these banks can be eliminated, the governments could do it by just writing off the debt to them, then we could be freed from this insidious hold they have on all of us. The governments of the world just keep going along with them and accepting their dictates. Someone must stand up like the USA or Germany or China and kick them out and jail the perpetrators. Then the world will see that everything doesn't end just their control. Great Piece CJ Thanks,
Peter
I have the easiest solution to all of the problems. The Federal Government needs to print money, and lots of it. If we intentionally devalue our currency several things will take place.
1) We will reset the rules for trade with China and other currency manipulators.
2) That money can be injected into the economy and bust the recession.
3) If the amount printed equals the amount held by the upper percentile of wealth holders it will bring back balance to our economic system.
4) We are the biggest purchasers on the planet; it would give us the ability to set the standards for trade.
6) If we put laws into place that deter the raising of prices in compensation of the greater currency circulation, no inflation will occur.
7) Finally, putting ourselves on an equal playing field with our trading partners will bring business back to this country.
You are correct C.J.
I am aware of the A.M.I.’s proposal, and it would be the best answer to the problem. However, I am a realist. All one has to do is remember the lies and distortions propagated by the Right during the Healthcare debate to understand that a proposition like this would never make it past congress no matter who occupied those seats. Can you imagine the propaganda that would be generated? I have taken a lot of flack for over simplification in my articles, but I do this because I understand the mentality of the Right. If the Fed just pumps in the money there is nothing that they can do to stop it and all of the debate and propaganda will be after the fact. At that point the A.M.I.’s solution might become a viable debate, and could garner support from both parties since the Right would be looking for anything to lay their hat on.
hi chris
thought you might like this appeal:
http://arirusila.wordpress.com/
by Mikis Theodorakis, composer and former resistance fighter, and Manolis Glezos (man who famously climbed the Acropolis to cut down the massive swastika flag the Nazis hung there after they invaded).
I don't quite agree with all its formulations (just like I don't agree that fiat currency is the root of all evil, rather than a symptom or mechanism).
But still, it's making the point that it's not just restricted to Greece, but something the peoples of Europe (and beyond) have got to do something about together.
Actual the Fed is both government and private, as odd as that sounds. But the purse strings are held by the Treasury Department. However my thoughts were more along the line of a public referendum demanding either the removal of the Fed or an appropriate monetary infusion to balance the economy and pay off the debt. This would carry us out to about the ten year mark thus giving plenty of time to do tax reform that would keep the balance in check.
And I couldn’t agree more with the rest of your comments. But the alternative to the President is a crop of rotten eggplants. And again with the technology that is at our disposal a national referendum is more than possible. We need someone like you to write the petition and get the ball rolling.
Give me a couple of days and I’ll email it to you.
I have some good super geek buddies that would love to help the cause. And I still have a few connections in the news business that owe me favors.
I don't even agree that it's the main mechanism, Chris. The main mechanism is the extraction of private profit, and the main issue is who has ownership and control.
Lots of what can be more or less be called petty-bourgeois radicals have been banging on about currency reform and "sound money" for ages -- I seem to recall it was one of the many bees in Ezra Pound's bonnet. They come in all shapes and sizes, some quite left wing, others, like Pound, very reactionary, however much I like him as a poet.
yes, chris, I am bloody pleased.
some of those Americans don't know how revolutionary or even socialist they really are. There a massive potential there.
I'll check out the michael hudson, thanks
I'm bloody happy they're at last beginning to wake up.
I think sometimes a lot of Americans don't realise how revolutionary, even socialist, they really are. There's enormous potential there and it's only just starting.
thanks for the hudson link, I'll check it out.
"the main force of the left in the US is anarchism"
not sure that's totally true, Chris, but even if it is,
you know, Marx moved the 1st International from Europe to New York partly to get away from the pernicious influence of the Proudhonists and Bakhuninites in Europe.
I'm sure he'd be rather pissed off if the main "left" force in the US turned out to be anarchism -- and I'm not really sure that it's particularly "left" in any case.
I love when we have solutions to problems that are not problems for those who created the problem and will never allow a solution to happen in the first place. Obviously the rich are never rich enough and we our not poor enough to make them happy. This sounds like a lousy relationship that is not going to work out at some point in the future. I was born into a ponzi-scheme the hell with voting just give me a picket sign and a gas mask. I am guessing that they will still profit from my death.
Aren’t some political candidates proposing the continuation of huge tax breaks and loopholes for the very corporations that running the country into the ground? I pulled all my money out of the stock market when my financial planner foreclosed on his house. I thought it might be wise to follow my own intuition rather than that idiot. To add insult to injury, he lived on my street. So, the bank giving away his home has negatively impacted my home’s valuation.
Great post..Thanks
It is called trickle up economics or squeezing a lemon that you made someone else grow but never paid for. You can not own the farm and have no one who can afford to buy your produce. Capitalism no longer works if you win the game by owning everything and you keep demanding greater profits. Your vote does not count when the Politicians receive more then 75 percent of all there funding from outside their districts and even their own states. When lobbyist for major corporations write their own laws and conduct their own research and even approve their own products and call them safe. When Politicians make 20 times more money by becoming lobbyist or spokespersons in a revolving door that spends more then 400 dollars per person who votes you really have no chance.
great post and i have to agree 100% with it.
I wonder why the Goldman lackey would make such bold statements on tv. I read the article in Rolling Stone that you referenced and of course I think that perhaps GS is trying to make the markets move for their own benefit by making comments like this in the media. I wonder how many people sold stock and bought treasuries after this aired?
The reason these people say anything is called out of touch. These people live in a world you can not even imagine. They refer to common people and the poor like serial killers refer to their victims in utter contempt of humanity. They blame their victims for their position in life and tell us to buy more of there lie in order to better our lives. They sit in denial of all truth and employ others to take their blame. Simply put they are the pigs that they are and we our better people if we are dead by not becoming one of them.
Harsh I know but a true analogy that I noticed by being around such people. Take a visit to Palm Springs and visit a few stores of the high and mighty sometime. I will not mention actual locations on here but they are pretty easy to figure out. It is actually stunning and no a lot of these people are not on the same planet as me, not even close. Visiting these people actually opens your eyes to the people who think and want to be like them. Its humorous to meet people who are trying to be arrogant. These people do not try they are mentally disabled and have no clue about the pathetic lives of us little people.

























the bunco squad 7 months ago
This is a most awesome hub. The concepts that we live under are simple yet so few want to understand them. They would rather vote pro life or anti Mexican. Many years ago I went to a Billy Graham revival. The main topic of this particular service was reaching out to what he determined were cults like Mormonism, today I heard his son talking politics with Glenn Beck (an insane Mormon) and wondered how Christians could so easily sell their souls to a Party.