Australian career diplomat Ex EU Ambassaor: Expect a total financial meltdown

James Cumes wrote this article with a view to speculating how the next President will cope with an expected financial meltdown. In my opinion when faced with the entrenched electoral system that exists, how could anyone who is produced as a president, do anything. The economic fault lines are so deep, that only (a peaceful) revolution could help. No amount of tax returns or interest rate didgery doos will help. The authour does portray a faulty system, and takes heed with predatory capitalism and “free” markets. But he has chosen not to be on the lunatic extremes in calling for a complete overhaul, although he hints at it. Which leaves one left to waffle about Obama, Hillary and McCain. While Obama seems the nicest of the three. The problem is the system. As the dollar collapses, he’ll still be obliged to be shouting about Iran. Even though he knows better. It seems to me that a crashing dollar can be the only evidence of a meltdown. And the world might be surprised how it can survive without the US. …European banks and non-bank financial institutions have been showing similar signs of weakness and distress. Moreover, the prospect is for the global finance industry to endure waves of defaults on credit cards, car loans and corporate loans. “We believe we’re entering Phase II,” said a credit analyst of Dresdner Kleinwort. “The liquidity crisis has eased a little, but the real credit losses are accelerating. The worst is yet to come.” [...] But discussions of fundamental issues and of how to reform the financial system have been lacking. Almost invisible is the problem of how to handle what must now be seen as the almost inevitable, virtual meltdown of the system. That meltdown is now well on the way and can only intensify in the months to come. We have seen little acknowledgement that such a collapse was always inherent in the financial system that evolved since the early 1980s and even more robustly in the last decade. The rolling thunder of the gathering financial storm will be even more foreboding from August when the presidential election campaigns gather full momentum; and the lightning flashes will follow ever more closely on the thunder by the time the elections are held in early November. By the time the successful candidate moves into the White House next January, financial devastation may already have swept through the American and global economy like a tornado…. James Cumes is a former Australian ambassador to the European Union and Australian representative at the United Nations [ and a former high commisioner] more biog here.

www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/JG02Dj03.html

Authour of America’s Suicidal Statecraft: The self-destruction of super power (Paperback)

Capitalism Denial Now Illegal

This week Presidential directives from both the EU and the US have made it illegal to deny the benefits of capitalism. In recognition of the banks, the money traders, advertisers and investors it is necessary to show homage and respect to the above professions. Anyone suggesting that consumerism, interest rates and or debt is a bad thing can be tried in a court of law and face five years in jail. The presidents found these new laws necessary because people who had personal or family problems were misguided into blaming our economic way of life. Furthermore the words “In god we trust” now on the Dollar bills will be replaced with “In capitalism we trust”.

Marx, end of capitalism, and on Jewishness

There is such an inundation of news of the financial markets in near collapse. The experts over and over repeat it is bad, we can also witness this ourselves, by seeing the rising prices and probably less income. It is not hard to imagine the most powerful spending more than they have, principally on armaments, (personal indulgences would be petty). But we are talking of trillions going missing, and to waste that amount, can only be explained by empire building, to squander trillions isn’t easy, it required faulty logic to start with.

The whole debt driven economy seems to be coming to an end, but it was a philosophy, the credit cards and the mortgages.

Islam actually has laws governing the economy, one law was reprinted on this blog the other day, ‘that no financial transaction shall take place without the goods being delivered’, meaning no speculation.

In Christianity we have the image of Jesus kicking out the money lenders. Although I think I read that he died three days later. Anyway I started thinking about Marx, who said capitalism will come to an end, it will simply cease to exist.

And I have also been thinking our capitalist system seems and feels Jewish, then I discovered Marx had written an essay ‘on the Jewish question’, what follows are two extracts, the first from an Israeli website, the second extract from Wikipedia. Do the extracts relate to capitalism? At least a little they do.

http://www.wzo.org.il/en/resources/view.asp?id=888

Jews would never abandon the tenet of being the chosen people and drop their messianic expectations. Nor would they abandon Judaism as a system of law, and this was precisely the reason, Bauer thought, for the impossibility of liberating the Jews.

Marx’s article was originally intended to counter the claims made by Bruno Bauer - another prominent German thinker of Jewish origin. Bauer stated that Jews could never be emancipated, because of what he called “Jewish narrowness”, in other words, their commitment to the Jewish faith, which is incompatible with the universal aspect of human emancipation. By that he meant that Jews could never be granted the rights of citizens, since they are incapable of playing any political game except their own.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_The_Jewish_Question

In part II of the essay, Marx refers to Thomas Müntzer:

The view of nature attained under the domination of private property and money is a real contempt for, and practical debasement of, nature; in the Jewish religion, nature exists, it is true, but it exists only in imagination. It is in this sense that [in a 1524 pamphlet] Thomas Münzer declares it intolerable

“that all creatures have been turned into property, the fishes in the water, the birds in the air, the plants on the earth; the creatures, too, must become free.”

Marx concludes that “the Christians have become Jews”; and, ultimately, it is mankind (both Christians and Jews) that needs to emancipate itself from (”practical”) Judaism.
Quotes from this part of the essay are frequently cited as proof of Marx’ antisemitism.

Let us borrow this economic idea from Islam

This paper transaction, at times termed as speculation, is taking place even without the physical transfer of the goods and is making a mockery of the conservative economic models. And this is contributing to the current imbroglio. Unfortunately only the moneyed class has the capacity to participate and benefit from this entire game — at the cost of the poor.
Religious scholars tell that Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) did not permit transactions in which physical transaction of the goods under question did not take place. And in the current situation, rarely is the physical transaction taking place.
www.arabnews.com/?page=6&section=0&article=110042&d=19&m=5&y=2008&pix=business.jpg&category=Business
Link to article seen at whatreallyhappened

Muhammad must have been an enlightened soul. To have seen the world so objectively. One wonders what would have happened to him today?
After a second’s thought the answer is obvious. He would have been our central target in the war on terror.

The politics of corporations

Do Microsoft and Yahoo have different politics? Might they support different candidates in the elections? Or take a different stance on foriegn policy? Have different vested/lobbying interests ? Probably yes.
Just as we would expect from a newspaper, except in a newspaper we can often read an editorial and know what the papers politics are.
Certainly neither Yahoo, Microsoft, Apple or Sun have ever taken a public stance on politics. Although Intel having been involved in the ‘laptop for every child’ was political, anyway Intel withdrew.
They are all global players, Globalisation is political, it is institutionalised capitalism. Our IP addresses are statistically accumalated. And while consumer preferences are often discussed, also our political leanings are accumalated.
That won’t stop us going to this or that web site. But if we knew the corporations politics we might consider where we lodge our accounts.
AOL, Google, Yahoo, Wikipedia have all been in the headlines for politically censoring activities.
Looking at one (dated) web page www.mediachannel.org/ it quickly becomes apparent that there is an overlap between media, cable ownership and search engines.

Capitalism won’t end

Capitalism ends when Money is worthless.

Irrespective of the warning shots that are around, we are still beholden to money. While inflation is apparent, and loose money seems rarer, it is still a very functioning system.
Even when countries suffer hyperinflation, they still use paper money, although we could guess more bartering will go on.
Nevertheless there is some type of end game developing. Food shortages and ever abundant weaponry, widening gap between poor and rich. And mans inhumanity to all living things.
Imagine mayhem with a still functioning capitalism.
No country is able to extricate itself from globalisation. And globalisation is free capitalism. No Albanias, no closed systems.
However food is a different story, export bans are increasing.
So at the very least we can have money and weapons.
The stock markets could collapse, so could financial institutions. It is arguable if they actually create any wealth. And insider trading as a crime, is a contradiction in terms. In other words it is the norm.
Capitalism has now brought us biofuels. The ramifications defy language. How does one explain the results of bio fuels?
When the hungry riot and revolt, will they be called AlQueda? Or what? What bogey word will be devised?

Collapsing Capitalism

What will the Jews do, when Capitalism collapses?
The Jews were well entrenched in the communist revolution in Russia.
They prospered when they lived under Moslem rule.
And as merchants they also prospered in the middle ages, although merchants are capitalists.
There is a likelihood of the dollar & western banks collapsing.
What can the oligarchy do?
First of all, be prepared to change clothes.
Muslim banks work on a sharing of the profit, rather like the British Cooperative bank. So resuscitating or starting a new Cooperative bank is one suggestion.
Investing in agriculture, and becoming agricultural is another idea.
None of us know what will replace the dollar & US multinational banks, (& Insurance companies). But making money from lending might be redundant.
China, India & the oil producers will retain their wealth. Europe because of its rich history won’t sink into mayhem but it will suffer.
Along with the demise of America’s economic strength, will be Americana. The stock markets, & all speculative institutions. A democracy dictated by money & mainstream media.
The risk is dummies thinking wars will be a solution.
So better to think about Noah’s Ark.
And also better to ‘let capitalism go’.
As for Jewish idealogy: Family, God and ancestry. Then better to preach the idealogy, rather than Jews and the holocaust. Thereby losing the vanity factor.
There is a real risk of losing the media, in part due to the internet, and also because it is increasingly unbelievable.
Letting go, not clinging on, those are the attributes needed now.
There has been much talk of the rise of Hamas, Hezbollah, the Mahdi army. what they have in common is their social welfare, they feed, clothe and shelter people. And yes they are religious.
The wars have precipitated the collapse. The easy credit was in the end the identifier of capitalism

The idealogues weren’t economists…

PressTV: Capitalism nearing collapse

 

 

Ahmadinejad: Capitalism nearing collapse

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says capitalist systems are on the verge of collapse and can no longer bring economic development.

Credit crises armegeddon

http://iraqwar.mirror-world.ru/tiki-read_article.php?articleId=162510

Commercial Banks Heading for Huge Derivatives Losses- Credit Crisis Turning into Credit Armageddon
By: Money_and_Markets on: 22.04.2008 [16:12 ] (468 reads)

Food Crisis, Alarm bells ringing.

Food crises,

Over the last week, there has not been a major publication that has not featured the growing global food scarcities.

Compared to food, all other issues are irrelevant.

I can imagine large vehicles being attacked, because their fuel hunger is inflating the price of food, through biofuel’s grain requirements.

Democracy and capitalism, will have no significance, and society’s paid guards of soldiers and police will blur into humans.

Perhaps it will herald the end of centralisation and large conglomerates, maybe we will reenter the world of small communities.

Anyway the alarm bells are ringing everywhere, even with Global warming there are dissenters and different points of view. But about growing food shortages and a bleak outlook no one is arguing.

All our governments pronouncements will sound more and more empty.

The anger will be focused on Capitalism, from fertilisers degrading land quality, to factories polluting the water, to ‘exports’ taking the food away.

Holistic health practitioners have been arguing that eating foods when they are out of season that have come from far away is not healthy. It probably is not very efficient, Mono crops like bananas or whatever being grown for export.

We have just lived through a time of abundance with some curious political