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Guest Post: When Debt Is More Important Than People, The System Is Evil
Submitted by Charles Hugh Smith from Of Two Minds
When Debt Is More Important Than People, The System Is Evil
The Empire of Debt has only one end-point: a death spiral. It is evil and must be dismantled.
Ethics has no place in the Empire of Debt. The financialized Status Quo is careful to limit the language used to describe the situation in Greece to the subtexts of "obligations" and "avoiding chaos."
The reality being masked is that debt is now more important than people. The suffering of the people of Greece is presented as a footnote to the financial play being staged; when the suffering is noted, it is presented with a peculiar set of unspoken subtexts:
1. Looky-loo detachment of the "gosh, look at that wrecked car, are there any bodies?" sort. People slow down to look at car crashes, and they revel in videos of riots with the same detached fascination with mayhem that doesn't involve them. Tsk tsk, how awful, etc.
2. They're reaping what they sowed, "they made their bed, now they have to sleep in it," i.e. the suffering of Greek non-Elites is the richly deserved consequences of their government overborrowing.
This begs further investigation. In the normal course of affairs in corrupt kleptocracies, various Elites siphon off most of the swag and the commoners get just enough shreds to buy their complicity. In other words, it may well be that the entire populace of Greece benefitted handsomely from the massive State borrowing, but it also may well be that the private-sector Greeks received little of the swag. In this case, they don't "deserve" to be forced into debt-serfdom by their Euroland overlords.
The ethics of debt, at least in the officially sanctioned media, boils down to: nobody made them borrow all those euros, and so their suffering is just desserts.
What's lost in this subtext is the responsibility of the lender. Yes, nobody forced Greece to borrow 200 billion euros (or whatever the true total may be), but then nobody forced the lenders to extend the credit in the first place.
Consider an individual who is a visibly poor credit risk. He would like to borrow money to blow on consumption and then stiff the lender, but since he cannot create credit, he has to live within his means.
Now a lender comes along who can create credit out of thin air (via fractional reserve banking) and offers this poor credit risk $100,000 in collateral-free debt at low rates of interest. Who is responsible for the creation and extension of credit? The borrower or the lender? Answer: the lender.
In other words, if the lender is foolish enough to extend huge quantities of credit to a poor credit risk, then it's the lender who should suffer the losses when the borrower defaults.
This is the basis of bankruptcy laws--or used to be the basis. When an over-extended borrower defaults, the debt is cleared, the lender takes the loss/writedown, and the borrower loses whatever collateral was pledged. He is left with the basics to carry on: his auto, clothing, his job, and so on. His credit rating is impaired, and it is now his responsibility to earn back a credible credit rating.
The debt is discharged and the borrower must live within his means without relying on credit. But he is also free of the burdens of servicing the debt.
If the lender is forced into insolvency due to the losses, then so be it: lenders that cannot differentiate between good and bad credit risks should go under and disappear: that's what happens in a competitive, transparent capitalist economy. Fools who create credit and extend it to poor credit risks must be eliminated from the system as quickly as possible lest they destroy more capital in the future.
The potential for loss and actually bearing the consequences from irresponsible extensions of credit was unacceptable to the banking cartel, so they rewrote the laws. Now student loans in America cannot be discharged in bankruptcy court; they are permanent and must be carried and serviced until death. This is the acme of debt-serfdom.
The global banking cartel has declared Greece's debts to be permanent and its people debt-serfs. More precisely, some privately held debt will be written down, but certainly not all of it, and the debt owed to the European Central Bank cannot be written down a single euro: Greece must pay the interest on the full debt, whatever the costs to its people.
We might ask why the fully-financialized Status Quo of financial and political Elites so carefully insures no shadow of ethics passes over the Greek debt crisis: If they did, it would become obvious that when debt becomes more important than people, the system is evil and should be dismantled.
Yes, evil, as in evil empire: the Empire of Debt that now dominates the global economy is intrinsically evil and cannot be salvaged; the only way to rid the planet of its parasitic, pervasive evil is to dismantle it, all of it, everywhere.
Europe is a good place to start. The only way to dismantle the evil Empire of Debt is to stop obeying its commands: Greece should not pay a single euro on any of its debts, starting with debt owed to the Evil Empire of Debt's favorite tool, the Troika of the EU (European Union), the ECB and the IMF.
We are constantly told default and exit from the debtors' prison of the euro would lead to chaos. Unfortunately for the Evil Empire of Debt and its Eurozone army of lackeys, toadies and apparatchiks, this claim is demonstrably false. Thanks to Pater Tenebrarum of the always excellent Acting Man financial blog, we have access to a 53-page report from Variant Perception that completely dismantles the fear-mongering claims of Apocalypse for the Greeks should their government default on its debts.
A Primer on the Euro Breakup: Default, Exit and Devaluation as the Optimal Solution. The only way forward is default and exit from the debtors' prison of the euro.
Once the debt has been renounced, Greece will have to live within its means, i.e. the goods and services produced by their economy. I think a critically important point has been lost in all the fear-mongering: the value of the goods and services produced by an economy remain the same whether they are valued in euros, gold, dollars, bat guano or any other open-market measure of value.
What will impoverish Greece is paying interest on the mountain of debt. If we value total Greek output of goods and services at 100 quatloos, and this economic activity generates a surplus of 10 quatloos, the Greek people can decide to consume that 10 quatloos, invest it or some mix of the two.
If they have to pay 10 quatloos in interest, then there is no capital left to invest in productive assets. As the existing productive assets degrade, wear out and become obsolete, then the goods and services produced will decline, along with the surplus generated. This sets up a positive feedback loop, i.e. a death spiral: as production of value declines, so too does the surplus available to invest in productive assets.
This is why the only way forward is default and exit from the debtors' prison of the euro. The only way forward is to value people more than debt, and to dismantle the evil Empire of Debt.
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Medical technologies that save lives depend on credit. People are surgeons thanks to credit. Hospitals depend on credit.
So many other examples that show how stupid your comment is.
You take the MRI test then. 12,000 dollars plus fees.
For most, it's more than they gross in a year. And frankly some die the same year.
Put a banker and an engineer together and maybe they can come up with a cheaper way. That is how it has gone down for about 50 years and running.
Don't tell me that radiation and other treatments haven't extended lives. Look at the mortality and survival rates for cancer.
Clearly you never lived in a country with universal, state paid health care:
Certainly, universal state paid health care in Western Europe achieves the same of better results than the US system for 1/2 as much the cost as percentage of GDP.
In fact your example is a pretty good example of what you get when bankers get involved in a system: the more entities and financial transactions are involved in providing something, the bigger the slice the bankers can take, so a private health care system involving insurers and layers and layers of suppliers is far more profitable for banks than Universal Health Care.
BTW, the Greek health care system is a so called mixed system, the worse of both worlds.
Greeks have universal health care.
Brits have universal health care.
US Indian tribes had universal health care, before Europeans arrived.
One third of Medicare money goes to waste.
I like what I've got a whole lot better.
I don't care. My point is to refute the view that "debt is a way to control other humans' life."
That's not why credit exists.
You sure took down that straw man.
no mr./ms. jm. credit was and is created. one could possibly pay for MRI just as well as one can pay for an apple just depends on how the system is set up. i had to see a specialist lately - and because i'm on team obama (unemployed with no benefits) he wanted an MRI done. what a wonderful human. he understands. he actually told me (something we all know, or do we?) 'the price of health care is artificially inflated because of the insurance companys. the MRI probably 'costs' 4,000 - but i think i could get it for you for 1,000 because you have no coverage and would pay cash'.
post script edit: ( that is really funny to me. i meant an apple, something people used to actually eat and was a natural product, not something made for i-toys. nobody pays for those either, except the taxpayer buys them for the masses to avoid unrest. on credit, of course)
Granted about paying cash for office visits and the other bureaucratic craps that goes on. But that wasn't my point.
My point is that it takes years and millions of research and development to develop MIR technology. it doesn't grow on trees. It requires credit to fund the mercurial genius involved.
jm, Medical research and devolopment (or the research and development of any industry) don't require credit; they require CAPITAL.
Pray tell what is the practical difference between a loan, a bond, or other debt instrument and "capital"?
jm, I'm just saying that your statement is wrong. It doesn't require credit. I didn't say that a loan couldn't be used to fund R&D, I'm just saying that your statement that it was required is just wrong.
cheers
?!?
What? you don't understand that R&D can be paid for out of profits? no loan REQUIRED.
Pizza parlors can't even settle their expenses out of overnight cash, and you are telling me that some high-tech firm orfirm division should spend years of R&D out of nonexistent profits when they don't ecen have a product in the pipeline yet.
No offense, but you have no idea how the world actually works.
As an aside. Not that you necessarily believe in what follows, just after reviewing tha comments: I need to stop being surprised by the persistent belief that the banks are evil, that credit exists to primarily to enslave, and somehow the money that one uses to pay their bills isn't actually money, and that there is some all-powerful cabal of illuminati that have actually planned every horrible event that has happened in the world and can never take any credit for the good things. And they call everyone else "sheeple". This is sad.
My Cousin who lives in Arizona said that her Husband needed an MRI. In the US they wanted tons of money. So he went to Mexico and it was something like $250.
Check the price in Mexico. Then you could take a vacation to Mexico and get an MRI and a vacation probably for the same price.
The thing that bothers me is the cost of Dentistry since they introduced Dental Insurance. A Tooth implant here costs close to $4,000. where in Mexico you can get them for less than $1,000.
years ago (on another site), I remember a poster who lived in Hungary (or maybe another eastern European country) and they posted that they just had laser eye surgery and it cost the equivelent of $35 and he said that in the US (at the time) this would have cost closer to $1000. He asked the question "Does this mean the US doctor is 30 times more productive than the Hungarian doctor?"
thanks for that. the same is true for much of europe also.
doctors in europe tend to be working more for humanity and less for profit.
Now that is funny, human nature is very different in Europe, talented folks work for humanity not profit. Need proof: look how well the talented folks in the USSR produced for humanity, lol..
Your a dangerous fellow, stay in Europe..
Yes, debt is used for control...
For a second, try to think of the effects of (practically) 0% interest credit...
Who gets this 0% interest credit? Banks. Now look at what banks do with that free money and the insane percentages (profit margins) that they charge to consumers, students, and institutions.
All multinationals have a banking license. This means that the producers of everything mass-produced can get free money, completely distorting the economy, beyond repair in effect. They are at war with small producers, family businesses, local shops and they are winning.
As this is not free market but debt created power and influence over our lives this equals the statement that debt = control.
Yes, we need credit, for instance a low-income family with kids that needs a new washing machine. This is an actual need. Cause they REALLY need that machine. A hospital needs new equipment, or people will die. Everyone should have the ability to study, not just the elite, so a professional- or university education should be available on credit.
All these causes deserve practically 0% interest. Not banks, not multinationals.
"Just deserts" is the correct spelling of the phrase--"desert" being "that which is deserved." Odd bit of trivia, I suppose.
I've often wondered about that
Debt Slaves:
"In October, the couple became uneasy when they heard rumors that units in their project were being offered at a 90% discount. At the end of November, the couple was shocked to see advertisements in the local newspaper offering units in their same project at the price of RMB 6,300 per square meter, a 30% discount off the price they had already agreed to pay. A group of buyers formed and demanded that their purchase price be reduced to the new price or they would cancel their purchase contracts. Some members of the group picketed the sales office. The developer refused their requests. He is therefore resigned to his fate and sees no reason to participate in the protests.
This young couple has now joined the ranks of the Chinese "house slaves", or what we call "mortgage slaves" in the U.S."
http://www.chinalawblog.com/2011/12/the_impacts_of_chinas_real_estate_cr...
"Debt Slaves Across Borders" ...should be an organization.
"The only way forward is to value people more than debt, and to dismantle the evil Empire of Debt."
That'll be a tough sell in the Empire of the Sociopath.
Why am I as a taxpayer expected to guaratantee Debt ? Why am I not guaranteeing Assets ? Why is Debt privileged in my society ? Why do banks have such status ? I do not guarantee crayon manufacturers so why banks ?
That's what the Romans found out. What puzzles me, who is really behind this deadbeat monetary system. After centuries of repeating the same mistakes and arriving to the same outcome [broke], why is this system always used to start new civilizations?
Groundhog Day
When you say Greece or the Greeks please separate government from the people. The government borrowed the money not the people. Same in the U.S. Who is borrowing the money from the bankers? A government whose leaders have a 15% approval rating.
a best friend's mother-in-law makes $73 hourly on the computer. She has been laid off for 6 months but last month her income was $14399 just working on the computer for a few hours. Go to this web site and read more .... LazyCash9.com
OH GOOD GRIEF. NOW WE ARE GETTING SPAM ON THE WEBSITE?
It's Tyler's test for naivete among ZHers. It's a click through so Tyler can kick you out of the group if you respond.
LazyCash9.com website meltdown in 10,9,8,7,6,..
Makes you wonder. I thought we abolished Slavery a long time ago.
The only difference today is that our Masters are not the Plantation Owners they are the Bankers.
When you think about it every American is a Slave to the Bankers and the Federal Reserve. The only difference is that we get to pick our vocation. But, as we all know every penny of what we make is Taxed and that Tax goes to the Federal Reserve to pay Interest on the Debt to the Bankers. The punishment is a little different also, now if you do not pay your Taxes you go to Jail and lose your freedom and your assets.
With Greece, I do not care what they say about the People. My heart goes out to them. Their World is being turned upside down, with no hope in sight for a better future for them or their Children.
I also think that if the Bankers win in Greece, eventually it will come to America as well and we will not be in any better position.
We never did, it was just outsourced under globalisation. Watch below
The Modern World-System
Axial Division of Labour
AFAIK , Land Of A Free has three time more prisoners than China. Banksters bought in the Prisons Fer Profit, and need a guarantee from the bankrrupt States to fill them to 90% of capacity ...
American Slavery® long, bitcheZ !!!
Greece is going the way of Argentina. Sounds like the police are a lot better in Greece though and will be less likely to disappear people in the middle of the night. But the vultures are moving in and privatizing everything in sight. Greece is a test case and advance look at how things will look everywhere in a few years. This is Disaster Capitalism and nothing else. Rather than grovel and kow tow like Ireland, the Greek's seem to have some cognizance of what is coming. They see that the toilet has been flushed and they are in it.
redlining! NOT an excuse
what does Lender "Approval" mean to you?
conscious decision to lend had greater "marginal utility" to the decision maker than not lending - tangible and intangible
banks were controlled - not by shareholders at risk - but by managment of bankers who received cash compensation - only criteria for decision was upside to them since they were never at risk -
myth= redlining
"Now student loans in America cannot be discharged in bankruptcy court; they are permanent and must be carried and serviced until death. This is the acme of debt-serfdom."
Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't the student loan industry taken over by the government as part of (and having absolutely nothing to do with) Obamacare?
You're wrong--the Feds have run the student-loan industry for decades.
No the feds just insured private loans in case you declared bankruptcy and defaulted. Now they actually loan the money directly and won't let you discharge becuase you owe it to the government just like taxes.
People will find a way around it.
You could get a home equity loan, pay off your student debt and declare Bankruptcy.
Or, run up your credit cards and take available cash to pay student loans then declare Bankruptcy. A lot of the Credit Cards today give you checks you can write to anyone with 0 interest and a 3% up front charge.
Get an unsecured personal loan. Use the money to pay against your Student loans and then decare Bankruptcy.
Or do all of the above then declare Bankruptcy. Student loans wiped clean.
They "insured" those private loans the same way Fannie/Freddie "insured" mortgages. Sallie Mae services the loans.
I graduated from college in the early '90s and got a coupon book from Sallie Mae. A few years ago, I went to a private school for awhile and got another coupon book from Sallie Mae.
You haven't been able to discharge student-loan debt through bankruptcy since the Clinton administration--that was when the 8% Stafford loan became a government-sponsored institution.
The recent health-insurance subsidization program may well have clauses about student loans, but I assure you that the Feds have been in that business for decades.
Wrong
the U.S. Department of Education - which already makes roughly a third of these loans through its direct-lending program - will make 100 percent of them starting July 1.Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/03/29/BUK71CMT3J.DTL#ixzz1mqJKK3Br
What did I say that you're calling "wrong"? (A for effort, anyway.)
What happens when Greece becomes a Ghost Town? If the People in Greece Migrate out of Greece into better Countries without the Tax burdon. Mass Migration has happened in the past and could happen again. Then who will pay the Debt or keep up the infrastructure?
I think what is happening in many areas is that People are trying to find ways to live off the land again. If you work less and spend more of your time growing vegtables, raising chickens and cutting wood for heat in the winter you slowly take yourself off the Grid. You become more self sufficient and pay fewer Taxes to the Government. As you do not have to work to buy your vegtables or your eggs or your heat. Your labors are then not taxed and you benifit from your fresh vegtables and tax free heat. I am starting to see on Youtube where many are little by little making themselves self sufficient.
What you suggest is clearly a threat to the system if enough people do it. Expect it to be made illegal and considered terrorism at some point.
Badges of terroism:
Windmill ownership
Outhouses
Free range chickens wandering around
Greenhouse
Goat
Rain collection system and cisterns
Composting
Infrequent trips to farmers coops (reportable to DHS)
Sheep on property
Mule
Loom and spinning wheel
Yoghurt maker in kitchen
Well with hand pump
Rabbits
Carrying things in wicker baskets to or from neighbors
Aprons
Canning jars in pantry (and pantry itself)
Forge
Stacked Firewood
Small Windows on house
Stone chimney
Homemade soap and candles
Manure
Beehives
Wheelbarrow in yard
Seed stores from previous harvests
Awl
Dried cowpies next to iron stove
Children doing chores
A new constitution needs to be drafted, one where everyone is included as a signatory and the debts of the past are dismissed and forgotten.
We are probably still paying debts that are over 300 years old and the system is falling apart because the numbers are inflating/becoming so impractical to deal with that its almost pointless for anyone to honor an obligation due to uncertainty.
A new constitution? Dude, the only thing keeping us out of chains is the old one. Can you imagine BofA, Halliburton, Monsanto and GM's proxy politicians writing a new constitution for us little people?
I am sorry to say this author lives in a different world than I. My father filed bankruptcy and showed up the next day with a shiny new Cadillac on credit. The reason? He could not file bankruptcy for another 7 years so it made him a better credit risk.
My uncle got divorced, lost his job, and declared bankrupcy five years ago. Three years later after getting a $38k a year job he bought a $200k house, leased a brand new Chevy truck, and bought a house full of furniture on 5 years no interest credit.
He just got fired from his job but doesn't care. He already got approved for a mortgage modification to keep his house on his unemployment check. By the time his unemployment runs out he said he'll be able to declare bankruptcy again. He uses a credit card to pay his truck lease racking up the bill. He says it isn't his fault the system works to his advantage.
The banks don't care because they don't need to eat the loss.
Restructure the debt at 5c/dollar and move on. Screw the creditors - they're either stupid or in-sane and should not be trusted with anything, except maybe toilet cleaning but they'd probably f that up too.
As for Greece - they'll learn to live simple healthy lives for a while and in 5 years the stupid heads will be knocking down their door to lend them money and sell the debt to more suckers.
This all reminds me of the creation of money story I read a while ago. There are many versions but they all end the same:
In one town there were 11 people. Ten of them produced goods that they traded with each other. A guy that raised chickens would trade ten eggs for a slab of pig belly, one guy made bricks, one guy made bread, etc.
The eleventh man was not good at making anything, he was skinny and starving. He existed on the good will of the other ten, each giving him small handouts, day old bread. Existence was good and the barter system worked well for everyone.
The eleventh man was upset that others were better than him at everything. He then came up with an idea. An evil idea to make sure he was the most important man in the village. He made 100 small pieces of metal and called them coins. He went out in the town and asked the others, "Aren't you tired of carrying around brick's to tarde for pork, and half a pig to trade for bricks. I have a great idea. I made these coins and we'll all decide on a sytem to trade coins for goods. You won't need to carry everything around anymore. We'll try it small at first, each of you get ten coins. I'll come to each of your homes later to give you the coins."
With his scheme in place he sets out to visit the first house. He visits the farmer. He gives him ten coins and tells him that 10 eggs will be worth one coin. The others will come and give him one coin for 10 eggs. The coin he gets can be used to buy a pig belly. So the coin works the same way as the old barter system. Before he leaves the man says, "I forgot, since I made the coins and created this system. I ask for just one coin from you so I can trade for something as well. After all you will still have 9 and I will only have one.
He then repeats this with everyone. He now holds ten coins with each other person holding nine. With the system in place, he waits. It becomes so easy to trade with coins, soon the villagers ask for more. The eleventh man creates 100 more coins, each time giving nine and keeping one for himself. He now holds 20 with each other man holding 18. This continues on.
Soon one of the other men comes and says, "It is hard for me to keep track of all my coins and I don't have space for them." The eleventh man says, "I have another idea, I'll keep your coins at my house in a box marked for you. Since I do not use my home to bake, or make bricks I have much space. To keep track of your coins, I will only charge you one coin for each month you leave them with me."
Soon the others keep all their coins at the Eleventh man's home. Nobody knows that the Eleventh man has many more coins in his own box, after charging to store the others in his home.
A little while later one man notices he has one coin left. He asks the eleventh man to make him ten more. The eleventh man tells him that he can't make just ten coins. It won't be fair to all the other villagers. He does have an idea though. The man is told, "I'll let you borrow a few of my coins. When one of the others gives you a coin you can come pay me back. I'll give you five coins but for borrowing mine, you'll need to give me six back." The man says ok.
Soon the villager comes back and tells the eleventh man, "I was able to trade enough eggs for 5 coins but nobody wants to trade another so I can give you six." The eleventh man says, "I was very nice to let you borrow my coins. Now I can't trade for what I need. However I will take one of your chickens so I can have eggs until you can get me the other coin."
As the other villagers run out of coins, each one asks the eleventh man for more. They have become dependent on the easy exchange of coins and forgotten they used to just trade items they produced. The eleventh man trades his coins for more and more of the other villagers goods. Soon he owns everything as there were never enough coins produced for each villager to pay him back. He packs all the villagers posessions and leaves to find another place to run his scheme.
The other men are left with nothing to trade in other villages but worthless pieces of metal. They all soon starve, and think of the man who was not able to produce anything by himself but left with all they had ever made.
Did ZH pick up a new socialist monopoly money expert? GIVE US MONEYZZZZ, but please don't make us pay it back.... MOAR MONEY!!1!!!111!!, as long as it's free.
That's not monopoly. That's banking.
@Peter yes good point but when money is created a debt and the interest payment is not created , how do you repay principal + interest ? The big con is that the system is mathematically designed to fail. Now it does not mean it is unworkable, in the old days, the states (kings) gorged on loans from banksters and then simply stuffed them and defaulted ( oh the banker was not happy ? too bad- his head would roll) now with the wimps in government and regulatory capture, the default has been postponed and made to be an impossibility whereas MATHEMATICALLY it is the only way to solve the equation (if you want to keep such debt based sytem of course- some would argue you need a debt free money and regulated by gold aka freegold but that is a whole other debate)
Zola,
I think that is why our Founding Fathers put into the Constitution that the Congress would be the only ones that could Coin Currency.
The Currency created by the Congress would be without interest. It is the Federal Reserve that charges interest on the Debt Created that makes the repayment of Debt impossible as you said.
No, in theory if 100% of the interest is cycled back into the economy by the recipient, the debt can be paid. It gets increasingly difficult to do so as the principal is paid off.
However this still means that you have a deflation which is equal in size to the inflation, and that is politically unacceptable.
The biggest part of shitty CDS r on interests . ( from the shitty BIS paper ).
750 Tr. in derivatives . Bullish, indeed ...
Greece? They made their own bed. Now they must sleep in it. Spare me the hanky.
this is a beaurtiful example of how the elites who control the media cqan imprint a moral frame work in the population that benefits themselves. The Author does fail to include the huger m=number of times we have bailed out the lenders for our own good in the past. if this was the only time it would be one thing, but it happens on a regular basisis, and yes it is pure evil
I tell you what - if the " American People's " fudge was getting packed as hard as the banks are ramming sausage up the Greek people's asshole, there would be some smoking radioactive craters full of green bankster glass where the IMF and ECB headquarters used to be. I sincerely hope that when the Fed finally draws the last buck of easy money out of the USA, and starts to play hardball, that the end result is exactly that. May the evil bastards get exactly what they deserve. Maybe, then, the rest of us can live in peace and harmony - oh- wait - I forgot about politicians, and religious leaders. Toss them on the fire as well.
We have arrived at a cross road, the parallels of growth have begun to capitulate. Attempts in creating new industries; Obama Care, Cap & Trade, Solar, Light bulbs, etc. was the chosen path to jump start a new robust economy. Our system is converging into a downward spiral based on two opposing models. Enjoy.
End of the Capitalist World-Economy
Don’t panic, we are at the end of one cycle and will start the next beginning.
The lone American,,,Walking toward the dustbin of history.....GOD have mercy on his soul..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6usNr2zhI94
Thats odd, I could of sworn i saw him in Applebees today ordering a Cowboy burger
If a dealer fronts drugs to a junkie and the junkie dies, the dealer is shit out of luck.
Seems what happened with Greece is that the dealer was able to take out insurance on the junkie and now the insurance company is pissed off.
So the insurance company knows tha patient is gonna expire, but instead of paying the full amount, they want to pay less and ignore the result as a recorded "death" triggers a BIG BAD EVENT.
The "death" will be recorded later.
Greece is doomed.
psstt,... charles
You got that terrorist tone to your voice.....
The fact that such a basic explanation of debt has to be made in the face of prevailing fud indicates that evil is not constrained to the global financial system but has contaminated the media as well. Everything is subordinate to the TINA principle. If the Greeks get to decide their fate, then what is to prevent families from squatting in their foreclosed homes? The work ethic of the working class is being used as a club against them.
Turns out that the rich have no such scruples. Take the argument against stopping bonus payments to executives of banks implicated in the financial meltdown as an example. It was stated that bonuses must be paid in order to honor contracts. Never mind that all corporations typically include opt out clauses in any employment agreement with respect to bonuses. In fact employment agreements themselves are explicitly stated to not be contractually binding otherwise they would be called contracts. Read your own employement agreement. It is the first thing that the agreement covers, that it in no way should be construed as a contract.
OK, so then bonuses must be paid. Fine. Point made. But then you hear about this airline or that car manufacturer threatening to or filing for bankruptcy with the very open and explicit intent of shedding employee obligations like pensions and other benefits. Wait, what? I thought contracts were sacrosanct! In many cases, like with labor forces that are actually unionized, these are actual bonafuckingfide CONTRACTS and not just some statement of intent to pay a bonus with an opt-out clause on a totally non-binding employee agreement like that of the bankster executives.
So, the moral of the story is that you should do onto other people as you would have them do onto you and corporations and international financial entities be damned because those do whatever they damn well please anyhow and there's no honor among them.
People can buy things on credit and just not pay. People are more important than any agreement they could have made to ever pay back a loan.
This is a major flaw in the legal system. People should simply be able to just TAKE the stuff in the first place. Why burden the system with those debt obligations?
Excellent perspective, Tyler.
The lenders culpability for ridiculous loans that can never be paid may go beyond failing to relieve the borrower. The most sinister of all lending is where an innocent third party is set up by the lender in advance to be laden with the debt when the original borrower defaults. That third party is typically a better credit risk than the original borrower and unwittingly or unknowingly gets coerced into backing the deal after the fact without ever having a chance to prevent its origination or enjoy any of its benefits. The Greek populace may well be an example of that now. I would throw every U.S. citizen into that category too after the way our government handled the mortgage securities market meltdown. The lenders knew these deals would ultimately turn out bad and the original borrower wouldn’t be able to fulfill their obligation. They also believed that when the loans defaulted, it would be someone besides either themselves or the initial borrower who would have to step in and eat most of the loss. Hell, they didn’t just know it, some of them placed side bets on it.
Right, Tax payers have to pay or go to Jail. Plus, Greece seems to have assets that the Bankers want. The people will be left as serfs on their own land.
['South Park'] ... "Aaand - it's gone."
I just love that scene -- says all you need to know about the Banksters. ;=))
The title of this article says it all. Hopefully the situation in Greece rectifies the truth but I seriously doubt it.
This world is one huge flaming ball of red hot dog shit and if aliens landed in my back fucking yard tonight flashing the sign "destination unknown" this would be my last fuckin ZH post.
I hate this fucking place.
At some point things are going to get better. Just gotta hang in there, keep fighting our evil overlords, and make it through.
No, the situation in Greece will not rectify the truth.
The lies are embedded into the system now, and lies (and those who tell them) have control.
As SMG says above -- hang in there.
It's the advice my father gave (and still does) when he had no better advice to give.
As it goes... sometimes that's all there is.
Take heart, in a roundabout way... those who lie have finally led themselves into a corner.
In ten minutes, you are going to drink 8 shots of Jager...
This article is spot on.
Axis of Evil-doers ... bitchez
It may take some time before a politician is shot, but once the first Greek politician is eliminated, you can be sure that more will follow. Terrible stuff but that is what Greeks did with tyrants and traitors in ancient times.
The two biggest bubbles in the world right now are debt and people. There are untold trillions in debt and 7 billion people.
The individuals who own the trillions in debt somehow believe that it will all be paid pack by somebody in the future. They are wrong. It will either disappear through inflation or be written off.
The 7 billion people on this planet all believe they are going to get rich and live forever. They are wrong. They will most likely be poor throughout their life, and die poor at some point from something or the other.
Buy metal and protect yourself and your family from the implosion of these two bubbles. Become an owner of the only form of currency that will survive and indeed shine in the years ahead.
Predatory Bankers... Predatory Governments... Predatory Politicians... Predatory Military... Predatory Corporations... Preditory Judges and Lawyers... Predatory Cops and their Predatory Drones... Ho hum de dum, history repeats itself
It first start by living withing ones means and rejecting the consumer culture. The second step is a return to local banking and local community based industries be it farming or otherwise. I live a short drive out from the Montreal area. The bulk of my families groceries are purchased at locally farmed and produced operations and the furniture in my house purchased from local manufacturers. Anything I can find locally, I buy locally. This battle will be won by the majority, not the minority but only if we act and begin taking meaningfull steps to right this wrong.
This is going to be good. Maybe we can even get to see some live hangings posted on Liveleak.
Jubilee! You fat fucking parasitic pigs!
.
Debt is easy.
Money is hard.
People are worth it.
Banks are worthless.
If I step into the path of on speeding eighteen wheeler - it doesn't matter if I have the right of way. I will lose. Being "right" is worthless.
CDS is a cancer that allowed lenders to pretend there was no risk in making poor loans regardless to the underlying fundamentals. Now the EU is going to be hit with a truck full of PIIGS.
Who is the Beast, if not all nations and Israel, as they stand in contempt of mercy?
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation+18%3A3-4&version=KJV
Who is the Whore, if not all hosts without mercy?
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation%2017:%2014&version=KJV
...ah the ''moral hazard'' line of ''bullshit'' from Chairsatan and the Suicide Vampire Squid of the Great Wal Mart of China.
Instead of admitting the fact, that the offer of temptaion;
''accept this debt note and you shall not surely be sealed unto the black hole of Loyd Lucifer ...in whom we trust'',
...is without mercy for our Father in Christ, the ''bullshit'' offer is risen from the ''evil'' mark of the ''beast'' and it's dusty Asses crying for austarity at zero interest from the black hole.
(Johnny 666 PAC) Hey Charsatan LL, what is the evil mark of the beast?
http://bible.cc/genesis/3-4.htm
(Charsatan & SVSGWMC) Oh, well we do not want you to know, but, if you eat thereof your eyes will be open.
(Legion PIIGS) Ah haa haa. See the blood of the Lamb in the Martini Lunch now ...Bitchez?
(Unclean Swine) ...so this is illiquidity, a Molotov Cocktail?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrzPmUASBho
Pity the children. You would think it's bad enough with the mountain of student loan debt right? But it gets worse. The biggest employers right now are temp agencies. So these kids get out of school and they get used and abused as interns or temps. Not so bad you might think, but dwell on this. The majority of interns in ER's in L.A. are contract labor. They pay their own taxes, health care etc etc. The largest employer of these budding doctors went bust last year and most of the youngsters are still waiting to be paid, to the tune of 30-50k a piece. The new company that took over has reduced their pay by 30%. Sure, there are lawyers that are telling them to sue, with a price tag of around 8k each as a retainer. Very few of them have that kind of money sitting around, they have student loans, they got gypped for wages, and they just got a pay cut. The evil is everywhere, the cockroaches are swarming.
This is far from over, and there will be blood...
CHS is great as always.
If anyone is interested, I wrote up a brief comparision between Jefferson County and Greece (on a friend's blog that I sometimes contribute to). There's definitely some similarities between what they're going through and what we soon will be.
Can't wait until we hear more about how irresponsible default is.
i can remember the late 1970s here in new zealand, when the banks posted unsolicited credit cards to every customer no way should any bank be bailed out
The only people allowed to default on their debt are the TBTF banks and the companies that have unions like GM and and the States. Both of these are necessary for Obama's re-election.
Western Civ took great strides when we got rid of Debtors' Prison, but, it appears we are headed back in that direction.
Because people won't stop worshipping the abstraction, and fetishizing the high priests.
In many States now you can get an Arrest Warrant for a Court Judgement. They have it in Maryland. You cannot get out of Jail until you pay the Judgement.
I'd say when money is more important - for the accumulation of wealth for one - is the creation of debt for another.
All lending is predatory, unless there's no interest charged. If you only print 10 dollars then only 10 dollars exist. Since you can't counterfeit, the only way you could come up with the NONEXISTANT 11th dollar would be if an alien from outer space came and waved his magic wand to produce it for you. This is the one secret all the governments in the world do not want their citizens to understand. Once they all figure it out, PAPER CURRENCY WILL BE FINNISHED UNLESS IT'S BACKED BY SOMETHING
The citizens of a nation don't ask for the debt, they don't set up the deals, they don't sign the papers. Make the politicians pay it if it must be paid. Set the people free.
"The suffering of the people of Greece is presented as a footnote to the financial play being staged"
Yeah, until the wheels come off the buggy and the natives get downright pissed.
Greece: DEFAULT. Just do it.
All debt in the world is easy to pay back. All we need to observe is the totally fundamental ethic that mandates "equality under the law". Under this bedrock principle, if anyone can create fiat out of thin air, then everyone can create fiat out of thin air.
So debtors, create fiat out of thin air and pay back the predators who created their fiat out of thin air. It is simple justice.
Of course, this exposes the fact that fiat systems are utterly and fundamentally bogus, since everyone could create unlimited sums of fiat out of thin air... at which point nobody would produce any real, physical goods. Everyone would simply credit their checking account with a few trillion bucks and go buy what they wish.
This is just one of at least 1000 ways to illustrate that every possible fiat system is pure, unadulterated fraud. Wake up human beings! Your species has gone stark raving insane.
will of the Greek people : no default :: will of American people : TARP
It is a fiction that the Greek people have any say in their destiny--that is the real lesson here.
And that's the problem isn't it? There's nothing different about Greece either - surely you can't name a single place where individuals have any say in the policies and behaviors of the predators-that-be and predator-class.
predators DBA government
predators DBA corporations
predators DBA central banks
"We are constantly told default and exit from the debtors' prison of the euro would lead to chaos."
See Iceland for a counter example. Icelanders chose not to consign themselves to debt slavery, and the world did not end for their country.
In fact, they're doing quite well.
Posted by amanfromMars on 02/19/12 12:37 PM …. on http://thedailybell.com/3624/Remaking-the-Internet
"Theoretically money is a public tool issued by a Nation so that citizens can engage in commerce. But reality shows quite another face: about 95% of the money in circulation today is created by private banks, and you have to pay for it by means of interest. The truth is that money is private, scarce, opaque, controlled by the few. The current global financial crisis is a natural outcome of this situation." …… http://flowplace.webnode.com/droplets/
Why the present austerity drives championed by governments officials and ignorant politicians to aid corrupt controlling bankers are creating fertile grounds for smart stealthy revolution and violent mob vengeance which will be specifically personally targeted against government officials and ignorant politicians and corrupt controlling bankers, and any who would not be thinking and be drafted in to protect them, for they are the root source of the major problem which blights societies?
Don't mess with the internet ….. for IT shares information that can seriously damage your wealth and health in a flash crash and global instant ……. is something to remember and never forget.
Meh. Predictable surprises, eh? Who knew? Socialism is the practice of failed behaviors and will always, without fail, lead to failure. So when you fly the socialist flag don't be surprised when you fail. This translates to: When you make a deal with the devil don't be surprised when you lose your soul.
Sure, and it's all well and good, isn't it, "to dismantle the evil Empire of Debt"? Couldn't agree more, but when we're all standing in the Liberal socialist's bread lines and the socialist in front of me turns and says, "I didn't know," I can say, "Yes, you did...I tried to warn you a million times, you just wouldn't listen." Sounds almost biblical, in a way... Here's a thought: How about people stop buying into and dicking around with the failure of socialism then dealing with the evil Empire of Debt to bail their sorry asses out? Maybe then we can get that much closer to dismantling it/them? After all, who the fuck do people think is selling them the deceptive seduction of Liberal socialism in the first place?
-In the immortal words of Matt Hooper, "Uh, I think that I am familiar with the fact that you are going to ignore this particular problem until it swims up and bites you on the ass."
-"Always, the people are responsible for wicked lawmakers, oppressors, exploiters, criminals in government, tyrants in power, thieves, liars, malefactors and murderers in capitals of the world. You, the man in the street, the man in the factory and in the shop, the man on the farm, the man in the office, you, the man everywhere, are guilty of the creatures whose crimes against you have been so monstrous, and will be again, by your own consent - if you give it..." ~Taylor Caldwell, "The Devil's Advocate" (1952)
-"The refusal of King George III to allow the colonies to operate an honest money system, which freed the ordinary man from the clutches of the money manipulators was probably the prime cause of the revolution." ~ Benjamin Franklin
-Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened." ~Winston Churchill
-"When you know the truth, the truth makes you a soldier." ~Gandhi
-"The accumulated filth of all their sex and murder will foam up about their waists and all the whores and politicians will look up and shout, "Save Us!" ... and I'll look down and whisper, "No." ~ The Watchmen
The mills of the gods grind slowly, but they grind exceedingly fine...We're in the fourth turning, if you believe such things, it's time to save ourselves...again.
The debt and the resultant Ponzi is all that matters. People?! Meh!!!!
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Creditors always pay.
It's all very well blaming the bankers for poor lending decisions but they don't bear the cost of their failures. Banks are businesses operating on the edge of insolvency. Keeping as little in reserve as they can get away with they borrow other people's savings and lend them to other borrowers who they hope aren't delinquent.
Bank depositors have no say over who the bank lends their money to but they'll have to pay, either by the loss of their deposit or via taxes to bail out the banking industry.