Mark Blyth (author of "Austerity - The History of a Dangerous Idea") interviewed by C. J. Polychroniou for Truthout 16.2.14 "The rise in debt was a consequence of the lending crisis, not a spending crisis." "the greatest bait-and-switch in human history"
The shocking fact at a time of austerity is that EU military expenditure totalled €194 billion in 2010, equivalent to the annual deficits of Greece, Italy and Spain combined. "Despite the clear evidence of the cost of high military spending, military leaders continue to push a distorted and preposterous notion that European Union’s defence cuts threaten the security of Europe’s nations. NATO’s secretary general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen “has used every occasion to cajole alliance members into investing and collaborating more in defense.” "
Mike Whitney, Counterpunch 11-13 Oct: "Absent a debt ceiling deal, the repurchase market–known as repo–would undergo another deep-freeze as it did in 2008 when Lehman Brothers defaulted..." "...The same tragedy will play out again, if congress fails lift the ceiling and reinforce the present value of US debt." "Repo is at the heart of the shadow banking system, that opaque off-balance sheet underworld where maturity transformation and other risky banking activities take place beyond the watchful eye of government regulators." "Keep in mind, the US government does not have to default on its debt to trigger a panic in the credit markets. Changing expectations can easily produce the same result... when people start to doubt that US Treasuries will be liquid cash equivalents in the future" "This is what the Fidelity flap is all about. It’s about the erosion of confidence in US debt."
#1 Chinese credit rating agency Dagong has downgraded U.S. debt from A to A- #2 China's recent currency swap agreement with the eurozone... will result in a lot less U.S. dollars being used in trade between China and Europe... #3 Currency swap agreement with UK last June #4 The exposure to the 1.3 trillion dollar debt is becoming a major e internal issue #5 Govt adviser Mei Xinyu's warning that China may decide to completely stop buying U.S. Treasury bonds #6 China's State Administration of Foreign Exchange is looking to diversify into real estate investments in Europe #7 Xinhua has called for a "de-Americanized world" #8 and said that the debt deal "was no more than prolonging the fuse of the U.S. debt bomb one inch longer." #9 China is the largest producer of gold in the world, and it has also been importing an absolutely massive amount of gold ... the Chinese appear to be accelerating their gold buying.
Guardian, 12 Nov A group of Occupy Wall Street activists has bought almost $15m of Americans' personal debt over the last year as part of the Rolling Jubilee project to help people pay off their outstanding credit. Rolling Jubilee spent $400,000 to purchase debt cheaply from banks before 'abolishing' it, freeing individuals from their bills 'Our primary purpose was to spread information about the workings of this secondary debt market,' said Andrew Ross
JAK Vi måste ta tillbaka makten över våra pengar – och därigenom våra liv!!! Det har tagit så lång tid för oss människor att förstå och genomskåda vad exponentiell tillväxt faktiskt är…men tack och lov börjar insikten sprida sig snabbt nu