Mois : octobre 2014

Where have all the Flowers Gone?

Published on Dissident Voice, by Denis A. Conroy, Oct 28, 2014.

Thinking through the binary oppositions of “have” and “have nots” is like segregating the homeless from the Paris Hiltons of the world in order to present a narrative that represents a ‘going America’s way’ kind of reality, a reality that uses finance, by way of speculation and specialisation, to foster advantages for elites and their hierarchical institutions for the sole purpose of amassing capital in order to leverage control of the social narrative through the commodification of culture itself.   Continuer la lecture de « Where have all the Flowers Gone? »

Gold and Banks

Why Do Banks Want Our Deposits?

Hint: It’s Not to Make Loans – Published on truthDig (first on Web of Debt), by Ellen Brown, Oct 26, 2014.

… Reckoning with the Fed:

Ever since the Federal Reserve Act was passed in 1913, banks have been required to clear their outgoing checks through the Fed or another clearinghouse. Banks keep reserves in reserve accounts at the Fed for this purpose, and they usually hold the minimum required reserve. When the loan of Bank A becomes a check that goes into Bank B, the Federal Reserve debits Bank A’s reserve account and credits Bank B’s. If Bank A’s account goes in the red at the end of the day, the Fed automatically treats this as an overdraft and lends the bank the money. Bank A then must clear the overdraft.   Continuer la lecture de « Why Do Banks Want Our Deposits? »

still on my dashboard

1):

The Unattainable Illusion of Meritocracy

Published on naked capitalism, by Yves Smith, Oct 26, 2014.

… Repeat after me: in complex societies and organizations, merit is a complete illusion … //

… So what exactly is talent? Educated people like to think of it as intelligence, and that intelligence will be reflected in better educational attainment. But education in America has a lot of credentialing and is mixed in terms of substance (there’s a very strong argument to be made for the educational system that Bonaparte implemented in France, which has sadly decayed beyond recognition, where it made a systematic effort to find smart kids, no matter how poor their background, and track them so that they had as much opportunity to get into the Grandes Ecoles as children who grew up with highly educated parents. Continuer la lecture de « The Unattainable Illusion of Meritocracy »