Because We Let Them

Published on ZNet, by Paul Street (writer and activist in Iowa City, Iowa), Jan 4, 2015.

… One day in my office I asked a colleague at the organization why our chief executive behaved in the selfish and irresponsible ways he did. My colleague responded with a question: “Dr. Street, why does a dog lick its balls?”
I confessed I didn’t know. The answer: “Because it can.”

My colleague’s point was that nobody with any power was telling our CEO was setting any boundaries on his behavior. He was being rewarded again and again, from year to year, with an outrageously high salary, an agency limousine, and positions on various corporate boards.
Thinking of that exchange the other day, I was reminded of something that Thomas Jefferson wrote to his fellow Virginian, the American solider and statesman Edward Carrington from Paris in the late 1780s. “If once the people become inattentive to the public affairs,” Jefferson wrote, “you and I and Congress and Assemblies, Judges, Governor, shall all become wolves.”   Continuer la lecture de « Because We Let Them »

2015: a pivotal year for economic and financial crises and wars?

Published on Intrepid Report, by Rodrigue Tremblay, Jan 2, 2015.

Dear visitors, Happy 2015 for all. (The troubles about my computer AND my internet connection are over, let’s begin 2015 with new energy, for today with a long article on economy, and with a big bunch of links, mainly from the last days).

… These days, militaristic neoconservatives, or neocons, have near complete control of the American government under the façade of whoever is president at the time. They direct U.S. policies at the State Department, at the Pentagon, at the U.S. Treasury and at the Fed central bank. They are thus in position to influence and frame American foreign policy, military policy, economic and financial policies and monetary policy.   Continuer la lecture de « 2015: a pivotal year for economic and financial crises and wars? »

Les enfoirés

Tournée des enfoirés 1989, 99.14 min, uploaded by maiseuhdisdonc, Nov 23, 2014.

Sorry, our famous Swiss efficiency is crashing, when you are ordered to change the Internet provider, what happens to me:

My actual provider announces rather too late his sudden retirement from Switzerland, my next, the big Swiss company, cannot solve connection problems before the first days next year … if really. So I am still out of my own internet access, telephone fix and numeric TV …

… ok, for me a possibility for less work and desintoxicate as workaholic, with the hope you enjoy the music you may find meanwhile every day. As soon as our Swiss efficiency finishes his winter sleep we will meet again with longer articles and links.

Meanwhile all the best wishes for 2015!

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Maintaining the supremacy of the financial oligarchy

Published on Real-World Economics Review Blog, by Editor, Dec 20, 2014.

Let’s assume that there is a financial oligarchy which exerts strong political influence due to the vast amounts of money it controls. Let’s further assume that this financial oligarchy has succeeded in having financial markets deregulated and that this has enabled the financial industry to expand their business massively. Then, in some near or far future, their artfully constructed financial edifice breaks down, because it cannot be hidden any more that the accumulated claims cannot be serviced by the real economy. That might be due, for example, to millions of people having bought overly expensive houses on credit without having the income necessary to service this debt. This is the kind of situation we are interested in … // Continuer la lecture de « Maintaining the supremacy of the financial oligarchy »