At last I am free of what my great friend Renaud calls “the dictatorship of email”.
How to solve the crisis
When you owe the bank a little then it’s your problem. when you owe them a lot, it’s theirs!
Why is everyone so worried about Greece?
Greece is tiny country on a European and world scale. Why is it in the news so much? This is certainly a reasonable question.
Greece in Chapter 11
The only way to bring a country or corporation back from the dead is to halt all payments to creditors – the Greek Government is spending only slightly more than it earns (3% of GDP) if interest and loan repayments are ignored and with military spending at over 3% (double the NATO average) this is easy to address.
Why tax the masses?
The simple answer is because the Government can!
Since the beginning of time, taxing income or spending has been easy. Taxing wealth or corporations is tricky, the two are linked, both have vast resources that they bring to bear behind their lobbying and both pay huge amounts to tax accountants to reduce their tax bills and hide their wealth.
Where have all the “questioning” journalists gone?
This morning on BBC Radio 4 we were treated to the roving reporter (I can’t call him a journalist – sorry), John Humpreys was interviewing some Greek youth. One mentioned that Greece has the largest army in Europe and this warranted no comment from Mr Humphreys. What is true is that Greece has consistently pent almost double the EU average on defence in the last 20 years. Read the rest of this entry »
Abu Qatada to be freed on bail
I really am confused here – this guy is very dangerous so why can’t I find out why he has been detained without trial for 10 years!
What happened to habeas corpus! Appalling and shocking! I will not support any Government in this kind of behaviour.
Read here Liberty’s view
“We’re continually told he poses a grave threat to national security. Yet an entire decade after he was first detained in Belmarsh Prison, why has he still not faced criminal charges?
This is a man accused by MI5 of inciting terrorist acts during his ten years in Britain. Why hasn’t sufficient evidence against him been gathered by now?
Forget the age-old debate about why the Government won’t allow intercept evidence in criminal trials. The last time we checked incitement and soliciting murder were still very serious offences in this country. If the allegations are true he should be put in the dock without delay. But as the Attorney General has identified, we don’t believe in indefinite internment without trial in the UK and you can’t just set aside the Rule of Law and lock people up without charge instead. “
Over half Greek debt due to large arms deals!
Greece has spent 3% of gdp more than they should have done on defence for the last 24 years at least. In that period, since 1988, Greek GDP has grown from $80bn to $300bn and still spending has kept pace!
See here Greek spending as a % of GDP since 1988 -graph
See here Greek GDP growth since 1988 – graph
If Greek spending on defence had been 3% lower then well over 50% of Greek debt would not exist.
Who benefited? Read the rest of this entry »
NGO starts with the word “Non-Governmental”! What is it that the US doesn’t get?
Great story in the Guardian – at last the Egyptians are taking things seriously – how can any country be democratic if foreign Governments are financing opposition parties (remember the MDC in Zimbabwe)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/dec/29/us-egyptian-forces-raid-cairo
Get in there and and close them down – they are political movements and so closely linked to US foreign policy in the region that no one should be fooled.
Update on financial crisis
Growth in an economy is measured as the rate of increase of private and government spending. If government spending increases then the economy will grow.
We have today a situation where the only thing driving growth is increased government expenditure due to unemployment pushing up benefit costs and at the same time reducing government tax receipts.
Egypt – this is a real dilemma for Obama!
Sitting in square and asking for a revolution is unlikely to get the desired result. True to form the Egyptians asked for change and got it. Not!
What a dilemma for Obama and the Western poodles (merkel, cameron, others). Do they support the new movement? Do they insist that the junta remains in power until elections can be organised?
I love the irony of this one!
May this be the first place that the Arab people take control and define their destiny!
Does the Arab League really represent the Arabs? Or is it a fabrication of the West?
I would be delighted to hear from any Arabs who believe that the Arab League is truly representative of the Arab world! Run by a New York educated lawyer and its membership stuffed with US puppet regimes (including Qatar of course – the regime behind Al Jazeera).
It is no surprise that Lebanon and Yemen voted against the recent vote to exclude Syria.
If I have one call it is for the Arab world to work together and stop the infighting that has been and continues to be encouraged by the Judeo-Christian developed world!
#occupylsx
We went up to see the encampment on Sunday. It was getting cold and I really do wonder how the few that stay here overnight will manage as the winter cold sets in. For the moment all is well – the tents are neatly aligned, there is a library, a university, a kitchen and store and a perfect amphitheater in the form of the steps of St Pauls.
Greece! Call Merkel and Sarkosy’s bluff!
The latest threat to the beleaguered Greeks is to eject them from the Euro. There is no way this can be done – there is no such mechanism. Rise up people of Greece and say “Όχι εγώ δεν θα υποστεί για εσάς τους τραπεζίτες” – No I will not suffer for you bankers.
Over half the Greek debt can be attributed to some Nato arms spending spree over the last 20 years the rest to over-zealous bankers high on the discovery of high interests rates with no risk.
A condemnation of the West that I agree with wholeheartedly
The Venezuelan authorities condemn NATO’s actions in Libya.
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2011/venezuela221011.html
Convicted Lockerbie Bomber Probably Not Guilty—So Who Is the Real Criminal?
Convicted Lockerbie Bomber Probably Not Guilty—So Who Is the Real Criminal?.
There is more to this story than we are being told. Why does mainstream media not probe further for the truth?
Yesterday I again heard that Gadaffi got what was coming to him for his role in ordering the Lockerbie bombing! It amazes me that people are prepared to believe whatever they are told by Governments and mainstream media and look no further.
Quantatitive Easing made easy – it’s about avoiding sovereign default
The Bank of England or the Federal Reserve in the US, creates money by effectively issuing itself money, electronic money. The Central Bank then uses this money to buy what a bank calls assets i.e.debt in the market. In 2009, when the Bank of England carried out over £200 billion worth of QE, the BoE bought almost entirely Government securities i.e. debt of the Uk Government.
In this scenario there is one benefit and only one……. Read the rest of this entry »
Rise up O men of Greece!
I will not rest in my pleas to the Greek people to refuse categorically the pernicious austerity measures being implemented by their Government. Do not allow them to destroy generations of Greeks to save the bankers.
Some figures:
Greece joined the EU in 1981 and has spent at least $250 billion in defence spending since then. There debt is around $450bn. Remember that the German and French armament industry have done very well out of this as have their bankers who have lent Greece the money to gorge itself on missiles and such like. Greece is number 23 in the defence spending league!
I urge you to default on this debt! Say no to your Government now and make the Governments and bankers of the EU, the UK and the US face up to the consequences of their greed. Let’s cleanse ourselves and them in the process!
Well-dressed lemmings driving fast cars just go over the cliff faster and looking better!
Markets have started to work out that debt can’t drive consumerism forever. The developed world is over-indebted, disparities between developed and developing countries and between rich and poor within those countries are more extreme than ever. When the poor have more debt than they can handle and the rich rely upon the masses to drive the economy then there is a problem!
Nat West freezes Press TV assets
A breaking story today from no lesser source than Press TV that their assets have been frozen by Nat West, a bloated UK bank. It would seem that Press TV is hurting the establishment in the UK with some radical reporting – the great star of course is George Galloway with his Real Deal show – catch a recent episode on Youtube and subscribe – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbbkEEEY2m0.
