http://michael-hudson.com


November 2013. "They [big companies] are not investing because they have become hopelessly short term. Even in the last expansion, they were net saving. And the reason was executive incentives." 
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2013/11/krugman-following-summers-endorses-asset-bubbles.html



The Big Threat to the Economy Is Private Debt and Interest Owed on It, Not Government Debt: We should focus on how paying off private debt is eating into personal incomes. 

by Michael Hudson 3/13/2013
http://www.alternet.org/economy/big-threat-economy-private-debt-and-interest-owed-it-not-government-debt?akid=10191.83305.FN8d1P&rd=1&src=newsletter810180&t=19






"In America and Europe Crime Has Been Decriminalized" Michael Hudson, interviewed one year ago. Advance to around 
4 min 40 sec. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJUr64yPztI






QUESTIONS BEGIN...


1. "Cyprus’s fall this time is due in part to its exposure to Greek bonds, which were given a short back and sides last year by the same financial wizards who have hatched this latest plan." "Why Cyprus Matters: The Eurozone Strikes Again" by Maria Margaronis 3/20/13 http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/03/19-7 

So, what entities in Cyprus had all the Greek bonds? Short back and sides? Someone bet against them?



2. What's this about?   "...securitizing future government revenues to reduce their debts and/or deficits. Sovereigns sold rights to receive future cash flows, allowing governments to raise funds without violating debt and deficit targets, but sidestepping best practice and ignoring internationally agreed standards."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_sovereign-debt_crisis






3. "The Houses of Morgan, Goldman and the other Big Five are justifiably worried right now, because an 'event of default' declared on European sovereign debt could jeopardize their $32 trillion derivatives scheme. According to Rudy Avizius in an article on The Market Oracle (UK) on February 15, that explains what happened at MF Global, and why the 50 percent Greek bond write-down was not declared an event of default." Ellen Brown 2/21/2012 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ellen-brown/greece-default_b_1287970.html







SOURCES...


"Frank Partnoy: Derivative Dangers"
Fresh Air 3/25/09 http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102325715


"The Houses of Morgan, Goldman and the other Big Five are justifiably worried right now, because an 'event of default' declared on European sovereign debt could jeopardize their $32 trillion derivatives scheme. According to Rudy Avizius in an article on The Market Oracle (UK) on February 15, that explains what happened at MF Global, and why the 50 percent Greek bond write-down was not declared an event of default." Ellen Brown 2/21/2012 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ellen-brown/greece-default_b_1287970.html


"Who Owns The Federal Reserve?
"The Fed is privately owned. Its shareholders are private banks..." by Ellen Brown 1/29/13 http://www.globalresearch.ca/who-owns-the-federal-reserve/10489


Ellen Brown http://prn.fm/2013/03/03/progressive-radio-news-hour-ellen-brown-030313/#axzz2O6yKmuHB




European sovereign-debt crisis (about first half of article; reproduced here in larger font for reading purposes) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_sovereign-debt_crisis




Hudson ".....The textbooks say that countries shouldn’t have enemies or friends; they should simply have national interests. America said to Europe, forget your economic interests; you have a friend in us. That means you do what we tell you. You have an enemy in Russia. That means that you have to give up your hope to import oil and gas in Russia, give up your hope of exporting manufacturing and food to pay for this oil, and turn to us. It’s sort of a dream that is technologically impossible, because there simply are no facilities to deliver enough American gas and oil to meet Europe’s energy needs. So the whole neocon strategy of trying to bluff Russia is in danger of backfiring.

"The basic idea was very narrow. I think the Obama administration saw that Russia wanted to turn to Europe ever since the Sochi Olympics. President Putin was talking about a closer alliance with Europe. But then Putin opposed the Obama administration’s plan to attack Syria. And this led the neocons to say, okay, we’ve got to attack Russia, and the best way to attack it is to pry Ukraine away. And either that’s going to provoke a Russian invasion, and we can then say, look, Europe needs NATO, you have to depend on us, and the condition is you have to turn against Russia, or else it’s going to just drag Russia down, it’s going to cause the currency to collapse, and Putin will become unpopular, and finally we can get the regime change we want–we can get another Yeltsin in there instead of Putin.

"PERIES: But, Michael, the U.S. strategy, as you said, the Cold War strategy, isn’t it partly working here as the sliding oil prices will certainly constrain the capacity of Russia to extend the way they want to? Also, isn’t it so that the ruble has taken a dive? So what does all that mean in terms of–."
http://michael-hudson.com/2014/12/russian-pivot/


"I think the Obama administration saw that Russia wanted to turn to Europe ever since the Sochi Olympics. President Putin was talking about a closer alliance with Europe. But then Putin opposed the Obama administration’s plan to attack Syria. And this led the neocons to say, okay, we’ve got to attack Russia, and the best way to attack it is to pry Ukraine away. And either that’s going to provoke a Russian invasion, and we can then say, look, Europe needs NATO, you have to depend on us, and the condition is you have to turn against Russia....or else such maneuvers will drag Russia down, and cause their currency to collapse, and Putin will become unpopular, and finally we can get the regime change we want–we can get another Yeltsin in there instead of Putin."

above paraphrased, quoted elsewhere acknowledging same















I have written once here, and may stress again here...that what is creating policy (law) are compromises and deals in congress, and not Obama the man. Going along with the TPP treaty is most likely for Obama a matter of scratching some entity's back in return for their support of goals he's tried or trying to advance. It's not "liberal" policy that's sidelining economic activity (that we laborers could be involved in). It's money from billionaires and corporations...money that seeks less regulation. This money is influencing congresspersons. Less regulation is a conservative theme. Weirdly, though, that money is also seeking protectionist legislation [traditionally measures deemed "liberal"] when and where it suits given corporations (TPP would set up mini-protectionist situations all over the place). As the U.S. faces a bit of isolation itself (as "the dollar" faces it) an approach has been conceived wherein conservatives adopt old liberal notions when it's wishfully rationalized they can synch-in with other measures to put the screws on nations we may wish to "contain" in a counter move ourselves. But isolating other nations short term in the name of preserving US status 1)aggravates hostility, 2)creates windfall profits for given entities, and 3)as conceived presently will not on the whole benefit American con











  http://www.alternet.org/hard-times-usa/how-obama-and-valerie-jarrett-helped-launch-their-political-careers-outrageous-urban


Someone's watering the astroturf.

"On December 11, 2006, former Mexican President Felipe Calderón ordered thousands of soldiers into the streets of Michoacán, Guerrero’s neighbor to the northwest, in a declaration of open war against the nation’s entrenched drug-trafficking organizations. More than 100,000 people have been killed in the years since. Fueled by more than 2 billion dollars in U.S. equipment and training, Mexican security forces at every level have been accused of widespread human rights violations. Far from reducing violence, the campaign has splintered established cartels into smaller groups like Guerreros Unidos, and they have competed to control fractured territory.

"The tally of known dead is only a partial count of the casualties. There are tens of thousands of others who have disappeared since the conflict began. More than 22,000 Mexican citizens are currently listed as missing, according to the government’s own tally, though the actual numbers are believed to be far higher. An estimated 70,000 Central American migrants have vanished while crossing the country since 2006."https://theintercept.com/2015/05/04/mexico-ayotzinapa-43-students-disappeared-part-2/




Germany, North Sea side
http://www.korduroy.tv/wp-content/uploads/legacy-uploads/uploads/image/image/531/ed_para_lineup_chubb.jpg

http://www.korduroy.tv/2012/surfing-in-northern-germany/




https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nord_Stream

 http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/09/11/europe-doubles-down-on-russian-gas-nord-stream-gazprom-putin/

You can see the slant of this article, and yet it does admit to US pressure on Germany to find alternate sources. http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/09/11/europe-doubles-down-on-russian-gas-nord-stream-gazprom-putin/

Hudson says south European blues could very well metastasize north.
http://store.counterpunch.org/michael-hudson-episode-19-2/

kite bd Baltic
https://vimeo.com/51125024

"Drugs that would sell for a few dollars per prescription in a free market would sell for hundreds or even thousands of dollars when the government gives a drug company a patent monopoly…"
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2013/05/secret-free-trade-negotiations-will-gut-regulations-further-enrich-multinationals-and-big-financial-firms.html



http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2014/08/michael-hudson-frackingworld-bankimfhunter-biden-dismantling-plan-ukraine.html



Debunking 911 Conspiracy Theories and Controlled Demolition Myths
http://www.debunking911.com/

 

 

Sen. Mark Warner

Phone:(202) 224-2023

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Sen. Tim Kaine

Phone:(202) 224-4024

Fax:(202) 228-6363

http://michael-hudson.com

And Peterson's advocated re-arranging the whole universe due to Medicare's mere $1.28 trill cost by 2018? "The Federal Employees Pension Plan is now short $1.9 trillion according to the Fed’s March 2015 statement plus $4.7 trillion in unfunded state and municipal pension liabilities according to State Budget Solutions which calculates on actual pension returns (approx. 2.5% per year from 2009 to 2014, instead of the fantasy ‘assumption’ of an 8% return used by the Fed to guesstimate pension fund money)."
http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/09/02/wall-street-and-the-military-are-draining-americans-high-and-dry/




Varied, unrelated, and misc stuff (typed here) just parked here temporarily...

fracking & Klare

 http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/12/29/irreversible-decline/

http://www.commondreams.org/.../2009/01/08/problem-cheap-oil  

http://www.juancole.com/2015/03/bombing-shiite-conflict.html


"And the policies of repression that the United States is supporting in the current administration also provoke indignation in the people in light of this reality. The people demand a historic rectification of the international positions of the United States vis-à-vis Honduras.

Recall the human trafficking, trafficking of children, trafficking of women who go to the United States and pressure the U.S. borders, indeed bringing pressure to bear on the stability of the United States, precisely because of the failure of the policies here in Honduras. I could say the same of the new initiative of President Obama, who is talking about $1 billion in financing for the northern triangle, for Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. I told the senator who visited last week, the chair of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, I told him, 'Senator, money alone is not enough. Dollars alone won’t do it. We need a government that respects the rule of law. We need justice in Honduras. We need respect for a democracy in our country, so that our people can have jobs, can generate wealth, can attract national and international investors. We need juridicial security and citizen security. One must be concerned, Senator, with the internal legal situation in our countries.' "

http://www.democracynow.org/2015/7/28/clinton_the_coup_amid_protests_in


"It might seem almost impossible to disentangle the United States from the corrupt and brutal regimes in Iraq and Syria while also using these same regimes to fight against ISIS. Yet this is necessary in the short term. In the long term, a policy that emphasizes partnerships with the people and organizations on the ground to promote a system of government built on freedom and democracy is truly the only way peace will be brought to the region. Those efforts can begin immediately..."

"...The first thing the United States should do is shore up those parts of the region where democracy has successfully taken root. Tunisia’s people have proven their commitment to build a free and democratic society. The West should provide Tunisia the resources to build their economy, provide medical and educational services, and strengthen their young democracy. There is nothing like a successful Arab democracy to diminish ISIS’s murderous ideology and its lure of false glory...."

http://www.juancole.com/2015/08/nonviolenlt-could-defeat.html