Economics

• The Diabolical Bank “Bail-In” Proposal
• The Confiscation Scheme Planned for US and UK Depositors

Michel Chossudovsky, Global Research 

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• Is the Cyprus Bank “Bail-in” a “dress rehearsal” for things to come?
• Is  a “Savings Heist” in the European Union and North America envisaged which could result in the outright confiscation of bank deposits?
• In Cyprus, the entire payments system has been disrupted leading to the demise of the real economy.
• Pensions and wages are no longer paid. Purchasing power has collapsed.
• The population is impoverished.
• Small and medium sized enterprises are spearheaded into bankruptcy.
• Cyprus is a country with a population of one million.
• What would happen if similar ‘hair cut” procedures were to be applied in the U.S. or the European Union?

According to the Washington based Institute of International Finance (IIF) (right) which represents the consensus of the global financial establishment, “the Cyprus approach of hitting depositors and creditors when banks fail, would likely become a model for dealing with collapses elsewhere in Europe.” (Economic Times, March 27, 2013).

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Related:

The Confiscation Scheme Planned for US and UK Depositors, Ellen Brown, Public Banking Institute / Truthdig

• Open Bank Resolution (OBR) is New Zealand Finance Minister Bill English’s favoured option dealing with a major bank failure. If a bank fails under OBR, all depositors will have their savings reduced overnight to fund the bank’s bail out.
• It can happen here.  
• How Congress Could Fix Its Budget Woes Permanently

The grips of sequestration are just now beginning to be felt and the effects are already quite dramatic.

Amanda Terkel & Sam Stein, Huffington Post

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04/02/2013 | It's now an article of faith that dire sequestration warnings were overblown.
 

New studies downsize potential job losses because of the federal budget cuts. Agencies have figured ways to ensure that the more alarming effects (no food inspectors!) are avoided. Government organizations are coming up with methods to delay severe disruptions. Congress isn't debating a replacement. The media have lost interest or have reduced it to a political argument. The economy was supposed to be brought to its knees by the $85 billion in cuts. Instead, we trudge along in a new normal.
 

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• “…it seems that our remedies are instinctively those which aggravate the sickness: the remedies are expressions of the sickness itself“. --Thomas Merton
• 8 New Items including:
• The 6 Economic Facts of Life in America That Allow the Rich to Run off with Our Wealth
• Austerity USA Begins March 1st
• Viral Video Shows the Extent of U.S. Wealth Inequality
• Billions for Banks, Nada for the Poor: Not Exactly a Compromise
• The Extremist Cult of Capitalism
• Economic Facts That Will Make Your Head Spin
• Minimum Wage: Who Decided That Hard-Working Americans Should Fall Behind?
• Incomes Flat in Recovery, but Not for the 1%

David Culver, Ed., Evergreene Digest

Milt Priggee

The 6 Economic Facts of Life in America That Allow the Rich to Run off with Our Wealth, Les Leopold, AlterNet

• It's not enough for the greedy rich to buy politicians. They also need to buy our minds. That's why they pay for all this misleading economic education. But if we master the basic economic facts of life, we won't get conned. And we will have a much better chance at building a more just and healthy economy.
• Do you ever wonder why it takes the average family 47 years to make as much as a hedge fund honcho makes in one hour?
• Viral Video Shows the Extent of U.S. Wealth Inequality
• Matt Taibbi | 'The Bailouts Officially Created A Sucker Class'

Austerity USA Begins March 1st, Shamus Cooke, Workers Compass

• The current plan for the austerity “sequester” cuts is $100 billion of federal cuts every year for ten years, equaling massive cuts to jobs, Medicare, education, and completely destroying federally funded social programs.
• Paul Krugman | Global Austerity 'An Unethical Experimentation On Human Beings' 
• Series | Socialism: Theory & Practice, Part 1, Albert Einstein

Viral Video Shows the Extent of U.S. Wealth Inequality, Charlie White, Mashable <>

• The issue of wealth inequality across the United States is well known, but this video shows you the extent of that imbalance in dramatic and graphic fashion.
• Billions for Banks, Nada for the Poor: Not Exactly a Compromise

Billions for Banks, Nada for the Poor: Not Exactly a Compromise, Richard Eskow, Blog for Our Future <>

• If you're not 'too big to fail,' you're out of luck, even with Obama's 'sequester.'
• That’s injustice on a medieval scale, served up with a medieval caste-privilege flavor. The only difference is that nowadays injustices are presented with spreadsheets and PowerPoints, rather than with scrolls and trumpets and kingly proclamations.
• Sequester Madness: Into The Vast Inane

The Extremist Cult of Capitalism, Paul Buchheit, opednews.com 

• "Advocates of capitalism are very apt to appeal to the sacred principles of liberty, which are embodied in one maxim: The fortunate must not be restrained in the exercise of tyranny over the unfortunate." --Bertrand Russell
• "Capitalism is the legitimate racket of the ruling class." --Al Capone 

Economic Facts That Will Make Your Head Spin, Lynn Stuart Parramore, AlterNet 

• Half the population of the U.S. has slipped into poverty or is barely making enough to get by.
• Jobs v. Loopholes

Minimum Wage: Who Decided That Hard-Working Americans Should Fall Behind? Dean Baker, AlterNet

• There is no economic reason why those at the bottom should not share in the gains from economic growth.
• Ralph Nader | $9 an Hour? How About a Living Wage! 

Incomes Flat in Recovery, but Not for the 1%, Annie Lowrey, New York (NY) Times

• The recent policy changes, including tax increases and financial regulatory reform, he wrote, “are not negligible but they are modest relative to the policy changes that took place coming out of the Great Depression. Therefore, it seems unlikely that U.S. income concentration will fall much in the coming years.”
• Poverty and Progress: Comparing the US and Venezuela

• It is time to get away from growing the wealth of the rich at the expense of the bottom 90%;  it is bad for the Country, the Country’s economic health, and the vast majority of the population. 
• Minimum Wage Myths: Poverty Doesn’t Create Jobs
• If Government "Acted Like a Business" It Would Reject Today's Deficit Madness.

Jim Weygand, Minnesota 2020

March 5, 2013 | Whenever the discussion goes to higher taxes for the wealthiest Americans, we hear that it will impact the job creators. The assumption is that the wealthiest portion of the population will create more jobs if they have more money. It sounds great but the reality is something totally different. Successful businesses do not create jobs just because there is money available. They create jobs when there are customers available. This is true of retail, and manufacturing. Any successful business expands when there is an opportunity for more business and profit.

I think most of us understand that an important part of our economy and even the world economy is the spending of consumers particularly the American consumer. This American consumer is all of us, but some segments are more important than others. We often hear about the importance of a strong middle class, but actually we should think of a stronger bottom 90%. This group, although they have lower income, there are more of them and they spend a larger portion of their income, usually injecting it back into the local economy. To get some idea of the importance of this bottom 90%, The Wall Street Journal reported in January of this year 534,465 cars were sold in the US of those only 74,336 were luxury cars. Do you think more jobs were involved in building and selling cars to the 90% or the top 1%?

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Related:

Minimum Wage Myths: Poverty Doesn’t Create Jobs, Lee Egerstrom, Minnesoa2020

• Even under the proposals before legislative bodies, the working poor will remain poor, especially since their incomes and household purchasing power has ripped away in recent years. 
• However, increasing wages will better help them meet basic living needs and ease pressure on strained social safety nets.
• Who are the Job Creators?

If Government "Acted Like a Business" It Would Reject Today's Deficit Madness, Richard (RJ) Eskow, opednews.com

• From investment to "thinking outside the box," here are six ways Washington's austerity madness is un- businesslike
• The Extremist Cult of Capitalism