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How Will Change Come About?

December 12, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Most Americans are dissatisfied with government, an astounding 81%!

But the two parties and the establishment elite remain unresponsive. The government is buying off discontent with food stamps and unemployment benefits. It is hoping that more inflation will stimulate the economy for awhile. But all of this in the longer run simply reduces the country’s productivity and increases the pressure from below for change.

A collision is in the making between the people and their rulers because the political outlets for change are being blocked by the two parties, whose nominees are offering more of the same.

What will happen?

Most of the scenarios are ugly.

If the establishment stays unresponsive, one major possibility is that the force that will batter the establishment (and Americans too) will be financial. In this scenario, the U.S. will go the way of Greece and Italy. The deficits and debts will eventually lead to a rejection of U.S. government debt and higher interest rates. That will force the government to retrench. This will lead to draconian powers coming out of Washington. There will be more inflation. Deep fractures will appear among Americans as people thrash around for solutions and new arrangements. A second ugly possibility is that the rulers start to scapegoat certain Americans and institute even more socialist/fascist policies.

A third ugly possibility is that the establishment ramps up a major war. One of the better possibilities is that the establishment starts to lose some elections to more libertarian candidates and then starts to alter its policies so as to retain power.

There are many more possible scenarios…but something big is in the cards.

 

Source: https://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/100386.html

Filed Under: Debt, Financial Crisis, Politics, Revolution, USA Tagged With:

Jacques Delors Says Eurozone ‘Is Flawed’

December 4, 2011 by Leave a Comment

A key architect of the eurozone reveals it was flawed from the beginning and efforts to tackle its problems have so far been “too little, too late“.

Jacques Delors, former president of the European Commission , suggested “a fault in execution” meant the present crisis in the eurozone was inevitable.

Leaders in the 1990s chose to turn a blind eye to the economic weaknesses of some member states and the response, now the issues had surfaced, had generally been inadequate.

His comments in an interview with The Daily Telegraph came as France and Germany edged towards closer fiscal union to head off a potentially disastrous collapse of the single currency.

Mr Delors was head of the commission from 1985 to 1995 and known for his clashes with Margaret Thatcher . He became an object of ridicule in the eurosceptic press.

He has admitted that when “Anglo-Saxons” warned a single central bank and currency without a single state would be inherently unstable “they had a point”.

“The finance ministers did not want to see anything disagreeable which they would be forced to deal with,” he said.

Mr Delors insisted all European countries had to share the blame for the excessive borrowing by countries such as Italy and Greece that have brought the system to the brink of disaster.

“Everyone must examine their consciences,” he added.

However, the 86-year-old singled out Germany for its strict insistence that the European Central Bank must not support debt-stricken members for fear of fuelling inflation.

The euro’s troubles spring from “a combination of the stubbornness of the Germanic idea of monetary control and the absence of a clear vision from all the other countries”, he said.

Such is the scale of the crisis, he warned, that “even Germany” will struggle to find a solution. “Markets are markets. They are now bedevilled by uncertainty.”

Prime Minister David Cameron has vowed to protect British interests will be paramount if the European Union treaty is changed to help resolve the eurozone crisis.

But according to Mr Delors, Britain is not “sharing the burden” because it is not in the euro.

But he claimed the UK is “just as embarrassed as the Europeans by the financial crisis“, as some of the measures put in place to deal with the crisis pose a threat to British interests.

Source: https://uk.news.yahoo.com/jacques-delors-says-eurozone-flawed-050841344.html

Filed Under: Debt, European Union, Money, Politics

Most Britons Believe Children Will Have Worse Lives Than Their Parents – Poll

December 3, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Almost two-thirds of people believe the current generation of children will have a lower standard of living than their parents, as concern about the economic crisis hardens into long-term pessimism, a new poll shows.

The Ipsos Mori survey for the Observer suggests that the traditional postwar assumption that living standards always tend to rise in the medium to long term is being eroded as austerity bites and real incomes stagnate or even fall. The study, conducted before chancellor George Osborne’s grim autumn statement on Tuesday, represents a marked turnaround since 2003, when those who were optimistic about the next generation’s prospects outnumbered the pessimists by almost four to one.

Some 64% of those questioned believed it was unlikely that today’s youth would have a better life than their parents, while just 32% thought it was likely. When asked whether their children would have a higher or lower quality of life when they reached their age, just 23% said they believed it would be higher, while 35% said it would be lower, with 32% saying it would be about the same.

This represents a big change since April 2003, when 43% believed their children would be better off at the same stage of life and just 12% thought they would be worse off.

The findings suggest the British public was drastically readjusting its expectations even before Osborne slashed growth forecasts and made a string of gloomier estimates on unemployment and borrowing in his autumn statement last Tuesday.

The poll comes as leaders prepare for another critical summit this week on the future of the euro, with fears rising that the 17-nation currency zone could break up, with devastating effects for the global economy. It also shows that pessimism about the next generation is now even greater in the UK than in the US. Earlier this year 44% of Americans thought it was likely that young people would enjoy a better life than their parents. This was down from 71% at the end of 2001.

David Miliband, the former foreign secretary, spells out a personal manifesto for putting the country back on track that would involve stimulating investment by enlisting the power of both the public and private sectors. Writing in the Observer, Miliband says: “The central economic issue is how to stimulate productive investment when public finances are constrained. I focus on three economic priorities. The need for financial reform, for example through a British Investment Bank. The need to promote better workplaces that engage employees… And the need to use public sector power… as a coherent driver of the private sector investment equation.”

Miliband, who is still seen by some in the Labour Party as a future leader if his brother fails to make the party electable, says the party needs to “re-engage on social policy – not just the structural questions of inequality but cultural questions of responsibility, to self, to family, to community”.

The polls shows pessimism has fed through to views about Britain as a whole. About 61% now say that Britain is getting worse as a place to live, up from 49% in June 2010, while only 6% say it is getting better.

• The Conservatives have edged ahead of the opposition, with support from 38% of voters, up two points from last month, with Labour down two points on 36% and the Liberal Democrats unchanged on 14%, according to an ICM poll for the Sunday Telegraph..

 

Source: https://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/dec/03/britons-children-lives-parents-poll

Filed Under: Debt, Family, Money, Poverty, United Kingdom Tagged With:

Greece In Revolt Over Property Tax

December 3, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Civil disobedience among Greeks grows after tax was incorporated into electricity bills

Few measures have elicited more anger – or ingenious forms of revolt – than the property tax announced by Greek ministers to plug a budget black hole that might have gone unnoticed had Greece‘s plight not threatened the entire eurozone.

In the three months since the government conceived of boosting revenues by including the household duty in electricity bills, local mayors, leftist politicians, unions, lawyers, property owners and the public power corporation have all vowed to do whatever they can to stop the law.

Already suffering wage cuts, benefit losses and tax increases, many have said that even if they wanted to, they simply couldn’t cough up.

Officials say those who refuse will have their electricity cut off.

Even by the standards of Greece, where an estimated 30% of the economy goes unrecorded, the backlash to the levy has taken officials by surprise. With the public power corporation flicking the switch on the health ministry last month – in protest at its failure to pay its bills – and militant unionists pledging to picket electricity boards across the land next week, civil disobedience is on the rise.

In the northern town of Veria, Robin Hood-style activists have gone a step further, reconnecting electricity supplies in homes owned by poor Greeks unable to keep up with bills, and leaving signature orange stickers on power boxes.

On Friday, Greece’s highest court, the council of state, stepped into the fray. After being besieged by appeals from the Athens bar association and other bodies, it began considering whether the legislation should be revoked.

The cash-strapped government had hoped the levy would raise €2bn (£1.7bn) by the end of the year – a fraction of the estimated €60bn (£56bn) lost in tax evasion since the 1970s, but enough to cover missed fiscal targets in 2011.

Addressing parliament on Friday, the country’s new prime minister, Lucas Papademos, insisted that the tax could not be dropped. Revenues have dropped as a result of the successive waves of belt-tightening demanded by the EU and IMF in return for rescue loans.

“The measure itself cannot be abolished, as it is necessary for our process of fiscal adjustment,” said Papademos, whose interim administration is expected to be in power until early next year.

But in a nod to the outcry that the law has caused, the new prime minister conceded that in a country blighted by record levels of unemployment, repayment terms would have to be eased.

 

Source: https://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/dec/02/greece-in-revolt-over-property-tax

Filed Under: Debt, Money, Politics, Protests, Taxes Tagged With:

Germany, France Push For ‘Fiscal Union’

December 3, 2011 by Leave a Comment

German Chancellor Angela Merkel kicked off a crunch week of talks on saving the euro by laying out a vision Friday for a “fiscal union” in Europe, ahead of a pivotal summit of EU leaders.

A day after French President Nicolas Sarkozy said that Europe needed to be “refounded” in response to a crisis that has threatened the very existence of the EU, Merkel insisted that progress had been made.

Speaking in a hotly awaited speech in the German parliament, Merkel said Europe was “on the verge” of creating what she called a “stability union” for the 17-nation eurozone, with greater budgetary discipline and control.

“Anyone who had said a few months ago that we, at the end of 2011, would be taking very serious and concrete steps toward a European stability union, a European fiscal union, toward introducing (budgetary) intervention in Europe would have been considered crazy,” she said.

She said she would be holding talks with “almost everyone” in the run-up to a summit in Brussels next Friday that many commentators have dubbed the last chance to save the single currency, introduced with such euphoria a decade ago.

And she confirmed she would be heading to Paris for talks with Sarkozy on Monday to thrash out a joint Franco-German position on changing the EU founding texts ahead of the summit.

Highlighting the challenges that face Europe’s leaders, around 17,000 people demonstrated in Athens on Thursday in a bid to force the new government to abandon austerity measures.

The sixth general strike this year in Greece shut down public services and crippled train and ferry services.

Nevertheless, European stock markets rallied at the open, following Asian gains, as traders continued to be generally bullish in the wake of joint central bank action Wednesday to ease tensions in the global financial system.

And the euro held steady against the dollar and yen in Asian trade on Friday as investors breathed a sigh of relief over European bond sales that hinted at rising confidence in the region’s public debt.

But despite a sense of optimism, EU authorities should be acutely aware that the eyes of the world will be on them next Friday, one trader in Asia said.

“Investors are monitoring the EU summit next week and the monetary policy meeting by the European Central Bank before that,” said Masatoshi Sato, strategist at Mizuho Investors Securities, referring to a rate decision next Thursday.

In a landmark speech Thursday in front of 5,000 cheering supporters, Sarkozy warned that the developed world was entering a “new economic cycle” dominated by debt reduction, heralding tough times ahead for jobs and business.

“We must confront with total solidarity those who doubt the stability of the euro and speculate on its break-up,” he declared.

“France is fighting with Germany for a new treaty. More discipline, more solidarity, more responsibility … true economic government” he said, urging members to adopt a “Golden Rule” obliging them to balance their budgets.

Merkel said she was heading to Brussels “with the aim of changing the EU treaty” to push through her goals, which she summed up as follows: “Rules must be respected. Respect for them must be supervised. Their violation must have consequences,” she said.

And she warned that the eurozone would go it alone if no agreement could be struck on EU treaty change, while stressing that the euro club was open to anyone who wanted to join.

Traders want to see more decisive action by the European Central Bank, stepping in to buy up the bonds of distressed eurozone nations, effectively acting as the lender of last resort as in Britain or the United States.

However, Merkel again dismissed this, stressing the ECB’s independence and insisting: “The mandate of the ECB is different to that of the United States Fed or of the Bank of England,” referring to the Federal Reserve Bank.

“It is written clearly in the treaties: the mandate is to guarantee price stability and that is exactly what the ECB is doing and … I am completely convinced of that,” she said.

She also reiterated that eurobonds, a pooling of the debt of eurozone nations, was not the solution to the crisis, saying that anyone who believed that to be the case “had not understood the nature of the crisis.”

Germany, Europe’s top economy, believes that both eurobonds and any compromising of the independence of the ECB would lead to inflation, which the central bank was set up to prevent.

Merkel said the stakes could hardly be higher, as Europe headed into a week that will likely define it for several years to come.

“Europe is in its most difficult existential test. As chancellor, I am going to do everything … to ensure that Europe comes stronger out of this test than when it went in,” she told MPs.

“Despite all the turbulence we have seen in recent times, the euro has proved itself. It is stable … the euro is much more than just a currency,” she added.

“The future of the euro is indivisibly linked with the unification of Europe.”

Source: https://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/12/02/germany-france-push-for-fiscal-union/

Filed Under: Banks, Debt, European Union Tagged With: , ,

Portugal Is Latest Country To Go “MF Global”, Raid Pensions Funds To Delay Fiscal Death

December 3, 2011 by Leave a Comment

About a year ago, we discussed the very troubling moves by insolvent countries such as Ireland and Hungary to “raid” their pensions funds for various fungible purposes, a move which in virtually every way a was a progenitor to the MF Global capital commingling, if not outright bankruptcy, and was explained as reflecting ” a willingness by governments to use long-term assets to fill short-term deficits, including Ireland’s announcement last week that it would use the country’s €24bn National Pensions Reserve Fund “to support the exchequer’s funding programme” and Hungary’s bid to claw $15bn of private pension funds back to the state system.”

While it was unclear precisely what the use of funds was, back then FN speculated that it pension funds were being tapped to boost sovereign debt bids. Which if true means that Europe’s peripheral pensioners have seen about a 20% drop in the NPV of their retirement assets. Today we add Portugal to the list of countries committing an MF Global type crime on a global scale: the Telegraph writes: “Portugal has raided €5.6bn (£4.8bn) of pension fund assets in a controversial scramble to meet its deficit targets.” And since the money is once again implicitly and explicitly used to patch broken fiscal models, it is as good as gone.

Which in a paradoxical way is almost welcome, as the true Arab Spring will not come to Europe (and America) until the citizens don’t read, in clear writing, that their welfare state entitlement benefits are gone…. They are all gone. And at that point there will be truly nothing left to lose.

From Telegraph:

The cabinet agreed to transfer the assets from four of Portugal’s biggest banks to the state balance sheet.

The assets will be used to bridge a gap needed to meet the fiscal deficit target of 5.9pc of GDP set by the terms of the country’s €78bn bail-out from around 10pc in 2010.

“This measure is more than sufficient to meet the budget deficit goal in 2011,” said Helder Rosalino, secretary of state for central administration, on Friday.

Portugal said it had informed the EU and IMF and assured them it would be a “one-off”. However the 2010 budget was met by shifting three pension plans from Portugal Telecom on to the public social security system. The liabilities don’t count, yet.

There have been no complaints from Eurostat but Raoul Ruperal from Open Europe said: “This can’t be seen as a future revenue stream in any way.”

We wonder if “one-off” in this case is the same “one-off” that was supposed to happen when the Fed bailed out the world’s banks in a “one-off” event… over and over and over.

 

Source: https://www.zerohedge.com/news/portugal-latest-country-go-mf-global-raids-pensions-funds-delay-fiscal-death

Filed Under: Debt, Politics Tagged With: , ,

The Student Loan Racket

December 3, 2011 by Leave a Comment

The student loan racket – For-profit enrollment growth surged by 225 percent in last decade. For-profits live off the 85 percent of revenues they receive from the government and filter out to their Wall Street owners.

The loud commotion you hear rattling the global economy is the massive debt bubble imploding. A few notable economists have stated that too much debt is reached simply when the public acknowledges that there is too much debt. To this point the public is now waking up to the reality that too much debt is being taken on for higher education. Where there is money to be made you now have Wall Street and the government walking hand and hand smiling to fleece the American student without producing any measurable increase in value. With a web of connections and political pay for play we now have a giant bubble that is causing financially disastrous results for many young Americans walking out with diploma in hand and a massive albatross of debt securely wrapped around their bare wallets. With youth unemployment rivaling those of third world nations we are starting to see cracks in the current system. It seems that the $1 trillion mark with student debt might have been a tipping point.

The circle of student debt life

To understand the convoluted scheme of higher education it is useful to see the massive expansion in for-profit institutions:

for-profit enrollments

Source: Senator Harkin

From 1998 to 2008 the growth of enrollments at for-profits has surged by 225 percent. Many of these institutions are one step above paper mills and largely provide little value added tostudents that attend. Many of the for-profits also market and target heavily lower income Americans. So who is paying for this? Step in the federal government:

federal dollars

The life blood running through the veins of the for-profits comes from you guessed it, the Federal Government. In 2009 for-profits pulled in revenues from one source primarily. Over 85 percent of revenues to these institutions derived from the government (aka the American taxpayer). It would be one thing if these schools were producing solid results but they are doing everything but producing results. Take a look at default rates:

default-rates

The above chart only goes by generous measures of defaults. If we look at longer term cohort default models we start seeing default rates soaring into the 40 to 50 percent range. This student loan bubble is popping because of the lack of quality and infusion of for-profits merely ripping students off. Yet someone is making money here. The government is merely a funnel of taxpayer money into select Wall Street institutions……

 

Source: https://www.fedupusa.org/2011/12/the-student-loan-racket/

Filed Under: Debt, USA Tagged With:

10 Financial Lessons for a Richer Life

December 3, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Let’s face it, personal finance isn’t nuclear physics.

The basics are so simple that anyone can get the concepts down in less than a day — spend less than you earn, save and invest the rest.

Knowing what should be done and actually doing it, however, are two different things.

Most people realize that spending more money than they have is a bad, bad thing. That still doesn’t keep millions of people from racking up credit-card debt.

Here are 10 money lessons I wish I had known when I was 20 (I’m now 42 years old), which also have the power to change your life if you are able to embrace them.

10. Money Doesn’t Buy Happiness

I knew this in my heart when I was younger. After all, who can’t hum the tune of the Beatles song Can’t Buy Me Love?

But my head often countered it in real life. It took me several years of working in a large corporation making good money, but not enjoying my job, to finally get it through my head that money in itself does not make you happy, and the accumulation of money will do very little for your happiness unless you know how to use that money once you have it.

The happiness comes from the opportunities money makes available so that you can do the things that you want to do. If you have no idea what these things are, no amount of money will make you happy.

9. Goals Are the Key

I didn’t begin to make specific financial goals until my early 30s, and it kills me that I lost 10 years in this department.

The old saying that if you don’t know where you’re going, it’s difficult to get there is never more true with your financial goals. It wasn’t until I took the time to write down my financial goals in detail that I began to find financial success.

Financial goals give you something to strive for and give you clear knowledge on how you want to spend the money that you earn. They also greatly help you avoid impulse purchases and spending money on things that aren’t important.

8. Impulse Purchases Dash Dreams

I spent more money on more crap coming out of college than I would ever care to admit.

Impulse spending (or spending money on anything that isn’t important to you and your goals) is the worst type of spending that you can do, yet this is how most people spend their money when they don’t have financial goals.

It’s especially destructive if it also leads to credit-card debt. Impulse purchases come about when you aren’t really sure what you want in your life or what will make you happy.

This is why advertising is so effective. Advertisements make you believe that buying a product or service will give you the happiness that you are seeking, when this is rarely the case.

If you can learn to be patient with your money and avoid impulse purchases by knowing what your financial goals are, you will have made major strides in getting your finances in order.

7. Buy Memories, Not Things

A big con our society plays on us is that stuff will make us happy.

I fell for it for far too long.

When it comes to spending the money that you do have, buying experiences and memories with those whom you care about is a much better use of your money than purchasing material things. It’s not the house that you buy, but the home that you make with your family inside it that matters.

When you look back on your life, you will remember the times, memories and experiences far above the things that you have purchased.

Understanding this will ensure that you get much more value out of the money you spend.

6. TV Is a Dream Killer

I once believed that I didn’t have the time to do all I wanted to do, but it was nothing more than having poor priorities in how I spent my time, watching TV being one of those poor choices.

I hear time and again that people simply don’t have the time to achieve the goals that they have. If you are the average person, that time you don’t have is being spent in front of your TV. If you want to achieve your goals and dreams, the first thing to do is start to wean yourself off your TV.

You can’t imagine the amount of extra time that you have and all the extra things that you can accomplish when you take the time spent in front of the TV (or computer or whatever other form of procrastination you use) to work on the financial and other goals that you have.

5. Money Seduces

It’s a fact of life. At some point you will likely be offered employment that pays you more than what your dream job will pay, or a good salary when you aren’t yet sure what your dream job is.

You will likely justify taking the job because the extra money will outweigh the compromise of putting off what you want to do and you may assume it will even help you to pursue your dream job in your spare time since it will mean you have more money.

This is a false justification that will only serve to make you lose sight of your true goals in life. Be very careful of the seduction of a higher-paying job, because when you accept it, it will be difficult to leave.

I wish I had seen this seduction for what it was right out of college rather than four years into a career that wasn’t what I wanted to be doing.

4. Financial Mistakes Aren’t All Bad

I’ve made more than my fair share of financial mistakes, and you’re going to make financial mistakes, too. Everybody does and they can actually be a great benefit for you in the long run.

The key is learning from them instead of repeating them over and over again. Instead of getting down on yourself when you make a mistake, take the time to learn from it and make sure that it never happens again.

If you learn from your mistakes, you will come out far ahead than if you’d never make any mistakes at all over never learn from them.

3. Do What You Love and the Money Follows

The money probably won’t be there at first, and it might seem impossible for you to figure out a way to make money from it, but if you are truly passionate about it, there is a way to succeed and make a living doing what you love. It takes a lot of time, effort and persistence, and it won’t be easy.

You will likely have to become quite creative to make it happen, but if you truly love what you’re doing, that effort will be the reason you are willing to put in the extra hours it takes to succeed.

I wish I would have started looking for my dream job a lot sooner and that I had the confidence to do so right out of college.

2. Money Is Emotional

You know yourself better than anyone else, and what motivates you. What motivates me and what motivates you may not be the same.

Take this knowledge and use it to your advantage. While personal-finance books will tell you the best way to handle your finances from an unemotional perspective, this advice is worthless if it doesn’t work with your personality.

Adopt the methods that will help you get to your financial goals the quickest, leveraging your personal habits to do so.

Doing something (even if it is a longer process) is almost always better than the choice of doing nothing because the method advanced doesn’t work well for your personality.

1. Embrace Compound Interest

If you want to be wealthy, understand compound interest and how it is your best financial friend from an early age. To retire early you don’t need to make a lot of money.

All you need to do is begin saving small amounts early. The earlier you begin to put money into retirement savings, the more you’ll have, and the sooner you will be able to retire.

Most people think that it is a matter of working hard and making a lot, but the true path to wealth is simply to start saving and investing from an early age.

 

Source: https://www.thestreet.com/story/10404222/2/ten-financial-lessons-for-a-richer-life.html

Filed Under: Debt, Money Tagged With: ,

Yes, Defaulting On Debts Is An Option

December 2, 2011 by Leave a Comment

When the calls from the debt collectors started, I was feeling really scared and had difficulty sleeping. My voice would often tremble when answering them, although this would only encourage them to call more often. However, after being chased by one company, another would take on the same account, but the amount had then almost doubled. When I asked for a breakdown of the account, they were unable to provide one, but offered me a deal to pay it off at a fraction of the original amount. I declined their offer.

After a bit of research, I realised the debt collectors buy debts for less than 10p in the pound, after the bank writes the debt off. I also found out that under the Bills of Exchange Act 1882, the debt collector is actually paying off our debt when they buy it. I also realised how debt collectors trick us into contracts with them, by asking us how much we could pay. When you agree to one pound a month, which costs more to administrate, they now have a contract with you, where none existed.

I then came across an ebook by Mary Elizabeth Croft, How I Clobbered every Cash Confiscatory Bureau. She explained that fractional reserve banking is basically fraud, as the banks do not have the money they lend us. A bank only needs a small fraction of the money it actually “lends” us, but that’s not lending – it is creating money out of thin air. If a bank holds £1,000, it can create seven or eight times that amount and charge interest.

Croft suggested sending the debt collectors letters with a list of questions, which if they could not answer, would render the debt void. I could not find template letters to send these companies, so I created my own with my new found understanding. It wasn’t long before I set up Getoutofdebtfree.org to share these with others in a similar situation.

Once armed with my new knowledge, my confidence returned and I started having fun with the phone calls. I would sometimes answer the phone with a list of “security” questions: “What is your full name? The name of your line manager? Direct phone numbers?” And, of course: “What is your mother’s maiden name?” When answered satisfactorily, they would be informed that I do not deal with matters over the phone. I would also inform them that the conversation was being recorded for training and entertainment purposes. It was as much as I could do to stop myself giggling as the bemused caller lost his thread and started fumbling for words.

Within a year or so, my website started getting a bit of attention and in 2009, the headlines on the Guardian website read, “Debt collectors hit out at advice websites“. The trade body for debt collectors had got together and decided that there were a few sites they wanted removed from the internet. Traffic to my site suddenly skyrocketed, eventually overtaking the government’s own debt advice site. Getoutofdebtfree.org now offers support to thousands of people in seven countries and has a lively and supportive community forum.

Any child knows that if you put 10 marbles in a bag, you can only get 10 marbles out. No amount of searching will produce the 11th marble – it doesn’t exist. But it’s exactly what the banks do. They create money as necessary with a few clicks of a computer keyboard, but then charge us interest. Two things have to happen as a result of this. The money supply has to be continually and exponentially inflated and individuals, companies – and, of course, countries – default. That the economy will collapse is a mathematical certainty. Like any ponzi scheme, it has to.

We are told that default is not an option, as this would mean an end to foreign investment. However, look at what happened in Iceland. After prolonged protests, the government finally resigned, a new constitution was drawn up and the situation immediately started improving – despite serious threats from the UK and the IMF. Their economy is now doing rather nicely, mainly due to the massive burden of debt being lifted from them. Why can’t we be brave like them and, get rid of our banking-sponsored government and default? Problem solved.

The mood is now changing, and people are finally waking up. The worldwide Occupy Movement is beginning to ask the right questions. I have had the privilege of spending time at Occupy London at St Paul’s and it feels like real change is on the horizon. Now is the time we have to be brave and make some difficult decisions, and take back our power. Our future and the future of our children depends on it.

Source: https://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/nov/15/debt-agencies-economy?fb=native&CMP=FBCNETTXT9038

Filed Under: Debt, Financial Crisis, United Kingdom

UK Banks Urged To Prepare For Euro Break-Up

November 30, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Britain’s biggest banks are being urged by the City regulator to prepare for a break-up of the eurozone.

The head of the Financial Services Authority (FSA), Hector Sants, has told financial institutions to accelerate plans for a separation of the single currency area, Sky’s City editor Mark Kleinman has learned .

Senior excutives from Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group, RBS, Santander UK and Standard Chartered were given the warning at a private meeting with the FSA boss.

Although the meeting was not specifically set to issue the warning, Mr Sants said the banks should run a wide range of stress tests as part of their contingency planning.

However, he stopped short of prescribing specific instructions or scenarios.

People close to the FSA told Kleinman that Sants’ warning was “the kind of contingency planning expected in a situation like this”.

The impact on different banks of a eurozone break-up would vary, depending on their exposures to sovereign debt of member countries.

Whereas Barclays holds billions of pounds worth of European government bonds, Santander UK and Standard Chartered have very little direct exposure.

Source: https://uk.news.yahoo.com/uk-banks-urged-prepare-euro-break-154737202.html

Filed Under: Banks, Debt, Economy, European Union, Financial Crisis, Politics, United Kingdom
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