George Bush gave some legendary quotes during his time in office, the media labeled them “Bushisms”. On occasion a light was shone into the truth behind the actions of the USA admin. and govt. due to his quotes. This quote, (however clumsy), highlighted the real agenda behind the rescues, bailouts and QE at the time of the crisis in 2008;
“One of the very difficult parts of the decision I made on the financial crisis was to use hardworking people’s money to help prevent there to be a crisis.” – George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., Jan. 12, 2009
Just who are the good guys involved in the Eurozone crisis; the IMF, the ECB, the World Bank, the unelected technocrats shoe-horned into positions of power in certain PIIGS by the banking and political elite? Is it the ratings agencies, or is there just a handful of politicians who are genuinely attempting to ‘do the right thing” by the citizens of Europe? Could the realisation finally be dawning on the wider populous that there are no “good guys” involved in this melee, and that each party is simply looking after their own interests, right down to personal agenda, and to quote the former prime minister of the UK Gordon Brown, they’re “prepared to do what ever it takes, to go to any lengths in order to save the system.”
Gordon Brown uttered those words in October 2008 shortly before he uttered these words in the UK parliament; “we not only saved the world” when he supposedly meant “save the banks”. It was only a slip of the tongue, but a lot of people suspected Gordon Brown might actually believe it. Many accused him at the time of being more concerned with grandstanding on the global stage than dealing with the fears of small businesses and homeowners “caught between a Northern Rock and a hard place”. Many theorists grasped on this quote to suggest that an elite unelected cabal would seize the opportunity to rush in a new global world order, this suspicion was heightened by the regular use of the phrase “world order” by prominent politicians at time. And here we stand, over three years later and has the world been saved, or indeed the banks, or the system, how’s that New World Order working out for us?
The IMF announced this morning that they believe a minimum wage of €750 euros for Greece is over ambitious, that wouldn’t even have paid for one night in a Manhattan hotel for the former head of the IMF Dominic Strauss Kahn, and unelected technocrat Mario Monti pledges to break the labour unions, but needs Italian support from figures such as Berlusconi to pull it off, you begin to see a thinly veiled pattern emerging. Multi million levels of unemployment is a price worth paying in order to ring fence the system in order protect the wealth for a tiny minority and that system is the gift that keeps on giving.. upwards..
It hasn’t been an accidental paradox that the super wealthy in, for example, the USA have enjoyed a huge uplift in asset wealth since the crisis began in 2008, if you can access billions when interest rates are close to zero you’ll do OK. And as George Bush reminds us hardworking people’s money was used to prevent the crisis escalating whilst the wealthy enjoyed an ‘unexpected’ uplift not seen in an age. But that first part was the easy part, now it’s getting a bit tricky as people begin to wake up and wise up..
Tony Benn is a former labour politician who has been variously described as a maverick socialist. He was (still is when interviewed) as quotable as George Bush, but even in his latter years he’s far more coherent.
[quote]Keeping people hopeless and pessimistic – see I think there are two ways in which people are controlled – first of all frighten people and secondly demoralise them.[/quote]
[quote]An educated, healthy and confident nation is harder to govern.[/quote]
The Eurozone populous might feel hopeless, it may feel pessimistic, frightened and demoralised, but if there is a mixed up world order, trying desperately to herd the cats they’ve spooked, then they’ve missed a trick. The mass ranks of young unemployed Europeans have never been more clued up, erudite and educated with all the necessary ‘smarts’. They don’t need the scales to drop from their eyes in order to see the real motivation behind the actions of, for example, the “troika”.
[quote]Rising unemployment and the recession have been the price that we have had to pay to get inflation down,” proclaimed the former chancellor of the exchequer, Norman Lamont, in May 1991. “That price is well worth paying.[/quote]
Fast forward 20 years, substitute “the deficit” for “inflation” and you have an apt description of the approach to the economy adopted by Lamont’s special-adviser-turned-prime-minister, David Cameron, and his partner in cuts, the current UK chancellor George Osborne. This unemployment being a price worth paying mantra is also part of the plan in Europe and the USA; squeeze the pips out of the less well off and muddled (middle) classes, don’t dare increase taxes and use austerity measures to bring proud nations and citizens to their knees, so they’ll eventually and gratefully bow at the alter of ‘money religion’.
However, there may have been a miscalculation, the inter generational unemployment that austerity will bake in could take decades to wash through and the huge husk of demoralised workers may not prove to be as efficient or compliant when a genuine recovery emerges. As George Bush reminds us with this Bushism recessions tend to happen inside every eight year cycle due to the very policies put in place by the Neo Liberal elite. The fact that certain developed countries have to all intents been in recession mode since 2009 should be a sobering statistic. Getting people back to work, any work, above the derisory sums suggested by the IMF, should be the only “saving of the system” the ‘powers that be’ should be obsessing over.
“In terms of the economy, look, I inherited a recession, I am ending on a recession” – George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., Jan. 12, 2009.
