"Free" Market

More evidence that "free" market is merely an ideological phrase that has nothing to do with how things really are.

By defintion, capitalism implies that the lender takes full risk when he makes a loan. However, its clear that nothing like that applies in reality. What we have instead is a privatization of profit (yes, the capitalist definitely keeps all his profits, also trickle-down theories are a load of crap), but if something goes wrong, then the public has to bear the brunt of the cost (externalization, as it's sometimes called to just to disguise what it really means). If it's not yet clear, the current system works as follows : Privatize Profit, Socialize Risk.

For example, consider these events recently:

The state (undoubtedly that means that the public bears the brunt) rescued the shady hedge funds/investment banks by offering vast sums of money and rate cuts. Apparently, this is through the "overnight discount window". Only it isn't overnight, it's for 30 days, and can be extended for free. It would be nice if all our credit cards had such nice terms. Not! Note that the same banks have made billions (or trillions ?) from the same hedge funds. Where are all the profits ? Offshore banking, perhaps. And why should the public bail these "capitalists" ? What a load of bullshit.

With the Northern Rock debacle, Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling, not content with rescuing just one bank, grandly announced that all failing banks would have their deposits guaranteed by the taxpayer.

And, then we had the recent Fed interest rate cut. What this means is more cheap cash for Wall Street (yay! soaring stock prices, but shaft the public) and more devaluation of the dollar which means higher prices for food and energy. Ultimately, it's the public that gets shafted. Anyway, if it were truly "free" market, why do we have the Fed regulating interest rates ?
References:

Bernacke's Bail Out of Wall Street
Fed drops the Inflation Bomb
The Era of Global Financial Instability
IMF/WB Debt Forgiveness
The Gotterdammerung of Central Banking

Debt Money System

Below is a very lucid article explaining monetary systems in general, and more specifically goes into the details of a debt-based monetary system. It's also very useful to read some reader's comments in the same article (especially DGW) who adds further clarity to the nature of the unsustainable debt-based monetary system. An analogy to cigarettes makes the entire article less dreary and very simple to understand.

Our Debt Money System Explained
by Michael Nystrom
August 23, 2007

FBI Warning

What Labor Day ?

I always thought Labor Day was on May 1st. Anyway, that what the rest of the world thinks except here in the United States. May 1st is meant to recognize organized labor's social and economic achievements. If you apply that same idea to Labor Day here, you'll quickly notice that there is no Labor Day the first Monday in September.

In the US, the last major legislative victory for Labor was in 1935 with the passage of the Wagner Act which guaranteed workers the right to bargain on an equal footing with management and the right to organize. Its been downhill for most part ever since.

The thought of Labor movements actually having an impact back then must have really scared the big corporations (the "crisis" of democracy as they call it). And the corporations certainly didn't sit back and allow the "crisis" to worsen. Since 1935, the corporate offensive on Labor has been very effective.

The most interesting technique that was used to avert the "crisis" in democracy is the 'Mohawk Valley Formula' which was originally developed by the Remington Rand Corporation. This was called a 'scientific method of strike-breaking'. The main goal of this formula was to generate popular fear and hatred of labor in the general public. From wikipedia, "The Mohawk Valley formula was a corporate plan for strikebreaking to discredit union leaders, frighten the public with the threat of violence, use local police and vigilantes to intimidate strikers, form puppet associations of "loyal employees" to influence public debate, fortify workplaces, employ large numbers of replacement workers, and threaten to close the plant if work is not resumed."

So we appear to have a steady downward slide into wage slavery:

• Minimum wage is a joke. In fact, its so low that a 40 hour week is by default not viable.
• American union membership in the private sector has in recent years fallen under 9%--levels not seen since 1932.
• In the 1980s, the Reagan Administration essentially informed the business world that they were not going to prosecute them for violating the law. One of the things that happened is that OSHA, the Office of Safety and Health Administration, regulations were either not investigated or prosecuted.
• Service sector jobs ? What's not to like ?
• Bush's anti-labor actions
• See Effort to make unions disappear from ProjectCensored.
• See The Bush Administration's Anti-Labor Record is Bad for Working Families from the Democratic Policy Committee.

What we have here is a clear case of Doublespeak (or Newspeak) with Corporations commemorating their victory over Labor and calling it "Labor Day".