Despite the growingly obvious (to the observant) unreality of ‘Establishment’ analysis of the ‘economy’ and its proposed ‘remedies’, the effectiveness of its ‘brainwashing’ of the economists and the general population seems still unshakeable.
We do not need “austerity’; we need fair shares of the potential abundance which could be provided to meet genuine needs, given efficient production, durable goods and eventual recycling. This could allow the realisation of the ‘leisure society’ which even the TUC was envisioning in the 1960s – without exceeding the capacity of Nature to meet our ongoing needs (given only that population numbers do not rise too far; and indications are that this is unlikely, with a happier, less stressed and more leisured society).
The aim of ‘full employment’ is both unrealistic, given ongoing mechanisation and automation; and it amounts to the perpetuation of wage-slavery. It should never have been the policy-makers’ objective. Equally, given the over-use of natural resources, neither, right from its start toward the end of the Second World War, should have been that of ‘planned obsolescence’.
The contrast between the realities of the actual physical possibilities of meeting of needs and resources without waste, and the distortion of this through the power of bank-generated debt, should be obvious to all!
David Malone has created a ‘list of Liar’s Lexicon posts’.
Each takes one of the phrases or concepts which we’ve all heard and often been needlessly confused by. It has been his contention that none of these concepts is difficult. They are bandied about partly, he thinks, to encourage us to think we can’t understand and should just sit down and be quiet.
They are not difficult. They are, he contends, jargon whose purpose is to confuse and often to lie.
I can recommend a look at them. They can be viewed at http://www.golemxiv.co.uk/liars-lexicon/
“….. hedge funds and private equity – investment managers that have become fierce competitors with banks in some areas. Some have hired proprietary traders, started lending money directly to companies and become big traders in commodities and bonds.
But Mr Cohn and many regulators and bankers in fact draw the net far more widely. To them, the $2,000bn hedge fund industry is not even the largest part of a shadow sector that the Federal Reserve Bank of New York estimates at $16,000bn. It also includes money market funds, clearing houses and special-purpose vehicles that hold complex securities. Though it is smaller than its $20,000bn peak marked in 2008, shadow banking is still larger than the $13,000bn assets in banking proper.”
-- from Finance: Shadow boxes, by Brooke Masters and Jeremy Grant, 3 Feb. 2011
“If all the bank loans were paid, no one could have a bank deposit, and there would not be a dollar of coin or currency in circulation. This is a staggering thought. We are completely dependent on the commercial banks. Someone has to borrow every dollar we have in circulation, cash, or credit. If the banks create ample synthetic money we are prosperous; if not, we starve. We are absolutely without a permanent money system. When one gets a complete grasp of the picture, the tragic absurdity of our hopeless situation is almost incredible -- but there it is.”
– Robert Hemphill, Credit Manager, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta