The US military launched a strike inside of Syria from Iraq yesterday.
The justification for this is that they (the ones who were killed) were assisting terrorists. The Syrians certainly aren't convinced by this point of view. Will the public around the world be presented with evidence that supports this perspective? The public around the world never demanded to see evidence of WMDs in Iraq, which were the justification for the invasion. The children who died in the attack yesterday were just described as incidental collateral damage by the US spokesman.
Who are the 'Good Guys' in the world today? George Bush doesn't exactly fit into that category, does he?
How would you like it if some other bigger and more powerful nation decided that they saw justification in launching a commando attack inside of your country, without discussing it with your government beforehand? I'm sure there isn't a single country in the world that wouldn't be insulted or outraged by such an act of arrogant self-righteousness. It isn't going to win the support or respect of many people anywhere, is it? Is the USA above International Law?
Disrespecting the sovereignty of another country's land with military operations can be interpreted as an act of war. Has Syria done anything knowingly deserved of that? Does George Bush even care whether Americans are further disliked around the world as a result? One thing for sure, he will be remembered as the one who (almost[?]) caused the collapse of the world economy.
Isn't it rather dangerous (if one were to be skeptical) if an anonymous person/s has the right to decide if someone else is a 'Terrorist'. There doesn't seem to be any 'Democratic' process in the decision making. Could it simply be the order or approval given by a President? Is George Bush trying to start WWIII one week before the US election in the hope that it will swing the vote in his favor? Didn't he pull that one already?
Kim Jong Il is not portrayed as anything but ridiculous by the Western media. However, he is a proud leader of a nation which technically didn't lose a rather big war. Is it fair to categorize a whole nation as one which supports 'Terrorism', and by doing so cutting it off from the rest of the world? As a result of this, people in this country are reduced to cannibalism every winter. Of course, these people are not going to be so appreciative of the USA, having been subjected to this. Maybe if Kim Jong Il learnt to kiss the ass of the US President like all other leaders of the world do, the results wouldn't be so catastrophic!
The point is this, perhaps the term 'terrorist' is used rather conveniently and biastly, so as to turn countries against one another, so as to keep nations dependant on military protection, which they wouldn't have needed otherwise. Quite a lucrative business, especially for the ones selling the protection. I'd call it a 'Protection Racket'. That's what gangsters do, isn't it?
Monday, 27 October 2008
Friday, 24 October 2008
The High Japanese Yen and OPEC
The Dow Jones Index is down to 1998 price levels. This means, long term investors have earned nothing for ten years. The Nikkei is down to 1982 levels. This means that the Japan investor has earned nothing in twenty six years. It is questionable now whether the stock exchange is really a safe or worthwhile place to be making long term investments. It is more like a Casino nowadays.
It seems as though the whole world is now buying up as much Japanese Yen as they possibly can. As a result, it is sky rocketing. It is projected that before long, in the quite near future, the US Dollar will depreciate to about 80 JPY.
Does this currency trend benefit Japan? It might benefit the Bank of Japan in the very short term, but it is going to kill Japanese exporters, the money earners of Japan who uphold this economy. It may appear to the world that Japan is the winner of this economical world chaos, but what everybody doesn't seem to realize is that the majority of the owners of all of this appreciating JPY are American and Chinese. They are the main ones among others who are coining in on this trend. In other words, at the expense of Japanese industry's competitiveness in the world market place, foreign capitalists who don't help Japan at all and want quite the opposite, are cashing in on this trend and making a quick juicy profit right now.
Japan's main markets for export are the USA and China. Both these economies are in serious trouble. Unemployment in these countries will be rising to record levels in the near future irrespective of who will become the US President. On top of this grim picture, Japanese products are now between 14 and 40% more expensive than they were just six or so months ago today. The differential will probably be much worse in two months from now.
What forced the price of oil to 147 Dollars a barrel in July of this year? The main contributing factor was China and the USA's competition for the world reserves. The deliberate under supplying by the oil companies also ensured their greater profits.
If the activities of oil producers and companies are not controlled, the price of gas at the pump can quite easily go up to 10 dollars a gallon in the US if and when the economy is moving again. These oil monopolies must be made accountable for the effects that they impose on the rest of the world.
We certainly live in times of Texan Oil Cowboy Crooks.
At this rate, if there aren't unified quick big changes around the world, all of the industries which need this oil will go out of business forever. Of course, those businesses won't be needing employees anymore either.
Take a look at the UAE. They have been building whole new cities in the entire region during the Bush administration years. Needless to say, they are dripping with gold and luxury. Doesn't Sir David Beckham own a house/palace on that man-made island in Dubai? How much money did it cost to build that island? Whatever it cost, it doesn't take a genius to work out that it was paid for by the high fuel costs we have all been suffering recently for too long. Or maybe they would have you believe that because their clerics have been allowed to pass on their genes to future generations for centuries, they have evolved into super-intelligent human beings who just can't help but earn lots and lots of money (or some other ridiculous theory).
Isn't it Dubai where they have the biggest indoor ski-resort in the world? Didn't they recently make a bid to host the Winter Olympics in their country? In a desert?? Where's the money going to come from to build that project? Are we all going to continue being burdened with high fuel costs again to pay for such an unnecessary extravagance? Would it even be ecologically friendly? Does anybody care even?
OPEC are now in the middle of an Emergency Summit. The purpose of this summit is for them to agree with one another, how much they are all going to reduce their production so as to induce an increase in the price of oil again. Is this really what the rest of the world needs now, as the world economy is collapsing? Even though oil is at about 60 dollars a barrel now, it is still double the price of what it was only two years ago. Shouldn't the greed of OPEC be regulated by the rest of the world? OPEC and the global oil companies are defenitely some of the culprits that have caused this world economic crisis. They must be made accountable for their actions.
Which is more important, the car or the gasoline that goes into it? Which is the chicken or the egg? It is true that one is useless without the other and there needs to be a healthy balance between the values of both. However, the very survival of car manufacturers are being threatened at the moment. If they are allowed to disappear, we will still be needing cars, won't we?
The value of money itself must once again represent the popularity of products and the work and investment that went into making them. We must not let the value of money further become based on something that comes out of the ground through taps that can be turned on and off whenever these people like to manipulate its value. In the world today, we are all living in a room where the air we breathe is not for free. The ones who supply this air to us have been extorting us whilst suffocating us. Some of us have already started dying. Do they realize that it will start happening to them too as a result?
It seems as though the whole world is now buying up as much Japanese Yen as they possibly can. As a result, it is sky rocketing. It is projected that before long, in the quite near future, the US Dollar will depreciate to about 80 JPY.
Does this currency trend benefit Japan? It might benefit the Bank of Japan in the very short term, but it is going to kill Japanese exporters, the money earners of Japan who uphold this economy. It may appear to the world that Japan is the winner of this economical world chaos, but what everybody doesn't seem to realize is that the majority of the owners of all of this appreciating JPY are American and Chinese. They are the main ones among others who are coining in on this trend. In other words, at the expense of Japanese industry's competitiveness in the world market place, foreign capitalists who don't help Japan at all and want quite the opposite, are cashing in on this trend and making a quick juicy profit right now.
Japan's main markets for export are the USA and China. Both these economies are in serious trouble. Unemployment in these countries will be rising to record levels in the near future irrespective of who will become the US President. On top of this grim picture, Japanese products are now between 14 and 40% more expensive than they were just six or so months ago today. The differential will probably be much worse in two months from now.
What forced the price of oil to 147 Dollars a barrel in July of this year? The main contributing factor was China and the USA's competition for the world reserves. The deliberate under supplying by the oil companies also ensured their greater profits.
If the activities of oil producers and companies are not controlled, the price of gas at the pump can quite easily go up to 10 dollars a gallon in the US if and when the economy is moving again. These oil monopolies must be made accountable for the effects that they impose on the rest of the world.
We certainly live in times of Texan Oil Cowboy Crooks.
At this rate, if there aren't unified quick big changes around the world, all of the industries which need this oil will go out of business forever. Of course, those businesses won't be needing employees anymore either.
Take a look at the UAE. They have been building whole new cities in the entire region during the Bush administration years. Needless to say, they are dripping with gold and luxury. Doesn't Sir David Beckham own a house/palace on that man-made island in Dubai? How much money did it cost to build that island? Whatever it cost, it doesn't take a genius to work out that it was paid for by the high fuel costs we have all been suffering recently for too long. Or maybe they would have you believe that because their clerics have been allowed to pass on their genes to future generations for centuries, they have evolved into super-intelligent human beings who just can't help but earn lots and lots of money (or some other ridiculous theory).
Isn't it Dubai where they have the biggest indoor ski-resort in the world? Didn't they recently make a bid to host the Winter Olympics in their country? In a desert?? Where's the money going to come from to build that project? Are we all going to continue being burdened with high fuel costs again to pay for such an unnecessary extravagance? Would it even be ecologically friendly? Does anybody care even?
OPEC are now in the middle of an Emergency Summit. The purpose of this summit is for them to agree with one another, how much they are all going to reduce their production so as to induce an increase in the price of oil again. Is this really what the rest of the world needs now, as the world economy is collapsing? Even though oil is at about 60 dollars a barrel now, it is still double the price of what it was only two years ago. Shouldn't the greed of OPEC be regulated by the rest of the world? OPEC and the global oil companies are defenitely some of the culprits that have caused this world economic crisis. They must be made accountable for their actions.
Which is more important, the car or the gasoline that goes into it? Which is the chicken or the egg? It is true that one is useless without the other and there needs to be a healthy balance between the values of both. However, the very survival of car manufacturers are being threatened at the moment. If they are allowed to disappear, we will still be needing cars, won't we?
The value of money itself must once again represent the popularity of products and the work and investment that went into making them. We must not let the value of money further become based on something that comes out of the ground through taps that can be turned on and off whenever these people like to manipulate its value. In the world today, we are all living in a room where the air we breathe is not for free. The ones who supply this air to us have been extorting us whilst suffocating us. Some of us have already started dying. Do they realize that it will start happening to them too as a result?
Tuesday, 21 October 2008
How the World Economy Got to where it is now
All of these Government billion dollar bail-out plans, may prove to be too little, too late. Let's keep our fingers crossed that that doesn't turn out to be the case. These Governments around the world are obviously panicking because they can see the whole system come crashing down before their very own eyes. Like everybody else, they too don't want tomorrow to be the dawn of a new stone-age. Couldn't these so-called experts have seen this coming before this tidal wave seemed to be right on top of us? Couldn't they have prevented these times of drastic measures for drastic times long before they started heading in the direction of the current circumstance? They were obviously pre-occupied with issues which may prove to have been totally unimportant, if we continue in the direction we are going.
What has caused this economic crisis?
I have a few theories which I would like to put forward.
Why did the world's industrial production base suddenly shift to China? There are cheaper countries in the world you know! Let us not forget that the Government of China is Communist. Communism is even more unpopular in America than Socialism, isn't it? The 'C' word! That didn't prevent the USA from investing in people enslaved under Communism. In other words, Communism may be evil, but investing in it and making a quick profit from it, isn't, apparently.
Looking back in retrospect, all of that cheap labour under the control of a totalitarian Government, suddenly on sale to the world, was too much of an irresistible bargain to the profit seeking capitalists. Who would have ever imagined at the time that this very act would result in becoming the very cause of the collapse of the world economy?
So all of these greedy rich people, with visions of things like, 'just imagine if we can sell each Chinese person a tooth brush', were free to go and pursue their own desires in China. Soon enough for sure, factory after factory was being built there with foreign investment.
Even countries like Japan, who don't historically like China so much, saw the China gold-rush as a situation giving no alternative but to participate in, if not to go under. The implications of not jumping onto the China band-wagon, were sure to spell certain doom. In other words, it was too late. There was already no choice. If your competitors were producing western products using modern production techniques and cheap Chinese labour, how on earth could even Japan compete with that?
As a result of all of this, China has been growing at an incredible and unstoppable rate, until very recently.
So why is the world economy in its throws of death right now?
Isn't it obvious? If you take away the jobs of the middle and working classes in developed countries, only to give similar jobs to Chinese 'slaves' at a fraction of the cost (which is what you are in effect doing if you invest in China), who exactly are the people who will remain being able to afford buying these products from China? The forever increasing unemployed American or Japanese might no longer have a choice on being able to buy anything but made in China products. Wal-Mart is a good example of this. If the general public aren't saved by their Governments very soon however, they won't be able to buy anything from anywhere.
If you look at the rhetoric of USA Republicans, UK Conservatives, or Japanese Liberal Democrats, they are more or less saying the same thing. Reducing taxes for businesses and industries will result in more jobs for the people (they say). They don't mention that these people are in fact Chinese though.
Let's take Toyota or Panasonic as an example. They have been benefitting from low tax rates for many years. They are also world leaders in their fields even though times are not good at all right now. Have they been increasing pays of their employees or creating jobs in their home economies to any significant extent lately? The answer is most probably not. In fact it is more likely that they have been cutting pays and jobs. The point I am making is, if the leaders in business are not doing so, how can we expect any business to be doing so!
The trickle down theory of the centre right is a lie. The truth lies closer to trickle down into their Swiss bank accounts.
The Toyotas and Panasonics protest profusely that if they don't do what they do, they can't stay competitive or profitable. This may be true in the short term, but in the long run, they must be made to understand that the incomes of their employees represent the buying power of their very own customers, the life blood of their business. Has anybody checked lately how much capital these companies have been accumalating and salting away? How much have they been investing in China lately?
The centre right Governments of the world don't make industry responsible for giving jobs to the people. At the same time, as unemployment rises, they allow these same companies to give more jobs to the Chinese. At this rate, before long, everything will be produced in China, but no one in the rest of the world (having all been made unemployed) will be able to afford this produce.
The Chinese have been very pleased until just recently. Their plans on taking over the world have been going just fine. Having said this, even they are now horrified by what the world economy is unveiling to them. They realize now (a little too late) that they may have just about help kill the goose which lays the golden eggs (the world economy itself, that they too feed off).
Even though, what is being said, doesn't put the Chinese in a good light, and maybe promotes racism towards them, let us not forget that the greedy unregulated capitalists who invested their (our) money there are more to blame. The average factory worker in China lives a hand to mouth existance with working conditions not far above slavery. Are they now the people who we want to crucify for this economic failure? I would strongly reccomend that we are very careful to even consider going down that path. Let us not forget how much of the world economy is now invested there. We certainly don't want to now piss off the work-force or the government that is in control of all of this production base. If and when the world economy stabalizes again, there needs to be serious agreements made between all governments and businesses concerned as to how the buying power of the general public in developed countries can be preserved without any further deterioration. There needs to be like no time ever before, government intervention that enforces this. The livelihood of the the middle and working class (the life blood of the world economy) needs to be revived again.
Over the eight Bush years, apparently, the salary of a CEO in the USA has gone up from 42 times that of the average employees' to an astounding 400 times!!! This suggests that the salaries of upper management and above are also disproportionately too high. That means they have become ten times richer than they already were whilst your salary (if you are very lucky or even still have a job anymore) has maybe doubled (just keeping up with inflation). The rich have been allowed to get very rich at the expense of the disappearing middle and working class whilst putting the world economy into jeopordy. These come recently super rich are probably as we speak in the process of selling up and running off to Dubai or Qatar to their safe havens where they can continue their TAX-FREE spectacular life-styles under guarenteed security to sit this one through. This is another example of how the true trickle down is only into their own bank accounts. The working and middle class in effect are only just a resource to exploit when the times are good. Could it be this very disproportionately high income of the ruling class that has caused this economic crisis? I would say that it is very much at the root of the cause. The world economy couldn't sustain or support such a parasite. If the world economy was a cow, I would say the mosquito which it constantly suffers, has now grown to the size of a dog!! Not a very happy or healthy cow!!
Think of your own salary and multiply that by 400. Isn't that more than what the President of the USA earns officially today? Do you think that these individuals' intelligence, skill, or qualification levels are 400 times higher than yours? They certainly weren't able to prevent the world economy from slipping into crisis. I would go so far as to say, they are just greedy criminals benefitting through corruption, and their self-appraisals of what they think they are worth are just totally unrealistic, unlinked to the profitability of their companies or economies.
So, what do we do now? Barrack Obama becoming the US President is defenitely a step in the right direction. The rich who have become richer than their wildest dreams recently, need to be taxed considerabley more. Government intervension must prevent businesses from going bankrupt. The salaries of CEO down to upper management must be reduced to sustainable levels. The world economy needs to be kick-started with cash injection (again and again) until the engine starts and keeps running. This is what needs to be done now. Also, legislation which will prevent this mass corruption and mismanagement especially in the USA from ever being allowed to happen again, must be implimented and put into effect.
All of this raises another question. Now that we have seen how unstable the US economy is, and how much it affects all of us when it defaults, should we allow ourselves to be in such a vulnerable position anymore? Does the world economy equal what can or cannot be sold to the USA? Why should the value of the Euro, the British pound and almost all other currencies go down when a financial problem occurs in the USA? Shouldn't it be the other way around? The incompitence, corruption, corporate fraud and malpractices are occuring in the USA. Shouldn't it be the dollar that is depreciating? Can anybody tell me why this isn't the case?
Most of the world was originally in support (or should I say, not so much opposed to) the invasion of Iraq. I assume, since it was true for myself, most of us beleived that it would reduce the price of oil. To the shock of the world though, oil prices did quite the opposite and sky rocketted. Is it therefore strange to assume that the very people who we beleived were the ones who would reduce the price of oil for us, turned out to be the very ones who decided that they could lavishly profiteer off it, now that they had seized control over more of it. Extortion! It would appear that corruption has prevailed over justice or concern for the well being of the world economy under the Bush administration. The colosal gains of a very few have again taken priority over preventing the world economy slipping into oblivion. There is a fact that most people around the world are unaware of or have chosen to conveniently forget about. When Saddam Hussein was still alive and in power, he wanted much cheaper oil prices for the world. All other OPEC members were totally opposed to this plan at that time. It must have been this very unpopular plan of his which inspired and spurred on the eventual invasion of Iraq and his ultimate downfall and execution.
The McCain camp and therefore the Republicans are arguing that Obam's policies are socialist. They say that the 'American Dream' must be maintained and Socialism must be kept at bay. Having said this, (socialist style) Government bail-outs of banks and financial institutions are ok. In other words, bailing out the rich and corrupt is ok but the same does not apply to the rapidly increasing poor. Socialism for the rich only is perfectly acceptable. At this rate, they will soon be telling you that a vote of a CEO will be worth that of 400 ordinary people's! Or maybe the value of your vote will be calculated according to how much money you have in the bank!
What is the American dream? My understanding of it is, being extremely rich, being able to flaunt that wealth, and not feeling guilty about it. Do I have the right impression? When that American Dream can only be achieved through organized legal corruption at the expense of others, should everybody be proud of it? In most countries it is just called corruption. When Marcos of the Philippines became extremely rich at the expense of his country, nobody ever refered to that phenomena as the 'Philippino Dream'! Perhaps Robert Mugabe's wealth must be attributed to the 'Zimbawean Dream'! Maybe Thaksin's wealth is a good example of the 'Thai Dream'!
Why shouldn't the working and middle classes be assisted and preserved by socialist practises by Government? Why is that bad socialism, when bailing out banks and finacial institutions isn't? That is like saying, 'Let's use everyone's tax dollar to keep the rich rich, but of course that doesn't apply to everyone else because it's bad.' (!!) The 'S' word 'socialism' never seemed like such a bad one to me in the first place. It certainly didnn't suggest a society where the rich and their cronies became five times better off in real terms whilst the rest of us remained static (if lucky) as the fabric of economies worldwide crumbled away into reccession!
Some people find it laughable concerning the plight of Zimbabwe and how Robert Mugabe continues his life-style of a King. What is not so amusing though, is when it dawns on you that the USA and the rest of the world is not so different from Zimbabwe! In fact, that's exactly the same place where we are all headed for rather rapidly! All of these so-called 'American Dream' Super Rich are all merely varying versions of the Robert Mugabes of the world. They would all rather surround themselves in luxurious fortresses and military protection rather than provide you with a job or livelihood, now that they have successfully sucked you dry of any of your remaining wealth and destroyed the world economy through their greed and corruption.
What has caused this economic crisis?
I have a few theories which I would like to put forward.
Why did the world's industrial production base suddenly shift to China? There are cheaper countries in the world you know! Let us not forget that the Government of China is Communist. Communism is even more unpopular in America than Socialism, isn't it? The 'C' word! That didn't prevent the USA from investing in people enslaved under Communism. In other words, Communism may be evil, but investing in it and making a quick profit from it, isn't, apparently.
Looking back in retrospect, all of that cheap labour under the control of a totalitarian Government, suddenly on sale to the world, was too much of an irresistible bargain to the profit seeking capitalists. Who would have ever imagined at the time that this very act would result in becoming the very cause of the collapse of the world economy?
So all of these greedy rich people, with visions of things like, 'just imagine if we can sell each Chinese person a tooth brush', were free to go and pursue their own desires in China. Soon enough for sure, factory after factory was being built there with foreign investment.
Even countries like Japan, who don't historically like China so much, saw the China gold-rush as a situation giving no alternative but to participate in, if not to go under. The implications of not jumping onto the China band-wagon, were sure to spell certain doom. In other words, it was too late. There was already no choice. If your competitors were producing western products using modern production techniques and cheap Chinese labour, how on earth could even Japan compete with that?
As a result of all of this, China has been growing at an incredible and unstoppable rate, until very recently.
So why is the world economy in its throws of death right now?
Isn't it obvious? If you take away the jobs of the middle and working classes in developed countries, only to give similar jobs to Chinese 'slaves' at a fraction of the cost (which is what you are in effect doing if you invest in China), who exactly are the people who will remain being able to afford buying these products from China? The forever increasing unemployed American or Japanese might no longer have a choice on being able to buy anything but made in China products. Wal-Mart is a good example of this. If the general public aren't saved by their Governments very soon however, they won't be able to buy anything from anywhere.
If you look at the rhetoric of USA Republicans, UK Conservatives, or Japanese Liberal Democrats, they are more or less saying the same thing. Reducing taxes for businesses and industries will result in more jobs for the people (they say). They don't mention that these people are in fact Chinese though.
Let's take Toyota or Panasonic as an example. They have been benefitting from low tax rates for many years. They are also world leaders in their fields even though times are not good at all right now. Have they been increasing pays of their employees or creating jobs in their home economies to any significant extent lately? The answer is most probably not. In fact it is more likely that they have been cutting pays and jobs. The point I am making is, if the leaders in business are not doing so, how can we expect any business to be doing so!
The trickle down theory of the centre right is a lie. The truth lies closer to trickle down into their Swiss bank accounts.
The Toyotas and Panasonics protest profusely that if they don't do what they do, they can't stay competitive or profitable. This may be true in the short term, but in the long run, they must be made to understand that the incomes of their employees represent the buying power of their very own customers, the life blood of their business. Has anybody checked lately how much capital these companies have been accumalating and salting away? How much have they been investing in China lately?
The centre right Governments of the world don't make industry responsible for giving jobs to the people. At the same time, as unemployment rises, they allow these same companies to give more jobs to the Chinese. At this rate, before long, everything will be produced in China, but no one in the rest of the world (having all been made unemployed) will be able to afford this produce.
The Chinese have been very pleased until just recently. Their plans on taking over the world have been going just fine. Having said this, even they are now horrified by what the world economy is unveiling to them. They realize now (a little too late) that they may have just about help kill the goose which lays the golden eggs (the world economy itself, that they too feed off).
Even though, what is being said, doesn't put the Chinese in a good light, and maybe promotes racism towards them, let us not forget that the greedy unregulated capitalists who invested their (our) money there are more to blame. The average factory worker in China lives a hand to mouth existance with working conditions not far above slavery. Are they now the people who we want to crucify for this economic failure? I would strongly reccomend that we are very careful to even consider going down that path. Let us not forget how much of the world economy is now invested there. We certainly don't want to now piss off the work-force or the government that is in control of all of this production base. If and when the world economy stabalizes again, there needs to be serious agreements made between all governments and businesses concerned as to how the buying power of the general public in developed countries can be preserved without any further deterioration. There needs to be like no time ever before, government intervention that enforces this. The livelihood of the the middle and working class (the life blood of the world economy) needs to be revived again.
Over the eight Bush years, apparently, the salary of a CEO in the USA has gone up from 42 times that of the average employees' to an astounding 400 times!!! This suggests that the salaries of upper management and above are also disproportionately too high. That means they have become ten times richer than they already were whilst your salary (if you are very lucky or even still have a job anymore) has maybe doubled (just keeping up with inflation). The rich have been allowed to get very rich at the expense of the disappearing middle and working class whilst putting the world economy into jeopordy. These come recently super rich are probably as we speak in the process of selling up and running off to Dubai or Qatar to their safe havens where they can continue their TAX-FREE spectacular life-styles under guarenteed security to sit this one through. This is another example of how the true trickle down is only into their own bank accounts. The working and middle class in effect are only just a resource to exploit when the times are good. Could it be this very disproportionately high income of the ruling class that has caused this economic crisis? I would say that it is very much at the root of the cause. The world economy couldn't sustain or support such a parasite. If the world economy was a cow, I would say the mosquito which it constantly suffers, has now grown to the size of a dog!! Not a very happy or healthy cow!!
Think of your own salary and multiply that by 400. Isn't that more than what the President of the USA earns officially today? Do you think that these individuals' intelligence, skill, or qualification levels are 400 times higher than yours? They certainly weren't able to prevent the world economy from slipping into crisis. I would go so far as to say, they are just greedy criminals benefitting through corruption, and their self-appraisals of what they think they are worth are just totally unrealistic, unlinked to the profitability of their companies or economies.
So, what do we do now? Barrack Obama becoming the US President is defenitely a step in the right direction. The rich who have become richer than their wildest dreams recently, need to be taxed considerabley more. Government intervension must prevent businesses from going bankrupt. The salaries of CEO down to upper management must be reduced to sustainable levels. The world economy needs to be kick-started with cash injection (again and again) until the engine starts and keeps running. This is what needs to be done now. Also, legislation which will prevent this mass corruption and mismanagement especially in the USA from ever being allowed to happen again, must be implimented and put into effect.
All of this raises another question. Now that we have seen how unstable the US economy is, and how much it affects all of us when it defaults, should we allow ourselves to be in such a vulnerable position anymore? Does the world economy equal what can or cannot be sold to the USA? Why should the value of the Euro, the British pound and almost all other currencies go down when a financial problem occurs in the USA? Shouldn't it be the other way around? The incompitence, corruption, corporate fraud and malpractices are occuring in the USA. Shouldn't it be the dollar that is depreciating? Can anybody tell me why this isn't the case?
Most of the world was originally in support (or should I say, not so much opposed to) the invasion of Iraq. I assume, since it was true for myself, most of us beleived that it would reduce the price of oil. To the shock of the world though, oil prices did quite the opposite and sky rocketted. Is it therefore strange to assume that the very people who we beleived were the ones who would reduce the price of oil for us, turned out to be the very ones who decided that they could lavishly profiteer off it, now that they had seized control over more of it. Extortion! It would appear that corruption has prevailed over justice or concern for the well being of the world economy under the Bush administration. The colosal gains of a very few have again taken priority over preventing the world economy slipping into oblivion. There is a fact that most people around the world are unaware of or have chosen to conveniently forget about. When Saddam Hussein was still alive and in power, he wanted much cheaper oil prices for the world. All other OPEC members were totally opposed to this plan at that time. It must have been this very unpopular plan of his which inspired and spurred on the eventual invasion of Iraq and his ultimate downfall and execution.
The McCain camp and therefore the Republicans are arguing that Obam's policies are socialist. They say that the 'American Dream' must be maintained and Socialism must be kept at bay. Having said this, (socialist style) Government bail-outs of banks and financial institutions are ok. In other words, bailing out the rich and corrupt is ok but the same does not apply to the rapidly increasing poor. Socialism for the rich only is perfectly acceptable. At this rate, they will soon be telling you that a vote of a CEO will be worth that of 400 ordinary people's! Or maybe the value of your vote will be calculated according to how much money you have in the bank!
What is the American dream? My understanding of it is, being extremely rich, being able to flaunt that wealth, and not feeling guilty about it. Do I have the right impression? When that American Dream can only be achieved through organized legal corruption at the expense of others, should everybody be proud of it? In most countries it is just called corruption. When Marcos of the Philippines became extremely rich at the expense of his country, nobody ever refered to that phenomena as the 'Philippino Dream'! Perhaps Robert Mugabe's wealth must be attributed to the 'Zimbawean Dream'! Maybe Thaksin's wealth is a good example of the 'Thai Dream'!
Why shouldn't the working and middle classes be assisted and preserved by socialist practises by Government? Why is that bad socialism, when bailing out banks and finacial institutions isn't? That is like saying, 'Let's use everyone's tax dollar to keep the rich rich, but of course that doesn't apply to everyone else because it's bad.' (!!) The 'S' word 'socialism' never seemed like such a bad one to me in the first place. It certainly didnn't suggest a society where the rich and their cronies became five times better off in real terms whilst the rest of us remained static (if lucky) as the fabric of economies worldwide crumbled away into reccession!
Some people find it laughable concerning the plight of Zimbabwe and how Robert Mugabe continues his life-style of a King. What is not so amusing though, is when it dawns on you that the USA and the rest of the world is not so different from Zimbabwe! In fact, that's exactly the same place where we are all headed for rather rapidly! All of these so-called 'American Dream' Super Rich are all merely varying versions of the Robert Mugabes of the world. They would all rather surround themselves in luxurious fortresses and military protection rather than provide you with a job or livelihood, now that they have successfully sucked you dry of any of your remaining wealth and destroyed the world economy through their greed and corruption.
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