In the Western World Capitalism Has Devolved into Looting
CAPITALISM, 6 Jul 2015
Paul Craig Roberts – TRANSCEND Media Service
“…when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you–when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice–you may know that your society is doomed.” –- Ayn Rand, “Atlas Shrugged”
“There’s no such thing as markets anymore – only interventions.” –- Chris Powell, co-founder and Treasurer of GATA
Ayn Rand is a pariah among those who believe that government is our benefactor. There are times and conditions when government can be a benefactor of the people. But not in the Western world at the present time. As Michael Hudson and I agree, Western central banks refuse to create money to finance economy recovery. Money is created only for the benefit of the oligarchs’ banks in order that the oligarchs can continue to control the governments.
In the US for the past seven years the Federal Reserve has provided cheap bank reserves for the banks to lend at a markup or to speculate with. Banks are no longer suppliers of capital for productive investments and employment. Instead banks invest in speculation, arbitrage, derivatives, financing corporate takeovers and stock buybacks. The Fed has made it unnecessary for banks to pay for deposits. Instead, the banks get free money and charge consumers with negative interest rates for making deposits. For seven years Americans have, thanks to the utterly corrupt Federal Reserve and US government, been deprived of interest on their savings. In the Western world today, savers are penalized, not rewarded.
In Greece and Europe the banks are the oligarchs’ method of control just as the Federal Reserve is in the US and the Bank of England in the UK and the European Central Bank in the EU. The same in Canada, Australia, and Japan. When an oligarchy controls the money, the oligarchy controls the country, so “Western democracy” is only a pretense. There is no democracy in the West; only manipulated democratic symbols, the manipulation of which has allowed the One Percent to acquire the lion’s share of income and wealth, depriving the economy of the consumer purchasing power necessary to maintain full employment.
I agree with Michael Hudson that southern Europe, not only Greece, but also Italy, Spain, and Portugal, are being crucified, because looting debtors is the only way banks can make money when jobs offshoring has destroyed productive investment opportunities in the US and Europe that would raise employment and GDP. The European Central Bank, Hudson writes correctly, “refuses to create money to finance economic recovery, but only to pay the oligarchs’ banks so that they can continue to control the governments.”
Below is Hudson’s article on the Greek debt situation. He explains Syriza’s strategy, which if successful will result in Greece’s departure from the EU and thereby NATO and begin the unraveling of Washington’s principle instruments of creating conflict with Russia.
As I said in my interviews with Investment Research Dynamics and with King World News, the leaders of the current Greek government possibly could be assassinated in order that Washington prevents the unraveling of the EU and NATO. In my opinion, Greece’s departure would be followed by Spain’s and Italy’s. see: http://investmentresearchdynamics.com/sot-40-paul-craig-roberts-greece-tpp-omens-the-west-is-collapsing/ It would be the beginning of the unraveling of Washington’s empire. It is unlikely that Washington would stand for this.
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Dr. Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal. He was columnist for Business Week, Scripps Howard News Service, and Creators Syndicate. He has had many university appointments. His internet columns have attracted a worldwide following. Roberts’ latest books are The Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalism and Economic Dissolution of the West and How America Was Lost.
Go to Original – paulcraigroberts.org
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