I'll start off with this
ho-hum report by the NY Times, but, don't touch that dial! I promise the rest will be far more interesting!
Russia Near Deal to Join the W.T.O.
By ANDREW E. KRAMER and EDMUND L. ANDREWS Published: November 11, 2006
MOSCOW, Nov. 10 -- Officials in Washington and Moscow reached an agreement in principle for Russia to join the World Trade Organization, crossing the final big hurdle in the stop-and-go cycle that has marked the process since Moscow began its application shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Okay, so it took them nearly twenty years but at long last...
The deal is expected to be signed next Saturday, when both President Bush and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia will be in Hanoi for an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting, negotiators from both countries said. The White House also announced this week that President Bush planned to stop in Moscow on Nov. 15 on his way to Vietnam.
There seems to be only a couple of items of interest here...
Mr. Hufbauer suggested that Russian leaders might have decided to seal a deal out of worry that this week's elections would mean greater resistance by Democrats to an accord. "I think the Russians read the election returns and realized that if they don't go for it now, they might not get anything," he said. [snip]
American trade negotiators accepted an unusual restriction on foreign players in the banking and insurance sectors, according to the trade representative office. It will limit foreign investment to no greater than 50 percent of total investments in these businesses. In Moscow, state television reported Friday that Russia was the only country in the W.T.O. to win this concession.
Why Mr. Hufbauer thinks the Dems would act to block Soviet membership to the WTO is a mystery...but there it is. The second factoid is a bit more interesting as it seems shouldering the WTO `yoke' is usually a `no compromise' proposition. How much did being a net energy exporter (as well as being nuclear armed) weigh into this compromise?
What impact this will have on the already struggling global economy is also a bit murky. The article points to a loosening of trade restrictions but this is mostly on the import side.
Now, as promised, I'll turn to the `interesting' stuff. As always, the following articles express the `opinion' or analysis of the author and need to be read as such...that said, many are accredited academics whose opinions don't get any play in the mainstream media--for reasons that will be obvious.
I'll begin with this excellent bit of truth telling that puts the current global situation in its proper perspective...
Crisis of US Capitalism or the Crisis of the US Wage and Salaried Worker?
Myths About the `End of US Capitalism'
by Prof. James Petras
Global Research, July 19, 2006
Progressive, leftist, radical and even a few `Bearish' Wall Street pundits have been arguing for years about the coming collapse, decline or demise of US capitalism. No amount of continued growth of billionaires, millionaires and multimillionaires, record earnings by investment houses and double digit profit growth of major corporations can convince our doomsayers to re-think their prophecies. Nothing has discredited the US left more than its apocalyptic visions of the Big Fall, in the face of robust growth. Given the `long term' or imprecise time frame and a ritualistic litany of profound structural weaknesses, their predictions are swallowed and regurgitated in the progressive media, websites and blogs where they are spread to a dubious public. [snip]
This whole article needs to be read in its entirety to appreciate the author's point, which isn't nearly as `dismissive' as this opening paragraph reads on the surface.
The COC has not taken place because business, banking and the government have shifted the entire burden of adapting US capitalism to the demands of the market onto the back of the wage and salaried workers. What is called the `Crisis of Capitalism' is in reality the `Crisis of Labor', by which I mean several things: 1) the relative and absolute decline in living standards -- evident in the elimination of a) corporate-funded pension plans and the increase in worker payments to pension plans; b) the elimination or reduction in payments to health plans and the increased deductions from workers wages to pay for health, or the loss of any health coverage; c) the double-digit growth in the costs for energy, health, education and medicines which are not calculated in the consumer price index, used as a marker to estimate wage, social security and pension payments and d) the rising tide of `give backs' by sclerotic, over-paid (six-digit) trade union executives, which decrease living standards and increase profits for the corporations. [snip]
The capitalists and by extension, capitalism, are doing just fine, thank you. It's the worker/consumer that's been on the receiving end of this march towards ever greater inequality.
Conclusion
While ninety one percent of US private sector workers are unorganized and total subjects to the commands of their employers, while the nine percent of US private sector workers organized into trade unions are led by six-digit salaried bureaucrats who specialize in `giving back' to employers workers rights and remain as captives of the pro-business Democratic Party, there is no reason to expect any serious challenge to the status quo. As is likely to happen with a turn in the business cycle, the economy slows or even goes into recession and profit margins decrease, capitalism will simply turn the screw even tighter on working class and salaried workers' wages, impose more of the costs of recovery on their backs, pressure the Democrats and Republicans for greater Federal handouts, tax rebates and cuts in [ceaseless] pursuit of recovery. Only if new social and political movements, leaders and activists stop pandering to the soothsayers of a coming `Collapse of Capitalism' and a future `systemic decline' and start engaging in a deeper and more profound analysis of the `Dirty Secret' (Marx) and the source of `Wealth of All Nations' (Adam Smith), in the exploitation of labor and the class struggle can a beginning be made toward denotating the foundations of capitalism and bringing about its collapse and replacement.
For those of you who didn't click through and read the whole article I'll sum it up for you. As long as we, the workers, sit still and let management treat us like dirt, the situation will not improve.
Capitalism will not collapse so long as we are willing to shoulder the economic hardships being heaped upon us by the owner class.
Things are bad and will continue to get worse until we, the workers, the consumers, the exploited and oppressed, put a stop to it.
As noted above, there is no hope that our politicians will intercede on our behalf, it HAS to be us! That said, violence is not the answer, refusal is.
Moving on, it is important to note that the `system' which oppresses us is already bankrupt...it will never `collapse' so long as they have paper
Death and Resurrection of the US Dollar
A Review Article by Adrian Salbuchi
Global Research, October 15, 2006
Analysts the world over are starting to recognize the early warning signs of a gathering storm regarding the strength of the international financial system in general, and the stability of the United States Dollar, in particular.[snip]
Argentina experienced banking system collapses, inflation, hyperinflation, public debt defaults, stock market crashes and just about anything else you may care to imagine in terms of financial and monetary crises. Chronic inflation was so bad that since 1970 the Argentine currency - the Peso - was revamped four times and had a total of 13 zeroes knocked off in order to cope with inflation, the result being that One Peso which today will just barely buy you a bus ride in Buenos Aires City, is equivalent to 10.000.000.000.000 pesos from 1970, which at that time would have allowed you to purchase the entire country and left some change in your pocket.
Chew on this paragraph for a minute good citizen and understand just what it means. How can an economy knock 13 zeroes off of its currency and survive?
The answer is somewhat obvious. The currency was worthless in the first place...and it still is.
The reader may ask how come we do not know what the amount of Dollars in circulation really is? Well, this is highly confidential information almost impossible to discover mainly because, contrary to what most people believe, the US Federal Reserve Bank (Fed) is a private entity, even though the US Government may exert some influence over it.2 --i.e., the public institutions of Government cannot require the Fed to render this information, especially when you consider that the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, Alan Greenspan need only inform Congress on a quarterly basis what his monetary policy shall look like. We would emphasize that he need only inform what his policies will be, not seek instructions or consensus or agreement from Congress or the Executive branch.
This simple fact is the mother of all conspiracy theories, the fact that the Fed is a consortium of private banking institutions is 100% true. What's disturbing here is `unavailability' of information regarding just how much US currency is currently in circulation.
If we add to this the gigantic aggregates of Dollar-denominated banking instruments and stocks & shares which are spread throughout all world markets, then this amount becomes almost incalculable. However, it is quite clear that the sum total of Dollar bills, Treasury bonds and bills, financial instruments of all types, stocks and shares, and all kinds of public and private financial instruments must equal a sum several times more than the total sum of physical assets and services available in the entire planet.3
The housing bubble is a classic example of asset inflation. What caused assets to inflate? The same phenomenon that gave us one billionaire in 1972 to over a 150 of them today, the printing press.
Don't let the three blockquotes fool you, this article is very long and goes quite in-depth regarding the shell game that is international finance.
As the title suggests, the author of this piece speculates the US will `re-value' its currency with a new, gold backed dollar. He's fairly sanguine about what this will mean to the average US citizen...forgive me if I fail to share his optimism.
In conclusion we have:
Clearly, there is much food for thought in all of this, and many lessons to be learned from the past. Whatever may happen, if you have a large part of your assets in US Dollars - whether in bank notes, Treasury Bills, stocks and shares, investment funds, banking accounts or whatever - perhaps you would be wise to reconsider. In the coming collapse of the international monetary system, the safest thing to do will be to invest in the Real Economy and not in the unreal financial economy. In other words, consider buying tangible goods: real estate, companies, machinery, land, equipment, precious metals and stones, and the like. No matter how bad an economic crisis may be, tangible goods will not disappear whilst the balance on your bank account appearing on an ATM screen can quickly vanish into nowhere. Oh, and don't forget: paper money is just that: paper.
Think about it..
There is much food for thought if you read the whole thing but, again, it is quite long and some parts will make your eyes glaze over.
That said, labor creates wealth. Money, as it is currently employed, merely allows the owners to inflate their assets at will.
I'll resist the urge to go on a diatribe and proceed to our final piece.
Crisis of the U.S. Dollar System
by F. William Engdahl Global Research, October 14, 2006
Text of author's presentation at an international conference held in Feldkirch, Austria, September 2003.
It's accepted wisdom that the United States, despite recent problems, is still the strongest growth locomotive for the world economy, the pillar of the global system. What if we were to discover that, instead of being the pillar, that the United States was, in fact, the heart of a dysfunctional economic system, which is spreading instability, unemployment, and depression globally?
No other nation on earth comes near to the commanding US military superiority in smart bombs, military IT, or in sheer force capabilities. The US position in the world since 1945, and especially since 1971, has rested on two pillars, however: The superiority of the US military over all, and, the role of the dollar as world reserve currency. That dollar is the Achilles heel of American hegemony today. [snip]
As we can readily see, three years have passed since this speech was given so the text is somewhat `dated' but the author's point remains valid, it is not so much our productivity as our military might that is propping up the US dollar.
The dollar became a political currency--do you have "confidence" in the US as the defender of the Free World? At first Washington did not appreciate what a weapon it had created after it broke from gold. It acted out of necessity, as its gold reserves had got dangerously low. It used its role as the pillar of NATO and free world security to demand allies continue to accept its dollars as before. [snip]
What is little understood, is how the role of US trade deficits and the Dollar System are connected. The United States has followed a deliberate policy of trade deficits and budget deficits for most of the past two decades, so-called benign neglect, in effect, to lock the rest of the world into dependence on a US money system. So long as the world accepts US dollars as money value, the US enjoys unique advantage as the sole printer of those dollars. The trick is to get the world to accept. The history of the past 30 years is about how this was done, using WTO, IMF, World Bank and George Soros to name a few.
Here we come full circle, back the WTO!
What has evolved is a mechanism more effective than any the British Empire had with India and its colonies under the Gold Standard. So long as the US is the sole military superpower, the world will continue to accept inflated US dollars as payment for its goods.
Developing countries like Argentina or Congo or Zambia are forced to get dollars to get the IMF seal of approval. Industrial trading nations are forced to earn dollars to defend their own currencies. The total effect of US financial and political and trade policy has been to maintain the unique role of the dollar in the world economy. It is no accident that the greatest financial center in the world is New York. It's the core of the global Dollar System.
Once again I appreciate that you don't have all day/night to spend reading a single diary and this too is quite a lengthy piece.
The objective of linking these four articles is to provide the reader with a compressed view of the current situation, a situation that relies on continued US military omnipotence in order to maintain global financial domination.
Caesar tried but couldn't do it. Napoleon tried and failed. Hitler gave it a stab but he failed too...but the bankers, by gum, it looks like the bankers have done it!
Don't get the wrong idea here, the US dollar backed by US military might have resulted in global domination but the powers behind the dollar's rise aren't necessarily beholden to US citizens...
There is no US recovery, merely a debt spending boom based on this home buying explosion.
Total US household debt reached a high in June of $8.7 trillion, double that of 1994. Families are agreeing to longer debt payments for basics like homes or cars. The length of new car loans now averages 60.7 months, and the amount of car debt financed increased to $27,920, and the average new home costs $243,000.
With rapidly rising unemployment and a real economy that is not growing, at some point there will come a violent reality clash, as the market for home lending reaches its limit. At that point the danger is the consumer will stop buying, and the manufacturing economy will not be able to create new jobs and a real recovery. The jobs have gone to China!
It is here that we can witness a `blind spot' in Prof. Petras' analysis. When wealth become concentrated in the hands of too few the economy starts to shrink. This shrinkage leads to more shrinkage until what little is left dries up completely.
Yes good citizen, there is an `end point', a point where people without money don't buy stuff. To wit, can our entire economy survive on what the wealthiest one-percent is capable of buying?
Can it thrive on the economic activity of just the top quintile alone?
Here's a bitter pill...if you make less than six figures you can safely ignore the mainstream media, the news isn't for or about you. If you don't earn in the top fifth, you don't exist. Yes good citizen this is who all of the economic happy talk is geared towards. It is also why if you earn less than six figures it feels like your is ready to explode!
When what is reported as the truth varies too widely from reality as the average person experiences it, the seeds of revolution are sown.
Thanks for letting me inside your head...and kudos to those of you who read this far,
Gegner