As I've written several times before, we are now witnessing the media frenzy as they provide endless "analysis" about the Eurozone, and the debt crisis, and negotiations among European countries to integrate their economies. One day they talk about "breakthroughs," the next they lament the lack thereof. And yet again, they report that the market is up one day because of a a purported grand bargain, and the next the market is down because the grand bargain wasn't as grand.
The Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, The Economist, the New York Times; they are all engaging in this farce, but my take is that they are caught up in some sort of a bubble whereas they are fed information they believe to be reliable, but it's actually misleading, and/or the effects of media conglomeration in the hands of global corporations has turned them into a mouthpiece who parrot all this non-sense fed to them.
Since June I've written some diaries ascertaining that we are experiencing an economic depression. To me it has been obvious for a very long time, but it's nice to see that finally Paul Krugman has come out and stated as much in today's edition of the New York Times.
Where many people depart from my analysis of the situation is from my assertion that a massive and cataclysmic economic collapse is the end result of a carefully-calibrated strategy by a supranational ruling elite acting through the international financial system. People characterize that type of thinking as "conspiracy theories." Well, it is true. It is a theory I have; and it is about a conspiracy, so you got me there. And I guess it follows that anything that could be characterized as a "conspiracy theory" by definition must be false.
The playbook is very similar: Powerful business interests unite and follow a very sophisticated short-, mid-, and long-term strategy (read my diary about the Lewis Powell memo).
During a decades-long process, these powerful business interests are able to take over the levers of power, including government, by using their wealth and power to pay off politicians so the regulatory infrastructure is torn down. Eventually, the political class is under the total control of these powerful special (business) interests. Politicians are bought off with campaign finance funds, cushy jobs that raises their income exponentially, and many other benefits for themselves, their families and friends.
The system then becomes totally corrupt, as it is now.
This happened in the U.S., and the U.K., and Greece, Italy, Spain, and many other European countries (more or less).
Once this was accomplished, then the floodgates of wealth and power were wide opened, and a massive amount of wealth was rapidly transferred to these ruling elites.
As their wealth and power grew exponentially, they ordered their political stooges to put up roadblocks for the collection of taxes by the very wealthy. Again, you have some version of this in many of these countries.
Now, for a democracy to exist one of the most important aspects is a robust "progressive tax system." This type of tax system, coupled with a strong regulatory (policing against fraud and abuse) framework, are prerequisites for a normal democracy. Without them, the democratic system collapses.
When the economies are operating properly, income is more evenly distributed (through a progressive tax system), and therefore the State is able to generate enough revenue to function properly.
But when, due to extreme accumulation of wealth and power in the hands of a plutocratic elite, income disparity gets out of hand, and when the wealthy are able to buy off the politicians to help them not pay taxes, then the State is not able to generate the revenue it needs to operate properly.
At this stage you see a rapid move towards the privatization of a larger and larger segment of the "public sector" into the hands of business interests.
When you reach this stage, then you see the imposition of a Neo-Fascist Corporatocracy, which is what we have now in the United States, and what is being imposed in Europe as well.
Currently, there are talks and rumors about potential liabilities of $100 trillion in credit default swaps, and other financial instruments. There are talks of a financial contagion effect if the Eurozone fails.
Here's my hard prediction: The whole system is going to (seem to) unravel. The Eurozone will collapse; financial markets will collapse, including Wall Street. You're going to witness a frenzy of reporting about these things for the foreseeable future. Lots of analysis; lots of reasons why this happening.
But these things, in the final analysis are smokes and mirrors; a subterfuge to explain the final outcome: (1) Democratic institution will be weakened or completely destroyed; (2) Draconian austerity measures will be imposed on the population (by choice); (3) The international ruling elite will remain pretty much intact (showing only some loses on paper); (4) When the dust settles, and you look around, wages would have been greatly depressed in Western countries (bringing them more in par with development countries), and the populace would be living under very sophisticated "total information awareness" Police States.
In other words, what we are seeing is just a sophisticated process of readjustment by a brutal global capitalist system in order to improve their profit-making capabilities, at the expense of the populations, and the environment. It's just business...
In today's article Paul Krugman makes allusions to the potential rise of totalitarianism, and extreme right-wing parties, and even of Nazism. I agree with him, but I argue that you don't have to be a Nobel Laureate to come to that conclusion. It's almost obvious.
My only disillusionment is that as we move towards the 2012 election in the U.S., and as a protest movement tries to address the increasing oppression by the system, it seems like the vast majority of the populations in these countries don't fully understand the challenge they (we) are facing. And thus, the multiplicity of confusing messages and reporting from the corporate media conglomerates will keep people in a mental haze, unable to identify a clear strategy to take on the challenge.
But at least for me, I will witness these things unfolding, with interest, and will try to look at the situation from an anthropological perspective, studying how easy ruling elites are able to manipulate entire populations. I guess if I look at it like that, it won't be as frustrating.