TO BUST OR NOT TO BUST?

Adam Smith 1723-1790  A very clever Scotsman &  Daddio of modern capitalism.

 As I was going through the archives I came across a few articles I did way back & thought what if I did a little research to see how we compare to what I was complaining about, 2,3 or 4 years ago. Again and again. So I do hope you stay with me for this short article. The idea being to simply consider & entertain an alternative & fresh outlook.

 Basically, it is not exactly a bed of roses for any one of us. It has actually got from worrying to bad to terrible to near impossible. Cataclysmic disaster would be a good way of visualising our economic situation. I will deliberately avoid bringing the United States into this to alleviate possible depression and or digression. I will also not mention the details of US guarantees for Israeli loans. Which, in itself is another first in human economic history. One sovereign nation is covering the economic activity of another, even though they are neck deep in it themselves. The blind leading the deaf, dumb & blind. So I will keep this particular debate firmly in good old Europa!

 The gross domestic product (GDP) or gross domestic income (GDI) is a basic measure of a country's overall economic performance. It is the market value of all final goods and services made within the borders of a country in a year. It is often positively correlated with the standard of living. GDP is like one of the nation's main thermometers, economically speaking. When it is high we are doing good & when it drops you start noticing certain things, like repossessions, unemployment & inflation.

 The target figure, as set by European law, Maastricht Treaty of 1992 & 1993, stipulated that any EU member states budget deficit can not be higher than 3% of its GDP. Huh! Check this the current average for EU member states are running a 6.4% deficit on their average GDP. This is set to increase to 6.9% next year & more the following year still. The saddest part is that the average member state has a debt of 78.2% of GDP rising to 84.0% in 2010 & 88.2% in 2011. In simple terms, if you were to go to anyone & even attempt this scenario as an economic proposition they will laugh or possibly slap you for being stupid. As it is clearly an unviable proposition. You can not be 80% in debt, and rising, and expect to continue. Basic rules of capitalism, market forces, supply & demand, will automatically apply & dictate that you must stop operating in such a fashion. No one will lend you. You have a weak product. You are busted!!

 Our beloved governments, however, do not seem to play according to the rules either. First they are all running at more than double the deficit rate they all agreed over 15 years ago. Secondly, they are borrowing more to service the debt against the nation's income & assets. The same assets are constantly being reviewed for privatisation. So 80% of the nation's work & output is allocated to pay its debts for that year alone. They sell us this messed up scenario on a daily dose of misinformation, spin & public relation on a collective basis. In any such situation any small business owner will tell you that it is time for a restructure, a revision, and a re-think. Or just throw in the towel. Call it quits. Abandon ship. Say good bye.

 It is at this point that my thoughts kick in. Why not revise our current modern capitalist model. I do realize that one is not permitted to utter the word socialism. A little bit like when you can not say Black in front of an African American/Jamaican, as you will be a racist, or the word Jew in the presence of a Jewish person, as you will be anti-Semitic. In this instance you will immediately be branded a red-communist-bastard. The ex Soviet Union will be there to remind us all of the total failures of any such thinking or deviations. The fear the unknown scheme goes in to full swing. We must fear the Iraqis, Iranians, Afghans, Chinese, Russians & any one else that we can muster to ensure that issues remain unresolved & go undebated. This is it. All we got is our free democratic system & we must at all costs protect it. Perhaps that is all we got to sell right now. The ideal of a free democratic society is our ultimate product. So I try & protect it. Can I get a prosecution out of hundreds of MP's cheating their expenses? Naah! Can me & you have a real say about when we send our boys to kill & get killed on our behalf? Naah. Can the government not bail out greedy bankers & let them go bust as per clear definitions of our free democratic system? Naaah. In the UK £800,000,000,000 (800 billion) of borrowed money is tied to the banking system's failures. Quantitative easing is the new sexy word. But instead they rewarded themselves in the millions for their miserable failure knowing that they will be bailed out. Market forces are not applying here. We got institutions that have higher turnovers than some small countries. But in the name of the market, which I suppose is greater than all; we allow them to roam unregulated. They mess up. We pick up the bill. So what happened to the market? The straight answer is that the market is only applicable to me & you. Not the banks or government. They can operate as entirely dysfunctional & insolvent entities whilst giving the rest of us a lecture on the rules of the system. Let's look at a number of corporate beasts here. Telecommunication, but a hand full of suppliers. Commercial property in central London, less than half a dozen landlords control who is present or not present in the West End. Financial systems has about a dozen banks controlling the finances of the whole populous. Aviation & airlines the same thing.. Petro-chemicals & refineries, same thing again. The list & examples are endless & they all have one thing in common. They are terrified of competition. Me & you are the ones that have to compete. We compete for our services, products & labour. But these chaps would go to extreme lengths to avoid competition because they know there are no regulations once they control the bulk of the market. I am not for a moment suggesting that big companies are bad. Not at all. I am simply suggesting that if a commercial entity gets beyond a certain threshold then surely there must exist safety valves in case they go wrong without putting the failure back on the citizens lap. Since we never benefited from their fortunes in the previous years. We must decide which it is that we want. Capitalism & free markets or some from of socialism. Not a mish mash of the two as they are firmly in opposite corners. What if the government had not intervened? Well, you would have lost life savings, mortgages cancelled, and salaries due to be paid frozen & general financial mayhem, if you were a RBS, Lloyds or Northern Rock customer. What would be the public reaction if they lost all their lives savings. Simple: thousands would be on the streets probably with sticks in their hands to beat them out of office for not regulating these giant institutions & asking for their money. We could not have that now, or could we? Ever so Un-British!!

 I am suggesting that time is nearly up & revision of our current economic model is urgently needed. But to do so, we must be open minded & objective. Facing the truth is normally the most painful & yet the most fruitful. So check this. As of less than a day ago, China, (you know the little communist guys we slag off for making bad quality & inferior things who also eat funny things & pollute this whole planet), reported a fourth quarter growth in its GDP of 10%. Not deficit. But real growth. This is in tune with the near exponential growth since 1995. Yet, through some form of superiority complex we refer to nations like China, as developing, wanna be like us. I think they are better developed at this precise moment in history. Not because they are making money by the lorry load, but due to the fact that the China Man sat down & revised their Communist/Maoist economic model & merged & developed their very own & unique model. Some form of controlled & regulated Socio-capitalism. I can not come up with a sexy word for this. But I am sure it will come up soon enough. So why it is that China & India are booming? Again, it goes back to the basic definitions of capitalism. In order for the capitalist model to work effectively it must manufacture & produce commodities to supply a demanding market. They are busy making stuff. That is all. They make it competitively, & sell it at a profit & produce a surplus capital which results in growth. Why are they competitive? This is even a simpler answer. Their economy is not driven by the monopoly of a handful of landlords & banks controlling the bulk of the property & financial markets with no competition & regulation. Britain was the first modern industrial nation in the world & was famously referred to as the workshop of the world, because it was making things the rest of the world wanted. This is exactly what we have stopped doing. Because, we seem to prefer land and bank monopolies to control our governments & future destiny.

K Savage
November 2009

CHILDREN OF ABRAHAM

Palestinian children

 I deliberately have not done much writing in this section of the website, because some geek referred to it as my blog. What the fuck is blog? That's geeks for you. I certainly don't see it as a blog thing. Or whatever they call these things.

But right now, I feel as outraged as when my town was being blown up in July 2007 as I was trying to get to work. Again it involves bombs. Except they are bigger bombs & a lot more of them & in a different part of the world. The Gaza Strip, specifically. Very recently they got 170 million dollars worth of it.

13 days ago the State of Israel took it upon itself to start the most devastating aerial, sea & land attack on the Gaza strip This unilateral action was sanctioned by the Israeli Cabinet & which currently enjoys 80% support of the population of Israel. This is not the first time, as we all know. In fact since 1948 there has been over 101 United Nation Resolutions on the issue of Palestine & Israel. Over 60 of these resolutions have condemned, recommended, demanded & even politely asked for The State Israel to remove its Citizens from Occupied territories & allow Palestinian refugees to return to their homeland & or compensate them. Not one has been complied with. Somehow they are the chosen ones & they do not need to comply with any rule of law or morality. Their mandate is also from upstairs, just like Hammas' & Hezbollah's. The argument being, which on the surface is perfectly valid, how would you like it if a neighbouring country constantly fired missiles at you?? Well I would be pissed off. But more importantly, I would want to know why they are doing it. Here are a few possible reasons why they keep chuking rockets over the border in to Israel;

• a) The whole of Gaza strip has been openly recognised as an Urban Concentration Camp for many years by every agency working within it.
• b) The inhabitants have no freedom & right of movement in or out.
• c) Their elected representatives, Hammas, have been tagged as Terrorists from day one, even though they were voted in. So the majority of Palestinians in Gaza are terrorists.
• d) the disputed territories & illegal settlements are still outstanding.
• e) Implementation of historical UN resolutions still outstanding.
• f) Palestinian Refugees are not permitted to return to their homelands after being displaced in the numerous wars.

I would suggest that your average Palestinian is really really pissed off. They are hated. Hungry, dispossessed & forgotten. They have been dehumanised to a point of no return. They have little else to loose. It has been going on since the Balfour Treaty in 1917. So they fire off their stupid homemade rockets. In the past 8 years 18 Israelis, I stress 18 too many, have lost lives to these attacks. In the past 13 days 700 Gazans have been killed. 220 have been children. 90 of them women. On the first 2 days of the conflict our prime minister, Gordon Brown, called for """""Calm""""". The current US president stated that "Israel must do what it has to do to protect herself.” The President elect Barak Obama, "Yes we Can't", has said nothing. The EU president said that "Israel has the right to Self Defence & therefore correct to act in this way". Essentially we are now all party to one of the most tragic massacres in recent years. Simply by association. We vote for these super beings. The one thing we hear over & over again is that the responsibility is with the "Hammas Terrorists". They make us drop bombs on kids by being in an intensely over populated area. "YOU MADE ME DO IT."

The Philosophy/ideology or what ever we want to call this madness is that of a bully, a murder or a rapist. They never take responsibility for what they have just done to some one. It is always the other sides fault. It is the prefect mindset. You effectively get off the hook if you say what you have done is a direct result & reaction to the other side. Bosh! Job done & let's kill a few more kids. Has any one noticed the smirk on their military spokeswoman, or foreign minister? No shame. No regrets. Nothing. How do they sleep at nights? I wonder!

There are 2 schools of thought on this, one that says, oh well, it is all politics, complex, both sides are right, etc, etc, etc... The other thread is that it is simply not acceptable to target civilians & children. This is the bit that Geneva Convention covered. It is the same bit that puts Saddam Hussein, Milosevic, Himler, Goring, et al on trial. The funny thing with war crime trials is that it is always done a few years after the event. Any of the lovely chaps above would not have dreamt of being at the stand giving evidence to justify their actions. But they did. In the case of Israel, I believe that over a period of years there will be war crime action brought against them, because what is being committed is criminal in its entirety. We must remember that the press were not allowed in the area, until last night, under Israeli army supervision. We must also note that Hammas does not have a Department of Spin & PR & if they do, it is quite rubbish. In my view, in order to end up with an entity called Hammas, Hezbollah, or whatever, you must have some one behaving like the government of Israel. In other words, they create these monsters by their outrages systematic acts of violence towards a people. In this case, Palestinians. The sheer frustration, angst, disappointment & anger will result in your extremist being the elected body. The hero of the day. If you recall Margaret Thatcher called nelson Mandela a terrorist, Jerry Adams & Martin McGuinness were also locked up as terrorists, & better still the Jews in central Europe were branded as terrorists by the Third Reich. I will draw a historical parallel here. Hitler was elected into power. Hitler enjoyed incredible mass support for his policies from the German people. Hitler played the blame game incredibly well. The world stood by & watched. The world decided not to say anything. And humanity chose to ignore everything. The end result was 6 million Jews being killed in Europe. Then to bring that madness to an end, they had to Kill 100,000 Japanese to end the nightmare. Europe ended up with Hitler because Europe was bust. They needed a solution. They needed an escape goat. European Jews became the target. The rest of our beloved humanity abandoned them. Just as we have abandoned the Palestinians. Rule of international law & human decency were binned without a blink. Fascism was sold as nationalism & patriotism. Resistance as terrorism.

As a result of this Jewish people, bear a deep scar. They are a traumatised people. They can not forgive or forget. This historical mass murder endured by the Jewish people had to result in a new State that will jump & bite at the drop of hat. The State of Israel, which has ended up short changing the very people it has to represent. It is so bad, so paranoid & so inward that even if you utter a word of criticism towards the State of Israel, you are readily accused of being anti-Semitic. It is ironic that the same United Nation mandate that enables European Jews to settle in Palestine, ie. a right to remain to their homeland, is entirely ignored by the Government of Israel when it comes to allowing displaced Palestinians return to their lands from Jordan, Gaza, Syria & Egypt. But Israel is not alone in this psychology of the trauma. See the way the IRA behaved Vs the Brits. The Black majority behave in South Africa towards one another. Setting people on fire for relatively minor crime!! Or the knee-cappings in Northern Ireland. The practices are varied as per locality but the approach seems to be the same. Inhuman, overt & incredibly violent. Because they do not wish to even consider another moment of going back to what was before. Dehumanisation results in more of the same. At a singular level, if you look at rapists or serial murderers you can track back disturbing childhood stories. The tortured seeks to torture. It is the sick nature of our being, apparently.

The solution in here is a simple one. If we genuinely want peace & tranquillity, then we can not have events such as Gaza, South Lebanon & so on to take place. If we do, we will end up with extremists & idiotic fanatics such as Hammas & Hezbollah & previous & current Israeli prime ministers. If only there were such things as mass therapy/counselling. They say pictures can tell a big story. Children are children. Take a look & see if you see any difference in any shape or form what so ever. I see none & that is why I am pissed off. We have simply not learnt nor progressed. Shame on the lot of us who continue to sit on the fence. Today it is the Palestinian children. Yesterday the Jewish ones & god knows who's kid is next.

Polish (1940), Palestinian (2009), Austrian (1941) children

K. Savage
8th January 2009