We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Tuesday, December 6, 2016

Who Gets the Money? The Secret Bank Bailout Merry-Go-Round

Click here if you wish to access the following introduction and nearly one hour video directly from "Don Quijones'" website Raging Bull-Shit. "Quijones" is a Brit who resides mostly in Spain and occasionally in Mexico.

There is much to be learned in the video about the banking crisis in Europe (and the US).  The capitalist investors, that is, the bondholders of the banks, have been paid, but the citizens of Europe are stuck with the debts due to the grossly reckless bets made by bankers in Europe and North America prior to 2008. Banksters are the prime directors of the capitalist ruling classes who secretly control Western governments behind the scenes. Their creation of a neoliberal order makes it easy for them to place bets all over the US Empire. Hence bankers and capitalist investors make sure that they never lose their wealth and power. That is why I often refer to capitalism as organized crime.
Where has all the money gone? That is the question that desperately needs asking (and answering) now that the European Union has morphed into one humongous orgy of national bailouts, especially with Italy, the eurozone’s third largest economy, next in line.

In his 2013 documentary “The Secret Bank Bailout,” German investigative journalist Harald Schumann documents how the peoples of Ireland, Cyprus and Spain were not bailed out. The biggest recipients of the Irish bailout that saved Anglo-Irish Bank were British, French and German banks, including Union Investment Privatfonds, Rothschild et Compagnie Gestion, and Deutsche Bank.

German and French banks accounted for 50 out of the 80 bondholders. Without the clandestine bailouts these banks received, they would have almost certainly gone under.