Tag: bankers

The Benefit Sponging Elite

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Last night another row erupted after it emerged that hedge funds rushed to gamble on RBS shares falling in value after government plans to start selling its stake were leaked last week. (file image)

I was in my local cafe earlier today and nearly choked on my bacon sandwich at the sheer audacity of the banksters. I happened to glance over at the adjacent table at the copy of the Daily Mail somebody had left open. I generally detest this rag, but have to admit that every now and then it does come up with the occasional nugget.

The paper does appear of late to be on a mission to undermine Osborne and the Tories. As I alluded to in post on August 4, it was clear that the Tory Aristocrat had garnered some insider knowledge prior to the part sell off of RBS thus providing the opportunity for his mates in the City to, once again, pillage the public purse- this time to the tune of a cool £1bn (1).

This was money which no doubt could have been better spent on bailing out a non-taxable status charitable organisation like, for example, Kids Company run by Camila Batman (and robber?) ghelidjh. Maybe an extra billion added to the £3 million Cameron nodded through to the bankrupt charity would have saved it?

But anyway back to the latest banking scandal. With her insider knowledge and connections as a former City banker, it’s highly conceivable that Treasury minister, Harriet Baldwin. who defended the sell-off, would have advised Osborne on the matter.

The Daily Mail’s Banking Correspondent, James Salmon, revealed that hedge funds rushed to gamble on RBS – a ploy known in the market as ‘shorting’ – “may have generated profits of more than £10 million, This is because the bank’s share price fell in the days before the government sell-off.” (2).

Labour MP John Mann, a member of the Treasury select committee, said: “Yet again hedge funds and bankers are making money and the public are losing out.” (3). A few days ago former City trader, Tom Hayes,was given a 14 year sentence for his role in rigging the Libor interest rate. (4). But he is merely the sacrificial lamb for a much wider and systematic corruption that begins at the very top. The fact that these kinds of abuses are allowed to continue in the context in which people struggling on benefits are jailed for stealing food (5), is the scandal of our time.

The former Republican analyst Mike Lofgren, disgusted with what his party had become, said the following about the economic elite in the United States:

“The rich disconnect themselves from the civic life of the nation and from any concern about its well being except as a place to extract loot. Our plutocracy now lives like the British in colonial India: in the place and ruling it, but not of it ” (6).

He might as well of been talking about the UK, which is basically little more than the 51st state. Osborne and Cameron identify more readily with a transnational elite than with the other people of this nation. The proof is in the pudding. On behalf of this elite, the government gives away a staggering £93bn a year in corporate welfare – a sum bigger than the deficit.(7). It champions the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership; a graver threat to the interests of this nation than Islamic extremism.

And yet there is a iron-cast consensus between the Tories and the Labour hierarchy in terms of their unwillingness to tackle the problem. This explains why the latter distance themselves from the populist Jeremy Corbyn who wants to put and end to this kind of revolving door political cronyism.

The real benefit spongers are not those who feature on low brow documentary programmes, but rather they are the elites who occupy the corridors of the plush buildings within the City of London.

The Enslavement Of Greece

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Austerity has won. The demands of the Troika upon which Syriza caved in to – or as some commentators have alluded acquiesced – are intended as a warning to the rest of Europe that a left-wing government anywhere will not be tolerated.

Non-capitulation by Tsipras would have effectively been construed as something akin to the threat of a good example being set to the rest of the nations that comprise PIGS. Thus, this outcome would have been regarded by the banking clique that dominate the Troika as totally unacceptable.

What has happened in Greece is a lesson for the rest of us. I am in absolutely no doubt at all that European democracy is in the process of being usurped by an unelected elite at the top of society. Teachers and other public sector workers who previously might of been reluctant to take to the streets of Athens, will soon be scouring the bins for food along with the unemployed. Riots and looting will follow in due course, of that, I’m certain.

Lucid and concise analysis of the issues that led to yesterdays “negotiated” settlement resulting in yet more Greek bailouts in return for yet more austerity, has been hard to come by in the mainstream media. The exception was the analysis by professor Mariana Mazzucato on the UKs Channel 4 News (July 12).

“In financial terms, where is the capital of Greece tonight?”, inquired anchor, Jon Snow.

“Is it in Athens, is it in Brussels, or is it in Berlin?”, he continued.

“In some ways it’s in the banks”, retorted a smiling but incredulous Mazzucato.

The professor continued:

“I think we forget sometimes that only 10% of the bailouts went to the Greek economy. The rest went to the banks who were bad lenders and they are not paying any price. After WW2 not only was 60% of Germany’s debt forgiven but also we had the Marshall Plan which provided an investment package. With Greece we are just postponing the crisis until the next bailout.”

Mazzucato then went on to outline some of the myths perpetuated by the bankers and offer some sensible remedies:

“Privatization is not accompanied by employment and investment. What we need is a coherent package that allows Greek businesses to compete with German businesses as opposed to destroying them” continued the professor. “We have to learn from Keynes”, she said.

“There was a problem of aggregate demand in Germany after the Schroeder reforms when there had been a massive wage restraint. There was excess cash in the German banks. These banks lent to the Greek banks which lent to Greek businesses who then bought from German companies, So this was part of Germany’s export strategy.”

Placing the emphasis for the crisis squarely on the shoulders of the bankers, and outlining further alternatives to the established media narrative, Mazzucato went on to say:

“The same problem of aggregate demand is happening in Greece where we are not allowing various types of workers to benefit from investment packages.This will not only increase the number of jobs but the quality of jobs. The Syriza government was running a surplus. There were already massive reforms in place but the Greek government were not given time to implement them. As a government they are far from perfect, but the idea that they were governing badly is a mischaracterisation of what has been happening.”.

http://www.channel4.com/news/greece-deal-tsipras-eurozone-bailout-merkel-hollande