It is obvious to all of us that capitalism is once again in crisis, a crisis it created but failed to predict. While it was historically predictable and inevitable, it is the nature of capitalism.
And so the only solution is not band aid bail outs but for us, the proletriat to take over capitalism, which cannot exist without our labour, and which has produced an artifical boom of credit which we as proletarians were sold as consumers. Crediting the working class and the those who had no equity so that capital could continue to make record profits is what had kept America and its NAFTA allies going.
The public secret that is known to all of us, including capital, the state and the unions is that we the workers create real capital, production of goods which need to be consumed. All other capital, investments, the stock market, bonds, hedge funds, private equity, is all surplus value created by workers producing real value. The current crisis of capitalism is that finance, fictious capital, that produces no real value that is real objects we can consume, is now dominating the productive market. We the workers are not consuming the value we create.
And we now spiral into the real historic crisis of capitalism which is over production. And the solution to this crisis historically has been either war or revolution.
Unfortunately for the Trade Unions and the Social Democratic left the latter is not on their agenda. But for capital the former is a solution they are willing to use, by enabling counter revolutionary nationalism; fascism.
We live in interesting times once again. The phoney stability of consumer capitalism has its facade ripped away daily as its chief clowns; the politicians try to assure us all is fine with capitalism and there is no alternative, when they know full well the alternative is the historic reality of socialism or barbarism.
In 1848 Karl Marx and Frederick Engels argued in the Communist Manifestothat the historic fight between the oppressor and oppressed ended 'either ina revolutionary reconstitution of society at large, or in the common ruin ofthe contending classes'. Engels said that 'bourgeois society stands at thecrossroads, either transition to socialism or regression into barbarism'.Later Rosa Luxemburg, a Polish revolutionary working in Germany at the endof the First World War, raised the slogan: 'Socialism or Barbarism'!
The fact is that the elephant in the room is another form of barbarism, that which could result from the climate crisis created by mass industrialization. Instead of looking at the decline in production as an opportunity to create an ecological socialist society, the same old cries of more work, more jobs, more consumption is echoed by the capitalists, the unions and the social democrats. It's not that 'There Is No Alternative', rather the alternative is as clear as the nose on their faces, they just don't want to face it. Their political solutions are as bankrupt as the system they are trying to bail out.
Drought means workers hungry in U.S. produce capital
By TRACIE CONE Associated Press Writer
Posted: Dec. 12, 2008
MENDOTA, Calif. — Idled farm workers are searching for food in the nation's most prolific agricultural region, where a double blow of drought and a court-ordered cutback of water supplies has caused hundreds of millions of dollars in losses.
This bedraggled town is struggling with an unemployment rate that city officials say is 40 percent and rising. This month, 600 farm families depleted the cupboards of the local food bank, which turned away families - more than 100 of them - for the first time.
"We're supposed to supply the world," said Mendota Mayor Robert Silva, "and people are starving."
The state's most dire water shortage in three decades is expected to erase more than 55,000 jobs across the fertile San Joaquin Valley by summer and drive up food prices across the nation, university economists predict.
"People being thrown out of work are the ones who can least afford it," said Richard Howitt, a professor of agriculture economics at the University of California-Davis, who estimates that $1.6 billion in agriculture-related wages across the valley will be lost in the coming months because of dwindling water.
SEE:
There Is An Alternative To Capitalism
Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:Marx, protectionism, socialiism, libertarian socialism, Engels, U.S. economy, Great Depression, market crash, free trade, capitalism, recession, communism,capitalist crisis, bourgeoisie,
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Mike Fluffy
CTV's paunchy pundit Mike Duffy has become a political puffball with his interviews with Harpocrite ministers. He throws them softballs and lets them anwser with their spin message with no challenge offered. As the ad's say' ya gotta talk to Duff' cause he will let you spin. It was particularly bad during the political crisis of last week, when he sided with the government against the coalition calling them the three stooges, and mimicking the party line of the PMO.
Of course he isn't the only one, Greg Weston of the Sun has called the coalition members that and further yesterday on Duff's show he called the coalition an attempted coup. Which of course it was anything but. It was perfectly parlimentary process, however the Harpocrite spin message has sunk deep into the mainstream media, especially amongst the pundits who repeat the talking points in their articles and commentaries.
Mike Duffy now spins the party line for the public, while chastising his guests if they raise issues he doesn't approve of. Case in point the NDP strategist dared to point out that the Bank of Canada was predicting dire times and Mike chimed in that in fact foreclosures in Canada were very small. A point made earlier by an economist he interviewed. However what he missed is that bankruptcies are on the rise again.
At other times Mike has fawned over the Calgary School lads over the military operations in Afghanistan, without so much as a critical comment.
At least Don Newman over at CBC Politics, Duffy's comptetition in the same time slot, asks hard questions of his guests, Mike spoon feeds them an opening to give the party line.
SEE
Sexism Duffy Style
Mike Duffy Makeover
CTV/G&M Showing Conservative Bias
Duffy Slaps Out Duffy
Ezra's Petard
Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:Media, Canada, CTV, Mike Duffy, Duff, BellGlobalCTV, , TV, politics,
Of course he isn't the only one, Greg Weston of the Sun has called the coalition members that and further yesterday on Duff's show he called the coalition an attempted coup. Which of course it was anything but. It was perfectly parlimentary process, however the Harpocrite spin message has sunk deep into the mainstream media, especially amongst the pundits who repeat the talking points in their articles and commentaries.
Mike Duffy now spins the party line for the public, while chastising his guests if they raise issues he doesn't approve of. Case in point the NDP strategist dared to point out that the Bank of Canada was predicting dire times and Mike chimed in that in fact foreclosures in Canada were very small. A point made earlier by an economist he interviewed. However what he missed is that bankruptcies are on the rise again.
At other times Mike has fawned over the Calgary School lads over the military operations in Afghanistan, without so much as a critical comment.
At least Don Newman over at CBC Politics, Duffy's comptetition in the same time slot, asks hard questions of his guests, Mike spoon feeds them an opening to give the party line.
SEE
Sexism Duffy Style
Mike Duffy Makeover
CTV/G&M Showing Conservative Bias
Duffy Slaps Out Duffy
Ezra's Petard
Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:Media, Canada, CTV, Mike Duffy, Duff, BellGlobalCTV, , TV, politics,
Right Wing Echo Chamber
Last week the right wing thunk tank and taxpayer funded lobby group the Fraser Institute discovered corporate welfare. And sure enough their political lobby arm the Canadian Taxpayers Federation echos their masters voice;
Mr. Gaudet said the collapse of the auto industry remains inevitable despite this latest surge of public cash. "There is no evidence in the past that corporate welfare works," he said. This bailout will only lead other financially struggling companies and industries in this tough economic time to also expect a government shell-out, Mr. Gaudet warned. "The government can't bail them all out," he said. "It's hard to justify to a laid-off Nortel worker why his or her tax dollars should go to support artificially inflated salaries in the auto industry."
Which Nortel workers are those? The ones left working in China?
My goodness but this is funny to hear the CTF speak on behalf of workers. This political lobby of business types, who are not taxpayers, whose association does not speak for workers but a small self interested right wing business lobby, whose association is not democratic and has no elected officials simply employed self appointed spokesmen.
But as the article goes on to point out actually the last time Chrysler was bailed out they paid back their debt. However it seems ominous that this apologist for the capitalist class is telling us the Big 3 are doomed. Of course as usual they blame workers salaries and production costs for being uncompetitive. However as usual they never let the facts get in the way of their rhetoric. In Canada the wages and benefits paid to Toyota workers who are not unionized are competitive with CAW wages and benefits. Not less but competitive. Yet no one is telling Toyota workers to take a wage cut.
And like the Big 3 Toyota is cutting back on production as well. The crisis of overproduction has hit automakers around the globe, thanks of course to globalization.
Mr. Gaudet said the collapse of the auto industry remains inevitable despite this latest surge of public cash. "There is no evidence in the past that corporate welfare works," he said. This bailout will only lead other financially struggling companies and industries in this tough economic time to also expect a government shell-out, Mr. Gaudet warned. "The government can't bail them all out," he said. "It's hard to justify to a laid-off Nortel worker why his or her tax dollars should go to support artificially inflated salaries in the auto industry."
Which Nortel workers are those? The ones left working in China?
My goodness but this is funny to hear the CTF speak on behalf of workers. This political lobby of business types, who are not taxpayers, whose association does not speak for workers but a small self interested right wing business lobby, whose association is not democratic and has no elected officials simply employed self appointed spokesmen.
But as the article goes on to point out actually the last time Chrysler was bailed out they paid back their debt. However it seems ominous that this apologist for the capitalist class is telling us the Big 3 are doomed. Of course as usual they blame workers salaries and production costs for being uncompetitive. However as usual they never let the facts get in the way of their rhetoric. In Canada the wages and benefits paid to Toyota workers who are not unionized are competitive with CAW wages and benefits. Not less but competitive. Yet no one is telling Toyota workers to take a wage cut.
And like the Big 3 Toyota is cutting back on production as well. The crisis of overproduction has hit automakers around the globe, thanks of course to globalization.
We are facing a two fold crisis in capitalism, the fiancial market meltdown and the crisis of overproduction and underconsumption. Nothing new in that it is just the same old same old as Marx pointed out 150 years ago.
SEE
There Is An Alternative To Capitalism
tagsMGuinty, GM, concesssion bargaining, unions, trade union, Marx, Ontario, Corporate Welfare, Canada, cars, automobilie, production, taxes, tax credit, investment, environment, hybrid, self-valorization,, self-management,, workers control,, autoworkers,, KEN LEWENZA,,CAW, Big Three Auto,, libertarian socialism, automobile, Chrysler, Tony Clement, business unions, auto parts, workers, layoffs, plant-closings, workers-control, unions, labour, Canada
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Quebec Slaps Back
Harper was willing to sacrifice Quebec votes for the sake of his base in challenging the opposition coalition by focusing on the Bloc. After all he already had lost credibility and seats in Quebec only a month ago thanks to the Bloc's attack on Harpers Arts and Culture and Law and Order policies. The attack on the BQ as seperatists proping up an illigetimate Dion government was just to tempting not to use to bitch slap them. And Harper is not one to miss an opportunity to slag his opponents. But again at a cost to his support in Quebec.
And as polling shows attacking the Bloc is of limited value in Quebec, since their votes will not go to the Harpocrites but to the NDP.
LYSIANE GAGNON writes;
But many Quebeckers have a totally different view of the Bloc. The Bloc presents itself as the defender of "Quebec's interests" rather than as the champion of sovereignty, and so Quebeckers see it as a regular party that makes them feel secure, a comfort zone in the alien environment of federal politics. It's their "home team," in other words. By the end of the week, the prevailing impression was that not only the Bloc, but Quebec as a whole, had been attacked. And three separate polls showed Quebec was the only province where a majority favoured the coalition.
SEE:
In Quebec Everyone is a Nationalist
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Harper, Canada, Quebec, federalism, Government, PM, PMO, Cabinet, BQ, seperatism, Canada, politics, Conservatives, opposition coalition, economy, government, Conservatives, Harper, recession, NDP, Liberals, BQ, politics, , federal election, minoirity government Jack Layton, , left-wing, unite-the-left, socialism, Quebec, social-democracy, NDP, PQ, BQ,
And as polling shows attacking the Bloc is of limited value in Quebec, since their votes will not go to the Harpocrites but to the NDP.
LYSIANE GAGNON writes;
But many Quebeckers have a totally different view of the Bloc. The Bloc presents itself as the defender of "Quebec's interests" rather than as the champion of sovereignty, and so Quebeckers see it as a regular party that makes them feel secure, a comfort zone in the alien environment of federal politics. It's their "home team," in other words. By the end of the week, the prevailing impression was that not only the Bloc, but Quebec as a whole, had been attacked. And three separate polls showed Quebec was the only province where a majority favoured the coalition.
SEE:
In Quebec Everyone is a Nationalist
Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Harper, Canada, Quebec, federalism, Government, PM, PMO, Cabinet, BQ, seperatism, Canada, politics, Conservatives, opposition coalition, economy, government, Conservatives, Harper, recession, NDP, Liberals, BQ, politics, , federal election, minoirity government Jack Layton, , left-wing, unite-the-left, socialism, Quebec, social-democracy, NDP, PQ, BQ,
Bail Out Is Not Job Security
And we got what for this?
And the $6-billion that the Big Three domestic automakers are now seeking from the federal and Ontario governments is on top of what Mike said is $752-million in financial assistance to the industry from the two governments since 2004, including $200-million for Ford, $200-million for GM and $125-million for Toyota.
Layoffs, new plants with shifts shut down, pension plan payments deferred, and let's not forget that auto industry in Canada does not pay for health care.
Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-MA) pointed out that the only cost difference between operating in the U.S. and Canada “has got to be entirely on health care.”
And there is no asssurances that there will not be further layoffs even with a bail out and further worker concessions. Unlike equity investments past performance does predict future performance when it comes to the auto industry. There is no job security in the auto sector no matter how much money gets thrown at it. And of course we know the only solution to this crisis is socializing the auto sector under workers control. Anything else is a band aid trying to patch a gaping wound.
Canada's three struggling automakers must come clean on plans to cut jobs if they hope to win taxpayer support for the $6 billion in aid they're seeking, Premier Dalton McGuinty says. McGuinty's push for details followed days of criticism from opposition parties worried that an aid deal could be cut with taxpayers knowing nothing about the fate of thousands of auto jobs and how their money will be spent. McGuinty noted the automakers have made public far less information about their plans in Canada compared with their U.S. parent companies, leaving lawmakers here in a difficult position in trying to sell an aid plan to taxpayers already feeling the pinch of the economic downturn themselves.
Overall, GM is seeking $800 million by year's end and $1.6 billion later, Ford wants a "standby" line of credit worth $2 billion and Chrysler $1.6 billion. GM, which is Canada's largest automaker, has signalled it may need another $1 billion if the rapid vehicle sales decline continues.Chrysler has already warned its car assembly plant in Brampton and minivan plant in Windsor may not be able to survive without financial help soon.
General Motors of Canada Ltd. is seeking "painful" cost cuts from the Canadian Auto Workers, as the Canadian units of the Detroit Three ask for financial help from Ottawa and Ontario. "What GM said is, 'We must share in this pain together. And we've got to come up with cost savings, Ken, that may be painful,' " CAW president Ken Lewenza said he has been told. The GM Canada request did not specify what cuts it is seeking, Mr. Lewenza said yesterday, but a union source said the company wants overall hourly labour costs trimmed and workers to give up some of their paid time off. Lewenza's comments came after the United Auto Workers in the U.S. revealed it will revise contracts with GM, Ford and Chrysler to delay billions of dollars in payments to a union run health-care trust. Furthermore, UAW president Ron Gettelfinger said the union would modify a jobs bank in which members on layoff receive up to 95 per cent of their pay. The CAW does not have a similar health-care trust or jobs bank in Canada at the three automakers. But even if CAW members worked for free for an entire year, Chrysler, Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Corp. losses are so massive that the savings from that move would offset just 11 days of losses at the three companies, CAW economist Jim Stanford told the meeting.
SEE:
Chrysler Black Mail
On The Dole
There Is An Alternative To Capitalism
Auto Solution II
We Own GMAuto Solution
tags
MGuinty, GM, concesssion bargaining, unions, trade union, Marx, Ontario, Corporate Welfare, Canada, cars, automobilie, production, taxes, tax credit, investment, environment, hybrid, self-valorization,, self-management,, workers control,, autoworkers,, KEN LEWENZA,,CAW, Big Three Auto,, libertarian socialism, automobile, Chrysler, Tony Clement, business unions, auto parts, workers, layoffs, plant-closings, workers-control, unions, labour, Canada
And the $6-billion that the Big Three domestic automakers are now seeking from the federal and Ontario governments is on top of what Mike said is $752-million in financial assistance to the industry from the two governments since 2004, including $200-million for Ford, $200-million for GM and $125-million for Toyota.
Layoffs, new plants with shifts shut down, pension plan payments deferred, and let's not forget that auto industry in Canada does not pay for health care.
Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-MA) pointed out that the only cost difference between operating in the U.S. and Canada “has got to be entirely on health care.”
And there is no asssurances that there will not be further layoffs even with a bail out and further worker concessions. Unlike equity investments past performance does predict future performance when it comes to the auto industry. There is no job security in the auto sector no matter how much money gets thrown at it. And of course we know the only solution to this crisis is socializing the auto sector under workers control. Anything else is a band aid trying to patch a gaping wound.
Canada's three struggling automakers must come clean on plans to cut jobs if they hope to win taxpayer support for the $6 billion in aid they're seeking, Premier Dalton McGuinty says. McGuinty's push for details followed days of criticism from opposition parties worried that an aid deal could be cut with taxpayers knowing nothing about the fate of thousands of auto jobs and how their money will be spent. McGuinty noted the automakers have made public far less information about their plans in Canada compared with their U.S. parent companies, leaving lawmakers here in a difficult position in trying to sell an aid plan to taxpayers already feeling the pinch of the economic downturn themselves.
Overall, GM is seeking $800 million by year's end and $1.6 billion later, Ford wants a "standby" line of credit worth $2 billion and Chrysler $1.6 billion. GM, which is Canada's largest automaker, has signalled it may need another $1 billion if the rapid vehicle sales decline continues.Chrysler has already warned its car assembly plant in Brampton and minivan plant in Windsor may not be able to survive without financial help soon.
General Motors of Canada Ltd. is seeking "painful" cost cuts from the Canadian Auto Workers, as the Canadian units of the Detroit Three ask for financial help from Ottawa and Ontario. "What GM said is, 'We must share in this pain together. And we've got to come up with cost savings, Ken, that may be painful,' " CAW president Ken Lewenza said he has been told. The GM Canada request did not specify what cuts it is seeking, Mr. Lewenza said yesterday, but a union source said the company wants overall hourly labour costs trimmed and workers to give up some of their paid time off. Lewenza's comments came after the United Auto Workers in the U.S. revealed it will revise contracts with GM, Ford and Chrysler to delay billions of dollars in payments to a union run health-care trust. Furthermore, UAW president Ron Gettelfinger said the union would modify a jobs bank in which members on layoff receive up to 95 per cent of their pay. The CAW does not have a similar health-care trust or jobs bank in Canada at the three automakers. But even if CAW members worked for free for an entire year, Chrysler, Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Corp. losses are so massive that the savings from that move would offset just 11 days of losses at the three companies, CAW economist Jim Stanford told the meeting.
SEE:
Chrysler Black Mail
On The Dole
There Is An Alternative To Capitalism
Auto Solution II
We Own GMAuto Solution
tags
MGuinty, GM, concesssion bargaining, unions, trade union, Marx, Ontario, Corporate Welfare, Canada, cars, automobilie, production, taxes, tax credit, investment, environment, hybrid, self-valorization,, self-management,, workers control,, autoworkers,, KEN LEWENZA,,CAW, Big Three Auto,, libertarian socialism, automobile, Chrysler, Tony Clement, business unions, auto parts, workers, layoffs, plant-closings, workers-control, unions, labour, Canada
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Not A Technicality Anymore
So much for the spin that this is only a 'technical' recession. It is now official....
"While Canada's economy evolved largely as expected during the summer and early autumn, it is now entering a recession as a result of the weakness in global economic activity," the bank said in a statement.
It was the first clear admission by the bank that Canada is joining most major economies in sliding into recession, typically defined as two consecutive quarters of contraction, although Governor Mark Carney had hinted at it last month.
Funny but we have been in a global recession since September of last year, when the first British mortgage bank Northern Rock crumbled .
The past year has been one of collective denial by the powers that be.
And now they are suffering a collective flashback.
For example, the last time Canadian interest rates were as low as they are today was in 1958 when Canada was emerging from recession. The economy, valued at about $32-billion at the time, was carried higher by a huge investment boom throughout the mid-1950s. Growth rates reached as high 9% in 1955 and 1956.
Then the boom went bust. The unemployment rate, which was 3.4% in 1956 hit 7.2% in 1961; growth slowed to about 1% as business spending fell off a cliff.
SEE
Neo-Cons Have No New Ideas
Back To The Fifties
Here Come the Seventies
Wall Street Mantra
tags
Canada, Flaherty, politics, Conservatives,consumer spending, tax-credit, Stelmach, economy, government, Conservatives, Harper, recession, Conference Board of Canada, consumer confidence, Economy, asset-backed commercial paper ,, goldhomes, mortgages, housing, bubble, US, economy, oil prices, sub-prime mortgage, Wall Street, crash, recession,Bernanke, Inflation, Staglation, Stock-Market, US, Federal-Reserve-Chairman, Oil, gold, commoditiesSmoot-Hawley, protectionism, tariffs, Herbert Hoover, U.S., U.S. economy, Canada, Great Depression, John McCain, market crash, free trade, Republicans, recession,
"While Canada's economy evolved largely as expected during the summer and early autumn, it is now entering a recession as a result of the weakness in global economic activity," the bank said in a statement.
It was the first clear admission by the bank that Canada is joining most major economies in sliding into recession, typically defined as two consecutive quarters of contraction, although Governor Mark Carney had hinted at it last month.
Funny but we have been in a global recession since September of last year, when the first British mortgage bank Northern Rock crumbled .
The past year has been one of collective denial by the powers that be.
And now they are suffering a collective flashback.
For example, the last time Canadian interest rates were as low as they are today was in 1958 when Canada was emerging from recession. The economy, valued at about $32-billion at the time, was carried higher by a huge investment boom throughout the mid-1950s. Growth rates reached as high 9% in 1955 and 1956.
Then the boom went bust. The unemployment rate, which was 3.4% in 1956 hit 7.2% in 1961; growth slowed to about 1% as business spending fell off a cliff.
SEE
Neo-Cons Have No New Ideas
Back To The Fifties
Here Come the Seventies
Wall Street Mantra
tags
Canada, Flaherty, politics, Conservatives,consumer spending, tax-credit, Stelmach, economy, government, Conservatives, Harper, recession, Conference Board of Canada, consumer confidence, Economy, asset-backed commercial paper ,, goldhomes, mortgages, housing, bubble, US, economy, oil prices, sub-prime mortgage, Wall Street, crash, recession,Bernanke, Inflation, Staglation, Stock-Market, US, Federal-Reserve-Chairman, Oil, gold, commoditiesSmoot-Hawley, protectionism, tariffs, Herbert Hoover, U.S., U.S. economy, Canada, Great Depression, John McCain, market crash, free trade, Republicans, recession,
Chrysler Black Mail
Chrysler is blackmailing Canada.
In its submission to the federal government, Chrysler compared plants in Windsor and Brampton, Ont., with American facilities that could assemble the same models, and noted it had spare capacity in the United States - a comment that some in government saw as a veiled threat to shift production if Canada does not provide emergency assistance.
Meanwhile the Harpocrites offer no new solutions to the auto crisis instead they offer workers the same old same old;
Mr. Clement met with senior officials from the Canadian Auto Workers union, including its president, Ken Lewenza. Mr. Clement has urged the union to be "part of the solution" and has suggested they may need to take a cut in wages and benefits to keep jobs in Canada.
The solution to the auto crisis is not more concessions from workers nor bailing out the Big 3. It is to socialize them under workers control.
SEE
There Is An Alternative To Capitalism
Auto Solution II
We Own GM
Auto Solution
tags
MGuinty, GM, concesssion bargaining, unions, trade union, Marx, Ontario, Corporate Welfare, Canada, cars, automobilie, production, taxes, tax credit, investment, environment, hybrid, self-valorization,, self-management,, workers control,, autoworkers,, KEN LEWENZA,,CAW, Big Three Auto,, libertarian socialism, automobile, Chrysler, Tony Clement, business unions, auto parts, workers, layoffs, plant-closings, workers-control, unions, labour, Canada
In its submission to the federal government, Chrysler compared plants in Windsor and Brampton, Ont., with American facilities that could assemble the same models, and noted it had spare capacity in the United States - a comment that some in government saw as a veiled threat to shift production if Canada does not provide emergency assistance.
Meanwhile the Harpocrites offer no new solutions to the auto crisis instead they offer workers the same old same old;
Mr. Clement met with senior officials from the Canadian Auto Workers union, including its president, Ken Lewenza. Mr. Clement has urged the union to be "part of the solution" and has suggested they may need to take a cut in wages and benefits to keep jobs in Canada.
The solution to the auto crisis is not more concessions from workers nor bailing out the Big 3. It is to socialize them under workers control.
SEE
There Is An Alternative To Capitalism
Auto Solution II
We Own GM
Auto Solution
tags
MGuinty, GM, concesssion bargaining, unions, trade union, Marx, Ontario, Corporate Welfare, Canada, cars, automobilie, production, taxes, tax credit, investment, environment, hybrid, self-valorization,, self-management,, workers control,, autoworkers,, KEN LEWENZA,,CAW, Big Three Auto,, libertarian socialism, automobile, Chrysler, Tony Clement, business unions, auto parts, workers, layoffs, plant-closings, workers-control, unions, labour, Canada
Bank Rip Off
Gosh folks are surprised that Canada's Big Six banks are greedy and won't pass on the interest cut to you and me. Bank slashes key rate to 1958 level
Six Canadian Banks Fail to Match Central Bank Cut (Update6)
Big banks keep slice of deep rate cut
Big 6 lag behind central bank's lead
Bah humbug to banks’ greedy actions on rates
Why I am shocked, shocked I say, shocked that the media and pundits expected these greedy bastards to act like good corporate citizens. After all the last time Carney cut the interest rates, only a month ago, they didn't pass them on. And despite Flaherty and Harper bailing them out to the tune of $75 billion, the banks increased interest rates and service charges on credit cards and have refused to loan money to credit agencies like GMAC and Ford Credit. When you give these guys money with no strings attached they use it to increase their profit and to pay off their bad debts and criminal activities.Of course Mark Carney knows this he used to work for Goldman Sachs. Flaherty knows it too. When the bank and commerce committee met to review credit card and bank card user fees and interest rates they got the cone of silence from the bankers.Truly this is a case of throwing good money after bad.
And while they will claim they are looking after the interests of their shareholders remeber who that is , why you and me of course with our mutual funds, our CPP and other public pension funds who are institutional investors in the banks. In fact we own them.
Time to socialize the banks along with the auto industry under workers control, the only solution to this crisis of capitalism is socialization of capital.
SEE:
Back To The Fifties
UBScandal
Pension Rip Off
Credit Card Rip Off
Canada's Billion Dollar Rip Off
Bank Union
Service Charges
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criminology, corporate-crime, white-collar-crime, sociology, hedge funds, scandal, criminal-capitalism, workers, employees, theft, crime, layoffs,, Canada,, banks,, banking,, BMO,, natural gas,, Bank of Montreal,, Banks,, Canada,, bank, Royal, Bank-Of-Nova-Scotia, banking-regulations, disclosure, Bank of Canada, dollar, Canada, deflation, loonie, exchange-rates, 1961, Diefenbuck
Comes Back And Bites You
Is this why the highest ranking officer of the ISI abruptly decided not to travel to India after the Mubai attack. Do ya think?
The war in Kashmir like America's secret wars, is a ghost war, with Pakistan funding armed struggle groups who they don't really control. The ISI learned its lessons from the CIA unfortunately like the CIA they failed to learn the most important lesson about black ops and secret wars by client organizations, they come back to haunt you.
All Terorism is State Terrorism it is the result of the Cold War. The use of fascists and military coup detat's were post-war CIA policy. The attack on civilians in post war Europe has a been the result of small fascist groups funded or aided by the CIA. This political strategy of a shadow war is used by the State to promote authoritarian policies through the politics of fear. Unknown, shadowy groups end up being exposed as funded and fronted by state security apparatuses. This shadow world gets exposed to the light of day when the client organizations act autnomously and with their own agenda.
The fallacy about these movements is that they are nationalist or anti-imperialist, when in fact they are anything but. They are agents of the State used to justify its authoritarian existence. They are not terrorists they are fascists, and as such are the creatures of the Security State. The Security State promotes global insecurity to justify its existence. There is no such thing as an 'unknown' terrorist organization, they are all pawns in the game of the intelligence networks that created them.
Pakistan’s Spies Aided Group Tied to Mumbai Siege
American officials say there is no hard evidence to link the spy service, the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI, to the Mumbai attacks. But the ISI has shared intelligence with Lashkar and provided protection for it, the officials said, and investigators are focusing on one Lashkar leader they believe is a main liaison with the spy service and a mastermind of the attacks. Lashkar-e-Taiba, which means “army of the pure,” was founded more than 20 years ago with the help of Pakistani intelligence officers as a proxy force to challenge Indian control of Muslim-dominated Kashmir. Indian officials have publicly implicated Lashkar operatives in a July 2006 attack on commuter trains in Mumbai and in a December 2001 attack against the Indian Parliament. But in recent years, Lashkar fighters have turned up in Afghanistan and Iraq, fighting and killing Americans, senior American military officials have said.Lashkar commanders have been able to operate more or less in the open, behind the public face of a popular charity, with the implicit support of official Pakistani patrons, American officials said. Lashkar also has a history of using local extremist groups for knowledge and tactics in its operations. Investigators in Mumbai are following leads suggesting that Lashkar used the Students’ Islamic Movement of India, a fundamentalist group that advocates establishing an Islamic state in India, for early reconnaissance and logistical help. Although Pakistan’s government officially banned Lashkar in 2002, American officials said that the group had maintained close ties since then to the Pakistani intelligence service. American spy agencies have documented regular meetings between the ISI and Lashkar operatives, in which the two organizations have shared intelligence about Indian operations in Kashmir. “It goes beyond information sharing to include some funding and training,” said an American official who follows the group closely. “And these are not rogue ISI elements. What’s going on is done in a fairly disciplined way.” Lashkar strives for the creation of a pan-Islamic state across South Asia,
Gul was director-general of the ISI from 1987 to 1989, at the end of a mujahideen war, covertly funded by the United States and Saudi Arabia, to drive the Soviet army out of Afghanistan. It was at the tail-end of this period that Pakistani support began for a separatist movement in Indian Kashmir. Lashkar-e-Taiba, a group whose leader hails from Sargodha, the same city as Gul, was founded in 1990.Gul says he supports the Afghan resistance to Western forces at a moral and academic level, but no more than that.Speculation among analysts and Western media has bubbled for years that the ISI either secretly supports the Taliban, or there are rogue or retired officers helping the insurgents. Gul was ISI chief during Bhutto's first government in 1988-1990.
New Delhi's past complaints about Pakistan — shared by Afghan President Hamid Karzai and some in Washington — have centered on its Inter Services Intelligence agency. Kashmiri militants as well as the Taliban have served as proxies for Pakistan to exert influence in India and Afghanistan in the past, and there are doubts that Pakistan's military, which controls the ISI, has fully abandoned that policy.Pakistani leaders have vigorously defended the agency, and complained that their country is being scape-goated for Western failures in Afghanistan. Still, they have also made moves to reform the ISI, including appointing a new chief in September.
SEE:
Chickens Come Home
Worth Reading After Mubai
Pakistan: Feudalism Not Democracy
Back In the USSA
Saddam and the CIA
CIA Conspiracies Are Real
Irans Nuclear Program Is A CIA Oops
State Sponsored Terrorism
State Security Is A Secure State
Paranoia and the Security State
ECHELON Spies on Greenpeace
Statist Anti-Terrorism Act
Weapons of Mass Deception
Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
India, Mubai, fascism, anti-fascism, terrorism, Al-Qaeda, Spectacle, Debord, Situationist, War, Bush, 9/11, Iraq, Afghanistan, Terrorism,Middle East, globalization, terrorism,Government,Musharaff, Pakistan, ISI, intelligence, counter-intelligence, spying, Mujahedin, MI6, UK, Britain, Al-Quaeda, Bin-Laden, terrorism, India, terrorists, Kashmir, Taliban, book, autobiography, Afghanistan, kidnapping,Benazir Bhutto, Pakistan Peoples Party,
The war in Kashmir like America's secret wars, is a ghost war, with Pakistan funding armed struggle groups who they don't really control. The ISI learned its lessons from the CIA unfortunately like the CIA they failed to learn the most important lesson about black ops and secret wars by client organizations, they come back to haunt you.
All Terorism is State Terrorism it is the result of the Cold War. The use of fascists and military coup detat's were post-war CIA policy. The attack on civilians in post war Europe has a been the result of small fascist groups funded or aided by the CIA. This political strategy of a shadow war is used by the State to promote authoritarian policies through the politics of fear. Unknown, shadowy groups end up being exposed as funded and fronted by state security apparatuses. This shadow world gets exposed to the light of day when the client organizations act autnomously and with their own agenda.
The fallacy about these movements is that they are nationalist or anti-imperialist, when in fact they are anything but. They are agents of the State used to justify its authoritarian existence. They are not terrorists they are fascists, and as such are the creatures of the Security State. The Security State promotes global insecurity to justify its existence. There is no such thing as an 'unknown' terrorist organization, they are all pawns in the game of the intelligence networks that created them.
Pakistan’s Spies Aided Group Tied to Mumbai Siege
American officials say there is no hard evidence to link the spy service, the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI, to the Mumbai attacks. But the ISI has shared intelligence with Lashkar and provided protection for it, the officials said, and investigators are focusing on one Lashkar leader they believe is a main liaison with the spy service and a mastermind of the attacks. Lashkar-e-Taiba, which means “army of the pure,” was founded more than 20 years ago with the help of Pakistani intelligence officers as a proxy force to challenge Indian control of Muslim-dominated Kashmir. Indian officials have publicly implicated Lashkar operatives in a July 2006 attack on commuter trains in Mumbai and in a December 2001 attack against the Indian Parliament. But in recent years, Lashkar fighters have turned up in Afghanistan and Iraq, fighting and killing Americans, senior American military officials have said.Lashkar commanders have been able to operate more or less in the open, behind the public face of a popular charity, with the implicit support of official Pakistani patrons, American officials said. Lashkar also has a history of using local extremist groups for knowledge and tactics in its operations. Investigators in Mumbai are following leads suggesting that Lashkar used the Students’ Islamic Movement of India, a fundamentalist group that advocates establishing an Islamic state in India, for early reconnaissance and logistical help. Although Pakistan’s government officially banned Lashkar in 2002, American officials said that the group had maintained close ties since then to the Pakistani intelligence service. American spy agencies have documented regular meetings between the ISI and Lashkar operatives, in which the two organizations have shared intelligence about Indian operations in Kashmir. “It goes beyond information sharing to include some funding and training,” said an American official who follows the group closely. “And these are not rogue ISI elements. What’s going on is done in a fairly disciplined way.” Lashkar strives for the creation of a pan-Islamic state across South Asia,
Gul was director-general of the ISI from 1987 to 1989, at the end of a mujahideen war, covertly funded by the United States and Saudi Arabia, to drive the Soviet army out of Afghanistan. It was at the tail-end of this period that Pakistani support began for a separatist movement in Indian Kashmir. Lashkar-e-Taiba, a group whose leader hails from Sargodha, the same city as Gul, was founded in 1990.Gul says he supports the Afghan resistance to Western forces at a moral and academic level, but no more than that.Speculation among analysts and Western media has bubbled for years that the ISI either secretly supports the Taliban, or there are rogue or retired officers helping the insurgents. Gul was ISI chief during Bhutto's first government in 1988-1990.
New Delhi's past complaints about Pakistan — shared by Afghan President Hamid Karzai and some in Washington — have centered on its Inter Services Intelligence agency. Kashmiri militants as well as the Taliban have served as proxies for Pakistan to exert influence in India and Afghanistan in the past, and there are doubts that Pakistan's military, which controls the ISI, has fully abandoned that policy.Pakistani leaders have vigorously defended the agency, and complained that their country is being scape-goated for Western failures in Afghanistan. Still, they have also made moves to reform the ISI, including appointing a new chief in September.
SEE:
Chickens Come Home
Worth Reading After Mubai
Pakistan: Feudalism Not Democracy
Back In the USSA
Saddam and the CIA
CIA Conspiracies Are Real
Irans Nuclear Program Is A CIA Oops
State Sponsored Terrorism
State Security Is A Secure State
Paranoia and the Security State
ECHELON Spies on Greenpeace
Statist Anti-Terrorism Act
Weapons of Mass Deception
Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
India, Mubai, fascism, anti-fascism, terrorism, Al-Qaeda, Spectacle, Debord, Situationist, War, Bush, 9/11, Iraq, Afghanistan, Terrorism,Middle East, globalization, terrorism,Government,Musharaff, Pakistan, ISI, intelligence, counter-intelligence, spying, Mujahedin, MI6, UK, Britain, Al-Quaeda, Bin-Laden, terrorism, India, terrorists, Kashmir, Taliban, book, autobiography, Afghanistan, kidnapping,Benazir Bhutto, Pakistan Peoples Party,
Sunday, December 07, 2008
On The Dole
I love ths headline, speaking truth to power as they say, too often unemployment appears to have no apparent cause but it does of course, the bosses decide....Canadian employers wipe out 71000 jobs
Even though the bosses were given HR advice not to do this, they can't help themselves they have no plan to deal with the recession so they fall back on the old tried and true, lay off workers.
Fears of a million layoffs a month in corporate America
And as usual the cheery economic advisors to the bosses didn't expect this.
Canada lost 70600 jobs in November, about three times more than many economists had expected, Statistics Canada reported on Friday.
As strategist Ed Yardeni wrote, "the latest batch of economic indicators is so bad that we are either spiralling into a depression or we are within a few months of a V-shaped recovery."
Put Mr. Abramson, 42, firmly in the V-shaped camp. He doesn't believe a years-long slump is lurking in the shadows, although the markets have been trading that way.
"It's been a rough economy, which we underestimated," he says. But the market response reflects a "psychological meltdown" that has taken stocks down to ridiculous valuations.
"We've been fully invested for a period here, because we didn't believe this was going to go as far down versus valuation and economic reality as it has. We thought this was going to be a normal 20-per-cent correction." Oops.
So while Harper created a political crisis to avoid addressing the economic crisis, it slapped him in the face like a wet fish. Indeed can you say recession, the word he refuses to use. And he has no plan to address it, so he creates a political crisis to distract us from the bad news.
Harper shuts down Parliament while unemployment hits recession levels
We are in a recession, and the dark clouds of depression creep over the horizon.
Canada loses 70600 jobs in a month, most since '82
Ontario's crumbling manufacturing sector is a major reason why the 66000 of the 71000 jobs that disappeared in Canada in November did so in this province. ...
Yep the oil crash of '82 was when we had one of our worst recessions.
Good News — Conditions Resemble 1973-74!
The recession of 1974-75 was the worst since the 1930’s Great Depression. The 1973-74 bear market in anticipation of that recession was the worst bear market since that of the 1929-32 bear market (which led to the Great Depression). The mid-1970’s were indeed a miserable period.
And that was just last months unemployment figures the news continues to be bad across Canada.
GM to lay off 700 more workers in Oshawa
AbitibiBowater to shut mills, axe 1100 jobs
Closed mines, broken dreams in the town that nickel built
However we are not alone in this sudden realization that the economy is crashing, like Harper the other recession denier sits in the White House south of here.
US Loses 533000 Jobs in Biggest Drop Since 1974
The U.S. Labor Department reported Friday that last month, companies around the nation shed jobs at the fastest rate since the early 1970s, pushing the unemployment rate to its highest level in 15 years.
The figures suggest the year-old recession will approach or even exceed the 1981-1982 downturn in severity and support expectations that Federal Reserve officials will soon lower interest rates to levels not seen in a half century.
That was just the monthly unemployment rate it gets worse in the U.S. which does not have our style of EI as the unumber of unemployed or underemployed workers not on unemployment payments ballons.
Broader Unemployment Rate Hits 12.5%
One in Ten Americans Now Uses Food Stamps as Unemployment Continues to Rise
But still there are those economists who claim that the glass is half full, same guys that said there was no recession....
Unemployment hurts, but it's not a crisis yet
And some are down right optimistic......
Recession over by June?
And they are just plain wrong like they have been for the past year.
If recent downturns are any guide, it may be well into 2010 or perhaps even 2011 before unemployment peaks, which means the global economy should not count substantial U.S. consumer spending rebound any time soon. "The economy is now locked in a vicious downward spiral in which employment, incomes and spending are collapsing together," said Nigel Gault, chief U.S. economist at IHS Global Insight.
Along with the credit melt down unemployment is also a global problem.
OFF THE CHARTS A domino effect in the global work force
THE world recession is spreading, and the employment outlook is turning down almost everywhere.
Even in countries like China, the latest surveys of companies show they are reducing their work forces, providing more evidence that China cannot be the engine of the world economy when the traditional industrial powers suffer.
China fears a reverse migration
China's roaring industrial economy has been abruptly quieted by the effects of the global financial crisis. Rural provinces that supplied much of China's factory manpower are watching the beginnings of a wave of reverse migration that has the potential to shake the stability of the world's most populous nation.
Fast-rising unemployment has led to an unusual series of strikes and protests. Normally cautious government officials have offered quick concessions and talk openly of their worries about social unrest. Laid-off factory workers in Dongguan overturned patrol cars and clashed with police last Tuesday, and hundreds of taxis parked in front of a government office in nearby Chaozhou over the weekend, one of a series of driver protests.
Amid the global financial crisis, China's small and medium-sized enterprises, largely labor-intensive and vulnerable to fluctuations in domestic and external demand, are affected most. In the first half of 2008, 67,000 such companies, each with a business volume exceeding 5 million yuan, closed and laid off more than 20 million employees, said the National Development and Reform Commission. That figure doesn't include service industry firms or small companies with sales of less than 5 million yuan, as there are no authoritative figures available on those categories.
A HUNDRED per cent of the global economic growth next year will come from developing countries. This, according to Stuart E. Eizenstat, former US deputy treasury secretary, is the first time in history that developing countries will shoulder the full responsibility of pulling the global economy.
The European and US economic engines are not firing and therefore will not be able to pull the world economy along as has been done previously. Some economists, including David Carbon, chief economist at DBS Bank, believe that Asia is now more capable of standing on its own.Why then should the worker in a factory in China or Malaysia be concerned when the region, by most accounts, is in a much better economic situation than in the US and other more advanced nations? Why should economies in Asia and indeed other developing countries be concerned with rising unemployment in the US and Europe?The fact is that even though Asia is not as badly off as the US, Asia's growth is also slowing. In today's highly interconnected and globalised world, what happens in one part of the world is rapidly transmitted to the other side. Contagions spread faster. Thus, with the economic meltdown in the US and massive job losses, the demand for goods and services also falls. Offshore centres in India and in other parts of the world are also feeling the heat from the US financial and economic meltdown. The production and assembly line that snakes around the world, and in some cases making its way into remote villages, has also been affected.The unemployment numbers in Europe and other developed countries are also on the uptrend, with more joining the jobless ranks every day. This, according to some, could be the worst since the Great Depression of the 1930s
Ok folks lets do the math. Recession + Unemployment = Depression
US "Great Depression" has begun: Best of the Boards/Blogs
There's no mystery about what the government is trying to do. After the Black October crash, the government and the Bank of England got out their history books and started looking at what happened in the Great Depression. In September 1931, as unemployment reached three million, the national government slashed interest rates and abandoned the gold standard. The value of the pound fell by 25%, just as it has today. Interest rates fell from 6% to 2% - deja vu - and this led to a modest, export-led recovery. Unemployment fell marginally in 1935 as a recovery in the housing market, mainly in the south of England, boosted economic activity. The government is clearly trying to do the same today.
However, this isn't the 1930s. For one thing, there was a lot of spare capacity then in the economy, which is not the case today. We also had the Empire. Britain erected tariff walls against imports and used the colonies - yes, we still had them - to provide cheap food imports. The 1930s depression wasn't caused by consumer spending and debt, it was a classic crisis of ineffective demand.
Also: it didn't really work. Unemployment remained stubbornly high throughout the 1930s outside the south-east of England, and it was only rearmament, as the Second World War approached, that ended mass joblessness. We are in a very different situation today. We cannot seek salvation in another unsustainable boom and we certainly cannot afford to go to war.
And depressions lead to workers revolt.
Workers at Republic Windows continue sit-in after company closes
Sit Ins and plant occupations were popular in the 1930;s as well, and are far more effective than strikes, they can lead to the only obvious solution to the capitalist crisis; workers control of the means of production and the socializtion of capital.
SEE
Neo-Con Industrial Strategy.
Common Sense
Neo-Cons Have No New Ideas
Back To The Fifties
Here Come the Seventies
Wall Street Mantra
Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:social credit, Major Douglas, Prairie, agrarian, farmers, populism, populist, producer, producerism, distributionism, Hilare Belocq, Regina Manifesto, George Soros,CCF,workers control, Canada, US, Grange, Marx, protectionism, socialiism, libertarian socialism, Engels, U.S. economy, Great Depression, market crash, free trade, capitalism, recession, communism,capitalist crisis, bourgeoisie, NDP, Canada, Convention, Layton, Resolutions, Nationalize, Nationalization, WorkerControl, Community, Control, Anarchism, NewLeft, Self-Managementasset-backed commercial paper ,, gold, homes, mortgages, housing, bubble, US, economy, oil prices, sub-prime mortgage, Wall Street, crash, recession,Bernanke, Inflation, Staglation, Stock-Market, US, Federal-Reserve-Chairman, Oil, gold, commoditiesSmoot-Hawley, protectionism, tariffs, Herbert Hoover, U.S., U.S. economy, Canada, Great Depression, market crash, free trade, recession, Harper, Conservatives, deficit, Government, libertarian,, libertarianism,, anarchy,, anarchism,, mutualism,, free-market,, Proudhon,, self-government,, politicsagorism, counter-economics, left libertarian, new libertarian or Movement of the Libertarian Left.politics, Flaherty, Budget, GST, politicsCanada, Surplus, Economy, Taxes, EI,
Even though the bosses were given HR advice not to do this, they can't help themselves they have no plan to deal with the recession so they fall back on the old tried and true, lay off workers.
Fears of a million layoffs a month in corporate America
And as usual the cheery economic advisors to the bosses didn't expect this.
Canada lost 70600 jobs in November, about three times more than many economists had expected, Statistics Canada reported on Friday.
As strategist Ed Yardeni wrote, "the latest batch of economic indicators is so bad that we are either spiralling into a depression or we are within a few months of a V-shaped recovery."
Put Mr. Abramson, 42, firmly in the V-shaped camp. He doesn't believe a years-long slump is lurking in the shadows, although the markets have been trading that way.
"It's been a rough economy, which we underestimated," he says. But the market response reflects a "psychological meltdown" that has taken stocks down to ridiculous valuations.
"We've been fully invested for a period here, because we didn't believe this was going to go as far down versus valuation and economic reality as it has. We thought this was going to be a normal 20-per-cent correction." Oops.
So while Harper created a political crisis to avoid addressing the economic crisis, it slapped him in the face like a wet fish. Indeed can you say recession, the word he refuses to use. And he has no plan to address it, so he creates a political crisis to distract us from the bad news.
Harper shuts down Parliament while unemployment hits recession levels
We are in a recession, and the dark clouds of depression creep over the horizon.
Canada loses 70600 jobs in a month, most since '82
Ontario's crumbling manufacturing sector is a major reason why the 66000 of the 71000 jobs that disappeared in Canada in November did so in this province. ...
Yep the oil crash of '82 was when we had one of our worst recessions.
Good News — Conditions Resemble 1973-74!
The recession of 1974-75 was the worst since the 1930’s Great Depression. The 1973-74 bear market in anticipation of that recession was the worst bear market since that of the 1929-32 bear market (which led to the Great Depression). The mid-1970’s were indeed a miserable period.
And that was just last months unemployment figures the news continues to be bad across Canada.
GM to lay off 700 more workers in Oshawa
AbitibiBowater to shut mills, axe 1100 jobs
Closed mines, broken dreams in the town that nickel built
However we are not alone in this sudden realization that the economy is crashing, like Harper the other recession denier sits in the White House south of here.
US Loses 533000 Jobs in Biggest Drop Since 1974
The U.S. Labor Department reported Friday that last month, companies around the nation shed jobs at the fastest rate since the early 1970s, pushing the unemployment rate to its highest level in 15 years.
The figures suggest the year-old recession will approach or even exceed the 1981-1982 downturn in severity and support expectations that Federal Reserve officials will soon lower interest rates to levels not seen in a half century.
That was just the monthly unemployment rate it gets worse in the U.S. which does not have our style of EI as the unumber of unemployed or underemployed workers not on unemployment payments ballons.
Broader Unemployment Rate Hits 12.5%
One in Ten Americans Now Uses Food Stamps as Unemployment Continues to Rise
But still there are those economists who claim that the glass is half full, same guys that said there was no recession....
Unemployment hurts, but it's not a crisis yet
And some are down right optimistic......
Recession over by June?
And they are just plain wrong like they have been for the past year.
If recent downturns are any guide, it may be well into 2010 or perhaps even 2011 before unemployment peaks, which means the global economy should not count substantial U.S. consumer spending rebound any time soon. "The economy is now locked in a vicious downward spiral in which employment, incomes and spending are collapsing together," said Nigel Gault, chief U.S. economist at IHS Global Insight.
Along with the credit melt down unemployment is also a global problem.
OFF THE CHARTS A domino effect in the global work force
THE world recession is spreading, and the employment outlook is turning down almost everywhere.
Even in countries like China, the latest surveys of companies show they are reducing their work forces, providing more evidence that China cannot be the engine of the world economy when the traditional industrial powers suffer.
China fears a reverse migration
China's roaring industrial economy has been abruptly quieted by the effects of the global financial crisis. Rural provinces that supplied much of China's factory manpower are watching the beginnings of a wave of reverse migration that has the potential to shake the stability of the world's most populous nation.
Fast-rising unemployment has led to an unusual series of strikes and protests. Normally cautious government officials have offered quick concessions and talk openly of their worries about social unrest. Laid-off factory workers in Dongguan overturned patrol cars and clashed with police last Tuesday, and hundreds of taxis parked in front of a government office in nearby Chaozhou over the weekend, one of a series of driver protests.
Amid the global financial crisis, China's small and medium-sized enterprises, largely labor-intensive and vulnerable to fluctuations in domestic and external demand, are affected most. In the first half of 2008, 67,000 such companies, each with a business volume exceeding 5 million yuan, closed and laid off more than 20 million employees, said the National Development and Reform Commission. That figure doesn't include service industry firms or small companies with sales of less than 5 million yuan, as there are no authoritative figures available on those categories.
A HUNDRED per cent of the global economic growth next year will come from developing countries. This, according to Stuart E. Eizenstat, former US deputy treasury secretary, is the first time in history that developing countries will shoulder the full responsibility of pulling the global economy.
The European and US economic engines are not firing and therefore will not be able to pull the world economy along as has been done previously. Some economists, including David Carbon, chief economist at DBS Bank, believe that Asia is now more capable of standing on its own.Why then should the worker in a factory in China or Malaysia be concerned when the region, by most accounts, is in a much better economic situation than in the US and other more advanced nations? Why should economies in Asia and indeed other developing countries be concerned with rising unemployment in the US and Europe?The fact is that even though Asia is not as badly off as the US, Asia's growth is also slowing. In today's highly interconnected and globalised world, what happens in one part of the world is rapidly transmitted to the other side. Contagions spread faster. Thus, with the economic meltdown in the US and massive job losses, the demand for goods and services also falls. Offshore centres in India and in other parts of the world are also feeling the heat from the US financial and economic meltdown. The production and assembly line that snakes around the world, and in some cases making its way into remote villages, has also been affected.The unemployment numbers in Europe and other developed countries are also on the uptrend, with more joining the jobless ranks every day. This, according to some, could be the worst since the Great Depression of the 1930s
Ok folks lets do the math. Recession + Unemployment = Depression
US "Great Depression" has begun: Best of the Boards/Blogs
There's no mystery about what the government is trying to do. After the Black October crash, the government and the Bank of England got out their history books and started looking at what happened in the Great Depression. In September 1931, as unemployment reached three million, the national government slashed interest rates and abandoned the gold standard. The value of the pound fell by 25%, just as it has today. Interest rates fell from 6% to 2% - deja vu - and this led to a modest, export-led recovery. Unemployment fell marginally in 1935 as a recovery in the housing market, mainly in the south of England, boosted economic activity. The government is clearly trying to do the same today.
However, this isn't the 1930s. For one thing, there was a lot of spare capacity then in the economy, which is not the case today. We also had the Empire. Britain erected tariff walls against imports and used the colonies - yes, we still had them - to provide cheap food imports. The 1930s depression wasn't caused by consumer spending and debt, it was a classic crisis of ineffective demand.
Also: it didn't really work. Unemployment remained stubbornly high throughout the 1930s outside the south-east of England, and it was only rearmament, as the Second World War approached, that ended mass joblessness. We are in a very different situation today. We cannot seek salvation in another unsustainable boom and we certainly cannot afford to go to war.
And depressions lead to workers revolt.
Workers at Republic Windows continue sit-in after company closes
Sit Ins and plant occupations were popular in the 1930;s as well, and are far more effective than strikes, they can lead to the only obvious solution to the capitalist crisis; workers control of the means of production and the socializtion of capital.
SEE
Neo-Con Industrial Strategy.
Common Sense
Neo-Cons Have No New Ideas
Back To The Fifties
Here Come the Seventies
Wall Street Mantra
Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:social credit, Major Douglas, Prairie, agrarian, farmers, populism, populist, producer, producerism, distributionism, Hilare Belocq, Regina Manifesto, George Soros,CCF,workers control, Canada, US, Grange, Marx, protectionism, socialiism, libertarian socialism, Engels, U.S. economy, Great Depression, market crash, free trade, capitalism, recession, communism,capitalist crisis, bourgeoisie, NDP, Canada, Convention, Layton, Resolutions, Nationalize, Nationalization, WorkerControl, Community, Control, Anarchism, NewLeft, Self-Managementasset-backed commercial paper ,, gold, homes, mortgages, housing, bubble, US, economy, oil prices, sub-prime mortgage, Wall Street, crash, recession,Bernanke, Inflation, Staglation, Stock-Market, US, Federal-Reserve-Chairman, Oil, gold, commoditiesSmoot-Hawley, protectionism, tariffs, Herbert Hoover, U.S., U.S. economy, Canada, Great Depression, market crash, free trade, recession, Harper, Conservatives, deficit, Government, libertarian,, libertarianism,, anarchy,, anarchism,, mutualism,, free-market,, Proudhon,, self-government,, politicsagorism, counter-economics, left libertarian, new libertarian or Movement of the Libertarian Left.politics, Flaherty, Budget, GST, politicsCanada, Surplus, Economy, Taxes, EI,
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