The TALF The Financial Sector: "A House Burning Down" “Capitalism’s Self-Inflicted Apocalypse” How The World Pimps America The Sanctity of AIG's Contracts Australia slashes immigration as recession looms: Australia will cut its intake of migrants for the first time in a decade, the government said today, amid concern that skilled foreign workers could stoke resentment by taking jobs at a time of rising unemployment. More than three-quarters of Britons want to see jobless immigrants forced to leave UK: The poll also found that more adults in the UK, 54 per cent, than in Germany, France, Italy or Spain, are against citizens from other EU countries getting a job in their country. Air passenger numbers drop for first time in 17 years: Britain's airports were hit by recession and high fuel prices last year, with 4.6 million fewer people taking to the air, the first passenger decline in 17 years. IMF poised to print billions of dollars in 'global quantitative easing': The International Monetary Fund is poised to embark on what analysts have described as "global quantitative easing" by printing billions of dollars worth of a global "super-currency" in an unprecedented new effort to address the economic crisis. Outrage against AIG set to mount: Outrage against American International Group (AIG) is set to grow after the ailing insurance giant said that more than half the taxpayer bailout money it has received has been paid to investment firm Goldman Sachs and several European banks. Citigroup CEO awarded $10.8 million: Citigroup Inc awarded Chief Executive Vikram Pandit $10.82 million of compensation in 2008, a year when the government propped up the bank with $45 billion of capital. Industrial production down for fourth straight month: Output declines 1.4%, more than forecast America’s Youngest Outcasts: One in 50 U.S. Children Is Homeless Each Year: New Report Ranks 50 States From Best To Worst
Bernanke's Witness Protection Program
By Mike Whitney
The TALF and the "Public-Private Partnership" are another slap in the face of the international community. They violate the spirit and the letter of the G-20 communique. It will be interesting to see if foreign holders of US Treasurys endure this latest insult in silence or if there's a sudden stampede for the exits. There's a sense that the world is getting fed up with the Fed's financial chicanery and would like to chart a different course. Enough is enough. Continue
Ben Bernanke’s False Analogy
By Prof. Michael Hudson
The bottom line is that the American public is being fed a carefully crafted mythology (no doubt "market tested" on "response groups" to see which images fly best) to mislead the American public into misunderstanding the nature of today’s financial problem – to mislead it in such a way that today’s policies will make sense and gain voter support. Continue
By Michael Parenti
The free market does not work. It’s not free. It’s not really a market; it’s a plunder. And it has to be done away with. Continue
How the US is shifting the financial crisis onto the rest of the world
By Pepe Escobar
The US Treasury will borrow no less than one trillion dollars from the developing world in 2009. It will need even more in 2010. Pepe Escobar argues the US is indeed in a privileged position: not only it unleashes a global financial crisis, it then sucks up money from all over the world, based on the fact that the US in fact remains the "manager" of choice of global capitalism.Continue
By Glenn Greenwald
The Obama administration's claim that nothing could be done about the AIG bonuses because AIG has solid, sacred contractual commitments to pay them is, for so many reasons, absurd on its face. Continue
Tuesday, 17 March 2009
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