Friday, June 29, 2012

Greg Palast — Robert Mundell, evil genius of the euro

For the architect of the euro, taking macroeconomics away from elected politicians and forcing deregulation were part of the plan
Read it at The Guardian (UK)
Robert Mundell, evil genius of the euro
by Greg Palast | guardian.co.uk

Palast Nails it, as usual. Turns out he knew Mundell and got the story from his lips to Palast's ear. If this doesn't knock your socks off, you aren't wearing any.

I have hammering on this for some time, as readers here know. The EZ "experiment is the neoliberal game plan for globalization that transcends democracy and establishes the rule of international institutions committed to neoliberal principles. Except when events go against their interests, then use their influence over government to force government bailouts of "an indispensible financial sector that transcends national boundaries." And yes, the US did bail out several foreign banks considered "to big to fail."

Here's what I wrote in comment over at MMR:
Tom Hickey June 27, 2012 at 1:19 pm
Mike, I have been warning for some time‚ decades, that the neoliberal thrust is for an international economic system that transcends governments and is controlled by the global elite. They don’t mind disasters occurring, since they never let crisis go to waste and even use crisis as a tool to advance their agenda.
The EZ-EMU is a brazen step in that direction, specifically designed for that purpose. Which is why the elite is resistant to any solution that does not move their agenda forward. While the breakdown of the EZ is “unthinkable,” it will happen if elites find that they cannot control the process any longer. They will just shift course and organize the rubble [I should have added here, at two cents on the dollar, euro, or whatever].
This may sound like the New World Order conspiracy theory but it is the opposite. The NWO conspiracy theory is aimed against world socialism and the UN as a world government that will deprive the US of national sovereignty.
This nwo is designed to make sovereignty irrelevant wrt multinational interests under the control of the global elite that controls “capital.’ National sovereignty remains in place legally but it doesn’t affect elite interests, since elites can manipulate govts through capture and just go above them in terms of economic-financial global infrastructure.
This is the opposite of “socialism” and the logical outcome of “capitalism” as monopoly capital.

20 comments:

Tyler Healey said...

I'm blown away. It's a reminder that there is evil in this world. Here's what I don't get: haven't the evil learned from history that their story always ends bad for them? Qaddafi and Mubarrak come to mind. Wall Street's story will end bad for them, too. This nation won't accept another bailout, and shouldn't have accepted the first one.

JK said...

It has to make you wonder: are TPTB here in the United States purposely limiting the required stimulus for a full recovery because it would then more clearly show what's wrong in the Eurozone? Meaning, so long as unemployment stays relatively high here, it's easy to say "the stimulus didn't work" and the masses gobble it up. But if they were to enact enough stimulus via money to the states, lower taxes, maybe cutting people checks, preventing foreclosures through legislation, maybe even a JG or some type of modern day public works program… the crisis would be solved and Eurozone "experiment" would be exposed for what it is.

How nefarious is all of this?

Anonymous said...

It's good to read from someone that understands the deep meaning of the EZ.

Especially one it seems everybody is singing the mantra that a "federalist" EZ would be, if not a good thing, the lesser evil.

Tom Hickey said...

It's either ignorance or self-serving disingenuousness — and these are some of the smartest people on the planet. Go figure.

Not only that Carroll Quigley documents the agenda, since the close of WWI, in Tragedy and Hope. No one who is paying attention should be surprised by this agenda as it is presently unfolding. It's the long-term game plan.

Anonymous said...

Good find, Tom. Palast is absolutely right. The whole point of the elite's approach to management of the crisis since 2008 is to put progressive democratic government out of business, and shift power to technocrats, bankers and the private sector corporate warlords who increasingly run our world.

We are at war. Unfortunately, the remnants of the progressive movement are represented by mainstream parties that won't fight, and who have even gone over to the other side.

Our leaders have the same plan for us here: an America run by the big banks and corporations, along with the central bank and a few bright technocrats from Harvard and Stanford, with no role to speak of for democratic governance, the public sector and public investment. They are starving state and local governments, and reducing the labor force to an insecure serfdom which is willing to take direction from the top.

This is why I have such a bee in my bonnet about the prevalence of Central Bankism and monetarist thinking among so-called progressives.

Tom Hickey said...

Well, I didn't find it directly. I was busy yesterday and just left it open to post later. In the meanwhile, I forgot who should get the hat tip.

Matt Franko said...

Dan,

"We are at war. Unfortunately, the remnants of the progressive movement are represented by mainstream parties..."

Good point. Many in the rank and file of the GOP who for instance would agree with much of the progressive agendas of an A. Lincoln, T Roosevelt, Eisenhower, Nixon dont even realize what is being done to them... perhaps wont until it is too late.

Rsp,

David said...

But if they were to enact enough stimulus via money to the states, lower taxes, maybe cutting people checks, preventing foreclosures through legislation, maybe even a JG or some type of modern day public works program… the crisis would be solved and Eurozone "experiment" would be exposed for what it is.

If we enacted such stimulus here it would help the Eurozone considerably, and may even help "paper over" its contradictions. At their big econ summits it has been suggested that the US should do more stimulus since it can. You are correct that it won't happen because the PTB are invested in not allowing an example of Keynesian stimulus to be seen as working. TINA must be enforced at all costs.

jrbarch said...

" — and these are some of the smartest people on the planet".

I think we really need to redefine the meaning of the word intelligence Tom. Based on an understanding of what it means to be human; and the ability to employ the human persona with all of its evolutionary attributes, in discovering that ....! The lust for power is simply an animal trait. Their goal is backwards.

Tom Hickey said...

jrbarch, their behavior makes good sense evolutionarily if humans are just more clever brutes, and the law of the jungle still applies in spite of all the moralizing. Seems many of them think this is the case. They are social Darwinians.

Unforgiven said...

Tom -

It does explain some of the behavior we see. Despite the Bentley and the suit, deep inside there's a chimp that will rip the genitals off of anyone that screws with them. A good fit for transnational corps that need (almost by definition) officers of limited social response-ability. Utimately, diversity is of little value to these sorts if it doesn't result in a market that adds to their bottom like or potentially could contribute.

Unforgiven said...

That should have been:

"...adds to their bottom line..."

jrbarch said...

"...they are social Dawinians"

Or anti-social humans. Hopefully, they "love their children too".

Or 'bulls of the earth' - struggling for domination and damaging the herd (especially the young). These energies are very close to the animal kingdom.

I would start with a human being. You and I, who dwell within an animal body.

What is the purpose of a human being?

We know that over the last 200,000 years, Homo sapiens have been assigned many purposes; by others. And these assigned purposes have been given ‘meaning’ - which maybe we believe and try to fulfill; like dutiful little robots.

As for evolution, for me it is perhaps very UN-scientific, but simple: a human being is a door. Behind that door is an infinite energy. Every step that leads towards that door and on is 'good'; every step that leads away is absent that good. No moralising, no religion, no philosophy, no mathematics, no sociology politics or astrology ect. necessary! Consequences are integral with the system. IDDI!

Appreciate your mind and humour (& Rodger, Mike) in that sense Tom.

y said...

Isn't it also just 'the logic of capital'? To remorselessly seek higher gains and more control. If one person isn't willing to serve that purpose, someone else will be found to take their place.

Tom Hickey said...

Y:"Isn't it also just 'the logic of capital'? To remorselessly seek higher gains and more control. If one person isn't willing to serve that purpose, someone else will be found to take their place."

This is more or less the argument. If we (the good guys of the West) don't do it, then (the bad guys of the East) will.

Capitalism v. socialism, democracy v. totalitarianism, etc. boils down to Western and Northern elite v. Eastern and Southern elite. That's been the geopolitical and geostrategic picture since the Russian Revolution and it has intensified since WWII.

Anonymous said...

Can't we kill central banks and be done with this joke?

Hard money crew was right, only their solution was worse. Ventral banks must be eradicated forever and for good or we will end in a slaved society (well, we are in one already), where democracy has no place.

The sole purpose of an invention like a 'central bank' is to dissociate the economic system from the political system. But we all know this only can work for so long until a crisis unveils and then politics triumphs over capital interest or revolution follows eventually (and the morons end up hanging from light poles in extreme cases).


I think mainstream economists have no damn clue of the monster they have created and how bad it will end backfiring on them with their stupid macroeconomic theories unless things change fast.

y said...

An intriguing quote from Robert Mundell:

"Gone were the days when, with David Ricardo, economists could think of money as a “veil.” The existence of big government and progressive income taxes guarantees non-neutrality."

http://robertmundell.net/nobel-prize/#inflation

Tom Hickey said...

@ y

Right. Mundell got it. As a result of getting it, he wanted to get control of money away from governments into the hands of the bankers, who he regarded as "responsible."

"It puts monetary policy out of the reach of politicians," he said. "[And] without fiscal policy, the only way nations can keep jobs is by the competitive reduction of rules on business."

y said...

More on Mundell's rationale:

"The 1970′s was a decade of inflation, but the 1980′s was a decade of correction and the 1990′s a decade of comparative stability. The experiment with flexible exchange rates in the 1970′s started off as a disaster, from the standpoint of economic stability, but nevertheless, it set in motion a learning mechanism that would not have taken place in its absence. The lesson was that inflation, budget deficits, big debts and big government are all detrimental to public well-being and that the cost of correcting them is so high that no democratic government wants to repeat the experience."

It's worth remembering that monetarism and supply-side both emerged in response to the perceived failure of Keynesian policies in the 1970s.

http://robertmundell.net/nobel-prize

y said...

Although supply-siders are hypocrites because government budget deficits and debts actually increased during the so-called supply-side revolution.