Workers of the World Unite
The “Moneymen” are Coming
Be afraid; be very afraid; the “moneymen” are coming. Casino-type raw capitalism is bad for your health, bad for your old age, bad for the education of your children. The power of capital is global, financiers, bankers, private equity funds, the IMF, the World Bank, in short the “moneymen”, are not constrained by borders or the sovereignty of a state. They are traversing the globe dictating what governments must do to gain their approval. Ordinary people worldwide are at their mercy.
They demand policies and actions from governments that lead to millions of mainly young people joining the unemployed; the figures for youth unemployment (16 to 24-year-olds) currently are: US 20%, United Kingdom 20%, Greece 36%, Spain 44%, Ireland 29%, Portugal 28%, Italy 29%. They demand governments cut their spending. The hardships and the misery of
How the Bailout Killed Local Lending — and How Some States Hope to Bring It Back
Wall Street banks have cut back on small business lending… [by] more than double the cutback in overall lending.… [Small business] options just keep disappearing.
— Elizabeth Warren, Chair of the TARP Congressional Oversight Panel
The Wall Street bailout of 2008 has radically altered the banking business. The bailout was supposed to keep credit flowing to Main Street, but it has wound up having the opposite effect. Small and medium-sized businesses have traditionally been the main engines for increasing employment, and they need bank credit for their working capital; but today credit to local businesses has collapsed nearly everywhere.
That’s why so many states—the total is now fourteen—are considering turning to state-owned banks to get local credit flowing again.
The Bailout that Missed Main Street
The credit collapse of September 2008 was triggered by the speculative activities of giant Wall Street banks. These profligate banks, which would have gone bankrupt without federal support, have emerged from the crisis bigger and more powerful than before. The federal government has supported and subsidized bank consolidation,