industryterm:finance

The Austrian finance minister, Maria Fekter, described Britain as “the island of the blessed for tax evasion and money laundering” in an interview with her country’s Kurier newspaper on Thursday (11 April).

Comparing the UK and its “protectorates” - micro-states subject to British law - to Cyprus in terms of hosting secretive foundations and trusts, she noted: “Just as we urged the abolition of sealed foundations in the Cyprus rescue to drain the money laundering swamp, we must demand the same of the United Kingdom.”

She added: “We want a trust registry for the Channel Islands, but also for countries where British law applies, such as the Cayman Islands, the [British] Virgin Islands or Gibraltar … These are all areas that are havens for tax evaders.”

▻http://euobserver.com/economic/119781

EU finance ministers demand more austerity at Dublin summit - World Socialist Web Site

▻http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/04/15/euro-a15.html

EU finance ministers demand more austerity at Dublin summit
By Stefan Steinberg
15 April 2013

Despite new data indicating that Europe’s recession will continue into the second half of this year, European finance ministers meeting in Dublin at the end of last week agreed to intensify austerity measures which will deepen the social and economic crisis.
The WSWS needs your support!

#europe #eu #crise #austérité

ISRAEL. Le nouveau ministre des Finances israélien, ex présentateur de télé Yair Lapid dans le collimateur des Israéliens : quand les riches (comme lui) essaient de se mettre à la place des pauvres (ceux qu’il prétend défendre), ils se prennent les pieds dans le tapis !

’Riki Cohen’ is still making trouble for Israel’s Finance Minister Yair Lapid on Facebook Israel News | Haaretz Daily Newspaper

After a passionate post in which the new finance minister used ’Riki Cohen’ of Hadera to illustrate the plight of the average middle class family, a member of the public informed Lapid that the average wage per couple is NIS 12,000, not NIS 20,000 as he had written.
By Jonathan Lis | Apr.05, 2013 | 2:12 PM

▻http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/riki-cohen-is-still-making-trouble-for-yair-lapid-on-facebook.premium-1.513

Finance Minister Yair Lapid has had another embarrassing confrontation on Facebook.

After he published a post on the social-networking site using “the Cohen family” as an example of a middle-class couple struggling to make ends meet on a combined average wage of NIS 20,000 a month, users have criticized him for citing figures higher than the actual national average.

On Thursday, Lapid tried to explain why he had stipulated a relatively high salary for a couple meant to represent the middle class.

“You’re a disgrace! You try living on NIS 4,500 a month,” wrote an angry Facebook user, Ella Voloshin in a comment to the original post. “Go back to where you came from, because there you did less damage to the country.”

In response, Lapid wrote, “The average salary is NIS 9,509. The average gross salary for a couple is around NIS 20,000. That leaves Rikki [Cohen] and her husband around NIS 14,000 [after taxes], and if they’re paying off a mortgage and raising three children it’s not going to be easy for them. I agree that there are people who are much worse off, but without a strong middle class that pays taxes, how will we help the weak? With what money?”

Another user, Oriel Borer, used the same online conversation thread to explain to Lapid that his calculation was far from realistic.

“The anger comes down to the fact that you still don’t understand,” he wrote. “The average salary for a man and the average salary for a woman are different. A woman earns 30 percent less than a man (on average). The Central Bureau of Statistics, which should be as accessible to you as it is to me, checked the average wage of a couple: NIS 12,345, not ’around NIS 20,000.’ If I managed to find this out on Google then so should you. Add to this the fact, which you know as well, that 70 percent earn *less* than the average wage.”

Borer added, with a mix of amusement and frustration that a citizen should have to give basic advice to the finance minister, “If you want any more explanations like these, feel free to contact me or anyone else here on your wall.”

Egypt parliament approves Islamic bond law

▻http://www.alarabiya.net/en/business/2013/03/19/Egypt-parliament-approves-Islamic-bond-law.html

Egypt’s parliament approved on Tuesday a law allowing the issuance of Islamic bonds which could provide the heavily-indebted government with a new form of finance.
(...)
Finance Minister Al-Mursi Al-Sayed Hegazy said last month that Egypt could raise around $10 billion a year from the sukuk market - much more than some analysts expect - but added that it would take at least three months to push through the necessary regulations.

Egypt has never issued a sovereign sukuk. An international issue would help the government replenish its dangerously low foreign currency reserves which dropped to the critical level$13.5 billion in February.

The upper house voted against a demand from the Nour Party, Egypt’s main hardline Islamist group, that the law should be approved by scholars at Al-Azhar, a religious institution which should be consulted on matters related to Islamic law according to a new constitution.
(...)
Food supply is a politically-sensitive issue in Egypt, where rising prices are being passed on to struggling consumers and shortages have provoked unrest in the past. Curbs on bread subsidies triggered bread riots in 1977.

#Egypt #economy #sukuk

Cyprus banks close as bailout terms spark Europe-wide crisis - World Socialist Web Site

▻http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/03/19/cypr-m19.html

Cyprus banks close as bailout terms spark Europe-wide crisis
By Jordan Shilton and Chris Marsden
19 March 2013

The terms attached to the European Union (EU) finance ministers’ bailout for Cypriot banks triggered heavy losses on financial markets that were lessened only on the basis of an expected climb-down.

A vote in Cyprus’s parliament was first postponed from Sunday until Monday, and then until today, as it remained uncertain if President Nikos Anastasiades could win majority backing for the plan. In a statement on national television Saturday, he declared that Nicosia had no other alternative but to accept the terms of the programme if the country was to avert a full financial collapse. He compared the current crisis to the Turkish invasion of the island in 1974, which led to partition.

Chypre #crise-bancaire

#banksters Hold up du siècle : un upgrade imposé pour la zone #euro

Le Figaro - Conjoncture : Chypre : un sauvetage inédit à 10 milliards d’euros
▻http://www.lefigaro.fr/conjoncture/2013/03/16/20002-20130316ARTFIG00293-chypre-un-sauvetage-inedit-a-10-milliards-d-euros

La zone euro et le FMI ont trouvé dans la nuit de vendredi à samedi un accord sur un plan d’aide. En échange, Nicosie va instaurer une taxe exceptionnelle sur les dépôts bancaires, qui rapportera près de 6 milliards d’euros.

George Osborne politicien conservateur britannique se pose en donneur de leçons mais les citoyens du Royaume Uni expatriés à Chypre risquent bien de « manger » #je_me_marre

▻http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2294388/Cyprus-bailout-Osborne-vows-protect-Britains-armed-forces-Cyprus-cash-m

George Osborne vowed today that those serving in Britain’s military or government in Cyprus will be protected after European finance chiefs ordered an unprecedented raid on personal bank accounts.

Up to 60,000 British savers are to lose thousands of pounds each as expats in Cyprus have their savings decimated in part of a painful bid to bail out the bankrupt island.

The Chancellor said the financial situation in Cyprus was ‘an example of what happens if you don’t show the world that you can pay your way’, adding: ‘We are not part of the bailout.’

#la_grande_perdition

HBS study reveals that Harvard’s MBA alumni perceive management as high-quality if it succeeds in meeting quarterly numbers and getting stock prices up, even if it fails wider and longer term competitive goals - ▻http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2013/03/10/the-surprising-reasons-why-america-lost-its-ability-to-compete #finance #management

Likud sources: Netanyahu offered Yacimovich finance portfolio Israel News | Haaretz Daily Newspaper
▻http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/likud-sources-netanyahu-offered-yacimovich-finance-portfolio.premium-1.5038

La guerre des monnaies plane sur le G 20

World Socialist Web Site

▻http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/02/15/pers-f15.html

Currency wars hang over G20 meeting
15 February 2013

The meeting of G20 finance ministers and central bankers in Moscow over the next two days is being held amid a deep contradiction in the global capitalist economy.

On the one hand a certain stability has returned to financial markets, at least temporarily, with stock markets on the rise, while, on the other hand, economic growth continues to stagnate. Large sections of the world are at or near recession and the developed countries are now fighting over what the Financial Times described as “slivers of economic growth”.

President Mursi, IMF prepare austerity policies in Egypt - World Socialist Web Site

►http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/01/09/egyp-j09.html

President Mursi, IMF prepare austerity policies in Egypt

By Johannes Stern
9 January 2013

On Monday Egypt’s Islamist government greeted International Monetary Fund (IMF) officials in Cairo to discuss terms of a $4.8 billion loan. President Mohamed Mursi, Prime Minister Hisham Kandil and new Egyptian finance minister Al-Mursi El-Sayed Hegazy met with IMF Middle East and Central Asia Department Director Masood Ahmed.

Both sides announced their commitment to conclude the deal in the coming weeks, and a technical team of the IMF will arrive in Cairo in the coming days. Hegazy, a US-trained economist appointed as finance minister by Mursi in a cabinet reshuffle on Sunday, announced that he was “completely ready to complete discussions” with the IMF.

Finance et changement de vie via @anybody #vie #evoluer
►http://www.lesechos.fr/entreprises-secteurs/finance-marches/actu/0202477375040-ces-ex-financiers-qui-ont-change-de-vie-526122.php?xtor=AL-40

Greece in the grip of the EU

►http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/nov2012/pers-n22.shtml
22 November 2012

On Tuesday, EU finance ministers again delayed payment of the next tranche of financial aid to Greece, which is due since this summer. The decision is now supposed to be reached next Monday.

The delay is a result of serious differences between the major powers involved, including the European governments and the International Monetary Fund. In particular, the German government is refusing to agree to a relaxation of harsh loan conditions. Although Greece has now imposed five rounds of austerity measures, resulting in budget surpluses, overall debt continues to rise since gigantic sums are flowing to the creditors.

Meet William Hauck (of Golden Pacific Bank / Blue Shield of California / California State University / California Forward / Goddard Claussen )

Golden Pacific Bank Profile of Director William Hauck:

“William Hauck is the Senior Advisor at Goddard Claussen/West. Based in the firms Sacramento office, he provides strategic counsel to its clients. He recently retired as President and CEO of the California Business Roundtable. In that capacity, Mr. Hauck is responsible for all operations of the organization. The Roundtable was created to provide policy leadership at the state level regarding the maintenance of a sound economy and business climate in California and is composed of the chief executive and senior operating officers of major corporations doing business in the state.

Bill Hauck most recently served as President and CEO of the California Business Roundtable. Hauck led the organization from 1996 to 2011. Prior to that, he held a number of executive positions in state government including Deputy Chief of Staff to Governor Pete Wilson, Chief of Staff to two Assembly Speakers and Director of the Assembly Office of Research. Mr. Hauck also chaired the state’s Constitution Revision Commission (appointed by Governor Pete Wilson) and served as Co-Chair of the California Performance Review Commission (appointed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger).

Mr. Hauck currently serves as a member of the Board of Trustees of the California State University system where he chairs the board of directors’ finance committee. He served as Chairman of the Board of Trustees from 1998 to 2000. Mr. Hauck also serves on the board of directors of Blue Shield of California, where he chairs the nomination and governance committee, and serves on the finance and investment and compensation committees.”

Source: ►http://www.yourbankingsolution.com/about-us/management.html

TLR Notes:

1. In addition to Mr. Hauck, also serving as directors at Golden Pacific Bank are CaliforniaALL’s Pat Fong Kushida, Richard Claussen, and Donna Lucas — who may have abruptly quit recently)

2. Golden Pacific Banks does not mention Hauck’s involvement with California Forward.

3. Ally of MTO’s Jeffrey Bleich vis a vis California State University.

–--------------------------------------------------------

CSU Profile:
William Hauck

Chair (1998-2000), Board of Trustees
Vice Chair (1996-98), Board of Trustees
Member, Board of Trustees (1993-2017)
The California State University

Mr. Hauck joined Goddard Claussen/West as Senior Advisor in late 2011. Prior to joining GC/West, Hauck served as President and CEO of the California Business Roundtable and was responsible for all operations of the organization. The Roundtable is headquartered in Sacramento and is composed of the Chief Executive and Senior Operating Officers of major corporations doing business in the state. The organization’s mission is to provide policy leadership at the state level regarding the maintenance of a sound economy and business climate in California. He served in this capacity from 1996 to 2011.

Prior to joining the Roundtable Hauck was Executive Vice-President and major shareholder of Information for Public Affairs Inc., a Sacramento based national information services company now owned by Lexis/Nexis. Hauck also has held a number of executive positions in state government including Deputy Chief of Staff to the Governor, Chief of Staff to two Assembly Speakers and Director of the Assembly Office of Research. Hauck also chaired the state’s Constitution Revision Commission (appointed by Governor Pete Wilson) and as Co-Chair of the California Performance Review Commission (appointed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger).

Mr. Hauck serves on the Board of Directors of Blue Shield of California. He is currently Chair of the Nomination and Corporate Government Committee and also serves on the Compensation Committee.

Additionally, Hauck is a member of the Board of Directors of the Blue Shield of California Foundation and chairs the Audit Committee.

Mr. Hauck received a B.A. in social science from San José State University (1963).
Source: ►http://www.calstate.edu/BOT/bios/hauck.shtml

–-----------------------------------------------------

California Forward Profile:

Bill Hauck is a senior advisor at Goddard Claussen/West and the former president of the California Business Roundtable, a statewide nonpartisan organization which brings the leadership of California’s top chief executive officers to public policy issues affecting the state’s business climate, economic growth and quality of life.

Mr. Hauck also is a founder, major shareholder and a member of the board of directors of Information for Public Affairs Inc., also known as State Net. State Net maintains a database of legislation introduced in 50 states and Congress.

Mr. Hauck previously served as deputy chief of staff for Governor Pete Wilson and was chairman of the California Constitution Revision Commission. Earlier in his career, he served as chief of staff to Assembly Speakers Bob Moretti and Willie L. Brown, Jr. Additionally, Mr. Hauck was a consultant to the Assembly Committee on Governmental Organization, director of the Assembly Office of Research, and assistant city manager of Palo Alto.

Mr. Hauck serves as a member of the board of trustees of the California State University system, which he chaired for two years, and serves as chairman of the board’s finance committee. He also serves on the board of directors of Blue Shield of California and on the board of the Blue Shield of California Foundation. Mr. Hauck also served on the board of the California Journal, a monthly nonpartisan analysis of government and politics in California.

Source:

►http://www.cafwd.org/pages/william-hauck

TLR Note:

Also directors are Donna Lucas, CETF’s Sunne McPeak, CCPF’s Stweart Kwoh,

–--------------------------------------------------------

Blue Shield of California Foundation Profile:

Bill Hauck is Senior Advisor to Goddard/Claussen West, a Sacramento-based highly-regarded public affairs and ballot measure campaign firm.

Mr. Hauck recently stepped down as President of the California Business Roundtable, a statewide, non-partisan organization composed of senior operating officers of California’s leading corporations. He had held the position since November 1996.

Mr. Hauck’s Sacramento-based career has included stints in business and state government. Until its November 2010 sale to Lexis/Nexis, he was a major shareholder and member of the Board of Directors of State Net, a national information services company providing data on legislation introduced in 50 states and Congress.

Mr. Hauck also has served as Chairman of the California Constitution Revision Commission and Deputy Chief of Staff for Governor Pete Wilson. Earlier in his career he served as Chief of Staff to Assembly Speakers Bob Moretti and Willie Brown Jr. More recently, Mr. Hauck served as Co-Chair of Governor Schwarzenegger’s California Performance Review Commission.

Mr. Hauck serves as a member of the Board of Trustees of the California State University system. He chaired the Board from 1998 to 2000. Originally appointed by Governor Wilson, he was reappointed by Governors Gray Davis and Arnold Schwarzenegger and is now serving a third eight-year term. He currently is Chairman of the Board’s Finance Committee.

In addition, Mr. Hauck serves on the Board of Directors of Blue Shield of California and the Board of Trustees of Blue Shield of California Foundation. He also is a member of the Board of Directors of Golden Pacific Bancorp and California Forward.

Mr. Hauck is a graduate of San Jose State University and participated in the CORO Foundation Internship in Public Affairs.

Source: ►http://www.blueshieldcafoundation.org/about/board/william-hauck

Développement Microfinance Finance Multinationales

Banksters Hijack Microfinance

►http://www.globalpolicy.org/social-and-economic-policy/financing-for-development-1-45/general-analysis-on-financing-for-development/51787-banksters-hijack-microfinance.html?itemid=id#45762

By Julio Godoy
IPS
July 27, 2012

Two recent studies show that microfinance has turned into a multi-billion-dollar business, dragging the poor into speculative market dynamics and generating a dependency on international financing and actors. Banks and funds use microcredit—operated through local partners— to charge exorbitant interest rates of up to 200 percent. The aggressive collection practices have driven the poor to prostitution, child labor, suicide, and nationwide revolts. The reports criticize the general lack of strategy, vision, accountability, and regulation in the microfinance industry, which is no longer a self-reliant development process but rather a profit making scheme for global private finance companies.

For several decades, microcredit presented itself as a magical and benign financial tool for the poorest people in the world, who were otherwise completely excluded from conventional commercial banking services, to secure easy access to loans in order to set up their own businesses and live a dignified life.

Such was the hype surrounding the concept of microfinance that in 2006 its leading practitioners, the Bangladeshi economist Muhammad Yunus and his Grameen bank, received the Nobel Peace prize for, as the Nobel Foundation in Stockholm put it, “their efforts through microcredit to create economic and social development from below.”

Such prestige quickly lured activists, investors, and tycoons like Bill Gates, George Soros, Bono, William and Hillary Clinton and even the Queen of Spain, to fund and endorse microfinance projects around the world.

BREAKING NEWS: Big Red Flag Raised Over United States Ambassador to Australia “Bundler” Jeffrey Bleich Amid Revelations Bleich Founding Member and Co-Chair of Barack Obama’s National Finance Committee in 2007-2008

A big red flag has been raised over Jeffrey Bleich, TLR has learned.

Sources with knowledge of the inquiry, speaking on condition of anonymity, maintain an unusually somber YR reluctantly raised a big red-flag over Bleich due to the overall circumstances surrounding the sub-rosa transfer of whopping $780,000.00 from the California Bar Foundation to CaliforniaALL during a time period Bleich was serving as a founding member and co-chair of Obama’s national finance committee.

The sources declined to provide specific details.

According to a Center for Responsive Politics analysis, Bleich bundled at least $500,000 for Obama’s presidential run. (Bundlers are people who ask friends, associates, and well, anyone who’s willing to give, and then deliver the checks to a candidate in one big “bundle.”)

Bleich has worked as a lawyer for nearly 15 years in the San Francisco office of Munger, Tolles & Olson and served as a member of both the Board of Governors and the California Bar Foundation’s board during the period of the sub rosa transfer of $780,000.

Bleich is a friend of President Obama, and presently serves as the U.S. Ambassador to Australia.

As matters presently stand, prima facie evidence creates the appearance of a sophisticated financial scheme executed in 2008 involving Democratic party operatives James Brosnahan of Morrison & Foerster, Jeffrey Bleich , Assistant Attorney General Derek Anthony West (aka Tony West), Judy Johnson, Chris Young, as well as others to misuse the $780,000 originating from the California Bar Foundation by improperly transferring money from California Bar Foundation to Barack Obama’s coffers.

According to the sources, in 2007-2008:

–James Brosnahan, the self proclaimed “mastermind behind the Democratic Party” (and former prosecutor of Caspar Weinberger), while associated with Morrison & Foerster executed from behind the scenes a scheme known as CaliforniaALL, which collected “hush-hush” sub rosa funds totaling approximately $780,000 from the Foundation of the State Bar of California.

–Chris Young, while associated with Morrison & Foerster, served as Barack Obama’s Northern California Deputy Finance Director.

–Tony West, while associated with Morrison & Foerster, served as Barack Obama’s California Co-Chair of the California Finance Committee.

–Susan MacCormac, while associated with Morrison & Foerster, legally created the entity known as CaliforniaALL and served as its legal counsel.

–Annette Carnegie, while associated with Morrison & Foerster, served as a board member of the California Bar Foundation during the period of the sub rosa transfer of the above-referenced $780,000.

–Jeffrey Bleich, while associated with Munger Tolles & Olsen, served as a member of both the Board of Governors and the California Bar Foundation’s board during the period of the sub rosa transfer of $780,000. Bleich is a friend of President Obama who presently serves as the U.S. Ambassador to Australia.

During Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign, Bleich was a founding member and co-chair of Obama’s national finance committee, co-chair of Obama’s higher education advisory board, and California co-chair. He donated to Hillary Rodham Clinton and raised funds for her to retire her campaign’s debt after the Democratic primary . (from Wikipedia)

Verizon Communications (which heavily contributed to CaliforniaALL) is a client of Munger Tules & Olson, where Bleich serves as partner.

The California Bar Foundation is maintained and controlled by the Board of Governors of the State Bar of California — which is largely comprised of California Democratic Party operatives such as “Shakedown Artist” Gwen Moore of Shrimpscam ; Jeannine English — the wife of controversial gambling attorney and Democratic Party operative Howard Dickstein ; “Gay Godfather” Dennis Manger; Democratic Party operative Joseph Lawrence Dunn (aka Joe Dunn) of Voice of OC ; Nancy Fineman, a partner at the firm of Democratic party operative Joe Cotchett; and Jon Streeter, President of the California State Bar Board of Governors and a partner at the firm of Democratic Party operative John Keker, former prosecutor of Oliver North.

The State Bar of California has been involved in numerous financial scandals, the most notable of which involved the prolonged embezzlement of close to $900,000 by employee Sherri Pearl (who many believed was in cahoots with Executive Director Judy Johnson) , as well as the scandal involving Geoffrey Brown (former CPUC Commissioner) and Judy Johnson, as a result of which close to $30 million in fines and settlements the CPUC imposed on utility companies was funneled to the California Consumer Protection Foundation (“CCPF”), an entity for which Judy Johnson secretly served as its president. From there, CCPF funneled most of the money to ACORN-like entities in South Los Angeles — Gwen Moore’s territory — and to an entity associated with Michael Shames in San Diego which is presently under grand jury investigation.

Greece: The program of Syriza
►http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/may2012/syri-m19.shtml

The austerity measures in Greece are part of an international offensive of finance capital against the social gains of the working class, which has escalated dramatically since the financial crisis in 2008 and affects all capitalist countries—from the United States, England, Spain and Italy to France and Germany.

An inflationary policy—as now called for by the US and British governments—would merely continue such attacks in another form. The “Growth Pact” currently being discussed in the EU, and on which Tsipras is clearly setting his hopes, consists of providing additional funds for ailing banks and “structural reforms” to improve competitiveness, i.e. flexible working conditions and lower wages. Cuts in public spending would continue unabated.

Should Syriza actually win the Greek election, it would play an important role in the enforcement of such attacks. Looking at Syriza’s European sister parties—Communist Refoundation in Italy, the Left Party in Germany, the Left Front in France—they have all participated in the attacks on the working class whenever they have participated in government.

Can an Algorithm Write a Better News Story Than a Human Reporter? | Wired
►http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/04/can-an-algorithm-write-a-better-news-story-than-a-human-reporter/all/1

Narrative Science’s writing engine requires several steps. First, it must amass high-quality data. That’s why finance and sports are such natural subjects: Both involve the fluctuations of numbers (...) to turn that analysis into prose? The company has hired a team of “meta-writers,” trained journalists who have built a set of templates. They work with the engineers to coach the computers to identify various “angles” from the data. (...)

Then comes the structure. Most news stories, particularly about subjects like sports or finance, hew to a pretty predictable formula, and so it’s a relatively simple matter for the meta-writers to create a framework for the articles. To construct sentences, the algorithms use vocabulary compiled by the meta-writers.

(...)

The Narrative Science team also lets clients customize the tone of the stories. “You can get anything, from something that sounds like a breathless financial reporter screaming from a trading floor to a dry sell-side researcher pedantically walking you through it,” says Jonathan Morris, COO of a financial analysis firm called Data Explorers, which set up a securities newswire using Narrative Science technology.

#robot #journalisme #écriture #data #spam

Le plan de bataille des financiers | Grégory Salomonovitch (Là-bas si j’y suis)
►http://www.la-bas.org/article.php3?id_article=2435

What if democracy is just an illusion? - Opinion - Al Jazeera English
►http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/03/2012311123627435712.html

It’s hard to imagine a better illustration of Marx’s theory of the ruling class than Citizens United, the 2010 case brought before the US Supreme Court in which the majority decided that political action committees (or PACs) cannot be subject to campaign finance laws. PACs do not formally represent candidates and instead, express their own political views. So the money they spend is more like free speech. Therefore, political money is speech protected by the US Constitution’s First Amendment.

In theory, this is an egalitarian ruling. Any citizen can spend any amount of money to promote or attack any issue they want. But we don’t live in an egalitarian society. As Gore Vidal has said, America is a very good place to live if you have money and property. Not so much if you don’t.

Now we have 364 so-called super PACs dominating the national political dialogue as candidates compete for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination. These organisations can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money as long as they don’t explicitly endorse or challenge a specific candidate. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, they have raised more than $130m in 2012 and spent almost $75m on attack advertisements carried over broadcast, cable and radio. Of that total amount, 25 per cent comes from just five people.

What these ads say is less important than their results, one of which is the curious political phenomenon of the zombie candidate. Without a billionaire casino tycoon who keeps obligingly writing checks to a super PAC, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich would have quit a long time ago. Then there are candidates like Mitt Romney who need not be especially good at being candidates. Romney is preternaturally unable to ignite the party’s base, yet he continues winning primaries because his backer, a super PAC called Restore Our Future, has spent $37m in two and a half months, more than any sum spent on any candidate in any election ever.

Some super PACs don’t even support candidates, but instead attack incumbents. The Campaign for Primary Accountability is spending millions to oust representatives who’d otherwise be safe. Political activity, moreover, isn’t restricted to super PACs. Americans for Prosperity, officially a “non-profit advocacy group”, has supported Tea Party candidates and has launched propaganda campaigns in Wisconsin that touted Governor Scott Walker’s austerity measures and newly passed anti-union laws. Americans for Prosperity is funded by libertarians Charles and David Koch, brothers whose combined worth is estimated to be about $50bn. Instead of targeting politicians vying for public office, the Kochs are taking aim at ordinary middle-class workers who might otherwise have reason to believe in the American Dream.

Columnist EJ Dionne of the Washington Post summed it up when he wrote:

Oh, yes, it works nicely for the wealthiest and most powerful people in the country, especially if they want to shroud their efforts to influence politics behind shell corporations. It just doesn’t happen to work if you think we are a democracy and not a plutocracy.

And perhaps there’s the real problem. If you believe the US is a democracy, if you believe in the rule of the many and not the rule of the few, then the Citizens United ruling could not be more troubling. But what if this is not a democracy? What if this, as Dionne suggests, is an oligarchy of billionaire capitalists? More horrible to ponder, what if democracy is yet more intellectual cover, another one of those illusions, for the exploitation of American workers?

Then the theory of the ruling class fits perfectly. Citizens United and the United States were made for each other.

A Christmas bonus for European financial elite—austerity for the masses
Un joyeux Noël pour les banques qui s’offrent un open bar sur note dos !
►http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/dec2011/euro-d23.shtml

What is notable about the decision of the ECB, however, is that not a cent of its latest loans goes toward bailing out endangered European economies. Instead, the entire sum has been awarded to the banks and will benefit only those major bank stockholders, hedge fund managers and finance speculators whose criminal activities have wreaked so much havoc with European economies in the first place. The ECB loans will strengthen the hand of the very same financial elite that is demanding the implementation of drastic austerity measures across Europe.

Why Iceland Should Be in the News, But Is Not | Truthout
►http://www.truth-out.org/why-iceland-should-be-news-not/1322327303

But Icelanders didn’t stop there: they decided to draft a new constitution that would free the country from the exaggerated power of international finance and virtual money. […]

Today, that country is recovering from its financial collapse in ways just the opposite of those generally considered unavoidable, as confirmed yesterday by the new head of the IMF, Christine Lagarde to Fareed Zakaria. The people of Greece have been told that the privatization of their public sector is the only solution. And those of Italy, Spain and Portugal are facing the same threat.

They should look to Iceland. Refusing to bow to foreign interests, that small country stated loud and clear that the people are sovereign.  

That’s why it is not in the news anymore.

Shift Magazine » Features » Occupied with conspiracies? The Occupy Movement, Populist Anti-Elitism, and the Conspiracy Theorists
►http://shiftmag.co.uk/?p=512

All progressive social movements have dark sides, but some are more prone to them than others. Occupy Wall Street and its spin-offs, with their populist, anti-elitist discourse (“We Are the 99%”) and focus on finance capital, have already attracted all kinds of unsavory friends: antisemites, David Duke and White Nationalists, Oath Keepers, Tea Partiers, and followers of David Icke, Lyndon Larouche, and the Zeitgeist movement (see glossary below).

[..]

On one hand, this can be seem as a vague kind of socialism which counterposes the everyday worker against the truly rich. But it also lacks any kind of specific analysis of class or other social differences—the 99% are treated as one homogenous body. Usually the “people” are seen as the “nation,” and these 1% elites are perceived to be acting against the nation’s interests. From a radical, anti-capitalist viewpoint, this narrative may be wrong and “incomplete,” but by itself is not dangerous. In fact, many progressive and even socialist political movements have been based on it.

But the populist narrative is also an integral part of the political views of conspiracy theorists, far Right activists, and antisemites. For antisemites, the elites are the Jews; for David Icke, the elites are the reptilians; for nationalists, they are members of minority ethnic, racial, or religious groups; for others, they are the “globalists,” the Illuminati, the Trilateral Commission, the Freemasons, the Federal Reserve, etc. All of these various conspiracy theories also tend to blend in and borrow from each other. Additionally, the focus on “Wall Street” also has specific appeal to those who see the elite as represented by finance capital, a particular obsession of the antisemites, Larouchites, followers of David Icke, etc. “The Rothschilds” are the favorite stand-in codeword of choice to refer to the supposed Jewish control of the banking system.

Much has already been said about the Occupy movement’s refusal to elucidate its demands. On one hand, this has been useful in mobilizing a diverse group of people who can project what they want to see in this movement—anarchists, Marxists, liberals, Greens, progressive religious practitioners, etc. On the other hand, this has been useful in mobilizing a diverse group of people who can project what they want to see in this movement—Ron Paulists, libertarians, antisemites, followers of David Icke, Zeitgeist movement folks, Larouchites, Tea Partiers, White Nationalists, and others. The discourse about the “99%” (after all, these Right-wingers and conspiracy mongers are probably a far greater proportion of the actual 99% than are anarchists and Marxists), along with the Occupy movement’s refusal to set itself on a firm political footing and correspondingly to place limitations on involvement by certain political actors, has created a welcoming situation for these noxious political elements to join.

#China makes ’secret eurozone commitment’
►http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iBRob0OawaJvUzS2xkMrLLWvbQuQ?docId=CNG.ac61265bedd2a8109263975ce8276c0

China has made a “secret commitment” to prop up the crisis-hit eurozone in return for budget reforms and public sector cuts, the Sunday Times reported, amid ongoing turmoil over the region’s debt crisis.
The paper said Chinese representatives at the Paris G20 finance gathering on Saturday had indicated that Beijing was willing to pump tens of billions into the eurozone to purchase infrastructure assets from debt-plagued nations.

#europe #dette

Goldman Sachs let off paying £10m interest on failed tax avoidance scheme | Business | The Guardian
►http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/oct/11/goldman-sachs-interest-tax-avoidance
#finance

Casino Financier
►http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DjBVeouPTk