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Bankers Gear Up for the Rape of Greece, as Social Democrats Vote for National Suicide
The fight for Europe’s future is being waged in Athens and other Greek cities to resist financial demands that are the 21st century’s version of an outright military attack. The threat of bank overlordship is not the kind of economy-killing policy that affords opportunities for heroism in armed battle, to be sure. Destructive financial policies are more like an exercise in the banality of evil – in this case, the pro-creditor assumptions of the European Central Bank (ECB), EU and IMF (egged on by the U.S. Treasury).
As Vladimir Putin pointed out some years ago, the neoliberal reforms put in Boris Yeltsin’s hands by the Harvard Boys in the 1990s caused Russia to suffer lower birth rates, shortening life spans and emigration – the greatest loss in population growth since World War II. Capital flight is another consequence of financial austerity. The ECB’s proposed “solution” to Greece’s debt problem is thus self-defeating. It only buys time for the ECB to take on yet more Greek government debt, leaving all EU taxpayers to get the bill. It is to avoid this shift of bank losses onto taxpayers that Angela Merkel in Germany has insisted that private bondholders must absorb some of the loss resulting from their bad investments.
The bankers are trying to get a windfall by using the debt hammer to achieve what warfare did in times past. They are demanding privatization of public assets (on credit, with tax deductibility for interest so as to leave more cash flow to pay the bankers). This transfer of land, public utilities and interest as financial booty and tribute to creditor economies is what makes financial austerity like war in its effect.
Socrates said that ignorance must be the root of all evil, because no one deliberately sets out to be bad. But the economic “medicine” of driving debtors into poverty and forcing the selloff of their public domain has become socially accepted wisdom taught in today’s business schools. One would think that after fifty years of austerity programs and privatization selloffs to pay bad debts, the world has learned enough about causes and consequences.
Read more: www.counterpunch.org/hudson06242011.html
By MICHAEL HUDSON
Photos from the Revolution in Greece
cryptome.org/info/greece-protest4/greece-protest4.htm
cryptome.org/info/greece-protest/greece-protest.htm
Three years ago, I told you that Wall Street's newest invention - credit default swaps - would cause a major financial crash.
Now, I'll concede that credit default swaps (CDS) weren't the only cause of the financial meltdown that brought about the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings (OTC: LEHMQ) and nearly brought down American International Group Inc. (NYSE: AIG). But these financial derivatives were a major exacerbating factor - which is why I also warned that credit default swaps should be banned.
Just three years later, we're embroiled in yet another financial crisis. But the stakes have grown: This time around we're talking about entire countries - and not just banks - defaulting on their debt. Not surprisingly, credit default swaps are once again at center stage.
Just yesterday (Monday), in fact, the possibility of a Greek-debt default drove spreads on Western European credit default swaps up to record levels, providing even more profits for those speculating against the overall health of the Western financial system. Those profits for speculators increase the overall losses in the world financial system whenever something goes wrong, creating the possibility that even moderate "credit events" could collapse the whole shaky edifice.
If Washington had heeded my warnings back before the first global financial crisis, you and I would be much better off today.
BY MARTIN HUTCHINSON, Contributing Editor, Money Morning
moneymorning.com/2011/06/28/credit-default-swaps-why-wash...
New Westminster Sub Post Office No. 6, B,C., Canada to Muizenberg, Cape Town, South Africa, 24 July 1939
17 cents Empire letter rate for 8 ounces + 10 cents registration fee + (1 cent overpayment) = 28 cents
3 cents first ounce
14 cents for next 7 ounces @ 2 cents per ounce
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NEW WESTMINSTER SUB 6
1922 to 1951
F (Post Office formerly named) - Central Park (2) second opening (1 December 1911 to 1 January 1922) - Link - www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/postal-heritage-philately/...;
C (Post Office renamed) - Vancouver Sub 88 (1951 to present) - Link - www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/postal-heritage-philately/...;
Link to information on New Westminster Sub Post Office No. 6 - www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/postal-heritage-philately/...;
The Postmaster at New Westminster Sub Post Office No. 6 was B. F. Whitteker (b. 18 July 1900) who served from - 19 January 1926 to 17 January 1958.
Burns "Burnys" Frederick Whitteker (b. 18 July 1900 in Avonmore, Ontario, Canada – d. 18 January 1958 at age 57 in Vancouver, B.C.) his occupation was listed as "Druggist".
His wife was - Mabel Ethel Long (b. December 1899 in Charfield, England – Deceased) - they were married - 7 November 1928 in Vancouver, B.C.
The New Westminster Sub Post Office No. 6 was located in "Burnys" Whitteker's Central Park Pharmacy Drugstore on 4525 Kingsway in Burnaby, B.C. in the 1930's.
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sent from - / • NEW WESTMINSTER • B.C. • / JUL 24 / 39 / SUB. No 6 / - cds hammer (B-1) - not listed in the Proof Book.
/ R / NEW WESTMINSTER, B. C. / SUB No. 6 / ORIGINAL No. (559) / - registered marking (R Box-1) first line in italic (slanted) in bluish green ink.
via - / NEW WESTMINSTER / 18 / JUL 24 / 39 / B.C. / - cds transit backstamp.
via - / VANCOUVER / JUL 24 / 39 / B.C. / - cds transit backstamp
via - / • MONTREAL CANADA • / 16 JUL 26 / B & F DIV / - cds transit - - Montreal British Mail Branch cancels - “British & Foreign-Airmail” and “British & Foreign-Registered”.
arrival - / MUIZENBERG / 11 AUG * 39 / - cds receiver backstamp - (it took 3+ weeks by sea)
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Registered letter addressed to: Mr. Charles J. Stiles / 9 Beach Court / Muizenberg / Cape Town / South Africa
Muizenberg (Dutch for "mice mountain") is a beach-side suburb of Cape Town, South Africa. It is situated where the shore of the Cape Peninsula curves round to the east on the False Bay coast. It is considered to be the main surfing spot in Cape Town and is currently home to a surfing community, centered on the popular 'Surfer's Corner'.