by Noam Chomsky
The Irish Times
Fri, Oct 10, 2008
Bretton Woods was the system of global financial management set up at the end of the second World War to ensure the interests of capital did not smother wider social concerns in post-war democracies. It was hated by the US neoliberals – the very people who created the banking crisis writes Noam Chomsky
THE SIMULTANEOUS unfolding of the US presidential campaign and unravelling of the financial markets presents one of those occasions where the political and economic systems starkly reveal their nature.
Passion about the campaign may not be universally shared but almost everybody can feel the anxiety from the foreclosure of a million homes, and concerns about jobs, savings and healthcare at risk.
The initial Bush proposals to deal with the crisis so reeked of totalitarianism that they were quickly modified. Under intense lobbyist pressure, they were reshaped as “a clear win for the largest institutions in the system . . . a way of dumping assets without having to fail or close”, as described by James Rickards, who negotiated the federal bailout for the hedge fund Long Term Capital Management in 1998, reminding us that we are treading familiar turf. The immediate origins of the current meltdown lie in the collapse of the housing bubble supervised by Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan, which sustained the struggling economy through the Bush years by debt-based consumer spending along with borrowing from abroad. But the roots are deeper. In part they lie in the triumph of financial liberalisation in the past 30 years – that is, freeing the markets as much as possible from government regulation.
[…]
via Anti-democratic nature of US capitalism is being exposed – The Irish Times – Fri, Oct 10, 2008
FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
see
Noam Chomsky: The United States Has Essentially a One-Party System
Who is Behind the Financial Meltdown? by Michel Chossudovsky
Jim Rogers: Nobody has any confidence in this clowns
Kucinich: If it’s just about the banks and not about the homeowners, forget about it!
Protest at the Bank of England: No Bail Out for the Bosses
Exclusive: The Big Grab, Part I by The Other Katherine Harris
Dandelion Salad 
Pingback: The Birth of the Global Dictatorship « Dandelion Salad
Pingback: Chomsky: Current crisis demonstrates anti-democratic nature of financial system « Dandelion Salad
Pingback: Chomsky: Pick the lesser of two evils « Dandelion Salad
Pingback: The Financial Crisis 2008 Interview with Noam Chomsky « Dandelion Salad
Pingback: Capitalism Hits the Fan « Dandelion Salad
Pingback: The panic of 2008 by Lee Sustar « Dandelion Salad
Pingback: Chomsky: If I were in a swing state, I’d vote for Obama « Dandelion Salad
As always, Professor Chomsky puts everything into proper historical perspective.
Pingback: Rolling the Dice on Derivatives by Ralph Nader « Dandelion Salad
Pingback: Berlusconi Says Leaders May Close World’s Markets « Dandelion Salad