Greece is a Nation Under Occupation by Andrew Gavin Marshall

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by Andrew Gavin Marshall
Writer, Dandelion Salad
andrewgavinmarshall.com
July 16, 2015

In the early hours of Thursday morning, July 16, the Greek Parliament passed a host of austerity measures in order to begin talks on a potential third bailout of 86 billion euros. The austerity measures were pushed onto the Parliament by Greece’s six-month-old leftist government of Syriza, elected in late January with a single mandate to oppose austerity. So what exactly happened over the past six months that the first anti-austerity government elected in Europe has now passed a law implementing further austerity measures?

The Problem of Greece is Not Only a Tragedy. It is a Lie. by John Pilger + Grexit or Jubilee? How Greek Debt Could Be Annulled by Ellen Brown

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Dandelion Salad

by John Pilger
crossposted from johnpilger.com
July 14, 2015

An historic betrayal has consumed Greece. Having set aside the mandate of the Greek electorate, the Syriza government has willfully ignored last week’s landslide “No” vote and secretly agreed a raft of repressive, impoverishing measures in return for a “bailout” that means sinister foreign control and a warning to the world.

“Guerrilla Warfare Against a Hegemonic Power”: The Challenge and Promise of Greece by Ellen Brown + Hudson: Capitalism & Government Debt at Odds

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by Ellen Brown
Writer, Dandelion Salad
The Web of Debt Blog
July 10, 2015

Banks create money when they make loans. Greece could restore the liquidity desperately needed by its banks and its economy by nationalizing the banks and issuing digital loans backed by government guarantees to its ailing businesses. Greece could provide an inspiring model of sustainable prosperity for the world. But it is being strangled by a hegemonic power in a financial war that is being waged against us all.

Greece Rejects the Troika. What’s Next? by Michael Hudson + Greece: It all seems so clear – and so complicated by Siv O’Neall

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by Michael Hudson
Writer, Dandelion Salad
michael-hudson.com, July 6, 2015
July 8, 2015

Just after 7 PM Greek time on Sunday, I was told that the “No” vote (Gk. Oxi) was winning approximately 60/40. The “opinion polls” showing a dead heat evidently were wrong. Bookies across Europe are reported to be losing their shirts for betting that the financial right wing could fool most Greeks into voting against their self-interest. The margin of victory shows that Greek voters were immune to media misrepresentation during the week-long run-up as to whether to accept the troika’s demand for austerity to be conducted on anti-labor lines.

Resisting Financial Conquest by Michael Hudson + US Hedge Funds Get Bailed Out if Greeks Pass Bailout Referendum

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by Michael Hudson
Writer, Dandelion Salad
michael-hudson.com
As published on Counterpunch
June 30, 2015

Back in January upon coming into office, Syriza probably could not have won a referendum on whether to pay or not to pay. It didn’t have a full parliamentary majority, and had to rely on a nationalist party for Tsipras to become prime minister. (That party balked at cutting back Greek military spending, which was 3% of GDP, and which the troika had helpfully urged to be cut back in order to balance the government’s budget.)

Ellen Brown: Obama’s Secret Trade Deal Serves Corporations and Banks (#TPP)

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with Ellen Brown
Writer, Dandelion Salad
The Web of Debt Blog
June 24, 2015

Greg Hunter on Jun 23, 2015

Obama’s secret trade deals greatly favors big banks. Brown says, “It looks to me the banking system is in control. That’s where all the big money comes from, and that’s where the two big parties got their money. It’s been this way ever since Rockefeller and Morgan back then in 1900—the Democrats and the Republicans. Brown goes on to say, “The goal here is “they” want to own everything and rent it back to us. So, law is no longer a way to protect the people. Law is now to protect the corporations and serve the corporations.”

Join Greg Hunter as he goes One-on-One with Ellen Brown, creator of The Web of Debt Blog.
http://usawatchdog.com/we-dont-know-how-bad-secret-obama-trade-deal-really-is-ellen-brown/

Michael Hudson: Should The Federal Reserve Taper QE, If Banks Get Most of the Benefits?

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with Michael Hudson
Writer, Dandelion Salad
michael-hudson.com
June 15, 2015

TheRealNews on Jun 15, 2015

UMKC professor of economics Michael Hudson explains how the bond-buying program helps keep interest rates low for everyday people but has also shored up bad mortgage loans of corrupt banks.

Chris Hedges and Richard D. Wolff at the Left Forum 2015: Marx: The System is the Problem

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Dandelion Salad

with Richard D. Wolff and Chris Hedges

Left Forum 2015 on May 30, 2015

In past revolutions – for example, against slavery or feudalism – the revolutionaries defined their goals in terms of freedom, liberty, equality, democracy, and so on. At the same time, they often allied those goals to actively supporting the newly emerging capitalist system. Capitalism, many hoped and expected, would secure, in the words of the French Revolution, “liberty, equality and fraternity.” Marx’s work says “no, capitalism did not and cannot secure liberty, equality, fraternity or democracy; indeed capitalism’s social dominance is now the systemic obstacle to their achievement.” Marx’s critical analysis of capitalism as a system informs and invites the next necessary step in realizing the greatest social goals of modern history.

Richard D. Wolff: The Coming Crash and The Recession That Never Ended

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Dandelion Salad

with Richard D. Wolff

The Big Picture RT  on May 28, 2015

Thom discusses the state of the U.S. and world economies with economist and author Richard Wolff in tonight’s special hour-long discussion.

Ukraine Labor Dares Operation Vulture by Michael Hudson

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by Michael Hudson
Writer, Dandelion Salad
michael-hudson.com
May 28, 2015

Ukraine’s collapse since the February 2014 coup has become an umbrella for grabitization. Collateral damage in this free-for-all has been labor. Many workers are simply not getting paid, and what they actually is being paid is often illegally low. Employers are taking whatever money is in their business accounts and squirreling it away – preferably abroad, or at least in foreign currency.

Michael Hudson: Fast-Track for Whom? + Julian Assange on the #TPP: Secretive Deal Isn’t About Trade, But Corporate Control

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with Michael Hudson
Writer, Dandelion Salad
michael-hudson.com
May 27, 2015

TheRealNews on May 26, 2015

Michael Hudson says fast track legislation takes decision-making power out of the hands of the legislators and puts it in the hands of corporate lobbyists.

Ellen Brown: Real Wealth – A Future We Can Bank On + Vicki Robin + Donnie Maclurcan + Helena Norberg-Hodge

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Updated: June 1, 2015

with Ellen Brown
Writer, Dandelion Salad
The Web of Debt Blog
May 21, 2015

The Economics of Happiness on May 21, 2015

Ellen Brown is the founder of the Public Banking Institute, and author of twelve books, including the best-selling Web of Debt. This is her plenary talk at the Economics of Happiness conference, held in Portland, Oregon in February, 2015. The conference was organized by Local Futures, a non-profit organization that has been promoting a shift from global to local for nearly 40 years. To learn more about the conference or Local Futures’ work, go to www.localfutures.org.

Can the Working Class Still Change the World? by Kyle Brown

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Dandelion Salad

by Kyle Brown
socialistworker.org
April 14, 2015

IN HIS famous speech “Where Do We Go From Here?” Martin Luther King Jr. quoted the then-president of the United Auto Workers (UAW) union, Walter Reuther, saying, “Power is the ability of a labor union like the UAW to make the most powerful corporation in the world, General Motors, say ‘Yes’ when it wants to say ‘No.'”

W-Z: Watered Stock to Zero-Sum by Michael Hudson

by Michael Hudson
Writer, Dandelion Salad
michael-hudson.com
April 12, 2015

Image by Leo Reynolds via Flickr

Parts W-Z in the Insider’s Economic Dictionary.

War: Economically, the major cause of national debt and inflation, and often of postwar deflations. Politically, war serves as an excuse to centralize control of government in the hands of the few, and in the Executive Branch of government.

How America Became an Oligarchy by Ellen Brown

by Ellen Brown
Writer, Dandelion Salad
The Web of Debt Blog
April 6, 2015

Image by P.T. Manolakos via Flickr

The politicians are put there to give you the idea that you have freedom of choice. You don’t…. You have owners. — George Carlin, The American Dream

According to a new study from Princeton University, American democracy no longer exists. Using data from over 1,800 policy initiatives from 1981 to 2002, researchers Martin Gilens and Benjamin Page concluded that rich, well-connected individuals on the political scene now steer the direction of the country, regardless of – or even against – the will of the majority of voters. America’s political system has transformed from a democracy into an oligarchy, where power is wielded by wealthy elites.