Bernie Sanders: ‘International Financial Rules Rigged.’

by Jerry Alatalo

“A power has risen up in the government greater than the people themselves, consisting of many, and various, and powerful interests, combined into one mass, and held together by the cohesive power of the vast surplus in the banks.”

– JOHN C. CALHOUN (1782-1850) American statesman

In solidarity with the people of Greece, in the past few days United States presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont took part in a meeting about the deteriorating economic conditions there. He became joined by economists James Galbraith, Joseph Stiglitz and Jacob Kirkegaard. To avoid incurring the eternal wrath of Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein supporters, this writer appreciates what both she and Bernie Sanders are saying.

Ms. Stein has apparently filed a lawsuit to force the GOP-Dem commission on debates to bring in so-called third-party candidates to participate, and, if her lawsuit is successful, she would share the debate stage with the Republican, Democrat and perhaps other parties’ nominees. That’s the way it should be ideally in a nation which prides itself on democracy.  Here’s an idea. How about all legitimate party nominees on the debate stage shortly / in the final weeks before presidential election day engaging in four 8-hour debates,  on four consecutive Saturdays?

That’d be a fair debate format, wouldn’t it?  Each party could chip in for after-debate sandwiches, Perrier, pizza, caviar, beer, champagne…  But surely I digress. The final debates format can easily become worked out in the weeks and months ahead. Back to what Bernie said about Greece and the international financial / banking system.

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t’ll be interesting to see how the rest of the presidential candidates, of every political party,  respond – if at all – to Bernie Sanders’ statement: “International financial rules are rigged in favor of the wealthy.”  In his short talk before the mentioned economists discussed the situation in Greece for close to 2-hours, Sanders criticized the economic theory of the Eurozone becoming known by more and more people as “austerity”, which he described as a “cruel, counter-productive program” endured by Greeks for over 5-years, while leading to a humanitarian crisis.

Since the first Greek bailout in 2010, the economy (GDP) there has fallen by 27%, a statistic most economists regard as “depression-like”.  Overall unemployment is around 25%, while youth joblessness is near 60%, pensions have been greatly reduced, public employees and services have become drastically cut, in a Troika-mandated (European Commission, European Central Bank, International Monetary Fund) series of “structural reforms” – austerity – resulting in a downward spiral for the Greek economy.

Now the Syriza government – after becoming coerced into capitulating to Troika economic demands by banking terrorism and cutoff of euro / cash causing bank closures – becomes challenged with even harsher austerity measures and, due to conditions attached to Greece’s 3rd bailout of some 86 billion euros, Syriza must have every considered political action examined and approved by the Troika.

Syriza’s false perception since winning office on January 25 has been one where they believed the Troika would come around in negotiations and compromise through reasonable economics discussions. Their assumptions were far from the reality as the Troika negotiators, for whatever reasons, rejected every Greek proposal. That error in judgment became very costly because it took focus away from the urgent task of making preparations for a possible exit from the Eurozone, or “Grexit”.

Now the question which millions of men and women around the Earth are thinking about is whether Greece will get serious about leaving the euro and return to the Drachma. Nobel Prize laureate Stiglitz advocates Grexit. Bernie Sanders didn’t share his thoughts on the pros or cons of Greece returning to sovereign money, but he did point out the dangers of removing democracy from people in nations like Greece – where their 61% “no” vote on further austerity has become forcefully ignored. Sanders gave the example of Germany after World War I and the Versailles Treaty when Germans became subjected to similar harsh, democracy-destroying austerity measures imposed by outside forces, and which led to the rise of Nazism and Adolf Hitler.

Sanders concluded his short talk by sharing global statistics showing 85 people own as much wealth as the bottom 3.5 billion human beings, along with a Oxfam prediction that the top 1% will soon own as much wealth as the remaining 99% of humanity. Sanders strongly suggested the beginning of a serious discussion of international banking rules, because “the world economy is unsustainable when so few have so much and so many have so little”.

It is almost impossible to disagree with Bernie Sanders that serious discussion about the global banking system is an urgent necessity. Whether it becomes a major issue of discussion in the days, weeks and months ahead during the United States campaign for president in 2016 remains to be seen. In the minds of many historians, economists, academicians, political / religious leaders and other serious observers of world events, reforming the global banking / economic system is perhaps the most important issue.

As far as is known, Bernie Sanders is the first and only candidate for president in 2016 who has asserted that it’s time for a serious discussion about socially destructive, “rigged” international financial rules. This global perspective comes in addition to his equally impassioned talks on the floor of the United States Senate and at growing, enthusiastic campaign  events around the nation about record wealth inequality in America.

The question now for all other candidates who’ve announced their decision to run for the world’s most powerful office becomes : “Do you agree with Bernie Sanders on these major issues or not… and why?”

Hillary?… Jeb?… Are you there?… Hello?…

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(Thank you to Bernie Sanders at YouTube)

Greek People Will Return To Drachma, Sovereignty.

by Jerry Alatalo

While Greece is known around the world as the birthplace of democracy, the nation also has philosophers like Aristotle and Socrates lighting up its history. A variation on a line written by an English playwright by the name of Shakespeare seems to fit like a glove for what the Greek people are experiencing today: “To Drachma, or not to Drachma – that is the question”. Because 61% of Greeks voted on July 5 against further austerity measures, overcoming the fears created by European “partners” cutting off physical euros along with warnings of doom coming from corporate media, one could reasonably predict the answer to Mr. Shakespeare’s question from the people of Greece will become “drachma”.

The Syriza government has attempted through good will since voted into power on January 25 to deal with their counterparts from the European Commission, European Central Bank (ECB) and International Monetary Fund, but either through naivete, severe underestimation of EU partners’ stonewalling or God knows what reasons, Syriza quite simply got steamrolled. What is going to occur, driven particularly by resentment from Greeks and other Eurozone nations after clear economic terrorism – cutting off of physical euros – was inflicted by the ECB, is that Greeks will soon start developing what has become now widely known as “Plan B”.

People living in Spain, Italy, Portugal, France, Germany and the other Euro zone nations have probably begun seriously thinking about a “Plan B” of their own, so one increasingly likely scenario for Europe finds first Greece bringing about a “rupture” from the euro, then Spain, then Italy, Portugal next, and so on. Europe’s power/financial elite will have only themselves to blame for the world-changing events coming up. How did they come to think that blackmail, fear-mongering and brutal, compassion-less actions directed at a good, proud people would not be met with a proportionate response? Did they think that nobody was watching? If so, then they were 100% wrong. The whole world is watching.

Ph.D. in philosophy, Professor Panagiotis Sotiris recently sat down for an interview with The Real News Network, where he shares his views on the future for Greece. Expect many more people in the Euro zone coming to see the wisdom in adopting his way of looking at the situation. As perceptions that the Greek crisis has somehow been “settled” became widely held after the latest bailout deal, those seeing the issue as settled might want to think twice.

News reports of events in Greece are far from over.

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(Thank you to TheRealNews at YouTube)