WORLD LEADERS MEET ON CRISIS, AGREE TO AGREE, OFFER NO SOLUTIONS
Garrison Keillor: Quote of the Week on The Financial Crash
"Confident men took leave of common sense and bet on the idea of perpetual profit in the real estate market and crashed. But it wasn't their money. It was your money they were messing with. And that's why we need government regulators. Gimlet-eyed men with steel-rim glasses and crepe-soled shoes who check the numbers and have the power to say, 'This is a scam and a hustle and either you cease and desist or you spend a few years in a minimum-security federal facility playing backgammon.' "
Quote of the Week on Media
"President Bush announces world is flat.
Next day's headline in the New York Times:
"Shape of Earth: Opinions vary
-from Geoff Dewan (via Chris Floyd)
MEDIA CHANNEL FINANCIAL CRISIS UNABATED
WORLD FINANCIAL CRISIS DEEPENS, NO SOLUTIONS
US MAY TALK TO TALIBAN
I am in Paris and I am blogging, even though I wanted not to since this is a break of sorts. Yet, I am obsessed with reporting the financial crisis and have been, as readers know, doing so for years, when others weren't, ever since I produced and directed IN DEBT WE TRUST, the film that warned of it.
On Saturday, at long last, the NY Times mentioned the 2007 film but not my 2008 book Plunder. Jim Dwyer wrote: "What happens in the civil courts are the last tremors of an economy built around the twin seductions of consumption and debt, a dance portrayed in "In Debt We Trust: America Before the Bubble Bursts," a 2007 documentary by Danny Schechter."
Thanks Jim Dwyer for including it, but I still don't seem to be able to get my ideas out in most of the mainstream press in this country. The Economist, published in England, mentions my book this week a French Web channel did an interview as soon as I got off the plane. I am not the only critical journalist with this problem. My friend Greg Palast has to do his reporting on plots to steal America's votes on the BBC. I just watched Afhsin Rattansi's interview with Noam Chomsky of Massachusetts. On Iran's Press TV. Oh, well.
As you know, I have been religiously tracking its every turn but like many of you I am very worried, and now just because of the meltdown out there but because of the meltdown we at Mediachannel.org are experiencing. These are tough times, not the greatest time to do a funding appeal, and so we knew going into it that unless manna fell from you know where, it was unlikely that we could find a real solution to our situation by appealing to readers who have little to give and other priorities and anxieties.
So, frankly, I don't know how long we will have. I know nothing lasts forever and if we can't sustain what we are doing, we will have had a proud long 9 ½ year run. On the other hand, we have been here before, facing our own abyss, and somehow pulled it out of the fire. If you want to keep getting this blog and supporting our work, this is the time to help in as generous way as you can. Back us or lose us!
Now on to the blog I started on Saturday night. On Sunday, I will be off to Gabon for an African media seminar. It is great to know that people around the world value our presence.
IN THE STREETS OF PARIS
PARIS: The sun came out on Saturday in Paris and it seemed, judging by the crowds on the Metro, that half the city did too. I was on my way to visit some old haunts when I had a dejavu moment as pom-pom sirens announced the arrival of no less than l0 vans packed with robo-cop riot police complete with helmets, batons, shields and full knee pads. Suddenly they were in the street, running at break neck speed, towards the Cathedral of Notre Dame which was flanked by armies of tourists. The visitors I asked had no idea what was going on.
Alongside the historic church, on a small side street, a group of over a hundred Africans were chanting, jumping up and down and waving banners that said Solidarity. The CRS gendarmerie surrounded them, some clutching batons and clearly waiting for action.
I started flashing back to the street protests I witnessed and took part in 40 long years ago in Paris, back in May-June l968 where marchers chanted "CRS SS!" comparing the often brutal paramilitary police to the Nazis. Some things don't change. The taunts only enraged them. Those were the days when student activists hurled cobblestones at the cops. There was a slogan speaking to the utopianism of the times, "dessous les pave, la plage," I think. (Under the cobblestones, the beach!)
Some workers at the Cathedral explained to me that I was watching a protest by immigrants against the Church for not doing enough to protect their interests. The French government is trying to eject the children of illegal immigrants from schools. The tourists took photos with their cell phones. I didn't see any TV cameras.
I had expected that protests against the financial crisis but it is possible that folks here, as everywhere, don't feel it has impacted them yet. In my book Plunder I quote a petition published in French and European papers last fall denouncing the financialization of the economy. It read in part "freedom for finance is destroying society." It anticipated the crisis but had no impact on forestalling it. The French President Sarkozy has spoken out against the excesses of the "free market" but that had no effect either.
AT THE WHITE HOUSE
Back in Washington, G7 Leaders are posing for pictures and President Bush's lips were moving. Remember, markets DROPPED every time he spoke in the past. Headline in the Washington Post Sunday: "World Leaders Offer Unity But No Steps to Ease Crisis." Clearly, they have no ideas they can agree on.
Sat Night: WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush emerged from a meeting with foreign financial officials on Saturday and pledged a global response to the credit crisis that will lead toward a "path of stability and long-term growth.
AT NUMBER 10
BBC: "Gordon Brown has promised Britain will "lead the way" through the global financial crisis ahead of an emergency summit of European leaders in Paris.
Writing in the Sunday Mirror, the prime minister said he would urge Europe to copy his blueprint to end the turmoil."
Right.
NEWS IN PARIS
The International Herald Tribune was filled with reports on the marketys dismal week. It reported on the stock plunge and its devastating impact on Europe and Asia. (We mostly hear only about America.) There were reports on demands by depositors for money from the failed banks of Iceland. Analysts said that Europe's problems began with Lehman's demise. Russia is tapping oil money to buy shares to revive its market. Berlusconi in Italy called for shutting down all the markets, as shot down for the idea and reversed himself. And from Asia, the Trib reports a slowdown in the economy, and the anger of a manager in Hong Kong:
"BEYOND SAVING"
The United States is beyond saving-our only hope rests with China.
Howard Silverblatt, a senior analyst at Standard and Poors said, "people are scared. Nobody believes what is coming out of the mouths of politicians." The politicians don't seem to believe it either and are committing to work together but then cannot seem to find a way to agree on what must be done. The International Monetary Fund is now involved but it too is dominated by the US. It is warning the crisis will turn more severe.
AT THE HEART OF THE CRISIS
Ed Epstein explains the L-word (not Liberals or Lesbians).
Leverage is at the heart of the current crises. Over the past 20 years, banks and financial trading houses have so leveraged their assets, including exotic ones such as Collateralized Debt Obligations, that some 18 trillion dollars of marketable debt now overhangs the global financial system like the proverbial Sword of Damocles.
U.S. money center bank, including Citibank, J.P Morgan Chase and Bank of America. Report, report leverage of a mere 12:1, but that does not include their off-the-books collateral obligations, which run to many hundreds of billions of dollars in Revolver lines of credit to which they are committed. (General Electric financial subsidies alone had to provide $600 billion in Revolver loans last week, which is reportedly why the Fed had to inject capital directly into the commercial paper market.)
The financial trading houses, such as Lehman Brothers, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs had been leveraged at 30:1 prior to the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers and conversion of Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs into banks. But even those rations are conservative compared to the staggering leverage of European banks. Deutsche Bank, for example, has leverage of 60:1, and some Russian banks have leverage of over 100:1. In the case of these highly-leveraged European and Russian banks, a decline of just two percent decline in the value of the underlying assets would wipe out all their capital. Given this sky-high leverage, it is hardly surprising, that banks are not extending credit to each other, and that confidence in the financial system has all but collapsed.
LA TIMES: ARE WE WATCHING THE EROSION OF CAPITALISM?
THE WAY WE LIVE
WE ARE ALL LIVING UNDER A CLOUD OF ANXIETY AND FINANCIAL INSECURITY
Already, there are reports the sales of home safes is way up as money is withdrawn from banks.
Under Penalty of Death: No More Perpetual Garage Sales in Indiana
To understand just how grim things have gotten, consider a new law that limits residents to one garage sale a month in Indiana. Congressional Quarterly reports that 35 MILLION households are behind in credit card payments or over their limits. 35 MILLION! 21 million homes are said to be "underwater'-ie. worth less than homeowners are paying. Crime is expected to rise dramatically. Civil unrest is possible perhaps once people discover how much they have lost in their 401 K retirement plans. I am a victim too.
MAUREEN DOWD OF THE NY TIMES COMPARE THE U.S.A. TO ANCIENT ROME
MARKETS, SHMARKETS
Now let's go back to the macro level. We may have to thank Christopher Columbus for having a federally recognized birthday which will shut the NY Stock Exchange on Monday. There's been a global summit trying to reassure markets that will open.
TELEGRAPH: NATIONALIZATION IS NO LONGER A DIRTY WORD
Black Friday?
By Mike Whitney
Panic has spread to stock markets around the world. A massive sell-off, which began when Henry Paulson announced a $700 billion bailout for the banking system, has turned into a global stampede.
SOLUTIONS
By Paul Craig Roberts
How to Save the U.S. Economy
By Richard C. Cook
Does the US have the leadership to realize the problem and to deal with it?
Everything being suggested by the Obama/McCain campaigns is based on the failed Keynesian formula.
NOAM CHOMSKY:
The simultaneous unfolding of the US presidential campaign and unraveling of the financial markets presents one of those occasions where the political and economic systems starkly reveal their nature.
WHY NO PROSECUTIONS?
Nils Pratley writes in The Guardian:
Irresponsible risk-takers must be punished, says the prime minister. Terrific idea. Please could the guilty parties leave their banks with their arms above their heads.
You see the problem here. If Sir Fred Goodwin, for example, thought he had taken unacceptable risks at Royal Bank of Scotland, he would have resigned by now. Instead, in August, he described the bank's first loss in its 40-year history as a "chastening experience" and "something I and my colleagues regret very much". That is some way from being an apology or even an admission that the £47bn bid for ABN Amro, pursued in the face of a deteriorating banking market, was a catastrophic mistake. Nor was there any suggestion from Sir Fred that he intends to waive any part of last year's £5.4m pay package.
Sir Fred is merely typical of his breed. When bets go sour, bankers blame events, not their own bad judgments.
LEHMAN TOOK CARE OF ITS OWN
The Lehman Brothers board signed off on more than $100m (£59m) in payouts to five top executives just three days before the bank went bankrupt leaving thousands of employees out of work in London.
The payoffs, approved on September 12 by the Wall Street giant's compensation committee, included over $24m in severance packages to the collapsed firm's top three London executives.
Did Bill Ayers Really Bomb The Capitol? US Willing To Talk To The Taliban, ACORN
A SIGN OF DEFEAT IN AFGHANISTAN: US open to Taliban peace talks
The war is done. "We" lost.
THIS WILL DO WONDERS FOR MY BOOK: THE P WORD GOES GLOBAL
Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has warned that Washington's financial meltdown may pave the way for a new era of loot and plunder.
POLITICS
LOVE FEST:
Telegraph: "Barack Obama would like to offer John McCain a job if he becomes president, in what his allies says is an attempt to end the bitter partisan rancor that engulfed the White House race last week. "
WASHINGTON POST:
Issue of Race Creeps Into Campaign
"In the first presidential campaign involving an African American nominee of a major party, both candidates have agreed on this much: They would rather not dwell on the subject of race."
(Yes, but John Lewis blasted McCain for fostering racism on the campaign trail.)
McCain reprotedly scolds Palin for whipping up crowds.
THE BILL AYERS FACTOR
Did Bill Ayers do what everyone assumes he did. Not according to ex-Yippie AJ Weberman:
AJ WEBERMAN: PUTTING ON AYERS: YIPPIE STEW ALBERT BOMBED THE CAPITOL NOT WILLIAM AYERS
WASHINGTON - The Republican National Committee launched a new ad: "Chicago Way." The ad calls attention to Barack Obama's questionable ties to unrepentant "terrorist" William Ayers. The Ad states, "And William Ayers: Leader of a terrorist group that bombed the U.S. Capitol. Obama's first campaign was launched at a gathering at Mr. Ayers's home." This assertion is based on Ayers having taken credit for this event in his book Fugitive Days: "Using dynamite - that most romantic of 19th Century radical tools - in government buildings, most dramatically, the Capitol in Washington, in response to the widening war, an action code named "The Big Top." (Page 246) "We already bombed the Capitol and cased the White House" (Page 258) "Dynamite became ice cream or pickles. Much easier to say I am taking three pounds of ice cream to the big top than I am putting a three pound bomb in the Capitol. (Page 223)"
The New York Times reported, "In 1975 Mr. Jeff Jones [former Weather Underground member) appeared in an underground movie with the four other leaders, with their faces turned from the camera to avoid identification. Mr. Jones recounted the experiences of ''the group'' in the bombing of the United States Capitol on March 1, 1971. He said the bomb, placed in a storage room behind the Senate barbershop, had failed to go off the first time, so that the participants had to return the next day to re-trigger it. A caller alerted the Capitol police a half-hour before the blast, so that there were no injuries; damage was estimated at $100,000."
The bomb was placed in an unmarked Men's Room, not in a storage room behind the Senate barber shop.
As someone who was a leader of the Youth International Party at the time I was privy to who planted this bomb. In May 1971 Jerry Rubin and Stew Albert came to visit me. Rubin introduced Albert as someone who had just "bombed the Capitol" to protest the invasion of Laos and the war in Vietnam. The FBI believed that Stew Albert was responsible, not Bill Ayers and the Weather Underground. http://yippiemuseum.org/stew.pdf The FBI also believed Leslie Bacon and Judith Clavir were involved in the event. The Bureau presented evidence and a Grand Jury indicted Leslie Bacon http://yippiemuseum.org/indict.pdf and Leslie Bacon was arrested for THE CAPITOL BOMBING
The FBI had the trio discussing the bombing on ELSUR devices that had been illegally planted in a Washington D.C. apartment so the case was eventually dropped. The FBI overheard Stew remark that the bomb contained twenty sticks of dynamite that were allegedly supplied to him by Leslie Bacon who picked up the explosives in Boston. The trio was present in Washington that day and when asked about the bombing Leslie took the Fifth.
What Ayers involvement in Weather Underground activities is a matter of conjecture, but one thing is for certain BARACK OBAMA WAS NOT ASSOCIATED WITH THE CAPITOL BOMBER UNLESS HE KNEW STEW ALBERT!
WATCH:THE LIES ABOUT ACORN
When It's Time To Say Goodbye, Some Newsmakers I've Met
WHEN YOU "KNOW" NEWSMAKERS?
As it happens I have personally met a number of names in the news. They were hardly friends, but I do have some stories to share though little time to share them right now.
The most disappointing is what happened to Thabo Mbeki-not his fall from power but what he did with whatever power he did have, his stance towards AIDS, and his contempt for the culture and passion of the ANC in South Africa. He was competent, politically skilled and very adept as a negotiator and infighter-but, in the end, those were not the skills people look to in a leader. I met him in the 1960's and tried to share my feelings with him. He was always friendly and cordial and invited me to both of his inaugurations. The last real chat we had was in Davos many years ago when I warned him that his media image was slipping badly, He agreed, blamed his inner circle and asked me to stay in touch. I tried to no avail. Read this:
The Fall of Thabo Mbeki and the Future of South Africa
By Bill Fletcher, Jr., BlackCommentator.com
I had almost literally just finished reading William
Gumede's acclaimed biography of South African President
Thabo Mbeki, Thabo Mbeki and the Battle for the Soul of
the ANC: Second Edition (New York: Zed Press, 2007),
when it was announced that President Mbeki was being
sacked by the leadership of the African National
Congress. To say that I was stunned would be no
overstatement. Knowing a little about the South African
political situation, I was aware that an individual -
including the president of the country - could be
recalled by their party, but it was more the fact that
the ANC actually recalled President Mbeki that was
startling.
JOERG HAIDER DIES IN A CAR CRASH
A former Socialist Party leader in Austria introduced me to Haider, not only said to be an admirer of Hitler but an old friend of Arnold Schwartznegger. I attended a dinner for him when he as trying to win world acceptance in his bid for power in Austria where he still enjoyed voter support. Now there are two rightwing parties in the land of the Anchluss. He was very affable, downplayed whatever hates he harbored and told me about his runs in the NY marathon.
THE NEW NOBEL PEACE LAUREATE
I met Martti Ahtisaari while making South Africa Now and when he did a good job in negotiating for South African withdrawal from Naimbia. The Nobel committee honored him, passing over Chinese dissidents for whom the award would have meant something.
TFF comments from Sweden:
The choice of Martti Ahtisaari satisfies - even with a broad interpretation - none of the criteria outlined in Alfred Nobel's will, namely: to contribute to fraternity in the world, to reduce armies and to establish peace congresses - to quote them in the Nobel's own language of 1895.
Ahtisaari has repeatedly functioned as "peace fixer" for Western power elites. In 1999 he was the envoy who persuaded the Serb state to give in after NATO's 78 days of bombing, the most brutal event in Europe since 1945, which also lacked a UN Security Council mandate.
He then was appointed as the "architect" of the plan behind the separation of now "independent" Kosovo which, following this bombing, broke off from Serbia. Independent Kosovo is recognized by only 25% of the world's governments.
So, Ahtisaari is a man who by his "mediations" fully endorses the "peace" brought about by militarist means and international law violations - rather than following the UN norm of "peace by peaceful means."
The Nobel Committee should, according to Nobel's will, not necessarily consist of Norwegian parliamentarians. Nobel only stated that those who decided on the Prize should be appointed by the Norwegian Parliament.
Would anyone dream of letting a group of parliamentarians anywhere award the prize in, say, medicine, physics or literature without having the slightest knowledge of the subject or professional background? Yet this is exactly what the Nobel Committee does. None of them have any professional knowledge about the subject of peace.
The Committee has again rewarded one of its politician friends instead of one of the independent candidates of this year, who have truly contributed intellectually, culturally or people-to-people wise to genuine peace.
LETTER
Mary Fox writes:
At one time or another you have probably come across Media Lens, sort of the British equivalent of News Dissector. They sent out a piece recently they called "Intellectual Cleansing" which I have since misplaced, but it inspired a fascinating response from Jonathan Cook (British indy journalist living in the Middle East). He takes apart his formative experiences working for the U.K. mainstream media, and someone could probably have written the same piece about their journalistic training in the U.S. with just different newspaper names.
This completely validates Chomsky's theses about the proper socialization of Western professionals, whether in the media or academia. No conspiracy theory is needed to explain the way this works. Most people probably aren't even aware of the extent to which their published opinions are being filtered and shaped and if they were few possess the courage to defy it. And it goes without saying that in the capitalist system, individuals or outlets espousing contrarian views can barely survive, as you know all too well, since they threaten the interests of the corporate elites, and we can't have that, can we.
Seth Wolfson writes:
But how do we fight back if they've got all the money and both parties ratified it?
Thanks to the many letters supporting my idea for teach-ins on the economy. There's lots of agreement but no material support. How do we do it?
FINAL WORD FROM MY NEIGHBORHOOD
Shelters and Soup Kitchens Hold Crisis Front Lines
Heike Barkawitz, Inter Press Service: "Wall Street may be in the throes of agony, but business is booming at the Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen a bit farther north in the Manhattan neighborhood of Chelsea. And that's not particularly good news."
REALLY BAD NEWS
I spoke last night to Bob Easton, my childhood buddy-we lived in the same building in the Bronx. He became a skilled carpenter and more in Santa Fe New Mexico. He's been battling cancer. We said what may be our final good byes last night. Bob was insightful, philosophical and ready for the end. He outlived the death sentence by years but……
We and his beautiful artist-wife Kath O'Neil got reacquainted when I visited Santa Fe to show my film a year or so ago. We listened to music together, watched videos, and at a great time. He had hoped to make it to his son's wedding but, apparently that was not to be. We discussed the financial crisis and he suggested, hopefully, that we may be on the verge of a new paradigm.
DANNY CASSIDY, R.I.P.
While Bob seems to be going, another pal of mine, a former college roommate and inspiration, Danny Cassidy succumbed to cancer in San Francisco Saturday night. I spoke to him last week and he sounded raspy and frail but positive. He and his wife Clare have suffered so much. Another Irish-American writer of note, Peter Quinn, kindly sent the news.
Danny Cassidy died tonight from pancreatic cancer. I spoke with him yesterday. He said how grateful he was to have had the support of so many (his words) "extraordinary friends." He told me for the second time that he had experienced unconditional love from his mother and his wife, and that he felt, in the end, that this was all that mattered, that this was the entire message of the Gospel, and the rest was trivia. It was a privilege to know him; a great grace to have had his friendship. His legacy to the Irish-American community is inestimable. May perpetual light shine upon him. Clare said that she'd let us know about the funeral arrangements in a day or so. Peter.
Thanks for being here and be grateful that we all can be. We want to keep doing it, that is, until we can't, and need your help. Now. Enough!
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