Broke Bank Island
26 07 08 - 02:19 Britain’s economy is in serious trouble, together with that of the US and to a lesser extent Europe - with the future of the Euro itself in some doubt. The Home Secretary, Alistair Darling, recently went so far as to warn that the government has no more money in the pot for further public spending on schools, hospitals and transport. He also said that the public were already taxed to the realistic limit. Nevertheless the hemorrhaging of funds for the war in Iraq and Afghanistan continues.The government will not be able to afford to allow a rise in salary for the mass of public sector workers who recently went on national strike, complaining about the substantial price rises in food, energy (gas prices up at least 130% since 2003) and fuel which mean they have had an effective pay cut. In addition, the slump in the housing market has left thousands of homeowners in negative equity.
Causes obviously include global resource shortages caused by over-consumption, spending on credit, non-western overpopulation, and climate change impact on crop growing. In the developed world, the shortage of young workers to support an aging population is a huge economic threat. Then there is the government irresponsibility with budgeting. As US presidential candidate Ron Paul points out - we have left the gold standard so our money is merely “fiat” money, effectively just paper that can be printed off in whatever amount the government wishes, in negotiation with the independent banksters. Paul said that history has shown fiat money always fails. Something worth noting if you have much of the stuff.
However, a great many people are now in serious debt because of the “credit crunch”, and so a devaluation of the currency, through inflation (possibly even hyperinflation at some point) would only make their debts less significant - which is, at least, looking on the bright side for those affected!
Now, while we face “the most serious financial crisis of our lifetime”, along comes the author of that quote, George Soros, infamous “philanthropist”, multibillionare asset stripper, announcing that he’s laying a speculative wager that the FTSE will drop much further. Hardly a gamble for him, since his mere say-so makes the event self-fulfilling prophesy. Soros is known as “the man who broke the Bank of England” due to his impact on Black Wednesday in 1992. Now he is at it again; crashing currencies is how he made his fortune.
It is as if the west is just another commercial asset that is being stripped. It has been mismanaged, burning a candle at both ends, and run into the ground - soon to be nothing but a relic of its former overblown past. An dying star becomes unstable, burning its brightest before exploding and leaving a black hole. We can expect to Make Poverty the Future, and the scene is set for a breakdown not only of our economy and infrastructure, but of society itself - held together as it is by the motivational glue of money rather than by cultural consensus based on common heritage. We need only look back nearly a century to Weimar Germany to see one scenario of what could happen next. Interesting times ahead.
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