Re: [A-List] US fiscal crisis

["Anne Williamson" <annewilliamson@xxxxxxx>]

Seth wrote:

One question about the thread below.  Is the problem of capitalism in the
> U.S. caused by pinched profits or a result of a working class that can't
> absorb the surplus-value (SV) produced at home and abroad?  By the way, an
> economist friend has said that in the U.S. profits account for about
> one-fifth of the SV.
>
> What do you think?

There are many problems with the US economy, but what I meant about
"no profits" in my earlier response directly referenced the anticipated and
much-hyped new bull market.  Just ain't gonna happen.

But what that means for American workers is equal to what it means for
small investors, pension funds, etc.  Without profits, job losses are
inevitable
as is greatly reduced or nearly flat capital investment - meaning no new
jobs,
no new wealth creation.

As the credit cycle collapses, the lack of national savings will also
influence
negatively capital investment.  As jobs are lost and the price level
accomodates
Greenscam's money pumping, even the ability to save will be precluded.

Citizens have borrowed the money to support demand - that is the problem!
And our economy/culture is designed to direct them into such cannabilitic
behavior;
sadly, they have already consumed their future but it is the bankers who
will
enjoy the holiday feast.

I'd like to take issue with your description of the US economy as an example
of "capitalism."  Not hardly.  What we have is a managed and limited market
economy - one managed for and by the political/financial elite that requires
interventions - which pervert market signals and thereby mislead the
outsiders
which is all the better for the manipulators but thoroughly destructive for
the
national economy.  Just like the phony "free trade" the US touts, which is
really
managed trade, i.e. trade managed on behalf of and by the political and
financial
elite at everyone else's expense (natives and foreigners).

I see the plight of American workers as a consequence of the erosion of
property
rights, not in Marxian terms of SV.  American workers haven't enjoyed a true
wage
increase since 1968!  How have they been managing?  Two workers per
household,
overtime, and credit cards.  The availability of easy credit has made
workers
complacent, and the fiat system has fooled them.  In a true free market
system,
money is property.  A man's labor is property, and when he "sells" his labor
he must
be paid market price and that price can only be fairly determined with
competition,
which government interventions try to prevent or contain on behalf of their
money-
giving patrons.  Additionally, the seller of labor can not be paid with
fraudulent
financial instruments of ever-decreasing value.  It is the money, banking
and credit
system that is robbing the workers -- and I would wager the profits to the
manipulators
far exceed 20%.  When the collapse comes, all their property will be at risk
to the
bankers who provided the credit.  (When credit cards were introduced,
taxpayers
could deduct the interest charges.  That got everybody hooked, and then once
the job
was done, about 20 years ago, the interest deduction was disallowed.  See
how it
works?  Step by step, day by day......don't think these capers aren't
planned well in
advance.)

Another problem for the worker is our tax system, which taxes earned income
the most.
The antecedents of "Progressive Thought" sold the income tax on the basis
that only
the rich would pay.  Ha-ha.  Within but a few years the burden was
transferred to the
middle class, and tax levels began to escalate to the current level in which
a worker
labors now half a year for the mad, self-indulgent and bankrupting schemes
of folks
like the thoroughly repellent and self-serving Hitlary Clinton, who could be
the mascot
of our corrupt congress and debased culture. (Caligula delivered his horse
to the Roman
Senate, but Bubba - that merry joker - presented us with his political
mule.) In other words,
citizens were thoroughly defrauded long ago.  "Reform" is a very tricky
thing; after all, the
Federal Reserve Act was a banking reform bill!

Setting up IRAs will be shown to have been another scam - money flowed to
Wall
Street on a conveyer belt month after month.  Oh, how they froliced, how
gleeful were
the traders in the late 90s, chuckling about how it was all "the greatest
voluntary
transfer of wealth in world history."  And so it will be shown to have been.

Grrrrrrrrr, the entire mess and coming upheaval that will ruin so many just
blows
my circuits.  I am sick at heart about the whole of it, but the system is so
entrenched,
so little understood that I have come to the conclusion there's no stopping
it short
of a total monetary meltdown.  When will that happen?  I don't know.  Could
be next
month, this coming year, five years, maybe even fifty.  But it will happen.

Anne

PS  It's important to remember that the only investment capital of which any
nation
can be certain are national savings.  (A country may well attract foreign
investment,
but that is money that flees at the first sign of trouble or crisis.)  By
devaluing the
peoples' savings through the printing of monetary instruments out of thin
air, and
exporting them in volume (which gives foreigners claims to US assets that
must be
paid eventually), the US has set itself up for a mighty fall.  Or will the
giant, thoroughly
lunatic worldwide military adventure the US is now pursuing save it?  I
think not.

----- Original Message -----
From: Seth Sandronsky <ssandron@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <a-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, March 17, 2002 3:02 PM
Subject: Re: [A-List] US fiscal crisis


> Mar. 17
>
> Anne,
>
> Hi.  Apologies to you and the list for mistakenly forwarding Subject:
> [A-List] Enron, Anatomy of a Cover Up.  I meant to send it to a friend who
> is following the story.  Sorry.
>
> One question about the thread below.  Is the problem of capitalism in the
> U.S. caused by pinched profits or a result of a working class that can't
> absorb the surplus-value (SV) produced at home and abroad?  By the way, an
> economist friend has said that in the U.S. profits account for about
> one-fifth of the SV.
>
> What do you think?
>
> Regards,
> Seth
>
> From: "Anne Williamson" <annewilliamson@xxxxxxx>
> Reply-To: a-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> To: <a-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: Re: [A-List] US fiscal crisis
> Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2002 09:55:29 -0500
>
> I must agree with Rob as I can't see how this monstrously
> fraudulent "globalized economy" the US enjoys could
> possibly be sustained until 2006 per Goldmans.  And an
> external shock as catalyst for collapse along the lines Rob
> outlines is certainly a possiblity at any time (Japan is worrisome),
> but there is an ongoing crisis now, i.e., no profits.  Zip, zero, and
> what's been claimed over the past five years is mostly fraudulent,
> and deeply massaged.  The manipulators are doing a great job of
> keeping the market running over-priced on vapors, but since there
> are no profits, there can be no new bull market -- our debts must
> be paid first, and without profits for jobs, capital investment, and
> ultimately savings, we lack the wherewithal to pay the debts (but
> they will be paid!  Out of our individual hides, alas....) -Anne
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <bantam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: <a-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Friday, March 15, 2002 7:25 PM
> Subject: Re: [A-List] US fiscal crisis
>
>
>  > Sorry 'bout that ...
>  >
>  > I have to read Michael's ever-welcome messages in reply mode because
>  > they're suddenly coming through unwrapped -and then I punched 'send' by
>  > accident as I reached for the ciggies.  Anyway, I agree very much with
>  > the thrust of Goldman's argument, but wonder why he doesn't point to
>  > potential shocks already in the system.  All that's needed is for
>  > something to stop capital pouring into the US at $2bn per day.
Internal
>  > factors include evidence that the ever-so-indebted US consumer is
>  > reaching her card's limit, that we might be only days away from new
>  > revelations about large accounting fibs by large players, that the US's
>  > groaning auto makers might find steel a bit dear  post-steel-tariff and
>  > sales a little slow with rising oil prices and the fact (or so it would
>  > seem to me) that those who did not buy cars at zero interest are not
>  > likely to buy now, that telcos look absolutely embarrassed by excess
>  > capacity (exacerbated by all this wireless hype we're wearing at the
>  > moment).  External factors include the possibility of a Japanese
banking
>  > system having to recall its overseas investments to make up for the
fact
>  > its reserves to loans ratio is based on equity holdings valued at
>  > pre-Nikkei-swoon levels.  I suppose a good imagination can conjure such
>  > lists at any point in time, but the above look neither ridiculously
>  > unlikely nor necessarily years away.  What say you?
>  >
>  > Cheers,
>  > Rob.
>  >
>  >
>  >
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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