debt slavery // Current TV

Debtocracy

This critical documentary made by Greek artists and activists seeks the real causes of the country’s crippling debt crisis — and proposes an economically and socially responsible solution.

Exactly a year ago, Greece sank into the dark abyss of global capital markets and the EU and IMF reluctantly came to the ‘rescue’ with a 110 billion euro bailout.

Attached to the rescue package came the same draconian austerity measures that had previously triggered social crises and popular uprisings in Mexico, Argentina, Ecuador, Thailand and Indonesia. Once again, the neoliberal ‘medicine’ is threatening to kill the patient.

Now, the Greek debt crisis is flaring up anew amidst confirmations by EU officials that either a second bailout or a restructuring of the country’s debt will be necessary — and amidst rumors in the popular press that Greece is actually planning to leave the eurozone.

At this critical juncture comes Debtocracy, a spectacular crowd-funded Greek documentary made by artists and activists, and freely shared online under a creative commons license. The film reveals the shocking truth behind the neoliberal propaganda that has been so greedily spread by the mainstream media in Europe and the US.

The myth of Greek laziness is exposed for what it is — a racists ploy to distract the European people from the indelible reality behind the bailout: Germany and France wanting to save their banks. Rather than having Greece default on the reckless speculators at Deutsche Bank and BNP Paribas, Europe would like to see Greece defaulting on its own people.

And so millions are pushed into abject poverty — a recent estimate by a London School of Economics survey is that nearly a third of Greece’s 11 million people live near or under the formal poverty line — while public funding for crucial social services such as health and education are being cut across the board.

In a bizarre parody on even the wildest persiflage of the ‘immoral capitalist’, the EU even managed to include a clause in the bailout agreement that would see Greece continuing to buy up heavy military hardware from German and French weapons producers. The last shreds of Greek sovereignty and democracy have been crushed by the powerful forces of European capital.

Indeed, in a total aberation on the notion of European solidarity, we are forcing families earning less than 500 euros per month to cut back their spending while simultaneously forcing their government to keep spending its austerity-squeezed tax receipts on buying more weapons! How such nefarious practices are allowed to continue unabated remains one of the greatest mysteries and injustices of our time.

Yet there is an alternative to the inhumane denigration of Greek national sovereignty by the henchmen of the global financial industry. In the uplifting second part of this documentary, the filmmakers outline the concept of odious debt and the possibility for an Ecuadorian-style default.

After all, why would the Greek people have to pay for a debt they were never officially informed about and that didn’t benefit them one single bit?

Featuring some of the heavyweights in critical political economy of our day (including David Harvey, Samir Amin, Alain Badiou and Manolis Glezos), this documentary is truly a must-see.This critical documentary made by Greek artists and activists seeks the real causes of... more

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The American Dream: The Greatest Theft In Human History

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Bankrupt America - The Irrelevance of the Debt Ceiling

By David P Shirk

Over the news we have been hearing about the idea of congress raising the debt ceiling. It has been pointed out that if it is not raised, then many entitlements will not be paid. On the flip side if the debt ceiling is to be raised even higher to cover the cost of all the programs that were promised, then there will be no way to meet that debt no matter what you raise taxes to. Indeed both of these options present some very serious problems.

If government entitlements and are not paid, and other contracts are not honored, then there is a very high chance that riots will indeed ensue when peoples dependency on receiving government checks is severed. However if the debt is raised to meet those contracts and entitlements for the coming year, then the amount of resulting debt extension will make the consequences for the following year more dire. Qe2 will not suffice as it still results in more government debt that we the people are bound as citizens to pay. Monetizing the debt (increasing the money supply to meet the debt), will only result in even greater damage for reasons to numerous to name.

Yet as serious as this problem sounds, it is at this point irrelevant. The amount of unfunded debt from 2010 going into this year (which is far more than merely raising the debt ceiling can cover) remains a problem that I have not even seen the news address yet (for more information on the exact amount and to whom it is owed, go to http://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/reports/pd/pd.htm and for the exact breakdown, go to http://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/reports/pd/feddebt/feddebt_dec10.pdf ). What you must keep in mind is that the number 4,624,007 is not expressed in the dollar amount, but rather in the millions, meaning that the real rolled over debt is 4,624,007,000,000 – 4.6 trillion.

Politicians on the hill have grown complacent to this number. After all, the same number at the end of 2008 was 4.3 trillion. So if we can continue to carry over debt from one year into the next without a catastrophe, why should they pay it any notice? Given this simple way of looking at things, it would seem like the debt can be allowed to simply continue to go up.

Yet here is the part that no politician wants to mention – how the debts were funded, and how were they rolled over. Heck, your average US subject would never even bother to go to http://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/reports/pd/pd_sbredemptionsissuesbyseries.xls , and find out how this happens. This oversight of tracking how the debt is funded is what will cause the catastrophe. If you want a real jaw dropper as to the impending danger of what is happening, I encourage you to open the link. The amount of bonds outstanding (the money received by the government for the sale of the bonds), is not nearly enough to meet the debt rolled over from 2010 into 2011, let alone to fund this year’s budget. This is why the raising of the debt ceiling is irrelevant. The outstanding debt was 4.6 trillion – the amount of bonds it had to back it was only about 2.2 trillion, meaning that for the first time, we have 2.4 trillion dollars of debt, and absolutely no way to answer it.

In 2008 people like Peter Schiff, Gerald Celente, and Ron Paul warned of this danger. Yet so blind are most people to the nation’s economy, they laughed at them. The three people I just mentioned attempted to break the problem down into laymans terms knowing that most people would be lost if they dug into the specifics – and because people attack what they do not understand, they mocked them. The sad reality is that people missed the point of their arguments completely, and what is coming very soon is the result.

Yet those 3 (amongst many others) made 1 last warning knowing that the spending of government would not slow – and that was the danger of monetizing the debt. Monetizing the debt would mean that the FED would simply print the money into existence. Outside of running the very high risk of creating hyperinflation, there is of course another danger.

The Federal Reserve is not a government entity. It is a private banking institution owned by people who have little to do with our government. Their sole responsibility was to create a ....

http://www.peacefreedomprosperity.com/?p=3872By David P Shirk Over the news we have been hearing about the idea of congress... more

shanklinmike
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"Deep Government Pockets" - End The Fed

By David P Shirk

Technology is a very useful tool, especially if you happen to be a bank or financial institution seeking to maintain control of a nation’s monetary means. Or – a government that hails such nonsense as the only way to bring about order and peace. The truth is that the wheelbarrows of inflated money probably will not happen thanks to the wonders of technology, but what is to come is far worse. The reality is that those who clamor for financial regulation fail to see how such regulation furthers government power at our expense – not the fat cats.
For instance, Qe2 (quantitative easing) has the goal of injecting 500 Billion dollars into the market. Well, that’s the common misconception anyway. Sadly, despite this insane amount of money being tossed about (nearly $1,600 for every living man, woman, and child in the US), I would bet my bottom dollar that at least a third of the US population has never even heard of it. Of the two thirds that have, about one probably thinks it is simply the treasury printing more money, giving it to banks, and the banks will simply be lending it out to we the people to help our finances. The final third is divided, but smell a rat.
The main complaint of Qe2 seems to be the all too real threat of hyperinflation. The most historic example of such a policy gone wrong was after WWI when Germanys’ currency was printed to an excess so extreme that their money became worthless. Too much money, not enough goods. Yet inflation itself has little to do with the price of goods – that is merely the result of inflation. Inflation is in all reality the increase of money supply (hence the term), and until recently, was not measured by the price difference in a gallon of milk (a layman’s example – CPI for the more savvy). Yet the idea that such a thing happening today to such an extreme as in post WWI Germany is a little misrepresented, and therefore people tend to miss the bigger picture.
First off all, we need to remember that the bulk of what is on the banks balance sheets does not exist in terms of money that can be used by anyone at a store. In other words – the money that we use in bills and coinage represents less than 10% of what the banks have on their books. This is nothing new and has been going on for well over 30 years now. So the idea that an increase of $1,600 for every living person in the US will see us all pushing around wheelbarrows full of useless paper money is a little unrealistic. It is this fact however that has caused the US in large to completely ignore the danger of inflation for as long as they have.
So a gallon of milk may have gone up maybe a 30% in the last few decades – big deal. As long as people think of inflation as the increase in the price of groceries, some may just be able to justify that. Yet houses have in most cases gone up about 300%, and they cost far more then groceries. The price of renting an apartment has also skyrocketed percentage wise versus the 30% milk. Gas? Well, we all know that one. As to incomes produced from all this money – fairly flat for the last 30 years.
By not having to print wheelbarrows full of cash to pay for houses etc., and keeping the dollar amount on balance sheets only, the banks have figured out how to inflate a currency without people ever seeing it as a real problem. So money supply has become to the average person what the Greek God Zeus would be to a Christian – a mythical being that possesses no basis in reality. If you cannot see it, then it does not exist. Computers and intranets are needed to track the billions of cashless exchanges made each day. These provide the banks with the means to shift billions of dollars around each day that simply do not exist (at least to us peons anyway). So while many of us use technology like the internet to learn and expand our horizons, the banks use it as a dangerous weapon. I think the irony of that fact can only be eclipsed by the irony that our government places banking institutions as the #1 priority when it comes to cyber protection. Using an unconstitutional institution with an unconstitutional controller funding trillions in government debt while indebting an entire nation, the FED has really outdone itself.
But that is hardly the best part.
Qe2 is not new idea, and was already tried back in 2008. In 2008 the Fed purchased 1.7 trillion in US treasury and mortgages backed securities. That did not work, and we were told repeatedly by Obama, Bernanke, Geitner, etc., that the reason why is that it simply was not enough. That was over $5,400 for every living person in the US (1,700,000,000,000/310,000,000). How did such a large amount of money get thrown around, and at the same time, accomplish nothing?
First off – note what the money actually went to – buying the debt from the government and financial sectors (the ones who hold the mortgage backed securities). Keeping in mind that the Federal Reserve funds the US treasury, prints its money, and controls it, we know that the US Government and the Federal Reserve have a symbiotic relationship. This adds insult to injury. The insult is that those who chose to live within their means have their savings diminished by a body they have no say over. The injury is that those who speak up are either labeled as simpletons for attempting to put this problem into perspective in layman’s terms, or an idiot who dares believe themselves to be smarter than the government and FED.
Second is that the FED said something quite brilliant that pretty much sums up the whole mess. Simple put – the belief of people in a policy is the reality. This is after all how they have managed to get away with robbing us blind since 1913. As long as they can prolong the consequences and create the perception that they are acting in our best interest, the FED is in affect untouchable. Naturally it is not a true statement of reality, but rather how they can even flaunt their strategy, and the majority still does not get it despite hearing it straight from the horse’s mouth so to speak. Their perception on the whole matter has created a temporary reality that in the end brings ruin to entire nations. Government says a debt based economy is a good thing via central control via the FED. Let’s break that idiocy down shall we?
Debt – something that is owed or that one is bound to pay to or perform for another; a liability or obligation to pay or render something; the condition of being under such an obligation. National – of, pertaining to, or maintained by a nation as an organized whole or independent political unit; national affairs; owned, preserved, or maintained by the federal government; peculiar or common to the whole people of a country; devoted to one’s own nation; patriotic; concerning or encompassing an entire nation.
National Debt – money owed by everyone (that by definition is patriotic to pay – gag). $14,000,000,000,000/310,000,000 peop....

http://www.peacefreedomprosperity.com/?p=3867By David P Shirk Technology is a very useful tool, especially if you happen to be a... more

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The $555,000 Student-Loan Burden

When Michelle Bisutti, a 41-year-old family practitioner in Columbus, Ohio, finished medical school in 2003, her student-loan debt amounted to roughly $250,000. Since then, it has ballooned to $555,000.

It is the result of her deferring loan payments while she completed her residency, default charges and relentlessly compounding interest rates. Among the charges: a single $53,870 fee for when her loan was turned over to a collection agency.

"Maybe half of it was my fault because I didn't look at the fine print," Dr. Bisutti says. "But this is just outrageous now."

To be sure, Dr. Bisutti's case is extreme, and lenders say student-loan terms are clear and that they try to work with borrowers who get in trouble.

But as tuitions rise, many people are borrowing heavily to pay their bills. Some no doubt view it as "good debt," because an education can lead to a higher salary. But in practice, student loans are one of the most toxic debts, requiring extreme consumer caution and, as Dr. Bisutti learned, responsibility.

Unlike other kinds of debt, student loans can be particularly hard to wriggle out of. Homeowners who can't make their mortgage payments can hand over the keys to their house to their lender. Credit-card and even gambling debts can be discharged in bankruptcy. But ditching a student loan is virtually impossible, especially once a collection agency gets involved. Although lenders may trim payments, getting fees or principals waived seldom happens.

Yet many former students are trying. There is an estimated $730 billion in outstanding federal and private student-loan debt, says Mark Kantrowitz of FinAid.org, a Web site that tracks financial-aid issues -- and only 40% of that debt is actively being repaid. The rest is in default, or in deferment, which means that payments and interest are halted, or in "forbearance," which means payments are halted while interest accrues.

Although Dr. Bisutti's debt load is unusual, her experience having problems repaying
isn't.
More-------
http://finance.yahoo.com/college-education/article/108846/the-555000-student-loan-burden?mod=edu-continuing_education

http://www.freefinancezone.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/debt-consolidation.jpg
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tagged w/ debt slavery

Debtocracy

The American Dream: The Greatest Theft In Human History

Bankrupt America - The Irrelevance of the Debt Ceiling

"Deep Government Pockets" - End The Fed

17 National Debt Statistics Which Prove That We Have Sold Our Children And Grandchildren Into Perpetual Debt Slavery

YouTube - The Secret of Oz - English - FREE.mov

The Turkey Votes for Thanksgiving

Freedom's Requiem

The $555,000 Student-Loan Burden

Debtors' Revolt: Bank Of America Cuts Deal With Another YouTuber

HR1207 “Audit The Fed” Hearing W/ Dr Ron Paul, Tom Woods, Barney Frank

Facts About Your Money & The Federal Reserve 9/26/2009

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Geithner asks Congress for higher U.S. debt limit | U.S. | Reuters

21st-Century Slaves

Every University a Junkie: More Debt Slavery for Future Generations

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