8.
Our Armament Economy. Just as our industry in America was
outsourced to nations that had cheap labor pools, our defense industry grew by leaps
and bounds. With the many wars that America is involved in, from Central
Africa, to the Horn of Africa all the way to Afghanistan and Pakistan, our
defense budget boomed. Between The Department of Defense to the Intelligence
Departments either belonging to the military or connected to the military, the
actual budget according to different sources is about three trillion dollars. Also
according to IPS: U.S. Sets
Another Record on Defence Sales, Already .
"Despite
the global economic strain, demand for U.S. defence products and services is
stronger than ever," Andrew J. Shapiro, an assistant secretary in the U.S.
State Department, said on Thursday.
He
confirmed that the U.S., long the world's largest weapons exporter, has already
seen more than 50 billion dollars in government-to-government military sales
this fiscal year."
9. Shifting the Military focus from the
Middle-East to the Pacific. Some regard this as an attempt to contain
the World's second largest economy and a nuclear rival, The People's Republic
of China. Negotiating with the Philippines for the right to use Subic Bay for
use of the port for the Seventh Fleet the US is also negotiating with Vietnam
for the deep-water port of Cam Ranh Bay.
Singapore has offered its naval
facilities for use by high-speed Littoral ships. Marines will be stationed in
Australia. According to The Japan Times :
"The Yomiuri
Shimbun reported that the new force layout would divide the Marine Corps
command, ground force, air and logistic units into an arc of bases forming a
flank along the eastern seaboard of China."
This of course, will not be a stepping stone for better relations
between China and the United States.
10.
Paying Wall Street. In what amounted
to a gigantic "giveaway" The United States and The Federal reserve decided to
heap $4.76 TRILLION Dollars on the financial firms and investment banks "Too
big to fail". This is according to Source
Watch . This amount is staggering. Hardly any accounting for the funds was
demanded by Congress. Some claim that investment banks and other entities are
sitting on trillions while small business loans and mortgages remain next to impossible
to attain. This gigantic bail-out was the spark that ignited the Occupy
Movement that was started by Occupy Wall Street located in Zucotti Park. CEO's received
huge million dollar bonuses directly after the bail-out. This incensed
Americans when Wall Street defended the bonuses claiming that they were based
on "performance". This so-called "performance" took place when casino-economics
ruled the financial markets with the selling of derivatives.
"A derivative
is a financial contract whose value is derived from the performance of
underlying market factors, such as interest rates, currency exchange rates, and
commodity, credit, and equity prices. Derivative transactions include an
assortment of financial contracts, including structured debt obligations and
deposits, swaps, futures, options, caps, floors, collars, forwards, and various
combinations thereof."
Investors could buy these derivatives, betting on the failure of
any number of things. Financial wizards bet on "credit default swaps". "A credit default swap
(CDS) is a financial swap agreement that the seller of the CDS will compensate
the buyer in the event of a loan default or other credit event. The buyer of
the CDS makes a series of payments (the CDS "fee" or
"spread") to the seller and, in exchange, receives a payoff if the
loan defaults."
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
3
1
1
