This piece was reprinted by OpEd News with permission or license. It may not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.
Rude Awakening - by Stephen Lendman
In 2008, a protracted global depression began, criminally manufactured by Wall Street and Washington scoundrels, complicit with major European partners.
Why? To permit greater financial and other corporate consolidation, more power, and ability to buy favored assets cheap, profiting hugely at the expense of millions of working households.
At the same time, Washington's got it own agenda. As White House chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel (now Chicago's mayor) told the Wall Street Journal on November 6, 2008:
"You never want to let a serious crisis go to waste. What I mean by that is that's an opportunity to do things you couldn't do before."
He didn't mean populist ones. He meant hardline neoliberal austerity to make working Americans bear the burden of bailing out banks, responsible for what trends analyst Gerald Celente calls the Greatest Depression.
How? The usual IMF way, including layoffs, wage freezes or cuts, fewer benefits, less social spending, tax cuts for the rich and corporations, crushing trade unionism, mass privatizations, deregulation, and harsh repression against opposition to a system incompatible with social democracy, civil and human rights.
In the 1980s, it was Reaganomics, trickle down, and Thatcherism. Today it's "shock therapy" called austerity, a destructive dead end, the same scheme pitting capital against people - disposable workers tossed out for big money's gain.
Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
2
2
1
