Europe Turns Left.

The French have thrown out Sarkozy, the Greeks have abandoned their traditional political parties and Iceland has prosecuted the bankers and politicians who destroyed their country. Angela Merkel immediately went on the attack deploying the "there's no alternative" argument for all she's worth. Meanwhile in Britain Cameron has licked his wounds after the bruising local elections and promised more of the same using simpler language so the peasants will understand better. Their message is the same - we have to pay our debts caused by the banking crisis to the banks otherwise its the end of the world. No, it will simply be the end of theirs. What is becoming increasingly clear - to anyone who isn't a politician at any rate - is that the financial system they love so much hasn't suffered a mild case of hiccups but a terminal heart-attack. It has been revealed for what it always was, a huge Ponzi scheme - not so much a financial system as a gravy train - and the victims of it have had enough. Time now for the politicians to do what they pride themselves on - catching the popular mood - and bloody-well do something about it instead of wringing their hands and thinking up catchy slogans. We don't want to hear "we're all in this together" or "there's no alternative." What we want to hear is that the people who were responsible for this mess - the bankers - have been detained, that the criminals have been apprehended, locked up and key thrown away. We want regulation, people put before profits and for the rich to realise that their wealth is a privilege not a right and that extraordinary rewards demand extraordinary responsibilities. This reporter agrees that austerity is demanded, but not for the poor - they've always had it, even during the "good" times. What we need now is austerity for the rich. They've revelled in increasing wealth for decades and now its time for them to pay their dues.

Philip Hammond Blames The Victims Yet Again.

In an outrageous example of disingenuous Tory twaddle Philip Hammond, the Defence Secretary, has claimed that those who borrowed money from the banks must shoulder their fair share of the blame for the financial meltdown. Ignoring the fact that the banks have actually been allowed to get away with their criminal behaviour scot-free by this bunch of posh boys and, indeed, have continued to steal money on a multi-national scale, what exactly does he mean? Well, most of the bad debt was associated with property - sub-prime mortgages that were offered to desperate people so they could at least purchase a roof over their heads. The point is, why were they so desperate? Because the banks, believing they were on to a good thing, deliberately forced up property values in order to increase the size of loans and the profits that could be made from this eagerly helped by estate agents and governments who loved the tax returns on all this. As prices skyrocketed ordinary people saw their dream of being home ownners evaporating before their eyes and grew increasingly desperate to get on the property ladder before it was too late. Seduced by mortgages that were easy to get, they clutched at the straw that was offered to them, calculating that if the world economy continued to grow then so would their wages and that the mortgage would become increasingly easy to service. The banks knew this wasn't true but had come up with a wizard wheeze that meant that they at least could avoid the consequencies. They bundled good and bad mortgages together and sold them on, buying other bundles from other banks that they figured weren't as smart as they were. Unfortunately, when the whole rotten dance ground to a halt and the banks examined what they had bought from each other, they discovered that they had all been engaged in the same confidence trick and had happily been shafting each other all along. Nice try Mr.Hammond, but the old Tory trick of blaming the victim won't wash here and is nothing more than sheer hypocrisy.

How The Financial System Became A Force Of Nature.

In a major speech today the outgoing governor of the Bank of England, Sir Mervyn King, explained to us all why completely missing the financial crisis wasn't his fault or anyone else's for that matter - it was all "a failure of the system." Oh, that's all right then. Of course that phrase "a failure of the system" seems to suggest that the world financial system is some sort of force of nature, like a volcano or an earthquake, beyond the ability or wit of man to predict - soemthing that has been evolving on the planet since time began. No it isn't - it's a human construct and a very recent construct at that. It was built up by people seeking profit and, because profit seekers have little in the way of scruple, conscience or even basic intelligence, it demands regulation by governments to protect the rest of us from them. Nor should the idea that the recent financial crisis be reagrded as a one-off event, an aberration, be allowed to take root. It is simply another eaxample in a long line of such crises that have hit the world economy over the last two hundred years or so. It happens over and over again and has led to widespread poverty, unemployment and even wars in a depressing litany of human folly. Sometimes governments see where the utter stupidity of greedy individuals has led us and do something about it - its called regulation. Then we have an extended period during which the greedy and stupid chip away at the regulation until they remove it completely and they are allowed, once again, to go collectively insane to the cost of all of us. Mervyn King says that the crisis couldn't have been predicted. Yes it could. Perhaps he should have opened a history book or, if reading serious stuff is beyond him, he could have asked me. I might not be a genius but I am an historian and, as I told anyone who would listen at the time, I know a financial bubble when I see one. Don't let these disingenuous people fool you. They should have known what was in store - the warnings were writ large. To now claim that they didn't means they are either lying or so stupendously ignorant and incompetent they should never have been in positions of authority in the first place. These are not the Lords of Creation as they would like you to believe, they are small people with limited intellects and little grasp of reality.