Economy

So Very True

Corruption, Economy, Life under Capitalism, Merkins...
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Attaturk sums up The Neoliberal Years:

    Modern America:

Late 1980s:

WE MUST DEREGULATE BANKS!

Mid-1990s:

YAY, We’ve Deregulated Banks and we’re exploiting the masses to become richer than ever!

EARLY 2000s:

Look at how awesome De-Regulating the banks has been, you people criticizing it are engaging in class warfare! All these bankruptcies are abusive of us rich people, we need to make those laws tougher…WE NEED TO REGULATE THE MASSES!

About 2007:

Nothing is wrong except the masses are suckers, don’t blame us. We’re rich. They need to pay off their loans. Good thing we made bankruptcy so hard for ’em.

Mid- 2008:

GODDAMN, WE’RE IN TROUBLE, WE NEED THE MASSES TO BAIL US RICH FOLKS OUT OR WE’RE TAKING ALL OF YOU BASTARDS WITH US!!!!!!!!!!

It’s An Equitable Life, Eventually

Economy, Tony Blair, UK politics, War on Iraq
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Blairs’ properties go into negative equity.

Oh please, please, please let them be repossessed and evicted by the bailiffs.

UPDATE:

Chicken Yogurt reports that Scotland Yard is launching a war crimes investigation into Blair and former Attorney General Goldsmith:

[…]

Officers from Scotland Yard have commenced a criminal investigation into the deaths of Iraqi citizens killed during the armed invasion and occupation of Iraq. The Metropolitan Police are acting in response to crimes reported by peace activists from We Are Change UK and The Campaign to Make War History. In an unprecedented step, the case was handed to the War Crimes division of the Counter Terrorism branch who are now investigating allegations of 14 criminal offences committed by Tony Blair, Lord Goldsmith and others. The offences are under the International Criminal Court Act 2001, which came into effect under English common law, just two days before 9/11.

Two Members of We Are Change UK and a representative from the Campaign to Make War History were interviewed for six hours at Belgravia Police station on the 20th December 2007. Evidence was provided to the police relating to the crimes of:-

• genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and conduct ancillary to these crimes under Sections 51 and 52 of The International Criminal Court Act 2001.
• a crime against peace and complicity in a crime against peace under Articles 6 and 7 of The Nuremburg Principles.
• murder, incitement to murder and conspiracy to murder under the Offences Against the Person Act 1861.
• conspiracy to commit genocide, a crime against humanity and war crimes under the Criminal Law Act 1977.

More…

Victims of the American dream

Economy, Life under Capitalism, Merkins...
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In a story I would’ve missed if it wasn’t for Majikthise, it turns out about a dozen metalworkers from India are going into their fourth week of hunger strike in Washington, after having been lured to America with false promises of permanent visa and high paying job offers:

The workers, who walked off jobs in Gulf Coast shipyards in early March, say they were victims of human trafficking when they were brought to the United States under a temporary guest worker program. The hunger strike is meant to pressure federal officials, and comes as Congress is debating an expansion of the guest worker program, known as H-2B for the type of temporary visa the workers receive.

The Indian workers say they were deceived by Signal International and labor recruiters when they paid as much as $20,000 for visas they believed would allow them to work and live permanently with their families in the United States. In fact, the H-2B visas are for short-term contracts.

“Everyone has a dream,” said one of the protesters, Paul Konar, a 54-year-old worker from the Indian state of Kerala, speaking in Hindi through a translator. “If we could come here legally to live with our families, that was my dream.”

Signs of the coming Depression

Economy, Life under Capitalism
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That last one may not be entirely serious. But the news that banks have started being selective about student loans, even though these are federally guaranteed. Students at community colleges and the like –usually the poorer part of the student population– are being refused loans based on the college they go to. Not all banks do this, but if this is a trend, it’ll mean even higher barriers to upward mobility than already exist in the US.