Austerity

http://thelastbastille.w ordpress.com/2012/01/27/austerity-basics/ March 4, 2012

Adults are expected to be responsible in nearly every sphere of human activity. Regardless of whether it involves treating their fellow man decently, providing for their families, or simply improving themselves, men need to take care of the business that is their own lives. Financially, this may range from paying bills to balancing a checkbook, or perhaps saving up for something worthwhile. Historically, governments the world over tend to have this noticeable pattern of not being able to stay within the budget for their respective national households; the worst situations merit what their creditors have deceptively called, austerity. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank are known for loaning out to so-called Third World countries and other developing nations. The shareholding member countries (which interestingly enough, are themselves primarily funded through corporatist high finance special interests) back these loans. John Perkins, a former economic consultant for Chas T. Main, details in Confessions of an Economic Hitman, that certain government officials are bribed to make sure their nation-states take these loans that they cant ever be paid back. Once the country fails to keep to its payment schedule, then the austerity provisions of the loan contract go into effect (pursuant to so-called conditionalities). The aftermath of said austerity is that the standard of living plummets, multinational corporations are given undue privileges to set up shop in the financially conquered nation (by unjustly exploiting resources as well as the public), and the resulting stagflation robs the free market of genuine production and innovation. Governments cut benefits, raise taxes, and enforce a domestic police state to keep the public in line. Basically, the country goes into Third World foreign receivership. Contrary to the mainline mythological movie that passes for contemporary history, austerity is anything but fiscal conservatism. Essential services are drastically cut to the point that the police wont even investigate burglary, identity theft, or extortion (interestingly, even though they are abdicating their responsibilities as public servants, they are more than happy to prevent you from being responsible for your own safety, all the while leaving you to whatever stray wolves may be about). The conditionalities that recipient nation-states are subject to by the IMF & World Bank are much more draconian than simply living within your means. Ethiopia, Brazil, Peru, Russia, Bolivia, Ecuador, Argentina, and others have all felt the not-sowonderful sting of austerity. Now a country such as Greece (soon to be followed by the rest of Europe) is in the throes of it as well. Unfortunately, the US Congress has only the foresight to either raise the debt ceiling or go into default, instead of writing off the fake debt that Americans, in fact, do not owe to the financial elitists. Only Iceland has shown any real promise of actually overturning the beneficence of these wannabe monopoly men. Eventually, populist sentiment arose, as it did during Arab Spring as well as in the British Isles. The populace is just beginning to realize the magnitude of the control grid and who exactly runs the insane asylum. As we stand at the edge of forever, the people must regain their self-control if any effective resistance is to be waged against these cheating plutocrats and their assorted minions who relish playing God with our lives.