Yayo Herrero : Vivir bien con menos. Ajustarse a los límites físicos con criterios de justicia'

http://www.mrafundazioa.org/es/centro-de-documentacion/medioambiente/vivir-bien-con-menos

Yayo Herrero nos ha escrito el tercer número de Inguru Gaiak. En él, habla del problema fundamental que tenemos que afrontar estas décadas: es imposible un crecimiento consumista infinito en un planeta finito. Dice que la sociedad occidental puede vivir mejor con menos, pero siempre profundizando en la justicia social.

Durante demasiado tiempo el movimiento ecologista y el sindical han vivido de espaldas o confrontados. Un ecologismo social anticapitalista debe hacerse cargo de las contradicciones entre el capital y el trabajo, debe preocuparse por el mantenimiento de la negociación colectiva y del derecho del trabajo. Un sindicalismo que viva enraizado en los territorios reales no puede ignorar que el modo de producción capitalista se contrapone esencialmente al mantenimiento de la vida.

Debatir el propio concepto de trabajo para que incluya no sólo la llamada producción, sino también la reproducción y la gestión del bienestar cotidiano que recae en los hogares; explorar qué sectores y actividades sirven para satisfacer necesidades humanas y cuáles hipotecan el futuro, incluso en el corto plazo; indagar qué alianzas y sinergias pueden hacer confluir en luchas comunes a movimientos como el sindical, el ecologista y el feminista, entre otros, ...Estas son tareas inaplazables en un momento en el que tejer alianzas y articular movimiento parece ser el único camino para resistir ante “el golpe de estado” neoliberal que vivimos y para construir otra realidad que pueda ser justa y compatible con el planeta que nos alberga.

Fuente : http://www.mrafundazioa.org/es/noticias/vivir-bien-con-menos

Predator Nation : Corporate Criminals, Political Corruption, and the Hijacking of America

http://www.randomhouse.com/book/213722/predator-nation-by-charles-h-ferguson

Charles H. Ferguson, who electrified the world with his Oscar-winning documentary Inside Job, now explains how a predator elite took over the country, step by step, and he exposes the networks of academic, financial, and political influence, in all recent administrations, that prepared the predators’ path to conquest.
Over the last several decades, the United States has undergone one of the most radical social and economic transformations in its history.

· Finance has become America’s dominant industry, while manufacturing, even for high technology industries, has nearly disappeared.

· The financial sector has become increasingly criminalized, with the widespread fraud that caused the housing bubble going completely unpunished.

· Federal tax collections as a share of GDP are at their lowest level in sixty years, with the wealthy and highly profitable corporations enjoying the greatest tax reductions.

· Most shockingly, the United States, so long the beacon of opportunity for the ambitious poor, has become one of the world’s most unequal and unfair societies.

If you’re smart and a hard worker, but your parents aren’t rich, you’re now better off being born in Munich, Germany or in Singapore than in Cleveland, Ohio or New York.
This radical shift did not happen by accident.

Ferguson shows how, since the Reagan administration in the 1980s, both major political parties have become captives of the moneyed elite. It was the Clinton administration that dismantled the regulatory controls that protected the average citizen from avaricious financiers. It was the Bush team that destroyed the federal revenue base with its grotesquely skewed tax cuts for the rich. And it is the Obama White House that has allowed financial criminals to continue to operate unchecked, even after supposed “reforms” installed after the collapse of 2008.

Predator Nation reveals how once-revered figures like Alan Greenspan and Larry Summers became mere courtiers to the elite. Based on many newly released court filings, it details the extent of the crimes—there is no other word—committed in the frenzied chase for wealth that caused the financial crisis. And, finally, it lays out a plan of action for how we might take back our country and the American dream.

John Taylor Gatto : Weapons of Mass Instruction

http://www.newsociety.com/Books/W/Weapons-of-Mass-Instruction2

John Taylor Gatto's Weapons of Mass Instruction focuses on mechanisms of familiar schooling which cripple imagination, discourage critical thinking, and create a false view of learning as a by-product of rote-memorization drills. Gatto's earlier book, Dumbing Us Down, put the now-famous expression of the title in common use worldwide. Weapons of Mass Instruction promises to add another chilling metaphor to the brief against schooling.

Here is a demonstration that the harm school inflicts is quite rational and deliberate, following high level political theories constructed by Plato, Calvin, Spinoza, Fichte, Darwin, Wundt, and others, which contend the term "education" is meaningless because humanity is strictly limited by necessities of biology, psychology, and theology. The real function of pedagogy is to render the common population manageable.

Realizing that goal demands the young be conditioned to rely upon experts, conditioned to remain divided from natural alliances, conditioned to accept disconnections from the experiences, which create self-reliance and independence.

Escaping this trap requires a different way of growing up, one Gatto calls "open source learning." In chapters such as "A Letter to Kristina, my Granddaughter"; "Fat Stanley"; and "Walkabout:London", this different reality is illustrated.

John Taylor Gatto is an internationally renowned speaker who lectures widely on school reform. He taught for 30 years in public schools before resigning on the op-ed pages of the Wall Street Journal during the year he was named New York State's official "Teacher of the Year." On April 3, 2008, the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard credited Mr. Gatto with adding the expression "dumbing us down" to the school debate worldwide. 

Eduardo Galeano : Los Hijos de los Días

http://www.sigloxxieditores.com/libros/Los-hijos-de-los-dIas/9788432316272

Los hijos de los días reúne 366 historias, una para cada día del año. En ellas, Galeano capta instantáneas que reflejan la vida de hombres y mujeres célebres o anónimos. Hechos sorprendentes o curiosos, situados en diversas épocas y lugares, que muestran las fragilidades de personajes conocidos y la grandeza de los ignorados. La obra se convierte así en un calendario originalísimo, capaz de revelar todo lo que esconde la sucesión previsible de los días.

Eduardo Hughes Galeano nació en Montevideo, el 3 de septiembre l940. Comenzó a incursionar en los medios periodísticos a los catorce años, como dibujante en el semanario “El Sol” de Montevideo, bajo el seudónimo “Gius” (que se corresponde con la pronunciación castellana de su primer apellido). Hasta los dieciocho años alternó los dibujos con algunas incursiones en el periodismo: crónicas de arte, y sindicales. Simultáneamente trabajó como mensajero, peón en una fábrica de insecticidas, cobrador, taquígrafo y cajero de banco, entre otros oficios.

Trabajó en el semanario “Marcha” entre 1960 y 1964, haciendo las veces de jefe de redacción, y en el periódico “Época” (1964). A causa de la dictadura que sobrevino en Uruguay, se exilió en Argentina en 1973. Allí fundó y dirigió la revista “Crisis”.

Más tarde, al suceder el golpe de estado en el país de acogida tuvo que exiliarse nuevamente en la costa catalana de España. A principios de 1985 regresó a Montevideo, donde actualmente vive, camina y escribe.

Es autor de varios libros, traducidos a numerosas lenguas. En ellos comete, sin remordimientos, la violación de las fronteras que separan los géneros literarios. A lo largo de una obra donde confluyen la narración y el ensayo, la poesía y la crónica, sus libros recogen las voces del alma y de la calle y ofrecen una síntesis de la realidad y su memoria.

En dos ocasiones fue premiado por la Casa de las Américas de Cuba y por el Ministerio de Cultura del Uruguay. Recibió el American Book Award de la Universidad de Washington, los premios italianos Mare Nostrum, Pellegrino Artusi y Grinzane Cavour, el premio Dagerman, en Suecia, la medalla de oro del Círculo de Bellas Artes de Madrid y el premio Vázquez Montalbán del Fútbol Club Barcelona. Fue elegido primer Ciudadano Ilustre de los países del Mercosur y fue también el primer galardonado con el premio Aloa, de los editores de Dinamarca, el Cultural Freedom Prize, otorgado de la Fundación Lannan, y el Premio a la Comunicación Solidaria, de la ciudad española de Córdoba.

The ECB cannot go broke – get over it

CNBC’s Head of News, one Patrick Allen produced this article (May 10, 2012) – European Central Bank Leveraged Like Lehman – which several readers E-mailed to me suggesting that there was a problem that had to be addressed and would prevent the ECB funding member state deficit increases in pursuit of growth. The only problem I am afraid to say is the “author” doesn’t know much about the subject that he is writing about. This, sadly, in a general problem out there in commentary land. The article was in fact reporting the views of one Satyajit Das who gets a lot of airtime on national radio in Australia and elsewhere but perpetuates many of the mainstream myths about the way the monetary system operates and its limits and propensities. Das mixes factual statements (which I agree with) with causalities and reasoning (which I do not agree with). The journalists then build their stories based on an uncritical precising of so-called experts like Das and the myths then spread. Let us be absolutely clear. There is no meaningful comparison between the ECB and Lehman or any central bank and any private bank. Further, the ECB cannot go broke.

The CNBC article quotes extensively from Das article from April 20, 2012 – Europe’s debt crisis is back – in fact, it never left – where Das informed the Australian readership that:

Economist Walter Bagehot advised that in a crisis, central banks should lend freely but at a penalty rate and secured by good collateral.
The ECB does not appear to have quite understood Bagehot’s commandment. The rate is below market rates, amounting to a subsidy to banks. The ECB and eurozone central banks have loosened standards, agreeing to lend against all matter of collateral.
In effect, the ECB is now functioning as a financial institution, assuming significant credit and interest rate risks on its loans.
If the European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF) was a Collateralised Debt Obligation, the ECB increasingly resembles a highly leveraged bank.

Of-course, Walter Bagehot was an early editor of The Economist magazine which had been started by this father-in-law. He wrote the now-famous book – Lombard Street in 1873, which explored banking and finance in an international setting.
Continue Reading : http://bilbo.economicoutlook.net/blog/?p=19402

Money Is No Object : Accounting for Deficits, Taxes & Trust in the 21st Century

 

View more presentations from Mitch Green

Source : http://modernmoney.wordpress.com/2012/05/07/money-is-no-object/

REPORT : The State of Debt : Putting an end to 30 years of crisis

Open publication - Free publishing

Thirty years of debt crisis have devastated livelihoods across the world. Debt cancellation finally released some countries from one debt trap, but the First World Debt Crisis shows yet again why reckless lending and borrowing need to be governed and controlled. The First World Debt Crisis has led to government debts in impoverished countries increasing, and unregulated opaque private lending also risks increasing inequality and crisis. We need a new system for monitoring and regulating the way money moves across the world, so that finance works for people.

Source : http://www.jubileedebtcampaign.org.uk/stateofdebt

“It is one of the serious evils of our present system of banking that it enables one class of society, and that by no means a numerous one, by its control over the currency to act injuriously upon the interests of all the others and to exercise more than its just proportion of influence in political affairs.”
- Andrew Jackson, Farewell Address - March 4, 1837

Jean Ziegler - Destruction massive : Géopolitique de la faim

http://www.seuil.com/livre-9782021060560.htm

Toutes les cinq secondes un enfant de moins de dix ans meurt de faim, tandis que des dizaines de millions d’autres, et leurs parents avec eux, souffrent de la sous-alimentation et de ses terribles séquelles physiques et psychologiques.

Et pourtant, les experts le savent bien, l’agriculture mondiale d’aujourd’hui serait en mesure de nourrir 12 milliards d’êtres humains, soit près du double de la population mondiale. Nulle fatalité, donc, à cette destruction massive. Comment y mettre fin ?

En prenant d’abord conscience des dimensions exactes du désastre : un état des lieux documenté, mais vibrant de la connaissance acquise sur le terrain par celui qui fut si longtemps en charge du dossier à l’ONU, ouvre le livre. Il s’agit tout aussitôt de comprendre les raisons de l’échec des formidables moyens mis en œuvre depuis la Deuxième Guerre mondiale pour éradiquer la faim. Puis d’identifier les ennemis du droit à l’alimentation. Pour saisir enfin le ressort des deux grandes stratégies à travers lesquelles progresse à présent le fléau : la production des agrocarburants et la spéculation sur les biens agricoles.

Comme toujours avec Jean Ziegler, la souffrance a un visage, l’oppression un nom, et les mécanismes à l’œuvre sont saisis dans leur application concrète.

Mais l’espoir est là, qui s’incarne dans la résistance quotidienne de ceux qui, dans les régions dévastées, occupent les terres et opposent le droit à l’alimentation à la puissance des trusts agro-alimentaires. Ils attendent de nous un indéfectible soutien.

Au nom de la justice et de la dignité de l’Homme.

Rapporteur spécial des Nations unies pour le droit à l’alimentation de 2001 à 2008, Jean Ziegler est aujourd’hui vice-président du comité consultatif du Conseil des droits de l’homme de l’ONU. Professeur émérite de sociologie à l’Université de Genève, il a consacré l’essentiel de son œuvre à dénoncer les mécanismes d’assujettissement des peuples du monde. Récemment : L’Empire de la honte (2005) et la Haine de l’Occident (2008).

La dette publique, une affaire rentable : A qui profite le système ? 2e édition

http://www.yvesmichel.org/admin/espace-economie-alternative/la-dette-publique-une-affaire-rentable

Préface :

Tous les citoyens devraient parfaitement connaître les mécanismes élémentaires de la création monétaire et de la dette publique : notre émancipation politique et économique dépend directement — et inévitablement — de notre émancipation monétaire. À ce simple titre, ce livre est important et pourra sans doute changer votre compréhension du monde, comme il a changé la mienne.

J’étais, en 2005, tout entier consacré à l’analyse de nos institutions (françaises et européennes) ; j’avais compris, cette même année, que ce n’est pas aux hommes au pouvoir d’écrire les règles du pouvoir, que tous les abus de pouvoir étaient rendus possibles par la malhonnêteté des processus constituants. Je discutais sur mon forum des grands principes d’une bonne Constitution, et nous écrivions sur le wiki une Constitution d’origine Citoyenne, ce que j’appelle le site du «Plan C».

J’avais donc commencé à construire un outil — que je crois inédit et prometteur — pour une prochaine émancipation générale. Mais je négligeais complètement, par ignorance, un point absolument essentiel, un point à cause duquel toute solution politique semble effectivement interdite. André-Jacques Holbecq est venu un jour sur le forum du Plan C et a créé un fil étrange dont le titre était «Reprendre la création monétaire aux banques privées»…

La réaction fut rapide et le fil de discussion est devenu un des plus actifs et riches du site : nous progressons tous ensemble assez vite sur ce sujet décisif et méconnu: ce sont les banquiers privés qui maîtrisent le pouvoir politique, et la maîtrise privée de la création monétaire est un verrou diabolique qui interdit en profondeur tout droit des peuples à disposer d’eux-mêmes.

Par habitude, par ignorance, par négligence, nous acceptons sans le savoir une profonde servitude non nécessaire: il n’y a rigoureusement aucune raison d’abandonner la création monétaire aux banques privées.

Ainsi, des sommes considérables, celles des intérêts de toute cette création monétaire privée, sont retirés depuis des décennies à la collectivité française, dans la plus grande discrétion et sans la moindre justification politique ou économique, et sans le moindre débat public sur le sujet.

De plus, une dette publique extravagante, annuellement renouvelée, complètement asphyxiante pour les services publics et pour le bien-être général est née de cette invraisemblable ponction. Cette dette est très injustement imputée à la prétendue incurie de l’État : il n’en est rien, puisque les dépenses publiques restent assez stables en France depuis des décennies. Non, c’est bien d’un racket privé de la richesse publique qu’il est question à la source de la dette publique, depuis 1973 en France, et partout dans le monde ; à l’évidence, l’internationale des banques existe déjà bel et bien, et il est plus que temps de la repérer et d’en décrire les méfaits.

Comprendre cette servitude injuste et la faire connaître à tous les citoyens, c’est déjà préparer notre prochaine libération.

Puisqu’on m’en donne ici l’occasion, je vais remercier André-Jacques Holbecq et Philippe Derudder du fond du cœur : ils ont, dans leurs différents livres, écrits seuls ou en commun, considérablement enrichi mon analyse politique des abus de pouvoir en me rendant sensible un rouage déterminant dans l’oppression des hommes (nés libres) par le travail forcé. Tous deux cherchent honnêtement, ils écoutent tout le monde, ils passent des milliers d’heures à expliquer et expliquer encore ce qu’ils ont compris.

Et, puisqu’il est presque mon voisin, André-Jacques devient un ami ; et je le vois progresser à toute vitesse, en nous emmenant avec lui.

Il est généreux et pragmatique, il reconnaît tout naturellement ses erreurs, son action est utile, très utile, pour le bien public. Je suis heureux de l’avoir rencontré et je vous engage à le découvrir à votre tour.

Étienne Chouard

Source : http://etienne.chouard.free.fr/Europe/forum/index.php?2008/05/16/94-la-dette-publique-est-une-affaire-tres-rentable-mais-pour-qui

Understanding Modern Money : The Key to Full Employment and Price Stability

http://www.e-elgar.co.uk/bookentry_main.lasso?currency=UK&id=1668

This book is also available as an ebook 978 1 78100 891 1 from : www.books.google.com/ebooks

Description
‘This is the best kind of book – one that coaxes you to see the world in a new light. Old assumptions and prejudices melt away and you find yourself thinking differently (and more hopefully) about vitally important but troublesome issues of economic and social policy.’
– Philip Harvey, Rutgers University of Law, US

‘ In this innovative new work, Randy Wray has convinced at least one reader that full employment and price stability are fully compatible goals in today's world....Pivoting on his fresh rereading of the history and nature of money, Wray generates insight after insight, and will change forever the way in which we think about key macroeconomic variables and relationships.’
– John Adams, Northeastern University, US

In this innovative and very practical book, Randall Wray argues that full employment and price stability are not the incompatible goals that current economic theory and policy assume. Indeed, he advances a policy that would generate true, full employment while simultaneously ensuring an even greater degree of price stability than has been achieved in the 1990s.

Contents
Contents: Preface 1. Introduction 2. Money and Taxes 3. An Introduction to a History of Money 4. Government Spending, Deficits and Money 5. Monetary Policy 6. Employment Policy and the Value of the Currency 7. The Logic of the Taxes-Drive-Money View 8. Conclusions

The Inequality Speech That TED Doesn't Want You To See

Eradicating Ecocide : Laws and Governance to Stop the Destruction of the Planet

http://www.pollyhiggins.com/Polly_Higgins/The_Book.html

The author, a barrister and international environmental lawyer, advocates a new approach to preventing the destruction of our planet. Higgins sets out the evidence to demonstrate how existing laws have bestowed upon corporations silent rights which take precedence over environmental concerns and she argues that nothing less than new international law will ensure that the enjoyment of those rights is subject to reciprocal responsibilities, duties and obligations towards future generations and our habitat. Solving the problem at national level will never work - businesses will simply move elsewhere to continue business as usual.

To change the rules of the game, Higgins advocates a new crime, of Ecocide to prevent the ‘extensive damage, destruction to or loss of ecosystems’. There are already four international Crimes Against Peace; now a 5th Crime Against Peace is ready to be put in place.

Hopeless : Barack Obama and the Politics of Illusion

http://www.akpress.org/hopeless.html

The election of Barack Obama sparked long-dormant tingles of optimism in even the most entrenched political cynics. But the promise of an Obama revolution fizzled out even before his inauguration, as the president-in-waiting stocked his cabinet with corporate hacks, cut secret deals with Wall Street titans and plotted a bloody escalation of the senseless war in Afghanistan. Here is a scathing indictment of the Obama presidency from the best writers on the American Left. Hopeless is a view of Obama's policies from the trenches: the compromises, the backstabbing, the same old imperial ambitions. From Obama's sell-outs to big oil and the nuclear industry to his continuation of savage Bush-era policies in the CIA's global network of secret prisons, this fast-paced chronicle will outrage the politically naive, delight the critical and inspire those looking for an alternative to the dismal politics of lesser evilism. As Emma Goldman famously quipped, "If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal." Let this book stand as a painful reminder to those who think anything less than social struggle will net tangible gain.

Contributors include : Kevin Alexander Gray, Jeremy Scahill, Joe Bageant, Marjorie Cohn, Brian Tokar, Linn Washington, Jr., Ronnie Cummins, Kathy Kelly, Tariq Ali, Ralph Nader, and more.

The Crisis of Neoliberalism by Gérard Duménil and Dominique Lévy

http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?recid=30884&content=book

This book examines “the great contraction” of 2007–2010 within the context of the neoliberal globalization that began in the early 1980s. This new phase of capitalism greatly enriched the top 5 percent of Americans, including capitalists and financial managers, but at a significant cost to the country as a whole. Declining domestic investment in manufacturing, unsustainable household debt, rising dependence on imports and financing, and the growth of a fragile and unwieldy global financial structure threaten the strength of the dollar. Unless these trends are reversed, the authors predict, the U.S. economy will face sharp decline.

Summarizing a large amount of troubling data, the authors show that manufacturing has declined from 40 percent of GDP to under 10 percent in thirty years. Since consumption drives the American economy and since manufactured goods comprise the largest share of consumer purchases, clearly we will not be able to sustain the accumulating trade deficits.

Rather than blame individuals, such as Greenspan or Bernanke, the authors focus on larger forces. Repairing the breach in our economy will require limits on free trade and the free international movement of capital; policies aimed at improving education, research, and infrastructure; reindustrialization; and the taxation of higher incomes.

"Banking was conceived in iniquity and was born in sin. The Bankers own the Earth. Take it away from them, but leave them the power to create deposits, and with the flick of a pen they will create enough deposits to buy it back again. However, take it away from them, and all the fortunes like mine will disappear, and they ought to disappear, for this world would be a happier and better world to live in. But if you wish to remain slaves of the Bankers and pay for the cost of your own slavery, let them continue to create deposits."
- Sir Josiah Stamp, President of the Bank of England in the 1920s, the second richest man in Britain.
Source : http://www.moneyreformparty.org.uk/money/about_money/quotes.php

How Educators Are Cultivating Emotional, Social, and Ecological Intelligence

http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-1118104579.html

Daniel Goleman, Lisa Bennett, Zenobia Barlow

A new integration of Goleman's emotional, social, and ecological intelligence

This book portrays inspiring educators, activists, and students who embody a new integration of emotional, social, and ecological intelligence—or what the authors refer to as engaged ecoliteracy. It builds on the success of bestselling author Daniel Goleman's emotional and social learning, and shows how educators are extending the cultivation of these essential dimensions of human intelligence to include knowledge of and empathy for all living systems.

With stories that range from the Arctic to Appalachia and New York to New Orleans it illustrates dynamic education and engagement about some of the most important ecological issues of the day, from oil and coal to food and water. It also features a comprehensive professional development guide and the five processes of engaged ecoliteracy.

• Daniel Goleman is author of several New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller titles: Emotional Intelligence, Social Intelligence, Primal Leadership, Vital Lies, and Ecological Intelligence
• Filled with illustrative examples of schools that have successfully created a "green culture"
• Includes a professional development guide to use in individual and group settings

James Gustave Speth - America the Possible : Roadmap to a New Economy

http://yalepress.yale.edu/book.asp?isbn=9780300180763

In this third volume of his award-winning American Crisis series, James Gustave Speth makes his boldest and most ambitious contribution yet. He looks unsparingly at the sea of troubles in which the United States now finds itself, charts a course through the discouragement and despair commonly felt today, and envisions what he calls America the Possible, an attractive and plausible future that we can still realize.

The book identifies a dozen features of the American political economy—the country's basic operating system—where transformative change is essential. It spells out the specific changes that are needed to move toward a new political economy—one in which the true priority is to sustain people and planet. Supported by a compelling "theory of change" that explains how system change can come to America, the book also presents a vision of political, social, and economic life in a renewed America. Speth envisions a future that will be well worth fighting for. In short, this is a book about the American future and the strong possibility that we yet have it in ourselves to use our freedom and our democracy in powerful ways to create something fine, a reborn America, for our children and grandchildren.

James Gustave Speth is Professor of Law at Vermont Law School. Previously he was Sara Shallenberger Brown Professor and Dean of the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Yale University. He lives in Strafford, VT.

Texte de l’article 123 du traité de Lisbonne

http://engagement2012.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/dette.jpg

« Il est interdit à la Banque Centrale Européenne (BCE) et aux banques centrales des États membres, ci-après dénommées “banques centrales nationales”, d’accorder des découverts ou tout autre type de crédits aux institutions ou organes de la Communauté, aux administrations centrales, aux autorités régionales ou locales, aux autres autorités publiques, aux autres organismes ou entreprises publics des États membres; l’acquisition directe, auprès d’eux, par la BCE ou les banques centrales nationales, des instruments de leur dette est également interdite. »

En clair: les États de la zone euro ne peuvent plus créer leur monnaie, même pour raisons justifiées. Ils sont asservis. Ils l’empruntent dès le premier euro à des fonds de pension, des gestionnaires d’assurance vie ou de placement de valeurs monétaire, monnaie toujours créée à l’origine par les banques commerciales privées, rendues de ce fait souveraines. Une dette publique artificielle (en France, elle n’existait pas avant janvier 1973) apparaît. Aujourd’hui de 1600 milliards d’euros, elle enfle sans fin par le cumul des intérêts qu’il faut chaque année emprunter; plus de 1340 milliards d’euros depuis 1980. Les intérêts qui créent la plus grande partie de nos déficits publics diminuent nos capacités d’investissements. Les services publics sont progressivement asphyxiés et notre patrimoine collectif vendu à vil prix.

Si nous ne mettons pas un terme à cette confiscation de démocratie économique, nous rejoindrons les pays pauvres d’ici peu.
Source : http://engagement2012.wordpress.com/

Philip Coggan - Paper Promises : Debt, Money and the New World Order

http://www.publicaffairsbooks.com/publicaffairsbooks

From the Economist's award-winning Buttonwood columnist comes a timely and incisive analysis of debt: the defining feature of our financial era

For the past forty years western economies have splurged on debt. Now, as the reality dawns that many debts cannot be repaid, we fi nd ourselves again in crisis. But the oncoming defaults have a time-worn place in our economic history. As with the crises in the 1930s and 1970s, governments will fall, currencies will lose their value, and new systems will emerge. Just as Britain set the terms of the international system in the nineteenth century, and America in the twentieth century, a new system will be set by today's creditors in China and the Middle East. In the process, rich will be pitted against poor, young against old, public sector workers against taxpayers and one country against another.

In Paper Promises, Economist columnist Philip Coggan helps us to understand the origins of this mess and how it will affect the new global economy by explaining how our attitudes towards debt have changed throughout history, and how they may be about to change again.

Philip Coggan is the Buttonwood columnist of the Economist. Previously, he worked for the Financial Times for twenty years, most recently as investment editor. Among his books are The Money Machine, a guide to the city of London that is still in print in the UK after twenty-five years, and The Economist Guide to Hedge Funds.

David R. Montgomery - Dirt : The Erosion of Civilizations

http://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520258068

Dirt, soil, call it what you want—it's everywhere we go. It is the root of our existence, supporting our feet, our farms, our cities. This fascinating yet disquieting book finds, however, that we are running out of dirt, and it's no laughing matter. An engaging natural and cultural history of soil that sweeps from ancient civilizations to modern times, Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations explores the compelling idea that we are—and have long been—using up Earth's soil. Once bare of protective vegetation and exposed to wind and rain, cultivated soils erode bit by bit, slowly enough to be ignored in a single lifetime but fast enough over centuries to limit the lifespan of civilizations. A rich mix of history, archaeology and geology, Dirt traces the role of soil use and abuse in the history of Mesopotamia, Ancient Greece, the Roman Empire, China, European colonialism, Central America, and the American push westward. We see how soil has shaped us and we have shaped soil—as society after society has risen, prospered, and plowed through a natural endowment of fertile dirt. David R. Montgomery sees in the recent rise of organic and no-till farming the hope for a new agricultural revolution that might help us avoid the fate of previous civilizations.

David R. Montgomery, Professor of Earth and Space Sciences at the University of Washington

Chris Hedges - The World As It Is : Dispatches on the Myth of Human Progress

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/world-as-it-is-chris-hedges/1101003560

Drawing on two decades of experience as a war correspondent and based on his numerous columns for Truthdig, Chris Hedges presents The World As It Is, a panorama of the American empire at home and abroad, from the coarsening effect of America's War on Terror to the front lines in the Middle East and South Asia and the continuing Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Underlying his reportage is a constant struggle with the nature of war and its impact on human civilization. "War is always about betrayal," Hedges notes. "It is about betrayal of the young by the old, of cynics by idealists, and of soldiers and Marines by politicians. Society's institutions, including our religious institutions, which mold us into compliant citizens, are unmasked."

Configuración y crisis del mito del trabajo

Escrito por José Manuel Naredo. Universidad Politécnica de Madrid
  
Enlace original: http://www.ub.edu/geocrit/sn/sn119-2.htm 

La noción actual de trabajo no es una categoría antropológica ni, menos aún, un invariante de la naturaleza humana1. Se trata, por el contrario, de una categoría profundamente histórica. El trabajo, como categoría homogénea, se afianzó allá por el siglo XVIII junto con la noción unificada de riqueza, de producción y la propia idea de sistema económico para dar lugar a una disciplina nueva: la economía. La razón productivista del trabajo surgió y evolucionó, así, junto con el aparato conceptual de la ciencia económica. En esta comunicación se pasará revista a esta evolución revelando, en este caso, la conexión entre ciencia, ideología y sociedad y entre el lenguaje científico y el lenguaje ordinario, que reviste particular importancia en las ciencias sociales. De esta manera, al situar en amplia perspectiva la razón productivista del trabajo, podremos relativizarla y criticarla. El plan de la exposición será el siguiente. En una primera parte se pasará revista a los valores, concepciones y modos de vida que predominaron en las sociedades humanas antes de que se extendiera la idea actual de trabajo. En una segunda parte se analizará el caldo de cultivo ideológico en el que nació la razón productivista del trabajo, que acabó configurando tanto al cuerpo social como al comportamiento individual en la actual civilización. En una tercera parte, se pasará revista a los hechos que están provocando la crisis conjunta de la función productivista y social que se le venía atribuyendo al trabajo en nuestras sociedades. Por último se apuntarán las perspectivas que tal crisis ofrece.
Leer más...

A quem pertence o Banco Central Europeu?

O Banco Central Europeu, ou BCE, pouco o nada tem a ver com a União Europeia.

Ao juntar os termos "Central" e "Europeu", a ideia era transmitir a sensação de que este fosse o banco da União.

E a ideia passou, pois muitos confundem as duas coisas.
Mas a verdade é bem diferente.

Se ainda existirem dúvidas acerca da total independência do BCE, é bom ler o Artigo 130 (ex-artigo 108 do TCE):

No exercício dos poderes e no cumprimento das tarefas e deveres que lhes são conferidos pelos Tratados e pelos Estatutos do SEBC e do BCE, nem o Banco Central Europeu, nem os bancos centrais nacionais, nem qualquer membro dos respectivos órgãos de decisão podem solicitar ou receber instruções das instituições, órgãos ou agências da União, dos governos dos Estados-Membros ou de qualquer outra entidade.

Instituições, órgãos e agências da União e os governos dos Estados-membros se comprometem a respeitar este princípio e a não tentar influenciar os órgãos de decisão do Banco Central Europeu ou dos bancos centrais nacionais no exercício das suas funções.

No documento de 18 de Dezembro de 2003, "Das percentagens detidas pelos bancos centrais europeus no esquema de subscrição dos capitais do Banco Central Europeu", assinado pelo Presidente Jean-Claude Trichet e publicado na Gazeta Oficial da União Europeia (15.1.2004 L 9/28), é possível observar a quem pertença, de facto, a mesma BCE.

Eis as percentagens detidas pelas várias instituições financeiras:

Nationale Bank van België/Banque Nationale de Belgique 2,8297 %
Danmarks Nationalbank 1,7216 %
Deutsche Bundesbank 23,4040 %
Bank of Greece 2,1614 %
Banco de España 8,7801 %
Banque de France 16,5175 %
Central Bank and Financial Services Authority of Ireland 1,0254 %
Banca d'Italia 14,5726 %
Banque centrale du Luxembourg 0,1708 %
De Nederlandsche Bank 4,4323 %
Oesterreichische Nationalbank 2,3019 %
Banco de Portugal 2,0129 %
Suomen Pankki 1,4298 %
Sveriges Riksbank 2,6636 %
Bank of England 15,9764 %

Duas coisas bastantes interessantes: a presença da Bank of England, isso é, do banco central dum País que ainda não adoptou o Euro como moeda oficial, e o facto do documento falar de forma explicita de senhoriagem:

O mesmo princípio aplica-se à repartição dos proveitos monetários dos BCN [bancos centrais nacionais, NDT] em conformidade com o artigo 32.1 do Estatuto, à distribuição da receita de senhoriagem, à remuneração dos créditos dos BCN iguais aos activos de reserva transferidos para o BCE [...]

Um assunto particularmente complexo este último, mas que cedo ou tarde terá de ser enfrentado dada a importância.

A quem pertencem os bancos nacionais?

Mas agora vamos em frente na nossa viagem.
Estabelecido o facto da BCE pertencer aos vários bancos centrais, a próxima pergunta que segue é: a quem pertencem os bancos centrais dos vários Países?

Também neste caso a resposta pode parecer óbvia: tal como o Banco Central Europeu deveria pertencer à União Europeia, assim os bancos centrais nacionais deveriam pertencer aos vários Estados nacionais.
Deveria, mas não é.

Descobrir os verdadeiros donos é muito difícil: os bancos centrais não gostam de divulgar este tipo de noticia. Mas temos sorte.
O banco central italiano, a Banca d'Italia, publica na internet a lista das instituições que detêm as quotas de participação e que têm direito de voto.
Eis a lista completa:

Participante Quota participação/número de votos

Intesa Sanpaolo S.p.A. 91.035/50
UniCredit S.p.A. 66.342/50
Assicurazioni Generali S.p.A. 19.000/42
Cassa di Risparmio in Bologna S.p.A. 18.602/41
INPS 15.000/34
Banca Carige S.p.A. - Cassa di Risparmio di Genova e Imperia 11.869/27
Banca Nazionale del Lavoro S.p.A. 8.500/21
Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena S.p.A. 7.500/19
Cassa di Risparmio di Biella e Vercelli S.p.A. 6.300/16
Cassa di Risparmio di Parma e Piacenza S.p.A. 6.094/16
Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze S.p.A. 5.656/15
Fondiaria - SAI S.p.A. 4.000/12
Allianz Società per Azioni 4.000/12
Cassa di Risparmio di Lucca Pisa Livorno S.p.A. 3.668/11
Cassa di Risparmio del Veneto S.p.A. 3.610/11
Cassa di Risparmio di Asti S.p.A. 2.800/9
Cassa di Risparmio di Venezia S.p.A. 2.626/9
Banca delle Marche S.p.A. 2.459/8
INAIL 2.000/8
Milano Assicurazioni 2.000/8
Cassa di Risparmio del Friuli Venezia Giulia S.p.A. (CARIFVG S.P.A.) 1.869/7
Cassa di Risparmio di Pistoia e Pescia S.p.A. 1.126/6
Cassa di Risparmio di Ferrara S.p.A. 949/5
Cassa di Risparmio di Alessandria S.p.A. 873/5
Cassa di Risparmio di Ravenna S.p.A. 769/5
Banca Regionale Europea S.p.A. 759/5
Cassa di Risparmio di Fossano S.p.A. 750/5
Cassa di Risparmio di Prato S.p.A. 687/5
Unibanca S.p.A. 675/5
Cassa di Risparmio di Ascoli Piceno S.p.A. 653/5
Cassa di Risparmio di S. Miniato S.p.A. 652/5
Cassa dei Risparmi di Forlì e della Romagna S.p.A. 605/5
Banca Carime S.p.A. 500/5
Società Reale Mutua Assicurazioni 500/5
Cassa di Risparmio di Fabriano e Cupramontana S.p.A. 480/4
Cassa di Risparmio di Terni e Narni S.p.A. 463/4
Cassa di Risparmio di Rimini S.p.A. - CARIM 393/3
Cassa di Risparmio di Bolzano S.p.A. 377/3
Cassa di Risparmio di Bra S.p.A. 329/3
Cassa di Risparmio di Foligno S.p.A. 315/3
Cassa di Risparmio di Cento S.p.A. 311/3
CARISPAQ - Cassa di Risparmio della Provincia dell'Aquila S.p.A. 300/3
Cassa di Risparmio della Spezia S.p.A. 266/2
Cassa di Risparmio della Provincia di Viterbo S.p.A. 251/2
Cassa di Risparmio di Orvieto S.p.A. 237/2
Cassa di Risparmio di Città di Castello S.p.A. 228/2
Banca Cassa di Risparmio di Savigliano S.p.A. 200/2
Cassa di Risparmio di Volterra S.p.A. 194/1
Cassa di Risparmio della Provincia di Chieti S.p.A. 151/1
Banca CRV Cassa di Risparmio di Vignola S.p.A. 130/1
Cassa di Risparmio di Fermo S.p.A. 130/1
Cassa di Risparmio di Savona S.p.A. 23/1
TERCAS - Cassa di Risparmio della Provincia di Teramo S.p.A. 115/1
Cassa di Risparmio di Civitavecchia S.p.A. 111/1
CARIFANO - Cassa di Risparmio di Fano S.p.A. 101/1
Cassa di Risparmio di Carrara S.p.A. 101/1
CARILO - Cassa di Risparmio di Loreto S.p.A. 100/1
Cassa di Risparmio di Spoleto S.p.A. 100/1
Cassa di Risparmio della Repubblica di S. Marino S.p.A. 36/ -
Banca CARIPE S.p.A. 8/ -
Banca Monte Parma S.p.A. 8/ -
Cassa di Risparmio di Rieti S.p.A. 8/ -
Cassa di Risparmio di Saluzzo S.p.A. 4/ -
Banca del Monte di Lucca S.p.A. 2/ -

Total quotas: 300.000 Total votos: 539

No meio desta floresta de bancos privados é possível encontrar duas participações do Estado Italiano: INPS, com 15.000 quotas e 34 votos, e INAIL, 2.000 quotas e 8 votos. Assim, no total. o Estado é representado no Banco Central Italiano com 42 votos, menos de 10%.

Para perceber a importância destes factos, é possível observar a "evolução" das antigas moedas italianas, hoje substituídas com o Euro. Neste caso a comparação é entre uma nota de 500 Lire (1974 - 1979) e uma de 1.000 Lire (1990 - 1998):

No primeiro caso, 500 Lire, temos uma nota do Estado Italiano. No segundo caso, uma nota dum banco privado.
É exactamente o que se passa com as notas dos Euros: se o Euro for da União Europeia, ao seria lógico encontrar a escrita "UE"?.
Mas em lado nenhum podem encontrar "União Europeia", apenas "BCE".

Uma ligeira diferença...

A quem pertencem os bancos privados? (o caos intencional)

Este esquema repete-se na maior dos bancos centrais nacionais que, de facto, são privados.
Mas a quem pertencem os bancos privados?

Aqui entramos no sancta sanctorum, uma espécie de caixa de Pandora na qual é difícil orientar-se.
Os bancos não pertencem a uma pessoa mas a conjuntos de accionistas que, por suas vezes, pertencem a outros accionistas.

O Banco Unicredit, por exemplo, conta entre os próprios accionistas um banco líbio, o grupo Allianz (Alemanha), um banco inglès com um cadastro assustador (Barclays: ajuda ao governo do Zimbabwe, acusações de reciclagem de dinheiro, envolvimento no comércio de armas...), uma sociedade americana (BlackRock) com participação inglesa (Merlin Entertainments), a Autoridade de Investimentos da Líbia.

O Monte dei Paschi di Siena vê a participação do grupo francês Axa e da JP Morgan (!!!).

Resumo: o BCE é privado

Uma super-Matryoshka que constitui a melhor forma de protecção: uma maneira para afastar os curiosos e para tornar o esquema incompreensível, pois tudo perde-se num jogo de percentagens de empresas espalhadas pelo globo.

O que pode ser afirmado com certeza é que os bancos centrais nacionais não pertencem aos Estados (há muitas poucas excepções neste sentido) mas aos privados.

Agora, se o BCE é independente da União Europeia e de propriedade dos bancos nacionais, que são privados, o mesmo BCE não passa dum banco privado.

RESUMO: a economia da União Europeia está nas mãos dos interesses privados.
O que não é uma novidade: também a Federal Reserve é um banco privado...

Fonte : http://www.zeitgeistportugal.org/capitulo/index.php?option=com_kunena&func=view&catid=22&id=9567&Itemid=56