Right now, financial elites aren't just fighting a defensive battle against new banking regulations. They are going on the attack, they're whipping up deficit hysteria around the globe and calling for drastic cuts in public services. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/les-leopold/is-there-a-global-war-bet_b_608703.html
Why? They want to ensure that debt based government financing system isn't threatened as they benefit from it by being the principle traders of government bonds. Note they are not the holders of the debt, we are.
Our pension funds buy the government IOU's from the bankers, who ofcourse get commissions. Ironically, the public debt they're so worried about was created in large part by them -- the result of huge bailouts and other expenses stemming from the crash they caused.
Although now the bankers want us to dismantle our welfare state, welfare for the financial elites is still on the agenda. This is the most dangerous counter attack in the history of finance and banking. It will of course open up opportunities which should question the whole basis of our debt based money supply system on which the bankers feed. Meanwhile democracy still clanks along.
We still pull the levers in thevoting booth. But the decisions that affect us the most are made in a profoundly undemocratic way. Faceless financial executives exercise far more control over politicians than the voters who elected them. So the problem isn't just the corporate campaign contributions, or corporate media control or the aparent consensus supporting the bankers.
Bankers have been roaming free and virtually unregulated for more than a generation, and now their power is unparalleled. Just months after they brought our economy crashing down, they're right back to their old tricks, setting the stage for the next crash and the next bailout while getting filthy rich along the way. There's no room for pacifists in this war.
Clearly, Wall Street and theCity and its global minions are not seeking a truce. Instead, they're coming after our welfare state, jobs and pensions. They want us to work longer before we retire and get less when we do.
They want less public money to go to schools and public infrastructure. And they want us to get used to a jobless recovery with unemployment above 3m. (And when millions and millions of people are unemployed, wecan't maintain high labour standards, and our wages and benefits erode.) In short, they want to undermine all the policies and programmes that trade unions helped to build and have sustained our society since 1945. Fighting back will take courage, intelligence and hard work.
No one can guarantee that democracy will prevail in the war against the stranglehold of debt based money. But when we realise that we've beenshoved into a corner with no way out, we'll have to act. A popular struggle will begin. And when it does, we'll at least have a fighting chance to recapture our economy and our society.
