Alessio, say it isn't so

I'll comment later. This guy's chat has gone viral, so I want to contribute.
watch and enjoy.
truthing is the opposite of the secrecy that banks operate under


Κυνική ομολογία στο BBC για την οικονομική κρίση by Matsomenos

Retailers: keep prices low. here's how

[Fortnum & Mason. tax dodgers extraordinaire]

number 1: keep your employees at starvation wages. They won't have the strength
to ask for a raise. Tell them there's no inflation. "Prices frozen for 5 years!"
No wage inflation! Bonus! Du-uh winning! (the gov thanks you)

number 2: pay the newspapers to tell the public that there's no inflation

number 3: give talking points to politicians. "As you can see, there's no inflation".
Make sure the government cooks the CPI and WPI numbers to hide the
inflation that everybody knows is just south of 10%.... for the workers.

number 4: outsource all your products to factories in sunny China. Cheaper cost, more profit
[these aren't Chinese kids, but they are prisoners. Only bribes to politicians are required. Send the PM over there to talk about human rights.]

number 5: rent a post box in Switzerland and call it "our new head office"
[Some of the Fortune 500. Honey, I shrunk the secretary.]

You're now officially "offshore."
You do all your business in the UK,

but pull a Doctor Who when the taxman commeth.

No corporation tax means more bonuses for you
and your upper execs, if they kiss your arse.
Most importantly, no need to raise prices in a competitive market.

You've got your filthy lucre already!

number 6: these are all short-term solutions, so prepare to pack up your belongings
and go to the Caribbean, because the whole thing's gonna implode really soon.
You can't keep sucking money out of an economy and expect it to keep chugging along.
But, what do you care? Short term is king. Life is short.

-Costick67 ~(8^P

Stockbrokers' wives: MILF or TALF?

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got a recession? send in the clowns

Mcdonald's hires 50 000 people, just like that. I'm doubtin' it!

Now that the US is suffering through high unemployment, it's important for the government
to send out a positive message about new jobs, even though they will most likely be mcjobs.
However, the newsreaders will only say

"Dateline: Fox! Good news! the number of new jobs this month is X"
in that fake way they've been taught, so as to fool the indifferent and the stoopid.

So, the government has cooked up this deal with Mcdonald's. The government pays
McDonald's for them to hire 50 000 people that they don't need.
Don't be surprised, this is how the US gov runs the stock market too.
They are doing this so that the numbers of new jobs will go up.

Since there's no 'sales' positions for these people once they're hired,
they will wait to replace the inevitable

staff losses due to:

-quitting in frustration (including "going postal" with a semi-automatic)
-simply going insane
-"do you want fries with that" burnout
-firing
-untoward unionising activity
-taking too many sick days off
-dying due to long-term, pre-existing illness not covered by health insurance

Until such time as this happens, the rest of

the shameful 50 000 will go into 'advertising' posts,
wearing clownface Ronald-style

and handing out coupons, in the city centre,
where they can embarrass themselves and their families.
And if they sick or get shot,
their mcjob will not be paying much of their health care expenses,
especially if the person can't work with a bullet lodged somewhere.
Then, the 'performance associates' can take their 'transferable skills'
(as we say in the UK) and do street mime.
they can pretend they're stuck in an invisible cage, because they are:
the plutocracy cage
we might all be joining them soon.

-Costick67 ~(8^P
checkitout:
McDonald's plans to hire 50,000 workers in a single day
McDonalds has long battled against the depiction that all its jobs are relatively low-skilled ones, popularly known as 'McJobs'.
By Richard Blackden, US Business Editor 11:01PM BST 04 Apr 2011 Bloomberg

The fast-food chain intends to take on the workers on April 19 at many of its 14,000 outlets across the US, as it seeks to fill jobs ranging from restaurant managers to those serving burgers.
The company admits that hiring 50,000 people on a single day is a publicity stunt, but one that will also help it fill the vacancies as more people hear about it.
The jobs, says McDonalds, are a mix of of full-time and part-time and are partly to cope with a seasonal increase in demand over the summer as well as a response to an improving economy.
McDonalds has long battled against the depiction that all its jobs are relatively low-skilled ones, popularly known as 'McJobs'.
Some economists have warned that some of the jobs the US recovery is creating don't match the wages of those positions, particularly in a booming construction and housebuilding trade, that were lost to the recession. ....

buy buy buy bye bye bye Euro

I'm going to combine two stories:

One, an insider trading job and the next plan to kill off the Euro.
Same planners, the US oligarchy.

PIMCO just put most of its stock money into the dollar, which is falling precipitously. Cries of Insider trading are coming from MaxKeiser.com. Why would they do it unless the US was planning its next attack on the Euro.

Portugal

Us dollar at 76.71. Testing a theory. If the US dollar is ready to crash, Portugal will be fed to the sharks. This is if the international western economies are a conspiracy. It has been shown that western economics is colluding to keep the price of gold low. So, why not kick Portugal and Spain in the teeth.
The EU will support those countries.
But if the US goes, the whole world will go into a tailspin.
Of course, they will be exposed this time because the US problem is all too visible to everyone.

financial crisis is opportunity for army to recruit

I wonder if a government, one that knows that even some of their stupiddest soldiers are sick of killing innocent people, would use the financial problems of many otherwise reasonable people to their advantage?
Let's say there's, oooh... an extra million people out of work because of Crash Gordon's stewardship of the economy.
Okay then! Let's get those people lined up for the army.
Of course, those poor bastards who sign up probably have been ignoring the media stories of how soldiers are dying more from mistakes and bad equipment than from the Taliban or Iranian boogeymen.
I can imagine the truthing-style commercial:
So, got debts. (that's not a question)

How do like your life, democratic freedoms, booze and easy women?

WELL! Our way of life is under threat from a band of bearded zealots in Afghanistan!

Feeling less manly now that you don't have a job?

OKAY! Try exporting democracy out the barrel of a gun. Kill innocent civilians. Get a good stiffy!

Weak pound and recession cutting into your travel budget?

Have WE got sun and deserts for YOU!

Sick of having four good limbs?
Sign here:

or here:

Happy Birthday, Mr. al Zaidi

Happy 30th. May the new enslaved democracy of Iraq allow you to live on. Unfortunately, regardless of what the video shows, you have been charged with assaulting the leader of the country, (not Maliki, you malaka! Bush43!). So, in most democracies, that's a hanging offense. Sorry to say it.

However, as a journalist, you are a shining example of how not to wait graciously for some bullshit answer from a fascist liar like Bush43.
al Z:"Uuuuh, why you keeell our women and childrrrren?"
Bush43: "we are exporterating terrorism in the guise of democracy. We're on a crusade, okay?"

Hush (puppy) the bastard.

Fed-ex him a boot to the head.

Savings on ice

I've just realised the full weight of the tax-haven and the laws in the semi-British bailiwicks which surround this verdant fortress of rectitude. The Isle of Man, Guernsey and Jersey (home of the cow) do not have the same banking laws as the rest of the country. Thus, offshore banks can set up shop and if things go tits-up, as they did, the savings of British people are not protected. This allowed some of the Icelandic banks to 'take' the savings of families, organisations, municipal governments, etc.
It is fitting for a government that presents itself [or at least did until recently if the law has changed] as 'the City', where rich Germans could hide their money from their own government. So, tax-haven Britain has no moral leg to stand on in this case. Iceland is not a tax haven, as far as I can tell. How can the UK petition the government of Iceland for those deposits when their whole country is bankrupt, and when their banks did nothing illegal? They just lost all of their deposits because they followed the laws of international banking, i.e. grab the lucre and run. Britain cannot complain about that either, for obvious reasons of authorship. If Iceland pays up on behalf of its '25 crazy bankers' then it will be branded as a haven for stupid politicians. The IMF will instantly set up a torture chamber there
-Costick67 ( 8^P

Electronic memory bank 1.0 - Fix lies about the crisis

If the net, and blogs particularly, are to be of any value, they must discuss key public issues and make sure that politicians can no longer tell us lies in the belief that we have forgotten what they've done. In the US, people used this technique to defeat Karl Rove's lies about Obama (where Rove had been very successful in previous elections).
The politicians' natural instinct is to 'muddy the waters' in any such discussion so that enough of their supporters and of the rest of society will leave them be.
I, Cos67, hope to add my voice to the continuing trend in truthing. Case in point: The Question Time show, which I have criticised, actually allowed a brief audience comment after the Scottish Secr. of State (kisr. of arse) ABSOLVED PM Brown of ANY blame in the 'international' financial crisis. The audience person said "remember, Brown was chancellor (or 'chancer') when the Financial Services Authority was instituted." [again, NOBODY was allowed to answer this point!]
Perhaps the FSA was instituted in the knowledge that it would do exactly what it did. The FSA effectively freed the markets from oversight because (according to a documentary) it did not have the ability to do its job properly. It didn't understand, for example, those debt vehicles that later destroyed our economies. Well then! What better excuse did it need for dis-allowing such dubious paper to be traded?
Didn't Brown realise this? He's an economist, I believe. Or did he plan this scam because he was trying to prove that "there will be no more boom and bust cycles" (world-beating hubris, uttered in parliament- look it up). Now we have bubble and burst cycles- much better. How much responsibility does he bear?
Last point: Private Eye publisher on have I got news for you, (when asked whether he will admit that Brown has saved us from 'drowning'- in the crisis) says basically "I will, if Brown admits that he had pushed us in the water in the first place."

Don't forget these ideas. Pass them on.
-The FSA failed us.
-no more boom and bust. More bubble and burst.
[lingo- http://www.wordwebonline.com/en/CHANCER]

Middle-earth political tit for tat for naught

Those who are not yet convinced that British politicians are either corrupt, crazy or 'having a laugh', are discussing the latest point-scoring competition between the two top parties. It basically has to do with both a Labour and a Tory politician currying favour with a Russian oligarch (with criminal ties, according to the US) on his yacht moored at Corfu. This is little more than a score-settling between private-school boys (including some of the other Brits who were present, and who are the ones who ratted out the politicians). In the end, it's zero sum gain because other stories of both parties' corruption have come to the fore as well.
The one such sordid case that has not been mentioned, outside of one tv show, is that of Lord Somesuch who is a citizen, but also a super-rich 'non-resident' tax-dodger (how can he be a UK politician, you may ask?). Still, he bought his lordship (which is apparently illegal) and is funnelling more 'donations' to Labour (again illegal for a non-resident) through a shell game with his various companies, British and non. Now, that's interesting and proof exists to back it up. Why is nobody else talking about it?
Back to the previous case, there is no hard evidence that anybody did anything wrong, so, why the fuss? Is it for purposes of distraction? It seems that the Labour guy, who had been seconded to the EU as trade minister, seems to have done the Ruskie a favour by lowering tarriffs on the aluminum he was exporting to the EU. Was this done illegally? What was the pay-off? Money for Labour, which is near bankruptcy, or access to high-society lady-boys for the minister?
Side note: it has always been British policy that the Ruskies were not to have access to the Mediterranean. Most recently it was sorted post-WW2 at Yalta (which wasn't enough to convince the Greeks who had a 4-year civil war anyway). Now it seems that not only are they out on the Med, but they are also 'drowning' 'officers' of the British government. Vodka, Meester Bond?
See Economist 25th Oct pg46.

lions led by market-led policies

For 9 years I've watched the UK education system flail about on the ground after repeated abuse from the government. As always, the government is trying primarily to get something for nothing (see railways, hospitals). The second motive, thanks to New Labour of the Right Wing, is the desire to push people to spend the money they have and don't have, to send their kids to private schools. [Don't complain. It's good for the economy, stupid.]
The government does this by running the state school system into the ground, allowing kids to run amok and leaving staff with no options for obedience training. I've seen the inside of a classroom, and it's an ugly sight. Funding is continually cut. Box-ticking bureaucratic work is foisted upon staff who work 12-hour days [staff turnover is of the McDonald's kind; can you say 'revolving door'].
Schools in deprived areas are doubly penalised because their poor, poorly-fed desk monkeys are performing badly thanks also to a lack of funding. All the more reason to destroy a perfectly good building and community and send the kids to the shiny new Academies (privately-run schools taking government money) which preach the new business mantra all day, instead of the national curriculum [since the school bosses are friends of the government, the schools are essentially run by Labour dictat; bye-bye school board]. That's why the OECD finds the UK languishing near the bottom of educational-results surveys, with the US and its No Presidents Left Behind policy.
[Economist 8 Dec '07 pg71][Photo: Wang: Follow Me]
P.S. much the same is happening to the NHS health-care system.

lions led by donkeys

A dream sequence:

Tony Blair is just elected leader in 1997 and he gathers the members of his Labour cabinet for a photo behind the Parliament. He's setting up the camera and giving directions, "move to the right" he says, 5 or 6 times, and the cabinet goes so far that they all fall into the Thames. How were they supposed to know he was talking politics, not art?

How things change. Once, one Briton helped the Arabs rise up and fight for freedom, and another Briton carved up the map of the Middle East to suit petroleum politics, YES, including Iraq, an "unworkable country from the beginning." Now, the PM went to these princes (pic. below), cap in hand, to have them 'help the IMF', i.e. his country, with its financial problems. This is progress, for the Arab nation.
Salam, everyone.

Bom dia from Lula. Wake up and smell the Braz coffee

As per the CBC G20 summit report from Brazil, the local politicians have taken the rich world to task for the world-wide financial meltdown. Lula and FinMin Mantega, and the rest of the sane world, believe that new financial regs are required. I'm embarrassed to say that the Canuck FinMin was speaking out his backside when he rejected the idea, (he says) due to the difficulties we're having with the present crisis. To him: Nobody's talking about making this crisis worse, you pelt! (By the way, Canada has largely avoided the repurcusions DUE TO ITS CONSERVATIVE BANKING REGULATIONS.) We're talking about what to do if we survive this one. I foresee a samba protest, worldwide. Ole.
If they have the time, perhaps Brazil should take those communist G7 countries to the WTO for illegally subsidising their businesses and banks. No es monetarism, amigo, now is it?
G7 says: It's ah--ah--ah--ahypocrisy!
Response: Bless you! Thanks for truthing.
[G7 politicians are advised to heed message, below]

BBC says to Labour: "I got your back"

There was a stunning example of obfuscation on last night's BBC 'Question Time' show. Every time the issue of bankers- giving-1.79 billion- pounds-in-bonuses-with-the-public's- money came up, ALL the people, politicians and non, in the panel avoided the issue and changed the topic. And the BBC's Dimbleby was in on the scam too. Nobody offered to spank the bankers. Nobody. That, my friends, is the democratic deficit (Chomsky) in action. I also noticed that the UKIP politician, who was supposed to be anti-establishment, was taking bullets for Labour's Straw. KIPper was deflecting tough political questions with his own very entertaining..... twaddle. Political theatre at its best. Look it up.

[Remember, that show is supposed to be a sop to democracy because it's so hard to be heard by that herd downtown.]

[pic: Wang "Searching for Buddha", materialism (promoted by governments and media) gets in the way of wisdom.]

forgetrance day, not remembrance

Remember this instead. All this fuss, pomp and ceremony over soldiers dead or alive puts across the subliminal message to impressionable half-wits that giving your life for your country is the best thing you can do, even if the war is immoral like the one in Mess-o-potamia. Victims of this propaganda end up literally being 'cannon-fodder' (UK metaphorical meaning: useless idiot). If the poppy sellers were also openly anti-war, then I would buy one. The ones who need to 'remember' are the politicians who invariably put soldiers unnecessarily in harm's way, but though they have the memory of the pachiderm, they've also got the skin of one, and the smell too.