Jul 042010
Today we celebrate out independence from Britain’s 18th century political imperialism. Today the US still practices imperialism, but it is more subtle that the empire building of centuries past. Yesterday I ran across a video clip at Tim’s blog, Scared Stiff, that is the best short study of the transition from national empire building to corporate international imperialism that I have seen. Thank you, Tim! This is worth the ten minutes.
What say you?
6 Responses to “Economic Imperialism”
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Interesting vid.
I thought you would enjoy that one, Lisa. 🙂
This video is chilling, and I expect in a few more years stuff like this will be actively repressed. More than likely through “legal” means but I am not ruling out active political violence.
As in Second Amendment solutions?
This video proves the existence of conspiracy theorists on both the left and right.
Iraq and Iran were all talk, and the world knows it. They were never going to bail on the dollar. If they ever did, they would have a real war on their hands, not this kid glove BS that the US did. China would LEVEL the Middle East and rebuild everything. China has too much wrapped up in US dollars to allow the Middle East to collapse things. Oh, and where are the Euros coming from? That would be bank swaps from the US. So, by jumping ship to flood the Euro, devaluing the dollar, is all crap. The Euro, and most likely all fiat money systems (the entire world) would collapse with weeks. No money, no problem leveling whatever did it. How many of us would like to corner an angry bear in a cave armed only with a pocket knife? That is how that scenario would pan out.
We went into Iraq for revenge. W had something to prove. He proved that he was a moron of epic proportions. The oil would have been a nice by product, but the entire world was keeping a close eye on that situation.
Oh, and as for the bankers collusion that would only last so long if ‘end days’ played out, as well. None of them want to A) Report to a bigger bank or B) share. As a result, the banks would destroy one another, and honestly, the public of the world would lynch every one of them, anyway. I have little doubt that all of the banks do things to undermine each other, just to get to the top. Remember that Goldman Sachs was a distant 3rd largest investment bank in 2007 behind Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers. Coincidence? Doubtful. How long before Wells Fargo or JP Morgan knock GS off their horse? They are looking for ways to do it, even as you read this.
Banks influence, but only so far. If their hands are overtly seen in any action, especially now, they will be torn to pieces. If not by us, by the other banking establishments.
There has to be a reasonable replacement for the dollar before it is in real threat of collapse. What is it going to be the Euro? Right a currency that is based on a group of countries that range from industrial power houses (Germany) to second world, falling to third world countries (Greece, Spain…). Yeah, I can see the Markets clinging to that kind of stability. The Yen? Based on an economy that has been in an 11 year recession? Nope. The Yuan? Sure, if you like your currencies flagrantly manipulated, I can see that. The Swiss Franc? The Swedish Krone? The British Sterling? The Indian Rupie? Nobody else has the economy to pull off being the world reserve currency. And everyone has more than they want of dollars. Making it even harder to get off it. The dollar is worse than oil because we can get off oil easier. The dollar is used for everything.
I agreed with the final message, the presentation assumes WAY too many ‘ifs’ and discounts off handedly the potential fall out from actions that might have been taken.
Otis, as a rule, I do not go in for “conspiracy theories”, but this guy has done his homework. I don’t think revenge was a motive for Iraq. First the Bush/GOP regime wanted to control the oil. Consider that when we invaded, we did not seize the organs of government or secure the infrastructure. Instead our troops protected the oil fields, and the only government agency our troops occupied was the oil ministry. The second reason is that the Saudi kingdom had been under increasing pressure from their own religious right to remove the infidels (our troops) from their sacred soil. Conquering Iraq would have provided permanent bases for us in the Persian Gulf from which we can project power in that region. In Afghanistan, Bush and the GOP did not go after OBL and AQ. Instead we tried to clear the way for a pipeline from the Caspian Sea to Karachi. They even installed a gas pipeline specialist from Unocal, to be that nation’s puppet President.
While you are correct that the $US is well established as the world’s currency of record, I believe that talk of replacing it with a basket of other currencies is serious, as other world nations fear the effect on the world economy that deflation of the $US will bring.