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Alternative Visions – Analyzing the TPP Agreement Terms & Conditions, Part 1 – 11.13.15

Jack Rasmus undertakes the first of a two part deep examination of the terms and conditions of the actual TPP agreement recently concluded. The origins and true functions of free trade agreements is explained, beginning with the 1944 Bretton Woods international monetary system, the IMF, and World Bank established by the US, the role of trade in US global dominance to the 1970s, the restructuring of trade and money flows in the 1970s, and the advent of Neoliberalism in the 1980s under Reagan and Thatcher. How free trade became the international lynchpin of US neoliberal policies, beginning in the 1980s and expanding ever since under both Democrat and Republican administrations. Obama as the biggest advocate of Free Trade thus far is explained. Jack then begins a section by section analysis of the 30 chapters of the TPP, with an overview of provisions associated with ‘goods’ trade, investment, financial services, intellectual property and Pharmaceuticals, and the Disputes Settlement/Corporate Global Courts system section that will undermine domestic democracy and sovereignty and lead to a new drive for global corporate supra-political institutions. In Part 2 next week, further details of the 30 chapters, and reactions by labor, environmental advocates, food safety groups, and others will be reviewed—as well as reports by organizers of the Nov. 18 national US protests against the TPP.

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Abayomi Azikiwe – The Re-emerging African Debt Crisis. Renewed IMF “Economic Medicine”

During the 1970s-1990s much attention was focused on the rising debt crisis in post-colonial Africa. Continental states after gaining national independence realized that there could be no genuine development while financial obligations to western-based lending institutions were rapidly escalating. With the balkanization of the continent during colonialism, the national independence movements without political integration and economic unification faced formidable challenges in …

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MIchael Hudson – How the U.S. Avoided Chronic Deflation by Relinquishing Monetary Control to Wall Street

The Eurozone today is going into the same deflationary situation that the U.S. did under Jackson’s destruction of the Second Bank, and the post-Civil War budget surpluses that deflated the economy. But whereas the Fed’s creation was designed to inflate the U.S. economy, Europe’s European Central Bank is designed to deflate it — in the interest of commercial banks in …

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ANDREW HIGGINS – Norway Has a New Passion: Ghost Hunting

MOSS, Norway — Like many Europeans, Marianne Haaland Bogdanoff, a travel agency manager in this southern Norwegian town, does not go to church, except maybe at Christmas, and is doubtful about the existence of God. But when “weird things” — inexplicable computer breakdowns, strange smells and noises and complaints from staff members of constant headaches — started happening at the …

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Fed Quietly Revises Total US Debt From 330% To 350% Of GDP, After “Discovering” Another $2.7 Trillion In Debt

Everyone has seen the chart of “Total Credit Market Instruments“, which as of its most recent update on March 31, 2015, was just over $59 trillion, or 330% of US GDP. For those who have not seen it, as well as for those who are familiar with this chart, take a long look, because this is the last update of …

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Ellen Brown – Who Owns The Federal Reserve?

This article was first published by Global Research in October 2008 “Some people think that the Federal Reserve Banks are United States Government institutions. They are private monopolies which prey upon the people of these United States for the benefit of themselves and their foreign customers; foreign and domestic speculators and swindlers; and rich and predatory money lenders.” – The Honorable …

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It’s Our Money with Ellen Brown – End of the Line – 09.30.15

Our debt-based monetary system conceals a brutal fact: indebtedness to private sources for the acquisition of money is an unnecessary scourge on our economy and societal well-being. But with everyone, including local and state governments, in debt over their heads there’s nowhere to get more without digging the hole deeper. Systemically, the debt-money regime has run its course. Happily, alternatives are being explored in the form of outright free public issue of money directly to the people — “QE for the People.” We look at several dimensions of these ideas. Ellen speaks with noted UK professor and author Mary Mellor about the democratization of money and financial systems. Co-host Walt McRee discusses the current Bretton Woods IV Convocation which is focusing on the vital need for reclaiming public control of money, and on the Public Banking Report Matt Stannard takes a look at the morality of money.

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UBS Is About To Blow The Cover On A Massive Gold-Rigging Scandal

With countless settlements documenting the rigging of every single asset class, it was only a matter of time before the regulators – some 10 years behind the curve as usual – finally cracked down on gold manipulation as well, even though as we have shown in the past [12], central banks in general and the Fed in particular are among the biggest …

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Mike Whitney – Markets Gone Mad

Imagine your doctor put you on a daily dose of oxycontin, phenobarbital and Quaaludes for six years straight. Then he suddenly cancelled your prescription. Do you think your behavior might become a bit erratic? This is what’s going on with the stock market. It’s trying to shake off six years of overmedication brought on by the Fed’s zero rates and …