Posted on 04/09/2011 8:02:35 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
While all the focus is now on the three-ring circus in Washington vis-a-vis passing the fiscal 2011 budget the Democrats failed to pass in 2010, up in New Hampshire this weekend at Bretton Woods, the Institute for New Economic Thinking is convening a very important conference, "CRISIS and RENEWAL: International Political Economy at the Crossroads."
It's no accident they're meeting on the very same site as the Bretton Woods Conference -- formally United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference -- that met from July 1-22, 1944, during World War II to plan the postwar financial world after the expected defeat of Germany and Japan.
That's because the purpose of this weekend's conference is to reorder world finance in the wake of the near-collapse of the global financial system in 2008. Like Bretton Woods, they must expect some new calamity, with winners and losers.
The groundwork was laid a year ago at INET's inaugural meeting at which George Soros teed off with his "Anatomy of Crisis - The Living History of Last 30 Years: Economic Theory, Politics and Policy."
"I am afraid," he said, "the current discussions miss the main point: namely that the recent financial crisis was not only a market failure but also a regulatory failure.
"And what matters now is not so much who regulates, but how. Regulators ought to undertake a course of critical self-examination - Chinese style."
Soros, by the way, is funding this initiative to the tune of $50 million whereby 200 academic, business and government policy leaders focus on "establishing new international rules" and "reform the currency system."
Maybe that's why President Obama is cool as a cucumber -- spending nearly a billion to invade Libya without breaking a sweat despite the fact we are broke, and skipping town to campaign for his 2012 re-election in the middle of tense budget negotiations.
Obama knows the world financial system is being reconfigured - "Chinese style." He may be reasoning that "George has got my back."
America is worn out from funding the world's needs, so now, lagging behind financially as a result, it's time to reorder the global financial order to reflect present-day economic realities.
And, boy have we shelled out the dough.
Just a week ago, on April Fool's no less, Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke lost his two-year battle to protect "crisis-squeezed" banks from the "stigma" of having received "public loans" during the 2008 unraveling.
What was revealed is that foreign interests disproportionately benefited from American largesse - including local governments in Belgium, a Japanese fishing-cooperative financier and a company part-owned by the Central Bank of Libya.
Brussels and the Paris-based Dexia SA (DEXB) borrowed some $33.5 billion from the Fed's 97-year-old "discount window" lending program and Dublin-based Depfa Bank Plc (a German real-estate lender took it over in 2007, before it was seized by the German government), drew $24.5 billion.
At the peak of the crisis during the record surge in October 2008, 70 percent of the $110.7 billion borrowed went to foreign banks.
These disclosures - contained in Fed documents released in response to a Freedom of Information Act request - will surely prompt a re-examination of the risks U.S. taxpayers bear because of the Fed's role in global financial markets.
All the while, Americans can't get loans to start and/or invest in businesses or afford a home; two-thirds of consumers can't even afford to refinance their mortgages, often to avoid defaulting.
With Soros and company picking winners and losers - "Chinese style" - little wonder Donald Trump - as canny as they come, vis-a-vis America's global financial position - is surging in the polls among Republican presidential primary voters.
Mostly I’m wondering why they’re suddenly interested in what Soros is up to.
...these people are making billions of dollars looting and pillaging the rest of us.
And I can’t find a job.
Thus is “fairness” in Obamaland. :(:(:(
You’re supposed to blame the Koch brothers.
C’mon man get with the program.
Join the club.
Sauron and his minions need to be
taken off the board.
The discussions at Bretton-Woods were relatively simple compared to this one. Mainly they were concerned about creating the monetary framework which would allow the recovery of Europe. This meant facing questions such as the role of gold, proper exchange rates, not putting Germany in another straight jacket as after WWI and turning America’s strength to benefit Europe rather than take advantage of its prostration.
This one has a financially collapsed giant on its hands with a ridiculous lightweight in charge bent on making the situation worse. And Europe has no model for economic success other than bloated welfare states with high unemployment. In 1944 the most successful capitalist state in history was there as a model.
I don’t know what conclusions this bunch is likely to come up with that will fly. Recovery by the US economy is critical to the world economy being healthy. But what will this mean for exchange rates, the deficit and interest rates?
Maybe what we need is a New York businessman to come in and clean house where all the “pros” have been squatting.
Maybe if Mr. Trump could downsize the government and fire half of the parasites along with America stopping playing the fool to the world, we could reverse this decline.
He has more common sense than all of Congress put together.
Soros Bar Sinister.
They’re actually meeting at Bretton Woods?! The Audacity of Presumption. That’s like Obama changing his name to charlemagne or something like that.
Trump’s history as supporter of Kerry, Hillary, flip de flop de abortion, etc. means simply put that as a Republican Candidate he’d be a RINO.
At FRee Republic we don’t like RINO’s, so why are so many FReepers adament about backing Trump because he spews spittle on the camera about Birth Certificates?
There is no reason to support Trump anymore than there is to support Romney, or McCain.
We’ve got businessmen running the show now. Many of them are probably friends and partners of Trump.
That’s one sleazeball we don’t need running the country despite the media love affair with him.
Trump wants to let business decide which illegals get to continue breaking the law. Then there’s his use of eminent domain to take what he wants.
George is a currency trader. He makes money when currencies rise. He makes money when they fall. He makes the most money when a currency fails.
George has his back? That’s like saying you’re comforted by the company of buzzards accompanying you on your desert trek.
Because this has been part of the whole master plan to defeat and overcome America. Soros, Geightner, Obama, and so many other players are all moving forward as we try to just get them out of our house. They just may end up winning! They’ve done more damage than what we are really seeing!
What businessmen?
We have socialists who never had to make a dime partnered with socialists who got to the head of established companies that were already built. We also have non profits taken over by socialists who now use money to promote socialism instead of the foundations original intent.
While Trump may not be serious, he sure is upsetting the applecart of the establishment. I don’t see the media loving him either. But they are afraid of him.
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