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feb 182012
Story missing from our media: Iceland’s on-going revolution
An Italian radio program’s story about Iceland’s on-going revolution is a stunning example of how little our media tells us about the rest of the world. We may remember that at the start of the 2008 financial crisis, Iceland literally went bankrupt. The reasons were mentioned only in passing, and since then, this little-known member of the European Union fell back into oblivion.
As one European country after another fails or risks failing, imperiling the Euro, with repercussions for the entire world, the last thing the powers that be want is for Iceland to become an example. Here’s why:
Five years of a pure neo-liberal regime had made Iceland, (population 320 thousand, no army), one of the richest countries in the world. In 2003 all the country’s banks were privatised, and in an effort to attract foreign investors, they offered on-line banking whose minimal costs allowed them to offer relatively high rates of return. The accounts, called IceSave, attracted many UK and Dutch small investors. But as investments grew, so did the banks’ foreign debt. In 2003 Iceland’s debt was equal to 200 times its GNP, but in 2007, it was 900 percent. The 2008 world financial crisis was the coup de grace. The three main Icelandic banks, Landbanki, Kapthing and Glitnir, went belly up and were nationalised, while the Kroner lost 85% of its value with respect to the Euro. At the end of the year Iceland declared bankruptcy.
Lees het hele artikel over Ijsland op http://newsnetscotland.com
Earlier last week, I was lucky enough to see preview clips of a film which I am convinced will get people talking, thinking and taking a stand against the entire monetary system and its elite.
This film is something which the sound money community has been waiting for, for an incredibly long time; a piece of information which will reach the masses and coherently ‘lift the lid on how the global financial economy really works.’
The film is The Four Horsemen, produced by Renegade Economist. The film’s premise looks at The Four Horsemen – socially organised violence, debt, iniquity and poverty – and their control over our lives. Speaking to 23 ‘thinkers, advisors and Wall Street money-men’ the film asks ‘where can we go from here before we are dragged to a logical conclusion by the four horsemen?’
The 3 clips we were shown were more than enough to get us all talking about the film after the conference. The animation to explain FIAT currency (a phrase which is often met with blank stares) was simple but brilliant. Very often a film which looks at historical events or issues of global concern, such as Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 or Morgan Spurlock’s Supersize Me, rarely look at the event from both sides of the coin. They pull in an audience by presenting a series of aggressive images and persuasive commentary.
Whilst I am yet to see The Four Horsemen all the way through, the impression I have from both the preview and the ‘cast’ list is that this will be a debate with several sides. The short clips we were shown demonstrated the weighting the film carries with its incredibly knowledgeable and experienced ‘cast’. Hugo Salinas-Price, James Turk and David Morgan are among the gold and silver bugs, whilst Gillian Tett and Max Keiser represent the market commentators and economists such as Joseph Stiglitz and Professor Michael Hudson represent the academia. But it is not just the ‘usual’ suspects who appear in this film; Noam Chomsky and Camila Batmangelidjh are examples of individuals whose viewpoints of the world from a social and human perspective are respected by governments and individuals all over the world. This well rounded ‘cast’ of contributors will no doubt provide the film with a huge amount of respect.
This film will answer far more questions than viewers ever realised they had. It reflects the current zeitgeist perfectly and encourages people to continue to hunt down the Four Horsemen. The zeitgeist of today is the growing unrest we see as a result of the snowballing financial crisis. This has spread from a small plaza in Madrid to protests and riots happening in several democracies namely the US, Greece and the UK. The zeitgeist is appearing under many guises – ‘Occupy’ or ‘Bank Transfer Day’ or even new prime ministers – but it is the one and the same thing.
There are too many occurrences which we take for granted, and too many decisions made for us which we no longer question – it is about time individuals removed the wool from their own eyes and realised the reality of what we face. We look at the recent ‘Arab Spring’ and praise the protesting citizens for their bravery and ability to speak out against the elite – surely it is time we have our own protest?
As Gillian Tett says in the film ‘most societies have an elite and the elite try and stay in power [they do this by controlling our cognitive map – the way we think.] Are we really now so hypnotized we only ask what will governments do rather than why they do it? I wonder if the masses do not question our situation because they feel it would open up a complex can of worms? But this need not be the case, as Prof. Simon Johnson says in the film’s trailer ‘You should not assume that because you do not have a background in economics or law that these issues are too complex for you – they’re not complex at all. It’s simple, it’s about power and democracy and you understand that just as well as I do.’
As Professor Herman Daly says in the film, ‘People are beginning to get angry but not nearly enough.’ I genuinely believe this film will provide viewers with some much needed answers and will encourage them to further research what has caused the four horsemen to bolt from the stable. How they can begin to change it and protect themselves from it? They have to start asking questions, if they don’t then the four horsemen, on their white, red, black and pale horses, will gather us up and ride off into the sunset.
Bekijk de trailer van deze documentaire ” The Four Horsemen”
Documentaire Economische Crisis
feb 142012
You’ve all seen In Transition 1.0, the Transition Towns movie, right? I should hope so. You may have noticed the 1.0, and that’s because there was no way the first documentary could claim to have told a definitive story, especially so early in the history of the movement. More iterations of the film were to follow, and here’s the next one.
Version 2.0 looks like it’s slicker, broader in scope, and full of new examples. The Transition idea is growing into itself all the time, and there are more and more stories to draw from, bigger projects and more communities experimenting together. I suspect it’s a much stronger film, just as the most recent Transition books feel more complete, more real and less theoretical.
Preview screenings of In Transition 2.0 were happening this week, so expect to see it out and about in the spring. I’m looking forward to showing it in Luton, and since the DVD comes with over a dozen different subtitled editions, there’s no excuse for not showing it where you are too. Here’s the trailer:
Documentaire Economische Crisis
The Eurozone is suffering a crisis of confidence, with many questioning the future of the Euro and the EU alliance itself. Stephanie Flanders engages economic experts on both sides of the European debate. Can we afford to prop up the Euro? Is this just a financial crisis, or does it reflect broader challenges in bringing diverse nations together?
Sprekers:
David Mc Williams
David Mc Williams is one of Ireland’s leading economic commentators. He was the first economist to see that the Irish boom was nothing more than a credit bubble and to predict it would all end in a monumental crash. He was made a Young Global Leader at Davos in 2009. He is an economist, broadcaster, best-selling author and most recently, he has brought economics to the stage with his one-man-show “Outsiders” at Dublin’s Abbey Theatre.
David writes two economics weekly columns and is author of three bestselling books, The Pope’s Children (2005), The Generation Game (2007) and Follow the Money (2009). He also writes and presents documentaries. For TV and radio, he has interviewed many influential characters including Henry Kissinger, Mikhail Gorbachev and Hillary Clinton.
Educated at Trinity College and the College of Europe, Bruges, he spent ten years in banking, first with the Irish Central Bank, then with investment banks UBS and BNP
Gabor Steingart
Gabor Steingart (48) is Editor-in-Chief of Handelsblatt, Germany’s leading business and financial daily, and a best-selling author. He joined the Hamburg-based current affairs magazine Der Spiegel as economics editor in 1990, then moved on to Berlin as bureau chief of Der Spiegel. In 2007, he took up a posting as Senior Correspondent in Washington D.C. Gabor has published six books. Germany: The decline of a superstar became the eighth best-selling non-fiction book of the year 2004 in Germany. His book The War for Wealth: The True Story of Globalisation, or Why the Flat World Is Broken was also a best-seller in Germany and has been published in ten countries around the world, including The United Arab Emirates, South Korea and China. Dr. Henry Kissinger, the former Secretary of State, called it “a lucid and compelling reality check”. Gabor regularly contributes op-ed articles to The Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and European Affairs. He was named German Economic Writer of the Year in 2004. In 2007, Gabor Steingart was awarded the prestigious Helmut Schmidt Journalist Prize.
Joseph E. Stiglitz
Joseph E. Stiglitz is University Professor at Columbia University, the winner of the 2001 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics, and a lead author of the 1995 IPCC report, which shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. He was chairman of the U.S. Council of Economic Advisors under President Clinton, and chief economist and senior vice president of the World Bank for 1997-2000.
Stiglitz received the John Bates Clark Medal, awarded biennially to the American economist under 40 who has made the most significant contribution to the subject. He was a Fulbright Scholar at Cambridge University, held the Drummond Professorship at All Souls College Oxford, and has also taught at M.I.T, Yale, Stanford, and Princeton. He is the author most recently of Freefall: America, Free Markets, and the Sinking of the Global Economy.
Simon Wolfson
Simon was educated at Radley and at Trinity College, Cambridge where he graduated with a degree in law.
He started working for NEXT in 1991 as a Sales Assistant and joined the Board as Sales AND Marketing Director in 1997. In 1999 he was made Managing Director and was appointed Chief Executive in August 2001. Since becoming Chief Executive profits have doubled to £500 million, earnings per share have grown at 16% per annum compound and the share price has more than doubled from £10 to over £20. Next operates in over 500 shops and employs over 46,000 people.
Simon has always had an active interest in politics and was a member of David Cameron’s Economic Recovery Committee in the run up to last year’s general election. In May 2010 he was created a Peer by the incoming Government.
Stephanie Flanders has been the BBC’s Economics Editor since April 2008, with intellectual responsibility for all the BBC’s economics output on radio, television and online. She was Economics Editor for BBC2’s Newsnight since October 2002.
Stephanie Flanders
She was a former speech writer and senior advisor to US Treasury Secretary Lawrence H. Summers in the Clinton Administration, where she was involved in the management of emerging market crises and other global economic issues from 1997 to 2001. She has worked as a reporter for the New York Times, and as principal editor of the UN’s 2002 Human Development Report. Before going to the US, she was an editorial writer and economics columnist for the Financial Times, and an economist at the Institute for Fiscal Studies and London Business School.
Stephanie was named Political Journalist of the Year at the 2007 Women in Public Life Awards, and Broadcast Journalist of the Year at the 2005 Workworld Media Awards. She was elected to the governing council of the Royal Economic Society in 2007 and is a visiting fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford.
feb 122012
De Griekse tragedie.
Griekenland staat aan de rand van een faillissement en verwijdering uit de EU is niet langer onbespreekbaar. Hoe kan het dat het ondenkbare geleidelijk werkelijkheid werd? Een debat met Thanasis Apostolou, oud Kamerlid van de PvdA en net terug uit zijn vaderland, Mark Harbers, Kamerlid voor de VVD en financieel geograaf Ewald Engelen.
feb 122012
Joseph Stiglitz claims that many economists expected a crisis to occur in Europe with the Euro. He outlines the two conceptions about how the Euro failed. He claims the only way to save the Euro is to create a real commitment to make sure the failing economies can re-pay their debts.
