Surviving Capitalism (Not) : The second debt storm: Who will bail out the countries that bailed out the world's corporations?

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Saturday, May 15, 2010

The second debt storm: Who will bail out the countries that bailed out the world's corporations?

by Alistair Barr from Market Watch.

In early February, the cost of insuring against a sovereign default in Western Europe exceeded the price of similar protection against default by North American investment-grade companies. That was the first time this had happened....

It appears to me that we, the ordinary and working people of the planet, are approaching a scenario that reminds me of the old mining and timber companies in the US where everyone "owes their soul to the company store"--the latter being the world banking and financial elites. In this scenario, everyone works their entire lives to pay off the debts to the company store, but somehow always end up going deeper into debt.