If there is anyone left doubting that the struggle against austerity is fundamentally a struggle for democracy, the chilling proposal of former European Central Bank chief Jean-Claude Trichet on how to solve the eurocrisis unveiled on Thursday, should quickly put paid to such overly microscopic focus.If I understand this correctly, the former European Central Bank chief is implying that sovereign governments are merely customers of essentially private banks; and if they cannot pay back their loans, the can be treated like any other debtor: put into receivership! Then a higher legal authority (than sovereign governments) will appoint an administrator to salvage the assets of this debtor nation to pay off the loan.
Incidentally, I notice that he made these proposals to the...
...Peterson Institute of International Economics in Washington ahead of the G8 meeting this weekend and ahead of a make-or-break European Council meeting 23 May where EU leaders will discuss the fiscal, banking and political earthquake that is rumbling across southern Europe.The Peterson Institute has been rated as the number one think tank in the world, which means that it is the most powerful--which means that it contains some of the most influential people in the capitalist world. It is in organizations such as this one where the real decision makers of the US Empire do their dirty work. (They also hide out in numerous other organizations such as the Council on Foreign Relations, the Rand Corporation, the American Enterprise Institute, etc.) Congressional representatives are merely paid to ratify the decisions that these people make.
This is the same outfit that sponsored Obama's deficit commission in 2010, and issued its recommendations in December of 2010:
The commission, chaired by former Republican Senator Allen Simpson and former Clinton administration official Erskine Bowles, was a sort of trial balloon to gauge ruling class support for the most far-reaching attack ever mounted on social programs that benefit workers. This included attacks on Social Security and Medicare—the old age entitlements for retirement and health care often called the “Third Rail” of American politics, because, the saying went, if you touch them you die.
The plan also includes new regressive taxes on consumer spending, a drastic reduction in the size of the federal workforce, cuts to Medicaid (the health insurance plan for the poor), the imposition of income taxes on employee health insurance plans, and, shamelessly, massive tax cuts for the rich and corporations.
