Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Wall Street plunders Detroit while pensioners take blame

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

Thursday, August 8, 2013

Wall Street plunders Detroit while pensioners take blame

Click here to access article by Pete Dolack from Systemic Disorder.

Unlike most other commentaries on Detroit's bankruptcy, this blogger explains how municipal officers were duped by bankers into buying their slick, new financial instruments. Sounds familiar?

Wall Street wanted higher profits from this once staid market, so an ever more dizzying assortment of exotic instruments were conjured, allowing the financial institutions that handle these bond sales to skim off ever more money.