The Man Who Predicted Nazi Germany

[malaise]

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/07/opinion/keynes-economic-consequences-peace.html
<snip>
On Dec. 8, 1919, Macmillan Press published a book by a relatively obscure British Treasury official who had resigned from the government in protest over the Versailles treaty that brought the epochal trauma of the First World War to its conclusion.

The small treatise, the official wrote, sought to explain “the grounds of his objection to the treaty, or rather to the whole policy of the conference towards the economic problems of Europe.” A conservative print of 5,000 copies seemed right for a technocrat’s dissent, which featured meticulously detailed passages that pored over the history and prospects of things like Germany’s coal production and export markets.

The book, “The Economic Consequences of the Peace,” turned out to be a phenomenon. It swiftly went through six printings, was translated into a dozen languages, sold over 100,000 copies, and brought world fame to its 36-year-old author, John Maynard Keynes.

A brilliant and indefatigable scholar, public intellectual, journalist, government adviser and champion of the arts, Keynes would be at the center of things for the balance of his life. The Keynesian revolution reinvented economics in the 1930s, and continues to shape the field today. Keynes, again representing the British Treasury during World War II, was the principal intellectual architect of postwar international order. But he began his career in dissent.

-------------------
How ironic that the Bretton-Woods agreement rejected Keynes and opted for the US backed multilaterals who would fuck us all up with neo-liberalism.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/nov/18/lord-keynes-international-monetary-fund
<snip>

Poor old Lord Keynes. The world's press has spent the past week blackening his name. Not intentionally: most of the dunderheads reporting the G20 summit that took place over the weekend really do believe that he proposed and founded the International Monetary Fund. It's one of those stories that passes unchecked from one journalist to another.

The truth is more interesting. At the UN's Bretton Woods conference in 1944, John Maynard Keynes put forward a much better idea. After it was thrown out, Geoffrey Crowther - then the editor of the Economist magazine - warned that "Lord Keynes was right ... the world will bitterly regret the fact that his arguments were rejected." But the world does not regret it, for almost everyone - the Economist included - has forgotten what he proposed.

[Pachamama]

1. Bancor

If most people took the time to understand what Keynes was proposing versus what we ended up with, they would better be able understand the currency problems and economic destabilizing that currently exists.



The “House” always wins.... in this case the system was rigged from the beginning in favor of the US...however that isn’t so sure to remain forever so...

[malaise]

2. People are beginning to feel the consequences

Look across the globe at the increasing protests. Many will never understand the policy shifts that led to this mess but they eventually get it. There will be adjustments in favor of the people soon and very soon. The theft of wealth by the rich will not be tolerated for much longer.

[ancianita]

7. Seriously? The people have known about this theft and have never, ever had recourse to get it back.

After the Nazi reign, these "policy shifts" were cover for what could never be revealed by world leaders, by their bankers, by Woodrow Wilson and, later, by Bretton Woods participants. Sure, much of those activities have come out as "official" histories. And it's fair to suppose that the participants wanted to protect their assets from confiscation/manipulation by totalitarian leaders.

So, without our consent or knowledge, never knowing the whole truth about the global banking set up at that time -- here we are. Paying off debt in the form of 'income taxes.' The Austrian School from Mt. Pelerin Society (Charles Koch and James M. Buchanan have been among their past presidents) has concocted economic and tax "policy" to justify theft of humans' labor and value and the buying of institutions and government.

Global banking and economic policy were set before we were born, each new generation having to start over to both find out what they really are, and then adding its new bit of reality knowledge for the next generation. I'm afraid we'll always be too late.

[malaise]

8. Not sure we'll always be too late

but that'a very interesting post with a lot of truth.

We the people need our own counter-hegemony

[ancianita]

14. One would think c-h would be supported by our military, but they don't see us as their paymasters.

I like your use of hegemony. But inherent to its meaning is that nothing can "counter" it. At best, disorganized, local resistance, and even then stopped by the horizontal violence of local police.

If we weren't caught up in thinking there are as many causes for oppression as there are oppressions -- racial, gender, income, health -- we'd see more clearly the one major cause.

One can't say with 100% certainty, either; and yet, nothing's appeared to give me hope.

[malaise]

16. There are always counter-hegemonic challenges to existing systems

and given the different modes of production and political organization in history a few won.
That said. it's hard as hell to overthrow an entire economic system and its superstructure.

I have long been a fan of Gramsci.

[ancianita]

17. Me, too. I just think that hegemony is the overall System of systems.

[malaise]

19. Taken literally I think you're correct

It suggests a unanimity in societal thinking and the means to keep it going. But when society is as divided as it is today - when the cracks are visible, there are openings for fundamental change.

[ancianita]

20. The cracks/openings are small -- ignored, denied and delayed by controllers of the hegemony.

There is no profit in media amplifying their existence, and so the people cannot see them, or see a way for them to break the foundation. Because media never leads, only describes in piecemeal reports devoid of history, timelines, current context of names, dates, locations of the cracks, with no other media corroboration.

I hate being negative. It's just that the negative is half of reality.

[eppur_se_muova]

3. Commentary by George Monbiot -- wouldn't hurt to put that in the title.

Enough people recognize Monbiot for that to draw more eyeballs.

Bookmarking the article at the link.

[malaise]

5. Except that the first link is about the 100th anniversary of Keynes

“The Economic Consequences of the Peace”.

That said Monbiot's commentary is profound in terms of the madness that is the IMF.
I used to have a very good link with details about the fight at Bretton-Woods (and how the rich and banks won) - will search for it.

[ancianita]

15. Oh, and about that IMF madness...

189 member nations' heads of their treasuries are called "governors"

In the U.S., the Secretary of the Treasury holds, simultaneously, the following positions:
-- U.S. Governor of the IMF
-- U.S. Governor of the Int'l Bank for Reconstruction and Development
-- U.S. Governor of the Inter-American Development Bank
-- U.S. Governor of the African Development Bank
-- U.S. Governor of the Asian Development Bank
-- U.S. Governor of the African Development FUND
-- U.S. Governor of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development

The Secretary of the Treasury has received a salary or fee from each of these orgs, which literally makes him an unregistered agent of several foreign nations, along with the personnel under him. Which also includes the Internal Revenue Service.

Plausible? Yes. Conspiracy? Yes, but not by humanity. There's a reason that are no "official" sources to corroborate this, not just because the wealthy are dishonest, but because it's a black box of secrecy that we're afraid to investigate because of their lawyers, guns and money..

We're a powerful colony that exports military stability to serve our banker owners' wealth building, whether they are through fossil fuel/green energy corporations, black market mafias' money laundering; or income taxes, with the poorest paying the most per capita.

[malaise]

22. This is a very serious post

that black box of secrecy.
Did you see that another hidden company was just exposed hiding the wealth of the rich. It hasn't got much coverage.

It's all a racket.

[ancianita]

23. Could you link it? Thanks.Also, shell company layers are as many as shells in the sea. Shells should

be banned internationally. Period. Kick that out and the racketeers are easier to find.

[malaise]

24. Global web of firms for fraudsters created by British company Formations House

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/global-web-of-firms-for-fraudsters-created-by-british-company-formations-house-5sb8zb238

<snip>
A global web of businesses, banks and tax havens used by international crime gangs and fraudsters has been created by a family-owned company in Britain, an investigation has revealed.

Leaked documents show links to businesses set up by Formations House, a London-based company that establishes and helps to manage companies, and scams involving more than £300 million.

These include vintage wine frauds, fake stock market tipsters, dodgy gold and diamond traders, overpriced land investment schemes and a Hollywood heist carried out by a bogus aristocrat.

The documents show that the “formation agent” has repeatedly failed to carry out proper due diligence on clients and has set up companies for known fraudsters and organised criminals.

[ancianita]

28. I wonder how they were revealed. They probably work through Brit.Virgin Islands

and other tax haven laundering banks. Wonder, too, if they set up shells in Wilmington, DE, of businesses that buy up real estate and legitimate businesses in the U.S.

Of note: the 214,000 entities identified in the Panama Papers, about one half of them are located in the British Virgin Islands. I think there's a photo of the names, or we can link the publishing of the Papers on the nets.

Entities. I hate the shadiness of that word.

It's as if Americans can't know our legitimate businesses from the illegitimate anymore. No wonder our politicians appear so confused and unwilling to trace the sources of their dark money. Or that's their story.

So far, $7.35 MILLION WAS ACCEPTED FROM LEONARD BLAVATNIK, PUTIN OLIGARCH BY:

Mitch McConnell $2.5 M

Marco Rubio $1.5 M

Scott Walker $1.1 M

Lindsey Graham $800,000

John Kasich $250,000

Sources: FEC and OpenSecrets.org

Len Blavatnik, considered to be one of the richest men in Great Britain, holds dual citizenship in the U.S. and the U.K….

Blavatnik's got ongoing relationships with Russian oligarchs close to Putin, particularly Oleg Deripaska, whose aluminum business sits right in Moscow Mitch's Kentucky. Oleg's probably got use of any of McConnell's seven secure offices in Kentucky to "do business" with his Russian group back home. Hell, he probably uses the same unsecure phones Trump does, the whole lot of that Fifth Column updating to FSB Boss Putin.

This "settling in" through McConnell should be worrisome for Trump and the six GOP leaders who took Blavatnik's money during the 2016 presidential campaign. But if it is, they hide it well. Maybe that's why no one in media has noticed this. Or maybe they're afraid to get near it. If Kentuckians and Americans have a clue, no damn body's saying a damn thing.

Oleg Deripaska is the founder and majority owner of RUSAL, the world's second largest aluminum company, based in Russia. Len Blavatnik owns a significant stake in RUSAL and served on its Board until two days after Donald Trump was elected.

Source: https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2017/08/03/gop-campaigns-took-7-35-million-from-oligarch-linked-to-russia/

The dance between UK and Russia has a looong story, one major point being with The Cambridge Five, UK spies for Russia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambridge_Five

It could be one of the secret reasons UK's leadership and the Queen herself are not so concerned about getting out of the EU, with its own Russian insurgencies. There's more at stake for the safety of the monarch and banks than media analyses we've read so far.

It's been the stuff of novels and movies, but sometimes writers can only convey the details of intelligence, corruption and international skullduggery by putting it in a "fictional" story.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambridge_Five

Side note: Speaking of movies and novels, I've learned a little more about Russia/Brit/Ukraine skullduggery from reading Tom Clancy's Command Authority, (his Jack Ryan series) that has SO much intel in it about Ukraine, Russia's methods, UK wealth and financial "consulting." And this novel is from six years ago!

This corruption tentacle has been growing around us since WWI, Bretton Woods, and the shedding of Keynes' plan to regulate banks of settlement. The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) became an object of scrutiny when the Norwegian delegation put forth evidence that the BIS was involved in war crimes. Keynes' "bancor" that would create trade and debt balances, got squashed by Harry Dexter White, and so the IMF got modeled from what his US cohorts -- and probably the central banks of settlement -- wanted. I can't even believe the level of shady thinking they did.

I guess I'm rambling, but this is the level of mess democratic peoples find themselves in.

And why these "entities" fight so hard against candidates like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren -- whatever their mere political flaws-- who threaten their existing wealth hoarding structures.

[malaise]

29. Nice work

and this is key
This corruption tentacle has been growing around us since WWI, Bretton Woods, and the shedding of Keynes' plan to regulate banks of settlement.

[ancianita]

30. I added more stuff above about Tom Clancy that you might not have read. Bad edit, I know.

[erronis]

27. Nice chart. So many ways to subvert information flows. Sometimes the smallest org is the most

powerful.

At first glance, if I wanted a way to manage the message, I'd head to that little "Staff" box at the bottom. I'm sure it's riddled with special interests - and of course, with highly professional professionals.

[malaise]

31. and of course, with highly professional professionals

One of the great reads of my life was Davison Budhoo's resignation letter from the IMF

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=cHNpci5sbC51LXJ5dWt5dS5hYy5qcHxob21lfGd4OmI3Y2ZjMmM2ZmE0YjgxNg

[ancianita]

32. You mean imf.org? Its language is revealing about its Bretton Woods goals.

I forgot to link it. Thanks for the reminder.

[erronis]

11. Agree. Here's the link to George Monbiot's 2008 piece in The Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/nov/18/lord-keynes-international-monetary-fund

[Farmer-Rick]

4. Keynes merely pointed out a patch to capitalism

If fully implemented, it might have delayed our current economic stagnation. Parts of it were implemented through FDR. Unfortunately the filthy rich have managed to take off the flimsy patch that Keynes was able to put on.

That's because the biggest problem in capitalism, the concentration of national wealth in the hands of a few people wasn't ended. The filthy rich managed to use our national wealth to accumulate more and more, until like feudal kings, they have taken almost everything. We let the filthy rich keep their power.

[malaise]

6. Excellent point Farmer-Rick

but Keynes was way better than Friedman . I'm a Democratic Socialist.

[Roy Rolling]

10. It's such an easy dichotomy

Democratic Socialism favors everyone in the nation, rich people included

Crony Capitalism favors the rich few, impoverishes the rest

One system is good for the country—including the rich. The other system is good for the rich—fu*k the rest of the country.

They can build gated communities now, at the very onset of the debate. But they can’t build gated cities when the number of poor reaches critical mass.

[erronis]

12. It's not going to be that pleasant inside those armed gated communities. Maybe buy a decade or

a generation. Leave the suffering of their greed to their spawns.

Oh, that's right. Dear Elon will build a ship with room for a million billionaires and then it's off to Mars they go.

[PatrickforO]

13. Filthy rich. Yes, I remember people using that term. Nowadays, I call them billionaire

parasites. Because the are all sucking at our treasury and telling us we can't have enough because they all want a little more.

Malaise is right. There are many movements in protest around the world. The billionaire parasites have deliberately dumbed down the US labor force, and done everything possible to keep people in a state of wage slavery, but there are many around the world who are smarter and who are deeply tired of us being exploited so a few freakish greed-heads can amass that next billion.

[malaise]

18. They have dumbed down populations everywhere

with their evangelical BS and a plethora of other meaningless distractions.
But people are noticing that they no longer have permanent employment but contracts without pensions and healthcare - and they are slowly waking up.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

9. Very interesting OP and thread. Thanks! . . . nt

[rurallib]

21. That was eye opening - thanks

[erronis]

25. "Why American and Britain are Self-Destructing" - great piece via Eudiamonics

How The Death Spiral of a Rich Society Begins With Austerity, and Ends With Poverty, Despair, and Collapse

https://eand.co/why-american-and-britain-are-self-destructing-a8693ebb097

There’s a simple fact that’s not noticed or remarked on nearly enough. The world’s two large English speaking societies, America and Britain, are collapsing. And they are collapsing in eerily similar ways, for eerily similar reasons, too. Yet in these societies, this basic point doesn’t seem to be understood much, if at all. And yet it’s not really a matter for debate. It’s a simple empirical fact.

There are only two societies in the rich world where life is getting shorter, poorer, meaner, and more hopeless — fast. Where life expectancies, incomes, and savings are all falling. America and Britain. Where middle classes have imploded, people live hand to mouth, and upward mobility has all but vanished. Where the idea of living a better life is somewhere between a joke and a distant memory. Where entire generations of young people — at last count, three, Gen X, Millennials, and Get Z — live worse lives than their parents and grandparents. Just two such societies where trust, happiness, and purpose have all imploded catastrophically — while depression, rage, anxiety, and suicide are all surging.

In fact, there are just a handful of societies with those grim statistics anywhere in the world — Venezeula, perhaps, Russia, North Korea, war torn African shells. Failed states, in other words. That is what America and Britain are becoming.

In a failed state, progress has become regress. That’s what happened to these societies. They are self-destructing. America, of course, is further down that road. But Britain is catching up fast. So how did they get here?

America and Britain have entered a vicious cycle, a death spiral. It’s a novel and bizarre phenomenon for a modern, rich society, unseen since Weimar Germany. It goes like this. In the 1980s, America began decades of underinvestment in public goods and social systems. It privatized whatever there was to privatize. The idea was that whatever it was — healthcare, education, finance — the private sector could do it better. The Reagan Revolution was in full effect — as a backlash to the advances civil rights made in the 1960s and 1970s, the good white American using “choice” as a shield to protect themselves from ever having to invest in or mingle with those dirty, filthy subhumans. All that was called “neoliberalism.” Let markets sort it all out! Translation: let the strong survive, and the weak perish.

[malaise]

26. That is an excellent read

Thanks for posting it on this thread

[ancianita]

33. It's also about how class war insurgency, and foreign insurgency, make a country give up and give in