|
Page 2 of 2
 As Brutus indicates, the same policies are being applied to the inhabitants of the once-prosperous nations of Europe and North America as well. But doesn't it really point to a worldwide regression to a neo-feudalist system where the rich will eventually lord it over a vastly-reduced population of debt-serfs? Is this the essence of the "New World Order" that the international elite have seemingly been planning in earnest since the Club of Rome began talking about overpopulation in the late 1960s?
At least the developing nations are now fighting back, with IMF lending running at a fraction of what it once did and some nations such as Venezuela dropping out altogether. Resistance is also being exhibited to similar policies of the World Trade Organization which likewise seeks to destroy tariffs and other trade barriers that developing countries might wish to use to protect their farmers and workers. Just last week the "Doha Round" of WTO trade talks collapsed at Geneva when India and China led the way in refusing to alter their tariff and subsidy policies. According to the Center for Economic and Policy Research, the collapse was not surprising, "given the reluctance of India and other developing nations to sacrifice food security measures in the wake of the recent global spike in food prices." According to Deborah James, Director of International Programs for the Center for Economic and Policy Research, who had been observing the talks in Geneva, "The tariff cuts demanded of developing countries would have caused massive job loss, and countries would have lost the ability to protect farmers from dumping, further impoverishing millions on the verge of survival." NEW WORLD ORDER COUP D'ETÁT? In looking for the tracks of the New World Order, we should also scrutinize the continuing assertion by the Western media that supply-and-demand is the controlling factor. For instance, while the price of petroleum has doubled in the past year, there is no solid evidence that increased demand has caused this huge jump nor has the U.S. dollar declined in value to that degree. Within the U.S., gasoline utilization is stagnant. That of China has grown but not enough to cause such an increase, while worldwide more biofuel is coming on-line. And despite the "peak oil" scare, there are no obvious shortages in what is in the pipeline and ready to be refined and utilized today. This has led to surmisals that the price increases reflect activity in the commodities futures markets. Despite the uncertainty, the Washington Post commenced a major week-long series on July 27 by declaring with absolute certainty that "cheap gas is gone forever." So what does the Post know that we don't? In fact none of the factors cited by the Post, including growth of the Chinese economy, can account for the aforesaid doubling of crude oil prices within a twelve-month window. By the Post's own figures, world petroleum utilization has increased by only twenty-five percent in the last fifteen years. (Washington Post, July 27, 2008) Further, in spite of its certainty that it knew the causes of the problem and that higher prices are here to stay, only two months earlier, on May 27, the Post ran a lengthy article entitled, "Skyrocketing Oil Prices Stump Experts." Toward the end came this interesting statement: "'We see many of the essential ingredients for a classic asset bubble,' said Edward Morse, chief energy economist at Lehman Brothers. Morse estimated that $90 billion has flowed into the biggest commodity indices in just more than two years, and more money has flowed into other exchanges, pushing up prices." So is oil is being used as a hedge by investors to protect their wealth at a time of uncertainty? Are the richest of the rich competing with each other to park their cash? It is known that among these investors are the oil companies themselves. Also, it is known that such commodity investments are often heavily leveraged by bank loans, often up to ninety-seven percent of investors' capital. So the banks are in on it too. But this type of trading seems to be more than just a hedge. Its content is political. Ethically, it is deeply anti-human, even criminal, because higher fuel prices make everything else cost more in a world where fuel is needed for all that is produced or sold. In fact it seems more like an assault by the rich on every living human being in the world, an assault that governments, under the hypnotism of neo-liberal free market fundamentalism á la Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, are unable or unwilling to fight. And who, other than the oil companies, are these big investors? On June 19, 2008, David Bario of The American Law Daily reported on an interview with Philip McBride Johnson, a former CFTC chairman under President Reagan. Johnson now heads Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom's exchange-traded derivatives practice. He is not exactly a wild-eyed conspiracy theorist. Regarding activity in the petroleum futures market, Johnson said: "The CFTC's economists are saying that supply and demand seem to be driving this. But we have clients in the business that have experienced these markets for many, many years, and what I'm hearing from them is that they don't see any change in the fundamentals of supply and demand." "I don't know. But I do know that speculators as a class do not agree on anything, and yet there is almost unanimity of opinion these days — and the money to make the opinions matter. The fact that prices have been relentlessly trending up suggests a new type of market participant [with] a mentality that is traditionally more in line with investing in securities than trading in commodities. If enough of these wealthy people, or funds, or other entities with a lot of capital decide to flip out of securities for a little while and go into commodities, and they're all looking for something that is going up, and you get enough billions of dollars thinking that way, then their wish comes true." The answer, Johnson said, is no, they can't: "The situation now is that the CFTC is sitting there looking at one screen, one piece of the picture, which is whatever is happening on the exchanges. Meanwhile, an increasing volume in dollars is taking place in the form of over-the-counter activity where no one can see it… there is still a blind spot with respect to the true over-the-counter activity that is going on, which represents billions and billions of dollars." And who is it that has allowed this secret trading to take place? Johnson: "In 2000 Congress decided that there were certain kinds of high-end investors that were big enough and smart enough that they shouldn't be constrained to do all their business on the exchanges." Are we seeing the totalitarian dictatorship of the world's financial elite being rolled out, with petroleum and food prices the primary weapon of a final coup d'etát against every national government on earth and their citizens? And if we knew who these "high-end investors" were, and who controlled them, wouldn't we then understand who is in charge of the New World Order and for whom it really functions? If we are wrong in deducing such a plot, there is an easy way for those under suspicion to disprove it. Those who are "big enough and smart enough" to be making so much money surely can live handsomely without these additional profits. Let them come forth, identify themselves, and donate their gains for worthwhile projects to benefit humanity. Absent such a gesture, let them stand indicted. UNSETTLING TIMES Meanwhile, here in Vermont, home to a small but popular movement for the state to secede from the U.S., the local news reflects the unsettling times. The Rutland Herald reports that the Vermont Milk Company, founded in 2006 with the goal of paying local dairy farmers more for their milk than would big out-of-state food corporations, is facing "huge increases" in the costs of fuel and credit and is laying off employees. The article notes that it takes the company 100 gallons of heating oil to make a single batch of ice cream. On the state level, the government in Montpelier must cut $32 million from the fiscal year budget that began July 1. The Herald notes that, "Public safety and preparedness agencies like the Vermont State Police, Corrections, the National Guard, and Veterans Affairs will not be cut. Neither will debt service, which the state must pay." Layoffs of state employees in other program areas will be considered. One relatively inexpensive activity that will continue will be the Vermont "Wood Warms" program, "aimed at getting split cord wood into the sheds of low- and moderate-income Vermonters." Jonathan Wood, commissioner of the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks, and Recreation is quoted as saying: "We used to be more reliant on our backyards and forests for fuel. I think we have to head back there in the future. We're kind of going forward into the past." The classified section contains "Help Wanted" listings for a local economy that is struggling but still has a few openings for nurses, truck drivers, cooks, carpenters, and an occasional job as a teacher or administrator. But there is only one listing for industrial work, placed by a filament extrusion company. But it's oil that rules the world. On the Herald's business page is an Associated Press report that the "Exxon-Mobil Corp. reported second quarter earnings of $11.68 billion Thursday, the biggest profit from operations ever by any U.S, corporation." Unfortunately, "the results were well short of Wall Street expectations." Even with record profits the devils of the financial world were not satisfied, as Exxon-Mobil's stock "slumped three percent." Copyright 2008 by Richard C. Cook
Richard C. Cook is a former U.S. federal government analyst, whose career included service with the U.S. Civil Service Commission, the Food and Drug Administration, the Carter White House, NASA, and the U.S. Treasury Department. His articles on economics, politics, and space policy have appeared on numerous websites and in Eurasia Critic magazine. His book on monetary reform, entitled We Hold These Truths: The Hope of Monetary Reform, will be published soon by Tendril Press. He is also the author of Challenger Revealed: An Insider's Account of How the Reagan Administration Caused the Greatest Tragedy of the Space Age, called by one reviewer, "the most important spaceflight book of the last twenty years." His website is at www.richardccook.com. Comments may be sent via email to EconomicSanity[at]gmail.com.
|
This_Category |
|
Category:: Special Features |
Recommend this article...
 Quote this article on your site | Views: 1564
Powered by AkoComment Tweaked Special Edition v.1.4.4
Tags: Richard C. Cook GDP Inflation New World Order
|
Commentary 
