Portuguese March Against the IMF Aggression

[blindpig]

Portuguese March Against the IMF Aggression

Nearly 130,000 demonstrators were out on the streets last Saturday in Lisbon. They were protesting against the austerity plan imposed by the European Union and the IMF in exchange for their 78 billion euro "financial assistance".

The Libertade great avenue in Lisbon’s city centre was swarming with people last Saturday. Some 130,000 people turned out in the Portuguese capital - there were 50,000 of them in Porto - to the same rallying motto "against impoverishment" and against the IMF aggression". The demonstrators, among whom thousands of employees in the public and private sectors, denounced the rigorous austerity plan set up by the government and imposed by the IMF and the European Union. Portugal is the third country (after Greece and Ireland) to be forced to accept a so-called "financial assistance" which Portuguese liberals call "interference", in view of the fact that the European Union’s real objective is to save the foreign banks (whether German, French, Dutch, or Spanish) that have branches in Portugal — or even the Portuguese banks.

In exchange for 78 billion euro, the Right-wing government of Pedrao Passos Coelho, elected last June, was supposed to: raise taxes, cut public expense, implement structural reforms —in particular in the labour market — cut welfare payments, privatize public companies like the TAP air company and the electricity distributor REN, and to freeze wages and the hiring of public servants.

Those measures were put place last September in order to bring the budgetary deficit from his year’s 5.9% down to 3% by 2013, the threshold imposed by the stability and growth pact.

more....

http://www.humaniteinenglish.com/spip.php?article1905

[marmar]

1. "IMF Aggression"

That's a GREAT way to phrase it.


:thumbsup:

[blindpig]

3. Yep, the 'point men' of international Capital.

n/t

[jwirr]

2. Bingo another direct it at the reason the world is in such a mess.

[badtoworse]

4. Aggression?

How is it aggression if a lender insists on terms that insure you can pay a loan back? Nobody forced the Portugueese government to promise more than it could deliver; spend more than it took in and then borrow to make up the deficit. They don't have to accept the IMF's deal, but if they don't, they will default and be completely shut out of the credit markets. That means they won't have any money to pay for wages, pensions, benefits, etc., and the people will likely be even worse off than they'll be under austerity.

No country, ours included, can overspend indefinitely. There are consequences to such reckless policy, none of them pleasant. Greece, Ireland and portugal are feeling them now. We're not far behind.

[girl gone mad]

5. The US has a sovereign currency.

We can "overspend" indefinitely. We are not Greece.

Where is it that you believe the IMF gets its money from?

[badtoworse]

7. That's only true for as long as the world uses the dollar as a reserve currency.

That can and will change if we keep overspending and printing more dollars. We would be in deep trouble if we had to pay for imported goods and services in a different currency or basket of currencies.

Do you honestly believe foreign suppliers will continue to accept increasingly inflated dollars as payment?

[girl gone mad]

11. Actually, no, it has nothing to do with having reserve currency status.

As I've told you before, our reserve currency status is a mixed blessing, at best. It forces us to run a correspondingly large current account deficit. Naturally, our large trade deficit is built in to the dollar's reserve currency status. This artificial arrangement has only encouraged us to adopt idiotic economic models over the last few decades, driving up private debt levels and creating bubbles in assets and equities, for example.

You still didn't explain where you think the IMF gets the money it loans to these countries when it forces them to implement neoliberal reforms so that they can prop up their reckless banking sectors. Let's not forget that the IMF was itself near bankruptcy just a couple of years ago.

[badtoworse]

18. OK, so what happens if and when foreign suppliers demand we pay with a different currency...

or a basket of currencies? If our GDP stayed relatively constant and we just printed a load of dollars, the value of the dollar would have to drop relative to other currencies and the cost of imported goods would escalate in dollar terms.

BTW, the IMF is funded by various countries around the world. Most are developed countries but I believe the IMF has recently called for countries like Brazil to take a bigger role. The USA provides the most support.

[blindpig]

6. ah, another friend of the banks.....

Fuck the banks, they made the loans to make big profits, they can suck on it.

The only thing reckless is Capitalism.

[badtoworse]

9. LOL. Portugal can certainly tell the IMF to "suck on it"

The problem is that Portugal has little leverage other than the threat of default on its existing debt. To be sure, that would cause a great deal of damage to the world's financial markets, but, as always, the people who can least afford it will be hurt the most. The Portugueese people would be hurt the most of all as I pointed out in my post. I think it would be a mistake for them to tell the IMF to "suck on it". They'd be better off holding their noses and swallowing the austerity.

Friend of the banks? - hardly. I can't fault a bank for expecting a loan to be paid back. Apparently, you have a problem with that. How about explaining it.

[socialist_n_TN]

12. Well, I have a problem with banks........

I want them all nationalized and their wealth expropriated and put into jobs for anyone who wants one. The only people who lend money to the people will be the national bank or an international socialist banking system, both run as non-profit enterprises. How's that for you?

[badtoworse]

17. Keep dreaming

We have constitutional protections against that sort of thing.

[socialist_n_TN]

19. OK, I'll compromise........

on a transitional demand. Wait till one of the big banks fails and instead of bailing them out, BUY them out at pennies on the dollar. Then use the infrastructure of that bank to set up a REAL Bank of America that makes loans directly to the poeple and is a non-profit. Let the too big to fail compete with that.

Of course I see no problem with compensating the big shareholders (past a certain level of holdings) with bonds that can't be redeemed for 100 years. And can only be redeemed PERSONALLY.

[badtoworse]

20. I'm sure your offer would get serious consideration

Assuming there was anything of value to be acquired, it's likely the shareholders could get a better deal elsewhere. Since your "bonds" would be worthless, that's pretty likely. IOW, you'd get what you paid for.

Let's assume the shareholders accepted your deal. You'll be acquiring an insolvent bank, i.e. one with no capital to lend, so you would need to get Congress to appropriate money. You'd need Congress to authorize creation of your Bank of America in the first place and assuming they did that (a big if in my opinion), they'd probably be willing to capitalize it.

OK, let's assume you got this far. I have to ask why you bothered acquiring a worthless bank to start a non-profit bank. You need infrastrucure? The government already has that - the Post Office, SS offices, etc. Your problem is vindictiveness; you're more interested in sticking it to a bank than accomplishing your stated objective.

[socialist_n_TN]

21. Eminent domain

TAKE the banks for the good of the "general welfare" of the country.

[badtoworse]

22. Fair market value

You can't just take something under Eminent Domain without compensating its owners at Fair Market Value. See the Bill of Rights, Fifth Amendment.

[socialist_n_TN]

23. And what were BoA shares going for in '08?

Pennies on the dollar as I recall.

It doesn't really matter though. I'm a Marxist and a revolutionary socialist. If there's a militant minority that has the tacit support of the majority, all I need is a Constitutional "fig leaf". And some of my comrades don't even need that. I personally just think it would be easier with that "fig leaf".

[badtoworse]

24. Knock yourself out.

I'll stick with what we've got now.

[socialist_n_TN]

25. Even when they admit to the VERY things

that Marx and Engels warned about?

[badtoworse]

26. I'm not a Marxist

But I'm sure you've figured that out.

[socialist_n_TN]

27. Yep, got that figured..

You're a supporter of the ruling class. You said so yourself. "I'll stick with what we've got now."

[tama]

14. How will it hurt people

when they decide to enjoy the fruits of their labor by themselves instead of giving them to the parasite class who create and own money and don't work for living but only rob those who work, rob our common planet?

Enough of this fear mongering by "power" of money. The only power it has is fear.

People don't need the parasite class of money power. It's the other way around.

[badtoworse]

15. So Greece will operate without money?

How will they do that?

[blindpig]

10. But you see it ain't their money....

Every nickle that they shuffle around to make a profit on was expropriated from the working class, banks make nothing of value. Why should parasites thrive while the creators of value suffer?

[badtoworse]

16. That's bullshit

Nobody forced the depositers, borrowers or shareholders to deal with the banks.

[tama]

13. Neocolialism is aggression

"Economic hit men (EHMs) are highly-paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. They funnel money from the World Bank, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and other foreign "aid" organizations into the coffers of huge corporations and the pockets of a few wealthy families who control the planet's natural resources. Their tools included fraudulent financial reports, rigged elections, payoffs, extortion, sex, and murder. They play a game as old as empire, but one that has taken on new and terrifying dimensions during this time of globalization."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confessions_of_an_Economic_Hit_Man

Corrupt governments everywhere take loans with interest from big capital to be paid with nation's labor and natural resources. Loans for extravagance of elites, funding their oppression and propaganda machines, etc.

It's debt slavery, it's their money. and the purpose of current system of money creation is debt slavery.

The whole monetary system needs to be changed, if we want a chance.

[Fire Walk With Me]

8. Kick the slavers OUT!