[ExI] Why the 2008 crisis ended capitalism and democracy

[Colin Hales]

There's only a debt because a bunch of people believe a bunch of numbers in
computers are real.

Just stop believing it. Job done.

Before: rocks, trees, flowers, stuff.

After: *same* rocks, trees, flowers, stuff

What's changed? NOTHING except a bunch of beliefs are gone.

Wanna render a billionaire penniless? Just stop believing they have money.
We all believed it to them. That's how they got it. So just stop believing
they have any. Unbelieve it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lC3qPUCv4bQ

:-)

Colin




On Wed, Jul 11, 2018 at 8:45 PM, SR Ballard <sen.otaku at gmail.com> wrote:

> Here's one thing that I don't understand about national debts. Why are
> they even a thing?
>
> Suppose you have 2 countries.
>
> Country A owes B $1M
> Country B owes A $2M
>
> Why can't Country A and B just "trade" their imaginary debt to each other,
> so that A owes nothing, and B owes $1M?
>
> Country A owes B $1M, owes C $2M
> Country B owes A $1M, owes C $1M
> Country C owes A $2M, owes B $2M
>
> Country A has $3M in debt and is owed $3M
> Country B has $2M in debt and is owed $3M
> Country C has $4M in debt and is owed $3M
>
> Couldn't A and B swap $1M in debt; B&C swap $1M in debt; C&A swap $2M in
> debt
> Then A would have no debts; B has no debts; C has $1M in debts to B...
>
> I mean, I understand that governments tend to owe "themselves" or their
> citizens money, but surely something similar could be done?
>
>
> I mean, If I owe my Uncle 500 dollars, and he owes my aunt 400, and my
> aunt owes me 300...
> My aunt gives me 300
> I Give my uncle 300 (and still owe him 200)
> He gives my aunt 300 (and still owes her 100)
>
> So couldn't I just say, oh, nevermind on that 300, then I owe him 200, and
> he owes her 100? Because even if we all pass around $1, that's eventually
> where we will end up... if we just subtract the debt, it's like we passed
> around that dollar, but really, really fast.
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Sun, Jun 10, 2018 at 7:41 AM, BillK <pharos at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Is the global economy just a giant debt scam? What the financial elite
>> doesn’t want you to know
>> Yanis Varoufakis saw power up close. He says capitalism is dead,
>> democracy is crumbling and we’re ruled by debt
>>
>> Andrew O'Hehir   June 9, 2018
>>
>> <https://www.salon.com/2018/06/09/how-the-greek-debt-crisis-
>> exposed-the-global-economy-as-a-giant-con-and-led-to-donald-trump/>
>>
>> Quote:
>>
>> What was the cumulative global result of all these processes? Do you
>> really need to ask?
>>
>> Is this where we get back to Trump and Brexit and the rise of
>> authoritarianism and right-wing nationalism around the world? It is.
>> Varoufakis sees all those things as clearly connected and part of an
>> unmistakable backlash. After mainstream politicians had cynically
>> transferred those billions of dollars in banking losses onto ordinary
>> people both in America and Europe -- magically combining the high
>> taxation of social democracy with the austerity state of free-market
>> capitalism -- they then pretended to be baffled by what happened next.
>>
>> The political movements that benefited from this climate, as
>> Varoufakis puts it, were those fueled by racism and xenophobia, "the
>> right-wing monsters that breed in the environment of deflation."
>> Establishment parties then "wondered why it was that the discarded
>> people from our neighborhoods and villages and towns turned against
>> them and decided to vote for somebody that peeved them, annoyed them,
>> just in order to get back at the establishment that had discarded
>> them. Great wonder, isn’t it?”
>> ---------------------
>>
>> This is a long article, but well worth reading, as it explains a lot
>> of the world weirdness.
>>
>> BillK
>>
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>
>
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