Ireland - search results
Is Brexit to blame for the uptick in Northern Ireland violence, and what is...
Is Brexit to blame for the uptick in Northern Ireland violence, and what is...
Woman gunned down during riot in Derry, Northern Ireland (VIDEOS) — RT UK News
Video: Video of Obama 'Beast' Cadillac limo stuck on ramp in Ireland
At least 2 killed in reported stampede at St. Patrick’s Day bash in Northern...
Irish politicians call for Northern Ireland Sec Bradley to resign after ‘no crimes’ comments...
Unearthed VIDEO of Corbyn trashing EU for treatment of Ireland seized upon by his...
Police warn of fake news as Northern Ireland city hit by 3 security alerts...
Police arrest 2, say ‘New IRA’ likely behind car bomb in N. Ireland —...
Car blast in front of N. Ireland courthouse, terrorism suspected — RT UK News
Video: US, Canada, Ireland & UK claim American accused of espionage is their citizen
British MP suggests threatening Ireland with food shortages over Brexit, Twitter outrage follows —...
Video: A lace thong is not consent: Protests erupt in Ireland after man cleared...
Ireland’s New President, Other European Fools and the Abyss
Kicking Northern Ireland border issue down the road & other key points — RT...
Kicking Northern Ireland border issue down the road & other key points — RT...
Northern Ireland Minister of State Shailesh Vara resigns over proposed Brexit deal — RT...
Video: Meanwhile in Ireland: Badass grandpa fights off armed gang with bare hands
Video: ‘We got abused in different forms’: Pope visits Ireland, thousands protest clergy crimes
Twitter explodes over Bill O’Reilly’s ‘white privilege’ tweet from Ireland — RT US News
Ireland’s Intellectuals Bow to the Queen of Chaos
Police say rioters tried to murder them during 6th night of violence in N....
Video: Israeli settlement goods face ban in Ireland
Why is Northern Ireland such a big deal in Theresa May’s Brexit negotiations? —...
Declassified report shows Northern Ireland police told not to arrest MI5 informants — RT...
Not another bloody bridge! Boris Johnson flirts with project to link Britain to Northern...
‘Give N. Ireland same control DUP has over this govt’ – MP hits out...
N. Ireland could be given joint EU/UK status – UK source, in plan that...
Video: After Ireland’s Historic Abortion Vote, Calls Grow for Abortion Rights in Northern Ireland
Video: Meet Two of the Activists Behind Ireland’s Historic Vote to Repeal a Ban...
Stop prioritizing DUP alliance & grant women abortion rights in N. Ireland, rights group...
After Ireland’s Historic Abortion Vote, Calls Grow for Abortion Rights in Northern Ireland
Video: Meet Two of the Activists Behind Ireland’s Historic Vote to Repeal a Ban...
Video: After Ireland’s Historic Abortion Vote, Calls Grow for Abortion Rights in Northern Ireland
Ireland Votes to Repeal Abortion Ban
Video: Ireland’s historic abortion referendum: What it means for people
“Michael Inside:” The Prison System in Ireland
Hard Brexit warning from Ireland as UK agrees ‘fallback option’ on Customs Union —...
Remembering Ireland’s Great Famine | Dissident Voice
Molotov cocktails hurled at N. Ireland police vans during republican parade — RT UK...
Video: No reason for Ireland to believe UK on Skripal, MPs & locals say
‘Ireland first!’ EU accused of ‘gangster’ behavior as it halts Brexit talks over border...
‘No UK Prime Minister could ever agree to it’ – May dismisses EU’s N....
Sinn Fein vow to battle ‘the Tory-DUP wrecking-agenda’ after EU release N. Ireland plan...
Brexiteers slammed for undermining Northern Ireland peace treaty — RT UK News
Ancient Viking Settlement Unearthed in Ireland
Video: Storm Eleanor: Strong winds & heavy flooding cause havoc across UK and Ireland
Britain’s Dirty War in Ireland, Revisited
Will Dublin undo Brexit progress? Ireland clutches veto on EU borders — RT UK...
Irish PM throws Theresa May under the bus, says UK PM abandoned North Ireland...
Video: The Stan Collymore Show: Joy & anguish of Ireland-Denmark, charitable game for Grenfell...
The Struggle for Independence: From Ireland to Catalonia
‘Hooded Men’ torture case ‘could harm Northern Ireland power-sharing deal’ — RT UK News
‘I cooked it, fed it to other dog with some onions,’ N. Ireland court...
Video: Meet the Irish Photographer Documenting Women in Ireland Who Must Travel Abroad for...
Video: EU, ISIS & Irish Republican flags on fire as bonfires lit across N....
Tory-DUP deal indicates British soldiers won’t be prosecuted for N. Ireland 'Troubles' killings
Will Tory-DUP deal reignite N. Ireland’s Catholic-Protestant tensions?
Europe could tempt N. Ireland to leave UK in exchange for EU membership
Video: ‘Ireland is better off as a united country’: Growing calls for N. Ireland...
Hooded men: Conduct of British Army in N. Ireland ‘on scale of war crime,’...
As Trump Attacks Science, Ireland Takes Step to Divest From Fossil Fuels
Scotland, Wales & Northern Ireland shouldn’t get say on Brexit, Supreme Court rules
Election called as Northern Ireland power-sharing government collapses
Professor Believes the Irish Will Be an Ethnic Minority in Ireland by 2050
Video: Frozen Money: Khodorkovsky named as potential suspect in money-laundering invesigation in Ireland
Ireland: 90% “Asylum” Refusal Rate
‘No hard border’ in Ireland after Brexit, premier vows
How Washington Turned Ireland Into an International Scofflaw
UK to move border controls to Ireland after Brexit to combat illegal immigration
Video: Uproar Over Apple-Ireland Tax Deal Ruling Could Put Multinationals Under the Gun During...
Royal Marine charged with Northern Ireland-linked terrorism
Gay & bisexual N. Ireland men now allowed to give blood, but only 12...
Video: Apple won’t pay the €13bn unpaid tax to Ireland – Max Keiser
Member of British Armed Forces arrested in Northern Ireland terrorism investigation – police
Video: Ben Gilroy “EU Stole Ireland’s Oil, Fishing & Forestry Industries. Britain Get Out...
UK-Ireland border checks won’t return after Brexit, says May on first visit to Belfast...
How Brexit could lead to a united Ireland – and wage cuts for thousands
Pro-choice activists to fly abortion pills into N Ireland – by drone
Bill Clinton on Brexit: N. Ireland will ‘get whacked’ if Britain leaves the EU
Video: 100 years since Ireland’s ‘revolution’: Easter Rising parade and proclamation ceremony
A Terrible Beauty: Remembering Ireland’s 1916 Easter Rebellion
Child abuse survivors demand redress from N. Ireland Executive
Video: Richard Boyd Barrett TD On Why Ireland Should Leave The EU
Video: Ben Gilroy “Claire Knowles Case Is A Damning Indictment Of How Corrupt Ireland...
Video: Tom Darcy: “Criminal Banks, Politicians And Police Are Driving People To Suicide In...
With New Ban on Cultivation, Northern Ireland Joins EU’s Anti-GMO Ranks
Video: Not So Private: Microsoft faces off with US govt over emails from Ireland
Irish will be an ethnic minority in Ireland by 2050
‘376,000 people in relative poverty in Northern Ireland’
We Can All Get by Quite Well Without Banks – Ireland Managed to Survive...
MI5’s Killing Spree in Northern Ireland
Ireland Makes History: First Country in the World to Vote for Gay Marriage
Tens of Thousands Protest Water Privatization in Ireland
Ireland protests against water tax
Wall Street banks ‘may desert UK for Ireland’ if Britain leaves EU
Ireland’s Bailout Exit: Jumping from the Economic Frying Pan into the Fire
Poverty skyrockets in Ireland as the ruling elite gets richer
British Army’s secret ‘terror unit’ shot dead innocent civilians in Northern Ireland: claim
A Perfect Storm Brewing for Ireland’s Economy
Ireland Has Been Attacked and Dominated by Outside Powers for Centuries — Now It’s...
Ireland: Ground Zero for the Austerity-driven Asset Grab. The Bank Guarantee That Bankrupted Ireland
The Bank Guarantee That Bankrupted Ireland
The Irish have a long history of being tyrannized, exploited, and oppressed—from the forced conversion to Christianity in the Dark Ages, to slave trading of the natives in the 15th and 16th centuries, to the mid-nineteenth century “potato famine” that was really a holocaust. The British got Ireland’s food exports, while at least one million Irish died from starvation and related diseases, and another million or more emigrated.
Today, Ireland is under a different sort of tyranny, one imposed by the banks and the troika—the EU, ECB and IMF. The oppressors have demanded austerity and more austerity, forcing the public to pick up the tab for bills incurred by profligate private bankers.
The official unemployment rate is 13.5%—up from 5% in 2006—and this figure does not take into account the mass emigration of Ireland’s young people in search of better opportunities abroad. Job loss and a flood of foreclosures are leading to suicides. A raft of new taxes and charges has been sold as necessary to reduce the deficit, but they are simply a backdoor bailout of the banks.
At first, the Irish accepted the media explanation: these draconian measures were necessary to “balance the budget” and were in their best interests. But after five years of belt-tightening in which unemployment and living conditions have not improved, the people are slowly waking up. They are realizing that their assets are being grabbed simply to pay for the mistakes of the financial sector.
Five years of austerity has not restored confidence in Ireland’s banks. In fact the banks themselves are packing up and leaving. On October 31st, RTE.ie reported that Danske Bank Ireland was closing its personal and business banking, only days after ACCBank announced it was handing back its banking license; and Ulster Bank’s future in Ireland remains unclear.
The field is ripe for some publicly-owned banks. Banks that have a mandate to serve the people, return the profits to the people, and refrain from speculating. Banks guaranteed by the state because they are the state, without resort to bailouts or bail-ins. Banks that aren’t going anywhere, because they are locally owned by the people themselves.
The Folly of Absorbing the Gambling Losses of the Banks
Ireland was the first European country to watch its entire banking system fail. Unlike the Icelanders, who refused to bail out their bankrupt banks, in September 2008 the Irish government gave a blanket guarantee to all Irish banks, covering all their loans, deposits, bonds and other liabilities.
At the time, no one was aware of the huge scale of the banks’ liabilities, or just how far the Irish property market would fall.
Within two years, the state bank guarantee had bankrupted Ireland. The international money markets would no longer lend to the Irish government.
Before the bailout, the Irish budget was in surplus. By 2011, its deficit was 32% of the country’s GDP, the highest by far in the Eurozone. At that rate, bank losses would take every penny of Irish taxes for at least the next three years.
“This debt would probably be manageable,” wrote Morgan Kelly, Professor of Economics at University College Dublin, “had the Irish government not casually committed itself to absorb all the gambling losses of its banking system.”
To avoid collapse, the government had to sign up for an €85 billion bailout from the EU-IMF and enter a four year program of economic austerity, monitored every three months by an EU/IMF team sent to Dublin.
Public assets have also been put on the auction block. Assets currently under consideration include parts of Ireland’s power and gas companies and its 25% stake in the airline Aer Lingus.
At one time, Ireland could have followed the lead of Iceland and refused to bail out its bondholders or to bow to the demands for austerity. But that was before the Irish government used ECB money to pay off the foreign bondholders of Irish banks. Now its debt is to the troika, and the troika are tightening the screws. In September 2013, they demanded another 3.1 billion euro reduction in spending.
Some ministers, however, are resisting such cuts, which they say are politically undeliverable.
In The Irish Times on October 31, 2013, a former IMF official warned that the austerity imposed on Ireland is self-defeating. Ashoka Mody, former IMF chief of mission to Ireland, said it had become “orthodoxy that the only way to establish market credibility” was to pursue austerity policies. But five years of crisis and two recent years of no growth needed “deep thinking” on whether this was the right course of action. He said there was “not one single historical instance” where austerity policies have led to an exit from a heavy debt burden.
Austerity has not fixed Ireland’s debt problems. Belying the rosy picture painted by the media, in September 2013 Antonio Garcia Pascual, chief euro-zone economist at Barclays Investment Bank, warned that Ireland may soon need a second bailout.
According to John Spain, writing in Irish Central in September 2013:
The anger among ordinary Irish people about all this has been immense. . . . There has been great pressure here for answers. . . . Why is the ordinary Irish taxpayer left carrying the can for all the debts piled up by banks, developers and speculators? How come no one has been jailed for what happened? . . . [D]espite all the public anger, there has been no public inquiry into the disaster.
Bail-in by Super-tax or Economic Sovereignty?
In many ways, Ireland is ground zero for the austerity-driven asset grab now sweeping the world. All Eurozone countries are mired in debt. The problem is systemic.
In October 2013, an IMF report discussed balancing the books of the Eurozone governments through a super-tax of 10% on all households in the Eurozone with positive net wealth. That would mean the confiscation of 10% of private savings to feed the insatiable banking casino.
The authors said the proposal was only theoretical, but that it appeared to be “an efficient solution” for the debt problem. For a group of 15 European countries, the measure would bring the debt ratio to “acceptable” levels, i.e. comparable to levels before the 2008 crisis.
A review posted on Gold Silver Worlds observed:
[T]he report right away debunks the myth that politicians and main stream media try to sell, i.e. the crisis is contained and the positive economic outlook for 2014.
. . . Prepare yourself, the reality is that more bail-ins, confiscation and financial repression is coming, contrary to what the good news propaganda tries to tell.
A more sustainable solution was proposed by Dr Fadhel Kaboub, Assistant Professor of Economics at Denison University in Ohio. In a letter posted in The Financial Times titled “What the Eurozone Needs Is Functional Finance,” he wrote:
The eurozone’s obsession with “sound finance” is the root cause of today’s sovereign debt crisis. Austerity measures are not only incapable of solving the sovereign debt problem, but also a major obstacle to increasing aggregate demand in the eurozone. The Maastricht treaty’s “no bail-out, no exit, no default” clauses essentially amount to a joint economic suicide pact for the eurozone countries.
. . . Unfortunately, the likelihood of a swift political solution to amend the EU treaty is highly improbable. Therefore, the most likely and least painful scenario for [the insolvent countries] is an exit from the eurozone combined with partial default and devaluation of a new national currency. . . .
The takeaway lesson is that financial sovereignty and adequate policy co-ordination between fiscal and monetary authorities are the prerequisites for economic prosperity.
Standing Up to Goliath
Ireland could fix its budget problems by leaving the Eurozone, repudiating its blanket bank guarantee as “odious” (obtained by fraud and under duress), and issuing its own national currency. The currency could then be used to fund infrastructure and restore social services, putting the Irish back to work.
Short of leaving the Eurozone, Ireland could reduce its interest burden and expand local credit by forming publicly-owned banks, on the model of the Bank of North Dakota. The newly-formed Public Banking Forum of Ireland is pursuing that option. In Wales, which has also been exploited for its coal, mobilizing for a public bank is being organized by the Arian Cymru ‘BERW’ (Banking and Economic Regeneration Wales).
Irish writer Barry Fitzgerald, author of Building Cities of Gold, casts the challenge to his homeland in archetypal terms:
The Irish are mobilising and they are awakening. They hold the DNA memory of vastly ancient times, when all men and women obeyed the Golden rule of honouring themselves, one another and the planet. They recognize the value of this harmony as it relates to banking. They instantly intuit that public banking free from the soiled hands of usurious debt tyranny is part of the natural order.
In many ways they could lead the way in this unfolding, as their small country is so easily traversed to mobilise local communities. They possess vast potential renewable energy generation and indeed could easily use a combination of public banking and bond issuance backed by the people to gain energy independence in a very short time.
When the indomitable Irish spirit is awakened, organized and mobilized, the country could become the poster child not for austerity, but for economic prosperity through financial sovereignty.
_____________________
Ellen Brown is an attorney, president of the Public Banking Institute, and author of twelve books, including the best-selling Web of Debt. In The Public Bank Solution, her latest book, she explores successful public banking models historically and globally. Her blog articles are at EllenBrown.com.
Filed under: Ellen Brown Articles/Commentary
Doug Ireland, Radical Journalist: 1946 — 2013
Twelve Years of Occupation in Afghanistan. Commemoration in Ireland
Twelve Years of Occupation and War Crimes in Afghanistan. Commemoration in Ireland
Tens of thousands of lives have been lost in Afghanistan over the last twelve years, and hundreds of thousands more have been destroyed because of the direct consequences of war and the war-induced breakdown of public health, security, and infrastructure. Shannon has had a central role in all this….
The twelfth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan was marked by a peace vigil at Shannon on Oct 13th that was attended by close to 40 people. Gardai maintained an overt presence, despite the peaceful nature of this and all previous vigils. They were reminded of their responsibilities to uphold the law by those attending the vigil, and to end the practice of turning a blind eye to the warplanes passing through Shannon. As always, they maintained a stony silence when asked if they were concerned in any way about who or what might be on those planes.
Tens of thousands of lives have been lost in Afghanistan over the last twelve years, and hundreds of thousands more have been destroyed because of the direct consequences of war and the war-induced breakdown of public health, security, and infrastructure. Shannon has had a central role in all this, as over the last twelve years millions of armed troops have turned the airport into a staging post for U.S. military operations abroad. The occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, for which Shannon provided logistical support, have been characterised by war crimes, human rights abuse (including kidnapping and torture by the U.S. authorities) and costs mounting to trillions of dollars. And these costs have of course been borne by the people of the U.S., Ireland and every other country now suffering the pain of austerity.
Support for today’s anti-war demonstration at Shannon was evident as passers-by acknowledged and encouraged those taking part. This was hardly surprising, given the findings of the recent PANA poll which showed that over three quarters of Irish people believe Ireland should have a policy of neutrality.
Given the behaviour of the Gardai at Shannon over the last twelve years, and given the numerous references by members of the force to “advice” and “instructions” and “protocols” relating to the searching of planes and the policing of anti-war demonstrations, their attitude was sadly also not surprising. For the duration of the vigil they erected barriers at an arbitrary point before the airport entrance, and refused to let demonstrators past it. When asked why they were doing so, they simply refused to answer.
What was even more bizarre was the spurious arrest of two members of Shannonwatch prior to the vigil today, under the Public Order Act. They were at the airport taking photographs, which is not illegal, but were handcuffed, taken into custody and released around an hour later. There were no U.S. military aircraft evident at the airport at the time, so the bizarre behaviour of the Gardai may have more to do with the presence of two luxurious Middle East VIP jets, registrations N777AS and N757MA.
If the Airport Police and Gardai had anticipated a security risk from someone taking photos of one of these aircraft someone in authority could have declared the car park in which the arrests took place to be a temporarily restricted area. They are entitled and empowered to restrict certain areas for a limited time but they didn’t do that, Nonetheless the arresting officer did his best to convince the Shannonwatch members that the place was permanently restricted (which it isn’t) and that they had broken the law by being there (which they hadn’t).
It’s not the sort of security that the U.S. military would expect at one of their airbases, but it’s what they’ve got at Shannon.
About the authors: Shannonwatch is a group of human rights and anti-war activists based in the mid-West of Ireland. Email: [email protected]
Public Banking Forum of Ireland Power Point – “The Irish Debt Crisis: Time to...
--2014--
695. July 29-Aug. 5. Moving Beyond Capitalism conference, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico
--2013--
694. Dec. 15, interview with Stephen Lendman, The Progressive Newshour, 10 a.m. PST
693. Nov. 16, interview This is Hell! radio show, WNUR 89.3 fm, thisishell.com/live, 11.20 a.m. EST. Listen to archive here
692. Nov. 15, interview with George Berry, The Financial News Network Show, truthfrequencyradio.com, 1 pm PST
691. Nov. 14, interview with Stanley Montieth, The Doctor Stan Show, Radio Liberty, 4 pm PSTf
690. Nov. 14, interview with Neil Foster, Reality Bytes show, Awake Radio (UK), Shazziz Radio (US), 8 pm UK time.
689. Nov. 13, interview with Bonnie Faulkner, KPFA, Los Angeles. Listen to archive here.
688. Nov. 12, interview with Tom Kiely, INN World Report, 4:30 PST
687. Nov. 11, interview, Between the Lines News Magazine, WPKN radio, Bridgeport, CT, 9 p.m. ET. Listen to archive here
686. Nov. 10, skype participant, forum at the Putrajaya International Islamic Arts and Cultural Festival, "Global Economic and Monetary Crisis: What Needs to be Done?" Putrajaya, Malaysia, 11 a.m. MYT, 7 pm, Nov. 9 PST
685. Nov. 3, interview with Stephen Lendman, The Progressive Newshour, 10 a.m. PST
684. Oct. 31, interview with Voice of Russia radio, American edition, 2:30 pm, CET (Central Europe Time.) Listen to archive here.
683. Oct. 23, interview with Daniel Estulin on RT tv
682. Oct. 16, interview with Per Fereng, KBOO radio, Portland, 11 am PST
681. Oct. 15, presentation, "The Public Banking Forum in Ireland," 7-9 PM, Hudson Bay Hotel, Athlone, Ireland.
680. Oct. 14, presentation, Cork, Ireland
679. Oct. 12, presentation, "The Public Banking Forum in Ireland," 2-4 PM, Springfield Hotel in Leixlip, County Kildare, Ireland. Information on these three events here.
678. October 4, interview with Bill Deller, 3CR radio, Melbourne, Australia, 2:30 pm, PST
677. Oct. 3, interview with Joyce Riley, the Power Hour. Listen to archive here.
676. Oct. 1, interview with Tom Kiely, INN World Report 7:30 EST
675. Sept. 29, interview with Stephen Lendman, The Progressive Newshour, 10 a.m. PST
674. Sept. 27, interviw with Kevin Barrett, AmericanFreedomRadio.com, NoLiesRadio.org:
http://TruthJihadRadio.blogspot.com, 2 pm PST
673. Sept. 19, interview, The Gary Null Show, 9:30 a.m. Pacific
672. Sept. 19, Interview on the Global Research News Hour with Michael Welch--check site for time and archive.
671. Sept. 18, interview with David Sierralupe, Occupy Radio, KWVA, 88.1 FM, Eugene
670. Sept. 15, interview with Niall Bradley, Sott Talk Radio, sott.net, 2 p.m. EST
669. Sept. 14, interview FDLBookSalon, firedoglake.com, 5pm EST
668. Sept. 10, "Turning Hard Times into Good Times" with Jay Taylor, VoiceAmerica, 12:30 pm PST. Listen to archive here.
667. Sept. 9, interview with Ken MacDermotRoe and Del LaPietro, In Context Report, 9 am PST. Listen to archive here.
666. Sept 7, interview with Valerie Kirkgaard, WakingUpInAmerica.com, 6 am, PST. Listen here.
665. Sept. 6, Interview with Al Korelin, The Korelin Economics Report, 12:30 pm PST
664. Sept. 5, discussion of how to bring public banking to Colorado on "It's the Economy, Stupid," KGNU, Boulder, 5 p.m. PST
663. Sept. 5, interview with Patrick Timpone, oneradionetwork.com, 8 a.m. PST
662. Sept. 3, interview (along with Elliott Spitzer?), "Turning Hard Times into Good Times" with Jay Taylor, VoiceAmerica, 1 pm PST Listen to archive here.
661. Sept. 3, interview with Jeanette LaFeve, The People Speak, 6 pm PST
660. Aug. 25, Stephen Lendman, Progressive Radio News Hour, 10 am, PDT
659. Aug. 22, interview with Christopher Greene, AMTV Radio, simulcast in audio/video over GoogleHangouts and American Freedom Radio, 1 p.m. PST
658. Aug. 22, interview, TheAndyCaldwellShow.com,
CalChronicle.com, 3 pm PST
657. Aug. 21, interview with Merry and Burl Hall, blogtalkradio.com/envision-this, 5 pm PST
656. Aug. 21, interview with Lori Lundin, America's Radio News Network, 10:30 a.m. ET.
655. Aug. 16, interview with Sinclair Noe, Moneyradio.com, 4 pm PST
654. Aug. 15, interview with Justine Underhill, Prime Interest, Russia Today TV, 1:30 pm PST
653. Aug 14, interview with Jim Goddard, This Week in Money, 4 pm, PST. Listen to archive here, starting at minute 32.
652. Aug. 14, interview with Mary Glenney, WMNF 88.5, 10 a.m. PST
651. Aug. 14, interview with Chuck Morse, irnusaradio.com, 8 am, PST
650. Aug. 13, interview with Thomas Taplin, Dukascopy TV, Switzerland, 9 am PST
649. Aug 7-11, Madison Democracy conference, https://democracyconvention.org/
648. Aug. 6, radio interview, INN World Report with Tom Kiely, http://feeds.feedburner.com/INNWorldReportRadio 4:30 PST
647. Aug 5, interview with Arnie Arnesen, 94.7 fm, Concord, NH, 9 am PST
646. Aug 3, interview with Diane Horn, Mind Over Matter show, KEXP radio, 90.3 FM, Seattle, 7:00 a.m. PST
645. July 31, interview with Mike Beevers, KFCF Fresno, 4:30 pm PST
644. July 28, Stephen Lendman, Progressive Radio News Hour, 10 am, PDT
643. July 2, interview with Charlie McGrath, Wide Awake News, 6-7 pm PDT.
642. July 2, interview with Arnie Arnesen, 94.7 fm, Concord, NH, 12:30 EST.
641. June 30, interview with Stephen Lendman, Progressive Radio News Hour, 10 am, PDT. Listen to archive here.
640. June 24, interview on RT tv re student debt, 10:30 am PST
639. June 17, interview on The Andy Caldwell Show, 3:30 pm PST
638. June 16, interview with Jason Erb, 5 pm Pacific
637. June 13, interview with Paul Sanford, "Time 4 Hemp-LIVE," http://www.AmericanFreedomRadio.com, 10 am, PST
636. June 6 presentation with Jamie Brown at the Mt. Diablo Peace and Justice Center in Walnut Creek. Info at Favors.org, 7 to 9 pm
635. June 1, interview with Kris Welch, KPFA Los Angeles, 10 am PST
634. May 28, interview with Malihe Razazan, "Your Call" radio, KALW, San Francisco, 10 am PST.
633. May 26, interview with Stephen Lendman, Progressive Radio News Hour, 10 am, PDT
632. May 23 interview with Simit Patel, InformedTrades.com (youtube) 3:30 pm PST
631. May 22, Thousand Oaks, 3 expert panel, "A Parachute For the Fiscal Cliff," University Village 2-4 pm
630. May 22, interview with Jack Rasmus, 11 am PST. Enjoy the interview here.
629. May 22, Guns and Butter show, KPFA, http://www.kpfa.org/archive/id/91790
628. May 14, interview with Charlie McGrath, Wide Awake News, 6-7 pm PDT.
627. May 13, live appearance on RTTV, 3 pm PST Watch it here.
626. May 8, interview with Valli Sharpe-Geisler, Silicon Valley Voice, KKUP, 3 pm PST
625. May 8, interview, the Meria Heller Show, 11 am PST
624. May 4, interview, Latin Waves with Sylvia Richardson, 10 am PST
623. April 30, Jay Taylor, VoiceAmerica, 1 pm PST
622. April 29, interview with Rob Kall, Bottom Up Radio, 9 am Pacific
Listen to archive here.
621. April 28, interview with Stephen Lendman, Progressive Radio News Hour, 10 am, PDT
620. April 25, interview, the the Dr. Katherine Albrecht Show, 5 pm EDT
619. April 17, interview with Mike Harris, rense.com, 1 pm PDT
618. April 16th, speaker, Valley Democrats United (Democratic Party of San Fernando Valley), Van Nuys, Ca. 7-9pm
617. April 13, interview with Darren Weeks, Govern America, noon Eastern, listen here
616. April 9, interview with Charlie McGrath, Wide Awake News, 6-7 pm PDT.
615. April 6, phone conference, Justice Party, http://www.justicepartyusa.org/public_banking_conference_call, 9 a.m.
614. April 5, interview, Butler on Business, 11 a.m. EDT
613. April 3, interview with Michael Welch, Global Research News Hour, 8:30 a.m. PDT
612. April 2, interview with Jay Taylor, VoiceAmerica, 12:30 PDT. Listen here.
611. April 1, interview with Brannon Howse, www.worldviewradio.com, 11 a.m. PDT
610. April 1, interview with Scott Harris, Counterpoint,
WPKN Radio, 8:30 pm, ET Listen to archive here.
609. April 1, interview with Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese. Watch and listen to archive here, starting at minute 50. Articles based on the interview are at Truthout.org.
608. March 31, interview with Jason Erb, Exposing Faux Capitalism, Oracle Broadcasting, 11 a.m. Pacific
607. March 31, interview with Stephen Lendman, Progressive Radio News Hour, 10 am, PDT Listen to the archive here.
606. March 29, interview, The Gary Null Show, 9:30 a.m. Pacific
605. March 28, interview with Stan Monteith, radioliberty.com, 9 pm PDT
604. March 28, radio interview, INN World Report with Tom Kiely, http://feeds.feedburner.com/INNWorldReportRadio 4:30 PDT
603. March 27, interview with Charlie McGrath, Wide Awake News, 6-7 pm PdT.
602. March 27, interview with Jack Rasmus on PRN, 11 a.m. PDT
601. March 25, interview on the Richard Kaffenberger show, KTOX, Needles, CA. 3:15 PDT
600. March 22, newly available archived radio interview, Mandelman Matters. Listen here.
599. March 22, interview with James Fetzer, The People Speak Radio, 5-7 pm PDT
598. March 22, interview , Our Times With Craig Barnes, KSFR radio, Santa Fe, 10 a.m. MST
597. March 12, interview, Crisis of Reality with Doug Newberry, oraclebroadcasting.com, 1pm EST.
596. March 11, interview with Stephen Lendman, Progressive Radio News Hour, 10 am, PST
595. March 9, Interview with Sylvia Richardson, Latin Waves, CJSF 90.1FM, 9:30 am PST
594. March 6, interview with Charlie McGrath, wideawakenews.com, 6pm PST. Watch and listen here.
593. March 3, interview with Lateef Kareem Bey, Fix Your Mortgage Mess, 4 pm PST
592. March 2, Interview with Stuart Richardson, Latin Waves, CJSF 90.1FM, 11 am PST
591. Feb. 27, interview with Jim Banks, KGNU, Boulder, 12 pm PST
590. Feb 27, interview with Sinclair Noe, Financial Review, 10 am PST
589. Feb. 25, interview, Crisis of Reality with Doug Newberry, oraclebroadcasting.com, 1pm EST.
588. Feb. 6, Interview with Phil Mackesy, This Week in Money, TalkDigitalNetwork.com, 11 am PST. Listen to the archive here: http://talkdigitalnetwork.com/2013/02/this-week-in-money-70/
587. Feb. 4, interview with Ken Rose, What Now radio show, KOWS RADIO OCCIDENTAL 107.3 FM, 11 am PST.
586. Jan. 31, interview with Tom Kiely, INN World Radio Report, 5:00 pm PST
585. Jan. 27, interview with Stephen Lendman, progressive radio
network, 10 am PST
584. Jan. 23, interview on KPFK, 8pm PST
583. Jan. 22, interview, Crisis of Reality with Doug Newberry, oraclebroadcasting.com, 1pm EST.
582. Jan. 3, interview with Mary Glenney, WMNF 88.5, Tampa, 3 pm EST
581. Jan. 2, interview, The Bev Smith Show, thebevsmithshow.net, 5 pm PST
--- 2012 ---
580. Dec. 27, video interview with Charlie McGrath, Wide Awake News, listen and watch here.
579. Dec. 24, October talk at First Unitarian Church in Portland aired on KBOO radio, http://kboo.fm/, 8:00 am PST
578. Dec. 24, interview with Ron Daniels, the WWRL Morning Show with Mark Riley, wwrl1600.com, 5:05 am PST
577. Dec. 21, interview with Andy Caldwell, TheAndyCaldwellShow.com, KZSB AM1290 Santa Barbara / Ventura and KUHL AM1440 Santa Maria / San Luis Obispo, 3:30 pm PST
576. Dec. 20, interview with Fred Smart, aunetwork.tv, 9 pm EST
575. Dec. 19, interview, Crisis of Reality with Doug Newberry, oraclebroadcasting.com, 1pm EST. Listen here.
574. Dec. 19, interview with Dr. Jack Rasmus, Alternative Visions, Progressive Radio Network, 2 pm EST
573. Dec. 17, The Bev Smith Show, thebevsmithshow.net, 4 pm PST
572. Dec. 15, interview with Stephen Lendman, progressive radio network, 10 am PST. Listen here.
571. Dec. 14, interview with Craig Barnes, Our Times With Craig Barnes, KSFR radio, 9 am PST Listen to the archive here.
570. December 9th, speaker, Mayo Arts Center (10 Mayo Street) in Portland, ME
http://mayostreetarts.org/about-us/where-we-are 7:30-9pm
569. Dec. 7, Vermont's New Economy conference, Vermont College of the Find Arts, Montpelier, VT, 9 am to 4 pm and reception at 4:30. $25
www.global-community.org/neweconomy to register
568. Dec. 5, speaker, Pennsylvania Public Bank Project's Forum on Public Banking, at the David Library of the American Revolution, Washington Crossing, PA, 7pm
567. Nov. 26-27, 3rd Annual World Conference on Riba, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
566. Nov. 22, presentation before Royal Scottish Academy -- "A Public Bank for Scotland" (here), Riddle's Court, 322 Lawnmarket, Edinburgh EH1 2PG Scotland, 6 pm
565. Nov 8, Healthy Money Summit, speaking with Hazel Henderson at 1-2 pm PST, information here.
564. Sunday, Oct. 28, Keynote Speaker; The Buck Starts Here, 2:00pm, sponsored by the Kairos Occasional Speakers Series & OFOR, Kairos Milwaukie UCC, Milwaukie, OR.
563. Saturday, Oct. 27, Keynote Speaker; OFOR Saturday Symposium: The Buck Starts Here, 10am - 3pm, Molalla, OR
562. Friday-Sunday, Oct. 26-28, Keynote Speaker; Oregon Fellowship of Reconciliation Fall Retreat - The Buck Starts Here, Camp Adams, Molalla, OR, Friday, 5pm- Sunday 12 noon
561. Friday, October 26, Invited Commentator; screening of “HEIST” (new documentary about the roots of the American economic crisis), sponsored by First Unitarian Church of Portland's Economic Justice Action Groups, Alliance for Democracy, KBOO, Move to Amend, 7:00pm, First Unitarian Church, Portland, OR
560. (Oct. 25-28, Bioneers Conference, Portland, OR)
Oct. 25, Keynote Speaker; sponsored by Portland Fellowship of Reconciliation (PFOR) and the First Unitarian Church of Portland's Economic Justice and Peace Action Groups, 7:00-8:30pm, First Unitarian Church, Portland, OR
559. Oct. 24, interview with Per Fagereng, KBOO radio, Portland, 9 am PST
558. Oct. 24, KPFA "Guns and Butter" interview. Listen to archived show here.
557. Oct. 21, speaker at BBQed Oysters and Beer Fundraiser Party for PBI, San Rafael, CA, 4 pm PST
556. Oct. 14, Live Gaiam tv interview appearance. Watch it here free at 7pm EST.
555. Oct. 12, interview with Matt Rothschild of The Progressive, 10 a.m. Central time
554. October 11-14, speaker, Economic Democracy Collaborative, Madison, Wisconsin
553. Oct. 11, radio interview with Norm Stockwell, WORT, 12 pm CST
552. Oct. 9, interview with Kevin Barrett, No Lies Radio, listen to archive here.
551. Oct. 8, interview, "Mountain Hours Revolution Radio" with Wayne Walton, on RBN, 12-1 pm PST
550. Oct. 7, interview with Lloyd D'Aguilar, "Looking Back Looking Forward", http://lookingbacklookingforward.com/, 2 pm EST
549. Sept. 26, interview with Douglas Newberry, markettoolbox.tv, 1pm EST. Listen here.
548. Sept. 25, interview with Dr. Stanley Montieth, radioliberty.com, 3pm PST
547. Sept. 24, interview with Charlie McGrath, Wide Awake News, 6-7 pm PST.
546. Sept. 22, interview with Stephen Lendman, progressive radio network, 10 am PST
545. Sept. 17 interview along with Hazel Henderson, National Teach In for Occupy Wall Street, http://www.livestream.com/owshdtv 5pm EST
544. Sept. 10, interview with Thomas Taplin, Dukascopy TV (Switzerland), 7 am PST Watch and listen here
543. Sept. 7, interview with Mike Harris, republicbroadcasting.org, 6 am PST
542. Sept. 6, interview with Douglas Newberry, markettoolbox.tv, 1pm EST. Listen here.
541. Aug 28, interview, the Meria Heller Show, 11 am PST. Listen to archive here. And listen to excellent Meria Heller show here.
540. Aug 26, interview with Stephen Lendman, progressive radio network, listen to archive here.
539. August 21, interview with Charlie McGrath, wideawakenews.com. Listen to archive here.
538. Aug 20, interview with Kim Greenhouse, It's Rainmaking Time, listen here.
537. Aug 16, interview with Mike Harris, republicbroadcasting.org, 6 am PST
536. Aug. 14, interview, TheAndyCaldwellshow.com, 4:30pm PST
535. August 13, interview with American Free Press, 1 pm PST
534. July 24, interview along with Victoria Grant, The People Speak, 6pm, PST
533. July 24, interview with Kevin Barrett, NoLiesRadio.org, 9 am PST
532. July 23, interview with Charlie McGrath, wideawakenews.com, 6 pm PST
531. July 22, interview with Dave Hodges, The Common Sense Show, 7 pm PST
530. July 22, interview with Stephen Lendman, progressive radio network, 10 am PST. Listen to archive here.
529. July 19, interview with Mike Beevers, KFCF Fresno, 4:30 pm PST
528. July 10-12, Speaker, Conference on Social Transformation, Faculty of Economics, Split University, Split Croatia
527. July 10, video interview with Max Keiser, the Keiser Report, on the ESM. Watch it here.
526. July 7, Interview with Phil Mackesy, This Week in Money, TalkDigitalNetwork.com, 3 pm PST
525. July 6, video interview with Dr. Mercola, see it here.
524. June 23, Interview with Al Korelin, The Korelin Economics Report, 1 pm PST. Listen to archive here.
523. June 21, interview with Tom Kiely, INN World Radio Report, 4:30 pm PST
522. June 21, interview on the Gary Null Show, 9:20 am PST
521. June 18, interview with Ken Rose, What Now radio show, KOWS RADIO OCCIDENTAL 107.3 FM, 1 pm PST. Listen to archive here.
520. June 17, interview with Bill Resnick, KBOO radio, 9 am PST
519. June 16 interview with Stephen Lendman, progressive radio network, 10 am PST. Listen to archive here.
518. June 9, interview with Sylvia Richardson, Latin Waves, 9:45 am PST. Listen to archive here.
517. June 5, interview, Truth Quest With Melodee, KHEN radio, 7pm PST
516. June 2, interview about Web of Debt, Our Common Ground,http://www.blogtalkradio.com/OCG, 7pm PST
515. June 1, interview with Robert Stark, The Stark Truth listen here.
514. Newly available video of interview on "Moral Politics" -- see it here
513. May 30, interview, The Tim Dahaney Show, ll am PST
512. May 28, interview with Pedro Gatos, "Bringing Light into Darkness", KOOP.ORG, 6 pm CST
511. May 24, interview, Make It Plain With Mark Thompson, SiriusXM Satellite Radio, 2pm PST
510. May 20, interview, Women's View Radio, blogtalkradio.com, 10 am Central Time. Listen here.
509. May 13, interview, www.Blogtalkradio.com/fixyourmortgagemess, 4:15 pm PST
508. May 12, interview with Stephen Lendman, progressive radio network, 10 am PST Listen here.
507. May 9, seminar, Re-imagining Money and Credit, Art bldg. rm 103, El Camino college, Torrance, Ca. 5-7:30 pm
506. May 8, interview with Mike Harris, republicbroadcasting.org, 9 am EST
505. May 7, radio discussion on "The Myth of Austerity", Connect the Dots, KPFK Los Angeles, 7 am PST. Listen here.
504. May 4, interview The Unsolicited Opinion, republicbroadcasting.org, 8 am PST
503. April 27-28, speaker, Public Banking Institute Conference, Friends Center, Philadelphia. Listen here.
502. April 25, speaker Global Teach-In (globalteachin.com), 12 noon EST
501. April 17, Interview with Leo Steel, http://www.blogtalkradio.com/lasteelshoworg, 8:30 pm EST. Listen here.. 31 minutes in.
500. April 14, interview with Stephen Lendman, progressive radio network, 10 am PST
499. April 14, interview with Al Korelin, The Korelin Economics Report
498. April 10th-12th Speaker at Claremont Conference, “Creating Money in a Finite World” Claremont, CA . See video here.
497. April 5, interview , This Week In Money with Phil Mackesy (howestreet.com) 12:30 PST. Listen to the archive here.
496. April 3, speaker at COMER with Paul Hellyer, "Escape From the Web of Debt," Toronto, 7:30 pm
495. March 27, speaker on "Why are we so Broke? New ways to look at the Finances of our State and City," League of Women Voters luncheon, San Diego, 12 noon
494.5 March 24, radio interview, Mandelman Matters. Listen here.
494. March 17, speaker via skype, SCADS conference, London
493. March 15, interview with Per Fagereng, Fight the Empire, KBOO radio, 9:30 am PST
492. March 15, speaker, San Rafael City Hall 6 pm
491. March 13, speaker at Sergio Lub's house, Walnut Creek, info at Favors.org, 6pm
490. March 11, speaker, TedxNewWallStreet. See it here.
489. March 10, interview with Stephen Lendman, progressive radio network, 10 am PST
488. March 6, interview with Melinda Pillsbury-Foster, http://radio.rumormillnews.com/podcast/, 11 am PST
487. Feb. 25, interview with Martin Andelman, http://www.mandelman.ml-implode.com, 9:30 am PST
486. Feb. 25, interview, This Week In Money with Phil Mackesy (howestreet.com), 3 pm PST
485. Feb. 25, interview on CIVL Radio, Latin Waves, How Greece Could Take Down Wall Street, 11:30am PST
484. Feb 23, interview with Thomas Kiely, INN World Report Radio, 7:30 pm EST
483. Feb. 17, featured speaker, Public Banking in America weekly call, 9 am PST
482. Feb. 11, interview with Stephen Lendman, progressive radio network, 10 am PST
481. Feb. 8, interview with Mike Beevers, KFCF Fresno, 4:30 pm PST
480. Feb. 7, interview with Kevin Barrett, NoLiesRadio.org, 9 am PST; listen to archive here
479. Feb. 6, participant, Occupiers and Wells Fargo Executives Gather to Discuss the American Foreclosure Crisis, The Center of Nonprofit Management at California Endowment Building 1000 N. Alameda, Los Angeles, meeting 3 pm and press conference 5:30 pm
478. Feb. 2, interview with Tom Kiely, INN World Report Radio, 7:30 pm EST
477. Feb. 2, interview with Patrick Timpone, oneradionetwork.com, naturalnewsradio.com. Listen to archive here
476. Jan. 31, interview, Liberty Coins and Precious Metals, 9 am PST
475. Jan. 27, interview KPFA, Project Censored, 8:30 am PST
474. Jan. 27, FILMS4CHANGE-INSIDEJOB, panel speaker, Edye Second Space, Santa Monica Performing Arts Center, 7:30 pm
473. Jan 22, interview with Dave Hodges, The Common Sense Show, 7:30 pm PST. Listen live here.
472. Jan. 20, interview with Mike Harris, The Republic Broadcasting Network, 7 am PST
471. Jan. 16, interview with Rob Lorei, WMNF fm, Tampa, 2 pm PST
470. Jan. 14, interview with Stephen Lendman, progressive radio network, 10 am PST
469. Jan. 11, interview with Jeff Rense, rense.com, 8pm PST
Journey to Ireland
Ireland Might Be Losing Its Green
Ireland’s Peace and Neutrality In Jeopardy: Activists call on a NO vote in “Seanad”...
Public Banking for Wales, Ireland and Scotland: Promise and Possibilities
Dr. Ian Jenkins of Arian Cymru (Money Wales) has written two excellent articles on why Wales should have its own bank and how that might be accomplished. The shorter article is reprinted below, and the longer, more technical article is linked here.
Dr. Jenkins is hosting an event in Cardiff on September 26th titled “Banking and Economic Regeneration Wales,” at which Marc Armstrong, executive director of the Public Banking Institute, will be speaking, along with Ann Pettifor of the New Economics Foundation and several Welsh leaders. As Dr. Jensen states:
This is in an issue on which Wales could provide leadership on an EU-wide level, a matter in which a small nation could make a big difference.
That is also true for Ireland and Scotland, where interest in public banking is growing. I will be speaking on that subject at a series of seminars in Ireland on October 12th-15th (details here), and I spoke late last year in Scotland on the same subject (see my earlier article here).
Here is Dr. Jenkins’ perceptive piece, which applies as well to Ireland and Scotland.
Public Banking for Wales: Escaping the Extractive Model
The economic history of the past 30 years has been, by and large, that of an uncontrolled expansion of the financial sector at the direct expense of the so called ‘real’ economy’ of manufacturing and production. This expansion has been brought about by the hegemony of the free-market doctrines, based principally on fundamentally ideological beliefs in deregulation and privatisation, which have become known as ‘neo-Liberal’ or ‘neo-Classical’ economics.
As former US bank regulator William K. Black put it, ‘In the world we live in, finance has become the dog instead of the tail […] They have become a parasite’. The private banks have established themselves in this position through the control of the primary mechanism by which money is created within our system: the issuing of credit. In this paper I will aim to briefly outline how this credit function could be redirected from speculation and bubble creation, which constitute the dominant directions of credit issuance under private banking, towards more stable and sustainable areas which would serve the public interest instead of those of shareholders and bank CEOs. This is not a theoretical method, but rather one which throughout the post-WW II period saw the German Landesbanken facilitate the growth of the mittelstand sector of Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs), as well as in the present day constituting the means by which the state-owned Bank of North Dakota (BND) contributes significantly to North Dakota being the only US State to run a budget surplus throughout the post-2008 crisis.
In order for a productive economy to exist there must be adequate streams of affordable credit and it is the absence of such constructive investment which, I would submit, has been a vital contributing factor to the decline of the Welsh economy, and indeed that of the UK, in the past 30 years. Before continuing with this analysis it is worth briefly examining the current banking system and the effect of its operations on the real economy, in Wales as elsewhere.
Banking Now: The Extractive Model of Credit Creation
‘What is money and where does it come from?’ are, remarkably, questions rarely asked in mainstream economics and even less so by members of the public; yet the answers to these two questions hold one of the keys to understanding the (mal)functioning of our economic system and for devising a new, more democratic direction. As the great American economist G.K. Galbraith observed in his fascinating study of the history of banking Money: Whence It Came, Where It Went, ‘The study of money, above all other fields in economics, is the one in which complexity is used to disguise truth or to evade truth, not to reveal it’ (Galbraith: 1975, p.1), stating later in the same text that, ‘The process by which banks create money is so simple that the mind is repelled’ (Galbraith: 1975, p.18). So what is money? The instinctive answer to this question for most people is that money is the physical notes and coins produced by the government; they may even go on to say that this money is produced at the Royal Mint at Llantrisant, ironically making this physical money one of an increasingly diminishing range of Welsh exports. Yet physical money of this sort, in the form of notes and coins, only accounts for approximately 3% of money in circulation. This version of money is indeed the product of government, as under the Bank Charter Act 1844 the power to create banknotes (and coins) became the exclusive preserve of the Bank of England, a power exercised in agreement with Westminster. Since the so-called ‘Nixon shock’ of 1971 ended the existing Bretton Woods system of international financial exchange by unilaterally cancelling the direct convertibility of the United States dollar to gold the banknotes of the Bank of England/UK government have been essentially what is known as a ‘fiat’ or ‘soft’ currency; that is, a monetary unit which is not backed by any ‘hard’ commodity such as gold and, consequently, is limited in quantity only by the inflationary consequences of overproduction.
So what accounts for the other 97% of money in circulation? To answer this question it is necessary to understand the nature of credit issuance through fractional reserve banking, which is neatly encapsulated by the Statement of Martin Wolf that, ‘The essence of the contemporary monetary system is the creation of money, out of nothing, by private banks’ often foolish lending’ (Wolf: 2010)[i]. This process is profoundly counter-intuitive to most members of the public who would assume that banks lend the deposits they receive, but this is not the case at all: the money issued through the process of creating a loan is created out of nothing, subject only to the rules for capital reserves contained in the Basel Accords. Two publications produced by the Bank of England make the current mechanism of money creation clear:
By far the largest role in creating broad money is played by the banking sector [...] When banks make loans they create additional deposits for those that have borrowed the money. (Bank of England: 2007, p.377)
The second publication, a transcript of speech in 2007 by Paul Tucker the Executive Director (Markets) for the Bank of England and a Member of the Monetary Policy Committee also states that:
Subject only but crucially to confidence in their soundness, banks extend credit by simply increasing the borrowing customer’s current account […] That is, banks extend credit by creating money.
The current system is a product of the fact that the Bank Charter Act 1844 prohibited banks from printing banknotes, but did not prohibit the issuing of money by ledger entry through the making of loans: with the advent of electronic systems in the past thirty years this facility to ‘print money’ by making entries into borrowers accounts with the stroke of a keypad has expanded significantly. Currently, then, there is a system in place whereby the power of money creation is largely in the hands of private corporations who are able to make sizeable profits through the levying of interest for their performance of this function. This system also leaves the private banks with the decision as to which sectors of the economy should be afforded lines of credit, and in the past thirty years this has moved increasingly away from the productive ‘real economy’ and towards speculation and bubble creation: with the results we now experience. Part of the deposit base of private banks is the income of local and national government and this leads to a situation wherein private corporations use public money as a deposit base for speculation and lending for speculation (See Fig.1).
Fig.1
Source: The Public Banking Institute (http://publicbankinginstitute.org/background.htm)
The Idea of a State Bank: Re-investment of Interest from Productive Credit Provision
The best current example of a functioning state bank is that of the Bank of North Dakota (BND) in the United States. The way in which the bank functions is best described in its own words:
The deposit base of BND is unique. Its primary deposit base is the State of North Dakota. All state funds and funds of state institutions are deposited with Bank of North Dakota, as required by law. Other deposits are accepted from any source, private citizens to the U.S. government.
This framework provides the state of North Dakota with what is most needed for a local economy to thrive: affordable (and available) credit for SMEs and resources for the improvement of infrastructure. Under the state banking model the benefit derived from the interest accrued in the credit-issuing process is returned to the state and can be re-invested or spent in accordance with the public interest, instead of being paid to shareholders in dividends or given away in absurd bonuses to bankers who merely carry out a largely mechanical function, however subject to mystification and obfuscation: with myopic incompetence in many cases in the last thirty years (See Fig.2).
Fig.2
Source: The Public Banking Institute (http://publicbankinginstitute.org/background.htm)
In the case of North Dakota this has resulted in the state being the only US state to run a budget surplus throughout the financial crisis post-2008 and this must make their model at least worth considering in a Welsh context.
The Report of the Silk Commission 2012
In Part 1 of its remit The Silk Commission was asked to consider the National Assembly for Wales’s current financial powers in relation to taxation and borrowing and its report was produced in November 2012. The commission concluded that the Welsh Assembly government should be granted borrowing powers, basing this conclusion partly on ‘international evidence’ drawn from a single World Bank publication from 1999: making this ‘evidence’ neither ideologically neutral, being the product of an organisation which is the éminence grise of global neo-liberalism, nor current, with many of its conclusions being weighed and found wanting by the post-2008 financial crisis. The findings of the commission contains no consideration whatsoever of the role of banks in money creation through credit issuance, and the attendant problems of misallocation of investment, and no investigation of the success of public banking in the international context, for instance in the BRIC economies, or of the potential role of public banking in Wales. For this reason I feel that it is important that these issues be brought into the debate on the Welsh economy, as to ignore it would be to exclude a potentially democratising and sustainable banking system from the national conversation and would merely make any granting of borrowing powers to the Welsh Assembly Government nothing more than a new stream of income for the private banking system. If all that ‘responsibility’ means in the fiscal context is for Wales as a political unit to submit itself to the ‘discipline’ of the bond markets, then this is indeed a very sorry direction in which the politicians of the Welsh Assembly are taking both their current constituents, and those yet to be born.
Conclusion
There is a widely perceived need for change to the economic system today and especially for reform of the way in which banking operates, with the majority of the population feeling, rightly, that there is ‘something wrong’ with the way in which the economy, and particularly banking, currently functions. I believe that a public bank, properly instituted with all due diligence and care for regulation and democratic supervision, can provide one of the possible directions of sustainable change which is so needed in Wales and beyond. The model suggested by the Welsh Conservatives, as it stands, would be no substitute for a real public bank: a bank which would recoup its profits, gleaned from interest on productive loans to the real economy, for the good of the people of Wales. A true Welsh public bank would be in a position to reinvest its profits in socially beneficial areas like education, infrastructure and the health service, instead of funding bonuses and maximising shareholder dividends for a privileged few in the increasingly rarefied world of finance.
______________________________
Bibliography
Ahmad, J (1999) ‘Decentralising borrowing powers’ World Bank
Berry, S., Harrison, R., Thomas, R., de Weymarn, I. (2007) ‘Interpreting movements in Broad Money’, Bank of England Quarterly Bulletin 2007 Q3, p. 377. Available at http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/publications/ quarterlybulletin/qb070302.pdf
The Bank of North Dakota: http://banknd.nd.gov/about_BND/index.html
Brown, Ellen, Web of Debt (Baton Rouge: Third Millenium Press, 2012); The Public Bank Solution (Baton Rouge: Third Millenium Press, 2013).
Commission on Devolution in Wales (Silk Commission) (2012) ‘Empowerment and Responsibility: Financial Powers to Strengthen Wales’ (full report at: http://commissionondevolutioninwales.independent.gov.uk/)
Tucker, P. (2008). ‘Money and Credit: Banking and the macro-economy’, speech given at the monetary policy and markets conference, 13 December 2007, Bank of England Quarterly Bulletin 2008, Q1, pp. 96–106. Available at: http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/publications/speeches/2007/speech331.pdf
Welsh Conservatives, A Vision for Welsh Investment (January 2013) Available at: http://yourvoiceintheassembly.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Invest-Wales-FINAL.pdf
Wolf, Martin, ‘The Fed is right to turn on the tap’, The Financial Times, 9/3/2010
Further Information can be found at:
http://publicbankinginstitute.org/home.htm
http://www.positivemoney.org.uk/
http://neweconomicperspectives.org/
Filed under: Networking
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Experts Defuse Bomb Found In Northern Ireland
A bomb discovered and defused in a car in Northern Ireland was destined for a police station, the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) has confirmed.
The device was found in County Fermanagh, not far from the luxury Lough Erne golf resort where this June's G-8 conference of world leaders will being held.
Sky's David Blevins said the device consisted of explosives packed into a beer keg rigged with timing devices.
PSNI district commander Pauline Shields said: "The people responsible for this have no regard for the lives of anyone in our community.
"It is fortunate that no-one was killed or seriously injured as a result of this reckless act.
"Although investigations are at an early stage it is our assessment at present that this vehicle was destined for Lisnaskea PSNI station."
Residents were told to leave their homes and Army technical officers carried out a clearance operation on the suspicious car and a viable device was made safe.
Ms Shields added: "Once again our community has been disrupted and the lives of residents put at risk by an element intent on causing loss of life and disruption.
A week ago the Police Service of Northern Ireland discovered a mortar-type device aimed towards New Barnsley police station in north Belfast.
Also last week, three officers escaped injury when an explosive device detonated close to them as they patrolled a coastal path on the outskirts of Belfast.
S&P lifts Ireland’s outlook to stable
Thousands March to ‘Lift the Burden’ of Austerity in Ireland
‘Lift the Burden’: Tens of thousands march against austerity in Ireland (VIDEO)
Tens of thousands of people have marched through cities in Ireland in a massive show of anger against severe austerity measures and high costs of living.
The Irish Congress of Trade Unions,which organized the rallies, claimed more than 100,000 people attended, with some 60,000 marching in Dublin. Demonstrators also protested in Cork, Galway, Limerick, Sligo and Waterford.
Tough cuts were implemented to please Ireland's creditors in the wake of the country’s banking crisis. It has been relying on a joint EU-IMF loan since 2010.
The “Lift the Burden” march took place despite the Irish government’s recent bank debt deal with the European Central Bank. It saw 28 billion euro worth of costly promissory notes swapped for long-term sovereign bonds.
The union’s General Secretary David Begg vowed that the campaign against the debt burden will carry on until the European authorities fully honor the agreement reached last July to separate bank debt from sovereign debt, The Irish Times reported.
"It would be fatal for people to believe this issue is now resolved and we can all move on," David Begg said. "At the onset of the crisis Ireland had one of the lowest debt to GDP ratios in Europe. The difference between then and now is due entirely to Ireland socializing bank debt at the behest of the ECB, to save the European banking system."
I've no confidence at all in the deal, it won't make any difference to ordinary people," Alfie Murray who marched in Dublin with his 8-year-old grandson, told Reuters. "It's the next generation that'll shoulder the cost," he said.
Financial advisor Marco Pietropoli explained to RT that the Irish per capita have ended up with a far bigger bill than the most countries who had a bailout. “Therefore they are suffering a great deal more.”
Pietropoli says that Ireland's situation is one of the most difficult in the EU and that Dublin's holding of the bloc's presidency isn't likely to make things any better.
“I don’t think the Irish with the presidency are necessarily going to be able to exert much pressure or much influence to actually change the situation in Europe, because the power remains with the Germans.”
Image from twitter user@kierfoley
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Bombs, riots mar N Ireland 2013 prospect
Northern Ireland has seen no relief from bombings after the New Year with six bombing incidents recorded only this month, including two bombs targeting police officers amid violent episodes of riots.
The police are now investigating a bombing near the house of an officer.
The device was found in the Coolnagard area of Omagh, County Tyrone, on Saturday when officers were investigating another incident on Friday night during which an off-duty police fired shots.
The discovery led to the evacuation of several homes in the area, while army bomb disposal experts dealt with the bomb.
The bombing follows the January 18 letter bomb sent to the head of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, Chief Inspector Andy Lemon.
That device was luckily intercepted by postal workers at the town's sorting office before the envelope addressed to Lemon found its target.
At the time the Chief Inspector described the incident as a “worrying development” for both himself and his officers and he appeared to have a point when the Omagh device was confirmed as viable on Saturday.
The first week in January ended with a potentially catastrophic bombing in Dundalk, County Louth, that saw army bomb disposal experts team tackles four viable devices planted in a derelict house in a residential area.
The Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) raised serious worries among residents in an area where several houses as well as a restaurant had to be evacuated to avoid fatalities in case the devices went off.
At a time of pro-British flag riots in Belfast over limiting the number of days the City Hall could fly the Union Jack, office of Community Restorative Justice Ireland (CRJI), a community justice group established in collaboration with the British government in the city, was also targeted with a pipe bomb on January 9.
Bomb disposal experts had also to defuse another bomb in Belfast just two days later on Friday January 11.
That was followed with another bombing in the same area on Saturday, which closed down part of the southern Belfast railway line and led to the evacuation of a number of houses.
This comes as the incidents mentioned here do not include other security alerts and evacuations over devices later found to be hoax bombs.
Belfast’s almost two months of flag riots were billed as the most serious episode of violence since the 1998 Good Friday Agreement and a threat to the peace accord.
The bombings and the riots are believed to paint a grim year ahead for Northern Ireland especially after Northern Irish police discovered high-powered “explosively formed penetrator devices” (EEPs) from dissident anti-British group IRA in four different occasions over the past months.
AMR/HE
Bombs, riots mar N Ireland 2013 prospect
Northern Ireland has seen no relief from bombings after the New Year with six bombing incidents recorded only this month, including two bombs targeting police officers amid violent episodes of riots.
The police are now investigating a bombing near the house of an officer.
The device was found in the Coolnagard area of Omagh, County Tyrone, on Saturday when officers were investigating another incident on Friday night during which an off-duty police fired shots.
The discovery led to the evacuation of several homes in the area, while army bomb disposal experts dealt with the bomb.
The bombing follows the January 18 letter bomb sent to the head of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, Chief Inspector Andy Lemon.
That device was luckily intercepted by postal workers at the town's sorting office before the envelope addressed to Lemon found its target.
At the time the Chief Inspector described the incident as a “worrying development” for both himself and his officers and he appeared to have a point when the Omagh device was confirmed as viable on Saturday.
The first week in January ended with a potentially catastrophic bombing in Dundalk, County Louth, that saw army bomb disposal experts team tackles four viable devices planted in a derelict house in a residential area.
The Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) raised serious worries among residents in an area where several houses as well as a restaurant had to be evacuated to avoid fatalities in case the devices went off.
At a time of pro-British flag riots in Belfast over limiting the number of days the City Hall could fly the Union Jack, office of Community Restorative Justice Ireland (CRJI), a community justice group established in collaboration with the British government in the city, was also targeted with a pipe bomb on January 9.
Bomb disposal experts had also to defuse another bomb in Belfast just two days later on Friday January 11.
That was followed with another bombing in the same area on Saturday, which closed down part of the southern Belfast railway line and led to the evacuation of a number of houses.
This comes as the incidents mentioned here do not include other security alerts and evacuations over devices later found to be hoax bombs.
Belfast’s almost two months of flag riots were billed as the most serious episode of violence since the 1998 Good Friday Agreement and a threat to the peace accord.
The bombings and the riots are believed to paint a grim year ahead for Northern Ireland especially after Northern Irish police discovered high-powered “explosively formed penetrator devices” (EEPs) from dissident anti-British group IRA in four different occasions over the past months.
AMR/HE
N. Ireland riots reflect breakup fears?
N. Ireland riots reflect breakup fears?
The ongoing six-week flag riots by pro-British unionists in Northern Ireland have been billed as the most serious episode of violence since the 1998 Good Friday Agreement and a threat to the peace accord.
Less highlighted aspects of the treaty, however, suggest the riots are fueled by pro-British unionists’ fears that they are losing their majority in Northern Ireland leading to the province ceasing to be part of Britain based on the very same accord.
Three people were arrested on Saturday after several hundred loyalist protesters took to the streets outside the City Hall in the capital Belfast to voice their outrage against the new flag arrangements over the building.
It was the 37th day of riots that have so far left more than 100 police officers injured along with dozens of protesters and bystanders and have seen officers resort to plastic rounds and water cannons to contain the mobs.
The crisis started after local councilors decided on December 3, 2012 that the British flag should be flying over the Belfast City Hall only for 17 designated days, as it is the norm across Britain, instead of all year round, which was the former norm.
The decision was made after the nationalists, who currently hold 24 seats on the council, could finally outdo their unionist counterparts, who number 21 on the council, and get a yes vote to remove the 107-year-old flag tradition.
The vote also reflected the changing political and demographical landscape of Northern Ireland.
As nationalists now dominate the council, the scales of the Northern Irish population are also tipping in favor of the mostly Catholic anti-British republicans; and that seems to be the sticky point for the pro-British rioters.
The 2011 census found that the Northern Irish population listing themselves as Protestant or brought up Protestant has plunged by five percent to stand at 48 percent since 2001, while the number has grown by one percent to 45 percent for Catholics.
This comes as estimates show Catholics, who are also growing rapidly in Belfast, could overtake Protestants in numbers in the next decades.
That points to the mostly Protestant republicans’ worst fears, rooted exactly in the Good Friday Agreement 15 years ago.
The accord stipulated that that Northern Ireland would remain part of Britain until a majority of the people of Northern Ireland and of the Republic of Ireland wished otherwise.
It added, should that happen, then the British and Irish governments are under "a binding obligation" to implement that choice.
Indeed, the agreement ruled that if a majority of Catholics seeking separation from Britain form in Northern Ireland and vote for re-union with the Republic of Ireland, Britain is obliged to approve it.
The flag decision is apparently a strong indicator that the Protestants, who have always prided themselves as ‘the majority’, are now losing to pro-independence Catholics, not just in numbers but a territory they say should remain British.
That explains the persisting riots that in turn reflect unionists’ alarm at the prospect of a united Ireland.
AMR/HE
United Ireland ‘makes more sense’
Iran ‘Cube of Sugar’ to vie in Ireland
Iranian filmmaker Reza Mirkarimi's dramatic comedy A Cube of Sugar is to be screened at the 2013 Jameson Dublin International Film Festival (JDIFF) in Ireland.
The movie is programmed to be presented in the Irish capital Dublin’s Light House cinema as one of the festival’s screening venues.
Mirkarimi's latest production recounts the story of a family who lives in an old Iranian city and their attempts in dealing with different problems and incidents.
The film was screened at the World Greats Section of the 35th Montreal International film festival in August, 2011.
Mirkarimi's family drama was also presented at the 2011 edition of Busan International film festival in South Korea and the 17th Vilnius International Film Festival in Lithuania.
The movie also represented Iran at the 2012 edition of Off Plus Camera Festival in Poland.
Born in 1966, screenwriter and director Mirkarimi has received prizes in several domestic and international festivals.
The 2008 Golden St. George award of Moscow International Film Festival, the 2001 Best Screenplay Prize of Asia-Pacific Film Festival and the 2001 Special Jury Prize of Tokyo International Film Festival are among his many honors.
Under the Moonlight (2001), The Child and the Soldier (2001), So Close, So Far(2005) and As Simple as That (2008) are among Mirkarimi's better known works.
The Jameson Dublin International Film Festival as the Ireland's largest feature film festival is held in Dublin city centre every February.
This year’s festival is scheduled to take place from February 14 through 24.
FGP/FGP
Sixteen police injured in Northern Ireland clashes
Northern Ireland Clashes: Four Officers Injured
Austria, Denmark, Ireland and Slovenia propose Taking Syria to the ICC
A new media disinformation with regard to Syria, coupled by a political initiative by the self-proclaimed “international community” in the making. The foreign ministers of four seemingly “neutral” EU countries are now proposing to take president Bashar Al Assad to the the International Criminal Court (CC), for alleged crimes committed against the Syrian people.
This proposal, published as an oped by CNN, is apparently being made by these four distinguished statesmen in a “personal capacity”. One would expect, however, that this proposal is endorsed by the governments of those four countries.
The proposal in itself is highly convoluted. Realities are turned upside down. The Syrian government is identified as responsible for committing atrocities, when in fact the killings of civilians including extrajudicial assassinations have in large part been conducted by foreign supported death squads.
The existence of opposition terror brigades integrated by mercenaries and funded by the Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia are not mentioned. Nor is the existence of the Al Nusra Front, affiliated to al Qaeda in Iraq, supported covertly by the CIA.
This document smells rat. Does it point to a EU initiative to take the Syrian government to Court as well impose a new range of economic sanctions. Below is the full text of the Proposal:
Over the months, we have been following the events in Syria with growing concern. We support the aspirations of the Syrian people to freely choose a government that represents all the enriching diversity of this multi-confessional nation, one that respects the rule of law, human rights and democracy. It is deplorable that the current regime in Damascus has not heeded the repeated calls for a peaceful transition of power.
As do our colleagues from the Arab League, we strongly condemn the violence by the al-Assad regime against the Syrian people. We call on all sides to end the violence and to genuinely support the U.N.-led efforts to achieve a political solution.
But recent developments have given reason for even more serious concern. U.N. peacekeepers were seriously injured when a convoy of the UNDOF peacekeeping operation on the Golan Heights was attacked. Reports about possible preparations for the use of chemical weapons circulate.
The al-Assad regime is preparing Damascus for confrontation with the rebels and we know that these situations of last stand urban fighting often result in the most terrible atrocities being committed in armed conflict, with particular dangers for civilians. Concerned that the crisis in Syria may soon reach a new level of violence, we publicly appeal to all parties to the conflict to abide by international law, especially international humanitarian law and human rights law, and to recall that all those that commit or order war crimes and crimes against humanity will be held accountable. This principle cannot and will not be negotiated.
As we know from the work of the U.N. Commission of Inquiry on Syria, horrendous crimes have already been committed during the conflict in Syria, but there have been no consequences for the perpetrators. It is precisely for situations like this that the international community established the permanent International Criminal Court (ICC) ten years ago. This independent judicial body can provide justice when a state is unable or unwilling to prosecute the most terrible crimes. Since Syria is not a party to the ICC Statute, jurisdiction of the Court requires a decision of the U.N. Security Council. In view of the grave concerns mentioned above, and the lack of prosecution in Syria, we call on the U.N. Security Council to urgently refer the situation in Syria to the ICC. In this respect, we welcome the Conclusions of the European Union Foreign Affairs Council on December 10, 2012 and the Swiss initiative at the United Nations to achieve this goal.
A referral to the ICC – which has repeatedly been suggested by the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay – has several advantages. The Court is a neutral and impartial institution that investigates and prosecutes the most serious crimes on all sides. A referral would give the leaders of the Syrian opposition a strong argument to call for discipline among its diverse forces. It would give the members of the al-Assad regime a further reason to question their allegiance. And it could assist the search for a political solution to the conflict. As we saw in other crises, parallel political and judicial processes are mutually supporting. There is no decision to be taken here between either peace or justice – a sustainable, long-term solution requires both.
Most important, however, a referral to the ICC would make clear to every fighter on all sides of the conflict that the gravest crimes will eventually be punished. We owe this not only to the victims and their families, but also to future generations of Syrians who want to live in a free state founded on the principles of peace and justice. And we owe it to the future of humankind: After thousands of years of sometimes gruesome history, human civilization must no longer accept impunity for the most atrocious crimes. Only if we make absolutely clear that these crimes will not go unpunished, can we reduce the likelihood that humankind will have to suffer from them in the future.
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Flag issue remains divisive in NIreland
Fresh violence continues in Belfast as flag issue divides N. Ireland
Loyalists protesters in Northern Ireland have continued their violent demonstrations over the decision to stop flying the Union flag above Belfast City Hall all year round.
The protests continued for the fifth night in a row on Monday night with police using water canon and fired baton rounds to disperse rioters.
Some rioters deployed sledge hammer to hit police vehicles and burnt small fires in Belfast’s main street.
The riots erupted after Belfast City Council decided to stop flying the Union Jack in all but 17 days in a year.
Police have so far arrested around 100 people, and more than 60 officers have been injured in the unrest.
A police officers’ representative has said that pro-British paramilitary groups are instigating and exploiting the riots which have rocked Belfast in the past month.
The Northern Ireland flags issue divides the population along sectarian lines. Depending on political allegiance, people identify with differing flags and symbols, some of which have, or have had, official status in Northern Ireland.
There have been various proposals as to what flag could represent Northern Ireland’s various communities as a whole.
The Union Jack, the official flag of the United Kingdom, is routinely used on central government buildings in Northern Ireland. It is often flown by Unionists and Loyalists but Nationalists and Republicans dislike it.
The Stormont government used to fly the Ulster Banner from 1953 to 1972 to represent the government of Northern Ireland. The Ulster Banner was the flag of the former Executive Committee of the Privy Council of Northern Ireland.
When the government of Northern Ireland was suspended in March 1972 and dissolved under the Northern Ireland Constitution Act 1973, its arms and flag officially disappeared; however, the flag continues to be used by some local governments, such as the predominantly unionist Castlereagh, which continues to fly it outside its offices, and by some NGOs representing the territory.
Ulster separatists who wish to see Northern Ireland leave the United Kingdom use the Ulster Nation flag.
Some Loyalists in Northern Ireland use St Andrew’s Cross, the flag of Scotland, to highlight their Scottish ancestry.
Now, the decision to stop permanently flying the British flag outside Belfast City Hall has sparked some of the worst violence since the 1998 Good Friday peace deal.
In the late 1960s, the conflict between mainly Protestant loyalists, who want Northern Ireland to remain part of the United Kingdom, and largely Roman Catholic nationalists, who want it to be reunited with the rest of Ireland, exploded into a political and sectarian war, known as "the Troubles."
The three decades of ensuing violence between loyalists and the IRA claimed nearly 3,600 lives, most of them north of the border. While the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, also known as the Belfast Agreement, effectively ended the conflict, distrust remains between Catholics and Protestants.
Under the terms of the accord, groups on both sides dumped their weapons, and members of Sinn Fein, the political affiliate of the IRA, now work with pro-British politicians in Northern Ireland's power-sharing government.
The Good Friday Agreement created an elected Northern Ireland assembly and devolved government in which power is shared between all sides, with traditional arch-enemies remarkably sitting side by side. The assembly meets in an imposing historic building, Stormont, over which the British flag flies for just 17 pre-agreed days each year.
MOL/HE
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