TPP and Pay to Play

[kalm]

They haven't gone public yet with this trade deal but anyone who still thinks the system isn't rigged in favor of corporate $'s versus what's civically, socially, and environmentally responsible is naive. I'm sure conks are up in arms about this too...

Change!

Officials tapped by the Obama administration to lead the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade negotiations have received multimillion dollar bonuses from CitiGroup and Bank of America, financial disclosures obtained by Republic Report show...

Many large corporations with a strong incentive to influence public policy award bonuses and other incentive pay to executives if they take jobs within the government. CitiGroup, for instance, provides an executive contract that awards additional retirement pay upon leaving to take a “full time high level position with the U.S. government or regulatory body.” Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase, the Blackstone Group, Fannie Mae, Northern Trust, and Northrop Grumman are among the other firms that offer financial rewards upon retirement for government service.

Froman joined the administration in 2009. Selig is currently awaiting Senate confirmation before he can take his post, which collaborates with the trade officials to support the TPP.

The controversial TPP trade deal has rankled activists for containing provisions that would newly empower corporations to sue governments in ad hoc arbitration tribunals to demand compensation from governments for laws and regulations they claim undermine their business interests. Leaked TPP negotiation documents show the Obama administration is seeking to prevent foreign governments from issuing a broad variety of financial rules designed to stem another bank crisis.

http://www.republicreport.org/2014/big-banks-tpp/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Chizzang]

They haven't gone public yet with this trade deal but anyone who still thinks the system isn't rigged in favor of corporate $'s versus what's civically, socially, and environmentally responsible is naive. I'm sure conks are up in arms about this too...

Change!

http://www.republicreport.org/2014/big-banks-tpp/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Sometimes they don't even argue that it's not rigged (because that cat is already out of the bag)
But: They will quickly shift to the argument that our private banking system isn't really calling all the shots
(Because a few stools got arrested once and there are some laws in place)

The idea that our Federal Government is NOT completely in cahoots with our Private Banking system
The "pretend federal System" and it's associated corporate partners isn't really even argued anymore
Now it's just seen as static
coming from the noisy poor and sour grapes from those who would seek change

There will be no change...
Not without MASSIVE BLOODSHED

and that ain't happening anytime soon

[YoUDeeMan]

kalm, tell me once again about that cute story involving demand...

Obushma...CHANGE indeed.

[kalm]

kalm, tell me once again about that cute story involving demand...

Obushma...CHANGE indeed.

[FCS PATRIOTS]

They haven't gone public yet with this trade deal but anyone who still thinks the system isn't rigged in favor of corporate $'s versus what's civically, socially, and environmentally responsible is naive. I'm sure conks are up in arms about this too...

Change!

http://www.republicreport.org/2014/big-banks-tpp/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Sometimes they don't even argue that it's not rigged (because that cat is already out of the bag)
But: They will quickly shift to the argument that our private banking system isn't really calling all the shots
(Because a few stools got arrested once and there are some laws in place)

The idea that our Federal Government is NOT completely in cahoots with our Private Banking system
The "pretend federal System" and it's associated corporate partners isn't really even argued anymore
Now it's just seen as static
coming from the noisy poor and sour grapes from those who would seek change

There will be no change...
Not without MASSIVE BLOODSHED

and that ain't happening anytime soon

An armed citizenry, full of piss and vinegar doubled with a kill or be killed attitude, is what it is going to take to storm the halls of DC and not just demand but physically see to it that change is implemented, but you're right, all we have are message board badasses.

[Chizzang]

Sometimes they don't even argue that it's not rigged (because that cat is already out of the bag)
But: They will quickly shift to the argument that our private banking system isn't really calling all the shots
(Because a few stools got arrested once and there are some laws in place)

The idea that our Federal Government is NOT completely in cahoots with our Private Banking system
The "pretend federal System" and it's associated corporate partners isn't really even argued anymore
Now it's just seen as static
coming from the noisy poor and sour grapes from those who would seek change

There will be no change...
Not without MASSIVE BLOODSHED

and that ain't happening anytime soon

An armed citizenry, full of piss and vinegar doubled with a kill or be killed attitude, is what it is going to take to storm the halls of DC and not just demand but physically see to it that change is implemented, but you're right, all we have are message board badasses.

I don't even own a gun...
plus I have a 401k and my family has some money / So I'm out



I am precisely the reason this country is doomed
I'm far too comfortable

[AZGrizFan]

They haven't gone public yet with this trade deal but anyone who still thinks the system isn't rigged in favor of corporate $'s versus what's civically, socially, and environmentally responsible is naive. I'm sure conks are up in arms about this too...

Change!

http://www.republicreport.org/2014/big-banks-tpp/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Sometimes they don't even argue that it's not rigged (because that cat is already out of the bag)
But: They will quickly shift to the argument that our private banking system isn't really calling all the shots
(Because a few stools got arrested once and there are some laws in place)

The idea that our Federal Government is NOT completely in cahoots with our Private Banking system
The "pretend federal System" and it's associated corporate partners isn't really even argued anymore
Now it's just seen as static
coming from the noisy poor and sour grapes from those who would seek change

There will be no change...
Not without MASSIVE BLOODSHED

and that ain't happening anytime soon

I wouldn't be too sure about that...people like you and me may not START the shooting, but I can guarantee I am fully armed and ready for prolonged "change", in the event the noisy poor decide to affect change.

[kalm]

Sometimes they don't even argue that it's not rigged (because that cat is already out of the bag)
But: They will quickly shift to the argument that our private banking system isn't really calling all the shots
(Because a few stools got arrested once and there are some laws in place)

The idea that our Federal Government is NOT completely in cahoots with our Private Banking system
The "pretend federal System" and it's associated corporate partners isn't really even argued anymore
Now it's just seen as static
coming from the noisy poor and sour grapes from those who would seek change

There will be no change...
Not without MASSIVE BLOODSHED

and that ain't happening anytime soon

I wouldn't be too sure about that...people like you and me may not START the shooting, but I can guarantee I am fully armed and ready for prolonged "change", in the event the noisy poor decide to affect change.

Shwooop...right over your head...

[Ivytalk]

They haven't gone public yet with this trade deal but anyone who still thinks the system isn't rigged in favor of corporate $'s versus what's civically, socially, and environmentally responsible is naive. I'm sure conks are up in arms about this too...

Change!

Officials tapped by the Obama administration to lead the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade negotiations have received multimillion dollar bonuses from CitiGroup and Bank of America, financial disclosures obtained by Republic Report show...

Many large corporations with a strong incentive to influence public policy award bonuses and other
incentive pay to executives if they take jobs within the government. CitiGroup, for instance, provides an executive contract that awards additional retirement pay upon leaving to take a “full time high level position with the U.S. government or regulatory body.” Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase, the Blackstone Group, Fannie Mae, Northern Trust, and Northrop Grumman are among the other firms that offer financial rewards upon retirement for government service.

Froman joined the administration in 2009. Selig is currently awaiting Senate confirmation before he can take his post, which collaborates with the trade officials to support the TPP.

The controversial TPP trade deal has rankled activists for containing provisions that would newly empower corporations to sue governments in ad hoc arbitration tribunals to demand compensation from governments for laws and regulations they claim undermine their business interests. Leaked TPP negotiation documents show the Obama administration is seeking to prevent foreign governments from issuing a broad variety of financial rules designed to stem another bank crisis.

http://www.republicreport.org/2014/big-banks-tpp/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

"So you're Abe Froman, the Sausage King of Chicago!" -- name the movie.

[kalm]

They haven't gone public yet with this trade deal but anyone who still thinks the system isn't rigged in favor of corporate $'s versus what's civically, socially, and environmentally responsible is naive. I'm sure conks are up in arms about this too...

Change!



http://www.republicreport.org/2014/big-banks-tpp/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

"So you're Abe Froman, the Sausage King of Chicago!" -- name the movie.

"John Lennon once said...I don't believe in Beatles , I just believe in me. John Lennon was the Walrus. I could be the Walrus but it still wouldn't change the fact that I don't even have my own car..."

[Col Hogan]

An armed citizenry, full of piss and vinegar doubled with a kill or be killed attitude, is what it is going to take to storm the halls of DC and not just demand but physically see to it that change is implemented, but you're right, all we have are message board badasses.

I don't even own a gun...
plus I have a 401k and my family has some money / So I'm out



I am precisely the reason this country is doomed
I'm far too comfortable

For most liberals AND conservatives arguing for their own particular version of change...THIS is the reality facing us right now...(even those who own a gun)...

[Chizzang]

I don't even own a gun...
plus I have a 401k and my family has some money / So I'm out



I am precisely the reason this country is doomed
I'm far too comfortable

For most liberals AND conservatives arguing for their own particular version of change...THIS is the reality facing us right now...(even those who own a gun)...

Agreed Col...
I'd like to think I get it - that I understand the problem - and it's me

We desperately need change in this country
not just some fucking slogan on a bumper sticker / but /
we aren't going to get change because change will be painful

So instead we get me (and you and whoever else) just standing there looking at the insanity
and scratching our heads

[AZGrizFan]

Hope for the best. Prepare for the worst.

[kalm]

For most liberals AND conservatives arguing for their own particular version of change...THIS is the reality facing us right now...(even those who own a gun)...

Agreed Col...
I'd like to think I get it - that I understand the problem - and it's me

We desperately need change in this country
not just some fucking slogan on a bumper sticker / but /
we aren't going to get change because change will be painful

So instead we get me (and you and whoever else) just standing there looking at the insanity
and scratching our heads

I'd vote for ya.

[kalm]

In all seriousness, conks should be absolutely on fire about this. It usurps foreign policy, legislative practice, sovereignty, and destroys competition.

Instead...Obama is a commie, Benghazi, IRS Scandal!

Fucking conks...

Oh CID...where are you?

[CID1990]

In all seriousness, conks should be absolutely on fire about this. It usurps foreign policy, legislative practice, sovereignty, and destroys competition.

Instead...Obama is a commie, Benghazi, IRS Scandal!

**** conks...

Oh CID...where are you?

I'm right here

But you said conks so I figured you werent talking to me

If I thought you were wrong, I'd be chiming in.

If you look back through the forum, the only times I respond to you is when you are being stupid and need correction

This is not one of those times

[YoUDeeMan]

For most liberals AND conservatives arguing for their own particular version of change...THIS is the reality facing us right now...(even those who own a gun)...

Agreed Col...
I'd like to think I get it - that I understand the problem - and it's me

We desperately need change in this country
not just some fucking slogan on a bumper sticker / but /
we aren't going to get change because change will be painful

So instead we get me (and you and whoever else) just standing there looking at the insanity
inside our heads

FIFY.

The insanity comes from not understanding that all people are conservative on the inside...they will do what is necessary to survive until they just give up. Lie, cheat, steal? No problem given the right circumstances.

The difference between people is the amount of effort they are willing to give and the tactics they are willing to use in order to make themselves...to use your word...comfortable. Some people are willing to kill, or risk being killed, to maintain their turf/things/image or to gain more of what they value. Others are willing to hurt folks through paperwork in order to make themselves more comfortable. Street thugs, hill thugs, corporate thugs, slutty thugs, White House/Congressional Thugs...it really doesn't matter; deep down, they are all the same. And they are us.

[AZGrizFan]

Agreed Col...
I'd like to think I get it - that I understand the problem - and it's me

We desperately need change in this country
not just some fucking slogan on a bumper sticker / but /
we aren't going to get change because change will be painful

So instead we get me (and you and whoever else) just standing there looking at the insanity
inside our heads

FIFY.

The insanity comes from not understanding that all people are conservative on the inside...they will do what is necessary to survive until they just give up. Lie, cheat, steal? No problem given the right circumstances.

The difference between people is the amount of effort they are willing to give and the tactics they are willing to use in order to make themselves...to use your word...comfortable. Some people are willing to kill, or risk being killed, to maintain their turf/things/image or to gain more of what they value. Others are willing to hurt folks through paperwork in order to make themselves more comfortable. Street thugs, hill thugs, corporate thugs, slutty thugs, White House/Congressional Thugs...it really doesn't matter; deep down, they are all the same. And they are us.

[houndawg]

Agreed Col...
I'd like to think I get it - that I understand the problem - and it's me

We desperately need change in this country
not just some **** slogan on a bumper sticker / but /
we aren't going to get change because change will be painful

So instead we get me (and you and whoever else) just standing there looking at the insanity
inside our heads

FIFY.

The insanity comes from not understanding that all people are conservative on the inside...they will do what is necessary to survive until they just give up. Lie, cheat, steal? No problem given the right circumstances.

The difference between people is the amount of effort they are willing to give and the tactics they are willing to use in order to make themselves...to use your word...comfortable. Some people are willing to kill, or risk being killed, to maintain their turf/things/image or to gain more of what they value. Others are willing to hurt folks through paperwork in order to make themselves more comfortable. Street thugs, hill thugs, corporate thugs, slutty thugs, White House/Congressional Thugs...it really doesn't matter; deep down, they are all the same. And they are us.

Wow. That's really deep.

[CAA Flagship]

"So you're Abe Froman, the Sausage King of Chicago!" -- name the movie.

OK, I'll play.
For some reason I see John Candy saying it. Was it in Home Alone II?
Or was that when he was talking about being the Polka king?

[Ivytalk]

"So you're Abe Froman, the Sausage King of Chicago!" -- name the movie.

OK, I'll play.
For some reason I see John Candy saying it. Was it in Home Alone II?
Or was that when he was talking about being the Polka king?

Nope. Kalm got it.

[kalm]

Interesting read here. Banks , "free trade" , IMf World Bank , neo-liberalism

While other countries running trade and payments deficits must increase their interest rates to stabilize their currencies, the United States has lowered its interest rates. This has increased the “capitalization rate” of its real estate rents and corporate earnings, enabling banks to lend more against higher-priced collateral. Property is worth whatever banks will lend against it, so the U.S. economy has been able to use the dollar standard’s free ride to load itself down with an unprecedented debt overhead – an overhead that traditionally has been suffered only by countries fighting wars abroad or burdened with reparations payments. This is the Treasury-bill standard’s self-destructive legacy.

It is an object lesson for Brazil to avoid. Your nation today is receiving balance-of-payments inflows as foreign banks and investors create credit to lend against your real estate, natural resources and industry. Their aim is to obtain your economic surplus in the form of interest payments and remitted earnings, turning you into a rentier tollbooth economy.

Why would you need these “capital inflows” that extract interest, rents and profits as a return for electronic “computer keyboard credit” that you can create yourself? In today’s world, no nation needs credit from abroad for domestic-currency spending at home. Brazil should avoid letting foreign creditors capitalize its economic surplus into debt service and other payments.

The way to avoid this fate has already been outlined from the French Physiocrats and Adam Smith through John Stuart Mill and Progressive Era reformers. They recommended that by ending the special privileges bequeathed by Europe’s military conquests (privatization of land rent), and by collecting “free lunch” rentier income as the tax base, this revenue could be saved from being privatized and capitalized into bank loans. Taxing land and resource rent lowers the cost of living and doing business not only by removing the tax burden on labor and industry, but by holding down housing and real estate prices.

In the 19th century the American System of political economy was based, correctly, on the perception that highly paid labor is more productive labor, such that well-educated, well-fed and well-clothed labor undersells “pauper” labor. The key to international competitiveness is thus to raise wages and living standards, not lower them.

http://michael-hudson.com/2010/09/how-b ... alization/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[grizfnz]

"So you're Abe Froman, the Sausage King of Chicago!" -- name the movie.

"John Lennon once said...I don't believe in Beatles , I just believe in me. John Lennon was the Walrus. I could be the Walrus but it still wouldn't change the fact that I don't even have my own car..."

Cue up some Sigue Sigue Sputnik......"I recall Central Park in fall, how you tore your dress, what a mess, I confess"

[YoUDeeMan]

Interesting read here. Banks , "free trade" , IMf World Bank , neo-liberalism

They recommended that by ending the special privileges bequeathed by Europe’s military conquests (privatization of land rent), and by collecting “free lunch” rentier income as the tax base, this revenue could be saved from being privatized and capitalized into bank loans. Taxing land and resource rent lowers the cost of living and doing business not only by removing the tax burden on labor and industry, but by holding down housing and real estate prices.

In the 19th century the American System of political economy was based, correctly, on the perception that highly paid labor is more productive labor, such that well-educated, well-fed and well-clothed labor undersells “pauper” labor. The key to international competitiveness is thus to raise wages and living standards, not lower them.

http://michael-hudson.com/2010/09/how-b ... alization/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

So this guy recommends either privatizing land owned by outsiders, or taxing the crap out of land owned by those vicious, blood sucking European settler's descendants.

Sure, and the U.S. should confiscate all lands taken by the Europeans, or taxing the crap out of it (that's happening, BTW, as we see huge estate being whittled down in size by each succeeding generation).

Oh, and that last paragraph about highly paid labor is a hoot. Whatever will the uneducated, poorer labor folks do?

[kalm]

Interesting read here. Banks , "free trade" , IMf World Bank , neo-liberalism



http://michael-hudson.com/2010/09/how-b ... alization/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

So this guy recommends either privatizing land owned by outsiders, or taxing the crap out of land owned by those vicious, blood sucking European settler's descendants.

Sure, and the U.S. should confiscate all lands taken by the Europeans, or taxing the crap out of it (that's happening, BTW, as we see huge estate being whittled down in size by each succeeding generation).

Oh, and that last paragraph about highly paid labor is a hoot. Whatever will the uneducated, poorer labor folks do?

Why would you need these “capital inflows” that extract interest, rents and profits as a return for electronic “computer keyboard credit” that you can create yourself? In today’s world, no nation needs credit from abroad for domestic-currency spending at home. Brazil should avoid letting foreign creditors capitalize its economic surplus into debt service and other payments

.

Everybody gets free money! We'll loan you some of our free money in exchange for monetizing your national assets. It's part of what sunk Greece and similar lending schemes have hit municipalities like Jefferson County, Alabama. It's a racket that the banks will, take to another level through new "free trade" agreements.

Neo-liberalism at its finest.