99ers UPDATE - Maybe they'll all get on a bus to occupy Wall Street and join in the fun

About a year ago I posted a blog about the 99ers in the USA. In a nutshell, in the USA, unemployment benefits only pay out for 26 weeks. Then you're on your own with no state support.

Because of the 2008 financial crisis and the huge increase in unemployment numbers, the American government passed an emergency law to increase these benefit payments by a further 73 weeks in order to limit the number of visible destitutes that would end up on the streets of U.S. cities.

That emergency legislation was only allowed to be passed on the basis of a concession to the political right. And that concession was that the new arrangement would be time limited. That time limit is about to expire.

To make matters worse, there is an election coming up soon so it is unlikely that this extension will be kept via a new version of that legislation.

Further details can be seen in my previous blog entry - http://subsister.blogspot.com/2010/12/99ers-set-to-take-off.html

Now then.

If that extension is not forthcoming by the end of this year (about 10 weeks time), the number of 99ers is set to increase on a rapid scale.

By February 2012, the number of new 99ers with no state support will increase by a staggering 2,153,700 people.



What will these 2 million new disenfranchised people decide to do about it?

ROLLING BACK THE LANGUAGE OF ECONOMICS - Part 3 : MONEY

Money or currency is one of the most misunderstood ideas.

It used to be that money had an intrinsic value. It contained a specific quantity of a rare earth metal like gold or silver. Even paper money carried a written promise such that the issuer could exchange that banknote for a prescribed amount of gold on demand. This was known as 'specie money'.

However, printed money now carries no such promise. Not since 1971 anyway. It is now known as a 'fiat currency'. That is to say, it has no intrinsic value and its worth can only be determined relativistically with a view to how much of it is in circulation and what demand there is for it.

All sovereign countries now use fiat money. It is printed and issued by 'central banks' like the US Federal reserve or the Bank Of England etc. Of course, these organisation sound very official and they also sound like they are owned by the governments of their host countries. However, nothing could be further from the truth.

They are private banks and they always have been.

The Bank of England was founded in 1694. Even though it was nationalised in 1946, it is still a privately owned company with Directors. This anomaly was formed in 1977 by creating a wholly owned subsidiary company called Bank of England Nominees Limited. This company was granted a special exemption by the Secretary of State for Trade such that it could trade without declaring who the Directors are and using the Official Secrets Act to protect their anonymity. This is wholly unique and a special case when considering the normal legal requirements of The Companies Act.

According to their website, the US Federal Reserve Bank is a government body. However, all of its shareholders (Directors) are private banks. None of its stock is owned by the US government.

These central banks have the ability to print money whenever they see fit. A private company creating money from thin air. They also provide money to their governments in order to make up their revenue shortfall or spending excesses. The government pays interest on these debts. This interests is guaranteed to compound and spiral with time.

The last time the USA balanced its books was in 1835.

A couple of quotes from the past that resonate profoundly today:

Paper money eventually returns to its true intrinsic value - ZERO ! (Voltaire 1694-1778).

If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their Fathers conquered - (Thomas Jefferson 1743-1826)

SECOND DARK AGE - Reasons to be fearful Part 3

They're closing in at a phenomenal pace now.

Dogma fueled and ideologically regressive, the class and connections based elite ruling class are back in town and it's only taken 6 months or so to get to where we are now.

It is beginning to look like the last 20 years never happened.

All of those little victories culminating in a more understanding if maybe dumbed-down society now being slashed and burned through an 'oxymoron process' of stealth based shock and awe.

Smoke and mirrors. It hasn't taken long to remove the heat from the bankers and financial centres hangers-on to be forgiven or should that be forgotten.

The new demon is the old demon. Blaming previous administrations for ALL of the WORLDS ills. Spinning a web of confusion as the beast lurches from its slumber towards its sociopathic destiny, our social predestination. And all of this occurring while we sleepwalk into our futures of serfdom and systematic bondage.

We have crossed the rubicon without any knowledge of its identity or existence.

What will the resistance look like this time around? Will it even come?

More fearful than 1984, we look backward and see our futures writ large with capital Cs.

Like an intern in a national stargazey pie, we stare expresionless at death and decay in equal measure, caught at the margins of a Venn diagram, squeezed by the perpetual machine, into the void, into the vast expanse that is the 2nd dark age.

AVERAGE EARNINGS – Bullshit !

Both economists and the Government use average earnings when designing fiscal strategy and policy.

The figure for the UK is said to be £39,000 (about 46,000 euros or $56,000).

By using this figure their policies are targeted at a very small and unrepresentative part of the demographic.

This average figure is distorted massively when you look at the distribution curve for earnings.

87% of the UK population are earning less than the national average !!!

The true average (what most people earn) is shockingly around £11,000 per year or £220 per week.

Those on these typical lower incomes are largely invisible to those above the government's published average earnings.

See how you’re doing at http://www.ifs.org.uk/wheredoyoufitin

Comments are welcomed.