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| Debt forgiveness. King Hammarapi receives divine law from God Samas. (image source) |
The Gigantic Republican Bankster Debt Scam
There has been much talk about the gigantic debt and debt guarantee which lurks behind the financial calamity of the Great Republican Recession. Some estimates range as high as sixty times the planetary Gross Domestic Product. The current planetary GDP is around $70 Tn US dollars. Sixty times the planetary GDP is around $4,200 Tn.
For the mathematically challenged, $4,200 Tn is:
$4,200,000,000,000,000.
We can zip around some of the colossal economic wreckage as we attempt to convert this ridiculously high number into something more comprehensible. The Bush autocracy's blind, unilateral, vicious banking de-regulation "released the Kraken" when it came to making us unwilling "national enablers" for the addict behavior of banking and brokerage thugs.
The present economic problems in the European Union can be traced directly back to the same feeding frenzy. European governments in Greece, Ireland, Spain and Portugal jumped into the "high yield" promises of the mortgage securities market like drunken junkies diving into an Olympic pool full of cocaine.
We can pause for a moment to repeat one of MeanMesa's favorite quotes, the words of Vermont Independent, Senator Bernie Sanders:
"Not everyone had a hard time during the eight years of the Bush Administration. The top 400 income earners in the country saw their net incomes INCREASE by $630 billion."
More assistance for the mathematically challenged:
The United States National Debt is around $14 Tn.
$630 Billion is around 5/8 of $1 Trillion.
As individuals, the average take of those among this crowd
of 400 is roughly $1.5 Billion per each.
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| Money Lenders, Temple, Credit Default Swaps. (image source) |
The massive US debt is a well documented fact. The even more massive monster lurking out of sight in the shadows just behind it may be a tiny bit more difficult to actually "touch with a finger," but it's there too. However, we know where the debt came from; we just don't have much of an idea of exactly where it went.
One of MeanMesa's favorite graphics shows us the origin of around $6 to $8 Tn of it, although this is only the visible part of the thing. Since the owners of the Republican Party obviously expect us to eagerly cut spending on most of the things we like the most -- while we keep paying taxes, of course -- it's clear that they believe that we owe someone this money.
Follow the red bars. Add them up for a grisly total. Ronald Reagan hit the "first trillion" not long into his disastrous fiscal policy. Remember that "debt" means money borrowed. These shills not only emptied our pockets, they emptied treasuries all around the word. Also remember that all that red ink began to not only accrue interest, but also inflate as we bumped our way down hill to where we are now.
Our country is now best characterized as the unlikely amalgam of good credit and bad debts.
So, What's This About "Walking Away?"
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The main part of this incredible scam is founded on the idea that, as normal citizens of Earth, WE are the ones who owe this money. Solving this disaster is really only complicated when the main part of that solution is about US paying back all this money.
We didn't borrow this money. We didn't spend this money. Further, this money wasn't spent to purchase something for us. Our part amounted to simply signing the note -- a commitment executed by the GOPCon looters who, at that time, controlled the government, and a commitment which we found ourselves powerless to avoid.
The $4,000 Trillion figure comes from totalling up the financial and banking doo-dads, many of them guarantees that our alleged creditors be "made whole" in the event of any defaults or other interruptions in the cash flowing into their bunkers.
Now that the steam organ is silent, the clowns are whimpering and the unregulated three ring banking circus is buried under its own flaming Big Top tent, those "interruptions" and "defaults" are swarming all around us -- thicker than gnats on a sweaty preacher who just saw his mistress arrive at the ice cream social.
Does this mean that the whole planet has to commit economic suicide so 10,000 human billionaires won't be "inconvenienced?" This might have been the "very best, sweetest wet dream deal imaginable" to the lurch jaws in the Bush Crime Family, but it tastes rather sour to the rest of us.
In fact, extremely sour.
What can be done? The "bondholders" will instantly trot out some nonsense or other from their King James Bibles if there is so much as a murmur of default, and Mr. FOX Murdoch, the Australian fascist and servant of the oligarchs -- each one of these same oligarchs horrified at the prospect that he might be the next ox to be gored -- would rush into action, declaring that none other than Jesus himself commanded that we hand all this loot over and hand it over right away, too.
Not a problem.
It turns out that the ancient Pentateuch of the the old King James actually contains the instructions for handling a moment such as this one. Suspecting that many of MeanMesa's visitors are not serious bible-readers, this following little passage -- apparently the words of Moses -- is included here for your convenience.
Deuteronomy 15:1-11
The Year for Cancelling Debts
15 At the end of every seven years you must cancel debts.
2 This
is how it is to be done: Every creditor shall cancel any loan they have
made to a fellow Israelite. They shall not require payment from anyone
among their own people, because the Lord’s time for canceling debts has been proclaimed.
3 You may require payment from a foreigner, but you must cancel any debt your fellow Israelite owes you.
4 However, there need be no poor people among you, for in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess as your inheritance, he will richly bless you,
5 if only you fully obey the Lord your God and are careful to follow all these commands I am giving you today.
6 For the Lord
your God will bless you as he has promised, and you will lend to many
nations but will borrow from none. You will rule over many nations but
none will rule over you.
7 If anyone is poor among your fellow Israelites in any of the towns of the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward them.
8 Rather, be openhanded and freely lend them whatever they need.
9 Be careful not to harbor this wicked thought: “The seventh year, the year for canceling debts, is near,” so that you do not show ill will toward the needy among your fellow Israelites and give them nothing. They may then appeal to the Lord against you, and you will be found guilty of sin.
10 Give generously to them and do so without a grudging heart; then because of this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to.
11 There
will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be
openhanded toward your fellow Israelites who are poor and needy in your
land.
Go ahead and make a "Deuteronomy and Sausage sandwich" for your favorite oligarchs. They can have a snack while the rest of us "walk away" from their monumental mischief. Tell them sternly that we don't intend to ever let them do this again.
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