The Financial War Against the Economy at Large

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SOURCE: http://truth-out.org/news/item/13718-the-financial-war-against-the-economy-at-large

Sunday, 06 January 2013 06:48
By Michael Hudson, Naked Capitalism | News Analysis

Today’s economic warfare is not the kind waged a century ago between labor and its industrial employers. Finance has moved to capture the economy at large, industry and mining, public infrastructure (via privatization) and now even the educational system. (At over $1 trillion, U.S. student loan debt came to exceed credit-card debt in 2012.) The weapon in this financial warfare is no larger military force. The tactic is to load economies (governments, companies and families) with debt, siphon off their income as debt service and then foreclose when debtors lack the means to pay. Indebting government gives creditors a lever to pry away land, public infrastructure and other property in the public domain. Indebting companies enables creditors to seize employee pension savings. And indebting labor means that it no longer is necessary to hire strikebreakers to attack union organizers and strikers.

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1. Good summary clip

This is exactly why I believe that the Republicans are not in the least intimidated about driving the US into Default. Do not for a moment think that they are scared to hit the debt limit consequences because that will fit in just right to their ultimate goal of privatization of the US commons and elimination of Social Security/Medicare/Medicaid. This is probably their last opportunity to do so, since in future elections they will be a minority party in Congress.

These type of people were willing to put us through the Civil War- remember.