The USA act like the mafia

[Mithcoriel]

Hey guys. I found this article in a swiss newspaper, and I translated it cause I was curious to hear opinions from Americans and other countries:

The USA act like the mafia
With the million dollar fines, which the USA negotiate against foreign banks like the BNP Paribas, they act like the mafia. A comment.

Collecting money for protection from a danger you pose yourself. That is the way of the Mafia. And of the USA. When banks in the USA breach an edict, a punishment is okay. If the Swiss government allows the right-imperialist assault on Switzerland, then that's pathetic and the job of the swiss legal sovereignty. And since resistance would have been possible, also cowardly. When the USA collect fines worldwide for breaches against sanctions and embargos they pronounced unilaterally, that's a legal crime.

The largest French bank, BNP Paribas, is threatened with a two digit billion fine, especially because of businesses of her Genevan daughter. In addition the US demand leading managers step down, and a confession of guilt. The bank, whose biggest single stockholder is the French state, must be guilty of terrible things. Well.. It's being accused of having gone against US sanctions against countries like Iran, Sudan or Kuba. Which for the largest part neither France nor the EU have joined. While US companies happily entertain trades for example with Iran.

The example of Cuba

The USA have been punishing the last island of socialism with an absurd trade embargo for more than 50 years. Any trade witb the small carribean island is forbidden to US companies, until the supposedly so cruel dictatorship of the castro-brothers comes to an end. Just to be safe, the two of them aren't allowed to run in subsequent elections, that's a condition for the annulment. Because the USA rightfully fear that they would still be voted for by a majority. Nevertheless, everywhere on Cuba you find Coca Cola, Marlboro and even Californian wines. As if that weren't enough, the biggest exporter of food into Cuba is the US. The agricultural lobby prevailed against the Cubans in Exile in Miami. And this pointless embargo is frequently condemned unanimously at the UNO plenary meeting against one or two votes, among them the USA and Micronesia.

Nevertheless banks, among them of course also the big swiss bank Credit Suisse (CS) regularly get multi-billion dollar fines for breaking this embargo from the point of view of the USA. Even though every Swiss company, every Swiss bank, is completely free to do so. Unless they avoid it out of cowardice, like the state bank ZKB and many other financial institutions which don't allow transactions to Cuba. Why is that?

The modus operandi of the mafia is to spread fear and terror. To scare a shop owner into giving protection money with the threat that otherwise a few sinister men will beat the store to pieces. The USA act exactly the same. The difference is only gradual. Their rough boys don't use baseball bats, but wear suits and ties and call themselves judicial officers.

They don't threaten to shred counter halls to pieces. But to block access to the world currency, the dollar. To revoke the bank license to the USA. Because they know that every internationally active bank, even every nationally active bank, is dead then after 48 hours. Unsavably lost. But the USA tell you, as do the Mafia: we're not forcing you. We're just making you an offer you can't refuse. Of course you are free to use the law. Just call the police or the justice for help.

Lord of the world currency

Never, not once, has a foreign country resisted an accusation by the US in court. So far, no country has ever said: We acknowledgde the accusation, take legal action, and we'll see which supreme court ruling will be made in the end. And until then it's innocent until proven guilty in every state, by the way. Why doesn't any bank do this? The UBS, the CS, the HSBC, the BNP Paribas have huge law departements. They could calculate some chances for themselves in case of supposed breaches against unilateral embargos of the USA, which aren't even enforced there, right?

That's exactly it, they can't. Because the demand to plead guilty without resistance is accompanied by the threat that the bank will be dead otherwise. And the USA is the lord of the world currency Dollar. In the Isda-contracts signed in the so-called Interbanking, which happens to be seated in New York, being accused by the US law is an immediate reason for cancellation. Without the regulation of the daily cash-flow budget in dollars via these contracts every bank is immediately bankrupt.
It's beyond the knowledge of the audience, if and in what form the BNP Paribas broke US laws or embargos. The fact that other banks have already given confessions and paid fines is about as informative as a confession obtained by torture. About as lawful as a person accused of theft immediately confessing. Because he was told: either you confess willingly or you deny. You've got the free choice. But if you fail to confess, we'll put the lethal injection into your arm without trial.

If a power doesn't accept any rules because it is without limits, when it only claims to be bound by a state of law, then we live in medieval conditions. Then the mafia rules, which also claims to have a code of honor. We all agree the mafia must be fought. Are we too cowardly when the Mafia is called USA? There wouldn't even be the need of the personal courage of mafia hunters like Giovanni Falcone, who gave his life for his fight. The fronting by each national bank would be enough for every bank to be able to lawfully defend itself.

(Left away the section "Easy game in Switzerland")

 

[he_who_is_nobody]

Hey guys. I found this article in a swiss newspaper, and I translated it cause I was curious to hear opinions from Americans and other countries:

I do not disagree with the article. It might be a little hyperbolic, but for the most part it is correct.

 

[Prolescum]

A little? :lol:

The powerful ride roughshod across the weak, never come across that before... As a nation, America is a big bloody bully, a big bloody hypocrite, and a big bloody arsehole.

That's bloody in the English colloquial sense.

America won't change until it either tempers or dissolves its capitalist system, which is incredibly unlikely any time soon.

 

[Inferno]

America won't change until it either tempers or dissolves its capitalist system, which is incredibly unlikely any time soon.

Finance-capitalism, yes. That should be dissolved.
"Realkapitalismus" (erm, real capitalism? physical capitalism?) should stay.

 

[tuxbox]

A little? :lol:

The powerful ride roughshod across the weak, never come across that before... As a nation, America is a big bloody bully, a big bloody hypocrite, and a big bloody arsehole.

That's bloody in the English colloquial sense.

America won't change until it either tempers or dissolves its capitalist system, which is incredibly unlikely any time soon.

Indeed!

 

[PAB]

America won't change until it either tempers or dissolves its capitalist system, which is incredibly unlikely any time soon.

Finance-capitalism, yes. That should be dissolved.
"Realkapitalismus" (erm, real capitalism? physical capitalism?) should stay.

Finance capitalism is real capitalism and develops historically from the intricacies of capitalism, from its own levers of private property the profit motive and the nation state which grew hand in hand with capitalism.

But anyway,

A good example of the mafioso's in action today is in Ukraine. Its been playing its imperialist game for a while now. At the beginning of the crises they decried Russia for its interference and the annexation of Crimea. Threatening sanctions. They still threaten sanctions whilst their new friends in kiev Bomb their own civilians using fascists as a vanguard.

 

[tuxbox]

Finance capitalism is real capitalism and develops historically from the intricacies of capitalism, from its own levers of private property the profit motive and the nation state which grew hand in hand with capitalism.

But anyway,

A good example of the mafioso's in action today is in Ukraine. Its been playing its imperialist game for a while now. At the beginning of the crises they decried Russia for its interference and the annexation of Crimea. Threatening sanctions. They still threaten sanctions whilst their new friends in kiev Bomb their own civilians using fascists as a vanguard.

It's Russian sympathizers/separatists doing the bombing. The Ukraine is just trying to quell the violence after Russia decided to invade a sovereign nation. This had nothing to do with US involvement until after the fact. The EU is neck deep in this as well, so this not just the US sticking its nose where it doesn't belong.

 

[Inferno]

Finance capitalism is real capitalism and develops historically from the intricacies of capitalism, from its own levers of private property the profit motive and the nation state which grew hand in hand with capitalism.

Finance capitalism isn't real capitalism, what a load of nonsense. Yes, they probably share a common ancestor, heck they're both capitalist at heart. But one is neocapitalist (finance capitalism) while the other is Keynesian.

I'd suggest you read this, particularly Table 2 on page 5.

 

[PAB]

It's Russian sympathizers/separatists doing the bombing. The Ukraine is just trying to quell the violence after Russia decided to invade a sovereign nation. This had nothing to do with US involvement until after the fact. The EU is neck deep in this as well, so this not just the US sticking its nose where it doesn't belong.

Incorrect on every account.

Even the BBC which has reported in a terribly biased way has had to acknowledge the fact that the Ukrainian government is shelling these regions.



Its fundamentally incorrect to label the separatist regions as simply "Russian sympathizers/separatists". They started off as a pro-russian movement but that has to a degree been limited and had cold water poured over it by Russia. After all they still voted for independence despite Putins demand for it to be postponed. Its a very unclear situation, due to these regions being in a large part ethnically "Russian" (but don't forget they are still Ukrainian) . Many of the citizens in this region and some of the militants have expressed themselves as being simply Anti-Kiev, they see the current government as illegitimate and not representative of them. For these separatist regions it is not a question of Russian vs. Ukraine but it is an expression of the political and democratic crises that springs fourth from the economic crises of Ukraine.

The new government in Kiev is not carrying out a peace keeping operation. And it is not carrying out, as it claims, an anti terror operation. It is carrying out a terror operation to force these regions back in line and back under its control. Russia has not invaded the Ukraine, despite annexation of the Crimea which was a tactical move taking advantage of the Crimean call for autonomy from Kiev and for Russia's own imperialist interests.

The US is not to blame for the crises, but they show their true colours in the current situation. The US is on the one hand an opportunist seeing a potential market in the Ukraine via the EU. It is wrong to say however that the US is in any way impartial or has only got involved in the latter stages of the crises. It was involved at the very beginning pledging support to the anti government protests -the Maiden movement whose defence force was composed of mostly Ukrainian nationalists and fascist elements - via Senator John McCain.
(Its amazing how the US is so short sighted supporting right-wing fascist elements such as Islamic fundamentalists in Syria and the Maidan movement and the Kievs terror campaign against its own people, when it should have learnt from the blowback of its previous adventures such as the Afghan war and its funding of the mujaheddin. )

When John McCain was in Ukraine supporting the anti-government protesters he made a statement regarding the violence against the protesters.

"If Ukraine's government thinks that brute force and the politics of fear can see it through the current crisis, it is woefully mistaken,"

He was right then. And he is more right now. The civil war against the eastern regions even if won militarily by Kiev will not solve the Ukranian crises. Which is a crises fundamentally of oligarchy and capitalism.
The worry is that the harder Kiev hits these regions the more that national sentiments will be stirred up. With some hints from Russia that "Oh, that eastern bit of Ukraine under the great Tsars was a great part of our Great Russia!".

Unfortunately the majority of Ukrainians have illusions in nationalism and have also replaced one oligarch with another. My support is with those Ukranian socialists and workers who advocate a Socialist Ukraine linked with a Socialist Europe. Because that is the real solution.

 

[PAB]

Finance capitalism is real capitalism and develops historically from the intricacies of capitalism, from its own levers of private property the profit motive and the nation state which grew hand in hand with capitalism.

Finance capitalism isn't real capitalism, what a load of nonsense. Yes, they probably share a common ancestor, heck they're both capitalist at heart. But one is neocapitalist (finance capitalism) while the other is Keynesian.

I'd suggest you read this, particularly Table 2 on page 5.

An interesting Article...So this is what the Keynesians think today ?
I think its wrong. But correct myself as i didn't understand your distinction between real and financial capitalism. It seems that by real you mean actually commodity production and involved labour process as compared to finance - or in the Marxist formulation real ( money - commodity - money) financial ( money - money). All i meant is that financial capitalism is still capitalism, and would further stand by the rest of my statement. Real (productive) capitalism should be abolished too
Should discuss it in another topic.

 

[Inferno]

An interesting Article...So this is what the Keynesians think today ?
I think its wrong. But correct myself as i didn't understand your distinction between real and financial capitalism. It seems that by real you mean actually commodity production and involved labour process as compared to finance - or in the Marxist formulation real ( money - commodity - money) financial ( money - money). All i meant is that financial capitalism is still capitalism, and would further stand by the rest of my statement. Real (productive) capitalism should be abolished too
Should discuss it in another topic.

Yup.
You think so, I don't.
Finance = Wallstreet capitalism, if we want to cut it short. Basically shares, high-frequency trading, that sort of stuff.
Yes, finance-capitalism is still capitalism, but it's completely different from real capitalism.
Heck no.
Ok, if you want.

 

[tarstarkusz]

America won't change until it either tempers or dissolves its capitalist system, which is incredibly unlikely any time soon.

Finance-capitalism, yes. That should be dissolved.
"Realkapitalismus" (erm, real capitalism? physical capitalism?) should stay.

Don't get me wrong, the whole US banking system is corrupt and I certainly am no fan of Wall Street. But I am curious to know how capital formation and the joining of investors (savers) with entrepreneurs could happen without a financial system? If someone has a great idea (but little money), how can (s)he get the money they need to build a factory and so on, without the financial system?

Also, how are people supposed to save for their future, especially in a highly inflationary environment without a financial system? BTW... Don't believe the US government's lies about price inflation, prices are going through the roof, especially for food (and the masses know it). The government can lie to me all they want, but when I go to the supermarket, I feel the inflation that the government won't see.

Is there a system somewhere where these needs are met without a financial sector? Also, isn't London the other major financial center in the world?


The US isn't really a capitalist system, it's really corporatism.

Chris

 

[Inferno]

Don't get me wrong, the whole US banking system is corrupt and I certainly am no fan of Wall Street. But I am curious to know how capital formation and the joining of investors (savers) with entrepreneurs could happen without a financial system? If someone has a great idea (but little money), how can (s)he get the money they need to build a factory and so on, without the financial system?

Also, how are people supposed to save for their future, especially in a highly inflationary environment without a financial system? BTW... Don't believe the US government's lies about price inflation, prices are going through the roof, especially for food (and the masses know it). The government can lie to me all they want, but when I go to the supermarket, I feel the inflation that the government won't see.

Is there a system somewhere where these needs are met without a financial sector? Also, isn't London the other major financial center in the world?


The US isn't really a capitalist system, it's really corporatism.

Chris

I already explained that below. What Schulmeister refers to when talking about "Finance capitalism" is basically high-frequency trading, the stock market and so on. Loaning money for a new factory is the exact opposite and is what Schulmeister refers to as "real capitalism".

As already suggested: Read this, particularly Table 2 on page 5.

 

[tarstarkusz]

Don't get me wrong, the whole US banking system is corrupt and I certainly am no fan of Wall Street. But I am curious to know how capital formation and the joining of investors (savers) with entrepreneurs could happen without a financial system? If someone has a great idea (but little money), how can (s)he get the money they need to build a factory and so on, without the financial system?

Also, how are people supposed to save for their future, especially in a highly inflationary environment without a financial system? BTW... Don't believe the US government's lies about price inflation, prices are going through the roof, especially for food (and the masses know it). The government can lie to me all they want, but when I go to the supermarket, I feel the inflation that the government won't see.

Is there a system somewhere where these needs are met without a financial sector? Also, isn't London the other major financial center in the world?


The US isn't really a capitalist system, it's really corporatism.

Chris

I already explained that below. What Schulmeister refers to when talking about "Finance capitalism" is basically high-frequency trading, the stock market and so on. Loaning money for a new factory is the exact opposite and is what Schulmeister refers to as "real capitalism".

As already suggested: Read this, particularly Table 2 on page 5.

The tears that are going to be shed in China will overflow The Yangtze. How anyone can look at China and see capitalism is a mystery to me. The US has it's bust ghost towns, China has brand new ghost mega-cities. The prices in these cities are way out of line with what the average Chinese can afford to pay. When the prices collapse, it's going to depress China for decades.

Central banks setting interest rates has caused lots of tears in America already. Interest rates should be a function of supply and demand, not set by central planners (central banks). I know they don't technically set them, but they highly manipulate interest rates through monetary policy (printing money). Of course, we are now in a predicament that if interest rates rose there would be massive monetary deflation, but this is because of the unsustainable bubble in the bond market and the stock market. Forbes just put up an article the other day that I was reading called 23 charts that prove the US stock market is in a bubble. I recommend it.

I don't know how true it is, but I've recently read that we (US) have a large sub-prime auto loan market and for the same reason, people chasing yield. Of course there are still RE bubbles all over the world.

As for HFT, I would probably agree that something needs to be done about it. Unfortunately, as long as central banks are keeping interest rates too low by creating new base money to make up for credit contraction, you are going to see distortions. Crush one distortion and another one will pop up somewhere else.

Chris

EDIT: I forgot to add that coal is a far bigger emitter of CO2 than oil.

 

[tuxbox]

It's Russian sympathizers/separatists doing the bombing. The Ukraine is just trying to quell the violence after Russia decided to invade a sovereign nation. This had nothing to do with US involvement until after the fact. The EU is neck deep in this as well, so this not just the US sticking its nose where it doesn't belong.

Incorrect on every account.

Even the BBC which has reported in a terribly biased way has had to acknowledge the fact that the Ukrainian government is shelling these regions.



Its fundamentally incorrect to label the separatist regions as simply "Russian sympathizers/separatists". They started off as a pro-russian movement but that has to a degree been limited and had cold water poured over it by Russia. After all they still voted for independence despite Putins demand for it to be postponed. Its a very unclear situation, due to these regions being in a large part ethnically "Russian" (but don't forget they are still Ukrainian) . Many of the citizens in this region and some of the militants have expressed themselves as being simply Anti-Kiev, they see the current government as illegitimate and not representative of them. For these separatist regions it is not a question of Russian vs. Ukraine but it is an expression of the political and democratic crises that springs fourth from the economic crises of Ukraine.

The new government in Kiev is not carrying out a peace keeping operation. And it is not carrying out, as it claims, an anti terror operation. It is carrying out a terror operation to force these regions back in line and back under its control. Russia has not invaded the Ukraine, despite annexation of the Crimea which was a tactical move taking advantage of the Crimean call for autonomy from Kiev and for Russia's own imperialist interests.

The US is not to blame for the crises, but they show their true colours in the current situation. The US is on the one hand an opportunist seeing a potential market in the Ukraine via the EU. It is wrong to say however that the US is in any way impartial or has only got involved in the latter stages of the crises. It was involved at the very beginning pledging support to the anti government protests -the Maiden movement whose defence force was composed of mostly Ukrainian nationalists and fascist elements - via Senator John McCain.
(Its amazing how the US is so short sighted supporting right-wing fascist elements such as Islamic fundamentalists in Syria and the Maidan movement and the Kievs terror campaign against its own people, when it should have learnt from the blowback of its previous adventures such as the Afghan war and its funding of the mujaheddin. )

When John McCain was in Ukraine supporting the anti-government protesters he made a statement regarding the violence against the protesters.

"If Ukraine's government thinks that brute force and the politics of fear can see it through the current crisis, it is woefully mistaken,"

He was right then. And he is more right now. The civil war against the eastern regions even if won militarily by Kiev will not solve the Ukranian crises. Which is a crises fundamentally of oligarchy and capitalism.
The worry is that the harder Kiev hits these regions the more that national sentiments will be stirred up. With some hints from Russia that "Oh, that eastern bit of Ukraine under the great Tsars was a great part of our Great Russia!".

Unfortunately the majority of Ukrainians have illusions in nationalism and have also replaced one oligarch with another. My support is with those Ukranian socialists and workers who advocate a Socialist Ukraine linked with a Socialist Europe. Because that is the real solution.

Please, these separatist are shooting down planes and attacking with Russian supplied military grade hardware. While Russia shells the Ukraine from within the Russian borders and is massing troops on its borders. Not to mention the annexation of Crimea. The Ukraine is just responding to the threat. But like always, people on the left support the aggressors when they are out gunned, just like the situation in Israel.