U.S. Dollar, BYE BYE

[Rakhmetov]

http://www.counterpunch.com/



When Will Oppressed Americans Take to the Streets?

The Stench of US Economic Decay Grows Stronger

By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS
On Thanksgiving eve the English-language China Daily and People’s Daily Online reported that Russia and China have concluded an agreement to abandon the use of the US dollar in their bilateral trade and to use their own currencies in its place. The Russians and Chinese said that they had taken this step in order to insulate their economies from the risks that have undermined their confidence in the US dollar as world reserve currency.
This is big news, especially for the news-dead Thanksgiving holiday period, but I did not see it reported on Bloomberg, CNN, New York Times or anywhere in the US print or TV media. The ostrich’s head remains in the sand.
Previously, China concluded the same agreement with Brazil.
As China has a large and growing supply of dollars from trade surpluses with which to conduct trade, China is signaling that she prefers Russian rubles and Brazilian reais to more US dollars.
The American financial press finds solace in the episodes when sovereign debt scares in the EU send the dollar up against the euro and UK pound. But these currency movements are just measures of financial players shorting troubled EU-denominated debt. They are not a measure of dollar strength.
The dollar’s role as world reserve currency is one of the main instruments of American financial hegemony. We haven’t been told how much damage Wall Street fraud has inflicted on EU financial institutions, but the EU countries no longer need the US dollar for trade between themselves as they share a common currency. Once the OPEC countries cease to hold the dollars that they are paid for oil, dollar hegemony will have faded away.
Another instrument of American financial hegemony is the IMF. Whenever a country cannot make good on its debts and pay back the American banks, in steps the IMF with an austerity package that squeezes the country’s population with higher taxes and cuts in education, medical and income support programs until the bankers get their money back.
This is now happening to Ireland and is likely to spread to Portugal, Spain, and perhaps even to France. After the American-caused financial crisis, the IMF’s role as a tool of US imperialism is less and less acceptable. The point could come when governments can no longer sell out their people for the sake of the American banks.
There are other signs that some countries are tiring of America’s irresponsible use of power. Turkey’s civilian governments have long been under the thumb of the American-influenced Turkish military. However, recently the civilian government moved against two top generals and an admiral suspected of involvement in planning a coup. The civilian government further asserted itself when the prime minister announced on Thanksgiving day that Turkey is prepared to react to any Israeli offensive against Lebanon. Here is an American NATO ally freeing itself from American suzerainty exercised through the Turkish military. Who knows, Germany could be next.
Meanwhile in America the Obama administration has managed to come up with a Deficit Commission whose members want to pay for the multi-trillion dollar wars that are enriching the military/security complex and the multi-trillion dollar bailouts of the financial system by reducing annual cost-of-living increases for Social Security, raising the retirement age to 69, ending the mortgage interest deduction, ending the tax deduction for employer-provided health insurance, imposing a 6.5 per cent federal sales tax, while cutting the top tax rate for the rich.
Even the Federal Reserve’s low interest rates are aimed at helping the banksters. The low interest rates deprive retirees and those living on their savings of interest income. The low interest rates have also deprived corporate pensions of funding. To fill the gap corporations are issuing billions of dollars in corporate bonds in order to fund their pensions. Corporate debt is increasing, but not plant and equipment that would produce earnings to service the debt. As the economy worsens, servicing the additional debt will be a problem.
In addition, America’s elderly are finding that fewer and fewer doctors will accept them as patients as a 23 per cent cut looms in the already low Medicare payments to doctors.
The American government only has resources for wars of aggression, police state intrusions, and bailouts of rich banksters. The American citizen has become a mere subject to be bled for the ruling oligarchies.
The police state attitude of the TSA toward airline travelers is a clear indication that Americans are no longer citizens with rights but subjects without rights. Perhaps the day will come when oppressed Americans will take to the streets like the French, the Greeks, the Irish, and the British.
Paul Craig Roberts was an editor of the Wall Street Journal and an Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Treasury. His latest book, HOW THE ECONOMY WAS LOST (http://www.easycartsecure.com/CounterPunch/CounterPunch_Books.html), has just been published by CounterPunch/AK Press. He can be reached at: [email protected]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBlSWMascSY&feature=related

[El Rojo]

good article, but the best thing for me was reading how the brits are now seen as part of the "mess with me and ill fuck you up", militant group of peoples like the greeks and french, and no longer part of the greedy anglo-saxon lay-about hyper capitalist transatlatic brigade. yay for generalisations!

[Salvatore]

A decision of great significance! The non-imperialist world is trying to extricate itself from dollar dependency as much as possible as fast as possible.

China, Russia quit dollar

St. Petersburg, Russia - China and Russia have decided to renounce the US dollar and resort to using their own currencies for bilateral trade, Premier Wen Jiabao and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin announced late on Tuesday.

Chinese experts said the move reflected closer relations between Beijing and Moscow and is not aimed at challenging the dollar, but to protect their domestic economies.

"About trade settlement, we have decided to use our own currencies," Putin said at a joint news conference with Wen in St. Petersburg.

The two countries were accustomed to using other currencies, especially the dollar, for bilateral trade. Since the financial crisis, however, high-ranking officials on both sides began to explore other possibilities.

The yuan has now started trading against the Russian rouble in the Chinese interbank market, while the renminbi will soon be allowed to trade against the rouble in Russia, Putin said.

"That has forged an important step in bilateral trade and it is a result of the consolidated financial systems of world countries," he said.

Putin made his remarks after a meeting with Wen. They also officiated at a signing ceremony for 12 documents, including energy cooperation.

The documents covered cooperation on aviation, railroad construction, customs, protecting intellectual property, culture and a joint communiqu. Details of the documents have yet to be released.

Putin said one of the pacts between the two countries is about the purchase of two nuclear reactors from Russia by China's Tianwan nuclear power plant, the most advanced nuclear power complex in China.

Putin has called for boosting sales of natural resources - Russia's main export - to China, but price has proven to be a sticking point.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin, who holds sway over Russia's energy sector, said following a meeting with Chinese representatives that Moscow and Beijing are unlikely to agree on the price of Russian gas supplies to China before the middle of next year.

Russia is looking for China to pay prices similar to those Russian gas giant Gazprom charges its European customers, but Beijing wants a discount. The two sides were about $100 per 1,000 cubic meters apart, according to Chinese officials last week.

Wen's trip follows Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's three-day visit to China in September, during which he and President Hu Jintao launched a cross-border pipeline linking the world's biggest energy producer with the largest energy consumer.

Wen said at the press conference that the partnership between Beijing and Moscow has "reached an unprecedented level" and pledged the two countries will "never become each other's enemy".

Over the past year, "our strategic cooperative partnership endured strenuous tests and reached an unprecedented level," Wen said, adding the two nations are now more confident and determined to defend their mutual interests.

"China will firmly follow the path of peaceful development and support the renaissance of Russia as a great power," he said.

"The modernization of China will not affect other countries' interests, while a solid and strong Sino-Russian relationship is in line with the fundamental interests of both countries."

Wen said Beijing is willing to boost cooperation with Moscow in Northeast Asia, Central Asia and the Asia-Pacific region, as well as in major international organizations and on mechanisms in pursuit of a "fair and reasonable new order" in international politics and the economy.

Sun Zhuangzhi, a senior researcher in Central Asian studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the new mode of trade settlement between China and Russia follows a global trend after the financial crisis exposed the faults of a dollar-dominated world financial system.

Pang Zhongying, who specializes in international politics at Renmin University of China, said the proposal is not challenging the dollar, but aimed at avoiding the risks the dollar represents.

Wen arrived in the northern Russian city on Monday evening for a regular meeting between Chinese and Russian heads of government. He left St. Petersburg for Moscow late on Tuesday and is set to meet with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Wednesday.
Source: chinadaily.com

[syndicat]

The non-imperialist world is trying to extricate itself from dollar dependency as much as possible as fast as possible.


except that China is an imperialist power in its own right. consider its absorption of Tibet and Xinjiang or the history of its dealings with Vietnam. a decline in the value of the dollar in exchange will make imports more expensive. this will tend to lower the standard of living in the USA.

[Delenda Carthago]

A decision of great significance! The non-imperialist world is trying to extricate itself from dollar dependency as much as possible as fast as possible.

Source: chinadaily.com
Yes.Cause China and Russia are nothing like an imperialist.

[Salvatore]

Yes.Cause China and Russia are nothing like an imperialist.
What about Brazil, Venezuela, Argentina, Iran, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, India, Indonesia and South Korea?

Besides Russia and China, the governments and central banks of these countries reportedly consider to lessen dependence on the U.S. dollar. It's no secret that the dollar is currently on a downward spiral.

except that China is an imperialist power in its own right.
The U.S. want to dominate the world with military power, methods of exploitation and subjugation.

China on the contrary is more oriented towards industrial growth and trade. It prefers to grow with the Third World and share the development more responsibly in comparison. In recent years, China has especially helped Africa immensely in terms of improvements in infrastructure, industry and agriculture.

or the history of its dealings with Vietnam
This was preceded by the Vietnamese attack on Cambodia and the removal of the Khmer Rouge from power, which had been China's ally at that time.

Wikipedia states:

The reason cited for the counter strike was the mistreatment of Vietnam's ethnic Chinese minority and the Vietnamese occupation of the Spratly Islands (claimed by the PRC).
...
The Chinese accused the Vietnamese government of pursuing "revisionist" ideologies and the mistreatment of ethnic Chinese living in Vietnam.A reaction to these unjustifiable actions had to be expected. The Sino-Vietnamese War was meant to teach the aggressor a lesson, not to conquer Vietnam at all costs. That is despite Vietnam historically belonged to China from about 120 BC or to 983 AD or so for over 1000 years.

[syndicat]

i think you don't know what imperialism is. imperialism is the domination through military and economic means exerted by the ruling class of one country over another country, in order to exploit its labor and resources and control its markets. so imperialism depends upon a particular territorial state, and its ruling class, being stronger than that of another. this is a matter of degree in that there may be a strongest power, but there may still be imperialist relations of domination from lesser powers to even weaker states. The capitalists of western Europe and Japan and Canada are partners with the USA in that the military role of the USA, its overwhelming military supremacy, is used to maintain a system of open markets and open access for foreign capital throughout the world, which enables capital from the other capitalist countries also to participate in the exploitation of third world countries. there are various mini-imperialist powers like China that have a more dominant position than some other countries, such as the relation of China to a number of African countries. you would be naive to think Chinese elites are not exploiting Africa.

[Delenda Carthago]

What about Brazil, Venezuela, Argentina, Iran, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, India, Indonesia and South Korea?

Besides Russia and China, the governments and central banks of these countries reportedly consider to lessen dependence on the U.S. dollar. It's no secret that the dollar is currently on a downward spiral.

The U.S. want to dominate the world with military power, methods of exploitation and subjugation.

China on the contrary is more oriented towards industrial growth and trade. It prefers to grow with the Third World and share the development more responsibly in comparison. In recent years, China has especially helped Africa immensely in terms of improvements in infrastructure, industry and agriculture.


A.All these countries you are describing are in the coalition of the China-Russia socialfascist imperialism.And one eyed imperialism(especially when you close the eye on the fascism side)is suicidal.

B.USA is a hlaf ass democracy.But a half ass democracy is half better than fascism.Specially when this fascism is beeing runned under a "communism" tag.

C.If you think that China is... helping those countries, why dont you say that US is... helping India,Africa and all the third world countries with the means of producition that they are sending over there?Why dont you say that neoliberals are helping the poor people by sending them means of production.Besides, the first time in human history that domination has happened with money not guns is the USA example.

[milk]

China on the contrary is more oriented towards industrial growth and trade. It prefers to grow with the Third World and share the development more responsibly in comparison. In recent years, China has especially helped Africa immensely in terms of improvements in infrastructure, industry and agriculture.

China needs resources to keep its industrial revolution, built on the hyper-exploitation of hundreds of millions of people, going. It is putting out economic feelers, competing with other powers in Africa and elsewhere for control and supply of those resources. 'Responsibly,' when it comes to the exploitation of African people, is not a word I would use.


This was preceded by the Vietnamese attack on Cambodia and the removal of the Khmer Rouge from power, which had been China's ally at that time.

Wikipedia states:

A reaction to these unjustifiable actions had to be expected. The Sino-Vietnamese War was meant to teach the aggressor a lesson, not to conquer Vietnam at all costs. That is despite Vietnam historically belonged to China from about 120 BC or to 983 AD or so for over 1000 years.

China attacked a reunified Vietnam in order to firstly offer practical assistance to their Khmer allies, by drawing Vietnamese forces from Cambodia, so to allow the DK forces still fighting their way in retreat, time to breath. Secondly, and more importantly, it was also a clear demonstration to the Vietnamese that China was unhappy with the friendship treaty they had signed with the Soviet Union (which included military assistance). See also Chinese anger at the Soviet proposals to have naval access at Vietnamese ports and to install nuclear missiles, as well as the Vietnamese joining Comecon. Vietnam was seen as a bridgehead for Soviet influence in China's backyard. And Cambodia in the 1980s would be a battleground for China to bleed this pro-Soviet threat, by supporting the regrouped Pol Pot forces as they fought the Pro-Vietnamese PRK government.

[Salvatore]

USA is a hlaf ass democracy.But a half ass democracy is half better than fascism.Don't be hypocritical. the rise of fascist Nazism was only made possible by the financial aid of powerful industrialists from the U.S. and Germany, to profit from the massive military buildup during the war and secondarily, in fear of successful communist revolutions. Accordingly, fascism is a variety of Western capitalism.

And finally, crypto-fascist U.S. capitalists started a 100-year-war against the entire Islamic culture.

All these countries you are describing are in the coalition of the China-Russia socialfascist imperialism.
As a matter of fact, India and South Korea actually have closer relations to the U.S. than to China.

I'm not buying into this neoliberal rhetoric, proclaiming that "socialism and fascism are cousins, as they are both collectivist in essence". That's just a propaganda trick to try to get people to rally on the side of capitalism.

The Chinese government for example operates under a so-called Leninist principle of organization:

1. The individual is subordinate to the majority as represented by the party.
2. A lower level (such as county) is subordinate to a higher level (such as city).

If this is fascist in your opinion, then you don't know what fascism is.

China's president is officially a powerless figurehead since 1982. Hu Jintao must make his decisions with the concurrence of members of the Standing Committee of the Politburo. He is not an all-powerful dictator as revolutionary leader Mao Zedong was.

The Chinese government also isn't portraying internal or external enemies as scapegoats.

you would be naive to think Chinese elites are not exploiting Africa.
China has an anti-colonial ideological heritage, not only because it suffered at the hands of aggressive invaders during the age of colonialism.

Early in the 15th century, a Chinese fleet of vessels, crossed the Indian Ocean and made it to the coast of Kenya. The Chinese that reached Africa did not colonise, they went as traders and explorers. In other words, the Chinese didn't commit the same crime as the European imperialists and dehumanizing racists.

Now the traditional friendship between both regions is becoming tighter than ever. More than 800,000 Chinese workers are locally cooperating with Africans in different countries of the continent.

The Western development aid to Africa is a failure because all what the West is doing is keeping a check on their former colonies and sending money to corrupt puppet rulers, while not improving the situation of the common people.
there are various mini-imperialist powers like China that have a more dominant position than some other countriesChina-Africa trade has already surpassed U.S.-Africa trade in absolute terms.

[Amphictyonis]

A decision of great significance! The non-imperialist world is trying to extricate itself from dollar dependency as much as possible as fast as possible.

Source: chinadaily.com

Well, this could be good or bad depending on whether or not China and Russia plan on staying capitalist. If they do plan on staying capitalist then it would be better that capitalism remains as unstable as it is now (with the US dollar). On the other hand if there is to be a global revolution I don't see it happening while the USA is chugging along full steam ahead with the ability to extract so much wealth via IMF/World Bank/petrol dollar.

We're probably going to see a proxy war with China coming soon as Istvan Meszaros asserted in his 2001 book socialism or barbarism. Thus far it looks like the guy had a crystal ball.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialism_Or_Barbarism

[RedStarOverChina]

I think it's a slight exageration to say that the dominance of US dollars in international trade is over.

China already has a similar policy in place in trading with Malaysia---And the volume is much larger than Sino-Russian trade.

Hopefully this will be followed with more similar deals.

[Crux]

What about Brazil, Venezuela, Argentina, Iran, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, India, Indonesia and South Korea?

Besides Russia and China, the governments and central banks of these countries reportedly consider to lessen dependence on the U.S. dollar. It's no secret that the dollar is currently on a downward spiral.
And what point are you trying to make? India is anti-imperialist?

[syndicat]

China-Africa trade has already surpassed U.S.-Africa trade in absolute terms.

and you think this takes place from a relationship of equality? that China does not exploit unequal exchange? that would be naive.

China is a one-party dictatorship which hustles its working class for exploitation by foreign and domestic capitalists. The bureaucratic and capitalist classes in China are exploiters of the working class there. They can and do use their superior military and economic power to gain an edge over, or pressure, weaker third world countries. for example, to obtain their resources or export its products.

[Delenda Carthago]

Don't be hypocritical. the rise of fascist Nazism was only made possible by the financial aid of powerful industrialists from the U.S. and Germany, to profit from the massive military buildup during the war and secondarily, in fear of successful communist revolutions. Accordingly, fascism is a variety of Western capitalism.

And finally, crypto-fascist U.S. capitalists started a 100-year-war against the entire Islamic culture.

As a matter of fact, India and South Korea actually have closer relations to the U.S. than to China.

I'm not buying into this neoliberal rhetoric, proclaiming that "socialism and fascism are cousins, as they are both collectivist in essence". That's just a propaganda trick to try to get people to rally on the side of capitalism.

The Chinese government for example operates under a so-called Leninist principle of organization:

1. The individual is subordinate to the majority as represented by the party.
2. A lower level (such as county) is subordinate to a higher level (such as city).

If this is fascist in your opinion, then you don't know what fascism is.

China's president is officially a powerless figurehead since 1982. Hu Jintao must make his decisions with the concurrence of members of the Standing Committee of the Politburo. He is not an all-powerful dictator as revolutionary leader Mao Zedong was.

The Chinese government also isn't portraying internal or external enemies as scapegoats.

China has an anti-colonial ideological heritage, not only because it suffered at the hands of aggressive invaders during the age of colonialism.

Early in the 15th century, a Chinese fleet of vessels, crossed the Indian Ocean and made it to the coast of Kenya. The Chinese that reached Africa did not colonise, they went as traders and explorers. In other words, the Chinese didn't commit the same crime as the European imperialists and dehumanizing racists.

Now the traditional friendship between both regions is becoming tighter than ever. More than 800,000 Chinese workers are locally cooperating with Africans in different countries of the continent.

The Western development aid to Africa is a failure because all what the West is doing is keeping a check on their former colonies and sending money to corrupt puppet rulers, while not improving the situation of the common people. China-Africa trade has already surpassed U.S.-Africa trade in absolute terms.


Dude,what are you talkin about?

A. Hitler rose to power with the help of USA AND GERMAN capitalists too.Dont act like the germans had nothing to do with it.

B. US capitalists have not declare a "100 year war" against the islamists. Most of the islamic nations are allies of the americans.Saudi Arabia per say.
Plus,as far as some islamofascists(who work very well with the socialfascists of China occasionally) like Talibans,dont forget that they were put there by the US goverment,again to stop the communist party of Afganistan to take power.Its not that they are "racist".They dont give a fuck.Whoever helps them today is an allie.Tommorow it might be the worse enemy.Thats how system works.

C.I NEVER EVER said socialism and fascism are the same thing.What I was talking about is that A.China is not a socialist country in no mothafuckin way at all, B.Socialfascist is a phrase of Demetrov.Check it out what it is about and you will understand. And check some data about China if you still think its a socialist country.Like the fact that,even though China's economy is growing rapidly,the gap between the rich and the poor is getting bigger.Or the fact that "freedom of speech" is a reason to get shot. Or that Youtube is a reason to be thrown to prison.Or that the minimum wage in China is a slice of bread and half and onion per day. Now that's communism!:thumbup1:

[Salvatore]

And what point are you trying to make?
I support Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, Mahathir Mohamad of Malaysia and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, as they often publicly exposed criminal U.S. trickery in the past.

US capitalists have not declare a "100 year war" against the islamists.John McCain quote: The United States military could stay in Iraq for "maybe a hundred years" and that "would be fine with me," he told two hundred or so people at a town hall meeting in Derry, New Hampshire, on Jan 3. And U.S. troops could be in Iraq for "a thousand years" or "a million years," as far as he was concerned.

U.S. strategists already announced their plans to invade Iran, Yemen and Pakistan.

Most of the islamic nations are allies of the americans.This trend won't last forever. Turkey recently declared to rate America's ally Israel as enemy state no. 1. Few would have foreseen this.
Dude,what are you talkin about?
...
Dont act like the germans had nothing to do with it.
The truth is that the NSDAP didn't get sufficient votes to acquire power until the support for Hitler by international capitalists reached a peak in 1932/1933.

The Nazis needed fundraising for:
- Financing of the mass movement
- Financing of a private army (SA) with rising membership (number of members: 1924: 30,000; 1930: 80,000; 1932: 220,000; 1933: 400,000; 1934: about 4,000,000)
- Financing of propaganda, including major events with 100,000+ participants
- The publication of the newspaper Völkischer Observer first twice weekly, then daily
- Purchase of luxury party headquarters, thousands of flags and two air planes.

Federal election results of the NSDAP by year:

1928: 2,63%

1930: 18,33%
In the early 1930s the Depression spread. By 1932 over three million Germans were out of work.

May 1932: The Kaiserhof Meeting took place between international industrialists. More than 500,000 marks were raised at this meeting and deposited to the credit of Rudolf Hess/the Nazis.

In the short period between 1930 and 1932, the SA's membership grew from 80,000 to more than 220,000.

July 1932, first election: 37,36%

November 1932, second election: 33,09%
In the second election of 1932 the Nazis had lost votes, losing some of their seats in the Reichstag. Hitler was determined to ensure that it would not happen again.

November 19, 1932: Big businessmen and leading German industrialists signed a letter that urged Paul von Hindenburg to appoint Hitler as chancellor.

January 30, 1933: President Hindenburg appointed Adolf Hitler chancellor of Germany.

February 20, 1933: Hitler met representatives of international bankers and industrialists. 3 million marks were raised for the Nazi Party in the forthcoming election.

1933 - the last "free" election: 43,91%

Financing Hitler in the March 1933 General Election

Putting the Georg Bell-Deterding and the Thyssen-Harriman cases to one side, we now examine the core of Hitler's backing. In May 1932 the so-called "Kaiserhof Meeting" took place between Schmitz of I.G. Farben, Max Ilgner of American I.G. Farben, Kiep of Hamburg-America Line, and Diem of the German Potash Trust. More than 500,000 marks was raised at this meeting and deposited to the credit of Rudolf Hess in the Deutsche Bank. It is noteworthy, in light of the "Warburg myth" described in Chapter Ten that Max Ilgner of the American I.G. Farben contributed 100,000 RM, or one-fifth of the total. The "Sidney Warburg" book claims Warburg involvement in the funding of Hitler, and Paul Warburg was a director of American I.G. Farben while Max Warburg was a director of I.G. Farben.

There exists irrefutable documentary evidence of a further role of international bankers and industrialists in the financing of the Nazi Party and the Volkspartei for the March 1933 German election. A total of three million Reichmarks was subscribed by prominent firms and businessmen, suitably "washed" through an account at the Delbruck Schickler Bank, and then passed into the hands of Rudolf Hess for use by Hitler and the NSDAP.
...
The fund-raising meeting was held February 20, 1933 in the home of Goering, who was then president of the Reichstag, with Hjalmar Horace Greeley Schacht acting as host. Among those present, according to I.G. Farben's von Schnitzler, were:

"Krupp von Bohlen, who, in the beginning of 1933, was president of the Reichsverband der Deutschen Industrie Reich Association of German Industry; Dr. Albert Voegler, the leading man of the Vereinigte Stahlwerke; Von Loewenfeld; Dr, Stein, head of the Gewerkschaft Auguste-Victoria, a mine which belongs to the IG."

Hitler expounded his political views to the assembled businessmen in a lengthy two-and-one-half hour speech, using the threat of Communism and a Communist take-over to great effect.

After Hitler had spoken, Krupp von Bohlen expressed the support of the assembled industrialists and bankers in the concrete form of a three-million-mark political fund. It turned out to be more than enough to acquire power, because 600,000 marks remained unexpended after the election.

Hjalmar Schacht organized this historic meeting. We have previously described Schacht's links with the United States: his father was cashier for the Berlin Branch of Equitable Assurance, and Hjalmar was intimately involved almost on a monthly basis with Wall Street.

The largest contributor to the fund was I.G. Farben, which committed itself for 80 percent (or 500,000 marks) of the total. Director A. Steinke, of BUBIAG (Braunkohlen-u. Brikett-Industrie A.G.), an I.G. Farben subsidiary, personally contributed another 200,000 marks. In brief, 45 percent of the funds for the 1933 election came from I.G. Farben.

If we look at the directors of American I.G. Farben -- the U.S. subsidiary of I.G. Farben -- we get close to the roots of Wall Street involvement with Hitler. The board of American I.G. Farben at this time contained some of the most prestigious names among American industrialists: Edsel B. Ford of the Ford Motor Company, C.E. Mitchell of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and Walter Teagle, director of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Georgia Warm Springs Foundation.

Paul M. Warburg, first director of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and chairman of the Bank of Manhattan, was a Farben director and in Germany his brother Max Warburg was also a director of I.G. Farben. H. A. Metz of I.G. Farben was also a director of the Warburg's Bank of Manhattan. Finally, Carl Bosch of American I.G. Farben was also a director of Ford Motor Company A-G in Germany.
modernhistoryproject.org/mhp/ArticleDisplay.php?Article=HitlerCh07

Watch the John Buchanan interview from Alex Jones' Martial Law 9-11 (Bush family support of Hitler and fascism revealed):
youtube.com/watch?v=G4-TL5AGHFY

Buchanan delivers huge revelations of a planned Nazi takeover in the U.S. in the 1930s backed by international bankers like JP Morgan and U.S. corporate magnates.
Bush - Nazi Link Confirmed
from The New Hampshire Gazette Vol. 248, No. 1, October 10, 2003

By John Buchanan

WASHINGTON - After 60 years of inattention and even denial by the U.S. media, newly-uncovered government documents in The National Archives and Library of Congress reveal that Prescott Bush, the grandfather of President George W. Bush, served as a business partner of and U.S. banking operative for the financial architect of the Nazi war machine from 1926 until 1942, when Congress took aggressive action against Bush and his "enemy national" partners.

The documents also show that Bush and his colleagues, according to reports from the U.S. Department of the Treasury and FBI, tried to conceal their financial alliance with German industrialist Fritz Thyssen, a steel and coal baron who, beginning in the mid-1920s, personally funded Adolf Hitler's rise to power by the subversion of democratic principle and German law.

Furthermore, the declassified records demonstrate that Bush and his associates, who included E. Roland Harriman, younger brother of American icon W. Averell Harriman, and George Herbert Walker, President Bush's maternal great-grandfather, continued their dealings with the German industrial baron for nearly eight months after the U.S. entered the war.
For six decades these historical facts have gone unreported by the mainstream U.S. media. The essential facts have appeared on the Internet and in relatively obscure books, but were dismissed by the media and Bush family as undocumented diatribes. This story has also escaped the attention of "official" Bush biographers, Presidential historians and publishers of U.S. history books covering World War II and its aftermath.
The White House did not respond to phone calls seeking comment.

The unraveling of the web of Bush-Harriman-Thyssen U.S. enterprises, all of which operated out of the same suite of offices at 39 Broadway under the supervision of Prescott Bush, began with a story that ran in the New York Herald-Tribune on July 30, 1942. By then, the U.S. had been at war with Germany for nearly eight months.

"Hitler's Angel Has $3 Million in U.S. Bank," declared the headline. The lead paragraph characterized Fritz Thyssen as "Adolf Hitler's original patron a decade ago." In fact, the steel and coal magnate had aggressively supported and funded Hitler since October 1923, according to Thyssen's autobiography, I Paid Hitler. In that book, Thyssen also acknowledges his direct personal relationships with Adolf Hitler, Joseph Goebbels and Rudolf Hess.

The Herald-Tribune also cited unnamed sources who suggested Thyssen's U.S. "nest egg" in fact belonged to "Nazi bigwigs" including Goebbels, Hermann Goering, Heinrich Himmler, or even Hitler himself.

The "bank," founded in 1924 by W. Averell Harriman on behalf of Thyssen and his Bank voor Handel en Scheepvaart N.V. of Holland, was Union Banking Corporation (UBC) of New York City. According to government documents, it was in reality a clearing house for a number of Thyssen-controlled enterprises and assets, including as many as a dozen individual businesses. UBC also bought and shipped overseas gold, steel, coal, and U.S. Treasury and war bonds. The company's activities were administered for Thyssen by a Netherlands-born, naturalized U.S. citizen named Cornelis Lievense, who served as president of UBC. Roland Harriman was chairman and Prescott Bush a managing director.

The Herald-Tribune article did not identify Bush or Harriman as executives of UBC, or Brown Brothers Harriman, in which they were partners, as UBC's private banker.

A confidential FBI memo from that period suggested, without naming the Bush and Harriman families, that politically prominent individuals were about to come under official U.S. government scrutiny as Hitler's plunder of Europe continued unabated.

After the "Hitler's Angel" article was published Bush and Harriman made no attempts to divest themselves of the controversial Thyssen financial alliance, nor did they challenge the newspaper report that UBC was, in fact, a de facto Nazi front organization in the U.S.

Instead, the government documents show, Bush and his partners increased their subterfuge to try to conceal the true nature and ownership of their various businesses, particularly after the U.S. entered the war. The documents also disclose that Cornelis Lievense, Thyssen's personal appointee to oversee U.S. matters for his Rotterdam-based Bank voor Handel en Scheepvaart N.V., via UBC for nearly two decades, repeatedly denied to U.S. government investigators any knowledge of the ownership of the Netherlands bank or the role of Thyssen in it.

UBC's original group of business associates included George Herbert Walker, who had a relationship with the Harriman family that began in 1919. In 1922, Walker and W. Averell Harriman traveled to Berlin to set up the German branch of their banking and investment operations, which were largely based on critical war resources such as steel and coal.
The Walker-Harriman-created German industrial alliance also included partnership with another German titan who supported Hitler's rise, Friedrich Flick, who partnered with Thyssen in the German Steel Trust that forged the Nazi war machine. For his role in using slave labor and his own steel, coal and arms resources to build Hitler's war effort, Flick was convicted at the Nuremberg trials and sentenced to seven years in prison.

In 1926, after Prescott Bush had married Walker's daughter, Dorothy, Walker brought Bush in as a vice president of the private banking and investment firm of W.A. Harriman & Co., also located in New York. Bush became a partner in the firm that later became Brown Brothers Harriman and the largest private investment bank in the world. Eventually, Bush became a director of and stockholder in UBC.

However, the government documents note that Bush, Harriman, Lievense and the other UBC stockholders were in fact "nominees," or phantom shareholders, for Thyssen and his Holland bank, meaning that they acted at the direct behest of their German client.

On October 20, 1942, under authority of the Trading with the Enemy Act, the U.S. Congress seized UBC and liquidated its assets after the war. The seizure is confirmed by Vesting Order No. 248 in the U.S. Office of the Alien Property Custodian and signed by U.S. Alien Property Custodian Leo T. Crowley.

In August, under the same authority, Congress had seized the first of the Bush-Harriman-managed Thyssen entities, Hamburg-American Line, under Vesting Order No. 126, also signed by Crowley. Eight days after the seizure of UBC, Congress invoked the Trading with the Enemy Act again to take control of two more Bush-Harriman-Thyssen businesses - Holland-American Trading Corp. (Vesting Order No. 261) and Seamless Steel Equipment Corp (Vesting Order No. 259). In November, Congress seized the Nazi interests in Silesian-American Corporation, which allegedly profited from slave labor at Auschwitz via a partnership with I.G. Farben, Hitler's third major industrial patron and partner in the infrastructure of the Third Reich.

The documents from the Archives also show that the Bushes and Harrimans shipped valuable U.S. assets, including gold, coal, steel and U.S. Treasury and war bonds, to their foreign clients overseas as Hitler geared up for his 1939 invasion of Poland, the event that sparked World War II.

Following the Congressional seizures of UBC and the other four Bush-Harriman-Thyssen enterprises, The New York Times reported on December 16, 1944, in a brief story on page 25, that UBC had "received authority to change its principal place of business to 120 Broadway." The Times story did not report that UBC had been seized by the U.S. government or that the new address was the U.S. Office of the Alien Property Custodian. The story also neglected to mention that the other UBC-related businesses had also been seized by Congress.

Since then, the information has not appeared in any U.S. news coverage of any Bush political campaign, nor has it been included in any of the major Bush family biographies. It was, however, covered extensively in George H.W. Bush: The Unauthorized Biography, by Webster Tarpley and Anton Chaitkin. Chaitkin's father served as an attorney in the 1940s for some of the victims of the Bush-Harriman-Thyssen businesses.

The book gave a detailed, accurate accounting of the Bush family's long Nazi affiliation, but no mainstream U.S. media entity reported on or even investigated the allegations, despite careful documentation by the authors. Major booksellers declined to distribute the book, which was dismissed by Bush supporters as biased and untrue. Its authors struggled even to be reviewed in reputable newspapers. That the book was published by a Lyndon LaRouche's organization undoubtedly made it easier to dismiss, but does not change the facts.

The essence of the story been posted for years on various Internet sites, including BuzzFlash.com and TakeBackTheMedia.com, but no online media seem to have independently confirmed it.

Likewise, the mainstream media have apparently made no attempt since World War II to either verify or disprove the allegations of Nazi collaboration against the Bush family. Instead, they have attempted to dismiss or discredit such Internet sites or "unauthorized" books without any journalistic inquiry or research into their veracity.

The National Review ran an essay on September 1 by their White House correspondent Byron York, entitled "Annals of Bush-Hating." It begins mockingly: "Are you aware of the murderous history of George W. Bush - indeed, of the entire Bush family? Are you aware of the president's Nazi sympathies? His crimes against humanity? And do you know, by the way, that George W. Bush is a certifiable moron?" York goes on to discredit the "Bush is a moron" IQ hoax, but fails to disprove the Nazi connection.
The more liberal Boston Globe ran a column September 29 by Reason magazine's Cathy Young in which she referred to "Bush-o-phobes on the Internet" who "repeat preposterous claims about the Bush family's alleged Nazi connections."

Newsweek Polska, the magazine's Polish edition, published a short piece on the "Bush Nazi past" in its March 5, 2003 edition. The item reported that "the Bush family reaped rewards from the forced-labor prisoners in the Auschwitz concentration camp," according to a copyrighted English-language translation from Scoop Media. The story also reported the seizure of the various Bush-Harriman-Thyssen businesses.

Major U.S. media outlets, including ABC News, NBC News, The New York Times, Washington Post, Washington Times, Los Angeles Times and Miami Herald, have repeatedly declined to investigate the story when information regarding discovery of the documents was presented to them beginning Friday, August 29. Newsweek U.S. correspondent Michael Isikoff, famous for his reporting of big scoops during the Clinton-Lewinsky sexual affair of the 1990s, declined twice to accept an exclusive story based on the documents from the archives.

After the seizures of the various businesses they oversaw with Cornelis Lievense and his German partners, the U.S. government quietly settled with Bush, Harriman and others after the war. Bush and Harriman each received $1.5 million in cash as compensation for their seized business assets.

In 1952, Prescott Bush was elected to the U.S. Senate, with no press accounts about his well-concealed Nazi past. There is no record of any U.S. press coverage of the Bush-Nazi connection during any political campaigns conducted by George Herbert Walker Bush, Jeb Bush, or George W. Bush, with the exception of a brief mention in an unrelated story in the Sarasota Herald Tribune in November 2000 and a brief but inaccurate account in The Boston Globe in 2001.


Henry Ford, Nazi Supporter

It was Henry Ford, in fact, who emerges as the single person most responsible for the creation of Hitler. Hitler was still sitting in a German prison when Ford paid for the distribution of hundreds of thousands of copies of the forged “Elders of Zion Protocols” to the German people in the early 20s. It was on these fraudulent ‘Protocols’ that the Nazis built their anti-semitism. Ford in Germany was a big company and, ultimately, a big supporter of the Nazis. In fact, Ford hired a German Nazi to run his factory police force in Detroit in 1940.

The automobile, which will soon fade from common use, has a sordid history and is not a cultural or core value to our civilization. The private automobile has been anarchic and authoritarian at once- anarchic in the freedom granted the driver, and authoritarian in the powers we’ve granted the police on the highway. Neither of these can be considered values of civilization in any way.

...

On Henry Ford's 75th birthday in 1938, Hitler awarded Ford the Great Cross of the German Order of the Eagle for Henry Ford's publication of the notorious anti-Semitic pamphlet, The International Jew, a Worldwide Problem [Berlin, 1921].

[RadioRaheem84]

What is Paul Craig Roberts? A converted Marxist?

He praised Lenin and Marx for the economic analysis, but he was also a member of Reagan's economic staff.
:confused:

[Amphictyonis]

What is Paul Craig Roberts? A converted Marxist?

He praised Lenin and Marx for the economic analysis, but he was also a member of Reagan's economic staff.
:confused:

Ya, counterpunch confuses me sometimes. I actually corresponded with them in the beginning of Obama's term over the amount of sycophantic drivel I saw them posting. They didn't enjoy what I had to say then but now would be a different story. I guess in the end they try to be more of a muckraking paper rather than a socialist or capitalist paper.

Off topic, I still want to know what you think of Parenti's quote concerning democracy and a communist system run by workers.


But a real socialism, it is argued, would be controlled by the workers themselves through direct participation instead of being run by Leninists, Stalinists, Castroites, or other ill-willed, power-hungry, bureaucratic, cabals of evil men who betray revolutions. Unfortunately, this “pure socialism” view is ahistorical and nonfalsifiable; it cannot be tested against the actualities of history. It compares an ideal against an imperfect reality, and the reality comes off a poor second. It imagines what socialism would be like in a world far better than this one, where no strong state structure or security force is required, where none of the value produced by workers needs to be expropriated to rebuild society and defend it from invasion and internal sabotage. I agree with the fact a state socialist period would be necessary to fend off attacks from in tact capitalist states but I see no reason a socialist economy cannot be as democratic as humanly possible. I still like Parenti I just disagree with this one statement. I guess we can all find something to disagree with no matter who the person is.

[RadioRaheem84]

Upon further research, Roberts is a far right wing guy ala Ron Paul. He hates the right wing talk radio, the Bush administration and neo-cons.

He is a 9/11 truther.

He may inklings about what it going on in the halls of power but he is still an avid capitalist and a firm believer in the greatness of 'Murica.

[Crux]

I support Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, Mahathir Mohamad of Malaysia and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, as they often publicly exposed criminal U.S. trickery in the past.

And Putin's Russia, Lee Myung-bak's South Korea, Kirchner's Argentina and Dilma Rousseffs Brazil. Yes clearly beacon's of the left. You seem more than slightly confused. With the exception of Venezuela, do tell me what is "left" about those other governments of assorted rightwingers and neo-liberals? China being one of the worst of the lot of course. I think you'll find it hard to find friends here, even among the more geopolitically confused members.

Edit: oh and forgive the omission of Saudi Arabia, two erstwhile U.S allies. I'd also be curios about their "non-imperialist" nature.

Tell me, if the german government tomorrow announce they will be moving towards this currency bloc should we announce them "non-imperialist" as well?

[Salvatore]

I think you'll find it hard to find friends hereAre you always so rude towards new members?

1. I never claimed that South Korea, Malaysia or Iran are leftist countries.

2. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a friend of Hugo Chavez because they share a common enemy.

The enemy of my enemy is my friend, in order to SURVIVE in a game called geopolitics.

[Crux]

Are you always so rude towards new members?

1. I never claimed that South Korea, Malaysia or Iran are leftist countries.

2. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a friend of Hugo Chavez because they share a common enemy.

The enemy of my enemy is my friend, in order to SURVIVE in a game called geopolitics.
I am sorry if I am being rude but, geopolitics is not a game, and no doubt the comrades in Iran (Russia, Malaysia, Brazil) and China would agree. Don't be so naive as to believe supposed "anti-imperialist" rhetoric from the likes of Hu Jintao or Ahmadinejad.

[Salvatore]

I am sorry if I am being rude but, geopolitics is not a gameThat was merely a sarcastic notion.

Don't be so naive as to believe supposed "anti-imperialist" rhetoric from the likes of Hu Jintao or Ahmadinejad.What is so naive to sympathize with non-white countries? Are Western mindsets always on the right track?

[Palingenisis]

I'm not buying into this neoliberal rhetoric, proclaiming that "socialism and fascism are cousins, as they are both collectivist in essence". That's just a propaganda trick to try to get people to rally on the side of capitalism.


In fairness the term social-fascist comes from the Communist movement.

It was used to describe the SPD in the 30s and after the split between the USSR and China certain people within the Anti-revisionist movement described the Soviet Union as social-fascist.

I would use the term to describe some but not all Trotskyites.

[Crux]

That was merely a sarcastic notion.
What is so naive to sympathize with non-white countries? Are Western mindsets always on the right track?
Who said they were? And yes it's naive to sympathize with right wing and neo-liberal governments abroad. If Angela Merkel tomorrow announced Germany will be joining a currency bloc with Russia and China would she also be on your list of friends? If not, why are you content to giving support to right wingers abroad?

[Weezer]

Are you always so rude towards new members?

1. I never claimed that South Korea, Malaysia or Iran are leftist countries.

2. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a friend of Hugo Chavez because they share a common enemy.

The enemy of my enemy is my friend, in order to SURVIVE in a game called geopolitics.

A wannabe imperialist is not a friend of any socialist.

[Salvatore]

A wannabe imperialist is not a friend of any socialist.The last war started by Iran was 272 years ago, while the U.S. are responsible for most wars since WW2.

If Angela Merkel tomorrow announced Germany will be joining a currency bloc with Russia and China would she also be on your list of friends?
Such a scenario is a matter of impossibility.

[Crux]

The last war started by Iran was 272 years ago, while the U.S. are responsible for most wars since WW2.

Such a scenario is a matter of impossibility.
Ah, but you're missing the point. Explain to me again why the king of Saudi Arabia, Putin, Hu Jintao and Ahmadinejad are allies. Is my enemy's enemy my friend if they are my enemy too? Ahmadinejad is President in a state which regularly imprison's, tortures and executes worker's activists and denies even the most basic democratic rights, the same would go for Hu Jintao and indeed the King of saudi arabia, although I have to admit for the latter I am not as clued in on the specific attacks. To whom would you say he is an ally? Putin presides over a government which too makes serious attacks on the working class and too supress oppositional activists, if slightly, but only slightly, less overtly than in the other countries mentioned.

[Salvatore]

Explain to me again why the king of Saudi Arabia, Putin, Hu Jintao and Ahmadinejad are allies.You seriously need to get your facts straight and stop taking my words out of context.

Nations like Saudi Arabia consider to lessen their dependency on the dollar because they aren't blind to economic development. It doesn't imply any kind of new military alliance against the U.S.


Saudi Arabia: The Telegraph reports that for the first time, Saudi Arabia has refused to cut interest rates along with the US Federal Reserve. This is seen as a signal that a break from the dollar currency peg is imminent. The kingdom is taking "appropriate measures" to protect itself from letting the dollar cause problems for their own economy. They’re concerned about the threat of inflation and don’t want to deal with "recessionary conditions" in the US. Hans Redeker of BNP Paribas believes this creates a "very dangerous situation for the dollar," as Saudi Arabia alone has management of $800 billion. Experts fear that a break from the dollar in Saudi Arabia could set off a "stampede" from the dollar in the Middle East, a region that manages $3,500 billion.
Source: currencytrading.net/features/7-countries-considering-abandoning-the-us-dollar-and-what-it-means/

Russia and China are economic partners of Iran as they unlike Saudi Arabia have no historical/reactionary bias against Iran.

[Crux]

So Russia and China are allies? You keep dodging the questions. I for one would perhaps see some potential openings witha destabilization of the dollar. But I hold no illusions in reactionaries like Ahamdinejad or Hu Jintao.

[Salvatore]

So Russia and China are allies? Russia and China share geostrategic and economic interests and since the end of the Cold War, they overcame tensions that led to the Sino-Soviet split decades earlier.

Are they wartime allies? No.

As someone has written on another forum:

If it came to a war between China and USA which in its self is unlikely, I doubt less than half of those "allies" on either side would be there when trouble starts.

[Crux]

Russia and China share geostrategic and economic interests and since the end of the Cold War, they overcame tensions that led to the Sino-Soviet split decades earlier.

Are they wartime allies? No.

As someone has written on another forum:
Well, the more important question would be economic and geostrategic interests of whom? The poor and the working class?