Πέμπτη 11/08/2011

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Ο Κόσμος ο μικρός, ο μέγας. Και το ΠΑΣΟΚ, το μέγιστο!, του Γ.Μαλούχου, tovima.gr 11/08/2011

Από την Αθήνα ως την Ουάσιγκτον δια μέσω Ρώμης και Μαδρίτης ο πόλεμος της ισχυρής παγκόσμιας κερδοσκοπίας εναντίον των αδιανόητα άβουλων κρατών απειλεί πλέον να τινάξει τα πάντα στον αέρα. Κι από το Λονδίνο μέχρι το Σαντιάγο, η κοινωνική έκρηξη βάζει φωτιά που κανείς δεν ξέρει πώς να τη σβήσει. Κι όλα αυτά, την ώρα που εξελίσσονται το αιματοκύλισμα από τα φασιστικά καθεστώτα της Λιβύης και της Συρίας, τα θερμά επεισόδια μεταξύ της Βόρειας και της Νότιας Κορέας και οι ωμές πολεμικές απειλές της Αγκυρας προς την Ελλάδα και τη Λευκωσία, που καθένα μόνο του κι όλα μαζί απειλούν ν’ ανάψουν μια τεράστια πυρκαγιά...

Αμέτρητες και πάσης φύσεως και επιστημονικού κλάδου διατριβές θα γραφτούν διεθνώς στα επόμενα χρόνια προσπαθώντας να συμβάλλουν στην κατανόηση και τη διασύνδεση όλων αυτών που συμβαίνουν φέτος τον Αύγουστο στον κόσμο τον μικρό, τον μέγα, όπως τον αποκάλεσε ο Οδυσσέας Ελύτης. Πιθανότατα για να καταλήξουν στο συμπέρασμα ότι η «πεταλούδα» που πετά στη Νέα Υόρκη και βρέχει στο Τόκιο, ή όπως αλλιώς ήταν αυτή η άλλη μεγάλη εξυπνάδα, μεταλλάχθηκε από τη ραδιενέργεια της Φουκοσίμα και τά ‘κανε μαντάρα…

(...)

Αλλά δεν υπάρχει μεγαλύτερη, βαθύτερη και πιο απαράδεκτη υποκρισία από το να θέτει η κυβέρνηση του ΠαΣοΚ αυτούς τους στόχους και το ίδιο το βαθύ ΠαΣοΚ να τους πολεμάει με τον πιο αυταρχικό μάλιστα τρόπο της ωμής αυτοδικίας εις βάρος και της νομιμότητας και του δημοσίου συμφέροντος.

Είναι πραγματικά εξοργιστικό να διαλύονται τα πάντα εν ονόματι μιας διάσωσης και μιας αιματηρής διαδικασίας αλλαγών που ευαγγελίζεται το ΠαΣοΚ και, την ίδια ώρα, να έρχεται το ίδιο από την άλλη πόρτα και με το άλλο του καπέλο να την υπονομεύει με τέτοιο πρωτοφανή τρόπο.

Ο κοινός τόπος; Ερήμην της κοινωνίας αυταρχισμός από τη μία, αυταρχισμός από την άλλη και όλα μαζί από το όλον ΠαΣοΚ … Τι να πει κανείς: όλα τα έχει δει αυτός ο κόσμος ο μικρός, ο μέγας, αλλά αυτό, είναι βέβαιο ότι αυτό που κάνει το ΠαΣοΚ το Μέγιστο, δεν το έχουν ματαδεί πουθενά ως τώρα… Και, δυστυχώς, έτυχε σε μας… Ας προσέχαμε…

Απολύσεις στο Δημόσιο λόγω... υπονόμευσης;, tovima.gr 11/08/2011

Σε νέα βάση τίθεται πλέον το ζήτημα των απολύσεων στο Δημόσιο, καθώς η κυβέρνηση διαμηνύει ότι προτίθεται να προχωρήσει σε λήψη πειθαρχικών μέτρων ή ακόμη και απολύσεις για πειθαρχικά παραπτώματα ή υπονόμευση του δημοσίου συμφέροντος και να τροποποιήσει τους κανονισμούς λειτουργίας των πειθαρχικών συμβουλίων.

Με τον τρόπο αυτό και βάσει δηλώσεων του υπουργού Επικρατείας και κυβερνητικού εκπροσώπου, κ. Η. Μόσιαλου, φουντώνει εκ νέου το μέτωπο κυβέρνησης και ΑΔΕΔΥ, καθώς φαίνεται πως το ζήτημα των δημοσίων υπαλλήλων δεν τίθεται πλέον μόνο σε οικονομική βάση, αλλά και σε επίπεδο πιέσεων της κυβέρνησης προς μεγάλες ομάδες είτε για λόγους «ενίσχυσης της παραγωγικότητας» είτε στο πλαίσιο της γενικότερης διοικητικής αλλαγής που επιχειρείται (ενιαίο μισθολόγιο, ωράριο, κατάργηση επιδομάτων, κλπ.).

Χαρακτηριστικό δε σε αυτό το πλαίσιο είναι και το γεγονός ότι ο κυβερνητικός εκπρόσωπος, μιλώντας στον Σκάι, έβαλε στην ίδια ζυγαριά το σύνολο των δημοσίων υπαλλήλων και τους ανέργους, λέγοντας ότι οι μεν είναι όσοι και οι δε.

Αφορμή για το νέο αυτό επεισόδιο δόθηκε από την παρότρυνση της ΑΔΕΔΥ περί μη είσπραξης των εσόδων από τις εφορίες και εν όψει αυτών ο κ. Μόσιαλος δήλωσε ότι η υπονόμευση του δημοσίου συμφέροντος θα αντιμετωπιστεί με πειθαρχικά μέσα και τόνισε σχετικά: «Υπάρχουν πειθαρχικά. Τα πειθαρχικά θα πρέπει να λειτουργήσουν, θα πρέπει να αλλάξουν, κατά τη γνώμη μου, γιατί δεν μπορείς στα πειθαρχικά συμβούλια να έχεις εκπροσώπους των εργαζομένων που κρίνονται εκείνη την ώρα. Άρα, θα πρέπει να είναι ανεξάρτητα τα πειθαρχικά συμβούλια».

Στο ίδιο πνεύμα, ο υπουργός Επικρατείας επανέφερε μία από τις παλαιές και ξεχασμένες προεκλογικές δεσμεύσεις του ΠαΣοΚ, με βάση την οποία οι εκπρόσωποι των εργαζομένων στα πειθαρχικά συμβούλια θα πρέπει να αντικατασταθούν από εκπροσώπους της κοινωνίας των πολιτών, οι οποίοι, όπως είπε, «θα προασπίζουν το συμφέρον το δικό σας, το δικό μου, του κάθε άνεργου, του κάθε εργαζόμενου στον ιδιωτικό τομέα, του κάθε αξιοπρεπούς δημοσίου υπαλλήλου».

Εθνικά σύμβολα, κράτος-έθνος, καπιταλισμός και δικαιώματα, του Γρ.Σουλτάνη,  Μωρίας Εγκώμιον moriasegkomion.blogspot.com 09/08/2011

Η αποεθνικοποίηση του κράτους και η μετατροπή του σε νυχτοφύλακα της υπερεθνικής αγοράς, αντίθετα από τα προπαγανδιστικά περιτυλίγματα, θα εγκαθιδρύσει μιαν ανεξέλεγκτη εξουσία που θα αναιρέσει τα όποια δικαιώματα έχει παραχωρήσει η καπιταλιστική ηγεμονία στα πλαίσια του συστήματος κράτους-έθνους. Είναι ήδη ορατό από την εμπειρία της ΕΕ, η οποία επιχειρεί ήδη την αναβίωση της Αγίας Ρωμαϊκής Αυτοκρατορίας, ότι τα φληναφήματα περί ανθρώπινων και κοινωνικών δικαιωμάτων, όσο και περί «Ευρώπης των λαών», αποτελούν πρόσχημα για την περαιτέρω μείωση των κυριαρχικών, κοινωνικών και ατομικών δικαιωμάτων. Το παγκόσμιο καπιταλιστικό σύστημα, ενόσω τείνει προς μια συγκεντρωτική αναδιάρθρωση, έχει ως αποτέλεσμα τη συγκεντροποίηση της εξουσίας. Η νέα πολιτικο-οικονομική ελίτ για να αντιδράσει στη μείωση συσσώρευσης κεφαλαίου, αφενός θα ακυρώσει τα δικαιώματα που έχουν παραχωρηθεί και αφετέρου θα εντάξει στο σύστημα συσσώρευσης όλους τους τομείς που είχαν εξαιρεθεί από το εθνικό, κοινωνικό και δικαιϊκό κράτος.

Προς το παρών, κι εφόσον δεν υπάρχει κάποιο συλλογικό υποκείμενο εκτός από αυτό που ορίζεται εθνοτικά, είναι προφανές ότι οι συγκρούσεις που θα λάβουν χώρα έναντι της επερχόμενης νεο-καπιταλιστικής φεουδαρχίας, θα έχουν πάλι εθνικοαπελευθερωτικό περιεχόμενο.

The market is now more powerful than the state, by Adam Haslett, Salon.com 10/08/2011

Eurobonds or Bust, by Simon Tilford, www.project-syndicate.org 08/08/2011 (και η μετάφραση από το antinews.gr εδώ)

The eurozone’s institutional weaknesses have been laid bare. The attempt to run a common monetary policy without a common treasury has failed. Investors do not know what they are buying when they purchase an Italian bond – is it backstopped by Germany or not?

We now know that the best credit must stand behind the rest, or else bear runs, such as those that have derailed Greece, Ireland, and Portugal – and that now threaten to do the same to Italy and Spain – are inevitable. Debt mutualization alone will not save the euro, but, without it, the eurozone is unlikely to survive intact.

The eurozone’s July 21 summit was a small step forward. Leaders agreed to lower interest rates on loans made by the European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF) and they recognized that Greece’s debt burden is unsustainable. But this falls far short of what is needed to arrest the currency union’s deepening crisis. Borrowing costs remain unsustainably high for many eurozone economies – and not just those in the periphery. The economic growth potential of Spain and Italy, for example, now hovers around 1%, but their borrowing costs exceed 6%. By contrast, German sovereign yields have fallen sharply, lowering public and private-sector borrowing costs.

This is a recipe for further economic divergence and insolvency in the eurozone. To prevent this, the eurozone needs a “risk-free” interest rate. The struggling economies need lower borrowing costs, or they will suffocate economically (and political support for eurozone membership will evaporate).

Only mutualization of debt issuance can generate the low (risk-free) interest rate needed to enable these countries to put their public finances on a sound footing and lay the basis for a return to economic growth. All eurozone countries should, therefore, finance debt by issuing bonds that would be jointly guaranteed by all member states.

The obvious problem with eurobonds is moral hazard: how to prevent fiscally irresponsible countries from free-riding on the credit-worthiness of other member states. This is the understandable fear of countries such as Germany and the Netherlands.

One possible solution would be to permit member states to issue debt as eurobonds up to, say, 60% of GDP, and to require them to be individually responsible for any debt exceeding that level. This would give countries with high levels of public debt an incentive to consolidate their public finances.

Had the eurozone introduced such a system from the outset, it might well have worked. But it is too late for that now. For several eurozone economies, the additional borrowing would simply be too expensive.

A better solution would be to create a new, independent fiscal body to establish borrowing targets for individual member states, together with a European debt agency to issue eurobonds (up to a certain level) on their behalf.

How would the new fiscal rules be designed? A dogmatic target of budgetary balance four years hence, irrespective of a country’s position in the economic cycle, would achieve little: targets are meaningless if they are impossible to implement. So the rules would have to be set with reference to each member state’s cyclically adjusted fiscal position (for which the OECD already produces estimates).

Careful thought would need to be given to the composition of the new fiscal body. A board of 17 people, one from each eurozone economy, would be unwieldy, and unlikely to win the support of the eurozone’s principal creditor countries. At the same time, a board dominated by the creditor economies would be unlikely to win the backing of the debtor countries. A board of nine economists, from the big eurozone members, the European Commission, the European Central Bank, and the OECD might form a good basis.

The eurozone, of course, has a poor record of enforcing fiscal rules, implying the need for strong penalties for non-compliance. If a country deviated from its fiscal targets, it would be barred from borrowing additional funds at the risk-free interest rate. It would have to borrow under its own rating, which would be prohibitively expensive for fiscally weaker countries. To provide additional incentives to abide by the rules, the ECB could refuse to accept debt issued under national ratings as collateral. Alternatively, a new EU financial regulator could handicap own-country bonds by requiring banks holding them to set aside more capital.

Fiscal rules of the type envisaged (and a new body to enforce them) would not necessarily require a treaty change. And, while various creditor countries rightly fear that eurobonds would push up their borrowing costs and constitute a transfer union, opponents might eventually come around to seeing eurobonds as the least bad option. The risk is that, by then, it could be too late to save the euro from a partial break-up: what might work if adopted promptly could be ineffective if adopted in six months.

For core countries, eurobonds would certainly be a cheaper option than underwriting loans to struggling member-states, which essentially means throwing good money after bad. They will book large losses on EFSF loans, and those losses will be even larger if, as seems possible, some of the borrowers end up leaving the eurozone and defaulting on their debt.

No riots here. Just quiet, ever-deeper misery, by Nick Cohen, The Guardian 07/08/2011 (one day before it actually started...)

'When will there be riots?" eager journalists ask thinktanks, sociologists and anyone else who monitors Britain's unravelling social fabric. "When are the British going to imitate the Greeks and the Spanish and snap?"

On the face of it, their questions are reasonable. Contrary to the predictions of nearly every expert, inflation roared ahead of wage increases after the crash of 2008, squeezing the living standards of all but the most fortunate harder than at any time since the 1920s. The asinine George Osborne tightened the vice further by raising VAT in the middle of an outbreak of stagflation. Meanwhile his coalition's austerity programme is ensuring that public services will begin a long slow decline into shabby inefficiency, as public-sector workers start to lose their jobs en masse. Working- and middle-class families have already lost tax credits. The poor have already lost benefits.

About the only reason to be cheerful is that low interest rates help those with debts, which would otherwise be unsustainable. But by holding rates down, the Bank of England is effectively taking money from savers on modest incomes to spare debtors from default. Whatever the interest rate it sets, the half-shattered banks are reluctant to lend to business and homebuyers. They will become more reluctant as the unravelling of the eurozone kills the faint hopes of a recovery in Britain, and leaves the banks to deal with the consequences of yet more of their disastrous decisions as they write off yet more bad debts.

(...)

What we used to call the skilled working and the lower middle classes are stopping saving and contributing to pension schemes. They are taking payday loans or taking up coupon cutting. They are cancelling holidays, shopping online to avoid the temptations of impulse buying a visit to the supermarket might bring and worrying about how to heat their homes this winter. The standard of living they once took for granted is drifting beyond their reach.

The most significant sign of the crushing of ordinary aspirations is the collapse of the British expectation that if you made enough to get by you could become a property owner. In 2007, a couple earning around £40,000 between them would buy a property, particularly if they planned to have children. Today, with banks asking for huge deposits and offering 90% mortgages only to the borrowers who need them the least, what was once normal has become impossible. Divorcees, the downwardly mobile, the young working class and much of the young middle class must settle for renting in a market where the housing shortage has pushed rents to extortionate levels.

If insecurity continues to grow, our old assumptions will have to change. Imagine that Margaret Thatcher had died before the crash. Even her toughest critics would have had to accept that many of her reforms had succeeded and she had allowed the private sector to flourish. Now the world she left us has fallen apart, and her deregulation of finance in particular seems like a ruinous blunder. Tony Blair and Gordon Brown could once plausibly claim to have kept the dynamism Thatcher unleashed but brought a tolerance and a respect for public service the Tories could never have countenanced. Now that the financial system Labour relied on to provide the tax revenues for social reform has crashed, the centre-left's old maps are useless as well.

Thatcher's Enterprise Society and Blair's Cool Britannia are lost worlds The promises both parties offered to those who "worked hard and played by the rules" of rising living standards, a secure retirement and a better life for their children sound empty. Millions are living thwarted lives of quiet desperation, and cannot see a way to escape them.

 An ‘Underclass’ rebellion?, by Libby T, from Harry's place http://hurryupharry.org 10/08/2011

We have been told by a phalanx of left-wing pundits that these riots are a symptom of the ‘underclass’ lashing out against a society that excludes them by offering no opportunities to escape from their ’situations’.

The truth is much scarier than that and indicates how much the moral fabric of this country is torn and frayed. Included in the many in court today are, according to The Mirror, a primary school teacher and a someone who completed an ICT B-Tech at Hackney Community College and was due to have an interview for an apprenticeship on Tuesday. Another was due to start a college course in September. The Telegraphreports on other cases which include a university student, an army recruit, a forklift operator and – unbelievably – a youth social worker.

Just how were these people – a cross section of society if there ever was one – “socially excluded”? None were “unemployed”. All had opportunities there for the grabbing. But instead of grabbing opportunities offered them, they chose to smash-and-grab hi-tech gear and flashy clothing through shattered windows on the High Street.

The truth is that the spoilt youth of Britain – including the poorest and most ‘excluded’ – still have more care, comfort and opportunity than 90% of the planet. It’s time we stopped helping them to feel aggrieved and started emphasising the opportunities this society offers to those who are prepared to meet it half way, unlike the examples above who squandered what they had before them for a free PlayStation of pair of trainers.

Opportunity is there for the grabbing. And you don’t even have to smash anything – except your own sense of entitlement.

Why were immigrants defending their shops and homes against looters and rioters? Because those who haven’t grown up in this country still have the connection between work, sacrifice and initiative, and property and success. Those who weren’t born in this country know what it means to struggle to make a place for yourself in this world. They weren’t ready to stand idly by and watch people with nothing but nihilism take it away.

They are worth more to Britain than home-grown university students and social workers who thinks looting a shop is the way forward.

London riots: Absent fathers have a lot to answer for, by Christina Odone, The Telegraph 09/11/2011

Here are three numbers to bear in mind when talking of the riots: 8 billion (pounds spent by social services each year on children and young people); 3.5 million (children from a broken home); and one fifth (school leavers who are illiterate).

Given that the £8 billion spent by social services on children and young people is a significant increase on the amount they spent, say, five years ago, talk of cuts triggering the riots makes no sense. Even when Labour Governments increased spending on social security, the results were hardly encouraging: the population of young offenders didn’t shrink, it increased. So did drug and alcohol addiction among the young.

But let’s look at the second number. A large and increasing number of youngsters are brought up without dads. The majority of rioters are gang members whose only loyalty is to the group and whose only authority figure is the toughest of the bunch. Like the overwhelming majority of youth offenders behind bars, these gang members have one thing in common: no father at home.

When the journalist Harriet Sergeant spent a year talking with gang members in the inner city, she discovered youngsters without male role models. Their notion of family life was chaotic and conflicted. Mother lived alone or with a succession of men. Work was something losers did – much better and more immediate financial reward came from milking the benefits system. Schooling offered no escape: illiteracy was ride, with most children leaving primary school unable to read or write, let alone do simple sums.

The commentariat won’t like it, but rioters would not stop in their tracks if their local authority were to reinstate their library. They would, however, feel very differently about life and about themselves if their father were to spend time with them, cheer them on to do better, and warn them about bad friends and dangerous substances.

'Riots Reveal the Decay of British Society', Spiegel Online 10/08/2011

Search for Explanations

The rioting was sparked by the fatal shooting by police of a 29-year-old black man, Mark Duggan, in the London area of Tottenham on Saturday under disputed circumstances. A loaded handgun was recovered from the scene, but the Independent Police Complaints Commission said Tuesday there was no evidence that Duggan had fired on police before he was shot. An inquest into his death began Tuesday, but it is expected to take months to reach a conclusion.

Observers have come up with a myriad of explanations for the wave of violence. The initial rioting on Saturday appears to have been at least partially motivated by long-simmering resentment among the black community at heavy-handed policing. But the people involved in rioting since then have been white and Asian as well as black. Rising social exclusion, high youth unemployment and inequality has also been blamed, especially as the British government has recently announced far-reaching austerity measures.

But there also seems to be an element of recreational rioting and a desire to challenge the authorities. "Come join the fun!" shouted one youth in Hackney amid unrest there, the Associated Press reported. Garry Shewan of Greater Manchester police was also skeptical about the rioters' motives. "These people have nothing to protest against," he said. "There is no sense of injustice or any spark that has led to this."

On Wednesday, German commentators try to explain the wave of violence.

The center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung writes:

"Few other cities offer the kind of concentrated luxury for anyone who can afford it that London has. … The crisis isn't even palpable to people moving in wealthy circles. And it's not only the economic turbulence that has been largely unfelt by the super-rich, but also the effects of the brutal savings plan that Cameron's liberal-conservative government has prescribed. In other parts of the country, some can no longer afford the mortgages on their homes, but the prices of penthouse apartments in Knightsbridge or Kensington are rising sharply."

"This is the background against which one must view the riots that are taking place all across socio-economically depressed areas of London and the country. Anyone who says that they came as a surprise is denying reality. Behind the glittering facade that Britain presents, so much pent-up irritation, resentment and anger has built up that all it took was a spark to trigger an explosion."

"It is no coincidence that intelligent observers are drawing parallels between the popular uprisings taking place in the Arab spring and the street battles of this London summer. The British teens, with their hooded tops may be the citizens of a functioning democracy which is proud of being the world's oldest. But elections mean nothing to them and will not do anything to change their personal situation. The prospects of these youth in London are as dismal as those of young people in Cairo or Sana'a: They need unemployment benefits, odd jobs, state handouts and perhaps a bit of petty crime to stay afloat. The message to the British underclass couldn't be any clearer: Born poor, you will remain poor and that naturally also applies to your children and grandchildren. Your chances of winning the lottery are greater than breaking out of your class."

"In no other country in Europe is inequality as cemented in society as in the United Kingdom. Today, as in the past, a person's name, family and place of birth is decisive when it comes to establishing a career. Regardless whether a person is a politician, executive or journalist, they all went to the same schools, studied the same subjects and speak the same refined English they were taught by their parents."

"The riots are in no way a purely British problem. There is social distress all across Europe, as hard-up countries are forced to scrimp and save. And there are teenagers and 20-somethings all over who will be forced to assume a mountain of debt that has been carelessly accumulated by the postwar generation. They are already being referred to as the Lost Generation. The rioting youth in London are the ugly flip side of this generation. But they all feel lost, regardless of where they are in Europe."

How America turned poverty into a crime, by Barbara Ehrenreich, Salon.com 09/11/2011

How have the already-poor attempted to cope with their worsening economic situation? One obvious way is to cut back on health care. The New York Times reported in 2009 that one-third of Americans could no longer afford to comply with their prescriptions and that there had been a sizable drop in the use of medical care. Others, including members of my extended family, have given up their health insurance.

Food is another expenditure that has proved vulnerable to hard times, with the rural poor turning increasingly to "food auctions," which offer items that may be past their sell-by dates. And for those who like their meat fresh, there's the option of urban hunting. In Racine, Wisconsin, a 51-year-old laid-off mechanic told me he was supplementing his diet by "shooting squirrels and rabbits and eating them stewed, baked, and grilled." In Detroit, where the wildlife population has mounted as the human population ebbs, a retired truck driver was doing a brisk business in raccoon carcasses, which he recommends marinating with vinegar and spices.

The most common coping strategy, though, is simply to increase the number of paying people per square foot of dwelling space -- by doubling up or renting to couch-surfers.

It's hard to get firm numbers on overcrowding, because no one likes to acknowledge it to census-takers, journalists, or anyone else who might be remotely connected to the authorities.

In Los Angeles, housing expert Peter Dreier says that "people who've lost their jobs, or at least their second jobs, cope by doubling or tripling up in overcrowded apartments, or by paying 50 or 60 or even 70 percent of their incomes in rent." According to a community organizer in Alexandria, Virginia, the standard apartment in a complex occupied largely by day laborers has two bedrooms, each containing an entire family of up to five people, plus an additional person laying claim to the couch.

No one could call suicide a "coping strategy," but it is one way some people have responded to job loss and debt. There are no national statistics linking suicide to economic hard times, but the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline reported more than a four-fold increase in call volume between 2007 and 2009, and regions with particularly high unemployment, like Elkhart, Indiana, have seen troubling spikes in their suicide rates. Foreclosure is often the trigger for suicide -- or, worse, murder-suicides that destroy entire families.