CONNED BY CAPITALISM

One of the defences of capitalism that socialists often encounter is that capitalism is an extremely complex system and workers need clever capitalists to run this sophisticated system. "Some of the world's biggest banks have revealed they are victims of an alleged fraud which has lost $50bn (£33bn). Bernard Madoff has been charged with fraud in what is being described as one of the biggest-ever such cases. Among the banks which have been hit are Britain's HSBC and RBS, Spain's Santander and France's BNP Paribas. One of the City's best-known fund managers has criticised US financial regulators for failing to detect the alleged fraud. Nicola Horlick, boss of Bramdean investments, told the BBC: "I think now it is very difficult for people to invest in things that are meant to be regulated in America, because they have fallen down on the job." "This is the biggest financial scandal, probably in the history of the markets - $50bn is a huge amount of money," she said. " (BBC News, 15 December) RD
So all those wise capitalists who know all about markets and investments haven't a clue about capitalism after all. Maybe socialists have a point then?

we don't need no edookashun

The report confirmed what official statistics already indicate: that children from deprived backgrounds tend to do worse at school .

By analysing a long-term study of 14,000 young people in England, it found that youngsters in certain neighbourhoods were less likely to stay on in full time education after the age of 16.
The areas with the lowest educational aspirations, termed "low horizons" by the researchers, were characterised as deprived, close-knit cohesive communities with high levels of social housing and a history of economic decline.
The areas pinpointed by researchers were mainly those formerly dominated by heavy industry, often in the north of England. However there were also clusters of neighbourhoods in isolated rural areas of East Anglia and the west country.

An analysis of the 2008 GCSE results showed that only one in six white boys who are entitled to free school meals obtained the government's benchmark of five good GCSEs.

LET THEM EAT CHEESE

A woman begs for money near a kiosk selling lottery tickets, in Rome

"Let them eat cheese. With data showing a growing underclass and food lines now in most major cities, the Italian government has come up with a way to help the needy while propping up one of its iconic industries. Agriculture Minister Luca Zaia has committed to buying 100,000 66-pound (30-kilogram) wheels each of Parmigiano Reggiano and the very similar Grana Padano cheese to donate to the needy." (Yahoo News, 11 December) RD

CAPITALISM EYES THE MOON

Star gazers look at the crescent moon below Jupiter

"Nearly 40 years after the U.S. flag was planted on the moon, a global rush to the final frontier has some pondering property rights out there. India, Japan and China are now circling the moon with their respective spacecraft – to be joined next year by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. Then there's the Google Lunar X Prize, a $30 million competition for the first privately funded team to send a robot to the moon, travel some 1,640 feet (500 meters) and transmit video, images and data back to Earth. The legal profession sees a brief in the making."

(Yahoo News, 10 December) RD

HAPPY NEW YEAR?

"U.S. foreclosure filings climbed 28 percent in November from a year earlier and a brewing “storm” of new defaults and job losses may force 1 million homeowners from their properties next year, RealtyTrac Inc. said. A total of 259,085 properties got a default notice, were warned of a pending auction or were foreclosed on last month, the seller of default data said in a report today. That’s the fewest since June. Filings fell 7 percent from October as state laws and lender programs designed to delay the foreclosure process allowed delinquent borrowers to stay in their homes. “We’re going to see a pretty significant storm next year,” Rick Sharga, executive vice president of marketing for Irvine, California-based RealtyTrac, said in an interview. “There are two or three clouds that suggest a pretty heavy downpour.”
(Bloomberg.com, 11 December) RD

CAPITALISM IN ACTION

A malnourished boy at a feeding center in southern Ethiopia.

"The goal of halving the number of hungry people in the world by 2015 is becoming ever more elusive, with 40 million more people plunged into chronic hunger this year, the UN food agency's chief said on Tuesday. "For many countries, the world goal of reducing hunger by half is becoming increasingly difficult to achieve," Food and Agriculture Organisation Director-General Jacques Diouf told a news conference, referring to one of the Millennium Development Goals set in 2000. "This sad reality should not be acceptable at the dawn of the 21st century," the FAO chief said, adding: "Even the objective of cutting by half the number of hungry by 2015 is morally unacceptable." The global food crisis has added 40 million more people to the ranks of the hungry this year, taking the estimated number to 963 million, he said, unveiling the Rome-based agency's annual report on world food insecurity." (Yahoo News, 9 December) RD

THIS IS SPORT?

"Zaheer Khan took two wickets including Kevin Pietersen for four and Paul Collingwood received an awful decision. A massive security presence and a muted, sparse crowd looked on. Emotions remain raw in India following the 26 November terror attacks in Mumbai, but the ability of administrators to salvage this Test series has been one of the major positives in the subcontinent since then. That being the case, it was disappointing to see the spectators outnumbered by the ranks of Black Cat army commandos and policemen employed to ensure both teams' security. Nothing was left to chance, with snipers in position and special netting stretched across the front of the players' balcony." (BBC News, 11 December) RD

THIS IS DEMOCRACY?

"The Govenor of Illinois was arrested yesterday for allegedly trying to sell Barrack Obama's vacated US Senate seat to the highest bidder. The arrest of Rod Blagojevich and John Harris, his chief of staff, cast a light on the home state of the President-elect, which has a history of endemic corruption. ... Mr Blagojevish is the fifth Illinois govenor to be indicted for white-collar crime since 1960. Three of his predecessors were convicted." (Times, 10 December) RD

BEGGING FOR WORK

Paul Nawracki, jobless since February, stands on New York corners with a sign
announcing his job search.

"Paul Nawrocki says he's beyond the point where he cares about humiliation. That's why he weekly takes a 90-minute train ride to New York, where he walks the streets wearing a sandwich board that advertises his plight: The former toy-industry executive needs a job. "Almost homeless," reads the sign. "Looking for employment. Very experienced operations and administration manager." Wearing a suit and tie under the sign, Nawrocki -- who was in the toy industry 36 years before being laid off in February -- stands on Manhattan corners for hours, hoping to pass resumes to interested passers-by." (CNN.com, 6 December) RD

US "LIBERATORS" IN IRAQ

"Manslaughter charges have been laid against five Blackwater security guards alleged to have used machine guns and grenade launchers against unarmed Iraqi citizens, including children, last year. The carnage in Nisoor Square, Baghdad, on September 16, 2007, left 17 people dead and prompted global outrage against the role of American security contractors operating beyond the reach of the law in Iraq." (Times, 9 December) RD

This is what Marx wrote about the credit system, all those years ago...

The credit system reproduces a new financial aristocracy, a new kind of parasite in the guise of company promoters,
speculators and merely nominal directors; an entire system of swindling and cheating with respect to the promotion of
companies, issues of shares and share dealings.

The credit system...accelerates the material development of the productive forces and the creation of the world
market, which it is the historical task of the capitalist mode of production to bring to a certain level of development, as
material foundations for the new form of production. At the same time, credit accelerates the violent outbreaks of this
contradiction, crises, and with these the elements of dissolution of the old mode of production.

The credit system has a dual character immanent in it: on the one hand it develops the motive of capitalist production,
enrichment by the exploitation of other’s labour, into the purest and most colossal form of gambling and swindling, and
restricts ever more the already small number of exploiters of social wealth; on the other hand however it constitutes
the form of transition towards a new mode of production.

Capital Volume III - Chapter 27 - The Role of Credit in Capitalist Production

CAPITALISM IN INDIA

A woman tried to sell incense to a passenger on Saturday in Mumbai, where the
wealthy have a new sense of their vulnerability

"In India’s city of gold, the distinction between public and private can be bewildering. For members of the working class, who often cannot afford housing, public sidewalks become living rooms. In the morning, commuters from gated communities in the suburbs pass children brushing their teeth at the edge of the street. Women are forced to relieve themselves on the railway tracks, usually in the dark, for the sake of modesty. The poor sometimes sleep on highway medians, and it is not unheard of for drunken drivers to mow them down. Mumbai has been roiled by government neglect for years. Its commuter trains are so overcrowded that 4,000 riders die every year on average, some pushed from trains in the fierce competition to get on and off." (New York Times, 6 December) RD

CAPITALISM IN ACTION

On the Ivory Coast, one of the world's largest producers of palm oil, a man
empties a bag of palm grains on a palm oil plantation

"History may be repeating itself. Until the mid-20th century, many European countries grew rich on the resources of their colonies. Now, countries including China, Kuwait and Sweden are snapping up vast tracts of agricultural land in poorer nations, especially in Africa, to grow bio fuels and food for themselves. The land grabs have sparked accusations of neo-colonialism and fears that the practice could worsen poverty." (New Scientist, 4 December) RD

ANOTHER LABOUR FAILURE

"Social deprivation, child poverty and long-term reliance on benefits in parts of Britain are not alleviated or are increasing a decade after Labour pledged reforms to tackle them, a report shows. Many of the poorest households are not being reached by government initiatives to tackle deprivation, with most key measures now making no progress. Of the 56 poverty indicators tracked by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, including the number of children in low-income families, young adults unemployed and children excluded from school, three quarters have stalled or are getting worse." (Times,8 December). RD

more pay cuts loom

About 3% of the UK's workforce have seen basic pay fall in the past year and those in the construction sector have been hardest hit, it said, with 10% in that industry seeing pay fall according to this report .Thousands of workers have negotiated lower pay packets hoping to avoid redundancy.
"We're predicting next year that we're going to see more organisations making more and more redundancies." said the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development

MORE PRESS TRIVIA

We live in a society where millions starve for lack of food, millions die for lack of clean water and millions face poverty and the threat of war. So in this crisis torn society what does the great British Press and a so-called "think-tank" report on? "More than a third of British adults believe the virgin birth is historical fact, according to the results of a survey published today. In a telephone poll of 1,005 adults, commissioned by the thinktank Theos, 34% of those interviewed agreed that the statement "Jesus was born to a virgin called Mary" was historically accurate, while 32% considered it fictional." (Guardian, 8 December)
That only comes to 66%, so hopefully the other 34% told Theos to piss off! RD

DESPERATE TIMES

With the US automobile industry in recession many desperate ideas are being considered - the Keynesian notion of government intervention - the increase of pensions and welfare payments to stimulate demand, but here is the most extraordinary "solution" of all - prayer! "Pentecostal Bishop Charles H. Ellis III, who shared the sanctuary’s wide altar with three gleaming sport utility vehicles, closed his sermon by leading the choir and congregants in a boisterous rendition of the gospel singer Myrna Summers’s “We’re Gonna Make It” as hundreds of worshipers who work in the automotive industry — union assemblers, executives, car salesmen — gathered six deep around the altar to have their foreheads anointed with consecrated oil. While Congress debated aid to the foundering Detroit automakers Sunday, many here whose future hinges on the decision turned to prayer. Outside the Corpus Christi Catholic Church, a sign beckoned passers-by inside to hear about “God’s bailout plan". (New York Times, 7 December)

The sad truth is that despite the desperate prayers of Detroit workers capitalism is a system based on slumps and booms and no amount of hymn singing is going to save their jobs. RD

the true xmas spirit

From the BBC

Excessive spending at Christmas can result in people experiencing a miserable time afterwards when debts have to be repaid .There is a feeling of uncomfortable tension derived from experiencing conflicting thoughts - "Can I really afford this?" - and the need to satisfy one's generosity - "It will really make someone happier at Christmas if I buy it".

This feeling of uncomfortable tension as a result of conflicting thoughts and actions has been explained as "cognitive dissonance" by psychologists.
This is particularly relevant in festive shopping when personal finances are being stretched.
At Christmas, people are challenged with what can be considered to be a moral form of cognitive dissonance, when people are torn between balancing their finances and the wish to make others and themselves happier - which is the societal expectation of what Christmas is really all about.
Knowing they may well not be able to afford what they are buying, people enter into transactions encouraged by heavy marketing influences. And they will try to reduce their internal psychological conflict in order to justify their actions.
They will explain that their happiness and that of others is more important than their debt, that others cannot do without when people around them are receiving and being happy and that, above all, Christmas is a time for giving and sharing and the spirit of Christmas should be encouraged in a time of nationwide gloom. Such actions are typical responses when people are experiencing dissonance. Dissonance is often strong when we believe something about ourselves and then do something against that belief. If I believe I am good - managing my finances to reduce debt - but do something bad - spend freely at Christmas - then the discomfort I feel as a result is cognitive dissonance. The resultant effect can be extremely negative in the long term when the reality of the dissonance is exposed.

Those people who enter into a festive spending spree knowing they really are stretched financially display an inability to rationalise and explain away the conflict. In some ways they go into denial and may wish to ignore the issue until a later date, but pay heavy personal consequences.

It's a Christmas bubble - and bubbles burst.

If people do lose control of their spending and shop in denial there can be a massive loss of confidence and self-esteem. People can even slip into a mild or chronic depression due to the negative financial consequences and loss of self respect. Once people wake up from their denial, especially if they don't have a support network and feel isolated, they can become very low psychologically and emotionally. People can end up with problems in other areas of their lives, like relationships and work. And in January or February when the bills come in, those people who wanted to know them when they were being generous at Christmas won't be around any more, and they will be left to sort things out on their own

Not legal eagles but legal vultures

Two solicitors who took millions of pounds from compensation payouts given to sick miners have been struck off.
The Solicitors' Disciplinary Tribunal heard the men acted "unacceptably" by charging clients even though the government was paying their fees.
Beresford, 58, said last year to be Britain's highest-earning solicitor, and Smith, 52, made millions of pounds from personal injury claims for miners under the government's coal health compensation scheme. Tribunal chairman David Leverton said: "If ever there was a group of persons who needed the full care and attention from solicitors, it was these miners. Mr Beresford described himself as an entrepreneur. Unfortunately, his attitude allowed himself and Mr Smith to put commercial goals before his clients' best interests."
The lawyers were also accused of not giving adequate advice and entering into contingency fee deals against their clients' best interests.The tribunal heard that up to 30% of a miner's damages could be deducted by Beresfords. In one case, the firm deducted a "success fee" from the widow of a miner, leaving her with a total payout of just £217.73, the tribunal heard.
Beresford and Smith's joint earnings went from more than £182,000 in 2000 to £23,273,256 in 2006.
Perhaps , Socialist Courier wouldn't go as far as Shakespeare's "The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers" but we are sorely tempted .

A MURDEROUS SYSTEM

"As dawn broke over the desert, the body was still hanging beneath the overpass, having been suspended from it - decapitated and dangling by a rope tied around the armpits - at 4.30am. The sun rose ... and it was still there three hours later, swaying, headless, in the cold early morning wind which kicks up dust and cuts like a scalpel through the Mexican border town of Ciudad Juarez, the most dangerous city in the Americas, and probably in the world. This macabre murder takes the number of executions in the city of 2m people to about 1,300 this year, and the toll across Mexico - with most of the killing concentrated along the border with the US to about 4,300. The body count is the result of feral slaughter among Mexican narco cartels fighting for the plazas, or corridors, of narcotics flowing into the US."
(Observer Magazine, 7 December) RD