About Me 0083: Making Money Secrets

The dire warning from the Telegraph concerns the deepening of political integration of Europe, to include a fiscal structure tying the monetary Zone together with a central taxation authority. This from a British oracle who brings up the specter of Empire, the English word for Reich. I might also add that the Germans had a Kaiser, which is a variant on Caesar, who turned the Roman Republic into an Empire by becoming Imperator for Life. This is also from a subject of the completely liquidated former British Empire.

What you have in Europe, is the exact opposite of the policies that the British Crown has pursued for its exclusive benefit for centuries. Following the example of and at the instance of the United States, The United Nations with its commensurate global agencies, including the IMF and The World Bank began the process of nation building, under the dominance of the US and its allies. The Atlantic Charter and its signatories express a declaration of intent for the post WWII social order. The amalgamation of the various core and now periphery nation states of Europe, into a more perfect union, has been a gradual process. It seems it is about to cross another one of those bright lines, one of political integration through submission to a centralized taxation. It is not enough to have an easy breezey consumer experience with the Euro, the common currency is leading to some now obvious needs to further political integration to a state of affairs beyond the mere contractual where the Euro is a service provided by a vendor that you can fire at will.

Abraham Lincoln expressed this understanding in his first inaugural speech. The relation of government with its constituent states as in America, is different than a business arrangement of parties brought together in an association via a contract. A government is a perpetual state of human affairs, that does not provide for its liquidation, otherwise, it would not be sovereign unto to itself. If Europe is to have a Eurozone, it will have to expand into the full capacities of nation, just a nation of states, and not a nation state. This will include a central taxing authority and the ability to redistribute tax revenues as needed throughout the nation. Even if it goes from Germany to Greece. The bankers alienation of national assets aside for the moment. Just as the American Articles of Confederation were too weak to produce a proper government that could fully function, that is, finance public projects and pay its debts, the common currency is not enough due to economic integration via world capitalism. Commensurate political integration to allow states to function in the world capital markets is now required to enjoy the efficiencies that a common currency brings. One structural change requires others, so that the whole can function, the whole being, the capital markets and the states of the emerging European Nation.

It wasn’t until the financial crashes in an earlier Europe, forged an alliance of the Crown and the Merchants of England. It was apparent to the financier and merchant, Thomas Gresham for England to be more powerful and he wealthier, his kingdom would have to decouple from the power of Amsterdam.

From “THE LONG 20TH CENTURY” BY GIOVANNI ARRIGHI, 2010 EDITION: P.195…”Gresham began building a bourse in London in imitation of Antwerp’s stock and commodity exchanges with the declared intent of making England independent of foreign ‘nations’ both in trade and credit.”

Upon completion of this task, he requested that Queen Elizabeth not use any strangers or foreigners, but her loyal subjects, she complied and named it the Royal Exchange.

“It took decades before the Royal Exchange could actually satisfy the financial needs of the English government, and it took more than 2 centuries before London could rival Amsterdam as a central money market of the European world economy. But the stabilization of the Pound in 1560-61 and the subsequent establishment of the Royal Exchange, to paraphrase Max Weber, marked the birth of a new kind of ‘memorable alliance’ between the power of money and the power of the gun. It marked the beginning of nationalism in high finance.”

And English nationalism, now jealousy at the growing political integration of Europe into a United States like continental power, will of course relegate England to a permanent diminutive status in global affairs, monetary and otherwise.

The latest revelation from Wikileaks is not a cable that uncovers a country’s well hidden secrets, but is rather a cleverly put together ad parodying the infamous MasterCard commercials, called “What Does it Cost to Change the World?”

In it, the price of Julian Assange’s legal battles, the price incurred by his house arrest, and the amount of money in lost donations are all pitted against the priceless act of “watching the world change as a result of your work.”

The video is, needless to say, impeccably put together, and both the concept and message are strong. The ad, despite having been available online for over a week, has only just caused some ripples in the Egyptian blogosphere

The imagery used in the video is one of the most gruesome and fatal battles that took place between protesters and the Egyptian riot police, on Kasr al Nil Bridge, where many people were brutally run down or shot.

The use of this scene has struck a nerve both with Egyptian activists and with their supporters, questioning Wikileaks decision to take a certain amount of credit for an uprising that was long in the making, pushed forward by an inordinate amount of people who may have possibly never even heard of Wikileaks.

Jillian York, the Director of International Freedom of Expression at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, says on Twitter:

I would like the Wikileaks ad a lot more if it didn’t seem like Assange was taking credit for the Arab Spring…

On the flip side, it could be said that the use of imagery from the Egyptian uprising is simply symbolic of the kind of effect Wikileaks has had on the world, and no one can deny that it has had an effect. Asma S asks on Twitter,

Is Wikileaks taking credit for the revolution in Egypt? or is everyone just exaggerating?

The video is open to interpretation – are they implying that Wikileaks caused the Egyptian uprising? Or are they simply using it as an image that represents what Wikileaks is capable of doing, because it is so easily identifiable in people’s minds? Watch the video below and let us know what you think.

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Friday, July 29, 2011

Making Money Secrets

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