Global financial system implosion begins
- Thread starter Falcon
- Start date
Rob Ray
Weight is meaningless
Only insofar as the markets are unable to leverage crisis against concessions. In 2008 they were cap in hand and had no leverage (edit: though actually given the outcome they clearly still did - they had the Prime Minister chasing around to pull together a plan to save them and basically no-one went to jail). In 2024 they have all the leverage in the world, as we saw with Truss they can collapse a government nearly overnight.
CH1
"Red Guard"(NLYL)
Reuters put an interesting personal spin on Saturday's general elections in Ghana:
DABALA, Ghana, Dec 2 (Reuters) - After serving in Ghana's police force for over three decades, pensioner Emmanuel Amey-Wemegah had a clear retirement plan: invest part of his pension benefits in government bonds, complete the construction of his house, and buy a car. All was going according to plan until Jan. 6, 2023, when he received a call from his bank that Ghana was restructuring bonds he held.
"I started sweating," said Amey-Wemegah, 63, recalling the uncertainty and fear that gripped him and other bondholders.
The retired chief inspector is one of thousands of Ghanaian private, corporate and foreign investors whose investments in government securities were restructured in 2023 for Ghana to obtain a three-year, $3 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout to deal with its worst economic crisis in a generation.
As over 18 million Ghanaians prepare to vote in a presidential election on Dec. 7, Amey-Wemegah's plight reflects the economic anxiety gripping many in the West African country - the world's number two cocoa producer. Jobs, education, and infrastructure are also key issues.
During the current authorities' tenure, Ghana's economy buckled under the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, higher global interest rates and years of excessive borrowing.
Public debt rose from 63% of GDP in 2019 to 92.7% in 2022, the cedi currency suffered rapid depreciation, while inflation peaked above 54%, hitting consumers and forcing businesses to reduce operations.
The government's mountain of domestic debt meant that there was no alternative to an IMF deal without restructuring local holdings, something experts said was unprecedented in Africa.
A domestic debt restructuring launched in December 2022 required holders to exchange old bonds for new ones with lower yields and longer maturities.
"Some of us didn't realize exactly what the consequences were," Amey-Wemegah told Reuters in his Dabala home in southeastern Ghana, where citations for his meritorious service decorate the walls.
"They stole our money. I was sad and devastated," he said, describing how the restructuring squeezed his income.
DABALA, Ghana, Dec 2 (Reuters) - After serving in Ghana's police force for over three decades, pensioner Emmanuel Amey-Wemegah had a clear retirement plan: invest part of his pension benefits in government bonds, complete the construction of his house, and buy a car. All was going according to plan until Jan. 6, 2023, when he received a call from his bank that Ghana was restructuring bonds he held.
"I started sweating," said Amey-Wemegah, 63, recalling the uncertainty and fear that gripped him and other bondholders.
The retired chief inspector is one of thousands of Ghanaian private, corporate and foreign investors whose investments in government securities were restructured in 2023 for Ghana to obtain a three-year, $3 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout to deal with its worst economic crisis in a generation.
As over 18 million Ghanaians prepare to vote in a presidential election on Dec. 7, Amey-Wemegah's plight reflects the economic anxiety gripping many in the West African country - the world's number two cocoa producer. Jobs, education, and infrastructure are also key issues.
During the current authorities' tenure, Ghana's economy buckled under the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, higher global interest rates and years of excessive borrowing.
Public debt rose from 63% of GDP in 2019 to 92.7% in 2022, the cedi currency suffered rapid depreciation, while inflation peaked above 54%, hitting consumers and forcing businesses to reduce operations.
The government's mountain of domestic debt meant that there was no alternative to an IMF deal without restructuring local holdings, something experts said was unprecedented in Africa.
A domestic debt restructuring launched in December 2022 required holders to exchange old bonds for new ones with lower yields and longer maturities.
"Some of us didn't realize exactly what the consequences were," Amey-Wemegah told Reuters in his Dabala home in southeastern Ghana, where citations for his meritorious service decorate the walls.
"They stole our money. I was sad and devastated," he said, describing how the restructuring squeezed his income.
gosub
~#
Trump threat of 100% tariffs against Brics nations raises trade war fears
US president-elect threatens retaliation if emerging economies create new currency to rival US dollar
brixtonscot
Well-Known Member
“ In Titans of Capital, Peter Phillips, a political sociologist, poses three key research questions:
To what extent do the wealthy influence—or even dominate—decision making that affects all of us in society?
Who are the most powerful people?
And how does the accumulation of capital work?
Networks of wealthy individuals have evolved since the COVID-19 pandemic,
and Titans of Capital shows how the financial investments of transnational elites threaten human rights and the future of the planet.
Private capital investments serve as the primary operating funds for international arms sales, private prisons, and other socially negative activities.
These investments fuel the continued use of carbon-based energy leading to amplified global warming and climate change.
Military spending is a critical component of continued wealth concentration and political power in the world. Spending on arms and intelligence is a required aspect of maintaining global power and control.
Dealing with Russia, China, Iran and other “rogue” states is a continuing agenda for agents of the world power elites. Propaganda machines in Western capitalist governments serve to protect elite wealth by promoting military conflicts to open new regions for economic investment.
Phillips warns that while continued concentration of global capital increases the profits enjoyed by the global economy’s “Titans” , also increases global inequality, starvation, and civil unrest, threatening the lives of the hundreds of millions of people living in extreme poverty.
It is imperative to ask how we can reverse the concentration of Titan wealth and revitalize grassroots democracy unbridled by extreme wealth.
Identifying 117 global Titans by name and exposing the networks and interests that unite them provides readers opposed to militarism and committed to economic equality with crucial tools to directly engage the power elite who endanger life on earth.”
This Is Revolution podcast
To what extent do the wealthy influence—or even dominate—decision making that affects all of us in society?
Who are the most powerful people?
And how does the accumulation of capital work?
Networks of wealthy individuals have evolved since the COVID-19 pandemic,
and Titans of Capital shows how the financial investments of transnational elites threaten human rights and the future of the planet.
Private capital investments serve as the primary operating funds for international arms sales, private prisons, and other socially negative activities.
These investments fuel the continued use of carbon-based energy leading to amplified global warming and climate change.
Military spending is a critical component of continued wealth concentration and political power in the world. Spending on arms and intelligence is a required aspect of maintaining global power and control.
Dealing with Russia, China, Iran and other “rogue” states is a continuing agenda for agents of the world power elites. Propaganda machines in Western capitalist governments serve to protect elite wealth by promoting military conflicts to open new regions for economic investment.
Phillips warns that while continued concentration of global capital increases the profits enjoyed by the global economy’s “Titans” , also increases global inequality, starvation, and civil unrest, threatening the lives of the hundreds of millions of people living in extreme poverty.
It is imperative to ask how we can reverse the concentration of Titan wealth and revitalize grassroots democracy unbridled by extreme wealth.
Identifying 117 global Titans by name and exposing the networks and interests that unite them provides readers opposed to militarism and committed to economic equality with crucial tools to directly engage the power elite who endanger life on earth.”
This Is Revolution podcast
Now being compared to the 1930s
Global Economy Braces for 1930s-Style Unilateralism
Bloomberg 04/01/25 https://archive.ph/gsPyB
Where the next financial crisis could emerge
FT. January 4 2025 https://archive.is/zzYRT
Paywall busting link https://archive.ph/9c9Fn
Going back to this article from November.
Afterburners on zooming sovereign debt supply
and this from February
The QE theory of everything
New Statesman. Feb 2024 https://archive.ph/z7HwI
The Federal Reserve, and to a lesser extent the Bank of England, are doing Quantitative Tightening (the opposite of easing). The yield or interest is inverse to the price, as the BoE dumps treasuries the price drops and the yield increases.
Austerity in the current polycrisis is daft if not suicidal.
How British politics is mirroring the failings of Soviet socialism
Britain is repeating the mistakes of Soviet socialism, despite appearing its ideological opposite, argues Abby Innes in her new book.
www.lse.ac.uk
The independent central bank should be politely asked to stop tightening. (Pie in the sky - wealth tax, enforce Unexplained Wealth Orders etc etc)
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