Word, Sounds

1. That word is Depression, with a big D. The sound you don't hear is is the sound of the other shoes falling. The silence is due to the shoes not yet hitting bottom.

2. Move over Iceland, make room for Ireland. Move over Ireland, make room for Britain. Move over Britain, make room for Belgium, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Greece, Spain, Ukraine, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, France, Germany. Move over Europe, make room for Russia. Move over Russia, make room for Korea, Taiwan, Thailand. Move over Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, make room for Japan. Move over all, make lots of room for China. Move over China, make room for Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia and Algeria, Kuwait, Iran. Duck everybody, here comes the United States, entering a room in the only manner it knows, by crashing into it.

3. The other shoes falling from the feet of this millipede called capitalism:

a)increasing commercial real estate failures

b)collapse of export in Asia and Europe

c)abject failure of capital injections, asset and loan guarantees, special loan facilities to stem financial contraction

d)return of the "bad bank" rescue fantasy when in fact the UK, the US, Japan have already converted their central banks into bad banks, with their national treasuries as the co-signers

e) the beginning of the great capitalist flip, from stimulus to austerity-- as Ireland, Poland, and Russia attempt to cut budgets and attempt to restrain bailout support. In the US, this takes the form of the individual states reducing budgets which will, collectively, exceed the amounts provided by the national stimulus program to the states.

f)accelerating layoffs as industrial production shrivels

g)Extension by the US Federal Reserve of all the special term lending facilities, special funding vehicles and the uncapped currency swap lines that have been so ineffective.

4. Beware the Ides of February, Ben Bernanke. Chrysler and General Motors must submit their reorganization programs, including union givebacks by 17 February. The UAW can agree or not to anything. It will not matter. The workers themselves will not accept the concessions. The cheer the bourgeoisie voice: "Trillions for the banks, not one red cent for wages!" will be smothered mid-cry by more than strikes, more than picket lines, by the actual seizure of plants and property, the occupation of offices, and institutions.

S. Artesian

address all comments to: sartesian@earthlink.net