We will end this week's discussion of global economic policy and what it looks like locally talking again about the move by global Wall Street to take all banking online and closing brick and mortar banks----starting of course in CALIFORNIA.

We want to make two points from our posts yesterday---first, Elizabeth Warren is KNOWN to be a specialist in BANKRUPTCY LAW and indeed while in Texas and then at Harvard she was central in writing corporate bankruptcy law being BFF with Romney the corporate bankruptcy raider and Trump the corporate bankruptcy KING.   Global Wall Street and national media never mention this but make Warren the populist leader of the 99%.  Want to bet Warren was not tied to writing RING FENCING FOR CORPORATE BANKRUPTCY?

While Ring Fencing policy used by left social progressives to protect CITIZENS AND TAXPAYERS from losing their tax revenue and having fraud and corruption kill social programs and projects-----of course global Wall Street corrupt that term when applying it to corporate profit-making.....it is used to skirt corporate debt and worker's benefits.


What is Ring Fencing?


The phrase “ring fencing” refers to steps taken to make a subsidiary “bankruptcy-proof” or “bankruptcy remote.” Ring fencing is supposed to shield the assets of the subsidiary from the bankruptcy of its parent or affiliates and allow the subsidiary to obtain or maintain a “standalone” credit rating substantially higher than the lower credit rating of its parent.


Below we see an article by ROOSEVELT INSTITUTE---that is the global 1% ONE WORLD ONE GOVERNANCE UNITED NATIONS group pretending to be left social progressive when they are representing the FDR side being that GLOBAL WALL STREET ROBBER BARON.  Here we see mention of Warren with the CFPB making it sound as if it will protect the 99% of citizens from bad financial practices.  Notice CFPB has not mentioned these several years of massive US Treasury bond fraud or the fact that private and public pensions have again been attached to these fraudulent bonds?  CFPB is built to protect one corporation's assets from fraud or trade violations by ANOTHER CORPORATION.

JUST AS IN 1990s ----this is how Clinton far-right Reagan neo-liberalism was made to sound left social progressive and it was all propaganda.  Again, GLOBAL IVY LEAGUE HARVARD does not hire as professors people creating populist laws.


'What Warren did with the CFPB'



Finance & WealthPolitics


How Elizabeth Warren Put Bankruptcy on the Progressive Map


By Roosevelt Institute | 09.15.11Share:
http://bit.ly/1Pb4AFDShe’s already had a knack for raising the profile of ignored but important issues, and the office of U.S. Senator can act as an even bigger megaphone.


Elizabeth Warren, who yesterday announced her candidacy for the Senate in Massachusetts, is best known as the inventor and rightful director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. In that role, and in appearances on The Daily Show, her disarming charisma — made up of equal parts moral commitment, intellectual firepower, and a sense that she’s listening as intently as she’s talking — became familiar to millions.


But I still think of Warren at least as much for a role she played earlier in the decade: bringing the issue of bankruptcy into the public debate, most notably in the Warren Reports, which she and some of her students and protégés at Harvard Law School set up as a subsection of Josh Marshall’s Talking Points Memo blog in 2005. The Warren Reports set bankruptcy reform, which passed Congress that year, in the context of middle class families’ struggles to stay afloat in the economy. It showed us how bankruptcy — the chance to start over after a financial disaster — is as essential a part of the social safety net as unemployment insurance or savings.


What Warren did with the CFPB — put forward a specific policy idea and watch it pass into law — is rare enough, given the American political system’s resistance to good ideas. But what Warren did with bankruptcy is even more impressive. She took an entire issue that had no political salience whatsoever and helped make it matter. Bankruptcy was a classic example of an issue that had no constituency in the world of narrow interest groups except for the credit card companies and banks, all big political donors, that wanted to make it much harder for people to declare bankruptcy and start over with manageable debts. Unions didn’t think it was important (it would affect their members, but not the unions themselves); anti-poverty groups were more focused on federal programs and most bankruptcies affected the working middle class, not the very poor; health care advocates knew that health crises were a leading cause of bankruptcies, but it was not their issue. A handful of bankruptcy lawyers pushed back, but they were plainly self-interested and no match for the credit card behemoths. Members of Congress, including many Democrats (especially those from states that you might see on the return address of a credit card solicitation), voted to tighten bankruptcy laws year after year before the bill finally passed, and rarely did they hear a protest from a constituent or an activist.



But Warren, her TPM blog, and her other activism helped put the issue on the radar for the emerging “netroots.” The most useful contribution from the online activists of the netroots has been to break that single-issue interest group model of progressive politics and look more comprehensively at everything that matters for the middle class and working poor in America as a whole. They don’t say, “That’s not my issue” if it’s important. Key netroots blogs of that period, such as Daily Kos and Mydd.com, picked up Warren’s message and began to blast Democrats who had voted for bankruptcy reform, and it was a major issue in Maryland Rep. Donna Edwards’ successful 2008 primary challenge to Rep. Al Wynn. The bill had passed by then, unfortunately, but at last the issue mattered. Reversing the changes to bankruptcy law reform is now a major progressive priority.


I assume that lots of Warren’s friends have asked her why she would want to bother being a senator. Until they become committee chairs after three or four terms, or unless they can wedge themselves into the position where they are the critical 60th or 50th vote on key legislation like Ben Nelson of Nebraska (the most conservative Democrat), each senator has very little clout. Former governors, accustomed to the limitless power of the executive, often chafe at the endless talk and indecision. But a very few Senators are able to have an impact far greater than their institutional clout because they ignore institutional power and treat the Senate as a platform for ideas. That’s what Paul Wellstone did at the peak of his career (although it took him a while to figure it out), or the great liberal figures of the 1980s and earlier, Howard Metzenbaum of Ohio and William Proxmire of Wisconsin. On the right, Jesse Helms did much the same thing. Because any senator can introduce any amendment at any time, and with a subcommittee she can hold hearings on almost anything, she can force debates that the American political process doesn’t want to have. Combine that with a good use of all the external platforms that are available to a person with the words “U.S. Senator” before his or her name, and it can become an enormous megaphone for what Warren did with bankruptcy and the CFPB: putting an issue or an idea on the agenda. And if she’s elected, she might show some of her colleagues that if they want to make a difference, they have to do more than sit around and vote in committee meetings.


Mark Schmitt is a Senior Fellow and Director of the Fellows Program at the Roosevelt Institute.

_________________________________________
Here is Stiglitz----leader of ROOSEVELT INSTITUTE----at the WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM FOR THE GLOBAL 1% backing MONEY-LESS SOCIETY.

Roosevelt Institute and Aspen Institute---with CLINTON INITIATIVE are behind all the United Nations protests against Trump and silent about the tremendous repression by CLINTON/BUSH/OBAMA and those global human capital distribution systems enslaving global labor pool to Foreign Economic Zones around the world.

These institutions work for the global 1% and their 2%---if they are marching for women or Muslims it is for that global 1% and their 2% ----our Arabic 1% are as enslaving and abusive of their Muslim 99% as Asian nations have been to their 99%.

THIS DIGITAL CURRENCY HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH FIGHTING CORRUPTION FOR GOODNESS SAKE---GLOBAL WALL STREET IS THAT SOURCE.

Who controls global internet, the technology, and oversight? WORLD BANK, NSA/INTERPOL/GLOBAL CORPORATIONS. Who drove this Robber Baron fleecing of America and US citizens of their personal wealth these few decades? Global Wall Street, global corporations, and their 5% pols and players. Stiglitz is STILL WORLD BANK.


Joseph Stiglitz: US Should Dump Cash And Move To Digital Currency


Written By: Ross Chainey January 18, 2017


India was the ‘test case’ for gong cashless, and it was so successful that the United States is next in the crosshairs. This isn’t about staving off corruption, but rather implementing Technocray. ⁃ TN EditorIndian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has already removed 86% of his country’s currency from circulation in an attempt to curb tax evasion, tackle corruption and shut down the shadow economy.


Should the US follow suit?


Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Prize-winning economist, thinks so. Phasing out currency and moving towards a digital economy would, over the long term, have “benefits that outweigh the cost,” the Columbia University professor said on day one of the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos.



Stiglitz was speaking in the session Ending Corruption alongside Mark Pieth from the Basel Institute of Governance and APCO Worldwide Founder and Executive Chairman Margery Kraus. Stiglitz and Pieth co-authored a report, Overcoming the Shadow Economy, in November last year.


Quantifying the scale of the problem, Stiglitz said: “You can put it into the context of one of the big issues being discussed in Davos this year – the backlash against globalization, the darker side of globalization … The lack of transparency in global financial markets, the secrecy havens that the Panama Papers exposed, just reinforced what we already knew … There is a global framework for both corruption and tax evasion and tax avoidance.



“The fact that you can hide ill-gotten gains so easily in these secrecy havens really provides incentives for people to engage in this activity as they can get the economic returns and then enjoy the benefits of those returns. If there were not these secrecy havens then the benefits from engaging in these kinds of illicit activity would be much diminished.”


One of the countries that has not done enough to fight corruption is the US, Stiglitz went on to say, and one remedy could be to phase out cash and embrace digital currencies.

“I believe very strongly that countries like the United States could and should move to a digital currency,” he said, “so that you would have the ability to trace this kind of corruption. There are important issues of privacy, cyber-security, but it would certainly have big advantages.”


Stiglitz is not the only Davos economist to make the case for a “less-cash” society. Harvard’s Kenneth Rogoff has argued for two decades that a society awash with cash contributes to the growth of the underground economy. Rogoff believes large-denomination bank notes, rarely used by ordinary people and businesses, should be phased out. “Cash facilitates crime because it is anonymous, and big bills are especially problematic because they are so easy to carry and conceal,” he says in this article.

_________________________________________
Here we have MODI----we spoke of India's Modi when we spoke of Gabbard and Haley as HINDI in US supporting MODI.  MODI makes no bones about being far-right wing global neo-liberal ----he is expanding Foreign Economic Zones inside India as fast as he can.  India is rebuilding its old CLASS SYSTEM with extreme wealth extreme poverty and these few decades of CLINTON/BUSH/OBAMA has seen those East Indian professionals some of the lowest paid in the world. 

India would not be a model for America.

India as China would be a good place for a money-less society because their population is so large and almost all of that population is poor----MONEY-LESS.

If we watch which US citizens tie themselves to DAVOS----to UNITED NATIONS----WORLD BANK ---we then know these people are global 1% and their 2%----or those pesky 5% players wanting to be MERCHANTS OF VENICE BUT NEVER WILL.

Modi is right------the global 1% and their 2% will have cash----will have gold and silver-----it will be the 99% in this money-less society.......

"It's correct that a 100 per cent cashless society is not possible. But why don't we make a beginning for a less-cash society in India?" Mr Modi added'.


India to become 'cashless society', PM Narendra Modi hints

'We can gradually move from a less-cash society to a cashless society'

• Samuel Osborne
• @SamuelOsborne93
• Sunday 27 November 2016 14:46 GMT

Indian prime minister Narendra Modi said his government understands how millions have been affected by the ban on 500 and 1,000 rupee notes, but used his monthly radio address to defend the policy Rob Stothard - WPA Pool/Getty Images



Indian prime minister Narendra Modi has called for the nation to become a cashless society.


Mr Modi urged his country's small traders and daily wage earners to embrace digital payments.
Speaking in his monthly address on national radio, Mr Modi said the government understands millions have been affected by the ban on 500 and 1,000 rupee notes, but defended the policy.


The move is an attempt to fill Mr Modi's election promise of curbing tax evasion and unaccounted wealth.


Indian people queue outside a bank as they wait to deposit and exchange 500 and 1000 rupee notes in Amritsar, India (Getty)"I want to tell my small merchant brothers and sisters, this is the chance for you to enter the digital world," Mr Modi said, according to a translation by Reuters.

He urged them to use mobile banking applications and credit-card swipe machines instead.
"It's correct that a 100 per cent cashless society is not possible. But why don't we make a beginning for a less-cash society in India?" Mr Modi added. 
"We can gradually move from a less-cash society to a cashless society."
________________________________________


WE THE PEOPLE THE 99% simply must know these MONEY-LESS policies are coming from WORLD BANK---DAVOS----and are global banking neo-liberal to understand any citizen or organization promoting them are ONE WORLD ONE GOVERNANCE GLOBAL 1%.
We hope our friends in INDIA are already fighting this----we know there is strong movements against neo-liberalism in India---please don't allow the far-right pretend this is LEFT MARXISM as they did with MAO'S GREAT LEAP FORWARD.



Worst of All Worlds' as Neoliberal BJP Wins India Elections in Landslide
Critics say victory of Hindu nationalist party and ascendancy of Narendra Modi put nation on perilous course

by
Jon Queally, staff writer


TRS adopting Modi’s neo-liberal policies: Brinda Karat

THE HANS INDIA |   May 20,2017 , 04:43 AM IST
   




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(File Image): CPI (M) politburo member Brinda Karat


​Hyderabad: CPI (M) politburo member Brinda Karat on Friday criticised the TRS-led State government in Telangana for its dismal record as far as distribution of lands to the tribal people under Forest Rights Act (FRA) are concerned. 


Speaking at the Meet-the-Press organised by the Telangana Working Journalists Forum (TWJF) here, Brinda Karat said the TRS government headed by Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao had been following the polices being pursued by Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led BJP government at the Centre. 


Expressing solidarity of her party with the farmers agitating for better price for chillies in Telangana, she said the apathy on the part of the State government in regard to release of pending wages to workers under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) reflected the attitude of the government. 


She said that restructuring the bank loans to the tune of Rs 72,000 crore to a single corporate house and providing additional loans was being encouraged by the Central government which was pursuing neoliberal 


liberal policies. “Waiving of farmers’ loans to the tune of Rs 75,000 crore was projected as sending a wrong message by the chairman of the NITI Ayog,” she said. 


Reiterating her party’s stand on the contentious triple talaq, Brinda Karat called it retrograde and obnoxious.

__________________________________________________
Here we have GABBARD----long-time far-right wing global Wall Street Clinton neo-liberal our national media allowed to simply pretend to FEEL THE LEFT SOCIAL PROGRESSIVE BERN-----she is indeed far-right wing and that is why she is on Trump's team.

When Bernie et al embrace Gabbard as part of OUR REVOLUTION---they are not talking about a revolution of WE THE PEOPLE----they are speaking to that 1960s bloodless revolution creating ONE WORLD ONE GOVERNANCE GLOBAL 1% RULE.

It is HAWAII that is bringing these BASIC INCOME----we are sure we will see CASHLESS SOCIETY -----all the time calling it LEFT MARXISM.


'By now, Gabbard has left any ambiguity about her religious beliefs behind. She identifies as a member of the Gaudiya Vaishnavism Sect of the Hindu faith.

It’s a faith she shares with India’s leader, Narendra Modi. But they share more than that— they share a hard-right political philosophy that is at odds with Gabbard’s perceived role as a liberal touchstone in the Democratic Party'.

Our OLD WORLD MERCHANTS OF VENICE GLOBAL 1% FREEMASONS are NOT religious---they simply use religion against WE THE PEOPLE THE 99%. So, we see MERCHANTS OF VENICE FREEMASONS are Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Muslim, and Hindi.....forgot Buddhist. The 99% wanting to protect their religions need to shake these global Wall Street players out of their leadership.


 This is how the 99% always gets into trouble---they look at a candidate and say----I'll vote for him/her because-----she's a woman----he's a Catholic----she's gay------he's a corporate executive-----NONE OF THAT tells us where they will stand on public policy---if they are tied to these global 1% groups they DO ANYTHING GLOBAL 1% TELL THEM.


Tulsi Gabbard Is Not Who You Think She Is

From homophobia to Islamophobia to cultism, she is no progressive's dream.By Eoin Higgins  |  November 22, 2016  |  9:12am


Photo by Thos Robinson/Getty Politics Features Tulsi Gabbard


To some progressives, the news Monday that Tulsi Gabbard was meeting with President-Elect Donald Trump for consideration of a position in his administration must have been confusing.


Gabbard’s February 2016 endorsement of Bernie Sanders’ quixotic run for the Democratic nomination for president involved publicly resigning her seat as DNC Vice Chair. Her name has been floated as a possible candidate for 2020. And at a glance, her positions seem in line with the liberal wing of her party.


But a deeper look at Gabbard’s political career shows that she is devoted to attaining power and to the perpetuation of extremist, fringe ideology. She adopts and sheds extremist positions at will, but one thing remains constant: her consistent embrace of hard-right politics.


The 35-year-old Congresswoman from Hawaii was raised in a politically powerful household. Her father, Mike Gabbard, is a well-known firebrand in Hawaiian politics— his most beloved issue is a virulent rejection of homosexuality and gay rights.


The younger Gabbard protested against a bill advocating civil unions during her tenure in the Hawaii Congress, holding up signs decrying the proposition. The bill eventually stalled.


Gabbard replied to a request for comment on her father’s connections with cult leader Chris Butler (more below) in 2004 with an oddly worded email accusing Honolulu Magazine of a homosexual conspiratorial attempt to discredit her father.


“I smell a skunk,” [Gabbard] wrote. “It’s clear to me that you’re acting as a conduit for The Honolulu Weekly and other homosexual extremist supporters of Ed Case.”


This political position held until 2012, when she made an about face and declared she supported gay rights— just in time for the election for Hawaii’s 2nd District. And that wasn’t the first time she had shed a piece of her past in order to make herself more palatable to voters.


Gabbard’s first marriage, to a man named Eduardo Tamayo, lasted from 2002 to 2006. Tamayo and Gabbard were both involved with a man named Chris Butler, the leader of a Hare Krishna spinoff called the Science of Identity Foundation that is located in Honolulu County.
The Hawaii Free Press notes that a number of Butler-connected Hawaiians have contributed to Gabbard and that her involvement with the cult is still an open question.


Gabbard has scrubbed all mention of her past with Butler’s cult, and with Tamayo, from the internet. The only evidence that is publicly available that Tamayo and Gabbard even know each other— excepting her Wikipedia page— is from anti-cult site Flashlight on Roaches. It’s grainy, but it does show the two together. It’s also the only known photo of Tamayo that is publicly available.



Today, Gabbard would prefer not to be known for her Butler-cult related past. The only way to find it is to dig deep into Hawaiian-centric newsletters and publications. But for those in Hawaii, it’s an omnipresent part of her political and social history. As the Honolulu Civil Beat reported on March 16, 2015:
The Gabbard family’s ties to Butler still hound her — in the hallways of the Hawaii State Capitol, on blogs of political observers, on pages of online discussion forums, and in commentary sections of various news sites, including Civil Beat’s.


Now, the mysterious world that’s been swirling around Gabbard all her life is coming under closer scrutiny as the 33-year-old congresswoman’s stature on the national stage steadily rises, and her views on national and international issues — whether she’s standing up for veterans or challenging President Barack Obama over his stance on the Islamic State — continue to draw the media spotlight.
By now, Gabbard has left any ambiguity about her religious beliefs behind. She identifies as a member of the Gaudiya Vaishnavism Sect of the Hindu faith.


It’s a faith she shares with India’s leader, Narendra Modi. But they share more than that— they share a hard-right political philosophy that is at odds with Gabbard’s perceived role as a liberal touchstone in the Democratic Party.


Modi, a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP, is well known in India for his hardline right wing politics. He was the governor of the state of Gujarat during riots in 2002 that killed over 2,000 Muslims. Modi has always skirted around his level of responsibility for the violence; on the one hand he can appeal to moderates by claiming ignorance, on the other his claims of ignorance are delivered with winks to the country’s more extremist right-wing elements.


Modi relies on Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, or RSS, for political backing. The BJP and RSS’s actions have been repressive and violent and involve a complete distortion of historical and material reality in order to maintain their control of the state.


The RSS-BJP alliance also uses the fears and prejudices of the majority Hindu Indian population against Muslims to ensure its hold on power. And those views are views that Gabbard shares with them— despite her framing of herself as a peaceful warrior.


A major part of Gabbard’s political story is her military service. Gabbard joined the Hawaiian National Guard in 2002 and served in Iraq in 2004. Since returning to the US, she has advocated for a less muscular and antagonistic US role in the world. As far as it goes, this is fine— she opposes US intervention in the Middle East, generally, and argues against the use of drone strikes and the NSA’s surveillance programs.


Gabbard’s relationship with Modi is well documented in Indian publications. Her admiration of the authoritarian leader is the subject of multiple interviews, where she consistently affirms her support of the Prime Minister and his hardline party. In a three-week visit to India on the invitation of Modi himself, she was treated as a state guest and held private meetings with the Prime Minister and members of his party.


And Gabbard has protected Modi’s interests in the US. She fought against a November, 2015, Congressional bill mentioning his role in the Gujarat massacres, decried the US’s refusal to issue a visa for the controversial leader before 2014, and supported efforts to rewrite Indian history from a Hindu-supremacist viewpoint in US textbooks.


She has worked to relax restrictions on Indian immigration to the US even as she joins with Trump’s rhetoric in attempts to refuse allowing Syrian refugees into the country. And her views on Islam mirror those of Modi’s— both insist that identifying the faith of Islamists is of paramount importance in fighting extremism (not of Hindu extremism, of course).


Gabbard quickly flipped on Donald Trump. When Trump appointed white nationalist Stephen Bannon as his Senior Strategist two weeks ago and 169 Congressional Democrats opposed the move, Gabbard’s name was notably missing.


Perhaps it’s because Gabbard is, once again, jettisoning political beliefs that are no longer useful in her quest for power. It could be that Sanders and the Democrats are no longer helpful to her career, like her father’s homophobia and her public cult-connected marriage. So they must go so Gabbard can continue her rise.

That’s a likely scenario. But it only works if you remember that the other constant in Gabbard’s career is an attraction to hard-right political positions. Even those positions she eventually leaves behind are replaced with more extreme positions—her anti-gay activism replaced with Islamophobia, her ties to a Hawai?i-based cult replaced with ties to Hindu extremism.


News media have reported that Gabbard is under consideration for a position with the Trump administration, that her meeting with the president-elect was more than a bipartisan discussion—it was a job interview.

Given what we know about Gabbard’s attraction to the extreme right and her thirst for power, a place in the Trump administration won’t come as a surprise. It’s par for the course.

________________________________________

Here we have ground zero for the subprime mortgage loan fraud ----all mortgage originator corporations and regional banks peddling subprime mortgage fraud were bundled into WELLS FARGO.

WELLS FARGO is that CA bank now leading the way to CASHLESS SOCIETY starting to close its brick and mortar banks while national media pretend they are closing those banks because politicians are being MEAN TO THEM.

If we know the history of WELLS FARGO----it is tied to the earliest banking in US and it was central in establishing the US FED at the time of last century's ROBBER BARON frauds....those ROARING 20s----that economic crash-----that GREAT DEPRESSION.

Our US media ---our captured political parties will not tell WE THE PEOPLE all this will lead to US looking like MAOIST CHINA---but it does.  MAO and his wealthy family continued to be those OLD WORLD MERCHANTS OF VENICE global 1% while MAO played at being a revolutionary workers' leader.

Remember ZERO HEDGE is a right wing investment media outlet so they are not writing populist articles----but they do good economic policy discussion


Wells Fargo: Who Says Crime Doesn't Pay
by Tyler Durden
Sep 18, 2016 12:41 PM

Unless you’re one of the few people still watching CNN,  you may have missed what can only be one of the most scandalous in-house criminal activities to be uncovered at a bank. And not just any bank. It happened at none other than Wells Fargo, which, up until the scandal was revealed, was the number one bank (as measured via its market cap) in the U.S. The scandal? Here are just a few highlights as reported. To wit:


“On Thursday, federal regulators said Wells Fargo (WFC) employees secretly created millions of unauthorized bank and credit card accounts — without their customers knowing it — since 2011.


The phony accounts earned the bank unwarranted fees and allowed Wells Fargo employees to boost their sales figures and make more money.


“Wells Fargo employees secretly opened unauthorized accounts to hit sales targets and receive bonuses,” Richard Cordray, director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, said in a statement.”
And to use CNN’s own words to describe it: “The scope of the scandal is shocking.”
How shocking you may ask? Fair enough, here’s a little more from their reporting…



“The way it worked was that employees moved funds from customers’ existing accounts into newly-created ones without their knowledge or consent, regulators say. The CFPB described this practice as “widespread.” Customers were being charged for insufficient funds or overdraft fees — because there wasn’t enough money in their original accounts.


Additionally, Wells Fargo employees also submitted applications for 565,443 credit card accounts without their customers’ knowledge or consent. Roughly 14,000 of those accounts incurred over $400,000 in fees, including annual fees, interest charges and overdraft-protection fees.”



As scandalous as all the above is, what is far more insidious, is the damage it inflicts (once again) upon the very fabric of free market capitalism, trust in laws, and last but not least: trust and belief in actual contrition. i.e., “No we’ve really changed, really!”

Something strange is going on in the financial system. And according to The Wall Street Journal, it’s causing some investors to move massive amounts of money out of the banking system.
As I implied, that “trust” has just been obliterated by the very people and institutions that created the last crisis in the first place. e.g., Banks, bankers, boards, and the very CEOs that run them.


Yes, I said it: i.e., Not some intimate object such as “bank.” But the very people who work there; from low-level staff, all the way up to the top as made evident in this latest banking scandal.
Again, as egregious as these revelations may be. What has been far worse (in my opinion) is the way the bank (Wells Fargo) handled this whole sordid affair both during, as well as after the fact.


As reported by the WSJ™, CEO John Stumpf defended his firm with this gem of damage control retort. To wit:
“There was no incentive to do bad things,” Mr. Stumpf said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. He called the conduct that led to last week’s settlement with federal and local authorities “not acceptable,” adding that the bank doesn’t “want one dime of income that’s not earned properly.”
Here’s a tip for Mr. Stumpf, (after all, it is what I do) if that’s the best you could come up with at that time, not only should your PR team be fired along with the 5300 others you’ve dispatched. But so should you. Immediately.



Not only did you not show a minuscule of righteous indignation – you seemed to bend-over-backwards as to defend the payment of (wait for it…) $125,000,000.00 as a parting gift to Carrie Tolstedt, who has been reported to have been the executive in charge of the unit where all this fraud took place. You know, the division where “sandbagging” customers continued long enough to have created its own internal moniker. Absolutely disgusting and shameful. Period.
It has been said that Ms. Tolstedt’s timing to exit was a result of “personal decision to retire after 27 years” with the bank. Geez, I wonder why. Yep, nothing to see here, move along. Just pathetic.



When asked about clawing it back? (Insert non-committal, illogical, double speak here) But if you need to hear what Mr. Stumpf thought about her back in July:
“Tolstedt’s team is a leader in building and deepening customer loyalty and team member engagement across the business, which today serves more than 20 million retail checking households and 3 million small business owners, and employs 94,000 team members.”
It would appear “sandbagging” pays, no?


I suppose everyone was rewarded, even those at the top by the “added shareholder value” produced by such a “team player.” Everyone that is – except the poor customers who trusted one of the largest banks in the U.S. to be watchful stewards of their money, and personal identities. No, it would appear they were preyed upon like minnows thrown into a shark pool. Glad we have all that Dodd-Frank type stuff enacted so people could once again “trust” the banks and their bankers. But I digress.



If the CEO (e.g., Mr. Stumpf) would have hit the news wires first in some form of scathing rebuke of not only the people involved, but the audacity that the people at the very top of this scandal (which, in my analysis, directly implicates him either by willful ignorance or just plain incompetence) could walk away veritably unscathed with $millions to-boot? There might, and I say “might” have been a chance for credibility of deniability. But now it looks far more like implicit, willful, ignorance more than anything else. i.e., “Hey, her numbers are good – don’t ask questions. By the way, have you seen our latest stock price?!”
Because of this, it is my sentiment, that both Wells Fargo, as well as its CEO, have added their images to be poster-child’s in the growing list of what crony capitalism produces.


What the CEO (i.e., a true CEO with an ethical backbone) should have done was to come out swing with something along the lines of the following:
“This scandal is not only repugnant, it is unconscionable that some of the employees, some that I personally trusted and regarded highly, have been found to have violated our customers trust, along with our own, with criminal activity.


I have recommended to the board, and our legal team, to do everything in our power to claw-back every single dime possible that we have paid out seemingly under false pretenses, whether they were in the form of salary or bonuses. And, I want every possible criminal charge brought forth against them that may be applicable. Yes, even those which may result with the need of time being served. Let me be clear: against everyone responsible.


This is a blatant urination upon the sacred trust that is supposed to be upheld when a customer, regardless of how large or small, deposits funds or opens credit terms at any bank. Not just Well Fargo. This is unacceptable and it must not go unpunished. And I won’t rest with anything less than the full repercussions that the law can provide.”
Did you hear, read, or see anything resembling 10% of what I just stated? Hint: Nope.


Read the above quotes I referenced earlier as a reminder. Makes you want to run out and open an account and dispense with any of that troubling, filthy vehicle known as cash that far too many so-called “smart crowd” intellectuals are touting you should do. Doesn’t it? i.e., Don’t trust cash – trust the bank. Only criminals care about cash.


The only problem that now appears with that logic? It seems those criminals are within the banks just waiting for one to “hand it over.”  That’s a reality which is now becoming downright frightening. Just imagine what Jesse James would think about all this. It’s down right laughable if it wasn’t so infuriating.


And, by-the-way, if you’re concerned about such things: you’re insulted or portrayed as some type of “alarmist” (or worse – you must be a criminal) if you dare argue against the idea of a cashless society and the inherent problems contained within the theory.
Take the latest insult to intellect as proposed by Ken Rogoff, a chaired economics professor at Harvard, and a former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund.


In his case against cash, Mr Rogoff likes to build his case for a “cashless society” around all the boogeymen an Ivory Tower can muster. James Grant of Grant’s Interest Rate Observer™ wrote a cogent, scathing rebuke of Mr. Rogoff’s thesis. Here is just one line, yet, notice how perfectly it fits into this whole story. (The entire article is a must read) To wit:
“Terrorists traffic in cash, Mr. Rogoff observes. So do drug dealers and tax cheats. Good, compliant citizens rarely touch the $100 bills that constitute a sizable portion of the suspiciously immense volume of greenbacks outstanding—$4,200 per capita. Get rid of them is the author’s message.”


That’s right. Mr. Rogoff want’s you to deposit that filthy cash into a bank as to keep it out of the hands of criminals. The issue?


Well as of today it seems if you followed his advice and deposited at, oh let’s say, Wells Fargo? What you did in actuality was to hand it over to some greedy, dirty, disgusting criminal within where it was used to fuel criminal activity and self gain for themselves.

What’s the take away from all this? Hint: If there’s going to be criminal activity (as far as academia is concerned) might as well have it inside the bank rather than outside. After all: Criminals hate competing with each other. Whether in digitized currency or actual.


To people like Mr. Rogoff it would seem when it comes to criminality – banks are exempt. I wonder how Mr. Rogoff would feel if it was his “cash” that was suddenly misappropriated when it came time for him to use his ATM card only to find “insufficient funds” displayed when he knew he made a deposit days prior? I would wager he’d want his account closed – and paid in cash – as opposed to a “check” or “balance transfer” if he just found out “the bank” had been playing criminally with his hard-earned money. Bet on it.


Now Mr. Rogoff and his ilk could care less what a person like myself has to say about their ideas. After all, we’re nothing but a bunch on illiterate, economically challenged plebes that need to be herded into doing what “they” believe is “best for us.” Whether it’s in our best interest – or not.

So to that I would like to remind this Ivory Tower set of exactly what transpires when the banking system that issues all those digitized ones and zeros goes into free fall because of the reckless nature of those within that system created. e.g., The Great Financial Crisis of 2008. You know, the one that’s not even 10 years past and is requiring central banks around the world to continue “spinning plates” that would make a circus performer blush as to keep it all from crashing.


In, or about, 2008 during the heat of the crisis with the markets gyrating widely, none other than Mohamed El-Erian then at Pimco™ (someone I have great respect for) said in a televised interview on one of the financial shows I was watching (I’m paraphrasing): “My wife called me and asked me what she should do. I told her to go the nearest ATM and withdraw as much money as possible. For we both had no idea of just how bad things were going to get.”


I just wonder how well Mr. Rogoff’s argument about “cashless” would have stood had he needed to argue that position to Mr. El-Erian during that period? i.e., “Hey Mohamed, tell her not too worry, cash is for criminals and low lifes. She or you don’t need no stinkin’ cash! Have faith, faith in the system, faith in the banks!”
I don’t know what the response might have been, but I bet it could be summed up today in two words: Wells Fargo.
Yeah, I guess those other two words you were thinking of (e.g., FU) might be more appropriate. For I was thinking the same. Yet, on the other hand; don’t they mean the same thing as of today?

_____________________________________________

We would shout that the policies and laws are already MOVING FORWARD to MONEY-LESS SOCIETY so don't allow these small issues like systemic fraud already existing in these online systems make you think global Wall Street is worried about the 99% of citizens' bank accounts.  

Please watch as more and more corporations, utilities controlled by corporations, and even our transactions with government---for example paying taxes -----BECOMES DIRECT WITHDRAW FROM CHECKING ACCOUNTS.

We know VEOLA ENVIRONMENT is doing this with water bills---we know that ONE ENERGY GRID home energy corporations are doing it with electric, natural gas, solar----and in every case there are growing 99% of citizens shouting these bills are fraudulent and cannot get their money back since it was direct withdrawn .  One goal of these policies----it gets rid of those pesky 5% players Robber Barons needed to advance all these frauds.


Of course it is our American poor citizens being tied most to these predatory direct debits especially for utilities---but this is just the start to full-blown money-less society.


America won't go cashless until consumers know their money is safe

A new YouGov report shows that 56% of US adults feel mobile payments increase the chances of fraud and theft


Follow @YouGovUS on twitter and stay up to date with the latest news and results



Whenever fierce rivals join forces, it's usually because they've found peace and reached equilibrium. That, or a new, scarier competitor with the potential to ruin everyone just entered the room.


The latter scenario seems to be playing out in the US financial industry, as several of the nation's largest banks — JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, US Bancorp — have teamed up to launch a new payments network called Zelle, which allows millions of customers to instantly send money to each other via their smartphone. The idea, of course, is to challenge the increasingly popular mobile payments app Venmo.
As the race to capture the mobile payments market heats up, a future cashless society seems more likely every day. Indeed, a new YouGov report, titled "Cashing in: US," shows that 35% of US adults predict that America will become a cashless nation within 20 years.
The report, however, also highlights many barriers to reaching that cashless state. First, 72% of Americans still use cash when making in-store purchases. Six in 10 say they use cash at least once per week. Habits like that take time to change.


Fear of the unknown and concerns over security pose more obstacles. The report, for example, shows that the majority of US consumers (56%) feel using mobile payments makes them vulnerable to fraud and theft. Only 5% think mobile payments reduce the chance of fraud and theft, while 13% say it makes no difference.


Additional numbers find that about one in five US adults who aren't using mobile payment apps avoid them because they're concerned about malware steaing their personal information. A similar amount worry about the added consequences that come from losing their device or having it stolen.


At the same time, however, the report also notes that people 55 years old or older make up the bulk of those concerned about mobile payments increasing the chances of fraud or theft. The data suggests that younger generations are less concerned.

In Reuters, Bill Wallace, head of digital at JPMorgan Chase, is quoted as saying the following: "By coming together to offer Zelle, we are providing a large majority of Americans with a safe, fast and easy way to move money." If mobile payments providers hope to bring about the so-called cashless society sometime soon, the data indicates they'll have to put more emphasis on the word safe when addressing the public.

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As with any new policy global banking is putting as much LIPSTICK ON THIS PIG as it can----so it will make everything free---it will pay good interest ---it will give easy lending to move 99% of global citizens onto these VIRTUAL BANKING STRUCTURES.

If we watch our US credit card corporations -----just before our US economy is going to crash---they send out all kinds of zero interest deals sign on new consumers and then when that short time period is over they raise interest rates to 25% RIGHT AFTER THE ECONOMIC CRASH when lots of citizens are losing jobs and income just to strap people to DEBT.

Please don't think we are getting a deal with these global online banking corporations.  The goal is indeed MONEY-LESS SOCIETY and if we get any money into those accounts at some point global banking will simply TAKE IT.

PLEASE DO NOT SIGN UP FOR ZERO INTEREST CREDIT JUST AS THE ECONOMY IS GETTING READY TO CRASH!

What makes this advertisement twice as insulting to WE THE PEOPLE is it comes from ALLY BANK. Know who ALLEY BANK is? It is the finance arm of GENERAL MOTORS....GM. Global Wall Street pols wrote laws allowing what was to be only a loan for automobiles turn into a subprime mortgage loan fraud vender---imploded GM FINANCE and used this as an excuse to bring GM to bankruptcy just to shed labor union wages and benefits. GM FINANCE was one of the bank bailouts getting millions of taxpayer funding and it came back as this GLOBAL BANK----now trying to take global 99% to ONE WORLD ONE MONEY-LESS SOCIETY.




Five Great Internet Banks

• By Eric Griffith
• November 8, 2011
• 24 Comments

Sick of paying fees to greedy banks? Check out these online-only direct banks where you can do your checking, savings, bill payment, and more--all for a lot less.

Bothersome bank fees can add up, which only encourages desperate financial institutions to try to collect even more of them. For example, Bank of America recently announced plans to charge a $5 monthly fee for debit card use. Thankfully, a customer revolt put a stop to that, and similar plans by Chase and Wells Fargo, to name but two.

The damage was already done, though, as fee-free Internet-based banks saw a huge uptick in customer sign-ups. Todd Sandler, head of product strategy at ING Direct, said the bank recently saw a 43 percent increase in Electric Orange checking account openings. As banks try other ways to raise more millions—such as new checking account fees, fees for excessive withdrawals from savings, and, of course, credit card interest hikes—the number of migrations to lower-cost Internet banks will only increase.

Another term for the so-called "Internet bank" is a direct bank. It doesn't have branches with tellers and drive-up windows, but customers can access money in a number of ways, including snail mail, mobile apps, telephone, Web page, and ATMs. By getting rid of the overhead of brick-and-mortar locations, the direct banks can provide better services, including higher interest rates and fewer or no fees. Customers just have to be comfortable knowing they can't walk up to a teller.

So how did we determine the best of the Internet banks? Though we didn't open up accounts everywhere, we scoured the best sources for online-banking info, sites like BankRate.com, CNNMoney, ConsumerSearch.com, and MyBankTracker, to see what they considered the best. Our list aggregates those Internet banks with multiple mentions and the best user ratings.

Let's face it, no bank is perfect. It's your money they're playing with over there, after all. But that said, we're confident you'll see the least risk picking one of these direct bank institutions for your funds. All five listed here are members of FDIC, except Connexion, which is member of NCUA.
Ally Bank
www.ally.com, 1-877-247-ALLY
Minimum needed to open account: None
Monthly Fees: None
ATM Fees: None – fees charged by other banks are automatically reimbursed at end of the month
Interest Checking: Yes – 0.50% interest on average monthly balance under $15,000; 0.80% interest on balance over $15,000
Online Savings: 0.85% variable APY
Other Fees: $9 for overdraft, $15 for stop payment



Free transfers with other banks, free use of the Popmoney service to transfer funds to friends and family via their email or phone number, free deposit of checks you scan in yourself. Sensing a pattern? Ally Bank offers lots of free services unimaginable with other banks. There's the usual litany of IRAs, money markets, CDs and of course, automobile loans, but the hallmark of Ally is a high-interest online savings account and interest checking. While the MasterCard debit card also has a cash back program with selected retailers, Ally puts the money right back in the account when you spend with the card.

_____________________________________________


AND HERE IS GLOBAL ONLINE BANKING IN MARYLAND OF COURSE!

WE THE PEOPLE should not be looking for a deal----we must stop these deregulating policies for banking leaving nothing protecting our money and no way to receive our earnings. The left social progressive policy is repeal all deregulation of US banking and bring brick and mortar community banking back to all US cities deemed Foreign Economic Zones


Do we need Wall Street banks if we have global online banking? This is global multi-national banking----since the US is no longer a sovereign nation we lose terms like WALL STREET.



The Penny Hoarder
May 16 · Dang. This bank pays 100 times more interest than our existing checking account!



This Secret Bank Has No Fees and Pays up to 100 Times the Normal Interest Rate

Dana Sitar



December 7, 2015

Disclosure:Some of the links in this post are from our sponsors. We’re letting you know because it’s what Honest Abe would do. After all, he is on our favorite coin.


I recently made a huge move — from Wisconsin to Florida — but it’s not my first. Before that, I had stints in Seattle, Salt Lake City and San Francisco.
Plus there was a period where I didn’t have any residence at all. I bounced from city to city for about eight months via hotel rooms, couches and lots of goodwill.



To say this lifestyle makes banking a challenge would be an understatement.

I need an easy way to access my cash and an account I can manage from anywhere — but beyond that, my banking needs are pretty simple.
Plenty of institutions offer online banking or brick and mortar branches around the country, but many also come with fees or requirements I don’t want to be bothered with.
I don’t need much from my bank. I’m not applying for loans, traveling internationally or even writing checks, so I don’t want to pay extra for services I won’t use.



That’s why I was happy to discover Aspiration.
Aspiration’s Summit Checking Account is an online-only bank account with no fees, no minimum balance and no minimum monthly deposit.
It yields up to 1.00% interest, which is 100 times more than my existing checking account!
That makes this checking account the perfect place for me to save extra money for things like holiday shopping and travel.
A debit card and free ATMs anywhere in the world make it more accessible than a typical savings account, and the high yield makes it far more lucrative.



I’m sold.
Why I Like This Checking Account

On top of the benefits of the Summit Account, I’m actually impressed with Aspiration as a company. This isn’t a traditional bank; it’s a California startup with a jovial personality that’s sorely lacking in the financial space.
The Summit Account is less than a year old and has been named a “Best Checking Account in America” by Money magazine.


The modern interface of the website makes banking intuitive (can you imagine?!). And the company is not only good at what it does; it’s also fun and socially responsible.
My favorite part of the sign-up process was the little extras that popped up as I navigated the website. I entered my March birth date, and instead of a plain confirmation, I was surprised by the message, “You’re a Pisces! Do you like the ocean?”



I do, in fact, love the ocean! I appreciated the personal touch, something you don’t find from many banks.
Plus, the company’s commitment to “do well and do good” means it donates 10% of its revenue to charity.
Where does that revenue come from if the services are free? All of Aspiration’s services work on a “pay what is fair” model. You choose your price and pay as a “tip.”


When you create an account, you’ll be prompted to choose your tip — a recurring payment up to $6 per month — and you can choose as little as $0.


How to Open a Summit Checking Account


f this sounds good to you, too, you can get started with Aspiration here.
Start by entering your email to secure your spot. Within seven to 14 days, you’ll get an invitation via email to set up your account.
Once you receive your invitation, the whole sign-up process takes about 20 minutes.


You’ll need your Social Security Number (you must be a U.S. citizen to open this account), a state-issued I.D. or passport, and your online login information for an existing bank account.
To open the account, you’ll need to make a one-time deposit of at least $10.
At the end of the sign-up process, you’ll e-sign and receive a PDF of the account agreement. I loved that I didn’t have to print or scan anything — I haven’t owned a printer in years.
You’ll answer some questions to verify your identity online, and if that works, you’ll be set. Based on my answers, the system was unable to verify my identity, so I had to complete an additional step.


I received an email the following day asking for primary and secondary I.D. I took a picture of my driver’s license and obtained a PDF of a check stub. I resubmitted the application, and my account was approved and open within three days.


Tips for Using an Online Checking Account


The Summit Account might not replace your existing bank account, but it can augment your financial benefits. Here are the cool ways I’ve found to use it:


Free ATMsMy favorite perk of the Summit Account is the free ATMs! Users who travel, especially abroad, can transfer money into the account, so it’s available when you need it at no extra charge.


Saving for Special Events

This seems like a great account to save for holiday shopping — but I prefer to use it as a travel fund.
I like to deposit payments from my freelance side gigs into my Summit Account. It’s helped me save for my flights home for the holidays, and now I’m planning a trip to Washington, D.C. for New Year’s Eve and meeting friends in Las Vegas later in January!


The Summit Account offers 1.00% APY on a full balance of $2,500 or more, or 0.25% on a balance below $2,500. Compare that to an average savings account with an interest rate of about 0.06%.


With no fees and no minimum, this is an attractive option for saving small amounts.


Emergency Fund


In addition to saving for special events, this account can be a good place to keep an emergency fund. You can make payments as needed with an Aspiration debit card, via Apple Pay or through Venmo.


Giving to Charity


Best of all, you can give to your favorite causes directly from your Summit Account. Just enter an amount you want to give, and select one or more causes — poverty, water, education, etc.
This should make it easy to start contributing to causes that fight poverty. It’s something I’ve been trying to get around to since college…
Plus, when you refer a friend who opens a Summit Account, Aspiration will donate $25 to your favorite charity and to your friend’s, too. That’s all on top of the 10% the company already donates!



Investing Through Aspiration


In addition to the free, high-yield checking account, Aspiration offers two investment funds for middle-class investors. They are:

• Flagship Fund: This mutual fund has a goal of long-term growth with limited volatility.

• Redwood Fund: This fund invests in companies with sustainable, environmental and socially responsible practices.

These funds require only a $500 minimum investment, which opens up financial services that were traditionally only available to elite investors.

Let's remind ourselves what goals of United Nations/World Health Organization controlled by global neo-liberal 1% have as goals to see where US will be taken to the same Greek experience.  The goal of global 1% is ending SOCIAL PROGRESSIVE SOCIETY---and return to social Darwinism---with 99% of global citizens fighting to get to being a global 2%.

This is CLINTON/BUSH/OBAMA and this is OLD WORLD JEWISH, CATHOLIC, PROTESTANT MERCHANTS OF VENICE FREEMASONS AND GREEKS ---these groups are NOT RELIGIOUS.

The UN and World Bank use that term SUSTAINABLE to mean providing social benefit without ANY PUBLIC SUBSIDY while creating corporate profits....this is the Trans Pacific Trade Pact policy of ignoring all nations' laws that take from corporate profit.  So, the term universal does not mean all global citizens are covered by health insurance---it means ONE WORLD FOREIGN ECONOMIC ZONES all having the same policies.

Greece's strong public health system was allowed to decay by politicians PRETENDING TO BE SOCIALISTS---just as CLINTON/OBAMA pretend to be LEFT SOCIAL PROGRESSIVES.


In 2008 when Greek citizens were thrown to the global banking rather than having leaders defaulting on fraudulent banking instruments we watched as all public funding disappeared---and Greek citizens---the poor and seniors no longer had what we in US call MEDICARE AND MEDICAID access.  That is why we in US knew in 2010 when Obama pushed the right wing health policy AFFORDABLE CARE ACT killing our public health structure global Wall Street was doing the same to WE THE PEOPLE THE 99%.  When Obama and his US FED and US Treasury committed the same sovereign debt fraud with US Treasury bonds and state municipal bonds clearly happening in 2013---we knew global Wall Street pols were taking US citizens to having NO ACCESS TO HEALTH CARE

GLOBAL WALL STREET CLINTON/OBAMA PRETENDED TO EXPAND MEDICAID NEVER INTENDING TO BECAUSE UNITED NATIONS/WORLD HEALTH UNIVERSAL HEALTH DOES NOT ALLOW PUBLIC SUBSIDY.

This brings the US health care to that same global preventative health access tied to containing COMMUNICABLE DISEASE VECTORS and maternity and infant care. This is what SINGLE-PAYER/UNIVERSAL CARE groups are shouting for in US when they pretend it is MEDICARE FOR ALL. Our grassroots citizens often do not know this---they think they are fighting for our quality US Medicare----but those pesky global Wall Street Baltimore Development 'LABOR AND JUSTICE' organization leaders KNOW THIS.


Universal health coverage
Health: essential for sustainable development

United Nations resolution on universal health coverage

Global support for universal health coverage is gathering momentum, with the unanimous adoption of a resolution in the United Nations General Assembly that emphasizes health as an essential element of international development.
The resolution, adopted on 12 December 2012, urges governments to move towards providing all people with access to affordable, quality health-care services.
It recognizes the role of health in achieving international development goals and calls for countries, civil society and international organizations to include universal health coverage in the international development agenda.
The resolution reaffirms WHO’s leading role in supporting countries to respond to the challenges of implementing universal health coverage.
This concept has been increasingly recognized in international fora since WHO published the World health report 2010, entitled Health systems financing: the path to universal coverage. These include the Mexico City Political Declaration on Universal Health Coverage adopted in April 2012, the Bangkok Statement on Universal Health Coverage in January 2012, and the Tunis Declaration on Value for Money, Sustainability and Accountability in the Health Sector, adopted in July 2012.
Health is an important cross-cutting policy issue in the international agenda, as it is a precondition and an outcome and indicator of all three dimensions of sustainable development. The resolution calls on Member States to adopt a multisectoral approach and to work on the social, environmental and economic determinants of health to reduce inequities and enable sustainable development


_________________________________________



This article shows how RING FENCE policies help CORPORATION PROTECT THEIR INVESTMENTS----notice global Wall Street tears down these same protections for our PUBLIC FUNDING.

'How To Construct a “Ring Fence”
August 2003

Many distressed power and telecoms companies are looking for ways to protect their profitable businesses and projects from the reach of creditors of the other parts of the company that are in distress'.

When far-right wing global Wall Street CLINTON/BUSH/OBAMA say we need SMALL GOVERNMENT --there are too many Federal agencies overlapping oversight and accountability for the same Federal programs they are saying they want to get rid of RING FENCE. RING FENCE is a left social progressive policy creating CHECKS AND BALANCES in our government agencies to assure no one agencies gained too much power leading to corruption---and to assure Federal funding actually GOT TO INDIVIDUAL CITIZENS and achieved the goal of funding. With health care RING FENCE had FDA----EPA----Veterans Admin----SS Disability---Dept of Education ---all working with HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES to assure all Federal funding tied to MEDICARE, MEDICAID, Veteran's Benefits got to the destination and created data showing positive results.

When we dismantle all those checks and balances and simply have one agency throwing out funds---we get a system that looks exactly like BALTIMORE CITY AND THIRD WORLD NATIONS. As we shout against this structure in Baltimore ---it is designed to assure most Federal funding DOES NOT GET TO INDIVIDUALS---it creates a network impossible to oversee--and one agency Wall Street Baltimore Development/global Johns Hopkins is moved to have all the power with no oversight and accountability.
WHEN POLICY BREAKS RING FENCE STRUCTURES----AS IS HAPPENING WITH UNITED NATIONS/WORLD BANK/WORLD HEALTH UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE----WE MOVE TO ASSURING FUNDS ARE NOT GOING TO GET TO THAT GLOBAL 99% OF CITIZENS.

RING FENCE hires more public employees for oversight and accountability and is LEFT SOCIAL PROGRESSIVE----dismantling this is right wing YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN.
So, a Sri Lanka and Greece once having strong public health systems as US and UK are losing those----and our developing nations like South Africa, Rwanda, Cambodia, Thailand, Mexico will never see an developed nation quality of care being built only for those nations' rich.

How To Construct a “Ring Fence”
August 2003

Many distressed power and telecoms companies are looking for ways to protect their profitable businesses and projects from the reach of creditors of the other parts of the company that are in distress.

One method for doing this is called “ring fencing.” This article explains what ring fencing is, why it is done, how entities have been successfully ring fenced, and what risks and issues should be taken into account when considering whether a subsidiary can or should be ring fenced.

Ring-fencing structures sometimes attract bad press, but appear to be able to sustain judicial scrutiny. For example, a federal appeals court recently brushed aside objections from the state of California and upheld steps that PG&E Corp. — a holding company — took in early 2001 to isolate its regulated utility subsidiary, the Pacific Gas & Electric Company, in order to protect its other subsidiaries. The utility filed for bankruptcy three months after PG&E put the ring fence in place. Such financing structures have also met with some level of approval within the financial community. Standard & Poor’s confirmed the efficacy of one such ring-fencing structure in late 2002 when it reaffirmed a strong credit rating for Portland General Electric Co., notwithstanding that the utility’s parent — Enron Corp. — was in bankruptcy. The credit rating survived because Enron had set up a ring fence around Portland General, and there were powerful financial disincentives for the Enron creditors to force Portland General into bankruptcy.


What is Ring Fencing?


The phrase “ring fencing” refers to steps taken to make a subsidiary “bankruptcy-proof” or “bankruptcy remote.” Ring fencing is supposed to shield the assets of the subsidiary from the bankruptcy of its parent or affiliates and allow the subsidiary to obtain or maintain a “standalone” credit rating substantially higher than the lower credit rating of its parent.


Ring fencing is used in a variety of financing situations, including acquisition financing, monetizing a subsidiary’s dividend distributions, and corporate spin-offs. In the project finance context, ring fencing generally refers to implementation of two types of provisions: the requirement that an independent director or a separate class of stock be established for an entity to vote on voluntary bankruptcy filings, and the requirement that the entity observe “separateness covenants,” such as maintenance of separate bank accounts and no commingling of assets.


These types of provisions are implemented in order to guard against certain specific risks in the bankruptcy context, including the following:


The filing of a voluntary bankruptcy petition by the governing body of the subsidiary.
Substantive consolidation. Substantive consolidation is an equitable remedy that allows the bankruptcy court to pool the assets and liabilities of two separate but affiliated entities and to treat them as though they are the assets of a single bankrupt debtor. Courts will look at whether there is substantial identity between the entities to be consolidated, meaning whether the affairs of the parent and the subsidiary are so intertwined as to make the two entities essentially indistinguishable. They will also look at whether consolidation is necessary to avoid some harm or realize some benefit.


The filing of an involuntary bankruptcy petition against the subsidiary by creditors of the parent or its affiliates, by creditors of the subsidiary or by the parent or its affiliates.
Piercing the corporate veil. The “corporate veil” may be pierced if the subsidiary has acted as the “alter ego” of its parent, if the parent exerts more control over the subsidiary than would be expected of a normal investor, or if the actions of the parent directly caused the subsidiary to incur a liability. Piercing the corporate veil is a risk when the parent so disregards the separate identity of the subsidiary that their enterprises are seen as effectively commingled. Creditors could pursue a form of “reverse” corporate veil piercing when the parent is insolvent and the subsidiary is viewed as a source of funds.


How to Ring Fence


There is no one blueprint that will guarantee that an entity is successfully ring fenced. However, there are at least six factors at which courts and rating agencies look in order to determine whether an entity is sufficiently “standalone” to justify shielding its assets from creditors of its affiliates (or, in the case of rating agencies, to justify a “standalone”, investment grade, rating).


First, the new entity must be a single-purpose entity. Its objects and powers must be restricted as closely as possible to the core activities necessary to effect the structured transaction. This restriction reduces the entity’s risk of voluntary insolvency due to claims or risks associated with activities unrelated to the structured transaction. It also reduces the risk of third parties filing involuntary petitions against the entity. These restrictions should be drafted into the entity’s charter documents for two reasons: the charter documents are publicly available, and therefore serve as public notice of the restrictions, and the entity’s management is more likely to refer to these documents, and therefore be reminded of the restrictions, when conducting its affairs.


Second, the new entity should incur no additional debt beyond what is needed for its routine business purposes. In order to limit the likelihood of an involuntary filing, the entity should covenant not to incur debt except where such action is consistent with its business purpose. This will reduce the likelihood of holders of additional indebtedness pursuing involuntary petitions to gain access to the entity’s assets or cash. The entity’s charter documents may also contain limits on the entity’s ability to incur voluntary liens.


Third, the new entity should covenant not to merge or consolidate with a lower-rated entity. The bankruptcy-remote status of the subsidiary must not be undermined by any merger or consolidation with an entity not adequately protected from bankruptcy or by any reorganization, dissolution, liquidation or asset sale. The new entity should also covenant not to dissolve.


Fourth, the new entity should observe various “separateness covenants” in order to avoid being substantively consolidated with its parent. It should maintain separate offices from its parent, separate financial records and financial statements, its own corporate books and records, and separate bank accounts. There should be no commingling of assets with its parent or any of the parent’s affiliates. It should pay its own liabilities and expenses. It should have adequate capitalization, given the nature of its business. Entities may also want to consider implementing restrictions on asset transfers and dividend declarations.


Fifth, the company should obtain a “non-consolidation opinion” from its counsel. A non-consolidation opinion addresses the likelihood that a court will grant substantive consolidation based on the observance by a parent and its subsidiary of the various “separateness covenants” referenced above.


Finally, the new entity should in its charter documents provide for either an independent director or a special class of stock (or “golden share”). The independent director or the owner of such class of shares should be an independent entity with no tie or relationship to the parent, its affiliates or any lender to the parent or affiliates. The charter documents of the subsidiary should require the affirmative vote of the independent director or the holder of the golden share before any voluntary filing into bankruptcy. It should also require the independent director or the holder of the golden share consider the interest of the subsidiary’s creditors, in addition to the interests of the shareholding parent, when deciding whether to file. This factor is often viewed as critical by the rating agencies in order to insure that a standalone rating for the subsidiary is justified. Different entities have taken different approaches to this factor. For example, the California utilities have adopted the independent director approach. Under the corporate documents of these entities, a unanimous vote of the board of directors is required for certain major corporate actions, including the institution of bankruptcy proceedings, dissolution, liquidation, and the payment of dividends in excess of certain tests. Portland General instead established a special class of junior preferred stock that is held by an entity independent of Portland General and its affiliates and that requires the vote of the junior preferred holder before Portland General can voluntarily file for bankruptcy.


These factors are not in and of themselves bullet-proof. For example, courts will generally not compel compliance with the various covenant requirements. “Nonpetition” covenants — under which a parent agrees not to file a bankruptcy petition against the subsidiary — are typically not enforceable, as waivers or prohibitions on bankruptcy petitions are void as a matter of public policy. Non-consolidation opinions are fact specific, limited in scope and highly qualified; they also do not address the likelihood of the parent independently filing the subsidiary into bankruptcy. The “golden share” or independent director mechanism only addresses a voluntary bankruptcy situation. While the independent director or golden shareholder may prevent a voluntary petition, the risk that creditors will pursue an involuntary filing still exists. In addition, although it is accepted practice that once an entity is in the “vicinity of insolvency,” the director’s duties extend beyond the entity and its shareholders to include its creditors, the use of an independent director whose position is created specifically to look beyond the interests of the shareholders has seldom been tested in court. Some courts have indicated a willingness to ignore the independent director arrangement. At least one Delaware court permitted a corporation to file a voluntary petition in 1992 without the unanimous vote of the directors, contrary to the requirements of the charter documents. However, this holding appears to be the exception rather than the rule.



As a result, an entity should consider incorporating as many of the elements listed in this article as possible when contemplating a restructuring with the intent of ring fencing. (It should probably also opt for the golden share approach rather than the independent director approach.)


Other Issues to Consider


Although courts appear to be willing to uphold the ring-fencing structures established to date, and rating agencies have provided significantly higher ratings to ring-fenced entities than to their parent companies, because of the highly publicized nature of the Enron bankruptcy and other recent high-profile bankruptcies, ring fencing is subject to a high level of public scrutiny and is liable to be challenged again in the courts.
Because of this, there are a number of non-legal considerations to factor in to the decision of whether and when to ring fence.


Ring fencing is often perceived by the public as an attempt to hide assets that would otherwise be available to creditors. However, the companies doing the ring fencing suggest that they are restructuring their assets to maintain the viability of the company. The difference between hiding and restructuring may depend in part on timing — for example, whether the new entity was in place before or after the liabilities were incurred. PG&E Corp.’s timing was potentially more of a problem given that the restructuring occurred just three months prior to when its affiliate, Pacific Gas & Electric Company, filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Although this element has not yet appeared as a factor in the court’s decision-making process, companies would be wise to begin the restructuring and ring-fencing process as soon as practicable, before their financial problems become dire.

The restructuring effort may also benefit from how one “spins” the restructuring. For example, Edison Mission Energy received FERC approval for the restructuring of subsidiaries of Edison International over the objections of Exelon and others, in part because it stressed that the restructuring was necessitated by its need to meet certain financial commitments to the state of California. In its approval, FERC indicated that it was relying on fulfillment by Edison International of financial commitments it had made to the California Department of Water Resources and that the additional financing to be obtained would serve the public good. Consequently, when contemplating a restructuring to effectuate a ring fencing, companies should consider not only the implementation of various legal factors and the timing of the transaction, but also how they will tell their stories to the public
__________________________________________

CLINTON/BUSH/OBAMA spent these few decades IGNORING ALL FEDERAL HEALTH LAWS TIED TO MEDICARE AND MEDICAID---SS DISABILITY---VETERAN'S BENEFITS and allowed those Federal funds to be looted and moved to the 1% as they downsized our Federal agencies under SMALL GOVERNMENT.  What Trump is doing is exactly the same----only he is officially ELIMINATING THOSE FEDERAL AGENCIES tied to US public health.

THERE IS NO REVOLT IN CONGRESS---THEY ARE ALL GLOBAL WALL STREET ONE WORLD ONE GOVERNANCE WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE.

The national headlines now has that WARM AND FUZZY BILLIONAIRE WARREN BUFFETT coming our for UNITED NATIONS UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE here in the US.  Buffett joined Bill Gates in building that global PHARMA AND MEDICAL DEVICE CORPORATION that is already bringing in billions of dollars as they create this global health tourism for the global 1% and their 2% and as they lead in Trans Pacific Trade Pact killing all PUBLIC SUBSIDY LIKE MEDICARE AND MEDICAID.

BUFFETT'S SUPPORT OF SINGLE-PAYER----UNIVERSAL CARE AS WRITTEN IS SUPPORTING THE END OF US MEDICARE AND MEDICAID MOVING FORWARD TO UNITED NATIONS THIRD WORLD HEALTH CARE FOR 99% OF US CITIZENS.

If you are an American protesting Trump and not this CLINTON/OBAMA global neo-liberal version of SINGLE-PAYER UNIVERSAL CARE---then you are fighting to END QUALITY HEALTH ACCESS MEDICARE MEDICAID AND ALL VETERANS' AND DISABILITY HEALTH ACCESS. If you are a developing nation citizen tying to this UNITED NATIONS universal care policy---you will never see the quality health care the Western nations had last century......it is not good for any global 99%.

This is all kabuki theater----both Bush neo-cons and Clinton neo-liberals are on team UNITED NATIONS----as is Trump and these 'Republicans and Democrats'. The global 1% know they need to contain communicable disease---they know they need maturity care to assure strong HUMAN CAPITAL ----they love using mental health instability as a reason for forced labor.



Politics | Wed Jun 28, 2017 | 9:25am EDT


Facing revolt on healthcare bill, U.S. Senate Republicans delay vote

By Susan Cornwell and Richard Cowan | WASHINGTON

U.S. Senate Republican leaders postponed a vote on a healthcare overhaul on Tuesday after resistance from members of their own party, and President Donald Trump summoned Republican senators to the White House to urge them to break the impasse.



The delay put the future of a longtime top Republican priority in doubt amid concerns about the Senate bill from both moderate and conservative Republicans. With Democrats united in their opposition, Republicans can afford to lose only two votes among their own ranks in the Senate.


Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had been pushing for a vote ahead of the July 4 recess that starts at the end of the week. The legislation would repeal major elements of Obamacare and shrink the Medicaid government healthcare program for the poor.
"We're going to press on," McConnell said after announcing the delay, adding that leaders would keep working to make senators "comfortable" with the bill. "We're optimistic we're going to get to a result that is better than the status quo."


At the White House meeting with most of the 52 Republican senators, Trump said it was vital to reach agreement on the Senate healthcare measure because Obamacare was "melting down."

"So we're going to talk and we're going to see what we can do. We're getting very close," Trump told the senators. But he added, "If we don't get it done, it's just going to be something that we're not going to like, and that's okay."
McConnell, whose party has a razor-thin majority in the 100-member Senate, told reporters that Republican leaders would work through the week to win over the 50 senators needed to pass the bill, with a vote planned after the recess. Vice President Mike Pence could provide the crucial vote needed to break a tie.
"I think we can get 50 votes to yes by the end of the week," Republican Senator Roger Wicker said after the White House meeting.

U.S. President Donald Trump meets with Senate Republicans about healthcare in the East Room of the White House in Washington, U.S., June 27, 2017. Trump is flanked by Senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK). REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

REPUBLICAN OPPOSITION GROWS


The House of Representatives last month passed its own version of a healthcare bill, but the Senate bill has been criticized from both the left and the right. Moderate Republicans worried millions of people would lose their insurance. Conservatives said the bill does not do enough to erase Obamacare.


The bill's prospects were not helped by a Congressional Budget Office analysis on Monday saying it would cause 22 million Americans to lose insurance over the next decade, although it would reduce the federal deficit by $321 billion over that period.


The report prompted Senator Susan Collins, a Republican moderate, to say she could not support the bill as it stands. At least four conservative Republican senators said they were still opposed after the CBO analysis.


Three more Republicans, Rob Portman of Ohio, Jerry Moran of Kansas and Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, said after the delay was announced that they oppose the current draft.
Portman and Capito cited the bill's Medicaid cutbacks and how that would hurt efforts to combat the opioid epidemic that has taken a heavy toll in their states. The Medicaid program was expanded under former President Barack Obama's signature healthcare law.
"I think giving time to digest is a good thing," Republican Senator Bob Corker said after the delay was announced.


"UNCERTAINTY" ON WALL STREET


U.S. stock prices fell, as the decision to postpone the vote added to investor worries about Trump's ability to deliver on his promises of tax reform and deregulation, as well as changes to the health sector. Those expected changes have driven a rally in U.S. stocks this year.

The benchmark S&P 500 index closed down 0.8 percent, and the Dow Jones industrial average finished down 0.46 percent.
“The market likes certainty and now there’s uncertainty. What is this going to look like when this gets out of the next iteration?" said Peter Costa, president of trading firm Empire Executions Inc.


Passing the measure would be a win for Trump as he seeks to shift attention after weeks of questions over Russia's role in last year's U.S. presidential election.
McConnell has promised since 2010 that Republicans, who view Obamacare as a costly government intrusion, would destroy the law "root and branch" if they controlled Congress and the White House. Republicans worry a failure to deliver will cost them votes in next year's congressional elections.


If the Senate passes a healthcare bill, it will either have to be approved by the House or the two chambers would reconcile the differences in a conference committee. Otherwise, the House could pass a new version and send it back to the Senate.


Lawmakers are expected to leave town by Friday for their July 4 holiday break, which runs all next week. The Senate returns to work on July 10, the House on July 11. Lawmakers then have three weeks in session before their month-long August recess.
________________________________________
We keep reminding global citizens that the problems in US public health care for all citizens was not that it was UNAFFORDABLE---TOO EXPENSIVE---it was the massive and systemic frauds of our MEDICARE AND MEDICAID TRUSTS and those Veterans' and Disability funds.  It was incredible to watch as CLINTON/BUSH/OBAMA opened the door to trillions of dollars from our public health system taken to expand these UNITED NATIONS UNIVERSAL CARE structures designed only to serve those global 1% in each nation.  Our developing nations already had billions coming to establish clinic care---preventative care for several decades.  This was our US left social progressive stance on world health.  Again, CLINTON/BUSH/OBAMA came into office and THAT GLOBAL HEALTH FUNDING FOR DEVELOPING NATIONS WAS LOOTED.  So, even the developing nation public health structures built this past century were allowed to decay -----

We KNOW AMERICAN QUALITY CARE is affordable for all----our private health corporations were earning millions in profits all last century---they simply wanted to earn BILLIONS.  We encourage our global 99% of citizens to demand QUALITY PUBLIC HEALTH AND NOT THE UNITED NATIONS 'UNIVERSAL CARE'.

JUST GET RID OF PROFITEERING AND CORPORATE HEALTH INDUSTRY FRAUD.


Below you see a well-researched paper on health fraud.  Notice that the amount of fraud back in 1998 was $250 billion a year.....THAT WAS BEFORE CORPORATE FRAUD WENT ON STEROIDS


'It is clear to see why Americans consider this the biggest cause, when health care fraud was estimated to cost approximately $100 billion to $250 billion per year in 1998, or 10 percent to 25 percent of total health care spending'

An Undergraduate Honors Thesis by
Emily Fisher
V449
Professor Nicole C. Quon
April 2008

ABSTRACT
Health care fraud is an important and visible factor associated with increasing health care costs in the United States. Medicare and Medicaid contribute to a vast majority of those cost sand therefore must be heavily scrutinized. This thesis will investigate the types of fraud, who commits them, and why the health care system is more susceptible to fraud. More specifically, the problems and complications of current fraud investigation for Medicare and Medicaid are examined. This thesis will then evaluate how successful these initiatives were in reducing health care fraud and explore new suggestions for preventing health care fraud in the future.


The World Health Organization UNIVERSAL CARE structure is CLINTON/BUSH/OBAMA and were accomplice to the massive, systemic movement of global health funding through fraud and corruption as happened in UK and US. These global 99% citizens are NOT GETTING what we are told these structures provide---but those global health system structures being built in developing nations WILL PROVIDE AMERICAN QUALITY CARE for those global 1% and their 2% able to afford PROFITEERING HEALTH RATES.


Malcolm K. Sparrow
Fraud in the U.S. Health-
Care System:
Exposing
the Vulnerabilities of
Automated Payments
Systems
social research
Vol 75 : No 4 : Winter 2008
1151



in 1993, attorney general janet reno declared health-care
fraud
the
“number two crime problem in America” after violent crime—a
remarkable status for a category of white-collar crime. In 1995, FBI
Director Louis J. Freeh testified that cocaine-traffickers in Florida and
California were switching from drug dealing to health-care fraud. The
traffickers had discovered that health-care fraud was safer, easier, and
more lucrative than the drug trade, and carried a smaller risk of detec-
tion (Freeh, 1995: 2). In 1997 the
New York Times
reported that mafia
families in New York City and New Jersey were abandoning their tradi-
tional lines of business (extortion and bid-rigging rackets) in favor of
new criminal enterprises, including health insurance (Raab, 1997: A1,
B4). In 2003, Columbia HCA, America’s largest hospital chain, finalized
a $1.7 billion settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice, the largest
in history, following 10 years of investigation into an array of whistle-
blower allegations (Department of Justice, 2003). In July 2008, Abner
and Mabel Diaz, a couple in Miami Lakes, Florida, pleaded guilty to
fraud, admitting they had submitted to Medicare $420 million in false
claims for medical equipment (Weaver, 2008

____________________________________________
We said these European nations were hit harder than US because they felt both the subprime mortgage frauds AND the sovereign debt frauds ====UK left social progressive universal health care system is GONE-----they now are installing the United Nations World Health Organization UNIVERSAL SINGLE-PAYER----
UK 99% citizens are well on the way to being those Greek citizens in falling health outcomes and death----the US did not have the rate of US Treasury bond sovereign debt fraud during Bush era as Europe-----Obama brought that to US. Our US 99% of citizens will be facing these same conditions after this coming economic crash and US Treasury bond market fraud collapse.


UK healthcare on brink of collapse – NHS regulator

Published time: 9 May, 2013 11:05 Edited time: 9 May, 2013 13:03
Get short URL
A NHS sign is seen in the grounds of St Thomas' Hospital in London. (Reuters / Toby Melville) / Reuters

A UK health and social care watchdog has warned that the country’s healthcare system is on the brink of collapse, and that many patients – particularly the elderly – are going to hospital for emergencies when they should have been seen much earlier.In his first major announcement since being appointed earlier this year, David Prior, head of the Care and Quality Commission (CQC) non-departmental public body, has called for an urgent investment in community care.


He also said that the number of emergency-care beds in hospitals should be scaled back in order to divert much-needed funds to other areas of the National Health Service (NHS). He voiced his concerns at a talk on Wednesday at the King's Fund, a think-tank that seeks to improve the health care system in England.
“If we don’t start closing acute beds, the system is going to fall over. Emergency admissions through Accident and Emergency (A&E) are out of control in large parts of the country. That is totally unsustainable,” Prior said.


He also slammed the decision to allow General Practitioners (GPs) – the name for family doctors in the UK – to opt out of out-of-hours care, advising that they should be on-call and available to patients around-the-clock. “Primary care is in bad shape. I think GPs ought to be responsible 24/7,” he said.


He also pointed out that there is no real market in the British healthcare system, especially in rural areas, leaving many patients at the mercy of their local hospital regardless of its quality.

“The patient or resident is the weakest voice in the system. It is classic market failure. We can talk about competition until the cows come home but if you live in Norwich there is one hospital,” said Prior, the former chairman of Norwich University Hospitals foundation trust.


His comments come amid a slew of scandals involving NHS care and worrying new research that revealed that 1 in 10 patients – about 1 million patients a year – suffers avoidable harm in NHS hospitals and care homes.


The Mid Staffordshire NHS trust is now in administration following reports of “appalling” care that led to the deaths of 400 patients between 2005 and 2008.
Prior said the CQC had identified 45 hospitals – about 20 percent of the total in the UK – which had serious problems dating back five years, and that regulators would not allow underperforming hospitals to carry on unchanged. He also named a further 20 percent of hospitals as “coasting along and not doing terribly well.”


“We cannot give the public a cast-iron guarantee that there will never be another Mid Staffs or another Maidstone & Tunbrdge Wells [ where hundreds died after an outbreak of Clostridium difficile]”, Prior said.


In another blow to the beleaguered NHS, it was reported last week that there have been at least 22 serious incidents and three deaths since the disaster-prone 111 non-emergency phone line was introduced, which is still not functioning in all areas of the country.


Healthcare minister Norman Lamb said that patients have lost faith in out-of-hours care, now that it is no longer provided by GPs. “We have out-of-hours care that too often falls down. People end up with the default option of A&E [accident and emergency] because there is nothing else they are confident in,” he told the Telegraph.


Next week, Lamp will announce a pilot for an integrated care system in a bid to stop the NHS and social services from fighting over who foots the bill for elderly patients stuck in hospital with non-life-threatening illnesses.


Both Prior and Lamb’s suggestions – that hospital beds should be eliminated in order to provide better overall care – was blasted by professor David Oliver, the former clinical director for the elderly. He pointed out that the UK has already lost one-third of its acute hospital beds in the last two decades, meaning that per head of the population it has fewer services than any comparable country.
____________________________________________

Think about the MAOIST GREAT LEAP FORWARD----this Chinese 1% rich man pretended to be that worker's leader while clawing all Chinese 99% real estate into the COMMUNAL hands of the Chinese 1%. That is what is happening today in Western nations. This is what global 1% call a BLOODLESS REVOLUTION. When we say #FIST-----#RESIST ----are all United Nations captured groups pretending to be revolutionaries---this is the BLOODLESS REVOLUTION---moving all real estate into the hands of the global 1%.

They are not leading a BLOODLESS REVOLUTION FOR THE 99%---they are leading a BLOODLESS REVOLUTION for the global 1%!

This worst depression is of course-----MOVING FORWARD ROBBER BARON AND GLOBAL BANKING FRAUD JUST AS IN 1920s and 30s.....

'The time is ripe. Greece is undergoing the worst depression in modern history, which has crushed every single asset, including once mighty real estate'.



Jun 24, 2017 @ 09:31 AM 13,115 2 FREE Issues of Forbes

Prime Real Estate On Fire Sale -- In Greece
Panos Mourdoukoutas ,  
Contributor


Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.

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A deep and prolonged economic contraction has placed prime real estate on fire sale in Greece, creating good opportunities for bargain hunters. But they may not last too long. 


Buying prime real estate is all about good location and good timing. Good location is usually a place with a limited amount of land for development, like a city center or a waterfront. Good timing is a period when real estate in these places goes on fire sale due to catastrophic events or prolonged economic contractions.


That's what happened to prime real estate locations throughout Southeast Asia in the late 1990s, following the economic contraction caused by local currencies; and in Manhattan real estate, following the September 11 calamity.


Now, the prime location has shifted -- to the center of major Greek cities, where thousands of apartments are on sale, some overlooking centuries old monuments that are recognized worldwide, such as the Acropolis.


And it has also shifted to coastal areas in Greece, next to beautiful beaches, including some of the well-known Greek islands.


The time is ripe. Greece is undergoing the worst depression in modern history, which has crushed every single asset, including once mighty real estate.

Since 2009, real estate prices have gone south, with no end in sight. The Greek Home Price Index has dropped from 100 in 2009 to 59.6 in 2017. A popular asset has turned into liability even in the hottest property areas of the country. “The real estate market has been following a bad Greek economy,” says Athens based attorney, Kiriaki Perou.


But these bargains may not last for long time, for a number of reasons. First, the Greek economy shows signs of stabilizing, with GDP growing at 0.4 percent annual rate in the second quarter of 2017. Second, a strong demand for short-term vacation rentals to be listed in RBNB, Booking, Housli and the likes.


Third, as Athens Exchange begins to show signs of life, being among the best performers so far this year, foreign investors have been stepping in. Like Minneapolis-based Varde Partners, which invested $65 million in Greek shopping malls.


Then there are the democratic institutions and high levels of human development that will help Greece get out of the unprecedented depression it has slid into, and rise again, pulling real estate prices along with it.

_________________________________________
This article is why we feel AL JAZEERA Muslim media outlet is just as captured for global 1% as our US media outlet.  Remember, we have OLD WORLD MERCHANTS OF VENICE GLOBAL 1% from our Northern Africa and Middle-East and they are team GLOBAL 1% ONE WORLD ONE GOVERNANCE.

Here is where REAL left social progressives are made to sound anti-immigrant.....when we are the voice for equity and justice for 99% of immigrant citizens.

The same global banking 1% created the SHIFTING POPULATIONS OF ARAB SPRING refugees as created the Greek economic bankruptcy killing 99% of Greek citizens.  Both groups in this article are VICTIMS OF ONE WORLD.  We talked earlier this week of MONEY-LESS SOCIETIES---we talk all the time against global corporate campuses and Foreign Economic Zones.  Well, that is what Greece has become---it looks like our Caribbean islands filled with enslaving global factories.

This is why Greek citizens are leaving to EX-PAT ---and it is why these refugees are being given harbor---they will be tied to MONEY-LESS SOCIETY AND FOREIGN ECONOMIC ZONE GLOBAL CORPORATE CAMPUS FACTORIES.

We see Al Jazeera KNOWS this as they report Greece is in an EMBRYONIC TRANSITION ----this is what American media calls TRANSFORMATIVE during OBAMA.


Now, if I really supported these refugees here in Greece as well as those being sent to Eastern Europe where Foreign Economic Zone global factories have been built last decade---I would be WARNING THESE IMMIGRANTS TO RUN.

'Shifting populations, desperate responses 
Greece's experience with migration reflects Europe's - but with extraordinary intensity.

But, he warns, Greece is in an "embryonic transition" which "cannot be taken for granted"'.


The policy is not WELCOMING IMMIGRANTS---it is the goal of Foreign Economic Zones and ONE WORLD as regards these global labor pool 99%.


Our Muslim global 99% know better than we ----many Middle-Eastern nations have been tied to global labor pool and Foreign Economic Zones these few decades sending their citizens into global slave trade distribution system---as we saw with Sri Lanka and Middle-East labor trade.




FeaturesPolitics9 December 2015


Greek immigration policy: A lesson for Eastern Europe?

Greece was notorious for its treatment of refugees, but its approach has evolved and could offer lessons to others.

Newly arrived refugees sleep in a secluded spot while tourists make their way through a residential area on the island of Lesbos [Anna Psaroudakis/Al Jazeera]

ByJohn Psaropoulos


John Psaropoulos is an independent journalist based in Athens and reports regularly for Al Jazeera. His blog is www.then


Athens, Greece - When Jessica Ben Anosike was 12, her sense of belonging in Greece as a second-generation migrant was shattered. The Nigerian-born student had come out on top of her class in track and field events and was looking forward to representing Greece in a European junior championship.


"I remember that I was in first place, and I asked my coach if I'm qualified to go," Anosike recalled, fighting back tears. "She said, 'Well, because you don't have the Greek passport, I don't think it's possible.'" The coach gave the spot to a Greek athlete who had taken second place.


Anosike, raised in Greece since she was four years old, is now 19 and finally eligible for that Greek passport. A law passed this year naturalises people of non-Greek origin if they have attended Greek schools for nine years.


Anosike is among 12,000 applicants, but her relationship with Greece is broken. Aside from her loyal Greek friends, she says, "I don't feel it's my home or that I have something here that belongs to me." In fact, the main reason she wants a passport is so she can leave.

Jessica Ben Anosike, a second-generation migrant, wears a selection of her medals won in track and field events at her home in Athens [Anna Psaroudakis/Al Jazeera]To some extent, Anosike's problems are those spurring much of Greece's youth to leave the country - a joblessness rate of  more than 50 percent and a sense that, despite European Union membership, decades of poor leadership have deprived them of a future.


Despite these shortcomings, Greece serves as an example of a homogenous European society implementing the rule of law and adapting to population shifts. The citizenship law is the pinnacle of that process.


"Those who have finished school here are thought to be integrated," says Vasilis Papadopoulos, the general secretary for migration at the interior ministry responsible for implementing the law. "We consider it self-evident that they participate in society sufficiently to be considered Greek citizens."




Even so, the bill encountered opposition: One MP, Adonis Georgiadis, now running for the conservative leadership, cited an ancient Athenian law introduced by Pericles in 451BC, which tightened the requirements for citizenship and declared that only children whose parents were both Athenian could receive this citizenship.


But Tasia Christodoulopoulou, the migration minister who passed the new law, ultimately prevailed. "We need to accept their will to be Greek citizens, which means that they will have rights as well as obligations," she said.

A group of Moroccan refugees protest against being denied passage into Macedonia. On December 3, a young Moroccan man was electrocuted trying to cross the newly erected fence along the Greece-Macedonia border [Anna Psaroudakis/Al Jazeera]Shifting populations, desperate responses 
Greece's experience with migration reflects Europe's - but with extraordinary intensity.

When the Iron Curtain collapsed in 1990, many Eastern Europeans headed west. 

Greece tried to develop a policy in an area where it had never previously needed one. Between 1998 and 2005, three amnesties legalised an estimated half-a-million people. The logic was that if the economy had absorbed them, the state should receive taxes and social security contributions.


After the second Gulf war, however, migration from newly destabilised countries in the Middle East and Central Asia swelled. This, coupled with Greece's economic collapse following the 2008 financial crisis, put both Greeks and immigrants out of work, creating a perfect social and economic storm.




"All racist attackers enjoyed a kind of immunity from prosecution," says Dimitris Zotos, one of the lawyers now prosecuting Golden Dawn, the far-right party known for repeated attacks on migrants.
"The then [conservative] government had invested in targeting migrants as one of the causes of the economic crisis and, therefore, wanted to turn people's attention towards seeing migrants as one of the sources of unhappiness."


The official crackdown, too, came in August 2012. The conservatives unleashed police patrols, arresting anyone without residence papers. Holding cells were filled to bursting; detention camps held the spillover.

Iranian refugees sewed their mouths shut at the Greek border in protest against being denied entry into Macedonia [Anna Psaroudakis/Al Jazeera]Migrants held there spoke of unsanitary conditions, beatings, poor nutrition and little or no access to healthcare or legal aid. Most troubling was the practice of detention beyond an 18-month pre-trial limit, for which the European Council on Refugees and Exiles, an NGO coalition, threatened to have Greece indicted at the European Court of Human Rights.


For years, police demonstrated similar behaviour in handling asylum applications. Lacking trained staff, they issued only token approvals.
In 2007, Greece received 20,684 asylum applications - police approved only 140. The next year, Greece turned EU asylum directives into national law. Even then, police only approved 358 asylum applications out of 29,573. With processing taking years, many began filing applications as a way of gaining temporary residence.

Greece improves conditions for refugees

The Greek process became so notorious that in January 2011, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Belgium had violated the rights of an Afghan asylum seeker by deporting him back to Greece.


Under EU rules, the Afghan man's asylum application should have been processed in the EU member state where he first alighted, which was Greece, but the court ruled that poor living conditions and the defective asylum procedures put both the applicant and his application in jeopardy.
Soon after, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees recommended that EU states refrain from returning applicants to Greece.

A police officer on the Greece-Macedonia border checks the documents of newly arrived refugees, early in the morning [Anna Psaroudakis/Al Jazeera]Course correction


Under EU and UN tutelage, Greece adapted again.
In July 2013, it set up a "First Reception Service" to greet refugees at the border, identify them, check their health and inform them of their legal rights. It also set up a dedicated asylum service staffed by lawyers. Last year, the service received more than 13,000 applications and approved almost 4,000.


When the left-wing Syriza party toppled the conservatives in January, it also put an end to the illegal practice of prolonged detention.

A young Iranian refugee, denied passage into Macedonia, warms up with a blanket while contemplating the situation in Idomeni, Greece [Anna Psaroudakis/Al Jazeera]Both Greece's mistakes and its progress since 1990 stand as an example to Eastern European states, says Dimitris Christopoulos of Panteion University, who wrote the citizenship law and chairs Greece's Human Rights Committee.
But, he warns, Greece is in an "embryonic transition" which "cannot be taken for granted".



The countries of Eastern Europe, which have only been democracies for a quarter-of-a-century and EU members for a decade, and who themselves generated Europe's last surge of immigration in the 1990s, now threaten that progress.


Macedonia has since built a fence along its border with Greece and several Eastern European countries have stepped back from their pledges to relocate refugees.
Dimitris Avramopoulos, the European migration commissioner, recently called this unravelling of the commitment to open borders "the beginning of the end of the European Union". 


"They are still where Greece was during the Cold War. The worst case scenario [for 2016] is introspection - trying to build new waiting zones in the European periphery as is happening now with Greece," says Christopoulos.


"In this case, the fence mentality will prevail, and the domino effect that started with the [political] right in Hungary and has caught on in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, etc, will continue. In such a case, the European political project is in danger."

But it may just be migrants themselves who alter Europe's debate about migration. Beata Pastor, who was born in Greece to Filipino parents, is a member of Melissa, a non-profit organisation established by migrant women, which helps new refugees.The 19-year-old believes that the citizenship she has applied for will change things.

"Whatever bad happens here in Greece, they blame us. We don't have the right to vote… Shouldn't the blame go to the Greek people who vote?" she asks rhetorically.

"The Greek people they think about their own selves. Us, we believe in voting for the future of everyone, not just the Greeks, but everyone who lives here, and for the future of the country."
____________________________________________
And here is where Greece's refugee population is steered----global corporate factories. Here is a Greek yogurt billionaire bringing these Arab Spring refugees to his global factory in US and Greece.
These global 1% billionaires are behind the wars----the displacement of global citizens---and moving them into global labor pools all while being called CHARITABLE. If we go to these global factories whether in Greece or US ----we will see conditions just as Asian sweat shop factories.
Those caught in Greece will be that EMBRYONIC SOCIETY tied to MONEY-LESS GLOBAL CORPORATE CAMPUS TOTALITARIANISM.

This is why CNN MONEY and this global 1% are SMILING.

The Greek refugees are caught in Foreign Economic Zone global labor factories and Greek's citizen EX PATs no longer have that GIVEN pathway to MIDDLE-CLASS.

Greek yogurt billionaire fills his plants with refugees


by Kate Trafecante & Craig Waxman   @CNNMoney

This is what sparks the anti-Muslim rhetoric across the US------what have been Muslim nations tied to FOREIGN ECONOMIC ZONES AND GLOBAL FACTORIES and global slave trading distribution between Asia and Middle-East are now bringing them to US.

These are not CHARITABLE PEOPLE---they are the same global 1% and they intend to work these immigrants now in US as they do overseas in Asia and Middle-East----enslaving conditions.  We may not see this TODAY---but MOVING FORWARD IS BRINGING THIS to these immigrants and to US citizens----here comes MONEY-LESS SOCIETY AND BASIC INCOME.

When our US United Nations ONE WORLD ONE GOVERNANCE groups like Black Lives Matter-----Occupy Wall Street-----the ROOSEVELT AND ASPEN INSTITUTION bunch are marching and shouting against a TRUMP anti-Muslim ----this is what they want to protect.  It has nothing to do with protecting those 99% of global labor pool displaced Muslim refugees---they are protecting that global 1% billionaire's right to bring global labor pool enslavement to US.

THIS IS MOVING FORWARD ONE WORLD ONE GOVERNANCE AND MONEY-LESS SOCIETIES TIED TO 99% LIVING, EATING, SCHOOLED, AND WORKING ON GLOBAL CORPORATE CAMPUSES....BECAUSE IT IS SUSTAINABLE FOR MAXIMIZING GLOBAL CORPORATE PROFITS.


This is right wing sensationalism ----but the goals of global labor pool and US Foreign Economic Zones as ONE WORLD ONE GOVERNANCE is real and really bad for US 99% and global 99%.


In all honesty -----do we think placing this global factory in IDAHO---home of course to our RIGHT WING SOVEREIGN CITIZENS militias would cause UNREST AND CIVIL INSTABILITY? YOU BETCHA. Especially as US citizens are hired less and less and pay goes down to that of overseas Foreign Economic Zones.



Fact Check

Sneak Yogurt

A misleading image macro claimed Chobani's CEO vowed to "drown the United States in Muslims" and was "importing them to Idaho 300 at a time to work in his factory."


CLAIMChobani CEO Hamdi Ulukaya vowed to "drown the United States in Muslims" and is "importing them to Idaho 300 at a time to work in his factory." See Example(s)
EXAMPLESCollected via e-mail and Twitter, March 2016RATING MOSTLY FALSEWHAT'S TRUE

Chobani CEO Hamdi Ulukaya proposed big businesses step in and assist with a refugee crisis; Chobani has hired 600 refugees.


WHAT'S FALSE

Ulukaya did not vow to "drown" America in Muslim refugees; his proposal did not mention Muslims specifically; he has no legal ability to "import Muslims" at a rate of 300 per month.


ORIGINOn 20 January 2016, CNN Money published an opinion item written by Hamdi Ulukaya, the founder of the Chobani brand of strained yogurt. Ulukaya’s column posited that an ongoing refugee crisis could be ameliorated with the cooperation of businesses like his:


What would happen if they summoned the spirit of innovation and ingenuity to solve the greatest humanitarian crisis of our lives? What if — to borrow a word from Silicon Valley — we could “hack” the refugee crisis? That’s what I’m asking business leaders to do in Davos. As people of a free world, we have a moral obligation to the 60 million people who, like Nadia [a refugee from Kurdistan whose mother and brothers were massacred by ISIS], have been kidnapped or forced from their homes. People who need food, shelter, and opportunity, and have risked their lives to escape something that makes their childhood nightmares now seem like distant dreams. But it’s not just people who can help. Businesses — and the hundreds of thousands of people they represent — have a major role to play. At Chobani, the food company I founded in the United States, we have hired hundreds of refugees in the past five years, and they are some of the most talented, dedicated people I’ve ever met.



The column included a video segment during which Ulukaya discussed his proposition:


<br /> >
On 20 January 2016, the unreliable web site WND.com responded to the op-ed with an editorial titled “AMERICAN YOGURT BILLIONAIRE: ‘HIRE MORE MUSLIM REFUGEES’; Calls on biggest U.S. companies to join Islamic surge” (even though the original column never mentioned Muslims):

Ever wonder why the federal government would be sending hundreds of foreign refugees to a relatively small town in Idaho? Wonder no more. They’re sent there, many of them, to work in the world’s largest yogurt factory. As WND previously reported, Twin Falls is in line to receive about 300 refugees this year, many of them Muslims from Syria. And the state of Idaho, despite its reputation as a mostly white, conservative farm state, has been a popular destination for refugees in recent years. The U.S. State Department has shipped more than 11,000 refugees directly from the Third World to Idaho since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Just in the past year, 989 refugees have arrived in the rural state, most of them landing in either Boise or Twin Falls. Nearly half have come from some of the world’s nastiest jihadist hot zones, including 95 from Iraq, 94 from Somalia, 47 from Sudan, 39 from Afghanistan, 31 from Iran, 28 from Syria and 11 from Pakistan, according to the federal refugee database. But despite growing protests by local residents against the refugee arrivals, the Twin Falls area can count on being a prime spot for refugees for years to come, thanks to one man’s rising business enterprise … That man is Hamdi Ulukaya, a Kurdish Muslim and immigrant from Turkey who created the billion-dollar U.S.-based Chobani yogurt empire.


WND collated a confusing number of metrics and purported statistics in their response to Ulukaya’s article, stating that Twin Falls would receive 300 refugees in 2016 (but not all of them Muslim or involved with Chobani), that 11,000 refugees from “the Third World” had entered Idaho as a whole since September 2001, and that 989 refugees from unspecified nations had arrived in Boise or Twin Falls in “the last year.” None of that mish-mash of numbers appeared directly related in any way to Chobani’s founder, or to his company’s hiring practices (especially given that the company wasn’t even founded until four years after the 9/11 terrorist attacks).


On 31 March 2016, the author of the WND article contacted us with further information, substantiating that 961 refugees from all nations (including Iraq, Iran, Burma, Russia, and Ukraine) entered Idaho in the calendar year 2015.


 Breakdowns of the that information by state can be found here:


What was particularly notable within the Department of State’s refugee records for calendar year 2015 were demographics of people seeking asylum. While rumors claimed that refugees were primarily from Muslim countries (most typically Syria), the vast majority of people asking for asylum in Idaho were not from Muslim countries:




In 2015 a scant 28 Syrians (fewer than two percent of Idaho’s total) sought asylum in Idaho, despite intense focus on Syria’s refugees in the media. By contrast, 611 of the 961 refugees came from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan, Burundi, and the Central African Republic (64 percent of all people settled in Idaho in 2015). Christianity (not Islam) was the primary religion in all but Somalia. Another 137 (14 percent) came from Burma (98) and Bhutan (39), countries that are primarily Buddhist. Removing the 9.7 percent from Somalia, the sum total of refugees from primarily Christian or Buddhist countries alone settling in Idaho in 2015 was 654 (or nearly 70 percent). Another two percent came from non-Muslim countries like Colombia, Russia, and Ukraine; despite the title of the piece, more than two-thirds of the refugees logged in the source material did not come from primarily Muslim countries.
Not long after the WND item appeared in January 2016, Facebook users began sharing the above-reproduced image macro reading:


Boycott Chobani Yogurt, an American based yogurt manufacturing company in Idaho that is owned by a muslim who says he is going to drown the United States in Muslims and is importing them to Idaho 300 at a time to work in his factory. He is also giving them the jobs that should go to American families even though his American neighbors have protested his actions and oppose his behavior. Please do not buy Chobani Yogurt!


As with many rumors of its type, the Chobani rumor evolved to encompass multiple versions inaccurately describing Ulukaya’s proposition, intent, and practices, including completely fabricated claims that Ulukaya had vowed to “flood” the U.S. with Muslims or “drown” the country in refugees. Some versions of the rumor asserted the CEO “imported” 300 Muslims per month” to the U.S. specifically to work in his Idaho plant, a claim which was difficult to square with immigration math. Per the U.S. Department of State, roughly 21,000 work visas were granted nationwide in each of fiscal years 2013, 2014, and 2015 [PDF]. If the claims about “300 Muslims per month” were to be believed 17% of all work visas were going to persons employed by a single yogurt plant in Idaho, irrespective of the fact that business people don’t have the authority to grant work visas of any description in the first place.


WND appeared to have extrapolated some of their numbers from a 15 January 2016 Financial Times profile of Ulukaya and his efforts to help refugees, which noted that the entire Chobani global workforce was made up of only 600 refugees (of all nationalities and religions):


Ulukaya decided to act. Last year he established a foundation, Tent, to channel financial aid and innovation efforts into refugee work. He also declared that he would give half his fortune to refugee causes (he has made an eye-popping $1.4bn from his wildly popular Chobani yoghurts in recent years). And he has stepped up efforts to hire as many refugees as he can at his yoghurt plants, where they currently account for 30 per cent of the total workforce, or 600 people. “There are 11 or 12 languages spoken in our factories,” says Ulukaya. “We have translators 24 hours a day.”


However, initial reporting upon the Idaho yogurt-processing plants facility’s opening in 2012 indicated that the plant employed 300 people in total, further calling into question claims that Chobani was placing 300 Muslim refugees per month in that same Idaho plant. Either Chobani was experiencing credulity-testing and unchecked monthly expansion, or the numbers were way off:

Chobani, the yogurt company that grew from nothing five years ago to a roughly $1 billion powerhouse today, will formally open one of the world’s largest yogurt-processing plants in Twin Falls, Idaho. The $450 million, 1 million square-foot plant is the company’s second. It will employ 300 people, and Mr. Ulukaya said for every 10 jobs it creates directly, it is expected to create roughly 66 additional jobs in ancillary businesses.


The claim that Chobani was headquartered in Idaho was also inaccurate. While the brand operates processing facilities in that state, Chobani was founded, and remains headquartered in, New York.


It is true that Ulukaya proposed using business employment as a novel approach to a refugee crisis in January 2016. However, claims that he sought to assist only Muslim refugees and was personally “importing” 300 Muslims per month to work in his Idaho plant were fabrications.

_______________________________________

Below we see the global corporation and the global 1% tied to this NESTLE corporation known by everyone globally as the top BIG BAD MULTI-NATIONAL CORPORATION---which with MONSANTO controls much of the world's food sources.


We know those pesky Greek FAKE SOCIALIST leaders loading the nation with global banking debt fraud were working for this Greek corporation.  We know as well these are the Greek wealth executives that took all their wealth off-shore to leave 99% of Greek citizens to have their personal wealth lost and stolen.  We know this Greek corporation is now using its labor organization to send Greek refugees to Foreign Economic Zones around the world.

We know this because that is what the CLINTON INITIATIVE has built these few decades.

If we look at this annual report from HELLAS NESTLE----we see the exact terminology in Baltimore City and its mountains of NGOs-----HEALTHY KIDS/WELLNESS/NGOs focusing on children-----this is what fills our US city school organizations----our US city social services organizations---our US city job training and employment----all once government agencies---local, state, Federal ----now global and controlled by a global corporate tribunal.


When Greek public health system was left in decay-----this is to where all those public funds went-----when Greece was loaded with sovereign bond debt---this is to where that bond revenue went----when Greek people lost their pensions and homes---this is to where that value went.

THIS SAME POLICY IS HAPPENING IN BALTIMORE BECAUSE ONE WORLD ONE GOVERNANCE CORPORATE SUSTAINABILITY POLICY.

Creating SHARED VALUE---not for 99% WE THE PEOPLE!


 As BORING as these annual reports are----believe it or not WE READ THEM-----we must educate broadly to know what the rich and powerful have as goals---and know when our politicians and organizations are CAPTURED BY THEM.  This will be ONE of the Greek global corporations installing that EMBRYONIC MONEY-LESS SOCIETY just as global Google in San Fran is leading the way in US...........



Nestlé Hellas Sustainability
and Creating Shared Value
Report
2011

Nestlé
Hellas Sustainability and Creating Shared Value Report 2011


Contents


1.
A message from the CEO________5


2.
The structure of the Report__________6


2.1
About our Sustainability and Creating Shared Value Report _________6


2.2
The content of the Report _________6


2.3
The methodology of the Report _____7



2.4
A few words on the structure of the Report ____7




2.5
Scope of the Report _________7




3.
Nestlé in Greece and the world___8


3.1
The history of Nestlé in Greece _____10


3.2
The structure of Nestlé in Greece __________11



3.3 Nestle Hellas: 2011 strategy and financial performance ___________12


3.4
The Nestlé facilities in Greece __________12


3.5 Nestlé products in Greece _________14


3.6 Nestlé Corporate Business Principles ____16



3.7
Our mission and values ______18


3.8
Corporate Governance ______18



3.9
Renumeration of managers _________18




3.10 Determination of qualifications and expertise for senior
management and senior staff _________19




3.11 Nestlé Code of Business Conduct ___19



3.12 Compliance Committee _________20


3.13 Issue Round Table __________20



3.14 Security Committee__________20


3.15 Safety Committee ___________20


3.16 Awards received in 2011 ___________21



3.17 Nestlé participation in organizations and business associations ____21


4.
Creating Shared Value at Nestlé



4.1
The way we work _________22


4.2
The three pillars of Creating Shared Value ______23



4.3 Nestlé Creating Shared Value in Greece ____24


4.4
Wellness Taskforce _________24


4.5
Mapping of stakeholders _______24


4
Contents


5.  Nestlé in the Greek market: Delighting consumers_28



5.1
The Nestlé Quality Assurance and Product Safety Policy __________30


5.2 Nestlé Quality Management System _______30



5.3
Consumer Services _______________31



5.4
Consumer communication with our Company in 2011 _31


5.5
Communication starts from the product label ____________________32


5.6
We develop food and beverage products for health and pleasure ___33


5.7 Nestlé Consumer Research Studies ____________________________35


5.8
Responsible Communication ________35



5.9
Supplier and customer relations: We develop responsible partners__36



5.10 The Nestlé sales network ________37


5.11 Our suppliers _____________38


5.12 Fair competition ___________39


6.
Human Resources____40


6.1
We care for our people ____________40



6.2
Our people in 2011 _____________41




6.3
Recruitment process______42


6.4
Employee turnover __________43


6.5
Employee progress and development ______44


6.6
Employee training __________44


6.7
Employee Health and Safety __________48


6.8 Nestlé Employee Council ________49



7.
Environment______50



7.1
The Nestlé Environmental Management System______52



7.2
Our performance in 2011 ___53


7.3
Management of Greenhouse Gas Emissions ____________________54



7.4
Water management _______55


7.5
Waste management_______56


7.6
Use of materials _____________57


7.7
Company fleet _________57




8.
Commitment to society______58


8.1
Healthy Kids Global Programme _______58



8.2
Healthy Kids in Greece __________59


8.3
Healthy Kids: Goals for 2012 _______63



8.4
2nd Water Care Festival at the Korpi factory _____________________64




8.5
Product donations_______66


8.6
Support of NGOs focusing on children _________________________66



8.7
Employee volunteerism ____________66


9.
Corporate Responsibility Report Quality Assurance__68


9.1 Introduction ________69


9.2
Assurance Statement ________69



9.3  Communication with Nestle__69


10. GRI Index_______70

11. Evaluation form__79

Let's return to yesterday's posts for a few points before looking again at Sri Lanka and Greece and how what is happening there is happening in the US----and remember, the UK is a decade or two ahead of US in MOVING FORWARD ONE WORLD ONE GOVERNANCE GLOBAL 1% ----this is why we are seeing that MONEY-LESS SOCIETY going main stream in UK while only being introduced in Silicon Valley----home of ONE WORLD GLOBAL CLINTON/BUSH/OBAMA.

Why is national and international media using two terms for this extreme wealth and extreme poverty----

CASHLESS SOCIETY VS MONEY-LESS SOCIETY.

When developed nation citizens as UK, US, Canada, Japan, think of CASHLESS SOCIETY they don't think all money is going to be taken out of circulation--they are thinking expanded credit card====plastic=====debt cards.  So what if our employer direct deposits our paychecks----the middle and affluent class have not had problems with this.  The money is always there.

The term MONEY-LESS is used more in third world societies where 99% of citizens never do handle paper money and rarely coins.  They are already living in a barter society----when our US or UK media start using the term MONEY-LESS----WE THE PEOPLE know we are heading to that third world bartering status.

Below we see the AMERICAN THINKER------this is a right wing media outlet that makes good policy discussion with a right wing bias.  The right wing pols would never use the term MONEY-LESS to their voters because that indicates MARXISM AND ENDING CAPITALISM. 

WHEN THE GLOBAL 1% ARE PUSHING THESE PUBLIC POLICIES ON GLOBAL ECONOMICS AND THEY ARE RAGING GLOBAL BANKING NEO-LIBERALS----WE ARE NOT GOING TO LEFT MARXISM ----WE ARE GOING TO FAR-RIGHT LIBERTARIAN MARXISM----

Again, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland once left social progressive have these few decades been pulled right wing and have been installing ONE WORLD ONE GOVERNANCE structures so please don't think these nations are still controlled by left politicians. All western Europe nations are captured by neo-liberalism as well and their citizens are fighting hard against this.


Developing nations have been using that term MONEY-LESS for these few decades via the United Nations----our developed nations are being tied to CASHLESS---



February 8, 2016


Here Comes the ‘Cashless Society’

By Mike Konrad


A recent look at some headlines, all less than two months old, gives us a scary view as to what is coming:

• Bring On the Cashless Future - Bloomberg
• China buyers go virtually cashless  - The Star
• Norway's Biggest Bank Calls For Country To Stop Using Cash - Int'l Business Times
• Cashless future underway as Canadian consumers have more credit, debit and app options than ever - CBC
• In Sweden, a Cash-Free Future Nears - NY Times
• Germany proposes new cash ban and capital controls as Europe rushes towards NIRP - Examiner

With the Western World and China in danger of going into deflation, major banks have already started to charge negative interest rates.
Denmark’s central bank was a pioneer when it first cut its deposit rate below zero in 2012, and the trend has now spread to the eurozone and Japan. The Danish deposit rate now stands at minus 0.65 per cent. - Financial Times


Sweden has followed suit.  The USA is set to follow.  Major Bankers are calling for an abolition of money.  It may the only fix left, now that quantitative easing is failing.  But no one is going to put their money in banks!  Not if it means negative interest rates.


Don't worry.  Governments will rise to the occasion and soon will be making cash illegal.  People will be forced to put their money in banks or the market, thus rescuing the central governments and the central banks that are incestuously intertwined with them.

Beyond that, cash is probably the last arena of personal autonomy left.  It can be spent anyway one pleases, with no one watching.   It can be hidden from the government to avoid taxes.  It can be used to engage in transactions of a semi-legal nature.  It has power that the government cannot control; and that is why it has to go.


Of course, governments will not tell us the real reasons.  Might provoke a reaction.  We will be told it is for our own "good," however one defines that.  It will be sold to us as a benefit.  Millions of smartphone users are being seduced to take advantage of the convenience of Apple Pay; and indeed it is convenient, until you lose your smartphone.


When that day comes -- and we may be only one more "market correction" away -- the call will go out to have all disposable cash surrendered in exchange for bank accounts or money funds.  A time period will be set up. Possibly two months, extended one or two times to make the bureaucrats appear merciful.  Fluff stories will appear in the press to ease the process.


There will be stories about a seventy-year-old granny who marches in with a mattress containing $100,000 of her life earnings.  She will smile, and tell the announcer, "I was always afraid of a fire; but now I feel safer."  It will look so cute on the Five O’clock Action Report News.


Kids will turn in their piggy banks at school -- does anybody still use piggy banks anymore? -- for prepaid money cards.  They won't be told the cards depreciate one or two percent a month, if they do not spend it immediately.  Remember, that in all of these transactions, the central government/bank wins.
Side stories will inform us that mugging is down. Crime is finally being defeated. What won't be reported will be that hacking will shoot up.  Bank fraud will skyrocket.


Poor people, often liberal voters, will be sold on increased personal safety.  A cashless society means less crime in their neighborhoods.  No cash puts muggers at a disadvantage.  More importantly, they will be told that the rich can no longer hide their money and will be "forced to pay their fair share."

Conservatives will be told that no cash puts a damper on drug transactions, and social crimes, such as prostitution.  Illegal aliens will not be able to get work. The media will be replete with tales of such wonder working miracles during the transition. 


Be assured, however, that criminals, ever innovative, will find a way around problem.  Escort Agencies now take credit cards.  Muggers will soon concentrate on jewelry and smartphones, especially those with Apple Pay accounts. 

Going cashless may ironically streamline drug smuggling since suitcases of money weigh too much. 
In spite of that, we will be told that criminal enterprises will have been hurt badly.  Their mountains of cash are irredeemable.  Don't you believe it.  Rather, there will be a spike in the price of Bitcoins during the conversion.  Bitcoin's anonymity has already spawned major illicit franchises on the darknet.  These will grow. Expect Craigslist to offer a plethora of conversion opportunities for college kids to make some spare ... well, credit by converting some cash.  The more efficient drug dealers will suffer some loss as they have to farm out their stash to small operators for conversion; but the surviving dealers will end up leaner, meaner, and in fighting shape when the dust settles.  Only the low-end relatively "honest" street pusher will suffer; but that street pusher was slated for an appointment with Five O'Clock News as a casualty of the drug wars, anyway.  Drugs will now arrive, elegantly delivered via shipping agencies.



The real purpose of a cashless society will be total control: Absolute Total Control.


The real victims will be the public who will be forced to put all their wealth in a centralized system backed up by the good faith and credit of their respective governments.  Their life savings will be eaten away yearly with negative rates.  John Q. Public will be forced to subsidize bankrupt banks, or invest in an overpriced manipulated market.


People would be foolish to think they can waltz through the problem if they have gold.  There is not enough gold on the planet to set up a serious competitive black market.  Those who have gold will be forced to pay a severe markup premium for going off-grid.  Eventually, even these will run out of gold; and bartering will soon prove tiresome.


The end result will be the loss of all autonomy.  This will be the darkest of all tyrannies.  From cradle to grave one will not only be tracked in location, but on purchases.  Liberty will be non-existent

However, it will be sold to us as expedient simplicity itself, freeing us from crime: Fascism with a friendly face.


Perhaps the scariest consequence of all is that an individual can be "terminated" by a bureaucrat erasing his identity.  Do not kid yourself, it will happen. Real "Mark of the Beast" stuff.

Rev 13:16-17 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark ... Rev 13:16-17
I do not know if we are there yet; but if recent headlines are a clue, we may be very close.

___________________________________________
Many Americans have already experienced signing on to direct utility or credit card deductions from our checking accounts----it started as voluntary and is moving to required.  With that comes the hardship of DISCONTINUING THAT DIRECT WITHDRAW FOR PAYMENTS when we want to stop using it or want to change payment methods.  As with all business transactions these days involving finance ----it has been corrupted and citizens/consumers are getting fleeced with fraud.

These policies are DELIBERATELY moving WE THE PEOPLE TO MONEY-LESS SOCIETY and each time a global corporation and global Wall Street introduces these policies our elected officials---first CONGRESS----then our STATE ASSEMBLIES----then our CITY COUNCILS ---have to pass laws to allow these predatory banking and corporate payment structures to MOVE FORWARD.  Baltimore City pols and players promote all these policies and pass these laws because THEY ARE ALL CLINTON/BUSH/OBAMA GLOBAL WALL STREET POLS AND PLAYERS.

'Millions of smartphone users are being seduced to take advantage of the convenience of Apple Pay; and indeed it is convenient, until you lose your smartphone'.

What did the corporation PAYPAL do?  It eliminated yet another pathway to cash and check exchange for CONVENIENCE.  Who did PAY PAL?  Global 1% told our global IVY LEAGUEs to develop it and they put the 99% of students and staff to work and VOILA----a patented PAYPAL via ELON MUSK is released.

Citizens in Western nations used to convenience need to WAKE UP to think what a MONEY-LESS SOCIETY looks like and it is the opposite of a CASHLESS SOCIETY-----MONEY-LESS SOCIETIES don't have money to spend via PLASTIC.

Even the United Nations, alongside the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, wants societies to forego cash for more virtual transacting.

OH, NO! Is that the OLD WORLD MERCHANTS OF VENICE CATHOLIC FREEMASON SYMBOL ON THAT CASHLESS REGISTER? Why it is! World Bank has talked these few decades of eliminating the sovereign nations of Denmark and Sweden to merge into what they are trying to make ONE WORLD ONE EUROZONE.


This could be the first country to go cashless
by Virginia Harrison   @vharrisoncnn June 2, 2015: 11:18 AM ET


Your video will play in 00:15A plan to cut cash out of shopping could see Denmark become the first country to ditch notes and coins altogether.


The Danish government has proposed that most stores could dump their cash registers from January 2016.


Essential services, such as hospitals, pharmacies and post offices, would still have to accept cash under the plan, which is some way from becoming law.
Denmark, with its Scandinavian neighbors Norway and Sweden, is leading the global trend towards electronic money.
Business groups point to benefits such as reduced handling and transport costs, increased security and a drop in attempts to steal cash.



A cashless society is "no longer an illusion but a vision that can be fulfilled within a reasonable time frame," said Michael Busk-Jepsen, executive director of the Danish Bankers Association.
Right now all retailers in Denmark must take cash. But that hasn't stopped huge numbers of Danes embracing digital options.


Nearly 40% of the population use Danske Bank (DNSKY)'s MobilePay, which allows money transfers between people, as well as purchases in stores or online.
Norway and Sweden tell a similar story.
Scandinavians rely on cash for less than 6% of all payments made. By contrast, around 47% of U.S. payments are still made with cash, according to the Norwegian central bank.


In Sweden, you can even use a card to buy street newspapers sold by homeless people. Card reader maker iZettle said sales of Situation Stockholm have jumped following the introduction of mobile payments.
And one of the country's most famous names, Abba's Björn Ulvaeus, has been a vocal supporter of a cashless society.



The trend toward digital money is accelerating elsewhere in Europe.
Non-cash payments rose 6% in 2013, according to data from the European Central Bank. Cashless payments overtook those made with notes and coins in the U.K. for the first time last year.


Even the United Nations, alongside the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, wants societies to forego cash for more virtual transacting. It wants to cut costs and improve transparency, and is working with governments and the private sector to encourage more use of electronic payments.
Still, a cashless society isn't great news for everyone. Digital transacting carries growing fraud and security risks, while the elderly and marginalized groups have limited access to electronic payment options.


The most recent figures from the ECB show fraudulent use of bank cards is racking up billions in costs for unlucky consumers.
Total card fraud in Europe hit €1.3 billion ($1.4 billion) in 2012, a near 15% jump on the year earlier.

____________________________________________
We are all being told it is capitalism-----money ---that created these ROBBER BARON massive corporate and Wall Street frauds and government corruptions and not simply those 5% TO THE 1% GLOBAL WALL STREET POLS AND PLAYERS.  Capitalism has been the economic policy for THOUSANDS OF YEARS and this construct of MAOIST/STALINIST MARXISM came from far-right wing extreme wealth extreme poverty -----global banking.

Again, left social progressive think communal living is great-----it has never worked and will not work in an INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY.  That is why left social capitalism is the best economic policy for 99% of WE THE PEOPLE---making sure equal protection for all IS ENFORCED.

ONE WORLD ONE GOVERNANCE BY A GLOBAL 1% TRIBUNAL has been working at these money-less society structures since 1950s---60s.  Left academics knew back then this was global banking 1% and not a people's movement.  This is why when REAGAN/CLINTON went global empire on WE THE PEOPLE ---we knew the goals----while national media and Clinton neo-liberal outlets called this CONSPIRACY THEORY.  Here we are today with the 99% WAKING UP----please don't allow FAKE REVOLUTIONARIES working for ONE WORLD make that REVOLUTION THE UNITED NATIONS TRANSFORMATION.

Below we see a United Nations GLOBAL 1% ONE WORLD ONE GOVERNANCE organization----and its tied to the GLOBAL GREEN CORPORATION PARTY---JILL STEIN.


© 2013 - It's Our Economy, a project of PopularResistance.org

We have Jill Stein---Bernie Sanders----Ellison-----AND our right wing LIBERTARIANS all pushing these MOVING FORWARD policies----this is how we know who those pesky 5% to the 1% are as Clinton/Obama morph to far-right LIBERTARIAN MARXISM.





LANKACLEAR
Corporate Profile

A World Beyond Cash
Incorporated in February 2002 as the "National Cheque Clearing House", today, LankaClear has expanded its service offering to be the "National Payment Infrastructure Provider" for the country. Owned by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) and all Licensed Commercial Banks operating in Sri Lanka, the company boasts of multiple solution offerings not only for the banking sector but also across all industries that are ready and willing to adopt/ integrate to the latest digital technology driving Sri Lanka toward an efficient, green, and paperless nation.

In an era where electronic payment modes are gaining popularity worldwide, we at LankaClear have set the foundation & platforms in moving Sri Lanka to a cashless society with paperless offices. As the catalyst of change in the Sri Lankan Payment Industry, the company has continuously strived to maintain the highest standards of efficiency and security in catering to this emerging market needs. The LankaSign Certification Service Provider (CSP) implemented by LankaClear provides the much needed security for the electronic payment systems and is currently the only commercially operated CSP in the country.

LankaClear has introduced many ground breaking products, some of which have been first in the South Asian Region. Our committed & dynamic team of in- house professionals, with global exposure brings in the expertise in driving the technology foot print and the service delivery at LankaClear.


All Foreign Economic Zones are installing this MONEY-LESS/CASHLESS SOCIETY -----including now US cities deemed FOREIGN ECONOMIC ZONES.  Where does this lead?  Global corporate campus plantations where that corporation houses, feeds, clothes, and teaches its human capital without them having to leave that global corporate campus. 

NO MONEY NEEDED IN A TOTALITARIAN EXTREME WEALTH CAPTURE.

Imagine For a Moment a Moneyless Society
By Tony DeLorger 


Imagine for a moment a society without money. When you think about it, money, the lack of it, the pursuit of it, and what to do with it, takes up much of our waking consciousness. Even in our dreams we dream about winning the lottery, paying off the mortgage or being able to afford every whim and want. In short we are slaves to money. But in reality it is just an idea. These little pieces of paper are meaningless in themselves, rather a means by which our society is maintained, kept in some semblance of balance and order.


However from another perspective, money and the pursuit of it reveals a far more negative aspect of humanity, greed. Because money can expand life choices and gain power over those with less of it, it is by nature the corruptor. Our monetary system, devised to be a means for fair economy and balances has become the controlling force of all human endeavour. It has become a sole purpose and the false God of a race of beings immersed in self-involvement.


The world is filled with inequity, most of which revolves around money. Those born into poverty have no choice in the matter, as is our good fortune born into wealth. The success or failure of political and economic systems comes from individual circumstance for which all associated populations endure the result. Most of us have little influence on what happens beyond trying to ensure we protect and care for our own love ones. Of course, no-one wants to give up what they have, or lesson the lifestyle and freedom that we enjoy.


Here’s the clincher. Technology, energy and world resources can sustain our world populations: rid the world of hunger, drastically lessen disease and care for all its inhabitants. The only obstacle is greed and what the monetary system has created.


Imagine a world without money, without the pressure of bills, striving to amass, budgeting and all that goes with our present system. And what’s even better, without money, without power there would be far less conflict. Perhaps we would learn to live in peace and not contend with or try to better our fellow man. The benefits would be many.


There are people that have been working on this possibility for some years, working out how such a society would work. The intent is not to recreate any political system or philosophy but to imagine a new working world order whereby a governing body would oversee the maintenance and procurement of all the resources needed to sustain a balanced, healthy world. Perhaps we would all be required to work certain hours per week in our chosen fields, having been educated and nurtured to achieve our potential. The reward for participation would be housing, food and recreational choices, living in the knowledge that our future and our children’s future is assured.


It all sounds impossible to achieve but dreams can come true and a world of peace and prosperity is worth consideration. Think about it.
________________________________________
Most US citizens will without even researching this policy stance think MONEY-LESS SOCIETIES are not good.  Our poor struggle every day because they don't have money-----our third world immigrants come to US because their nation leaves them with no money.

Global Wall Street 1% are trying to sell WE THE GLOBAL 99% that global corporations want to take care of its human capital.  They plan to place workers in campus dormitories----with corporate campus schools---with preventative care only health care -----serving 3 institutional meals a day to its workers working 15-18 hours a day.  They will give workers CORPORATE UNIFORMS for clothing----this is what we call TOTALITARIANISM.

Our US military citizens will say----well, that's how we live on military bases-----know what is different?  Our US military were PAID SOLID WAGES AND BENEFITS---they could sign up for a 4 or 8 year term and then head to a free, democratic, civilian life.  What is being built by global Wall Street is 24/7------LIFETIME MILITARY BASE structures with no PAY.

Here we are again in 1972 with our INTERNATIONAL LABOR UNION talking about a BLOODLESS REVOLUTION.  We have been shouting for a decade in our organization that a VISIGOTH RAPE AND PILLAGE LOOTING of our US government and personal assets was happening CLINTON/BUSH/OBAMA----now, do we really thing global banking and global 1% are our BLOODLESS REVOLUTIONARIES?  Of course not---they are the same OLD WORLD MERCHANTS OF VENICE RICH from a thousand years ago.


Are a moneyless society and a bloodless revolution possible?; Right to Challenge; People and Power in the Steelworkers Union.

By John Herling. 415 pp. New York: Harper & Row. $12.50

Here we see Greek leaders these few decades being the same CLINTON/OBAMA only pretending to be LEFT SOCIALISTS tying the nation to so much global banking debt to sink the nations' economy but these FAKE SOCIALIST LEADERS are blaming the EU chiefs.  It is the same as CLINTON/OBAMA shaking their fists at TRUMP.

What we are not hearing in our national media is part of this AUSTERITY IN GREECE required an end to that nations' quality health coverage and senior health care programs and tying Greece to UNITED NATIONS global labor pool preventative care only ----SINGLE-PAYER/UNIVERSAL CARE ---and the mortality rate for seniors in Greece is SOARING.


EU chiefs SLASH Greece's aid because Tsipras wanted to give pensioners a Christmas bonus

HEARTLESS European Union finance ministers have suspended much needed debt relief for Greece because the country’s prime minister wanted to give a Christmas bonus to pensioners.By Patrick Christys

PUBLISHED: 00:00, Thu, Dec 15, 2016 | UPDATED: 03:53, Thu, Dec 15, 2016
2K89GETTY


Alexis Tsipras wanted to give old people a Christmas bonus but the EU said no

Greek premier Alexis Tsipras said £520million would be distributed as Christmas bonuses to 1.6million pensioners who live on £700 or less a month – the same pensioners who had their life savings claimed by the government during the recent banking crisis.


But Eurogroup chairman Jeroen Dijsselbloem said it would be postponing aid to the Mediterranean nation because bringing Christmas cheer to the elderly "appears to not be in line with our agreements”.

The Germans are the main opposition force to Greece’s bailout and ministers from Europe’s economic powerhouse clearly believe bringing festive cheer to old people who have felt the full force of the failing Eurozone.


In a Twitter statement, Mr Dijsselbloem said: “Some member states see it this way also and thus no unanimity now for implementing the short-term debt measures.”
The Eurogroup believes Mr Tsipras is “disrespecting” their generosity.

Alexis Tsipras's country could now face a lean Christmas and uncertain future


Greece's pensioners suffered badly in the financial crash


The debt relief measures agreed on December 6 to include more time for Greece to repay ESM loans and brakes on interest rates.
This Christmas bonus dispute could complicate efforts by Athens and its creditors to complete the review of the second Greek bailout programme.


It will also make the situation between Greece and the International Monetary Fund more difficult, with the IMF acting as one of the country’s largest lenders now sceptical as to whether it will see a return on its loans.
The IMF has already said it will bail out of the bailout if Greece’s debt is not sustainable.


But the Washington-based lender has been quick to defend itself, saying it has no desire to demand more austerity in Greece, the demands enforced upon the country by the EU are “very high” and budget surpluses are “simply not credible”.
_____________________________________________
The WORLD BANK AND IMF have these few decades forced developing nations into these UNITED NATIONS GLOBAL LABOR POOL preventative care only structures assuring these nations will never have the quality of health care our developed nations do-------same happened for Greece when its FAKE SOCIALIST LEADERS tied Greece to WORLD BANK/IMF----and all those pensioners ---baby boomers just as in the US-----were immediately denied access to those SOVEREIGN GREEK PROGRAMS AND HEALTH SAVINGS ACCOUNTS.

Mortality rates in Greece are soaring because of this.  This is why we see Greek citizens protesting en masse----

This is what OBAMA AND CLINTON NEO-LIBERALS teamed with Bush neo-cons did to the US these several years-----they created the same sovereign debt fraud----they broke down all our Federal public health structures to assure only PRIVATE STATE HEALTH SYSTEMS exist just as the economic crash and US Treasury and state municipal bond market collapse occurs so that same WORLD BANK IMF will tell Trump----Larry Hogan -----Catherine PUGH----to install that UNITED NATIONS SINGLE PAYER UNIVERSAL CARE just as in all third world nations.

OUR US SENIORS WILL BECOME THOSE GREEK SENIORS----IF YOU THINK THIS IS ONLY HAPPENING TO POOR CITIZENS--WAKE UP TO BECOMING THAT POOR CITIZEN.

Volunteers and patronage replacing a developed nation's public health system.

Global 1% will throw some millions to make everyone volunteers but not pay taxes to hire public employees to do civil services.

Maryland and Baltimore pols have staged citizens for just these events. Our Maryland Assembly APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE CHAIR Maggie McIntosh -----running for Governor as a Democrat-----made sure we had a strong PRIVATE STATE HEALTH SYSTEM and made sure all Maryland State funding from Health and Human Services goes to only global corporate campus medical systems and not to our local city/county coffers. This is what captures all tax revenue and its control when the economy crashes. It was our same MARYLAND BARBARA MIKULSKI as Congressional Appropriations doing the same ----Maryland and especially Baltimore will look the same as Greece.




Greek Healthcare System Now Relies on Volunteers and Donations
Posted by Harry Merritt on July 16, 2013


As austerity has imposed budget cuts on healthcare systems across Europe and North America, the effect has been diminished coverage, staff layoffs, shortages of medicines, and increases in preventable illness and deaths. This has been especially true in Greece, with multiple punishing rounds of austerity measures over the past several years effectively ending universal health care in the country. Though the statistics reveal a growing health crisis among the Greek people, a complete collapse of the system has only been avoided through the efforts of dedicated volunteers.


Greece had a health care system that was until recently much like the rest of Europe's—a social insurance scheme paid into by the employed supplemented by government budgetary appropriation to provide universal coverage to the population. Four years of austerity have changed that, with budget cuts taking funds from hospitals and clinics, a massive unemployment rate diminishing revenues, and stipulations of the austerity measures mandating that those unemployed for a year or more are ineligible to receive benefits.


Last year, the New York Times reported on an underground network of doctors and nurses who serve those unemployed patients who are no longer covered. "In Greece right now, to be unemployed means death," said Dr. Syrigos, a member of this network. But for the unemployed, the work he and others like him have done means the preservation of life and well-being. Cancer patients who otherwise would have to pay out of pocket were spared crippling payments they could not possibly afford. As the social and health crisis has grown in Greece, the need for networks like this has only increased.


The BBC has done an in depth profile, looking in particular at the Metropolitan Community Clinic run by Dr. Giorgos Vichas.


Dr Vichas says his clinic is the only place in the city where cancer patients can get free chemotherapy. They are also providing 200 families with milk formula for their babies.


The municipality provides the premises for the clinic, on a disused American military base, and pays the overheads. But the medical professionals - which include paediatricians, gynaecologists and cardiologists - work there for nothing.


All the drugs are donated by individuals and pharmaceutical companies. They enter the clinic by the plastic bagful, higgledy piggledy, to be processed by a team of volunteers led by pharmacists. They sort them, date them, label them and store them.


As the state has withdrawn, networks of volunteers—within the medical profession or without—and pharmaceutical companies have worked on these clinics, in this case on land donated by the municipality. Doctors in hospitals bend the rules by giving tests and treatment without asking for proof of insurance: "'Every day I break the law,' [Dr. Ilias Sioras of Evangelismos General Hospital in Athens] says. 'I never ask for insurance for any patient.'"


For those like Dr. Panos Eustathiou of the Greek Ministry of Health, these efforts consitute a measure of success under conditions of austerity. But pretending that an ersatz volunteer-based effort can meet the needs of millions of Greeks is disingenuous and dangerous. Dr. Vichas freely acknowledges that "his team cannot continue firefighting the city's health problems forever" and worries about growing lapses in basic preventative care like childhood vaccinations.

Indeed, the Greek medical volunteers should challenge the beliefs of neoliberal supporters of austerity policies; in contrast to marketized "private-sector solutions" the volunteers are motivated by altruism and solidarity, donating their time and money without financial returns or tax benefits. The holes they patched in the system are admirable, but cannot compare to the permanence or universality of a modern universal health care system. Though these volunteers struggle resolutely to help their fellow Greeks, so long as austerity continues to gut the national health care system, they can only fail to stem the growing health crisis in the end, as in a classic Greek tragedy.

Let's get back to how Greece and Sri Lanka are the same MOVING FORWARD as in US cities deemed Foreign Economic Zones.

We talked about the United Nations global neo-liberal policy of OPEN BORDERS and how these far-right wing global Wall Street sell this policy as PRO-IMMIGRANT when it is simply a global slave trade system built by CLINTON/BUSH/OBAMA and the global 1%.

Greece was deliberately hit hardest so it could be used as that platform for installing ONE WORLD ONE GOVERNANCE policies like ----MONEY-LESS SOCIETAL STRUCTURES.

First the WORLD BANK/IMF needed to get rid of Greek sovereign citizens and that is what 2008 austerity had as a goal.  These several years have seen almost all of Greek young citizens and professional class become EX-PATS.  At the same time the Arab Spring---revolutions sparked by WORLD BANK PLAYERS----filled Greece with refugees from those northern African/Middle-East nations.  So, today Greece is mostly IMMIGRANT CITIZENS and they will be the ones facing MONEY-LESS BASIC INCOME POLICIES.  The Greek citizens who are seniors are dying at a fast rate.  Meanwhile, Greece's 1% and their 2% having created this mess with tons of fraud and government corruption have been overseas waiting for these societal transitions to finish.


Where did the money go? How Greece fumbled the refugee crisis
Two years ago, 57,000 refugees were stranded when Europe’s southern borders closed. What followed has been called the most expensive humanitarian response in historyby Daniel Howden and Apostolis Fotiadis

• Thursday 9 March 2017 01.00 EST Last modified on Thursday 11 May 2017 07.29 EDT

Widad Madrati remembers the first snowfall at Oreokastro in the way most children would, as a thing of wonder. It threw a brilliant white cover over the squalor of a refugee camp pitched in the grounds of a disused warehouse in the hills above Greece’s second city, Thessaloniki. The 17-year-old Syrian did not mind that the water pipe to the outdoor sinks had frozen. She took photographs of the icicles.

The pictures on her phone show nothing of the broken chemical toilets or the discarded, inedible food; nor of the flimsy tents pitched on freezing ground by refugees, such as her family, who arrived too late to find a spot inside the concrete shell of the old warehouse. Instead, the images show children playing in the snow.
Stranded outside the Oreokastro buildings, in a tent dusted with white flakes, the other members of the Madrati family were more realistic about survival and begged the authorities and volunteers for a way out of the camp. A family of four when they left Aleppo, they became five along the way – Widad’s sister Maria was born in Turkey – and had endured worse indignities in Greece than pleading.

The family was among the last to leave their previous temporary home at Idomeni, close to the border with Macedonia, on the overland western Balkan route to northern Europe. They held on in the chaotic encampment for 10 weeks after Greece’s northern border closed in March 2016, in the hope that it would reopen. It did not. The settlement was evacuated and its residents moved to former industrial sites such as Oreokastro and disused army barracks. “I was crying when we left Idomeni,” says Widad. “I felt I was losing hope after so many people had crossed the border and we could not.”
She tells her story in the English she learned from volunteers at Idomeni and then taught to other refugee children at Oreokastro. Her family, who qualify by almost any criteria as refugees, have witnessed much of what has gone wrong in Greece since the country became the gateway to Europe for record numbers of refugees and migrants.
From their arrival at Moria on Lesbos, to Idomeni and Oreokastro, the Madratis’ route since arriving in the EU has been a tour of previously obscure places in Greece that have gained international notoriety for the misery of their conditions. Their ordeal stands in stark contrast to the international funding and energy expended to help people like them.


A sequence of events beginning with the record number of people who flowed into Greece in June 2015 and culminating in the photograph of drowned Syrian toddler Alan Kurdi woke the world to the refugee crisis. The effect of that awakening was to tip the entire humanitarian complex toward Greece, sending resources tumbling out of the developing world into the European Union. It prompted an unprecedented number of international volunteers to descend on the country, the UN refugee agency to declare an emergency inside the European Union, and the EU to deploy its own humanitarian response unit inside Europe for the first time. In the process, it became the most expensive humanitarian response in history, according to several aid experts, when measured by the cost per beneficiary.


Exactly how much money has been spent in Greece by the European Union is much reported but little understood. The online media project Refugees Deeply has calculated that $803m has come into Greece since 2015, which includes all the funds actually allocated or spent, all significant bilateral funding and major private donations.


The biggest pots of money are controlled by the European Commission (EC), the EU’s executive body, which oversees the Asylum Migration Integration Fund (AMIF) and the Internal Security Fund (ISF) which collectively dedicated $541m to fund Greece’s costs related to border control, asylum and refugee protection. However, since it did not complete the extensive strategic planning required, the Greek government did not receive significant amounts of these funds, necessitating emergency assistance from the commission, channelled through other means. Confusion over the true extent of European spending has been exacerbated by inflated statements from the European commissioner for migration, home affairs and citizenship, Dimitris Avramopoulos, who has regularly cited figures in excess of €1bn, although this amount apparently refers to all available and theoretical funds, not what has actually been allocated or spent.

One senior aid official estimated that as much as $70 out of every $100 spent had been wasted

Nevertheless, the $803m total represents the most expensive humanitarian response in history. On the basis that the money was spent on responding to the needs of all 1.03 million people who have entered Greece since 2015, the cost per beneficiary would be $780 per refugee. However, the bulk of these funds was used to address the needs of at least 57,000 people stranded in Greece after the closure of the borders on 9 March 2016, and on this basis the cost per beneficiary is $14,088.



Officials from the EU’s humanitarian operations directorate, Echo, believe the payout per beneficiary was higher than any of their previous operations. One senior aid official estimated that as much as $70 out of every $100 spent had been wasted.

The haunting image of Alan Kurdi, lying drowned on a Turkish beach on 2 September 2015, was shared more than 20 million times on social media. It prompted an immediate spike in Google searches related to Syria and an avalanche of private donations to charities working on behalf of refugees.


The Swedish Red Cross saw its daily donations leap 55-fold in the week after the image circulated, according to a study led by Paul Slovic at the University of Oregon. At the International Rescue Committee (IRC), a New York-based relief group, response to the photograph crashed its website and drove a surge of public donations. Slovic says that Kurdi’s death “woke the world for a brief time”. It also made it imperative for international non-governmental organisations (INGOs) to show they were responding to events in the eastern Mediterranean.


For the established groups already working in Greece, the sudden influx of funds was both welcome and destabilising. Metadrasi, a Greek organisation known for training interpreters and caring for unaccompanied minors, had experienced staff poached by bigger new arrivals on the scene that could afford far higher salaries.
The head of Metadrasi, Lora Pappa, believes the tide of money transformed refugees into “commodities” and encouraged short-term responses. “They [international organisations] were looking at how to show a presence in Greece. This led to some wasting the chance to spend constructively.”
Her rueful conclusion is that “sometimes money can do more harm than good”.


Among the cautionary tales to emerge from this period was the Apanemo transit centre on Lesbos. A million-dollar facility built by the IRC on the steep hillside close to the main landing beaches during the busiest months in 2015, it was designed to receive 2,000 refugee arrivals per day. Funded by private donations, British aid money and the charitable Radcliffe Foundation, it was hailed by the IRC as a “much-needed reception centre [that] provides crucial services to refugees”.



_________________________________________


Here we see that smiling face of a great big global Wall Street 5% pol and player introducing policy with goals just as in GREECE. In this money-less society an individual ID is tied to ONLINE BANKING ----you swipe it for every purchase---you swipe it for every action---as buses, entry into buildings-----and VOILA US citizens have absolutely no control over any transactions happening in their own US cities---same happening to GREECE-----


Below we see it was CLINTON ERA that global Wall Street started MOVING FORWARD this MONEYLESS SOCIETY----and as always it is to help the poor-----This Baltimore City Council person is just trying to help the poor----and bringing city pride.



'2000

EBT cards were introduced in the late 1990s, a significant change in the way benefits were distributed in the food stamps program.

Significant changes were made to the Food Stamp Program in the early 2000s. Food stamp participation increased dramatically, and eligibility was extended to qualified immigrants and children who were 18 years old and younger. Also during this time period, the stamps used for food purchases were replaced with an Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) card. The EBT cards, modeled after credit or debit cards, transfer government benefits from a federal account to the SNAP retailer. The cards were instituted to reduce program fraud, ensure ease of use of food benefits by program participants, and to reduce the stigma associated with using food stamps for purchases'.


Obama added to this MONEYLESS SOCIETY by pushing veterans, senior Social Security, and SS Disability to direct deposit. So, at this point the poor---the old -----the disabled-----the government employees----and now we are hearing corporations will only direct deposit working citizens' pay checks----THIS IS ALL ABOUT BEING GREEN---ENVIRONMENTAL .

THIS IS THE SAME POLICY UNFOLDING HERE IN US AS IS NOW BEING FORCED ON GREECE. SINCE THE US IS A FAR-LARGER AND MORE COMPLEX ECONOMY AND SOCIETY IT TOOK CLINTON/BUSH/OBAMA WHAT IS HAPPENING IN GREECE THIS PAST DECADE.

Each US Foreign Economic Zone having its own MONEY-LESS ID CARD we see immigrants now being required to have their wages direct deposited already..........

'Fernanda Durand, a spokeswoman for the pro-immigration group CASA, said ID cards have helped new immigrants in Montgomery County'.

Baltimore close to creating municipal ID cards for city residents

Luke BroadwaterContact ReporterThe Baltimore Sun

Coming soon to Baltimore: official government ID cards for people who live in the city.
The City Council is moving ahead with a bill that would require the city to issue a municipal identification card to any resident who asks for one.
The bill's chief sponsor, Councilman Brandon Scott, said the idea is to make it easier for homeless people, immigrants and others who lack a driver's license to obtain services from the city.
It would cut down on unnecessary arrests, Scott said, and bolster a sense of civic pride. Baltimore businesses and cultural institutions could offer discounts to cardholders.

"It's optional, but we're going to encourage people to get one," Scott said. "I hope to be the first to get one."
Scott's legislation grew out of an effort he pushed last year on behalf of Baltimore students. Seeing that they needed four different ID cards to access schools, libraries, recreation centers and buses, Scott introduced legislation to combine those functions into one card.

Now he's trying to expand the program to adults.
"These IDs will be available to homeless people, to immigrants and refugees, to women who are the victims of domestic abuse who can't get their documents in order to get another ID," Scott said.
The legislation hasn't sparked much debate in heavily Democratic Baltimore. It's been praised by groups including the Police Department and the House of Ruth, a shelter of women and children who have suffered domestic abuse.


But elsewhere, such proposals have been fought by those who oppose allowing immigrants in the country without legal documentation, such as the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which says such cards encourage lawbreaking.
When New York City instituted municipal ID cards in 2014, the group argued the cards would "draw illegal aliens to New York City by making life more practicable" for them.


The new Baltimore ID would have the same effect, a FAIR spokesman said.
"The reason we have so many illegal immigrants living in his country is because we make it easy for them," said Ira Mehlman, the spokesman. "We provide all sorts of benefits for breaking the laws.


"A number of these local governments have lost sight of the reason why we have immigration laws."
Scott disagrees. He said making life easier for immigrants — those who are here with or without legal documentation — is a strength of the legislation. He said immigrants often carry cash because they don't have proper identification to open bank accounts, making them targets for street robberies.
Municipal ID cards are used in New York and Los Angeles. It's believed that the first city to issue municipal ID cards was New Haven, Conn., followed by San Francisco.
The cities have taken different approaches. In Oakland, Calif., for example, the municipal ID cards can function as debit cards. Scott said he would like to explore that option for Baltimore because young people often cash their paychecks at check-cashing businesses that take a significant cut.
Cardholders in New York receive a 25 percent discount at some basketball and hockey games, and free admission to some museums.
Fernanda Durand, a spokeswoman for the pro-immigration group CASA, said ID cards have helped new immigrants in Montgomery County.
"We think it will do the same in Baltimore City," she said. "People who have no IDs are living in the shadows. This is a small way to help them to get out of the shadows. They are hardworking members of the community who contribute to the economy."
The legislation calls for applicants' personal information to be promptly destroyed once they receive an ID.


"We are a sovereign city and a safe city," Scott said. "If someone comes calling about information about our immigrants, we won't have it because we're going to be destroying it."

Durand said the victory of President-elect Donald J. Trump, who pledged during the campaign to deport millions of immigrants who are in the country without legal documentation, has crated fear.
"We wouldn't want the city to be an unwilling participant in their deportation," she said.
The bill has advanced with unanimous support in the City Council. It will receive a final vote Dec. 5.
City Council President Bernard C. "Jack" Young backs the measure, as does Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake. Signing the bill is expected to be one of her last acts in office.


The Baltimore Police Department has also endorsed the bill.
Andrew G. Vetter, the department's chief of staff, said officers often face an unenviable situation when confronting low-level offenses on the streets.
If the suspect can show identification, the officer is allowed to issue a citation instead of making an arrest. The officer can't do so if the person has no ID.
An arrest can make it more difficult for that person to get a job, and more likely they will be arrested in the future, Vetter said.


David Rocah, senior staff attorney for the ACLU of Maryland, said Scott's legislation has avoided the problems that other ID plans present, such as infringing on civil liberties. It creates no database and the personal information is destroyed, Rocah said.
"This proposal seems aimed at avoiding all of those problems," he said.


The Baltimore Finance Department has yet to determine a cost of issuing the cards. City officials said they are studying it.
Scott said he anticipates the ID cards would be available next year.
__________________________________________

When we shout global 1% are taking WE THE PEOPLE back to DARK AGES----this is what 99% of serfs and slaves did ---they bartered with each other because they had no money.  This takes Western nations back two thousand years----to what developing nations' economies.

Here in Baltimore we have global Johns Hopkins pushing the SHARING ECONOMY---THE BNOTES----as part of MOVING FORWARD to 99% of citizens having no access to money.  We are led to believe that only the low-income citizens will need this---no, we are sure when our US middle-class is gone---when global labor pool fills US cities with workers coming from developing nations-----this will be EVERYONE IN AND NO ONE OUT---BLACK, WHITE, AND BROWN CITIZEN.

Marketwatch makes this seem just what those Greek citizens wanted----no what? There have been massive protests for years by Greek citizens who do not want this---it is MOVING FORWARD by a FAKE MARXIST leader pretending this is all left social progressive.

The folks trying to build these structures are those same global 2% and I see these global 2% getting TIRED OF MOVING FORWARD.

Why Greeks are ditching the euro for digital barter systems

Published: Apr 11, 2016 3:20 p.m. ET



By
EllieIsmailidou
Markets reporter
When Makis Gounaris, a financial consultant based in Athens, decided to hire Spartan Security Ltd. to protect his apartment in September, he was told to choose from three payment options: cash, credit, or barter.
Gounaris paid his entire bill in “TradePoints” using Greek barter network TradeNow.


“It was a good deal,” said Gounaris, who was general secretary for public property at the Greek Ministry of Finance between 2012 and 2015. “I had already gathered quite a few TradePoints by bartering my old glasses, a digital piano and an electric razor.”


Such deals are increasingly common in Greece. As the country has moved into the latest chapter of its economic redevelopment, a barter economy that grew in popularity amid last summer’s strict capital controls has matured into what proponents say could be framework for a cashless economy.


Ellie Ismailidou/MarketWatch
Makis Gounaris, right, hired Spartan Security using “TradePoints.”The controls have gradually lifted over the past few months, returning some normalcy to Greek economic life. And so while Greeks used barter networks to trade goods and services at times when few had ready cash at the peak of the controls, they use them now with resources scarce and the country battling a bailout impasse that requires further austerity.


It is the perfect time for barter to evolve from a form of crisis therapy to a sustainable alternative for the economy, advocates and enthusiasts say. But for that to happen, they argue, they must organize the more than 200 networks currently operating in Greece into a functioning system of cashless commerce, attracting business participants to build scale and reach.


A first step in that direction took place in October after a committee of barter supporters based in Athens put out a call for a nationwide meeting of collaborative-economy networks. Around 2,000 representatives showed up for what became a “national solidarity and shared-economy conference.”


Ellie Ismailidou/MarketWatch
Representatives from Greek barter and solidarity networks met last year in Athens.They will meet again in May in a bid to organize groups by industry — health, food, energy and technology — and lay the foundation of a broad cashless economic system.


“It is no longer about saving a few euros toward next month’s rent,” said Christina Papadopoulou, a founding member of the 3,500-member Athens Time Bank, in which professionals exchange services using an hour of their time as the currency.


A shift to a cashless society


Barter systems often emerge from monetary societies after unforeseen events make money scarce, historians say: After Rome fell, for example Europeans used barter as a substitute for Roman currency.

Variants exist around the world, from Qatar to New York state, and the Athens Time Bank is modeled after one in the San Francisco Bay Area. In Greece, its growth sprang out of necessity in the early days of the country’s financial crisis, spiking in popularity last summer when daily ATM withdrawals were capped at 60 euros, or about $65.


Over 200 groups have been created since the financial crisis began in 2010, according to antallaktiki.gr, a Greek barter group aggregator. They include local-trade cooperatives; grass-roots solidarity groups, such as a hospital in Athens that serves more than 100 people a day on donated supplies and time; online-barter auctions that resemble eBay; and time banks.
Some networks practice pure barter, or a direct exchange of goods. Most have adopted some type of unit that approximates the value of goods or services. The networks operate across the country, reaching into some of its more remote islands, and span all areas of commerce.


Tradenow is for electronic devices, books and CDs; time banks boast doctors, electricians, yoga teachers and psychotherapists, among others; and farmers use the agricultural union of Lamia to trade produce and agricultural machinery.

Barter networks have proven essential as Greece continues to battle through an economic crisis that is far from over. The country averted an exit from the eurozone in July by passing sweeping austerity measures in exchange for bailout funding, but its economy hasn't recovered.


One in five Greeks remains unemployed, while Greek banks are incurring billions of euros in losses, cutting back on credit for business and households. Meanwhile, 52% of all small businesses are threatened with shutdown — more than during last summer’s capital controls — according to a recent survey by the Greek Chamber of Commerce.


Antallaktiki.gr
There are around 250 bartering and cooperative-economy networks operating across Greece, including remote islands.In the background, a humanitarian crisis looms over the country: More than 50,000 refugees are stranded in Greece after fleeing the Syrian conflict.


Stumbling blocks to wider adoption

While the number of trading networks and participants in Greece has jumped in the past year, they still need more size and activity to become a large-scale driver of economic activity, according to economists and barter experts.


“Barter networks have not yet reached the large-scale participation that would present a viable alternative for the economy,” said Gounaris in a February interview.
A few bartering services have managed to attract Greeks through appeals to solidarity. Alexandros Bellos, who recently used TradeNow to exchange an electric vacuum cleaner for a pound of homemade chocolate truffles, said he appreciated the opportunity to connect with others at a time when many are struggling.


Ellie Ismailidou/MarketWatch
Alexandros Bellos exchanges his vacuum cleaner for chocolate truffles baked by Stefania Tekou.“It’s not like I can’t afford to buy truffles,” Bellos said. “It is about making use of what I no longer need while making a new friend.”


But to become essential, barter networks must offer more than fun, according to Rachel Botsman, a researcher and writer who has taught a course on the collaborative economy at Oxford University.


“When systems that involve bartering, sharing and swapping emerge, they can be perceived as what people need to do because of lack of choice,” Botsman said. “They must shift from being seen as things people use out of necessity to things people use for broader reasons — such as convenience, efficiency and quality.”


She pointed to companies like Airbnb and Uber, which began as cheap alternatives to hotels and taxis but eventually revolutionized consumer perception of those industries.
Some network organizers have sought to jump-start activity on their platforms, bidding to attract more business participation in much the same fashion that eBay EBAY, +0.16%  and Amazon AMZN, +0.26%  managed to attract thousands of businesses to sell their products on their platform.


That has led to both growth and challenges. “Private corporations love the idea — but when it comes to the actual implementation, they are reluctant to let go of their euros,” said Tradenow founder Yiannis Deligiannis.


Tradenow

Tradenow founder, Yiannis Deligiannis, says getting businesses to join a barter marketplace is key to scaling it.To make it easier for companies to join, Tradenow, which features 29,000 registered members, introduced a hybrid system — in which businesses can offer their product or service priced in TradePoints, euros or a combination — in early 2015. About 400 companies use Tradenow, according to Deligiannis.


One is Spartan Security, which joined in 2014, as Greece had lost 25% of its gross domestic product after four years of economic crisis. Spartan’s hope, according to marketing manager Matina Karabatsou, was to “tap new demographics and grow its client base to counter the negative effects of the financial crisis.”


Tradenow has helped Spartan grow its client base by about 2%, according to Karabatsou. Meanwhile, the company uses TradePoints to buy cleaning services and online advertisements.

But the hybrid system has also led to complications for Tradenow: The company has honored a one-to-one exchange rate between points and euros, meaning that one point is theoretically supposed to “buy” products and services sold on the platform for one euro.


That could hurt the company, as the unofficial point-to-euro exchange rate has fallen by about 75% since it launched in late 2012. That, combined with laws that require companies to pay a 23% value-added tax, or VAT, on all revenue in euros, means companies may lose money by using points.


That makes barter a tough sell for some businesses as the economic crisis has continued to ravage business investment and loans. While optimistic, barter network representatives have been hit with a harsh reality check as the companies whose adoption is crucial to the growth of their services have moved cautiously.


“The real problem never really was the capital controls,” Deligiannis said. “Capital controls can get lifted — but if people have no capital, that makes no difference.”
This story was first published on March 29, 2016.

_______________________
Silicon Valley CA of course is leading the way as is NYC----here we have ONE WORLD UK-----we see SOUTH KOREA going money-less---all the most hyper global neo-liberal nations. It is not a coincidence that the regions tied to pushing these massive global Wall Street frauds are now indeed leading towards this MONEY-LESS SOCIETY.

There are global shouts from 99% educating as to why this is very, very, very bad ---the extreme of far-right wing authoritarian ---and it will lead to extreme wealth extreme poverty of 99% .


UK moves towards cashless society

Some of us have already done away with cash

• Hazel Sheffield
• Thursday 21 May 2015 13:30 BST

Globally, countries that almost exclusively use cash most often do so because they don’t have the infrastructure in place to support electronic payments GettyThe tooth fairy’s days are numbered.


Pocket change may soon be completely replaced by electronic payments in the UK after reports that last year, for the first time, the majority of payments were made without cash – either on the internet or phone, or through electronic payments and cheques.


The proportion of cash payments was less than half the total number of payments made last year, falling from 52 per cent in 2013 to 48 per cent in 2014 for consumers, businesses and financial organisations combined, according to the Payments Council.


Non-cash payments are expected to overtake cash payments by consumers for the first time next year. The idea of a completely cashless society is not so far off.
Some of us already cashless. Dave Birch, author of 'Identity Is The New Money' said that young, middle class women are most likely to have made the transition to electronic payments.


He said poorer people are more likely to use cash – meaning they get caught with cash machine charges and are unable to get the best deals online.
Cash is also used for money laundering and tax evasion. "Cash is bad for society in that respect," said Birch.


"In countries that are already mostly cashless such as Denmark, Finland and Sweden, the total cost to the economy of the payment system is less," said Birch.
Birch said that for the UK to become entirely cashless, the government would have to get behind the idea with policy changes.


Countries that almost exclusively use cash most often do so because they don’t have the infrastructure in place to support electronic payments. Some, like Italy and Greece, still prefer to use cash for cultural reasons.

_______________________________________________
WOW----it's all about global 1% and global banking wanting to show its 99% human capital LOVE

Know what? It would seem REALLY SPIRITUAL if those pesky global 1% and their 2% were the ones giving up the money----seems LYING, CHEATING, AND STEALING TO GET ALL THE WORLD'S MONEY----isn't having the VENUS PROJECT showing those global 1% LOVE.


The Moneyless Society – Love As The New Currency

• November 20, 2010
• Harald Sandø


• Love, Money, Ownership, Society, Spirituality, Transition

How can it be? The moneyless society. It is very difficult to imagine, but I have been trying to do just that for the last couple of years. Basically, since I heard of The Venus Project and a resource based economy.
No money would really simplify a lot of things. My whole life, basically. Well, not only mine, but everyone’s. No need to set a price on anything. No need to pay for anything.



If there were no money. I could

• Give my full concentration to what I love doing.
• Go out and help anyone who needs help without thinking about making any money.
• Travel anywhere.
• Live anywhere.
• Share whatever I want to share, with no regards to if I can ‘afford’ it or not.
• Cooperate with people wanting to make this world a better place.
• Working together with anyone who have the same interests as me.
• Creating music.
• Making films.

In a moneyless society another currency is demanded, though. And I think we can call this currency ‘Love’. It sounds like a cliche, but that depends on how you define ‘Love’. I define it as ‘the sum of all positive feelings’.


In other words, instead of money, one would get ‘Love’ in return for what one does. This love can be the joy one feels from doing it, the feelings of gratitude one gets from others, the feeling of completion when one finishes a task well done, or the feeling of happiness from being among the plants one has tended and now grows abundantly.


People need something in return from doing anything. And this something can be nothing less than Love in a moneyless society. Of course, one could give each other gifts and such, but what we are all after is that ultimate feeling of fulfillment, joy, happiness, bliss, excitement, or in one word: Love.


The ultimate feeling of Love (fulfillment, joy, happiness, bliss, excitement, etc) is actually what we all seek in money. We think that when we get unlimited access to money, we will feel the bliss we are missing in our lives. So, with a moneyless society it is important to be aware that what we are seeking is Love, and this love is found in all the tasks we are doing and things we are producing and sharing.


For a resource based economy to work we need to have a new currency, and this currency might just as well be Love, since this is the ultimate currency. With Love as the currency we can actually start today already. We don’t need to wait for technology to develop, or leaders to decide.


Of course, for Love to work as a currency we have to snap out of the value system we have in place today. We have to snap out of our egos, that never gives anything for free, but only asks ‘what’s in it for me?’. Well, actually, the ego can still ask ‘what’s in it for me?’ in a Love Based Society, because when one gives and shares with Love, Love will be given in return in abundance. THAT’S what’s in it for you.


Update:
When I talk about getting Love in the article, I do not mean that one gets Love back directly from the person one is giving to. One will get Love (meaning fulfillment, joy, etc…) from the act of doing itself  (giving is also an act of doing), as long as it is something one has a desire to do. And then, where does that Love come from? It can only come from the Creator. And, beware, the Creator in this case, is you, or your ‘higher self’. In other words, you are giving to yourself.


So, doing something one loves doing, something that gives fulfillment and joy, is the same as ‘receiving for the sake of bestowing’. Because when one does something only for the Love of it, what else can be the reason for doing it? One is receiving fulfillment, joy, Love…for what? Of course, for the desire to be fulfilled, for the desire to fulfill the Creator, which is you. And everyone has a conscious or unconscious drive towards this, because this is the basic meaning of Life.


So, everyone is doing this all the time, because this is what brings the most fulfillment to people. But it might also be done unconsciously most of the time. And one thing that stops people from truly being conscious about this is the mindset that the monetary system has created. The mindset that say’s that ‘I have to get something back to give something to you’. It is not only the monetary system that has created this, but also the ‘survival instinct’ we all seem to have. This instinct is produced by forgetting that we are not really our human bodies, but rather eternal consciousness(es) experiencing human life.


When everyone becomes conscious about this, it will be the end of money, because no money would have to change hands anymore. Nothing would be demanded in return for anything, since the Love would be an intrinsic reward in everything. And being conscious about this and ending the monetary system goes hand in hand.

__________________________________________

This is why we shout-----watch those international labor union leaders------this scheme of money-less society and taking the Western nations down to third world level as a ONE WORLD ONE GOVERNANCE GLOBAL CORPORATE TRIBUNAL RULE came about in earnest in 1960s---1970s.  This is when our labor unions went global as US corporations moved overseas.  

Indeed, back in the DARK AGES trade guilds did barter because their members were so poor.  This is NOT THE POPULIST REVOLUTION FOR THE 99% FOLKS----this is MOVING FORWARD global 1% --------

From Clinton era forward when US corporations went overseas en force---our labor unions went global as well----they started working for the INTERNATIONAL LABOR ORGANIZATION ---the United Nations branch of global corporate labor management.

WE WILL HEAR OUR INTERNATIONAL LABOR UNIONS CHAMPION BASIC INCOME----WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION HEALTH POLICY-----GLOBAL COMMONER CORE------AND THESE FAR-RIGHT WING LIBERTARIAN MARXIST LEADERS WILL PRETEND MONEYLESS BARTERING SOCIETIES ARE LEFT SOCIAL PROGRESSIVE.


Are a moneyless society and a bloodless revolution possible?; Right to Challenge;

People and Power in the Steelworkers Union.

By John Herling. 415 pp. New York: Harper & Row. $12.50
By A. H. RASKINFEB. 20, 1972


February 20, 1972, Page 6 The New York Times Archives


Behind the fraternal facade of a movement in which every carrier of a union card is automatically “brother” often rage intrigues of such malevolence that Machiavelli would be hard pressed to make business agent and Benedict Arnold, shop steward. In this fascinating book John Herling, who has devoted a lifetime to affectionate observation of labor's rise (or descent) from penury to power, provides a close‐up view of two decades of infighting in one of the country's strongest unions, the 1.2million‐member United Steelworkers of America.

The steel union was a child of the early New Deal, V.rith its accent on better break for “the forgotten man” — an accent translated in the feudal bastions of the mass‐production industries into the slogan, “President Roosevelt wants you to join a union.” But the steel union had another progenitor, the United Mine Workers, most monolithic of labor organizations, with absolute rule concentrated in its majestic president, John L. Lewis.

__________________________________________
'There have been test runs of this Rogoff-Buiter Economic Totalitarianism to see if the idea works'.


Here we see where these MONEY-LESS policies come----it is global 1% ----so if any labor and justice organization sells this as a left populist movement-----SEND THE LEADERS OF THAT ORGANIZATION PACKING.
MOVING FORWARD has the goal of pushing 99% of US citizens to unemployment------robotics---et al----and this is what global 1% want to see as a societal structure. Know what? It is easier to throw these 5% and their 1% IN JAIL------and return to being a free democratic capitalistic society-----GO LEFT SOCIAL PROGRESSIVE AND NOT FAR-RIGHT WING LIBERTARIAN MARXIST EXTREME WEALTH EXTREME POVERTY.

You can bet the global 1% and their 2% are not going money-less----remember, SMART CITIES SMART ENERGY GRID----GLOBAL BIG AG ----combined with CLIMATE CHANGE and depleted contaminated fresh water does not bode well for building any long term NEW SOCIETAL STRUCTURE especially one that shakes the foundations of several centuries of ENLIGHTENMENT-----AGE OF REASON----ANY AGE BUT THE DARK AGES.



Why The Powers That Be Are Pushing A Cashless Society


Posted on May 4, 2015 by WashingtonsBlog


We Can’t Rein In the Banks If We Can’t Pull Our Money Out of Them


Martin Armstrong summarizes the headway being made to ban cash,  and argues that the goal of those pushing a cashless society is to prevent bank runs … and increase their control:


The central banks are … planning drastic restrictions on cash itself. They see moving to electronic money will first eliminate the underground economy, but secondly, they believe it will even prevent a banking crisis. This idea of eliminating cash was first floated as the normal trial balloon to see how the people take it. It was first launched by Kenneth Rogoff of Harvard University and Willem Buiter, the chief economist at Citigroup. Their claims have been widely hailed and their papers are now the foundation for the new age of Economic Totalitarianism that confronts us. Rogoff and Buiter have laid the ground work for the end of much of our freedom and will one day will be considered the new Marx with hindsight. They sit in their lofty offices but do not have real world practical experience beyond theory. Considerations of their arguments have shown how governments can seize all economic power are destroy cash in the process eliminating all rights. Physical paper money provides the check against negative interest rates for if they become too great, people will simply withdraw their funds and hoard cash. Furthermore, paper currency allows for bank runs. Eliminate paper currency and what you end up with is the elimination of the ability to demand to withdraw funds from a bank.
***
In many nations, specific measures have already been taken demonstrating that the Rogoff-Buiter world of Economic Totalitarianism is indeed upon us. This is the death of Capitalism. Of course the socialists hate Capitalism and see other people’s money should be theirs. What they cannot see is that Capitalism is freedom from government totalitarianism. The freedom to pursue the field you desire without filling the state needs that supersede your own.


There have been test runs of this Rogoff-Buiter Economic Totalitarianism to see if the idea works. I reported on June 21, 2014 that Britain was doing a test run. A shopping street in Manchester banned cash as part of an experiment to see if Brits would accept a cashless society. London buses ended accepting cash payments from July 2014. Meanwhile, Currency Exchange dealers began offering debt cards instead of cash that they market as being safer to travel with. The Chorlton, South Manchester experiment was touted to test customers and business reaction to the idea for physical currency will disappear inside 20 years.


France passed another Draconian new law that from the police parissummer of 2015 it will now impose cash requirements dramatically trying to eliminate cash by force. French citizens and tourists will then only be allowed a limited amount of physical money. They have financial police searching people on trains just passing through France to see if they are transporting cash, which they will now seize. Meanwhile, the new French Elite are moving in this very same direction. Piketty wants to just take everyone’s money who has more than he does. Nobody stands on the side of freedom or on restraining the corruption within government. The problem always turns against the people for we are the cause of the fiscal mismanagement of government that never has enough for themselves.

In Greece a drastic reduction in cash is also being discussed in light of the economic crisis. Now any bill over €70 should be payable only by check or credit card – it will be illegal to pay in cash. The German Baader Bank founded in Munich expects formally to abolish the cash to enforce negative interest rates on accounts that is really taxation on whatever money you still have left after taxes.


***
Complete abolition of cash threatens our very freedom and rights of citizens in so many areas.
***
Paper currency is indeed the check against negative interest rates. We need only look to Switzerland to prove that theory. Any attempt to impose say a 5% negative interest rates (tax) would lead to an unimaginably massive flight into cash. This was already demonstrated recently by the example of Swiss pension funds, which withdrew their money from the bank in a big way and now store it in vaults in cash in order to escape the financial repression. People will act in their own self-interest and negative interest rates are likely to reduce the sales of government bonds and set off a bank run as long as paper money exists.


Obviously, government and bankers are not stupid. The only way to prevent such a global bank run would be the total prohibition of paper money. This is unlikely, both in Switzerland and in the United States because the economies are dominated there by a certain “liberalism” to some extent but also because their currencies also circulate outside their domestic economies. The fact that but the question of the cash ban in the context of a global conference with the participation of the major central banks of the US and the ECB will be discussed, demonstrates by itself that the problem is not a regional problem.


Nevertheless, there is a growing assumption that the negative interest rate world (tax on cash) is likely to increase dramatically in Europe in particular since it is socialism that is collapsing. Government in Brussels is unlikely to yield power and their line of thinking cannot lead to any solution. The negative interest rate concept is making its way into the United States at J.P. Morgan where they will charge a fee on excess cash on deposit starting May 1st, 2015. Asset holdings of cash with a tax or a fee in the amount of the negative interest rate seems to be underway even in Switzerland.
***
The movement toward electronic money is moving at high speed and this says a lot about the state of the financial system. The track record of the major financial institutions is nearly perfect – they are always caught on the wrong side when a crisis breaks, which requires their bailouts. The fact that we have already seen test runs with theory-balloons flying, the major financial institutions are in no shape to withstand another economic decline.


For depositors, this means they really need to grasp what is going on here for unless they are vigilant, there is a serious risk of losing everything. We must understand that these measures will be implemented overnight in the middle of a banking crisis after 2015.75. The balloons have taken off and the discussions are underway. The trend in taxation and reduction of cash seems to be unstoppable. Government is not prepared to reform for that would require a new way of thinking and a loss of power. That is not a consideration. They only see one direction and that is to take us into the new promised-land of economic totalitarianism.


People can’t pull cash out of their bank accounts – for political reasons, because they’ve lost confidence in the bank, or because “bail-ins” are enacted – if cash is banned.
The Financial Times argued last year that central banks would be the real winners from a cashless society:
Central bankers, after all, have had an explicit interest in introducing e-money from the moment the global financial crisis began…
***
The introduction of a cashless society empowers central banks greatly. A cashless society, after all, not only makes things like negative interest rates possible, it transfers absolute control of the money supply to the central bank, mostly by turning it into a universal banker that competes directly with private banks for public deposits. All digital deposits become base money.


The Government Can Manipulate Digital Accounts More Easily than Cash


Moreover, an official White House panel on spying has implied that the government is manipulating the amount in people’s financial accounts.
If all money becomes digital, it would be much easier for the government to manipulate our accounts.


Indeed, numerous high-level NSA whistleblowers say that NSA spying is about crushing dissent and blackmailing opponents … not stopping terrorism.
This may sound over-the-top … but remember, the government sometimes labels its critics as “terrorists“.  If the government claims the power to indefinitely detain – or even assassinate – American citizens at the whim of the executive, don’t you think that government people would be willing to shut down, or withdraw a stiff “penalty” from a dissenter’s bank account?


If society becomes cashless, dissenters can’t hide cash.  All of their financial holdings would be vulnerable to an attack by the government.
This would be the ultimate form of control. Because – without access to money – people couldn’t resist, couldn’t hide and couldn’t escape.

__________________________________________
We are not going to discuss the economic collapse in detail as we have ---we will remind folks of the goal of deliberately sending community banks and credit unions into bankruptcy---yes, those labor union credit unions too.
This plan moves all US citizens to only global Wall Street banks while global Wall Street banks are MOVING FORWARD to closing their brick and mortar community banks and going to ONLINE ONLY. We saw that happening with Wells Fargo as usual in CALIFORNIA. So, CA is leading in introducing BASIC INCOME---COMMONER CORE-----WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION SINGLE-PAYER---ONLINE BANKING ONLY---THE MONEY-LESS SOCIETY---
When we shout at our Baltimore media to be JOURNALISTS and discuss these goals --we are told by 5% to the 1% THAT'S WHAT THEY ARE DOING IN CALIFORNIA. TRUMP didn't bring this coming economic crash it will bring strong austerity with an installed far-right wing Trump and Congress.
ALL PLANNED MOVING FORWARD---ask your CLINTON/BUSH/OBAMA pol or those pesky global Wall Street Baltimore Development 'labor and justice' organizations.

The 5% and their 1% think all this is very funny-----

OH, REALLY?????

FAKE FEELING THE BERNERS-----capturing our REAL left FDR social progressive revolution. We knew Bernie may flip as an establishment candidate---don't fall for more POSERS-----let's get busy locally to stop MOVING FORWARD IN US CITIES DEEMED FOREIGN ECONOMIC ZONES.



With Dow 20K passed, $20 trillion on the national debt is next


Jeff Cox | @JeffCoxCNBCcom
Wednesday, 25 Jan 2017 | 12:39 PM ETCNBC.com


Mnuchin: Honoring U.S. debt most important thing  

Thursday, 19 Jan 2017 | 12:27 PM ET | 04:27
While Wall Street celebrates the Dow hitting 20,000, there is another "20" looming that could carry significantly darker overtones.
The U.S. is just weeks away from passing the $20 trillion mark in total public debt outstanding — the "national debt," as it is more widely known.


Though general concern about containing debt and deficits has waned as the nation has looked for ways to stimulate the sluggish, post-recession economy, that $20 trillion milestone could grab at least some attention.


"While the party hats are out for 20K on the Dow, that $20 trillion in debt is really salient," said economist and debt hawk Michael Pento of Pento Portfolio Strategies. Pento has been predicting a bond market crash that would come with a collapse in demand and the weight of eventually rising rates that will push up the cost to finance American debt.


Debt nearly doubled under former President Barack Obama, who presided over it mushrooming from $10.6 trillion to $19.9 trillion by the time he left office last week. Though he's only been in office for less than a week, President Donald Trump has seen the debt rise another $2 billion.

"It has become all too commonplace to borrow not for productive investments or for wherever we are in the business cycle ... but because people don't want to pay the bills and have found it politically expedient not to do so." -Maya MacGuineas, president, Committee for a Responsible Federal BudgetThe current total as of Monday, in exact numbers, is $19,949,687,366,998, according to the Treasury Department. With the U.S. expected to run a budget deficit in 2017 of $559 billion, the $50.3 billion or so needed to break $20 trillion should happen relatively soon.


"The massive debt is really a reflection of the unwillingness of our political leaders to make any tough decisions or deal with trade-offs," Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, said in a phone interview. "It has become all too commonplace to borrow not for productive investments or for wherever we are in the business cycle ... but because people don't want to pay the bills and have found it politically expedient not to do so."

There are two numbers at play when talking about the national debt — debt held by the public and intragovernmental holdings. The latter debt includes money the government essentially owes itself, like when the Treasury borrows from other funds to make entitlement payments. That total is about $5.5 trillion, while the public debt, which includes all other government debt, is $14.4 trillion.

We will take a few days to see what in the world is happening and see how that is what MOVING FORWARD in US will be.  If we educate broadly on public policy we know the goals of the global 1%---and those 5% followers supporting them.

I have a friend from Sri Lanka now in NY who makes no bones about being that global 1% KOCH BROTHER/CLINTON INTIATIVE/SOROS ----ONE WORLD ONE GOVERNANCE pushing the idea that OPEN BORDERS is good for immigrants when in fact it is simply expanding a human capital distribution system that is enslaving.

My FB friend is no doubt a global banking player----2% maybe----or wannabe.  Sri Lanka is that Asian Foreign Economic Zone nation like China for several decades being host to Foreign Economic Zone global factories providing the slave labor.  Where China was heavy on technology global factories---Sri Lanka was heavily garment industry.  As with all our US 1% thinking they need to be MERCHANTS OF VENICE with their new wealth instead of building local small business economies-----so too does Sri Lanka have that same new wealth 1% and 2%.  Remember, those new rich are the ones going under the bus because---OLD WORLD MERCHANTS OF VENICE do not need any new rich.

1. Beyoncé’s sportswear line reportedly made in Sri Lankan ...pagesix.com/2016/05/...made-in-sri-lankan-sweatshop-report Beyoncé’s sportswear line reportedly made in Sri Lankan sweatshop. By Michael Hechtman. View author archive; Get author ... Mansion Global; New York Post; The ..
   
   We will pick on a few nations overseas to see where MOVING FORWARD in US is going as well.  Below we see an article that says Sri Lanka is now going to a global labor pool ---because its sovereign citizens have become tired of being sweat shop slave labor.  So now citizens from Africa, South Pacific, Middle East, Latin America and yes OUR US CITIZENS ON THEIR WAY TO BEING THROWN INTO GLOBAL LABOR.  My FB friend of KOCH Brothers et al global 1% says the same thing----
   
   YOU ARE AGAINST GIVING JOBS TO THESE DEVELOPING NATIONS BY BRINGING THEM TO SRI LANKA? YOU DON'T LIKE IMMIGRANTS.
   
   This is of course the same thing the far-right wing CLINTON/BUSH/OBAMA are saying in the US trying to install OPEN BORDERS so they can bring Sri Lankans, Chinese, Malaysian, African citizens to US Foreign Economic Zones and global factories to enslave them here in US.

Also, notice United Nations International Labor Organization coordinating all this global human capital distribution system ---and who is now partnered with ILO---------our US labor union leaders. We must get rid of 5% to the 1% labor union leaders working to throw US citizens into this global labor pool.

Sri Lanka – Job Factory moving into global recruitment market
08 October 2013

Sri Lanka-based recruitment and outsourcing firm Job Factory, announced at a press conference that it is planning to launch into the overseas market as JobFactory-Global, reports prlog.org. JobFactory has already,been successful in obtaining an overseas recruitment license from the Foreign Employment Bureau in Sri Lanka.


Madhushan Raigamage, Chief Executive Officer of Job Factory (Private) Limited, said: “We are very positive about our move for foreign employment business. We do not have any idea of supplying unskilled labour to foreign clients, as we are very strong on the local market for skilled talents; especially in Information Technology, Accounting/Finance and also HR. Sri Lanka is popular for Accounting/Finance talents and also we know the fact that there is an excess supply of Accounts/Finance and also HR professionals. In these circumstances JobFactory-Global is geared to get in to overseas market with a highly positive mind set.”


“JobFactory-Global will mainly focus on Qatar, which is one of the fastest growing economies in the Middle East region. Few companies operating in Qatar have invited us to get in to their territory too. We are considering that request positively. Opening up a branch in Qatar is costly, but we may consider opening a virtual branch initially in Qatar, in fact we have reserved the web domain for Qatar already,” Mr Raigamage said.


Also speaking at the press conference, Ms Nirmala Dassanayaka, Head of Recruitment, said: “We understand the sensitivity of the process and therefore we don’t want to compromise our quality, which we have maintained in the local market. We have a fair number of top level contacts in Middle East companies. Undoubtedly JobFactory is capable of getting established in the overseas market without a much effort.”


She continued: “As a principle, we do not charge a single rupee from the candidate. That we maintain in the local market too. JobFactory will be partnering only with the clients who are in line with our values and norms.” 
______________________________________________

Remember, our Asian nations have had for these few decades the same movement to extreme wealth extreme poverty with that 1% as here in US.  They had a strong public education, public services, public agencies to government and they are now privatizing all that away just as CLINTON/BUSH/OBAMA---THE KOCH BROS.

So, if Sri Lanka has a strong public school system why are these medical school students protesting?  Well, they know the Sri Lankan 1% are MOVING FORWARD to eliminating pathways to higher education and indeed K-12 as is happening in US.

All of America's medical schools used to be public.  That was so health care could be afforded by all.  Where are most of our public and non-profit medical schools located?  On campuses now global IVY LEAGUE which are no longer public---no longer non-profit ---and working hard to become predatory profit-driven health systems only accessible by those global 1% and their 2%.

These Sri Lankan medical students know this and that is why they are protesting.  We have medical students and doctors here in US protesting Affordable Care Act and the private health systems leading to global profit-driven health systems-----

THAT IS WHY THESE MEDICAL STUDENTS IN SRI LANKA ARE PROTESTING.



'They are against the privatization of education and claim that opening private universities will drastically affect children from poor families’ access to education opportunities'.

These same medical students also know the move by Sri Lanka to GLOBAL LABOR POOL will take their future income earning away as well.

As this article indicates---Sri Lanka as India have not signed the Trans Pacific Trade Pact because they know it will kill their sovereignty----but as the we see Sri Lanka has a hefty export business to US that will be lost if it does not sign.  These other Asian nations like Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea which signed on to TPP early thinking it would protect them from China's domination are seeing that is not going to happen.  Sri Lanka moving to that UNITED NATIONS GLOBAL LABOR POOL system undermining their own citizens trying to get higher wages looks to be a move towards signing Trans Pacific Trade Pact......

THIS IS WHY SRI LANKAN STUDENTS ARE PROTESTING----AS WE SHOUT HERE IN US---THIS IS NOT ONLY ABOUT UNSKILLED WORKERS---IT TAKES PROFESSIONAL WORKERS LIKE DOCTORS DOWN WITH IT.

As left social progressives fight to get more people employed and to get that LIVING WAGE----ONE WORLD ONE GOVERNANCE FAR-RIGHT 1% is fighting for that ONE WORLD WAGE----

Here is the difference in political philosophy stances.  Left social capitalism is NOT SOCIALIST.  IT IS NOT COMMUNIST.  Fighting for citizens to climb income ladder IS WHAT CAPITALISM is about.  What far-right wing global 1% call COMMUNIST-----is the rich trying to keep 99% of workers extremely poor.  This is to where Sri Lankan 1% are moving and those medical students know this.  Why are American medical students not protesting?  They are now being recruited from the global 1% and their 2%.

It is not this ONE PRIVATE MEDICAL SCHOOL these protesters are shouting against---they KNOW MOVING FORWARD when they see it!

Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP): Implications for Sri Lanka
Research Team Nov 18, 2015

Twelve Pacific Rim countries including USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Brunei Darussalam, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Singapore, Peru, and Vietnam finally saw light at the end of a long tunnel, last month. After five years of intense negotiations, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) was completed on 4th October in Atlanta, USA.  TPP is the first of the ‘mega- regional’ agreements to be concluded, and is the most ambitious free trade agreement signed to date. It intends to ‘unlock opportunities’, ‘set high-standard trade rules’, and ‘addresses vital 21st century issues within the global economy’.


TPP covers 40% of the world trade and the 12 countries have a collective population of about 800 million. The Agreement includes a wide range of areas such as trade in goods, services, investment, labour, environment, E-commerce, intellectual property rights. However, the lawmakers in each of the countries are yet to ratify the agreement.   It faces difficulties getting through a hostile US Congress and it has become a controversial issue in primary presidential campaigns.


A Cloud on the Horizon?


Supporters of TPP expect to reap significant benefits, and boost economic growth through tariff cuts and a common set of standards.  The trade gains for participating countries seem sizable considering the concentration of trade among TPP members especially with the USA (Figure 1).






In addition to the economic benefits, the conclusion of the negotiations was seen as triumph for the US foreign policy, and Obama’s pivot to Asia which is an attempt to keep China in its place.  However, the implications of TPP have been widely debated across the 12 countries. It is viewed as a cloud on the horizon given that not all industries and sectors will benefit. In fact Donald Trump, who is seeking the nomination of the Republican Party to run for US presidential election 2016, called ‘TPP a terrible deal’.


The Agreement has been criticized for lack of transparency, as the five year talks were shrouded in secrecy, and allegedly favoured large corporations. It was viewed to be trading away public health by granting of longer protection to pharmaceutical corporations for their drugs via patents. This will have serious implications on public welfare and affect the price of medicine, making them more expensive.


Those against the TPP also are skeptical about its economic benefits. They worry that governments could be sued by investors under controversial investor-state dispute settlement provisions. There is also the fear that the Agreement could result in job losses. Some in the US are worried that jobs will go to countries with lower wages and less strict labour laws. As such, the Agreement is perceived as a threat to an array of other interest groups ranging from Mexican auto workers to Canadian dairy farmers, and faces domestic resistances in all of the TPP countries.


Implications for Sri Lanka


So, what does the TPP mean for developing countries like Sri Lanka, excluded from the Arrangement?


The trade effects on excluded countries will depend on three factors. First, the geographical distribution of the country’s exports to TPP countries. Second, the similarity of export structures between the excluded and those included in the Agreement. Third, the tariff and non-tariff barriers currently applied amongst the TPP countries.


In 2014, TPP accounted for almost one-third of Sri Lanka’s exports (Figure 2). USA is Sri Lanka’s largest trading partner among these countries and the world; with a quarter of its total exports going to the USA (Figure 2). The country will be significantly be affected by the participation of its largest export market in the TPP. This problem is compounded by Sri Lanka competing with some TPP countries in the US market for similar products. For example, apparels (HS 61 & HS 62) are Sri Lanka’s major export to the world and the US; accounting for 44 and 73 per cent of Sri Lanka’s total exports to the world and the US, respectively. Sri Lanka competes with TPP partners like Vietnam, Mexico, Peru in these products in the US market. However, Mexico and Peru already enjoy duty free access to the US market under existing trade agreements. Thus, the main impact of the Agreement on Sri Lanka will come from increased competition from Vietnam, as tariffs are phased out under Agreement. Currently US applies a tariff rate of 10.8 and 14.4 per cent on HS 61 and 62, respectively from Sri Lanka and Vietnam. With the phase-out of tariffs under TPP, Sri Lankan apparel exports to the US might be forced out of the market or reduce the prices to remain competitive vis-à-vis Vietnam, which will enjoy a duty advantage equivalent to the MFN rate. There is also likely to be trade diversion to Vietnam and to a lesser extent to other TPP partner in other products (Figure 3).  However, the extent to which Vietnam can make use of the duty reductions under the Agreement will depend on fulfilling certain rules and the tariff liberalization programme.


TPP also plans to liberalize trade in services and investment flows. For services, the impact on countries outside the TPP will depend on whether such liberalization is preferential or erga omnes. As in the case of services, the potential for investment diverting away from countries excluded from the Agreement depends on how the way will be implemented. Still, there might be some investment diversions to take advantage of a larger market under the Agreement. Vietnam is considered amongst the biggest winners of the Agreement, closely followed by Malaysia. For example, analysts predict the deal would boost Vietnam’s growth and exports by 11 per cent and 28 per cent, respectively, in the next 10 years.




To avoid exclusion from an agreement involving their competitors, some developing countries have indicated that they want to join the TPP.  Countries such as Colombia, Costa Rica, the Philippines, Laos and Indonesia are among the countries that have already expressed an interest.


Sri Lanka’s Options


In the Economic Policy Statement, which was released on 5th November 2015, the need to address TPP was mentioned but short of suggesting how the government intends to do this. There have been calls by some academics for Sri Lanka to join the TPP, which would also trigger much needed but difficult reforms in the country. Others have suggested Sri Lanka to review its prevailing trade negotiations strategy and engage in bilateral deals with the US, and the EU to mitigate the negative effects of TPP. However, it is important to note that the TPP was designed primarily by developed countries with their own concerns in mind. While poorer countries may feel pressured to join to avoid being excluded from an agreement involving their competitors, we may not be ready to adopt many of the provisions in agreement.  One may recall Sri Lanka’s own experience with negotiating a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) with India sometime back, which only covered trade in goods, services and investment. In the event the TPP becomes a reality, Sri Lanka must carefully assess the costs and benefits of joining the Agreement with due stakeholder consultations. Meanwhile, it is best that Sri Lanka urgently improves its export competitiveness by addressing constraints on multiple fronts, including supply side capacities and weaknesses in the business environment.

_________________________________________
If we follow here in the US the fight of Latino agricultural workers out west----we KNOW why our Latino immigrants are leaving---GLOBAL BIG AG in US has lowered the already slave wage of agriculture EVEN LOWER.  So, our Latino citizens are saying----that's it.  Since the current global labor pool workers are being directed to main stream employment to take down our US middle-class ----they are not bringing global labor pool from Asia to do US agriculture at that $1 a day----

The reason our CALIFORNIA global BIG AG dropped already enslaving wages even lower?  THEY ARE GETTING READY TO ROBOTIZE AGRICULTURE----INCLUDING HARVESTING.  California global Wall Street Clinton/Obama want Latino agricultural workers to leave to make room for robotic harvesting----THAT GLOBAL GREEN TECHNOLOGY INDUSTRY-----

Of course all this is played in national media as a PLOT AGAINST IMMIGRANTS---THAT MEAN TRUMP VS THAT OPEN BORDER OBAMA-----and none of that is the REAL POLICY GOAL.

ROBOTIC HARVESTING COMBINED WITH GLOBAL BIG AG AND MONSANTO COMPLETELY REMOVES 99% OF CITIZENS FROM ALL FOOD PRODUCTION AND THAT IS VERY, VERY, VERY, VERY BAD.

Labor Shortage Leaves $13 Million in Crops to Rot in Fields


More Mexican Immigrants are Leaving the U.S. Than Arriving

Thursday, June 22, 2017
By Kelsey Brugger (Contact)

Last year marked the fifth consecutive year Santa Barbara County’s agriculture industry has struggled with labor shortages, which have ranged from 15 to 26 percent. Farmers, therefore, must leave crops to rot in the fields. An estimated $13 million of strawberries, broccoli, leafy greens, and other unharvested produce were plowed under last year, up from five years ago when losses amounted to an estimated $4.4 million, according to the region’s Grower-Shipper Association.
Central Coast growers do not receive government subsidies for mowing unpicked berries and veggies as Midwestern farmers do for destroying wheat or barley. Some area growers have insurance for losses from heat waves or pests but not for lack of workforce.



Five years ago, when Santa Ynez Valley grower Cindy Douglas put a call out for farmworkers on Spanish radio, she got flooded. Not anymore. Now, farmers might have a crew of five one day, and a crew of 20 the next.
Total, there are anywhere from 15,000 to 23,000 ag workers in Santa Barbara County, most of whom are from Mexico. The number fluctuates as most crops are picked multiple times a year. A field of strawberries can be harvested two to three times per week for roughly six months. The strawberry crop has grown by 20 percent in acreage in five years, and now it is the county’s number one commodity, according to the agriculture report released this week.

Strawberries are just one small piece of the labor shortage. In the last decade, according to the Pew Research Center, more Mexican immigrants have been leaving the United States than have been arriving. As Mexico’s economy improves and becomes less reliant on agriculture, Mexicans are having fewer children and “feeling less the push to migrate north,” said Lucas Zucker of CAUSE (Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy).


Security has also tightened along the southern border. The Obama administration deported about three million undocumented immigrants between 2009 and 2016, according to Pew, many more than the two million the Bush administration deported during the eight years prior.
“Part of that was his administration felt that to get Republicans to vote for immigration reform, they needed to show they were tough on immigration,” he said, adding Obama also advocated for deferred action for childhood arrivals (better known as the DACA program) and comprehensive reform.



Under the Trump administration, immigration arrests have surged by nearly 40 percent in three months compared to the same time frame last year, Homeland Security recently reported.

As a broader demographic shift, Mexican immigrants who have worked in the fields for decades are getting older, and their children, born in Mexico or the United States, are not as likely to go work in the fields. Ninety percent of the mothers and fathers who were part of the Bracero Program, which brought millions of Mexican guest workers to the U.S. in the mid-20th century, now have back problems, said Mike Stoker, Santa Barbara Republican and longtime spokesperson for the agriculture industry. Even though they earn on average $2 an hour more than minimum wage, which is $10.50 per hour, immigrants tend to move to other low-wage jobs such as the hotel or restaurant industries within about a decade, Zucker said. “In some ways, the most vulnerable immigrants” ​— ​who are from indigenous villages and speak little Spanish or English ​— ​“tend to work in the fields,” Zucker said.


Making up some of the labor shortage for about three years in Santa Barbara County is foreign guest workers coming in under the H2A program. In 2015, the most recent available data, 1,300 guest workers came to Santa Barbara County, which has the largest number in all of California. Many growers call for expanding the program, but they also complain it is expensive and cumbersome. The Trump administration appears poised to ramp up some kind of a guest worker program. Wilja Happé, a cut-flower grower in Carpinteria, lamented this is not an option in South County, as there is no available housing, a requirement of the program. To that end, major farmers are pumping money into automation, Stoker said, “as a potential option they wouldn’t have looked at 10 years ago.”
__________________________________________
Here is what the Sri Lankan 1% are now doing to those global factory workers daring to protest for wages higher than $3-6 a day-----they are now being shipped off as global labor pool and Sri Lanka will bring Middle-East global labor pool to their Foreign Economic Zone global factories.  The Middle-East 1% trading slave labor.

This was last decade during BUSH ERA----what is happening with those medical school students is the same as is happening in US-----Sri Lanka will now push those white collar professional workers into this global labor pool and bring medical professionals from Middle East et al.

If we notice it is the global 99% of women suffering in these global human capital distribution systems as well as the children.  It is the Hillary nasty corporate feminists working for that global 1% who could care less about those global 99% of women.  Same thing now MOVING FORWARD for US women----thrown into the global labor pool to become those same enslaved workers. 

THIS IS WHAT EQUITY MEANS TO UNITED NATIONS REGARDING WOMEN---THEY HAVE THE RIGHT TO HIT THE ROAD INTO GLOBAL LABOR POOL JUST AS GLOBAL MEN.



Also, notice United Nations International Labor Organization coordinating all this global human capital distribution system ---and who is now partnered with ILO---------our US labor union leaders. We must get rid of 5% to the 1% labor union leaders working to throw US citizens into this global labor pool.


This is why we are shouting loudly that these two decades will be HORRIBLE FOR US WOMEN-----this is why global Wall Street CLINTON/BUSH/OBAMA are putting women faces in all political races-----especially that FAKE FEELING THE BERN FAR-RIGHT LIBERTARIAN MARXIST AND GLOBAL GREEN CORPORATION PARTY groups.


Sri Lankan Migration to the Gulf: Female Breadwinners - Domestic Workers

By Michele Ruth Gamburd | Professor of Anthropology - Portland State University | Feb 2, 2010



International Labour Organization-Maiilard J

Several waves of Sri Lankan migration have taken place since the country gained independence in 1948. Beginning in the mid-1950s, wealthy, educated, English-speaking elites have migrated to Commonwealth countries such as Australia and the United Kingdom. In addition, since the upsurge in ethnic hostilities in the early 1980s, Tamil-speaking Hindu migrants have left the country, with many settling in Canada. In contrast with these permanent migrants, since 1976 a growing number of Sri Lankans have become migrant workers. The leading destination for this migrant labor force — the majority of whom are women — has been the Gulf.
The Scale and Composition of Sri Lankan Labor MigrantsIn 2003, the Sri Lankan Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE), the main administrative body regulating labor migration, estimated that 1,003,600 Sri Lankans worked abroad.
[1]By 2008, this number had increased to 1,792,368, or 9% of the island’s 20 million people. From the late 1980s until as recently as 2007, women made up the majority of these labor migrants. They accounted for 75% of the migrant flow in the mid-1990s, and by 2008 declined to a little under 50%. Of the migrant women, 88% went to work as housemaids.[2]In much of the global North, such migrant transnational domestic workers meet the needs of the global “care deficit,” reflecting a global trend in outsourcing domestic labor to women from less developed countries. In contrast, transnational domestic servants in the Middle East free their sponsors for leisure, supporting a socially significant lifestyle.


In recent years, Sri Lankan officials have actively encouraged male migration. The male guest workers fill more diverse roles, with skilled and unskilled laborers making up roughly equal percentages of the male migrants (42% and 41% respectively in 2008).


Main Destination Countries


Most Sri Lankan migrants (92%), both male and female, journey to the Gulf, with four countries (Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, and Qatar) absorbing over 80% of Sri Lanka’s workers. In the Gulf, Sri Lankan women share the market for migrant domestic workers with women from Indonesia, the Philippines, and several other countries. Racial, ethnic, religious, and national stereotypes predetermine wages. For example, in the UAE in 2004, housemaids from the Philippines were paid more than those from Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Ethiopia, and Bangladesh, in that order.[3]


[L]abor laws cover male laborers but do not protect household workers.
Most Sri Lankan housemaids go abroad on two-year contracts and live in their employers’ residences. Live-in housemaids have less autonomy and lower salaries than women with part-time or live-out arrangements. The isolation of the work situation can lead to abuse and exploitation.


Domestic workers’ legal protections vary from country to country. In many Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, labor laws cover male laborers but do not protect household workers.[4]Labor regulations do apply to foreign domestic servants working in other areas in Asia, the European Union, and the United States, but may not be enforced against middle- and upper-class employers.[5]


Sri Lankan Sojourners as Temporary Migrants in the GulfGuest workers form a crucial aspect of local economies in the Gulf. Overall, foreigners make up an estimated 37-43% of the population of the GCC countries and constitute 70% of the workforce, with workforce numbers rising significantly higher in the UAE (90%), Kuwait (82%), and Qatar (90%).[6]Most GCC countries have a de facto dual economy, with well paid, non-strenuous public-sector jobs created for “nationals” and poorly paid, difficult, low-status, private sector jobs performed by foreigners.


The high percentage of guest workers worries government officials. Accordingly, governments have legislated to minimize the perceived threat. Restrictions on length of stay, strict regulations about changing jobs, hurdles imposed by the sponsorship system, difficult-to-meet criteria for bringing in family members, the inability to own land and businesses, the near-impossibility of obtaining citizenship, and the absence of legal rights all work to keep guest workers’ stays short, temporary, or informal.[7]Although Sri Lankans migrate to Australia, Canada, and the UK with plans to settle there, most sojourners in the Gulf do not hope to assimilate permanently into the host country.



Incentives for Sri Lankan Transnational Domestic MigrantsThere are both national-level and family-level incentives for Sri Lankans to migrate. On the national level, migrant laborers’ remittances contribute significantly to Sri Lanka’s foreign exchange earnings. In 2008, total remittances stood at SLR 316,118 million, or roughly $2.87 billion (converted at $1 = SLR 110). Nearly 60% of this total, SLR 189,039 million or $1.72 billion, came from the Gulf. In generating foreign earnings, private remittances (36%) come second after Sri Lanka’s large garment industry (40%). Clearly the country has a great financial stake in the remittances generated by migrant laborers, particularly those working in the Gulf.



Migration alleviates unemployment among the poorer segments of Sri Lanka’s population. Locally available jobs are mostly poorly paid and temporary, particularly for women. Although transnational domestic workers earn only an average of $100 a month while abroad, this is between two and five times what women could earn working in Sri Lanka, and equals or exceeds the wages earned by most village men. Migrant women consistently assert that families cannot make ends meet on their husbands’ salaries, and say that migration to the Middle East is their only available economic alternative. Family motives for migration usually include getting out of debt, buying land, and building a house. Women also state that they would like to support their family’s daily consumption needs, educate their children, and provide dowries for themselves or their daughters. Participants in the decision-making process (undergone repeatedly for migrants who return several times to the Gulf) weigh financial necessity and household improvements against separation, incursion of loans, and alternate arrangements for childcare.



Migrant women often become the sole or most significant breadwinners for their families. Several studies suggest that each migrant woman supports four to five members of her family; figures for migrant men are likely similar.[8]In 2003, the SLBFE estimated that migrant laborers made up 14% of the total number of employed Sri Lankans. By 2008, this figure had jumped to 25%. A significant and growing percentage of Sri Lankan families are thus directly dependent on Gulf remittances.
___________________________________________

Here we see global Wall Street selling Sri Lanka as hard as it can-----this only advances Sri Lanka's 1% ---it kills Sri Lanka's 99% of citizens.  Global Wall Street is doing this sales job for Sri Lanka in order to capture all its economy to ONE WORLD ONE GOVERNANCE----TRANS PACIFIC TRADE PACT.  While that dastardly Sri Lankan 1% PLAYERS SHOW ME THE MONEY AND WE WILL DO ANYTHING WE ARE TOLD are taken from millionaire to billionaire ---they are selling our all Sri Lankan sovereign citizens.

At the same time global Wall Street is expanding Foreign Economic Zones in Sri Lanka they must make those 1% and their 2% of Sri Lankan citizens feel like MERCHANTS OF VENICE-----allowing them to bring Sri Lankan corporations to US CITIES DEEMED FOREIGN ECONOMIC ZONES and with those Sri Lankan businesses----that global 1% will bring that global labor pool----NO NEW JOBS FOR AMERICANS---MORE GLOBAL 99% NOW BEING BROUGHT TO US AS GLOBAL SLAVE LABOR.

What would be the next step in this SRI LANKAN/US FOREIGN ECONOMIC ZONE trade deal?  Sending US citizens to be EX-PAT GLOBAL LABOR POOL workers to Sri Lanka---

THESE GLOBAL 2% AND DEVELOPING NATION 1% THINK THEY ARE REALLY BEING MERCHANTS OF VENICE WHEN INDEED THEY ARE BEING PLAYED JUST AS OUR US 5% TO THE 1%----THEY WILL BE UNDER THE BUS IN JUST A FEW DECADES.

Bringing Foreign Investment to Sri Lanka

10:48 PM EDT
July 29, 2015 Wall Street Journal


Sri Lanka Board of Investment Chairman Upul Jayasuriya discusses foreign investment in Sri Lanka, where the money is coming from and his outlook for FDI. He speaks to Bloomberg's Rishaad Salamat on "Trending Business." (Source: Bloomberg)



This is why we are sure Sri Lanka will indeed end up tied to the Asian trade pact and not Trans Pacific Trade Pact with US.  What global Wall Street is doing today IS USING SRI LANKA as US cities deemed Foreign Economic Zone players to create societal disruptions in our US cities------what may be Sri Lankan 1% and their 2% in US cities these few decades will see those Sri Lankan business assets disappear -----this is why we call these MERCHANTS OF VENICE whether from US or other nations HEADING UNDER THE BUS---these are not real global businesses----

The new rich being made of these developing nations and our US 5% to the 1% are PLAYERS.  They do not care if all these business transactions are temporary---they are living for today.  This is why it is so critical to get rid of those pesky 5% to the 1% -----PLEDGED TO DO ANYTHING THEY ARE TOLD.  When my FB friend from Sri Lanka thinks these stances are ANTI-IMMIGRANT----we are hoping he WAKES UP ---and kicks global corporations out of Sri Lanka to build a local economy and bring his Sri Lankan global slave trade citizens HOME TO BE SOVEREIGN CITIZENS.  WE THE PEOPLE do not want more citizens with the values of global Wall Street---we will take all immigrants wanting to fight to keep AMERICA A STRONG AND FREE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC.


China to build vast, controversial 'port city' in Sri Lanka



The $1.4bn plan had been suspended by president Maithripala Sirisena but is back on the table despite erosion fears


A container ship sails towards Colombo harbour, which would be redeveloped under the controversial Chinese plan. Photograph: Dinuka Liyanawatte/REUTERS
Agence France-Presse
Thursday 10 March 2016 19.42 EST Last modified on Thursday 17 March 2016 08.23 EDT



Sri Lanka has granted permission for China to build a vast “port city” in the island’s capital, despite concerns the ambitious project could be an environmental disaster.
President Maithripala Sirisena had suspended the contentious $1.4bn plan to build on reclaimed land next to Colombo’s main harbour shortly after taking power in January last year.
But the port city, initiated by Chinese president Xi Jinping in September 2014 and expected to include housing, a marina and a Formula One racetrack, was again given the green light on Thursday.
“The cabinet committee on economic management has recommended allowing resumption of the project subject to limitations and conditions stipulated in the EIA (environmental impact assessment),” the government said in a statement.


Sri Lanka's missing thousands: one woman's six-year fight to find her husband

It did not say what the conditions were, but official sources told AFP that Chinese investors were given permission to resume work on the project without any major modifications.



Prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has said reclaiming land next to the harbour could trigger erosion along the island’s western coastline and threaten its vital tourist industry.
The project, funded by Chinese state-owned company China Communications Construction, represents the biggest single foreign investment ever received by Sri Lanka.


It will add 233 hectares (575 acres) of new real estate in the congested capital.
Sirisena’s government had ordered a review of all big-ticket construction projects signed by his predecessor Mahinda Rajapakse, who is under investigation over allegations of corruption during his decade in power.



Rajapakse relied heavily on China to rebuild the country’s infrastructure after the end of the island’s decades-long ethnic war in May 2009.
China, the largest single lender to Sri Lanka, secured contracts to build roads, railways and ports under the Rajapakse regime.
Sri Lanka to set up a South Africa-style truth and reconciliation commission

However, the present administration has accused the previous government of agreeing to unfavourable terms for the Chinese loans.
Sirisena’s government is seeking an International Monetary Fund bail out of an unspecified amount of money to bolster the island’s foreign reserves.
Beijing has been accused of seeking to develop facilities around the Indian Ocean in a “string of pearls” strategy to counter the rise of rival India and secure its own economic interests.


__________________________________________

Here is of course to where ONE WORLD ONE GOVERNANCE GLOBAL 1% ARE MOVING FORWARD and indeed Sri Lankan 1% will be under the bus with 99% of WE THE PEOPLE.

Greece has literally been bought and tied in ribbons handed to global banking.  No doubt Greece's 1% are those ONE WORLD ONE GOVERNANCE OLD WORLD MERCHANTS OF VENICE FREEMASONS.

We will take a day or two to remind our US citizens where MOVING FORWARD takes the US after this coming SOVEREIGN DEBT FRAUD AND ECONOMIC CRASH.  Remember, the #1 policy issue in US HISTORY ----is that $20 trillion in national debt from US Treasury and state municipal bond fraud!

Here is Greece---a big-time victim of global banking fraud done while having a SOCIALIST LEADER in office----he was not really a socialist----Greece's 1% and their 2% of course off-shored all their wealth back in 2008-9 as Greece fell into bankruptcy from all the debt from those very 1%.  Much of Greek public real estate is being handed to global 1% in a PERESTROIKA of Western nations.  Greek citizens have lost everything=====pensions, middle-class assets, and they are now 99% indigent.  This article tells us---

THERE IS NO MONEY TO BE FOUND IN GREECE.

Remember we have shouted these same conditions are MOVING FORWARD in US -----as that US national debt ---state and local debt from US Treasury and state municipal bond fraud puts the US in same position as Greece.

They are now telling us that since global Wall Street is so criminal taking tens of trillions of dollars from our government and personal assets that we really need to move away from MONEY----HARD CASH BILLS and trust everything to VIRTUAL BANKING-----


How Greece Became A Guinea Pig For A Cashless And Controlled Society

As Greece moves closer to becoming a cashless society, it is clear that the country’s attitude towards cash is reckless and dangerous. The supposed convenience of switching to a cash-free system comes with a great deal of risk, including needless overreach by the state.


By Michael Nevradakis @dialogosmedia | June 21, 2017

• GReece

A man makes a transaction at an automated teller machine (ATM) of a Piraeus Bank branch in Athens, Greece. (AP/Yorgos Karahalis)




ATHENS (Analysis)– Day by day, we’re moving towards a brave new world where every transaction is tracked, every purchase is recorded, the habits and preferences of everyone noted and analyzed. What I am describing is the “cashless society,” where plastic and electronic money are king, while banknotes and coins are abolished.



“Progress” is, after all, deemed to be a great thing. In a recent discussion, I observed on an online message board regarding gentrification in my former neighborhood of residence in Queens, New York, the closure of yet another longtime local business was met by one user with a virtual shrug: “Who needs stores when you have Amazon?”



This last quote is, of course, indicative of the brick-and-mortar store, at least in its familiar form. In December 2016, Amazon launched a checkout-free convenience store in Seattle—largely free of employees, but also free of cash transactions, as purchases are automatically charged to one’s Amazon account. “Progress” is therefore cast as the abolition of currency, and the elimination of even more jobs, all in the name of technological progress and the “convenience” of saving a few minutes of waiting at the checkout counter.




Still insist on being old-fashioned and stuck behind the times, preferring to visit brick-and-mortar stores and paying in cash? You may very well be a terrorist! Pay for your coffee or your visit to an internet cafe with cash? Potential terrorist, according to the FBI. Indeed, insisting on paying with cash is, according to the United States Department of Homeland Security, “suspicious and weird.”



The European Union, ever a force for positive change and progress, also seems to agree. The non-elected European Commission’s “Inception Impact Assessment” warns that the anonymity of cash transactions facilitates “money laundering” and “terrorist financing activities.” This point of view is shared by such economists as the thoroughly discredited proponent of austerity Kenneth Rogoff, Lawrence Summer (a famed deregulator, as well as eulogizer of the “godfather” of austerity Milton Friedman), and supposed anti-austerity crusader Joseph Stiglitz, who told fawning participants at the World Economic Forum in Davos earlier this year that the United States should do away with all currency.


Logically, of course, the next step is to punish law-abiding citizens for the actions of a very small criminal population and for the failures of law enforcement to curb such activities. The EU plans to accomplish this through the exploration of upper limits on cash payments, while it has already taken the step of abolishing the 500-euro banknote.


The International Monetary Fund (IMF), which day after day is busy “saving” economically suffering countries such as Greece, also happens to agree with this brave new worldview. In a working paper titled “The Macroeconomics of De-Cashing,” which the IMF claims does not necessarily represent its official views, the fund nevertheless provides a blueprint with which governments around the world could begin to phase out cash. This process would commence with “initial and largely uncontested steps” (such as the phasing out of large-denomination bills or the placement of upper limits on cash transactions). This process would then be furthered largely by the private sector, providing cashless payment options for people’s “convenience,” rather than risk popular objections to policy-led decashing. The IMF, which certainly has a sterling track record of sticking up for the poor and vulnerable in society, comforts us by saying that these policies should be implemented in ways that would augment “economic and social benefits.”


The IMF’s Greek experiment in austerity


These suggestions, which of course the IMF does not necessarily officially agree with, have already begun to be implemented to a significant extent in the IMF debt colony known officially as Greece, where the IMF has been implementing “socially fair and just” austerity policies since 2010, which have resulted, during this period, in a GDP decline of over 25 percent, unemployment levels exceeding 28 percent, repeated cuts to what are now poverty-level salaries and pensions, and a “brain drain” of over 500,000 people—largely young and university-educated—migrating out of Greece.



Protesters against new austerity measures hold a placard depicting Labour Minister George Katrougalos as the movie character Edward Scissorhands during a protest outside Zappeion Hall in Athens, Friday, Sept. 16, 2016. The placard reads in Greek”Katrougalos Scissorhands”.



Indeed, it could be said that Greece is being used as a guinea pig not just for a grand neoliberal experiment in both austerity, but de-cashing as well. The examples are many, and they have found fertile ground in a country whose populace remains shell-shocked by eight years of economic depression. A new law that came into effect on January 1 incentivizes going cashless by setting a minimum threshold of spending at least 10 percent of one’s income via credit, debit, or prepaid card in order to attain a somewhat higher tax-free threshold.


Beginning July 27, dozens of categories of businesses in Greece will be required to install aptly-acronymized “POS” (point-of-sale) card readers and to accept payments by card. Businesses are also required to post a notice, typically by the entrance or point of sale, stating whether card payments are accepted or not. Another new piece of legislation, in effect as of June 1, requires salaries to be paid via direct electronic transfers to bank accounts. Furthermore, cash transactions of over 500 euros have been outlawed.


In Greece, where in the eyes of the state citizens are guilty even if proven innocent, capital controls have been implemented preventing ATM cash withdrawals of over 840 euros every two weeks. These capital controls, in varying forms, have been in place for two years with no end in sight, choking small businesses that are already suffering.



Citizens have, at various times, been asked to collect every last receipt of their expenditures, in order to prove their income and expenses—otherwise, tax evasion is assumed, just as ownership of a car (even if purchased a decade or two ago) or an apartment (even if inherited) is considered proof of wealth and a “hidden income” that is not being declared. The “heroic” former Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis had previously proposed a cap of cash transactions at 50 or 70 euros on Greek islands that are popular tourist destinations, while also putting forth an asinine plan to hire tourists to work as “tax snitches,” reporting businesses that “evade taxes” by not providing receipts even for the smallest transactions.



All of these measures, of course, are for the Greeks’ own good and are in the best interest of the country and its economy, combating supposedly rampant “tax evasion” (while letting the biggest tax evaders off the hook), fighting the “black market” (over selling cheese pies without issuing a receipt, apparently), and of course, nipping “terrorism” in the bud.


As with the previous discussion I observed about Amazon being a satisfactory replacement for the endangered brick-and-mortar business, one learns a lot from observing everyday conversations amongst ordinary citizens. A recent conversation I personally overheard while paying a bill at a public utility revealed just how successful the initial and largely uncontested steps enacted in Greece have been.


In the line ahead of me, an elderly man announced that he was paying his water bill by debit card, “in order to build towards the tax-free threshold.” When it was suggested to him that the true purpose of encouraging cashless payments was to track every transaction, even for a stick of gum, and to transfer all money into the banking system, he and one other elderly gentleman threw a fit, claiming “there is no other way to combat tax evasion.”


The irony that they were paying by card to avoid taxation themselves was lost on them—as is the fact that the otherwise fiscally responsible Germany, whose government never misses an opportunity to lecture the “spendthrift” and “irresponsible” Greeks, has the largest black market in Europe (exceeding 100 billion euros annually), ranks first in Europe in financial fraud, is the eighth-largest tax haven worldwide, and one of the top tax-evading countries in Europe.


Also lost on these otherwise elderly gentlemen was a fact not included in the official propaganda campaign: Germans happen to love their cash, as evidenced by the fierce opposition that met a government plan to outlaw cash payments of 5,000 euros or more. In addition, about 80 percent of transactions in Germany are still conducted in cash. The German tabloid Bild went as far as to publish an op-ed titled “Hands off our cash” in response to the proposed measure.


Global powers jumping on cashless bandwagon

Nevertheless, a host of other countries across Europe and worldwide have shunned Germany’s example, instead siding with the IMF and Stiglitz. India, one of the most cash-reliant countries on earth, recently eliminated 86 percent of its currency practically overnight, with the claimed goal, of course, of targeting terrorism and the “black market.” The real objective of this secretly planned measure, however, was to starve the economy of cash and to drive citizens to electronic payments by default.


Indians stand in line to deposit discontinued notes in a bank in Jammu and Kashmir, India,, Dec. 30, 2016. India yanked most of its currency bills from circulation without warning on Nov. 8, delivering a jolt to the country’s high-performing economy and leaving countless citizens scrambling for cash. (AP/Channi Anand)


Iceland, a country that stands as an admirable example of standing up to the IMF-global banking cartel in terms of its response to the country’s financial meltdown of 2008, nevertheless has long embraced cashlessness. Practically all transactions, even the most minute, are conducted electronically, while “progressive” tourists extol the benefits of not being inconvenienced by the many seconds it would take to withdraw funds from an ATM or exchange currency upon arrival. Oddly enough, Iceland was already largely cashless prior to its financial collapse in 2008—proving that this move towards “progress” did nothing to prevent an economic meltdown or to stop its perpetrators: the very same banks being entrusted with nearly all of the money supply.


Other examples of cashlessness

abound in Europe. Cash transactions in Sweden represent just 3 percent of the national economy, and most banks no longer hold banknotes. Similarly, many Norwegian banks no longer issue cash, while the country’s largest bank, DNB, has called upon the public to cease using cash. Denmark has announced a goal of eliminating banknotes by 2030. Belgium has introduced a 3,000-euro limit on cash transactions and 93 percent of transactions are cashless. In France, the respective percentage is 92 percent, and cash transactions have been limited to 1,000 euros, just as in Spain. Outside of Europe, cash is being eliminated even in countries such as Somalia and Kenya, while South Korea—itself no stranger to IMF intervention in its economy—has, similarly to Greece, implemented preferential tax policies for consumers who make payments using cards.



Aside from policy changes, practical everyday examples also exist in abundance. Just try to purchase an airline ticket with cash, for instance. It remains possible—but is also said to raise red flags. In many cases, renting an automobile or booking a hotel room with cash is simply not possible. The aforementioned Department of Homeland Security manual considers any payment with cash to be “suspicious behavior”—as one clearly has something to hide if they do not wish to be tracked via electronic payment methods. Ownership of gold makes the list of suspicious activities as well.



Just as the irony of Germany being a largely cash-based society while pushing cashless policies in its Greek protectorate is lost on many Greeks, what is lost on seemingly almost everyone is this: something that is new doesn’t necessarily represent progress, nor does something different. Something that is seemingly easier, or more convenient, is not necessarily progress either. But for many, “technological progress,” just like “scientific innovation” in all its forms and without exception, has attained an aura of infallibility, revered with religious-like fervor.


People queue in front of a bank for an ATM as a man lies on the ground begging for change, in Athens. (AP/Thanassis Stavrakis)


Combating purported tax evasion is also treated with a religious-like fervor, even while ordinary citizens—such as the two aforementioned gentlemen in Greece—typically seek to minimize their outlays to the tax offices. Moreover, while such measures essentially enact a collective punishment regardless of guilt or innocence, corporations and oligarchs who utilize tax loopholes and offshore havens go unpunished and are wholly unaffected by a switch to a cashless economy in the supposed battle against tax evasion.


This is evident, for instance, in the case of “LuxLeaks,” which revealed the names of dozens of corporations benefiting from favorable tax rulings and tax avoidance schemes in Luxembourg, one of the original founding members of the EU. European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, formerly the prime minister of Luxembourg, has faced repeated accusations of impeding EU investigations into corporate tax avoidance scandals during his 18-year term as prime minister. Juncker has defended Luxembourg’s tax arrangements as legal.



At the same time, Juncker has shown no qualms in criticizing Apple’s tax avoidance deal in Ireland as “illegal,” while having been accused himself of helping large multinationals such as Amazon and Pepsi avoid taxes. Moreover, he has openly claimed that Greece’s Ottoman roots are responsible for modern-day tax evasion in the country. He has not hesitated to unabashedly intervene in Greek electoral contests, calling on Greeks to avoid the “wrong outcome” in the January 2015 elections (where the supposedly anti-austerity SYRIZA, which has since proven to be boldly pro-austerity, were elected).


He also urged the Greek electorate to vote “yes” (in favor of more EU-proposed austerity) in the July 2015 referendum—where the overwhelming result in favor of “no” was itself overturned by SYRIZA within a matter of days. In the European Union today, if there’s something that can be counted on, it’s the blatant hypocrisy of its leaders. Nevertheless, proving that old habits of collaborationism die hard in Greece, the rector of the law school of the state-owned Aristotle University in Thessaloniki awarded Juncker with an honorary doctorate for his contribution to European political and legal values.


Cashless policies bode poorly for the future

Where does all this lead though? What does a cashless economy actually mean and why are global elites pushing so fervently for it? Consider the following: in a cashless economy without coins or banknotes, every transaction is tracked. Buying and spending habits are monitored, and it is not unheard of for credit card companies to cancel an individual’s credit or to lower their credit rating based on real or perceived risks ranging from shopping at discount stores to purchasing alcoholic beverages. Indeed, this is understood to be common practice. Other players are entering the game too: in late May, Google announced plans to track credit and debit card transactions.


More to the point though, a cashless economy doesn’t just mean that financial institutions, large corporations, or the state itself can monitor all transactions that are occurring. It also means that the entirety of the money supply—itself now existing only in “virtual” form—will belong to the banking system. Not one cent will exist outside of the banking system, as physical currency will simply not be in circulation. The banking system—and others—will be aware not just of every transaction, but will be in possession of all of our society’s money supply, and will even have the ability to receive a percentage of every transaction that is taking place.


So what happens if your spending habits or your choice of travel destinations raises “red flags”? What happens if you run into hard times economically and miss a few payments? What happens if you are deemed to be a political dissident or liability – perhaps an “enemy of the state”? Freezing a bank account or confiscating funds from accounts can take place almost instantaneously. Users of eBay and PayPal, for instance, are quite aware of the ease with which PayPal can confiscate funds from a user’s account based simply on a claim filed against that individual.


Simply forgetting one’s password to an online account can set off an aggravating flurry of calls in order to prove that your money is your own—and that’s without considering the risks of phishing and of online databases being compromised. Many responsible credit card holders found that their credit cards were suddenly canceled in the aftermath of the “Great Recession” simply due to perceived risk. And if you happen to be an individual deemed to be “dangerous,” you can be effectively and easily frozen out of the economy.


Those thinking that the “cashless revolution” will also herald the return of old-style bartering and other communal economic schemes might also wish to reconsider that line of thinking. In the United States, for instance, bartering transactions are considered taxable by the Internal Revenue Service. As more and more economic activity of all sorts takes place online, the tax collector will have an easier time detecting such activity. Thinking of teaching your child to be responsible with finances? That too will have a cost, as even lemonade stands have been targeted for “operating without a permit.” It’s not far-fetched to imagine that particularly overzealous government authorities could also target such activity for “tax evasion.”


In Greece, while oligarchs get to shift their money to offshore tax havens without repercussion and former Finance Minister Gikas Hardouvelis has been acquitted for failure to submit a declaration of assets, where major television and radio stations operate with impunity without a valid license while no new players can enter the marketplace and where ordinary households and small businesses are literally being taxed to death, police in August 2016 arrested a father of three with an unemployed spouse for selling donuts without a license and fined him 5,000 euros. In another incident, an elderly man selling roasted chestnuts in Thessaloniki was surrounded by 15 police officers and arrested for operating without a license.


Amidst this blatant hypocrisy, governments and financial institutions love electronic money for another reason, aside from the sheer control that it affords them. Studies, including one conducted by the American Psychological Association, have shown that paying with plastic (or, by extension, other non-physical forms of payment) encourage greater spending, as the psychological sensation of a loss when making a payment is disconnected from the actual act of purchasing or conducting a transaction.



But ultimately, the elephant in the room is whether the banking system even should be entrusted with the entirety of the monetary supply. The past decade has seen the financial collapse of 2008, the crumbling of financial institutions such as Lehman Brothers in the United States and a continent-wide banking crisis in Europe, which was the true objective behind the “bailouts” of countries such as Greece—saving European and American banks exposed to “toxic” bonds from these nations. Italy’s banking system is currently teetering on dangerous ground, while the Greek banking system, already recapitalized three times since the onset of the country’s economic crisis, may need yet another taxpayer-funded recapitalization. Even the virtual elimination of cash in Iceland did not prevent the country’s banking meltdown in 2008.


Should we entrust the entirety of the money supply to these institutions? What happens if the banking system experiences another systemic failure? Who do you trust more: yourself or institutions that have proven to be wholly irresponsible and unaccountable in their actions? The answer to that question should help guide the debate as to whether society should go cashless.

We have on several occasions written to expose what are called VANITIES------you know, that BONFIRE OF THE VANITIES. 

When we allow the US to be brought back to colonization and 99% of citizens having no rights, impoverished, and enslaved as with MOVING FORWARD we are returning to those DARK AGES days where incompetent 1% enriched through brute force create images of themselves to justify that position in SOCIETY.  America is a MERITOCRACY---one would say---know, America has always been controlled by those same global 1%----but it felt as though the 99% were free to determine their destiny.  Of course we never attained this freedom for all US citizens----we were on the way.

The American people were indeed free---we were indeed growing our own wealth and economic stability---THAT IS NOT FICTION.  Meritocracy simply means people climb a ladder----whether social or income because they can compete and advance in an economic race WITH A LEVEL PLAYING FIELD.

Laissez faire economics were installed by REAGAN/CLINTON at this point in US history to end that level playing field.  That global 1% were ready to come in and by force and FICTION take all the wealth of our growing nation and our families.

THIS DID NOT HAVE TO HAPPEN---SO INDEED---WE WERE FREE AND ABLE TO DETERMINE OUR DESTINY.  WE ARE SIMPLY ALLOWING MOVING FORWARD TO END THIS FREEDOM AND STATUS AS CITIZEN.

Because a small group of 5% to the 1% having no particular talent----having no morals, ethics, or VIRTUE----were installed to power the global 1% must create FICTIONS as to why that 1% continue to garner all avenues to wealth and power.  It is the same as the legends written 4 thousand years ago making HEROES----GODS AND GODDESSES----with the global 1% seeing themselves reflected in those images.

WHEN THE LEAST CAPABLE AND THE LEAST WORTHY RISE TO THE TOP BY BRUTE FORCE---THEY MUST CREATE FICTIONS TO SEEM EXCEPTIONAL.


Vanity

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


"Vainglory" redirects here. For the Old English poem, see Vainglory (Old English poem). For the video game, see Vainglory (video game). For the style of artwork, see Vanitas. For other uses, see Vanity (disambiguation).

This painting represents the Dutch "Vanitas" (Latin for vanity) by Adam Bernaert,[1] The Walters Art Museum.Vanity is the excessive belief in one's own abilities or attractiveness to others. Prior to the 14th century it did not have such narcissistic undertones, and merely meant futility.[2] The related term vainglory is now often seen as an archaic synonym for vanity, but originally meant boasting in vain, i.e. unjustified boasting;[3] although glory is now seen as having an exclusively positive meaning, the Latin term gloria (from which it derives) roughly means boasting, and was often used as a negative criticism.[4]

If we have read WAR AND PEACE then we easily saw the FICTIONS created by our OLD WORLD MERCHANTS OF VENICE GLOBAL 1% and their 5% to the 1% freemason/Greeks.  When we refer MOVING FORWARD as back to the DARK AGES it is because these global Wall Street players are so attached to the mythology of KINGS AND QUEENS and that period of extreme wealth. If you haven't read it you should to know that mentality of extreme wealth and the FAKE SENSE OF VIRTUE AND HONOR.

What War and Peace did well is show how all that pomp and circumstance of royalty---of freemason VIRTUE was SMOKE AND MIRRORS. That is what today's CLINTON/BUSH/OBAMA now Trump are trying so hard to paint for themselves-----THEY ARE EXCEPTIONAL when in fact they are not even as capable as you and I.




LEO TOLSTOY and FREEMASONRY

COUNT LYEV NIKOLAYEVICH TOLSTOY (1828-1910).


Russian novelist and moral philosopher comes from
a Russian landed gentry dating back 300 years.
His parents died by the time he was 9 yrs old.
Raised by female relatives, and educated by French tutors.
He lived a middle-gentry life of the last of the old serfdom period.
His "War and Peace" appeared in parts in 1865 and 1869.
He was 37 yrs old.


Freemasonry's presence in Tolstoy's War and Peace, which many consider Russia's greatest novel, is a reflection of the long existence (since 1771) of the Craft in Russia. Masonry was banned by Czar Alexander in 1821, a ban continued by the Communists in 1922. Masonry was only revived in 1993. There are now some 10 lodges meeting in Russia under Russia's Grand Lodge.
                   MoscowLotus
Alexander Pushkin
Harmony
Quatuor Coronati
Northern Lights (Armenian-speaking)
St.PetersburgNovaya Astra
VoronezhGamaioun
ArkhangelskPolar Star
ZvenigorodAurora (English-speaking)
VladivostokPacific Rim
Fraternal Love    a Lodge meeting in Turkey, France, Lebanon and Russia

Such a renewal is not surprising when the long-time cultural influence of Masonry in Russia is considered. While Freemasonry's consideration in Count Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace is the most famous example, the masonic fraternity figures in "The Possessed" by Dostoevsky, and in the works of other master authors such as; V.I.Likin, N.M.Karamzin, M.M.Kheraskov, V.I.Maikov, A.N.Radishchev, A.A.Rzhevskii, A.P.Sumarokov, and M.M.Shcherbatov.

This literature compares with the works of Scotland's Robert Burns & Sir Walter Scott, England's Rudyard Kipling & Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, alongwith Germany's Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and America's Edgar Allan Poe.


War and Peace is widely accepted as being autobiographical, and the figure of Pierre Bezukhov is as consumed as was Tolstoy with the great questions of life. There is no evidence that Tolstoy joined a Lodge, but he spent considerable time investigating masonic activities.
The masonic initiation scene in War and Peace is justly celebrated:
                                                                       'Pierre gradually began to recover himself and looked about at the room and at the people in it. Round a long table covered with black sat some twelve brethren in garments like those he has already seen. Several of them Pierre had met in St. Petersburg society. In the president's chair sat a young man he did not know, with a peculiar cross hanging from his neck. On his right sat the Italian abbe whom Pierre had seen at Anna Pavlovna's two years before. There was also present a very distinguished dignitary, and a Swiss tutor who had formerly been tutor at the Kuragins. All maintained a solemn silence, listening to the words of the president, who held a mallet in his hand. Let into the wall was a star-shaped light. At one side of the table was a small carpet was various figures worked upon it; on the other was something resembling an altar on which by a (New) Testament and a skull."

Pierre seeks initiation as part of his quest for self-knowledge, a major theme in the book. He hopes that the secrets of the Masons will prove the Golden Fleece or Holy Grail. He is representative of a whole generation of Russian intellectuals who were trying to reconcile the Slavic East with the bewildering bonanza of ideas from the West. Of course, he expects too much. In Book Six, Chapter Seven, it is now 1808, and Pierre is busily arranging dining and funeral Lodges, donating for the erection of temples, helping with charities - and becoming disillusioned.
                                When he had joined the Freemasons he had experienced the feeling of one who confidently steps onto the smooth surface of a bog. When he put his foot down, it sank in. …. All the members of the Lodges were men Pierre knew in ordinary life, and it was difficult for him to regard them merely as Brothers in Freemasonry. … Under the Masonic aprons and insignia he saw the uniforms and decorations at which they aimed in ordinary life.

In questioning the purity of Masonry and the motives of its members, and in suggesting its misuse by its members for pedestrian old-boy networking, Tolstoy anticipates the sceptical observations about the Craft of another famous Russian, Leon Trotsky, who writes in Chapter Nine of his autobiography, "My Life":
                "In the early years of this century, Russia was a vast laboratory of social thinking. My work on the history of freemasonry had fortified me in a realization of the subordinate place of ideas in the historical process. 'Ideas do not drop from the sky'.."

Pierre is an embodiment of a disillusioned Tolstoy who found Freemasonry to be far less than what he had expected. Pierre describes those like himself as one who are 'seeking and vacillating, who had not yet found in Freemasonry a straight and comprehensible path, but hoped to do so'. He decides that the fault is his own and that he needs to deepen his understanding of Masonry by further study. So he goes abroad to seek masonic knowledge in other countries. Upon returning to his Lodge a special meeting is called to hear of his travels. Pierre in desperation asks his Grand Master if what he has found will be implemented, and is told NO. He leaves his lodge.
In a letter of Tolstoy to his wife in 1866, he wrote:
               "After drinking coffee I went to the Rumyantsev Museum and sat there till three o'clock read very interesting Masonic manuscripts. I can't describe to you why the reading produced on me a depression I have not been able to get rid of all day. What is distressing is that all those Masons were fools."

Hard words but maybe Pierre/Tolstoy had found that while Masons talk of problems and express such good deeds, they fail to study What is Freemasonry!!


______________________________________

We posted a year or so ago a lecture from a southern university with a professor whose job it was to CREATE THAT IMAGE OF VIRTUE ---that SMOKE AND MIRROR ----when talking about the history of ROBBER BARONS during the late 1800s early 1900s ROARING 20s-----that was a corporate university where professors are hired only if they create that IMAGE OF VIRTUE of those 1%.  So, ROBBER BARONS like Rockefeller and Carnegie had all kinds of myths created to make them INEVITABLE ECONOMIC HEROES.  They simply had family money from the OLD WORLD MERCHANTS OF VENICE and they HIJACKED the talents of real inventors and genius.

IF WE THE PEOPLE THE 99% KEEP ALLOWING OLD ---REALLY, REALLY OLD MONEY COME IN AND FLEECE OUR ASSETS OVER AND OVER ----WE CANNOT BE FREE---WE CANNOT BE CITIZENS---STOP ALLOWING THESE POSERS TO BE LEADERS.

This is why we spend so much time breaking down these images of EXCEPTIONALISM being painted for those dastardly 5% AND THOSE 1%. 

We shout over and again-----the 5% are not LEADERS----THEY ARE FOLLOWERS----simply doing anything they are told.  AND THEY ARE.  We make clear the stories in media created for a BILL GATES-----AN APPLE'S JOB------A FACEBOOK'S  ZUCKERBERG ---------AN UNDERARMOUR'S PLANK----A SPACE X'S MUSK----are all FICTIONS.


THEIR FAMILIES SIMPLY HAD OLD WORLD WEALTH AND BOUGHT PATENTS FOR PRODUCTS AND SYSTEMS DEVELOPED AND DESIGNED BY REAL TALENTED AND INTELLIGENT 99% OF WE THE PEOPLE.


'Elon Musk's heralded biography is dripping wet with being extraordinary and a visionary. If this is truly not the case, it will still be hard to convince others, so you may loose more in the audience, and thus thwart your own passions and desires in this war'.



Our response:
---that is a great description of these supposed EXCEPTIONAL 1%-----they are creating a FICTION to make themselves VIRTUOUS---HERALDED---it mirrors the DARK AGES----this is why we say the ideals of OLD WORLD FREEMASONRY are long gone and today we have LYING, CHEATING, AND STEALING held as virtuous. I have no fear of a disappearing audience----know what? If one is pushed to FICTION in order to attain attention -----THAT IS VANITY'.


A Lot Of People Think Elon Musk Is Already Greater Than Steve Jobs Ever Was

• Alyson Shontell


• Aug. 28, 2013, 3:02 PM

Elon Musk is just that good.AP

Steve Jobs was a marketing master who turned a near-bankrupt Apple into the most valuable company in the world. 
But many people are starting to believe Elon Musk is better than Steve Jobs ever was. 


There's an insatiable thirst for tech innovation right now, and Musk seems to be one of few people taking moonshots. He is the founder of SpaceX and electric car company Tesla. Musk is also the brains behind the Hyperloop, a hypothetical transportation system that could get people from New York to California in 30 minutes.


OH, REALLY????


Musk, like Jobs, has already had a massive consumer hit too. He co-founded PayPal in 1999, which completely transformed online transactions.

Tesla's soaring stock is just one example of Musk's wild popularity. Although it's only expected to deliver 20,000 cars in 2013, the stock has risen more than 400% in the past year to a $20 billion market cap. 
Tesla's valuation is sky-high and its stock is up 400% since last year.CNBC


Another example can be found on question and answer site, Quora, where thousands of people are expressing their pro-Muskness.


The most upvoted answers are unanimous: Elon Musk isn't the next Steve Jobs. He's better. 


Dolly Singh has worked with Musk for years. She joined him as Head of Talent Acquisition at SpaceX and calls Musk "brilliant, dynamic, charismatic" and "an exceptional freak of nature."


She also says this:
"In my humble opinion, Mr. Jobs in all his greatness has nothing on Elon. Elon is Wernher von Braun, Howard Hughes, Henry Ford, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and every other badass all rolled into one."


Her reasoning: Musk has taught himself everything from design to building rocket ships. He's read tons of literature plus he's an engineer. He's not just imaginative like Jobs was, but he also has the ability to build everything himself.


Currently, 1,200 people have upvoted her response. 
Another answer with more than 3,000 up votes lists all the ways Musk is not Steve Jobs (such as, "Steve Jobs patented everything; Musk hates patents") and concludes: 


"Elon Musk isn't the next Steve Jobs. He is far beyond and better than Steve Jobs ever was."

__________________________________________

Elon Musk is a spoiled child of a OLD WORLD MERCHANT OF VENICE MINING CORPORATION FAMILY----  below we see the same spoiled child of an OLD WORLD MERCHANT OF VENICE REAL ESTATE FAMILY.

 All of the development of computer technology was done by Department of Defense-----by public and private universities using their STUDENTS AND FACILITY to design products that were then sold as patents.  A meeting of DAVOS SWITZERLAND GLOBAL 1% says----WE NEED TO MINE PLANETS FOR MINERALS-----then the Department of Defense and our universities suddenly get funded for research and development-----NASA----source of all the space engineering used by SPACE X----was designed by WE THE PEOPLE--THE 99% -----so, all the R and D is done----all the plans and stages are developed BY WE THE PEOPLE THE 99%----and in walks MUSK and his money to buy patents making his family the one made extremely rich.  MUSK had nothing to do with the idea of space mining---that came from the global 1%---MUSK was not tied to any research or development in TESLA--in SPACE X ----he probably does not even know space mechanics---he hires talented people to do everything.

Below we see the same done for PLANK AND UNDERARMOUR-----PLANK is simply that same son of an old wealth familty buying the PATENT for a new kind of fabric for sportswear.  All the R and D was done by the 99% of WE THE PEOPLE in university----in Department of Defense et al ---and then that patent is sold to PLANK.  If we believe the myth of a PLANK working his way up the ladder from selling out of his trunk to building third world global factories in Asia WE ARE ALWAYS GOING TO BE SERFS----NOT CITIZENS AND LEADERS.

PLEASE DON'T ALLOW THESE MYTHS ---TIED TO VIRTUE AND HONOR AND LIFTING ONESELF UP BY BOOTSTRAPS----BECAUSE NONE OF THIS IS TRUE FOR THOSE PESKY 5% AND THAT 1%.

As Tolstoy made clear in War and Peace----the royals could not manage their way out of a closet-----the people sent in as officers to become generals could not manage a war if their lives depended on it----as Tolstoy made clear wars just happen--they unroll with these so-called generals never having a hand on the cause of winning. At the same time----those Freemasons with that VIRTUOUS goal of honor and justice---are shown to be a group filled with all kinds of people having all kinds of goals for being in these groups----almost none of which is being VIRTUOUS OR JUST.


Under Armour Startup Story


Introduction


This startup story features Kevin Plank, a former Fork Union Military Academy Football player who turned sweat into a billion dollar business.

Under Armour Stats

• Founder: Kevin Plank
• Age at Founding: 24
• Started In: 1996
• Industry: Sports Apparel
• Annual Revenue: $1.83BB in Retail Sales
• # of Employees:  5,900
• Famous For: Creating a revolutionary new T-shirt built from microfibers that wicked moisture and kept athletes cool, dry, and light.

How Under Armour Got Started

As a 23 year old former captain of the University of Maryland Football team, Plank had noticed that compression shorts stayed dry during practice. He decided to take that same material to create moisture wicking gear. Under Armour’s original funding came from Planks personal savings and credit card debt. During college, Plank had saved about $20,000 by selling t-shirts at concerts. He ended up going about $40,000 in credit card debt spread across five cards.  By 1997 (one year after founding the company), he was broke.


Then, he made his first sale to Georgia Tech for about $17,000.  Two dozen NFL teams soon followed suit. At the end of his second year, he had sold $100,000 in product. Then, the product took off and major teams and retailers began carrying the product, creating a multi-million dollar business that now does nearly $2BB in sales and has over 5,900 employees.


Under Armour’s Funding

While Under Armour’s initial funding came from Plank himself, the company went public less than 10  years after it’s founding to raise $115 Million for expansion capital. The stock doubled in its first day of trading. The company has since sold additional shares of the company to help fuel it’s continued growth. Below, is a chart of the companies trailing five year growth rate compared to it’s competitors.


Important Under Armour Milestones:1995: Plank comes up with the idea for Under Armour while playing football at the University of Maryland.

1996: Plank uses $20k of his personal savings and $40k of credit card debt to launch the company. At the end of the year, he has sales totaling $17,000.

1997: Plank sells $100,000 worth of product to twelve NFL football teams.

1998: Under Armour is asked to create uniforms for Any Given Sunday.

2000: UA takes off with National advertising campaigns.

2002: The company becomes carried in 2,500 retail stores. 

2013: Under Armour acquires MapMyFitness for $150 Million.
Kevin Plank Startup Advice: “You need to put your hands around the throat of your business, and you need to run it. There’s no other way.”

_____________________________________


The global 1% are creating MYTHS and our captured media and corporate universities teach myth and not fact ----this is the value of REAL PUBLIC EDUCATION----we had public schools over last century that held power accountable to these lies. This is why CLINTON/BUSH/OBAMA work so hard to KILL OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS ---to install a COMMONER CORE----to assure 99% of WE THE PEOPLE will not know it is all myth and they are being USED FOR THEIR TALENT AND GETTING NOTHING.

Below we see just that progression.   Here is global IVY LEAGUE STANFORD which like global IVY LEAGUE JOHNS HOPKINS attract the smartest of our citizens ----literally use their ideas and creations developed during 4 years-----or graduate positions---and patents them----that patent brings Stanford and Hopkins lots of wealth and power---those students ---not so much.

The Department of Defense is filled with WE THE PEOPLE THE 99% and all R and D is done by those talented people.  Look at who is headlined as head of departments? 

THEY ARE NOT THE ONES DOING THE WORK---THEY ARE THE ONES SIMPLY TIED TO GLOBAL 1% TAKING ALL THE GLORY.

This structure was super-sized during Obama as Clinton neo-liberals made global corporate R and D of all our public and private universities ----expanding from just a few global IVY LEAGUES. 

NOW THE BEST OF THE BEST ARE BROUGHT TO GLOBAL IVY LEAGUES THAT PATENT ALL THEIR GREAT IDEAS TO MAKE THAT SAME OLD WORLD MERCHANTS OF VENICE GLOBAL 1% EXTREMELY RICH.


Who controls the internet today? Global Google----and a few search engine corporations. We watch as we do SEARCHES for words or terms -----used to be we would see those searches getting the most action from 99% of citizens---today we searched the word VANITY to get to the history of its use----and we got 20 search pages of corporations selling the product BATHROOM VANITIES. This is all WE THE PEOPLE will access on our internet if we keep allowing MOVING FORWARD ONE WORLD ONE GOVERNANCE GLOBAL CORPORATE TRIBUNAL RULE.



Who invented the Internet?
Updated: 06/16/2017 by Computer Hope


A single person did not create the Internet that we know and use today. Below is a listing of different people who have helped contribute to and develop the Internet.


The idea

The initial idea of the Internet is credited to Leonard Kleinrock after he published his first paper entitled "Information Flow in Large Communication Nets" on May 31, 1961.


In 1962, J.C.R. Licklider became the first Director of IPTO and gave his vision of a galactic network. Also, with ideas from Licklider and Kleinrock, Robert Taylor helped create the idea of the network that later became ARPANET.


Initial creation


The Internet as we know it today first started being developed in the late 1960's in California in the United States.


In the summer of 1968, the Network Working Group (NWG) held its first meeting, chaired by Elmer Shapiro, at the Stanford Research Institute (SRI). Other attendees included Steve Carr, Steve Crocker, Jeff Rulifson, and Ron Stoughton. In the meeting, the group discussed solving issues related to getting hosts to communicate with each other.


In December 1968, Elmer Shapiro with SRI released a report "A Study of Computer Network Design Parameters." Based on this and earlier work by Paul Baran, Thomas Marill and others, Lawrence Roberts and Barry Wessler created the Interface Message Processor (IMP) specifications. Bolt Beranek and Newman, Inc. (BBN) was later awarded the contract to design and build the IMP subnetwork.


General public learns about Internet


The UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles) put out a press release introducing the public to the Internet on July 3, 1969.


First network equipment

On August 29, 1969, the first network switch and the first piece of network equipment called "IMP" (Interface Message Processor) is sent to UCLA.



On September 2, 1969, the first data moves from the UCLA host to the switch. The picture to the right is Leonard Kleinrock next to the IMP.


The first message and network crash

On Friday October 29, 1969 at 10:30 p.m., the first Internet message was sent from computer science Professor Leonard KleinRock's laboratory at UCLA, after the second piece of network equipment was installed at SRI. The connection not only enabled the first transmission to be made, but is also considered the first Internet backbone.


The first message to be distributed was "LO", which was an attempt at "LOGIN" by Charley S. Kline to log into the SRI computer from UCLA. However, the message was unable to be completed because the SRI system crashed. Shortly after the crash, the issue was resolved, and he was able to log into the computer.


E-mail is developed

Ray Tomlinson sends the first network e-mail in 1971. It's the first messaging system to send messages across a network to other users.



TCP is developed


Vinton Cerf and Robert Kahn design TCP during 1973 and later publish it with the help of Yogen Dalal and Carl Sunshine in December of 1974 in RFC 675. Most people consider these two people the inventors of the Internet.



First commercial network

A commercial version of ARPANET, known as Telenet, is introduced in 1974 and considered to be the first Internet Service Provider (ISP).


Ethernet is conceivedBob Metcalfe develops the idea of Ethernet in 1973.


The Modem is introduced

Dennis Hayes and Dale Heatherington released the 80-103A Modem in 1977. The Modem and their subsequent modems become a popular choice for home users to connect to the Internet and get online.


TCP/IP is created


In 1978, TCP splits into TCP/IP, driven by Danny Cohen, David Reed, and John Shoch to support real-time traffic. The creation of TCP/IP help create UDP and is later standardized into ARPANET on January 1, 1983. Today, TCP/IP is still the primary protocol used on the Internet.


DNS is introduced

Paul Mockapetris and Jon Postel introduce DNS in 1984, which also introduces the domain name system. The first Internet domain name, symbolics.com, is registered on March 15, 1985 by Symbolics, a Massachusetts computer company.


First commercial dial-up ISPThe first commercial Internet Service Provider (ISP) in the US, known as "The World", is introduced in 1989. The World was the first ISP to be used on what we now consider to be the Internet.



HTMLIn 1990, Tim Berners-Lee develops HTML, which made a huge contribution to how we navigate and view the Internet today.


WWWTim Berners-Lee introduces WWW to the public on August 6, 1991 and becomes available for everyone August 23, 1991. The World Wide Web (WWW) is what most people today consider the "Internet" or a series of sites and pages that are connected with links. The Internet had hundreds of people who helped develop the standards and technologies used today, but without the WWW, the Internet would not be as popular as it is today.



First graphical Internet browser

Mosaic is the first widely used graphical World Wide Web browser developed and first released on April 22, 1993 by the NCSA with the help of Marc Andreessen and Eric Bina. A big competitor to Mosaic was Netscape, which was released a year later. Today's Internet browsers we use today, e.g. Internet Explorer, Chrome, Firefox, etc., got their inspiration from the Mosaic browser.

Java and JavaScript
Originally known as oak, Java is a programming language developed by James Gosling and others at Sun Microsystems in 1995. Today, Java is still used to create Internet applications and other software programs.


JavaScript was developed by Brendan Eich in 1995 and originally known as LiveScript. LiveScript was released with Netscape Navigator 2.0 and renamed to JavaScript with Netscape Navigator 2.0B3. JavaScript is an interpreted client-side scripting language that allows a web designer the ability to insert code into their web page.


Related Questions

That is a great overview, but who are the key inventors of the Internet?
If you had to isolate the key inventors of the Internet, it would have to be two people: Vinton Cerf and Robert Kahn. The WWW, which is different from the Internet, but what most people think of as the "Internet", was invented later by Tim Berners-Lee.
But I thought Al Gore invented the Internet.


______________________________________


We posted an article this past week that told us our once strong academic IVY LEAGUES were now simply product factories and being admitted was tied more to who you know---is your family rich----can you be used as a DO ANYTHING WE ARE TOLD PLAYER?

When national media tells us that a CLINTON---BUSH---OBAMA---NOW TRUMP are exceptional----whether exception students with high academic achievement----or whether a successful business person---none of the above have any exceptional qualities----they are staged in positions to create MYTH---Clinton as a RHODES SCHOLAR we are told is quite the genius----OH, REALLY?  Absolutely no one who talks with Clinton would ever say that.  Obama was quite the constitutional scholar being placed as head of HARVARD LAW REVIEW----know what?  That is simply a position ----and Obama is no more intelligent or capable than 99% of WE THE PEOPLE.  He was identified as a TYPE---A PLAYER---HAD THE CONNECTIONS---

Trump as a great business man -----WOW WHAT A MYTH!  

America did indeed have two centuries of great people as leaders-----the early founding fathers were indeed genius----our communities and public schools created real leaders----identified by MERITOCRACY the best and allowed them to excel.  Today----if one of our citizens from a poor community is that gifted student---they are hustled to a global IVY LEAGUE where the are USED TO CREATE PATENTS AND PRODUCTS.

Please stop sending our truly gifted and exceptional citizens to work for GLORY AND HONOR for a FAKE GLOBAL 1% -----stealing our talent and intelligence for THEIR WEALTH at the expense of 99% of WE THE PEOPLE. The top priority to reverse MOVING FORWARD is rebuilding our local community economies and we need all EXCEPTIONAL 99% WE TEAM WE THE PEOPLE. Send those 5% to the 1% players to the benches!

Is the Ivy League’s Admission Bias a ‘Trade Secret’?

Princeton sues to block the government’s release of documents that could show discrimination.

By
Jason L. Riley

March 28, 2017 6:39 p.m. ET Shortly after the Supreme Court’s dispiriting decision last year in Fisher v. University of Texas, which upheld the use of racial preferences in college admissions, Gallup released some encouraging poll results. More than 6 out of 10 white, black and Hispanic respondents said they disagreed with the ruling. And 7 in 10 people—including 76% of ...............


Below we see just this----HOPKINS has a motto---there is no bad idea and they have everyone patenting ideas from citizens in Baltimore to students at all Baltimore university campuses-----we talked a few years ago about the SOARING PURCHASES OF PATENTS by the global 1%-----this is what HOPKINS AND MARYLAND IS DOING. 

The people with the ideas are the 99% of WE THE PEOPLE patenting with those global 1% having absolutely NO ABILITY--TALENT---INTELLIGENCE simply buying those patented ideas.  Keep in mind----patents of products cover broadly an inventor's intentions with his/her product to the point that NO ONE ELSE CAN PATENT ANYTHING LOOKING LIKE IT.

This is COMPLETE CAPTURE OF IDEAS FOREVER -----AND YES, MARYLAND AND HOPKINS LEADS IN THIS GOAL AND THE GLOBAL 1% TIED TO THESE INSTITUTIONS WILL TAKE THE MONEY AND RUN.


And again with that MYTH------the myth of IVY LEAGUEs being better than our once STRONG PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES-----CLINTON/BUSH/OBAMA killed our public universities BECAUSE they graduated REAL talented leaders.


Hopkins, Maryland among top universities granted patents


By: Tim Curtis Daily Record Business Reporter June 8, 2017
The Hopkins dome. (File)


Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland rank among the top universities in the world at being granted utility patents, according to a list compiled by the National Academy of Inventors and the Intellectual Property Owners Association.

For the third straight year, Hopkins notched a top ten finish. The university finished seventh on the list, its highest finish ever on the list. Hopkins was granted 167 patents in 2016.
Maryland ranked 27th on the list for the second straight year, tying its highest appearance on the list. The university was granted 72 patents last year.

Both universities have been on the list every year in its five-year history.
The list compiles the top 100 universities worldwide who have been granted utility patents by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

________________________________

The global 1%----people with NO ABILITY-----are rounding up all ideas and patents so in the future NO ONE WILL BE ABLE TO CREATE A PRODUCT not tied to them.

At the same time---the patenting process in place for 3 centuries----and several centuries over in old Europe is BEING CORRUPTED---SURPRISE!  CLINTON/BUSH/OBAMA have changed the concept of what patenting is-----where legal protections lie----creating conditions for those global 1% to keep control of all ideas FOREVER.

Now, the Robber Baron period of CLINTON/BUSH/OBAMA was completely ILLEGAL ---completely UNCONSTITUTIONAL and all that was done whether laws, programs, societal structure changes can be VOIDED ---EASY PEASY.  This will be one we need to VOID----and undue all the consolidation of patenting and products into the hands of a TALENTLESS GLOBAL 1%.

Please understand this process because it basically will make it illegal for anyone to manufacture any ordinary product----from shoes to brooms----from disability wheelchairs to can openers.

The global 1% trying to assure that the global 1% have absolutely no avenue towards patenting and manufacturing a product and this will be used to throw those NEWLY RICH thinking they were really MERCHANTS OF VENICE.

What is a Utility Patent?

By Gene Quinn
April 22, 2017


Black’s Law dictionary defines “utility patent” as “the customary type of patent issued to any novel, non-obvious, and useful machine, article of manufacture, composition of matter or process.” A utility patent is one of three separate types of patents that the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) can award inventors, with the other two types of patent being: (1) a design patent, which protects only the way a tangible product looks (see also Design Patents 101); and (2) a plant patent, which protects a new variety of asexually reproducible plant.

A patent for an invention is the grant of a property right to the inventor, issued by the Patent Office. The right granted by the Patent Office, in the language of the statute and of the grant itself, is “the right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, or selling” the invention in the U.S. or “importing” the invention into the U.S. When the patent obtained is a utility patent the rights obtained cover the way the invention is structured and functions, with exclusive rights being owned by the inventor even if the allegedly infringing product looks different.

Generally speaking, a utility patent will have a term that begins on the date the patent issues and ends on the date that is twenty years from the date the application for the utility patent was filed in the United States. If the patent application that ultimately issues contains a specific reference to an earlier filed U.S. or international application, the term ends twenty years from the filing date of that earlier patent application. This patent term for utility patents is referred to as the “twenty-year term.”



It is, however, possible that a utility patent will last longer than this twenty years. For example, if Patent Office interjects delay into the patent examination process the patent owner will receive additional patent term added. Further discussion of the topic of additional patent term, whether by patent term extension or patent term adjustment, is complex and goes beyond the scope of this article. See MPEP 2710 and MPEP 2733.

To obtain a utility patent a utility patent application must be filed at the U.S. Patent Office. Many inventors will choose to start the process toward obtaining a utility patent by filing a provisional patent application first and then within 12 months filing a non-provisional utility patent application. Whenever you hear the term “provisional patent application” you should generally be thinking about a utility patent application because you cannot file a provisional patent application for a design. In other words, design patent applications and provisional patent applications are unrelated. More specifically, you cannot claim priority to a provisional patent application when you file a design patent application.

In the previous paragraph the term “non-provisional utility patent application” is used. This may seem unnecessarily redundant, and through common usage it may be. Generally speaking when most inventors talk about a non-provisional patent application they are referring to a utility patent application. Technically, however, design patent applications could also be characterized as being non-provisional patent applications, and so too could plant patent applications. Most inventors are not inventing asexually reproduced plants, and in fact last week there were only 31 plant patents issued and since the 1930s there have been fewer than 28,000 plant patents issued all total. Because you cannot file a design provisional application, almost universally when a distinction is being made between provisional patent applications and non-provisional patent applications the conversation is about utility patents.

There is much more to learn about patents and the patent application process, from basic information about whether you need a patent, to patent drafting techniques. In addition to beginning with Invention to Patent 101 – Everything You Need to Know to Get Started, I specifically recommend starting with these tutorial articles:

_________________________________________


'The agreement has a chapter on intellectual property (IP) rights, touching on everything from copyright to trademarks, patents, confidential information, pharmaceutical intellectual property, cyber-squatting of domain names, and internet service provider (ISP) liability'.


As global IVY LEAGUE universities which are now essentially hedge fund global corporate R and D -----spent these several years of Obama buying and cornering from students all ideas on products and gained patent-control----these same global IVY LEAGUES working for global 1% were the drivers from BUSH---TO OBAMA----of writing Trans Pacific Trade Pact. As everyone says---this is not about trade---it is about capturing all government structures to a global corporate tribunal and tribunal court.
What the global 1% are doing as they buy all patents ever registered for several centuries----is write new INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS laws-----redefining concepts such as patents----making sure global 1% control almost any PATENTABLE IDEA.
WE THE PEOPLE THE 99% CAME UP WITH THESE IDEAS---WE DEVELOPED AND DESIGNED THESE IDEAS----THE GLOBAL 1% BUY AND OWN ALL THOSE PATENTS. THEN THEY CREATE MYTHS ABOUT HOW THEY WERE THE EXCEPTIONAL PEOPLE BEHIND THESE IDEAS.

As we are shouting REBUILD LOCAL ECONOMIES those global 1% are trying to assure we have no way to manufacture ANYTHING.


The 5% and that 1% are really pretty pathetic human capital
As we are shouting REBUILD LOCAL ECONOMIES those global 1% are trying to assure we have no way to manufacture ANYTHING.

 The reason ONE WORLD ONE GOVERNANCE sounds so appealing to those leaders of developing nations is this----they are assuring leadership in those nations forever along with any route to economic markets from their nation. The problem for those developing nation leaders is of course that global 1% will fight and throw each other under the bus for more and more power and wealth.......there is no winners other than that original OLD WORLD MERCHANTS OF VENICE----now tied to OLD WORLD FREEMASONRY GROUPS.



December 1 2015

ACCC airs concerns over intellectual property provisions in Trans-Pacific Partnership

• Gareth Hutchens

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has warned the intellectual property provisions in the Trans-Pacific Partnership may "tilt the balance" in favour of IP rights holders to the detriment of competition and consumers.


It also warns the investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) provisions in the agreement risk making it harder for the Turnbull government to pursue domestic reforms in Australia's interest.



The ACCC warns the TPP may burden Australia with IP obligations to other countries that have consequences for competition. Photo: Penny Stephens


The ACCC is one of the most high-profile government bodies to raise such concerns.


The final text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) – a historic trade pact between 12 countries, including Australia and the United States – was released last month after more than five years of negotiations.
Experts have had four weeks to assess it.



The agreement has a chapter on intellectual property (IP) rights, touching on everything from copyright to trademarks, patents, confidential information, pharmaceutical intellectual property, cyber-squatting of domain names, and internet service provider (ISP) liability.


However, the ACCC has warned – in its submission to the Productivity Commission's inquiry into intellectual property arrangements in Australia – that its IP provisions must be submitted to "robust analysis" to see what their impacts will be on competition and consumers.


It says the TPP may burden Australia with IP obligations to other countries that have significant consequences for competition "over decades".
It does not explain what those consequences could be.
"The ACCC is concerned that the agreement appears to impose IP restrictions beyond existing international treaties, and this may tilt the balance in favour of IP rights holders to the detriment of competition and consumers," its submission says.


It has also warned that the TPP's investor-state dispute settlement provisions need to be analysed properly before the government enacts the agreement.
ISDS provisions give foreign companies the right to sue Australian governments for introducing laws they say have harmed their interests.


"The ACCC agrees with the Productivity Commission's view expressed in its 2013-14 Trade and Assistance Review that such [ISDS] provisions risk impeding domestic reforms in the public interest," the ACCC has warned.


Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull says the TPP will be a "gigantic foundation stone" for the economy which will deliver jobs and growth.
Trade Minister Andrew Robb says it will deliver "substantial benefits for Australia" in the rapidly growing Asia-Pacific region.


Australia's legal and academic communities do not agree about the benefits or consequences of ISDS provisions in modern trade agreements.
Many experts say fears about ISDS provisions are overblown.


However, critics have said Australia risks losing billions of dollars in court battles with foreign companies.
TPP partners such as Japan, Vietnam and New Zealand are generally more comfortable with ISDS provisions than Australia.


__________________________________________

This video shows two things----it shows the talent and skill our our 99% of citizens ---we know how to create new products!  It shows as well how broad this global 1% patenting scheme will become.  Remember, the global 1% are from all nations ---not only US---not only UK ------so to meet the terms of ONE WORLD ONE GOVERNANCE----all members must gain wealth and power and this includes PATENTING PRODUCTS.

This is what a global corporate tribunal court will do and know what?  WE THE PEOPLE THE 99% ARE NOWHERE TO BE FOUND.

So, this US citizen who no doubt is probably telling the truth will have NO SUPPORT from our state attorney generals----no support from our US Justice in protecting HIS PATENT----these attorneys will be geared to protect that JAPANESE GLOBAL 1%-----so there will be NO WAY for any global 99% to patent their own inventions.


US Patent Office Fraud

Wisco Kidd


Start at:
Published on Apr 25, 2009  YOU TUBE VIDEO

The patent examiner assigned to my application is a straight up bold face liar. I called her on her lies then two more agents and a commissioner backed up the whore for a Japanese corporation. So if four public servants lie, it becomes the truth! My application number is 11/647,104 and it is publication number is 2008-0156564-A1. The patent that the government sanctioned criminals say anticipates mine and was "disclosed" by is Miyazawa et al patent # 5,845,727. Mine is called "The Electric Horse(tm): battery powered electric motor bicycle drive train" and pedaling is an option, it self propels! Theirs is called a "driving force auxiliary device"; their drawings and specifications show that you must pedal first before the motor kicks in. Theirs is a geriatric dead weight piece of junk where mine will take a person down the road 10 miles without pedaling. Evidently the Patent Office is filled with narcissistic individuals that lie for foreign corporations and screw American inventors out of their work on a regular basis. The US Marshals, the FBI and the Department of Justice better arrest these soulless corporate shills or they are complacent accomplices to crime themselves. If you are interested in any more information about the crime USPTO is perpetrating against me I'll be glad to supply you with information. So don't even try for a Patent until the system is purged of greedy liars who bow to corporate greed. Thanks for watching.

______________________________________________


Again, it is not our rank and file 99% of citizens as workers being corrupted---it is the process of breaking down our once strong Federal, state, and local government agencies----outsourcing them-----creating many different employment status ---as this one talks of telecommuting from home with no oversight and accountability.
It does not take a corrupt public employee to game and corrupt our US patent system----those employees could have no idea someone high-ranking is doing this fraud----as with all our government corruption.
This is not new---our patent system was strong and protected BEFORE CLINTON/BUSH/OBAMA---what will happen as TRANS PACIFIC TRADE PACT MOVES FORWARD is the entire US patent system will disappear----and WE THE PEOPLE will no longer have access to what will now revert to DARK AGES only the global 1% controlling patents/manufacturing/and trade sales.


Clash over patent-office fraud a sign of what’s to come for federal workers

By Lisa Rein December 8, 2016

Patent documents for the Wright brothers’ “flying machine.” (Bill O’Leary/The Washington Post)House Republicans on Wednesday dressed down a top U.S. Patent and Trademark Office official and a union leader for what they called a weak response to reports of time and attendance fraud by patent examiners.


The rebukes, in response to an inspector-general investigation released this summer, may foreshadow things to come with President Donald Trump in the White House and Republicans controlling Congress.


Trump and conservatives on Capitol Hill have vowed to target the federal bureaucracy, holding civil servants accountable when they perform poorly or break the rules — behavior they say has been tolerated by the Obama administration across the government with few repercussions.


The patent office has struggled in recent years with reports that some of its employees are chronically gaming the system, a practice made easier by the large number who work from home with little oversight by managers.


The agency’s watchdog has found plenty of fodder. In 2014, the inspector general for the Commerce Department, the patent office’s parent, reported that paralegals at the small office that handles patent appeals were told by their supervisors to fudge their timecards because they had so little work to do.


Also that year, The Washington Post reported on the findings of an internal investigation by patent officials after whistleblowers complained that their colleagues and examiners they supervise repeatedly lied about their hours and got overtime pay and bonuses for work they didn’t do.


A 32-page internal report revealed a culture of time and attendance abuse and scant oversight of the patent office’s award-winning telework program. But top patent officials removed the most damaging revelations from the findings, providing the inspector general’s office with an account half the length and with many potentially embarrassing findings removed.
Last year, investigators found that a single patent examiner racked up more than 18 weeks of pay for work he did not do, while his teleworking manager never noticed.


And a 15-month analysis, released in August by Deputy Inspector General David Smith, of thousands of patent examiners’ turnstile badge swipes, computer log-ins and remote computer connections to federal systems showed consistent discrepancies between the time employees reported working and the hours they actually put in.



This time and attendance abuse cost the government as much as $18.3 million, with employees who review patent applications billing the agency for almost 300,000 hours they never worked, investigators found. They said the full scale of the fraud is probably double what the numbers show, because they gave employees the benefit of the doubt: If they badged in once at the agency’s Alexandria headquarters or logged in at home, they got credit for a day of work.


“What is most troubling is that the numbers . . . are a conservative estimate,” Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), chairman of the House Oversight Committee’s subcommittee on government operations, said at a hearing Wednesday.


Meadows called the August report “alarming” and told a top patent official that “internal controls are lacking” to monitor fraud. “I want an accountable workforce going forward,” he said.
Rep. Gerald E. Connolly (D-Va.), the subcommittee’s top Democrat, said the inspector general had not made the case that fraud was widespread, noting the bogus hours accounted for only 1.6 percent of the hours investigators tracked.


The hearing focused on 415 employees who investigators said lied about working at least one day every other week — and 56 employees whose time could not be accounted for an average of three days a pay period.


Russell Slifer, the patent office’s deputy director, told lawmakers that “any abuse of time and attendance . . . is unacceptable.” He said the agency has taken steps to give managers more tools to monitor when their employees are working.


But Slifer defended the agency’s roughly 8,000 patent examiners, saying the vast majority are honest, hard workers, many of whom do not have enough time to review each application on their docket. He also said that many examiners do their research offline, so if they are not logged onto their computers for a day or even two, that does not mean they are playing hooky.
Meadows was furious. “You’ve got over 8,000 employees and 400 or so who are taking advantage of the system,” he told Slifer. “Are you suggesting it’s okay to not log into your computer for two days? Do you think you can actually do your work for 48 hours without logging in?”


“Yes,” Slifer answered.
“Is that the best practice?” Meadows asked. Slifer acknowledged that it was not.
Patent officials have not been able to identify or interview or pursue disciplinary action against the 415 employees they think gamed the system; privacy laws prevent them from matching computer data gathered in the inspector general’s investigation with personnel records.


Slifer said that 30 patent examiners the agency was investigating separately for time and attendance fraud have been disciplined or fired. He did not say over what period or how serious the fraud was.
After the hearing, patent office spokesman Patrick Ross said in an email that officials would not provide further information. Cause of Action Institute, a watchdog group, said it filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the patent office in November seeking detailed records on disciplinary action.


Republicans also criticized the union representing patent examiners, which has an unusually close relationship with management. Pamela Schwartz, president of the Patent Office Professional Association, was first grilled by Rep. Jody Hice (R-Ga.) on her full-time work for the union while on the federal payroll — a legal, widespread practice known as official time. Republicans have vowed to weaken or eliminate it.
Meadows then called Schwartz to account for her advice to the patent examiner known as “Examiner A,” who bilked the government out of tens of thousands of dollars. The union had urged him to resign, which he did, before patent officials could fire him.

Meadows asked the union leader: “So you advised the employee to resign” rather than face the consequences of his actions?


“We advised the employee their record would have less on it if they resigned,” Schwartz said.
Meadows asked her for a commitment that she would negotiate new language in the union contract that would allow managers to see their employees’ work schedules and make it easier to fire employees who commit fraud.

“If they falsify records, are you willing to support their termination?” the congressman asked. Schwartz hedged and would not commit.


“I would need clarification on that,” she said. “It’s possible you could falsify some records and the appropriate level of discipline would not be termination.”

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Let's return to that original comment that started our discussion today-----
'Elon Musk's heralded biography is dripping wet with being extraordinary and a visionary. If this is truly not the case, it will still be hard to convince others, so you may loose more in the audience, and thus thwart your own passions and desires in this war'.
If WE THE PEOPLE THE 99% keep allowing only the MYTH as source of information ---will that comment above really be true?
IT WILL BE HARD TO CONVINCE OTHERS SO YOU MAY LOOSE MORE IN THE AUDIENCE THUS THWART YOUR OWN PASSIONS-----
That statement is indeed TRUE-----we do lose some people committed to believing what corporate media---corporate universities----corporate pols and players tell them----
KNOW WHAT? WE ARE SEEING FEWER AND FEWER OF THOSE KINDS OF CITIZENS----WE ARE WAKING UP ----PLEASE CREATE REAL TALKING POINTS FOR LEFT SOCIAL PROGRESSIVE DEMOCRATIC POLICY!

Our response:
---that is a great description of these supposed EXCEPTIONAL 1%-----they are creating a FICTION to make themselves VIRTUOUS---HERALDED---it mirrors the DARK AGES----this is why we say the ideals of OLD WORLD FREEMASONRY are long gone and today we have LYING, CHEATING, AND STEALING held as virtuous. I have no fear of a disappearing audience----know what? If one is pushed to FICTION in order to attain attention -----THAT IS VANITY'.