Dismantle Civilisation

A few hours ago, the US House of Representatives voted down the proposed $700bn bailout package, sending the Stock Markets into freefall:
The Dow Jones index lost 770 points - 6.9% - its biggest one-day point drop yet as Congress surprised observers by not backing the rescue plan.
Meanwhile the Nasdaq index fell 9.1% and London’s key … Read more »

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Richard Heinberg at Post Carbon Institute.
Ever since Hank Paulson made his pitch for a $700 billion slush fund to prop up teetering Wall Street financial institutions, the wails from thousands of American advocacy groups have reached an ear-splitting fortissimo.
Most of these groups have spent decades working patiently to influence one or another line item in … Read more »

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Carolyn Baker reprinted from Mohawk Nation News.
Who would have thought that artificial economies and their worthless paper currencies, based on theft of Indigenous resources, would come tumbling down? Greed and oppression can’t go on forever. These foreigners have been wheeling and dealing with goods stolen from us. Remember, they came here with nothing! Every inch … Read more »

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Walden Bello, Foreign Policy in Focus.
Many on Wall Street and the rest of us are still digesting the momentous events of the last 10 days. Between one and three trillion dollars worth of financial assets have evaporated. Wall Street has been effectively nationalized. The Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department are making all the major … Read more »

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By J. R. Nyquist at FinancialSense.com
ur wretched economy of false valuations cannot continue much longer. It is the domestic counterpart of President Bush’s past friendship with Vladimir Putin. It is the fantasy world of an everlasting bull market and “successful” government bailouts. The political leadership in America has demonstrated that it doesn’t understand economics. They … Read more »

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By Tara Lohan, on Alternet.
Can anyone really own water? That was the questions that got French filmmaker Irena Salina inspired to take on a mammoth project — chronicling the global water crisis and solutions — from privatization to politics to pollution.
Her creation, the award-winning film “FLOW: For Love of Water,” was a Sundance hit and … Read more »

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Sharon Astyk peels the onion to ask ‘what are the real problems?’
I’m going to suggest that if you peel off the layers of the financial crisis, we’re going to find some pretty basic things. And one of the basic things is, well, food. It seems sort of anti-climactic, I think, if you are … Read more »

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Some thoughts by Paul Chefurka
Introduction
One of the more contentious bun fights among environmental and ecological activists is over the role of overpopulation in the anthropogenic deterioration of the natural world. The debate coalesces loosely into two opposing camps: the overpopulation camp and the overconsumption camp.
The former insists that raw human numbers play a decisive role … Read more »

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The Insanity of the $700 Billion Giveaway
By MICHAEL HUDSON
The banksters’ plan now is for icing on the cake – to take Mr. Paulson’s $700 billion and run. It’s not a “bailout of the financial system.” It’s as giveaway – to insiders, to sell out all their bad bets. Companies across the board will get rid … Read more »

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Charles Hugh Smith at his blog, Of Two Minds
Not so fast. Betrayal of trust is a most serious offense; once our trust has been violated, most of us can never ever trust that person/institution again; and the rehabilitation process, if rehabilitation is even possible, takes many years, or even decades.
Hey, forgive and forget. Let’s … Read more »

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