Banks report winnings in the derivatives trade day after day, with nary a loss – an indication of how poorly their hapless customers and other outsiders must be doing! So the path of least resistance for most cities and states is to cut back spending on public services, and above all on pension plan contributions.
The ultimate sacrifice (and the aim of financial predators) is to sell off public land and buildings, roads and other transportation services, sewer systems and other basic infrastructure. In this aim, the investment bankers are being aided and abetted by the credit ratings industry, threatening to downgrade cities that do not sell off their public domain. In this respect the financial end-game of privatization is similar in the United States to pressures by the European Central Bank to force the indebted PIIGS economies to engage in privatization sell-offs, Third World and post-Soviet style.
Just as in Europe, when revenues are squeezed and something must give – either debt service, payment to pensioners or current payments to labor – the financial sector is seeking to take all the available surplus for itself. This puts creditors in the forefront of today’s class war against labor.
On the eve of the September 2008 financial crash, cities such as Birmingham, Alabama and Chicago already were looking for ways to cope with the fiscal squeeze imposed by political pressures from the major local campaign contributors – the real estate and banking sectors – to cut property taxes. One seeming path of little resistance was to gamble in the Wall Street financial casino, hoping to make easy gains rather than making landlords, wage earners or consumers pay higher taxes.
I don't know who is encouraging John Kasich to sell-off Ohio's infrastructure, but he is going to for sure. Ohioans will end up paying much more for things the government used to own or operate, the employees will be paid less, and profits will go out of state. Woo hoo, that is some bold leadership. Or change leadership to theft.
Seriously? I don't know but I can't name too many things that the government runs more efficiently and cost effectively than private industry. In fact, I'm struggling to think of anything. You ever stand in line at the DMV? I for one admire your governor. He's actually acting like a leader. I probably would not agree with everything he is trying but frankly being a leader takes making tough choices. It's clear he's spent time in private industry versus most Dem's who couldn't lead themselves out of a wet paper bag. Their idea of leadership is coddling their constituents with the promise of more handouts we can't afford. Private industry understands what it means to run within a budget. That is something Ohio politicians, the idiots running other states and the Fed's need to learn how to do.
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