Broke in a broken system

With spectacular size comes spectacular impact. The collapse of the global financial system is just that – spectacular.

I searched for exactly what the ‘Global Financial System’ and was (un?)reliably informed (by Wikipedia) that is a system, operating across borders and nations, for the movement of money and other financial instruments.

So, simply put, it is the basis for international trade and mutual economic dependence.

Trade has always existed between nations and the GFS is only the most recent attempt at trying to regulate it. As crooked as it now appears – riddled with greed and devoid of social conscience, it may have started with some semblence of honourable intent.

It is perhaps laudable that by engineering a state of fundamental interdependence, the creators of the GFS were , perhaps in part, aiming to replace military conflict between States with a more overwhelming concern – security and health of connected economies.

The only trouble is , when a system is so interdependent, crucial points of failure start to emerge. Pinch one of these points and the system fails. As we now see happening.

Yet this system was founded on the interests of the rich and powerful, they gang together – deciding who sells what and for how much. Wait a second, I hear you chime – the markets decide. Of course they do. But barkets are about demand and supply… and cash and control. The global rich and powerful (corporations and governments – who can tell the difference) control so much raw cash that they use their financial might and the power they weild through thier political arms, to bully and buy control of the markets.

Yet, it is the only system we seem to have, so whether we realise the markets are fiddled, what choice do the rest of us have. Especially when there is little steadfast unity amongst those who are overwhelmingly disadvantaged by the GFS.

Any system (financial or otherwise) that begins with a uneven playing field can never be fair. I hate to play the colonial card , but if you look closely enough, the economies of former colonies are

So, something as simple as banks (the arteries in this system) not lending to each other has crippled all the other functions of the system.

The lending issue is only a symptom – the underlying disease being unregulated sharks, fueled by greed, destroying what little trust was in the system.

We, the poor and middle-classes – the beasts upon whose labour the entire system is funded, are left broke and starving from a bankrupt and broken system.