Global Finances

[Oscar]

Global Finances

Sent for publishing on March 11, 2012

To the Editor,

Franklin Delano Roosevelt [FDR], the 32nd President of the US, obviously did foresee the many problems that led to the world-wide recession of 2008.

As President from 1933 to 1945, he had to deal with the same problems that caused the great Depression of the 1930's. While doing so, he made the following statement, "We had to deal with the old enemies of peace, business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering. They had begun to consider the Government of the United States as an appendage to their own affairs. We know now that Government by organized money, is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob."

Doesn't all this appear like the debacle of 2008?

Under the guidance of the British economist, John Maynard Keynes, Roosevelt's government spent $21.1 billion, [this was in 1930 dollars] building 40,000 schools, 120,000 bridges, 600,000 miles of road, and over two million public toilets. Rural America was electrified. Safe drinking water and sanitation raised the living standard of millions. Workers planted 3 billion trees. Literacy boomed. The wages paid to the millions of workers stayed in the country to be circulated to create a vibrant economy. It was not spirited out of the country by some wealthy people or corporations to be deposited in foreign banks.

The beginning of this century, with all of its new technologies, made it possible for the unregulated world's financial titans, operating primarily from Wall Street, to issue a tsunami of sub-prime mortgages, hedge funds, derivatives and Credit Default Swaps [CDS] which caused the 2008 recession.

In the 1960's, the differences paid to top executives of average companies, compared to the average wage to all workers in the US, was about 40 to 1. By 2007, that spread had risen to 340 to 1. This trend is about the same for Canada.

In 2010, Forbes magazine reported that there were 1,200 billionaires in the world, roughly 25 percent higher than in 2007. In the months preceding 2010, corporate profits in America rose over 50 per cent.

The famous billionaire Warren Buffet recently said that wealthy people like himself should pay more taxes. He also made this statement, "There's class warfare, all right, but it's my class, the rich class, that's making war - - and we're winning."

When will our government leaders assume their power to rectify these damaging financial injustices against the average American and Canadian citizens?

Leo Kurtenbach,
Saskatoon,
Phone: (306) 652-5129