After the brazen theft of customer money by a well-connected financier, I said I was waiting for another shoe to drop, another milestone to be reached on this cycle of history.
I should add that a single instance of something obviously does not make a trend. It is the trend that is of significance. Do the perpetrators become emboldened, or does a horror of recognition bring things back into balance? No one wakes up one morning and decides, "I think I shall become a monster." Evil is a process of abnormality with which one becomes increasingly familiar, accepting,-- comfortable.
The next step in the rise of statism is capital controls, media suppression, and the increased repression of dissent by physical means and censorship. After that is the singling out of certain ethnic and religious groups for 'special treatment,' and campaigns to establish the 'otherness' of select targets. This could also be related to some age or class group, or even the disabled.
And then murder, first occasional and then systematic. It may take the form of starvation, denial of medical treatment, non-elective abortion, or euthanasia at first. Hopefully we will not progress as far on the cycle as any of these latter stage developments.
Here is a note from a friend about a news item that has not penetrated the Anglo-American news media yet.
Spain is implementing its latest austerity package. Spanish PM Mariano Rajoy Raises VAT 3pc in Shock U-Turn
When the Prime Minister Rajoy said to their National Assembly that they must cut benefits to Spain's unemployed, Miss Fabra was apparently caught on video shouting, "Screw them all."
The damage control groups are now trying to explain that Miss Fabra was not saying 'screw them' to the unemployed, who the Prime Minister was talking about, but rather 'the Socialists,' who favor things like benefits for the unemployed.
This is sparking quite a bit of anger in Spain, as one might imagine, which is suffering under very high levels of unemployment and facing further austerity cuts.
Spain's oligarchy appears to be a bit backward and thuggish. Rather than clumsily rigging lotteries and construction projects, they would be better off forming a banking cartel, rigging market prices, and stealing a little from everyone, every day, on every transaction. Then you can be a Very Important Person, dress well, have Congressmen publicly kiss your ring, and still gorge yourself at the trough of public corruption without marring your cufflinks.
In every one of these troubled countries that I examine, although the blame tends to fall on the 'lazy and foolish' many, if one scratches beneath the surface they find a corrupt core of greedy insiders, oligarchs, who have been inflicting economic distortions and pain on the public in the service of their own sense of entitlement.
"It should come as no surprise to anyone that major commercial banks manipulate Libor submissions for their own benefit. The OTC derivatives markets was designed by the big banks, for the big banks, to ensure that as they set up their own private securities exchanges - away from regulatory scrutiny - they could control the interest rate settings. Money center commercial banks did not want the "truth" of market prices to determine their loan rates. Rather, they wanted an oligopolistically controlled subjective survey rate to be the basis for their lending businesses."That is sophisticated financial corruption. That is progress.
David Zervos
Jefferies & Co
From an erudite friend in Europe:
"Yesterday, after PM Rajoy announced that the government was going to cut the benefits the unemployed receive, a PP congresswoman, Andrea Fabra, daughter of Carlos Fabra, was caught on camera applauding and shouting "Que se jodan" - which translates roughly to screw them all.
Miss Fabra was appointed Parliamentary Advisor at the age of 24, straight out of university. Her father has "won" the lottery at least 7 times, and is under multiple investigations for corruption.
'Qu’ils mangent de la brioche.' France, late 18th century
'Que se jodan!' Spain, early 21st century
At least, back then, they had better manners."
