Alpari (Alpari. ru) Review Besuchen Sie die Website Empathy Customer Support Qualität Alpari hat eine erstaunliche Plattform und userclient Dashboard und i039m nicht gonna bestreiten. Aber die eine Sache that039s gehen, um diese Firma gehen wird, ist das Fehlen einer guten Kunden-Support, die Zahlungsabteilung vor allem, um genauer zu sein. I039ve nannte die Alpari Zahlung Abteilung mehr 5 Mal und sprach mit 5 verschiedenen Agenten und nicht ein einziger von ihnen zeigte Professionalität noch Empathie und waren überhaupt nicht hilfreich, so musste ich meine PAMM-Kunden an einen anderen Makler zu senden. Jedenfalls, nachdem ich als Customer Support Rep für mehr als 5 Jahre gearbeitet, vertrauen Sie mir, ich weiß, was i039m reden und die Kundenabteilung Alpari muss sich verbessern, eine Menge. Antwort von Alpari eingereicht am Jan 29, 2017: Es tut uns leid, dass wir Ihnen so schlechte Erfahrung in der Kommunikation mit unserem Support-Service-Team gegeben haben. Wir wären Ihnen sehr dankbar, wenn Sie uns mitgeteilt hätten, wenn Sie uns kontaktiert hätten. Es hilft uns, unseren Kundendienst zu verbessern. CHASING STOP LOSS Sie jagen Ihre Stop-Loss. Ich dachte, sie waren Profis, aber sie sind nicht Die Höhe der Kerze nie erreicht die Stop-Loss aber Stop-Loss wurde getroffen und ich verlor den Handel. Ich habe die Dokumente, um meine Forderung zu sichern. Als ich sie E-Mail senden, um meine Forderung zu archivieren sie nie ansered zurück. Allerdings konnte ich schnell mein Geld von meinem Konto abheben. Wie ungewöhnlich. Dec 16, 2016 - 1 Star Sehr enttäuscht, ich dachte, sie waren Profis Sie traf meine Stop-Loss, obwohl der Preis mein Stop-Loss nie erreicht. Als ich ihnen meine Beschwerde schickte, antworteten sie nie. Zumindest konnte ich den Rest meines Geldes von meinem Konto abheben. STAY AWAY Antwort von Alpari eingereicht am 24.12.2016: Hallo. Bitte geben Sie Ihre Beschwerde TID, wir werden Informationen über Ihre Situation zu überprüfen. Bitte beachten Sie - wir antworten innerhalb von 5 Werktagen auf einen Anspruch. It039s wahrscheinlich, dass Ihre Sell Position bei Stop Loss Ebene bei Ask Preis geschlossen wurde, daher konnte man nicht sehen, diesen genauen Preis auf MT4-Diagramm. Bitte überprüfen Sie die Tick History in Ihrem myAlpari Profil. Fehler der Ausführung auf meiner MT4 Plattform Ich bin mit diesem Makler sehr enttäuscht, und die langsame Antwort zur Behebung von Problemen ist sehr besorgniserregend. Ich trage ein ECN-Konto mit der Firma, aber auf einem meiner KAUFEN Auftrag auf USDJPY, bildete ich ungefähr 9 Profit, aber, als ich den Handel schloß, wurde 18 von meinem Konto, anstelle vom 9 Profit abgezogen. Ich habe eine Beschwerde an Alpari über diesen Hinrichtungsfehler auf meinem Konto eingereicht, aber Alpari hat mir nach mehr als einer Woche nicht geantwortet. Ich kann wirklich nicht glauben, daß ein Vermittler so langsam sein kann, customers039 Beschwerden zu lösen. Sehr enttäuscht. Siehe Details der Transaktion unten: MT4 acct Nummer: 1464724 Datum und Uhrzeit, dass ich den Handel platziert 2016.09.08 21:14:09 Datum und Uhrzeit, wenn ich den Handel geschlossen 2016.09.14 08:02:00. Art der Bestellung Kaufen Größe 0.02 Währung usdjpy. Gewinn wurde angenommen, 9USD und es geändert werden, um -18,57, wenn ich den Auftrag geschlossen. Preis, wenn ich es gekauft 102.531 Preis, wenn ich es geschlossen 103.030 falschen Preis, dass alapri sprang auf 101,5. Obwohl sehr neu für alpari, bin ich sehr besorgt über diese Art von Situation. Noch ängstlich warten, wie Alpari dieses Problem lösen wird, dann werde ich hier wieder zu aktualisieren. Antwort von Alpari eingereicht 22. November 2016: Hallo, geben Sie bitte Ihre Beschwerde-ID. Beachten Sie auch, dass die Compliance-Abteilung einzelne Beschwerden so bald wie möglich nachvollziehbar, aber auf jeden Fall innerhalb von fünf (fünf) Geschäftstagen nach Eingang der Annahme berücksichtigt. Wenn Ihre Probleme bereits gelöst wurden - geben Sie uns ein Update auf dieser Überprüfung. ALPARI IST ROBBER. ALPARI IST ROBBER. Ich bin IB von Alpari, (IB Nr .: 1202369) seit 2010. Ich gewann 1774 USD Rabatte im September 2016. Aber Alpari zahlte nur 81 USD für Rabatte im September. Ich erfüllte die Regel, dass 3 aktive Kunden 1 LOT in 1 Monat handeln. Ich werde mich beschweren. Ich spreche meine Anwälte. Und ich denke, sprechen mit der russischen Botschaft. Antwort von Alpari eingereicht 23. November 2016: Hallo, unsere IB-Abteilung hat bereits alle möglichen Lösungen für dieses Problem mit Ihnen diskutiert. Die Gesamtsumme wurde aufgrund der Ziffer 5.8 unserer IB-Bestimmungen gesenkt - sobald die IP-Adresse eines Kunden die gleiche wie die IB ist, gelten sie als verbunden und Entschädigung auf dem Konto wird nicht bezahlt werden. quot Wenn Sie andere haben Fragen - wenden Sie sich an unseren Kundendienst zu kontaktieren. Leider, obwohl Alpari ließ mich öffnen und überprüfen ein Konto, sobald ich es finanziert (mit einem 4000 Draht Übertragung aus dem Gedächtnis), sagten sie mir, dass sie nicht akzeptieren konnte, wie ich war ein US-Resident (was sie getan haben könnte, wenn ich Verifiziert das Konto). Sie stahlen dann einen Teil meines Geldes und behaupteten, dass es ihre Bankgebühren waren. Als ich per E-Mail sie fragen nach einer Erklärung, die sie nicht einmal beantworten die E-Mails. Als solches, empfehle ich dringend gegen diese Broker, auch wenn youre in einer Jurisdiktion, wo Sie in der Lage, sie zu benutzen. Ihre Inkompetenz und kindliche Unterstützung sollte jemanden wegwerfen, egal woher sie sind. Antwort von Alpari eingereicht am 23.11.2016: Hallo, leider akzeptieren wir keine Kunden aus den USA und Kanada - es gibt keine Optionen für quotaAquot und quotCanadaquot während unseres Registrierungsprozesses. Wenn Sie ein anderes Land gewählt haben, um ein Konto bei uns zu erstellen, und dann sofort hinterlegtes Geld ohne Kontaktaufnahme mit dem Kundensupport - Sie tragen die Verantwortung für die Konsequenzen Ihrer Handlung. Alle Gebühren und Preise für Rücktransfers sind eindeutig auf unserer Website angegeben: alparientradingdepositwithdrawal. Bitte bleiben Sie weg von Alpari. org am 18. März 2016 erhielt ich E-Mail von Pavel. Gorbunovalpari. org Angabe, dass sie gerne ihre Makler in unserer Website beworben. Insgesamt usd200 für Artikel ads. we hatten fullfill der Job und bitten um Zahlung. An dieser Stelle Pavel. Gorbunovalpari. org weigern zu erkennen, dass er im Namen von alpari. org hatte uns für die Werbung angeboten. Obwohl wir alle Details per E-Mail von ihm über seine Angebote an uns dieses Pavel. Gorbunovalpari. org hat sich um die Frage und machen lustig über unsere behauptet. Das ist unethisches Verhalten von jemandem von alpari, der sich weigerte, usd200 zu zahlen. Da usd200 keine große Sache zu uns ist, ignorierten wir ihn einfach, als er uns beschuldigte, sie zu erpressen. Wir bekamen die ganze E-Mail als Beweis, alle Artikel, die sie zur Verfügung stellen, und jetzt beschuldigten sie uns, sie zu erpressen. Ich frage mich, wie Alpari kann diesen Kerl in ihre Firma eingestellt. Im hier, um alle von euch zu informieren, die interessiert sein könnten, sich diesem Broker anzuschließen, um weg von ihnen zu bleiben. Wenn sie für so niedrig von usd200 die Kosten der Werbung für ihre label. just vorstellen können, was sie für Ihr Geld tun können Antwort von Alpari eingereicht 24. November 2016: Hallo, geben Sie bitte Ihre Kontakt-E-Mail oder Webiste (Sie können tun Es über private Nachricht auf dem Forum) - wir werden in dieser Ausgabe zu suchen. Real-Time After Hours Pre-Market News Flash Zitat Zusammenfassung Zitat Interaktive Charts Standard-Einstellung Bitte beachten Sie, dass, sobald Sie Ihre Auswahl treffen, gilt es für alle zukünftigen Besuche auf NASDAQ. Wenn Sie zu einem beliebigen Zeitpunkt daran interessiert sind, auf die Standardeinstellungen zurückzukehren, wählen Sie bitte die Standardeinstellung oben. Wenn Sie Fragen haben oder Probleme beim Ändern Ihrer Standardeinstellungen haben, senden Sie bitte eine E-Mail an isfeedbacknasdaq. Bitte bestätigen Sie Ihre Auswahl: Sie haben ausgewählt, Ihre Standardeinstellung für die Angebotssuche zu ändern. Dies ist nun Ihre Standardzielseite, wenn Sie Ihre Konfiguration nicht erneut ändern oder Cookies löschen. Sind Sie sicher, dass Sie Ihre Einstellungen ändern möchten, haben wir einen Gefallen zu bitten Bitte deaktivieren Sie Ihren Anzeigenblocker (oder aktualisieren Sie Ihre Einstellungen, um sicherzustellen, dass Javascript und Cookies aktiviert sind), damit wir Sie weiterhin mit den erstklassigen Marktnachrichten versorgen können Und Daten, die Sie kommen, um von uns zu erwarten. Tagged mit Mafia Bank Crimes Pay: Unter dem Daumen der globalen finanziellen Mafiokratie Von: Andrew Gavin Marshall 27 November 2015 Originally posted at Occupy Am 13. November das Vereinigte Königreich Serious Fraud Office (SFO) Angekündigt, dass es 10 einzelne Banker, die für zwei separate Banken, Deutsche Bank und Barclays, mit Betrug über ihre Takelage der Euribor-Raten berechnet. Die neueste Ankündigung leuchtet erneut auf den Skandalen und kriminellen Verhalten, die gekommen sind, um die Welt der globalen Banken zu definieren. Bis heute wurde nur eine Handvoll der weltweit größten Banken wiederholt in Bezug auf eine Reihe von großen finanziellen Betrug, beginnend mit Hypothekenbetrug und dem Libor-Skandal im Jahr 2012, dem Euribor-Skandal und dem Forex (ausländische Banken) untersucht, aufgeladen, bestraft oder bezahlt Austausch) Takelage. Im Mittelpunkt dieser Skandale, die die Manipulation der Zinssätze auf Billionen von Dollar in Transaktionen beinhalten, liegen eine Handvoll Banken, die gemeinsam ein Kartell unter Kontrolle über die globalen Finanzmärkte und die Quelle weltweiter Wirtschafts - und Finanzkrisen bilden. Banken wie HSBC, JPMorgan Chase, Barclays, die Bank of America, die Citigroup, die Deutsche Bank, die Royal Bank of Scotland und UBS verankern die globale Finanzkraft, die wir als Betrug erkannt haben. Die beiden schließen sich nicht gegenseitig aus. In expliziterer Weise fungiert dieses Kartell der Banken als eine Art globale Finanzmafia, manipuliert Märkte und betreut Investoren, Verbraucher und Länder, während sie ihr Pfund Fleisch in Form von Zinszahlungen fordern. Die Banken zwingen die Nationen, Sparmaßnahmen und Strukturreformen zu verhängen, unter der Drohung, die Finanzierung abzuschneiden, während sie das Drogengeld für andere Kartelle und organisierte Verbrechensyndikate abwägen. Nennen Sie sie die globale Mafiokratie. Im Mai wurden sechs große globale Banken fast 6 Milliarden für die Manipulation des Devisenmarktes bezahlt, der mehr als 5 Billionen in täglichen Transaktionen behandelt. Vier der sechs Banken plädierten schuldig, Anklagen der Verschwörung, den Preis von US-Dollar und Euro ausgetauscht zu manipulieren. Diese Banken waren Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Barclays und die Royal Bank of Scotland, während zwei weitere Banken, UBS und Bank of America, bestraft wurden, aber nicht schuldig zu den spezifischen Anklagen behaupten. Devisenhändler an der Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase und anderen Banken verschworen, um Währungspreise durch Chatroom Gruppen, die sie etabliert, wo sie arrogant verwendet Namen wie 8220Die Mafia8221 und 8220Das Kartell.8221 Das FBI sagte, die Ermittlungen und Anklagen gegen die großen Banken zeigte kriminelles Verhalten auf Eine massive Skala. Die britische Bank Barclays bezahlte die größte Einzelgeldstrafe mit rund 2,3 Milliarden Euro. Aber als ein Händler an der Bank schrieb in einem Chatraum Gespräch im Jahr 2010, Wenn Sie nicht betrügen, Sie aint versuchen. Die gesamten Geldbußen waren zwar zahlenmäßig groß, aber nur ein kleiner Bruchteil der Gesamtmarktkapitalisierung der einzelnen Banken, obwohl die Geldbuße auf Barclays etwa 3,4 der Banken Marktkapitalisierung betrug, wobei der höchste Prozentsatz bei weitem zwischen der Gruppe lag. Trotz der kriminellen Verschwörung Gebühren für die Jahre 2007 bis 2013, die Banken und ihre Top-Beamten weiterhin die Schuld an den Füßen der einzelnen Händler legen. Axel Weber, ehemaliger Präsident der Deutschen Bundesbank, der heute Vorsitzender der grössten Schweizer Bank UBS ist, stellte fest, dass das Verhalten von wenigen Mitarbeitern inakzeptabel sei und wir entsprechende Disziplinarmaßnahmen ergriffen haben. Betrachtet man den größeren Umfang der Bank Geldstrafen und Betrug in den etwa acht Jahren seit der globalen Finanzkrise, die Zahlen deutlich zugenommen. Zusätzlich zu einer 2012-Abrechnung für Hypotheken-Betrug auf dem US-Immobilienmarkt, der rund 25 Milliarden betrug, zahlten mehrere Großbanken einzelne Geldbußen im Zusammenhang mit Hypothek und Abschottung Betrug einschließlich einer 16 Milliarden Geldbuße für die Bank of America und 13 Milliarden für JPMorgan Chase. Hinzu kommen Bußgelder im Zusammenhang mit der Takelage des Libor-Zinssatzes (der Zinssatz, zu dem die Banken einander verleihen) und der Forex-Takelage sowie Geldwäsche, Verletzung von Sanktionen, Manipulation des Goldpreises und Manipulation des US-Strommarktes Und Unterstützung der Steuerhinterziehung, unter anderen Verbrechen. Laut einer im Juni veröffentlichten Studie haben die Gesamtkosten von Rechtsstreitigkeiten (Strafen, Strafen, Siedlungen usw.), die seit 2010 von 16 großen globalen Banken gezahlt wurden, mehr als 300 Milliarden erreicht. Die Bank of America bezahlte am meisten und belief sich auf mehr als 66 Milliarden, gefolgt von JPMorgan Chase, Lloyds, Citigroup, Barclays, RBS, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, BNP Paribas, Santander, Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse, UBS Chartered und Socit Gnrale. Praktisch alle diese Banken erscheinen auch auf einer Liste von Daten, die bis 2007 kompiliert wurden und zeigen, dass sie zu den vernetztesten und leistungsstärksten Finanzinstituten der Welt gehören. Diese Kernkonzerngruppe ist Teil eines Netzwerks von 147 Finanzinstituten, die sich Schweizer Wissenschaftler als Superinstitut bezeichnen, die sich durch ihre verschiedenen Beteiligungen kollektiv beherrschen und sich gegenseitig beherrschen und rund 40 der weltweit 43.000 größten transnationalen Konzerne. Mit anderen Worten: Die großen Banken zusammen mit großen Versicherungsgesellschaften und Vermögensverwaltungsfirmen agieren nicht nur als kartellrechtliches Vorgehen bei kriminellen Aktivitäten, sondern bilden ein funktional vernetztes Netzwerk globaler Finanz - und Unternehmenssteuerung. Darüber hinaus arbeiten die Banken in verschiedenen Branchenverbänden und Lobbygruppen zusammen, in denen sie offiziell ihre kollektiven Interessen vertreten. Die größten europäischen Banken und Finanzinstitute sind durch den European Financial Services Round Table (EFR) vertreten, der sich aus den CEOs oder Vorsitzenden von rund 25 der Top-Finanzinstitute auf dem Kontinent zusammensetzt, darunter Deutsche Bank, AXA, HSBC, Allianz, RBS, ING, Barclays, BNP Paribas, UBS und Credit Suisse. In den Vereinigten Staaten ist das Financial Services Forum (FSF) der größte Amerikaner zusammen mit einigen europäischen Banken und Finanzinstituten. Die Foren-Mitgliedschaft besteht aus weniger als 20 Führungskräften, einschließlich der CEOs oder Vorsitzenden solcher Unternehmen wie Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, UBS, HSBC, AIG, Bank of New York Mellon, Deutsche Bank und Wells Fargo. Und auf einer wirklich globalen Ebene gibt es das Institut für Internationale Finanzierung (IIF), den führenden globalen Verband der Finanzindustrie, mit einer Mitgliedschaft von fast 500 verschiedenen Institutionen aus mehr als 70 Ländern auf der ganzen Welt, darunter Banken, Versicherungen, Vermögensverwaltungsgesellschaften, Staatsfonds, Zentralbanken, Ratingagenturen, Hedgefonds und Entwicklungsbanken. Zusätzlich zu diesen verschiedenen Gruppen und Verbänden sind viele der gleichen Großbanken und ihre Top-Führungskräfte auch Mitglieder, Führungskräfte oder Teilnehmer in viel geheimnisvolleren Gruppen und Foren, zum Beispiel die Internationale Währungskonferenz (IMC), ein jährliches Treffen von Hunderten Der weltweit führenden Banker, die von der American Bankers Association gehostet werden, die ausgewählte Politiker, Zentralbanker und Finanzminister einlädt, ihre off-the-record Gespräche zu besuchen. Darüber hinaus gibt es das Institut International d8217Etudes Bancaires, oder IIEB, die zusammen bringt die Top-Beamten aus Dutzenden von Europas großen Finanzinstitute für Gespräche mit Zentralbankern, Präsidenten und Premierminister in geschlossenen Sitzungen mit praktisch keine Berichterstattung in den Medien. Diese Finanzinstitute sind wichtige Eigentümer der Staatsverschuldung, die ihnen noch mehr Hebelwirkung über die Politik und die Prioritäten der Regierungen. Ausübung dieser Macht, sie in der Regel verlangen die gleiche Sache: Sparmaßnahmen und 8220strukturelle Reformen8221 entworfen, um eine neoliberale Marktwirtschaft voranzutreiben, die letztlich die gleichen Banken und Unternehmen profitiert. Die Banken wiederum schaffen die Krisen, die die Regierungen brauchen, um sie zu entlasten, indem sie große Schulden aufstocken, die die Banken in weitere Krisen verwandeln und wirtschaftliche Reformen als Gegenleistung für weitere Kredite unter Druck setzen. Der Krisen - und Kontrollzyklus geht weiter, und die großen Banken und Finanzinstitute engagieren sich in großem Ausmaß in kriminellen Verschwörungen, Betrug, Manipulation und Geldwäsche, darunter auch als Finanzdienstleistungsarm der Welt Terroristischen Organisationen. Willkommen in der Welt, die von der globalen finanziellen Mafiokratie regiert wird, denn wenn Sie nicht betroffen sind, sind Sie nicht Aufmerksamkeit. HSBC-Banker, die vor dem US-Senat über die Geldwäsche von Milliarden im Drogengeld bezeugen (Foto mit freundlicher Genehmigung von The Economist, 21. Juli 2012) Dieser Aufsatz ist das Produkt der Forschung für den ersten Band des People8217s Book Project. Bitte spenden Sie, um zu helfen, den ersten Band zum Abschluss zu bringen: eine Studie der Institutionen, Ideen und Einzelpersonen von Macht und Widerstand in einem Schnappschuss der Welt heute, Blick auf die globale Wirtschaftskrise, Krieg und Imperium, Repression und die globale Ausbreitung von Anti-Strenge - und Widerstandsbewegungen. Ich möchte Ihnen, dem Leser, einige Realitäten unseres globalen Bankensystems vorstellen, die auf der Rhetorik der freien Märkte beruhen, aber funktionieren, in Wirklichkeit, als globales Kartell, eine übergeordnete Einheit, in der alle Weltbanken alle besitzen Beeinflussen Regierungen und Politik mit Politikern in den hinteren Taschen, routinemäßig Betrug und Bestechung, und waschen Hunderte von Milliarden von Dollar in Drogengeld, ganz zu schweigen von Waffenhandel und Terrorismus Finanzierung. Dies sind die zu großen, um zu scheitern und zu groß, um Banken, das Zentrum unserer globalen Wirtschaft, was wir einen freien Markt zu bezeichnen, was bedeutet, dass die globalen Banken und Konzerne freie Herrschaft zu tun, was sie wollen, engagieren sich in eklatanten kriminellen Aktivitäten, Stehlen Trillionen in Reichtum, die vor der Küste versteckt ist, und nie mehr als ein Schlag auf das Handgelenk. Dies ist der reale freie Markt, ein hochprofitables globales Bankenkartell, das als weltweite Finanzmafia fungiert. Wissenschaftliche Forschung beweist die Existenz einer globalen finanziellen Super-Einheit Im Oktober 2011 berichtete New Scientist, dass eine wissenschaftliche Studie über das globale Finanzsystem von drei komplexen Systemtheoretiker an der Eidgenössischen Technischen Hochschule in Zürich durchgeführt wurde. Der Schluss der Studie zeigte, was viele Theoretiker und Beobachter seit Jahren, Jahrzehnten und sogar sogar Jahrhunderten bemerkt haben: Eine Analyse der Beziehungen zwischen 43.000 transnationalen Konzernen hat eine relativ kleine Gruppe von Unternehmen, vor allem Banken, mit unverhältnismäßiger Macht über die globale Wirtschaft . Wie einer der Forscher festgestellt hat, ist die Realität so komplex, dass wir uns vom Dogma entfernen müssen, sei es von seinen Verschwörungstheorien oder vom freien Markt. Unsere Analyse ist realitätsbasiert. Mit einer Datenbank, die weltweit 37 Millionen Unternehmen und Investoren auflistet, untersuchten die Forscher alle 43.060 transnationalen Konzerne (TNCs) einschließlich der Aktien, die sie miteinander verknüpfen.1 Die Kartierung der Macht erfolgte durch den Bau eines Modells, Unternehmen durch Beteiligungen. Das Netz der Besitz ergab einen Kern von 1.318 Unternehmen mit Verbindungen zu zwei oder mehr Unternehmen. Dieser Kern wurde gefunden, um ungefähr 80 von globalen Einkommen für die Gesamtmenge von 43.000 TNC zu besitzen. Und dann kam, was die Forscher als die Super-Einheit von 147 eng verbundenen Unternehmen, die alle besitzen einander, und kollektiv besitzen 40 der gesamten Reichtum im gesamten Netzwerk. Einer der Forscher stellte fest, dass weniger als ein Prozent der Unternehmen in der Lage waren, 40 Prozent des gesamten Netzes zu kontrollieren. Dieses Netzwerk stellt ein großes Risiko für die Weltwirtschaft dar, wie, wenn ein Unternehmen leidet an distress8230 diese propagiert. Die Studie wurde mit einem Datensatz vor der Wirtschaftskrise durchgeführt, also, da die Finanzkrise gezwungen einige Banken zu sterben (Lehman Bros.) und andere zu fusionieren, die Super-Einheit wäre jetzt noch mehr verbunden, konzentriert und (2007): Barclays Plc (1), die Capital Group Companies Inc (2), die FMR Corporation (3), die AXA (4), (9), Merrill Lynch amp Co Inc (10), Deutsche Bank (12), Credit Suisse Group (14), die Bank von New York Mellon (24), der Bank of America Corporation (25), der Lloyds TSB Group (26), der Lehman Brothers Holdings (34), der Sun Life Financial (26), der Goldman Sachs Group (18), der Morgan Stanley In den USA kontrollieren fünf Banken die Hälfte der Wirtschaft: JP Morgan Chase, die Bank of America, die Citigroup, Wells Fargo und die Goldman Sachs Gruppe Hielt 8,5 Billionen an Vermögenswerten am Ende des Jahres 2011, was etwa 56 der US-Wirtschaft entspricht. Diese Daten waren nach Zentralbanken bei der Federal Reserve. Im Jahr 2007 belief sich das Vermögen der größten Banken auf 43 der US-Wirtschaft. So hat die Krise die Banken größer und leistungsfähiger als je zuvor. Weil die Regierung zu groß angegriffen hat, um zu versagen, was bedeutet, dass die großen Banken gerettet werden, weil sie sehr wichtig sind, haben die Grossbanken Anreize, immer größere und größere Risiken zu machen, weil sie am Ende gerettet werden. Im Wesentlichen ist es eine Versicherung für kriminelle Risikobereitschaft Verhalten. Der ehemalige Präsident der Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis sagte, Marktteilnehmer glauben, dass nichts verändert hat, dass zu groß-to-fail vollständig intakt ist. Denken Sie daran, Markt bedeutet das Bankenkartell (oder Super-Einheit, wenn Sie es vorziehen). So bauen sie neue Blasen auf und kaufen Staatsanleihen (Staatsanleihen), wodurch das globale Finanzsystem zunehmend unsicher wird und ein größeres Zusammenbruchrisiko ausgesetzt ist als im Jahr 2008.4 Wenn Politiker, Ökonomen und andere sich auf Finanzmärkte beziehen, sind sie in Wirklichkeit Die sich auf die übergeordnete Gruppe von Unternehmensfinanzinstituten beziehen, die gemeinsam die Weltwirtschaft dominieren. Zum Beispiel wird die Rolle der Finanzmärkte in der Schuldenkrise, die Europa in den letzten zwei Jahren verwüstet, oft als Marktdisziplin bezeichnet, wobei die Finanzmärkte gegen die Fähigkeit der Nationen, ihre Schulden oder Zinsen zurückzuzahlen, von Ratingagenturen, die den Kredit herabsetzen, spekulieren (Höhere Zinsen auf die Staatsverschuldung) und das Land tiefer in die Krise stürzen und damit seine politische Klasse zwingen, Sparmaßnahmen und strukturelle Anpassungsmaßnahmen durchzuführen, um das Vertrauen des Marktes wiederherzustellen. Dieser Prozess heißt Marktdisziplin, ist aber genauer, finanzieller Terrorismus oder Marktkrieg, wobei der Begriff Markt sich speziell auf die übergeordnete Einheit bezieht. Was auch immer Sie es nennen, ist die Marktdisziplin letztlich ein Euphemismus für den Klassenkampf.5 Die Globale Supra-Regierung und der Freie Markt Im Dezember 2011 schrieb Roger Altman, der ehemalige stellvertretende Sekretär des Finanzministeriums unter der Clinton-Administration, einen Artikel für die Finanzen In Zeiten, in denen er erklärte, dass die Finanzmärkte wie eine globale supranationale Regierung handelten, bemerkten sie: Sie verdrängen Regime, in denen normale politische Prozesse dies nicht tun konnten. Sie fordern Sparpolitik, Banken Rettungspakete und andere wichtige politische Veränderungen. Ihr Einfluss zwingt multilaterale Institutionen wie den Internationalen Währungsfonds. Tatsächlich haben sie, abgesehen von unbrauchbaren Atomwaffen, die mächtigste Kraft auf der Erde geworden6. Altman fuhr fort und erklärte, dass, wenn die Macht dieser globalen Supraregierung gebeugt wird, die unmittelbare Auswirkung auf die Gesellschaft schmerzhafte umfassendere Arbeitslosigkeit sein kann, Häufig Ergebnisse und Regierungen scheitern. Aber selbstverständlich, ein ehemaliges oberstes Finanzministerium Beamter zu sein, fuhr er fort, die globale supra-Regierung zu stützen, Schreiben, die längerfristigen Effekte können häufig umwandelnd und positiv sein. Unheilvoll schloß Altman: Ob diese Kraft gesund ist oder nicht, ist neben dem Punkt. Es ist dauerhaft und es gibt keine Unterbrechung der neuen polizeilichen Rolle der Finanzmärkte.7 Mit anderen Worten: Die supranationale globale Supra-Regierung der Finanzmärkte führt finanzielle Erpressung durch, stürzt die Regierungen ab und verarmt die Bevölkerung, doch das ist letztlich positiv Und dauerhaft, zumindest aus der Sicht eines ehemaligen Finanzministeriums Beamten. Aus der Sicht derer, die verarmt sind, ist die tatsächliche Bevölkerung, positiv nicht unbedingt das Wort, das in den Sinn kommt. Im Zeitalter der Globalisierung fließen Geld oder Kapital leicht über die Grenzen hinweg, wobei Banken, Hedgefonds und andere Finanzinstitute als Vorreiter einer neuen internationalen Ordnung der Global Governance fungieren. Wo Finanzierung geht, Firmen folgen, wo Firmen wagen, leistungsfähige Zustände schützen ihre Interessen. Unser globales System ist ein Staatskapitalismus, in dem die staatlichen und korporativen Interessen gegenseitig und für beide Seiten vorteilhaft sind, zumindest für die Machthaber. Heute haben Finanzinstitute mit Banken an der Spitze eine beispiellose Macht und Einfluss in den staatlichen kapitalistischen Gesellschaften erreicht. Die Banken sind größer als jemals zuvor in der Geschichte, bewacht von einer Versicherung, die wir zu groß, um zu scheitern, was bedeutet, dass trotz ihrer kriminellen und rücksichtslosen Verhaltens, wird die Regierung Schritt, sie zu retten, wie es immer hat. Zu den Finanzmärkten gehören auch Ratingagenturen, die die mutmaßliche Kreditwürdigkeit anderer Banken, Konzerne und ganzer Nationen bestimmen. Je niedriger die Bonität, desto riskanter die Investition und damit, desto höher ist das Interesse für diese Einrichtung, Geld zu leihen. Länder, die nicht dem Diktat des Finanzmarktes folgen, werden mit niedrigeren Kreditratings, höheren Zinsen, spekulativen Anschlägen und in den Fällen Griechenlands und Italiens im November 2011 bestraft. Ihre demokratisch gewählten Regierungen werden einfach entfernt und durch technokratische Verwaltungen ersetzt Die sich aus Bankern und Wirtschaftswissenschaftlern zusammensetzen, die dann durch Sparmaßnahmen und Anpassungspolitiken, die ihre Bevölkerung verarmen und ausbeuten, forcieren. Im Zeitalter der supranationalen supranationalen Regierung gibt es keine Zeit, sich mit dem nervtötenden Prozeß der offiziellen liberalen Demokratie zu rasseln, und das heißt, wenn Ihre gewählten Regierungen nicht der Marktdisziplin unterliegen, werden sie entfernt und ersetzt In dem unter anderen Umständen als Putsch bezeichnet wird. Banken und Finanzinstitute bieten die Liquidität oder Mittel für das, was wir als freie Märkte bezeichnen. Freie Märkte erlauben grundsätzlich den freien Wettbewerb zwischen Unternehmen und Ländern, von denen jeder seinen eigenen komparativen Vorteil produziert, was sie am besten anbieten und mit anderen Handel auf dem internationalen Markt handeln, so dass alle Parteien den Lebensstandard und den Reichtum gemeinsam steigern. Der freie Markt ist natürlich reine Mythologie. In der Praxis ist das, was wir als freie Märkte bezeichnen, wirklich protektionistisch, reglementiert, geregelt und entworfen, um den Wettbewerb zu untergraben und die Monopolisierung durchzusetzen. Die freien Märkte dienen zugunsten großer multinationaler Konzerne und Banken. Wenn wir den Begriff freie Märkte verwenden, beziehen wir uns in der Regel auf die Realwirtschaft, legitim und legal. Wenn es um illegitime Märkte geht, z. B. den globalen Drogenhandel, meinen wir nicht, dass wir sie als freie Märkte bezeichnen, sondern illegal und mit Kartellen betrieben werden. Kartelle, wie Konzerne, sind hierarchisch organisierte totalitäre Institutionen, in denen Entscheidungen und Macht ausgeübt und von oben nach unten ausgeübt werden. Große multinationale Konzerne, wie große internationale Kartelle, bemühen sich, ihren gesamten Markt durch ganze Nationen, Regionen und darüber hinaus zu kontrollieren. Oftmals ermöglichen die Kooperationen zwischen den Konzernen es ihnen, in einer oligopolistischen Art und Weise zu funktionieren, wo die Gesamtheit den gesamten Markt dominiert und sie zwischen ihnen aufbaut. Für diese Arten von Aktivitäten sind bedeutende Ölgesellschaften, Agroindustrielle Firmen, Telekommunikations-, Pharma-, Militär - und Wassermanagementunternehmen bekannt. Kartelle haben oft bekannt, sich in einer ähnlichen Praxis, obwohl in der Regel sind sie wettbewerbsfähiger miteinander. Wenn Interessen bedroht werden, die definiert werden, wenn ein Unternehmen oder ein Kartell in Gefahr ist, seine totale Dominanz seines Marktes in einer bestimmten Region zu verlieren, kommt es zu Konflikten und oft heftig mit dem Potenzial für Staatsstreiche, Attentate, Terrorkampagnen und Krieg. Dies ist, wenn der Staat eingreift, um den Markt für das Kartell oder Unternehmensinteressen zu schützen. So ist ein Markt wie der globale Drogenhandel vergleichbar mit denen der legitimen Wirtschaft, Pharma, Energie, Technologie usw. Der illegale Handel mit Drogen ist genauso ein freier Markt wie der Handel mit Automobilen oder Öl. Und natürlich, das Geld endet an der gleichen Stelle: die globale supra-Regierung der Finanzmärkte. Banking Kartell oder Droge Cartel8230 oder Was ist der Unterschied Im Jahr 2009 berichtete das Büro der Vereinten Nationen für Drogen und Verbrechen, dass Milliarden von Dollar in Drogengeld die großen Banken während der Finanzkrise gerettet, die dringend benötigte Liquidität. Antonio Maria Costa, Leiter des Büros der Vereinten Nationen für Drogen - und Verbrechensbekämpfung, erklärte, dass Drogengeld das einzige flüssige Investitionskapital sei, das Banken am Rande des Zusammenbruchs zur Verfügung stünde, mit etwa 325 Milliarden Drogengeld im Finanzsystem. Ohne bestimmte Länder oder Banken zu identifizieren, stellte Costa fest, dass Interbankkredite durch Geld aus dem Drogenhandel und anderen illegalen Aktivitäten finanziert wurden8230 Es gab Anzeichen dafür, dass einige Banken so gerettet wurden.8 Im Jahr 2010 hat die Wachovia Bank (jetzt im Besitz von Wells Fargo) setzte die größte Aktion, die jemals unter dem US-Bankgeheimnis-Gesetz, die Zahlung einer Geldbuße von 50 Millionen plus Verwirkung von 110 Millionen Drogengeld, von denen die Bank rund 378,4 Milliarden Dollar aus Mexiko gewaschen. Die Bundesanwaltschaft im Fall sagte, Wachovias krasse Missachtung unserer Bankgesetze gab internationale Kokainkartelle eine virtuelle carte blanche, um ihre Operationen zu finanzieren. Die Geldbuße, die die Bank für die Geldwäsche Hunderte von Milliarden von Dollar in Drogengeld bezahlt wurde weniger als 2 der Banken 2009 Gewinn, und in der gleichen Woche der Siedlung, Wells Fargos Aktie stieg sogar. Die Bank hat in einer Feststellungserklärung zugegeben, dass Wachovia bereits 2004 das Risiko eines solchen Kontos verstanden hatte, aber trotz dieser Warnungen blieb Wachovia im Geschäft. Der führende Ermittler der Geldwäscherei Martin Woods aus London hatte herausgefunden, dass Wachovia etwa sechs oder sieben Tausend Vorladungen für Informationen über seine mexikanische Operation von der Bundesregierung erhalten hatte. Woods kommentierte: Eine absurde Zahl. Also an welchem Punkt jemand auf höchstem Niveau nicht das Gefühl, dass etwas sehr, sehr falsch Woods von Wachovias London Zweigniederlassung als Senior Anti-Geldwäsche-Offizier im Jahr 2005 eingestellt wurde und wenn im Jahr 2007 eine amtliche Untersuchung eröffnet wurde Wachovias mexikanischen Operationen, wurde Woods von der Bank informiert, dass er es versäumt, auf einem akzeptablen Standard durchzuführen. Mit anderen Worten, er tat wirklich seinen Job. In regards to the settlement, Woods stated: The regulatory authorities do not have to spend any more time on it, and they dont have to push it as far as a criminal trial. They just issue criminal proceedings, and settle. The law enforcement people do what they are supposed to do, but whats the point All those people dealing with all that money from drug-trafficking and murder, and no one goes to jail9 As the former UN Office of Drugs and Crime czar Antonio Maria Costa said, The connection between organized crime and financial institutions started in the late 1970s, early 1980s8230 when the mafia became globalized, just like other major markets. Martin Woods added that, These are the proceeds of murder and misery in Mexico, and of drugs sold around the world, yet no one went to jail, asking, What does the settlement do to fight the cartels Nothing it doesnt make the job of law enforcement easier and it encourages the cartels and anyone who wants to make money by laundering their blood dollars. Wheres the risk There is none. He added: Is it in the interest of the American people to encourage both the drug cartels and the banks in this way Is it in the interest of the Mexican people Its simple: if you dont see the correlation between the money laundering by banks and the 30,000 people killed in Mexico, youre missing the point. Woods, who now runs his own consultancy, told the Observer in 2011 that, New York and London8230 have become the worlds two biggest laundries of criminal and drug money, and offshore tax havens. Not the Cayman Islands, not the Isle of Man or Jersey. The big laundering is right through the City of London and Wall Street.10 Just as the too big to fail program acts as an insurance policy for the big banks to engage in constant criminal activity, taking ever-larger financial risks with the guarantee that they will be bailed out, the settlements and lack of criminal prosecutions for banks laundering drug money provides the incentive to continue laundering hundreds of billions in drug money, because so long as the fine is smaller than the profit accrued from such a practice, it comes down to a simple cost-benefit analysis: if the cost of laundering drug money is less than the benefit, continue with the policy. The same cost-benefit analysis goes for all forms of criminal activity by banks and corporations, whether bribery, fraud, or violating environmental, labour and other regulations. So long as the penalty is less than the profit, the problem continues. An article in the Observer from July of 2012 referred to global banks as the financial services wing of the drug cartels, noting that HSBC, Britains biggest bank, had been called before the U. S. Senate to testify about laundering drug money from Mexican cartels, holding one suspicious account for four years on behalf of the largest drug cartel in the world, the Sinaloa cartel in Mexico.11 In fact, a multi-year investigation into HSBC revealed that the bank was not only a major international drug money-laundering conduit, but also laundered money for clients with ties to terrorism. In July of 2012, as the Senate was publicly investigating HSBC, Antonio Maria Costa stated, Today I cannot think of one bank in the world that has not been penetrated by mafia money. The global drug trade is estimated to be worth roughly 380 billion annually, with most of the money made in the consumer markets of North America and Europe. Using the example of the 35 billion per year cocaine market in the United States, only about 1.5 of these profits make their way to the coca-leaf producers (mostly poor peasants) in South America (who became the target of our bombing and chemical warfare campaigns in the war on drugs), while the international traffickers get roughly 13 of the profits, with the remaining 85 earned by the distributors in the U. S. HSBC was accused of laundering the profits of the distributors.12 The U. S. Senate report concluded that HSBC had exposed the U. S. financial system to a wide array of money laundering, drug trafficking, and terrorist financing, including billions in proceeds from illegal drug sales in the United States. HSBC acknowledged, in an official statement, that, in the past, we have sometimes failed to meet the standards that regulators and customers expect. Among those standards that HSBC sometimes failed to meet, according to the Senate investigation, were financing provided to banks in Saudi Arabia and Bangladesh which were tied to terrorist organizations, while the banks regulator failed to take a single enforcement action against HSBC.13 Among the terrorist organizations which potentially received financial assistance from HSBC through Saudi banks was al-Qaeda. HSBC put aside 700 million to cover any potential fines for such activities, which is not uncommon for banks to do. Banks like ABN Amro, Barclays, Credit Suisse, Lloyds and ING had all reached major settlements for admitting to facilitating transactions and engaging in money laundering for clients in Cuba, Iran, Libya, Myanmar and Sudan.14 As executives from HSBC appeared in the U. S. Senate, the banks head of compliance since 2002, David Bagley, resigned as he testified before the committee, commenting, Despite the best efforts and intentions of many dedicated professionals, HSBC has fallen short of our own expectations and the expectations of our regulators.15 As Ed Vulliamy reported in the Observer . in May of 2012, a poor black man named Edward Dorsey Sr. was convicted of peddling 5.5 grams of crack cocaine in Washington D. C. and was given 10 years in jail. Meanwhile, just across the river from where Dorsey had committed his crime, executives from HSBC admitted before the U. S. Senate that they laundered billions in drug money, just as Wachovia had admitted to the previous year, with no one going to prison.16 The lesson from this is clear: if you are poor, black, and are caught with a couple grams of crack-cocaine, you can expect to go to prison for several years (or in this case, a decade) but if you are rich, white, own a bank, and are caught laundering billions of dollars (or hundreds of billions of dollars) in drug money, you will be fined (but not enough to make such practices unprofitable), and may have to resign. Too big to fail is simply another way of saying too big to jail. Of course, its not fair to put all the blame for international drug money-laundering on the shoulders of HSBC and Wachovia, as Bloomberg reported, Mexican drug cartels also funneled money through the Bank of America and even the banking branch of American Express, Banco Santander, and Citigroup.17 Even the FBI has accused Bank of America of laundering Mexican drug cartel funds.18 But its not just drug money that banks launder all sorts of illicit funds are laundered through major banks, many of which have been fined or are now being investigated for their criminal activities, including JPMorgan, Standard Chartered, Credit Suisse, Lloyds, Barclays, ING, and the Royal Bank of Scotland, among others.19 Another major Swiss bank, UBS, has been very consistent in committing fraud and engaging in various conspiracies, a great deal of which was committed against Americans, though the bank was given conditional immunity from the U. S. Department of Justice.20 Financial Fraud and the Get Out of Jail Free Card The major banks of the world have been caught in conspiracies of ripping off small towns and cities across the United States, which allowed banks like JPMorgan Chase, GE Capital, UBS, Bank of America, Lehman Brothers, Wachovia, Bear Stearns, and others, to steal billions of dollars from schools, hospitals, libraries, and nursing homes from virtually every state, district and territory in the United States, according to a court settlement on the issue. The theft was done through the manipulation of the public bidding process, something that the Mafia has become experts in with regards to garbage and construction industry contracts. In short, the banking system actually functions like a Mafia cartel system, not to mention, taking money from the Mafia and cartels themselves.21 Banks like JP Morgan Chase and Goldman Sachs engaged in bribery, fraud, and conspiracies which resulted in the bankruptcy of counties all across the United States.22 Still, they continue to be respected by the political class which refuses to punish them for their criminal activity, and instead, rewards them with bailouts and follows their instructions for policy. Over the summer of 2012, another major banking scandal hit the headlines, regarding the manipulation of the London inter-bank lending rate known as the Libor. The Libor rate, explained the Economist . determines the prices that people and corporations around the world pay for loans or receive for their savings, as it is used as a benchmark for establishing payments on an 800 trillion derivatives market, covering everything from interest rate derivatives to mortgages. Essentially, the Libor is the interest rate at which banks lend to each other on the short term, and is established through an honour system of where 18 major banks report their daily rates, from which an average is calculated. That average becomes the Libor rate, and reverberates throughout the entire global economy, setting a benchmark for a massive amount of transactions in the global derivatives market. Whereas the derivatives market is a massive casino of unregulated speculation, the Libor scandal revealed the cartel that owns the casino. The scandal began with Barclays, a 300-year old bank in Britain, revealing that several employees had been involved in rigging the Libor to suit their own needs. More banks quickly became implemented, and countries all over the world began opening investigations into this scandal and the role their own banks may have played in it. By early July, as many as 20 major banks were named in various investigations or lawsuits related to the rigging of the Libor.23 Among the major global banks which are being investigated by U. S. prosecutors are Barclays, Deutsche Bank, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Royal Bank of Scotland, HSBC, UBS, Bank of America, Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi, Credit Suisse, Lloyds Banking Group, Rabobank, Royal Bank of Canada, Socit Gnrale, and others. Prosecutors in the U. S. U. K. Canada and Japan were investigating collusion between the major banks on the manipulation of the Libor. In June of 2012, Barclays paid a fine to US and UK authorities, admitting its culpability in the rigging with a 450 million settlement.24 With information and documents pouring out, implicating further banks and institutions in the scandal, a general consensus was emerging that the Libor had been manipulated since at least 2005, though, as one former Morgan Stanley trader wrote in the Financial Times . the rigging had began as early as 1991, if not before. The British Bankers Association was responsible for setting the Libor rate by polling roughly 18 major banks on their highest and lowest rates daily. Thus, rigging by one bank would require the co-operating of at least nine other banks in purposely manipulating their rates in order to have any effect upon the Libor. Douglas Keenan, the former Morgan Stanley trader, wrote that, it seems the misreporting of Libor rates may have been common practice since at least 1991.25 Rolf Majcen, the head of a hedge fund called FTC Capital told Der Spiegel that, the Libor manipulation is presumably the biggest financial scandal ever. As regulators were using words like organized fraud and banksters to describe the growing scandal, it was becoming common to refer to the major banks as functioning like a cartel or mafia.26 The CEO of Barclays, Bob Diamond, resigned in disgrace, as did Marcus Agius, the Chairman of Barclays (who also serves as a director on the board of BBC, and is married into the Rothschild banking dynasty). The cartel manipulated the Libor for a great number of reasons, among them, to appear to be in better health by rigging their credit ratings upwards.27 The Business Insider referred to the Libor rigging as a criminal conspiracy from the start, essentially designed to promote manipulation as the Libor was determined by an honor system for banks to properly report their rates.28 Imagine giving a pile of credit cards to a group of credit card fraud convicts and establishing an honour system. Could one truly be surprised if it didnt work out Well, the Libor scandal is effectively based upon the same logic, except that the repercussions are global in scope. Traders at the Royal Bank of Scotland referenced, in internal emails, to their participation in operating a cartel that made amazing amounts of money through the manipulation of interest rates, with a former senior trader at RBS writing that managers at the bank had condoned collusion. The same trader, who was later hung out to dry by RBS as a scapegoat, wrote in an email to a trader at Deutsche Bank that, It is a cartel now in London, where the Libor is established.29 The cartel, however, did not simply include the major banks, but also required the cooperation or at least negligence of regulators and central banks. Documents released by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the Bank of England show correspondence between then-President of the NY Fed Timothy Geithner (who is now Obamas Treasury Secretary) and Bank of England Governor Mervyn King discussing how Barclays was manipulating the Libor rates during the 2008 financial crisis. While the NY Fed corresponded with both the Bank of England and Barclays itself on the acknowledgment of interest rate manipulation, it never told the bank to stop the rigging practice. An official at Barclays even informed the NYFed in 2008 that the bank was under-reporting the rate at which it could borrow from other banks so that Barclays could avoid the stigma of appearing to be weaker than its peers, adding that other participating banks were also under-reporting their Libor submissions.30 A Barclays employee told the New York Fed in an April 2008 phone call that, We know that were not posting um, an honest Libor8230 and yet we are doing it, because, um, if we didnt do it, it draws, um, unwanted attention on ourselves. The New York Fed official replied: You have to accept it8230 I understand. Despite its against what you would like to do. I understand completely. Several months later, a Barclays employee told a New York Fed official that the Libor rates were still absolute rubbish.31 While the New York Fed expressed sympathy for the poor and helpless global banks need to engage in fraud and interest rate manipulation in order to lie and appear to be healthier than it was, the Bank of England went a step further, when Paul Tucker, the head of markets at the BoE wrote a note to Barclays CEO Bob Diamond in 2008 suggesting that Barclays lower its Libor rate, thus encouraging the rigging itself, instead of just expressing sympathy for the need to commit fraud.32 The main British banking lobby group, the British Bankers Association (BBA), which was responsible for overseeing the Libor rate process (no conflict of interest there, right), was, in late September of 2012, stripped of its right to oversee the Libor, to be replaced with a formal regulator. The BBAs oversight of Libor dates back to 1984, when the City of London (Britains Wall Street) had begun an experiment to establish a new way of setting interest rates, asking the banking lobby group to set the rate in 1986 when the Libor began.33 The BBAs Foreign Exchange and Money Markets Committee is responsible for setting the Libor, and they meet every two months to review the process in secret without any minutes being published, and even the membership of the Committee is kept a secret. Spokespersons at Credit Suisse, Royal Bank of Scotland, and UBS refused to comment on whether they had any representatives on the committee, while Barclays, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Bank of America and Citigroup didnt even respond to emailed inquiries about their involvement with the committee, as Bloomberg reported. A British regulator, in the understatement of the century, stated, There is an apparent lack of transparency, adding that the BBAs committee doesnt appear to be sufficiently open and transparent to provide the necessary degree of accountability to firms and markets with a direct interest in being assured of the integrity of Libor.34 When the fox guards the henhouse, it takes a great deal of stupidity to be surprised when some hens go missing. In an April 2008 meeting with officials at the Bank of England, Angela Knight, the head of the British Bankers Association, suggested that the BBA perhaps should no longer be responsible for oversight of the worlds most important number, which had become too big for the BBA to manage. No one at the meeting cared enough to do anything about it, however, and so nothing changed.35 Where was the incentive to change the system, after all Yes, massive fraud was taking place, and this was well understood by the banks committing it, as well as the regulators and central banks overseeing it. But on the plus side, everyone was getting away with it. So indeed, there was no incentive to change the system. From the point of view of those managing it, the Libor was functioning as it should. A cartel was established because a cartel was desired. The fact that it was all highly illegal, fraudulent, and immoral was and is beside the point. Mexican drug cartels do not worry about the legality of their operations because they are, by definition, illegal . They worry simply about getting away with their illegal operations. The same can be said for the global banking cartel. So long as they get away with criminal cartel operations, there is no incentive to change the system, and instead, there is only an incentive to expand and further entrench the cartels operations. Canadas antitrust regulator began an investigation into the international cartel of banks rigging the Libor, focusing on the role played by banks such as JP Morgan Chase, Royal bank of Scotland, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, and Citigroup, among others. A law professor at the University of Toronto who was hired by the regulator to study the case commented that, international cartels are of a significant concern for the Canadian economy.36 We have truly reached an impressive circumstance when the actual regulators of the banks refer to the banking system as an international cartel. A lawsuit was being filed by several homeowners in the U. S. who were attempting to sue some of the worlds largest banks for fraud, as the Libor manipulation sparked increases on their mortgages, resulting in illegal profits for banks. The class action lawsuit filed in New York in October of 2012 accused banks such as Bank of America, Citigroup, Barclays, UBS, JPMorgan Chase, Deutsche Bank and others of fraud over a period of ten years.37 For U. S. states and municipalities that bought interest-rate swaps before the financial crisis, the Libor rigging was poised to more than double their losses. Banks had sold roughly 500 billion of interest-rate swaps (in the derivatives market) to municipalities before the financial crisis, with roughly 200 billion of those swaps tied to the Libor. As one legal expert who studies derivatives told Bloomberg . Almost all interest-rate swaps begin with Libor. This prompted several states in the U. S. to begin their own investigations into how the Libor-rigging may have negatively affected them.38 Punishing the Worlds Population into Poverty: Life Under the Global Cartel While the global cartel of criminal banks rig rates, launder drug money, fund terrorists, engage in bribery, fraud and demand multi-trillion dollar bailouts from our governments (effectively selling their bad debts to the public), and then give themselves massive bonuses, they are also demanding through what is called market discipline that our governments deal with our debts by undertaking policies of austerity and structural reform, which are euphemisms for impoverishment and exploitation. Thus, after the cartel helped create a massive financial crisis, and after our governments rewarded them for their criminal activity, the cartel now demands that our governments punish their populations into poverty and open their economies, resources and labour up for cheap and easy exploitation by banks and multinational corporations. This is referred to as the solution for getting out of the Great Recession, and which is sure to great a Great Depression. Greece is now two and a half years into its austerity and adjustment reforms, with its debt growing as a result, poverty exploding, misery spreading, health, education, welfare rapidly declining, suicide rates and hunger increasing, as the Greek people are subjected to a program of social genocide. Market discipline demands austerity and adjustment, or in other words, class warfare creates poverty and exploitation.39 Countries that refuse to implement programs of austerity and adjustment are subjected to financial terrorism by the international cartel, as financial markets engage in market discipline by using the derivatives market to speculate against that particular countrys ability to pay its interest or debt, thus making its credit ratings decrease and borrowing rates increase, plunging the country into a deeper crisis. In any other scenario, this is called terrorism or in the very least, extortion: do what I say or I will punish you and destroy you. This is what former U. S. Treasury official Roger Altman referred to in the Financial Times as the new global supra-government who can force austerity, banking bail-outs and other major policy changes, and thus, have become the most powerful force on earth.40 Countries, regional, and international organizations all bow down to the dictates of the international cartel of the global supra-government, and so countries like Greece, Spain, Ireland, Italy, and Portugal, organizations like the European Union, European Central Bank, powerful states like Germany, France, Britain, and the U. S. and other international organizations like the IMF, Bank for International Settlements, and the OECD all demand and implement austerity measures and structural reforms. Either they follow the orders of the cartel which we commonly refer to as the invisible hand of the free market or they directly challenge the most powerful force on earth. In the global economy, a small country like Greece standing up to the global supra-government is much like a small Greek restaurant trying to stand up to the city Mafia. In the U. S. states that were defrauded in the billions of dollars by the cartel, and took on major debts as a result, are now the harbingers of austerity in America. Beginning in 2010, roughly 20 states across the U. S. began implementing austerity measures, and have been doing much worse economically as a result (the predicted effect of austerity). Even the institutions which are the most militant in demanding austerity measures, such as the European Union and the IMF, have acknowledged in recent reports that countries which pursue austerity to supposedly reduce their debts end up getting much larger debts as a result, and that such measures are actually extremely damaging to economies. This is not news, of course, since there is a rather large sample of data from the past 30 years of forced austerity and adjustment measures across Africa, Asia, and Latin America (at the behest of the IMF, World Bank, western governments, and of course, the cartel), which show quite clearly the effect that austerity and adjustment have in rapidly expanding poverty and facilitating exploitation. As austerity is hitting several U. S. states, jobs are lost and poverty increases with debt, standards of living decline and the recession deepens into a depression. The population is essentially punished for the crimes of the global cartel, while public employees, pensioners, welfare recipients, teachers and workers get the blame.41 In late October of 2012, the CEOs of 80 major corporations and banks in the United States banded together (as any well functioning cartel does) in order to pressure Congress, regardless of who the next President is, to pursue an agenda of harsh austerity measures and structural reforms. In a statement to Congress signed by the 80 CEOs, the American branch of the global cartel (its most significant branch), demanded that policies be enacted immediately, though implemented gradually, to give Americans time to prepare for the changes in the federal budget. Among the demands are to reform Medicare and Medicaid, healthcare, Social Security, increase taxes, and generally reduce spending. All of this amounts to a large federal program of austerity, to cut social spending and increase taxes on the population, thus impoverishing the population. This, in the words of the letter to Congress, must be bipartisan and reforms to all areas of the budget should be included.42 Among the signatories to the letter were the CEOs of ATampT, Bank of America, BlackRock, Boeing, Caterpillar, Dow Chemical Company, General Electric, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Merck, Microsoft, Motorola, Time Warner, and Verizon, among many others.43 This followed roughly one week after a group of 15 major global bank CEOs sent a letter to President Obama and the U. S. Congress lecturing the U. S. political class on moral authority, giving their formal orders to the U. S. political establishment, that regardless of Democratic or Republican administrations, they are losing patience with the democratic apparatus of the state, and warned: The solvency, productive capacity, and stability of the United States, as well as its moral authority as a global leader, require that its fiscal challenges be credibly met. Among the signatories to the letter were the CEOs of Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo. The Wall Street Journal . reporting on this letter, commented that even for a dying democracy, its embarrassing enough to see bankers telling our government what to do, but in this letter, we even see foreign bankers telling our government what to do, as other CEOs of the global cartel signed the letter, from banks such as UBS, Credit Suisse, and Deutsche Bank. The consequences of inaction on the U. S. debt, read the letter, would be very grave. In other words, the U. S. political class has received a threat from the global cartel that it is now time to implement austerity and adjustment measures, or to face the consequences of financial terrorism.44 Hiding the Loot: The Offshore Economy in the Age of the Global Plutonomy While people are being forced into poverty to pay off the bad debts of the super-entity global banking cartel of drug-money laundering banks which make up the global supra-government, the richest people in the world have been hiding their wealth in offshore tax havens, and of course, with the help of those same banks. James Henry, a former chief economist at McKinsey, a major global consultancy, published a major report on tax havens in July of 2012 for the Tax Justice Network, compiling data from the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the IMF and other private sector entities which revealed that the worlds superrich have hidden between 21 and 32 trillion offshore to avoid taxation. Henry stated: This offshore economy is large enough to have a major impact on estimates of inequality of wealth and income on estimates of national income and debt ratios and most importantly to have very significant negative impacts on the domestic tax bases of source countries. John Christensen of the Tax Justice Network commented that, Inequality is much, much worse than official statistics show, but politicians are still relying on trickle-down to transfer wealth to poorer people8230 This new data shows the exact opposite has happened: for three decades extraordinary wealth has been cascading into the offshore accounts of a tiny number of super-rich. Roughly 92,000 of the super-rich, globally, hold at least 10 trillion in offshore wealth. In many cases, the worth of these offshore assets far exceeds the debts of the countries that they flow from, the same debts that are used to keep these countries and their populations in poverty and a constant state of exploitation.45 The estimated total of hidden offshore wealth amounts to more than the combined GDP of the United States and Japan, hidden in secretive financial jurisdictions like Switzerland and the Cayman Islands. The process of hiding this wealth is largely facilitated by the major global banks, which compete with one another to attract the assets of the worlds super-rich. James Henry explained that the wealth of the worlds super-rich is protected by a highly paid, industrious bevy of professional enablers in the private banking, legal, accounting and investment industries taking advantage of the increasingly borderless, frictionless global economy more of that free market magic. The top ten banks in the world, which include UBS and Credit Suisse (based in Switzerland) as well as Goldman Sachs in the United States, collectively managed roughly 6.4 trillion in offshore accounts for 2010 alone. As the report revealed, for many developing countries the cumulative value of the capital that has flowed out of their economies since the 1970s would be more than enough to pay off their debts to the rest of the world, debts which are largely illegitimate as it stands. This trend is exacerbated in the oil-rich states of the world such as Nigeria, Russia, and Saudi Arabia. The report stated: The problem here is that the assets of these countries are held by a small number of wealthy individuals while the debts are shouldered by the ordinary people of these countries through their governments. With roughly half of the worlds offshore wealth belonging to the top 92,000 richest individuals, they represent the top 0.001, a far more extreme global disparity than that which is invoked by the Occupy movements 1 paradigm. Henry commented: The very existence of the global offshore industry, and the tax-free status of the enormous sums invested by their wealthy clients, is predicated on secrecy.46 Remember, free market means that those who own the market (the global cartel), and free to do anything they please. A 2005 report from Citigroup coined the term plutonomy, to describe countries where economic growth is powered by and largely consumed by the wealthy few, and specifically identified the U. K. Canada, Australia, and the United States as four plutonomies. Keeping in mind that the report was published three years before the onset of the financial crisis in 2008, the Citigroup report stated: Asset booms, a rising profit share and favourable treatment by market-friendly governments have allowed the rich to prosper and become a greater share of the economy in the plutonomy countries, and that, the rich are in great shape, financially.47 Its only everyone else that is suffering, which by definition, is a well functioning economy. As the Federal Reserve reported, the nations top 1 of households own more than half the nations stocks, and they also control more than 16 trillion in wealth more than the bottom 90. The term Plutonomy is specifically used to describe a country that is defined by massive income and wealth inequality, and that they have three basic characteristics, according to the Citigroup report: 1. They are all created by disruptive technology-driven productivity gains, creative financial innovation, capitalist friendly cooperative governments, immigrantsthe rule of law and patenting inventions. Often these wealth waves involve great complexity exploited best by the rich and educated of the time. 2. There is no average consumer in Plutonomies. There is only the rich and everyone else. The rich account for a disproportionate chunk of the economy, while the non-rich account for surprisingly small bites of the national pie. Citigroup strategist Ajay Kapur estimates that in 2005, the richest 20 may have been responsible for 60 of total spending. 3. Plutonomies are likely to grow in the future, fed by capitalist-friendly governments, more technology-driven productivity and globalization.48 Kapur, who authored the Citigroup report, stated that there were also risks to the Plutonomy, including war, inflation, financial crises, the end of the technological revolution and populist political pressure, yet, the rich are likely to keep getting even richer, and enjoy an even greater share of the wealth pie over the coming years.49 In February of 2011, Ajay Kapur, the author of the Citigroup report who is now with Deutsche Bank, gave an interview in which he explained that, the world economy is even more dependent on the spending and consumption of the rich, and that, Plutonomist consumption is almost 10 times as volatile that of the average consumer. He further explained that increased debt levels are a sign of plutonomies: We have an economy today where a large fraction of the population doesnt pay federal income taxes and, because of demand for entitlements, we have a system of massive representation without taxation. On the other hand, you have plutonomists who protect their turf and the taxation amounts are not enough to pay for everyones demand. So Ive come to the conclusion that budget deficits are biased toward getting bigger and bigger. Budget deficits are going to become a manifestation of a plutonomy.50 The plutonomy is largely characterized by a lack of a consuming and vibrant middle class. This is a trend that has been accelerating for several decades, particularly in North America and Britain, where the middle class population is heavily indebted. The middle class has existed as a consumer class, keeping the lower class submissive, and keeping the upper class secure and wealthy by consuming their products, produced with the labour of the lower class. The most advanced plutonomies in the world are the most advanced industrial and technological nations, where the major corporations and banks are highly subsidized and protected by the state, as is typical for a state-capitalist society. While the industrial and rich northern state-capitalist societies were able to industrialize and grow rich through highly protectionist measures, the poor south of the world (Africa, Asia, Latin America) were subjected to free market policies which opened up their economies to be exploited and plundered by the rich northern nations. No country has ever become an industrial power by implementing free market policies, but rather, by doing the exact opposite: heavy subsidies and state protection for key industries, technologies, and corporate entities. While the Third World was forced to implement free market policies in order to get loans, the predictable result took place: mass impoverishment and exploitation. The Third World states were run by tiny elites who dominated the countries politically and economically, and who hid their stolen wealth in foreign banks and offshore tax havens. Now, in the midst of the global economic crisis which has been ravaging the world for the past four years, the rich northern countries are themselves implementing the same free market policies, though designed to subject their populations to market discipline while maintaining and in fact increasing the protectionist and subsidized policies for the multinational corporations and banks. It is important to note that market discipline and actual free market policies are exclusively designed for the general population, not the elite. Workers, students, the elderly, the poor and the many are to be subjected to market discipline while the banks and multinational corporations continue to be heavily subsidized (as the largest national welfare recipients) and protected by the state. Thus, just as our banks and corporations have plundered the Third World with rapacious delight over the past three decades, now they will be able to do the same to the populations of the rich nations themselves. The state will transform, as it did in the Third World, into a typically totalitarian institution which is responsible for protecting the super-rich and controlling, oppressing, or, in extreme cases of resistance, eliminating the problem populations (i. e. the people). Welcome to the global plutonomy in the age of austerity, the result of living under and tolerating a global super-entity corporate-financial cartel. Truly, one must pause and, if only for a moment, appreciate the ability of this global cartel to function so effectively in spite of its blatant criminal activities, and face almost absolutely no repercussions. Something truly is wrong with a society when a poor black man caught with 5 grams of crack-cocaine goes to prison for ten years, while rich white bank executives admit to laundering billions of dollars in drug money and receive only a fine and a slap on the wrist (maybe). The lesson is clear: if you are a thief, steal by the billions or trillions, and then no one can do anything about it. If you are in the drug trade: handle only billions (or hundreds of billions) in drug money, and then you will get away with it. If you dont want to pay taxes, be a member of the top o. oo1 of the worlds super-rich and hide your billions in offshore tax-free accounts. If you want more, create a global economic crisis, demand to be saved by the state to the tune of tens of trillions of dollars, and then, tell the state to punish their populations into poverty in order to pay for your mistakes. In other words, if you want to indulge your criminal fantasies, lie and steal, profit from death and drugs, dominate and demand, be king and command, become the highly-functioning socially-acceptable sociopath you always knew you could be8230 think big. Think BANK. Serial killers, bank robbers and drug dealers go to jail bankers get bailouts and get an unlimited insurance policy called too big to fail. Andrew Gavin Marshall is an independent researcher and writer based in Montreal, Canada, writing on a number of social, political, economic, and historical issues. He is also Project Manager of The Peoples Book Project. He also hosts a weekly podcast show, Empire, Power, and People, on BoilingFrogsPost . 1 Andy Coghlan and Debora MacKenzie, Revealed the capitalist network that runs the world, New Scientist, 24 October 2011: 4 David J. Lynch, Banks Seen Dangerous Defying Obamas Too-Big-to-Fail Move, Bloomberg, 16 April 2012: 5 Dean Baker, The eurozone crisis is not about market discipline, Al-Jazeera, 18 December 2011: 6 Roger Altman, We need not fret over omnipotent markets, The Financial Times, 1 December 2011: 7 Roger Altman, We need not fret over omnipotent markets, The Financial Times, 1 December 2011: 8 Rajeev Syal, Drug money saved banks in global crisis, claims UN advisor, The Observer, 13 December 2009: 9 Ed Vulliamy, How a big US bank laundered billions from Mexico8217s murderous drug gangs, The Observer, 3 April 2011: 11 Ed Vulliamy, Global banks are the financial services wing of the drug cartels, The Observer, 21 July 2012: 12 John Paul Rathbone, Money laundering: Taken to the cleaners, 20 July 2012: 13 Agustino Fontevecchia, HSBC Helped Terrorists, Iran, Mexican Drug Cartels Launder Money, Senate Report Says, Forbes, 16 July 2012: 14 Roberto Saviano, Where the Mob Keeps its Money, The New York Times, 25 August 2012: 15 Dominic Rushe, HSBC 8216sorry8217 for aiding Mexican drugs lords, rogue states and terrorists, The Guardian, 17 July 2012: 16 Ed Vulliamy, Global banks are the financial services wing of the drug cartels, The Observer, 21 July 2012: 17 Michael Smith, Banks Financing Mexico Gangs Admitted in Wells Fargo Deal, Bloomberg, 29 June 2010: 18 Alexander Eichler, Mexican Drug Cartel Laundered Money Through BofA, FBI Alleges, The Huffington Post, 9 June 2012: 19 Jessica Silver-Greenberg and Edward Wyatt, In Laundering Case, a Lax Banking Law Obscured Money Flow, The New York Times, 8 August 2012: Jessica Silver-Greenberg and Ben Protess, Money-Laundering Inquiry Is Said to Aim at U. S. Banks, The New York Times, 14 September 2012: 20 James B. Stewart, For UBS, a Record of Averting Prosecution, The New York Times, 20 July 2012: 21 Matt Taibbi, The Scam Wall Street Learned From the Mafia, Rolling Stone, 21 June 2012: 22 William D. Cohan, How Wall Street Scams Counties Into Bankruptcy, Bloomberg, 1 July 2012: 23 The Libor Scandal: The Rotten Heart of Finance, The Economist, 7 July 2012: 24 Shahien Nasiripour, Nine more banks added to Libor probe, The Financial Times, 26 October 2012: 25 Douglas Keenan, My thwarted attempt to tell of Libor shenanigans, The Financial Times, 26 July 2012: 26 The Cartel: Behind the Scenes in the Libor Interest Rate Scandal, Der Spiegel, 1 August 2012: 27 Matt Taibbi, Why is Nobody Freaking Out About the LIBOR Banking Scandal Rolling Stone, 3 July 2012: 28 Ral Ilargi Meijer, LIBOR Was A Criminal Conspiracy From The Start, The Business Insider, 11 July 2012: 29 Steven Swinford and Harry Wilson, RBS traders boasted of Libor 8216cartel8217, The Telegraph, 26 September 2012: 30 Jill Treanor and Dominic Rushe, Timothy Geithner and Mervyn King discussed Libor worries in 2008, The Guardian, 13 July 2012: 31 Mark Gongloff, New York Fed8217s Libor Documents Reveal Cozy Relationship Between Regulators, Banks, The Huffington Post, 13 July 2012: 32 Chris Giles, Libor scandal puts BoE in line of fire, The Financial Times, 17 July 2012: 33 Jill Treanor, British Bankers8217 Association to be stripped of Libor rate-setting role, The Guardian, 25 September 2012: 34 Liam Vaughan, Secret Libor Committee Clings to Anonymity Following Scandal, Bloomberg, 21 August 2012: 35 David Enrich and Max Colchester, Before Scandal, Clash Over Control of Libor, The Wall Street Journal, 11 September 2012: 36 Andrew Mayeda, Canada Regulator Says Has Power to Probe Libor Cartel, Bloomberg, 22 June 2012: 37 Halah Touryalai, Banks Rigged Libor To Inflate Adjustable-Rate Mortgages: Lawsuit, Forbes, 15 October 2012: 38 Darrell Preston, Rigged Libor Hits States-Localities With 6 Billion: Muni Credit, Bloomberg, 9 October 2012: 39 Andrew Gavin Marshall, Austerity, Adjustment, and Social Genocide: Political Language and the European Debt Crisis, Andrewgavinmarshall, 24 July 2012: 40 Roger Altman, We need not fret over omnipotent markets, The Financial Times, 1 December 2011: 41 Ben Polak and Peter K. Schott, Americas Hidden Austerity Program, The New York Times, 11 June 2012: Jason Cherkis, A Thousand Cuts: Austerity Measures Devastate Communities Around The World, The Huffington Post, 17 July 2012: Editorial, The Austerity Trap, The New York Times, 23 October 2012: Derek Thompson, American Austerity: Why the States Cutting Spending Are Doing Worse, The Atlantic, 21 June 2012: 42 CEOs Deficit Manifesto, The Wall Street Journal, 25 October 2012: 43 Executives Who Signed the Fix the Debt Declaration, The Wall Street Journal, 25 October 2012: 44 Al Lewis, Bankers Face the Abyss, The Wall Street Journal, 21 October 2012: 45 Heather Stewart, Wealth doesn8217t trickle down it just floods offshore, research reveals, The Observer, 21 July 2012: 46 Heather Stewart, 13tn hoard hidden from taxman by global elite, The Observer, 21 July 2012: 47 We8217re living in a plutonomy, The Telegraph, 2 April 2006: 48 Robert Frank, Plutonomics, The Wall Street Journal, 8 January 2007: 50 Gus Lubin, Deutsche Bank Says The 8216Global Plutonomy8217 Is Stronger Than Ever, And That Means 10X More Volatility, Business Insider, 17 February 2011: The Maple Spring and the Mafiocracy: Struggling Students versus Entitled Elites It says a great deal about our society when hundreds of thousands of students already largely indebted, a significant portion of whom live well below the poverty line, who already work what few jobs exist for a generation forgotten before we leave home take to the streets in protest and are portrayed as entitled, spoiled brats as they attempt to negotiate their very chance of having a future in this society8230 with a government that supports and works with organized crime, which is beholden to an economic elite, and which supports only those who can already support themselves. There is something deeply wrong with a society in which students who struggle for a very chance in life are insulted, degraded, beaten, arrested, humiliated and denigrated. First, we were told for years that we were lazy and apathetic: Generation MTV, Generation iPod, a techno-savvy but reality-detached deluge of pseudo-humanoids. We were seen as concerned only with self, worshipping of wealth, and with celebrities like Paris Hilton and whatever Car-crashian disaster is on reality TV this week, who could blame people for thinking this Our media raised us. Television raised us. Advertising raised us. Public relations agencies raised us. They have told us what to wear, how to behave, what to drink, what to eat, what to listen to, dance to, sing to, who to speak to, who to admire, who to hate, what to spend time thinking about, what to be concerned about, what and how to think and be. We were set up to be Generation Obscurity. But then, something changed: our circumstances. For those of us who grew up middle class, we started to have a harder time getting by. We worked while we were in high school, but that was okay, the extra money was nice. But then we graduated and it was time to begin our lives. So we either worked full time, or went to school, and probably work part-time. School is expensive, and whether you live in Quebec, the rest of Canada, the United States, or a great host of many other places, school is more expensive for us than it was for our parents. Our minimum wage might seem higher, but the cost of living has soared since our parents were getting their first few jobs, so in real terms, we earn much less. So we lived and often continue to live at home while we go to school or even while we work. With rent so high, and cities so expensive, who can afford their own space in this crazy kind of place School was still too expensive, even as we worked and as our parents helped however they could. After all, they were and are struggling too. So we got student loans. And now were deep in debt. Suddenly, our world was thrown into a deep economic crisis. Most of us dont know how this came to be, or who is responsible, all we know is that we only did what we were told to do: consume. And what did that do for us Were in debt. All we know is that even though we didnt cause this global crisis, we are being held responsible for it. All we know is that we are told we are in a recovery, but we dont feel like it. How many people truly feel more financially secure now than they did in 2007 Do you I dont But now we are told that we are in a recovery because those who caused the economic crisis are doing much better. In fact, many of them are doing better than ever During the crisis, our governments said we had to bail out the banks that had colluded with the governments to create the crisis in the first place. We were scared, so we sat back and watched as our governments gave banks blank checks. First, I should add, our governments worked with the banks in passing (or dismantling) laws and regulations, implemented policies, undertook joint programs, spent enormous sums of money between them, as our political leaders left office to sit in bank boardrooms, and as bankers left the private vaults to the public treasury. This relationship between big business, big banks, and big government (most emblematic in the central banking system, in which private banks with public powers control the very value of our currencies), is what created the economic crisis. And when that crisis erupted, those same governments gave those same banks more money than ever before, to ensure that they were rewarded for creating such a massive global crisis. At the same time, the governments then gave themselves even more power over the economy and their own social and political environments, all the while ensuring that the banks and corporations were involved in every decision, and would benefit from every outcome. So those who caused the crisis rewarded themselves with more money and more power than they had when they created the crisis in the first place. At the same time, we, the people, have to pay for everything. We have to pay with increased taxes (remember, that bailout money has to come out of YOUR pockets), with rising prices for food and fuel, with inflated property prices (if they werent already collapsing, in which case, we face potential foreclosure), with increased debt not even to consume, but simply to subsist with decreased jobs, with unemployment, with increased homelessness, increased reliance upon food stamps, increased welfare and state assistance (which comes with intense scrutiny of your personal finances and life), and now, with austerity: further tax increases, less social services and support, mass layoffs and pay-cuts, decreased support for health care and education, increased tuition, and increased struggles. But remember, we have to suffer under austerity so that our governments can pay for all the rewards they gave to the banks for8230 making us suffer. This is called Capitalism. Now, take Canada as an example. Canada is perhaps the best example to use in this situation because, lets face it: we have one of the better reputations among Western nations of the world (though largely undeserving), we are seen as peaceful (though we are now always at war), and compared to the rest of the industrialized West, we fared through the economic crisis much better than most. Our banks, in fact with five Big Banks that dominate the economy are consistently rated as among the worlds strongest banks. In April of 2012, Moodys Investors Service rated Canadas banks as the safest in the world . And we better believe Moodys, because they failed to predict the economic crisis itself, and as their CEO even admitted when questioned about the agency being funded by Wall Street firms, potential conflicts exist regardless of who pays . For four years in a row, the World Economic Forum has rated Canadas banking system as the most sound in the world. Even the Canadian Bankers Association praises Canadas banks. Imagine that Unfortunately for their self-congratulations, it was recently revealed that Canadas banks actually received a secret bailout in 2008, for a total of 114 billion, or 3,400 for every Canadian man, woman, and child. The bailouts took place between 2008 and 2010, funded by the Bank of Canada, the United States Federal Reserve, and the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. The government continues to deny it gave the banks a bailout, instead, our Finance Minister insists, it was just liquidity support , which means8230 the government did not bail out the banks with public money, it just gave the banks public money8230 in support. Call it what you will, they gave them 114 billion. Mark Carney, the Governor of the Bank of Canada (our central bank), and a former executive with Goldman Sachs (whats not to love), even admitted that the Bank of Canada gave tens of billions of dollars to our private banks. The U. S. Federal Reserve provided 33 billion to Canadas big banks, while the official numbers of what the Bank of Canada provided remain a secret, as the government has refused to respond to Access to Information requests on the subject. Available information, however, points to 41 billion given to our banks by the Bank of Canada by December of 2008. Even some foreign banks had access to money from the Bank of Canada. Thus, Canadas big five banks Royal Bank of Canada, T. D. Bank, Scotiabank, the Bank of Montreal and CIBC received collectively over 114 billion in bailouts . Oh, excuse me, I mean, liquidity support. And now, these same banks have inflated a major housing bubble in Canada which is eerily similar to that which existed in the United States in 2007, with housing prices dangerously high, and the average household debt at 103,000. But dont worry, these big five banks made record profits in 2011. So naturally, with record profits for banks, and record debt for Canadians, the banks have decided to increase their fees on you And then their profits continued to increase. Naturally, the executives have been giving themselves bigger bonuses than ever. This is called an economic recovery. And remember, its the students in Qubec who are entitled. People call the students spoiled and entitled because they pay less than 2,500 for tuition every year, and are trying to prevent a situation in which they will be paying roughly 4,000 per year. But the big banks, making record profits, got the equivalent of 3,400 from every single man, woman, and child in Canada. But thats not called entitlement, thats called Capitalism. So, the banks are doing better than ever, and this means we are in a recovery. According to our governments and media, it doesnt matter what situation you are in, only what situation RBC, CIBC, BMO, Scotiabank and TD are in. Starting in the year 2000, Canadas corporations and banks started having their taxes cut significantly by the government, whether Liberal or Conservative. In 2000, corporate taxes were at 28, and by 2006 it was at 21. In the beginning of 2012, corporate taxes in Canada were at 15. This was all, of course, done to create jobs. That is, after all, what we were told by our politicians who insisted it was the right thing to do. At the moment, Canada has a rather significant unemployment rate. and a much higher youth unemployment rate. In 2006, the unemployment rate for Canadians was 4.6, and today it is at 7.3. In 2006, the unemployment rate for Canadian youth between the ages of 15 and 24 was at 8.4, but by 2012, that has increased to 13.8. In the same period of time, corporate taxes were cut from 22 to 15, with the stated purpose of creating jobs. Now, the unemployment numbers are themselves misleading, because they only actually refer to those who are on some form of government assistance, such as welfare or employment insurance. The rest of the unemployed are not counted. While the corporate tax cuts did not lead to more jobs, but rather, less8230 they did lead to more money for the corporations and banks. By 2011, Canadian corporations and banks had hoarded 477 billion in cash reserves as money that was saved from taxation. For every percentage decrease in corporate taxes, the government loses 2 billion in potential revenue. In response, the government turns to austerity measures, which means that you have to suffer and pay for everything, especially your own poverty. Poverty is, after all, very expensive. In 2012, these record profit-making corporations are getting an extra 2.85 billion in additional income tax savings. Even as Stephen Harper cut the taxes further, he acknowledged that the corporations werent actually investing their saved money in jobs but that it was just money sitting on the sidelines. Since 2007, the cash reserves of Canadas corporations have grown by 27.3, reaching 583 billion in Canadian currency, and 276 billion in foreign currencies. So what can we conclude from this Well, when politicians and corporations and banks say that they are pursuing a particular policy to create jobs, what they really mean is to create profits. So when a politician says, We need to cut corporate taxes so that they can invest in jobs, what is really being said is that, We need to cut corporate taxes so that they can make profits. This makes more sense, because this is what actually happens. So its not so much that politicians lie, but rather that they just speak a different language. So take note, and I guarantee this is a very accurate method, in political-speak: jobs profits. So now when you listen to your selected officials blather on, youll actually be able to understand what they are saying. Oh, and in case you forgot, remember: its Qubec students who are entitled and spoiled brats. Just making sure you remember that. In Canada, we have a situation in which total national student debt is at 20 billion. and with tuition increases, this too will increase dramatically. But dont worry, increased tuition costs and increased student debt is good for the banks, because they provide a lot of the loans and own the debt, and collect the interest and keep you in their pockets for the rest of your life. And remember, if the banks are doing well, the economy is doing well. You dont matter8230 at all. Okay, so total student debt in Canada is at 20 billion, with the average student graduating with 27,000 in debt, few job prospects, high unemployment rates, and in a major social and economic crisis, but the Canadian government is buying 65 F-35 fighter jets from the U. S. military contractor, Lockheed Martin, worth a total of 25 billion. So, we can bail out our banks to the tune of 114 billion, and we can spend 25 billion buying military machines to go bomb and kill poor people around the world, but students shackled with 20 billion in debt must be shackled with more. And if they try to do anything about the increases in tuition, and thus, the increases in their debt, Canadian politicians and the media refer to them as entitled, spoiled brats. Here are a few numbers to show the current divide between the rich and everyone else in Canada, what we are told is a hallmark of a flourishing democracy and recovering economy: 8211 the 100 best paid CEOs made an average of 6.6 million, which is 155 times the average wage for Canadians at 42,988 8211 the tax rate for the richest Canadians dropped from 43 in 1981 to 29 in 2010 8211 in Quebec, the richest 10 made 24 more in 2006 than in 1976, while the poorest made 10 less 8211 with average student debt in Qubec at 13,000 and 27,000 in the rest of Canada, the cost of free education in Qubec would be less than 1 of the governments budget 8211 for every 1,000 fee hike in tuition, the proportion of poor students drops by 19, thus making education inaccessible for poor people 8211 with youth unemployment in Canada between 14-20, and total student debt amounting to 20 billion, the percentage of students defaulting on government loans is at 14 8211 the percentage of Canadians between 20 and 24 living with their parents is 73 8211 the percentage of Canadians 25 to 29 living with their parents is 33 This is called democracy. With Jean Charest as Qubecs premier, attempting to nearly double student tuition from an average of over 2,000 to nearly 4,000, it might be interesting to look at what Charest paid for his education. Charest studied in Sherbrooke in the late 1970s, where he would have paid 500 for tuition, less than 2,000 in todays dollars. In 1978, the minimum wage (for those students who needed to work to pay their tuition) in Qubec was 3.50hour. In todays dollars, that would equal 12hour, while the actual minimum wage in Qubec today is 10hour. Therefore, wrote McGill University professor Michael Hilke, it was easier for students to pay for college back then . But Charest calls us entitled. In point 7 of my article, Ten Points Everyone Should Know About the Quebec Student Movement , I provided sources and information regarding the deeply interconnected relationship between the government of Qubec, especially with Charests Liberal Party in power, the corrupt construction industry, and the Mafia. Politicians, especially the Liberal Charest government currently in power, provide over-estimated public funds to the construction industry to do what costs significantly less in other provinces, and to build bridges and roads that fall apart, and it just so happens that the construction industry is owned by the Mafia. While public contracts are not the main source of revenue for the Mafia (who can compete with illicit drugs 8230 well, except for the oil and arms industries), getting massively over-estimated public funds allows the Mafia-connected construction businesses to throw fundraisers for the politicians and keep them in power. Thus, the interaction between the Mafia and the government is a mutually beneficial relationship, where money flows back and forth, designed to keep each party in power. But its unfair to blame Charest and the Liberal Party for collusion with the Mafia they are simply carrying on a long political tradition of governments working with organized crime. So, the government supports organized crime and opposes organized students. Ultimately, both organized crime and organized polities serve the same interests. Can you guess whose Ill save you the effort, its really quite simple, and its not exclusive to Canada, this is a global phenomenon: follow the money. Canada is a market leader in many aspects of the global trade in illegal drugs. In a 2009 report form the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, Canada was revealed to be the leading supplier of ecstasy to North America, and one of the worlds major producers and shippers of methamphetamine for various markets around the world, which is so significant that it was revealed that 83 of all the meth seized in Australia came from Canada, whereas in Japan it was 62. In 2006, only 5 of the meth produced in Canada was exported. In 2007, it was at 20. Thats pretty impressive In 2007, 50 of the ecstasy produced in Canada was exported, primarily to the United States, Australia, and Japan. In 2007, Canada was identified by Japan as the largest single source for seized ecstasy tablets, followed by the Netherlands, Germany, and Belgium. But its not Canadas fault, we are simply partaking in an already well-established global drug trade, the most profitable trade in the world following oil and arms. This of course is a result of our governments having undertaken prohibition against illicit drugs, just as the United States had done with alcohol, which history shows, didnt work very well. Alcohol prohibition gave an incredible boost to the Mafia and organized crime in the United States and elsewhere, and of course, included in its silky spider web were corrupt cops, politicians, and financiers. When something is illegal it becomes far more expensive, and thus, far more profitable. So our governments have decided to continue their policies of prohibition for illicit drugs: to keep profits up, to support organized crime, to participate in organized crime, to keep the money flowing, keep the prisons full, and to declare a mythical war on drugs which accomplishes nothing but further militarization designed to wipe out the competition. So Latin American countries must suffer under our increased military and repressive presence. A few months prior to the NATO invasion and occupation of Afghanistan in 2001, the Taliban had eradicated the opium trade in one year. wiping out the worlds largest opium crop. Following the invasion in October of 2001, and the installation of a puppet president Hamid Karzai in December of 2001, the new Afghan government began colluding with drug lords and opium production began to accelerate. In fact, the drug trade in Afghanistan reaches record highs nearly every year since the invasion. Between 2011 and 2012, opium production in Afghanistan increased by another 61. In 2009, the New York Times reported that one of Afghanistans most powerful drug lords was the brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, and that he also happened to be working for the CIA at the same time. The CIA has a sordid history with the drug trade, from Indochina in the 1960s, to Afghanistan and the Iran-Contra affair in the 1980s. More recently, in 2007 there was an under-reported incident in which a CIA plane which had been used for rendition flights (i. e. kidnapping and torture) had crashed in Mexico with 3.3. tones of cocaine on board, carrying Colombian cocaine for the major Mexican drug cartel, the Sinaloa cartel. Since 2006, the government of Mexico has been waging a massive drug war against several of the large drug cartels in the country. This war has been financially and materially supported by the U. S. which has been providing arms, equipment, and intelligence assistance to the Mexican army. The war has been incredibly violent, and widely under-reported in our media north of Mexico. From 2006 to 2011, there were between 45-60,000 deaths related to the drug war. In 2009, the Mexican drug lord Joaquin 8220El Chapo8221 Guzman Loera who heads the largest drug cartel, the Sinaloa cartel, made Forbes billionaires list. Journalists in Mexico who cover the war repeatedly get tortured and murdered. Within a six-month period in 2010, more than 11,000 migrants were abducted by drug cartels, either to extort money or to be used as forced labour. An investigative report by NPR in 2010 revealed a deeper and darker side of the story: the war is rigged. As the United States gives billions of dollars to Mexico in military and judicial aid, the Mexican government works to support the Sinaloa cartel by destroying the competition. Testimony of top Sinaloa cartel traffickers in court revealed further links between the cartel and the Mexican army. Whether through bribes or other means, including the major participants themselves passing from high-ranking police and military positions directly into the cartels, the relationship between the Mexican government and the cartels, especially the Sinaloa cartel, runs deep. The drug trade through Mexico, which is heavily implicated in bringing cocaine from Colombia to the United States, produces profits of tens of billions every year. Even a top Mexican army general and a former deputy minister of defense have now been implicated in ties to drug cartels. something which is not new in Mexico. A small scandal emerged for the United States government in 2011 when it was revealed that a U. S. operation allowed weapons from the U. S. to pass into the hands of suspected gun smugglers. Codenamed Operation Fast and Furious. it was run by the U. S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), which admitted that 1,765 guns were sold to suspected smugglers during a 15-month period of the investigation. A gun dealer in Arizona reported that he was concerned that his guns were being sold to drug cartels, fuelling the violence that has now killed over 55,000 people, and when he expressed these fears, he was encouraged by federal agents to continue the sales. Internal emails released from the ATF revealed that the bureaus top officials were regularly briefed on the gun-running operation. It was later revealed that many Mexican drug cartel figures who were being targeted by the ATF also happened to be informants for the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). who kept the ATF in the dark about their relationship with the cartels. At least six Mexican drug cartel figures were also on the payroll of the FBI. Some ATF agents have blown the whistle on the operation, stating that it went back as far as 2008, and that they were ordered to let U. S. guns go to Mexico . Memos from 2010 revealed that several top U. S. officials in the Department of Justice, including Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr, regularly received updates about the operation. Three National Security officials in the White House also received updates. One of Mexicos top drug traffickers, the right-hand man of the leader of the Sinaloa cartel, claimed in court testimony that he was working all along as a confidential informant for U. S. agents, specifically for the U. S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). U. S. weapons smuggling to Mexico is no small operation, as roughly 70 of the weapons seized in Mexico came from the United States. In Congressional testimony, an ATF agent reported that the ATF was working on Operation Fast and Furious in cooperation with the DEA and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). To add to that, an insider at the CIA revealed that the Central Intelligence Agency (aka: the Cocaine Import Agency), had a strong hand in creating, orchestrating and exploiting Operation Fast and Furious. Over fears that the Zetas cartel could totally usurp control of the Mexican government, the CIA reportedly intervened in support of the Sinaloa cartel, with its close ties to the Mexican military. In a report with the Washington Times . it was revealed that the CIA would allow the Sinaloa cartel to smuggle cocaine into the United States on a 747 cargo plane, and in turn, the CIA approached the ATF to create Operation Fast and Furious, ensuring that the trade wasnt one-way, so that arms were funneled into Mexico from the U. S. as drugs were funneled into the U. S. from Mexico, all with CIA support. Meanwhile, according to the New York Times . undercover DEA agents were laundering millions of dollars in drug money for the Mexican cartels in the United States. Within Mexico, the drug money spreads all across the economy, into skyscrapers, casinos, beach resorts, restaurants, the construction industry, and of course, political campaigns. But the 55,000 deaths in Mexico in the past six years have been good for the United States, particularly for gun sales and big banks. In fact, internal investigations revealed that Wachovia Bank, now a part of Wells Fargo, one of the largest banks in the United States, laundered billions of dollars in drug money for Mexican cartels, even as they were receiving bailout money from the United States government. It was not only Wachovia, but also Bank of America that has been implicated in laundering Mexican drug money, worth up to 378.4 billion. Other banks have been implicated as well, in both the United States and Europe. The UN revealed in 2009 that drug money actually saved the major banks, as roughly 352 billion in drug money was absorbed into the financial system during the worst of the economic crisis in 2008. So what do we make of all this We are told that this is called democracy and a strong economy. We are told that this is the best system in the world, which benefits everyone8230 just not you. I prefer to use another word to describe it: Mafiocracy. Now, I did not come up with this word, but it applies, and I can think of no better word to describe the relationship between big business, big banks, government and organized crime. So we are faced with a Mafiocracy, whether in Afghanistan, Colombia, Mexico, the United States, or even in Qubec. With collusion so deep and embedded between organized crime, state agencies, politicians, and financiers, its almost problematic to refer to organized crime as somehow separate, since it isnt. So lets call it what it is: a Mafiocracy. A local Mafiocracy, such as the one which exists in Qubec between the local Mafia, the local government, and the local economic elite, is inter-related with the global Mafiocracy, atop of which sit the Kings of Capital and the High Priests of Globalization. We are in the age of Globalization, and the Mafiocracy has been significantly globalized and energized. As the Mafiocracy gets stronger, democracy gets weaker, until it is altogether gone and dead, without even a memory remaining. The first time I heard the term Mafiocracy was in an incredible documentary about Argentina, entitled, Social Genocide , covering the countrys recent history of military dictatorships supported by the U. S. followed by the age of neoliberalism with liberal democratic governments more corrupt than the dictatorships that preceded them, with an elite so extravagant it would be almost comically-absurd if it wasnt so disturbing. The film documents the relationship between democratically-elected leaders, narco-trafficking, organized crime, international terrorism, Western banking institutions, the IMF and World Bank, corruption feeding off of the national debt, the privatization of public wealth, and all the while demanding the population pay for the Mafiocracy through austerity and structural adjustment, what is translated in real terms into Social Genocide. When the people stood up in December of 2001, Argentinas president declared a state of siege, which was responded to by the population who took their pots and pans out into the streets across the country and to the Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires, and they banged their pots and pans in the midst of police confrontations that killed 26 people, eventually forcing the president to flee from the city by helicopter. The Mafiocracy demanded the people suffer for its own excesses, for its wealth and power, and imposed a rigid, organized, structured and systematic program of Social Genocide: what economists, politicians and pundits refer to as fiscal austerity and structural adjustment. The people took their pots and pans into the streets and said No More For more than 100 days, hundreds and thousands of students in Qubec have been on strike against a plan to increase tuition by roughly 75. The Mafiocracy government, after two months of refusing to speak to the students and instead used state violence and repression against them, finally agreed to sit down and talk in April. They then cancelled the negotiations and threw out a new proposal which would actually increase the tuition hike. Obviously, this insulting gesture was rejected. Then there were other negotiations in early May, while the riot police were outside nearly killing a few students by shooting them in the face and head with rubber bullets, the government pressured the student leaders to sign a sham of an agreement, with extra pressure coming from the major union leaders, who only exist today because of their willingness to engage and collude with the Mafiocracy particularly the government and big business and so they told the students it was the best deal they would get. The deal did not include a decrease in the tuition increases. This entire process has taken place in the midst of a national media campaign against the student movement, which increased and evolved into a social movement, an anti-austerity movement, and at times, even a small rebellion against the Mafiocracy. The media framed the striking students as spoiled brats who were whining and crying about a loss of entitlements. The latest negotiations broke down last week. Why Because after four days of negotiations, the only compromise the government engaged in, was to agree to reduce the overall tuition increases by 1. Yes, you read correctly: ONE DOLLAR . This is what it means to negotiate with a Mafiocracy. But the students continue to march, continue to inspire, and the movement the Maple Spring continues to expand beyond the students, far beyond the issue of tuition, and far beyond Qubec. People walk through the streets, every day and every night, in defiance of a law passed by the Mafiocracy government which criminalized spontaneous protests. People step outside and bang their pots and pans, walk through the streets, through rain storms and sun shine, hot or cold. People are aware that they could again be pepper sprayed, tear gassed, smoke bombed, beaten with batons, trampled with horses, driven into with cars, shot with rubber bullets, or arrested en masse. But still, they go. And across Canada, and in fact, far beyond, people are taking their pots and pans and stepping out into their streets in solidarity. Remember that description we once heard for the system of government we were supposed to be living under: of, by, and for the people Is that the Mafiocracy We were a generation reviled for our trivial technological obsessions, entertainment enslavement, and absolute apathy. So we defy those stereotypes and step out into the streets, day after day. We are no longer apathetic, and now we are called spoiled and entitled. But thats okay people especially those in power, who speak through the media always fear what they do not understand. Now the social gatherings of youth are not necessarily at bars and clubs, but in protests and casseroles (marching with pots and pans). Regardless of the outcome, we have come to realize that we are a powerful force when united, that we have to physically, intellectually, and emotionally put ourselves on the line to struggle for what is right. We realized that when our options are to either suffer or struggle, the choice is easy. We have a long way ahead of us, we struggle, we persevere, we protest, we push, we persist, we have not yet prevailed, but we are linking up with people especially youth across Canada and around the world. We are using the technology which in one sense had enslaved us to obscurity and apathy, and are now using it to mobilize and organize more than ever before. We have taken the first steps which are required in a global struggle of people against a global Mafiocracy. We follow in the footsteps of those who have walked before us, whether they are in Egypt, Tunisia, Greece, Spain, Iceland, or Chile. They cannot fight our fight for us, but we can all fight together. Our struggle is global, though we may experience it in the local. With every step forward, we realize the global implications of what we are starting to do, and the world is starting to watch. The people are waking up, walking out, and trying to reshape society so that it does not simply benefit the few at the expense of the many. This is called Democracy. For more information on the 8216Maple Spring8217, see: The Qubec Student Strike: From Maple Spring to Summer Rebellion What Really Happened at the Montral May Day Protest From Peaceful Protest to Police Brutality Ten Points Everyone Should Know About the Quebec Student Movement From the Chilean Winter to the Maple Spring: Solidarity and the Student Movements in Chile and Quebec Quebec Steps Closer to Martial Law to Repress Students: Bill 78 is a Declaration of War on the Student Movement Writing About the Student Movement in Qubec: Youre Damn Right Im Biased Confessions of a Non-Neutral Observer Andrew Gavin Marshall is an independent researcher and writer based in Montreal, Canada, writing on a number of social, political, economic, and historical issues. He is also Project Manager of The Peoples Book Project. He also hosts a weekly podcast show, Empire, Power, and People, on BoilingFrogsPost . 3) The student strike was organized through democratic means and with democratic aims 4) This is not an exclusively Quebecois phenomenon 5) Government officials and the media have been openly calling for violence and fascist tactics to be used against the students 6) Excessive state violence has been used against the students 7) The government supports organized crime and opposes organized students 8) Canadas elites punish the people and oppose the students 9) The student strike is being subjected to a massive and highly successful propaganda campaign to discredit, dismiss, and demonize the students 10) The student movement is part of a much larger emerging global movement of resistance against austerity, neoliberalism, and corrupt power 1) The issue is debt, not tuition . In dismissing the students, who are striking against a 75 increase in the cost of tuition over the next five years, the most common argument used is in pointing out that Quebec students pay the lowest tuition in North America, and therefore, they should not be complaining. Even with the 75 increase, they will still be paying substantially lower than most other provinces. Quebec students pay on average 2,500 per year in tuition, while the rest of Canadas students pay on average 5,000 per year. With the tuition increase of 1,625 spread out over five years, the total tuition cost for Quebec students would be roughly 4,000. The premise here is that since the rest of Canada has it worse, Quebec students should shut up, sit down, and accept reality. THIS IS FALSE. In playing the numbers game, commentators and their parroting public repeat the tuition costs but fail to add in the numbers which represent the core issue: DEBT. So, Quebec students pay half the average national tuition. True. But they also graduate with half the average national student debt. With the average tuition at 5,000year, the average student debt for an undergraduate in Canada is 27,000, while the average debt for an undergraduate in Quebec is 13,000. With interest rates expected to increase, in the midst of a hopeless job situation for Canadian youth, Canadas youth face a future of debt that is bankrupting a generation of students. The notion, therefore, that Quebec students should not struggle against a bankrupt future is a bankrupted argument. 2) Striking students in Quebec are setting an example for youth across the continent . Nearly 60 of Canadian students graduate with debt, on average at 27,000 for an undergraduate degree. Total student debt now stands at about 20 billion in Canada (15 billion from Federal Government loans programs, and the rest from provincial and commercial bank loans). In Quebec, the average student debt is 15,000, whereas Nova Scotia and Newfoundland have an average student debt of 35,000, British Columbia at nearly 30,000 and Ontario at nearly 27,000. Roughly 70 of new jobs in Canada require a post-secondary education. Half of students in their 20s live at home with their parents, including 73 per cent of those aged 20 to 24 and nearly a third of 25- to 29-year-olds. On average, a four-year degree for a student living at home in Canada costs 55,000. and those costs are expected to increase in coming years at a rate faster than inflation. It has been estimated that in 18 years, a four-year degree for Canadian students will cost 102,000. Defaults on government student loans are at roughly 14. The Chairman of the Canadian Federation of Students warned in June of 2011 that, We are on the verge of bankrupting a generation before they even enter the workplace. This immense student debt affects every decision made in the lives of young graduates. With few jobs, enormous housing costs, the cutting of future benefits and social security, students are entering an economy which holds very little for them in opportunities. Women, minorities, and other marginalized groups are in an even more disadvantaged position. Canadian students are increasingly moving back home and relying more and more upon their parents for support. An informal Globe and Mail poll in early May of 2012 (surveying 2,200 students), shows that students across Canada share a similar anxiety over rising tuition fees as that felt in Quebec. Roughly 62 of post-secondary students said they would join a similar strike in their own province. while 32 said they would not, and 5.9 were undecided. In Ontario, where tuition is the highest in Canada, 69 said they would support a strike against increasing tuition. A Quebec research institution released a report in late March of 2012 indicating that increasing the cost of tuition for students is creating a student debt bubble akin to the housing bubble in the United States, and with interest rates set to increase, todays students may well find themselves in the same situation of not being able to pay off their student loans. The authors of the report from the Institut de recherche et dinformations socio-economique explained that, Since governments underwrite those loans, if students default it could be catastrophic for public finances, and that, If the bubble explodes, it could be just like the mortgage crisis. In the United States, the situation is even worse. In March of 2012, the Federal Reserve reported that 27 percent of student borrowers whose loans have gone into repayment are now delinquent on their debt. Student debt in the United States has reached 1 trillion. passing total credit card debt along the way. It has become a threat to the entire existence of the middle class in America. Bankruptcy lawyers in the US are seeing the telltale signs of a student loan debt bubble. A recent survey from the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys (NACBA) indicated, more than 80 percent of bankruptcy lawyers have seen a substantial increase in the number of clients seeking relief from student loans in recent years. The head of the NACBA stated, This could very well be the next debt bomb for the U. S. economy . In 1993, 45 of students who earn a bachelors degree had to go into debt today, it is 94. The average student debt in the United States in 2011 was 23,300, with 10 owning more than 54,000 and 3 owing more than 100,000. President Obama has addressed the situation by simply providing more loans to students. A recent survey of graduates revealed that 40 of them had delayed making a major purchase, like a home or car, because of college debt, while slightly more than a quarter had put off continuing their education or had moved in with relatives to save money, and 50 of those surveyed had full-time jobs. Between 2001 and 2011, state and local financing per student declined by 24 percent nationally. In the same period of time, tuition and fees at state schools increased 72 percent. It would appear that whether in the United States, Canada, or even beyond, the decisions made by schools, banks, and the government, are geared toward increasing the financial burden on students and families, and increasing profits for themselves. The effect will be to plunge the student and youth population into poverty over the coming years. Thus, the student movement in Quebec, instead of being portrayed as entitled brats elsewhere, are actually setting an example for students and youth across the continent and beyond. Since Quebec tuition is the lowest on the continent, it gives all the more reason that other students should follow Quebecs example, instead of Quebec students being told to follow the rest of the country (and continent) into debt bondage. 3) The student strike was organized through democratic means and with democratic aims: The decision to strike was made through student associations and organizations that uniquely operate through direct-democracy. While most student associations at schools across Canada hold elections where students choose the members of the associations, the democratic accountability ends there (just like with government). Among the Francophone schools in Quebec, the leaders are not only elected by the students, but decisions are made through general assemblies, debate and discussion, and through the votes of the actual constituents, the members of the student associations, not just the leaders. This means that the student associations that voted to strike are more democratically accountable and participatory than most other student associations, and certainly the government. It represents a more profound and meaningful working definition of democracy that is lacking across the rest of the country. The Anglophone student associations that went on strike from Concordia and McGill did so because, for the first time ever . they began to operate through direct-democracy. This of course, has resulted in insults and derision from the media. The national media in Canada most especially the National Post complain that the student tactics are anything but democratic , and that the students arent acting in a democratic way, but that its really mob rule . Obviously, it is nave to assume that the National Post has any sort of understanding of democracy. 4) This is not an exclusively Quebecois phenomenon . I am an Anglophone, I dont even speak French, I have only lived in Montreal for under two years, but the strikers are struggling as much for me as for any other student, Francophone or Anglophone. Typically, when others across Canada see what is taking place here, they frame it along the lines of, Oh those Quebecois, always yelling about something. But Im yelling too8230 in English. Many people here are yelling8230 in English. It is true that the majority of the students protesting are Francophone, and the majority of the schools on strike are Francophone, but it is not exclusionary. In fact, the participation in the strike from the Anglophone schools (while a minority within the schools) is unprecedented in Quebec history. This was undertaken because students began mobilizing at the grassroots and emulating the French student groups in how they make decisions (i. e. through direct-democracy). The participation of Anglophone students in the open-ended strike is unprecedented in Quebec history. 5) Government officials and the media have been openly calling for violence and fascist tactics to be used against the students . With all the focus on student violence at protests, breaking bank windows, throwing rocks at riot police, and other acts of vandalism, student leaders have never called for violence against the government or vandalism against property, and have, in fact, denounced it and spoken out for calm, stating: The student movement wants to fight alongside the populace and not against it. On the other hand, it has been government officials and the national media which have been openly calling for violence to be used against students. On May 11, Michael Den Tandt, writing for the National Post . stated that, Its time for tough treatment of Quebec student strikers, and recommended to Quebec Premier Jean Charest that, He must bring down the hammer. Tandt claimed that there was a better way to deal with student protesters: Dispersal with massive use of tear gas then arrest, public humiliation, and some pain. He even went on to suggest that, caning is more merciful than incarceration, or perhaps even re-imagining the medieval punishment in which miscreants and neer-do-wells were placed in the stockade, in the public square, and pelted with rotten cabbages. That might not be a bad idea, either. This, Tandt claimed, would be the only way to preserve peace, order, and good government. Kelly McParland, writing the for National Post on May 11, suggested that it was now time for Charest to empower the police to use the full extent of the law against those who condone or pursue further disruption, and that the government must make a show of strength against the students. If this was not bad enough, get ready for this: A member of the Quebec Liberal Party, head of the tax office in the Municipal Affairs Department, Bernard Guay, wrote an article for a French-language newspaper in Quebec in mid-April advocating a strategy to end the student strikes. In the article, the government official recommended using the fascist movements of the 1920s and 1930s as an example in how to deal with leftists in giving them their own medicine. He suggested organizing a political cabal to handle the wasteful and anti-social situation, which would mobilize students to not only cross picket lines, but to confront and assault students who wear the little red square (the symbol of the student strike). This, Guay suggested, would help society overcome the tyranny of Leftist agitators, no doubt by emulating fascist tyranny. The article was eventually pulled and an apology was issued, while a government superior supposedly reprimanded Guay, though the government refused to elaborate on what that consisted of. Just contemplate this for a moment: A Quebec Liberal government official recommended using inspiration from fascist movements to attack the striking students. Imagine if one of the student associations had openly called for violence, let alone for the emulation of fascism. It would be national news, and likely lead to arrests and charges. But since it was a government official, barely a peep was heard. 6) Excessive state violence has been used against the students . Throughout the three months of protests from students in Quebec, the violence has almost exclusively been blamed on the students. Images of protesters throwing rocks and breaking bank windows inundate the media and inform the discourse, demonizing the students as violent, vandals, and destructive. Meanwhile, the reality of state violence being used against the students far exceeds any of the violent reactions from protesters, but receives far less coverage. Riot police meet students with pepper spray, tear gas, concussion grenades, smoke bombs, beating them with batons, shoot them with rubber bullets, and have even been driving police cars and trucks into groups of students. On May 4, on the 42 nd anniversary of the Kent State massacre in which the U. S. National Guard murdered four protesting students, Quebec almost experienced its own Kent State, when several students were critically injured by police, shot with rubber bullets in the face. One student lost an eye, and another remains in the hospital with serious head injuries. including a skull fracture and brain contusion. The Quebec provincial police the SQ have not only been involved in violent repression of student protests in Quebec, but have also (along with the RCMP) been involved in training foreign police forces how to violently repress their own populations. such as in Haiti. Roughly 12,000 people in Quebec have signed a petition against the police reaction to student protests, stipulating that the police actions have been far too violent. In late April, even before the Quebec police almost killed a couple students, Amnesty International asked the government to call for a toning down of police measures that8230 are unduly aggressive and might potentially smother students8217 right to free expression. The Quebec government, of course, defends police violence against students and youths. The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) Canadas spy agency has recently announced its interest in gathering intelligence on Quebec student protesters and related groups as possible threats to national security . Coincidentally, Prime Minister Stephen Harper dismantled the government agency responsible for oversight of CSIS, making the agency essentially unaccountable. In reaction to student protests, the City of Montreal is considering banning masks being worn at protests in a new bylaw which is being voted on without public consultation. Thus, apparently it is fine for police to wear gas masks as they shoot chemical agents at Quebecs youth, but students cannot attempt to even meagerly protect themselves by covering their faces. The federal Conservative government of Stephen Harper is attempting to pass a law that bans masks at protests, which includes a ten-year sentence for rioters who wear masks . Quebec has even established a secretive police unit called the GAMMA squad to monitor political groups in the province, which has already targeted and arrested members of the leading student organization behind the strike. The police unit is designed to monitor anarchists and marginal political groups . Some political groups have acknowledged this as a declaration of war by the government against such groups. Spokesperson for the largest student group, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, stated that, This squad is really a new kind of political police to fight against social movements. The situation of police repression has become so prevalent that even the U. S. State Department has warned Americans to stay away from student protests in the city. as bystanders can quickly be caught up in unforeseen violence and in some cases, detained by the local police. 7) The government supports organized crime and opposes organized students: The government claims that it must increase the cost of tuition in order to balance the budget and to increase the competitiveness of schools. The government has ignored, belittled, undermined, attempted to divide, and outright oppress the student movement. The Liberal Government of Quebec, in short, has declared organized students to be enemies of the state. Meanwhile, that same government has no problem of working with and supporting organized crime, namely, the Montreal Mafia. In 2010, Quebec, under Premier Jean Charest, was declared to be the most corrupt province in Canada. A former opposition leader in the Montreal city hall reported that, the Italian mafia controls about 80 per cent of city hall. The mafia is a big player in the Quebec economy, and is deeply entrenched in city affairs of Montreal, as more than 600 businesses pay Mafia protection money in Montreal alone, handing organized crime leaders an unprecedented degree of control of Quebec8217s economy . The construction industry, especially, is heavily linked to the mafia. The Montreal Mafia is as influential as their Sicilian counterparts, where all of the major infrastructure work in Sicily is under Mafia control. In 2009, a government official stated that, Its Montreals Italian Mafia that controls what is going on in road construction. They control, from what we can tell, 80 per cent of the contracts . In the fall of 2011, an internal report written by the former Montreal police chief for the government was leaked, stating, We have discovered a firmly rooted, clandestine universe on an unexpected scale, harmful to our society on the level of safety and economics and of justice and democracy . The report added, Suspicions are persistent that an evil empire is taking form in the highway construction domain, and that, If there were to be an intensification of influence-peddling in the political sphere, we would no longer simply be talking about marginal, or even parallel criminal activities: we could suspect an infiltration or even a takeover of certain functions of the state. Quebec Premier Jean Charest, for several years, rejected calls for a public inquiry into corruption in the construction industry, even as the head of Quebecs anti-collusion squad called for such an inquiry. An opposition party in Quebec stated that Jean Charest is protecting the (Quebec) Liberal party 8211 and in protecting the Liberal party, Mr. Charest is protecting the Mafia, organized crime . After the leaked report revealed cost overruns totaling hundreds of millions of dollars, kickbacks and illegal donations to political parties, Charest had to after two years of refusing open a public inquiry into corruption. The Quebec mafia have not only run gambling and prostitution and imported stupefying amounts of illegal drugs into Canada, but they have extended their influence to elected civic and provincial governments, and to Liberal and Conservative federal governments through bribery and other illustrious relations. The Federal Conservative Party of Canada, with Prime Minister Stephen Harper as its leader, received dozens of donations from Mafia-connected construction and engineering firm employees. The Mafia-industry has also donated to the Federal Liberal Party, but less so than the Conservatives, who hold power. In Quebec, government officials have helped the Mafia charge far more for public-works contracts than they were worth. These Mafia companies would then use a lot of that extra money to fund political parties, most notably, the Liberals. who have been in power for nine years. A former Montreal police officer who worked in the intelligence unit with access to the polices confidential list of informants was suspected of selling information to the mafia. In January of 2012, he was found dead, reportedly of a suicide. In April of 2012, fifteen arrests were made in Montreal by the police in relation to corruption charges linked to the Mafia. Among them were one of the biggest names in the construction industry, with 14 individual facing conspiracy charges involving municipal contracts associated with the Mascouche water-treatment plants that are connected to big construction, engineering and law firms that have been involved in municipal contracts and politics across the Montreal region for decades. And the individuals have been around the municipal world for years. One Quebec mayor has even been charged. The Montreal police force has not been very interested. and it should be, in helping the anti-corruption investigation. Two of those who were arrested included Quebec Liberal Party fundraisers. one of whom Charest personally delivered an award to in 2010 for his years of service as an organizer. All three of Quebecs main political parties were connected to individuals arrested in the raids. Canadas federal police force, the RCMP, have refused to cooperate with the Mafia-corruption inquiry in handing over their massive amounts of information to the judge leading the inquiry. Quebec Education Minister Line Beauchamp, who has been leading the government assault against the students, attended a political fundraiser for herself which was attended by a notorious Mafia figure who personally donated generously to the ministers Liberal riding association. As these revelations emerged, Beauchamp stated, I dont know the individual in question and even today I wouldnt be able to recognize him. At the time, Beauchamp was the Environment Minister, and was responsible for granting the Mafia figures company a favourable certificate to expand its business. Beauchamp claimed she did not know about the deal, but as head of the Ministry which handled it, either she is utterly incompetent or a liar. Either way, she is clearly not fit for public service if it amounts to nothing more than service to the Mafia. The fact that she is now responsible for increasing tuition and leading the attack on students speaks volumes. Line Beauchamp, when questioned about taking political contributions from the Mafia, stated, Now that the information is public and the links well established, I would not put myself in that position again. Well isnt that reassuring Now that its public, she wouldnt do it again. Thats sort of like saying, I wouldnt have committed the crime if I knew I was going to be caught. The notion that Beauchamp didnt know whom this Mafia figure was who was giving her money is absurd. Its even more absurd when you note that one of Beauchamps political attaches was a 30-year veteran of the Montreal police force. As one Quebec political figure commented about the Liberal Governments Mafia links: They refuse to sit down with a student leader but they have breakfast with a mafioso 8230 where is the logic in that Indeed. Its clear that the Quebec government has no problem working with, handing out contracts to, and taking money from the Mafia and organized crime. In fact, they are so integrated that the government itself is a form of organized crime. But for that government, and for the media boot-lickers who follow the government line, organized students are the true threat to Quebec. National newspapers declare Quebec students following mob rule when its actually the government that is closely connected to mob rule. The students are challenging and being repressed by a Mafioso-government alliance of industrialists, politicians, financiers and police8230 yet it is the students who are blamed for everything. The government gives the Mafia public contracts double or triple their actual value, wasting hundreds of millions of dollars (if not more), while students are being asked to pay nearly double their current tuition. Theres money for the mob, but scraps for the students. 8) Canadas elites punish the people and oppose the students: Its not simply the government of Quebec which has set itself against the students, sought to increase their tuition and repress their resistance, often with violent means, but a wide sector of elite society in Quebec and Canada propose tuition increases and blind faith to the state in managing its repression of a growing social movement. As such, the student movement should recognize that not simply are Jean Charest and his Liberal-Mafia government the antagonists of social justice, but the whole elite society itself. As early as 2007, TD Bank, one of Canadas big five banks, outlined a plan for prosperity for the province of Quebec, and directly recommended Quebec to raise tuition costs for students. Naturally, the Quebec government is more likely to listen to a bank than the youth of the province. Banks of course, have an interest in increasing tuition costs for students, as they provide student loans and lines of credit which they charge interest on and make profits. The Royal Bank of Canada acknowledged that student lines of credit are very popular products . Elites of all sorts support the tuition increases. In February of 2010. a group of prominent (i. e. elitist) Quebecers signed a letter proposing to increase Quebecs tuition costs. Among the signatories were the former Premier of Quebec for the Parti Quebecois, Lucien Bouchard. In early May, a letter was published in the Montreal Gazette which stated that students need to pay more for their education in Quebec, signed by the same elitists who proposed the tuition increase back in February of 2010. Initially, this group of elitists had proposed an increase of 1,000 every year for three years. The letter then calls for the application of state power to be employed against the student movement: It is time that we react. We must reinstate order the students have to return to class8230 This is a situation when, regardless of political allegiances, the population must support the state. which is ultimately responsible for public order, the safety of individuals and the integrity of our institutions. The integrity of institutions which cooperate with the Mafia, I might add. What incredible integrity The letter was signed by Lucien Bouchard, former Premier of Quebec Michel Audet, an economist and former Finance Minister in the first Charest government in Quebec Franoise Bertrand, the President and chief executive officer of the Fdration des chambres de commerce du Qubec (The Quebec Federation of Chambers of Commerce), where she sits alongside the presidents and executives of major Canadian corporations, banks, and business interests. She also sits on the board of directors of Quebecor Inc. a major media conglomerate, with former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney on its board. Another signatory was Yves-Thomas Dorval, President of the Quebec Employers8217 Council, who formerly worked for British American Tobacco Group. former Vice President at Edelman Canada, an international public relations firm, was a director at a pharmaceutical corporation, head of strategic planning at an insurance company, and previously worked for the Government of Quebec and Hydro-Quebec. Joseph Facal, another signatory to the letter demanding higher tuition and state repression of students, is former president of the Quebec Treasury Board, and was a cabinet minister in the Quebec government of Lucien Bouchard. Other signatories include Pierre Fortin, a professor emeritus at the Universit du Qubec Montral Michel Gervais, the former rector of Universit Laval Monique Jrme-Forget, former finance minister of Quebec and former president of the Quebec Treasury Board, member of the Quebec Liberal Party between 1998 and 2009, was responsible for introducing public-private partnerships in Quebecs infrastructure development (which saw enormous cooperation with the Mafia), and is on the board of directors of Astral Media. Robert Lacroix, another co-signer, was former rector of the Universit de Montral is also a fellow at CIRANO, a Montreal-based think tank which is governed by a collection of university heads, business executives, and bankers. including representatives from Power Corporation (owned by the Desmarais family). Another signatory is Michel Leblanc, president and CEO of the Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal, a prominent business organization in Montreal, of which the board of directors includes a number of corporate executives, mining company representatives, university board members, bankers and Hlne Desmarais. who married into the Desmarais family. Another signatory is Claude Montmarquette, professor emeritus at the Universit de Montral, who is also a member of the elitist CIRANO think tank, which as a research institution (for elites) has recommended increasing Quebecs tuition costs for several years. Another signatory was Marcel Boyer. a Bell Canada Professor of industrial economics at the Universit de Montral, Vice-president and chief economist at the Montreal Economic Institute, is the C. D. Howe Scholar in Economic Policy at the C. D. Howe Institute, Member of the Board of the Agency for Public-Private Partnerships of Qubec, and Visiting Senior Research Advisor for industrial economics at Industry Canada. At the Montreal Economic Institute, Boyer sits alongside notable elitists, bankers, and corporate executives, including Hlne Desmarais. who married into the Desmarais family (the most powerful family in Canada). At the C. D. Howe Institute, Boyer works for even more elitists, as the board of directors is made up of some of Canadas top bankers, corporate executives, and again includes Hlne Desmarais. The Desmarais family, who own Power Corporation and its many subsidiaries, as well as a number of foreign corporations in Europe and China, are Canadas most powerful family. The patriarch, Paul Desmarais Sr. has had extremely close business and even family ties to every Canadian Prime Minister since Pierre Trudeau, and all Quebec premiers (save two) in the past several decades. The Desmarais have strong links to the Parti Quebecois, the Liberals, Conservatives, and even the NDP, and socialize with presidents and prime ministers around the world, as well as the Rothschilds, Rockefellers, and even Spanish royalty. Paul Desmarais Sr. has a disproportionate influence on politics and the economy in Quebec and Canada, and he especially has a lot of influence on Premier Jean Charest. When former French President Nicolas Sarkozy gave Desmarais the French Legion of Honour, Desmarais brought Jean Charest with him. Quebec author Robin Philpot commented that Desmarais took him along like a poodle , referring to Charest. The Desmarais family has extensive ties to Canadian and especially Quebec politicians, have extensive interests in Canadian and international corporations and banks, are closely tied to major national and international think tanks (including the Council on Foreign Relations, the Trilateral Commission, and the Bilderberg Group), and even host an annual international think tank conference in Montreal, the Conference of Montreal. The Desmarais family have had very close ties to Prime Ministers Pierre Trudeau, Brian Mulroney, Jean Chretien, Paul Martin, and even Stephen Harper, and to Quebec premiers, including Lucien Bouchard, who co-authored the article in the Gazette advocating increased tuition. The Desmarais empire also includes ownership of seven of the ten French newspapers in Quebec, including La Presse. The Desmarais family stand atop a parasitic Canadian oligarchy. which has bankers and corporate executives controlling the entire economy, political parties, the media, think tanks which set policy, and even our educational institutions, with the chancellors of both Concordia and McGill universities serving on the boards of the Bank of Montreal and the Royal Bank of Canada, respectively, as well as both schools having extensive leadership ties to Power Corporation and the Desmarais family. It is this very oligarchy which demands the people pay more, go further into debt, suffer and descend into poverty, while they make record profits. In March of 2012, Power Corporation reported fourth quarter profits of 314 million. with yearly earnings at over 1.1 billion. Canadas banks last year made record profits. and then decided to increase bank fees. At the end of April, it was reported that Canadas banks had received a secret bailout back in 200809, from both the Bank of Canada and the U. S. Federal Reserve, amounting to roughly 114 billion, or 3,400 for every Canadian man, woman, and child (more than the cost of yearly tuition in Quebec). And yet Quebec youth are told we suffer from entitlement. And now banks are expected to be making even more profits. as reported in early May. As banks make more record profits, Canadians are going deeper into debt. The big Canadian banks, along with the federal government, have colluded to create a massive housing bubble in Canada, most especially in Toronto and Vancouver, and with average Canadian household debt at 103,000, most of which is held in mortgages, and with the Bank of Canada announcing its intent to raise interest rates, Canada is set for a housing crisis like that seen in the United States in 2008. forcing the people to suffer while the banks make a profit. The head of the Bank of Canada (a former Goldman Sachs executive) said that Canadian household debt is the biggest threat to the Canadian economy, but dont worry, Canadas Finance Minister said he is working in close cooperation with the big banks to intervene in the housing market if necessary, which would likely mean another bailout for the big banks, and of course, hand the check to you So, Canada has its priorities: every single Canadian man, woman, and child owes 3,400 for a secret bank bailout to banks that are now making record profits and increasing their fees, while simultaneously explaining that there is no money for education, so we will have to pay more for that, too, which is something those same banks demand our governments do to us. When the students stand up, they are said to be brats and whining about entitlements. But then, what does that make the banks This is why I argue that Canadas elites are parasitic in their very nature. slowly draining the host (thats us) of its life until there is nothing left the extract. 9) The student strike is being subjected to a massive and highly successful propaganda campaign to discredit, dismiss, and demonize the students . In the vast majority of coverage on the student strike and protests in Quebec, the media and its many talking heads have undertaken a major propaganda campaign against the students. The students have been consistently ignored, dismissed, derided, insulted and attacked. One Canadian newspaper said it was hard to feel sorry for Quebec students, who were whining and crying and kicking up a fuss, treating Canadas young generation like ungrateful children throwing a collective tantrum. In almost every article about the student strike, the main point brought up to dismiss the students is that Quebec has the lowest tuition costs in North America. The National Post published a column written by a third-year political science student at McGill University in Montreal stating that, Quebec students must pay their share, and advised people to ignore the overheated rhetoric from student strikers , and that, Jean Charest must go full steam ahead. The student author, Brendan Steven, is co-founder of McGills Moderate Political Action Committee (ModPAC), which is an organizing mobilizing McGill students in opposition to the strike. Stevens organization attacked striking student associations as illegitimate, unconstitutional shams and attacked the democratic functioning of other student associations holding general assemblies. Steven complained that the democratic general assemblies are being invented on a whim . Brendan Steven not only gets to write columns for the National Post . but gets interviewed on CBC . Stevens anti-strike group sent a letter to the McGill administration complaining about pro-strike students on the campus, writing, This group violates our democratic right to access an education without fear of harm, and added: We are demanding the McGill administration take action against this minority group before the current conflicts escalate into disasters. They have proven they will not remain peaceful. As a lap-dog boot-licking power worshipper, Brendan Steven has a future for himself in politics, thats for sure Back in January, Steven wrote an article for the Huffington Post in which he explained that the reason why CEOs get paid so much is because theyre worth it . He referred to Milton Friedman the father of neoliberalism as a great economic thinker. Back in November of 2011, Steven wrote an article for the McGill Daily entitled, Do not demonize authorities, and then went on to justify police violence against protesting students engaged in an occupation of a school building, which he characterized as an inherently hostile act . Steven later got an opportunity to appear on CBCs The Current . Margaret Wente, writing for the Globe and Mail . wrote that, Its a little hard for the rest of us to muster sympathy for Quebecs downtrodden students, who pay the lowest tuition fees in all of North America. She then referred to the striking students as the baristas of tomorrow and they dont even know it. Wente then attempted to explain the Quebec students by writing: Now I get it: The kids are on another planet. Interesting how she used the word kids to just add a little extra condescension. But it seems clear that Wente gets very little. In an August 2011 column, Wente tried to explain why poor black communities in Britain and America were experiencing riots and gang activity, placing blame on single-mothers and family breakdown, and explained that, Rootless, unmoored young men with no stake in society are a major threat to social order. Explaining this demographic in economic terms, Wente wrote: They are, quite simply, surplus to requirements . In another column, Wente argued that helping deliver much-needed humanitarian supplies to Gaza would enable terrorists . Wente also wrote an article entitled, The poor are doing better than you think, suggesting that its not so bad for poor people because they have air conditioning, DVD players, and cable TV. Wente has been consistently critical of the Occupy movement, and suggested in another article that, the biggest economic challenge we face today is not income inequality, greedy corporations, Wall Street corruption or the concentration of wealth among the top 1 per cent. Its the increasing failure of young men with high-school degrees or less to latch on to the world of work. Of course, in Wentes world, the inability of young men to get a job has nothing to do with income inequality, greedy corporations, Wall Street corruption or the concentration of wealth. In another article criticizing the Occupy movement, Wente managed to argue that it was not Wall Street and bankers that have destroyed the economy and left people without jobs, but rather what she refers to as the virtueocracy, blaming unions, single mothers who gets masters degrees in social science s, and people who want to work at NGOs and non-profits, doing transformational, world-saving work. So its Wentes insightful voice which is informing Canadians about the student movement in Quebec. Other Canadian publications writing about the Quebec student strike have headlines like, Reality check for the entitled , repeating the idiotic argument that because Quebec students pay less than the rest of Canada, they shouldnt be complaining about the hikes. Andrew Coyne wrote a syndicated column in which he claimed that, Quebec students know violence works , framing the protest at which police almost killed two students as an action of general rage the students had promised. With no mention of the student who lost an eye, or the other student who ended up in the hospital with critical head injuries, Coyne talked about a cop who was beaten savagely and lay helpless on the ground. No mention, of course, of the police truck that drove into a group of students moments later, or the fact that the cop who was beaten savagely got away with minor injuries, unlike the students who were shot in the face with rubber bullets. By simply omitting police brutality and violence, Coyne presented the student movement as itself inherently violent, instead of at times erupting in violent reactions to state violence, which is far more extreme in every case. The Toronto Sun even had an article which claimed that the students have employed tactics of thuggery and violent criminal behaviour. Publications regularly ask their readers if Quebec students have legitimate grievances, if they are fighting for social justice, or if they are just spoiled brats . A syndicated column from the Vancouver Sun by Licia Corbella was titled, How rioting students help make me grateful. She discussed her latest visit to church where the pastor advised: Parents, do not provoke your children to anger by the way you treat them, and mentioned how parents anger their children by belittling them, underestimating them and not treating them as individuals. Corbella then took particular note of how parents provoke and enrage children when we give them a sense of entitlement. With the word entitlement, Corbella naturally then began thinking about Quebec students, as according to Corbellas pastor, entitlement leads to rage. Corbella wrote that rioting is, in essence, what a spoiled two-year-old would do if they had the ability. She further wrote: In Quebec, these entitled youth, who believe the rest of society MUST provide them with an almost free education or else, have blocked other students from accessing the educations they paid for, burned vehicles, smashed shop windows, looted property and severely beaten up a police officer who got separated from the rest of his colleagues. Again, no mention of the two students who were almost killed by police at the same event. Corbella quoted someone interviewed on TV, endorsing the claim that the student protests are starting to resemble terrorism , though she took issue with the word starting. This is the result of creating, according to Corbell, an entitlement society. Apparently, the pastors lesson about not belittling the young did not sink in with Corbella. An article in the Chronicle Herald asked, What planet are these kids on The author then wrote that, the irony is that these students now want the system to accommodate their desires and for someone else to pay the bill, and that, students should stop making foolish demands . Other articles claim that students need a lesson in economics . After all, the fact that the majority of economists, fully armed with lessons in economics, were unable to predict the massive global economic crisis in 2008, should obviously not lead to any questioning of the ideology of modern economic theory. No, it would be better for students to learn about the ocean from those who couldnt see a tsunami as it approached the beach. Another article, written by a former speechwriter to the Prime Minister of Canada, wrote that the student arguments were vacuous and that the youth were in a state of complete denial . Rex Murphy, a commentator with the National Post and CBC . referred to the student strike as short-sighted and that student actions were crude attempts at precipitating a crisis. Student actions, he claimed, were the actions of a mob and were simply wrong, and thus, should be condemned . The CBC has been particularly terrible in their coverage of the student movement. With few exceptions, the Canadian media have established a consensus in opposition to the student protests. and use techniques of omission, distortion, or outright condemnation in order to promote a distinctly anti-student stance. 10) The student movement is part of a much larger emerging global movement of resistance against austerity, neoliberalism, and corrupt power: In the coverage and discourse about the student movement, very little context is given in placing this student movement in a wider global context. The British newspaper, The Guardian . acknowledged this context, commenting on the red squares worn by striking students (a symbol of going squarely into the red, into debt), explaining that they have become a symbol of the most powerful challenge to neoliberalism on the continent. The article also adopted the term promoted by the student movement itself to describe the wider social context of the protests, calling it the Maple Spring. The author placed the fight against tuition increases in the context of a struggle against austerity measures worldwide, writing: Forcing students to pay more for education is part of a transfer of wealth from the poor and middle-class to the rich as with privatization and the state8217s withdrawal from service-provision, tax breaks for corporations and deep cuts to social programs. The article noted how the student movement has linked up with civic groups against a Quebec government plan to subsidize mining companies in exploiting the natural resources of Northern Quebec (Plan Nord), taking land from indigenous peoples to give to multibillion dollar corporations. As one of the student leaders stated, the protest was about more than tuition and was aimed at the elite class itself, Those people are a single elite, a greedy elite, a corrupt elite, a vulgar elite. an elite that only sees education as an investment in human capital, that only sees a tree as a piece of paper and only sees a child as a future employee. The student strike has thus become a social movement. The protests aim at economic disruption through civil disobedience, and have garnered the support of thousands of protesters, and 200,000 protesters on March 22, and close to 300,000 on April 22. Protests have blocked entrances to banks, disrupted a conference for the Plan Nord exploitation, linking the movement with indigenous and environmental groups. It was only when the movement began to align with other social movements and issues that the government even accepted the possibility of speaking to students. Unions have also increasingly been supporting the student strike. including with large financial contributions. Though, the large union support for the student movement was also involved in attempted co-optation and undermining of the students. At the negotiations between the government and the students, the union leaders convinced the student leaders to accept the deal, which met none of the student demands and kept the tuition increases intact. There was a risk that the major unions were essentially aiming to undermine the student movement. But the student groups, which had to submit the agreement to democratic votes, rejected the horrible government offer. Thus the Maple Spring continues. Quebec is not the only location with student protests taking place. In Chile, a massive student movement has emerged and developed over the past year. changing the politics of the country and challenging the elites and the society they have built for their own benefit. One of the leaders of the Chilean student movement is a 23-year old young woman, Camila Vallejo. who has attained celebrity status. In Quebecs student movement, the most visible and vocal leader is 21-year old Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois. who has also achieved something of celebrity status within the province. Just as in Quebec, student protests in Chile are met with state violence. though in the Latin American country, the apparatus of state violence is the remnants of a U. S.-supported military dictatorship. Still, this does not stop tens of thousands of students going out into the streets in Santiago, as recently as late April. Protests by students have also been emerging elsewhere, often in cooperation and solidarity with the Occupy movement and other anti-austerity protests. Silent protests are emerging at American universities where students are protesting their massive debts. California students have been increasingly protesting increased tuition costs. Student protests at UC Berkeley ended with 12 citations for trespassing. Some students in California have even begun a hunger strike against tuition increases. In Brooklyn, New York. students protesting against tuition increases, many of them wearing the Quebec red square symbol, were assaulted by police officers. Even high school students in New York have been protesting. Israeli social activists are back on the streets protesting against austerity measures. An Occupy group has resumed protests in London. The Spanish indignado movement, which began in May of 2011, saw a resurgence on the one year anniversary, with another round of anti-austerity protests in Spain, bringing tens of thousands of protesters, mostly youths, out into the streets of Madrid, and more than 100,000 across the country. Their protest was met with police repression. Increasingly, students, the Occupy movement, and other social groups are uniting in protests against the costs of higher education and the debts of students. This is indeed the context in which the Maple Spring the Quebec student movement should be placed, as part of a much broader global anti-austerity movement. So march on, students. Show Quebec, Canada, and the world what it takes to oppose parasitic elites, mafia-connected politicians, billionaire bankers, and seek to change a social, political, and economic system that benefits the few at the expense of the many. Solidarity, brothers and sisters For a comprehensive analysis of the Quebec student strike, see: 8220The Qubec Student Strike: From Maple Spring to Summer Rebellion8221 For up to date news and information of student movements around the world, join this Facebook page: We Are the Youth Revolution . Andrew Gavin Marshall is an independent researcher and writer based in Montreal, Canada, writing on a number of social, political, economic, and historical issues. He is also Project Manager of The Peoples Book Project. He also hosts a weekly podcast show, Empire, Power, and People, on BoilingFrogsPost. Warnungen fr Investoren und Anleger 8211 A A amp G Insurance Corporation A amp L Royal Finance A amp R Financial Services (Klon einer registrierten Firma) A and P Holdings Limited A One Loans A Walker Associates (Klon einer registrierten Firma) A Warner Associates Andrew Warner Associates (Klon einer registrierten Firma) A. I.M. Corporation Limited A. J. Brown amp Co Ltd A1 Loans A3 Union AA Capital AAC Ventures Limited AAE Holdings Private Ltd. AAIC Buillion Refinery Gold Co. 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AFI 8211 Alternative Financial Investments AFL Forex 8211 Agincourt Financial Limited (Klon) AFM Advanced Financial Markets Aforti Securities SA Afper Finance AG Group Advisors (aggroupjersey) Agentur Bosser AGF Europe Advisors (Clone of FSA EEA Authorised firm) AGF Markets ag-forextrade AGFX, also trading as AGFX Pro AGIFX (agifx) 8211 auch bekannt als AGI Forex and AGI Markets Agora Alternatives AGP, Atlantic Gaming Partners (atlanticgamingpartners) AGP, atlanticgamingpartners Atlantic Gaming Partners, atlanticgamingpartners Agro Micron Ltd AGsmallcaps website Ahlrates Ltd AIB Asset Management AIBWT Nominees Limited AIFA Global Market (aifafx. co. uk aifagm) AIM Law Associates Aimdex Group Limited, Aimdex Limited Aims Management Aims World Asset amp Investment Management Services Ainsley Consulting SL (auch bekannt als Mercier International Group) Aipost Limited Aipost Airway Capital Investment Aixia Limited, ta T4X Binary, ta T4X Signals AJ Browder Capital AJ Cox Insurance AJ Nelson Consultants LLC AJ Witherspoon and Co AJ Wyman amp Associates LLC AJAJ Group Ajay Kumar Akasaka Acquisition Group AKC GmbH Akeman Allan Capital Akeman Capital Aker Financial AS Akoba FX Akzenta SA Al Global Impex Ltd Al Reen Capital (falsely purporting to be authorised by the FCA) ALAFX Markets Limited Alan Charles King (Clone of FSA Approved Individual) Alan Woods (woods. alan001gmail) ALBAG Geselshaft fr Allgemeine Finanxierungsbetatung GmbH Alberich Gerhard Securities Worldwide (aka A G Securities) Albion Investment Management Alborg Trading Inc. Alco Investment Company Alderley Code Alderman Associates Ltd. Aldermore Investments (Clone of FCA Authorised Firm) Aldershire Capital Aldershire Global Trading Aldershire Limited Alderton Consultants (alderton-consultants) Aldrich Limited Mergers amp Acquisitions Services Alex amp Hazel Limited Alex McGrory aka Alex Maclaren Alexander Holdings Alexander Holdings Financial Group Alexander Capital Management Alexander Holdings Alexander Holdings Financial Group Alexander Rothko and Associates Ltd Alexander Solutions Alfa One Corporation AlfaTrade, Nemesis Capital Limited (wohl zusammengehrig) Alfons Eichler Private Bank IBC Alfort International Limited Alfred Lettner (Klon einer durch die FCA registrierten Firma) Alfred Lettner (Klon) Alfred Weber Wealth Management (clone) Algebra Investments S. A. Algo Capitals (Klon einer durch die FCA registrierten Firma) Algo Capitals Limited Algo Master System Algorates ALIANA INCRPORI INCORPORAO amp PLANEJAMENTO LTDA. Alibgroup. infoAlcbplc Alied Trust (sic) Alimtiaz Gold Investment Alive in 5 Alpha Money Generator Alkor Trade Sp. z o. o. All In One Leman Srl All Property Limited All Settlements Inc. All UK Lenders (Klon einer durch die FCA registrierten Firma) All UK Lenders (Klon eines registrierten Unternehmens) All Your Options ALLASS BVBA Advisory Group Allass BVBA Advisory Group (Klon einer registrierten Firma) Allconi Bank Administration Ltd. Allen Brothers MampA Allen Hall Allendale Development (or Developments) Ltd (allendale-ltd. co. uk) Allendale Financial Services Limited 1959 (Abbreviation AFSL) (allen-dale-ltd-1959.co. uk) Allen-Hall Incorporated Alliance amp Leicester Commercial Bank Alliance Bank Alliance Bond (Klon einer registrierten Firma) Alliance Capital Exchange Alliance Capital Group Alliance Capital Management Alliance Capital Market Alliance Capital Securities Ltd Alliance Credit Insurance Alliance Direct Management Alliance Finance Asset Management Alliance Finance Bank Alliance Finance Plc Alliance Financial Advisory Alliance Financial Group Alliance Financial Services amp Assets Management Limited ta AFA Markets Alliance Global Investors Fund Management LLC Alliance Group, Inc. Alliance In Motion Global Alliance Insurance Agency Alliance International Limited, Inc. Alliance Investment Bank Alliance Investment Group (aig-securities) Alliance Investment Trust Bank Alliance Partnership (Klon einer registrierten Firma) ALLIANCE PRIVATE EQUITY LLP Alliance Strategy Consultants Inc Alliance Transfer Inc. Alliance Trust Investment Bank PLC Alliant Holdings I Inc (alliantholdingsiinc) Allianz Asset Management (Klon einer registrierten Firma) Allianz Global Investors (Clone of FSA Authorised firm) Allianz Global Investors Fund (allianzglobalinvestorsfund) Allianz International Group (allianzinternational) Allianze Global Insurance Inc. allianz-global Allied Advisory Allied Asset Management Allied Champ Investments Allied Financial Trust bank Allied Global Holdings Allied Lucent Allied Partners Financial Group Inc. Allied Securities Corporation Allied Transfer Inc Alma Forex Alpari NZ Limited Alpen Asset Management Trust Srl Alpen Ressourcen SA Alpen Ressourcen Sparkassa Ekonomisk frening Alpha Advanced Innovation Limited Alpha Brokers S. R. (alphabrokerssr) (Clone of previously FSA EEA authorised firm) Alpha Capital Ltd (clone of FCA authorised firm) Alpha Connect Capital GmbH (Clone of FSA EEA authorised firm) Alpha Consulting Group Alpha Corporate Consultants LTD (alphaconsultantsltd) Alpha Finance Alpha Financial Solutions Alpha Finex Ltd Alpha Fund Management Alpha Innovative Strategies Ltd Alpha Invest Alpha Oil Inc. Alpha Properties Alpha REIT Advisors Co. Ltd Alpha Securities (currently representing itself as Alpha Finance) Alpha Trade Alps Resources SA Alston Price Business Ltd Alta Paramount Ltd. Alta Technology Limited Altair Entertainment Nv Altanus Limited (Swiss Money Report) Alter Management LLC Alternative Asset Group Limited (AAG) Alternative Bridging Corporation Alternative Investment Advisors (alternativeinvestmentsab) Alternative Investment Club Altinvestclub The Alternative Investment Group Alternative Markets Alternatives Research Group (alternative-research) Altimeter Worldwide Services JLT Altivex Limited ALTR Alternative Fund Managers Altronix Trading Bot ALV Group Alvaro Gombau Asesores Empresariales, S. L. Alverton International Consultants Amager Bio Bank Amazing Deposit Amazing5 Amber Asset Management (clone firm) Amber Options Amberfield Group (amberfieldgroup) amberoptions Ambit Energy Ambro Investment Research Ambros Group AMBROS GROUP (ambrosgroup) AMC International (HK) Limited Amerex Trade Limited AMERICAN BUSINESS CORPORATION SHARES BRASIL LTDA American Committee of Regulation and Liquidation on Private Ventures American Diversified Holding Corporation American Environment Energy Inc. American Financial Group, Inc. American First City Corporation American First Securities American Futures and Options Exchange (AFOEX) American Heritage Stock Transfer Inc American International Securities Inc. AMERICAN PREMIER TRUST American Taxation Incorporated (americantaxation) American Tunes Investment Group Amethyst Bullion Limited Amexfa AMF Capital Limited AMF Services AMFX AMG Capital Partners Ltd AMG Finanz LTD AMG Zurich (auch bekannt als Associated Management Group) AMG-Clients S. A. Amherst International AMI Professional Services (Klon einer registrierten Firma) Amicus Investment Ltd. Amj Imp amp Exp International Co. Ltd. AMK Trust Ltd (amktrust) Amkel Capital AMR Business Services LLC (amrkpo) Amsel Commodities Amstrad-Wealth S. A. Analysis Finance Analysis Finance Analyst Invest Andaman Asset Management Andersen Consulting (UK) Andersen Mergers Anderson amp Collins Anderson Fitzpatrick (Switzerland) AG Anderson Ford Financial Anderson Franklin Sullivan Partners Ltd. Anderson Goldberg, S. L. Madrid (andersongoldstein) Anderson Holding Sp. z o. o. Anderson McCormack Group, S. L. Anderson Munro Anderson Price Anderson, Franklin, Sullivan Partners Ltd. a. k.a. AFS Partners Ltd. Anderson-McCormack Group SL Andreas Braasch (andreas-braasch) Andreas Geiger Financial Andrew Blake (rbef-limited) Andrew Clayton Advisors (auch bekannt als Andrew Clayton Partners) Andrew Papadopoulos (Mr) Andrew Walker Associates (Klon einer registrierten Firma) Andrew Walker Associates AW Associates Andrew Warner Associates (Klon einer registrierten Firma) ANF Financial Anglo American Asset Management Ltd Anglo American Bank Anglo China Securities Anglo Irish Associates Anglo Swiss Consulting AngloAsia Capital Management Limited Anne Markets Limited Anne8217s Diary Annex International Mergers and Acquisitions Anoli Capital International Inc. Anova Corporate Services (this is an alleged Chinese company) Anpa Forward Ltd ta Transpact (Klon einer durch die FCA registrierten Firma) Antares Capital Management Antek Global Consultants Ltd (antekglobalconsultants) Antek International Anthony amp Carter Anthony Michael Naughton Anthony O8217Donnell Anthony Williams Antiques Supermarket Anyoption Ltd. Anyoption Payment Services Ltd. andor Anyoption Holdings Ao Global Investment (Hong Kong) Co Ltd Aoguan HongKong CO. Limited Aomori Group AOT Europe (Clone of previously FSA EEA Authorised firm) AOT Stock Specialist (Clone of previously FSA EEA Authorised firm) Aozora Alliance ehemals Shinsei Associates AP Alternatives Apex Capital Partners Apex Consulting Online Apex Continental Bank PLC and Securities Apex Continental Bank PLC and Trust Corp Apex Equities Apex Global Platinum Inc. Apex Holdings (apex-holdings) Apex International Consulting Corporation Apex International Consulting Group (AICG) Apex Investment Corporation. Apex Management Limited Apex One Trading Group, apexonetg Apex Stock Transfer Inc. (apexstinc) Apex Trade Group Pte Ltd Apex Trading Group Apex UK Loan API Premiere Swiss Trust AG Apollo Financial Management Apollo Global Securities LLC. (sic) Apollo International Wealth Management Co. Ltd Apollo Multi Asset Management LLP (clone) Apollo Tiger Fund (apollo-tigerfund apolloguernsey apollofundsguernsey) Appleton Associates (appletonassoc) ApplianceFix Ltd Applied Finance Group (AFG) Apps Finance, Malta Group APS International Bank APT Fund Aqua Securities L. P Aquila Financial Services Company AR Facility (arfacility) Arab-Anglo Finance (arab-anglo) ARC Capital Consultants Araxo Technologies Ltd (Araxo4x) Arbonne Arboretix Trading Limited ARC Capital Consultants Arcadia Trading Group, Ltd. Arcadia Oil amp Gas, LLC Arcadian Investment Group Limited Arcfin Group Archipelago Corporate Services Inc. ArchWay Trust Ardea Capital LP Area Broker Consulting (areabrokerconsulting) Areal Equity Capital AG Arendee Consulting Group Ltd Argent Global Network Argentum Caveo Argo Trust Limited Argus Global Equities Limited Ariad Financial Services (Klon eines registrierten Unternehmens) Aries Ventures Inc Aris UK Advisory Ariun Financial Group (Klon einer registrierten Firma) Ark Consultancy Scotland Limited Arkol Insurance Brokers Armstrong amp Knight Armstrong Group, The Aros Securities (Clone of previously FSA EEA Authorised firm) AROUCH INVEST EMPRENDIMENTOS E SERVIOS SC LTDA Arran Funding Limited Arron Copeland Arrow Capital Partners Arrow Merger Consultants ARSU Asset Recovery Solutions (arsu. eu) Artemis Financial Artemis Fund Managers (clone) Arthur Forbes Consulting Arthur-Sera Limited ArtNews S. A. Arus Asset Recovery Solutions Asakura Acquisitions Ascensus Direct (ascensusdirect. de wascensusdirect) Ascensus International (ascensusinternational) Ascot Energy Services Ltd. Ascot Management Group Ascot Management Services Ltd. Asesores Financieros Independientes ASG Markets (asgmarkets. co. uk) Ashby Limited Ashcroft Trust Ashford Financial Group (ashfordfinancialgroup) Ashford Langley 8211 ashford-langley. co. uk Ashland Mergers amp Acquisitions Management Ashley Partners Mergers amp Acquisitions Ashmore Impendent Financial Advisors aka8220 Ashmore Financial (aifafx. co. uk, ashmorefinancial. co. uk and ashmorefinancial) Ashmore Investment Group Ashmore Wealth Funds (Klon einer registrierten Firma) Ashoka Capital Markets Ashton Trading Worldwide Limited Ashton Young and Associates Ashwood Finance Asia Alliance Ltd Asia Auction Inc. Asia Bancorp (L) Ltd Asia Dragon Group Asia Exchange Board Asia Pacific Brokerage Services Limited Asia Pacific Group, a. k.a. Asia Pacific Financial Management Group Inc. Asia Pacific Ltd (Klon einer registrierten Firma) Asia Ventures Limited Asia World Capital Asian Acquisition Oversight Commitee Asian AIM Incubator Co. Ltd Asian Capital Group (asiancapitalgrp) Asian Direct Capital Management Asian European Finance Asian Foreign Securities and Compliance Department Asian Futures Trading Group Asian Pacific Advisors Ltd Asia-Pacific Finance and Investment Asiatic Acquisitions Asiatic Associates Asicon Trading Limited Aspect fund Managers Plc Aspen Capital LLC Aspen Payne Consulting Asprey Associates Asprey Group LLP Asset Capital Management Asset International Limited Asset Management Advisory Services Spain, SL (AMASS) Asset Recovery Solutions Asset Restoration Facility Asset Trust Management (assettm) Assets Brokerage Network (ABN) Assets Credit Union Assets International S. A DE C. V Assicurazioni Rossi Riccordi Ltd Assiprime Euro Brokering Associacio Corporativa Dempresaris Immobiliaris Associated Financial Services Associated Management Group Associated Nominees Limited Associates Financial Advisors Association of Securities Transfer Companies (ASTC) Assure. se Aston Capital (based in Frankfurt) Aston Forex Aston Hu amp Associates Aston Invest Ltd Aston Markets Aston Midshires Insurance Aston Rowe Consulting Advisory Aston Rowe Consulting Inc Astorg Partners (ATI Associates Ltd.) Astra Finanz Astuto Insurance 8211 auch bekannt als Astuto Associates and Car Insurance Warehouse AT Brokers Ate Binary Limited Atee Inc ATG Capital Solutions, Inc. Athos International Management BVBA ATI Associates Ltd. ATI International Financial Group Atlantic Administration Atlantic Capital Management Atlantic Capital Trust Management, LLC (atlanticct) Atlantic Equity Management Atlantic Express Bank Atlantic Finance Atlantic Financial Holding, Inc. Atlantic Global Asset Management, SA Atlantic Group Atlantic International Partnership Atlantic Mutual International Limited (Axxess Swiss Corp) Atlantis Capital Partners, Inc. Atlantis Financial Atlantis Mergers amp Acquisition Group, Inc. Atlantis Mutual Atlanus Limited Atlas Capital Corp Atlas Capital Financial Services Ltd. Atlas Capital SA (atlascapitalsa) Atlas Consultancy (atlasconsultancyltd) Atlas Equities Atlas Financial Group LTD Atlas Invest LLC. Atlas Wealth Management Ltd (atlaswealthmgmt) ATM Capital ATM CAPITAL 8211 FOCUS POINT CAPITAL ATM Holdings Limited Atol Consultants ATP Financial Atrium Financial Group Atticus Holdings International (Klon) Attlee Wurth Atuo Trader Profit v3.0 Atwood amp James SA Inc ATX Group AUBC (Asia) Capital Augmentum Macau Ltd Aura Mergers amp Acquisitions Aurea Negocios, S. L. Auron Group Sp. z o. o. Aurum Astrum AG Ausante LLC Austin Claymore LP AUSTRIA FINANZ SERVICE AG limited Austrian Trader AG Auto Binary Robot Auto Binary Signals Auto Money Generator Auto Money Machines Auto Money Maker Auto Money Surf Auto Trader Alpha Auto Trader Profit Auto Trader Profit V3.0 Dollars All Day Auto Wealth Bot Automated Binary System (48 hour cash code) Automated Cash APP Ava Capital Markets (Klon einer registrierten Firma) Ava Capital Markets Ltd. Ava Financial Ltd Ava FX, Ava Financial Ltd. AVA Private Bank Ava Trade Limited doing business as avatrade Avacia Investments Avacia Limited Avacia Securities Limited AvaFX Avalon Consultancy Avalon Group Avalon Consultants Ltd (avalon-consultants) Avante Corp LLC AVANTI HOLDINGS-INTERFINANZAS ADVISORS CORP-IBS CONSULTING GROUP Avatar Finance Corporation Avatar s. p.a. Avatrade Avensisforex Avery Kingston Capital Avgitidis Trading Group AVI Trading amp Corporate Transfer Service (avitrading) AVI Vermgensberatung Aviessence Aviva Capital AW Advisory AW Associates (Klon einer registrierten Firma)(aw-associates. co. uk, awarnerassociates) AWDH Trading Limited AWI Financial AXA Investment Managers AXA Isle of Man (Klon einer registrierten Firma) Axa Rosenberg Investment Management Ltd (rosenberginvestmentmanagement axarosenberginvestmentmanagement) Axatrades Axel Neumann (Klon einer registrierten Firma) AXI Trader Axia Consultants Axiom International Axis Capital Group Axis Corporate Finance (axiscf) Axis Financial Axis Investment Group Axis Open Source Corporation Axis Trading Group Incorporated Axis-Capital Ltd. AXN Trading Ltd (Eventus Aternatives Commercial Broker LLC ) Axxess Swiss Corp Axxess Swiss Trading A-Y Universal Ayondo Markets Ltd. AZ Markets (az-markets) Azonax Fund Aztec Group Azure Method The Ashton Lewis Group alfredbergam Wir beraten Sie gerne. Jetzt kostenfrei anfragen. Sollten Sie in eines der in dieser Liste genannten Unternehmen investiert haben oder Zahlungen geleistet haben, stehen Ihnen unsere Rechtsanwlte kurzfristig zur Verfgung. Kaufman Capital Management steht wegen Anlagebetrug im Visier der Behrden. Geschdigte sollten sich umgehend an einen Anwalt fr Anlegerschutz wenden. Kaufman Capital Management: Verdacht auf Anlagebetrug Handelt es sich hier um Anlagebetrug im groen . Orix Capital Trading - Die Anwaltskanzlei Herfurtner warnt Anleger, die unter dem Namen Orix Capital Trading per Email kontaktiert werden. Das registrierte Unternehmen ORIX Group warnt mit einer Mitteilung vom 30. September 2016 selbst . Herfurtner Rechtsanwlte warnen vor Personen und Unternehmen, die unter Vorspiegelung falscher Tatsachen versuchen, nicht unerhebliche Betrge zu ergaunern. Die Methoden von Anlagebetrgern werden immer anspruchsvoller. Es lohnt sich also zu wissen, worauf man achten .
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