What will Austerity Fascism look like?

Somebody must take a loss on the economy's bad loans – and bankers want the economy to take the loss, to "save the financial system." From the financial sector's vantage point, the economy is to be managed to preserve bank liquidity, rather than the financial system run to serve the economy. Government social spending (on everything apart from bank bailouts and financial subsidies) and disposable personal income are to be cut back to keep the debt overhead from being written down. Corporate cash flow is to be used to pay creditors, not employ more labor and make long-term capital investment.
http://neweconomicperspectives.blogspot.com/2010/06/europes-fiscal-dystopia-new-austerity.html

So, the world's elites have decided to focus all their efforts on generating another Great Depression. Their cunning plan is to destroy their countries in order to save them:
http://www.tinyrevolution.com/mt/archives/003326.html#more

the current sovereign debt crisis is about something much more interesting:  it's another battle in a war for dominance between "our" integrated, impersonal global economic system and traditional nation-states.  At issue is whether a nation-state serves the interests of the governed or it serves the interests of a global economic system. Who's winning?  The global economic system, of course
http://globalguerrillas.typepad.com/globalguerrillas/2010/05/the-decline-of-the-west.html

How's That Recessioney, Oily Thing Working Out For Ya?
Let's be honest: We live in stunningly, jaw-droppingly, ridiculously absurd political times. Here's the story in a nutshell: A far-right predatory overclass has spent the last thirty years undoing the hard-fought gains of the mid-twentieth century, which had produced a robust middle class and vastly more economic and social justice in America than the country had ever known before. These regressives used every kind of deceit imaginable to persuade unsophisticated voters to choose candidates whose real agenda was to assist their plutocratic puppetmasters in fleecing the very same people who voted for them.

Stimulus or Austerity: The People vs. the Banks

The most powerful nations in the world met recently at the G-20 in Toronto and managed to agree on only one thing of significance: the need to reduce deficits, “half by 2013.” Implied by the statement is the need to lower deficits via “austerity,” meaning eliminating or reducing social programs. 

Why does every mainstream political pundit or corporate CEO fanatically agree that reducing deficits is the most important thing to do now? Let Obama explain: 

“… if financial markets are skittish and don't have confidence in a country's fiscal soundness, that is also going to undermine our recovery."

Apparently, the most important policy for the world economy cannot be said in plain English. What does Obama mean? Essentially, he is saying that “financial markets” should determine how wealth is distributed and how the economy is directed.

How the State Causes Collapse

As I have explained in the past, what constitutes a “bubble” can be understood as the result of perpetuated myths or distortions of the truth. When one believes something to be true, they behave in accordance with that belief; when that belief becomes exposed as fraudulent, whatever effort they had put forward up to that point is lost and any effort they had planned on putting forth in the future needs to be redirected to some new project. The example I had previously used was a child writing letters to Santa and then finding out Santa is not real. After such information comes to light the behavior of the child changes and he no longer writes wish lists to Santa. In the Austrian Theory of the Business Cycle, distortions in the interest rate result in misallocations of capital towards less productive ends. When those ends are discovered to not be as productive as alternatives, the structure of production needs to be realigned. But as I’ve described it, the theory can be applied to a broader social context beyond just basic production. The State is such a bubble: it is perpetuated primarily by faith in its unique legitimacy. Bubbles burst; in the case of the State, how does that occur?
States destroy community

In Ireland, a Picture of the High Cost of Austerity

DUBLIN — As Europe’s major economies focus on belt-tightening, they are following the path of Ireland. But the once thriving nation is struggling, with no sign of a rapid turnaround in sight. Nearly two years ago, an economic collapse forced Ireland to cut public spending and raise taxes, the type of austerity measures that financial markets are now pressing on most advanced industrial nations.




Some EXCELLENT Iran-Israeli analysis:

The Delusional Lobby

I guess this is what happens to people who never hear the word "no."...Note: the lobby's next big move will come when it starts telling the US government that Iran sanctions have failed and it's time to allow Israel to attack.  And, as Yogi Berra famously said, it'll be déjà vu all over again

Gaza blockade 'easing' is a facade 
However, the fact of the matter is that this ‘easing' of the blockade is another in a long line of Israeli methods of pacifying the so-called international community and providing a facade for further illegal activities.

Strike on Iran would be destabilizing'

A military strike against Iran would be "incredibly destabilizing" to the region said the US chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen.

THE COMING IRAN WAR.

But, while the attack on Iran will be seen by the world as the main event, the real purpose for the war will be happening on Israel’s doorstep.

At the same time as Iran is being attacked, Israel, using the excuse of pre-empting retaliation for attacking Iran, will attack both Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Gaza and then move to occupy south Lebanon up to the Litani River and the Gaza Strip. Israel will also likely fully occupy the West Bank.

This is the scenario that the US and Israel would prefer to see happen; a quick overwhelming move against all of Israel and America’s enemies that concludes with the defeat of the Iranian regime and, thus, regime change, together with the demise of Hezbollah and Hamas. This then will give the Israelis a free hand in creating a Greater Israel that ultimately includes the Gaza Strip, south Lebanon up to the Litani River, the West Bank and the Golan Heights. It will also provide the US with an even stronger ally in the Middle East and also a neutered enemy.

Obviously, Iran Would Retaliate Against U.S. Attacks

One need only think about how our government would react if a state or group launched unprovoked “targeted” attacks on major military and energy facilities to see how foolish this is. It wouldn’t matter to our government if the attack was “targeted” or not, and it wouldn’t matter to the American public what absurd rationalizations the attackers used to justify what they were doing. If a foreign military started bombing Sandia and LANL and assorted military bases throughout the Southwest and declared ahead of time that it would do this, I doubt that Washington would respond with a shrug. “Oh, they’re only attacking our nuclear labs and military facilities–that’s all right, then!” Americans would not respond to this by casting blame on their government for inviting attack, but would instead become excessively deferential to whatever course of action the government proposed and would mute whatever other criticisms of the government they may have had in the past. We would be fools to think that Iranians would respond differently. 

Some EXCELLENT G20 Analysis:

Chronicles of Rebick: The Real G20 Police Conspiracy To Divide Social Movements