Economy

Rant

World Economy in Recession - Where Did the Money Go?

Posted 6 months ago|3 comments|234 views
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With the European Union appearing to come apart at the borders, and the Euro worth almost ¾ of $1 American, I have to wonder if anyone has thought to ask, "Where did the money go?"

We read often now of theft and frauds in the millions and billions of dollars. Is it possible that some of this has been going on in the upper echelons of governments of the European countries that now find themselves so deep in debt, that the very preservation of the countries seems in doubt?

Is it possible that the governments that are supposed to protect the country and its people, and grow the assets of the country and its people, has really been protecting and growing its own assets, and possible shipping them to well hidden bank accounts outside the country?

Is any body searching in an attempt to find out? I wonder.

When the people who govern, live a life far better than the people they have governance over, something is amiss. Or, as my grandmother would have said, "Something stinks in the kitchen."

Here in the United States, the IRS has started to track down money deposited in foreign banks by people who were hoping to avoid paying income taxes. Maybe someone in the European Union should be doing the same kind of search looking for hidden money from the countries that are so deep in debt and asking for assistance.

The people that are going to be paying the most for this financial debacle are the ones who have been living a day-to-day life of struggle for survival (my impression). It seems to me that while I don't think there is anything wrong with a person working to improve his/her situation in life, I think it's very wrong to do it at another's expense.

I believe this World Recession has pointed out that the money has gone to many places other than where it should have gone. Will we ever find all of the money? I doubt it. Millions of people in the world starve while thieves and frauds live luxuriously.
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COMMENTS
Out Of The Box
Out Of The Box
 Moderator
6 months ago: That's the misconception. It isn't the countries themselves that are going broke. It is the governments that are broke. Since the currency is backed only by the good faith and promises of those governments, businesses get nervous when those governments spend way more money than they take in. Two threats affect them: the threat of higher taxes and the threat of the government defaulting on it's loans rendering the cash worthless.

Take the US for example. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Compon...

There is more money in circulation today than there was, and the supply far surpasses inflation.

The thieves are not the business owners and CEOs. If you took every dime away from the richest 5% and gave it to the government, it would be enough to run our government for 3 months. If you took all the money away from the richest 1%, it would pay for the government for less than a week.

The real thieves are the international banks that loan money to governments. 14 cents on every dollar collected in taxes goes to paying interest on the debt. That's 14% of our budget being given away for nothing every year. And that number keeps going up.
Altruist
Altruist
Eugene, OR
5 months ago: For once I have to agree with Box on one point. The real thrives are the banks and the financiers. They are allowed to purchase and make leveraged trades. They can buy some stock by leveraging their own money 30-40 times. With no tie in to actual gold or anything else a lot of this money is imaginary.

For example the 4 big banks that Bush bailed out with his TARP program still have $256 trillion of derivatives on their books, even though the entire Gross product of the entire world is only about $60 trillion!

This explains the difference between Real Wealth and phantom wealth. http://www.yesmagazine.org/blogs/david-k...

The problem is that the nations and the international banks run up huge deficits with phantom wealth and then expect the people to pay off their debts with Real wealth. The bankers run off with all of the money and then the poor people of the country are expected to pay the bills with austerity programs. Recently 93% of the people of Iceland voted not to play that game. http://www.hermes-press.com/iceland_inde...

Iceland arrested their banksters. We should do the same for all of those criminals that sent the world into economic collapse, but the lawmakers are owned by the banksters so no one has gone to jail.

They also rewrote their constitution to help the people more. Another good idea! http://singularityhub.com/2011/08/03/25-...
3 months ago:
... Corruption cost Greece about $1 billion (668.6 million pounds) last year, watchdog Transparency International said on Tuesday, up 5 percent from the year before, with state hospitals, urban planning and tax offices the most corrupt. . . Costas Bakouris, head of the anti-corruption watchdog's Greek office, said the findings went some way towards explaining the poor state of Greece's public finances...

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/9412/201...

I have not found statistics for corruption in 2011.

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