America

Authored by Paul Craig Roberts,

The US economy died when middle class jobs were offshored and when the financial system was deregulated.

Jobs offshoring benefitted Wall Street, corporate executives, and shareholders, because lower labor and compliance costs resulted in higher profits. These profits flowed through to shareholders in the form of capital gains and to executives in the form of “performance bonuses.” Wall Street benefitted from the bull market generated by higher profits.

Authored by Stephen Roach, originally posted at Project Syndicate,

Presstitutes At Work

Paul Craig Roberts

This morning I was stuck in front of a Fox “News” broadcast for a short period and then with a NPR news program. It was enough to convince me that Nazi propaganda during Hitler’s Third Reich was very mild compared to the constant stream of dangerous lies that are pumped out constantly by the American media.

The New York Times, Washington Post, and a couple of think-tank types were represented on NPR. They delivered the most crude propaganda imaginable and questioned no US government statement.

As Turkey and Saudi Arabia threaten to invade Syria, a source close to President Vladimir Putin has warned that any such action will spark a nuclear war with Russia.  According to Robert Parry – the investigative reporter who broke the Iran-Contra story: A source close to Russian President Vladimir Putin told me that the Russians have warned Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that Moscow is prepared to use tactical nuclear weapons if necessary to save their troops in the face of a Turkish-Saudi onslaught.

The commenter “Jones” put a comment on a different thread. It was off-topic, and it was so good that I wanted to give it its own post. He writes:

This is not on topic. But I guess it sort of is, because I want to ask whether you’ve chosen the right topic.

This occurred to me after reading another article on this site, the great piece by F.H. Buckley. It has its problems, but the fundamental point is really valuable. We need systems other than law in order to come close to an optimal regulation of society.