Posts Tagged ‘Citigroup’
Ground Zero Detroit voted Obama
Posted by: adonis49 on: January 13, 2010
Can US political system be reformed? (Jan. 12, 2010)
Detroit voted Barak Obama. The counties of Oakland, Macomb, and Wayne, black, white, lower and middle classes voted Obama. Ground Zero Detroit lost 70,000 homes to creditors in the last two years; everyday, houses are burned to capture insurance and move to suburbs; from 2 million in 1950 Detroit has shrank to 700,000. The jobless rate is 40% and barely Ford of the “Big Three” is surviving. Detroit voted Obama for his universal health care project; the now apathetic voters never considered that Obama will send a law that pleases the hysteric Republican Party. They believed than a margin of 8 million votes would make Obama believe that time for serious political decisions are ripe and he was elected to LEAD. The voters hoped that Obama will urge them to get moving to the Capitol to pass “their health care project”; instead, the republican got on the move to kill any hope for reforms. If you are out of work then your health insurance is cancelled; you have to seek Luther Keith, pay $20 to see a physician, and then get a working relative to guarantee payment.
President Obama has to take a stand on three decisions:
First, every cabinet member and assistant has to read all of Obama speeches. The members who do not believe that “What I said is what I mean” should be fired on the spot; then Obama can start to delegate responsibly.
Second, Obama has to re-connect with all the syndicates and organizations and rally most of them to the Democratic Party. Only a unified front of workers and middle classes with a serious new perceived value “health and safety for all” can change the lobbying political system.
Third, Obama has then to start sending reform laws as he promised his people to do and not what might please the losers in the election.
In the Senate, if 40 out of 100 veto a law then the discussion can be prolonged indefinitely. Senator Joseph Lieberman vetoed the creation of “public option” for Americans with no health insurance. Deputy Dennis Kucinich harangued his colleagues in those terms “Are we the Congress of the USA or the administrative council of Goldman Sachs?” President Obama had preached “I didn’t campaign to aid the big bonnets on Wall Street” but he did bail them out with $700 billion. Sure, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, JP Morgan, UBS, and Morgan Stanley did contribute to Obama’s campaign as they contributed to the other party too. What was the fraction of contributions of these multinationals? Was it worth it to appoint Wall Street lead man Timothy Geithner as Finance Secretary? Was it worth it to appoint Lawrence Sumners who is the architect of financial deregulations?
Appointing the enemies to reform programs has nothing of pragmatic; Hillary Clinton is not pragmatic: she loves “Pride and Anger” of late Oriana Fallaci and disseminated the book to all her acquaintances. Obama foreign policies turned out carbon copies of Bush Junior toward the Islamic World.
The US political system is Not “separation and balance of powers”; this myth has been proven wrong in critical periods. The US system is a multilayered duplication of levels so that money can enjoy the last word. How can a President vanquish well entrenched structures and when the opposition is hysteric for being ousted and refuses to submit to rational judgments? The US multinationals are active free agents ready to falsify and fabricate crisis, instill financial crashes, provoke depressions and then take pleasure profiting from the blood and miseries of the little people.
Obama has to start taking stands in the interest of the little people who voted him in. Time is running out and compromises with the enemy have proven lethal. The world is shedding blood, miseries are rampant, and famine is waiting on the corner.
Obama, your credibility as a leader is being tarnished. There are no harms trying alternatives but when faced with the inflexibility of your enemies then you should not conciliate; you have to react with vigor and determination as a victor leader and the people will back you up when you ask them to march. Take responsibility: You won the election and political decisions are yours to deliver on your promises.
Information/Communication Technologies (ICT): Transmitter of crisis and catalyst of global economic restructuring
Posted by: adonis49 on: December 20, 2009
Information/Communication Technologies (ICT): Transmitter of crisis and catalyst of global economic restructuring; (Dec. 19, 2009)
Astronomical sums are invested in the technologies of information and communication (ICT). In 2008 alone, over 1.8 $trillion were spent by private and public institutions.
Since 1980, half the total investments by banks and financial institutions have been oriented toward the ICT sectors so that exchange of information and transactions be as fluid and instantaneous as desired on global scale. It followed that banks and financial institutions were drawn to diversification into acquiring factories, lands, real estates, and mines.
Multinational ICT companies were frequently reconfigured to adjust with evolving strategies and global market access.
Before the financial crash, Citigroup hired 25,000 computer programmers and invested 5 billion on ICT technologies and related infrastructure in 2008. Lehman Brothers was using 3,000 programs on 25,000 servers around the world.
This run for ICT technologies was viewed as the main tool for “space-time bailout” by channeling capitals to emerging sectors susceptible to inevitable expansion. The age in the 70’s was coined “society of information”. Thus, in 2007, US multinationals profit from outside investment amounted to 25% compared to only 5% in 1960.
So far, Information and Communication technologies are the two main factors for capitalist global economy expansion and have displaced many traditional economies. For example, Skype (voice on internet) has over 400 million users and is the most important provider of international communication. Skype was the catalyst for the explosion of high debit mobile phone infrastructures and for the demand of internet services to enterprises. Facebook has 300 million subscribers (to be updated to over 900,000?).
Mobile phone is displacing computers and TV markets: there are over 4.5 billion users of mobile phones and the latest generations function as multimedia screens. Apple’s mobile has swept China and South Korea markets; over 100,000 programs were developed for its applications.
Amazon, Apple, and Google (via YouTube) have broken serious barriers into cartels in music, books, video games, and movies. Low priced connections are provoking the centralization of programs, data, images, and emails are frequently stored in “farm servers” belonging to giant operators.
In 2005, 19 out of the 25 first ICT enterprises were from the US and over half the satellites are US. Heavy weight consumers of ICT such as Wal-Mart and General Electric impose standards on information and communication systems that are applied globally.
By 2009, Samsung, Nokia, Nintendo, Huawei, Tate, SAP, Telefonica, DoCoMo, Americal Movil, Vodafone, and especially China Mobile are displacing minor US players among the 250 greatest enterprises. Newer investments are primarily flowing from China, India, and Mexico in ICT.
Although Cisco (the prime provider in web routers) has accumulated financial reserve of $20 billion, Microsoft (the emperor of systems of exploitation) around $19 billion, Google (dominating search engines and on-line video) around $16 billion, Intel (world leader in semi-conductors) around $10 billion, and Apple (programs most prized by elite users) around $26 billion, only China Mobile generated profit of $18 billion in 2009.
Publicity expenditures in 2009 amounted to $500 billion (though they declined by 10% after the financial crash), but multimedia expenditures in the US in 2008 reached $900 billion and are increasing by 2.3%.
The giant ICT companies are trumpeting acquisition of competitors and setting the stage for an unknown educational, cultural, and economic world. The capitalist global economy is going ahead and strong because of IC technologies; we have the impression that the world is reduced to a town square.
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