WEBSTER TARPLEY – SURVIVING THE CATACLYSM
Interview by Mark Johnson
for HUSTLER Magazine – June 2011
Investigative journalist and political commentator Webster Griffin Tarpley is used to controversy. Going wherever his research leads him, he has questioned the events of 9/11, challenged the mythologies of Barack Obama and tackled the massive bank fraud at the heart of the economic meltdown. A graduate of Princeton University and a former Fulbright Scholar, Tarpley gained wide notoriety when he went after Bush the First in George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography. More exposés followed, including 9/11 Synthetic Terror: Made in USA and Obama: The Postmodern Coup—Making of a Manchurian Candidate.
Tarpley’s latest book, Surviving the Cataclysm: Your Guide Through the Greatest Financial Crisis in Human History, lays out the real causes of our new economic depression and calls for a truly American solution.
HUSTLER: Is there any hope for Obama?
WEBSTER TARPLEY: Obama has been a catastrophic President. First of all, he’s a warmonger. Under Obama we’ve had more combat troops in the field than we ever had under [George W.] Bush. That means Iraq and Afghanistan, now a third war in Pakistan and a possible fourth war with Iran.
Contrary to popular belief, Obama is also a union buster. What he did to the United Auto Workers as part of the Detroit automobile bailout was to loot its union finances and send the money to Wall Street. The UAW was forced to swallow cuts in wages and benefits that degrade its members to the level of nonunion workers. The union also agreed to hand over healthcare assets to the hedge fund hyenas that now own huge stakes of our automakers. Obama’s car czar, Steve Rattner, notes in his new book that White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel’s motto during the negotiations was “Fuck the UAW.” Obama is now using charter schools, merit pay and denial of tenure to bust the teachers’ unions.
My biggest critique of Obama is that he’s a Wall Street puppet. Look at the gaggle he has around him: Tim Geithner and Larry Summers [who recently resigned ] are disciples of Bob Rubin of Goldman Sachs and Citibank. Obama is a representative of the interests of the large Wall Street banks.We hear that he’s a socialist. That’s absolutely absurd. He serves the banks. My criticism of Obama comes from his left. Look at Obama compared to the positive tradition of the Democratic Party. Franklin D. Roosevelt created Social Security, an absolutely successful program. What’s Obama’s relation to that? He wants to destroy it, privatize it. The goal of his Bowles-Simpson Commission is to carry out a wrecking job on Social Security.
The crowning achievement of Lyndon B. Johnson’s career was Medicare. Obama has gutted it with $500 billion in cuts as part of his healthcare bill, which will lead to further rationing of care.
The difference between Obama and Bush is that Bush was an open, brutal reactionary and warmonger, but Obama does it all by deception, by duplicity. That’s why people have difficulty understanding the way he operates.
If the Democrats do not produce a challenger to Obama in the [2012] primaries, the Democratic Party is going to be clinically defunct.
What happened to our economy?
We have a world economic depression, similar to the 1930s but worse. It’s not a normal business-cycle event, not simply a boom and bust. It’s a disintegration of the U.S. and British banking systems and of the dollarbased system that the world has lived under since the 1940s.
Right-wingers like to say the depression was caused by poor people who took out subprime mortgages, and when they defaulted, that brought down the entire Anglo-American banking system. That’s just a fantastic story. Rather, what happened was a panic in the world derivatives market.
Derivatives such as collateralized debt obligations, credit default swaps and structured investment vehicles are very complex things, hard for the average person to understand. It’s something like this: If we have the horse Seabiscuit running in the ninth race at Belmont Park one afternoon under the old system, whoever bets on Seabiscuit can either win or lose their money. Those losses are relatively limited.
Now imagine there’s a horse called Subprime running, and Wall Street decides they’re going to bet a quadrillion in derivatives on Subprime in the ninth. Notice, they don’t buy the horse. They don’t even go to the track; they do it through a floating bookie operation. If Subprime loses, that’s going to bring down the New York banking system. You wouldn’t blame poor Subprime; you would say it was criminal for these lunatics to put all those resources on such a shaky vehicle.
Derivatives were illegal in the United States from 1936 until 1982 under the New Deal Commodity Exchange Act. Then there was a process of legalizing them in which Ronald Reagan, Phil Gramm, Alan Greenspan and others were involved. Because of this, by 2007 we had a worldwide bubble of about $1.5 quadrillion in toxic derivatives, compared to a world gross domestic product of about 65 trillion. That is a black hole of bankruptcy and economic destruction. There’s not enough money in the world to bail that out.
Are we in a new Great Depression?
This is a world economic depression. It’s useful to go back and look at 1929 and the years after that. The Great Depression started with the stock panic in October 1929, but that was just the beginning. The second wave was a banking crisis in Europe in 1931.
Compare that to the timeframe from 2008 to 2010, and you see that we’re going through something similar. In 2008 we had a banking panic in New York that destroyed the entire U.S. banking system, which was then put on life support through the bailout. In 2010 we had a European banking crisis.
Countries are now on the verge of a new currency war, trying to drive down the price of their currencies. That is also what happened in 1931. The idea is, if you can reduce the value of your currency, your existing debts are less of a burden, and you can export easier. It doesn’t work though because it spreads the depression to the entire world. The question debated now is: Will we have a deflationary crash, like the U.S. in 1932, when commodity and real estate prices plummeted, or will we have a hyperinflationary takeoff? I think we’re likely to have the worst of both: a hyperinflationary depression, meaning a collapse in the dollar’s purchasing power combined with a collapse in overall economic activity—an extreme form of the stagflation we saw in the 1970s. That would mean all kinds of businesses closing, unemployment at 35% and prices going wild. It would happen worldwide; that brings social chaos. If you look at the 1930s, you see the succession: depression, dictatorship, world war. We’re still in the depression phase.
Your opponents would say the free market will fix the crisis.
The notion of a free market is one of the most fantastic fabrications in modern political life. We have never had a free market. Indeed, the whole United States was built on the negation of that. The government acts to promote, foster and facilitate economic development, carried out largely through privately owned companies.
The market never delivered the basic prerequisites of modern life in terms of decent standards of living and decent working conditions. That took mass struggle. You would not have an eight-hour day and a 40-hour week if you waited for somebody to grant that to you. There are reactionaries today who think that child labor laws and the minimum wage are unconstitutional. These people are working for reactionary, superrich interests. The responsibility for our current depression goes to the [free-market theories of] the Chicago School of Milton Friedman and ultimately to the Austrian School of Friedrich August von Hayek and Ludwig von Mises—economic charlatans. Henry Clay, the 19th-century congressman, senator and secretary of state who was praised by Lincoln and JFK, coined the term the “American System” in 1824. He pushed for a protective tariff, a national bank and internal infrastructural improvements. That’s the kind of alternative we need today.
We’re told we have to dump the New Deal and take up the poisonous foreign doctrine of the free market, which is not successful anywhere. The American System is the real basis of life in the United States.
How do you get out of the depression once you’re in it?
The first thing is take steps to stop speculation. Go back to what we had successfully from 1936 to 1982, which is a ban on certain kinds of derivatives. The collateralized debt obligation is in many ways the most destructive; that is what brought down Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch. That should be outlawed.
The other one that should be banned is the credit default swap, which is a bet on whether or not somebody else is going to go bankrupt. That should be illegal for two reasons: At face value it’s gambling, so it should be illegal under the gambling laws. And if you claim that it’s insurance, anybody issuing a credit default swap who is not an insurance company should be shut down because they’re issuing them without registering as an insurance company and without the capital requirements. Derivatives haven’t been outlawed because Obama’s Wall Street cronies, along with the procorporate Congress, will block anything the banks don’t want.
…continue reading in HUSTLER Magazine – June 2011.
Tags: Depression, Obama, Tarpley
April 26th, 2011 at 1:19 pm
I thank you sir floor Coroner’s Court number 11, Sr.D.Francisco González Maíllo in the trial of misdemeanors number 1147.04
Also write about the secret police of Barcelona behind my husband and I were 7 patrol hit in the face, but what has this to do with “Embezzlement”?.
As these entities of the Government when smoking marijuana causes them, simply leave the old city of Barcelona to blatantly steal the marijuana the poor foreigners who have no papers or any offer of employment to earn a living, so and the RATS IN THE KITCHEN free joints are earned in addition to hitting and sometimes even put in jail for a few days to vining pieceworker AFRICA you. “Embezzlement” Those who pay money to the secret police of Barcelona.
Let’s See What We Have Here “Embezzlement”
Let’s talk about heir Catalan owner of one of the buildings of the street trade and corruption in the insurance and claims “Embezzlement”
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siniestro
Example:
A crack in the perfumery department of English Courts
Perfumes get wet, get the expert having lunch with the owner of the recoverability of claims, and says that everything is irretrievably damaged “Embezzlement”
Then the owner of the recoverability of claims that the expert invited to dinner and home insurance on the Costa Brava buy it for nothing to the insurer “Embezzlement”
And put some South American undocumented or rather in your language Sudaca exploding about, to do the dirty work, bone son of a bitch on all sides win “Embezzlement”
It turns out that everything is in perfect condition but the box is the only one who is wet “Embezzlement”
He was then sold to the Chinese or the Arabs for the actual cost price “Embezzlement”
Is that the nerve of Judge Gonzales Maíllo prejudiced judge this poor man who died for their prejudices in the Philippines
The phrase “Embezzlement” is hell I want to record the voice of the judge saying “Embezzlement” and cat devoured in my album ”
COUP IN BARCELONA ”
LORDS impudence but if everything is “Embezzlement” as hell dares to accuse anyone with this sentence
“Embezzlement”
“Embezzlement” ARE THE WAGES OF BARCELONA FOOTBALL TEAM OF ALL THESE AFRICAN unattended
“Misappropriation of Funds” and that’s how this judge, Francisco Gonzales Maíllo climb in the Palace of Justice in disguise Injustice, “EVENT TOURISM
“Embezzlement” That clown is a little doll you Mr. Justice System
To stick it to another “Embezzlement” If the lottery and what, and FIFA?, And all the slut world economic caste?
Then as the man had many enemies and you wanted to give them the PAPI CHULO judge made him say “Misappropriation of Funds” and now this man is dead, thanks to the phrase “Embezzlement” died trying to hide in the Philippines because his sentence Judicial feast “Embezzlement” that killed him would have to carry you Judge Gonzales Maíllo perhaps all the money you spend is “pure” and “HOLY” let your worship money is dirty if that lie is that of “Embezzlement Funds ”
Or is that like in my mind get carried away by the devil deer Pretrial and Trial was prejudiced as mine
You are a judge dressed Inquisitor, Francisco Gonzales Maíllo that’s what you are
How to Judge Francisco Gonzales Maíllo sleep at night? well I guess, after a man died in the Philippines for his famous “Embezzlement”
After the phrase “Embezzlement” How much money is saved in the bank?
Fence to fuck other with the little lies of “Embezzlement”
Well, Mr. Judge with the makeup of FIFA you have a face but the face
“Embezzlement.”
What is his salary public and what is his salary under the table?
Embezzlement.
The owners BVUVA BANESCO BANK LAKE IN VENEZUELA AND THE SEA “Embezzlement”
Well, between the lottery and FIFA can not sleep as human putting in jail for so many years you are a son of a bitch Mr. Justice
TOURISM case for the little I saw on the internet and understand that you are kind of dirty
“After me I judge as I can imagine myself and the people who put in jail?
In addition to the slut that enable the lotteries have to sweat for three loaches disabled while the rich people are filled with judges money and money as you could in the Palace of Justice that the Lottery and FIFA is what I call embezzlement DIRTY RAT funds.
How can you sleep after condemning human for many years to jail?
The Piggy Sr.D.Francisco Judge Gonzalez Maíllo
I know my life is in danger and strange faces I have seen in restaurants in Barcelona
I want my European passport because of this court do not I have a whole family Spanish
I WANT MY MONEY, MY QUICK EUROPEAN PASSPORT
May 2nd, 2011 at 5:24 am
We are currently in a depression! There is no doubt about it. We gave banks billions of dollars to ease some of the restrictions on lending. In fact the restriction became even tighter and the Welfare the banks received went into the pockets of the banking executives. If those funds had been funneled down to the people who needed loans, and re-financed mortgages, the economy may have turned around.
Obama printed more money without any type of backing. In other words he counterfieted billions of dollars and put that worthless paper into circulation. Now we have prices of everything rising swiftly. This depression is going to be aggrevated more when the middle class begins revolting to the agenda of the Republican Congress. The Republicans are puppets of the “Tea Party” and currently serves the interests of that party in opposition to the people they are supposed to represent.
President Obama made numerous promises on his campaign trail and has fullfilled none of them. He promised to bring our troops home and instead ordered the deployment of more troops. As has been pointed out on “Real Time with Bill Mahr” we still have hundreds of thousands of troops stationed in places such as Germany, Japan, Korea, and other areas. The Cold War is over its time to bring those troops home and that would reduce the Defense Budget and allow more money to continue going to social services. Instead our current government is going after the middle class and the poor.
Again I say our country is on the verge of a class war. Gas prices are continuing to rise with no intervention by our government to keep the prices lower. Already prices of groceries have increased by as much at 10% with even higher prices in the short term future. If there was a time that our Strategic Oil Reserves should be used it would be to prevent the destruction of our economy. Again President Obama made a comment when prices went over $4 per gallon a couple of years agao that he would release some of those reserves to control prices. He never fulfilled that promise either. Why should we believe anything Obama says?
However Exxon posted a profit of $11Billion in the last quarter. If they are earning profits like this why are the gas prices continually increasing? This is going to destroy this country.
We need someone in government that has a backbone and protect the working class of people. The richest people in the country pay the lowest taxes. The Republicans say that the tax savings of the rich creates more jobs for the middle-class. This ideology has been proven false. The rich put those tax savings right in their bank accounts. Some industries like GE pay absolutely no tax. Why? These are points that more people should ask our Congress. Afterall Congress is supposed to be OUR voices!
May 6th, 2011 at 11:14 pm
Larry:
Can you get the pix of bin laden with the bullet wound in his head. I have faith in you
May 12th, 2011 at 2:00 pm
Dear Mr. Flynt,
I am writing you on behalf of the Patient Care Association of San Diego. The city council of San Diego has voted to ban all mmj collectives in the city. This will lead a flooding of the black market, patients forced to turn to the black market and strengethening of the mexican drug cartels.
We represent the medical marijuana collectives of San Diego, and we are fighting back. We can defeat this, and we need your help.
Please respond to citizens4patientsrights@gmail.com.
Regards,
Dawn
June 8th, 2011 at 9:15 pm
You must support Anthony Wiener! HELP
July 31st, 2011 at 8:29 pm
Every year we waste billions of our tax dollars on AIDS or HIV an unproven virus. It may surprise you but HIV has never been found in anyone’s blood. There isn’t a test for virus, the HIV test is an antibody test and having antobodies used to be a good thing.
Next year the budget for AIDS is over 28 billion for a problem that doesn’t affect 1% of the population, only .005 of 1% have AIDS each year in this country.
You stated on tv that you don’t shy away from controversy. Many AIDS persons like myself have stopped the toxic drugs and we are living normal healthy lives. Our story needs to be told.
Enough is enough, we need to stop labeling people with a sexual/incurable disease without scientific proof, we need to stop giving people, especially pregnant women and the fetus toxic drugs, we need to stop force-feeding infants AIDS drugs, we need to stop jailing people for having sex, and we need to stop this massive waste of our taxes.
Many of us known as AIDS Rethinkers would he happy to tell our stories.
August 25th, 2011 at 12:27 am
Larry, I read about your vision you had while flying over the desert and you saw a guy walking with sandals and you thought this was st Paul so you became a born again Christian. then you were shot so you stopped believing in god. god doesn’t control every action on earth. don’t you believe in free will? its crazy to stop believing in god just because some madman shot you. ever hear of Satan? Satan creates mental illness and he created the illness in the guy who shot you because you bring people closer to god and Satan hates people who bring people closer to god. I know you’re bipolar, and Satan created this illness in you. god can heal you though, but you must find a healer, as god only has the ability to heal through the power of touch. I have healed nearly 20 people with mental illness through touch, and I can attest that god exists, and that he loves and forgives all sins, not that you are a sinner. god doesn’t have any moral qualms about sex whatsoever. his only concern is justice, and as you yourself are a fighter for justice, this explains your many personal problems because you are being targeted by Satan.