Home » Posts tagged 'extortion'
Tag Archives: extortion
To Understand America’s Neofeudal Economy, Start with Extortion
To Understand America’s Neofeudal Economy, Start with Extortion
Here is the result of America’s neofeudalism: soaring wealth and income inequality.
Let’s spin the time machine back to the late Middle Ages, at the height of feudalism, and imagine we’re trying to get a boatload of goods to the nearest city to sell. As we drift down the river, we’re constantly being stopped and charged a fee for transiting one small fiefdom after another. When we finally reach the city, there’s an entry fee for bringing our goods to market.
Note that none of these fees were payments for improvements to transport or for services rendered; they were simply extortion. This was the economic structure of feudalism: petty fiefdoms levied extortionate fees that funded the lifestyles of nobility.
This is why I have long called America’s economy neofeudal: we pay ever higher fees for services that are degrading, not improving. This is the essence of extortion: we don’t get any improvement in goods and services for the extra money we’re forced to pay.
Consider higher education: costs are soaring while the value of the “product”–a college diploma–declines. What extra value are students receiving for the doubling of tuition and fees? The short answer is “none.” College diplomas are in over-supply, and studies have found that a majority of students learn remarkably little of value in college.
As I explain in my book The Nearly Free University and the Emerging Economy, the solution is to accredit the student, not the institution. If the student learned very little, he/she doesn’t get credentialed.
Were students to have access to the best classroom lectures online (nearly free), and on-the-job apprenticeships in the workplace, (nearly free or perhaps even paid), learning would be significantly improved and costs reduced by 80% to 90%.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
ECB Press Release this Wednesday Could End Extortion Racket over Greece – à la Cyprus 2013
ECB Press Release this Wednesday Could End Extortion Racket over Greece – à la Cyprus 2013
It was Greece’s “last chance,” again. But Sunday, it too fell apart, as they always do. European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker broke off his attempts to mediate between Greece and its creditors. The differences were too large, a spokesperson said.
Now there’s a new “last chance” in this mutual extortion racket. The 19 finance ministers of the Euro Group will meet this Thursday in Luxembourg. The spokesman said that Juncker “remains convinced that with reinforced reform efforts on the Greek side and political will on all sides, a solution can be found by the end of the month.” So probably not.
“Last chance,” because otherwise there wouldn’t be enough time for the parliamentary processes required by other countries to approve the new bailout deal before the payments come due.
But even before this “last chance,” the ECB will meet to decide, once again, the fate of the Greek banks, and thereby Greece.
It doesn’t help that the financial markets aren’t swooning every time “Grexit” appears in the media. Greece has lost its negotiating power. The financial markets have other things to worry about. But the markets in Greece have crashed, and Greek banks have been reduced to penny stocks.
Even supporters of the Greek positions are losing patience with Greek game theory. In an interview published on Sunday, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi told the Corriere Della Sera: “We all want Greece in the Euro, but they have to want it too.”
German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel, head of the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), who has been largely supportive of Greece’s efforts, chimed in more forcefully via the tabloid Bild:
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
