WORLD NEWS QE for the People: Beppe Grillo's Populist Plan for Italy By Ellen Brown, Truthout Beppe Grillo was surprised himself when his Five Star Movement got 8.7 million votes in the Italian general election of February 24. His movement is now the biggest single party in the chamber of deputies, says The Guardian, which makes him "a kingmaker in a hung parliament." Grillo's is the party of "no." In a candidacy based on satire, he organized an annual "V Day Celebration". He rejects the status‐ quo ‐ all the existing parties and their monopoly control of politics, jobs and financing ‐ and seeks a referendum on all international treaties, including NATO
membership, free trade agreements and the Euro.
Unilateral default on the public debt
"If we get into parliament," says Grillo, "we would bring the old system down, not because we would enjoy doing so, but because the system is rotten." Critics fear, and supporters hope, that if his party succeeds, it could break the euro system.
Nationalization of the banks
Steve Colatrella, in an article in Counterpunch, says Grillo does have a platform of positive proposals. Besides rejecting all the existing parties and treaties, Grillo's program includes the following:
A guaranteed "citizenship" income of 1000 euros a month
Beppe Grillo
It is a platform that could actually work. Austerity has been tested for a decade in the eurozone and has failed, while the proposals in Grillo's plan have been tested in other countries and have succeeded.
European Union approves Financial Transactions Tax The European Union has agreed that 11 European countries, including the biggest economies Germany and France, can set up a financial transaction tax to make the banks pay for the financial crisis they created. The volume of national support to the financial sector between October 2008 and 31 December 2011 amounted to around 1.6 trillion euros (13% of EU GDP), two‐thirds of which came in the form of
State guarantees on banks' wholesale funding. The European Union financial transaction tax would impact financial transactions between financial institutions, charging 0.1% against the exchange of shares and bonds and 0.01% across derivative contracts. This proposal was approved in the European Parliament in December 2012, and by the Council of the European Union in January 2013.
A lesson from history From American Monetary Institute www.monetary.org
This 4th of July as we proudly celebrate our declaration of independence from the tyranny of a mad Brit King, let's remember the victory a small group of dedicated, courageous men and women achieved against the world's most powerful military of their time. It was a victory that appeared extremely improbable at best, as they pledged their lives to fight for its success. And as events and battles were fought, the possibility of a favorable outcome grew even smaller. But at the right moment, help from France turned the tide and the British were defeated. Defeated militarily, but not monetarily. For soon after the Constitution was ratified, in 1791 the First Bank of the United States, a privately owned and privately controlled central bank was put through Congress by Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton, modelled on the private Bank of England. The gang around that bank were more dangerous than King George the Third; and the Hamilton people thereby insinuated into the New World forces representing the most
Guardian Political Review, Issue 63, 2013 - Page 12
evolved secular form that evil had attained in the Old World ‐ a privately controlled Central Bank. Thanks a lot Hamilton! Jefferson fought the bank, helping to bring it down and Burr killed Hamilton over public insults; but privately issued money had gained a foothold in America. It's still here, in control of our monetary system. It's the root cause of most of our social and economic problems. Whenever it caused crises in the past, our government had to come to the rescue. It's latest atrocity is the current monetary, banking and economic crisis, threatening to take the entire world economy down into depression, and destroy the lives of billions of people in the process. It must end now! This crisis gives us our only opportunity to reform our monetary system and…to eliminate using debt for money. The American Monetary Act (and Kucinich's HR 2990) puts that plan into legislative form (see http://www.monetarv.org)
King George the Third