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It Gets Worse: Here's the Shock, Wait for the Doctrine

Submitted by davidswanson on Fri, 2008-10-10 18:23.

Berlusconi is scheduled to meet with Bush in Washington, D.C., on Monday, Columbus Day. There are two topics the American people should take to that meeting en masse. One is the overwhelming opposition of the Italian people to a proposed new U.S. military base in Italy, which is moving ahead regardless. The other is this proposal, reported by Bloomberg News:

Berlusconi Says Leaders May Close World's Markets
By Steve Scherer

Oct. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said political leaders are discussing the idea of closing the world's financial markets while they "rewrite the rules of international finance."

"The idea of suspending the markets for the time it takes to rewrite the rules is being discussed," Berlusconi said today after a Cabinet meeting in Naples, Italy. A solution to the financial crisis "can't just be for one country, or even just for Europe, but global."

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell as much 8.1 percent in early trading and pared most of those losses after Berlusconi's remarks. The Dow was down 0.5 percent to 8540.52 at 10:10 in New York.

Group of Seven finance ministers and central bankers are meeting in Washington today, and will stay in town for the International Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings this weekend. European Union leaders may gather in Paris on Oct. 12, three days before a scheduled summit in Brussels, Berlusconi said today, while Group of Eight leaders may hold a meeting on the crisis "in coming days," he said.

Berlusconi didn't give any details about what kind of rules leaders were looking to change, except to say that leaders are "talking about a new Bretton Woods."

The Bretton Woods Agreements were adopted to rebuild the international economic system after World War II in a hotel in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. The aim of the agreements was to establish a monetary management system, initially by pegging currencies to gold. The IMF was set up later to help manage the international financial system.

To contact the reporter on this story: Steve Scherer in Rome at scherer@bloomberg.net

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Bretton Woods - Chomsky

Submitted by B20071222 on Fri, 2008-10-10 22:22.

Over on Common Dreams is an article by Noam Chomsky, Anti-Democratic Nature of US Capitalism is Being Exposed.

"Bretton Woods was the system of global financial management set up at the end of the second World War to ensure the interests of capital did not smother wider social concerns in post-war democracies."

"The chief feature of Bretton Woods was an obligation for each country to adopt a monetary policy that maintained the exchange rate of its currency within a fixed value."

"The system collapsed when the US suspended convertibility from dollars to gold."[1971] "This created the unique situation whereby the US dollar became the "reserve currency" for the other countries within Bretton Woods."

www.commondreams.org/view/2008/10/10-4

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