John Perkins, Hrant Khatchatryan

[hagopn]

Today I was listening to John Perkins on KPFK radion in Los Angeles http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Perkins, and this individual's very enlightening tesstimonial made one think about the Unanyans and their murder of Demirchian. An old event gets buried as "old news" by the vast majority of public outlets and "progressive minded" individuals alike.

 

In any case, Mr. Perkins made a devastating indictment of how the IMF and World Bank, and their regulatory branch, the WTO work to impoverish economies for various commercial reasons, such as easy and cheap access to raw materials and even manpower, slave supply, and so on.

 

Indonesia apparently is a very well run slavery economy with the largest documented percentage of sweat shop labor.

 

Armenia is now a indebted economy that is slowly falling into the grips of a foreign oligarchy. The domestic ones were not enough, according to this gentleman, if Armenian falls within this mold, it too will be overtaken eventually by an international corporate oligarchy.

 

 

 

 

[gamavor]

I don't think Armenia is anywhere near by countries that are threatened by international tycoons or IMF, or any such financial organization. Armenia's foreign debt is in very well defined parameters (it is less than billion dollars) and is very well structured. Financial stability is one of the things that Kocharian's government really deserves a credit. More can be done in the field of electronic banking, after implementing certain import-export regulations that would facilitate the cash flow and improve the circulation of monetary funds.

[hagopn]

I don't think Armenia is anywhere near by countries that are threatened by international tycoons or IMF, or any such financial organization. Armenia's foreign debt is in very well defined parameters (it is less than billion dollars) and is very well structured. Financial stability is one of the things that Kocharian's government really deserves a credit. More can be done in the field of electronic banking, after implementing certain import-export regulations that would facilitate the cash flow and improve the circulation of monetary funds.

 

You can listen to Mr. Perkins at your leisure. http://youtube.com/results?search_query=john+perkins or better yet here http://youtube.com/results?search_query=Economic+Hit+Man

 

I also have a 512MB file from a C-Span boradcast of his booksigning for the latest book.

 

I will make statement of sobriety that we are, no matter who, mere speculators of the actual events, true debt figures, and repayment conditionalities that come with them.

 

There are a couple of points that people who mention the double digit growth always miss:

 

1. The double-digit growth comes after a 10,000% devaluation. In other words, the economy has been artificially devalued by a whopping 100 factor, from once having been an economy with the dollar equivalent output of 300 billion or so, to one that is only capable of 3 to 4 billion output, and no one truly knows the actual GNP. We just know what these are the presented figures.

 

2. Armenian had to give Russia its "pound of flesh" in the form of handing over strategic assets, the most imporant of which were the two largest power plants. Russia's "bail-out" is consistent with the behavior of having one loan shark save you from another for purely political reasons. Russia's extortion pre-empted western extortion to a degree, but this is not necessarily indication of Armenia's recovery from IMF pressure.

 

I see no reason to credit any administration.

Edited June 24, 2007 by hagopn

[gamavor]

1. The double-digit growth comes after a 10,000% devaluation. In other words, the economy has been artificially devalued by a whopping 100 factor, from once having been an economy with the dollar equivalent output of 300 billion or so, to one that is only capable of 3 to 4 billion output, and no one truly knows the actual GNP. We just know what these are the presented figures.

 

True, but devaluation is not artificial and it reflects the influx of foreing hard currency. You can't simply ignore and not re-adjust your current balance sheet without taking under consideration the dollar amount in circulation. The opposit would mean severe deflation. Armenia's problem is that she could not put into effective use the monetary funds available thus the only way to keep the economy "cool" is to increase the price of the services and goods domectically.

[hagopn]

True, but devaluation is not artificial and it reflects the influx of foreing hard currency. You can't simply ignore and not re-adjust your current balance sheet without taking under consideration the dollar amount in circulation. The opposit would mean severe deflation. Armenia's problem is that she could not put into effective use the monetary funds available thus the only way to keep the economy "cool" is to increase the price of the services and goods domectically.

 

The dollar amount in circulation itself is an artificial valuation system, and the false percecption of valuation via so-called hard-currency comparisons is totally irrelevant.

 

The relevant bnechmark is the economy itself and its hard existing assets, not the so-called perceived value of its currency, which in itself is devalued against its own domestic assets if the process is a natural one.

 

In this case, the devaluation process was politically driven and totally artificial. The solid assets were themselves devalued under the pretext of maintaing their former value according to the Ruble (then the Dram), which is a completely politically motivated looting program of assets.

 

The dollar is something with no intrinsic value and has no more merit in valuation of real assets than any currency in relative terms. It's current valuation or devaluation is principally via politivcal pressure and, t a slightly lesser extent, diplomatic capital. Hugo Chavez knows that very well, as a current example.

 

Putin's government rejected the IMF's recommended valuations of solid assets, even what they were trying to spin off as outdated inudstrial facilities. Putin in essence pushed off any hope for any meaningful IMF control. (So did Chavez. So did Lula, Mahathir, and a host of "undesriable" others.)

 

The devaluation's artificiality becomes evident in three ways:

 

1. The source of justification for the devaluation, which is always the same schools of thought linked to western based global corporate interests.

 

2. The irrational percentage of devaluation of even hard assets such as labor, light industrial output, agricultural output, and mineral wealth.

 

3. The irrational levels of devlation of critical skilled labor targeted specifically a technology and education.

 

4. The utterly dishonest act of using the domestic currency value of assets as the means to determine actuql value. (Teacher's salaries were 500 rubles, and now they are 10 dollars, which is irrational, artificial, immoral, and illegal. This method is now being rejected both violently and legally/politically all over Latin America and Asia. Hopefully Armenia is next)

 

No one can make sense out of this except throug the artificial valuation of using hard-currency as false substitute benchmark for real asset valuation.

 

 

Edited July 1, 2007 by hagopn

[gamavor]

You may have better understanding of economics than me, but hard currency is hard because it has as her main attribute universal exchange rate. It is artificial to have disproportioned amount of hard currency in your hands and not re-evaluate your own currency.

 

(Teacher's salaries were 500 rubles, and now they are 10 dollars, which is irrational, artificial, immoral, and illegal.

 

Dude, it is the other way around! The Dram officially rose from roughly 540.00 per $1 to 340.00 per $1.