Quotes by Michael Rowbotham
, in The Grip of Death
local produce
Submitted by antarchi on November 14, 2008 - 00:58Brussels sprouts grown in Norfolk are harvested by machines with incredible wastage and efficiency, taken by lorry to a packing department in the Midlands, sent to a factory where they are washed, cleaned, sorted by size, packaged or frozen and finally sent back again to Norfolk to appear in the supermarkets, wrapped in cellophane or a dinky little net bag... A study conducted by the SAFE alliance in 1995 showed that food was travelling 50% further before it reached the supermarket than it did in the late 1970s.
Grip of Death
the richest citizens
Submitted by antarchi on November 2, 2008 - 19:27The total of loans, mortgages, overdrafts and credit card purchases is massive and in Britain stands at some £780 billion, £500 of which is born by ordinary people. The Americans, supposedly the richest citizens ever to walk the face of the planet, are the most heavily indebted people of the world, carrying morgage debts that currently total $4.2 trillion.
the stroke of a bank manager's pen
Submitted by antarchi on November 2, 2008 - 19:42If a bank makes a loan, nothing is lent, for the simple reason that there is nothing of substance to lend, The bank simply makes what it terms a 'loan' against the amount of money deposited with it at that time. This is all done with the utmost ease. The bank has simply to agree that a person may take out a loan of, say, £5,000. The person taking out the loan can then spend £5,000 and hey presto! £5,000 of new number-money has been created. It is as simple as that! No one with a bank account is sent a letter telling them that the money in their account is 'temporarily unavailable, because it has been lent to someone else', because it hasn't. None of the original accounts in the bank has been touched, reduced or affected in the slightest way... but £5,000 of new spending power has been created; £5,000 of new number-money enters the economy at the stroke of a bank manager's pen...
increasing debts
Submitted by antarchi on June 29, 2008 - 03:49Brazil increased its GDP fourfold between 1960 and 1980, but found that her debt was far greater at the end of this period than it was at the beginning...
Brazil is a net exporter, but the increase in her debt meant whereas in 1960, 30% of her export revenues went on debt repayments, by 1980 this had risen to 78%. And Brazil has been one of the success stories. Many developing nations have found that their entire export revenues have been insufficient to repay the interest on their debts. By 1990, Brazil had reached this position. The country exported $31.4 billion worth of goods and imported $22.5 billions, but her debt repayments were so massive that they took all her gain from exports, and still left her showing a huge loss. In 1970, the total debts carried by developing nations stood at $68 billion, equivalent to 13% of those countries’ total GDP. By 1989, this debt had reached $1,262 billion, equivalent to 31% of total GDP. By 1997, the total stood at $2,100 billion.
