Corporate Domination of Global Finance & Monetary Policy (World Economic Forum - Davos)

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http://www.weforum.org/en/about/Members%20and%20Partners/StrategicPartners/index.htm
http://www.weforum.org/en/about/IndustryPartnershipProgramme/IndustryPartners/index.htm

Just look at the names on these lists. Some of the very entities that got us into this mess are supposed to be trusted with getting us out of it.

Some interesting notes:

http://www.weforum.org/en/about/IndustryPartnershipProgramme/IndustryPartners/index.htm?id=43619&reid=616330">CNBC is a subsidiary of General Electric, whose http://idea.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/40545/000004054508000059/frm8k093008.htm">GE Capital is receiving a $139-billion taxpayer-financed loan guarantee as part of the Wall Street bailout. CNBC's sister networks are NBC and MSNBC. Gee, I wonder how much it costs to broadcast live daily from there as well as how much it costs to transport and accomodate the associated crews, including Maria Bartiromo and her entourage.

Oh look! There's http://www.weforum.org/en/about/IndustryPartnershipProgramme/IndustryPartners/index.htm?id=15749&reid=605345">News Corp! Hi Rupeerrrrt =)! I here http://www.reuters.com/article/worldEconomicNews/idUSLQ6683820090126">Reuters is involved too. And, it seems CNBC-TV and Reuters are not bothering to mention that they are playas at WEF.

Moving on...Hello Steve Schwarzman. He's Chairman, CEO and co-founder of the http://www.blackstone.com/news/press_releases/05-20-2007.pdf">Chinese-funded and partly owned Blackstone Group. Why is that important? A little reading up on http://www.blackstone.com/company/index.html">Blackstone Group will answer that:

In 1985 Peter G. Peterson, who retired from the firm in 2008, and Chief Executive Officer, Stephen A. Schwarzman co-founded The Blackstone Group with a shared secretary and a balance sheet of $400,000.

Today Blackstone is a leading global alternative asset manager and provider of financial advisory services listed on the New York Stock Exchange (ticker symbol BX) with total assets under management of $116.3 billion as of September 30, 2008. We seek to create positive economic impact and long-term value for our investors, the companies we invest in, the companies we advise and the broader global economy. We do this through the commitment of our extraordinary people and flexible capital.

Our alternative asset management businesses include the management of:

Corporate Private Equity funds
Real Estate funds
Marketable Alternative Asset Management funds, including:

• Funds of Hedge funds

• Debt Funds

• Proprietary Hedge funds

• Collateralized Loan Obligation Vehicles (CLOs)

• Closed-End Mutual funds


We also provide various financial advisory services, including:

Corporate and Mergers and Acquisitions Advisory
Restructuring and Reorganization Advisory
Fund Placement Advisory

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao is speaking to a special session of the conference on its first day.

But that is not all...Mr. Schwarzman gets to engage the financial debate on CNBC's http://www.cnbc.com/id/28559084/">THE CNBC DEBATE: NO WAY BACK - The Road to Recovery

As governments, regulators and industry leaders square up to the task of mending the global economy, the CNBC debate at The World Economic Forum in Davos-Klosters will ask who or what will define the new rules of engagement?

Who will be regulated and who will get free reign? What do we lose and what can be fixed?

In partnership with the World Economic Forum, CNBC's Maria Bartiromo will lead the debate identifying the challenges and choices to be made on the road to recovery.

Oh, look...they do mention their partnership. On the website.

Anyway, moving further along...The WEF-Davos forum includes such financial luminaries, who have received tens of billions of dollars from U.S. taxpayers. as Bank of America, Citi, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase & Co., and Morgan Stanley. These entities are as "strategic partners" of the WEF. Oh, and by the way, it cost each of them about a half-million to participate. I wonder if CNBC will highlight this kind of extravagant spending in the wake of receiving those taxpayer funds? Ummmm...prolly not.

Oops! How positively scandalous and embarassing! In its report http://www.weforum.org/pdf/scenarios/TheFutureoftheGlobalFinancialSystem.pdf">The Future of the Global Financial System (Page 7, first paragraph, right column), the WEF acknowledges that their "intellectual stewardship and guidance" was provided by a steering committee that was co-chaired by...wait for it...John Thain! NICE! Yep! That's the same John Thain, the former CEO of Merrill Lynch with a taste for lavish office furnishing, paid for with your tax dollars. Yep! That's the same John Thain who was ousted from Bank of America and who oversaw the sale of Merrill Lynch to B of A. Why was he hosed at B of A in the first place? Because Bank of America lost confidence in Thain after he failed to tell the bank about mounting losses at Merrill in late 2008. Then, Thain became CEO and oversaw the disastrous sale of Merrill Lynch to the very same Bank of America. Yet, there he is, a co-chairman of the WEF's steering committee and intellectual steward of WEF's global financial and economic policy. Go fucking figure that. Let that roll around in your head. Crazy, ain't it?

As if that weren't enough to scare the living shit out of you, there's this: If there is a co-chair (Thain), then there must be another co-chair, right? Right! His name is David Rubenstein. David Rubenstein is the co-founder and director of the Carlyle Group. GASP! Rubenstein has said that China holds the key to the world economy's future and that Carlyle "was an early investor in the Chinese marketplace," that its China office "has hired many native-born Chinese, and the company is seeking to build its buyout and growth-capital businesses there."

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/washbizblog/2007/10/carlyle_group_cofounder_outlin.html">Carlyle Group Cofounder Outlines Firm's Vision for China

The Carlyle Group says China holds the key to the world economy's future. That may explain why Carlyle co-founder David Rubenstein spent part of Thursday morning hosting five students from Beijing's Tsinghua University's School of Economics and Management at the District-based private equity giant's headquarters.

The five students had won a Carlyle-sponsored essay contest on the emerging private equity industry in China. Each received a cash award and all-expense paid trip to Washington and New York for sessions with Carlyle officials, a tour of the New York Stock Exchange and a meeting with an executive from the Nielsen Company, one of the 201 businesses in Carlyle's portfolio.

After sharing some history about the White House and the geography of the nation's capital, Rubenstein offered some insights into Carlyle's long-term plans in China.

"I expect our presence in China will increase dramatically over the next couple of years," Rubenstein said. "There is nothing more important to Carlyle than China."

With its 1.2 billion people and ultra-fast economic growth over the past decade, he said "the growth and opportunities in China are unmatched anywhere else in the world."

-snip-

Now, the World Economic Forum released another report entitled http://www.weforum.org/pdf/globalagenda.pdf">The Global Agenda 2009. Contained in this report is a passage that states: "sovereign states do not adequately address problems reaching across borders". So, what is their potential remedy? Only that "international taxation" may be needed to generate the "additional resources" for "global governance."

-snip-

A Political Challenge

The implications of institutions of global governance can be heavy for sovereign
states. As current global governance problems come from market failures, sovereign
failures and intergovernmental failures that cross boundaries, sacrificing sovereignty
for greater gain may become an option. This principle is unthinkable now. But ask
yourself one simple question: why is the trade world functioning and the financial
world failing? Simple. The financial world has no global rules. The trade world has
global rules which override our sovereignty. So if we can do it in trade, why not
accept binding rules in other areas?

-snip-

So, how might this global taxation manifest itself? According to the report, by bequeathing all oil, gas, and mineral resources to a new U.N. agency through the http://www.un.org/depts/los/index.htm">Law of the Sea Treaty. This treaty is up for consideration for ratification by the U.S. Senate. If ratified and accepted, the U.N. would then have the authority to grant access to those resources via a global tax paid to and administered by the new U.N. agency (which has not yet been created, at least officially). The report also states: "As current global governance problems come from market failures, sovereign failures and intergovernmental failures that cross boundaries, sacrificing sovereignty for greater gain may become an option," the report says.


In addition to global taxes, "The Global Agenda 2009" report proposes the creation of a global television channel saying: "Media has the capacity to connect the world, bridging cultures and peoples, and telling us who we are and what we mean to each other. The media can also ensure that no voice goes unheard," it says. "We believe that this new moment also calls for a new media platform, across all media channels, a global non-profit 'CNN' providing a new form of independent journalism to inform, illuminate and deepen knowledge about issues that improve the state of the world." Will our hard-earned taxes fund such an enterprise?

So, who else is at the Davos Forum? How about http://books.google.com/books?id=NdQ7auWenBsC&pg=PA308&lpg=PA308&dq=%22Anne-Marie+Slaughter%22+Davos&source=bl&ots=HFDvFaRULy&sig=QLgqPcADOz6wcXyvgKLMZFcPOI4&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=3&ct=result">Anne-Marie Slaughter? She is a member of the WEF's Council on Global Governance. She's also the dean of Princeton's Woodrow Wilson of Public and International Affairs. She's also the new manager of the Clinton State Department Office of Policy Planning. And, there she is, planning policy with the very people responsible for the state of the the U.S. and the world. But, I don't wanna judge. Oh yea and, by the way, be sure to pick up her latest bestseller http://www.amazon.com/New-World-Order-Anne-Marie-Slaughter/dp/0691123977/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1233277572&sr=8-1">A New World Order from Amazon.com.

Of course, all of this effort is moot, these observations of Davos. After all, the media is there in spades to tell us all about it. Surely they'll truthfully report on the forum, on the state and futuer of our financial system, and not blow smoke and daisys up our asses. Surely we can depend on Murdoch, who is an event co-chair in Davos, the rest of the news services who sponsor Davos and the WEF? Right?

Let's see, who else is being entrusted with global financial economic policy...hmmmm? Why, there's Kofi Annan, the disgraced former U.N. SecGen, who ignored the genocide that took place in Rwanda and was investigated over corruption stemming from the Oil for Food Program following the Gulf War. That's the program where Saddam Hussein was allowed shipments of food in exchange for crude oil. So, why is such a controversial figure as Kofi Annan involved with the WEF? Because, according to Annan, http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=13798&Cr=iraq&Cr1=oil">he was exonerated by a report issued by Paul Volcker, former Fed chairman and currently one of President Obama's primary economic advisers. Obviously his reputation has been rehabilitated.

Some sunshine, perhaps, in all this though: Labor leaders Andrew Stern of the Service Employees International Union, and John Sweeney, president of the AFL-CIO, are listed as participants at the Forum. These guys are supporters of President Obama's labor policies and goals. They may also be the only Americans there batting against the globalists for ordinary Americans like you and me.

These are just few examples of the media's involvement and the personalities backing the event in Davos.

Anyway, that's a few observations on the World Economic Forum, at least the view from here on the American street. It's really nice to know that we have all these wonderful people steering our economic futures. But, of course, I'm being sarcastic as these are the same people whose actions and ideas have brought to where we are today, on the brink of global economic collapse. But what do I know? I'm just your average Joe Sixpack trying to make in this global economy, perched upon my little piece of soveriegn American soil. Soveriegn for the time-being...

[Sarah Ibarruri]

1. Is it like cops using burglars to find out the secrets to burglars breaking in? nt

[leftstreet]

2. They all seem to be a wee bit crabby this year

Putin got in a snit yesterday.

Then today the Turkish Prez stomped off pissed at Israel's Peres.


Can't they all just get along?

:rofl:

K&R
Excellent links!

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3. I saw when Micheal Dell asked Putin how he could help

Russia in IT development. Putin replied: "You see, the trick is, we don't need any help. We're not invalids. We're not limited in our capacities. People with limited capacity, abilities should be helped. Penshioners should be helped. Developing countries should be helped."

And, there was more:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMR1BZ9aYM8&eurl=http://www.bouhablog.com/2009/01/putin-russia-doesnt-need-dells-help.html&feature=player_embedded

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4. Shameless self-punt, just because... n/t