Petrograd connection, planning and statecraft Saving nations from financial raiders   Wendell W Solomons CityVista_gmail. com     In brief   Piracy once roamed the seas. That was the status quo. History says that queen Elizabeth I authorised naval commanders, including Sir Walter Raleigh, to plunder merchant schooners. Over time, piracy at sea seriously interfered with the trade of merchants. They promoted the development and acceptance of conventions by countries against sea piracy and it was outlawed.   In contrast, modern rules that had been developed to prevent invasion of the economy by financial raiders were set aside. The Anglo-American alliance, represented from 1976 by Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, gradually removed safeguards that held back financial raiders. Thirty years onwards several large banks have become mistrustful because of unprecedented fraud in financial markets.   In Germany today, chancellor Angela Merkel stands in the forefront of the EU movement for bringing back rules so that trade between countries can flow without unusual price hikes. In addition, survival in many a nation will require rationing and state planned distribution for efficient use of basic goods such as food.   The Chicago school of monetarists – which substantiated invasions by financial raiders – was not able to persuade China to put aside its central planning system. Therefore, this large developing country will cope better with the world economic recession.   Ex-Warsaw pact countries including Czechia, Poland and Russia use budgetary systems today that can be reinforced by activating their own planning resources. Specialists in planning in the Germany’s east can also share the experience, which helped raise the economy from 1945 after destruction in the war.   On the other hand, today’s trade flows will be hurt by nations that rely solely on high level financial planning. The monetary crisis of 1997, which hurt Japan, South Korea and other US allies in Asia, brought up the issue of financial terrorism. At what seems like the tail end of a string of events, the names of financial organisations prominent in the Western hemisphere, receive mention in connection with the loss of immense resources.       Full Report   Every writer on economic themes must at some moment quote Adam Smith. So did the Chicago monetarists when during the last 30 years their plans advised removing safeguards and allowing financial raiders in. Citing reforms for a free flow of capital, they let people choke on rogue instruments that included the shares, bonds or securities of WorldCom, Enron and AIG.   “Economics” was known in statecraft. Yet, the 18th century granted Adam Smith, Professor of Moral Philosophy at Glasgow University, an eminence surpassing all others. Two millennia earlier Aristotle, serving as tutor to Alexander the Great, had been using the term ‘Oikonomika’ (dictionaries derive ‘economics’ from the Greeks. ) Further east, advisor Kautila, serving Indian royalty, evoked several volumes entitled ‘Artashasthra’ (‘Worth Treatise’. )   It is in year 1757 that we track down the facts that contributed to the eminence that Adam Smith obtained. That year saw Benjamin Franklin, a prominent scientist and statesman, asked to account for the wealth of the American colonies across the Atlantic. Here are words recorded when Benjamin Franklin was called to speak before the British Parliament on the wealth of the colonies:   “That is simple. In the colonies we issue our own money. It is called Colonial Scrip. We issue it in proper proportion to the demands of trade and industry to make the products pass easily from the producers to the consumers. In this manner, creating for ourselves our own paper money, we control its purchasing power, and we have no interest to pay to no one. ”   Franklin’s words regarding currency in Parliament alarmed private financiers.   The financiers union, the Bank of England had been incorporated on July 27, 1694, as a joint-stock association with a capital of £1. 2 million. The company received the right to issue notes and a monopoly on corporate banking in England ? in return for an immediate loan to the king of the entire treasure. They had calculated that such treasure would never be returned whereas interest from the king’s treasury would keep accumulating in their hands in perpetuity. Through this action (1) the king would become an accessory of their company and (2) in their receiving authority to print and issue banknotes as counterpart to the treasure ? their power would advance in the land by leaps and bounds.   After Franklin’s words on an economic theme, the financiers sped into counter-attacking the American colonies. They had to force the colonies to give up the idea of issuing their debt-free currency, a competing product. In consequence their Bank of England won over Parliament and King George III signed the Currency Act of 1764 to decree that the colonies stop printing their own money. Staging financial terrorism, the bankers also saw to the dispatch of shiploads of counterfeit Colonial Scrip to contribute to economic depression in the colonies.     Benjamin Franklin pioneers study of electricity of lightning storm Out at No: 10, Downing Street, philosopher in residence Alan Walters, so mesmerised PM Margaret Thatcher that she exalted, “There’s no such thing as society; there are only individuals and families. ”   Rand’s nihilist fable had annulled society and provided Reagan-allied PM Thatcher with steely self-righteousness to sell out her “null” constituency if she so desired (that is, after collecting the deposit of people’s votes at the elections. ) The worth of her constituency could now unflinchingly become the influence that the PM’s office gives to the personas of Mr. Dennis and Mrs Margaret Thatcher. Still, that was only the thin edge of the wedge. The Ayn Rand axiom on neglecting community led on to encourage negligence on the part of countless politicians, state officials and market regulators. That gave the first among equals, the financiers, their 30-year tickets to run.       Safeguards against fraud   Joseph Stiglitz, a 2001 Nobel prizewinner, comments in part on the results of the negligence, “The pursuit of self-interest by Enron and WorldCom did not lead to societal well-being; and the pursuit of self-interest by those in the financial industry has brought our economy to the brink of the abyss. ”   Financial fraud was a known phenomenon. Anglo-American statesmen had at home therefore long balanced Adam Smith by installing filters to block wrongdoers. The institutions that statesmen created to keep away the pursuit of dangerous self-interest include Fair Trading bodies and Securities Commissions. Later, shortsightedness generated by the monetarists did away with these filters against the creation of toxic waste.   Yet, even beyond that Friedman, during a descent from his corresponding Planet Me, was to confess that he had overlooked the rule of law as a fundamental requirement in transition to a market economy. Make a clean nihilist sweep first; ask questions about civil requirements later. J K Galbraith comments about his contemporary, “Milton’s problem is that his theories have been tried. ”   Today, reports on toxic waste fill the same network media that promoted the Chicago Boys after Great Communicator Ronald Reagan went into occupation of the Oval Office.   Still, there’s more. Petrograd’s Ayn Rand had chosen to outbid revolutionary parties by offering a more radical human freedom. Using that legend, the Chicago Boys mired potential revolutionaries, peaceful or otherwise, in the ever-changing consumer choices that media advertising generates ? Windows Me, My Yahoo, i-Mac, i-Pod ? a wave of products catering for “me” (and not “you”!)   President Kennedy once said, “Those who make peaceful revolutions impossible will make violent revolutions inevitable. ” If a peaceful return to a normally functioning economy is impaired, then today’s consumers will seek salvation otherwise. If high-end financial planning does not finally pay off ? to speak of the future hypothetically ? it is China’s central planning system that may save souls who in fishing trawlers and yachts, cast off from the US Pacific rim for China.   In Russia, on 6th April. 2009 Vladimir Putin decided to place before the modern Duma for debate for the first time, the state budget. Considering his country’s available know-how, this step can prepare the ground for a salvation that includes activating the personnel of central planning administration GOSPLAN. It was set aside with subversive intentions by the USAID team gathered by Lawrence Summers. He was previously on the reform team that bequeathed Lithuania the highest suicide rate in Europe. Wall Street has seated a veteran guide of financial buccaneering as head of President Obama’s White House Economic Council.   Can we say “Yes, Wall Street financial planners will eliminate toxic waste creation soon?” Or perhaps an IMF super currency may help nations trade internationally if gold is stockpiled by bullion merchants as blueprinted by the 1930s Great Depression?   Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel is now in the forefront of the EU movement to bring back rules so that the trade of nations can again flow undisturbed.   Yet, for many a nation survival will require careful rationing, supported by economic planning, to utilise food and other resources that are becoming scarce and expensive.   Coping with the recession will be easier in China. The Chicago school monetarists, who canvassed in favour of invasion by raiders, could not talk this large developing country into setting aside its planning system.   Ex-Warsaw pact countries including Czechia, Poland and Russia use budgetary systems today that can be reinforced by activating their own planning resources. Specialists in planning in the Germany’s east can also share the experience, which helped raise the economy from 1945 after destruction in the war.   On the other hand, today’s trade flows will be hurt by nations that rely solely on high level financial planning. The monetary crisis of 1997, which hurt Japan, South Korea and other US allies in Asia, brought up the issue of financial terrorism. At what seems like the tail end of a string of events, the names of financial organisations prominent in the Western hemisphere, receive mention in connection with the loss of immense resources.