Twitter
StumbleUpon
Facebook
Delicious
Digg
Newsvine
Google
Yahoo
TechnoratiLatAm Leftists Tackle Dollar with New Currency
COCHABAMBA, Bolivia - Leftist Latin American leaders agreed here on the creation of a regional currency, the Sucre, aimed at scaling back the use of the US dollar.
![[Official picture at the Alba summit in Cochabamba October 16, 2009.]](http://www.commondreams.org/files/article_images/alba.jpg "alba.jpg")
Nine countries of ALBA, a leftist bloc conceived by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, met in Bolivia where they vowed to press ahead with a new currency for intra-regional trade to replace the US dollar.
"The document is approved," said Bolivia's President Evo Morales, who is hosting the summit.
The new currency, dubbed the Sucre, would be rolled out beginning in 2010 in a non-paper form.
That move echoes the European Union's introduction of the euro precursor, the ECU, an account unit designed to tie down stable exchange rates between member states before the national currencies were scraped.
ALBA's member states are Venezuela, Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Dominica, Saint Vincent and Antigua and Barbuda.
The currency, which was backed in April this year, is named after Jose Antonio de Sucre, who fought for independence from Spain alongside Venezuelan hero Simon Bolivar in the early 19th century.
The bloc also called for the replacement of the World Bank's International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes, which arbitrates international contract disputes and has probed a slew of disputes involving ALBA members and western energy firms.
Most ALBA members have already withdrawn from the organization, with Ecuador announcing last July that it would pull out of the group.
On Friday Bolivian media reported the country intents to nationalize a electricity distribution firm owned by Spain's Red de Electrica de Espana.
It is just the latest in a series of nationalizations in Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia.
In May, Venezuela nationalized 74 energy services firms operating in the oil-rich Maracaibo Lake region.
Bolivia's Evo Morales has indicated that parts for his country's energy and rail sectors will be nationalized.
104 Comments so far
Show AllWow, that is just truly amazing dude. Well done!
Jigg
www.anonymous.ua.tc
Viva la revolucion! Down with the World Bank and the IMF!
To those who think US Dollar belong to the non Wall Streeters, they should re-think.
Its is time to let the 1% who own the Dollar to wallow in it.
Allowing these guys to buy real estate and resources including labor with US Dollar would be to capitulate to their plan. The Banks are hoarding the Dollar , they are in love with their Dollar. Hoarding is a main cause of Famine as discovered by Economists. Allowing them to create such havoc will be inexcusable in these times.
Local Currency (state, community ) will be a wise choice at this time.
toophat for you!
This is the true cost of the mideast wars of choice. First of all the bulk of the military is tied down over there and unavailable to use as musclke to bully smaller nations. Secondly, because it is such a petroleum hog, the miliary mission restricts what diplomatic and intel thugs can carry out.
So we have Arab Gulf states, France, Russia, China, Japan, and Brazil loking for a new currency to denominate petroleum purchases now joined by ALBA states looking for an alternative currency in which to denominate trade.
When these happen it's all over one way or another for the current world order. Either WWIII commences or American imperialism sinks like the setting sun.
Poet
There seems to be a basic misunderstanding here.
Nobody is suggesting that the countries in ALBA dump their own currency.
The SUCRE (which is an acronym, not the former currency of Ecuador) is to be used within the bloc for purchases that have previously been made in dollars.
This is correct. Thank you for the observation and reminder.
the reason a "main currency" is agreed upon is to have a stable enough one - that needs to be backed up by the "basket" which is tied to certain known or agreed upon commodities that are "necessary" to countries: petroleum, gold, copper, certain common crops, etc. . and by drawing upon that currency's "stability" which is supposed to be inflexible in pricing of currencies AGAINST it - the different currencies are then obligated to "remain honest" ....and not prone to manipulation.
when the Dollar detached itself from GOLD - meaning:
the United States decided that The Dollar has NO OBLIGATION to the world to be "responsible" (that is: to be printed only if it truly reflects the US economy's TRUE status of prosperity, productivity, export ability, ability to pay debts and other obligations -- called "tight money policy")
that was basically to allow the USA to GET AWAY with printing the dollar even if the accumulating value of it was lower than the amount the USA flooded the world with -- and all based on "the Good word of the US government as final guarantor, being sovereign authority for printing and recognizing MOney".
the rest is complicated still on how it got away with it exactly -- but WAR threats and military back up certainly has been the OTHER HALF of the scheme....just like a Gangsterism "for Capitalism" that General Smedley Butler described :
"the trouble with US americans is -- if OUR dollar can't buy more than 6% of its value at home...we get uneasy - and we go abroad so it can buy 100 % more....and where the Dollar goes, the Flag follows, where the flag goes, the army will follow".
it is STILL the operative scheme of the United States of America...
MAKE the World SWALLOW the US Dollar
whether as "strong dollar" with high value - rendering other countries currencies weaker by contrast, and internally , their economies, wages, labor, products and produce - cheaper ....
but its effect has been to make the US exports less competitive.
the OTHER effect - "weaker dollar" - with less value -- is a "corrective" to the "trade deficit"...making US exports more competitive...
but if that was the case - as it is now becoming - it could no longer hide the fact that
DOLLAR , CURRENCY MANIPULATION which has been the USA game all along (either of the 2 ways above) -
is NEVER sufficient to FIX something:
the USA trade deficits can NOT be FIXED by CURRENCY manipulation (as was supposedly China's "manipulation" according to the USA charges) .
THE USA trade deficits is a result of BAD MONEY POLICY - of EASY CREDIT BACKED UP by NO real assets for americans, and NO real productivity.
in other words - it is a SYSTEMIC ECONOMIC DEFICIT....
because of the growing difference in wealth - stagnant wages, "whitewashed" LOW productivity from a half-employed population or population payed at "half employment" wage values -- and THEREFORE can not afford - ultimately the products imported (unless at walmart prices) - 0r domestically produced
EXCEPT ON DEBT SPIRAL consumption.
if the USA thought it could continue to get away with that -- and the WORLD
that has been SAVING or EARNING - but seeing its savings and earnings "reinvested" into the US economy as DOLLAR HOLDING that they had to buy to make their transactions....
will continue to let the USA get away with this>
the USA is dreaming. and living in Lala land.
and no amount of Military threats or derring do is going to change that.
on the contrary - the more the USA does that the more it will bankrupt itself.
as of TODAY - the New York times reports that generals are complaining that the TALIBAN's
"very sophisticated way of getting funding from so many sources..is so effective and complex ...we can't even make a DENT IN IT".
that alone should tell the USA -- it's days of "MILITARY CONQUEST"
to intimidate the world to keep swallowing its RIGGED DOLLAR HEGEMONY SYSTEM
is already fading.
it will still be a strong currency....dependable even, if the USA cleans up its onw house HONESTLY ....and doesn't try its old game of trying to FOOL or COERCE the world into supporting the US economy and empire - putting it on welfare and making THEM pay for the privilege .....
but certainly not the "feared" Power that it once was.
and THAT is At it should be, and should have been..because both the US DOLLAR and the COUNTRY USA
do NOT and NEVER had the justification, the right, nor EARNED the position it "enjoyed" all these generations.
as Henry CK LIU - in his articles on Dollar Hegemony. Banking, World Currencies, etc...
this has really been about the US "Dollar's UNEARNED and UNJUSTIFIED Hegemony".
it should never have been.
True, but just as the ECU (European Currency Unit) was set up for precisely the same purpose in Europe, the long term intention with the Sucre is to develop it into a full-use currency, just as the ECU evolved into the Euro.
So?
If you have a point to make, make it.
The SUCRE is not even in force yet and you are already "evolving" it.
Try living in the present, and getting the lead out.
There isn't enough time left for this idle chatter.
Sure, whatever. The people founding this new currency are above-board about their long-term intentions, it is referenced in the article, it is not some controversial point.
Why does it seem important to you that no one talk about this aspect of their project? It is not an ugly accusation or a lie, it is simply what they are doing, it's fine, its a good thing.
Bercause, since you have nothing to do with Latin America--the region where I live--it is just idle chatter.
BTW: The only folks who say "whatever" are younger than 18--do you expect to have a life?
Why not get the lead out and do something productive?
You reply to the fantasy in your head.
You do not respond to the point that the nations founding the SUCRE do in fact intend for it to grow beyond its starting point as an international settlement currency into a full currency. Which is a good thing, and in no way detracts or distracts from any of the commentary in this thread. But for some reason you have decided argue with your fantasy of me. So i asked you what your point was. And you gave a ridiculous reply about my use of the word whatever.
Whatever.
Please feel free to give another negative response that has nothing to do with anything. G'bye now.
yes, but there is nothing wrong with that so long as the ECONOMIES INVOLVED are themselves ensured that -- THROUGH HIGH WAGES - FULL employment policy efforts - which can be had by good social policies - which should can can be mandated - which is the function of governments - (or else there would be no public systems, such as roads, buildings, etc..for the public good) - are themselves stable and prosperous..
further -- people should remember, as well as governments, that
MONETARISM itself is NOT the economy. it is ONLY a part of the economy and merely a transactional function.
but what the USA has IMPOSED on the globe is MONETARISM BECOMES the economy
DISTINCT and DETACHED from the REAL economy of rising wages, full employment and general welfare...
and WHY?
it is of course because the USA's CAPITALIST SUPERNATIONALISM
DICTATES monetarism as the GOSPEL of the Universe...EVERYTHING is "monetarised"
and ONLY money matters.
that is why you see the Big Bank failures and bailouts without ANY relation at all to the ordinary people's - and REAL producers' - stomachs.
THIS has to be destroyed, PERIOD.
REgions fighting against Dollar hegemony and the US "monetarism" dogma
is only a FIRST STEP towards a better, more equitable, more JUST global economy for all people and countries - in which - the USA has served as the GREATEST OBSTACLE towards its realization.
Good article, great to see the drive to localization in action.
On the whole I believe this to be a good move for the people of the Southern continent of this hemisphere. As long as they keep the Banksters out, it should be a success. Too bad that Brazil is not on board, given their history we can't blame them.
But we sure can blame the damned Banksters!
Sophie Scholl-The Final Days
The IMF, going back decades, especially as part of the Washington Consensus(which has fallen out of favor), incentivized the purchase of dollar related assets by using these assets as criteria for credit worthiness. This has put developing nations in a position that ties the value of the dollar to their fate. This also has poor nations lending to the U.S. Treasury at very low interest rates and then borrowing from banks in the developed nations at higher interest rates. What is even more clever though is that this created a worldwide dependence on the strengh of the dollar, a vicious circle of value protection, or a virtuous circle by some standards, but a type of dependence in any case, and dependence is the key word in the definition of the word: IMPERIALISM. If this currency value dependence is combined with the use of staple good subsidies, by not just the U.S., but by all of the developed nations, that provides a fairly complete definition of neo-imperialism. There are of course a great many complications thereof, but these dependencies get to the center of things. In his book, "Making Globalization Work", Joseph Stiglitz claims that as little as 5% of the value of some nation's resources have benefitted those respective populations(extreme case).
Some prominent economists are now arguing that allowing the dollar to weaken will soften the U.S. debt load and improve trade conditions. Which is true but it is interesting how the ramifications of a weaker dollar on all of those nations which were incentivized to hold U.S.dollar related assets are not typically mentioned in these arguments. A weaker dollar will essentially have the poor nations helping the U.S. pay its debts. That is presumming that the poor nations continue to meet their IMF obligations. But these efforts to create regional currencies are signalling that those IMF loans are not likely to to BE paid back, or at least not in full. And the poor nations will be in a stong negotiating position because they were cajoled into this position in the first place. So the argument based on the benefits of a weaker dollar is basically more of the same presumptuous, arrogant, denial based nonsense that allowed this mess to exist in the first place. The period of U.S. dollar hegemony is coming to an end.
Bring America Back !!!!
****On Oct 28, 2008==exactly one year ago--CD published a letter to then Senator Obama titled:
"Over 360 Latin America Experts Call on Obama to Improve
US __ Latin American Relations
*The letter and its signatories invited the Prez-Elect to a new "Partnership" with all these contries and Nations, rather than the 2nd class citizen attitude of King George !!
*All Obama had to do was take this fresh offering to heart
and act to bring the Third World into our fold.
*Truth being several , if not all, these Latin Nations had caught the USA red-handed spying, infiltrating and trying to destabilize their leaderships. Especially Venezuela where an assassination scheme was unearthed by Chavez !!!!
*Instead of apologizing for USA infringements on these sovereign nations, Obama has maintained the King George attitude that somehow we are their Superiors.
*Last month , Chavez again appeared at the UN saying--the
smell and odor of sulphur is "gone", i.e, El Diablo-- "W" Bush was not now there !
*So this departure from use of the US Dollar does show that Team Obama has made no friends, but more financial enemies of these Nations==so goes His Nobel Prize for Peace.
I wish we could poll these Latin experts and scholars as to how deserving Obama is of any kind of "Peace" award!
*It was and still is SHEER INSANITY for this New Administration not to accept the Invitation of Partnership from 'Latin American Studies Association', and the failure of friendship from these oil-rich countries, now wishing to depart from our own currency !!
INstead, Team Obama no doubt is saving a "Drone" for Chavez, & thats the kind of friend the USA is to the
Third World !!!!!
TruthKnoller,
My memory does play tricks on me sometimes but I remember the "sulfur" comment at the U.N. having come from Kadafi, not Chavez. But Kadafi has not been to the U.N. in 40 years so Chavez does make more sense?
would you care to explain also:
how come at least TWO of the USA"s "privatization , deregulation capitalism" TROPHIES and demonstrations of its "nation building" and "social experiments" to turn the world into a vast USA Slave Factory and source of cheapENED resources --
LATVIA and ICELAND (even ireland has been ensnared in it)
after just a short period of "glory" as the USA's Shining Exmples of its capitalism
ARE NOW BASKET CASES?
and LAtvian residents - who HATED the Russians long ago -
have been saying:
":BAD as things were under russia - THIS IS WORSE"?
care to explain?
maybe you should provide the details of how "russia invaded georgia?"
after all -- after long struggle - the EU report concluded,thought quietly reported -
GEORGIA indeed was the ONE that instigated the brief war..by attacking, shelling and bombing the main city in the province of South Ossetia - which is ETHNIC RUSSIAN - and which had NO military strength at all...in the middle of the night when residents were asleep - and the russian high officials were attanding the Beijing Olympics.
a real "stab in the dark" - if there ever was one.
SHAAKASHVILII - the georgian president also was a Columiba University graduate - who just happens to be the client of the USA in the so-called "democratice orange revolutions" who TURNS out to be a BRUTAL dictator himself.....
would you care to explain?
additionally -- South Ossetia and Another "province" of Georgia - Abkhazia with their russian populations long ago wanted to detach from georgia after the USSR collapsed - knowing that GEORGIA -- was never of their ":kin" - just like STALIN who came from Georgia and was never really accepted , though feared - BY the Russians .
care to explain?.
but best of all:
as Patrick Buchanan, a conservative correctly admits and asks:
"WE didn't like it when the USSR was in our neighborhood of CUBA...so......what are WE doing in Russia's neighborhood?...we should get out of this business of empire and leave those lands before they kick us out".
You are not interested in anything.
You are just here trolling.
Chavez's "popularity" has never sagged, and is currently at 63%.
What about yours?
Well said.
SWEET! Let's hope this currency takes hold. If these trends continue, the axe of evil in DC will have to declare war on pretty much the whole world.
'Lefty'
The USA declared war on the world long ago. Until the "Spanish American War" then the USA went 'global'.
One of the "Frequent Posters of the FAAAAAR Right" here on CD brought up as one of the 'Great Things' the USA did was to 'bring freedom to Cuba'--then the USA devalued to the Cuban currency and Cuba was still paying the debt when 'Castro'---freed Cuba---just not he way the USA wanted it to be 'free'.
But with the 'questionable win' of WWI---and the 'Win of WWII'---where the USA has remained the only nation to use Nuclear Weapons----twice---intentionally upon civilian targets------the USA has not won a single war they have started, abroad or at home. Their 'war on poverty' and their 'war on drugs' have been failures, and they still argue the absurd concept that 'Bringing Freedom through the use of War'---does not compare in the least with 'bringing sex with rape'----. They never actually won their 'Civil War' where they killed more of themselves than all of the other wars combined---before or since. The South currently is 'talking of secession'---and 'Chuck Norris has stated he would run for President of Texas if it secedes. They have made nothing but enemies in many nations--and currently 'working hard to new enemies' in three more countries.
So now China and Japan having the largest control of the USA debt---over a trillion between them--- have been negotiating to 'devalue the dollar'----which will take the USA longer to 'pay its debt to them'----and now the South American nations who have had the USA meddling in their affairs since the mid 19th Century are doing the same.
Add to that the Plutocratic Oligarchy that is currently feeding itself with the 'bail out money'----and the USA may very well be on the edge of a long deserved and hard earned---'elimination as a World Power'-"at their own hands"-instead the USA could very well be a third world economy, controlled by the Plutocratic Oligarchy through the ever willing conservative far right who have played a major roll in delivering the current problems through the 'vote'; but are now blaming others.
The USA may have some time to make the needed changes; but it can't be very much.
Just three years ago the announcement that the 'Bush family' had purchased several hundred thousand hectares of land in Paraguay is just one of thousands of transactions that can be expected when the members of the 'PO' such as the Bush 'dynasty'---start to 'evacuate' America, and simply move to another 'friendly nation' to 'keep up the traditions' of the Plutocratic Oligarchy and its control.
They will leave behind something that Dante would have written about had even he had the imagination to 'imagine the absolute 'worst in humanity'.
The USA has shown the world that they are a dangerous rogue nation; and they have proved to be even more dangerous to themselves.
Try not to forget that it was the 'far christian right' along with the complicity of the USA government that introduced the 'reservation system' and it still has an impact on people the USA could not defeat in war; only in lies and broken treaties.
"If the USA were another nation the USA would invade the USA to keep the world safe; and they would be justified."
This can work for our states as well. North Dakota has its own state bank. Any money that it makes goes to help lower taxes, pay for education, etc. Of course it is probably in the category of socialist bank, but it seems that North Dakota doesn't have much trouble with fore closures.
Get the book "Money" by Thomas H. Greco, Jr.(www.chelseagreen.com), Margaret Atwood wrote great book on debt and credit, entitled " Payback, Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth).( www.anasi.ca)
Chavez is smart.
Would that the East follows suit.
You betcha!
Fidel Castro--one of the most intelligent folks on this planet said that Chavez was one of the most intelligent folks on the planet.
I would take Fidel's opinion regrading intelligence very seriously--since he has managed to outsmart Gringolandia for 51 years....
listen carefully, it's highest time for Americans to got their own currency too, or else
ps. if they keep the currency strictly out of speculative market ... too good to be true
edweg
t_g
I wish them all the best, they'd deserve a bit of a go after centuries of servitude to USA, Spanish, British, etc. interests - if we lived in a fair word.
Unfortunately we don't live in a fair world. They'd need a "big brother" - Russia? China? or neighbouring Brasil? - to guide and protect them.
I doubt very much that Venezuela's Chavez has the military or other capacity to withstand big brother to the north... especially with the Yankees garrizoned in Colombia.
I know there is gas and silver in Bolivia, of course there is a lot of oil and gas, etc. in Venezuela - but what do Ecuador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Dominica, Saint Vincent and Antigua and Barbuda bring to the table? Consumers...? I really doubt that. What than?
OK, Cuba brings maybe some know-how how to survive in a hostile environment and a well-educated public - but what else?
what else?
Knowledge on sustainable agricultural practises, medical care for the Third World, an advanced socialist system supported by a highly educated citizenry. To name just a few.
Just a matter of time before these 9 countries become the new axis of evil!
Yes, let's bomb them there before they destroy our dollar here!
i am excited but also skeptic.
why doesn't merco-sur do this?
merco-sur would have a much better chance, maybe.
Yeah, right: A troll like you now reads the minds of folks whose language you don't even speak.
Fairly sensible government?
What does that MEAN?
interesting, do you have any links to support this?
i'd be interested into looking at alternative economic models as well as what brazil, and other countries have been up to.
Agreed. There is no reason today for Brazil to join in on this currency. They are the biggest guy on the Central/South American block. The UK didn't accept the Euro initially. It has crept in. You will see the same thing in Brazil if this currency can take hold. Anything that puts a dent in the USA's corporate fascist global economy is a good thing. Oh, BTW:
“If it was not for China we wouldn’t have seen positive growth in the second quarter in Brazil,” Ilan Goldfajn, chief economist at Brazilian bank Itau Unibanco, said at an IMF-organised conference in Istanbul. He said the world would now start to “rebalance towards Asia”.
The ever shrinking sphere of influence. Bummer that is. Wonder what the guys in DC are thinking right now.
You don't have a clue as to what you are talking about.
This currency is for governments within the region--has nothing to do with a restaurant in Sao Paulo.
Try reading the article again.
"Chavez's monetary policies remind me more of Zimbabwe than West Germany"
Ha ha. Touche. Let us hope you underestimate the man. Seems to have been a lot of that in the past.
They would stand a much better chance if they could add Brazil to the list.
agreed, but we all know why that won't happen.
Brazil is already involved in barter agreements with Russia, India and China (replacing dollar quoted commodities). These agreements on commodities are knocking the stuffing out of the dollar as we speak.
Troll alert!
I beg to differ. Regardless of what Geithner says, our government does not want a strong dollar. No, it doesn't want hyperinflation either but in your economics 101 course, did they cover the yen carry trade that is now making a home with the dollar? How is that going to work when, not if, interest rates go up? I believe old Bernake was walking a tightrope and fell off. The bottom line, which you haven't mentioned, is that war profiteering has bankrupted the USA. The "recovery" is bullshit. Believe in it at your peril. Remember that one of the best performing markets in NOMINAL terms during this decade was ZIMBABWE because of their inflation rate. Don't be fooled.
A week dollar would be great for us right now. A weak dollar means our products are much cheaper overseas. The only problem is our corporations have gutted our manufacturing capacity so much that it won't mean shit unless the government basically launches a new wave of manufacturing. Why the hell can't the federal government create factories to produce renewable energy, buy them up, and install them on federal land?
Viva ALBA! Viva el Bolivarianismo!
How fine to trade apart from the Fed! May they enact protective tariffs as well to favor ALBA-based industry!
The independence from immediate Russian and Chinese backing rings nicely as well, though Chavez' recent exercises with and purchases from the Russian military are probably well advised.
Whatever difficulties may befall the new currency are not likely to be worse than continued servitude in a $y$tem designed for their failure.
Whatever difficulties may befall the new currency are not likely to be worse than continued servitude in a $y$tem designed for their failure.
==============
I agree. particularly that point made which i quoted.
it is servitude to the usa dollar that has been going on.
the other currencies will not be able to match that kind of dominance anytime soon in this world, especially with the regimes of currencies they know they have to agree with having seen what a "dominant" or hegemonic currency has done, particularly if promoted by a country , none other than the usa , that has had every intention of using that hegemony for its global empire.
other countries now know, they have the experience of having been empires themselves or under - that that kind thing simply won't do in this world anymore. they themselves - in their regional alliances, even if out of convenience - are proof of it and they know that and become their own "moderators"...so that even if one particular country becomes "big" (china)
it is far too tied TO the prosperity or welfare of its regional allies - and the cross-regional relationships to ever want to "go it alone" in the hubristic way that the USA has done - while also trying to be the Planet's Lord and master.
it -- just -- won't -- work. there are too many "forces" outside of even a very powerful country's abilities to forever maintain or "contain".
CONGRATULATIONS, TEDDY!!!
So much easier to read, and that's important because what you say is well-worth reading.
peace - cm
Thank you -- but I am still "regressing" -= just now, in posts above. I'll get back to them edit out the pointless CAPS when I find some time as soon as I can...but the computer keeps freezing on me... grrrrr....i will keep trying to be more "conscious" in my next postings.
If you look further you'll find that the Sucre was the national currency of Ecuador before it was hyperinflated out of existence. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecuadorian_sucre
There's a certain irony to the use of the term "Sucre" for the newly proposed regional currency.
I'm encouraged by the fact that Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa has been trained as an economist and seems to know the dismal science quite well. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa
Hopefully he will have a moderating influence on the rather more unschooled exuberance for humanist/leftist solutions as espoused by Chavez and Morales. In particular, the recent spate of nationalizations of industries is undoubtedly justified inasmuch as private owners have tended to profiteer at the expense of local populations, but the moral hazard is that the newly nationalized industries are going to be under immense pressure from a new class of exploitative bureaucrats leaving the people in essentially no better position than they started out in.
The instances where this has occurred are legion in the history of nationalizations. The Credit Lyonnaise scandal in France is a developed economy example. In China today, amazing injustices are being carried out by Communist Party regional bosses expropriating communal properties for private gain. Part of the reason the Soviet system never fulfilled truly socialist goals was the mendacity of the apparatchiks who were perfectly willing to substitute themselves for the Czar's aristocracy as the corrupt masters of Russia.
There's a lot of risk in what Chavez, Morales and Correa are attempting via ALBA. Hopefully they have learned some of history's lessons.
Actually, that's not true.
The dollar was IMPOSED by the last Ecuadoran president to be declared legally insane and booted out of office.
Before he imposed the dollar, thanks to his nutball b.s. and his cronyism, all the banks failed.
Take your smug gringo condescension about learning history's lessons to a more sympathetic audience. Gringolandia sure hasn't learned squat.
¡Felicitaciones a América Latina! And good luck.
Meanwhile the CIA, for sure, is plotting how it's going to undermine & topple Latin America's independent states. Will the CIA send agent provacateurs as per its toppling of the democratically elected Iranian government in 1953, &/or train Contras as it did against Nicaragua during the eighties, &/or unleash American troops from their new bases in Colombia? Or will we progressives prevent come up with ways to force our government from unleashing the CIA upon our sisters & brothers in Latin America and the Caribbean?
A note of caution - while the newly minted Sucre aims to be a Western Hemisphere version of the Euro, it also has the potential to be the self same hemisphere's version of the CFA Franc (either one, both of which are joke currencies). The Euro has much stronger economies contributing to it, and more of them. While the idea is a good one, the devil will be in the details (particularly the implementation). The most pertinent question is; will it be freely floated like the Euro, or will it be artificially supported like the Yuan?
I disagree. I believe the most important question is will the sucre be backed by a basket of commodities and metals (precious and others) to keep the currency stable and make it extremely difficult to manipulate or undermine. If it is not a fiat currency and the backing isn't limited to a manipulable set of commodities, it will work. Otherwise, the USA will be able to trash it.
Why SHOULD it be "freely floated?" the "Free floating" of currencies is itself based on the Hegemony of the DOllar - in order to KEEP foreign currencies structurally WEAK while allowing the USA - which is itself "unfreely" floated but pegged to ITSELF ONLY (while forcing other economies to "float" and peg TO the Dollar which GAVE the dollar its unearned "stability" as monopoly "world currency").
CHINA did NOT "freely float" its currency during the 1990s or SINCE - against US demands - and THAT allowed china to weather already at least THREE great recessions and bubble bursts INITIATED or CAUSED by the USA economic system of "suppressed wages globally" and Finance Industry legerdemain of "Phantom wealth"....
where when one looks behind the curtain -- there's really NOTHING there of real value.
most people accuse china of "manipulating" the yuan by "artificially keeping it low while pegged to the dollar" when in fact
it is the USA that is MAIN currency manipulator :
manipulating not ONLY ITS own "value" through "overnight interest rates" declared by the Federal bank (now down t0 ZERO) - between banks - to keep FLOATING the banks at the REAL economies' expense (such as in low wages, higher "productivity" demands per worker at LOWER wage value, while forcing most productive human beings JOBLESS and thus a LOSS of REAL wealth and earning and consuming power) -
but manipulating other currencies THROUGH its artificially, rigged, "dependability" as the world's main trade currency....
EVEN IF that SAME "dependability" is based - for many decades now - even BEFORE nixon - on US military impositions that force other economies to keep THEIR currencies' "floated" so long as they are WEAK compared to the dollar - to KEEP their wages and resources CHEAP for the USA to RAPE them at will.
THAT"s the real system that has been going about.
it is the system that has kEpt other economies from USING THEIR SOVEREIGN WEALTH POWER ISSUANCE of CREDIT - to develop their internal economies and THEREFORE NOT BECOME DEPENDENT
on USING their own sovereign credit creation (for fear of inflating) and savings to BUY US DOLLAR CURRENCY
MERELY to make trade transactions among themselves.
REMOVE that DOLLAR INTRUSION between regional countries - and they are FREED more - pending their own having good enlightened leaderships who DO use their sovereign power to print THEIR DOMESTIC CREDIT to enhance their economies -
to use that same sovereign credit to issue to their people the "money" to afford high wages, full employment, and not WASTE that CREDIT by translating it outwards as national currency that has to be accumulated or printed to BUY US "savings" or "bonds" or -- voila - the GREAT WONDERFUL US DEBT
MERELY to have what?
A PIECE OF PAPER called the US DOLLAR to make THEIR transactions among themselves?
i mean -- that's so OBVIOUS.
it's PURE BLACKMAIL by the USA upon the rest of the world when it became possible for the USA to replace the British Sterling after world war 2 when most economies were either devastated and no global system of proper transaction was evolved..and THAT"S where the USA jumped in like a Predator.
what is happening in regions is simply that they are picking up where the world LEFT OFF - or SHOULD HAVE been many decades ago :
NOT PERMIT the USA to IMPOSE its will - by sheer backroom deals and pen and paper and INK
to CLAIM:
"THE USA is the most dependable economy in the world - and by the POWER of the US GOVERNMENT to COVER expense or credit or trust -- the world should use the US dollar as transaction money"
which entrapped what were THEN weaker, as yet unfully developed modern economies after 2 world wars and other regional crises (not least many of them ALSO instigated or worsened by US intrusions) - INTO a RIGGED SYSTEM of US Dollar Hegemony
and which forced the rest of the world
to practically SUPPORT the USA economy and put the US "prosperity" (claimed as PURELY american inqenuity or "hardwork") --
ON WELFARE!
the rest of the world, having gained SOME independence, while the USA is BUSY trying to PLUG the holes breaking through its dollar hegemony (EX: IRAQ, SADDAM HUSSEIN trying to move to EURO, IRAN same thing) but showing its IMPOTENCE through its VIOLENCE .....
the rest of the world is simply doing what it OUGHT to have been doing since LONG AGO!
simply DECIDE - with their SOVEREIGN power to do so - without INSTRUCTIONS from the USA -
on how and which currency to use as transaction symbol between themselves.
PERIOD!
it's not THAT complicated.
it's as simple as CUTTING THROUGH THE MIDDLEMAN.
and the USA has been the MIDDLEMAN of global transactions that ATE UP the majority of the earnings BETWEEN the parties who should NEVER have allowed the "middleman" to call the shots to begin with!
Chomp, I happen to spend a LOT of time in Venezuela and have done so since 2003--when the "control de cambio" was put in place that saved Venezuela's financial bacon.
Free floating trolls like you are a drug on the market.
Chomp:
Exactly right regarding the role that black markets play in countries that do not freely float their currency. Those that endeavor to set an artificial rate (usually one that reflects political aspirations or to advantage a particular group or party) will find it soon the object of mirth as the black market will inevitably set a rate which reflects actual value of said money. It is simple economics of which there is no getting around no matter the ideology of the government. If Chavez & Co. recognize this and move forward with creating the Western Hemisphere version of the Euro that is freely floated, bravo. In fact, if they are successful, then it will be in Brazil's interest to eventually join (Germany eventually did away with the Deustche Mark and joined the Euro zone). If they do not and parrot the majority of the responses to my original post, then its' fate will be akin to the CFA Franc (both of them).
teddy wrote:
"the rest of the world, having gained SOME independence, while the USA is BUSY trying to PLUG the holes breaking through its dollar hegemony (EX: IRAQ, SADDAM HUSSEIN trying to move to EURO, IRAN same thing) but showing its IMPOTENCE through its VIOLENCE ....."
This is history that EVERYONE should understand.
Saddam announced that Irag was going to start pricing oil in Euros, not Dollars. Iraq got invaded and laid to waste...
Iran has also announced that they will price their oil in Euros, not Dollars. Any threats of violence against Iran?
Because the USA leaders are not blind to the inevitable undermining of Dollar hegemony, and are willing to use war to stave off the inevitable.
But how far are they willing to go? World War III?
This is the true back-story to the new currencies (in Latin America and among the SCO countries), and the new oil-pricing "basket of currencies and commodities" that is being floated.
How far will the USA go?
None of the other countries involved in these currency initiatives are blind either. They ALL know the days of US hegemony are over. And they are ALL watching to see how far the USA will go.
Russia and other countries are warning the USA strongly NOT to invade Iran. i think we are at the testing point - if the USA invades Iran, i believe the world will impose real economic sanctions on the USA, and the US economy will crash into the heap of cards that it has become over the past forty years of disinvestment... and either we will see WWIII or not.
Wow, excellent move. I had no idea it was coming. The World Bank-International Monetary Fund lending system has wreaked devastation on the southern hemisphere on behalf of global capital for many decades. Providing loans to Latin American dictators, with strings attached, has been favorite tool of U.S. plutocrats to extract labor and resources, and even snatch up whole industries, at bargain-basement prices.
See the writings of Walden Bello, John Perkins, many others.
-TIA
I am not surprised.
I often told friends of mine for at least five years now - that "one day , perhaps sooner than people think, REGIONAL ALLIANCES as a result of US imperialistic arrogance..WILL find a way to RUN AROUND the Dollar dominance" .
one of the first times i remember arguing like that with friends who had more "economics" backgrounds was when George Bush invaded Iraq - and I told them that the now accelerating OVERT wars that the USA is pushing is going to seriously affect the general US economy that in the end the Dollar VALUE will suffer and the USA will be seen as UNDEPENDABLE ...with the dollar having NOTHING to back it UP ..not real assets EQUAL to its CLAIMS as "dominant and valuable" ...not PRODUCTIVITY despite the american claims of "efficiency", nor even the ability to pay MERELY the USA's debts on their INTEREST alone..and the result will be :
"what ALWAYS LOOKED like too much of a good thing...INDEED was too much of a good thing" and THAT's the Dollar hegemony.
and that no matter how the US federal bank FLOODS the world with US currency -- other countries will simply decide that they've HAD ENOUGH of their holdings of US debt and other businesses and investments and EVEN HOLDING THEIR SOVEREIGN WEALTH HOSTAGE to the dollar and AWAY from their DOMESTIC developments , so much so that they'd be willing to have a RUN on the dollar temporarily and LOSE some value on their dollar holdings RATHER than continue to make their currencies and economies SERVICE the US Dollar
with the USA's UNEARNED and UNJUSTIFIED rigging of the global finance system to advantage the US empire - at the backs of OTHER economies.
now -- it's coming around, gradually, by fits and starts for sure........but that's eventually going to be the "new normal" that the USA simply will have NOTHING to do against , much as it tries to invade left and right to try and put a stop to the bleeding of ITS Dollar Hegemony which is
fundamentally
the HEART and SOUL of its EMPIRE!
it's ovah.
This is great news.
The SCO is taking similar steps to start a new currency. Not that i trust China or Russia to embody the best interests of the people or the Earth. But the US is finished as boss of the world.
But from among the three of China, Russia, and the US, from the historical record and particularly its actions over the past few decades, I would think the US is the last one to trust with the world's fate.
Considering that the US murdered 20 million of MY people, and then committed at least 200 armed intervantions in other countries--including Mexico (3 times), where I live--committing genocide in Iraq and Afghanistan, among other countries, I would say that the US did do something worse, troll.
Patriotism: The last refuge of scoundrels!
Sorry, I felt the need to correct all the glaring errors in your post.
"Indeed. Considering how the US oppresses Cuba, menaces Iran, exploits the shit out of South America, and massacres its own citizens in prison and hospital emergency rooms, not to mention genocide against the Native Americans, China is a much nicer place. Further, considering how the US invaded Panama, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Mexico, Grenada, Hawaii, Cuba, and the Philippines, carried out the only nuclear attack in history in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, is committing what ammounts to genocide in Iraq and Afghanistan, menaces the democratic Latin American states, and has a history of assassinating those who endanger corporate profits, Russia is a much nicer place.
Oooops....Did the US really do all that? Did it do something worse?"
Yep, it did. Thanks for realizing that. And that's why we want to help America live up to its ideals and its potential. Why don't you help us?
Your right-wing trolling is so tiresome.
No, the United States has NEVER DONE ANYTHING that anyone could possibly comment on. History is so clear, the USA is a FORCE FOR PURITY AND GOODNESS in the world, and ALWAYS HAS BEEN. And your brilliance speaks for itself.
As i've asked before - why are you here?
The rules of debate demand facts, troll.
Opinions--especially uninformed ones--just do not cut it.
Since the assertion related to the fate of the world, and not to domestic issues, foreign relations are on point and domestic actions are not. In terms of foreign policy, in the past few decades the US: (1) firebombed Japanese cities; (2) was the only nation to use nuclear weapons; (3) helped overthrow the democratic governments in Iran, Guatemala, and Chile as well as others; (4) waged an aggressive war in Vietnam with absolutely no concern for civilian casualties; (5) has constantly and consistently intervened in Central and South America (often Africa as well) to suppress democracy; (6) set up a school to teach torture (School of the Americas) to Latin American fascists; (7) has supported Israeli fascists practicing genocide against Palestinians; (8) waged an aggressive war in Iraq in 2003 resulting in hundreds of thousands of deaths, at least; (9) has used depleted uranium in Iraq with abandon, as it had in the first gulf war, which is known to have devastating health effects on the civilian population for an interminable period; (10) continues to show little to no regard for Afghan civilians in order to establish dominance over that country; and (11) refuses to renounce the first use of nuclear weapons as China and Russia have.
What has the current government of Russia, the post-Soviet government, done in the last few decades? It went into Georgia to prevent massacres of the ethnic Russians in Georgia by the US boy in Tbilisi, who obviously was misled to believe the US would intervene on his behalf. What has China done? Oh yea, it ended the feudal slave society in Tibet and began offering education and health care to the peasants, who, even though they comprised the great majority of the population, had never enjoyed such as they lived as virtual slaves under a system run by the monks and wealthy landowners. It did defend its allies in North Korea and started a short border war with Vietnam, but the Vietnamese essentially prevailed and the casualties were nothing compared to those in the US Vietnam war.
On top of that, the US has done all it can to prevent addressing global climate problems that will affect everyone on earth for the foreseeable future.
You should read "The Prince" by Machivelli if you have not done so already. Within it one can find the blueprint for US foreign policy. That is why of China, Russia, and the US the only one feared and loathed across the globe is the US. I find it troubling that you apparently have convinced yourself that you are a sophisticated thinker with regard to these issues when you have so gullibly swallowed your home country's propaganda.
One other point you stupid idiot, Russia did not invade Georgia. Get your facts straight, ya ignorant jerk.
Sophie Scholl-The Final Days
It is really hard to wade through ignorant or deliberately foolish posts like yours and not lose one's patience.
Some of us have better things to do than jerk off here.
Inform yourself. Then post.
Chomp, very good question!
I think of low-standard debate tactics as a time-saving-process-of-elimination-which-helps-me-chose-which-comments-to-read criteria enhancer. In other words, unsupported claims, presumptuous assertions, distorted truths, half-truths, name-calling ("idiot","jerk"), generalizations, stereotyping, lack of examples, etc., all help me to decide whose comments are worth reading and whose are not. And that is "why" I think that these delusional tactics should be "part of accepted debate on this site".
And yes, this reply will stand as support to any claim of my being selfish in regards to my time being wasted. But if someone calls me a "selfish jackass", or does not refer to this reply for support, or both, I will no longer read that person's comments, so there. And as for me supporting that claim(threat), consider whether "selfish jackass" is more telling, or simply "selfish" with THIS confession of selfishness as substantiation. It comes down to either something that anyone can say, or something that required some effort, and the amount of effort is usually evident in the care taken to support and explain.
A good subject, Chomp, and a topic which those who frequent this site need to address more often!!!
I think Geithner sent him to defend the "strong dollar policy".
sTRONG DOLLAR! What a hoot!
Agreed.
In a just world, we would follow suit and nationalize our oil companies and banks. But the oligarchy pre-empted this by brainwashing our people against any socialism except socialism for oligarchy banks, corporations and other institutions.
Well said, ezeflyer!
And let me just say that I think we will see more of this in the near future. Goodbye worth-paper-and-ink-only "Greenbacks!"
Also, this should start gold soaring at at even faster rate than it has the last two weeks BUT I recently found out that the gold market is ALSO controlled by certain organizations so it will NEVER reach its true value. (Estimated to be--now--at about $2,000+ per ounce...minimum!!!
You can't eat gold so hoarding it is not necessarily going to help you much when this house of cards collapses.... Just a thought.
I hope it goes well for them.
Cicero: "Freedom is participation in power."
As long as Venezuela's oil holds out and there are valuable mineral resources in some of those 9 countries that can be traded globally they can engage in this. But at some point they will be compelled to move to other more stable currencies being pushed by the BRIC nations: Brazil, Russia, India & China.
Venezuela also has the 47th largest reserves of gas on the planet--not to mention gold, diamonds, water, uranium, etc.
Venezuela's reserves are for a minimum of 200 years.
Personally, I am not inclined to speculate about which currencies will be doing well 200 years from now.
Maybe. But if they pool their wealth into becoming self-sufficient in energy through creating their own renewable energy, they could become the next big industrial powerhouse.
Not only that.
simply by the ACT of removing the dollar as the "middleman" transaction money - and agreeing upon either ONE or common regional currency that the respective SOVEREIGN countries ACCEPT as "credit" from each other or in payment of "debt" to each other - they ALREADY achieved a simple, but MOST crucial matter:
SAVING their earnings and credit from HAVING to be USED to BUY US bonds, US treasury, US debt, US dollar currency and therefore - RATHER than being FORCEd to "reinvest" their DOLLAR DENOMINATED holdings (which are UNUSABLE in THEIR internal economies -- which is part of the US "strong dollar" rigged systme policy to keep foreign currencies "low value" EVEN in THEIR domestic transactions) - IN the USA or IN the US treasury all over again.
THAT is at the heart of the US DOLLAR HEGEMONY's rigging of the global system - backed up by the overt or covert and IMPLICIT THREAT of MILITARY ACTION (such as fomenting insurrections, destabilization, "democracy-building" protests, blah, blah, blah, assassinations, economic sanctions, isolation...etc.) -
which really is about MAKING THE REST OF THE WORLD SUPPORT the USA in ITS empire building -=- and THEY pick up the TAB
through Suppressed wages, LIMITING their social economic developments and focusing their OWN EARNINGS from their already CHEAPENED products (through Dollar hegemony) to SERVCE the US DOLLAR in the transactions!
it was a BRILLIANT scheme by the US banking and finance and government and chamber of commerce..which worked
WITH THE BACKING of the US MILITARY and its THREATS and WARS and MEDDLING .
but NOW _ other economies are at least getting MORE INSISTENT that it should not and ought NEVER to have been TOLERATED.
even where there are fearsome bullies -
even neighborhoods that have been so frightened and intimidated for so long - once they gather together and decide to POOL their "weak" selves - they find they are stronger than they THOUGHT....
and once they decide to put a united front against the BULLY
he will be shown the DOOR.
Here is another example:
in ASIA -- INDIA has erroneously - under its Rightwing leaders nowadays - flush with the 1990's "capitalism" ASSUMED that IT will be Asia's "giant" and BEFORE its Eggs had HATCHED already tried to elbow its way against its smaller neighboring economies in southeast asia ...and because these leaders felt overly confident that the USA, its "NEW patron" was going to help INdia become the "counterweight to china" in the USA"s OWN "china containment" and THUS INDIA hopes to be the BIG MAN of asia!
RESULT? THOSE others have begun banding together and aligned themselves WITH CHINA.
RESULT?
INDIA is in NEAR TOTAL ISOLATION - as the odd man out - and seen as the LACKEY of USA !
Stupid idiot.
Sophie Scholl-The Final Days
"I would rather be a citizen of a democracy"
If you live in the USA I guess it's time you left. You certainly won't find a real democracy there.
Couldn't have said it better.
I had the brains and the eyesight to leave 20 years ago.
and concerning these comparisons regarding "freedom" and "democracy" as opposed to "totatitarian states".
at least China doesn't make its citizens BAIL OUT BIG BANKS like they do in the United States - even if it's the BIG BANKS and BIG FINANCE and CORPORATIONS that created the economic mess
which their fancily-named "citizens of the freeest country in the world" but really are glorified Serfs
have to BAIL OUT and THEN wait for CRUMBS falling from the Table of the Oligarchs of the ONE WAR PARTY system of the TOTALITARIAN Corporate United States of America.
goodness knows the FBI, NSA, CIA and sundry dozens other hidden US SPYING totalitarian state "law and order" agencies are doing metrics on EVERYONE HERE right now....for "later reference"..........
JUST for saying THAT! except that maybe we're just "small fry" and TOLERATED to be ALLOWED to "believe" that the USA
is a FREE , DEMOCRATIC COUNTRY...even if the whole world KNOWS it sure ain't!
as the fine writer, Henry CK Liu for asiatimesonline would say:
"THE USA is really a protectionist nation pretending to be free market".........
the USA is really a Totalitarian Corporate, Military Industrial ONE PARTY For WAR system PRETENDING to be a democracy.
it even has the TRAPPINGS of it: "elections"...
so long as you DON"T challenge its totalitarian Capitalist Corporatocratic Warmaking System of Exploitation and "full spectrum dominance"...INCLUDING its self-appointed , self-descrived claims of being a "democracy" and "LAND OF THE FREE".
as the famous, legendary Tennis Player, Martina Navratilova - she of fame and notoriety for being lesbian and leaving her communist country Czechoslovakia to become a US citizen, believing it is "free".......recently said:
"I left my home from the communist dictatorship....never did i realize i would see the day when the USA, my adopted country, the LAND OF THE FREE has become the LAND OF THE FRIGHTENED"......
and let me ask you , if you can answer in all honesty:
WHO REALLY TERRORIZES americans? it's NOT the taliban, it's NOT al qaeda, it WASN"T saddam Hussein,
it's NOT IRAN
it's NOT RUSSIA
it's NOT CHINA'
it's not CHAVEZ or the south americans
it wasn't EVEN the vietnamese
it's NOT "old europe"
it's YOUR OWN GOVERNMENT and corporations and FBI and CIA and NSA and HOMELAND SECURITY and blahblahblah !
Teddy, Teddy... I too like your posts. But DO lay off the caps-key, ok? - It makes some of us skip postings of yours we'd otherwise read with interest. This is a clear case of 'less is more'.
so far -- what the world has learned, maybe except americans, is that "democracy" or notions of "freedom" are relative.
after all - the "bastion of freedom" - the USA is a Fascism dressed up as "liberty".
all YOU have to do to TEST it - if you dare , is go and protest in front of Citibank, or Chase , and SEE where THAT gets YOU! before the Police Haul you away in wonderful plastic handcuffs - until your lawyer, if you can afford one, or the overburdened, poorly paid, and uninterested "public lawyer" tries to get you out before dinner time - or when the police decide it's CLOSE to the 24-hour "limit of holding a suspect" without having declared what your crime was -- which it just might be "law and order" .
TRY IT.
also -- IF the USA wasn't ALREADY a totalitarian regime dressed up as "democracy" -- you WOULDN"T have the 2-sided ONE PARTY WAR/corporate PARTY running things, would you?
what was it the self-declared FASCIST - Huey Long said a "REALLY HUEY LONG" time ago?
"THE DAY SHALL COME WHEN THE USA WILL BE A FASCIST STATE....ONLY THEY'LL STILL CALL IT A DEMOCRACY".
AND HERE YOU ARE! RIGHT SMACK IN THE MIDDLE OF IT! HECK - IT'S SO TOTALITARIAN - IT CAN'T EVEN STOP ITSELF FROM INVADING COUNTRIES TO GIVE THEM ITS BRAND OF TOTALITARIANISM!
THE WONERFUL PENTAGON BOYS EVEN HAVE A NAME FOR IT:
"FULL SPECTRUM DOMINANCE"......
HOMELAND SECURITY HAS A NAME FOR IT:
detentions. spying, checking bank records, "freedom of speech zones" surrounded by POLICE taking pictures of who attends for LATER reference...just in case....
oh - and "minor" things like "swine flu epidemic mandatory immunization....or ELSE...."
PRIVATE prison system waiting for american bodies to fill up and perhaps, just perhaps, congress can find a way of making "american persons of interest" PAY for their board and lodging
with prison labor -- but they'll name it nicely of course....
Chomp have you not noticed peaceful protestors have been getting attacked and jailed for decades.
More recently protestors are being pre-emptively jailed, before the peaceful protest site is even traveled to.
And when protestors are not jailed it is because they are already protesting in the legally required protest zone cage.
This is not my idea of a democracy.
P.S. Two FBI agents were acquitted of shooting at the Ohio National Gaurd from behind the Kent State protestors, in a Kent Ohio court a few decades ago.
Damn, teddy, I always appreciate your commentary, but it is damn hard to read.
Ekaton, I agree, but having said that, I would rather read the truth in erratic syntax, than all the whore media's lies in perfect SINTAX!
GOOD REMINDER!! thanks ekaton..i meant about "hard to read".
it's caused by 2 things, i think:
my BAD habit of "caps" and neglecting proper grammar and punctuation...and i've gotten too disorderly with my own thoughts and from so many things to try and follow in the news...it's a mishmash!
I'm trying to improve - and losing the battle! eeeewwwee! but i NEEDED that reminder, THANKS!
teddy,
Thanks for answering EKATON. I felt the same. I like to read your prose but the caps distract me a bit. I like to use caps for emphasis too but it does get hard to read. Carry on. friend.
Thank you too AGG. for the added reminder. it really helps to keep me in order. i need that from fellow posters because this "caps" thing is just unnecessary , i admit.
i'll do my best to keep remembering as i type.