So the leaders of Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Bank of America, Citibank and Chase Manhattan sought to “eliminate controls on banks in every nation on the planet — in one single move.” To do this, Palast writes, they used “the Financial Services Agreement, an abstruse and benign addendum to the international trade agreements policed by the World Trade Organization.” “Until the bankers began their play,” Palast continues, “the WTO agreements dealt simply with trade in goods—that is, my cars for your bananas. The new rules ginned-up by Summers and the banks would force all nations to accept trade in ‘bads’—toxic assets like financial derivatives.” “Until the bankers’ re-draft of the FSA, each nation controlled and chartered the banks within their own borders. The new rules of the game would force every nation to open their markets to Citibank, JP Morgan and their derivatives ‘products.’ ” “And all 156 nations in the WTO would have to smash down their own Glass-Steagall divisions between commercial savings banks and the investment banks that gamble with derivatives.” The banks then strong-armed the member nations into abandoning their previous trade-in-goods deals by threatening to block international sales of the nations’ key exports. Every single bullied nation signed.
Posted on: Tue, 27 Aug 2013 19:27:09 +0000
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