Big Bucks

Fortune magazine have told us the good news that the number of people with personal fortunes (besides what is owned corporately) of over $ one billion in the world has gone up to 1220. (Millionaires are now ten a penny.) There is an elite club of course. Those that have $10 billion or more. Welcome to the core of the world's ruling class.

If you are a member of the elite mentioned above and reading this, you might like to know that you will need to spend $1 million a day for the next 30 years to shift your dough.

These personal fortunes are a tiny drop in the ocean compared with assets held by the big corporations and banks. Our 1220 happy souls have their fingers in some much larger pies than their own estimated pocket money. One illustration of the capacity of the holders of the big bucks to fix problems if they wish just happened. Yesterday Greece defaulted on 100 billion euros worth of debt. Capitalism did not crash. The world did not tremble. Why? Because the banks and others holding these debts have been gradually discounting them on their balance sheets and filling up the gaps with humungous subsidies from the taxpayers via such things as no or low interest long term loans from the European Central Bank or the Bank of England. In short, the billionaires who own the banks lent the Greek ruling class huge loans in the expectation of huge profits. Greece cannot pay so the system has been fixed so that the taxpayer, you and I, make sure the billionaires are not out of pocket. Simples.

A delegation from Britain, led by Jeremy Corbyn MP and John McDonnel MP, with wide TU backing, is visiting Greece to talk to all those fighting austerity. They will return to report back on the ideas and requirements of Greece's movement to stop poverty. Make sure you go to hear the report backs. They are being organised during April. We surely need solidarity movements across all european countries to back what is today the front line of the battle against this crazy system that threatens all of us.