Who Is Saving Whom?
The crisis as a business model at the expense of democracy and social security
A film by Leslie Franke and Herdolor Lorenz, 2015, 104 minutes.
The film starts with impressions of the contradictory splits in our society. Politicians are juggling with billion euro bailouts while people are again forced to work for starvation wages in the heart of Europe. There are many bailouts but there is no salvation in sight.
Bailouts at the cost of ordinary people
The film looks back: The beginning of this development can be traced back to 2008. There was a bailout of several hundred billions for the first time. Huge sums were transferred beyond parliamentary control to ailing banks in every country of the Western world. Democracy was suspended. The film asks: How was such a catastrophe possible? How do the "markets" function, whose collapse is being felt by the weakest in society everywhere?
We hear from economists that a bailout of the banks would not have been necessary. The state could have set up a "good bank" by buying the good bonds necessary to the real economy, including the savings deposits. This "Good Bank" could have smoothly taken over the core business of the banking system. Instead, the state loaded "Bad Banks" with huge packages of toxic securities. Because all the large banks were sitting at the ministerial tables nearly everywhere in the year 2008.
The global rescue of the banks has had fatal effects. Financial giants of "systemic relevance" were created everywhere. These have been given massive competitive advantages and are bigger and more powerful than ever before. So powerful that they begun to bet against those states that were thrown into debt because of the bank bailouts in 2009. The rescued against the rescuers.
The film looks back: The beginning of this development can be traced back to 2008. There was a bailout of several hundred billions for the first time. Huge sums were transferred beyond parliamentary control to ailing banks in every country of the Western world. Democracy was suspended. The film asks: How was such a catastrophe possible? How do the "markets" function, whose collapse is being felt by the weakest in society everywhere?
We hear from economists that a bailout of the banks would not have been necessary. The state could have set up a "good bank" by buying the good bonds necessary to the real economy, including the savings deposits. This "Good Bank" could have smoothly taken over the core business of the banking system. Instead, the state loaded "Bad Banks" with huge packages of toxic securities. Because all the large banks were sitting at the ministerial tables nearly everywhere in the year 2008.
The global rescue of the banks has had fatal effects. Financial giants of "systemic relevance" were created everywhere. These have been given massive competitive advantages and are bigger and more powerful than ever before. So powerful that they begun to bet against those states that were thrown into debt because of the bank bailouts in 2009. The rescued against the rescuers.
Now the states are being "rescued"
This opens a new chapter. The audience is in Greece. They see with what tricks a Greek central bank boss who was educated in the US makes half of the Greek public debt disappear with the help of Goldman Sachs, the US investment bank. This was Greece's entry ticket to the EU. 12 years later, the same trickster is appointed as the country's saviour. The billion Euro rescue packages are not saving Greece, instead they are again only rescuing the banks. Why is this the case? What is the background?
This opens a new chapter. The audience is in Greece. They see with what tricks a Greek central bank boss who was educated in the US makes half of the Greek public debt disappear with the help of Goldman Sachs, the US investment bank. This was Greece's entry ticket to the EU. 12 years later, the same trickster is appointed as the country's saviour. The billion Euro rescue packages are not saving Greece, instead they are again only rescuing the banks. Why is this the case? What is the background?
The film travels to Italy and Spain
Here we find out about the role of the rating agencies, who obviously are at present directing this worsening of the debt crisis. Surprisingly, those who own the agencies are profiting from these ratings, seemingly as a matter of course, and form a power complex which determines the fate of states. They force the states under attack to implement massive cuts in public expenditure, allegedly to reduce the debt. In reality, these countries are economically driven into the abyss by these austerity measures. And public debt keeps growing and growing - also because big corporations and the very rich are hardly paying any taxes any more.
Here we find out about the role of the rating agencies, who obviously are at present directing this worsening of the debt crisis. Surprisingly, those who own the agencies are profiting from these ratings, seemingly as a matter of course, and form a power complex which determines the fate of states. They force the states under attack to implement massive cuts in public expenditure, allegedly to reduce the debt. In reality, these countries are economically driven into the abyss by these austerity measures. And public debt keeps growing and growing - also because big corporations and the very rich are hardly paying any taxes any more.
Investment bankers as politicians: Sachs Government
With the question of why politicians are bowing to "markets in a bad mood", we come across the fact that Goldman Sachs not only recruits one US Finance Minister after another but also the EU Commissioners for Competition, the President of the European Central Bank, etc., etc.
With the question of why politicians are bowing to "markets in a bad mood", we come across the fact that Goldman Sachs not only recruits one US Finance Minister after another but also the EU Commissioners for Competition, the President of the European Central Bank, etc., etc.
Alternatives are required and possible
Economists call for the immediate abolition of the rescue facility and bank bailout policies at the end of the film. This strategy has led Germany into the enormous liability risk of more than 1,000 billion € in toxic loans and threatens to put the old age pension system at risk. The film presents economic and political alternatives . These are not only accurately calculated but have also already been successfully implemented once: by US President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932, when he managed to impose narrow restrictions on the financial market and to create stable economic conditions for almost 70 years.
The CEO of the world's largest reinsurance company, Munich Re, Nikolaus von Bomhard, calls for dismantling the banks of "systemic relevance" and a highly restrictive regulation of the financial market. The US economist Nouriel Rubini asks, which improvements have been made for ordinary people since the deregulation of the trade in derivatives? When will we start to place restraints on the markets?
Economists call for the immediate abolition of the rescue facility and bank bailout policies at the end of the film. This strategy has led Germany into the enormous liability risk of more than 1,000 billion € in toxic loans and threatens to put the old age pension system at risk. The film presents economic and political alternatives . These are not only accurately calculated but have also already been successfully implemented once: by US President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932, when he managed to impose narrow restrictions on the financial market and to create stable economic conditions for almost 70 years.
The CEO of the world's largest reinsurance company, Munich Re, Nikolaus von Bomhard, calls for dismantling the banks of "systemic relevance" and a highly restrictive regulation of the financial market. The US economist Nouriel Rubini asks, which improvements have been made for ordinary people since the deregulation of the trade in derivatives? When will we start to place restraints on the markets?