Who  Is   Saving   Whom ?

 RELOADEDTrme mitPenner kl

 
A film FROM BELOW by Leslie Franke and Herdolor Lorenz, 2020, 78 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.
 

The film is based on the so-called Covid 19 crisis. The generally accepted phrase, "The Covid 19 pandemic" plunges the world into an "unprecedented economic crisis", makes perfect sense: It is the virus we should be afraid of! This helps - one can hardly believe it - the mightiest people in the world. In the clinics of France, the nurses* (and hundreds of thousands from other professions) have been on strike for months against the neoliberal pension reform and the profit-oriented sell-out in the health sector. The strike was broken with the Corona compulsory regime. In Chile, mass demonstrations kept the capital Santiago under control every day until February. Now only the military patrols there. In Germany, the government's popularity ratings had been at rock bottom for years. Now they are at 80%. The government is our saviour.

That this is not so in reality, we have experienced in the past crisis, in the so-called financial crisis of 2008, where the film warns: "Those who do not know their history are doomed to relive it as tragedy. Together with Satyajit Das, the inventor of many financial derivatives, we review the various contexts of the last crisis to record what they teach us for the current crisis. The whole thing culminates in Satyajit Das' sobering résumé: "In the end, we have learned nothing from the 2008 financial crisis: we already had very high debts in 2008. In the meantime, however, they have become much higher. And as a result of the current crisis they will continue to rise enormously - probably even to a level that is no longer sustainable. In addition, since the financial crisis in the so-called developed Western countries, about 40% of the employees are now casual workers. They are employed either on call or under contract. It is no longer possible to take sick leave. They usually have no health care, no pension provision, and they always have to work to survive, regardless of whether they are sick. They have no real savings. All in all, they need more and more money to pay their debts. Like a hamster running in a wheel. You have to run faster and faster and faster to stay where you are. And this is a very extreme process where normal people are turned into debt slaves. But also companies and especially governments - they have lost control. They can't get by without more debt, they can't stop, they all have no more reserves. This is a very, very dangerous sword of Damocles hanging over our heads."

Unfortunately, the problems in the banking sector have also remained the same. And another new one has been added: A so-called "shadow banking system", which is a huge, huge complex of mutual funds and hedge funds. The problem is that they operate outside any control of the regulatory authority. In 2008 they talked about Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan, but today it's BlackRock and Citadel, the big fund managers, who are much bigger than the entire banking system. And they are growing rapidly. The danger of derivatives is still not understood and they are barely regulated. Financial bubbles are everywhere.

The résumé of the film: The problem of debt - the money of the rich - can only be postponed into the future with  ever increasing risks. The non-recognition of debt, radical debt cuts will decide whether we can tackle the essential problem of the present: The horrendous inequality within countries and between nations. Only in this way can we ensure a more sustainable economy, society and future. And the most important essence of the film is: Be more vigilant than ever before!

Let us - the 99.9% - avoid having to pay  again for the crisis of the 0.1% rich and powerful! Our film "Who saves Whom?"  shows vividly how this happened in the last crisis. Those who do not know their own recent history run the risk of suffering it even more tragically. Therefore, a current version of the film called "Who's saving Whom - Reloaded"  is being produced.

Be prepared! Learn from the last crisis. "Who's Saving Whom - Reloaded" Help us to ensure that the updated version of the film "Who's Saving Whom?", entitled "Who's Saving Whom? Reloaded" can be created!