Lyndon H. LaRouche Jr., founder of the Executive Intelligence Review (EIR is accessible on: http://www.larouchepub.com/), foresaw over 40 years ago the financial meltdown and how it will trigger global mega problems. At this time, after listening to the mantra of the very people who brought the US and other countries to the financial meltdown, perhaps we should now listen to people like Lyndon H. LaRouche Jr. who called it right in the first place.
Butch Valdes heads the Philippine LaRouche Society. I've known Butch Valdes for the past three decades. Butch was featured a few months ago in Korina Sanchez's Korina Today ANC Show where he explained the principles and policies that the Philippine LaRouche Society has been advocating.
I recently posed the following questions to Butch and he responded with these insightful answers:
Q: What is the gist of the thesis of Lyndon H. LaRouche Jr. as to what is wrong in the current world economic order? What are the great inequities of the present economic order?
Valdes: "Everything is wrong with the current economic order that's founded on the global financial system of floating exchange rates, officially implemented in 1971 by the US unilateral withdrawal from the Bretton Woods Agreement of 1945 which is a system of "fixed" exchange rates.
This move initiated by the world's money lenders shifted investments away from that which focused on expanding production and physical economy (generated labor) to speculative investments in casino-type markets (no employment economies). Since investments and loans (credits) were lured into speculating (gambling) and placing bets in money markets, commodity futures markets, bond markets, real estate markets and derivatives markets, the physical side of the economies, which are the labor generators, suffered a corresponding loss of credit and investments and thus started to shrink and can no longer absorb employment. The dramatically widening gap between increasing financial and monetary aggregates (securities) on one side and the decrease in production output on the other result in a collapse function for all economies.
The Philippines is a classic case of this planned deterioration. As a result, we have had to export our people as domestic helpers and prostitutes, and we've lost our capability to feed ourselves."
Q: When did LaRouche exactly predict what is now happening in the world markets? What is LaRouche's vision of the right economic world order?
Valdes: "LaRouche has forecasted the current systemic collapse and disintegration some 40 years ago. He organized a movement precisely to warn the world about the dangers of "monetarism," the very same system which led to the collapse of 1929 and subsequently, World War II."
But since the 2007-2008 crash is upon us, LaRouche has proposed emergency legislation (Home and Bank Protection Act, HBPA) to be passed immediately – similar to the steps taken by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933 to address the Great Depression. The HBPA calls for protection and non-eviction of homeowners (approximately 7 million) who may lose their homes because of non-payment of mortgages. Correspondingly, all state and city chartered commercial banks should get full federal government support in order to continue to function as providers of credit for continuance of businesses.
His vision of an economic order goes along the tradition and principles of the Roosevelt-initiated Bretton Woods Agreement of 1945. This economic order, signed by heads of 45 countries in New Hampshire, was the establishment of a system based on the principle of sovereign nation-states that are bound by a common purpose. This called for the development of all economies, all populations and succeeding generations through active collaboration in the implementation of a system of fixed-exchange rates, technology-sharing, and a guarantee of each nation's sovereignty."
Q: Who are the 'villains' responsible for promoting the bad world economic order?
Valdes: "The villains are the financial oligarchy — the usurious money lenders, those who make money out of other people's money. Throughout the history of man, they have always been the villains. The shylocks who never failed to exact a pound of flesh as payment of debt."
Q: How can the Philippines benefit from the ideas of LaRouche?
Valdes: "Those of us in positions of leadership in government, in business and the academe, (especially the 'econoquacks') should stop lying to the people and cease singing this mantra of "the fundamentals of our economy are sound."
We can only benefit from LaRouche's leadership by understanding the strategic causes of our present malaise. In all humility, we should acknowledge the gross errors that we made and muster the courage to correct the mistakes and implement the emergency measures needed to save as many Filipino lives as possible.
The Philippine LaRouche Society has proposed three programmatic emergency steps to enhance our society's ability to survive and continue to function as a nation-state:
This integrated approach may not be the only solution but if implemented immediately, it will give our people new hope and motivation to cooperate with the leadership in achieving the survival of our society."