----- Original Message ----- From: "David Jennings" <djenning at subdimension.com> To: "LBO-Talk" <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com> Sent: Monday, May 21, 2001 3:09 PM Subject: Re: "Dirty Money" Foundation of U.S. Growth and Empire
>
>
> On Mon, 21 May 2001, Doug Henwood wrote:
>
> > DMJ wrote:
> >
> > >This is originally from La Jornada (http://www.jornada.unam.mx/),
and
> > >translated in narconews (http://www.narconews.com). The claim
here seems
> > >to be pretty sweeping -- any of you economists care to comment?
> > >
>
> <snip>
>
>
> >
> > Coupla things.
>
> Hey, you're a journalist, not an economist. <<grin>>
>
> > The numbers do seem very big - and since the official
> > U.S. numbers on balance of payments and suchlike pretty much add
up,
> > it's hard to see where all this money's going. Maybe the inflow of
> > dirty money more or less matches the outflow (capital inflows from
> > bigtime narcotics merchants to offset the outflows of cocaine and
> > heroin buyers?).
>
> Maybe. That would make sense given that the U.S. is the world's
junkie.
>
> On the argument regarding the importance of dirty money to the U.S.
> economy: I'd guess that the argument would be that the balance of
> payments would be that much worse -- what the writer calls
'unsustainable'
> -- if not for money laundering. Money laundering would then be a
way of
> repatriating money 'lost' to foreign producers.
>
> Meanwhile, with drugs still illegal, there's plenty of excuses to
punish
> the domestic working class as well as doing fun things with the
military
> in Colombia, Bolivia, etc. But we knew that already.
>
> > Also, while most lefties would be skeptical about
> > the claims of cops and bankers on many other matters, why this
> > eagerness to believe them on this?
>
> The numbers come largely from somebody named Raymond Baker, a guest
> scholar (or something like that) at the Brookings Inst. He spoke
before
> the Senate Subcommitte on Investigations in 1999 on the topic.
There's an
> article on the topic in a recent Z mag. Is he a cop or banker?
>
> -david
==========
Also check out the work of the lawyer Jack Blum. He works at one of
the BIG law firms in DC and has made enemies on both sides of the
aisle in Congress with his blunt honesty on the corruption of the
bankers...He's too thorough.....Just plug his name in google....
Ian