As if there were not enough reasons to go mad, the proliferation of acronyms related to the crisis is such that one can hardly understand them.

The first was the G20, a selected group meeting in Washington that pretended to represent all. The second was the also selective APEC group which met in Lima. There was the richest country, the United States; with a per capita GDP of 45 thousand dollars a year. But there was also the 100th ranked country, the People's Republic of China, with a per capita GDP of 2,483 dollars; China is also the number one investor in US Treasury bonds.

Now, G192 is the way that Leonel Fernandez, President of the Dominican Republic, which is not a member of either of the two, calls the member countries of the United Nations attending an economic conference with Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Laureate of Economics.

George Soros, an immensely rich magnate of Hungarian descent and an American citizen, was one of the attending personalities.

One would have to be a chess player to disentangle the arguments of such diverse national and business interests as are represented in the G20 and the G21.

The truth of the matter is that if a Third World country signed free trade agreements with eight or ten developed or emerging countries, --some of them traditional producers of abundant and attractive low cost goods or sophisticated industrial products, such as the United States, Canada, Japan, South Korea, etc.-- the nascent industry of a developing country would have to compete with the sophisticated products of the most developed countries' industries or the hard working hands of their powerful partners, one of which handles world finances wantonly. The only thing left to them would be to produce inexpensive raw materials requiring large investments ultimately owned by foreign companies fully protected from nationalizing whims. They would only have their extended hands waiting for a pious development support and an eternal debt to be repaid with their children's sweat. Isn't this what has been happening until today?

That's why I don't hesitate to show my solidarity with Chavez's position as he said that he disagreed with Lima's recipe. There are plenty of reasons. Let's see how the situation unfolds, and keep demanding out rights without ever bending our knees.

What we see is the result of a catastrophic loss of trust in the West. It goes well beyond economics and finance. It is the sincerity of political leaders of the West that is at stake. If those in power in Washington, London and elsewhere cannot be trusted on the critical matters of war and peace, law and justice and treatment of different sections of their own populations, their ability in other areas is bound to be questioned. The leaders of America and its allies have simply become captivated by a doctrine that leaves their economies at home, to be run by the large private institutions that they befriend, while they themselves go and fight wars abroad.

Today, America's wars are financed by money borrowed from China and the oil-rich Gulf states which are awash with petrodollars... And countries like China, Russia and Saudi Arabia, which have accumulated huge reserves in U.S. dollars, don't trust the West. The resentment in the Arab world against the treatment of Muslims by the West is strong. And the government of Iceland criticizes its 'friends' for not doing enough to help it and looks towards Russia to bail it out.

The West is simply broke – morally, politically and economically. [More] . . read more

It's certainly true that U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson doesn't look much like the traditional depiction of Santa Claus.  However, in 2008 America he is playing that role with a vengeance which will undoubtedly affect and afflict all of us for decades to come.  Indeed, Santa Henry's trillion-dollar giveaway to those who caused much of the present financial crisis is already arriving.  While it may seem paradoxical, not to mention inappropriate, to reward those who got us into the present economic mess, Santa Henry is loyal to his former Wall Street colleagues, investment bankers, and other assorted cronies.  They are Santa Henry's Elves, in a manner of speaking. . . read more

The banks are hoarding cash to meet their capital requirements. They are trying to compensate for the loss of value to their (mortgage-backed) assets by increasing their reserves. At the same time, the system is clogged with trillions of dollars of bad paper which has brought lending to a halt. The huge injections of liquidity from the Fed have done nothing to improve lending or lower interbank rates. It's been a flop. The market is driving interest rates now. If the situation persists, the stock market will crash. [More] . . read more

It's holiday season in Manhattan and despite the economic downturn, there seems to be no shortage of well-dressed humans cavorting, laughing, and spending freely. Walking among them, a homeless man begs for money-shaking his tattered coffee cup (adorned with images of Greek architecture) to rattle the few coins therein. A veteran of the first Gulf War, this man is no longer concerned with yellow ribbons. Right now, he'd settle for a scrap of food and a dry pair of shoes.

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) estimates that nearly 200,000 veterans are homeless on any given night and nearly 400,000 experience homelessness over the course of a year. Forty-five percent of America's homeless veterans suffer from mental illness and half have substance abuse problems. According to the National Survey of Homeless Assistance Providers and Clients, veterans account for 23% of all homeless people in America.

The homeless vet is barely noticed by the 30-something corporate lawyer whizzing past him, on his way to dinner. It's a holiday gathering to celebrate hope, change, and all that good stuff. The lawyer-still proudly wearing his Obama button-is running late and his colleagues have already ordered appetizers: shrimp cocktails all around (for only $17 each).

The United Nations Environment Program has estimated that a quarter of the destruction of mangrove forests stems from shrimp farming. After the 2008 Burma cyclone, Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan blamed "encroachment into mangrove forests, which used to serve as a buffer between the rising tide, between big waves and storms and residential areas." He added: "All those lands have been destroyed. Human beings are now direct victims of such natural forces."

The homeless vet sees a Wall Street type-still proudly wearing his Obama button-approaching him. "Hey buddy," the vet tries, "how about a bailout?" The Wall Street type doesn't laugh. The Wall Street type doesn't even see the homeless vet. The Wall Street type tosses his half-finished Coke onto the sidewalk.

As labor activist Ray Rogers explains, "The reality is that the world of Coca-Cola is a world of lies, deceptions, corruption, gross human rights and environmental abuses!" Rogers told Democracy Now that Coke "contracted with paramilitary death squads to torture, kidnap, and murder union leaders at its bottling plants in Columbia." If geo-political issues aren't enough to move you, consider what Marion Nestle, author of Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences says about Coke and its ilk: " The relationship between soft drink consumption and body weight is so strong that researchers calculate that for each additional soda consumed, the risk of obesity increases 1.6 times."

The homeless vet picks up the Wall Street type's Coke and downs it in one big gulp. Afterwards, he tosses the empty cup onto the sidewalk and glances to his left just in time to look through the restaurant window and see the corporate lawyer cheerfully biting into a piece of shrimp.

At that precise moment, an underwater tremor deep in the Pacific Ocean creates a powerful wave that will develop into a tsunami aimed directly for a popular vacation destination once protected by mighty mangroves.

Mickey Z. can be found on the Web at http://www.mickeyz.net/