British political satirists John Bird and John Fortune discussed the so-called credit crunch back in October 2007.

This skit isn’t dated in the least. The biggest joke of all – failed gambler-bankers walking away with massive bonuses at the taxpayer’s expense – is still breaking news.

Here’s an extract from the report in yesterday’s Daily Mail: How bailed-out U.S. banks kept on dishing out bonuses

Nine Wall Street banks received a combined £75billion in taxpayer cash last October to help them survive the financial meltdown.

But according to a shocking report by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, bonuses paid by several of the biggest institutions were ‘substantially greater’ than the banks’ earnings.

• Goldman Sachs’s net income was £1.4billion, yet it paid out nearly £2.8billion in bonuses. It received £6 billion in bail-out funds.
• Morgan Stanley earned £1billion and paid nearly £2.7billion in bonuses. It also received £6billion from the taxpayer.
• JPMorgan Chase earned £3.3billion, paid £5.2billion in bonuses and received £15 billion from the government.

Citigroup, Bank of America and Merrill Lynch, which all needed government funds, also paid billions to hundreds of executives despite posting massive losses.

The report claimed that America’s biggest banks awarded a total of nearly 4,800 bosses with bonuses of a million dollars or more each last year.

Mr Cuomo said his office studied historical financial filings and found that at many banks compensation increased in the 2003-2006 bull market years, but stayed at those levels as the mortgage crisis and recession hit.

‘Thus, when the banks did well, their employees were paid well. When the banks did poorly, their employees were paid well.

‘And when the banks did very poorly, they were bailed out by taxpayers and their employees were still paid well,’ he said. ‘Bonuses and overall compensation did not vary significantly as profits diminished.’

William Engdahl

William Engdahl is the author of Full Spectrum Dominance: Totalitarian Democracy in the New World Order.

He was interviewed in early July 2009 by the promising new independent news service: the Real News Network.

This wide-ranging interview is recommended viewing.

Full Spectrum Dominance was published by Third Millennium Press in May 2009. The book summary explains (emphasis added):

For the faction controlling the Pentagon, the military industry, and the oil industry, the Cold War never ended. They engineered an incredible plan to grab total control of the planet, of land, sea, air, space, outer space and cyberspace. Continuing ‘below the radar,’ they created a global network of military bases and conflicts to advance the long-term goal of Full Spectrum Dominance. Methods included control of propaganda, use of NGOs for regime change, Color Revolutions to advance NATO eastwards, and a vast array of psychological and economic warfare techniques. They even used ‘save the gorilla’ organizations in Africa to secretly run arms in to create wars for raw materials. It was all part of a Revolution in Military Affairs, as they termed it. The events of September 11, 2001 would allow an American President to declare a worldwide War on Terror, on an enemy who was everywhere, and nowhere. 9/11 justified the Patriot Act, the very act that destroyed Americans’ Constitutional freedoms in the name of security. This book gives a disturbing look at the strategy of Full Spectrum Dominance, at what is behind a strategy that could lead us into a horrific nuclear war in the very near future, and at the very least, to a world at continuous war.

William Engdahl has written extensively on geopolitics and global economics over several decades, beginning with a look at the first ‘oil shock’ in the 1970s. He has unorthodox views on subject s as diverse as GMOs and the origins of oil. Engdahl also shares the view that well-connected factions within the west orchestrated the fall of the Shah of Iran in the late 1970s.

He is pessimistic about the prospects for a prompt American economic recovery.

Check out the 2009 NewMatilda.com Political Cartooning Competition as it approaches the final round. Australia has some talented cartoonists.

I especially like a runner-up in Heat 10 by freelancer Jon Kudelka.

It’s a nice follow-up to the notorious Doonsebury moneychangers cartoon.

'The Evolution of the Parasite'

As the new millenium dawned, the ‘Anglosphere’ had a seemingly well-established grip over the finances of the world. This financial dominance – vastly out of proportion to the populations of the English-speaking nations – was reflected in military muscle. The dominant USA was considered by all and sundry to be the sole remaining ‘Superpower’: politically, militarily and economically.

It seems so long ago. Yet until 2007, the Old Order remained essentially intact. Since then, what we’ve come to know as the ‘World Financial Crisis’ has been akin to a new deal in a global poker game. As the cards are flipped face up in mid-2009, it’s apparent there’s been a phenomenal shift in world power. New players have joined the table. They’re outclassing former high rollers.

The two graphs below show the top twenty banks in the world by market capitalization, in 1999 and 2009 respectively. The author/s of my source for these graphs also points out that last month, for the first time, China became Brazil’s largest trading partner. Trade with Brazil has long been an indicator of financial power  The USA held the No 1 position from the 1930′s; before that, Britain had been the dominant trading partner for several generations.

Dramatic shifts are currently underway – yet there’s no real sign yet that the English-speaking countries intend to put their bloated military spend into reverse and rejoin the rest of the world. If they did, others would be greatly enouraged to do the same. As it is, the rest of the world is likely to view warily the real intentions of nations with a long track record of illegal invasions, imperialism and starting new wars.

The last thing the world needs now is a ramped up arms race. Another major war could well be the last, as Einstein warned.

Curtailment of Anglo-American imperialism is a benefit  – for people in those countries, as well as for the world as a whole. The children of the generation that ‘Lost the British Empire’ experienced unparalled prosperity. The same thing can happen within the USA.

Aside from the interests of war profiteers, economic prosperity is based on peace. It’s possible for Empires to fade gracefully, but only by relinquishing imperial pretensions.

The World's Biggest Banks, 1999

The World's Biggest Banks, 2009

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Update: Readers of this article may also be interested in The trillion dollar question: China or America? by Niall Ferguson in the Daily Telegraph, 1st June 2009.