G8, Ball Heavy like Free Trade Agreements. Someone Screws. Someone gets Screwed.

Leaders of the G8 group of major industrialized "democracies" meeting in Russia.
From left are Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, French President Jacques Chirac, Russian President Vladimir Putin, President George Bush, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen and EU Commission Chief Jose Manuel Barroso.

Notice who stands next to Bush. They're the ones who rubbed Vicks Vapo-Rub on their upper lips and stuffed cork in their ears.

The G8 is about making life richer for the insanely wealthy.

US military aggression in the middle east, overt or the sneaky kind we sponsor through Israel, is also driven by a particular view of how trade policy and the world economy should work. This view equates "free trade" with democracy, a giant screeching delusion of the right wing Calvinist set in Amerikkka.

You can see how the implementation of these wacko ideas looks when you examine what has happened in the US for the last 25 or so years.

The rich got richer. The poor got much more poor. The middle class moved to the endangered species list. Lack of regulation for business contributed to an unrelenting assault on the planet's environment, now teetering. The political system broke with the help of corporate money. The free press was consolidated into the hands of a few people, all of whom have a vested interest in telling lies on the evening news.
Wars are rife.
You know. Republican rule.

And that, as Al Gonzales might say, is the short list.

Just a Few Things to Know

Bretton Woods
Free Trade
Globalization
Harry Dexter White
IMF
NAFTA
Privatization
World Bank
WTO