Lawyers for former world athletics chief Lamine Diack, who is on trial for corruption, protested their client’s innocence and said the 87-year-old would die in jail if sentenced to a prison term.
French financial prosecutors sought a four-year jail sentence for Senegalese Diack, saying he and his son, Papa Massata Diack, were at the heart of a scheme that solicited bribes worth millions of euros from Russian athletes to cover up failed doping tests and allow them to continue competing.
Prosecutors had sought a five-year sentence for Papa Massata Diack.
Lamine Diack’s lawyers on Thursday said there were “no tangible elements” proving Lamine Diack’s participation in the scheme, and put the blame on his absent son.
“One has to distinguish between the son and the father,” said defense lawyer Simon Ndiaye, adding that Diack’s main fault had been to hire his son as a marketing consultant for the Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), a position that he abused. The IAAF is now known as World Athletics.
Stressing the fragile health of Lamine Diack, his second defense lawyer William Bourdon said: “Sending him to the jails of the Republic can only be a death accelerator”.
Friday was the last day of the trial. The verdict is slated for 16 September.
Former IAAF chief Lamine Diack could die in jail
Is the United States rooted in unfairness?
The COVID 19 pandemic is revealing the stark contrast in how working men and women are being treated in the United States and Germany. What follows is not so much a tale about differing economic performances in times of unemployment. It is fundamentally a story about very different ways to organize a society and economy. And, to be sure, amidst the current Depression-era increase in the United States level of unemployment, this dramatizes the reality that the United States economic model is a victim of its pay-to-play politics dominated by lavish donors. Put conversely, the question is what good does it do a society if it organizes itself in such a manner that its elites always do well, with its broader population prospering less than comparable cohorts abroad.
Let’s start with the numbers. George Tyler, an economist and the author of “What Went Wrong” and “Billionaire Democracy: The Hijacking of the American Political System” Stated that such difference is symbolized by the major disparity in current unemployment levels. While German joblessness increased from 5% to 5.8% in April, the first full month of the COVID 19 pandemic, United States unemployment jumped from 4.4% to 14.7%. As in the United States, the German economic outlook is weakening. But despite comparable government assistance (about 20% of GDP), United States unemployment is more than double that in Germany.
George Tyler, in his book “What Went Wrong” stressed that this picture is replicating the experience of the 2008-9 global financial crisis. At the time, the German government’s policies and supportive German corporations proved remarkably effective in moderating its impact on workers. Job loss in Germany was only one-third that of the United States and Germany’s economic recovery more than twice as fast. German unemployment bottomed out during the Great Recession at 7.1% in the 3rd and 4th quarters of 2008. It rose to peak at 7.8% in the 2d and 3d quarters of 2009. But policies tempered the downturn and the rate had fallen back to 7% by the 2d quarter of 2010, less than two years later. In contrast, United States unemployment back then doubled, rising from 4.8% in the 4th quarter of 2007 to peak at 9.9% two years later in the 4th quarter of 2009. Moreover, the United States recovery was sluggish: It took four years for the United States rate to drop below 7%, reaching 6.9% in the 4th quarter of 2013, and six years to hit 5% again.
George Tyler noted that hopefully, the economic impact on Americans in the months ahead will be less severe than suggested by the unemployment figures. Most are receiving cash benefits from state unemployment programs and Federal assistance under the CARES Act including the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program for the self-employed. And most Americans filing for benefits in last April were actually furloughed rather than laid off, with many continuing for the moment to receive employer-provided benefits.
Barry Wood, a Washington writer, broadcaster and author stated that the distribution of these benefits has not been a smooth process. One study by analysts at the Economic Policy Institute, for instance, found only half of potential eligible workers are receiving unemployment benefits. And the Brookings Institution has suggested the data fail to capture the full extent of skyrocketing unemployment. Moreover, the benefits themselves are the subject of bitter partisan debate with Republican officials such as Senator Lindsey Graham vowing to eliminate them.
Barry Wood, in his new book “Exploring New Europe, a Bicycle Journey” argued that the ad hoc rush underway to paper over wide cracks in the unemployment system is rooted in the United States corporate governance system that economists’ term shareholder capitalism. United States corporate boards prioritize shareholders at the expense of employees, favoring share buybacks and hefty dividends over labor compensation. It’s why only a stunning 26% of American workers age 50-62 approaching retirement enjoy health and retirement benefits. It is why 44% of all working Americans earn a median pay of just $10.22 an hour. And, of course, it is why 40% of adults entered the COVID 19 recession unable to mobilize $400 in savings. Meanwhile, United States firms such as Caterpillar, Levi Strauss and others are laying-off and furloughing thousands of employees while simultaneously paying $700 million to shareholders in cash dividends.
According to Barry Wood, the worker/employer relationship in the United States is mostly transactional, with the OECD documenting scant rights for employees. Lacking links to Main Street and households, United States corporate boards and top executives mostly work in a cloud of like-minded people. When under stress as in the Great Recession, they have proven notoriously quick to fire and loath to hire. They exhibit the famous French “sauve qui peut” mindset of elites – and mostly focus on protecting their own economic position and finances. That is the logical consequence of their compensation being tied very tightly to profits and the share price. Amid rampant plant-wide COVID 19 infections, this attitude shows its really ugly face. Too many top managers and Republican Party politicians are hostile to employees, opposing unemployment benefits with some requiring them to work without adequate safeguards.
According to George Tyler, as much as things are out of whack in the United States, it is very much possible to be a successful nation economically and to operate within a capitalist framework that is fair and balanced, and not organized to put the interest of shareholders and CEOs above that of Main Street. Capitalism can succeed with a framework where employers nurture rather than abandon employees during periods of stress. The German example underscores that. The country reflects a history of strong labor movements, with larger corporations practicing codetermination. The presence of employee representatives on their corporate boards ensures that enterprise decisions give the same weight to firm sustainability, local communities, workers and suppliers as given to shareholders.
George Tyler further stressed that during recessions, Germany workers participate as full partners in government short-work policies called Kurzarbeit which are designed to protect employee incomes. The objective is to sustain a middle-class standard of living and minimize the externalities displayed in the United States of social disarray and deaths of despair. These time-tested government programs keep a lid on unemployment. They do that by spreading available work, with firms providing paid-leave rather than pink slips.
Uwe Bott, New York based senior Economist stated that redundant private, government and freelance gig workers are receiving paid furloughs funded with social insurance balances accumulated from payroll taxes. The automatic German benefits being paid now are up to 77% of usual pay (and up to 70% in Spain, 80% in France and Britain, and 90% in Denmark). Unlike the United States, this framework balances the interests of all economic classes including Main Street and shareholders.
Uwe Bott further noted that as the COVID 19 crisis continues to unfold in the months ahead, United States workers and communities will find themselves penalized by a corporate governance structure cunningly crafted to steadily transfer income from them to shareholders. This is debilitating, especially considering who is running the greatest personal risks now in sustaining corporations amid the crisis. In a higher quality democracy without pay-to-play, the disjointed United States emergency support systems on display would lead to significant changes in policymaking. In the United States, such hopes, despite the current crisis, may prove elusive. The political reality is that its government economic relief programs are manned by senior government officials too often openly hostile to preserving family incomes.
Bad Dream
In early April the government of Ethiopia reinforced its emergency measures by declaring a state of emergency over covid-19. At the time, it looked like it might be a good thing to do. After all, the human race was at war with a New Plague… that, we were told, could rake through the population, killing millions. But soon after some voices began to question the statistics and the tough measures taken across the world; now almost six months after Covid-19, we have better understanding of the facts:
Most people won’t get the virus.
Most of the people who get it have no symptoms.
Most of the people who display symptoms have mild sickness.
Most of the people with severe symptoms will never be critically ill.
Most of the people who get critically ill will survive.
Studies show, again and again, that the infection fatality ratio is on par with flu. Here is a text from Chris Whitty, the UK Chief Medic:
At an individual level the chances of dying of Coronavirus are low.
Over the whole epidemic, even if there is no vaccine, a high proportion will not get it.
Of those who do, a significant proportion (exact number not yet clear) have no symptoms.
Of the symptomatic cases, the great majority (around 80%) have a mild moderate disease.
A minority have to go to hospital, most need only oxygen,. The great majority of these survive.
A minority of those need ventilation
A minority of every age group sadly die with current treatment, but even of the oldest group most do not.
It’s clear the dangerousness of Covid-19 was overestimated: WHO’s Africa Region highlighted, that its model showed that up to 22% of African population (1 billion) could be infected in one year and as large as 190,000 deaths could occur over 52 weeks. The numbers for Ethiopia showed over 4 million infected, and 2 thousands plus deaths. And yet at no point did the danger posed by the new virus go beyond the normal level.
Here is some recent information from Italy: The median age of death in Italy was over 80. Young people are almost immune. The Italian report revealed that by mid-March, no one under 30 had died from the virus there. And there had been only 17 deaths among people under 50… And all those under 40 who had died from the virus had pre-existing “co-morbidities.” Overall, 99% of the fatalities had a previously existing ailment.
Between the young and the old is about a half a century… and a thousand times difference in mortality rates. And yet, under the various internment or lockdown programs, the two groups were locked up together. But all the evidence that has come out since then has confirmed that this is no indiscriminate killer. Instead, it merely overwhelms those senior folks already weakened with existing health problems. For everybody else, it is just another of life’s risks. And for people under 60, it carries about the same risk as driving to work.
Still drastic measures have been imposed or kept in many countries, including Ethiopia where the government introduced a state of emergency law, school and university closures, stay at home, mandatory masks etc. with the argument that covid19 is terrifying, unique, an existential threat to the human race. The message we’re fed tells people to be afraid. Very afraid, of death, of uncertainty, of the ‘virus’, of other people, of ‘fake news’!
As you may have noticed, there are many that do not want to admit the “reality”. The media, the authorities, the health experts, and even the police have induced war hysteria. Wearing a mask, for example, has become a display of not just civic virtue, but obedience. Dissent was dismissed as “reckless,” anti-social… or treasonous. Adults challenged each other: “Why aren’t you wearing a mask?”
But where is the science?
Is there evidence that a non-mask-wearing society will be worse off than one where masks are obligatory? It doesn’t exist. Some places require face masks; some don’t. Some people wear them; some don’t.
Even the World Health Organization now disputes the need for masks. Here’s its new guideline: If you are healthy, you only need to wear a mask if you are taking care of a person with COVID-19. In fact read this WHO guideline extract from the June 5 Advice on the use of masks in the context of COVID-19: “At present, there is no direct evidence (from studies on COVID19 and in healthy people in the community) on the effectiveness of universal masking of healthy people in the community to prevent infection with respiratory viruses, including COVID-19.” https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public/when-and-how-to-use-masks
Dear Reader,
Is this something that can go on forever and worse still, can we ignore the collateral which could potentially result in more deaths than what Covid-19 is causing?
We understand it’s not asking too much for us to take a handful of reasonable precautions to protect the potential victims of this, mostly the elderly and some young children. But why ignore the economy? Why Marshall law? For all we know governments might put us into lock down, start taking people who they claim have the virus and say they died of the virus. Yes Dear Readers, we have to be careful not to evolve into a form of totalitarianism that would have the trappings of capitalism and democracy to deceive us, a prison without walls and slavery without tears.
No one wants to survive only to face massive unemployment, abject poverty, unnecessary fear, hunger, and early death… Many people would take their chances with Covid-19.
BOND MARKET UNBONDING
When the market for a particular government bond collapses, be it within its own jurisdiction, or out there in the global open market, it means the state issuing the bonds is as good as dead, so to speak. Domestic bond market collapse is quite rare, as the state can usually print enough money to pay its obligations, of course, this operation has other side effects, like hyperinflation and so on. Default in the international bond market, however, is a different animal altogether. In almost all defaulting cases, there are, a priori, telltale signs to indicate the country might not be able to meet its international obligations. Usually when a country gets in trouble, it contacts the IMF (International Monetary Fund). Countries in the periphery are always under the auspices of the IMF (and other external institutions) as they are not financially sovereign. These countries are usually not allowed to issue bonds on the international market!
The core countries of the system, specially the US, influence the decisions of global financial institutions, particularly the multilateral ones like the IMF and the World Bank. The stringent requirements (of the multilateral institutions), be they for issuance of international bonds or direct/indirect loans, can be waived for certain favored nations. For example, Argentina was recently given massive loans from the multilateral institutions, even though the country was on the verge of default. Argentina has defaulted twice (on its international bonds) since the beginning of this century. No matter! Generally speaking, sovereign defaults are quite rare, as countries in troubled waters usually renegotiate (with the help/cajoling of the IMF) the terms and conditions of their bonds or loans with creditors, be they state, multilateral or private. IMF is the leading global institution that is mandated to safe guard the ‘smooth’ operations of the global monetary system. Hence, the IMF is more than willing to take harsh measures, particularly against those peripheral states, before things get out of hand. Be that as it may and in the scheme of global monetary regime, the thorny question still remains; what happens when some of the major core countries get in trouble? One must take due cognizant that at the end of the day, all debts, private or otherwise, are ultimately backstopped by sovereign states or more appropriately by nation-states!
The bond market is a debt market for the big players, i.e., transnational capital and sovereign states. When things go haywire in the government bond market, it signals serious trouble. After all, when a sovereign state defaults on its bonds, it means it might not pay its police force, military, teachers, doctors, etc. It cannot smoothly buy and sale goods. Pensions cannot be paid to retirees. Planes cannot fly, ships cannot sail, trains cannot roll, running water might not be available, electricity, satellite communication might be disrupted, etc., etc.! We assume you got the drift. In short, the bond market is the real engine that moves the whole global economy, albeit quietly. When there is a crisis in the bond market, every entity that matters gets involved, with the objective of salvaging the situation before contagion takes the lead. It is during such crises in the wider bond market the world witnesses the most ridiculous amount of printed money being injected into the world system. ‘Whatever it takes’ was what the ECB head once said, when the yields on the bonds of the ‘club med’ (Spain, Italy, Portugal, etc.) started to skyrocket (@ 7%)! Don’t forget; many of these core countries have outstanding bonds/debts (on the open market) to the tune of trillions of USD! Even a 1% rise in yield/interest on their bonds can cause havoc to the country’s economic situation. However, the system is set up in such a way as to allow these countries to rollover their bonds on maturity. They only pay interests/yields on their outstanding bonds. Therefore, it is only in rare occasions the global bond market exhibits tendencies that are out of the ordinary. Unbeknownst to many, this is exactly what happened in August of 2019!.
In the summer of 2019, the US repo market literally froze. The repo market is a market where large scale borrowers (usually hedge funds, investment banks, etc.) access quick cash from large scale lenders (financial entities, such as mutual funds, etc.) by depositing their US treasuries (bills/bonds) as collateral for a nominal rate of interest. Repo is almost always a short-term financial transaction (overnight) between borrowers and lenders that reside in the world of high finance. Technically speaking, the US repo market is broad, deep and liquid. The daily transaction of the US repo market is in the trillions of USD. As we said, interest rates in the repo market are usually nominal, but in August of 2019, the rate rose to about 10%. This was unprecedented! Unlike the fleeting and noisy stock market, the bond market is not only huge, but is also dead serious and meticulous in its operation to the point of being boring! What happened in August 2019 in the US repo market freaked out the world of finance and led to a pandemonium, which of course was not visible to the global sheeple (human mass). Now comes the trillion dollars question; is this the economic pandemonium that actually forced the microbe plandemic on global humanity?
Assuming the affirmative and speaking pragmatically, the global lockdown might well have been necessary to bring the accelerating catastrophic collapse of the world system (economic/financial/commercial/social/cultural…) to a more ‘orderly unraveling’! Again, the fake stock market (pumped up by the major global central banks) completely detached from reality, might also be another of the tricks employed by the establishment to gradually introduce the magnitude of the disaster to the unsuspecting parasitic elites. To be sure, the ‘orderly unraveling’ of the stock market is yet to come! Given the freezing of the US repo market and other indicators, the old printing tactic might not do the trick this time around. After all, ‘printing money out of thin air does not increase wealth, it only increases claims on existing wealth’ (Charles Hugh Smith). See his article next column and others on pages 28 & 30. In other words, printing is always inflationary as it water downs purchasing power affecting, for the most part, the working stiff/multitudes. Printing also causes inflation in the various asset classes, from rare paintings, to real estate…, as the phony money is directed towards the connected. Here is how a printer, aka a central banker, put it. ‘We make money the old-fashioned way. We print it.’ Art Rolnick, chief economist for the Minneapolis Fed!
Here is a more sinister worldview that might well be the major operating principle behind the prevailing global pandemic regime. “The individual is handicapped by coming face to face with a conspiracy so monstrous he cannot believe it exists.” J. Edgar Hoover, the first director of the FBI. Good day!
