Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Water Hitman

An Observer wrote Ref Steveo’s economic hitman comment below – here is how the EHM plays the “water crisis”. It is an opportunity. Both of these examples are classic. $700M project in Cali to supply drinking water. The Ag consumers will continue to get their water for “free”. The $700M doesn’t come from thin air, real things need to be bought, real companies need to get paid to pay employees. We’ll keep it simple but imagine that all the money comes from the bank. The bank may hold $70M worth of your money (customer deposits) that you get about 0.5% interest on. The bank can make this into $700M – 10X multiplier, that is how our system is designed. The bank now offers a bond to San Diego (backed by lien on taxpayers income basically) at low interest, maybe 5% so they can proceed with project. San Diego contracts with someone like Bechtel (same guys who built Oak Creek coal plant on your dime) or Veolia (French hit man company) to build this for them and probably hold the lucrative service contract for 20-30 years after. The bank loans out this money they never had in the first place and makes 5% on it year after year. It is the same principle behind funding govt debt. This is an old game that has gone back to Kings and Queens in centuries past. It has always been money lenders who helped govts finance wars. In exchange they demand their pound of flesh later. Usually in resources or access to them. In the new game with utilities it is access to your cash flow. In the not to far off future you will see govt start to sell public assets like park systems, treatment plants, highways, etc to the moneylenders they are now in debt too up to their (OUR) eyeballs. It is almost a near certainty. They are so good (yes, these dummies you mock) they will have you clamoring for it publicly. They want it all, that is the game. Our little dump is targeted by these guys. Veolia is behind the attempts to shut down something as small as a town dump. I was at the public meeting in North Lake where they actually were able to influence someone from Waukesha County govt tax department – a slam dunk school teacher looking and talking employee – to come tell us all how if we would close the dump and just add all the customers to Veolia’s waste collection it would save money all around…huh? Oh yeah, and to simplify billing they would add the waste collection right to the property tax bill so it would be like getting it for free….huh? Then they would pay “partner” Veolia in a more efficient manner than all of those pesky little checks coming in late and all that crap. Eliminate the middle man – YOU! Boom! I guess anyone should be allowed to rant against whatever they want but you really should try to understand the world as it actually is – “follow the money”. Teachers/Fireman etc are all part of this hit program to funnel money out of your hands into hands of “partners”. Not complicated, I know everyone basically gets it. If you want meaningful change these are the powers you are up against. And….it is not that these are all evil corporations either. No one does a better job at delivery than utilities and oil companies. They are well run and well connected. I’ll even say that Time Warner fits this model and service for me has always been great. These companies that can produce cash flow month and month are something special. Here are the basics of the Tampa Project. Several high dollar water plants that have never worked right (hint - it never mattered if they did). Actually the hitman don't care if it works, and in fact uses failures to throw good money after bad to get more project and more control. So they are going to hire Veolia to build another and operate it for fifteen years. It isn’t just the one time buy that these hitmen get. It is the continuing cash flow to these utilities that makes them some of the wealthiest and most powerful people on planet. It is just how it works, it has for at least the last fifty years. It’s well known to the literati so this isn’t conspiracy. It’s just how it is. It is why you hear so much bullshit about shovel ready infrastructure projects as our only way out. Get used to it.

1 comment:

  1. Now find all top Indian stock market analyst with their stock market recommendations at one place

    ReplyDelete

Insightful and Useful Comment!