a most interesting exchange indeed and indicative of the rock and the hard place where the "sovereigns" find themselves today. Joseph Stiglitz representing the interests of the IMF, is flanked conveniently by one of the government satraps who implement the predatory lending policies of the IMF. National assets used as collateral are sequestered first in the form of high rates of interest and the expansion of national debt in the inevitable inflation of asset and housing bubbles. With the subsequent and inevitable collapse leading to the austerity of "structural adjustments" said assets are ultimately stripped in subsequent repurchase agreements at fractional costs. What is forgotten these days is the role Stiglitz, our nobel laureate, played in the same asset stripping and plundering of the former Soviet Union in his capacity of head of the World Bank with the able assistance of head of Russian finance under Al Gore, present OMB head Peter Orszag. The World Bank and IMF then turned their attention to Iceland with the predictable result that under the aegis of Stigltz and Orzsag, the Bank Of Iceland failed precipitating an economic crisis which is still unfolding to this day. Hendry for his part representative of another notable predator class, hedge fund manager, swoops in to pick the leavings clean with short raid speculation along with Soros, Goldman Sachs et al. all the while squawking"you should have saved for a rainy day". Meanwhile the "sovereigns" (don't you love that great new term) are left holding the bag and are left to fend off their dispossessed new underclass of plebes rioting, pillaging and robbing, madly scavenging for any scraps that fall from the master's table.
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