{"id":144724,"date":"2024-10-06T16:48:27","date_gmt":"2024-10-06T23:48:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=144724"},"modified":"2024-10-06T16:48:27","modified_gmt":"2024-10-06T23:48:27","slug":"wall-street-wagers-on-winning-sri-lankas-elections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2024\/10\/06\/wall-street-wagers-on-winning-sri-lankas-elections\/","title":{"rendered":"Wall Street Wagers on Winning Sri Lanka\u2019s\u00a0Elections"},"content":{"rendered":"

e-Con e-News<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n
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blog: eesrilanka.wordpress.com<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Before you study the economics, study the economists!<\/em>\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

e-Con e-News 29 September \u2013 05 October 2024<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The droning headlines<\/strong> in the capitalist media about a \u2018Marxist\u2019<\/em>, \u2018Socialist\u2019<\/em>, \u2018Leftist\u2019<\/em><\/strong> being elected as the President of Sri Lanka are meant to mislead, but serve a purpose. So suggests an anonymous \u2018Senior Stockbroker<\/strong>\u2019, quoted by the Sunday Times<\/em>, long-time mouthpiece of ye olde colonial import-export plantation economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     The accession to head of state by the leader of the JVP is a performance yet again of the hegemony of Sri Lanka\u2019s ruling traders \u2013 merchants & moneylenders \u2013 we dare not call them a \u2018capitalist\u2019 class. The \u2018resilience\u2019 of this \u2018business community\u2019 is evident, says this Stockbroker, in the JVP-front NPP being forced to \u2018maintain\u2019 the \u2018status quo at the Central Bank\u2019 and \u2018going ahead with IMF program\u2019 (see ee Economists<\/em><\/strong>, Senior Stockbroker).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     \u2018Status quo\u2019 perhaps refers to the retention of an ex-IMF salaryman as the Central Bank governor<\/strong>, or to the new Central Bank Act<\/strong>, which removes public accountability over the country\u2019s bank of banks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Having labelled the President as Marxist<\/em>, etc, this media will now proceed on 2 lines about the JVP: 1) They are too Marxist; 2) They are not Marxist enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Meanwhile, the anonymous \u2018Senior Stockbroker\u2019 perhaps wishes to declare that the USA (which controls the IMF) always wins, no matter who gets the votes in Sri Lanka\u2019s elections. Sri Lanka apparently has to now send a friendly team to the IMF\u2019s US headquarters later in October. The President will yet then have to first secure endorsement, after the November 14 elections, from the new parliament \u2013 for a debt restructuring deal with international bondholders, \u2018negotiated by his predecessor at the 11th<\/sup> hour and announced last week\u2019. Why, in the last week before a major election, from 12-18 September 2024, would an \u2018Ad Hoc Group of Bondholders\u2019, comprising Wall Street\u2019s finest, hold \u2018restricted discussions\u2019 with Sri Lanka. To buttress democracy, no doubt!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2018Washington-based lender unlikely to budge on core components<\/p>\n\n\n\n

of its $2.9billion bailout, including a ban on printing money<\/strong> &<\/p>\n\n\n\n

revenue & spending targets agreed by the last administration\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 ee Economists<\/em><\/strong>, Leftist Sri Lanka leader Stuck with Painful IMF deal<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The \u2018plural forum\u2019 Yukthi Collective<\/strong> is calling on President AK Dissanayake to reject the \u2018pre-poll deal\u2019 with International Sovereign Bond (ISB<\/strong>) holders. Yukthi believes the IMF\u2019s DSA is setting up a debt trap<\/strong> for Sri Lanka. Is this new? \u2018The IMF is complicit with the bondholders, enabling them to extract as much wealth as possible.\u2019 Is this also new? Maybe this is: ISBs were \u2018the cause of the debt crisis in the first place\u2019, and the IMF agreement ensures we will be forced to borrow more ISBs at \u2018extractive\u2019 high interest rates (see ee Focus<\/em><\/strong>). The problem with Yukthi is they wish to get a better \u2018deal\u2019 on \u2018debt\u2019, the sole purpose of which has been to prevent our industrialization. Yukthi does not or cannot offer an alternative: a program for industrialization, which is what all this arithmetic of debt \u2013 \u2018no printing\u2019 \u2013 is supposed to prevent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     The \u2018pre-poll\u2019 deal, Yukthi is objecting to, was announced \u2018on 19 September 2024<\/strong>, 2 days before\u2019 the Presidential election, and \u2018after the election blackout period was announced\u2019. The opposition SJB saw the UNP\u2019s announcement as an illegal attempt to influence voters, especially their fraction of the merchant\/moneylender\/capitalist-wannabe vote bank. The IMF\u2019s connivance in undermining their own much touted \u2018rule of law\u2019 is also no surprise. Senior Professor of Economics at the University of Colombo Sirimal Abeyratne, marks this Debt Sustainability Analysis (DSA)<\/strong> agreement as \u2018a significant milestone for Sri Lanka\u2019s economy\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Other budding economists also feel they have to act as the IMF\u2019s lower mouth organs to get ahead in life. One \u2018economics lecturer at the University of Colombo\u2019 warns the government about taking on Wall Street sharks in their own courtrooms. \u2018Failing to secure the deal\u2019s passage could open Sri Lanka to legal action<\/strong> from its creditors. It would be in the best interest of the country to avoid litigation with bondholders,\u2019 he told AFP<\/em>. It turns out, bondholders are seeking to choose courts outside New York, preferably in England or in President Joe Biden\u2019s corporate tax-haven of Delaware.\u2019 Why? Someone please tell this \u2018economics lecturer\u2019: 52% of the world\u2019s private debt from colonized nations is governed under New York law, making the State the most important jurisdiction for those bond issuers. <\/strong>Wall St is fighting New York State lawmakers who feel capitalists avoid sharing in debt relief for developing countries, even though the US government and other public counterparts share! (see ee Economists<\/em><\/strong>, The Sovereign Debt Stability Act). What relief any one of them offer is of course moot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Japanese Envoy as Used-Car Salesman<\/strong> \u2013 This week we learned that the ambassadors of the US, Europe, India & Japan also moonlight as secondhand car salesmen (though they sell all kinds of other used industrial goods, not just cars). They hover outside Cabinet meetings with their traders. But it is the IMF who quarterbacks such yearnings. Imports of motor vehicles \u2018will support revenue mobilization in 2025\u2019, says the IMF\u2019s Senior Mission Chief Peter Breuer. The term, \u2018Trade Liberalization\u2019 as Sugath Kulatunga reminds, is a euphemism for \u2018import liberalization which is a primary objective of the IMF, which has to be resisted.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Meanwhile, Mizukoshi Hideaki, Japan\u2019s departing ambassador to Sri Lanka (another dead-car salesman) has decided to give us yet another lecture on corruption<\/em>, clothed in a parable about Japan\u2019s modernization. Alongside his master\u2019s voice, the US envoy Julie Chung, who is also said to be imminently departing Sri Lanka, he seems to have been here from November 2021: \u2018at the time of Gotabaya government. I experienced with Sri Lankan people the worst ever economic crisis and Aragalya (sic!) movement in 2022\u2019. <\/strong>Really!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     <\/strong>Without batting an eye, we imagine, he added: he had just met Nandika Sanath Kumanayake, the new secretary to the President, who studied at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) in Japan and \u2018is an expert on the corruption issue\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     While seeing no link between himself and the import mafia, the ambassador admits: \u2018once Sri Lanka lifts its import restriction, there is a danger of foreign currency shortage happening again. Therefore, after achieving the stabilization, it is essential to build up a competitive industry<\/strong> that can push sustainable development of the country and earn foreign currencies. In building up industries, Sri Lanka may learn lessons from Japan\u2019s industrial policies\u2026\u2019 under the benevolent eye of their master, the USA. In \u2018competitive speak\u2019, competitive means don\u2019t mess with our exports to Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     The Japanese envoy recites: \u2018Immediately after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japan also started to attack South East Asian & South Asian countries including Ceylon under colonial rule at the time. The consequences of the war were devastating. Japan\u2019s economy was left in ruins<\/strong>, and the societal impact was immense.\u2019 He skips over the \u2018consequences\u2019 of Japan\u2019s war on the rest of Asia, and all of Europe\u2019s wars on Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     He is however full of a jumble of grammatical tenses (well, perhaps he doesn\u2019t really speak English, but it\u2019s unclear if Japan\u2019s invasion of Asia was just a strategic \u2018miscalculation<\/em><\/strong>\u2018) and makes no mention of the imposition of over 50,000 US troops on Japan (making it appear to be a thing of the past), or of sustained involvement in anti-China mischief. He therefore makes no mention of the role of US military procurement in Japan\u2019s industrialization, or of Japan\u2019s central bank\u2019s role in guiding credit, of huge cartels and foreign exchange controls. Let alone about that US Plaza Accord crippling Japanese industry\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     The USA\u2019s Colombo mouthpiece, EconomyNext<\/em> which also reported on the Japanese envoy\u2019s speech, mischievously added assertions that were not made in his speech, like: \u2018A mass-privatization program was also done.\u2019 Hideaki also mentioned Japan\u2019s latest Prime Minister, Ishiba Shigeru, though he did not add that Ishiba wants an \u2018Asian NATO\u2019 to consider introduction of nuclear weapons, and wishes to station Japanese troops in the US too. (see Japanese Envoy, SL can learn from Japan\u2019s Meiji restoration, Dodge line stabilization, ee Sovereignty<\/em><\/strong>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Interesting Times:<\/strong> Almost one year (Oct 7) after renewed Palestinian resistance to the latest European settler state in Asia, we see the USA threatening nuclear war through their proxies in both West Asia & Eastern Europe. Of course, the English media turns this news upside-down. The forthcoming BRICS summit<\/strong> will take place in Kazan, Russia, on October 20-22. As a prelude perhaps, there are reports that the \u2018the Russian naval fleet in the East Mediterranean downed 13 Israeli missiles last week near Lebanon\u2019 (see ee Sovereignty<\/em><\/strong>, West Asian Crisis prompts Biden to break ice with Putin \u2013 Bhadrakumar).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     England<\/strong> claims it has struck a 99-year deal with Mauritius to operate a military base at Diego Garcia<\/strong> for at least the next 99 years. They say India agrees. And so does the USA, too. How\u2019s that!?<\/em> England\u2019s Foreign Office claims, now \u2018the status of the base will be undisputed<\/strong> and legally secure.\u2019 <\/strong>Diego Garcia is in the Chagos Archipelago, <\/strong>and England chased the Chagosians off their lands, and then rented the port out to the US in exchange for a nuclear submarine. Bombers from the USA refuel in Diego Garcia before they bomb East Africa & West Asia. ee<\/em><\/strong> 31 August 2024 reported, the USA\u2019s 110th<\/sup> Expeditionary Bomb Squadron<\/strong> (EBS)<\/strong> was part of a Bomber Task Force (BTF) Mission<\/strong> over Diego Garcia<\/strong> (see ee Random Notes<\/em><\/strong>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2022 The US is scouring the planet for outposts to indirectly wage war on enemies, perceived and projected. They seek to shape a sacrificial \u2018Israel\u2019 out of Sri Lanka. Some call Taiwan<\/strong>, Israel East, and Ukraine<\/strong> as Israel West. If Palestine<\/strong> is Israel Centre, then is Sri Lanka<\/strong>, Israel South? A Brookings Institute report on Iran calls for the US use of proxies: Of course, it is an issue of how we read such reports that are made public. As menus? That hide their real menus? Where do these \u2018menus\u2019 fit in with, the US tool kit: sanctions (tariffs), subversion, terrorism, provocation, waging war, invasion and occupation (see, Washington Sets Trap for Iran, Will Iran Take the Bait? \u2013 Bertelic, ee Sovereignty<\/em><\/strong>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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_________<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Contents:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Wall Street Wagers on Winning Sri Lanka\u2019s Elections<\/a><\/blockquote>