Banking and the Economics of the Invasion of Libya

[P F Tinmore]

Here, Ellen breaks down the importance of Libya’s oil revenues and sovereign fund and the important tidbit of information that forms the core of her thesis: Colonel Qaddafi’s monetary policies constitute an important factor in him being attacked and the subsequent establishment by the NATO allies of an alternative Libyan central bank.

After reminding the readers that under The Green Book form of governance, Libya has achieved what we in the United States do not enjoy: universal health care paid for by the state; universal education subsidized through the Ph.D. level by the state; oil revenue sharing; subsidized housing; subsidized automobile purchases; $50,000 marriage subsidy for newlyweds; and more. The more just happens to be what Libya has in common with six other countries that General Wesley Clarke announced were on a list for war that he saw from the Pentagon: neither Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Somalia, Sudan, Iran, nor Libya belong to the Bank of International Settlements, the Central Bankers’ bank.

Banking and the Economics of the Invasion of Libya | FavStocks

 

[waltky]

Granny says, "Dat's right - use Qaddafi's money to fund the rebels...

U.S. Seeks to Use Frozen Gadhafi Assets to Aid Rebels
MAY 5, 2011—The Obama administration is working with Congress to pass legislation that would allow the U.S. government to tap assets held by Col. Moammar Gadhafi and his regime in the U.S. to help fund forces opposing the Libyan dictator, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Thursday.

Mrs. Clinton and diplomats from more than 20 countries met in Rome Thursday to discuss their air campaign in Libya. On the agenda was a plan to bolster the finances of Libya's struggling rebels—including the creation of a multibillion-dollar trust fund that would in part be filled by assets of the Gadhafi regime that have been frozen by the United Nations and the European Union.

The U.S. has allocated $25 million to help the rebels procure supplies, but because of legal issues it has so far declined to release any of the $34 billion in Libyan assets that were frozen by the Treasury Department this year in the wake of Col. Gadhafi's violent crackdown on protesters, according to U.S. officials. Unlike France or Italy, Washington hasn't recognized the rebel leadership council as Libya's rightful government, complicating its ability to provide funding.

If Congress passes legislation allowing those assets to be tapped "we can make those funds available to help the Libyan people," Mrs. Clinton said at the meeting. She added that the U.S. Treasury Department was seeking to "remove barriers under our domestic law" that restrict the U.S. from oil-related transactions that benefit the National Transitional Council, the Benghazi-based political body of the opposition forces. Mrs. Clinton didn't give details on the transactions she was referring to.

"Clearly on our agenda is looking for the most effective ways to deliver financial assistance and other means of supporting and helping the…opposition," the secretary of state said during an earlier news conference in Rome. Mrs. Clinton also called on her counterparts to turn up diplomatic pressure on Col. Gadhafi by sending envoys to Benghazi. Isolating the Gadhafi regime, Mrs. Clinton said, "includes suspending the operations of Gadhafi's embassies and expelling pro-Gadhafi diplomats, as the United States and other countries have done, and sending envoys to Benghazi and facilitating the creation of [National Transitional Council] representative offices in capitals world-wide."

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