Question
Which of these unelected despots is responsible for the greatest crimes against humanity?
A) Muammar Qaddafi ( de facto leader of Libya)
B) Ben Bernanke (Chairman of the United States Federal Reserve)
Before leaping to conclusions, it may be helpful to review the respective qualifications of the aforementioned candidates.
Muammar Qaddafi
Image courtesy of Flickr user Open Democracy
Muammar Qaddafi has earned the praise of Nelson Mandela for promoting African unity and financially supporting the poorest regions of the continent. He was the first Muslim leader to denounce the acts of the Al-Qaeda bombers after 9/11 and has been a major ally of the U.S. in the war against terrorism.
Qaddafi has been responsible for introducing free education for all in Libya – increasing the literacy rate amongst Libyans from less than 20% to over 70% within twenty years – and has used much of the country’s oil revenues to develop other industries and agriculture, ensuring that Libya is not wholly reliant on oil incomes in the future.
However, since Muammar Qaddafi took control of Libya in 1969 by means of a military coup, he has maintained his position as “influential advisor to the people” by enforcing a policy of bloody repression against those who dissent against his leadership. Imprisonment, torture and executions have been commonplace in Libya, and his rule of terror has extended beyond the boundaries of his country – being responsible for assassinations, bombings and the supply of arms to terrorist organizations. The massacre of unarmed civilians during the current uprisings has prompted the United Nations to call for Qaddafi to be investigated by the International Criminal Court.
Ben Bernanke
Image courtesy of Flickr user cainandtoddbenson
Ben Bernanke is a Harvard graduate who, between 1979 and 2005, was a Professor of Economics at both Stanford and Princeton Universities. In 2006 he was appointed to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors by President Bush, and has since been responsible for the injection of $2.6 trillion dollars into the U.S. economy through a program of “Quantitative Easing”. This policy was introduced to prevent domestic deflation, stimulate the economy, create jobs and increase demand for U.S exported goods and services.
Inasmuch as Ben Bernanke’s inflationary policies may seem well-considered, in the national interest and positive short term solutions to a desperate crisis, they are also the direct cause of worldwide poverty, civil unrest and the sort of political turmoil that has been witnessed recently in Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Tunisia, Yemen and yes – Libya.
How Ben Bernanke Started a World Wide Revolution
The effect of flooding the domestic economy with trillions of dollars has artificially devalued the dollar against other international currencies. More than 20% of the world’s trade is transacted in U.S. dollars, and when the dollar is low, it makes commodities such as fuel, cotton, sugar and maize more expensive in countries such as Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Tunisia, Yemen and yes – Libya.
It is not just in the above countries that the effects of quantitative easing have been felt. The World Bank’s Global Food Price Index increased by 15% between October 2010 and January 2011, and is now 29% above its level of December 2009. According to World Bank estimates, an additional 44 million people worldwide now live below the poverty line (defined as $1.25 per person per day) – a situation which is directly attributable to Mr. Bernanke’s quantitative easing policies.
How the Revolution Starts
To give an example of how Mr. Bernanke’s policies have affected the “man in the street”; if you lived in Algeria in October 2010, it would cost 89 Algerian Dinars to buy $1.25 worth of food. In January 2011, the same $1.25 of food would cost almost 94 Algerian Dinars. The CIA World Factbook stated that 23% of Algeria’s population lived below the poverty line before quantitative easing – how many more Algerians are now starving to death?
According to Josette Sheeran, the executive director of the World Food Program, “If people don’t have enough to eat they only have three options: they can revolt, they can migrate or they can die.” The scenes we have recently witnessed on our TV screens from Cairo, Amman and Tripoli confirm her words, and show the “man in the street” in those cities resorting to the former option before succumbing to the latter.
How the Revolution Concludes
These events we are seeing on our TVs only show the conclusion of the revolutions, and not the causes. The “revolutionaries” have reached a point where the fear of reprisals by a tyrannical despot has been overshadowed by the genuine fear of starvation – starvation which has been significantly contributed to by Ben Bernanke’s policy of quantitative easing.
The problem for these revolutionaries fighting for “freedom from starvation” is their situation is unlikely to improve. They will still be at the mercy of Ben Bernanke and any future quantitative easing policies he chooses to implement – irrespective of whether they remove their own unelected despot from power or not.
It is indeed Ben Bernanke’s actions which have resulted in more crimes against humanity than any unelected despot, and when terrorist funded revolutionaries fill the power voids left by Qaddafi, Mubarak and Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, they will not be looking to the International Criminal Court for justice – they deliver retribution with Boeing 767s!
