US, EU sacrifice have-nots for haves

The US and European governments try to resolve their economic crisis by exerting economic pressure on low-income people and offering more money to the banks, an analyst says.

“The crisis is in some measure being contrived in order to once again turn the distribution of wealth around and take money from the people who do not have much and give it to those that do,” said Ian Williams of Foreign Policy in Focus in an interview with Press TV.

“The first response in all of these crises is we must squeeze the workers, we must fire workers and employees and we must keep on giving money to bankers,” he added.

Williams further noted that US policies have been one of the major causes of this whole crisis.

“What the Federal Reserve has been doing is lending money at almost zero interest-rate to banks who then lend it to consumers at anything from 10to 20 percent,” he pointed out.

“It is not boosting the economy; it is not putting money into circulation. It is redistributing it within the system,” Williams concluded.

On Tuesday, the US Federal Reserve policy-setting panel said the worsening debt crisis in Europe could hamper America’s economic recovery. It also expressed concern over the devastated US housing market.

Fed officials say they view the American economy as modestly improving, but the recovery remains subject to some downside risks. They fear that if Europe’s banking and debt crisis persists, it would exacerbate such risks.

Last month, the Fed maintained its $600 billion asset-purchase program to accelerate the US economic recovery.