I got of a plane this afternoon and learned about the devastation in Christchurch. I am feeling for my NZ colleagues today. I suppose some conservative idiots will claim the NZ government doesn’t have the money to do what is necessary to provide some relief. There is also strife in the Middle East as poverty and unemployment finally combine with a sense that governments in nations in that region are working against people rather than for them. In the UK and the US the governments are no longer working in the best interests of their citizens and public displays of anger are emerging (for example, Wisconsin). While the agenda of the oppressive regimes in the Middle East has always been clear the narratives of the conservatives in the advanced nations has always been hidden by a web of lies often supported by well-paid economists who urge us to accept austerity and deregulation because it will make us all wealthier. They tell us that the textbooks show that. The crisis has demonstrated to all that the textbooks are incapable of saying anything useful about the way the monetary system operates and the policy choices that a government running a fiat currency system has available to them. But as the conservatives are regaining control of the political processes after being shocked into silence in the early days of the crisis, it is clear they are overstepping themselves. They are continually claiming there is a fiscal crisis. But the reality is that their agenda – to crush unions and redistribute real income to capital – is becoming more transparent. That should be exposed by progressives and popular rebellions encouraged.