Sunday 16 November 2008

Greenspan and Bernanke are evidence of Jewish lobby according to Portuguese economist Pedro Arroja

A well-respected Portuguese economist, Professor Pedro Arroja, has gone to great lenghts to devise a method which he believes provides incontrovertible evidence of the existence of the famous "Jewish lobby". For Professor Arroja Jews cause major problems in all societies where they live (they are supposed to be wreaking havoc at present in the United States) and should be kept permanently under the most strict and severe control.

It is worth noting that Professor Arroja is not the crackpot blogger one usual associates with this type of anti-Jewish rhetoric and that he does not hide his views behind the anti-Zionist cloak. A Google search reveals that he heads the economy and management department of the UAL university in Lisbon, owns the Pedro Arroja investment company, and is the editor, with Universidade Lusófona do Porto, of the Governancia magazine. A very well-respected academic indeed.
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He posted his findings (which I have translated) on his blog, Portugal Contemporâneo, under the title Ben Shalom Bernanke:

"The fact is that the two Chairmen of the Federal Reserve who served under the Bush administration are Jewish: Alan Greenspan, was appointed in 1986 by President Reagen, and Ben S. Bernanke, the present Chairman, who replaced Greenspan after being appointed by President Bush.

My question is: assuming that no other considerations or influences played a part, what is the probability that among candidates of equivalent merits and qualifications it is precisely two Jews that were chosen – one after the other - to become Chairmen of the Federal Reserve?

Given that the Jewish community in the USA represents 2.5% of the total population, if follows that the probability that two successive Chairmen of the Fed are Jewish is 0.06%. It is a practical impossibility, but that's what has happened.

It should be pointed out that as a result of the Jewish culture putting a high value on education it produces more men and women of merit than Christian and other non-Jewish cultures. Let’s then suppose that Jews are three times better [i.e. more competent – the choice of the term better is far from innocent] than non-Jews and that, although they only represent 2.5% of the population, the probability of a Jew being apointed Chairman of the Fed is three times greater, i.e. 7.5%. Under the circumstances, what is the probability that two successive Chairmen of the Fed are Jewish? The answer is 0.56%. Once again, this is a practical impossibility, but that's what has happened.

I’ll now put the question differently. How many times has a Jew to be better [more competent] than men and women of other cultures in America (the vast majoritiy being Christian) (…) so that there is a 50% plus probability that "two successive Chairmen of the Fed" are chosen, assuming again that the only criteria is merit, and that no other considerations or pressure play a part?

The answer is 30 times. As it is inconceivable that, on average, Jews are 30 times better [more competent] than Christians, it follows that the choice of Chairmen of the Fed is not exclusively based on merit. Other considerations or pressures play a part."
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Pedro Fontela who blogs at InBetween offers an insightful perspective of Pedro Arroja's success:

"Is Arroja the best we can come up with? Thank the gods no!

His anecdotal theories and prejudices do keep the extreme right wing busy and entertained (by the way in Portugal that sector stretches to include "liberals", meaning supporters of free trade and some sort of anarco-capitalism with corporatism written all over it) he is by no means representative of serious research into any topic – if any doubts remained about the real sympathies of the so called "liberal" sector in Portugal just go around their blogs and read what they write, you’re unlikely to find any condemnation of Arroja’s writings, or racism or anything else for that matter. He is well known and occupies a preeminent social position because sadly in this part of the world being nuts doesn’t disqualify you from polite society or form being taken seriously in academic circles. In fact you can say anything that pops into your head no matter how silly and unjustified as long as you’re politically shrewd and realize to whom you should suck up to in order to keep your position, job and social status. Any foreigner analyzing Portuguese society should understand that social preeminence and merit have nothing to do with each other.

Having said all this that does not mean that there aren’t any credible scholars in Portugal! There are quite a few published ones that are reputable and many more who just don’t get published because they have no connections or backing by an interest group – in fact most promising young scholars end up being pushed out of academia and publishing because the incompetent ones (although well connected) monopolize the resources and vacancies.

In conclusion: there are serious people in Portugal devoting time and energy to issues pertaining to social sciences but they’re unlikely to be well known outside a very restricted circle. There are even more promising scholars who would love the change to work on the same topics but are not given chances for the reasons I mentioned above. And finally, you can stop wasting your breath by coming here proclaiming the nuttiness of Arroja’s theories. These people KNOW about it. They’ve known it for years and in the end it doesn’t matter a bit! In fact most are just too ashamed to publicly admit that they partially agree with him."
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The ghetto is a myth of Jewish victimisation propaganda says Portuguese blogger Pedro Arroja

Pedro Arroja's reaction to the above post:

"What about a little argument of yours, instead of simply labeling mine? I understand that in your country (France, I presume) one is forbidden to discuss Jewish history. Not yet so in my country. P. Arroja"

Euroliberal's reaction (his alter ego or ... Arroja himself ?):

"Actually iSSrael is the most horrendous dictatorship of our time. In the only existing apartheid regime, only less of 40% of the de jure inhabitants (those who have the "good religion") are entitled to vote, so that the religious minority may become a "majority" (like in the apartheid South Africa). iSSrael is the world champion in political prisoners (12.000), most of them without judgment, and extra-judicial executions of members of the oposition to the sionist apartheid regime. A murderous, racist, teocratic, genocidical, neo-nazi dictatorship, and NOT A DEMOCRACY, that's what the little shitty iSSrael really is, GOT IT ? And anti-semitic is what this blog is, as semitic are the arabs, not the turc-kahzar originated (not semitic) askenazin jews... LONG LIVE FREE PALESTINE. DOWN with the nazi-sionist regime."

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

If the language of that blog is an indication of the intellectual level of Portugeuse academia then perhaps we should not take any notice of their opinions, they certainly appear to lack the words by which to express them. They merely advertise their intellectual incapacity.

ModernityBlog said...

please, don't blame the Portuguese for ONE crank, unless you would blame the Americans, Germans, French, Irish, British, etc for their cranks and make a sweeping generalization about them too?

which is not exactly very academic other, is it?

Anonymous said...

Apologies to ModernityBlog and to sane Portuguese scholars - of course other nations have their cranks- but are they well-respected economists who head the economy and management department of a prominent university in their capital city? Are there such in New York, London, Dublin, Paris, Berlin? Can you imagine such ideas emanating from LSE?

Anonymous said...

Don´t write " well-respected portuguese economist".

He is an economist, period.

Is extreme right wing,anti semitic, with hardly disguised tolerance and accptance towards similar regimes ofthose simblized bu nazism and fascism.

The economic department of UAL is bullshit.Elaborate, but bullshit.

Universidade Lusófona do Porto - means that porto is the city were we grew and graduated , and it´s a small place where people trade favuors "easily".
SO a donkey with a college degree is better than the rest of the idiots there...

The investment company was created by the fact that during the 80´s and the 90´s the guy managed to get invited to write in a major portuguese newspaper called "Diario de notícias",

(some (adverse spirits, such as myself) suspect that the decline of the paper subsequentely was due to that...)

where he wrote some of the most imbecil andmoronic chronicles of what we believed to be "liberalism"( a la Friedman,hayek, and the remaining crap of the same sort.)

Because of that and because of particular things that happened in Portugal which took long to explain, (bitter resentments from the past...)the money persons of the country decide to " reward " the creature with money( providing easy acess to bank credit...for hom to start, and information...) so that THE RESULT is; we can all be blessed by the existence of this figure in private companies such as that; that you quoted.

He is doing that same rhetorical cirus number of anti semitic propaganda amongst others things in the past 3 years, and shifts the discours like a chameleon, between the portuguese language - and there we writes one thing - and the english language - where he writes another thing - usually smoother and soft.

Disclaimer notes:
1 . A non intellectual has written this.

2 . Actually when i see an intellectual i shot him on sight...

3. By the way, Fontela was " mild and soft" ; gentle with caress refering to the creature...

He´s much worse.

4 . And you SIR are extremelly naive about "Portuguese intelectuals" ...or what it passes for being intelectuals.

This is the sort of people - just by the mere fact of existing; that are responsible for the existênce , up until this moment, of a communist party with 10% of votes.
For example, but i could give you 3000 more...

Talk to Fontela - h is an intellectual and could explain better this.
I have no pacience...

Anonymous said...

It is very difficult to understand what Dissedentex is actually saying, and he confuses invective with argument, but one can perhaps deduce that he considers the gentleman in question is not "a well respected economist". However if the report that Arrojo taught Monetarist Economics is correct then he was abviously not consistent in his anti-semitism in that he was willing to learn from Milton Friedman. As regards ideas the economist, respected or not, appears to echo the views not of the right but of the left. Anti-semitism disguised as anti-zionism is now a left-wing cause.

Anonymous said...

Anon1:

The confusion is on your part.

Arroja is extreme right wing.Anti democracy.Pró catholic religion,anti jews, muslims etc.

And produces a sistematic anti jewish speech( amongst other things).

He uses a tactic called "double speech".

In portuguese he writes some things.
In english usually other things, different and smoother

In portuguese newspapers, he advocates, yet, other different things.

To non portuguese, this may sound strange to understand, but that´s how things are done here.
--
He is a well respected economist in the sense that someone put him in charge of a department of a private University.

But no one in portugal in ANY University( Public or private) enters BY MERIT, but because has the "right political ideas" or the right friends.
Or belongs to the Opus Dei or the freemasonry. Or... is the son /daugther of someone "important"Or has gone to bed with someone, or the teachers that are already there need an assistant to enslave and do the boring work that senior teachers don´t want to do.

And i KNOW that University EXTREMELY WELL.
They don´t have any kind of quality in economics or in anything else.

They just repeat what the anglo saxon school of economics trends (it´s a metaphore...) tell them to repeat.

Autonomous economic portuguese speech in economics don´t exist.

Also: Arroja is completely in favour of the economic policy of the portuguese dictator Salazar (1926-1974)(called corporativism) which was anti free market. Whatever definition of free market you use.
----
Rigid state controls. poverty as
economic policy, political police, control by the state of the press, of the morals, of the population.
That´in a nutshell salazar economics and politics.
----
But when he talks to foreigners, specially anglo foreigners, people that he aims to please, in certain places of is interest, he speaks a different tune,but at the same time, he advocates free market, quotations of friedman,etc.

And people, outside Portugal, because don´t understand nothing of the country/language and it´s proeminent pseudo figures and intellectuals usually "buy this crap".

What is different of Arroja whas the fact that in is youth he was extremely poor, and never was leftist...
(contrarly to probably half of the teachers at UAL,who were all in the 70´s, hardcore marxists, and flip around when the wind changed)

And if i was looking like someone making as invective is because Arroja is a fraud, and foreigners keep buying the product...

If you know a bit of the portuguese language and could read what he already wrote in the portuguese blogs about jews and other subjects you would understand better.

And please Anon1, despite my critics of portugal, because i actually live here and i´m portuguese, don´t be paternalistic regarding the merits or demerits of the portuguese academy.

I live here , but i can see the flaws and the problems and i tell them without problemas, but we never like criticism in a paternalistic way.

Anonymous said...

Im not being paternalistic whatever you may mean by that word, and since your grasp of English is somewhat doubtful leading to confusion as to what you are actually saying I doubt if you use it correctly, nor am I attacking your country. However I repeat my contention that anti-semitism is now a left wing cause, perhaps especially prevalent among ex-Marxists. Perhaps we can agree in our opposition to anti-semitism and I can thank you for the actual facts you have revealed. Incidentally for a politician or even an academic to say different and even contradictory things to different audiences is not unusual in any country and is certainly not confined to Portugal. Various forms of corporatism are also very common throughout Europe and in spite of the efforts of liberal politicians could be said to be the dominant ideology of the EU.

Anonymous said...

Anon 1:

I know that antisemitism is nowdays a left cause.(in the Extremist zones of the left")

But you shold point out what "left" are you talking about.

It´s a left wing cause for small groups still connected to marxism.

In portugal it´is NOT specially prevalent amongst ex-marxists.(it´s the other way around...)

The ex-marxists , anarchists and "ists" of all kinds from the 70´s transfomed themselves( it´s a divine metamorphosis) in hard core neoliberals /neo cons and defend Bush´s ideas and the ideas of the Republican party.

In economy they defend "minimal state" as R.Nozick stated. (They never say that clearly, but that´s what they do, specially when they reach political power...)

And you ask me about our agreement about anti semitism.

Actually i don´t like religions.
But that fact for me, doesn´t make me feel interested in atacking jews more than atacking others...
(Or the opposite, ignoring them...)

I know that there is an ancient "war" against jews and manifest itself in radical anti semitism, coming from marxism and radical corrents of muslims. And, from nazism.
( The protocols of the wise men of zion, as a forgery are famous...)

So, if we consider that nazism is right wing...one can understand why there are people on the right that "talk" and write anti semitic things.

That is: i could never understood exactly why the jews are so atacked.
From a "communist point of view" they are atacked because of the money that they always possessed.
From the muslim point of view, it´s obvious( palestine, etc)

But attacks such as arroja and several others do are "almost a mistery" to me.
I dislike, and i criticise, but the rest of the speech made by the man, regarding others subjects is equally bad (in my opinion...).
He passes himself for being "liberal" which is something that he is not...

It´s more than just the fact that the guy is a crank.He writes abundantly stuff praising the portuguese dictatorship (1926-1974) claiming that the economic results of that time were superior in comparison to the economic results of the democratic regime.
(the fact that the population were starving to death in certain areas of the country is conveniently left aside of the praises...)

But... probably... when he is meeting with free market fanatics, he doesn´t say them that...

---
In the hard core portuguese marxist blogs, anti semitism is present, and the "average speech" is almost equal to that of arroja.(I actually think that arroja is more blunt and agressive, than the "real defenders of the faith" - the throne as an usurper...)

But arroja is extreme right wing.

For you, this is weird, not possible, probably a mistake or intoxication from my part.
But in reality that´s what happens with Arroja.(and others,behind the curtains).

It falls out of any "labbeling", that you might have towards this matter , but ideological things here are exactly like this: bizarre.

(For instance,we have people who are militants of the communist(they pay money every month to the party and have a card as militants) party and are catholics at the same time...and go to church,etc...)

---

""Incidentally for a politician or even an academic to say different and even contradictory things to different audiences is not unusual in any country and is certainly not confined to Portugal.""

You are right about this, but the "Art" of double speech here, in certain quadrants; is much more refined, than in Europe...

The last part of your comment i disagree entirely.

That´s a long conversation, but that`s also because what i call "liberalism" is not the same that you understand as being liberalism.

Foremost, I "split the word",in 2. The economic part and the political part, and to me they are not the same.
They don´t go together.

I don´t agree with certain aspects of free markets in economics, and i agree with some "free aspects" of the political part (free elections, free press,civil rights, etc).

And you are right about my english.
I´m writing in english, thinking in portuguese, and doing this, very fast and speedy with fat fingers... hammering the keyboard...

So,this is the recipe for disaster, in communication...

(i hope this one is better to undestand...)

Philosemite said...

"Arroja is extreme right wing.Anti democracy.Pró catholic religion,anti jews, muslims etc."

Dissidentex,

You are mistaken in one respect. I did not find a single anti-Muslim line by Pedro Arroja in his blog (Portugal Contemporâneo).

Anonymous said...

How pathetic. I note that none of the comments above can respond to the logic or veracity of this economist's argument about the fact that it is numerically exceedingly unlikely that two successive chairmen of the Federal Reserve would be Jewish. Since you could not attack his actual arguments you went the classic ad hominem route of attacking the man himself, labelling him a "crank", "unserious", and of course, "antisemitic".

This is totally pathetic and only shows how desperate you are. Do you really think anyone is going to take you seriously when your only response to serious arguments is character assassination and name calling?

More and more people are waking up to the ridiculously disproportionate amount of power pro-Israel jews wield in American government and finance, and people are extremely unhappy about it. Time to get your house in order instead of vilifying the truth tellers.

VA said...

It's you who are pathetic, "Anonymous", I'm Portuguese too and I agree with most things dissidentex has said.
I know exactly the kind of "senhor doutor" dissidentex is talking about, and that filty Arroja is sure one of them -- it's them and people like YOU that are a shame to this country.
After what happened to the Jewish people during Hitler's madness , they have EVERY right to defend themselves by whatever means it takes to their survival. The problem of the likes of you is that now Jews have an ARMY and an organised state and they will never again be caught innocently off guard as it happened during the Hollocaust.
You have to make up your moronic minds that that is NEVER EVER going to happen again as long as Israel exists!
I'm not a Jew, but just as there was the International Brigades during the Spanish civil war, I'm sure many righteous people all over the world would be willing to help Israel volluntarily if it ever came in risk of being obliterated. So, get used to it, because it will NEVER go away again as long as there are decent people in this world!