By Sergio Weigel for the Saker blog
"Many people consider the US to be a proper republic with a valid constitution, separation of powers, rule of law and all that jazz. I think that is baloney..."
Everybody understands the importance of the dollar system as the Achilles heel for the US empire yet oddly, when analysing imperial action of Warshington of the last decades, the focus is usually on ideologies like Zionism or American exceptionalism, or on at most partial aspects such as fossil fuels and pipelines. Another focus, favored mainly among Americans, is that America once was great but now has lost track somehow. I still think that the means of production, or in case of the US selling dollar annotated debt masked as investment, is far more paramount for US decision-making than ideology or oil, and that America hadn’t lost track but instead desperately tries to hold on to its track.
First, a few words about America’s track. The imperialists of the US regime desperately cling to their empire, that’s a classic, that’s what imperialists do. The Nazis clung to their short-lived empire until Germany was in ruins, the Romans clung to theirs until defeated, and the British struggle during WW2 was far more about preserving theirs than it was about defeating Nazi Germany. Empires usually don’t dismantle themselves. But it’s also the American people, serfs to the empire, who are desperately clinging. That’s what I found so appalling about the Occupy movement. These millennial brats had no political agenda but to demand their cheap flat screens back from the banksters. They didn’t want change, they wanted continuity. The same is true for the so-called “alt-right” movement who have zero political agenda for a better future. They lament the present while dreaming of a past 1950s/1960s America that has never even really existed. When they say America has lost its track, they might have Middle Eastern wars in mind, but that’s rubbish because there is nothing new or different in these wars than in any wars Warshington had fought before against the Natives, their own Southern brethren, Mexico, Spain, Philippines, Korea, Vietnam, you name it, and the meddling on Maidan is in no way different to what they’ve been doing in Latin American countries since the mid 19th century. Psychologically, I think, what they mourn is that the mask has fallen off and that they cannot go back to that cozy, simple, and ignorant lifestyle they had been able to enjoy up until 9/11.
To me the US empire is an historic aberration of humanity. With its genesis, its unparalleled level of violence, the categorically insolidary and segregated society and surreal consumer culture it has created, and the delusional ideology and mythology with which it justifies itself based on a borderline psychotic Messiah complex (Manifest Destiny), it represents an exceptional oddity among nations. But beyond its mental problems there is a cold, hard fact – at least within the realm of capitalism – that explains the actions and reactions of US imperialism throughout the years, especially in recent decades. It is both fuel and failure of the empire: the dollar as the world’s reserve currency, or rather the system behind it which consists of masquerading and selling debt as investment.
Many people consider the US to be a proper republic with a valid constitution, separation of powers, rule of law and all that jazz. I think that is baloney. In truth the US government is a front for a criminal enterprise and it has been like that ever since the US Constitution has been created and passed by whom Gore Vidal rightfully dubbed as “frightened men of property”. While the American Revolution in itself was a truly unique and valuable moment in human history, the system that resulted from it was and still is designed by men of wealth for men of wealth to obtain as much wealth as possible at the expense of everybody else without the tedious social responsibilities the French republicans came up with. In fact, this lack of social responsibility is what they mean when they say freedom. The American nation never had a chance to develop to its potential, because it was hijacked early on by networks/cartels of the rich. What is commonly referred to as the American dream should therefore rather be named the American deception. In my view, the Pursuit of Happiness is the largest middle-finger ever erected in human history. America has never lost its track, I think it has always been on the same track, yet it is about to derail hard.
While Europe has managed (more or less) to develop, kill and struggle itself into a bunch of societies in which solidarity, social justice and rule of law remain core cultural and social concepts – to a certain extent even for the rich (Napoleonic Code) -, America has developed into a rat race society based on property, materialism and a general save-your-own-ass mentality. A smart guy from New York once described his own country to me as money talks, bullshit walks. The fish rots or rather trickles down from the head. America is run by a bunch of mafia cartels no better than street gangs – Wall St, Big Oil, Big Pharma, Big Media, Military-Industrial-Complex etc. – with the Federal Reserve as their giant money laundering corporation, a bureaucracy of ridiculous proportions as both the mafia’s hitmen (CIA, Pentagon) and legal front (Congress), and the US president as the constantly changing promotion mascot. There is very often no love lost between these cartels or their players, but there are two things that unite them. First, the US dollar system, the single largest Ponzi scheme in human history and, second, an extremely elitist self-concept inherited from English aristocracy asserting that it is them, and only them, who shall rule the world. Take the infinite callousness and arrogance of the English upper class, offer them a vast country and endless influx of human material for exploitation and what you get is the United States of America and its WASP regime. The US has been an imperialist project right from the start, because it was founded out of (British) imperialism.
From their elitist perspective the American or any other people serve as human cattle to be duped, exploited and used. It is the ultimate Fordist nightmare, which Aldous Huxley could only vaguely anticipate in his novel A Brave New World. The people are made to live under conditions comparable to that of farm cattle with TV screens flickering in their stables. To the regime they are nothing but salary and consume cattle, cynically dubbed as human resourcesin the business world, a euphemism for slaves if you ask me. Lives, thoughts and views, food, medicine and drug use, culture, or the fairy tale people are supposed to believe as history are determined and conditioned by a gigantic propaganda industry that makes Joseph Goebbels drool in his coffin. Hollywood is the manifestation of what he could only dream of.
Europeans suffer from pretty much the same state of shallow and philistine slave existence, but it’s mostly a post-WW2 imported American thing for us. We still have a choice and we have all the necessary cultural, nutritional and intellectual roots to free ourselves from it. I might be dead wrong in my observations, but I don’t see how Americans with what I consider as their still prevalent settler mentality could really do that. I hope they will find a way and if only after the collapse of the empire. Regardless, you cannot properly understand US imperialism, let alone the so-called “West” in general, unless you fully appreciate the manufactured fake that it really is. Therefore let’s start with the only real thing about it – at least in a capitalist sense – the dollar system.
Empire of Snakes and Weasels
Through their dubious actions and policies of supporting all sides before and during WW2 the US cartels managed to weasel their host country’s way from the world’s number one debtor before the war to the world’s number one creditor after the war. With this leverage at their disposal the US entered the Bretton Woods negotiations in 1944. The Bretton Woods conference was in essence the result of Anglo-American establishments contemplating on how to rule and dominate the world after WW2. British imperialists, the other oddballs of human history and well worth an article of their own, and America’s ruling cartels had already united their criminal enterprises, although from different perspectives. While the British were mostly interested in using American muscle to preserve their empire which had been struggling especially against Germany’s rising economic power since the late 19th century, the American cartels were eager to establish themselves on a global and especially European stage, an endeavor for which Britain served well as springboard.
It is therefore no surprise that the English speaking imperialists on both sides of the Pond had different views on how to run future currency-based world domination. England was represented by British economist John Maynard Keynes – himself one of the initiators of the Bretton Woods conference – who put forward the idea of an international bank called International Clearing Union which would issue its own currency – the bancor – as an account currency between nations. The idea was to have trade surplus or creditor nations invest in the economies of trade deficit or debtor nations and so to even out global economic imbalances. Lord Keynes was one of the few if not the only competent of capitalist economists.
Keynes proposed that any country racking up a large trade deficit (equating to more than half of its bancor overdraft allowance) would be charged interest on its account. It would also be obliged to reduce the value of its currency and to prevent the export of capital. But – and this was the key to his system – he insisted that the nations with a trade surplus would be subject to similar pressures. Any country with a bancor credit balance that was more than half the size of its overdraft facility would be charged interest, at a rate of 10%. It would also be obliged to increase the value of its currency and to permit the export of capital. If, by the end of the year, its credit balance exceeded the total value of its permitted overdraft, the surplus would be confiscated. The nations with a surplus would have a powerful incentive to get rid of it. In doing so, they would automatically clear other nations’ deficits. (source)
In the beginning of the conference everyone was with the ideas of Lord Keynes for they were as reasonable as it can get within a capitalist frame. But it was the American imperialists, represented by Harry Dexter White, who had quite different ideas for their currency-based world domination. They wanted to seize the opportunity by establishing an International Stabilization Fund which would put the whole burden of economic imbalance on the debtor nations. Instead of a global account currency like the bancor they wanted to establish their own US dollar as the world’s reserve currency. It is not documented how many arms the US cartels had to twist in how many directions at Bretton Woods, but eventually they prevailed and the notorious Bretton Woods system with the US dollar as sole reserve currency was implemented with the infamous IMF at its core, an institution that evidently turns everything it touches into deep shit as it keeps working along utmost economic illiteracy – even for capitalists – designed only to withdraw further capital from already troubled nations.
Having one country’s currency as the world’s sole reserve currency was and is so far unique in history. It is often and commonly believed that the US dollar had just replaced the British pound as the world’s reserve currency, but this is not quite accurate. British pound, German mark, French franc or Portuguese escudo had at their respective times always been reserve currencies alongside each other. Some were more regionally focused, like the French franc in Africa, with the British pound playing the major but not singular role globally. Bretton Woods, however, introduced the US dollar as the world’s or rather capitalist world’s sole reserve currency with all other currencies having fixed exchange rates to it. The US cartels gained tremendous political and economic clout by that, especially since it later allowed them to run a much larger and longer state and trade deficit than they could have, had the dollar been just been one garden variety currency among others. But how did it go and what does it mean today, when the world appears to be returning to a “normal” state of affairs again with the rise of euro and yuan?
A Roller Coaster That Only Goes Downhill
[dropcap]M[/dropcap]any of America’s grumpy nostalgics who thought that a billionaire with a terrible hairdo would help them out of their misery by building a wall consider America to have been great in the past. Of course, it was never great at all. Those were times of heinous crimes against humanity by the US regime against the world and its own people, earlier even inspiring other villains. On principle it was just like today and how it has always been. The USAF was carpet bombing Asian countries and everybody was scared of Russians. Still, the times felt great, because the country was surfing the big post-war Kondratieff wave and enjoyed a Brave New World of Fordist pleasure based on hard work and hedonistic obedience to advertisement. Milkshakes tasted sweet, Rock’n’Roll pounded loud, and Cadillacs rolled big. Universities were negro-free and retards were sterilized. America was great and Jesus in love with you. The share of household consumption to GDP was already around 60%, but that wasn’t a problem because most of what Americans consumed was also made in America by Americans. But then the wave turned into swash and started lapping against the shore of reality. The markets were saturated. Everyone had a fridge and one or two cars and TVs by then. No new major technological innovation for further consumer goods lurked around the corner to drive the economy. The Kondratieff wave backwashed. Capitalism had once again reached its regular growth limits and the usual meltdown was looming. Voracious for more profits corporations started the big outsourcing frenzy in the 1970s to get their fix by having to share less with their workers in exchange for cheaper products from cheaper countries. Now, outsourcing as such is not a problem if the CEOs know what they’re doing and have a long-term strategy such as using profits generated from saving to invest in research for new innovation, for example. The problem is that the US is for the most part a shareholder economy and CEOs and their corporations are legally obliged to provide profits for them. I am talking about short-term quarterly or yearly profits, not profits for long-term visions. Even if the odd business school graduate working as CEO has a long-term vision, the American cartel model of economy won’t allow him or her to implement it without providing for shareholder profits first. Keep that in mind when you wonder where US industry went compared to German industry, apparently a core part of Trumpish penis envy triggering infantile feelings of unfair.
Over the course of the 1970s to the 1990s American workers increasingly turned into burger flippers, janitors and cashiers, while Mexicans, Filipinos and Chinese started to increasingly sweat in their shops. The purchasing powerof American consumers declined and that threatened the colossal GDP. Reaganomics didn’t trickle down at all, but it made sure that lumberjack shirts presented something non-existent, and banks and corporations got another decade-long profit fix. By the late 1990s, it became obvious that to keep the machine running Americans had to have their credit cards loaded and their stock markets bloated. Therefore, Bill “Never-Inhaled-and-Didn’t Have-Sex” Clinton deregulated the banks so that they could provide Americans with cheap mortgage credits for their consumerist pleasure. Advertisement went on hyperdrive to make Americans buy junk and sprawl suburbanly. Another profit fix for banks and corporations for yet another decade had been conjured up. GDP and plebeian excitement were saved for the day. The result of this policy was the much feared massive trade deficit, because economies in Europe, Asia and Latin America managed to replace American manufacturing globally either with their own products or simply by producing American ones.
In reality it is all a bit more complex, of course, but I’m deliberately keeping it simple to highlight America’s economic failure by design. It’s the sparkler among empires, having burnt so bright for three decades between 1945 and 1975 yet violently fizzling out ever since. What is important to understand at this point is that without Bretton Woods the US cartels would have never been able to run it this far, almost half a century on debt and delusions by now, because even when Nixon ditched the gold standard to free the empire from its shackles to run mile-high deficits, the US dollar remained the world’s reserve currency, first, in lack of another major currency to challenge it, and, second, as a result of a dirty deal made with the Saudi Barbarians: you sell your oil only in US dollars and make the rest of OPEC follow suit and we build up your stone or rather sand aged country American style. Goats as the common garbage disposal system in Riyadh had been replaced by white trucks, skyscrapers built, American weapons bought, and US debt sold to European and Asian oil junkies. John Perkins described this dirty deal perfectly well in his Confessions of An Economic Hitman. With the petrodollar established this way the US cartels could continue their criminal enterprise and it is the only reason why the Saudis have come as close to US imperialism as airplanes into tall buildings.
The US cartels are dependent on the dollar as the world’s sole reserve currency to be able to run the deficits necessary to fuel their criminal enterprise of world domination. In order to do that they need other countries to hoard dollars in the form of US debt, which they will only do if they believe the US was a thriving economy. But since the 1980s the US cartels can hold up the illusion of presiding over an economic powerhouse pretty much only with plebeian consumption running on debt. Currently about 70% of the GDP is private household consumption which is nominally not much more than during America’s self-felt greatness, but it has now turned into the last, almost lost engine rattling to keep if not America’s success at least its success story going. Virtually none of the consumed products are made in America anymore. Industry, engineering, and manufacturing went down the toilet and despite their constant attention whoring neither the narcissists in Hollywood nor Silicon Valley could make up for it. The only industry still pumping hard to inflate the GDP is the bogus financial sector and so the American economy hovers from one bubble to the next, each one inflated with the illusion of a working economy based on a bloated GDP. The question is: why is it so important for the US cartels to keep up a colossal GDP even at the cost of its own economic foundation and what does it have to do with US aggression all around the world, at least in the past two decades?
Welcome to the Dark Side
[dropcap]A[/dropcap]s the ever so astute American philosopher Homer Simpson once said, “People can come up with statistics to prove anything […]. Forfty percent of all people know that.”, so I will toss some stats at you. Please bear with me. I chose to compare military spending, trade deficit, household consumption, household debt, government debt, and GDP – all numbers are in billion dollars.
Numbers are from the World Bank and United Nations and from this site.
The curves aren’t what is striking, they’re obvious, what strikes are the correlations between different data:
| Correlation of: | Military Spending | Trade Balance | Household Consumption | Household Debt | Government Debt | GDP |
| Military Spending | 1.00 | 0.22 | 0.83 | 0.89 | 0.78 | 0.82 |
| Trade Balance | 0.22 | 1.00 | 0.11 | 0.39 | -0.12 | 0.12 |
| Household Consumption | 0.83 | 0.11 | 1.00 | 0.91 | 0.97 | 0.99 |
| Household Debt | 0.89 | 0.39 | 0.91 | 1.00 | 0.79 | 0.91 |
| Government Debt | 0.78 | -0.12 | 0.97 | 0.79 | 1.00 | 0.96 |
| GDP | 0.82 | 0.12 | 0.99 | 0.91 | 0.96 | 1.00 |
I’ll just arrogantly assume that you know what correlation is. The important thing to note is that it’s about whether two data sets are related or not. The first thing that strikes the eye is that US trade deficit is hardly related to any other indicators, except perhaps for the relation to household debt. Therefore, the question arises if the Trump administration really is about trade deficit at all, as Mr Orange likes to claim, since it is mainly debt that cripples the country and shareholder values dependent on a high GDP that drive it. I don’t see Trump battling debt at all, but I modestly assume that there are at least one or maybe even two staffers in Warshington who read and analyse economic data.
The strongest correlation exists between household consumption, household debt, government debt and GDP. They are all above the 0.9 mark, even reaching almost full correlation between GDP and household consumption. In other words, the massive GDP of the US goes hand in hand with household consumption, which goes hand in hand with both private and public debt. The US appears to produce its GDP colossus mostly by investors buying dollar annotated debt. The irony – and eventually system failure – arises from the fact that the US cartels need to fake high economic productivity and reliability by financing high consumption of mostly imported goods on credit to show off a colossal GDP necessary to attract financial investors, both domestic and foreign, whose investments are then again used to finance aforementioned credits. This is what I call a vicious circle and kind of what I imagine to feel like hugging a pork half.
When we put military spending into the mix, the actions of US imperialism become even clearer. It correlates strongly or even very strongly to the other four indicators, yet military spending is hardly the cause of high public debt or GDP. After all, military spending amounts only to about 3.5% of GDP (not counting the totality of national security spending, let alone money made by CIA drug trafficking). Apparently, and in some magical way, US military action, or at least military spending, guarantees high consumption and thus a high GDP.
Bombing for Debt
It is a rather mundane insight, that what one wants and what one can do to get it are two different things. What the US cartels want is clear: Full World Domination (FWD), which even if they got it, would still be a system designed to fail as it cannot survive without a foe. Regardless, Brzezinski formulated it in 1997 in his pamphlet The Grand Chessboard, an American version of Uncle Adolf’s Mein Kampf. Like Mein Kampf was in many parts bootlegging Henry Ford’s The International Jew, Brzezinski didn't have one original thought either. His ideas were almost identical to those that British geostrategist Halford Mackinder formulated as Geographical Pivot of History in 1904. This idée fixe, never to let any land power take control in Eurasia or let any kind of Eurasian integration happen, seems to be engraved on the crazed minds of Anglo-American elites since the 19th century and is guideline to their politics ever since then. Germany and Russia had been and still are the main adversaries and targets, but also Iran and China. The whole history of the 20th century can only be understood under this premise. This, however, is not part of the official fairy tale that is bourgeois history. No wonder I didn’t learn about it at school. Anyway, it is also related to the preservation of the dollar system.
When the ever so humble Anglo-American crazies were convinced they had defeated the Soviet Union they started acting right away. The goal was to destroy any possible Silk Road and/or cooperation between the land powers of Germany, France, Russia, China, and Iran. Let me first briefly summarize the pre-millennial actions:
- They nationally endowed democracy and Russophobia in what today has become the Idiot Belt (Baltics, Poland, Ukraine, Scandinavia) to shape a cordon sanitaire between Germany and Russia.
- They literally ate up Russia economically during the 1990s and meddled with the aim to once and for all get rid of it as a power to reckon with.
- They gave Saddam the green light to invade Kuwait in order to have a pretext to set foot in the Middle East – the first step against Iran after Saddam had screwed up the 1980s Gulf War.
- They broke apart Yugoslavia, the last standing and just too large socialist country in Europe – this time with the help of Germany which had and still has its own imperial ambitions in Europe.
- They bombed Serbia and sliced out Kosovo in order to establish a military base at the historical end of the Silk Road from China – first step in preventing Eurasian integration (and to control heroin trafficking to Europe as a sweet cherry on top).
So far, so good. But as I already mentioned, by the end of the millennium the dying horse of US economy had turned into a leaky horse-shaped balloon that needed to be constantly inflated with loans and foreign dollar investments, so that they now had to fight two fronts: inflate the balloon and conquer the world. At the same time the EU was about to establish the euro, the first currency able to challenge the dollar as the world’s sole reserve currency. They must have realized that time is running out. I assume this had let them to make an extremely filthy deal with the Zionists and Saudi Barbarians to demolish the World Trade Center in a staged terrorist attack to have political carte blanche for the next couple of years. The attack on Afghanistan was surely still part of the masterplan to encircle Iran, Russia, and China, and to set foot in Central Asia, and thus to block the historical Silk Road at the Chinese end. It was crafted two months before 9/11 after all. However, the following actions became increasingly erratic and, I believe, they were in part deviating from the original plan. The aggressions against Iraq, Iran and Libya, be it bombs or sanctions, all had a monetary background as well. Hussein announced already in 2000 that he wanted to price oil in euro, Iran announced in 2006 to open an oil bourse trading in euro, yuan, rial and rubel, and Libya wanted to introduce a gold backed currency, the dinar, as a joined currency for the African Union (which also heavily undermined French colonial interests in Africa). This can’t be a coincidence. These aggressions, while still more or less in accordance with the original plan yet conducted hastily and often without much of a detailed plan at all, had the primary aim to save the petrodollar by preventing any alternative from emerging. Without the primal petrodollar they wouldn’t be able to run the massive deficit needed to struggle for Full World Domination (FWD). The dollar must remain the world’s primary reserve currency or the house of cards masquerading as empire masquerading as democracy will crumble. It was and still is a rat race against their own demise.
All this bombing, chaos and destruction launched upon the world since 2001 had less PNAC, let alone “Israel”, in mind, but increasingly the assurance of further dollar investments in their debt, the most precious “natural resource” to keep the colossus colossal. Imagine a big fat drug-addicted bully who pummels weaker school children to prove that he is theoretically solvent because he could theoretically take anyone’s lunch money, so that, therefore, other junkie kids borrow him money which he then uses to buy more dope to be fit enough to pummel more kids. This is how the global economy has been working in the early 21st century before Russia and China started to collude effectively to ensure Eurasian integration and a multipolar, post-dollar world.
The difference between the US regime’s pre- and post-millennial actions have been that the former had been carried out carefully, quite successfully and according to plan, while the latter had been executed extremely sloppily and, except for the case of Libya, essentially failed (if the mess is on Europe it is a success to US cartels). Russia “snatched” Crimea, EU and Iran now want to trade oil in euro, Germany is increasingly free-trading with China, Iraq is colluding with Iran, which is selling its oil in yuan to China, and Saudi Barbaria is about to follow suit. The mercenary war against Syria, last hope for the imperialists, has failed because Russia, which has resurrected under pesky Putin, has ruined it for them. If you ask me, ever since the millennium the US regime acts under increasing panic of losing not only their precious PNAC, but also their imperial lifeline: the dollar. The fact alone that the empire is now increasingly relying on mercenaries, be it Academi or ISIS, shows the desperation. The Anglo-American establishments have for about five centuries followed Machiavellian principles and the use of mercenaries is not one of them. When (not if) the dollar crumbles, the empire will never resurrect from the rubble that will be left. This was pretty much the exact situation under which the Hillary Clinton vs. Donald Trump Punch and Judy show was performed.
Realpolitik in a World of Delusions
Trump and Haley: they seem to deserve each other.
If the US regime was a proper republic instead of a criminal enterprise and its deep state as pragmatic as, say, the German deep state, they would surely do the only right thing there is to do in their very host country: dismantle the US military empire and invest heavily in infrastructure at home. The economy would get a boost from such mundane tasks as repairing bridges and highways, but there is plenty of more room to invest. The US doesn’t even have high speed trains, it has a 3rd world power grid, and its family homes still mostly consist of heat wasting carpet boxes. There are also vast possibilities for renewable energies in sunny and windy U.S.A. which, regardless of whether you choose to believe Exxonmobil or science, offer great economic value. Imagine the number of proper jobs that could be created by just bringing the domestic US into the 21st century. That would be realpolitiks. And hopefully will be the future of the United States.
The military highway has been bloating GDP with a certain success for the cartels for years, but it’s a dead end now. Even if they had installed cattish, insane Hillary in Warshington, the US would still not be able to attack Iran – the Europeans would still not have followed, and it would still turn out a ruinous endeavor. The US empire has simply ran out of attackable enemies to pretend to be powerful. Even Venezuela would be too hard for them to attack as they’d entangle themselves in an endless guerrilla war in the jungle, something they’re not exactly brilliant at. Besides, the times when the American people still “cattled” behind every given war are over, and I don’t see any significant European nation to follow. So, what’s left to do? If they went down the road of realpolitiks, the cartels’ would lose their more than two centuries old absolute power over the US. For example, if the US brought their energy regime more closely to the 21st century, the big oil and big nuke cartels would lose out a lot to the more decentralized renewables which then belonged to farmers or local communities (a struggle that is still far from over here in Germany). Large central investments are as key in corporate capitalism round table style as they were in state capitalism Soviet style. The empire cannot be saved, but everything that could save the domestic US from its demise and collapse would in the end mean the end of the iron grip of power of Wall St, Big Oil, Big Pharma, Military-Industrial-Complex, etc. The criminal enterprise that we have known as the U.S.A. is about to come to an end either way – involuntarily and violently destroying the country or voluntarily and peacefully preserving the country. If you haven’t seen the film Der Untergang yet, I assume you should do that now by all means.
The cartels don’t give a rat’s arse over the country. That’s why, instead of focusing on domestic issues, they are now going for desperate measures to try to “discipline” Europeans, Chinese, and even Rwanda with silly tariffs in order to somehow keep the global dollar regime by asserting an illusion of power – and with Europeans they’ll always find pleasant surrender monkeys. But the dollar regime is ending. The greenback will surely remain an important currency (unless it fully collapses), but only next to others like the euro and yuan. I think, they’re still trying to figure out what to do next, not realizing that there is nothing to do next but to deviate from imperialism. The one thing they can count on, however, appears to be the infinite asininity of the American public who now seem to be less divided over Democrat vs Republican groupthink, over empire vs domestic, but more between the Great Russia Panic and the Great Jew Panic. This is painfully facepalming to watch from over here, I can tell you that with all my benevolent heart.
Collapse, civil war, disintegration seem to be ahead for the US. The world in the 2030s might even be a world without the U.S.A., entirely. Instead there might be several new countries on the North American map. And why not? Texas, California and Florida could surely go it alone economically, and Hawai’i and their “howdies” don’t even belong to the US one single bit. The smartest grassroot movements in America would call for segregation of their respective state or states such as the Pacific ones. I hate to say it but my money is on a violent collapse and disintegration of the US hopefully not tearing Canada down with them. The erratic empire is downfalling, and while that’s a great thing for humanity in the long run, including for Americans who I believe will eventually benefit from such catharsis, it will at first turn out to be extremely ugly.
ADDENDUM
Now for the cherry on top:
A roundtable discussion of American actions in Syria, focusing on the "Assad gas attacks" on his own people (a Western false flag) and Trump's retaliation and bombast. Note the higher caliber and seriousness of discussion on this German tv show, compared to the American product.
Published on Apr 26, 2018
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The Russian Peace Threat examines Russophobia, American Exceptionalism and other urgent topics
SELECT COMMENTS
BELOW WE REPRODUCE SOME VERY INTERESTING COMMENTS IN THE ORIGINAL THREAD. THESE VOICES, LIKE THE AUTHOR’S, HOLD ICONOCLASTIC VIEWS, WHICH IS REFRESHING AND RE-INVIGORATING IN OUR CURRENT CLIME OF DECADENCE AND NIHILISM. GIVE THESE PEOPLE THEIR DUE. INEVITABLY, THERE’S ALWAYS SOME UNHINGED OPINION, SOME STICK-IN-THE-MUD HERE AND THERE, YOU’LL PROBABLY DISAGREE WITH. JUST BE READY TO SPOT IT…
Larchmonter445 on July 29, 2018 ·
Very powerful material in support of a wish.
The fact that remains key in analyzing the U.S. is the Elites of American Empire are in control of all the levers of Power, especially financial power. Yes, China has Wealth, also. But the daily movement of capital, real and ephemerally digital, is in the hands and minds of the Elites. They see the processes and understand them better than all the rest of the world.
Blockchain and cryptocurrencies are their new game to control the future.
The notion that some collapse is going to occur without their hand is naive.
They will construct whatever future is coming as much and more so than Eurasia/New Silk Road/BRI.
They create chaos as gameplay. They surf disasters and systemic shocks with great dexterity and balance.
The US may be transformed after Trump and MAGA have their run. But the Elites running the show now will be running the show later.
To assume some “new” thing will be different is very much a wish.
It is much more likely that Wall Street and the billionaires of MIC, Silicon Valley and MegaGlobal corporations will be just fine with the post-dollar planet.
To be rid of these bloodsuckers who are yet not content with 99% of the Wealth of the Globe seems to be out of reach of all present challengers.
China is stumbling forward with its economy and Russia is too small economically to impact the US dollar.
Possibly, the US debt, all debt, might eventually strangle the beast, as, like Uroborus swallowing itself, it chokes on its own tail.
Krungle on July 29, 2018 ·
I think ascribing omnipotence and omnisciensce to the elite is a bit much. They have managed to run all the planetary systems into the ground to the point where they’re planning on bugging out to underground bunkers or fly to Mars to live in miserable bunkers there. They don’t know what they’re doing, and they cannot predict every consequence of their madness. They wouldn’t be spending so much on preparing for collapse if they didn’t know the game was up, and their preparations show a lack of imagination and powerlessness to truly get themselves out of the mess they’ve created. So I must agree with the author here that they have overplayed their hand.
<b>MC on July 29, 2018 · </b>
You said it very well, Krungle. And I also agree with the author. The elite does not have a solution for their mess. And they do not care about anybody else. It is our term to take the lead.
GoraKoshka on July 29, 2018 ·
I agree, Larch. gives the elites too much credit. Not they won’t try… but they are few, and at some point, the game will be up. The question is when (G. help us, though, when the time comes; they won’t go quietly). This is an excellent essay, with many on-target observations. (Only two points – WWI was also fought partly to preserve UK’s empire; and saying “state capitalism Soviet-style” is a very inaccurate, albeit facile, description of socialist economies (it may be fashionable now to use this simplification, but it just reveals a lack of serious analysis of what was the socialist world)).
And here is a companion piece: https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/07/27/the-grand-illusion-of-imperial-power/
Rob from Canada on July 29, 2018 ·
LM445
Anything that is a threat to US dollar hegemony is a threat to US hegemony. Anything that reduces global demand for US dollars like a country’s central bank accumulating gold or a country using other currencies instead of US dollars for trade settlement is “bad” for US dollar hegemony. This is why Russia, China and Iran are on America’s shit list and why in the past Iraq and Libya were too.
In 2006 the Fed raised the fed funds rate to 5.5%. For the economy that was considered to be neutral. That is, not inflationary and not deflationary. Because of using too much debt as leverage to increase return on investment a lot of unpayable loans were the result. That created the financial crisis in 2008.
Between Russia, China and Iran, corporate malinvestment using debt as leverage and bureaucratic waste in the MIC and Intelligence complex, it’s a safe bet to bet on collapse via financial crisis part 2.
You dramatically overestimate the competence of the psychopaths in Versailles on the Potomac. Don’t bother buying the “psychopathic fiction” that they’re the “ideal evil geniuses”. After they’ve finished using Uncle Sam as their minion they’ll disappear with the loot. That is the way psychopathic scams operate.
tomo on July 29, 2018 ·
Psychopaths tend to eventually self-destruct.
I agree with you I don’t think they are particularly intelligent – their fraud works just because they are good actors and lie so outrageously that common sheeple find it hard to imagine that anyone would be so evil to lie that way.
There are a few dirty tricks they use like that – that’s their ‘power’ – once you see through their cheap tricks – they lose their evil influence.
I saw a good explanation of one of these tricks in a recent article on Moon of Alabama:
” A typical Israeli propaganda scheme is to falsely claim that an agreement with some entity has been made and to then push that entity to stick to a “deal” it never agreed to. Israel dislikes any ‘Iranian presence’ in Syria. It tries to press on Russia to push Iran out of Syria by claiming that Russia offered or made such a deal. ”
Trump uses a similar trick:
“Assuming the sale” is a known bully technique. Hardly a surprise coming from a 4x bankrupt real estate hustler.
Sasoon on July 29, 2018
The US doesn’t have debt. It runs a deficit. To conflate the two is to be ignorant of the current system post Bretton Woods.To have a debt, the US would have to owe in currency other than the US dollar. The wider public (politicians included) can’t seem to get this through their skulls.They really believe that the US needs tax dollars to fund SS or Medicare, or for that matter to bail out banks.
<b>Anonymous on July 30, 2018 · at 4:03 am</b>
Could you explain this in a bit more detail? Thanks!
B.F. on July 29, 2018 ·
No, I don’t think that a collapse of the US and it’s potential breakup will drag Canada down with it. The President of Canada is the Queen of England, who has her Governor General in Canada. I always found this very amusing, Canada ostensibly being a sovereign country, when it’s nothing of the sort. The Queen of England directly controls Canada, being it’s President. The Rothschild’s (and the Queen) control the US through the Federal Reserve, a private central bank. Until 1776 the American colonies were controlled by the British Crown. After 1776 the US was, and is, controlled by the Rothschild’s, who use it for wars of conquest. How many years has the US been at war since it’s inception ? For most of it’s existence.
Can the US break up ? The answer is yes. In fact ten years ago Igor Panarin, the Dean of the Russian Diplomatic Academy, predicted the break up of the US into six parts, with the northern states joining Canada. The impression is that this has been planned years ago. Most Americans don’t know that in the Montana-Colorado region there is more oil than in Saudi Arabia. This oil is untouched. It’s obviously been reserved for Canada.
What happens when the US breaks up ? Canada takes over from the US with the Queen of England at it’s head. The newly created states on the territory of the former US will unquestionably fall under Canadian political influence, ie. under the indirect control of the British Crown.
And the current US dollar ? If it’s lucky, it might find itself along the yuan and ruble. However, I don’t see either the dollar or the euro surviving, as both are printed backed by nothing. According to Dr Jim Willie, the US Government is even preparing the introduction of a new, domestic dollar.
Arvy on July 29, 2018 ·
“The President of Canada is the Queen of England …”
Uh, I think a somewhat more diligent effort may be required to understand the Queen’s role in the parliamentary system of governance as it applies under Canada’s constitution. Perhaps the least important of many misunderstandings is the fact that the “Queen of England” has no involvement whatsoever. Elizabeth II acts “in right of Canada” via her Governors General only as nominal “Queen of Canada” and not as “Queen of England.” Furthermore, with only a very few narrowly defined exceptions, she does so only on the advice and with the consent of Parliament as conveyed via her privy council.
As for Canada “tak[ing] over from the US with the Queen of [Canada] at it’s head”, I’d be all in favour of some such fairy tale ending were it not for the probable massive influx of U.S. refugees. 🙂
Krungle on July 29, 2018 ·
Accessible oil in Montana and Colorado? Or like oil is the level the Rockies and use the remaining fresh water in North America to frack it? The reality is that for all practical purposes there’s probably less than a few decades left of any important resource. That’s a predictable outcome of an infinite growth economy on a finite planet.
milan on July 29, 2018 ·
Krungle
You should mosey over to Gail Tverberg blog http://www.ourfiniteworld.com for some fascinating info about this very topic. there you will find many bloggers using the term delustani’s to describe the imminent collapse of the industrial revolution and some peoples hope that renewables are going to save us. lol
Rhisiart Gwilym on July 30, 2018 ·
BF, I think you earn a – slightly edited – version of Larchmonter’s original comment on Sergio’s piece: ‘Not very powerful – in fact rather delusional – material in support of a wish.’
Good luck with Greater Canada, especially with the – supposed – Saudi America under Montana/Colorado! You’ll need it.
RATM on July 29, 2018 ·
“World of Delusions” </b>
He got that right.
I bet Merkel sh!ts daily her pants thinking about the $70 Trillion derivatives DeutscheBank sits on, or the rise of euro-sceptic parties all over EU, or the % of foreigners in Germany (almost 20 million or 25%) and what happens when they start demanding political representation and schools/TV/newspapers in their native tounges, or german exports having trouble finding new markets, while current markets are shrinking and disappearing (Germany bankrupted the smaller EU states – no purchesing power; lost the Russian market bcz of the sanctions; and now Trump is setting tariffs, China too btw LOL so much about ‘Germany is increasingly free-trading with China’)
But you know, good news is, during the Helsinki meeting, Tusk & drunktard Junckers were
‘free-trading’ in Japan, and Abe agreed to buy some danish cookies (LOL I sh!t you not).
VitN on July 29, 2018 ·
This line in the article reveals lack of will to look:
Lord Keynes was one of the few if not the only competent of capitalist economists.
No, the only one still is Karl Marx. With Karl the article would make a better sense.
Flopot on July 29, 2018 ·
Nope. Marx was an agent of Banksters and Industrialists. Please leave him in his grave; he caused enough destruction.
MC on July 30, 2018 ·
Karl Marx was not capitalist. He studies Capital and denounced it for what it really is.
<b>darkmoon on July 29, 2018 · </b>
@OP
I wholeheratedly agree with the notion that this system is based on shortsighted, unfettered greed and lust for power.
@Larchmonter445
I can’t really say much about where they have their hitmen as ultima ratio weapon. But one sign of the anglo elite not being in control is the impending ecological collapse. If the emission of insane quantities of pollutants of any nature, the accelerating global warming and the annihilation of large parts of the biosphere don’t stop, the end will come far quicker than most realize right now. This will ruin the lifestyle and powerbase of the current elite.
Sasoon on July 29, 2018 ·
How true. Most people today are city dwellers. They don’t “viscerally” understand that humanity depends on nature.
Rob from Canada
You can categorize participants in an investment market like gold or US dollar futures as big fish or little fish. Trends in a market can be bullish(an uptrend) or bearish( a downtrend) and can last for months or years.
The bigfish are much more likely to guess correctly that a major trend change is occurring compared to littlefish and therefore “eat the littlefish” at major market trend changes.
So when I say that gold sentiment is very bearish it means(based on the commitment of traders report for gold) that the littlefish have very bearish sentiment, are probably wrong and therefore a trend change from downtrend(bearish) to uptrend(bullish) will probably occur.
Additionally, given the fact that gold has fallen to the 200 week moving average(a very important fractal number) it’s highly probable a very import low will occur now and gold will start a major uptrend.
If you look at these two weekly charts of gold and the US dollar index in relation to their 200-week moving averages, you can see it’s highly probable that gold has found support on its 200-week moving average whereas the US dollar has found resistance on it’s 200 week moving average. Therefore major trend changes for gold and UD dollar futures will probably occur now..
http://schrts.co/B8ZaJY
http://schrts.co/6gycA9
Got it Katherine?
John C Durham on July 29, 2018 ·
“Frightened men of property”? Franklin? Hamilton? Washington? F*** you.
Try to get on a true track, which was only very partially ever been applied, being hard for our heroes to continue against headwinds and bullets in the head from the London/Wall Street forces. Still, America was the greatest in history at applying methods of production…until its actual end in 1963.
America is gone, but do not forget those few great men and women who made great decisions and/or gave their life trying to get one more mile, or inch, further, the greatest of which was Franklin, Hamilton, Washington, Q. Adams, Clay, Crockett, Lincoln, Garfield, FDR, Eisenhower, Kennedy.
You make light of the accomplishments of these People. Why should anyone put their life on the line when intelligent people make little of what they did?
Cyril on July 29, 2018 ·
George Washington was the second richest man in what would become the United States of America.
James Madison admits it openly: “[The new republic] ought to be so constituted as to protect the minority of the opulent against the majority”.
So yes, frightened men of property.
Sol Invictus on July 29, 2018 ·
The author is right about the founding myth of the USA. In the prelude to 1776, the abolition of slavery seemed all but inevitable in London, delighting Africans as much as it outraged american slaveholders, and sparking the colonial revolt. Prior to 1776, anti-slavery sentiments were deepening throughout Britain and in the Caribbean, rebellious Africans were in revolt everywhere. For European colonists in America, the major threat to their security was a foreign invasion combined with an insurrection of the enslaved. It was a real and threatening possibility that London would impose abolition throughout the colonies – a possibility the founding fathers feared would bring slave rebellions to their shores. To forestall it, they went to war.
Dr. Gerald Horne asserts that the so-called Revolutionary was in part a counter-revolution, a conservative movement that the founding fathers fought in order to preserve their right to enslave others. We see the same reationary sentiments expressing themelves with Trumps appeal to the hoi polloi to make america great again. Alas, the last great hope of america is facing a very formidable international configuration of power. Gerald Horne’s thorough and documented research on the counter-Revolution of 1776 brings us a radical understanding of the traditional heroic creation myth of the United States. What we see now are the premisces to the final chapter. The parasites of capital centered around wall street US dollar instruments are running out of viable hosts to continue their expansionist manifest destiny. It appears that the shining city on the hill has hit a brick wall, repeatedly colliding with competitors like China building their own independent center of power.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Snzl41lX54
mark on July 29, 2018 ·
The American Revolution was also caused by the desire of colonists to expand further, exterminate the Redskins and steal their land. The British colonial rulers were unenthusiastic about this because they didn’t want to have to foot the bill for expensive protracted wars against the natives.
Hajduk on July 29, 2018 ·
‘…the infinite callousness and arrogance of the English upper class…’ as opposed to the all round excellence of the Prussians? hahaha
Americans have some unique and admirable traits, personally and in business. The aristocratic explorers of the British Empire also had their share of exceptional qualities. All nations have their good and bad sides and ‘every dog has its day’.
Anonymous on July 29, 2018 ·
The author lost me with a terrible, propaganda-tinged, mis-characterization about the Occupy Wall Street movement early in the piece. All he told me was that he was glued to a screen of whatever Fox News had to say about that event, and that he absolutely certainly did not get out and go to any of those very public and open sites to actually meet and talk with the people he now snarls at.
So, he now writes for a blog against the empire, but when an actual opposition movement against the empire arose he didn’t feel it was worth getting out of his couch to see what was going on. And by that, he missed the fact that it was a very open movement that was created by the people who showed up and that his voice could have been a part of it and have influenced it. At the very least it was open and people were willing to talk and anyone who wanted could have shown up and discovered what was going on. I remember a lot of conversations in a space around a revolutionary movement that encourages political thought and talk and the whole experience was quite fascinating. Even if someone didn’t agree with the people there, just an interest in freedom and expression and political conversation should have drawn anyone to it. All spiced with that spirit of real freedom that comes around a movement with intent to change the system. Even if you don’t agree, its a heady atmosphere to those who love the taste of freedom. Too bad this gentleman couldn’t bother to visit.
Rhisiart Gwilym on July 30, 2018 ·
So, Anon: Where is ‘Occupy’ now, exactly…? Did all that frank, egalitarian discussion (oh how they luuurve to chatter!) produce any actually-enduring and actually-effective organisation?
impressed guest on July 29, 2018 ·
Brilliant, SIMPLY BRILLIANT. Sergio Weigel has managed to put together in a single article the key political, geopolitical, economic, and historical forces at work to shed light on our present, has coherently explained its past trajectory, and provided a very impressive framework for predicting the future. It is rare to see someone combine such deep insights into history, geopolitics, economics all in one go. And it is rarer to find someone with the ability to express ideas in crystal-clear, well-written, and pleasing prose.
Sergio: where have you been hiding so far? Why on earth don’t you write and publish more??
Erebus on July 29, 2018 ·
Excellent, deeply considered body of thought. No time to address the many great points made, but one stands out.
“To me the US empire is an historic aberration of humanity… an exceptional oddity among nations…”
I agree, and I further believe its extraordinariness is deeply intertwined with the fact that its rise coincided with an ahistorical moment in human history.
Born at the inception of the age of chemical energy, with a huge, rich continent’s worth of resources to exploit at marginal cost, the USA was in a unique position amongst nations. Harnessing the energy embedded in hydrocarbon molecules, a century of coal put down the foundations that underpinned the century of oil & gas, and turned on the afterburners that drove a great discontinuity in human development. During those 2 centuries, a mere 10 generations, the human population exploded to more than 7x what it was in 1800, and the plunder of the earth’s resource wealth accelerated at a rate vastly exceeding even that.
The propitiousness of the moment did not escape at least some of the elites, but how to ride that tiger? All of the old ways and means of control that oversaw millennia of evolutionary human development would no longer suffice if the moment was to be grasped. Faced with what some realized would be a one-off, never before/never again step function in wealth generation, they responded by developing a system of control suited to maximizing the growth, and taking the maximum benefit from what was coming. The age of wealth extraction by military conquest was over, and the age of financial empires was born. From now on, physical wealth generation would take place within a set of enabling rules dictated by a ghostly parasitic structure overlaying all human action. The structure, nominally known as international finance, both ensured the fastest possible development of resource exploitation, and of course, the siphoning of the wealth generated to the hands that created it.
As the extraordinary growth in physical wealth that the structure fostered approached its natural limits, and the end of the age of financial empires loomed, the elites went for one last hurrah of wealth extraction. For this, they tweaked the rules where they couldn’t change or delete them outright, and created a new class of professionals, so-called “financial engineers” to maximize the extraction opportunities the new loopholes made available. The structure thus began siphoning existing wealth rather than depend on real growth for its livelihood. Now even that is approaching its limits, and so here we are.
Anyways, great essay. Thanks.
Michael Green on July 29, 2018 ·
I have an appetite for more facts and less hot air. The author writes, “But it’s also the American people, serfs to the empire, who are desperately clinging. That’s what I found so appalling about the Occupy movement. These millennial brats had no political agenda but to demand their cheap flat screens back from the banksters. They didn’t want change, they wanted continuity.”
The less you know, the truer this and so much else Sergio Weigel says seems. I trolled my records for Occupy demands and came up with the following, which sounds like more than demands for their cheap flat screens back from the banksters:
http://occupymediapoints.blogspot.com/2011/11/occupy-wall-street-fact-sheet-in-case.html Thursday, November 10, 2011
An Occupy Wall Street Fact Sheet in Case You Get Hit Up by the Media. MEMORIZE THESE!
…- (What is Occupy Wall Street about?) OWS is about stopping the transfer of the wealth from the middle class and the working class even further into the hands of one wealthiest one percent. This is done through bank bailouts, through war profiteering, and other forms of crony capitalism. They only call it class warfare when we fight back.
– According to former Special Inspector General for the TARP bailouts Neil Barofsky, the American taxpayer may have to pay up to $23 trillion in bailouts as a result of the bailout deals made between corporations, mostly banks, and the government in 2008. To put that in context the US federal budget is about $4 trillion a year. (Politico, 7/20/09)
– Bank of America just moved derivatives nominally valued at $75 trillion into FDIC-insured accounts, putting the taxpayer on the hook for potentially trillions of dollars for bad casino debts (bankers bet in the subprime mortgage crisis that housing values would go up forever, which is stupid because nothing goes up forever. ) (Avery Goodman, 10/20/11)
– All means-tested entitlement programs, including Medicaid, food stamps, AFDC, SSI, child nutrition programs come up to about 7% of the yearly federal budget. The bailouts eat up a good part of any discretionary money that’s left after the Pentagon’s $700 billion a year, and interest on the national debt is about ten percent of the yearly budget. That is at least 20% of the budget the American taxpayer is getting nothing for in return, much more if you consider that the Pentagon budget is filled with enormous waste. The bailouts disproportionately benefit the wealthiest 1%, and because the debt limit is being increased every year, we are printing money and devaluing the currency to pay for these bailouts. (“Occupy Wall Street Talking Points,” WarIsACrime.org)
– What is the 99%? Many people don’t know that if the total wealth of America were represented by a pie, 1% of the population would own fully one-third of that pie, and 99% would own the rest. And that concentration of wealth has been getting more concentrated for 30 years. (Business Insider 4/9/10)
– We spend $120 billion a year for military operations in Afghanistan, but for 5% of that we could end the war by giving Afghans infrastructure programs run by a clean ministry, the Afghan National Solidarity program. Half of Afghans are malnourished after 10 years of occupation, and that is shameful. We should give them reparations for bombing the heck out of their country and get out. (“Quran Burning Touched Dry Tinder of Afghan Misery,” DailyKos.com, 4/4/11)
– Occupy Wall Street wants to get the money out of politics. Most people don’t know that on average 80% of congressional campaign contributions come from outside the district. Ban money from outside the district, including special interest or corporate money of any kind, and make congressmen work for the voters again. Personal donations from within the district only. I don’t have any business giving money to your congressman when I have my own. That’s called bribery. (“Demand to Get the Money Out of Poltics,” Truthout.org) …
Occupy Proposed Demands for Congress
soul secret service
Dedicated to getting good stuff seen and heard.
Here is a second Occupy Cheat-Sheet that I saved when it was posted.
Occupy: Proposed Demands for Congress
Posted on November 29, 2011
Here’s a proposed list of demand and things we can start pushing for now …
FROM — http://coupmedia.org/occupywallstreet/occupy-wall-street-official-demands-2009
LIST OF PROPOSED “DEMANDS” FOR CONGRESS
1. CONGRESS PASS HR 1489 (“RETURN TO PRUDENT BANKING ACT” http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h112-1489 ). THIS REINSTATES MANY PROVISIONS OF THE GLASS-STEAGALL ACT. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass–Steagall_Act — Wiki entry summary: The repeal of provisions of the Glass–Steagall Act of 1933 by the Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act in 1999 effectively removed the separation that previously existed between investment banking which issued securities and commercial banks which accepted deposits. The deregulation also removed conflict of interest prohibitions between investment bankers serving as officers of commercial banks. Most economists believe this repeal directly contributed to the severity of the Financial crisis of 2007–2011 by allowing Wall Street investment banking firms to gamble with their depositors’ money that was held in commercial banks owned or created by the investment firms. Here’s detail on repeal in 1999 and how it happened: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass–Steagall_Act#Repeal .
Vote on Demand #1 Here
1. USE CONGRESSIONAL AUTHORITY AND OVERSIGHT TO ENSURE APPROPRIATE FEDERAL AGENCIES FULLY INVESTIGATE AND PROSECUTE THE WALL STREET CRIMINALS who clearly broke the law and helped cause the 2008 financial crisis in the following notable cases: (insert list of the most clear cut criminal actions). There is a pretty broad consensus that there is a clear group of people who got away with millions / billions illegally and haven’t been brought to justice. Boy would this be long overdue and cathartic for millions of Americans. It would also be a shot across the bow for the financial industry. If you watch the solidly researched and awared winning documentary film “Inside Job” that was narrated by Matt Damon (pretty brave Matt!) and do other research, it wouldn’t take long to develop the list.
Vote on Demand #2 Here
2. CONGRESS ENACT LEGISLATION TO PROTECT OUR DEMOCRACY BY REVERSING THE EFFECTS OF THE CITIZENS UNITED SUPREME COURT DECISION which essentially said corporations can spend as much as they want on elections. The result is that corporations can pretty much buy elections. Corporations should be highly limited in ability to contribute to political campaigns no matter what the election and no matter what the form of media. This legislation should also RE-ESTABLISH THE PUBLIC AIRWAVES IN THE U.S. SO THAT POLITICAL CANDIDATES ARE GIVEN EQUAL TIME FOR FREE AT REASONABLE INTERVALS IN DAILY PROGRAMMING DURING CAMPAIGN SEASON. The same should extend to other media.
Vote on Demand #3 Here
3. CONGRESS PASS THE BUFFETT RULE ON FAIR TAXATION SO THE RICH AND CORPORATIONS PAY THEIR FAIR SHARE & CLOSE CORPORATE TAX LOOP HOLES AND ENACT A PROHIBITION ON HIDING FUNDS OFF SHORE. No more GE paying zero or negative taxes. Pass the Buffet Rule on fair taxation so the rich pay their fair share. (If we have a really had a good negotiating position and have the place surrounded, we could actually dial up taxes on millionaires, billionaires and corporations even higher…back to what they once were in the 50′s and 60′s.
Vote on Demand #4 Here
4. CONGRESS COMPLETELY REVAMP THE SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION and staff it at all levels with proven professionals who get the job done protecting the integrity of the marketplace so citizens and investors are both protected. This agency needs a large staff and needs to be well-funded. It’s currently has a joke of a budget and is run by Wall St. insiders who often leave for high ticket cushy jobs with the corporations they were just regulating. Hmmm.
Vote on Demand #5 Here
5. CONGRESS PASS SPECIFIC AND EFFECTIVE LAWS LIMITING THE INFLUENCE OF LOBBYISTS AND ELIMINATING THE PRACTICE OF LOBBYISTS WRITING LEGISLATION THAT ENDS UP ON THE FLOOR OF CONGRESS.
Vote on Demand #6 Here
6. CONGRESS PASSING “Revolving Door Legislation” LEGISLATION ELIMINATING THE ABILITY OF FORMER GOVERNMENT REGULATORS GOING TO WORK FOR CORPORATIONS THAT THEY ONCE REGULATED. So, you don’t get to work at the FDA for five years playing softball with Pfizer and then go to work for Pfizer making $195,000 a year. While they’re at it, Congress should pass specific and effective laws to enforce strict judicial standards of conduct in matters concerning conflicts of interest. So long as judges are culled from the ranks of corporate attorneys the 1% will retain control.
Vote on Demand #7 Here
7. ELIMINATE “PERSONHOOD” LEGAL STATUS FOR CORPORATIONS. The film “The Corporation” has a great section on how corporations won “personhood status”. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SuUzmqBewg . Fast-forward to 2:20. It’ll blow your mind. The 14th amendment was supposed to give equal rights to African Americans. It said you “can’t deprive a person of life, liberty or property without due process of law”. Corporation lawyers wanted corporations to have more power so they basically said “corporations are people.” Amazingly, between 1890 and 1910 there were 307 cases brought before the court under the 14th amendment. 288 of these brought by corporations and only 19 by African Americans. 600,000 people were killed to get rights for people and then judges applied those rights to capital and property while stripping them from people. It’s time to set this straight.
<b>Rhisiart Gwilym on July 30, 2018 · </b>
Great list of chatterati talking points Michael. Have they actually got anywhere? Is there a -still-thriving – widespread popular movement pushing them? I must have missed it, if there is…
<b>Michael Green on July 30, 2018 · </b>
No, they have not gotten anywhere, but try to stay on point. The author’s point was a claim about their demands, not about how effective they were in achieving them.
<b>kinterra on July 30, 2018 · </b>
Friends,
I wouldn’t be too quick to assume that this Economic mess is just going to collapse on its own accord. Tis’ true that the US and therefor the global economy is on the verge of implosion, but this is by design as L445 suggests. Here are a few articles to consider before assuming this is not a planned course to a one world government through the demolition of sovereign economies.
k
(excerpt from last link)
The elites have openly admitted to the public on numerous occasions EXACTLY what they want — namely, the institution of a truly global and centralized economic system revolving around a highly controlled world currency framework and dominated by a select cult of banking oligarchs. Anyone who claims that this is not the goal is either a liar or an uneducated fool.
I have covered the evidence supporting this program many times in the past, but it would seem with the precariously surreal nature of our world today that much needs repeating. In 1988, the financial magazine ‘The Economist’ published an article titled “Get ready for a world currency by 2018,” in which it outlined the framework for a global currency system called the “Phoenix” (a hypothetical title), administered by the International Monetary Fund by the year 2018, which would erase all national economic sovereignty and require governments to borrow from the world central banking authority, rather than print, in order to finance their infrastructure programs. This would mean total control by the IMF over member nations as they beg and plead for more capital under the global currency umbrella.
Francis Lee on July 30, 2018 ·
Nothing can save an empire once the rot sets in.
The process was recognised and recorded by the British soldier Sir John Bagot Glubb (1897-1987), a highly honored British general and historian better known as Glubb Pasha, who wrote about the collapsed empires of the past. In his 1978 book ‘The Fate of Empires’ and the Search for Survival, he described a common pattern fitting the history of some fallen empires. They went through a cycle of stages as they started, expanded, matured, declined and collapsed.
Pasha learned that different empires had similar cultural changes while experiencing a life cycle in a series of stages that could overlap. He generalized about empires having seven stages of development, identifying these successive ages as follows:
1. The age of outburst (or pioneers).
2. The age of conquests.
3. The age of commerce.
4. The age of affluence.
5. The age of intellect.
6. The age of decadence.
7. The age of decline and collapse.
I’d say that the American empire and its vassals were at about stage 6. The notion that a ruling imperial elite can game the system and last forever runs against the whole of historical experience. The British Empire, On which the Sun was never supposed to set, followed the same inexorable logic. How and when the collapse will occur is a matter of conjecture, but the collapse itself – visible on a daily basis – is certain.
jiri on July 30, 2018 ·
Other options for the Empire:
1. Partner with China and/or Russia. If the terms are right either or both will willingly join the Empire at the expense of the rest of the world. China wanted very much to have a bigger say in the Bretton Woods institutions but was rebuffed by the US. A big chunk of Russian is also in favour (the Atlanticists) and will more than gladly join the Empire- with or without Putin.
2. Massive destruction of the global infrastructure and capital to get back to a similar position that the US was in at the end of WW2. We then have a repeat from 1945 onwards.
3. Dismantle the Empire, say sorry to everyone, and work for the betterment of humanity.
BELOW WE REPRODUCE SOME INTERESTING COMMENTS IN THE ORIGINAL THREAD. THESE VOICES, LIKE THE AUTHOR, HOLD ICONOCLASTIC VIEWS, WHICH IS REFRESHING AND RE-INVIGORATING IN OUR CURRENT CLIME OF DECADENCE AND NIHILISM. GIVE THESE PEOPLE THEIR DUE. Larchmonter445 on July 29, 2018 · Very powerful material in support of a wish. The fact that remains key in analyzing the U.S. is the Elites of American Empire are in control of all the levers of Power, especially financial power. Yes, China has Wealth, also. But the daily movement of capital, real and ephemerally digital, is in the hands and minds of the… Read more »
Excellent post.
Agree, yes an amazing bit of writing, I had to pause to print 1/2 through, I wish this site printed out with bigger letters, it prints tiny. Any ideas here ? Many of the criticisms he makes here I have been working out and arguing for the past decade, Gangster Capitalism I like to call it. He puts a lot of things into perspective and clear focus. Will be researching what other things he has written, though perhaps with the length of this thing, once I go over it, he will have said it all ! No magic wand, more… Read more »
Having recently read Lee Camp’s outstanding critique of the US, “American society would collapse if it weren’t for these 8 myths,” I assumed that his article might qualify as this month’s pinnacle of the genre. But “Erratic Empire Downfalling” is superior.
For now, I would like to add only this: Anybody who intelligently quotes Gore Vidal and Aldous Huxley cannot possibly be wrong.