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Sunday, October 23, 2011

3 Common Myths of Capitalism

2 comments:

Nalliah said...

Modern day bank robbers are at Wall Street but they wear suits and not masks. Speculators, propagandists and financiers of Wall Street are given some unfair advantage over the average consumers and taxpayers and the cumulative effect of the people watching selfishness prevail over the public interest has been an undermining of the public’s trust in the present US government. There’s no question the Wall Street is rigged against the average consumers and taxpayers. The Wall Street has a lot more information. Wall Street jerry-rig the system so that Wall Street always win. Oligarchy is the political power based on economic power. And it’s the rise of the Wall Street in economic terms, that it’d turn into political power. And Wall Street then feed that back into more deregulation, more opportunities to go out and take reckless risks and capture trillions of dollars. The democracy was not given to the people on a platter. It is not theirs for all time, irrespective of their efforts. Either people organize and they find political leadership to take this on, or they are going to be in deep trouble. The heads of Wall Street or their representatives will not come out and debate since they’re afraid because they don’t have the substance or the arguments. Wall Street only has the lobbyists. Capitalism is a confidence trick, a dazzling edifice built on paper promises, gambling, bets and speculation. Wall Street doesn’t make or produce anything. The Wall Street however attractive it may appear is built on paper. Wall Street only gambles and bets and speculates. And when Wall Street loses trillions, the US Treasury will bail the Wall Street out so it can go back and do it again. 50 trillion dollars in global wealth was erased between September 2007 and March 2009, including 7 trillion dollars in the US stock market, 6 trillion dollars in the housing market, 8 trillion dollars in retirement and household wealth, 2 trillion dollars in individual retirement accounts, 2 trillion dollars in traditional defined benefit plans and 3 trillion dollars in nonpension assets. There are trillions dollars of new money taken again from Americans to make deals and hand out outrageous bonuses. And when these trillions run out Wall Street will come back for more until the dollar becomes junk. The value of the US dollar declined very significantly during the last 70 years. The value of the US dollar in 1940 was worth 2,000% more than the value of the US dollar now. The top 6 US banks had assets of less than one fifth of US GDP in 1995. Now they have two third of US GDP. The financial crisis was created by the biggest US banks to consolidate power. The big banks became stronger as a result of the bailout by the US Treasury. The big banks are turning that increased economic clout into more political power. The political and economical leadership of the US has chosed to cartel profits and transformed the US economy to serve the colluding and unlawful oligarchy. The US banks are borrowing money at near zero interest from the US government, then lending it back to the US government at even mere fractions higher interest than they are paying. The net interest margin made by the US banks by lending the money back to the US federal government in the first 6 months of 2011 is 210 billion dollars. Due to the oligarchs’ rapacious looting and their purchase of a politically protected luxurious lifestyle, the people are on the road to permanent serfdom under a police state.

-- Nalliah Thayabharan

National Sponsor said...

Thanks for the comment Nalliah.

I want to make two main points and then some random, points.

While Wall Street does not produce anything. It really does enable the making of things. If companies can not get the financing to makes goods, there are no goods. This is not a trick, this is a fact of matter.

The banks are not the problem, it is the governmental/bank connection, where-in the lobby to run roughshod through the system. If they were operating without governmental help, they would not be taking the risks that they are taking.
There certainly needs to be a larger separation of corporations and government.

The problem is that the US government has been subsidizing lenders, allowing them to take on a higher level of risk then they would without governmental interference.

The governmental policy have it's roots under Carter, but has come more pervasive certainly as time has passed.

This may have been a consistent lobbying effort.

But by the way, Wells Fargo is the largest retail bank in terms of market capitalization, but is the 16th largest company in the country. Assets are not a big issue. The only way to lower their assets is to give consumers choices, which means that we would need to deregulate to make it easier for small and regional banks to compete and offer better programs.

Capitalism is the most efficient economy system that can be had. As Miron states, we do not have a free capitalistic system. If we did, the markets would take care of themselves.