Capitalism

Oh for some commies and populists in Congress

Capitalism, Life under Capitalism, US politics
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Trollblog looks wistfully back at the Congressional elections of ’36:

We’re headed into The Second Great Depression. Almost no one in our present political establishment has any clue as to what’s happening or what to do about it. Most of them are bought and paid for, and the vast majority are jellified lackeys who are incapable of any initiative on a topic more substantial than earmarks and constituent service.

Our political elite is offering us two choices. Obama, Summers, and the machine Democrats propose that we give finance almost everything it asks for, wait for things somehow to get better, and start thinking about squeezing the money out of Social Security and “entitlements” somewhere down the line. Meanwhile the Republicans and Blue Dogs are hoping for Obama to fail so that they can take over and institute “Hooverist” austerity measures immediately. (These are really Mellonist measures: Liquidate labor, liquidate stocks, liquidate the farmers, liquidate real estate…. purge the rottenness.)

You’re asking yourself: “Does Emerson really believe that a Communist or a thuggish populist demagogue would better serve the American people than the actual Congressman I do have?”

Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying. 10-to-1 your Congressman is worthless.

What I see locally is that even most of the supposed leftists have internalised the neoliberal consensus of the past thirty years regardless of whether they agree with or not, hence now this consensus reality is shown to be false they’re clueless what to do. The same people who bought into privatisation are still in power and they’re fundamentally unable to solve this crisis because they cannot think outside of this outmoded consensus.

Capital, it fails us now

Capitalism, Economy, Life under Capitalism, Video
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This crisis has been a real eye opener, hasn’t it, in that it made visible how much of the world economy was based on credit driven overconsumption, both on a consumer level as in the more rarified air of Wall Street. Ever since “communism” was “defeated” we’ve forgotten how wasteful capitalism is. we’ve been conned into believing there was no alternative, that we could not control its dexstructive tendencies and at best we could hope to only migitate some of its worst excesses, but that ultimately we were locked in a race to the bottom that would however somehow bring us untold riches someday, if we followed the rules of the free market. The fall of the Berlin Wall spelled the death knell for the perverted version of “communism” practised in the USSR, could this recession bring the same for thriumphant capitalism?

Because one thing is certain. We do have the resources, the abibilty and the ingenuity to make everybody in the world rich without destroying the planet and without engaging in the danc eof mutal assured destruction that is free market capitalism. But it would mean the end of the priviledged classes and they’ve never given up their power without struggle. One good suggestion to start the struggle comes from Ian Welsh, on how to stop the obscene bonuses and salaries managers and CEOS have awarded themselves over the years:

The simplest thing is to just count all income equally, tax it all at the same rate, don’t allow deductions beyond a ertain level (50K or so) and tax all income above, say 1 million at 90%, 95% for all income above 5 million. Don’t allow too much income deferral and there you go. Slap on some “in kind” rules for corporations (yes, if your corporation pays for your car, that’s salary) and while there will always be loopholes, you’ll still rein in the worst excesses.

This of course presupposes a government anywhere in the western world on the side of the workers, rather than the rich, which might be a problem…

Schadenfreude part 2

Capitalism, Economy, Life under Capitalism
Published on 1 Comment on Schadenfreude part 2

The Moustache of Understanding is frantically calling on Obama to save the economy. As is expected of Friedman what he urges Obama to do is inane –apparantely Obama needs to be a true leader and urge the American public to “go shopping” to save the economy, the idea that people without a house, car or job not quite being in a position to restart the global economy by buying more Christmas presents not yet having penetrated his thick skull — but there is an extra franctic tone to his appeal. I wonder why:

That’s because the author’s wife, Ann (née Bucksbaum), is an heir to the General Growth fortune. In the past year, the couple—who live in an 11,400-square-foot mansion in Bethesda, Maryland—have watched helplessly as General Growth stock has fallen 99 percent, from a high of $51 to a recent 35 cents a share. The assorted Bucksbaum family trusts, once worth a combined $3.6 billion, are now worth less than $25 million.

Ah.

No wonder the guru of neo-liberal globalisme, the arselicker of the new world order, is now reduced to stupid pleas for someone, anyone to save him.

The RBS greenwash cheatsheet

Capitalism, Climate change, Life under Capitalism
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via The Daily Maybe comes this RBS cheatsheet for dealing with environmentalists. Click on the image to get a larger, readable version.


RBS cheatsheet

It shows that if RBS isn’t taking climate change and everything that entails seriously on its own terms, at least it does so for PR reasons. Environmental awareness is after all at an all-time high, the public is concerned and worried, therefore business has to pay attention. But whether it’s genuine concern or just a greenwash?

We’ve seen this before. During the late eighties and early nineties there was a similar hight tide of environmental concern, which was quickly spent when business went on a counter offensive to poo-pooh the dangers. The endresult was two decades of denial and two decades of not dealing with the same problems we’re confronted with today.

Comment of The Day

Capitalism, Comment of the Day, Corruption, Life under Capitalism
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Bedmi graffiti

Blimey, this bank crash is making people eloquent. This comment to Deborah Hargreaves’ Guardian post calling for the heads of bank bosses got 60-odd recommends in a couple of hours in the middle of the night.

I think the average Guardian reader’s a just a little bit angry at the banks:

BedmiAndrew

Oct 10 08, 12:40am (about 7 hours ago)

In another article, it has been warned that hedge fund managers and the like will just move to “high-paying Mumbai and Shanghai”. You know what? Read on:

Those of you wealthy people who think you can threaten to take your “expertise” abroad, go. Leave. Get the hell out. We’ll strip you of your passport and you’ll never come back. People are sick of the wealthy threatening to leave at any sign that they might actually have to pay their fair share. Some might consider this anti-social behaviour. If you cannot survive on what everyone else survives on, if you think that the unfettered amassing of wealth is a “good thing” then fuck right off and go.

And good riddance be to you, you social-darwinist deviant

What could I possibly add to that?

UPDATE:

Someone followed up:

Domovoy07, Oct 10 08, 3:52am (about 3 hours ago)

I am really disappointed. CiF is not supposed to be a place for hate speech. I know bankers and bankers. Some of them are now on a very difficult animic moment, deeply lost in a soul-searching process that can be personally devastating.

Good. They bloody well should be.