Malcontents & Angels

Malcontents & Angels

Clintonian politics is dead…. Long live President Clinton.

By J.M. Hamilton 6-25-2015

“It was the worst of times, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Darkness, it was the winter of despair, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct(ly to hell).”

Oh, yes, history repeats itself again and again.  Rococo Ages come and they go, and it usually takes a good revolution or two to remind the elites of their place in society:  at their best, semi-benevolent stewards; and at their worst, predatory vampires sucking the economic and political life blood from a nation and its people.  An altogether cynical and cyclical enterprise.

Such irony that the icon of democracy in the late 18^th Century has become the icon of failed economic imperialism in the early 21^st Century.  A national debt that is out of control, a foreign policy that is vacuous, black/off line military budgets, seemingly every document from our government is “classified,” and the bill of rights trashed, by our police/surveillance state, torture, privatized prisons, and the CIA hacking into Senate computers.  (What would cause the elite to install a surveillance state apparatus that would rival a Nazi’s and Stasi’s wildest dream?  Answer:  Fear.  And a deep understanding of the elite’s own subconscious.  The 1% fear having done to them, what they’ve been doing to the 99% for a very long time.)

Indeed, these are dark times.

A President, who campaigned on transparency, and as a bespoke Tribune for the people, turns out to be the plutocracy’s best friend.  By his actions President Obama supports: free trade agreements negotiated behind closed doors (that gut the nation’s middle class, the American dream, and insures corporate autocracy); persecution of whistleblowers and marginalizing the fourth estate; endless support for the Military Industrial and Intelligence Complex (MIIC); wars without end; the suspension of due process with signature drone strikes; and the shredding of the fourth amendment, as mass surveillance assumes everyone is guilty until proven innocent. 

It’s almost like Chancellor Cheney has returned to the White House.  No doubt, the current White House occupant is far more polished, but in substance, a Crypto-Republican (No.  Obamacare does not make President Obama a liberal.  Even George W. Bush expanded drug benefits for seniors under Medicare, Part D ---  a/k/a The Big Pharma Entitlement Act.  The expansion of the welfare state, front loaded for  corporate profits, is a vote purchasing gimmick both political parties utilize, at the expense of fiscal sanity, while providing corporate payback).

Nine decrepit monarchs – all dressed in black - sit in judgment over the nation’s laws, ruling on behalf of corporations and the plutocracy, again and again:  Money equals freedom of speech; corporations are people – except when it’s time to hold them accountable for their crimes; McCutcheon; and Citizens United.  As a result, what was once “we the people’s government,” now purchased and for sale to the highest bidder.  The trials or courtroom proceedings before SCOTUS, and many of the nation’s federal and state courts, are often for show; all too often these nine politicians, and their judicial cadres across the land, have made up their mind before the show trial even gets started (we can see this with the predictability of SCOTUS outcomes/rulings).

Our legislative branch campaigns 24/7/365, and has no interest in governing: a complete abdication of authority and responsibility.  Just show Congress the money, and allow them to demonize The Imperial Presidency… the sound bites play wonderfully back in the district, on FOX news, and on the never-ending campaign trail.  Pathetic.  And worst of all, they sellout themselves, the nation, and the people, on the cheap, day in and day out  - in a form of legalized graft.  Don’t take my opinion for it, let the approval ratings and cash flow speak for themselves.

As for our true rulers, the plutocracy, the gals and guys who have co-opted and purchased our government, not unlike a leveraged buyout, they only care about the bottom line on the second set of books.  If the government goes down, awash in debt, and if the currency gets trashed, as the Fed’s printing presses churn…. That’s okay.  After all, the elites are only living for the next quarterly statement, and the next merger, in the hopes of cashing out.  Could it be that many within the financial aristocracy believe they can hedge their way out of the next financial crisis?  Their instructions to U.S. politicians: Just keep the debt/financial engineered/bubble based economy going; the tax code in our favor; the regulators at bay and underfunded; allow us to merge into monopolies and cartels; and the devil take the hindmost. 

The environment, the rule of law, workers, the poor, aggregate demand and top line growth, captured regulatory bodies, and the U.S. government…. Forget about it!  Best to keep the 99% in a perpetual state of economic malaise and near panic, and like the fear card, it’s just another means of control.

Taken all together (the secrecy; the offline budgets; the mass surveillance; the desire to control not only U.S. citizens, but the world, via the MIC and surveillance; fear mongering by our 24 hour corporate news cycle; abdication of responsibility by the plutocracy to the social contract; back room deals and double-dealing; and two of four branches of government – the Fed and SCOTUS – not democratically elected)… and it all adds up to government by Star Chamber.

Grim stuff. 

Then, when it’s Darkest, we get the occasional heretic, the outlaw, the iconoclast, the bad robot… malcontents…  the individual who gives the elite fever dreams.  One can spot these folks a mile off:  They are not afraid to tell the truth; they often genuinely care about making things better for all of us; derision and scorn are heaped upon these outsiders by the gangsters at the top; like all of us, these whistleblowers, too, are human, but they do not let their humanity hold them back from speaking truth to power (indeed, it often spurs them); and as a result, an example must be made.  The heretic is talked down to, often shunned, sometimes persecuted and vilified, and in some instances, threatened with jail or worse. 

Malcontents? 

I guess it’s a matter of perspective.  To many, these individuals are angels.  They certainly are my heros.  For starters, I may not agree with everything these individuals say, do, or stand for, but the following list provides serious cause for inspiration and praise.

Pope Francis

When was the last time a religious leader took on the world’s power structure?  Pope Francis has been on a tear:  advocacy for the poor; trashing an economic system that preys upon the poor, crony-capitalism; kicking elite and Wall Street bootie; and now the latest, coming out with a climate change encyclical.  The usual suspects, the GOP and the robber barons, who love to thump the Bible when it suits their ends, came down hard against the Pope.  If we are known by the enemies we keep, as well as our friends, than the Pope truly is a righteous dude.  Pope Francis is burning the barrier/firewall that nearly all religious leaders cower behind, between earthly and metaphysical power.  He’s kicking in the door, and you can smell the fear, rolling off Big Oil’s/Big Coal’s/Big Carbon’s collective back.  If the Pope was twenty years, no make that ten years younger, I do believe he’d destroy the current global economic system, and rebuild it in a more effective and egalitarian manner (i.e. a kinder and gentler form of capitalism, mixed in with socialism for the 99%, in lieu of socialism for the plutocrats).  Having said that, Pope Francis is doing an incredible job with the time that we are fortunate enough to have with him. 

Anybody who can make the elite this uncomfortable is, truly, doing God’s work.

Senator Rand Paul

Mr. Paul, like his father before him, has an issue with our government.  Where Mr. Paul and J.M.H. part-company concerns the government’s much needed role in regulating the economy and the “free market.”  Even Adam Smith acknowledged that mercantilist tend to seek out government favor, and consistently, when given the opportunity, venture towards monopoly and cartel.  That’s where the government, ideally, is very much needed:  To protect capitalism from its worst excesses (i.e. monopoly and cartel).  Alas, our crony government has failed in this regard, repeatedly (M&A, consolidation, and combination continue at a record pace under the Obama Administration, and thanks, in large part, to the easy money policies of the Obama Reserve). But where Mr. Paul’s Libertarian stand strikes a harmonious chord, for me anyway, is when he attacks foreign adventures, nation building, the military industrial complex, and the police/surveillance state.  And when he’s on point - look out… Mr. Paul doesn’t mind taking on the U.S. Senate, the President, or the private contractors, who own and operate the MIC.  In fact, his energy level seems to climb, in direct correlation to the animosity directed his way by the warmongers and the aristocracy.  Whether its extrajudicial drone strikes or mass surveillance of Americans, Senator Paul can be counted on to stand up for U.S. citizens, fiscal sanity, and the Constitution.  As for the Senator’s support for a flat tax, and his support for the demise of corporate welfare – via the tax code…. Yes, and yes again! 

Senator Paul is off to a great start and an auspicious career.

Senator Elizabeth Warren

Who makes Jamie Dimon lay awake at night?  My guess is Senator Warren.  Never has there been an advocate for the people, who sees modern day Wall Street for what it truly is:  A cesspool of recidivist malefactors, who rip off their clients, destroy markets, engage in pernicious rent seeking behavior, feed off government largesse and state sponsored welfare (e.g. including but not limited to, the Fed’s printing presses, taxpayer funded bailouts, and the tax code), are a detriment to the nation, a drag on our economy, and a threat to our national security.  We think climate change is bad… take a close look at the denizens in the London financial district, and on the corner of Wall and Broad.  Mr. Dimon says Senator Warren doesn’t understand international finance. 

No Mr. Dimon, Senator Warren understands you and the Street all too well.  After all, her livelihood doesn’t depend upon putting on rose colored glasses every morning, and pretending all is right with the world, after Wall Street almost took out the global economy in 2008, and a London trader cost J.P. Morgan six billion dollars.  The next financial crisis will likely be in sovereign debt.  Trillions in sovereign debt has been created by Central Banksters out of thin air, racked up to bailout the international banking cartel (elitist socialism incarnate).

Today, Senator Warren, and Senator Sanders, set the direction and tone for the Democratic Party, and not a moment too soon.  Clintonian politics is dead… Long live President Clinton.

Edward Snowden

If Mr. Snowden hadn’t laid his life on the line, we’d all still be clueless as to the degree to which the U.S. government hacks our computers and cellphones 24/7/365.  Thanks to Mr. Snowden, and Senator Paul, parts of the Patriot Act were recently repealed, but we have a long way to go.  We are all still under surveillance, now by both the NSA and the phone companies.  As with the privatization of our prison system, the privatization of the surveillance state (the NSA, the FBI, and the CIA), has led to gross abuses, and a violation of our civil liberties.  There’s billions to be made in spying for the U.S. government, and the private sector isn’t going to let those billions slip through their fingers, willingly.  Meanwhile, while Mr. Snowden is threatened with prison and worse, leaders of the surveillance state lie to the Congress with impunity, hack into Senate computers, cry out for greater powers, and indicate serious harm will come, as a result of Mr. Snowden’s revelations.  But as usual, the fearmongers are proven wrong again and again (The fearmongers never point out who the U.S. should truly be worried about:  The angry, racist, white American with the Y chromosome, armed to the teeth by the NRA’s worst excesses). 

Mr. Snowden has already been nominated for a Nobel prize; personally, I would like to see him exonerated of all charges, return to our fair shores, and run for the nation’s highest office.

Nancy Pelosi

As a former life long Republican, and a recovering one at that, I thought hell would freeze over before I would ever write a word of praise for Representative Pelosi.  Satan can relax… it will be warm and toasty in hell for a good long while yet, because Ms. Pelosi, along with the House and Senate GOP, decided to support Obamatrade, after all.  This week, Ms. Pelosi, true to form, backpedaled and retreated, sided against the American worker and the U.S. economy, and pandered instead to global oligarchs and multinational interests with TPP fast track passage.  It’s not surprising; it’s this same crew who buys Representative Pelosi’s ticket to office.

At least she’s consistent.

The Fourth Estate

My apologies in advance if I haven’t named them all, but these are the institutions who help take a bite out of the plutocracy’s crime wave on a daily basis:  The New York Times; The New Yorker; The Washington Post; Slate; Salon; The Nation; The Huffington Post; The Guardian; Spiegel; Bloomberg; Barron’s; Marketwatch; Project Syndicate; VOXEU.org; Reuters; Politico; John Stewart; Katrina vandenHeuvel; John Oliver; Tom Keene; Doctors Nouriel Roubini & Joesph Stiglitz; Twitter; Blogger; and Bill Maher.  Without you and many other brave journalist, free thinkers, techies, economist, scribes, and bloggers, this nation would be lost.

Due to these malcontents and angels: “It was the best of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the epoch of belief, it was the season of Light, it was the spring of hope, and we had everything before us.”

Mr. Dickens once wrote those lines, combined with the lead paragraph of this piece, to start off a book on the French Revolution.  There’s a quiet revolution going on in America today.  After a thirty-five year run of right wing fairy tales, the war of ideas is being won on the left and by libertarians; the plutocracy and Wall Street have proved that socialism works quite well, for themselves, and that crony capitalism is an abject failure, except for the 1%.

America’s greatness lies not in its past, but with our vast potential…. A potential that 1% of the population has attempted and succeeded in capturing for themselves. 

It’s time to turn that around.

Viva le American Revolution.

Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2015

The Emperor is Buck Naked…

The Emperor is Buck Naked…

The Brookings Institution is a nonprofit public policy organization based in Washington, DC. Our mission is to conduct high-quality, independent research and, based on that research, to provide innovative, practical recommendations that advance three broad goals:

• Strengthen American democracy;
• Foster the economic and social welfare, security and opportunity of all Americans; and
• Secure a more open, safe, prosperous and cooperative international system.

- Mission of the Brookings Institution

By J.M. Hamilton  6-12-2015

Wage and wealth inequality have become hot button issues for both political parties, leading up to the 2016 race.  Aside from free trade agreements, and trickle down tax policies, trickle down monetary policy (i.e. flooding the markets with highly inexpensive debt/liquidity) – from Reagan/Greenspan forward – has become one of the largest single contributors to rising U.S. wage and wealth inequality.  To such extent that the former Fed Chairman, Mr. Bernanke, felt compelled to write about it, w/in his Brookings Institute blog.  The former Chairman notes:

The claim that Fed policy has worsened inequality usually begins with the (correct) observation that monetary easing works in part by raising asset prices, like stock prices. As the rich own more assets than the poor and middle class, the reasoning goes, the Fed's policies are increasing the already large disparities of wealth in the United States.

From there, however, Mr. Bernanke goes onto disassemble, rationalize, and provide excuses for the continuation the very monetary policies that have helped crush the middle class, led to divergent economies (Wall Street uber alles, at the expense of Main Street and manufacturing), and has stolen from middle class and retirees savings accounts – and transferred interest income to those least in need, the Wall Street banks, shadow banking, and private equity robber barons.  But don’t take my word for it… Fed officials have gone so far as to engage in charity work, out of recognition that Federal Reserve policy has magnified and amplified inequality.  

In the end, Mr. Bernanke says further study on monetary policy’s impact on inequality is needed, and, either way, Fed monetary policy should not be influenced by inequality.

Monetary policy is a blunt tool which certainly affects the distribution of income and wealth, although whether the net effect is to increase or reduce inequality is not clear. More research will be needed to untangle and measure the many channels through which these effects are transmitted. But the (uncertain) distributional impact of monetary policy should not prevent the Fed from pursuing its mandate to achieve maximum employment and price stability, thereby providing broad benefits to the economy.

Written like a man in the pay of two hedge funds, and on the Wall Street speaking circuit. 

There is perhaps limited, or little, doubt that monetary policy that magnifies wealth inequality, and wage inequality, is a direct threat to one half of the Fed’s, alleged, mandate: Maximum Employment.  The reality is the Fed’s true mandate is to be a highly useful tool for Wall Street profits, and the speculative/moneyed class.

The Feds easy money policies have fueled financial engineering, M&A, Wall Street speculation, private equity chop shops, and formation of monopolies and cartels:  All well known for their employment killing capabilities.  Nothing quite makes a stock analyst drool like M&A activity, and the words “synergy,” and “cost savings.”   Synergy and cost savings at the expense of labor and a living wage, crushes the American Dream for the 99%.  Synergy and cost savings (i.e. job cuts) are financed by a fire hose of Fed liquidity.

That Mr. Bernanke’s monetary policies, by his own admission, work at cross-purposes with the Brooking Institute’s mission…  well, surely, the irony is lost on no one.  In addition, growing wealth inequality, thanks to Fed largesse, is often used to subvert our democracy.

J.M. Hamilton has absolutely nothing against wealth or striving to do better.  It’s the American way.  The manner in which wealth is accumulated is another story.  If wealth is obtained by inventing, say a lifesaving drug, than more power to you and the millions, perhaps billions, that follow.   But if billions are accumulated through: monopoly power afforded by the government; a rigged taxed code; monetary policy run amok – leading to massive financial engineering and layoffs; withholding supply on a drug/product with inelastic demand (so as to jack up the price); obtaining free trade agreement advantages behind closed doors; and regulatory capture – in short, the crony economy (aka rent seeking behavior/aka strategies employed by the elite and Big Pharma on a daily basis) – well, there are very few citizens in favor of this path to financial success.

Unfortunately, financial engineering, M&A, and consolidation/combination within entire industries – fueled by the Fed’s/Central bankster’s easy money policies – have become the easiest means by which to obtain wealth (for an elite few).  All at the expense of Main Street, the middle and poorer classes, and United States’ fiscal health.

But let’s give the devil his due:  Congratulations, Mr. Bernanke, you just completed Step One of the Twelve-Step program, admitting the Federal Reserve has a problem.  Only eleven more steps to go. 

Our Corporate run news media is replete with stories where the wealthy have “done well,” and donated large sums to charities and educational institutions that are often, already wealthy beyond measure. 

One gets the feeling from these news stories/puff pieces that we are to acknowledge and show our gratitude to the robber barons for their generosity.  

But at what price to society, our nation, and our children, comes such generosity? 

One recent notable gift was from Hedge Fund operator, Mr. John Paulson.  The same Mr. Paulson, who donated $400 million to Harvard, and the same Mr. Paulson who was caught up in a scam with Goldman $achs, during the heart of the financial crisis.  In a deal known as ABACUS , Mr. Paulson rigged the deck, or a cache of CDOs/MBS at the residential market peak, and shorted same through a synthetic derivative product created by Goldman.  The deal is said to have netted Mr. Paulson a cool billion, and cost the unwitting counterparties same.  Goldman $achs later paid a half billion dollar fine for its role in the matter… just another cost of doing business (backstopped by the American taxpayer).

Mr. Warren Buffet was recently in the news for donating billions to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; Mr. Buffet, of course, is known for running Berkshire Hathaway, and is one of the wealthiest men in America.  He also has come out against a minimum wage increase, at a time when we have a considerable number of working poor in America (who are so underpaid that they are dependent upon the state in order to exist). 

Now, Mr. Buffet’s refusal, along with other major business owners and management teams, to pay a living wage means that Berkshire’s bottom line, or profits, receives a direct subsidy from our government, every time state and federal authorities step in and provide assistance to the working poor (i.e. underpaid workers).  But the subsidy to Mr. Buffett’s profits doesn’t stop there, because many of Berkshire’s businesses, perhaps all, pay at a tax rate (if any taxes are paid at all) considerably well below what Mr. and Mrs. John Q. Middleamerica pay.  That is to say, the remnants of the middle class - Mr. Buffet is busy shorting - often pay at a considerably higher tax rate in order to make up for the revenue shortfall that Berkshire Hathaway, and other elites, dodge paying. 

Mr. Buffett has acknowledged as much.

The government in turn, is overburdened with the working poor, and Berkshire’s, et al., refusal to pay taxes at an equitable rate.  Meanwhile, Berkshire becomes exceptionally wealthy, via: M&A; the formation of monopolies, oligopolies, and cartels, within its portfolio; and through gambling in derivatives and swaps products (much of this financed by the Fed’s easy money policies, and a derivatives and swaps market backstopped by the government).  As a result, Berkshire’s economic, and therefore political, power grows exponentially.  The 99% often live from paycheck to paycheck, and the 1% take home nearly all the nation’s income and accumulate the nation’s wealth, disproportionately.

When Mr. Buffett, or other plutocrats, donate to charities (or purchase the Magna Carta), from profits raised on the backs of the working poor, or by exploiting the tax system, or via monopolistic pricing power (all at the expense of the nation)…. We are supposed to applaud, and yell out enthusiastically, “Three Cheers!”

Meanwhile, nearly one in four American children are born into poverty.  

The former Fed Chair says monetary policy is a blunt tool.   Au contraire… J.M.H., while acknowledging the bluntness of the instrument for the 99%, has also come to believe monetary policy is a very surgical tool, that enriches less than one percent of the population with finite precision.

The Brookings Institute should be appalled.

P.S.

Two out of four branches of government, possibly the branches with the greatest amount of power, The Federal Reserve and SCOTUS, are run by politicians, who are not democratically elected.  For the sake of America and her economy, it’s time to bring democracy/pluralism to the Fed and SCOTUS.

Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2015