Four More Years & the Audacity of Fear…

Four More Years & the Audacity of Fear…

There are those that look at things the way they are, and ask, “Why?”  I dream of things that never were, and ask, “Why not?” 

 -Robert Kennedy, by way of George Bernard Shaw

By J.M. Hamilton (2-23-2016)

What does it say when the majority of Democrats & Independents -voting in Democratic primaries - trust Senator Sanders by a 75% margin, or greater, over front runner Madame Hillary Clinton?  Again and again, in poll after poll, nobody trusts Hillary.  When it comes to honesty and truth, she even falls below the GOP field. 

How low can one go?  How low indeed.

But what’s worse?  Candidate Clinton, or the voters who turn out for her, based upon the fear that they’ll never get another opportunity to vote for another woman candidate?  Or voters who turn out for Ms. Clinton based upon the fear that she’s more electable, despite having no fewer than three investigations swirling around her campaign (and despite the fact, Hillary consistently fairs worse in polling against the GOP field, than Senator Sanders)? 

Trust me, this is the just the tip of the iceberg…. Because as anybody who lived through the 90s as a sentient adult knows, the Clintons are perennially under investigation.  Investigations will follow her, and descend upon her, IF she enters the White House and the nation will suffer for it.  By the end of Mr. Clinton’s second term, the nation breathed a collective sigh of relief that the Clintons were finally leaving town, but not before they attempted to steal everything that wasn’t nailed down at the White House.

Never mind that Ms. Clinton has co-opted Senator Sanders’ campaign speech, and in the same breath has the insincerity to say that the Senator is a single issue candidate and his proposal(s) are unachievable. 

Disingenuous?  Cynical?  No - Clintonian politics, per the usual.

Never mind that Mr. and Mrs. Clinton’s have done untold damages to Black Americans by supporting NAFTA and criminal penalties that shipped jobs offshore and incarcerated Black Americans in record numbers, respectively.  Forget that the Clintons gutted the safety net that so many Americans depend upon.  Avert your eyes as Hillary promises to double-down on the Obama years.  President Obama, who even now, threatens to export more U.S. jobs offshore with free trade agreements in Asia and in Europe.

What a wonderful way to create a base for the Democratic party:  Export all the jobs offshore, and keep citizens cowed and dependent upon the state.   The audacity of hope? 

No.  Wrong.  This is the audacity of fear.

Despite having co-opted Senator Sanders’ populist drive (or what Clinton insiders call triangulation), the Clintons say the Senator is a dreamer, and that we should preserve the establishment that has set this nation ablaze.  How perfectly self-serving, because the Clintons define the establishment.  The crony back room deals, the indentured servitude of the 99% to the billionaire class & Wall St., and above all the politics of fear.  Here’s a candidate who depends upon the working class and the poor to get elected, and then acts in ways that are completely inimical to their interests; we expect that from GOP candidates, and perhaps that’s why Ms. Clinton is GOP-Lite.

There’s no irony here at all folks… one of Hillary’s primary arguments against Senator Sanders is to play the fear card, and scream that all will be lost, if she – and only she – is not elected to the nation’s highest office: civil rights, gay marriage, reproductive rights, and Obamacare. 

All will be lost, if we do not elect, deus ex machina, Hillary Clinton.

Who else plays the fear card?  In fact, who plays it better than anyone else, and has in fact abused it with Southern Whites, since Richard Nixon?   That’s right, the Republican Party, the Party of Fear.  The Clintons are tearing a page right out of the GOP machine’s playbook.  This is nothing new, the Clinton’s have been tearing pages out of the GOP playbook for some time: pandering to the MIC and the surveillance state; cutting the social safety net; the aforementioned support for free trade and the criminal justice industrial complex; and pandering to Wall Street, which destroyed the U.S. economy and played no small role in bankrupting the U.S.

Hillary, on one level is correct.  We should be afraid, very afraid… of her, and her candidacy.  If she is nominated, all her populist speeches will likely end within a matter of hours, and she will pivot and turn hard right to take on whatever Republican challenger she may face in the Fall…. Just like Bill did in ’96, when he hired arch, right-wing, Senator Jesse Helms’ campaign advisor, Dick Morris.

Of course, not everybody is afraid.  The Nation’s youth aren’t afraid, who flock to Senator Sanders in droves.  Hispanics in Nevada are not afraid, who turned out for Senator Sanders by a greater than 7% margin.  And independent voters – who absolutely love Senator Sanders – are clearly not afraid.  There’s two classes of voters, however, who are afraid, very afraid, and are buying into Hillary’s fear campaign.

The Elderly and Black Americans. 

It goes w/out saying that the elderly - the least educated Americans, demographically – are clinging to their Social Security and Medicare, like Republicans cling to their guns and Bibles.  They don’t want change, and they sure as hell don’t want a political revolution; they just want to be left alone.  As group, the elderly and older baby-boomers (aka The Me Generation), many are huge Hillary supporters.  Incremental change, glacial change, it’s all good… just don’t screw with their AARP, Metamucil, or government benefits.  Given the Clinton’s track record in the 90s of gutting government aid for the poorest of Americans, seniors are the ones that should be the most worried about the entitlements that make up more than 50% of the Federal budget. 

The Establishment and the wealthy have been trying to privatize and reduce these programs, Social Security & Medicare, for decades, and if anyone can do it, it’s the Clintons (who seemingly can never do enough for their friends in high places – while giving those in need the shaft).  Clintonian policies from the 90s have played a highly significant role in the wage and wealth inequality chasm, that gapes like the Grand Canyon in this country today.

As for Black Americans, the only other group that hasn’t turned out for Senator Sanders so far, they have every reason to be afraid.  This group has been systematically beaten down in this country for centuries:  slavery; Jim Crow; segregation; voter repression laws; mass incarceration; inhuman experiments conducted by the Federal government; systemic bigotry and racism; the CIA standing by, while crack cocaine was introduced into the black community in Southern California in the mid-eighties; gunned down by the local P.D., and on and on.  Black Americans, more than any other Americans, have every reason to be afraid.

Voting for the Democratic candidate, who has a proven track record of discarding the poor and underprivileged, while helping out their rich buddies, a la the Clintons, seemingly, is not the way to go.

And that’s what it means to be beaten down so hard that you no longer dare to dream, dare to hope.  One puts their blinders on, forgets about their dreams and desires, and lives a pain filled existence.  Even when one of your own enters the White House, and he’s still catering to the wealthy elite, by shipping America’s jobs offshore (so that Obama’s wealthy supporters can grow richer still).  Instead, presumably, one buys into Hillary’s fear, clings to food stamps, and lives hand to mouth, with low expectations and fewer dreams.

The audacity of fear, served up against Black Americans daily; and cynically manipulated by the Clintons, who have again and again acted against the interests of Black citizens.

America can’t afford four more years of President Obama’s Administration that Hillary Clinton is offering up.  The nation is bankrupt.  The Wall Street and the financial elite bailed out on the backs of the middle class and the poor, and the elite scream for austerity for everyone else.  A Deep State, the MIC and a Surveillance State, that is completely out of control.   A government that has been privatized, and controlled by an Oligarchy.  Endless foreign wars… a GOP Congress that is owned and obstructs all forms of progress, as a matter of policy, and is addicted to trickle-down economics.  A Wall Street cartel, indeed a nation of cartels, which squeezes the poor and the middle class with monopolistic pricing power.  And a Federal Reserve that prints money to keep the nation afloat, and finance tax cuts for the wealthy.

To be fair, President Obama didn’t start these trends, but he hasn’t done enough to fight this descent into hell, either.

This nation has been eviscerated by the likes of the Clintons, their elite supporters, and the politics of fear.  President Obama, while sometimes almost imperceptibly skewing liberal, has all too often played a role in extending Clintonian/GOP policies.

Senator Sanders offers more than hope, he offers real change.  His odds of getting his proposals through Congress are no greater, and certainly no less, than Hillary’s; but at least we know he will fight for the American people, in a honest and truthful manner.  (The Clintons will throw in w/ the GOP, and call it progress.  It says volumes when plutocrat, Charles Koch, begins to ape Senator Sanders' campaign message.)

However, in order to achieve the White House, and for the good of the nation, the Senator is going to have to stop being a gentlemen and start being a politician.  

No more soft shoe, Senator.  It’s time to tap dance on Hillary and the Democratic Establishment, Bronx style.

It’s time to end the audacity, and Hillary's campaign, of fear and repression.

Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2016

Stop the Federal Reserve Charade…

Stop the Federal Reserve Charade…

Fischer: "There is not a lot of chance that monetary policy will fix inequality.”  Says education, state, local govt. etc. have that role.

Posted on Twitter: 2-1-2016  

-  Vonnie Quinn ‏@VonnieQuinn of Bloomberg News

By J.M. Hamilton  (2-16-2016)

Some have argued the greatest lie ever told was Satan’s ability to convince the world that he did not exist.  If that’s so, the second greatest lie ever told was that the Federal Reserve’s (aka the Fed’s) mandate includes maximum employment.  Perhaps, the third greatest lie is that the Federal Reserve mitigates boom/bust cycles, and is often unaware of its role in bubble formation within the economy. 

As this blog has pointed out before, the Federal Reserve really serves two masters, the Wall Street banks, and the stock market.   Everything else is white noise.   A few years ago in acknowledgement of its failure to help everyday Americans, Fed members began donating to charities.   The estimable Vonnie Quinn (a Bloomberg news anchor), again, punctured the Fed’s dual mandate façade with a tweet quoting Mr. Stanley Fischer, the number two man at the Federal Reserve.

In the lead quote above, Mr. Fischer basically, acknowledges the obvious:  that monetary policy cannot fix the key economic problem of our times, (wage & wealth) inequality.  In fact, quite the opposite – as presently conducted – the Fed, and global Central Banks, are responsible for a tremendous amount of the wage & wealth inequality in the world.  The Fed by gunning the printing presses, post 2008 Crash, inflated asset prices and the stock market to extraordinary levels, and bailed out the Wall Street banking cartel and the establishment, via quantitative easing, interest rate suppression, transfering toxic assets onto public balance sheets, and a variety of other programs.  The rich grew wealthier, the middle class continued its downward spiral, and the poor became poorer.  And corporate America and multinational C-Suites… well they grew fat through financial engineering, not the least of which includes M&A activity, stock buybacks, and labor cuts.   Financial engineering was financed by the Fed, at record low interest rates.

Perhaps that too, belongs up their in the pantheon of Federal Reserve lies:  The Fed’s extraordinary actions, starting in 2008, were supposed to be temporary in nature; and in essence, were required to provide short term liquidity (aka bailouts) to markets, and a window of opportunity for businesses and individuals to pay down their debt.  Imagine Fed watchers and the business communities surprise when Bloomberg recently published a piece warning of a $29 trillion corporate debt bubble.  A bubble that didn’t go to finance higher employment, higher worker wages, CAPEX, or R&D… no, but a bubble that financed job killing M&A, the formation of opportunity crushing cartels and monopolies, and stock buybacks that merely boost EPS, ROE, and CEO pay.  Buybacks are now so ubiquitous that Bloomberg, via Goldman Sachs, reports that they make up 20% of all trading.

Which goes to my central point, the Fed doesn’t help the American public or the jobs market, instead it holds it back.  Financed by the Fed, M&A kills employment opportunity… and consolidation leads to layoffs, an employer’s job market, and lower pay (factor in globalization, automation, and evolving A.I. and you have a perfect storm against the 99%).  Interest rate suppression, robs retirees, pension funds, mutual funds, and investors of normal market yields and income (yet, one more hit to aggregate demand), and hands it over to the banks, in yet another bailout.  As for the Fed’s stated dual mandate: Rest in peace.

Yet another problem the Fed created in papering over the crisis with a mountain of debt and debt monetization …  both, Republicans and Dems, were let off the hook and not held accountable for their role in the crisis.  Major structural impediments within the economy, such the aforementioned cartels & monopolies, were not addressed (e.g. the Wall Street banking cartel).

So that’s at least four strikes against the Fed:  It aggravates wage & wealth inequality; the Fed creates bubbles and amplifies the boom/bust cycle; America’s Central Bank kills jobs and opportunity by providing highly inexpensive debt for financial engineering and M&A; and it lets our elected officials off the hook, from making hard fiscal and structural economic decisions.

All so that the Establishment can grow richer, Wall St continues its campaign of fraud & graft, and a ginned up stock market can soar. 

Thank you, Henry, Ben, Timmy, and Janet!  (And some wonder why Senator Sanders is in his ascendancy, and giving the Wall Street loving Clintons a run for their money.)

Had the Fed not bailed out the usual suspects, had the establishment landed on its @$$ in 2008, and Wall Street been allowed to fail…. There would have been real financial reform, real structural change, and real jail time for the CEO’s involved.  Without the Fed’s fire hose of liquidity and debt, business leaders would have had to earn income the old fashioned way, through top line growth and the creation of new businesses to compete against our cartel dominated economy (which means labor/the consumer and aggregate demand – aka 70% of the U.S. economy – would have finally, gotten the attention it justly deserves).

Instead, here and now, we are potentially faced with 2008 all over again.   Investors in search of yield loaded up on Co-Cos and junk debt w/ artificially low yields; a derivatives and swaps market that is grossly under-collateralized and remains backstopped by the American taxpayer, still exists and is as dangerous as ever; a Wall Street cartel that is more concentrated and presents an even greater risk management nightmare; and a corporate America that is loaded up to the gills on debt and debt service payments, that could prove crippling if interest rates rise and/or there’s a recession.

History repeats itself, again and again.

And now… are you ready for this, here comes the punch line, the newest financial craze:  Negative yields.  Brought to you by Central Banks around the globe and coming soon….  Yes, my crystal ball says, possibly, coming to America.  Bloomberg reports $7 trillion in government debt at negative yields, globally, is presently in circulation. The concept is simple, the Bank of Japan and other Central Banks, hope that negative yields will force banksters to stop hoarding reserves in, relatively speaking, risk free government debt, and instead loan the money out to businesses, entrepreneurs, and/or take greater risk through alternative financial instruments.

But what negative yields really amount to is yet another backdoor bailout for banks, who recklessly lent money – hand over fist – for corporate M&A, financial engineering, and went long on the oil patch.   There’s that $29 trillion corporate debt hangover, Bloomberg recently mentioned.  Central Banks, and possibly the Fed, may be preemptively attempting to head off the next financial crisis in advance - by running to negative yields.  Much commercial lending is a point or two above LIBOR or some other Central Bank benchmark.   If these benchmark rates sink into negative territory, by the hand of central banksters, the commercial lending rates – or service load on the $29 trillion  - will sink with those benchmarks.  Hence, possibly dissolving, or mitigating, yet another debt bubble created by Central Banks, globally. 

Don’t forget swaps and derivatives, w/ hundreds of trillions in notional value, utilized as insurance and mostly as gambling instruments, are also heavily tied to this corporate debt and wagers in stock indexes.  If the $29 trillion in corporate debt heads south, we could see a calamity unfold in the swaps and derivatives market…. A cascading effect, if you will.  An effect that would prove that Dodd Frank as a regulatory tool, written by Wall Street banks (and subsequently stripped down by Wall Street banks), is a complete and absolute failure.

What’s that?  Doubt that the Federal Reserve will go to negative yields?  My rebuttal to that is that Janet & Co. has already asked Wall Street banks to prepare for a stress test involving negative yields.  What does the Fed know that we don’t know, and why has it asked Wall Street banks to prepare for a negative yield scenario?

(Negative yields would not be entirely bad.  With less free interest income from the Fed, Wall Street banks’ earnings would suffer.  With lower ROE and EPS, investors might finally insist upon what our crony government failed to do, and that is break up the Wall Street banking cartel.  Negative yields also means that the Federal government’s debt service load would evaporate on that portion of the debt financed by treasuries sold at negative interest rates; in the long run, negative yields mean more Federal spending, hopefully, to rebuild our infrastructure and to finance free education for our youth, instead of going to debt service payments.  Honestly, there are several positives associated with negative yields, IF channeled correctly.)

Of course, negative yields will harm the American people, namely: savers, pension funds, mutual funds, retirees, and insurance companies (who sometimes rely upon yield to keep insurance rates low and contained).  At negative yields, many Americans and institutions would flee to quality blue chip stocks, and precious metals…. Which conveniently, is whom the Fed really serves, the stock market.  With an election on the horizon, it’s important for the Fed to attempt to juice the markets one more time.  Alas, negative rates maybe too little too late:  China’s debt to GDP ratio is at basket case proportions; emerging markets are in the doldrums with slack demand and excess capacity in the commodities markets; the oil patch that generally generates obscene profits (global bourses are addicted to monopolistic profits) is in disarray; and worst of all, aggregate demand and worker pay were neglected for the last eight years – essentially stagnating, as they were for the proceeding decades. 

Central Banks instead played a game of beggar they neighbor - frequently dropping benchmark rates, in the hopes of stimulating exports, only to see other Central Banks follow suit.  And the result, yet another global debt bubble has arisen, as JMH foretold.  

Surprised(?)…. Given the Fed’s history, none of us should be.

The law of unintended consequences surrounds the United States…. We see it in U.S. foreign policy and with Federal Reserve monetary policy.  In the service of its true masters, Wall Street banks and the stock market…. Anything goes, often to calamitous effect upon the economy and the 99%. 

Had the Fed truly been looking to fulfill its alleged mandate, one of maximum employment back in ’08, it would have placed caveats and conditions on the Wall Street bank bailout(s).  Caveats and conditions like writing down home loans, debt restructuring for consumers, and the write down of interest rates and principal for student debt… all of which would have stimulated aggregate demand, job hiring, and top line growth for businesses. 

Instead, we got the same crony –grossly mismanaged - bailout, headed up by the likes of Mr. Tim Geithner, who just received payback from Wall Street. 

Quid pro quo, Timmy?  Damn right.

Alas, our Fed is myopic and blind just like its Master… that is to say, the Fed, much like Wall Street, crushes hopes, dreams and national economies - daily. 

The Fed needs very serious reform… and Banksters and insiders need not apply.

Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2016

The Ten Most Terrifying Words...

The Ten Most Terrifying Words in the English Language… 

Valeant had the highest average drug price increase in the industry last year, at a rate of 65 percent across 50 drugs….

-       Bloomberg Business News

By J.M. Hamilton (2-5-2016)

The Reagan Revolution is some thirty-six years old, and it finally appears to be losing steam.  That Mr. Reagan's ideas, to this day, carry so much weight with so many Americans shows there power, particularly when we consider that the former president’s actions were often contrary to his rhetoric.  Which explains a great deal about the power of ideas, and why our corporate run news media does everything in its power to control and contain the narrative at all times.  Ideas, indeed, can be dangerous things, especially for the plutocracy and fans of the established order. 

For those of us there at the very beginning of the political revolution, Reagan’s key ideas of tax cuts for the wealthy would help the economy (aka Trickle Down Economics), free trade, and a Pax Americana foreign policy, often belied Reagan’s far more nuanced approach to real world problems.  For example, contrary to Mr. Reagan’s conservative beliefs, the former president signed into law eleven tax increases to contain the growing Federal debt; fighting high unemployment, President Reagan was perhaps the greatest protectionist president in the 20th Century (per the ultra-conservative CATO Institute, founded by Mr. Charles Koch); and Mr. Reagan deserves a great deal of credit for taking down the Soviet Union w/out firing a shot in anger (perhaps the president’s biggest military adventure was the invasion of Grenada, under Operation Urgent Fury).

Sounds like President Reagan was politically to the left of President Obama - the faux liberal, bomb throwing community activist, and social organizer.  As many have noted, President Reagan wouldn’t make the cut in today’s GOP primaries.  All of which goes to show just how far right the country, and particularly the ruling plutocracy have swung, based upon a foundation of Mr. Reagan’s rhetoric alone - certainly not based upon his actions.  During the eighties, it was Reagan’s actions – not his words – that made him such an enduring and popular leader, and his actions won him a second term.

One of the more famous phrases Mr. Reagan quoted, and he used it more than once, was:  "The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: “I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.”"

In 1980, the Federal debt to GDP ratio was under 40%, and today, thirty-five years into the revolution, the same ratio is in excess of 100%.   This from the St. Louis Federal Reserve web site.  The top tax bracket under the socialist Mr. Reagan was 50% for much of his two terms in office (which applied to a considerably lower income threshold), versus arch-conservative Mr. Obama’s highest income tax rate of 35% for much of his two terms (which applies to a considerably higher income threshold).  And yet, the 80s recovery was so much stronger than our present recovery, completely contrary to what GOP mandarins, and academics at the Chicago School of Economics, would indicate should happen.  Under Reagan, with the higher tax rate, GDP gains per annum were between 7 and 9%; under Obama, with the lower tax rates, the GDP growth range has been an anemic 3 to 4%, per annum.  So much for the theory that tax cuts for the rich stimulate the economy; and yet, the GOP still clings to this failed fantasy.

Admittedly, and to some small degree perhaps it’s an over-simplification, but when we wonder why Federal debt has skyrocketed over the last thirty-five years, during the heart of the Reagan revolution, it can be said much of that deficit spending went to finance tax cuts for the wealthy --- that and two failed GOP led nation building exercises (within in the Middle East).  Remember when Mr. Bush (W) entered the White House in 2000, the annual Federal deficit had all been but wiped out.  Bush, and a GOP led Congress, piled on the tax cuts for the wealthy, started two bankrupting wars – essentially fulfilling OBL’s darkest fantasy – and proceeded to send the debt to GDP ratio skyrocketing, again.

More recently, a great deal of the Federal debt, as well as, tax cuts for the wealthy, have been financed by the Federal Reserve’s printing presses (aka debt monetization) and balance sheet expansion.  Like Chancellor Cheney said, “Reagan proved deficits don’t matter.”  Remarkably, deficit spending to finance tax cuts for the wealthy has also coincided with exceptional growth in wage and wealth inequality, and a ruling oligarchy’s formation.  Reduced tax rates over a period of time has the same impact as compounded interest over the same time span.  Great wealth tends to take off exponentially from there, in both a high interest rate environment, or a low tax rate regime (and it really soars if tax rates are low and the stock market is juiced by the Federal Reserve). 

And some wonder how our present Neo-gilded Age came to be, look no further than the Reagan revolution (aka tax cuts for the wealthy). 

Let’s push on.  As the real central point of today’s piece is our Federal government, who owns and operates it, and what exactly to make of Mr. Reagan’s quip, about "the nine most terrifying words," some thirty-five years later.

It’s no secret… President Obama, and the leading presidential contenders, have all spoken of it.   Our democracy it owned and operated by a ruling elite of billionaires, multinational corporations, monopolies and cartels, and even some foreign governments hold unaccountable sway over our democracy.  Left out and underrepresented, if they are represented at all, is America’s poor, and middle & working class families.  In short, arguably, our democracy is a façade for the ruling elite’s hegemonic control.  Messrs. Sanders and Trump, and even Mrs. Clinton, deserve a great deal of credit for banging - the campaign finance reform - gong repeatedly over the last several months.  The candidates who conveniently, do not discuss this issue are almost everybody else in the GOP field, Senators Cruz and Rubio, and notably former Florida Governor Jeb Bush.  I wouldn’t call this latter crew the “damned,” but I would certainly call them, “the owned.”  With the exceptions of Messrs. Sanders and Trump, all candidates are beholding to moneyed interests: Super Pacs, billionaires, and the Wall Street banking cartel, etc., etc.

So who are these predators, who buy our nation’s politicians like they would a discounted throw rug at a local bargain store?   As important – because our government is for sale - could it be argued that these powerful forces are a State within a State, or what is said to have existed, and exists, in Turkey to this very day, a Deep State or Shadow State?  That is to say, since the ruling plutocracy I’m about to name, collectively, owns the majority of politicians, controls the financing of same, and the political parties themselves… have the billionaires, the multinationals, the monopolies and cartels become the government, itself?  After all, they own it. 

So w/out further ado, Dear Readers, here’s a few members of your shadow government, or the puppeteers who tell our U.S. Congress and State legislative bodies – particularly in Red States – what to do:

The Military Industrial Complex:  Ever wonder how an aircraft, the F-35, can have billions in cost overruns, not function, an infinite number of production delays, and Congress doesn’t say, “boo?”  Look no further than Lockheed Martin.  Lockheed, like the rest of the MIC that President Eisenhower warned us against, defines a corporation that loves Big Government.  Government contracts always at the ready, never held accountable, profits are privatized… and losses, cost overruns, and failure are picked by the King Daddy of all Sugar Daddies, Uncle Sam himself.  Failure is rewarded.  Politicians don’t say a critical word, because it’s unpatriotic to criticize the MIC.  And some wonder why after more than a decade of failed nation building exercises, the DOD just recommended launching yet another war to defeat IS in Syria.  It’s because war is the greatest fraud ever created by man, and generates profits on a scale that only billionaires can dream of.  Here, only Senator Rand Paul has the cojones to state the obvious:  The U.S. is bankrupt and really can’t afford the MIC on this scale, or another war – let alone play the world’s beat cop; and yet, we have 800 military bases around the world.  As voters, we let the brave men and women who serve down, daily, when we allow MIC contractors and the War lobby to lure the U.S. into another war.  The MIC is the pinnacle of fiscal irresponsibility.

The Koch Brothers and Koch Industries… most of the enterprises and billionaires I’m mentioning in this piece, believe in an Ayn Rand style rugged individualism and a libertarian ideology that says: I made it to the top – exclusively on my own drive and ability, and therefore, I deserve the spoils.  The reality however, is most of these individuals, and multinationals, got to where they are by doing crony deals with government(s).  You know:  tax loopholes, government subsidies, government contracts, privatization, regulatory capture, and even gambling and speculation in exotic financial products (like the swaps & derivatives that took down the economy), back stopped by the American taxpayer.  Koch Industries got their start, when daddy got friendly with Hitler and Stalin.  Yup, you read that correctly… Mr. Fred Koch was in bed with two of the twentieth century’s biggest mass murders, not to mention a socialist and a communist, respectively.  Please don’t look for that information within the bio page of the Koch Industries web site.  It’s not there, nor will you find that Mr. Fred Koch was a founding member of the anti-Semitic and racist John Birch society.  Not content to own the State of Kansas, and enjoy outsized influence within the U.S. Congress, the brothers have promised to spend nearly a billion dollars to buy the White House this election season.  Fortunately, it looks like the American public has caught onto their efforts to subvert democracy and own the executive branch.  Remember, life isn't always better with Koch.

The Wall Street banking cartel:  I’ve spilled so much ink on this cancerous malignancy on the body politic (read here, here, and here again), that words nearly fail me, except to add there isn’t an establishment presidential candidate that hasn’t accepted money from the big banks.  That’s exactly why Mr. Trump and Mr. Sanders scares the hell out of the Street.  There’s a reason why there’s now 60 members within Congress’ House Financial Services committee, it’s because they’re all on the take.  Just remember this: Wall Street after destroying the global economy in 2008 is more concentrated, more powerful, and a bigger threat to the nation, and national security, than it ever was, and we have our crony government to thank for that.  When Candidate Sanders talks about growing wage & wealth inequality in this country, there is no greater contributor to that divide than the Wall St. cartel, which pushes, markets, underwrites, and sells M&A activity.  M&A and industry consolidation (i.e. cartels & monopolies) are known job and opportunity killers.  It’s often the primary reason businesses merge, to cut expense and eliminate jobs (and boost EPS, ROE, and C-Suite pay).  Even if one is of an age, or in a business or company that one feels is immune from M&A, where you feel wage & wealth inequality does not impact you… it certainly impacts many Americans of all ages, particularly younger Americans and their future.  Younger Americans, many with college degrees and exorbitant debt, have suffered the brunt of the Wall Street crisis and the M&A consolidation boom, which helps explain why they are turning out for Senator Sanders in droves.

Sheldon Adelson dreams of a better world, one where the United States answers to Israel.  Now, I’ve gotten nothing against Israel.  I’m a fan.  Like the U.S., however, this Middle East superpower has gone over the top in reaching for the military for every foreign policy problem that comes along.  Israel has a valid excuse, however, they’re surrounded by enemies, and their citizens - many of the Jewish faith - were nearly extinguished by the Koch family business partner, Herr Hitler.  The U.S., on the other hand, has no excuse.  Nor should the U.S. subcontract out its foreign policy in the Middle East to Israel, or any other government – say the highly corrupt Saudis or Oil Monarchies (nor do their bidding or fighting for them).  Yes, Mr. Adelson, casino magnate and billionaire, has a dream, and nearly the entire GOP establishment has lined up to fulfill it for him.  The U.S. spends more on defense than the G-20 combined.  If the DOD and MIC can’t protect the continental U.S. on that budget, than the DOD/MIC – to utilize Mr. Trump’s phrase - should be fired.  Getting involved in foreign conflicts at the behest of foreign governments, or billionaires, is not something our elected officials should be entertaining; but Congress tacitly allows President Obama to do it daily, and w/out holding a vote.

Exxon Mobil:  Once the most powerful company on the planet, it’s now be taken to task by the AG of NY, and if the New York Times has it correct, possibly the AG of California.   Seems that the planet is dying, and like Big Tobacco before them, Exxon knew and allegedly, sought to cover it up.  Exxon is alleged to have paid off politicians, hired lobbying firms, and bought off academics to provide a thick coat of white wash to cover up all the black - planet killing - goo they pull out of the ground.  It doesn’t stop there however, Big Oil is in bed with some of the nastiest and most repugnant regimes and governments on the planet --- anything to make a buck.  It’s no accident that the U.S. government, and the State Department, often finds itself backing some of these very same dictatorships Big Oil does business with - often with diplomatic, foreign, and military aid.  Exxon, Big Oil, and OPEC have all fallen under hard times with the collapse of world energy markets, but let’s not cry too hard…. For every U.S. recession from the 1970s forward, was proceeded by or accompanied by an oil price shock/increase.  Oil shocks that made Exxon, et al., unprecedented billions.

There’s many more entities and individuals that play a huge role in our shadow government (Cable and internet service providers; the five major corporations that control 90% of our news content; the Airlines; Berkshire Hathaway; Big Ag.; Shadow banking & Private Equity chop shops, etc., etc.), but the roll Big Pharma plays deserves special mention.

Valeant Pharmaceutical:  The U.S. is the only Western democracy still being taken for a ride by these creeps.  Every other country (i.e. The West) knows better than to give a pharmaceutical company a patent, in essence a monopoly on medicine, w/out a price cap and/or price controls.  Otherwise, a country is just begging to be ripped off, particularly when the Federal government in the largest U.S. medical insurer.  For years Big Pharma had told us they need price hikes to cover R&D and expand the pipe line of costly and lifesaving medications.  But they don’t even play that game anymore.  Now, very much like the private equity model, Valeant and other pharma companies, merely buyout competitors, cut labor to the bone, gut R&D, jack up the price of medicine several thousand multiplies over, and extend patents by tweaking the formula of said medication.  Make no mistake about it, Valeant Pharmaceutical, Pfizer, Turing, et al., are killing people with these price hikes (or forcing them to make unconscionable choices between eating and taking medicine) and contrived drug shortages, and their income statements are written in the blood of U.S. citizens.  If that doesn’t freak you out, this next part hopefully will get your attention.  It’s not bad enough that Big Pharma, and Valeant Pharmaceutical, screw over a bankrupt United States for billions and billions of dollars, but in the ultimate act of disloyalty, many pharmaceutical companies have moved their operations offshore to dodge paying U.S. taxes.  (This is a classic example of how the plutocracy runs over the 99% daily.  Not only do we get the shaft with monopolistic pricing, and layoffs due to M&A, but the little that remains of the middle class must pay a higher tax bill to subsidize the Robber Barons, who flee offshore with their billions.)

Our purchased Congress says they’ll investigate Big Pharma. 

What’s to investigate?  How about doing your job, Dear Congress, and regulate and cap Big Pharma’s prices?  There’s nothing Ayn Randian about this guy or this guy.  They never invented a lifesaving medication or saved a human life.  They're just vampires sucking on the carcass of a bankrupt and dying nation, called the United States.

Seemingly, our bought and paid for Congress is powerless to act.  If that’s the case, why not dispense with the Congress altogether, or at least downsize the institution and go unicameral?

Some of my conservative friends don’t quite understand one of the key issues of our times: wage and wealth inequality.  That is, once economic and political power begins to concentrate and becomes absolute, the plutocracy – the Shadow State - tends stomp out opportunity, growth, and free enterprise itself, in a quest for hegemonic control and monopolistic profits.  (It’s no accident that the number of business starts ups is declining at a more rapid pace, versus the number of businesses closures… so that the growth of new business is less than the number of business failures.)  That is to say, any threat to the ruling oligarchy's profits must be eliminated.  Mussolini didn’t call it “fascism,” he called it “corporatism,” or government rule by corporations, banks, and industrial interests.  Under corporatism, the government, and its apparatchik, has no vision for the future of the nation or its people - there’s only profits uber alles.  Remember Orwell’s warning in his book 1984:  “If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stomping on a human face – forever.”  

Has that day finally arrived?  Many fear it has.

The youth get it.  They recognize that the Deep State, the Oligarchy, has failed them.  That’s why by an eighty-four percent margin, Iowa’s Democratic voters, under the age of 30, support Senator Sanders over the establishment candidate, Hillary Clinton.  Our nation’s youth, and their future, have been robbed to pay for an Ayn Rand fantasy world for the economic and financial elite….  Many of whom, ironically, are highly addicted to Big Government and absolute control.

Maybe President Reagan had a point…. Government is the problem, particularly when it is owned and operated by the one percent and for the one percent.   Pretty scary isn’t it?   The ten most terrifying words in the English language are: "I’m from Valeant Pharmaceutical, and I’m here to help myself."

The Reagan revolution is dead.  Nobody – not even die hard Republicans – believes in trickle-down economics (and demographics and time are not on the GOP’s side).  Unfortunately, as the Congress is dominated by a gerrymandered and purchased GOP, this fiscally irrational ideology just might be with us for a while yet.  Sadly, in addition to bankrupting the United States, Mr. Reagan’s revolution also had the consequence of concentrating wealth to unaccountable extremes, creating a ruling oligarchy, and the greatest tragedy of all, smeared the economic model of capitalism with a third string substitute, job killing monopolies and cartels. 

Let’s call it what it is: Guilt by association.

Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2016