Accountability

Accountability

Because something is happening here
But you don’t know what it is
Do you, Mister Jones?

-       Ballad of a Thin Man, by Bob Dylan

A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the majority discovers it can vote itself largess out of the public treasury. After that, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits with the result the democracy collapses because of the loose fiscal policy ensuing, always to be followed by a dictatorship, then a monarchy. 

-       Peterson and variations Messrs. Tytler, Tocqueville, and Reagan

Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me.

-       F. Scott Fitzgerald

By J.M. Hamilton (5-14-2016)

When does one begin to cross over from middle life to old age? 

Some have said, it is when your friends start dying off, and you no longer recognize those around you; but for me and perhaps others, it is when society’s values and the times change, and they are no longer recognizable or relatable.

Watching the news feed over the last couple of weeks, I could feel my hair turning silver, that is the few remaining strands.  Ah, the perils of being an economics and political junkie.

Old middle-class values of truth, honesty, integrity, and accountability trampled under foot, and the U.S. government looted and pillaged for decades.  In fact, a complete lack of accountability, and not by - as Mr. Peterson suggests – the great unwashed masses; but rather, by the elite and the wealthy.

Money printing by global central banks props up nation states, and keeps heavily indebted corporations, the global banking cartel, and shadow banking afloat, in a universal Ponzi scheme.  As long as all the central banks are in engaged in a race to bottom, how can the dollar fair any worse, despite constant abuse heaped upon it by the Federal Reserve?  Money printing also sponsors and pays for tax cuts for the wealthy, offshore tax havens, and war w/out end.   All the better to enrich the robber barons, and their minions, the political class. 

But for every dollar printed up comes an obligation, or debt.  And the entire global economy is choking under the weight of it all.  In Japan, the debt driven economic malaise is referred to in terms of Lost Decade(s); and in America and Europe, we are a full eight years into this mess of subpar economic growth, trickle down monetary policy, stagnant wages, and ever increasing wage & wealth inequality.  (Seems that Comrade Obama turned out to be the plutocracy’s best friend.)

The politicians love it.  Money printing saves them the hassle of governing, and in turn, they and the elite can act with a complete lack of responsibility.

F. Scott Fitzgerald was correct.  The billionaire class really are different than us.  They are completely without morals.  And as they own the political class, if something is amoral (Malum in se), they can legislate away its illegality and give it the U.S. government’s imprimatur.  Time and time again, we see the elite’s stranglehold on SCOTUS, the U.S. Congress, and even in presidential politics.  The various branches dancing like puppets on a string, while our global empire does the big swirly down history’s lavatory.  Much of it due – as history shows time and time again - to a complete lack of ethics, responsibility, and accountability.  Or corruption by any other name.

Here now, a few examples that recently caught my eye:

SCOTUS

It’s not bad enough that nation’s highest court has placed the entire government up for sale, via Citizens United and assorted rulings, but they are presently considering legalizing outright graft and corruption.  Seems that the former governor of Virginia was helping out a business buddy, after receiving gifts and a loan, in a classic pay-to-play scandal.  The lower court correctly ruled the governor was a corrupt political hack, and a stain on the state.   But now, as the nation crumbles, SCOTUS may allow the governor to walk, expunge his crime, and legitimize pay-to-play.  Per Mr. McDonnell’s attorneys, as reported in NPR, these are “routine political activities.” 

No doubt.  But that doesn’t mean they should be made legal.

Congress of the United States

The latest Congress has to be near the top of the charts in terms of the least amount of legislation passed, and perhaps, the fewest days in session.  Legislating is such a chore, and so is breathing and exhaling hot air.  Besides if the House is owned – and we know they are, not unlike a toy poodle – if they are not legislating that is because their owners told them not to.  In short, the nation is on cruise control, and the elite like it that way.  Criminal Justice, tax, and campaign finance reform?  Forget about it.  Voting up or down on the President’s on-going wars in the Middle East, and globally… nah, the elite aren’t having it.   

Damn near every member of the House and the Senate should be sued for political malpractice, gross negligence, and a complete abdication of responsibility. 

Unfortunately, none of these things are a crime or a civil offense, and that’s by design.

The Presidential Campaign

Hillary (& Billfriend) was on the take, and apparently used her position at the State Department to cash in, and grant favors for some of the world’s nastiest actors (who just happened to make timely donations to the Clinton Foundation).  That’s old news, but the fact that Hillary’s Wall Street campaign contributions, per the WSJ/Marketwatch, are spiking right about now is current news.  The Clintons, like any good Republicans, have been Wall Street’s BFF for some time.  The Clinton’s high regard for the plutocracy, and GOP policies, helps explain why they hired right-wing campaign advisor, Dick Morris, in the 90s, and Hills is presently working with another right-wing eminento, David Brock.  Mr. Brock is running a SuperPAC for Hillary, and is ready to go endsjustifythemeans on anyone who gets in Hillary’s way.   

So much for Ms. Clinton’s newly found progressive values… watch them vanish the second she receives the nomination. 

The plutocracy and the corporate run news media have already picked the next POTUS, and she waffles like… well…. Mr. Trump.  Mr. Trump, believe it or not, had several redeeming qualities, among them:  he wasn’t a career politician; Mr. Trump was self-financed; he was upsetting the apple cart on a bankrupt - and bankrupting - U.S. foreign policy, that is a theatre of the absurd; and The Donald recognizes U.S. free trade – as presently practiced - for what it is, a U.S. middle class and economic wrecking ball.  But Mr. Trump has more than a few warts - and as with his base - bigotry, misogyny, and xenophobia are high on the list.  Moreover, anytime we scratch the surface and go beyond the campaign rhetoric (e.g. Mr. Trump’s tax policy) – we find it’s more of the same.  In the case of Trump’s tax policy, it's a Grover Norquist wet dream, that is to say, even greater tax cuts for the wealthy.  Now that Mr. Trump is the GOP nominee, he’s no longer self-financing, and he immediately ran to a hedge fund manager to start raising money from The Street.  How very Trump.  At least he’s consistent: say one thing, do another, and repeat.

That leaves us with the only respectable, honest, loved (can you believe it, this guy actually has a positive public approval rating…. how very novel for a presidential candidate), and consistent candidate still in the running, Mr. Sanders.  Perhaps it’s because of his old school/middle-class values, the candidate’s integrity, and his commitment to being accountable to his base, that the mainstream news media – and the plutocracy - despise the man.  Mr. Sanders could set himself on fire, and he’d still obtain a tenth of the coverage The Donald & Shillary receive on any given news day.  And yet, there he is winning state after state, and standing in the way of the faux-progressive’s imminent pivot to GOP-Land. 

God Bless Senator Sanders!  Can you imagine for a moment a president that actually shares your values:  that government shouldn’t be looted by the elite, but should work for everybody, and a president that does not pathologically engage in doublespeak? 

This maybe the last chance we get… imagine, if you will, a president that is not perennially under investigation, and that is both accountable and honest.  Ponder that a second longer, please, because if the HRC 13.0 gets in the White House, hell will assuredly follow.

The Panamanian Papers leak is just another in a long line of scandals illustrating that the billionaire class, and the political elite, are completely unaccountable and entirely rogue.  In short, these are not people we would want our children to grow up to be or emulate.  This latest leak shows that trillions have been hidden away in offshore tax havens, via shell companies, and hence, pay no taxes.  (The U.S. too, has become a haven.)  You see, paying taxes are for patsies, obeying laws are for suckers, and being a billionaire – or a connected politician – makes you above the law.

David Cameron, the British PM, has called an anti-corruption summit to begin dialogue about the problem.  But with Western Democracy subject to a corrupt campaign finance system(s) throughout Europe and in the Americas, do honest and law-abiding citizens actually believe anything will be done?  Mr. Cameron’s concern is that the public, via the Panama Papers leak & assorted sordid revelations, is waking up and growing very upset with the ruling establishment.  And the public is considering their options, whether it be very un-establishment political candidates, or Brexit or Grexit.

The aristocracy – a la Mr. Romney – sneers at half the population: we are all a bunch of takers, or beholding to their special powers for deal making.  The irony is the biggest takers, and welfare queens, on the planet happen to be an ultra-wealthy one-tenth of one percent.  That sucking sound is the wealthy pulling unaccounted for wealth out of what remains of our bankrupt Western governments, via: tax loopholes; legitimized tax havens; government & regulatory capture; privatization; war profiteers - milking endless Middle East conflict; paying a non-living wage and leaning on the government to subsidize one's profits - through welfare for the working poor; and bypassing governments and our court systems altogether, through free trade agreements.

Who knew the uber-wealthy were such parasites and big government addicts?

Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2016