Elites Gone Wild
"More and more, people don't
trust their elites. They don't trust their economic leaders, and they don't
trust their political leaders," German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble
said during an IMF panel discussion in Washington.
"In the UK, everyone from
the elites told the people, 'don't vote for a Brexit.' But they did."
-Mr. Wolfgang Schaeuble, Reuters - IMF, Global finance leaders fret over populist backlash
By J.M. Hamilton (10-16-2016)
That’s mighty observant of the German Finance Minister.
And apparently he’s not the only elite that is aware. The pitchfork and torches crowd (aka the 99%)
- POTUS Obama once said he was protecting Wall Street bankers from (aka the 1%)
- seem highly agitated w/ the way the elites have been behaving.
What could have awoken the 99% from their slumber?
Was it the debt driven economy – fueled by central bank printing
presses – that have enriched the financial aristocracy to the detriment of
everyone else? Or is the fact that the
elites running Wall Street banks, and drug & private equity companies, are
caught up in scandal after scandal involving billions of dollars, seemingly
w/out repercussion, while a black teen smoking a joint gets sent to a privatized
mass incarceration hell? Maybe it’s our uber Pax Americana foreign policy that has
left the Middle East a smoldering ruin, the U.S. bankrupt, and refugees by the
millions flooding into Europe and Turkey?
Perhaps it’s the dubious crowd the elite likes to rub shoulders with,
like Clinton Foundation contributing members (e.g. the ultra – nefarious, sleazy,
& terror spreading Saudi & Qatar governments)? Maybe it's the elite’s infatuation w/ the
multi-billion dollar mass surveillance state, which has stopped zero hacking
(just ask the DNC); and despite the Snowden revelations, continues to trample
all over the Constitution on a daily basis?
Could it be that the 99% realize, particularly in America, that we have
two bum choices for POTUS this year, provided by the oligarchy’s political
duopoly? And we can’t trust either of the mainstream candidates
farther than we can throw them.
Maybe it’s the fact the governments of Western democracies
are all too often rigged, from the lowliest local judge all the way up to the
executive branch?
One thing is for certain, the elite have made a huge mess of the world, and the public is taking notice.
No longer does a few letters behind one’s name, a prestigious degree, or
biz or government title confer omnipotent knowledge or command immediate
agreement from the great unwashed. In
fact, all too often these designations of entitlement mean you’re – in many
instances – likely to be highly corrupt or a gangster (albeit one that is above
the law, nor likely to be held accountable for one’s actions).
Come on. Get up. Walk with me…. Let’s take a little stroll,
and see what could have gotten everyone so worked up.
Central Banks
Global central banksters, and the IMF, are worried that the
trickle down monetary policy - that the
world economy has been malnourished on for the last eight years (and even
prior) - has gone all Japanese on them…
as in lost decades, Japanese. The
central banks have fueled extraordinary sums or public and private sector debt,
and the central bankster solution seems to be to print yet more debt. Governments, and private institutions,
weighted down with debt, are recognizing what a drag all this debt can be to
fiscal policy, the economy, and corporate and multinational bottom lines.
And just wait until the next inevitable recession hits. Yowza!
Suddenly, there’s an outcry for fiscal policy to fill the
economic vacuum. But federal and many state
government’s credit lines are maxed out: with big government enriching the 1%
w/ tax cuts; MIC contractors profiting from endless war; and wasting astronomical
sums on the private sector that runs our federal and state governments into the
ground (via the privatization model). To sum this matter up: The rise of a hyper-accommodative monetary policy, globally, seen over the last three decades, has consistently enriched the 1% at the expense of the 99%.
The problem is the credit lines are – in far too many instances – toast.
Brexit
This story is a work in progress, but the elites in Europe
have so alienated the pubic, that there are mass movements throughout Europe
looking to breakout of the E.U. The
U.K. was the first to bail. The London financial
elite said the British economy would tank, but an interesting thing happened.
The British stock market, the FTSE, has been on an absolute
tear, upward, and economic fundamentals upon the British Isle have been very sound. Things were looking so good that PM May
recently announced dates for the formal break with the E.U…. with the result
that the short sellers (hedge fund, speculators, and major banks) immediately
went to work devaluing the British pound.
The short sellers seemed to be sending a message. To wit:
Just who does PM May think she is representing, the interests of the
British people, and how dare she follow through on the referendum. And what’s this, from the PM, about central
banks creating distortions in the market place, and enriching the 1% at the public’s
expense? Doesn’t the PM know the U.K. is
not a democracy? The unelected House of
Lords, a throwback to inbred aristocracy/monarchy, will need to weigh in on
Brexit, both the process and the dates.
Much more to follow.
Business
Two interesting developments in the last couple of weeks,
that are representative of why the general public has such derision and scorn
for the biz elite: In the midst of fraud and scandal, Well Fargo CEO, Stumpf, stepped down only to be replaced by another insider, Mr. Tim Sloan. Turns
out Mr. Sloan played no small role in the problematic cross-selling game
employed to boost Wells Fargo numbers and executive management pay. But don’t cry too hard for Mr. Stumpf. Unlike the 5,000 and more Wells Fargo
employees, who were unceremoniously terminated in the wake of the crisis, Mr.
Stumpf will parachute out a rich man.
And my guess is his executive contract spells out that a great deal of
his upcoming legal expense will be picked up by the bank and the bank’s
stockholders.
The only person likely to be more upset over the Well Fargo
debacle, than the general public, is Mr. Warren Buffett himself. Mr. Buffett is Wells Fargo’s largest
shareholder, and for years has been bragging about the San Francisco based bank. Wells Fargo shareholders have seen the market
cap on this bank shrink nearly 60 billion dollars, since 12-29-2015.
However, what Mr. Buffett has lost on Wells Fargo, his
portfolio of businesses has more than made up for – many times over – in tax
relief from our federal government. In the wake of the news that Mr. Trump has not paid federal income tax, likely in
decades, and Mr. Trump dragged Warren into the presidential debate over tax
dodging schemes, came news that Warren has been a bit of a choir-boy on payment of
personal income tax. Not so, however, w/
Mr. Buffett’s portfolio of businesses, where tax avoidance schemes, after tax avoidance schemes, have been deployed to make Berkshire Hathaway one of the largest
and wealthiest companies on the planet.
In short, the billions that Berkshire Hathaway dodges, the
99% have to make up for in the form of higher taxes, increased national debt,
and diminished government services.
Afghanistan
The gift that keeps on giving....
Bloomberg did a piece this week noting that Americans have
been nation building in Afghanistan for 15 years now, OBL is long since dead,
and seemingly there is no end in sight.
POTUS Obama has repeatedly reneged on his pledges to pull
America out, only to backtrack in the face of hostility from the GOP and
hawkish Dems, who are always pushing the MIC’s interests. And the MIC’s interests are continuous war,
never ending war… as same evens out the revenue stream and quarterly financial
statements.
As for the 8,400 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, they are largely
forgotten. As there is no draft, nor
higher tax to finance this credit card war, my guess is most Americans don’t
even know we are still fighting in Afghanistan (which much like Vietnam before
it, consists largely of taking provinces, losing provinces/cities, and retaking
them again). Seventy nations have
pledged $70 billion in aid to this lost country, but much of that aid will be
lost to endemic fraud, and some of it will end up in the Taliban’s hands.
As for the elites in the Congress, these cowards have not passed a new war resolution, since the original authorization passed shortly after 9-11.
And the multi-trillion dollar question: Why is the U.S. still
in Afghanistan or even Iraq? Excluding
the lie that we are fighting a war on terror (no, our military is actually busy creating
future terrorists), politically, the foreign policy elite do not want to take
responsibility for another failed nation building exercise; and two, these failed wars are just good business for MIC contractors.
Too bad, the U.S. is bankrupt.
Too bad, the U.S. is bankrupt.
Strange Allies
The Wikileaks revelations on the Clintons and the DNC have
been very revealing. Mrs. C has been
quoted on a couple of occasions, stating the Saudis and many of our so-called
Gulf-Monarchy allies (like Qatar) are responsible for much of the terror in the
Middle East, and the spread of what Republicans like to call
Radical-Islam. Moreover, these two
nations also helped create and fund ISIS.
That’s not to say, that both the Bush and Obama administrations, too, directly
or indirectly, played a role in Daesh development and growth.
It’s all part and parcel of the religious civil war that has
enveloped the Middles East and parts of Africa:
Sunni V. Shia.
Despite Mrs. Clinton calling out the Saudis & Qatar as terror sponsors…. It didn’t prevent the Clinton Foundation from taking contributions
from both monarchies, or Mrs. Clinton from using her role at the State Department to make sure the Saudis received billions in martial hardware from U.S. military contractors.
And now, the Obama Administration is backing the Saudi's war
crimes in Yemen. The Saudis enjoy logistical
support, weapons, and last week, a Navy destroyer firing missiles into
Yemen. Seems that no matter how rogue
the Saudis go, the U.S. elite have no reservations about following Saudi
terrorist down the same rat hole. All of
which explains why POTUS vetoed the 9-11 victim’s legislation that – in its pre-watered down stage - would have allowed 9-11 families to sue the Saudi government.
The popular narrative is that POTUS was looking out for U.S. service
personnel by vetoing the legislation; but as Commander and Chief of U.S.
service personnel, the POTUS may have been more concerned that he, and future
office holders, might find themselves held accountable for war crimes.
Just how perverted is this situation? Consider this, the U.S. is spending trillions
of dollars, ruining thousands of U.S. service personnel’s lives, fighting
endless wars in the Middle East (often at the behest of NATO, the oil monarchies
& Israel), while the root cause of Middle East terror – the oil rich monarchies
- receives U.S. weapons & military support, and access to U.S. capital markets.
NSA & Yahoo
The CEO of Yahoo… Marissa Mayer, once said, “In the end, we
are capable of so much more than we think.”
Who knew that for Ms. Mayer that would include becoming a Surveillance
State spy. Yet again, at the nexus of an over-reaching
Surveillance State and Silicon Valley, we recently found out that Yahoo has
been giving the government access to hundreds of millions of emails. Per the Washington Post:
Now, in a move
that has outraged privacy advocates, Yahoo reportedly has helped take
government intrusion to a new level. Without apparent protest, according to news reports, it built a mechanism that allowed the National Security
Agency and the FBI to scan all of its users’ incoming emails for specific
characters or words.
That’s hundreds
of millions of emails.
“This is Big
Brother on steroids and must be stopped,” said Rep. Ted Lieu, a California
Democrat sometimes described as a “privacy pit bull.” He tweeted that it was an
“outrageous abuse of federal government power.”
And Yahoo’s response as to why they allowed this to happen,
basically, just following orders (aka The Nuremburg defense).
Our elites are in bed w/ the authoritarian state, Orwellian
named, Homeland Security, and Americans are kissing their civil-liberties and
their First Amendment rights good-bye.
These government bodies (the NSA, the CIA, and the FBI) have
done very little to make the homeland safe or secure from cyber attacks; and
many Americans recognize the huge price tag for mass surveillance, that is the
surrendering of constitutional rights & privileges (not to mention the billions of tax dollars wasted), isn’t worth the price
we are paying.
The
DNC & the Clinton Campaign
The irony is there is a relatively inexpensive
cure for a great deal of the hacking that goes on over the internet, and it’s
called encryption. And more than a few would
be willing to bet the farm that Hillary’s crew, and the DNC, wish their emails
had been encrypted.
Not only has Wikileaks revealed how corrupt the DNC is, and
how it sabotaged Senator Sanders honest campaign, but some of Mr. Podesta’s
emails show that Mrs. Clinton likes to talk out of both sides of her mouth ---- shape shifting her speech, her soul, and her talking points to fit her
audience. Apparently, this is such a
common element of Mrs. Clinton’s thinking that when asked about it, during a
recent Presidential debate, she attempted to use Abraham Lincoln as cover. To cut to the point, Mrs. C seemed to be arguing that deceiving the public was strategic and altogether commonplace.
The problem for the public, and anyone else involved with
the Clintons, is the vast majority of Americans do not trust her. Unfortunately for America, it’s equally
telling that everything HRC has thrown at The Donald - from misogyny to lying,
and bigotry to womanizing – has been practiced by Team Clinton for decades. Things were so bad at the Clinton
Foundation, conflicts of interest were so inherent, that Politico reports Chelsea Clinton was attempting to undo some of the corruption at the foundation.
The elites in the MSM have been highly complicit, in their attempts get Hillary elected... so much for an impartial and even-handed fourth estate.
One looks at the two mainstream political candidates in
2016, and all one wants to do is weep for this nation and our children’s future.
So what’s the lesson here for our so-called elites?
Perhaps we should start with the words of Arianne Zucker. Mrs. Zucker is the actress who greeted Mr.
Trump and Billy Bush - in the by now infamous hot-mic, "locker-room talk," describing sexual
assault (aka #pussygrabgate). Mrs. Zucker said:
“My name is Arianne (R-E-on) ZUCKER (Zooker) and I am a strong, independent, hard working mother, business woman and partner to a great man. I have grown to learn that the words of others cannot effect the value of
my self worth or define the content of my character. How we treat one another,
whether behind closed doors, locker rooms or face to face, should be done with
kindness, dignity and respect. Unfortunately, there are too many people in
power who abuse their position and disregard these simple principles and are
rewarded for it. In understanding the magnitude of this situation, I choose to
stand tall with self respect and use my voice to enrich, inspire and elevate
the best of who we are as people”.
Well said.
At the end of the day, the common thread through all the
aforementioned news events is that the elite can’t be trusted. They lie to our faces, or cover-up until
exposed. Narcissistic and nihilistic to
the core, the elite eschew honesty in favor of dishonesty. They seem to go out of their way to do the wrong
thing, even when doing the right thing would – ultimately – likely prove far more
beneficial/profitable to themselves, the various private & public
organizations they lead, and the global economy.
Were these “leaders” always this way, is their disease congenital,
or is this what is meant by the statement: Power corrupts and absolute power
corrupts absolutely?
How many billions and trillions have been lost and wasted
because of the elite’s seemingly pathological need to deceive and lie? How many organizations, private and public,
have suffered incalculable reputational costs? Why are free trade agreements negotiated behind closed doors; why have extra-judicial courts been set up by and for multinational interests, via these agreements; and why do first-world citizens and labor always finds themselves on the short end of the free trade stick? How many children go to bed at
night hungry, due to the global crony capitalist structure and because our western
governments are rigged and exceedingly corrupt?
And what is the cure? A religious revival is likely not in the cards
but ultimately, possibly, a revival in ethics could save us all. If religious dogma gets us there, wonderful; but
surely at this point, having tried everything else… what else is left? What do the elite have to lose? Why not try and do the right thing, a policy
of honesty and transparency?
My guess is Mr. Buffett wishes Wells Fargo had done the right thing; my assumption is HRC wishes she had played it straight w/ the
American people, and had been far less Machiavellian.
Then again, maybe the elite, above all, merely wish that
they had not been caught.
P.S.
On a final note, the elite seem to have forgotten that respect
and trust are earned. No amount of
money, titles, degrees, or letters behind one’s name will afford respect, if
you are duplicitous, double-dealing, and one’s guiding star is greed’s black
hole. The elite are facing blowback on
an unprecedented scale, and the public is tired of being preyed upon by same. The crème de la crème placed themselves in this position, and have only
themselves to blame for the public’s lack of confidence & trust… through altruism, integrity
& transparency, and simply paying their taxes, the elite can in time regain the public trust.
Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2016
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