The Neolib Darwin Awards…
SYDNEY (Reuters) - The chief executive of Australia's Westpac Banking Corp stepped down on Tuesday over a money laundering scandal involving child exploitation, just a day after he told staff it was "not a major issue" and that he intended to stay on.
JM Hamilton (11-28-2019)
Nothing quite says American tradition - or a time of reflection or acknowledging the genocide of Native Americans - like Thanksgiving (aka The National Day of Mourning). So this year, JMH starts a new tradition, The Neolib Darwin Awards.
JMH firmly believes in a mixed economy: the best of capitalism – highly competitive & innovative markets (the checks & balances in a functioning capitalist system) - combined with government policy, fiscal & monetary, directly aimed at ameliorating the impact of the monopoly/neolib economy we presently suffer. That is to say, new government policies directly aimed at lifting up the many, in lieu of the redistribution of wealth to the few.
Unfortunately, in business sector after business sector, America’s financial elite no longer believe in capitalism and free markets, but rather, they’ve become addicted to the surest of bets: the crony economy; rent seeking & financial engineering; the rigged economy; government control by the monied elite; the exploitation of global labor; monopoly/monopsony; and regulatory capture… that is, the neoliberal economy.
Fortunately, and this is certainly something to be thankful for, two of three Dem frontrunners get it: Senators Sanders and Warren have achieved the truly remarkable, the advancement of a progressive agenda that would have been unthinkable a decade ago. Both Sanders and Warren lead the pack, polling far better than their centrist competitors (save one), by calling out neoliberalism for the abject failure that it is. Afterall, any economy that leaves the bottom half of society left for dead (via failure to pay a living wage or benefits) is not an economic system worth having.
Additionally, kudos and accolades to Tulsi Gabbard for bringing well needed attention to that most evil of cartels and their lackeys… of course, JMH writes of the military industrial complex and the US foreign policy establishment, respectively.
That these three progressive candidates have billionaires wetting themselves, and failed former political leadership gnashing their teeth, demonstrates that corporatism & neoliberalism are not only on the ropes but are no longer sustainable. And so the fight is on: Plutocrats & their minions Versus The People.
In all fairness, these three candidates have had a little help in advancing a highly popular progressive agenda… for nothing preordains neoliberalism’s fall - and the genesis of a fairer economy - than its practitioners. Of course, I write of the C-Suite executives – and the billionaire class - who bring immense attention to neoliberalism’s corruption on a daily basis… often w/ catastrophic results for the economy, humanity, the planet, and yes, even shareholders.
So without further ado, this year’s Neolib Darwin Award recipients, the companies & their management teams who place profits before all… even to their own company’s & shareholder detriment.
Boeing: Nothing screams diseconomies of scale like the 737 MAX. The plane, and the Boeing management team, are responsible for taking hundreds of lives. All these many months later, the aircraft is still grounded (apparently, will remain grounded for many months to come). The corrupt management team that brought this albatross to market attempted to scapegoat pilots for Boeing’s defective aircraft. Not only has Boeing caused irredeemable reputational damage to itself, but the monopoly has completely discredited the FAA. No airline, or country in the world, will gaze upon the FAA again w/out questioning the regulator’s credibility. Gee, if any American was responsible for manslaughter or involuntary manslaughter - for a single individual, let alone hundreds - they’d see real jail time; but instead, the Boeing C-Suite Execs are likely to continue to collect tens of millions in compensation.
Purdue Pharma: This company and its owners – w/ a little help from their friends, other Big Pharma companies, the US Congress & the FDA – delivered to America a national opioid pandemic. A pandemic that is estimated to have cost 400,000 Americans their lives and that number continues to grow. Meanwhile, the rapacious billionaires who ran the company into the ground have offshored billions in blood money. Essentially liquidating their own company, before America woke up to the mayhem and slaughter caused by the Sackler family. But fear not, America’s crony courts will likely leave the Sackler fortune intact and the responsible Big Pharma companies fully operational to kill, loot, and pillage again. When Big Pharma isn’t stabbing Americans in the back with ever escalating drug prices, they are busy getting away w/ premeditated murder. And yet, not a single Pharma exec has entered a jail cell.
Uber: Uber defines labor exploitation and has deemed their employees to be independent contractors. That’s so Uber can escape paying payroll taxes, providing workers’ compensation insurance, and even a competitive wage. Hence, placing greater pressure on our heavily indebted country’s social safety net & the American taxpayer. The labor trend established by Uber has become so ubiquitous, among Silicon Valley’s capitalist and the private equity set, that economist have named an economic system after the ride hailing giant, the Uber Economy. Not so ironically, this Unicorn has never made a dime, nor is it likely to do so anytime soon. And no few in number courts, global governments, and more than a few politicians have decided that they don’t want to support this business model, which might explain why at least one of Uber’s owners is dumping billions in stock. Now, there’s a bellwether for failure and a ringing endorsement for exploitation of labor, as defined by the Uber Economy. It may be time to short Uber stock.
Westpac: Not all evil originates from US multinationals. The neolib economy is global, and that means corruption spans the planet. Take Westpac for example. Westpac is Australia’s number two lender and was recently caught engaged in 23 million money laundering transactions, including transfers related to child abuse. The American born CEO of Westpac, per Reuters, told his staff that it would all blow over – demonstrating the height of arrogance – before he was sacked. Of course, we could replace Westpac, as sure as the sun rises tomorrow, with any Wall Street bank, when it comes to what appears to be nonstop criminal activity. So little has changed since 2008. In fact, if anything Wall Street and the bank majors have only become more emboldened & nefarious, in the avarice they direct at the citizenry by the minute. And just as we can count on major multinational banks to engage in all manner of criminality, we can expect owned regulators to slap fines – many years later – on these same banks that have no material impact upon bank earnings worth billions and billions. Do these apex predators see jail time? Not under the centrist/neolib regime.
Apple, Exxon, Facebook… the results of the slow-motion train wreck that is neoliberalism can be seen daily in the nation’s papers and the ruin they wreak upon the economy, democratic government, the planet, and our civil liberties. The economic fallout: a lack dynamism; stunted innovation; a drag upon the economy and growth, by rent seeking multinationals; tax avoidance on a scale that only can be described as malice; fewer jobs and opportunity; and global governments so weighed down by debt that central banks have adopted monetary policy designed to keep the whole house of cards afloat.
The profits before all ethos, and the growth at any cost mantra (despite declining population and demographic trends) are leading crony capitalism and neoliberalism to a very bad end.
And for this, the unmitigated greed of the billionaire & monopolist class, we should be grateful. For it is their very greed that will bring an end to neoliberalism and eventually, bring reform and the progressives to power.
Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2019
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