The Private Sector Fails Again

 

The Private Sector Fails Again 

 

Mark Carney, GFANZ co-chair, has already publicly admonished Race to Zero for going “too far.”  Jakob Thomae, an advisory board member of GFANZ, says he expects parts of GFANZ will eventually sever ties with Race to Zero and seek a more tailored decarbonization methodology to appease members. 

 

Allowing the sub-alliances, whose boards are heavily represented by the finance industry, to set their own terms is a dangerous move, according to climate nonprofits.

 

Members of the finance industry have warned they’ll only be able to achieve their net-zero goals if the governments of the countries in which they’re based provide adequate frameworks that ultimately encourage their clients to step up.

 

 

-       Wall Street Bankers Told They Can Set Own CO2 Terms After Spat, Bloomberg

 

 

By Gregg Wall (10-15-2022)

 

The world is burning, and flooding, with Wall Street and billionaires torching the planet for astronomical Big Oil & Gas profits and gain… and good old Mark Carney – co-chair of GFANZ (Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero) – is waving the white flag of surrender and the yellow flag of cowardice and appeasement.  In order to keep a consortium of private sector leviathans together, under the rubric of GFANZ, Messrs. Carney and Bloomberg have given the Wall St. banking cartel carte blanche to set their own rules, that is to say, self-regulate fossil fuels finance.  

(Note: GFANZ is basically a trade organization or lobbying group, designed to protect the interests of its members… while holding up a Net-Zero fig leaf & the preeminence of market based sollutions, as its stated goal.  Mr. Carney is former head of the BOC and BOE... he now works for Brookfield Asset Management, which has significant fossil fuels holdings.  Mr. Bloomberg is a multi-billionaire, many times over, is renowned for providing Bloomberg terminals/trading & information tools to Wall St.  Together, Messrs. Bloomberg & Carney are GFANZ co-chairs and their conflicts of interest -- in setting guidance and metrics for Net-Zero -- are far, far too numerous to count.  And GFANZ, arguably, has been an abject failure.  Their actualized achievement, to date, appears to be to waste increasingly precious time, while billionaires, despots, dictators, fossil fuels boardrooms & shareholders, & Wall St. all cash in.  Cha-Ching. Cha-Ching.)

 

Which is to say, when it comes to financing fossil fuels, there will likely be no, or limited, restrictions.  Last I checked, the globe, and particularly the West, is suffering from the fallout of forty-two years of laissez-faire, libertarian industrial policy, and allowing billionaires, multinationals, and Wall St. to do anything, to anyone, they please.  Multi-trillion bailouts come and go; Wall St. and monopolies are bailed out repeatedly; Congress ducks responsibility and worse, fails to hold elites responsible & accountable; the national debt spirals ever higher; and the number and magnitude of new crises grows and grows. 

 

At the root of it all -- failed Reaganomics, Thatcherism; the 2008, 2020 financial crises; and the ongoing Climate Catastrophe -- in short, greed, self-regulation, and moral hazard.  Moral hazard is a fancy term to describe situations where those in power can essentially get away with nearly anything, because they know the government, or rather, central banks will bail them out.  Until the government no longer has the means to do so, as we saw in the United Kingdom over the last couple of weeks.  More to the point at hand, how do you bailout a planet that has been destroyed by fossil fuels? 

 

And behind the GFANZ illusion, behind the self-regulatory smoke & mirrors … rests the greatest of all delusions: that the private sector and the wise girls and boys in boardrooms and C-suites – and the almighty profit motive – will ride to the rescue and save us all.  

 

It’s the greatest lie ever told. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If we are to survive, if we are to escape the epic failure that is neoliberalism… it will take courageous, moral leaders within governments.  Leaders, who aren’t bought off to be little more than cheap salespersons for a failed status quo (i.e., trickle-down and supply-side economics); leaders, who are willing to harness and support the preeminent powers of the state, over the private sector & profit motive, in the service of their citizens.  And above all, leaders, who are willing to do more than talk but actually deliver, again and again (in direct opposition to oligarchy).  Greed and the profit motive have their place in the economy, but almost always completely fail in moments of crisis (crises which greed and the profit motive often create).  

 

The private sector is correct about one thing.  It will take governments to set the objectives & standards for the private sector, in order to save the planet.  (Moreover, these standards must be easily understood, quantifiable, objective, easily measured, subject to audit, subject to substantial penalties for failure to meet goals, and lead not to Net-Zero but to elimination of fossil fuels to the fullest extent possible.)  But what is also equally true is that when the private sector co-opts & buys governments, captures regulatory bodies, infiltrates the government with their own people, and lobbies and buys off elected politicians, there’s very little chance that government will do its job.  

 

Therefore, blame rests entirely upon greed, laissez-faire, and oligarchy.  The planet is but one of many crises.  From the pandemic to extreme poverty and wage & wealth inequality… to collapsing food supplies, epic price gouging from our monopoly – slave wage – economy…  just scratch the surface and you’ll find the parties responsible. 

 

And throwing money at a police & surveillance state, or a new war, isn’t going to save us. 

 

Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2022

 

OLIGARCHY

OLIGARCHY 

 

“Experience demands that man is the only animal which devours his own kind, for I can apply no milder term to the general prey of the rich upon the poor.”

 

His thoughts on globalization?  “Merchants (billionaires) have no country.  The mere spot that they stand on does not constitute so strong an attachment as that from which they draw their gains.”

 

“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”

 

“Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted into tyranny.”

 

-       Jefferson

 

By Gregg Wall (10-1-2022)

 

Western democracy is often referred to as experiments… laboratories with unique policies, where differing nations can learn from one another.  But what we have recently seen, despite some nation’s leaning left or right, is that the same, nearly identical problems are occurring and reoccurring with greater and greater frequency (both at the economic and political level).  And while the MSM, particularly the American MSM, likes to sneer at the proles for believing there’s some global cabal in charge of governments… There’s little dispute that countries in the West, so-called democracies, have nearly universally agreed upon and implemented policies of globalization and neoliberalism in a race to the bottom.  And notably, with highly damaging and deleterious consequences.   There’s also little dispute that a handful of individuals have gotten extremely wealthy off these policies, have extraordinary sway over ‘democracies’ and supranational bodies, despite the obvious and repeated failure of libertarian industrial policies and the resulting statist solutions (i.e. repeated bank, billionaire, and market bailouts & welfare, as well as, exceptional and extreme tax avoidance by this elite cadre… deregulation too, has been an extraordinary boon to this group).  In fact, and not to place too fine a point on it… it’s the bailouts & state intervention, itself, particularly central bank machinations, that really magnified the oligarchy’s wealth. 

 

The net result of all this is, citizens of all classes are beginning to see through the veil, the pretense and the illusion.  And it’s not so grand.  Many are beginning to throw around the word oligarchy, frequently and often… and is it any wonder?  Huge sums of money have been flowing into elections and the very worst of what humanity has to offer often find themselves in power, those that are highly amendable to corruption and lies.  Naturally, citizens lose faith in democracy… but what they are really losing faith in is a putrid and rigged facsimile of democracy.  One version of democracy, the very worst kind, called kleptocracy and oligarchy.  All of this is to say, those that hate our current version of democracy are really going to have a problem with the authoritarianism and fascism that is, likely, to follow.

 

Call me a romantic but I haven’t lost complete faith in humanity, and with the right people in power… I believe democracy is redeemable and fully capable of doing great things.  Three examples stood out in the last two weeks of the misery I am writing about, democracy gone bad… notice within these three hideous examples, the near uniformity of the economic models, the obvious political crisis, and the endemic corruption and oligarchy involved. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Let’s start with Italy then.  Italy has had problems with cronyism and corruption for years.  Governments come and go like people change undergarments.  Colossal and catastrophic debt was accumulated bailing out banks and the rich, during the 2008 financial crisis… a banking crisis that is ongoing to the present day.  Along comes a Goldman Sachs banker, who was not formally voted into office, and he’s installed essentially as head of state.  The banker’s stated objective, over the course of time, has been to implement & impose austerity upon the citizenry – in the hopes of paying for the colossal debt accumulated bailing out banks and the rich on the backs of labor & the poor.  Our banker friend, Mr. Draghi, also wants to impose neoliberal reforms … these reforms are little more than an attack upon labor, and for the exclusive benefit of the banks, billionaires, monopolies, multinationals, and shadow banking. 

 

Naturally, this Italian banking dictatorship implodes, and the people have a visceral reaction to the corporatists, centrists, and oligarchy that installed said banker.  Naturally, the people look for solutions outside failed centrists… left and right, and, in this instance, the extreme right, fascists win the Italian election.  My readers should know that it takes a special of kind of neoliberal failure (characterized by excessive attention to the needs of billionaires), globalist failure for Italians to reinstall a form government last seen at the end of World War 2, a form of government – fascism – that leveled Europe. 

 

Next comes the U.K.  And, with slight modification, I can almost install the proceeding two paragraphs, and apply them to yet another Western democracy.  Let’s begin then:  The U.K. has had problems with cronyism and corruption for years.  British prime ministers come and go like people change undergarments, but absolutely nothing changes.  Colossal and catastrophic debt was accumulated bailing out banks and the rich, during the 2008 financial crisis…. banking and financial services crises that will likely reoccur, to varying degrees, due to overreliance on ultra-accommodative central bank (BOE) policies.  Along comes a new prime minister, who was not formally voted into the office; and she’s installed to the near exclusive benefit of right-wing extremists and wealthy backers.  The new PM’s stated objective is to embrace 42-year-old trickle-down ideology and austerity.  Allegedly, in the hopes of spurring the economy, and paying for the colossal debt accumulated bailing out banks and the wealthy on the backs of labor & the poor (and to further, enrich corporate backers and wealthy donors beyond all measure).  

 

But, ironically enough, markets aren’t having it… because, by now, even markets – which generally approve of trickle-down and welfare for the rich – know that tax cuts for the wealthy lead to greater and greater national debt.  And the UK increasingly, like so many Western governments, looks tapped out.  So much of the national wealth has been transferred to an elite cadre of financiers & plutocrats. 

 

The pound plummets as does PM Truss’ political fortunes.  And the last PM the Queen installed now appears to be the source of universal public condemnation… at a time that the UK is rocked by a moribund economy, serial price gouging (aka inflation), and an energy crisis.  If you can get past the needless human costs, mayhem & mortality… gee, isn’t libertarian industrial policy – a/k/a greed as a central ruling ideology - entertaining, perhaps too thrilling?  It’s like a bad B horror movie - or television serial - run entirely, predictably off the rails. 

 

My third example is none other than the United States… and we need not repeat the exercise.  Many of the globalist, neoliberal problems - mentioned in the prior two examples - are rife throughout the United States: from a highly corrupt, failed two-party system, a gangster oligarchy, a banker - billionaire welfare state, all the way to American labor, public that has been set upon by a vicious pack of demonic wolves (stripped of nearly all social services and crushed by anti-unionism, anti-labor policies run amok). 

 

The universal themes, then, that run throughout all three examples are highly corrupt centrist, corporatist political parties that have completely failed their citizens.  The adoption of economic & political policies that systemically prey upon the people, specifically the consumer and labor. The absolute failure to hold concentration and monopoly power in check.  Catastrophic public and private debt, which is nothing less than a redistribution scheme for the wealthy.  Greed, dysfunctional - monopoly & oligopoly controlled - markets, and a deregulated state, as the key ruling economic ideology.  Elites that are perfectly willing to use division and hate to perpetuate a failed status quo.  And a ruling oligarchy that is entirely out of control… but above all, a complete lack of willingness, by anybody in charge, to face facts and adopt reforms (because of a kleptocracy and oligarchy that only responds to the next quarterly statement & returns). 

 

And the crises are just beginning to pile up, after four decades of chronic abuse, looting, and the rape of humanity.  And I didn’t even touch on the American elite’s lust for endless war and endless war profits. 

 

Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2022

STRIKE

STRIKE 

 

US consumer prices were resurgent last month, dashing hopes of a nascent slowdown and likely assuring another historically large interest-rate hike from the Federal Reserve.  From a year earlier, prices climbed 8.3%, a slight deceleration, largely due to recent declines in gasoline prices. Shelter, food and medical care were among the largest contributors to price growth.

 

-       US Inflation Tops Forecasts, Cementing Odds of Big Fed Hike, Bloomberg

 

For an administration touting itself as the most pro-union in history, negotiating a deal with no paid sick time (and allowing workers to still be disciplined if they are sick four of the seven days in a week), with a pharmaceutical deal with no limits on costs to the workers, with health insurance demanding absurdly high premiums (slightly improved, but likely paired with increases in health care costs) is not even close to enough. Nor is it what we should expect from the leadership in national unions who could use the real power of their members to make industry and government understand the importance of their working lives.

 

-       Rail Workers, Nurses, Teachers Are Fighting From the Bottom Up, The Nation

 

By Gregg Wall (9-17-2022)

 

Another week goes by and somehow the American experiment –- despite the most disgusting & repugnant efforts of our economic & political leadership -– survives and staggers forward, propelled onward on the backs of tens of millions of hard-working, honest Americans.  Roughly sixty to seventy percent of Americans live paycheck to paycheck.  Thirty-three percent of Americans don’t make a living wage and the minimum wage remains a hideous joke, at $7.25 an hour.  As told by Senator Sanders, while standing up for workers on the floor of the Senate this week, seventy million Americans are either underinsured or uninsured for health care, and America still doesn’t have mandatory paid family and medical leave. 

 

It might be one thing if the United States was in sync with other nations.  But no, billionaires and bought off, day trading political leadership stand alone … head and shoulders above all other leading nations… in how gratuitously evil America treats its labor force.  And then, corporations and multinationals have the unmitigated gall to whine how they can’t find workers anymore.  Perhaps, that’s because America’ for-profit health care system – and parsimonious employers – killed off, or waylaid, hundreds of thousands of workers during the pandemic?   You know, the pandemic that is alive and well and with Fall just around the corner.

 

Meanwhile, America has not seen wage & wealth inequality on this scale since the last Gilded Age.   With Business Insider reporting that CEOs make 670X the lowest paid workers.   And we heard this week, from railroad management, that they… and they alone… are responsible for the unseemly profits made last year (some $20 billion in 2021).  To say Americans are ‘living to work’ no longer applies.  Instead, Americans are literally working to fight off death, homelessness, humility, and starvation.  As the diseased minds of robber barons grow more contaminated and polluted, the more rigged the system becomes … their minds crippled & infected by that greatest of mental & social disease: greed.  As if crushing consumers, destroying democracy, harming labor and small business owners is something to be proud of.  

 

Take a good look America.  Examine closely our boardrooms and C-suites, take a close look at McKinsey and other consulting firms.  Because it is here – amidst the ever-growing ranks of billionaires, and especially, including the billionaires – that you will find the lowest form of humanity the world has ever witnessed.  Perhaps rivalling the U.S. congress, itself, in its greed and mendacity. 

 

It's with this as a backdrop, I would recommend to American workers … nurses, doctors, railroad workers, teachers, auto workers, delivery drivers…  the indispensable, and yet, the entirely disenfranchised … STRIKE.  Bring the powerful to their knees, let them flounder in the mercilessness of the system they created and that has brought them untold wealth.  STRIKE, rip off the band-aid, and expose the septic shock that is the American -neoliberal- economy, as it lies flatlining on the operating table.  

 

It’s the only thing the oligarchy answers to… the loss of profits.  More precious than their own children: capital gains and greed. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Switching gears, inflation – what in reality is all too often consumer price gouging – continues to soar.  As reported this week, year over year, price gouging is up 8.3%.  And the war Biden and Larry Summers are waging against American workers continues unabated.  Instead of attacking billionaires and multinational donors for gouging consumers, workers, children & moms… the supply side of the equation…. Team Failure, at the White House, continues to wage economic warfare against the American people with a higher interest rate regime and endless austerity (anyone see where BBB went to?).  In essence, economic trench warfare against the demand side of the ledger, the American people.  And you thought the fascist GOP were ruthless? 

 

The problem with cutting the legs out from under the consumers & labor, aside from the obvious, is that it leaves all those billionaires, cartels, monopolies, and Wall St commodities speculators unhindered and unimpeded to gouge and gouge some more.  Recession is no longer in doubt anymore and all hopes of a so-called soft landing are all but dead and buried. 

 

Big Oil, food monopolies, for-profit health care, and rents are exacting a very heavy toll upon the American people… and our, allegedly, pro-labor President, the US congress, and the two-party system, along with the oligarchy they all report into, are entirely responsible.  Relying upon the Federal Reserve to bailout America, and the congress, out of self-inflicted crisis after self-inflicted crisis – by printing trillions and trillions of dollars – has brought us to this place.  And given thirty trillion plus in national debt, eleven to twelve trillion in corporate debt, and everyday Americans maxing out their plastic to stay alive… it’s doubtful that the Federal Reserve is going to be able to reverse the concentration of economic power its printing presses have wrought.  Meanwhile, as tweeted by Bob Burgess over at Bloomberg, the debt service load on the national debt is climbing higher and higher… as the FED jacks ups rates to fight consumer price gouging.   Roughly $700 billion in interest expense… and if rates climb higher and higher, one trillion in annual interest expense is not out of the question. 

 

Relying upon the kindness of billionaires, monopolists, and the FED isn't going to get the job done.  Higher wages won't tame inflation, if utilities are just going to pass the cost along to the consumer, while keeping profit margins catastrophic.  At some point, if America is to survive as some semblance of a democracy, the congress is going to have to actually earn its pay, do its job…  and enforce antitrust, begin intervening in commodities markets, regulating utilities & monopolies, and tax extraordinary wealth (and much of that begins by funding regulatory agencies with a vengeance & jamming the revolving door).  At least in the same measure and with the same brio… that billionaires and robber barons attack Americans, democracy, and freedom 24/7/365. 

 

 

Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2022