The Queen of Inequality - And Other Federal Reserve Horror Tales

The Queen of Inequality  - And Other Federal Reserve Horror Tales

“Prophet!” said I, “thing of evil!—prophet still, if bird or devil!

By that Heaven that bends above us—by that God we both adore—

Tell this soul with sorrow laden if, within the distant Aidenn, 

It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels name Lenore—

Clasp a rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore.”

-       The Raven, by Edgar Allen Poe, Circa 1845

By J.M. Hamilton 10-31-14        

The Raven, nearly 170 years old, still has the power to evoke dread, by tapping into basic human fears.   Fears based upon death, abandonment, whether there is an afterlife, loneliness, and depression, Poe hits all the chords.  He nails human existence and concerns about mortality, and all the anxiety these issues conjure up, since the dawn of man to the present day (in a single piece).  It’s probably why The Raven is timeless.  The poem provokes in some, melancholy, for not only the strange visitor that the protagonist must endure; but more creepily still because the villain crushes out all light and future dreams, with a single word. 

The fugue builds upon itself in a series of questions, until all hope is stomped out, like the dying of embers.

Still, Mr. Poe is a little too Goth for my tastes.  For me, nothing strikes horror like my perception of modern day reality.  As noted in my piece, Heart of Darkness, I read very little fiction.  When I do indulge my taste for horror or thrillers, Stanley Kubrick and David Lynch fit the bill.  These gentlemen specialized in what Dr. Freud called the “uncanny.”   Uncanny is taking the familiar and turning it on its head, so that the everyday becomes unrecognizable, perhaps alien.  All your assumptions, your bearings on reality, the very things you take for granted (friends, family and creature comforts), are often yanked out from under your feet by these two directors/writers.  Reality, as I ‘ve grown older, all too often does this, and is capable of turning 180 degrees (e.g. Being raised in the belief that America is the land of the free, only to discover we live in a police/surveillance state).

Some say the truth is stranger than fiction, and there’s not an author or writer that I know of, who can imitate the complete strangeness/volatility that is life.  The uncanny ultimately, leads to the duality of man, the inability to predict what men and women will ultimately do (e.g. Discovering the Republican Party is really a group of socialists, who transfer wealth from the 99% to the 1%, via Fed policy, tax cuts, government contracts, government & regulatory capture, and government privatization, etc…. basically privatizing profits while socializing the costs of many a private venture). Capable of great good, and great evil, humans have infinite capacity for either extreme, but generally veer towards multifoliate shades of moral grey.

For many it seems, nothing strikes fear like the random, the irrational, and many of us, “don’t do crazy,” or respond well to mental illness exhibited in others.  Mental illness may strike some, as freaking emotional and mental cancer, the devil, or even an unpleasant reminder of human frailty, mortality, or that we are not entirely in control.  Call me a coward, but I feel trepidation for the illogical and those who exhibit a disregard for reason.  It’s probably why, after God herself, next in line, I worship truth, clarity, and sanity.

And yet, we are surrounded by the surreal and irrational on a daily basis.  It’s the human condition.  It’s what caused me to abandon the GOP, once and for all.  The working and living knowledge that markets are not self-correcting, are not rational, and do not contain perfect knowledge.  Quite the opposite, markets are driven, as one author noted (Mr. Charles MacKay), by Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds (i.e. by fear, paranoia, and greed).  The Laffer curve and tax cuts for the rich, do not lead to greater resources for our government or budget surpluses.  And yet, the curve remains, one of the greatest fallacies still touted by the GOP to this day.

Rather, supply side economics/trickle down feeds inequality, an ever -widening gap between the rich and the poor, and it absolutely kills top line growth for business.  The U.S., per Bloomberg, now has the third-highest level of income disparity among 28 countries in the developed world.  Meanwhile, our public debt has never been higher, eclipsing our annual GDP.  Another Kafkaesque dream tale we have been told by SCOTUS is money equals freedom of speech.  No, Mr. & Mrs. Justices, money subverts our democracy and buys off the Congress, so that the plutocracy owns our government.

Our collective economic and political lives, as a nation, are riddled with lies, fiction and irrational behavior that defies logic, reason and facts.  However, because the fresh water school of economics, or some think tank eminento, or politician, has been paid to produce a piece maintaining the charade – we are supposed to continue to buy into our national economic nightmare: a stagnating economy, suppressed wages, government redistribution to the wealthy, monopolies & cartels run amok, financial engineering in the board rooms and executive suites to goose financial statements and returns for the plutocracy, and a Banking cartel that it vertically integrated throughout the economy.  And a Congress that fails to act.

There’s your horror story, this Halloween!

But most frightening of all, there’s no greater example of the uncanny, than the Federal Reserve.  And yes, it’s terrible to pick on our current Chairperson, Mrs. Janet Yellin, since she’s only the most recent of a long line of Fed Chairman, who are responsible for what I’m about to describe.  What’s so striking about Chairperson Yellin, is the recent string of articles stating she’s concerned about income and wealth inequality, but doesn’t know what exactly to do about it, nor does she even acknowledge the Fed’s significant role in creating economic and wealth inequality.

It’s like we’ve landed in some bizarre universe, where the Queen of Inequality suddenly must deal with her guilt and remorse.   Here then, without further ado, is JMH’s attempt to weigh in with a list of evidence on how the Federal Reserve not only is responsible for severe income and wealth inequality, but simultaneously, like the Raven in Mr. Poe’s poem, dashes out all hope.

·      The primary reason given by The Treasury and The Fed for their extraordinary actions (quantitative easing - QE, interest rate suppression, and an alphabet soup of bank bailout programs authorized by the Congress – beginning with TARP) was, allegedly, to prevent the Great Depressions reoccurrence.

·      However, if we look at the actual results, the Fed’s actions have been highly detrimental to the 99%, serving to increase economic and political polarity throughout the economy and nation.

·      Despite the Fed’s preternatural exertions, the poor and the remnants of the middle-class have suffered from: underemployment/unemployment; wage stagnation (with no relief in minimum wage); low housing prices/valuations – the primary storehouse of wealth for most Americans; and higher headline inflation – food, tuition, and fuel costs (– all of which are conveniently omitted from Core CPI).

·      Meanwhile, the gangsters and recidivist on the Street, who brought you the 2008 financial meltdown, have profited immensely from the Fed’s largess.  At the end of the day, the Fed’s policies did not prevent the Great Recession for most Americans, but rather, Fed policies were aimed at bailing out the plutocracy and preserving the status quo.  The result:  The banking cartel only grew more concentrated and more powerful.  Fed policy increased the divide between the wolves and their prey.

·      In a normal bankruptcy, bondholders will often accept pennies on the dollar, and stockholders are wiped out.  Instead, the Fed and the Treasury not only bailed out the banks and the oligarchs, dollar for dollar, but at values that were not marked to market.  No such bailout was afforded to homeowners, millions of whom are underwater to this day.  The value of their homes was written down by the market, but banks – bailed out by the taxpayer – afforded no bailouts or relief to their debtors.  And we wonder why the so-called “nascent recovery” is tepid at best.

·      With the Wall Street banking cartel bailed out by the Fed’s policies, without caveats or conditions, this allowed the Street to resume their role as taxpayer funded/insured hedge funds.  Fed funding fueled gambling, speculation, collusion, HFT, a rally in the stock market, commodities and bonds, which served as yet another bailout for the banks, the oligarchs, and the wealthy.  Meanwhile, the once burned – twice shy, middle-class sat on the sidelines fearful that they would be taken again, or were too close to retirement to risk their meager savings.   Hence, Fed policies, once again, further aggravated the economic class divide.

·      Thanks to the Fed’s interest rate suppression, the majority of Americans placed their money, post crisis, in savings accounts, money market funds, or conservative bond funds, which yielded little.  This was yet another back door bailout to the banks, who had yet another source of free money.  In fact the banks, in some cases, had so much free money that at one point, they began to reject new customer deposits.  Thank the Fed.

·      Fed sponsored QE was the high fructose corn syrup of M&A, private equity, and highly inexpensive corporate debt.   Last I checked junk bond yields were below five percent for a five-year window.  Inexpensive debt allows the Robber Barons to saddle healthy companies with debt, front load profits for an elite few, and layoff human capital to pay for said debt.   There are now said to be more than 3,000 private equity firms operating in the U.S., and like a swarm of locust, they have stripped companies to the bone, outsourced labor, and embraced globalization, so that the market for labor is an employer’s market.  In short, low demand for workers means lower wages, stagnating wages, and a revolution in technology aggravates the situation more.   Score another one for the economic elite, at the expense of the 99%, courtesy of the Fed.  To think the Fed’s mandate includes maximum employment.

·      With top line growth down for most companies, (in some measure caused by Fed policies, and a recession enhanced by same), many CEOs turned to financial engineering – once again fueled by the Fed – to goose returns for stockholders, executive suites, and board rooms.  In brief, these financially engineered profits were not generated by normal means (top line growth, investment in human capital and CAPEX, and R&D).  But rather, Fed policies fueled financial engineering: stock buybacks with cheap debt to boost ROE, a fugue of layoffs to cut income statement expense, and corporates often turned tax avoidance into an art form (with many U.S. companies – who were the beneficiaries of the FED’s policies and taxpayer largess – relocating offshore).  In effect, corporations, beholding to the U.S. taxpayer, renounced U.S. citizenship to dodge paying taxes.  Score another one for the plutocrats, with financial engineering handed to them on a silver tray by Bernanke and Co.

·      Because many U.S. companies cannot be bothered to pay U.S. taxes… paying taxes is for poor peasants (like myself)… our Federal government leans on the upper middle-class and the middle-class, at artificially high tax rates.  Higher tax rates on American consumers means LOWER: consumer spending, discretionary spending, top line growth, and opportunity throughout the economy.  We can also blame the Congress, owned by the plutocracy, for our tax debacle. 

·      The Fed’s easy money policies allow our Congress to continue to act in a brazen manner, w/out any regard for America or Americans, and the Congress is held accountable by no one but the plutocracy.  Congress has effectively delegated fiscal and tax policies to the Fed’s printing presses.  Neither tax or fiscal policy needs be addressed by the legislative branch, since the Fed has been buying up government debt, in amounts that at there peak – when combined with MBS purchases – were north of $80 billion a month.  Tough policy decisions on taxes, government spending, military and surveillance cuts, and political reform, go unanswered because the Fed’s printing presses smoke.

·      Thanks to the Fed’s support of financial engineering, the private sector does not have to worry about top line growth, or its employees.  In many instances, it would take a minor increase in the cost of products and services – passed onto the consumer - to pay workers a living wage; and a living wage would alleviate demand from the working poor for government services and support.  News story after news story points this out, but due to Fed policies, and the desire to squeeze out every penny of profit for themselves, the elite look the other way.  

·      I could fill pages more, with example after example, of how Fed policies have caused gross distortions in our economy, strengthened the banking cartel's monopoly and monopsony powers, and have had global and foreign policy impact and import.

The rebuttal to all of this is ‘yes, but another Great Depression would have been worse.’   But that’s entirely false, because what the Fed provided instead, or will have, is a lost economic decade or more – like that which occurred in Japan, based upon a rehash of the same failed bank bailout measures.  Over in Europe, where there too, banks and the oligarchy were bailed out at the expense of the people, many banks are still operating in a zombie state, six years and running, post-crisis.  (Meanwhile, the bailed out elite demand austerity for the citizenry, over alleged “moral hazard” concerns.)  Had the government stood aside and let the banks bottom out in ’08, what would have occurred (?):  there would have been massive equity and bond haircuts applied to the wealthy and the elite, who brought this crisis upon us all (and the playing field would have been leveled); you’d see the banking elite in prison stripes, instead of pin stripes; Glass-Steagall would have returned with a vengeance; regional banks would have filled the crater left by Wall Street, w/out skipping a beat.  And our private sector and government elite would have been forced to deal with the key structural issues crushing our economy and government: monopolies, cartels, LBOs and M&A, money in politics, and our crony government/economy.

At the end of the day, it is Mrs. Yellen, not Ozzy, who’s driving this crazy train.  Ironically, Dems, correctly, renounce trickle down economics and tax policies, but don’t bat an eye at trickle down monetary policy.  If the Fed had just cut out the middleman – the Wall Street cartel (which is “socialism” defined), and loaned directly, to the people, homeowners, the 99%, and students, at record low interest rates, the economy might have fully recovered.  Instead, the Street – bailed out by the Fed ad nauseam - continues to eat our young and our future. 

For a visual, see our national debt.

So on this Hallowed Eve a few concluding questions:

Will the Fed, and central banks, ever swear off boom bust cycles that enrich the elite at the expense of the 99%?

Will the Fed stop sponsoring welfare for the plutocracy, in the form of QE and interest rate suppression, at the expense of the taxpayers, savers, and the 99%?

Will the Fed stop providing a smoke screen for the plutocracy, CEOs, and our politicians, so real reforms and debate about this nation’s future can begin in earnest?

And will the Fed stop printing money so as to force our Congress to actually govern?

Quoth the Raven, “Nevermore.”


P.S.  

Looks like Central Banks, globally, are coordinating monetary policy.  One Central Bank, the Fed, kicks the opiate of the markets, free money, and another Central Bank, BOJ, injects a new dose of liquidity to keep the stock market from jonesing.

Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2014

A Tyranny of Lies, The War Against Americans

A Tyranny of Lies, The War Against Americans

“When war is declared, the first casualty is the truth.”  - Phillip Snowden

“Death is better, a milder fate than tyranny.”  - Aeschylus

“In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”  - George Orwell

By J.M. Hamilton (10-19-2014)

We live in an era where the U.S. finds itself in perpetual warfare – an era where truth and honesty are in short supply.  Politicians, and in particular members of Congress, pedal deceit, dodge, duck, run for cover, campaign and raise money (call for studies and special committees)… anything but debate, govern, and solve problems.  Private enterprise (our monopolies and cartels), in many cases, is little better.  One cannot pick up the paper or turn to your favorite internet news site, without reading another story about how a major corporation is screwing over its customers and employees.  As such the U.S. appears on the brink of becoming just another European nation, or third world country, characterized: by corruption, cronyism, payoffs/bribes (legal and illegal), a paralyzed government, and a perfidious judiciary. 

The Congress has become so inept that we depend upon the Federal Reserve, SCOTUS, and executive orders from POTUS to keep the duct tape wound around our crumbling democracy (and to think these clowns are suing the President for doing his job).  Of the three branches of government, Congress has become the most useless appendage; in fact, Congress has become metaphorical gangrene, that threatens U.S. economic and fiscal health.  If the one hundred Senators and 435 members of the House of Representatives (all on the government dole) went missing tomorrow, the government and the nation would not miss a beat.  Quite the opposite, the government might actually function.  Congress’ and private enterprise’s, often, total lack of regard for the truth is not only a threat to the American people, the institutions we hold dear, but arguably, the Congress’ lack of accountability and honesty is a threat to our national security. 

Congress is a mere extension of the plutocracy; thanks to SCOTUS, Congress is owned by the plutocracy.  And the plutocracy, like bankers, lives in the shadows, away from sunlight (hence the untraceable and unfathomable campaign sums that flow through 501c’ or alleged, philanthropic enterprise).  The perpetual foreign wars our country now finds itself in are symptomatic of a total disregard for the truth, and the 99%.  These wars are a complete misdirection designed to keep the country fearful, distracted, and its attention focused away from real and necessary economic, tax, and political reform issues.

That we have been led into Middle-East wars, time and time again, through disassembling, half baked truths and lies… at a time of domestic energy abundance no less, shows just how powerful the elite have become, how marginalized democracy has become, and that once again, the first casualty of war is the truth.  As such the plutocracy is not only at war with the world for dominance and control (the U.S. has military bases in 130 countries around the world, has 900 foreign military bases, and spends more money on Offense than the G-20 combined), but it is at war with the American people.  The U.S. is under the yoke of a tyranny of lies, designed to perpetuate the elite’s hold on power, domestically and internationally.

If this sounds extreme than ask yourself why the government spies on American citizens 24/7 through the NSA and countless other intelligence services.  Per the Washington Post: “Some 1,271 government organizations and 1,931 private companies work on programs related to counterterrorism, homeland security and intelligence in about 10,000 locations across the United States.”  More importantly, ask yourself why the Congress has done nothing to stop the infringement upon your freedom, your civil rights, and your liberty?  This isn’t about your personal safety, this is about hegemonic power and the Elite’s absolute control over American citizens.

Think I’m paranoid… let’s quote Mr. Establishment himself, Mr. Warren Buffett, who said:  “Actually, there’s been class warfare going on for the last 20 years, and my class has won. We’re the ones that have gotten our tax rates reduced dramatically.”  The war on Americans, by the plutrocracy, doesn’t stop at tax policy: there’s been decades long wage suppression and a failure to address minimum wage; our citizen soldiers are badly abused during war time and the abuse continues when they return to our shores; globalization and M&A is encouraged by the Fed’s easy money policies, and erodes our jobs and tax base; the privatization of our government, means programs that should be cut (like the NSA and the MIC) – never end – at the expense of programs that need funding (like free college tuition); and cartels and monopolies now dominate the economic landscape.  These cartels and monopolies harm and crush consumers, creativity, innovation, improved services and products, labor, and do serious harm to the economy, itself.  Monopolies and cartels are the number one problem in the U.S. today, and they subvert our democracy.

Congress, owned by monopolies and cartels, stands by and obstructs, and caters to the interests that are destroying our economy, our government, and our way of life – for their personal gain.  Example after example of graft and corruption are easy enough to find; but it’s also highly instructive, to illustrate just how far off the rails our government has run, by visiting how the plutocracy maligns and threatens the few remaining U.S. Citizens, who exhibit the courage to tell the truth.  These are the proverbial canaries in the coalmine:

Joe Biden was recently forced to apologize to our so-called allies (UAE, Qatar, and Turkey) for pointing out that these terrorists/rogue nations provide comfort, aid, and financial support for the terrorist gang, ISIL/ISIS.  Of course, these nations, along with the Saudis, have been spreading radical Islam for years, and many are the wealthiest backers of terror in the world today.  Until we address the aid these nations provide terror groups, and work to bring about democracy to these dictatorships, the U.S. will find itself in war without end (which makes the MIC perfectly happy, and might explain why the Congress tolerates these regimes).  Mr. Biden has a long history of telling the truth over the years, including pushing President Obama to recognize LGBT civil rights.  For his efforts, he is often portrayed poorly in the press, as politically naïve, when the reality is the U.S. would be greatly served by more of the honesty Vice President Biden is serving up.  In direct contrast, we have to learn from Mr. Snowden’s document dump that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton believes the Saudi regime is one of the greatest funders of terrorism in our time, but nary a word from Mrs. Clinton in public.  Her reticence speaks volumes, and when she does speak, she is all too often incoherent.

Senator Elizabeth Warren, a known populist and a liberal, is really neither…. She’s just another rare breed of American, who deals in honesty, year in and year out.  Whether it’s creating a Federal Agency to protect ordinary Americans from predatory Wall Street banking tactics or calling attention to the malefactors, the bank management teams and boards, that caused our 2008 Economic Hiroshima and still deal in a rogue $700 trillion swaps and derivatives market (unwillingly back-stopped by the American people) - Senator Warren can always be counted on to tell the truth, the antithesis of our Congress.  She backs the return of a modern Glass-Steagall, and college tuition debt relief to our nation’s youth.  For her efforts, she has been kicked out of the “insiders club” (read economic and political elite), by none other than one, Mr. Lawerence Summers.  As President Obama has stated, Mrs. Warren makes the insiders/plutocracy "nervous."  So let’s put her into the White House tomorrow.  The only thing bad I can say about Senator Warren is she has yet to agree to run for President, so as to best challenge the ultimate insider, Clinton, Inc.

Mr. Snowden is a certifiable hero.  He sacrificed everything, so that Americans could know about the Surveillance Empire, in which all Americans now find themselves living within.  We used to live in a land of habeas corpus, due process, and the rule of law.  Now, in order to protect the plutocracy, we live in a land where we are all assumed to be guilty, until proven innocent.  Our Surveillance State, all too often outsourced and run by Big Business, deals in lies and subterfuge.  Witness Mr. James Clapper, who lied to the Senate without repercussion; witness the CIA who hacked into Senate computers.  And now our FBI Director, another liar (meant to say lawyer), is fuming that Apple and Google are moving forward with encryption.  That Google’s and Apple’s future profit model depends upon protecting the privacy and security of their customers, never seems to dawn on FBI Director, Comey.  To these rogues, it is all about the power of the state, and their megalomania for absolute control.  Because the one percent is engaged in known criminal conduct (that this "conduct" has often been made legal by our crony and compliant Congress is another matter), or arguably, terrorist activities, all Americans must surrender their rights and shred the constitution for specious, greater personal safety claims.  Meanwhile, our hero, Mr. Snowden, has had to flee to Russia to avoid tyranny and retribution from these Orwellian Agencies.   Proof once again, that no good deed goes unpunished. 

Justice Rakoff, that all too rare breed of judge and another American icon, who actually believes he’s supposed to stand for something more than being a rubber stamp for the crony deals worked out between The Banking cartel and the SEC.  Read about him here.

And then there’s that brave nurse, Brianna Acquire, who risked everything, by telling the world that her employer in Dallas (Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital), completely botched the first U.S. Ebola case.  She’s a hero, but like all truth telling heros, she’s likely to be persecuted and left without a job.

Look what we tell our children in our nation’s schools: play ball, keep quiet, don’t question authority, or we’ll medicate and/or expel you.  The tone for an authoritarian model is set immediately, starting at Pre-K through twelve.  There’s a reason why public schools look like prisons.

And is it any wonder?  Given that the plutocracy has only grown wealthier and more powerful , from President Reagan forward, why would they not be at war with anybody or anything that threatens their privileged status, like the American people or democracy itself.  Besides war is big business.  Any thing that threatens the status quo – especially the truth – must be crushed, put down, stigmatized, avoided, vilified, and incarcerated. 

Speaking from personal experience, an example must be made of anyone who dares tell the truth, insists upon social justice, or challenges the plutocracy.  The plutocracy’s smear campaign that ensues, against the truth teller, all too often has little to do with facts, truth or the issue at hand.  And if they cannot find dirt on the truth teller, the plutocracy often will just make it up.

Mr. Snowden made an excellent point in The Nation recently.  I paraphrase, Americans often confuse blind loyalty and allegiance to anything the State or plutocracy does with patriotism.  We are taught at a very early age not to question authority.  But in complying with what we have been taught, we have slowly but surely seen the erosion of our rights and liberties, our democracy, and our freedoms.  Mr. Snowden swore an oath against America’s enemies, both foreign and domestic. 

As much as JMH believes the U.S. government has the potential for tremendous good, and often conducts itself in that way, the power of the State and the plutocracy must be kept on a very short leash, indeed.

P.S.

Don’t be fooled by anti-socialist rhetoric.  It took a co-opted and purchased government to allow the wealthy to be become this powerful, and it will take government intervention to unwind and bring about economic, political, and social justice.  It took decades for the plutocracy to amass this power, and it will be a long and arduous journey to level the playing field.  The idea of a U.S. aristocracy is repugnant to the principles that our nation was founded upon.

 And finally, please meet Mr. Jean Tirole.  What?  You never heard of Mr. Tirole?  Mr. Tirole just won the Nobel in economics for his work on how to tame monopolies and cartels.  Now, you know why you have never heard of Mr. Tirole in America.  Hopefully, we'll all be hearing a great deal more from him, and in particular his ideas, in the future. 

Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2014

Big Oil has got Your Back….

Big Oil has got Your Back….

In 2009 Hillary Clinton warned in a secret memo that “Saudi Arabia remains a critical financial support base for al-Qaida, the Taliban … and other terrorist groups”.  – The Guardian

By J.M. Hamilton 10-4-14       

Recently J.M.H. wrote in a piece entitled, History is written by Winners, about the amoral, anti-social, and sociopathic tendencies of the board of directors, and management teams, running some major corporations.

To that end, and in the interest of expanding further upon the topic, today’s editorial.  Specifically, on the topic of Big Oil, the Exxons and Koch Industries of the world have your back.  Let us count the ways:

$$$  Let’s be abundantly clear, Big Oil is a global cartel, and has nothing to do with either capitalism or the free market.  When one nation state, The Saudi regime, can prop up global fuel prices or let them enter into free fall, by cutting or increasing production, that is monopolistic power in action.  (See OPEC).

$$$  Exxon, with the voting rights and more of any U.S. citizen, along with the Koch Bros, owns the GOP.

$$$  Exxon doesn’t care three bits about the U.S or its citizens.  When asked why not expand the number of refineries in the U.S. to help out our citizens, and the American economy, a former Exxon CEO responded as follows:  “Why would I do that? I’m not a U.S. company, and I don’t make decisions based on what’s good for the U.S.” 

Indeed.

$$$  Exxon operates in and supports some of the world’s nastiest dictatorships, who's records on human rights, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and the treatment of women, are both repugnant and abysmal. 

$$$  Exxon partners with Dictator Putin in the former Soviet Union.  Exxon recently struck black gold for the Russian dictator in the Arctic, despite orders from the U.S. government to cease operations.  Koch Industries, namely one Fred Koch, got its start backing Joseph Stalin, the former Soviet dictator.  Mr. Stalin’s record on mass murder made Hitler look like an amateur.  Thanks to Exxon, Mr. Putin’s resource rich country will have yet more natural resources – which will further secure his hold on power, and fuel his expansionist aims.

$$$  Exxon, along with Qatar (an Arab monarchy), wants to export U.S. energy independence, and natural gas, offshore, so as to keep fuel prices up here in the U.S. and to obtain a more attractive price, globally.  In the process, a prospective U.S manufacturing renaissance will be cut off at the knees, destroying jobs and opportunity. 

$$$  Qatar finances and funds terrorism, as does the Saudi regime.  Exxon supports both regimes, with its technological prowess.  Koch Industries, up until recently, traded with Iran’s -nuclear hungry - theocracy, through a foreign subsidiary.

$$$  The global price on a barrel of crude is dropping steadily, but prices remain stuck at the pump.  Your U.S. cartel in action.

$$$  Exxon purchased the largest independent natural gas producer, XTO Energy, for a record sum of $41 billion, and holds one the largest global natural gas positions in the world.

$$$  Every U.S. recession, from the 1970s forward, was precipitated, or accompanied, by an oil price spike.  In the most recent recession, Exxon reported record profits in 2008.  The country crumbles and Exxon makes a killing.

$$$  Exxon, and Koch Industries, per a recent Rolling Stone article, are the biggest polluters in America, in terms of air, water and climate change.  This comes from a study conducted by U. Mass – Amherst.

$$$  While many in the GOP, sponsored and owned by Big Oil, still deny climate change, Exxon already admits climate change exists and is in play.

$$$  Koch Industries, and Exxon, are notorious for fighting regulation of their industry, often sighting the potential for job losses; and yet, Big Oil employs very few Americans, only a couple of million, and half those jobs are low paying gas station attendant positions.

$$$  Like any monopoly or cartel (enjoying vertical integration), Exxon and Koch report billions in profits, quarter after quarter, and yet demand tax breaks and tax subsidies from our Federal government.  These Big Oil tax breaks are paid for by the middle class and the upper middle class, who cannot escape paying taxes or afford to buy the GOP to protect their interests.   Meanwhile, with the GOP set to take over both houses on Congress in 2014, tax reform is already considered DOA, by many members of the Republican establishment.  How convenient.

$$$  Koch makes much of its money now through speculation and unregulated and under-collateralized derivative products.  It’s why David and Charles Koch are estimated to be worth $40 billion apiece.  Some now believe that the next financial crisis may not come from the banks, but from unregulated trading and speculation, like that generated by Koch Industries (outside the purview of regulators).  The next major Federal bailout maybe for Koch Industries.

$$$  Per Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson, at least $1.00 per gallon of gasoline pumped in the U.S. goes to financial speculators, like Koch Industries, who prey upon the American consumer.  That’s pure profit skimmed right out of your purses and wallets.  Think of it as yet another tax you pay at the pump.

$$$  This means like the Wall Street banks themselves, Big Oil is an extortionist racket.   Keep the tax subsidies coming our way, leave our industry unregulated, let the pollution continue unabated, and nobody – including the economy – gets hurt.  Profits are privatized, while pollution, tax rebates, and the tremendous drag on the economy are socialized.  And thanks to SCOTUS, Big Oil has the power to make and break Presidents.

$$$  The technology exists or soon will exist to power the world by solar energy, making Big Oil obsolete.  Meanwhile, Koch Industries lobbies the Arizona utilities and U.S. legislatures to tax and surcharge homes with solar energy.

$$$  In the last presidential election, Koch told its employees in writing, at Georgia Pacific, to vote Republican.  The letter threatened and utilized fear tactics, and painted a picture of a dystopian future, should President Obama remain in power. 

$$$  With chaos, malaise, and human rights abuses globally, the U.S. foreign policy establishment and MIC have a strange fascination with Iraq.  Since 1990, the U.S. has fought three wars in that country.  Iraq, of course, has one of the largest proven oil deposits in the world.  Halliburton, VP Cheney’s former company, and Exxon have business operations in that country.  Is the U.S. fighting major wars (sending America’s finest) to protect commercial interests and big oil operating in the region? 

If you answered “yes,” you’d be 100% correct.  Meanwhile, the estimated cost of the last failed adventure in Iraq is now north of $2 trillion, and the Fed is still smoking up the printing presses to keep up…. So Exxon and Halliburton can continue operating in Iraq.

So yes, indeed, Big Oil has your back, except…. Your back has rather large knife sticking out of it.  Big Oil placed that knife there.  Exxon is already obsolete, but until solar and alternative energy takes over, this cartel is going to take Americans and the American economy for a ride…. A predatory ride in which you pay, and they manipulate and hold unseemly sway over our economy, our environment, our government and courts, and U.S. foreign policy. 

As for those Saudi and Qatar monarchies?  Well they lobby our government too.  They spread fundamentalist religion and sponsor terror.  And the U.S. government/Congress doesn’t do a thing, and we wonder why when one terrorist group in the Middle-East is eliminated (like Qaeda), another one springs up.

With friends like Exxon, the Koch Brothers, Qatar and Saudi Arabia…. Who needs ISIL.

Perhaps we are fighting the wrong enemies?

Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2014