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Wall Street's 'Disaster Capitalism for Dummies'
Main Street loses big while Wall Street sabotages democracy
By Paul B. Farrell, MarketWatch
Oct. 20, 2008
(MarketWatch) -- Yes, we're dummies. You. Me. All 300 million of us.
Clueless. We should be ashamed. We're obsessed about the slogans and
rituals of "democracy," distracted by the campaign, polls, debates,
rhetoric, half-truths and outright lies. McCain? Obama? Sorry to pop
your bubble folks, but it no longer matters who's president. Why? The
real "game changer" already happened. Democracy has been replaced by
Wall Street's new "disaster capitalism." That's the big game-changer
historians will remember about 2008, masterminded by Wall Street's
ultimate "Trojan Horse," Hank Paulson. Imagine: Greed, arrogance and
incompetence create a massive bubble, cost trillions, and still Wall
Street comes out smelling like roses, richer and more powerful!
Yes, we're idiots: While distracted by the "illusion of democracy" in
the endless campaign, Congress surrendered the powers we entrusted to
it with very little fight. Congress simply handed over voting power
and the keys to trillions in the Treasury to Wall Street's new
"Disaster Capitalists" who now control "democracy."
Why did this happen? We're in denial, clueless wimps, that's why. We
let it happen. In one generation America has been transformed from a
democracy into a strange new form of government, "Disaster
Capitalism." Here's how it happened:
Three decades of influence peddling in Washington has built an army of
42,000 special-interest lobbyists representing corporations and the
wealthy. Today these lobbyists manipulate America's 537 elected
officials with massive campaign contributions that fund candidates who
vote their agenda. This historic buildup accelerated under Reaganomics
and went into hyperspeed under Bushonomics, both totally committed to
a new disaster capitalism run privately by Wall Street and Corporate
America. No-bid contracts in wars and hurricanes. A housing-credit
bubble -- while secretly planning for a meltdown.
Finally, the coup de grace: Along came the housing-credit crisis, as
planned. Press and public saw a negative, a crisis. Disaster
capitalists saw a huge opportunity. Yes, opportunity for big bucks and
control of America. Millions of homeowners and marginal banks suffered
huge losses. Taxpayers stuck with trillions in debt. But giant banks
emerge intact, stronger, with virtual control over government and the
power to use taxpayers' funds. They're laughing at us idiots!
Amazing isn't it, Wall Street's Disaster Capitalists screwed up,
likely planned or let happen this meltdown and recession. Yet
America's clueless taxpayers just reward them by giving the screw-ups
massive bailouts, control over more than $2 trillion of tax money, and
the power to clean up the mess they made. Oh yes, we are dummies!
This end game was planned for years in secret war rooms on Wall
Street, in Corporate America, in Washington and the Forbes 400.
Democracy is too cumbersome. It had to be marginalized for Disaster
Capitalism to take over. Reagan, Bush and Paulson were Wall Street's
"Trojan Horses."
Naomi Klein summarizes the game in "Shock Doctrine: the Rise of
Disaster Capitalism." This "new economy" generates enormous profits
feeding off other peoples' misery: Wars, terror attacks, natural
catastrophes, poverty, trade sanctions, subprime housing meltdowns and
all kinds of economic, financial and political disasters. Natural
(Katrina) or manmade (Iraq), either way "disaster capitalism" creates
fortunes.
So you, me and the other 300 million better get out of denial. America
is no longer a democracy. Voting is irrelevant. Best case scenario:
We're a plutocracy, a government ruled by the wealthy, the richest 1%,
the Forbes 400, the influential wealthy elite, while the other 99% are
their "servants." Meanwhile, the inflation-adjusted income of wage-
earners has declined for three decades.
Worst case scenario: America's no democracy and as a result of the
meltdown and the surrender of our power to Wall Street's new Disaster
Capitalism we are morphing into what one WWII dictator called
"corporatism," a "merger of state and corporate power," kind of like
what's going on now with Goldman Sachs' ex-boss as de facto president.
http://www.marketwatch.com/
EGar <e...@z...org> wrote in news:ge50g4luph3tdjj08u3maumlvmfksqscbr@
4ax.com:
>
> Wall Street's 'Disaster Capitalism for Dummies'
>
> Main Street loses big while Wall Street sabotages democracy
>
> By Paul B. Farrell, MarketWatch
<snipped for brevity>
Good post. Thanks!
Gisele
Good to see that people are reading Naomi Klein.
Doug wrote:
> Good to see that people are reading Naomi Klein.
" Disaster Capitalism for Dummies"
I thought it was the name of Obama's memoirs.
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