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While borne in the class tension between privilege and people that has waxed and waned throughout US history, Glenn Greenwald's piece and many similar essays and exposés help highlight the rigging that will be enormously challenging to our country to dismantle. There isn't a secret cabal or conspiracy at the heart of this coup but a long term momentum of corporate and political aligned economic interests that will change our well-being and personal security in fundamental ways.
The most profound pieces of evidence of this distressing outcome are:
- The failure to rebuild our economy after the meltdown not on financial institutional interests, - The lack of profound recognition of the need to refocus economic away from consumerism growth follies, - The soon likely win of health care insurance corporations over simple human need and dignity.
Growing dismay on the left and flailing victimization outrage on the right are actually both a singular indication of a nation of people feeling powerless and ready to contemplate action. We might not come together on social issues, taxation, or even deep seated racial divides but we ought to figure out a way to jointly dismantle corporatization of our political process or both suffer the consequences.
All that was left to do was to take over the courts - even the worst dictatorship has the "legal" backing of its courts. The SCOTUS, now headed by John Roberts, aided by Scalia, Alito, and Thomas, will work to ensure that the "personhood" of corporations is never challenged. That there is not even one justice from from the left that compares to the four I name above should be a warning to us all.
It has become entrenched to a degree that is frightening. It's reached a point where it allows congress to become slothful and ignorant.
Once upon a time lobbyists brokered simple tit-for-tat deals like we will vote for your pet bridge project if we can count on your vote for our industry de-regulation bill, and we'll throw in an all expense paid trip to [insert place here].
Now they write the bills and tell congress what they say - congress just has to cherry pick some "facts" for a position paper and "debates," vote as they are told, and suck up campaign contributions whatever other perks they can legally accept (or illegally accept, in some cases).
The notion of due diligence, like the Geneva Conventions, is considered quaint. When asked what he thought of western civilization, Gandhi replied, "I think it would be a good idea."
Trillions for Wall Street, Zero for us
Klein: What I argue in the piece is that we actually have it backwards. It's not the banks that have been partially nationalized; it's Treasury that has been partially privatized by the very banks that created the crisis in the first place."
One (or two) years on - they have learnt nothing October 12, 2009 - The Oil Drum: Europe
Just over one year after it became impossible to deny that the financial crisis that had started in 2006/2007 was a major, systemic event, it is rather depressing to see that nothing has really changed and, to the contrary, if anything has, it is for the worse. The most striking item, of course, is the continued dominance of politicians by bankers. Banks are universally seen - including by bankers - as being at the heart of the problem, and having created the crisis through reckless behavior and worse. And yet, after having being bailed out at a staggering cost, in a highly asymmetrical way (the losses were socialised, but not the banks), not only have they managed to eliminate the likelihood of any meaningful regulatory change, but more importantly they have managed to maintain the fiction that finance was the reason for earlier prosperity and should thus be protected as a source of future prosperity.
The most striking item, of course, is the continued dominance of politicians by bankers. Banks are universally seen - including by bankers - as being at the heart of the problem, and having created the crisis through reckless behavior and worse. And yet, after having being bailed out at a staggering cost, in a highly asymmetrical way (the losses were socialised, but not the banks), not only have they managed to eliminate the likelihood of any meaningful regulatory change, but more importantly they have managed to maintain the fiction that finance was the reason for earlier prosperity and should thus be protected as a source of future prosperity.
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